Tag Archives: Holiness

Take Your Rightful Place

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There is a place where a child has learned enough.  From that place he is expected to do the things of an adult.  

It is not appropriate for someone who has learned what is required of an adult to go back to his childhood and claim ignorance.  It is no longer ignorance, it is rebellion.    But isn’t the world teaming with such individuals?  And isn’t there a lot of childish behavior among the Church of Christ?

Yes.  The same is true with the things of God.  One who has newly encountered the things of holiness does not have the same expectations placed on him as the one who is well-versed in the things of God.  And just like the child, ignorance can be no excuse when there are so very many possibilities to learn.  

But when the time is right, God will expect of us the things appropriate to the understanding we have achieved.  Provided that the Christian applies himself to learn.  

Be childlike in your faith.  Be responsible with what you have been given.   See how a family is ashamed when one of its members refuses maturity.   Let us not be a shameful member of Christ’s bride.  

Three Advantages

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​    The ones who love God have three things happen to them.
     They are despised on this Earth while they love the one who made them.  Somehow such open love is considered illicit.
     But when they leave this place they go to be with the one they have loved so dearly.  They are ushered into Eternal Joy with open arms.  For they have proved they love him more than these.
     And the third thing that happens to them is most fascinating.  Their name, their words, their actions, are all rolled onto a pedestal called Legend.
     Man is curious.  He will despise and kill his enemy, then he will raise his enemy to Legendary status.  With the same words he uses to lie, he now tells fanciful stories about this one who is no longer among them.  By this, the work of God’s people is multiplied many-fold.
      In these three things, the love of God is greatly glorified.  See how the wisdom of God works to glorify love, life, righteousness, Justice, compassion, grace, and mercy.  And all these things are in the being of his holy and righteous son Jesus!
So be it.

Loyalty Supreme!

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For reasons only known in heaven, God began a creation.  He spun with Invisible thread, creating something from absolutely nothing.

A Blackness was born in The Kingdom of Light.  He speckled the Blackness with fiery balls.  Appearing from nothing were little places of special interest.  They were darkened little globes that we’re not like the fires at all.

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Imagine, if you can, the wonder of the angels as they did the bidding of their Father.  And their wonder kept expanding.  The work went on for a very long time. 

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Every item in the darkness was placed precisely where The Father said to put it.  Joy and wonderment filled all Heaven as the creation took shape before their very eyes.  It was an intricate dance of tiny objects, all floating in the blackness.  A precise ballet of love.  Every item spun precisely around another.

Then, amazement upon amazement, God spoke a word unheard before.  “Let us create Man in our image”.  Adam, he was called.  The meaning of the word is “First Blood”.

In his hands, The Holy Word of God began the work of The Father.  A handful of dust took shape.  An unspeakable perfect work of art lay on the ground.  “Let the Breath of Life enter.”  The man’s breath began.  His eyes opened.  And from a perspective only capable in this creature of dust, he saw his surroundings for the first time.

Love and joy filled the servants of God as they were Witnesses to this amazing Work.  Unquestioning, innocent obedience bore the fruit the Living God intended.  And now they would watch that same obedience flow through the blood of this creation.

Blood!  The first of its kind.  Never before was there a creature with such exquisite limitation.  How unspeakably beautiful was the work of The Father.  What great tender care was given to their new brother.

But press forward in time with me.  Witness the history of decay.  See the frustrated Beauty become ragged edged and hideously vile.  Read the history of man in the Bible and weep.

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Look at the horror which we have become.  Not only have we murdered the love of God, we joyfully toss him in the cesspool of unbelief.  And the people despise anyone who speaks His Holy Name.

Dare to tell me that God has no right to destroy his enemies of this filthy place! 

But this is not the end of the story, for amazement fills the servants of God still.  As by that same innocent obedience, they reach into the Blackness of sin and create a people of light. 

For now, the tiny lights glow in the Darkness.  But the day will surely come when the darkness will be swallowed up by the place from which it was created.  That which is abhorrent to man will rule with Christ for eternity. 

Something from nothing became blackness.  But something from Blackness will become dazzling, bright and brilliant Lights of Life.

Join in the building celebration; the Symphony of redemption is a beautiful song, being played by those who love Him.  And the Beautiful song is played against the backdrop of hisses, boos jeers, wailings, screams, and violent intent.  Make all the noise you want, you hideous creatures of hatred.  Your silence is moving toward you now.

I will love the God who made me!  I will adore the one who fashioned me from nothing!  Stand with me or not, what difference can it possibly make?

By His Grace.

Understand

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Kedoshim, K’doshim, or Qedoshim (קְדֹשִׁים — Hebrew for “holy ones,”

Does this Define Christianity as you have heard it?

The Summation of Charitable Giving

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The mantra of today is “Compassion to everyone”.  But compassion delivered without wisdom is no compassion at all.  How should someone know what to do and when?  The answer is to be wise.

