Love has a name. So does fear. The first is referred to as Light. The second is utter Darkness. Where there is no light, the darkness muses like a toxic fume. But even a lantern can dispel enough for a man to work.
Food for thought.
Tag Archives: humility
The Engine of Peace
I look at what Man has accomplished. How he has established law, regulation, procedure, and expectations, to force love upon the people for one another. What I see is that punishment is the motivator. Look with truth and you will see it also.
If you do what is evil the law will come and take from you. If you contribute according to the law of the land you will reap what they say is great benefit.
I see how they encourage one another to do good works. But again, the motivator is gain or severe loss.
Every day, every man wakes knowing that if he does not do what is expected he will lose horribly. This is not the gospel of Christ. It is the so-called good news of Man.
This good news of Man is dependent on the resources available. There’s only so much money in the world. There’s only so much food. Politics restrains the gain for all. And the vast majority find themselves suffering loss as the sun goes down on each day. Even the so-called winners are exhausted from their efforts. And there’s no need to itemize the broken families the come from the so-called good news.
In this good news of Man greed must be honed to a fine edge. Look at the advent of training and implements that has been made available to help. In all these things, the motivation for adherence comes from outside the man.
You know what’s funny? With all this trust toward the ability of Man to create peace, the world is no better off.
What does God say? “14 . . . if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 chronicles 7) This Promise of God does not present itself as a manipulation. It’s the offer of free and complete help.
Take note of how God strips the strength of greed. In its place he only requires humility.
This is no empty promise. But who will take up the mantle and respond?
The Sprout of Salvation
It is not frustrating. And it is not in vain.
It is frustrating when we perceive the things of God from our own mind and heart. For then, our work for the Living God seems fruitless.
We speak to our brother about Christ, but he casts us away as if we are insane. He goes about his business of death with a smile on his face, as if he has just vanquished a foolish enemy. Calling us names in his mind, heart, and words, he considers us vile and useless.
He happily goes back to his useless gods: “To these I am familiar. I understand when they speak about my dreams and ambitions. They are set concretely by the evidence of History. This nation or that has relied heavily on the traditions I love so much. The after life is mysterious. But these gods give me consolation in my sorrow. They speak well of my potential.”
With the sleight-of-hand that belongs to death, he throws away our testimony for Christ. Our words are full of fault in his eyes. For they give no praise or quarter to man. The testimony of Christ is foolishness to such people.
I consider this with sober mind. I want his salvation. I want to hear the praise of Christ on his lips. I want to see a changed heart that is willing to learn and love.
But I am caught up in frustration. The very thing I do not have a right to own. For salvation does not belong to me. It is not within my grasp to grant or to take away. I cannot open the eyes of his heart. I cannot open his ears that he should hear. And I cannot manipulate his heart that he should learn to love and to be humble.
Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb. For he dispenses his wisdom from heaven. What he gives, when he gives, and how he gives, is dictated by eternity. And he does not speak the Gospel to us in words that can be spoken or perceived by Man.
God speaks his Gospel to us in the faithfulness that surrounds us. He speaks in a language that never ceases. He speaks vast volumes of books in a short and poignant sentence.
All the while Man looks for the key. But his hands are not big enough to handle the object of release which God offers from heaven.
What is the summation of this? I confess I do not know.
I have spoken to my brother. I have acted toward him in a godly fashion, full of love and desire to understand. I have prayed for him consistently. And I strive, with all I have, to be patient. Still the sun has not risen in his heart. And now he has ordered me to stop speaking to him about such things. In fact, he has vowed to stop speaking to me altogether. The door to him is now slammed shut.
Here I sit, just outside his door, wondering and perplexed.
Let the wisdom of God be the wisdom of God. What more can I say? It is not mine to wield the mystery of salvation. It is simply mine to cast the seeds about, letting the wind of God direct their fall.
I cannot give the Living God counsel. It is mine simply to be faithful. In war we can watch as others are killed. And there is nothing we can do to stop it. In life, some will live and some will die. Who are we to say no to the One who has made all things perfectly well?
But I wonder. What are we learning through all this? What are we gaining through the loss that is so prevalent about us? Who are we, as we stand in the midst of a Slaughter? Hip deep in spiritual blood, what is the value is our life in Christ to those who die?
