Tag Archives: gospel

The First and Basic Truth

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I am sorry for you, men of the world, for you willingly reject the authority of man in the things of God.  God Himself has chosen to speak through men.  But you cannot stand such a glorious authority.

You gladly give authority to other men for lesser things.  Frankly because you know you can tear these men down at will.

You can restrain the men you elevate, by the strength of popularity, financial subsistence, or even by death.  But any man sent by God Himself rises above your filthy hands.  And for this you despise such men.

I am sorry for you because you dismiss the possibility of eternal life.  All the while you elevate the liars and the hypocrites to the places of honor.  I am sorry for you, because you will continue to do this until these things are taken away from you.

I am sorry for you, because you do not know the beauty of the things you dispatch so willingly.  By this proud strength, you think you have freedom.  But this proud strength restrains you as slaves to unrighteousness.

I write this to the men who are of today.  But you are no different from the generations who have passed before you.

I do not say this to accuse you, but to expose what keeps you blind.

Every man gives account of his own life.  Do you desire freedom?  Do you desire eternal life?  Or do you find yourself content to live a life of slavery to everything that is false?

It is an easy thing to live in lies, for we are, by our nature, liars.  Even forced by the nature of things around us to live a great lie.

And we are lazy slugs.  Desiring peace and tranquility, we strain to retain our own wickedness.  Our soul knows, that if we are wicked, the Lord will be kept far away.  To our shame, we call this peace.

But our soul also knows that we will be caught up to Him, regardless our state of affairs.  Yet men prefer to live in ignorance.

The Lord has established His Holy way from forever.  But every man is born in this place of time and wickedness.  Before he learns to speak, man is taught the authority of pride.

Are you willing to learn the authority of humility?  Are you willing to entertain the Holy Fire of the truth of God?  Every man will certainly entertain it on that great day of judgement.  But the gospel has been sent to us that we might escape The Horrible Flame.

This Gospel has been handed from God to man once and for all, and this by the Holy wisdom of God; that he may test the heart of every man.

There is a question written in the fabric of creation, and every man can read it clearly.  “Will you humble yourself and seek the face of He who is Holy, Holy and Holy?  Or you will you retain the freedom to be proud?

You will gladly accept the authority given to a man by the schools of men; that machine of men which produces liars.  Plumbers, electricians, doctors, psychologists, lawyers, and every occupation of man, receives your respect.  Are you willing to listen to those who are the product of the eternal Holy Spirit of God?

You reject them because they are taught in a school which you are not allowed to control.  Wouldn’t it make sense that such men are more reliable than those who are taught for the sake of financial gain or pride?

Are you willing to receive the painful transition from wickedness to righteousness, before the painful and horrible Day of God arrives?  Are you willing to entertain eternal truth?

The lies you currently embrace are death.  Are you even willing to embrace that first and basic truth?

By His Grace

Re-member the Glory

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I lay two pieces of wood into the stove.  The fire has gone out during the night.  All that is left is a small bed of lightly glowing coals.  I sit before the glass and wait for the flame to appear.

While I knelt before the stove waiting, I pondered the will of man to produce obedience.  All the while I watched for the flame to appear.  Then it struck me.

If I allow the power of God within me to dwindle to warm coals, it will take some time to rekindle the flame.  But if I am not lazy, I will get up in the night and add what is necessary to keep the fire burning hot on cold nights.  I do not need to lay shivering under the slim covers of a warm room.

How shall I continue the flame?  Do not be lazy.  Get up and pray.  Go to the Word, that you might Re-member the glory which fades with neglect.  Get your will assembled before the Lord and consider His desire.  Refine dedication to godliness.  Be diligent in the things that stoke the raging flame of the Gospel within.

Time steals what is useful by consuming what is provided.  Recapture, then, what is useful.  Add fuel to the holy fire that brings life.

The Faith of Fullness

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What are you doing here?

Do you desire to desire?

Is the Love of God for doing tasks?

Or for drawing all men near?

 

We do and do but for what purpose, to spread the news or just perform?  As I look back on my days of religion, I find a man with the tiniest of faith.

My belief was not worth a mention, for if I tried to voice my faith, it would have amounted to nothing more than an inaudible peep.

And the fruit of my faith was the same.  A doing of things for the sake of the Gospel were done.  But for what end?  Where was the promise of the Holy One in what I did?

Those doings are long gone now.  They were done with good intention.  But there was no power of God in them.  I was like a trained monkey in a lab; doing as I was taught to gain that treat I desired.  This was my personal experience in the organized Church.

Where is the Fire borne Faith that Christ Jesus wondered about?   “. . .when the Son of Man comes, will he find [the] faith on the earth?”  (Luke 18:8)

There is a vast difference between the faith of a man and The Faith from God.   Atheists have faith that there is no God.  What good is that to them?  Christians may have faith that the words of God are true.  But do those words give birth to that “new creation” He promised?

