Tag Archives: God

Do Not Be Careless

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I have learned the hard way, and often, that if a man rests in this world’s things the flesh will overtake him.  If a man is not diligent to do the things of the Living God’s Holy Christ, spiritual righteousness will not overtake him.  He will be overtaken by utter unrighteousness.  If anyone believes otherwise, I would like him to explain to me Philippians 2:12.

It is important, imperative, to remember:  Christ is the love of God made manifest.  But he is also the manifestation of his Father’s Holiness and Righteousness. 

Do not be deceived by the careless many.  It is the one who does the Father’s will that secures the friendship of Christ.

What Was, Still Is.

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Why do we do the things we do?  Why have we learn to love what we love?  What causes a man to gravitate toward one sin or another?  Why is ignorance so beloved while wisdom and sobriety wander like orphaned children?  It is impossible that any man should answer these things.  At best they can only say, “It is the way of Man”.

Centuries ago (Pick a moment in time.) one man made a choice.  He agreed with wickedness; to perform and action of death.  Once the deed was done, the ripple effect into future days has not ceased.  No, it is carried in the soul of those who came from his day.  It is carried like a disease to the generations that follow.

As it is so with one man, centuries ago, so it is with all the men who lived in his day.  The laws they made, the words they spoke, the perceptions they held so dearly, the deviceiveness they encouraged without end, the judgments they made, the dress codes they approved or disapproved, how they segregated one man from another by language, color of skin, or other cultural differences, what lies were considered innocent, what does were considered necessity, didn’t all these things shape the mind of those to come?

Certain wickedness is adored, while holiness is forgotten.  Protections are made for certain wicked people, while the righteous go abandoned.  And haven’t we inherited all these things?

Add to this, our own imaginations.  Look around and see what we adore.  Aren’t we shaping the inheritance of those who will come after us?  And how will they know what they believe?  How will they be able to divide between what is necessary and what is inherited from the wicked who came before them?

Such is the plight of man to suffer in his own vile filth.  Yet the good news of God remains.  If we will humble ourselves and call out to him for help, he will give us what we never had.  The more diligent the soul, the more God will give.  In Christ Jesus, he will save us from our ignorance.

Is it any wonder that so few find “The Way?

The Ant Head

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They gathered in a building.  The final place of the final test.  They came together to prove the value of Man.

The question was leadership and righteousness.  Who is worthy and why.

From the body of the elders they pick the wisest one.  They said to him, “Choose for us a prize that we may begin the contest”.  The old man, bent over and half blind, said to them, “Bring me the head of an ant”.

The youngest of the elders was the first to move.  He ran outside and grabbed the first ant he could find.  With urgent dispatch he returned with the head of an ant.

The elder told him to put it plate and set the plate the middle of the table. 

The elder sat at the head of the table.  “Now debate among yourselves who is worthy to eat this head.”

They all stood speechless for the space of a minute.  Then the first to move was the youngest.  As his fingers reached for the prize, one of the elders slapped his hand with disdain.  “What gives you the right to think you are worthy?”  The reaching and the slapping became a spark to a pool of flammable liquid. 

It started with a response.  But it soon developed into an all out brawl.  This went on for quite a while until a breeze came to the top of the table.  Not even one elder noticed the ant head drift off the plate, down to the floor, and disappear in a crack.

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I have looked at Man.  I have tried to discover why righteousness eludes us.  I thought I had the answer.  But in the telling of it, it took too long.

In my life I have testified well over fourteen thousand times, trying to nail down the reason why we are full of disarray.

I have come to the conclusion of the elder who ordered the ant head.  There is no righteousness among men.  There is no peace to be found anywhere on this earth.  Man simply does not have eternal life in him.

And I have understood from all that is Christianity, Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.  Except that the Living God had done his “Strange Work”, not one man would rise from the grave.

I used to stand at the edge of the city and wait to hear wisdom.  I stood along the path where men walk and waited to hear someone utter something wise and beautiful.  But I realized I will starve to death before I find a wise man walk by me.

Unless the wisdom of God comes down from heaven, man has no option but death.  And hasn’t this been done?  Christ Jesus crucified on our behalf.  Yes, the wisdom of God has come down.

In Man there is no life.  But God has sent mercy.  Let every man do as he will; seek righteousness with all your heart.  You will not find it here!

The Pursuit of Discipline

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A man will lack sleep.  He will let go the essential to focus on his desire.  The night is witness to his shadow on the wall, busily pursuing his ambition.

Suffering comes in variety of form as he disciplines himself to his intention. 

He loses friends.  His house becomes unkempt.  His belongings rot away.  His reputation suffers irreparable damage.  With extremely keen focus, he chases after his desire with the most excellent of discipline.

Discipline has specific marks.  Ideally chaos suffers defeat through discipline.  But even in chaos (wicked abandon) a man may cause damage to everything and everyone else; that he may pursue his desire.

See how every man has intense desire within him.

The question is, intent.  To what does a man’s desire aspire?

By our nature our desire is bent toward selfishness.  But if a man will turn his desire toward the Holy One of God, discipline becomes the roots of life.

With excellent abandon of all that is around him, men pursue with diligence the discipline of accomplishment.  If this is true in the things that are useless, why not turn our discipline to what is Eternal Life?

The Woman

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I watched a woman drive by me.  With both hands on the wheel, she watched carefully straight ahead.  But the car spoke louder of her character than her attentiveness.  It was a rusty beat up old boat from the eighties.

Obviously, she is trying hard to do the best she can with what she has.

But I wondered about her hope.  Being a born protector, the woman is concerned about her family, children, parents, friends, sickness, stability.  Does she know how intensely greater a protector is the Lord Jesus?

Has she learned to be protected?  Does she have joy inside all that dutiful good habit?

Setting a man on one side, and a woman on the other, consider their characteristic behaviors.  If a man could lay his hands on the father of lies, he would tear and punch and kick and scream venomous violence, as he tried to take down his foe.  How would this woman act in the same environment?

Would she huddle with her children in a darkened corner?  Or with excellent fearless violence, would her face explode with fierce anger as she rushed to dismember this one who has harmed her so; this one who threatens her great instinctual desire?

Would she cower in abject terror, or would she do as Peter has told her: Be fearless!  Believe!  Live your life in Christ with complete peace of heart.  Show no fear, trusting that God is greater than you.

“Well, He Did it!”

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We live in a world of compromise.  Is that how God’s people should live?

Go ask Ananias and Sapphira.  If you don’t know who these two are, go look it up.

Go ask Achan son of Karmi.
Go ask Cain.
Go ask the Apostle Peter, as he separated himself from the Gentiles.
Go ask Demas.
Ask Jim Bakker.
Ask Jimmy Swaggart.

Billions of people live the life of compromise, and they pay an enormous price.  Billions more have led an equally compromised life, but they were never caught; they lived just inside the rules of social legitimacy.  But even while they have lived, their reward waits for them.

I can force no one to live a pure life in Christ.  But I can certainly warn about the cost of compromise.