Tag Archives: hope

It’s Still “Today”

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They say, “You are only human”.  As if that saying is some consolation.  As if those words remove the spawn of failure called grief.  We have stabbed ourselves through the heart, what can repair such a fatal wound?

In truth they are trying to show mercy.  But it is for the sake of His Mercy that grief has come.  For this reason “being human” is no consolation at all. 

He has loved us with the most inexpressible love.  And the greatest of our good intentions fall flat, like untuned strings on a well made violin, we have no song to sing.  It is impossible for words alone to give us consolation.  We find ourselves in desperate need of what this world cannot deliver.

But doesn’t He come to us very quickly?  Doesn’t he support our slumping frame?  Doesn’t he urge us to continue regardless our shame?

“This is but today my son.  The entirety of your life has not arrived.  I do not give as the world gives.  Let Me be God.  Let Me judge what is true.”  And so, in a variety of form, the Lord speaks lovingly to his children.

Our faith finds no help from being human.  Our faith finds no help in the consolation from men.  Our faith was forged in the bloody beating of the Holy Lord Jesus.  The raging fires of hell only perfected perfection.  Our consolation is delivered with a Holy kiss from life itself.

Christianity is not a religion.  It is an indescribably beautiful relationship with the Holy and Righteous Son of the Living God.  This is why the peace we have cannot be disturbed or even encouraged by man.

GLORY IS HIS ALONE!

By His Grace

“I Am God”

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Peace, every human wants it.  But not a single one is capable of grasping it.

In the struggle for peace:

Some try to fill their lives with their desire; amassing to themselves all manner of trinkets.  With what commerce they own they purchase peace.

Some use anger to control the world around them; driving others away, lest desires clash.

Many turn to drunkenness, sexual immorality, and drugs; subduing their perception of reality lest they perceive anxiety (Peace eluding them once more).

Most turn to a form of religion; encasing themselves in a structure of belief in God mixed with social righteousness.  They find they have the acceptance of man, but they are still void of the acceptance of God.  Peace eludes them even while they reach to grab.

Still a few turn to a life of obscure devotion to an obscure god; wasting away with self abuse for the sake of the god they make in their mind.  The fruit of the peace they seek is death itself.  A wasting death, void of peace, and filled with anxiety.

There is nothing on the face of this planet, nor all creation, that can give peace.  If man makes it, or has anything to do with its production, it is immediately laced with chaos.  The very peace they seek is wasted by their own efforts to attain or produce it.

True peace must come from a place of perfect Peace and Truth.  This entire creation is but a shadow of that place.  At our very best we can only manipulate lies to form what we call truth.  Because of that, anxiety is king over all humanity.

It is written in the Bible, “Then they will know that I am God”.  I never really grasped the full meaning of that until now.  Yet by the very definition of Truth, can I say I have grasped its entirety?  (I write this while I am on the earth.  I have not yet arrived in heaven.)

God the Father, His Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit; these are Peace.  They are from eternity and they are life.  They alone are Truth, for the Father alone is Truth. 

Peace is given not contrived.  Unless we receive what He offers, we will have no peace at all.

And let a man rebel against God’s commands, while he is in the process of receiving, he will find peace removed from him by degree.  With the stark difference in his soul, the man will perceive the words, “Then they will know that I am God”.  (Let the reader understand, I am writing this from experience not conjecture.)

Anything that is extended can be retracted or cut off.  Anything that is given can be removed.  For the one who has given is more blessed than he who receives. 

It is fortunate for the Christian, that what he has received is regulated by perfect loving wisdom.  The very purpose of the regulation is to “draw” the Christian to Truth. 

If this article provokes anything, let it be this:  anyone who is drawn to Truth must go where Truth lives.  God alone is True. 

It is in this drawing that we begin to understand the words, “Then they will know that I am God”.  If you seek Truth, with diligent and humble heart, you will come to understand those words.

