Tag Archives: hopeless

That Peculiar Brand of Fear

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Sin has its own distinct pleasures.  There’s no reason to lie about it, sin is fun.  Preferring to live in sin is to live a life full of joy and laughter.  It’s kind of like being drunk with abandon instead of alcohol.

But there’s also no reason to lie about the following.  Sin has its own particular brand of fear. 

The one who lives a life of sin fears everything.  He can’t trust God to watch out for him, so whatever is unknown becomes a potentially destructive enemy.  And the volume of unknowns is endless.

The sinner may say he fears nothing.  He may make great bold statements of his ability to cope.  But as Shakespeare wrote, “Me thinks thou dost protest too much”.  The bold proclamations of a sinner, in regard to his fearlessness, are nothing more than a golden blanket covering the thumb sucking child within.

The sinner knows he stands in a very precarious place.  God has promised to rip him apart at the judgment, and the sinner knows it.  By sheer will and deft ignorance the sinner simply puts it out of his mind.

On top of the coming promise of destruction, is a very curious fear.  They call it bad luck.  It’s also called Murphy’s Law. 

The sinner is always looking over his shoulder to see what’s coming to bite him in the butt.  He’s absolutely sure God has it in for him.  In the sinners mind, God is always trying to cause him trouble.  But such thoughts are only a mirror of his own evil heart.

The sinners fear is equal to his pleasure.  All the while he goes about trying to secure his next joy, he worries and frets that he will be assaulted in some peculiar manner.  Perhaps a broken bone, perhaps severe sickness, perhaps he will be caught doing what he should not be doing and end up in jail.

It’s ridiculous the measures people take to avoid thinking about God and the judgment to come.  But even more ridiculous is the ease with which his fearful burden can be lifted.  All it takes is a tiny measure of humility.  But humility isn’t fun, so it’s given no place on the sinners agenda.

God will not despise the humble heart.  And God will teach the humble man how to be fearless. 

Forgiveness from Christ Jesus provides a distinctly different joy.  While apparently the body is cast into sorrow, the forgiven sinners soul is laughing in the language of heaven.  While the sinner’s joy ends when his current preoccupation is taken away, the joy of the forgiven sinner never leaves him.  Little by little that peculiar fearfulness is replaced by a gentle confidence.

Serving God in Christ Jesus is pure and true freedom.  Pursuing sin and joy of the body will always result in slavery to fear.

The forgiveness of Christ Jesus is not just an arbitrary phrase.  When it is received, the soul knows it has been set free.  With forgiveness from God comes peace and hope.  Two things the sinner cannot possibly attain and retain.

By His Grace

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

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.

Two Lions

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The forgiveness of Christ is the ultimate power for life.  If a man’s sins are forgiven, his conscience is cleaned.  Where then is regret?
Where then is fear? 
Where then is strength to live? 
What kind of joy should this one own? 
What kind of man should he be able to become?

Are you willing to dissect this truth with me?  Are you willing to be free of regret?
Are you willing to become fearless?
Are you willing to become endlessly strong?
Are you willing to be full of joy?
Are you willing to become a child of the Living God?

It may be that you have said yes to all these.  But if these are not a part of your life, have you asked why?  And if you asked, were you able to endure the answer?

These things are true for the one who is forgiven.  Why then are they not true for you?

I don’t mean to attack you or to judge.  I simply asked the question that everyone in Christ is asking.  “If the forgiveness of Christ is real, then why do I struggle so?”

You believe the things of the gospel.  But the problem is application to you.  At your best moment, and full of generosity, you perceive that forgiveness is available to every man.  But in your personal practice, that application comes and goes.  It gives you strength and leaves.  Why does it leave?  If it leaves, have you pondered why it even comes at all?

If Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, why not you?  Why can’t you have that familiar strength all the time?

The answer, whether we like it or not, is diligence.  When we are strong in Christ, by His forgiveness, it is because we have taken time to assess our situation.  It is because we fail to sit quietly and make assessment, that we falter and lose our strength.  Isn’t this so?

Then it takes a strong man to receive the things of Christ.  It takes one who is dedicated purely to living the truth.  As a man is lazy in the things of Christ, so his faith will lack.  We could call such a soul, a sluggard.  Couldn’t we?

Proverbs 26 addresses this very clearly.
13. A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
a fierce lion roaming the streets!”

Yes there’s a lion roaming the streets.  And for this the sluggard keeps his door shut.

But hear this truth!  There is also a lion in your own house.

The Lion of Judah roams the streets seeking earnest hearts.  While the lion who devours, lives among your things.  The One is fearsome and free.  The other is domesticated and emaciated.

As you can understand, let me say this:  Get off your couch, open the door, and walk in the streets.  If you have faith, prove it to yourself.  Become diligent.

The domesticated one will not go with you, he will remain emaciated and sleeping on the couch. 

But you!  Go out into the street and call for Him.  The Lion of Judah is free and full of fire.  Yet you know you do not fear him.  You fear your own weakness.

You know he can take away your weakness and give you strength.  You know he can decimate your regret.  You know he can make you fearless.  You know he can give you the fullness of life.

Then the choice is yours.  Remain with your pet domesticated and emaciated lion,  or go out in the street and live.

If I say to you, “I live in the street”, I would be a liar.  For I wake in my house just like you.  But he teaches me to walk past the couch and go outside.  As honestly as I can, I tell you, this takes great strength.

But my brothers and sisters, it is so sincerely worth it!  In my past, laziness has destroyed me.  But as I listen to him, I retain diligence.  This truth he teaches me, is the same for all men.

By His Grace

The Beast at My Door

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Humility is a fleeting beauty

For the sake of the beast within.

She comes to kiss with eternal lips.

And thus, for a moment,

The beast is subdued.

But soon he finds a bobble,

That others do not have;

A rock, a leaf, a twig, or sand,

And he rises once again.
                      ~
Sin of pride crouches,

At the threshold of our door.

He desires to have us,

That he may have “what’s more”.

This horrible, putrid way of man;

This pride of life says, “Yes I can,

Be more than my brothers or sisters can be”!

To be equal with satan’s sin, you see.

The Apostle Paul had mentioned with three,

Prayerful attempts to be rid of thee.

But God in His Wisdom knows His design:

“My Grace is sufficient,

Humility’s mine”.

It’s given to man to endure and subdue,

That hideous beast that is me, that is you.

The deadliest animal ever to live,

Can be muzzled and chained

By the Glory that’s His.

By His Grace

You Don’t Know

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You don’t know what you’re doing

When you avoid the things of God.

When you count them as trash on Wednesday;

“Castaway! I’m glad it’s  gone”.

Somehow you think it’s your duty,

To stay God the length of your arm.

You toss away His riches,

For you think he means you harm.

Then you flounder in your poverty;

Embracing hopeless travail.

When all he wants is to lift you up;

To silence your muted wail.

How great the riches of Christ in us.

How marvelous his love.

When once, like you,

We thought little too

Of God’s gift sent down from above.

But let our soul find him near,

And there’s no dam to stop the tears.

He chases out all our frantic fears.

Unspeakable, is the way he loves.

He appears without our asking.

We find our heart free of trouble.

No longer caught up in wasting;

We are freed from all our rubble.

But you don’t know what joy you miss,

As you forsake his gentle kiss.

How can I urge you more than this?

His love is free for taking.

By His Grace