Tag Archives: Folly

The Now.

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A man doesn’t look at his watch to see what time it was.  His watch can only tell him what time it is.  It doesn’t tell him what time it’s going to be.  It tells him what time it is.  You can’t lay hold of the past.  And you can’t lay hold of the future.

Regret reminds him of what time it was.  Perhaps we regret that we cannot have the good times we had.  Or we may regret that we have destroyed joy, for ourselves or others.

What is regret but a knowledge of what is right.  A knowledge of appropriate restraint.  Truth restrains us in “the now”.  You’re not going back my friend.  And as you reach the future you bring the old man with you.  What you did back then, you are doing now. You need a change of heart, not a change of time.

We may look at the past desiring some pleasant time.  Or we may look at the past, regretting abject folly.  But we can only do this looking from “the now”.  The man who lives in Nostalgia does not know what time it is.  Regrettably, this is to his constant loss.

Nostalgia will always be beyond our grasp.  But regret can happily thrive in our house.  All the while, truth says something imperative.  “I am here.  Come live with me.  I am here to offer you life.”

It is impossible to fix a misdeed.  The best we can possibly do is offer reparation.  And the cost of repair is vastly more than a man’s resources will ever afford.  You can’t undo anything, whether good or bad!

Man thinks that by paying for his horrible mistakes, he becomes a righteous man.  Perhaps he thinks if he regrets his past enough, there is some reparation made.  As if suffering  produces anything of value.  But no action on our part undoes the death we have born.

Christ Jesus is in the now.  No matter what clock you look at, there is the Lord holding out his hand to help stop the engine of regret.  Will you reach out and take his help?

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One thing I will say about regret, it is a useful tool.  It teaches humility.  And in an odd way, it gives validity to the warnings we offer to those who are as blind as we. 

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The man who climbs out of an open cesspool is happy to warn those who are walking toward disrepair.  Blinded by the darkness of their mind, they stagger toward loss.  And isn’t such a man rather frantic as he tries to help his brother?

Their response doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter if they hate him.  It doesn’t matter if they give him some superficial glory.  He knows from experience they are about to encounter regret.  He busies himself to remind his brother of the now.

Christ is in the now.   And he alone is The Living pure truth.  Listen to him.  His wisdom and strength are ever-present.

As the blind are walking toward the pit.  As they are falling into it.  As the shock of their disrepair dawns on their dull minds.  As they thrash about to release themselves from their present aberration.  As their hands lay hold of solid ground.  As they pull themselves out, covered with stench.  And as they sit perplexed on the edge of the pit, wondering what to do next, or how they could possibly have been so stupid.

Christ is in the now.

Christ is in the now.

He is not just a historical figure.  He is the now.

If you have freed yourself from a certain pit, I promise you, without Christ there’s another one waiting just in front of you.

Answer to yourself, what time is it?

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The usefulness of this post depends entirely on the reaction of those who read it.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

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Wake.  You who say “Shhhhh”, wake.

Look.  You who close your sleepy eyes.

Listen. You who fill your ears with tripe.

Your legs are broken.

Yet you think you can run.

You have religion.

But you have no Strength.

Wake.  The Living God moves among you.

But your stupor of greed restrains your senses.

You do not shed blood.

Yet you murder the souls of thousands.

Look.  See how the children reflect the doings of the inner room of the parents.

Listen.  The children hate with abandon, for they are not taught to revere the Lord of Hosts.

You give birth to babies, breaking their legs before they can learn to walk.

Yet you expect them to run!

You gladly receive a happy word from fools.

But you despise the Holy Word from the Living God’s Holy Son.

You are dead, even as you think you live.

Seek the Lord while He can be found.

Look about you.

See how the door has shut in your face.

Look at the horror that is your precious hope.

Look in the streets!

Can’t you see what’s happening to your precious hope?

Seek the Lord or remain dead, even while you think you live.

Xanthium species

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burrTemptation sits idle along every path a man might walk.  It does not have the sense to desire you.  It simply remains, deadly and dishonorable.

It waits with senselessness to bring shame to anyone who would stop to admire it.  And when the soul begins to admire sin, dishonor flourishes.

Temptation is no better or worse if a soul drinks its poison.  It is the man, who reals about, blind, drunk, and dying.  Temptation simply sits waiting to be consumed.

Men think of temptation as if it were an enemy.  Temptation is not smart enough to be aggressive.  No.  The enemy is not temptation.  The enemy is folly that is bound up in the desire of the man.

With our desire we dishonor the One who made us.  With our desire we destroy our legacy.  With desire we make the choice to be useless and damaging.  The one who desires temptation is the one who owns his own choice.

A Word From My Flesh

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As I stand and praise God, receiving majestic revelation I am lost in the beauty of eternity.

Then a shadow catches my attention.  Someone has come, begging to be heard.

I turn to look.  It is my flesh!

With his mouth held open in awe, he speaks to me.

“Don’t you realize that what you are doing and saying is insane?”

I look down at him, and who can explain the look on my face?  What reply can he possibly expect?  What reply lends credence to my incredulity?  I speak the only words appropriate to the moment.

“Don’t you realize that you don’t understand what sanity is?”

Truth Flew In

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Standing on the balcony, I stood in silence.  Listening to the natural noises, as opposed to the noises of man.

From the trees flew a Blue Jay.  His intent was the railing of the balcony; his perch to search for food on the ground below.

I didn’t move as I watched his intent.  His target was 15 feet from my body.  But having stood still, he didn’t perceive me.

He came within inches of setting his feet on his intent.  But just as he neared landing, he perceived a man standing there.

With a tiny squeak, he turned as though he had bounced off the railing, and bolted back to the trees.  Safety is his primary concern, eating is his second.

“Look at him with understanding.”  So my soul whispers to my heart.  See how quick he is to turn from his desire at the slightest provocation against his safety.

Does man do these things?  Doesn’t man head into his desire without consideration for safety?  Look how we run headlong into destruction without the slightest perception of danger.

Where we go matters.  What we choose to do matters.  Who we desire to become matters.  Freely God gives wisdom.  Who, among men, is willing to take his warnings and freedom?

22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  (Luke 13)

Fantasy is Fallacy

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If we want butter we are forced to go to the cow for its milk.

If we want metal we are forced to dig at the ground.

If we want rain we are forced to wait for the clouds.

If we yearn for day, in the darkness of night, we are forced to wait for the rising Sun.

If we want to learn we are forced to observe the things that are.

Fantasy gives birth to fantasy.  Lies give birth to lies.  Truth gives birth to truth.  And only God can give birth to what is godly.

Why do you look for godly righteousness in places where he is not?  Why do you search in your own heart for the things that God demands?

God is forever, never fails, and will never cease.  This is the nature of the righteousness you seek.  You do not possess it, nor can you create it.  It belongs exclusively to the Most High God in his Holy Son Christ Jesus.

Pride lies to itself and says,  “I will create what I do not have.  Then I will be perfectly acceptable and glorified.”

To the proud I say this:

“Make your own milk that you may have butter. 

Create your own ground that you may make metal. 

Go make your own sky and produce the clouds for rain.

Speak to the black universe and create your own Sun. 

Do these things, and vastly more, and it will be granted that you are righteous; able to save and sustain yourself.

But you observe what God has done and call it your own.  Let foolishness be what foolishness is.

Fantasy gives birth to fantasy. 

Lies give birth to lies. 

Truth gives birth to truth. 

And only God can grant what is God.