I offer the concept for examination.   Each man or woman provides the answer.

Inspection of deeds, desire, and that certain becoming are necessary.

No one can know the severity of lack within, for no one has seen what God has prepared for those who love Him.  Comparing the two is necessary for clarity.  God alone knows how far short we have attained.  Yet who dares ask Him to show, lest they are provoked to do what they are not willing?

On the other hand, if we are willing to be shown, what glories await?

God and His Holy Christ are seamlessly woven together.  Isn’t that the desire of God for all His people?  Don’t tell me that isn’t possible.  Though I haven’t attained such a thing, I refuse to believe in anything less.  If I am fallen short of such a life, it is I who remain chained to unbelief.   If seamless Christianity is not possible, why did Jesus say this: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

What does the word “full” mean?  By our actions we display our interpretation of the definition.  Any child can tell you what “full” means.  Why can’t adults?

 

 

Another Religion?

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Why do Christians preach to man?  What right do we have to firmly believe that we have the answers? Men will say to us, “You are just like us.  We see your sins.  We perceive your faults.  There are plenty of religions among us.  What need do we have for yours?  By some reason, you think what you believe belongs in the belly of everyone.  You are no different from any other cultish behavior of any other obnoxious religion.”

We are just like you.  Therefore we know the extent of man’s rebellion against God.  We too are sinners with plenty of faults among us.  And what we preach presents itself faultlessly as the final answer to all man’s troubles.  From without, you cannot understand what we say.  But if you would enter Christianity the Lord would prove His words to you.

However, your problem is that once you enter you will find yourself compelled to stay.  By your questions you prove you are not ready or willing.  But neither were we.  We do not preach fables.  We do not believe as we do because a man has told us.  We believe because the Heavenly Father has drawn us to His Holy Son.

Because of the rebellion of man against the Holy One, there are plenty of religions, indeed!  But we have found that man’s need is not satisfied by opinion.  We have found that Christ Jesus fulfills every need of every religion.  He leaves no stone unturned.  He is Holy Truth embodied.  For this reason (That the Lord Jesus is the embodiment of truth) we are obnoxious to you even as the Lord Jesus was once obnoxious to us.

The pride of man will refuse to believe that he is nothing.  The pride of man builds his own answers, as if a man can say he has seen the Holy Living God.  But as we believe, the Lord strips that rebellious spirit from us.  Humility comes to understand.  Humility fears the Living God.  Humility is the necessary first step in understanding what is Holy and Good.

Jesus proves to His people that He has every right to claim the singular title of “Son of God”.  We are not tossed about, as are other religions, by every desire and fabrication of man’s mind.  Yes there are many who claim to be Christians yet offer a seriously blemished testimony of God’s perfect commands.  And the best of us will falter from time to time.  But Christ Jesus remains the same in His Holy command to, “Be holy, even as your Father in Heaven is holy”.   And He teaches His people to understand these things.

You may find fault with us.  But you will also find absolute truth within us.  Ask.  Provoke the testimony within us.  Keep asking questions.  The Lord will testify from within His people.  We willingly confess our lack before all who ask.  But you will not find fault with the Son of God.

You will say, “How can you be sure that what you believe connects with Heaven?”  We know it by the living words of the Bible.  And it is confirmed within us by the Holy Spirit He gives; the Spirit which is sent from the Living Lord Jesus Himself.  Though it is by faith, this faith is not like that faith a man holds in things unseen.   The faith we have is given to us from the Heavenly Father. He confirms His Lovely Son’s position before Him.   There is a leading from the Lord.  There is a “proof”, which over time, confirms without doubt those things we preach to the world.

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

Unquenchable desire

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There is a desire in me that I did not put there.  I did not gather the fuel.  I did not strike the spark.  I had no means to fan it into flame.  But an unquenchable and immense flame rages in my soul.  The roar of it threatens to explode my body.  The desire to share the Gospel will not cease. 

One day I said I will bottle it up.  Fear that I was misled, misled me.  “I will give it no street on which to leave.  I will lock closed my lips.  And I will restrain it with all my might.” But it burst through my bonds as if a hurtling ball of iron through tissue paper.  I am helpless to contain it.

So I said I will give it all room, all help, all speed and all attention.  But I find it is not enough.  Where are those who hear?  Where are the changed lives to dance through this world before my very eyes?  However, even while I ask, understanding blazes forth with a great and unmistakable roar.

The unquenchable desire of God to save souls is not concerned with the appearance of one or two.  He desires that all should be saved.  He will not subside the blazing inferno within until I leave this place.

Then let me rest in discomfort.  Let my soul be disquieted with desire.  Cause my will to explode, O Lord!  By all means may the Holy will of God be done!

By His Grace