Tag Archives: God

O’ Worker of Death

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By His mercy we are sent.  We are from the wicked.  He dresses us and sends us back.  Even while we serve, he dresses us all the more.  We are no longer from the wicked.  We are now sent from God.

All men are just like me.  Arms, legs, eyes, mouth, head, body, fingers, desires, dislikes, and frailty are the sum of our freshly days.   And they are startled faces touch my heart.

Pity strikes me.  I see the difference because God has shown it to me.  But I dare not let my pitiful eyes close up the word I have been sent to speak.  Where is love to let them die without warning?

This is why they are urged me to be quiet.  “You are just like us why do you speak so harshly?”  With their fleshly eyes they cannot see that I have been sent.  But my soul knows the truth.

Get behind me, you worker of death!  You have only man in mind.  You are my slave you are not my confidant.  You are my body, my sinful nature, and you have nothing to say.

I will have pity on man.  I will speak the words I am sent to say.  With this I love them, that I tell them the truth.

By His Grace

Remember

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Am I sober?  Am I willing to walk in the day undressed before Him?  Has He shown me what I am before Him, that I might remember?

 

Or am I as the man who owns a mirror?  I saw my reflection but I can’t remember what I look like.   My mind is so tiny.  I am so very small and fragile.

 

But He has not left me alone, without instruction.  “Remember”, He commands.  And my mind is quickened to look around.  Do I remember what I once knew?

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  (Romans 12)

Here

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Night Sky 5

Night Sky 5 (Photo credit: dgrice)

Here, you dress me.

Here, I submit.

Here, I learn of my sins.

But

Here, I learn of Your mercy.

It was here that I found precious things;

The things that belong to You.

It was here that Your beauty shown in the darkness;

I came to understand lovely things.

Here, I find Grace.

Here, I find Mercy.

Here, my mind is become filled with the Hope that belongs to You.

And leaving Here, that hope becomes mine.

Thanks will roll from my lips forever

Because You were Here.

 

Thank You Lord, because You are Here.

By His Grace.  Amen.

The reason for Christmas

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Christmas always gets out of hand.  This is because it has been stolen by people who have absolutely no idea regarding the Majestic reason for it.  I do not say this to blame them.  A sinner corrupts where it can because it is a sinner. 

But I thought it might be helpful to remind us of the reason for Christianity.  Perhaps then the Majesty of our celebration of Christmas can find renewed appreciation.

We are saved because we have no rightful claim to rival against God.  The sin of our enemy is that he thought equality with God was something to grasp.  It is utterly impossible that we should foster such thinking. 

With this in mind we perceive correctly what is our place among God’s eternal kingdom.  Consider the love of a man toward his generous enemy.  Though he deserves to be destroyed with the rest of his countrymen, he is offered a lavish and peaceful life in his enemy’s kingdom.  Such love is presently being tested among all who will respond to the invitation from God.

He will utterly destroy all claims toward His throne.  He alone is vital.  God alone is righteous.  The Living God alone is good.  Nothing will ever secure an accusation against Him.  Thus He has prepared One who will minster between all creation and Himself.  Yet look at the very nature of the One God has chosen.

5 “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The necessity of the Gospel

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It is comparatively easy to convince a man of his sin.  It travels with us moment by moment.  Guilt is a majority of our spiritual make up.  And it is the substance that leaks out into our fleshly day.  And by that “awakening” a man becomes aware of a need to cleanse himself.  So, by that means, it is also comparatively easy to convince a man that Jesus is a necessary aspect of this cleansing.

We read and hear of people saying that they need the Lord all day long.  Just a cursory look into the Christian announcement by His people will provide a rather overwhelming view of our sense of need.  And how can that be a fault?  All men know of their guilt.  It is a natural outcome that others should hear us speaking of our need for the Lord’s blood in decimating our sins.

But something less vocal comes up from the horizon of the Christian experience.  We strive all day long to convince ourselves and others that this “something more” is just as essential as the preliminary acknowledgement of our need for salvation.

It is essential that we recognize that we are not just saved to make us  happy folk.   We are saved that we might enter into His suffering.    We are saved that we might become brothers in the Lord’s testing.  We live in the same place He was tested.  He was found to be without sin.  He was found agreeing with His Father in Heaven.  And He was rewarded because of His faithful heart.

We too are living in that same place of testing.  And when we are set free of that pernicious guilt, we are then called to walk as He did.  We have become bonded to His character.  This seems to be a very difficult matter to convey to all who are learning to love the Lord of Love.

As we walk in this place we learn to carry our soul to Him at every turn.  It is in this learning that we recognize that we are far more than just man.  Here we learn that we are to share in His duties here.  Not only do we learn to speak His language.  We also learn to mimic His activity.  Prayer, a certain striving against sin toward holiness, and service to every creature.  These things are far more important than that initial saving knowledge.  Yet few are willing to enter in.

It seems enough for most that they accept the Lord as their Master so that their sins are forgiven.  But to serve that Master seems a bit of a

English: Baptism of Christ

English: Baptism of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

stretch to them.  Yet it is the essential part of our walk.  To begin to walk in the matter of salvation is not the entirety of the message.  To walk and suffer as He walked and suffered is the predominant theme of Christianity.

And so, I wrote this post with the matter that matters most.  I can’t make anyone come to grips with this concept.  Preaching is done across the entire world, every day and night regarding this subject.  So few hear it.  So few accept it.  So few do it.   Why?  Because salvation from guilt and sin is a natural desire of the human mind.  But the walk of Jesus comes from the Holy Spirit.  As we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves compelled to agree with the Father in Heaven.  Thus we begin to understand the necessity to live as the Lord Jesus lived.  He became a servant, though He is the Son of God.  We too are called to become servants, though we are sons of the same God.

By His Grace.

The Convient Conspiracy

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Source of original image Category:Images of th...

Source of original image Category:Images of the United States Congress (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Let us conspire to conveniences.  Let us fabricate with the most expensive materials.  Let us melt down antiquity and build anew.  We have been caught in lies before.  And our desire to secure our own way has met resistance at every turn.  We need an entirely new approach.”

They looked about for materials and ideas.  They have settled on a rather convient approach.  Grace is a solid foundation as well as a sufficient covering.   Not to mention that it requires no effort at all to raise up and maintain.  But to call it by its proper name will not do.  For they have conspired to bring down the Holy language of antiquity.

“Love, yes.  We will call it love.”  Who can disagree?  And let us examine what implements might fit within that definition.  Most convient, this ‘love’.  Most convient indeed.”

Look how they have left off holiness.  Look how they shed righteousness.  Look how they accuse comment as judgmental attitude.  Look now, see them carry a new banner.  Legislation will now enforce love.

Even so, Lord Jesus, come.

By His Grace.