Tag Archives: hope

Song of Sorrow 

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​We all get it from time to time, that incredibly rude person on the other end of the phone.  That driver whose arrogance is near murderous intent.  Those contemptuous looks of people who pass us by.  And doesn’t the list go on and on and on and on and on.


People could have so much!  But they settle for less than nothing.  They don’t take the hand of profitability, they embrace willful destruction.  Do you think that’s the wrong thing to say?


Hasn’t the Gospel of Jesus has been around for over two thousand years?  Doesn’t the power of Christ cause us to be godly people?  


They don’t need to be that way.  They could be infinitely more than animals.  Personally, I am absolutely astounded at the vicious intent of mankind, when so much lays in the hand of Jesus to give.


How serious is it that anyone should utterly ignore the call of Christ?


5 “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing.

They walk about in darkness;

all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6“I said, ‘You are “gods”;

you are all sons of the Most High.’

7But you will die like mere mortals;

you will fall like every other ruler.” (Psalm 82)


When it comes to sharing stuff on the web, why aren’t things like this all over the place?

The Twilight

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​Two things matter.  But each in its proper place.  The things of Heaven and the things of this world.


We struggle through the day.  (Think me now, about both.)  There is the daylight of this world and there is the daylight of Heaven.  Each Place demanding and delivery what is useful to its own.


The articles of each place have their proper usefulness in the life of a man.  Though each is distinctly, radically, and eternally different.


So easy it is to allow our eyes to see the grass and nothing more.  But when your eyes have seen the things of Heaven, the things of grass fade to oblivion.  You endure them out of necessity, but your yearning is somewhere else.


The things of this world are nothing but shadows; tempting, beckoning, distracting, drowning.  But the things of Heaven release into perfect freedom.  The one who lives by the eyes of this world is a slave to a cruel master.  But the one who sees with the eyes of Heaven is set free to really live, by the One who lives forever.  Everything the world gives you, it also takes away.  Not so with the things of Heaven.


What I’ve said here is absolutely true.  Have you been to the place of divide?  There is a place a person can stand, the twilight between the two.  God can show you where that is.  And once you have stood there to witness the difference between night and day, sleep and waking, understanding and ignorance, permanent and passing, you will never be the same again.  You will become “A Believer”.


The majority of people never leave this darkened place of transient shadows.  At best, most people turn to religion and consider this as satisfactory.  The majority of people don’t even know there is a place of twilight reality.  That’s why so many are consumed with the passing glimmer of hopeless bobbles and trinkets.  (Do not be deceived, science is a religion.  It is the pinnacle of satan’s achievements.)


I can’t tell you how to get there.  Somehow God transports us in our soul.  But I can tell you, humbling yourself before God in prayer is a good place to begin.  And I can tell you the journey is not easy or quick.  But it is worth every moment of your time.  And when you are there, the difference between lies and truth is as obvious as noon and midnight.


The place I’m speaking of is real.  And there are many variations people offer, calling it the same thing I’m describing.  But understand this: the place of twilight between this world and Heaven can only be inhabited by those who call on the Living God by the name of his Holy and Righteous Son Jesus.  And no one will ever stand there unless God himself allows it.


There is a righteousness of this world, and there is a righteousness of Heaven.  Seek out the place that lays in between.  Then you will know the difference.


You will not believe or understand what I have said here unless the Lord opens your eyes to SEE.