If you want to understand charity, then understand this, Jesus is the answer folks.

People will think that they can listen to government and to social movements and know how to deliver compassion.  They will give their goods, money and time, to these organized establishments, thinking that someone else will do what is best.  “They are educated and devoted to delivering compassion.  Surely I can trust them.  Their advertisements are compelling, thus they must be right.”  So a great many say and do.  I will tell you by personal experience, there’s a lot of money to be made on the backs of the poor.

How many people see some apparent need and give without thinking?  Have they truly done God’s will?  Or have they just massage their conscience?  Have they truly understood the situation?  Or have they just wasted their resources on something false?  “I felt in my heart, it was a good thing to do.”

People will think they can read philosophy (That body of literature designed to teach social wisdom, the keeping of social order by logical restraint.)  and know what to do.  People will think that all kinds of charity is good, sound and best.  So they give and give without regard to wisdom. 

You cannot find the wisdom of God in the government, social movements, your own errant heart, or the philosophy of Man.

People will think they can look at history and know how to deliver what is pure and good today.  They look at how the poor and lame of yesterday were treated.  “We have created hospitals and charitable organizations we are far better than our ancestors!”  Really?

People may even read the words of the Bible and think that by these words they can decipher their own way through life.  “How much more the simple act of giving?”  What did the Lord say?  39 “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5)

When will we learn that we can do nothing without him?  When will we understand that to deliver one aspect of God is not delivering the fullness of the Lord?  No, compassion without the wisdom of God is no compassion at all.  Such Things fall under the heading, “The works of Man’s hands”.  The good of Man it’s not the same as the Good of God.

Such attempts at Compassion actually deliver more damage than if we had done nothing at all.  But we feel good, don’t we? 

When will we stop being lazy?  When will we decide to reach out to the Living God, and remain his True servant?  When will we spend more time on our knees than praising ourselves for the good things we do?  A lot of activity is done, but uselessness is its fruit.  Look around.  With all the busyness of charity done today, is the world in any better position?  If you say yes, I suggest you look again.

We do some “good thing” and wander off into time thinking we are good people.  With a smile on our face we forget the one to whom we have shown compassion.  But we don’t see what happens when we leave.

But the good things that are done by a servant of the Living God’s Holy Son do not have that same affect.  If we ask him, wait patiently for the answer, then diligently deliver the things he gives, we can be sure that a true good has been done.

But Man is in a hurry to change his world.  He thinks that God moves too slowly.  He doubts that God will listen to his request.  Worse yet, comes the common understanding that man is expected to do all things good by himself.  (This is what you will find the Mormon Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, often the Catholic Church, and more and more many branches of the Christian church, saying.)  Even so, the good he thinks he has delivered is no more than a javelin through the heart.

People follow the examples of other people.  But are their charitable heroes servants of the Living God’s Holy Son?

So when will people consider what he has said to us?  “You can do nothing without me.”  I will tell you when.  They will serve the Living God when they stop trying to drag him down to their level, and ask to be raised to His.

The Luckey Ones?

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“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

The godless think they are enroute to their own pleasure.  They neither consider that God sees, nor that he can do anything about them.  Ignorance and willful abandon are their are gods.  And doesn’t their pursuit of pleasure demand slothfulness?  They obey diligence just enough to get what they want, and no more.  Violence, greed and pride are the mantra of their every step.  Hatred and destruction are their prime reasons for life.  “Destroy your enemy, then you can have their goods.  Love others just enough to steal them blind.

These are real life zombies.  They walk about and do, according  to the rules of death.  But they are not useless, these people of self-will.  God is directing them to the path of his people.  He allows them to float about in reserve until he needs them for his purpose.  Then their path is brought to bear down on his people.

Men and women of The Faith come to believe this is true.  Maturity in Christ demands such a perception.  Righteous obedience to the Lord requires that mindset.  The peace God gives his people proves that His Holy will is being done in all things that come to them.  Nothing, nothing in Christ is arbitrary!

Your path moves in a straight line toward eternal life in Christ.  The wicked mill about in their chaotic endeavors.  Where does your path intersect who?   Think about this with all earnest thought.

Happenstance belongs to those who are godless.  Luck belongs to the dead.  Chance belongs to the groping blind.  But to those who believe by The Faith born from God: “You have intended it for evil, but God has intended it for good”.

Gather your holy wits about you and walk with confidence.  If the Living God is your God in Christ, you have no room for doubt.  If that’s not so, then why does James instruct us to say, “If God is willing”?

(Please don’t let these words sit on my blog.  Have the guts to share them with someone.  Let us do as God commands, “Encourage one another in the Holy Faith”.  Look around.  Who else do you know that speaks words like these?  Why should you share trivia only?  Why not share life?  Or are you really ashamed of me, as I have come to suspect you are?)