Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

WWJD

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A "What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD) bracelet

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In the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew, we read about one who was attending but was not wearing wedding clothes.  The Lord asked him, “Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?”  The man had nothing to say in response.  To my initial amazement the Lord gives orders to bind that man hand and foot and to throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the Lord says, “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

 

I have often written of the urgency in the Gospel to follow after the Lord with our hearts, minds, and “soul ears” open to His leading.  Again, we interpret this passage with the same value of urgency.  Who is he who was not dressed in wedding clothes?  It is he who was not spoken of in the following passage: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”  (Rev. 7: 14)

 

What does this mean?  When the Lord came to me as I drove across Elk Mountain, he explained this passage without referring to it.  He said to me, “I will take you to be with me, if you will but listen to me.”  It is in the listening and obeying every moment that we wash our robes in the Blood of the Lamb.

 

Which man knows what is appropriate, timely, and Righteous, except that the Lord tells us these things from His perspective in Heaven.  I will say this and know that few will receive it with an open and honest heart:  No man knows what is absolutely right to do or say at any one moment.  But in the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, we fill our moments here with His perfect will.  Those who live according to plain religion, hoping that they are doing what is right, are not washing their robe in the Blood of the Lamb.   They stand a good chance of being like that man at the wedding feast.  They too will have no answer to the Lord when asked.  They will not understand why their clothing is not gleaming like the others.  They will be without an answer.

 

Hear these words and consider your life.  If you’re not sure about where you stand with the Lord, sell your entire life to gain that sureness!   What would you give if you are that man who is asked how you got in there?  And what would you desire you had done when they are taking you away from the Great Wedding Banquet of the Most High God and His people?

 

The  Lord is not looking for people who will attend the religious service, dressed, and participating appropriately.  He has no interest in socially acceptable religion.  He is looking for those who are intent in listening to Him.  For eternity, it is those kind of people the Lord is seeking.  Sin will be done away with.  And only those who commit their entire heart, mind, body, and soul to following Him are going to be “worthy”.  Strive with all you have to enter!  The way is narrow, which leads to eternal life.  Only Jesus can teach you what step should be taken next.  Pride, ignorance, folly, rebellion, and the like belong to the broad way.  The broad way, which leads to destruction.  What more can be said?  The choice is always ours.  His offer remains before us all until the moment when we leave this tent of flesh.

 

You have heard of the saying, “What would Jesus do.”  This saying supposes that we can either guess or discern what the Lord might do in any given case.  I have learned the folly of that saying.  We are not called to guess.  We are called to obey.  And how can we hope to obey unless the Lord Himself is teaching us moment by moment.  He is speaking to us right now.  Are we listening?  We sharpen our ears as we do what He says.

 

WAR!

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All day long, we war against the desires of the flesh.  The world wars against the Lord we serve.  Therefore, they war against His people.  So we fight a war from within and without.  This will not be taken out of the way until the dirt covers the rotting doorway of this tent of flesh.  What shall be said of this plight we find ourselves in?

If we must war, then war with a vigorous health.  Bring Glory to the One who made you.  Bring that Glory with deeds born of the Holy Spirit which lives within you.  Crouch in the shadows of your soul and watch like a lion hungry for prey.  Seek out the sins of desire and devour them with a Holy strength.  Kill the desires of the flesh.  Do not make a room for them to live.  Though you close the door to that room, seal the door all around, allow no light to enter, nor build a window, those sins still live within you.  If you wish to win this war, you have to become violent toward anything that is not God within you.

If we must war, then war with the strength of a mighty one!   Remember how Israel was ordered to decimate the people living in the land they were to inherit.  And remember how we are urged to hate even clothing stained with sin.  If you want to win, then dig deep.

Consider a warrior’s scream.  Consider how it drives fear into the hearts of his enemies, and commits his entire being to the task at hand.  Death is embraced.  Fear is dispelled. Memories of a warm fire at home are forgotten.  What lies before him is his only concern.

Consider how he must prepare his mind, body, and soul to make that noise.  Before he screams, he fills his lungs with air.  Fill your heart with the Spirit of God.  Then when the air is released, his entire body is bent to the task.  Submit your mind, body, heart, and soul, to the will of God and vent His Holy Will within you.

Make war against sin with the might of a warrior of God.   To say we “struggle” against sin is not entirely accurate.  We WAR against sin!  You are not a victim!  You are called to FIGHT!  It is when we allow ourselves to become tired that we find ourselves losing the war.  But God did not give us a Spirit of timidity.  He gave us His Spirit which is pure, vital, powerful, never ending, never sleeping, faithful, and HOLY.

What say you?  Let’s dance the dance of the warrior!  Amen.

The Conspiracy of God.

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English: John the Baptist baptizing Christ

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Men who do not know or love God will think that God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in a conspiracy to destroy them.  They perceive that there is a war between God and man.  This perception comes from observing the wickedness in the world and the corrupt nature of death and decay.

