From Fear to Boldness


I just read the post of a person who is nearly beside themselves because they can’t testify regarding Christ.  Limited circumstances are driving them to desperation.

What an amazing disparity between the timid who will not speak, and those who are consumed with the fire to speak.

In myself I found the following to be true.  As I sat in fear, no strength was given to testify.  But the moment my trembling legs took my mouth to a certain place, strength came.  Boldness is given to those who let their faith loose.  Those who bottle it up will be given nothing but sustenance.

What’s this mean to you?  How can I know?  I know what it means to me, and to those tiny ones of Christ who rise to gargantuan proportion.

By His Grace

Useless Words (No Further Value)


What is good news to the one who thinks everything is just peachy?  Why is Christianity of such tiny esteem in this world?  Because a message is being promoted with the strength of greed.  The greedy recognize it as “profit”.  It “rings their bell”!

“We’ll give you a list of things you can do to receive accolades from everyone you know.  Righteousness will be yours by doing these simple tasks.  Think green.  Live United.  Refrain from volatile speech.  Consider everyone with equality.  Love, without reservation toward religion.  Embrace every thought, for every thought has eternal value.”

Who needs the Good News of the Gospel, when they have all the good news they can handle?  Who needs salvation, when there’s nothing wrong?  The only thing wrong in this world is the division caused by differing beliefs regarding what is good; that’s what they’ll tell you.  Isn’t that what’s being forced down the throat of every one of us?

Who will read the vibrant and living threats of God, when they have all they could ever want?  For $10.00, you can go to Wal Mart and buy more happiness.  Oh, I agree it won’t last long.  But their stock of “happiness” seems to have no end.  And eat?  Oh!  Eating we can do!  Utopia has come into view!  We’re finally free of that Living God stuff.  We don’t need Jesus!  We got it all!

Hmm.  I perceive a problem here.

The living threats of God are already on the way folks.  All the while, you live like tomorrow will be the same as today.

It is impossible for God to lie.  As surely as He has promised eternal life to those who humble themselves before His Majestic Holy Son, He will annihilate all who love this world more than Him.

You glorify your dead.  But less than a split second after the last breath, they are separated by the Judgment of God.  You glorify your greed and pride.  But God Glorifies His Holy Son.

If you knew what awaits you, just beyond your last breath, you’d perceive the Good News of the Gospel in a radically different light.

I’d tell you about the Love of God.  But you’d never understand from the perspective you now hold so dear.  The curious thing is, you have no stomach for the terror that is headed your way either.

I could speak to you with comforting words.  But you don’t warrant them.  I could speak to you with fiery words of Living Threat.  But you allow such words no authority among you.

What will you do, when you’re face to face (for the very first time) with the Living God?  I’ll fill in the blank for you.  You’ll desire to be anywhere but there.  You’ll quake in fear, like you’ve never felt before.

Here, death looms as a release from the things that bring you trouble.  There, there will be no place to hide.  No release.  No hope.  And no EXCUSES.

Toss this about a while.  Think about it.  As surely as The Living God lives, this will come upon all men who consider the Holy Son of God as a useless set of words.

Well Intentioned


This article has no intention of casting judgment.  But let who will, come and eat.  Let them come and taste that the Lord is good.

Those who keep their faith to themselves (those who fail to testify openly regarding the Lord who beckons them) have not seen what Life the Living God is willing to reveal.  These perceive from the darkness of death.  These have not perceived the greatness of distance between Life and death.  They have not yet understood that death must die.  They have not yet understood that only that which is God, lives forever.

If they had encountered the Holiness of God, that which He is willing to reveal to men, they would be compelled to share their living faith.  But the faith they own is the faith of a dead man.  It is the faith given to such as are “newborn” in Christ.

Such reluctance has been chided.  Such unholy restraint has been cast on the pile of the filth of man.  Chided and cast by those who have, yet with a limit of ignorance regarding what is true.  Men have been shunned from the congregation of well-intentioned souls for such unwillingness to overcome.

It has been perceived as weakness, this restraint of testimony.  “Fear” has been the label given to such as withhold the Gospel from men, and properly so.  Yet this is not the full.  For casting and chiding have no value in driving a man through his fear to glory.

I have been guilty of this also.  Yet I will confess, without desire to find excuse, that such treatment is done in ignorance.  Here is the fullness of inspiration:

He who climbs the Holy Hill of the Lord must have clean hands and pure heart.  His worship must be of truth and the Spirit of God.  Nothing else will ever be allowed to approach the Living God.

Yet, those who do approach, return with a distinct lack of fear for the threats of man.  They have been witness to the enormous chasm that lay between Life and death.  They have perceived to the point of testimony.  No matter how the enemy has tried, such men can not be silenced.

