Proof By Adversity?


“Frivolous” Humanities Helped Prisoners Survive in Communist Romania

(I tried to comment on the writer’s article in his page.  But his page would not accept a WordPress login.  So I make this entry in my blog in the hopes that it will reach the writer.  Who knows, perhaps it will also reach a soul somewhere else.)

In that writers article he describes how the government legislates its own morality.  The writer says that he found the government’s methods and its operating premise to be at fault, simply by humanity’s insistent efforts to circumvent unjust laws.

The writer says this: “If the study of literature or history were really that pointless, a government trying to control the minds of its subjects would not go to the trouble of putting humanities students and professors in jail.”

Isn’t the same thing true of Jesus?  Part of the proof of his royalty is the venomous activity of his enemies.  And if all of Jesus is true, proved by the activity of his enemies alone, wouldn’t it be wise to consider his words.  If he is truly life are we wise to ignore him?

The Promises


I wanted to post this this morning.  But I wasn’t sure how it would be received.  As the day passed however, it’s urgency hasn’t left my mind.

Most people, if they love to listen to the words of the Bible, enjoy the pleasantries that God has in store for us.  But when we speak of the warnings God has delivered to us, we often find a deaf ear.

Revelation 21 speaks of the beautiful promise of eternal life in the Glorious City of God.  It’s a passage one might find in a modern devotional.  But I don’t remember ever reading the words that follow that passage in any devotional.

These are the words that follow the beautiful promise of joy:

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Forced to Speak!


The compulsion to share the Gospel of Christ everywhere, is not a sign of a righteous man.  It is the sign of a man who has been forgiven a vast multitude of sins.

It is the sign of a man who knows what the end of his life would have been without Jesus the Christ of God.  And such a man knows that this potential loss belongs to everyone! 

The more vividly we see the end result of sinful lives, the less likely that fear will silence His Holy words.

Loss is a perception based on a foundation of potential gain.  (Think that one through)

“Christ has saved me from Eternal and sure destruction.  What consequence is it to me if Man despises the words of praise I have for Him?  And what strength belongs to any of their threats?”

People speak about what they adore.  People readily warn about the greatest of dangers.  Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.

My Place


Come, listen and perceive.

You are First, and forever so, Holy Father.

For you are Life and Continuing, forever and forever.

And your Glory displayed in your Holy Son, likewise is he; continuing, life, joy, peace, majesty, righteousness, justice, the singular door to Life, the Grace of the Living God.  In all this and more, he is First.

And those who have been faithful to your Holy and Righteous Way, those who did not fall away or think to do so, these are first.

And those who hold your promise faithfully against the wind of sin.  These are first.

And those who have heard of your Great Glory in Jesus, those whose eyes are only beginning to open, these are first before me.

For I perceive my feet, how they stand with heel over the edge.  The pit behind me, the promise under my toes. 

And do I hear you speak to me, yes indeed I do.  “Fall on the Promise.”

By necessity my face finds “Forever Grass”.  And so I cling, with desperate intent.  The precarious cliff on which I lay, is firm and forever by your Holy goodwill.

They are first before me.  Yet perceive precious soul: the place of last is far better the neverending place of fire.

There I will stay, or better.  Arms like steel cables, fingers like chisels staved into the grass of forever. 

My will dressed in his.  Life is his desire.  Unequal to mine, it ascends to forever.

The soles of my feet: from them rises a vapor of destruction.  But cling I will because of his will!

The Living God is Good!

Beginning of the End


Think hard about the following.

Right now I don’t care what the theologian says.  Right now I perceive far beyond my perception.  I write this for my sake (whatever the years may bring).  If it is at all useful to others may the Lord bless as his wisdom dictates.
__________________

It began as a joke; a singular break with eternal love.  A demeaning of another’s position; that which was given to every creature according to the wisdom of God for the fullness of life.  Laughter filled the air in a certain place.  Perhaps, even the one that was demeaned saw the humor for a moment.  But division was born.

A small distortion of truth began the dissension of unity.  A lie gave birth to death.  And didn’t death give birth to laughter?

Who did this?  Didn’t Jesus tell us?  “. . .He is the father of lies.”  Eventually 1/3 followed him.

Do you want to see his handiwork?  Take a good look at humanity.  See how prejudice rules with an iron fist.  See how ridicule is so dearly beloved.  Sarcasm is a breastplate of shining jewels, and how proud is the one who weilds it with a deft mind. [Don Rickles the king of demeaning]

Color, culture, history, ability, social position, economic status, political affiliation, nationality, and doesn’t the list seems endless.  Love does not do these things.

We laugh at one another’s faults because every man is full to overflowing with them.  But how quickly the laughter turns to murder.

BEGINNING OF ETERNITY

See how “the ones” go back to the things of a baby.

See how the colors of red and blue are new.

See how innocence begins to develop.

Because they heard the whisper from You.

Discord dissipates.

Acceptance is embraced.

And how the faithful hateful lie,

Is by Love replaced.

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4)

By His grace;
By His grace,
By His grace!

“Well, He Did it!”


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.