They are wrong.  Indeed, there is a conspiracy from the Holy Trinity.  But it is not against man.  It is against sin.  The beautiful thing is, man is invited to join God in this war.  You can make your mark on the book of life by accepting the leadership of Jesus, the Son of God.  He will count you as one of His own.  He will dress you in fine clothes fit for battle.  And He will endow you with the weapon of The Holy Spirit.

Again I say, this battle is not a conspiracy against man.  It is a battle against sin.  If you want to die, just keep what you already have.  If you want to live, approach the Lord of Life in the name of Jesus.

By His Grace.

Slaves to Freedom?

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Old Leg irons

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All men want freedom to do as they please.  And look how we balk and complain when we are forced, by any means, to do something we don’t want to do.  Listen to how many grumble as they are required to end their weekend and serve others on Monday morning.   Listen to them as 5 pm comes nearer.  Listen how they cheer as the moment comes near for them to be released back to their “freedom”.

Billions have lived their entire life chained to the will of others.  We called them slaves and prisoners; the masses of men, women, and children who lived under the horrible hand of someone else’s ideals.  It was the life they knew from birth to death.  Did they complain also?  Of course they did!  But they were not able to gain even one second of freedom more than the one allowed who ruled over their very breath.

It is not acceptable before God to grumble at restrictions placed on you.  It is honorable, however, before God to accept these restrictions with a certain joy; knowing that we are but a short number of years in this place of testing.  I know I speak the truth in this.  Yet I also know I will find myself grumbling today because I am forced to wait for someone else as they push their way in front of me.  How pitiful is man that he should know to do good yet not be able to find the ability to do it.

Christians are those who are learning to submit to the absolute rule of the One who made them.  We serve Jesus because He shows us that He knows what is best.  We love, because He first Loved us and gave His life for us.  He has said, “Whoever would be first will be last”.  And He has said, “”If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  24  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.  25  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self ?” (Luke 9).

Men crave freedom.  Jesus tells us clearly that freedom in Christ Jesus is not the freedom of man.  We are set free, not of submission as a slave, but set free to serve as a slave to righteousness.  So let us consider how to spur ourselves and others into a life of service to the Most High God through the Spirit.  Jesus plainly said to us that He would ask the Father and the Spirit would be sent to His people to guide us into all righteousness.  Are you a willing participant in the things of God through Jesus?  Or are you still looking to be set free, as men count freedom?

Isaiah 53:2 An Ordinary Human Body, An Extraordinary God.

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JESUS

Image by Daniel Y. Go via Flickr

Jesus, such a magnificent personage.  And isn’t it just like the world to look to authorities to vet the beautiful people in this world.  None compare to Him, yet very few come to admire Him for who He really is.

“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”

This place we live in is indeed a place of testing.  The heart of every man is tested every moment of life to see what he will do with this Jesus.  How blessed are we who know Him; that the Father has seen fit to open our eyes like this.  Let all God’s people in Christ Jesus give thanks for the fact that they are learning to worship the One whom God the Father has set above all.

By His Grace.

Romans 12: 18

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Wisdom

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“If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men.”

Ok.  I hear the meaning of this passage loud and clear.  Some passages in the Bible are not easily divided in their meaning.  But this is certainly not the case here.  Or is it?

Men are corrupt by their very nature.  We can’t know all things, so we often get involved with things we don’t understand.  On top of that, there are millions of men who plot to gain the upper hand every moment of every day.  Then we have those who decide to refrain from fighting all together.  Somehow we are expected to make sense of these things and learn to live at peace with everyone?  Not really.

There are moments of clarity we all receive.  There are situations which demand that we take a stand against the desires of another.  I’m not talking about judging others here.  But we all have faced a situation or thousand, in which, we were expected to simply cow tow and shut up, take it on the chin….. and other weird responses to evil.

I could go into detail about our responses to such things.  I could use a million examples to help any reader come to an understanding about how to live at peace with others.  But who would read it?  And even if they would read forty billion words typed, who could live it?  Any situation encountered would surely have a subtle difference from any example I could come up with.  So I will use common sense here and simply say that, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”  (James 1: 5)

Who can navigate the morass of human expectations?  And the more people involved, the worse it gets (if that is possible).  And what shall we say if the world begins to take on “good deeds” without Christ Jesus at the helm?  How do we hope to please all men?  We simply can’t.  That is why we are given the perfect wisdom of God; so that we can maneuver through this world without getting caught in the stupidity of the world’s perplexing puzzles.

If you want to please everyone, you’re welcome to try.  But you’ll quickly become nothing more than a stick in the path.  And someone will surely come along and kick you out of the way.  We are compelled to stand strong for certain things.  The answer to all this ends up where it starts:  God.

By His Grace.