This is the reason why such casting and chiding is proper; it is unavoidable.  But the reason they testify is also proper.  For the Lord has set His Anointed One in place to enable all men to ascend the Holy Hill of God’s Holiness.  The ones who balk will never ascend.  They will remain in fear of man.  They will remain in fear of He who is Life.

No flesh will enter the throne room of the Most High God.  As a man draws near, his flesh is burnt away.  The purity and cleanliness born of obedience to the Living God’s Christ is all that may enter.  In short, only the living Blood of Jesus may enter the Holy Throne Room of the Living God.  What part of a man remains exposed, is denied entrance eternally.

Your fear is the direct result of your lack of will.  Your reluctance to speak openly about he Gospel of Christ, is a direct result of perception.  He has allowed all that is necessary to enter.  But who has accepted His Holy willingness to give what is eternal?

Many will continue to live in fear.  It is, indeed, comfortable to live with the “known”.  It is difficult to let go of the familiar, even at the threat of death.  Even if that “comfortable known” is death itself.  Who will persuade them differently?  The choice to live or die belongs to every soul, independent of counsel of others.

But that they might know that there is hope, I have written this word of encouragement.

May whoever will, approach and encounter the Living God.  May whoever will, ask for understanding in these things.  The Lord is willing for all to live.  He has sealed His intent by the very life, death, and resurrection of His Holy Son.  Yet who will believe to the doing?

Guilty Restraint


It is the guilty who over react to the presence of law enforcement.  They have failed to live prepared for judgement.

I see this best when I am driving.  Car passes me doing 5 miles over the speed limit.  Then a police officer’s car comes into view, stopped along the side of the road with his lights flashing.  That same driver who passed me at 5 miles over the speed limit, now does 5 miles under the speed limit.

As I passing by in the right-hand lane I marvel at his form of obedience.  Then it occurs to me: his reaction is of fear.  While I have been obedient and have no fear.

As I see this apply on the road, it also applies to life and to God.  “It is the guilty who over react to the presence of law enforcement.  They have failed to live prepared for judgement.”

The wise prepare, in them there is no fear.  The foolish do as they please, and fear controls them.

By His Grace

Mental Fog


When something really bad happens to us, there’s always a few moments of disbelief.  It’s like our brain goes into fog mode. 

Depending on the severity of the problem, that fog mode can last a couple of seconds, or up to a couple of weeks.  Some people never return to normality.

There are millions of people depending on Jesus to save them.  But they do nothing in return.  I guess they figure they’ll just walk through unscathed.

It’s impossible for me to come away with that kind of response to the gospel in the Bible.  There so many warnings to the faithless, the fearful, and the thankless.  One warning that stands out, really tall, is: “Cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers”.

How can you read that and have no response?  How can you read that and have no fear; the kind of fear that motivates?

I don’t claim to know what happens after death.  But I wonder if that mental fog will fall on those who don’t get what they think they’re going to receive.

Will there be a moment of incoherent oblivion, as the angels come and snatch him up?  Coherent thought returns just as he falls down into the pit.

If you won’t serve the Lord out of love, at least let fear motivate you.  We are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  It would be wise to begin somewhere.

You won’t serve Him in fear long.  He told us, and I testify it’s true, My Father will honor the one who honors me”.

By His Grace

Afraid to DEATH


Afraid to testify.

“Oh my!”

Afraid to be rejected.

(Afraid to be included,

By the only One who matters;

Afraid to be singled out,

Afraid of the label of Christian,

Afraid to be introduced to what is

Holy, lasting, pristine.

Afraid to take part with Christ

In this Holy war of will.)

Afraid to lose.

Afraid to win.

Afraid of hell.

Yet afraid to enter in.

SO BE IT!

Do you think you’ll go unnoticed,

When you stand with all the rest;

When God throws away the useless,

And blesses what is best?

May it be done as you have believed.

How much fear do you think you will own,

When your name is not found in the book?

For now you fear their perception.

Don’t you fear God’s contemptuous look?

If fear has held you hostage,

What will that moment be?

For now you fear what Man can do;

Who can only harm your body.

A man belongs to whom he serves.

Dishonor strives to keep what is his;

Not considering the honor of Christ.

Honorable love fears the One who IS.

Understanding that Holy, paid price.

SO BE IT!

Honorable love honors He who IS.

It says, “I will stop my cowering.

I will give myself to what is His”.

“SO BE IT!”

Weeping and gnashing of teeth belong

To the weak and faithless many.

Who hid among the rebellious throng,

Trying to save “life“,

As if pennies.

By His Grace