Tag Archives: Holiness

The Swatter is Coming.

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Common house fly (Musca domestica).

Image via Wikipedia

The fly buzzes my head.  And he gives no thought that he is irritating me to violence.  He does not notice as my hand reaches for the fly swatter.  And he takes no notice of how I have dressed myself in patience for his destruction.  I will wait for him to lite in a place of my convenience.  Then I will unleash his end.  What was tethered in patience will become a lightning end.

So it is with the wicked against the Lord.  They give no thought of how irritating they are becoming to the Lord.  They do not notice how their lives are headed toward a place the Lord has established, the place of their destruction.  They speak and rail against Him while they take no notice of how He is dressed in an eternal patience.  They are the ones who count the minutes.  The Lord only counts for the sake of those who number, for eternity has no number of days.  He waits for them to lay down in the dirt; their days spent in rebellion and hatred for His Righteousness.  And then, He unleashes His perfect and Righteous Judgment upon the wicked.

By His Grace.

Ah. To Know to the Doing!

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Wacka' Mole!

Image by Tom Stamp | Photography via Flickr

I know how to tie my shoes.  I know how to feed myself.  I know a lot about the body and the world around me.  But what do I know about the Kingdom of God?  I want to know more.  But I don’t just want to know for the sake of knowledge.  I’m not intending to attend a trivia party.  I want to know to the doing.  I want to know what the Lord allows a man to know regarding holiness.  I want to be set apart from the ways of this world.  I want to honor His name!

Yet my heart is wicked and full of sins.  I quash one this moment, and another pops up a little later.   We are so horribly locked in a battle against what is pure and what is not pure.  I want to know to the doing of the Lord’s will.

by His Grace.

Through or Into the Flames We Go.

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fire

Image by matthewvenn via Flickr

Making a choice regarding religion is not like buying a new car.  Though there are a myriad of religions and a gaggle of new cars to choose from, there is only one God.  So how can we decide what’s right?  There are a few items for thought regarding religions.  And we will prove ourselves wise if we consider them.

1. God is the creator.  So what is made is not the creator Himself.  We can expect then that any religion which holds creation as greater than God is false.

2. Man is sinful and wicked to the core.  Look at how many times you’ve lied in the last 24 hours.  Either you lied because you wanted something and thought it would be the best way around, or you lied because you weren’t completely up to speed with reality.  But you lied.  Consider how many times you looked at your speedometer and found you were going to fast for the speed zone.  Isn’t this breaking the law?  And don’t all people know that breaking the law is to be imperfect?  Bottom line, you’re not potentially perfect.  You’re full to over flowing with sin.  God does not lie.  So any religion which brings man to the place of potential perfection is false.

3. If God is true and every man a liar.  And if He says that all men will die eternally because of their wickedness.  And if Christianity provides a sacrifice for our sins in Jesus (which it does).  Then the choices get very limited very quickly.

 

You’re not going to find a religion, regardless what they say, which offers the hope of the Lord Jesus.  Cults abound.  False hope is as plentiful as corn dogs at the state fair.  But there is One who is true.  And He has marked out the way in the Bible.  Spurn the Lord Jesus and you will reap a whirlwind of horror.  Embrace Him and you will find the power to hope and live.  We have been given one life.  It’s this one you’re using right now to read this.  There is no other chance to get it right.  The Bible holds the Gospel (good news).  Don’t listen to all the trash in this world.  Go straight to the source.

When you read the Bible you’ll become afraid.  I promise that.  And you’ll be tempted to put it down in a hurry.  But that fear is a recognition that the Holy Fire of God is present in those words.  You have to walk through that fire to find the Lord Jesus.  Live or die.  It’s your choice.

By His Grace.

Hurricane of Hatred Guarenteed.

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Hurricane_off_Florida

Image via Wikipedia

Stand strong for the Lord Jesus and you will be misunderstood.  It is an absolute truth.  You can set everything you are and own on that.  You will be misunderstood by the entire world.  And you will be misunderstood by the majority of those who call themselves Christian.

It is acceptable to perform life at minimal amplitude.  But this acceptance comes from those who chase after Holiness through a half witted strength and desire.  Those who bend their entire self toward the Lord will not look like anything natural to this world.  They will be different in all their dealings.  They will submit to that which is “other”.  They will search after the will of God without regard to their own personal gain.  And this search will yield all the godly attributes we expect from Christians.