Read what God said through Ezekiel.  “I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel.  [He who struggles with God.]  I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand.” (39: 2,3) 

God himself will lead us to himself, and this through Christ Jesus His Holy and Righteous Son.  Anyone who is drawn to God will lose his own perception of truth.  In its place, Christ Jesus becomes King.  Progressively, chaos is decimated.

It is not possible for man to manufacture his own peace.  But True Peace comes with a price.  The cost of redemption has been paid.  But the cost of Truth is very steep.  A man is forced to pay everything he has. 

Who, among God’s people, is willing to pay that price?  I suggest to you there is not a single one.  But it is God who comes to us all to give what we are neither willing or able to pay.

God provides the place where understanding of these things is far more than academic.  It gets quite personal!  Isn’t that what he means when he says, “Then they will know that I am God”.

By His Grace

No Beast at All

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The imagination of man is a most hideous place to live.  In that realm, a man envisions his fellow man as an enemy of ghastly proportions.  Such an enemy is able to decapitate him with a Q-tip.  How much fear does that generate?

In the night, while sitting under a tree, a man hears a small noise.  Fear whelms up and fires the furnace of imagination.  Seared by an unholy fire, the man perceives that the falling of a twig is the presence of some horrible beast with glowing eyes, 12 inch razor claws, and frothing jaws.  And this beast does not wander aimlessly!  It has the very man in his perfect sight!

What we don’t know can certainly destroy us.  Not because it is.  But simply because we cannot perceive it with our senses.  How tiny are we who live in the land of the dead?

Even when we encounter the Gospel, we often turn to imagination to explain what we don’t understand.  Isn’t this the reason for idolatry of various kinds?  We strive to make “something” out of what we perceive to be from “nothing”.

With the imagination, we hate our brother out of unfounded fear.  With the imagination, we turn the Glory of heaven into the ravaging chaos of hell.  With the imagination, we dispel the hope of Truth by employing an endless volume of lies.  And all this resides firmly within every man.

We fear what we don’t understand.  We grasp with iron fist, the things of death.  For that is the only reality man has ever known.  “Certainly, if I listen to the Gospel, I will find a God who takes glee at my destruction.  For I am a wicked man who loves wicked things.  And the man who comes to me to speak the holy words of God, only desires to decapitate me with a Q-tip!”

My fellow brother of flesh.  I do bring you the Gospel.  But strive with whatever strength you can, to understand the meaning of that word.  “Gospel” means “Good News”.

I know your heart, for I have the same wicked things in me.  It is not a monster that calls to your soul.  It is the vibrant Love of the Living God that calls to you.  He has proved His Holy Love in the Holy Body of His Beautiful, Faithful, Strong, and Righteous Son.

He wants to ease your fears.  He wants to quench the flames of your unholy imagination.  He wants to replace lies with Eternal Truth.  He wants to relieve you of the drunkenness of fear, to be replaced by the sobriety of peace.

By His Holy Wisdom, He has left free will alone.  You must make the choice to accept His willingness to heal you.

As foolish as it may seem, laying down our lies is a very painful process.  But lies are death.  Truth is Eternal Life.  You don’t have the latter.  Will you endure the former?

The noise you hear, as I speak these things, is no hideous monster.  It is the foot steps of the One who has already proved that He loves you.  Will you find the strength to love Him back enough to be devoured by His Holy Promise of Love?

Give Me Knowledge

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Tell me you don’t believe that you are saved by faith alone.  Tell me your faith has produced a doing.

Give me solace in this place of testing.  Confirm your viable Christianity.

Tell me you do not rely on association for the hope of your salvation.  Tell me you do not attend church because you think that will save you.

But display the Living Faith in the Living God and His Christ.  Let the overflow of Life giving water be evident.

Do not cheat me of hope for you.  Do not rob me of joy.

Do not make me guess about the end of your days.  Do not make your loved ones cry hopeless tears of sorrow.

May the brotherhood of Christ praise the God who has saved you.  May your name find association with holy doing.

Otherwise you are only a noise.  Otherwise you are only a dispelled shadow.