The answer lies in a language I have never heard. This puzzle piece fits perfectly in the vast array of God’s glorious eternity. God is not anxious about such a question. For he has had the answer long before the world was ever made.
Does this give me peace? The peace this gives me lives in the place I cannot translate. For still I am anxious to see Christ appear in my brother. And doesn’t every Christian feel the same?
Holy Father, we leave these things in your hand for that is where your wisdom has dictated it shall be. Salvation is yours. Still we pray in earnest that your love should appear.
“By Your Grace”, you have taught me. And I am convinced there is no other answer. Your strength is Christ Jesus. Still we beg you to move, yet according to your wisdom.
Home?
The Lord, The Sovereign Lord, the Source of life, ever-present Righteousness, Glorious mercy and justice. He has all things, doesn’t he? He lacks nothing, how true. That’s what Sovereign means.
But let me speak to the rich man. Let me speak to the perverted drunk. Let me speak to the beautiful woman. Let me speak to the greasy whore. Let me speak to all those who have a place among Man, whether glorified or horrified; those with clean hands and those whose hands are covered with blood.
God has all things for he is all things. Yet what he does not have, he has poured out his life to gain. He does not have your love. He does not take first place in all your days, though he is first in all eternity. All creation honors His Holy Name, except here. His name is Jesus the Christ, look into it.
“You ask too much of us! You sit in your religious Chapel, carved of pure Ivory, and judge us. You have forgotten the demands of life that are far more then we can bear. We cannot put God first we must defend our home!”
Your home? Your home is a soleless pair of old shoes. Your home is a worn-out pair of jeans filled with holes, and leaving your buttocks bare. Your home is an umbrella missing it’s purposed fabric. Your home is a cave filled with Wolverines and poisonous snakes. The floor of your home cannot be cleaned! Why can’t you smell the stench of your household enemy’s feces, which lay in the crags you can’t reach? Precious place, isn’t it, this place you call your home. The place where you fear even in what you call solace. You light a lamp, but still darkness pervades.
8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6)
He is your potential friend. He is your potential Guardian. Already he provides what you call your home.
Who causes the lava to harden? Who plants the seed of a tree in its craggy niches? Who brings the beautiful erosion to cause a paradise? Who gave you this place? Who dressed you with skin? Yet you would fear and keep him far from you?
Trust him and do the things that belong to him. Then you will have a home that is not filled with stench and death. Your home provides you no pact with death.
Define Accomplishment
They say:
I’m a good dancer.
I know how to make lots of money.
I can do cartwheels.
I know how to drive fast.
I know all the fashions.
I know why everything works.
I can predict a storm.
I know human nature.
They say, an endless bevy of useless accomplishments. For certainly age and death will come to take them all away.
Can they say:
I know how to dance with the Living God in the Gospel of His Holy and Righteous Son.
I know how to trust that God is in control, no matter what comes to me, no matter my expectations, no matter my understanding.
Can they say: death and old age cannot rip away from me the hope that is displayed in every corner of my life!
Can they say they see Christ in you?
Living Truth
I see a fearsome mistake that men far too often make. I see it for two reasons. First I see the mistake because I saw it in other men. Then the mistake came to life as I saw it in myself.
The mistake is that any man should think he holds the truth in his own hand. And the mistake becomes evident when our actions and words do not reflect perfection and purity.
I know that many will not understand this. They will think that the body of religious words have power in themselves. But this mistake happens when people forget that the body of religious words are but a shadow of He who is immeasurably pure and brilliantly righteous.
The mistake happens when people look to their own history, or even the history of any other man, and think the truth they perceive can belong to man.
Man, in himself, can never hold the fullness of what is true. I used the word never and meant it with all the fullness that that means. Man’s reliance on the Living God’s Holy Son does not cease at our eternal appearance in heaven.
Truth is the Living God himself. Truth is not a body of evidence among men, whether in word or in deed. Truth is the Living
Person of Jesus the Christ of God.
Failure to pray will surely lead us into things that are not completely true. Failure to humble ourselves before the Majesty of God, will surely cause us to live abundantly in a Body of Lies.
Words From There 