I look at my ability to convince others of this and realize that I have no power to help anyone else define their allegiance to God.  All I can do is jump on here and type what is true.  It remains in the hand of each of us to force our hearts to look into the perfect face of God the Father through Jesus Christ His Son.  We have all been warned.  And we will all stand individually before Him on “That Day”.

As you stand you will encounter a certain bracing wind of opposition.  Stand strong and you will face a hurricane of hatred from anyone who hates the Holiness of God.  There should be mentioned here that there is a place of “standing” in which you will not have the strength to stand.  You can’t perform a truly godly life without the Spirit of God within you.  You can pace yourself in a “religion”.  But you won’t be able to withstand the onslaught from man with God’s help.  And one more point:  No one can enter into the godly life without the Lord opening the door.

By His Grace.

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Shoot for the Floor and That’s What You Hit.

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Patio with stone tiled floor, Hawaii.

Image via Wikipedia

What right does someone who is yet not Holy have to speak of Holy things?  He not only has the right to speak of such things, he has an obligation.  After all, which of us has attained to the Holiness of God?  And what athlete trains with tinker toys when working toward fitness demanded by the olympics?  And if a thing is not yet perfected in it’s invention, do the inventors refuse to speak of the “ideal” product?

So what shall we conclude?  We are forced to say that to speak of anything less than Holiness will only cause us to approach the “something less”.  We attain toward that which is our ideal.  And we accomplish that attaining according to our desire. 

Let people speak of anything less than the Holiness of God  as their desire, and something less will be the outcome of their endeavors.  In short, we become more and more like the One we hold as our target.  The Christian world will often be caught holding up a small slice of Christ’s expectations for His people.  And to this standard the general Church aspires.  Items in the Christian experience such as mercy, generosity, prayer, truth, and a sinless obedience to Christ, are sincerely admirable.  But the over all goal is to give our best shot at becoming Holy.  And what shall we reply to the statement, “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”  (Leviticus 11:44)

May all God’s children aspire to what is “other” in this life.  The rewards of Christ hinge on our being separate from the world.

 

By His Grace.

Man’s Understanding of Holy Lacks a Bit.

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Something interesting is appearing before me.  I posted an article regarding Glenn Beck being a part of the drama which will unfold as God raises up His two witnesses (as told in the book of Revelation).  I’ve watched a thread develop in which some speculate the issue.  All of us will ponder the advent of this prophecy.  And we are all correct to do so.  But something very interesting has presented itself in this thread.

It’s a human condition to try to identify a mystery by using the information we have at our disposal first.  We learn this from children’s games; “I spy with my little eye” and such other games.  But as we become adults we often try to find more information before we make guesses about things of such importance.  Why would Americans look to Americans as the source of God’s two witnesses?  Or even look to Obama as the anti-christ?  The world is a very large place.  But we look to what we know first, don’t we. 

Such a narrow field of candidates leaves a rather wide margin for the billions of “others” on this planet.  And it’s very likely that these two people are not Americans at all.  Consider one passage in that scripture regarding these two witnesses:  “They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.”   Look how the Lord describes them.  He is using heavenly terms which indicate that they “STAND” before the Lord of Heaven.  They are not your every day average American.  They are Holy men.  Holy in the sense of God’s standards.  To ascribe this kind of Holiness to Glenn Beck or any other average American is a bit on the nonsense side.  These two men will be of a very special breed.  It is God, Himself, who has appointed His two witnesses.

Another issue regarding these two men has to do with the wickedness of man.  I got a feeling that if modern man met Elijah or Moses they would be sunk to their knees with the focus of God these men owned.  Remember how Elijah put to death the prophets of baal with the sword?  Blood was not unfamiliar to Elijah.  I don’t think he would fit into your local garden party crowd.  And consider Moses.  A man of firm conviction regarding obedience to God’s law.  How would the average group of modern men react to such a man in their Sunday morning service?

I think Americans (and thus many other modern people) miss the entire message of Holiness God is speaking.  It would be wise to discontinue speculation regarding these men if we are going to use our own frame of wickedness to pick them ourselves.

By His Grace. 

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