From Peace to Murder

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​The rest stop was full.  But I’d driven as far as I could for the day.  I have to stop somewhere.  So I parked on the shoulder of the off-ramp.
I was exhausted.  A little bit of winding down, and sleep came pretty easily.  The noise of the traffic going by hardly reached my ears.  But now I’m awake, the sun is coming up, and the noise gets louder and louder.  It’s hard to believe that tires on asphalt can be so loud.
I know there’s a measurement called decibel.  But I don’t know how to quantify that.  If I hear an explosion I know that it’s a lot of decibels.  If I hear a whisper, indeed if I could hear a whisper, I’d know it was very few decibels.
I sit here thinking about my family and all the people who rush about everyday.  I wonder if there is a decibel measurement for anxiety.  I’m thinking about the anxiety called desire, or greed.  While the world sleeps, there’s a few who make those anxious noises.  But on the whole, it’s barely more than a whisper in this world.  If greed wasn’t quieted down during the night no one would sleep.
Then I wonder something useful.  Does man even know what peace is?  Only Adam and Eve knew peace.  Apparently that didn’t last very long  Days, months, years, decades, who knows?  I don’t know for sure, perhaps it lasted more than a hundred years.  But once peace was gone, it is as though it never existed among us at all.  And the proof of it’s leaving lay in the ground with their son Abel.  And the proof of their realization ran down their cheeks as tears.  Peace was forever gone, replaced by something new – horror.
Greed’s particular name that the time was Cain.  But his mindset goes about in this world today under the use of a billion different names.  Now, all we know is murder and chaos.  But you could easily refer to all of us as Cain.
Cain committed the first murder; The taking of life from his brother.  But I have committed murder.  Haven’t I taken away hope from hundreds of people?  In that sense, haven’t we all committed murder? 
In those days I was not peace and I did not know peace.  But ignorance is no excuse is it?  Once a life is shattered, how can any words of Man (or excuses) fill the void?  Whatever hope of peace and trust there was I ripped away with a rock called greed.  I guess we could say there’s a murder of death as well as the murder of life.  The latter, by the way, is legal in this place.
But let’s get back to the theme here .
Peace is an individual.  He withdrew from this place because of sin.  But he is peace.  He is not disturbed by the death of Abel.  And he is not disturbed by this wasting disease called sin.  And he is not disturbed by the volume of noise greed makes in this wicked place.  He is not disturbed by what we do.  In the blink of an eye he will shut it all down.  But he is very concerned to come and give us peace.  He is very concerned about teaching us how to stop murdering life.
We may get some quiet time from here and there.  But do we know He who is Peace?  I asked that because even while I sit among all this increasing noise,  my soul is not disquieted.  My body perceives the chaos.  But my soul is in his hands.  Where does your soul find itself today?  Do you know Peace?  

“Where’s the Glory!”

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You can’t live with me in the truck.  For one thing, there isn’t room.  You can’t find your daily meal from cans of soup and beans.  The stove and refrigerator would be jealous.  You can’t be isolated from Humanity but for an occasional confrontation here and there.  6 days a week.  Then home, as a stranger.

No!  This place is for me.

But don’t you have your own, your house, your family, your home.  And isn’t THERE, things “Too much for you”?  Don’t those things clamor like tiny chicks noisily begging for worms. 

No time for rest, or your glory will die. 
No time to compare,
“Who has it better than I?”

Should we think that the Glory of Christ in us is limited “someplace else”?  Is it right to think that if you were someone else you could bring him what is Honorable? 

If you did all the things that a day’s work demands.  What would be said of you?  What would be said of your Lord?  What right would you have to speak among the people then?  And wouldn’t your diligence, honorable and true, be speech enough; not only visible but audible in deed?

His Glory stands waiting in your “house”.  Be dressed.  Serve.

The “Assumption”

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Let me speak from my own experience.  How can I be sure this applies to others.  Yet I strongly suspect it does.

People will assess another’s value by the things they saw him do and say in the past.  Put any distance between them, and people will assume the negative long before they consider the possibility of the positive.  The distant stranger, whom they knew before, will always be considered somewhat less than human.  In my estimation this is a given in regard to Human Nature.  In the Flesh, “Distance provokes animosity, not love”.  In the Spirit of God the opposite is true.  But how many walk in the Spirit 24/7?  And aren’t we the sum of our doings?

I speak for myself, I know who I am.  I know what I did.  But I also know what I have become.  And I would be wrong to expect others to see me as I currently am.  I have no right to demand that you love me.  I have no right to demand your forgiveness.  And I have no right to demand your understanding.  If I don’t have any of those things from you, I must say, “That is the way things are.  That is the best you can currently deliver.  And by His Mercy, I am strong enough to carry you”.

It’s alright if you cannot receive me like I am.  Absolutely no charge will be held against anyone, come Judgment Day, because of me.  Why should I blame anyone, when He has promised me eternal life and forgiveness for all my sins?

I only ask that everyone consider this from their own perspective.  Isn’t the same thing true in your own life?   For the sake of God’s mercy in Jesus, leave room for His work in others.  Prejudgment is brother to murder.  Try not to listen to the slander of your heart.  Things are rarely as they appear.

If we cannot be unified because of what we were, at least let us be unified in what we have become.  And if that is still too much to bear, let us be unified in God’s promise to make us complete.  If He has grasped you for His promised Joy, He will complete his promise.

In the coming age, there will be no separation between us.  There will be no remembrance of wrongs done.  We will not have to assume anything about anyone.  Love will be our master.  And as much as it is possible, isn’t it right that we should strive, with all we have, to live that Day now?

Know this, I love you with all I have to give.  For the good of all,  I pray this is enough.  And this is because He has loved me.

By His Grace.

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.