By His Grace

Curiosity is

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It is not possible to live in Christ without testifying.   If we speak that testimony with words, then good.  But everything we are reflects who we have been willing to become before Him.  It can’t be hidden, not before every creature in heaven, nor every human on earth.

Has this come home to roost in our tree of understanding?   Have we come to place this truth in front of everything we think or do?  How would our life change if we forced ourselves to remember this, as if a “First” habit?

Give a young man a Ferrari for his birthday.  There will come a place where he will certainly test its ability.  Isn’t that the nature of humanity?  And isn’t that why we consider such parents to be foolish?

We are disciples of the Most High God in His Holy Son.  By the power of his endless Holy Spirit we serve Him.  Excuse me for stating the obvious, but how does a Ferrari compare?  Tell me, if you can, why do we suppress our natural tendency to “Give it all its got” when it comes to the promises of God?

Man is not stripped of curiosity when he becomes a Christian, in fact it is enhanced.  Despite the shocking ability of a Ferrari, it has a limit.  It requires a road, gasoline, and a human to drive it.

But what God offers us comes from his Eternal Sovereignty.  Why wouldn’t it be advisable to take some time and consider this?  What does God offer that we are not willing to test?  Why do Christians lay down their curiosity before they enter His Holy Throne?

Curiosity is not of the flesh.  It is a gift from God to our soul, that we may search out his marvelous willingness.  The flesh is only curious about the things it can get away with.  But our soul should be curious about the things we can receive.

If what you want are the Ferraris of this world, then yes, you are living in the flesh.  But if what you desire are the eternal things of God, then apply your curiosity to attain.

He has sealed his willingness to give, with the promise of the Holy Blood of His Holy Son.  How much more proof do we need, that he is willing to give us endlessly more than we can even imagine? 
Let your soul enter.  Strap yourself in with the restraints of faith.  Place your frail foot on the Holy ground.  Prepare your heart for a mind shocking ride. Grip His promises with steel hands, and press your foot down hard. Why should we not try to find out how far God is willing to take us?

By His Grace

Dressed Robes of Procurement

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What is the disparity between nothing and something?  The starving man knows the difference between what is food and what is hunger.  The man who is freezing to death knows the difference between frozen wood and a blazing flame.  The one who lay on a sweaty bed of hopeless sickness knows the difference between health and approaching death.

But what is the disparity between what is Holy and what is unholy?  What is the disparity between a doing of the Holy will of God, and a life that remains subject to all that is not?

Let the starving man eat, and understanding of that disparity blazes clearly in his mind.  Let the one who is freezing to death be taken toward life-giving warmth, and he will testify of what is “good”.  And let the hopelessly sick be healed.  They will proclaim the wonders of health and ability.

We have received the promise of the Holy One.  We know He who is of the Righteous Father.  The starving, the ones who are freezing, and the hopelessly sick, know of the vague promises of life.  How should we who know the Holy Promises of the Living God, LACK?

He said to us, “You can do nothing without me”.  But isn’t the knowledge of that statement like the hopelessness of the dying, if indeed we do nothing to procure that Holy Something?

Today comes to us, dressed in the doings of those who went before us.  There are very few who became living testimony of the Life God stands ready to dispense.  Will tomorrow see the same lack of dedicated souls?  Isn’t it our responsibility to procure?

If a man of God will say, “I found no more strength than I did from Him”.  If he will say that, he says what is true.  But looking at the volume of those blazing testifiers, I am appalled.  Can we gather together as one to determine to look into these things?  What will it take to produce a powerful people of “today”?

I will not rise into crescendo for the sake of inspiration.  I have appealed with what is true.  Let the crescendo appear because each one who reads this determines in his soul to do his part.  No man can make another do what is right.  Prisons keep turning out wicked men.  Few who endure the force of men take hold of what is proper.  How has Christianity proven to be any different?

No, the force to do and become, continues to lay squarely on the will of each of God’s people.  Singly, we stand here.  Singly, we will appear before Him.  And singly, we will see redemption appear from the mass of men.  If a rekindling of determination to be a holy people appears, it will be because we turned, one by one, toward what is Good.