Are people supposed to be happy? Then why is there such an onslaught of sadness about us? Explain that.
Is pleasure the purpose of life? Or is it simply a means of escape from a forced reality check?
If we let ourselves be happy, does that take away death, sickness, disappointment, and the like?
If we wrap our days in pleasure, does that lessen reality?
Blessed is the one who finds the will to enter the fire of reality and remain there.
What’s wrong with this picture?
From their own imagination, they gather to themselves great crowns of righteousness! Not only do they boast in their own inheritance, but they refuse to honor the One who is Clean.
But go ahead, lap it up America; like a hungry dog at a bowl of milk. The wrath of God waits patiently.
By His Grace
Wishes are empty and useless. Imagination is only imagination. Desire is only desire; if retained as if “Life” desire is useless.
The dishes don’t clean themselves. The bed does not remake itself. The broken down car will not repair itself.
Things that are broken, things that are in deterioration, things that are not complete, will not fix or complete themselves.
We may stand still for a moment, wishing things would become useful again. But they only deteriorate all the more. It takes action. It takes determination. It takes a moment of diligence to repair what is lacking.
If we clean three dishes, the remainder is still dirty. If we straighten one side of the bed, the other side remains unkempt. If we wipe a tire clean, the rest of the car remains broken down. Don’t we all know these things?
How is it then that we don’t apply this to the things of the Living God? How is it then, that the desire of Jesus, God’s Holy Christ, lacks bounty among His people?
We wish God would intervene. We wish and imagine that God has caused us to perceive holiness. And don’t the masses fool themselves because they think that wishing and imagination has done the trick? Isn’t this why religion is so very empty of the power of God? Isn’t this why Christians, and the entire world, lacks the vibrant witness of holiness?
We apply diligent behavior to the things we need. It is because we need them, that is why we work so hard. Do we think we don’t need the full power of God?
I have witnessed the power of God in the holy Apostles. I read what they wrote concerning all this. I have even witnessed the sin that is working so constantly within me. And I am compelled to believe their testimony. But what if I leave “becoming” to the whims of wishes and imagination? I will never “become” the desire of my God.
A man says a quick prayer at the start and end of his day. Is that enough? Where is the diligence we witness in those who have overcome? Do we really think our garden grows so healthily because we offered it a single cup of water? Can we rightfully expect an abundant harvest?
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40)
Diligence! Continuance! Determined and purposeful application. Continual prayer. Continual remembering of the Holy Word, as we have heard it. These things will produce what is holy within us.
But wishing, imagination, slothfulness and spiritual sleep, these produce the weeds of sin that lay waiting for a chance to sprout. Sin is diligent, isn’t it? Look how it patiently waits just outside our door, desiring to have us. What good will we own when we appear before Him if that is all we allow ourselves to desire here?
Let the sleepy one (the one who allows his soul to sleep) turn on the TV. Let the lazy desire pleasure. Let the desire of Christ burn within, and the things of Christ begin to appear. Let prayer take the place of pleasure. Let the reading of His Holy Word replace television. Let the thoughts of remembrance fill us; let us remember His Holy teachings. The diligent prosper in the things of God. The others struggle about. So it is. So, it can’t be any different.
He who does what is righteous, this one becomes righteous. Death leads to death. Why would we believe anything other? Life from God’s Holy Christ leads to Life. Either remain in death, or get with the program.
Who accomplishes the will of the Living God? Isn’t that the one who is constantly looking to him for direction?
To what direction should we look, since no man has ever been in heaven? Doesn’t it require a deep and living friendship with the Holy Son of God?
And how should we be friends with one we cannot see or meet? Doesn’t it require faith from God?
What faith can a man have in mere words? It is required that God should give life to those words within us.
Religion by itself, produces nothing but its self. But the faith that God gives spawns a religion all on its own.
People, you have it backward. You present your religion is if God should honor it. But such procedure comes from the imagination of man. If it is not of God and from God it will be eternally destroyed.
No man can become anything more than his religion dictates. And how very few even aspire to that. But religion that is spawned from heaven, aspires toward heaven. And once a man is caught up in the things of the Living God, he can no longer aspire to less.
The religions of man lean toward pride. The religion that God grants leans toward complete humility.
We are what we eat. Bake cow pies if you desire. I will be satisfied with nothing more than the manna from Heaven. And this, not from my righteousness, but it is the gift of God, lest any man should boast.
By His Grace
No man can farm more than the ground he is given. No man can perceive past what the wisdom of God has allowed. Every man then, is subject the ownership of someone else. But oh how lies and pride desire something else.
“I will be a free man! I will choose my own destiny. I will gather to myself by my own hand. I will live a free man!”
Will you now? If you will be free, what restrains you from being God? Immediately go and be the Living God. Abandon your imagination or go and be God.
Lies are all we own, if we think we are free men. If we think we own the power to choose our own destiny, then we are blind fools.
Even if a man calls a piece of fertile ground his own. Even if he knows how to plant and to grow, that he may sustain his body, the ground belongs to God. The Sun, the water, the seasons, and the wheat, all belong to God. How can you possibly be a free man, able to choose your own destiny?
“I think, therefore I am”. Descartes is said to have fallen on the most valuable of truth. But look how he qualifies “I am”. In order to “be”, he must be able to think. Is he then a free man? Was he not also subject to death?
With a proud mouth he spoke what he considered a wonderous truth. Where is he now? Where is his farm? Where is his able body and “sharp” mind? Produce him before me and I will give him aplause.
How many men balance their worth on his “brilliant” saying? How many men live their entire life encased in a lie? “I am able to choose my own destiny. I think, therefore I am! I will spit on the things of God! I will willingly despise the word holy.”
Will you now? Then produce from your great intellect, eternal life. Prove to us how great you are. Fashion your own planet on which you can live. Spin a star to grow your plants. Increase your self before us that we may perceive your great strength. And do not promise me that men will accomplish this! Do it now, if truly you are able!
You only imagine yourself as capable. You dress yourself in lies from the time you wake up until the time you sleep. The only thing you have is pride. And pride is easily shaken by a single word, “Death”.
May God be merciful to you, that you may remember my words. “You are not accountable to me. But you will certainly be held accountable to the one who has made you.”
May those words chase you down, while you wake or while you sleep. May your fortress of Lies be utterly destroyed. May sweat be your shower of cleansing day and night. May anxiety accompany your sense of great worth. May your filthy imagination become to you as a brood of Asps; that every time you reach out your hand to glorify yourself, your pride might bite you with fatal fangs. May understanding become your best and dearest friend. May humility become your daily bread. May God force you to perceive yourself as restricted under his Holy hand. And may he have mercy, that before you die, you will glorify and honor His Holy and Righteous Son.
And may the day come quickly, when I can refer to you as my brother in Christ Jesus.
By His Grace
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?
We: Live, Die, Face Judgment. Jesus or die twice.
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