To Desolve an Impasse


I am so consumed with the things of God and eternal life for all men that I cannot compete in the expectations of the world.  Likewise, however, the world is consumed with its own expectations so that it cannot compete in the things of God.  Thus an impasse.

Because of the lovely blessings of God I cannot go to the world’s ways.  And because of their perverted definition of the word love, the world cannot come to God’s ways.  God’s love constrains me.  Man’s pride constrains them.

One of the rules of man’s pride is civility.  Because of this rule, they retain me in the social position of my birth.  But they have no regard for my open love for The God who is saving me.  I cannot hold this against anyone, for wasn’t I just like them.  But how shall this impasse the broken?

It needs first to be said that the pride of man will find an end in the grave, while the love of God goes on forever.  But this cannot be an acceptable break in the impasse, while God and myself (Because of his love for me) desires so many to be with us in Paradise.

Jesus told us that many are called but few are chosen.  “But no my Lord, they will surely die.  Truly, can nothing more be done to save their souls from your promised destruction?”  Yet does he not desire willing hearts to love him?  Thus the impasse continues.

Speak, lead, display, love, and groom.  Who knows, perhaps they will see and live.  How many of the Israelites that were released from bondage in Egypt entered into the Promised Land?   Though they saw magnificent sights, heard wondrous thundering sounds, ate of Mana, and enjoyed such marvelous blessings, still they all died apart from the promise.  The impasse holds little hope of rending here.

Yet what other hope is there?  The Living God cannot allow rebellion and pride into eternity.  And no member of The Eternity desires that God should forsake purity.  No, rebelion belongs destroyed.  And pride must be crushed, eternally reduced to nothing.

I surmise that the impasse belongs to Man.  It is man who demands to have his own way honored by the Living God.  Yet it is God who sent his only Son to be murdered for the sake of Man’s salvation.  Yes, the impasse belongs to man.

I love my brother’s of Flesh.  I do not want to see them destroyed.  But the choice is not mine, is it.

Since God in me is contemptible by those who know me, it is given to me to write.  Doesn’t familiarity breed contempt?  “We know where this man is from.  We know what a fool he has been.  How can he now think he knows God better than we?  How does he dare presume to teach us!”  And so pride loves contempt in the presence of familiarity.  (and by their contempt they prove they do not know God)

There is so much to say.  But I confess my writing is somewhat curtailed for the lack of apparent audience, why speak if no one listens.  I imagine that I could well have written twice this blog’s volume of words, if only I had perceived that some benefited.   But don’t statistics defy imagination?  Almost seven years of writing have produced a virtual flat-line statistical range.  Perhaps you can see why I have wondered about the productivity of his words in me.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not complaining for a lack of audience.  I simply see a lack of inspiration to increase the pace of this work.  Yet isn’t that lack within me.  And isn’t it then my duty to seek out inspiration from my God?

By his grace I will find the strength to write.  For haven’t I determined here that there is no other means to break the impasse?

There is an article I was allowed to write two or three years ago called “The Craftsman”.  No, I haven’t forgotten it’s premise.  It is impossible to forget something that is with you everyday.

Proof By Adversity?


“Frivolous” Humanities Helped Prisoners Survive in Communist Romania

(I tried to comment on the writer’s article in his page.  But his page would not accept a WordPress login.  So I make this entry in my blog in the hopes that it will reach the writer.  Who knows, perhaps it will also reach a soul somewhere else.)

In that writers article he describes how the government legislates its own morality.  The writer says that he found the government’s methods and its operating premise to be at fault, simply by humanity’s insistent efforts to circumvent unjust laws.

The writer says this: “If the study of literature or history were really that pointless, a government trying to control the minds of its subjects would not go to the trouble of putting humanities students and professors in jail.”

Isn’t the same thing true of Jesus?  Part of the proof of his royalty is the venomous activity of his enemies.  And if all of Jesus is true, proved by the activity of his enemies alone, wouldn’t it be wise to consider his words.  If he is truly life are we wise to ignore him?

At Their Throat


See how people go about their day as if the will of God does not matter.  But hasn’t he put death in place to end their so-called freedom?

Yes.  Even while they smile and dance and laugh and sing, the hand of God is poised before their very throat.

God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.  And those on whom God’s mercy rests will receive his endless Grace.  But to those who think this place of testing it’s simply a place of merriment and pleasure:

“Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.”

Should I lie and offered you sugar-coated words?  The Living God is Holy.  So is his Holy and Righteous Son.  Amen.

The Ultimate Object Lesson


Are you ready to get your brain full this morning?

I keep saying that we should “think eternity”.  And I promise that the more you do, the more you will be ready on the spur of the moment to speak about Christ your Lord.  More and more, you will replace the fear of evangelism with an excited desire.

Here’s the ticket for the ride of your life:

Absolutely everything in creation speaks to us of the Son of God.  From a pencil and eraser to the depths of the sea.  Every conversation people have.  Every single thought that goes through our minds.  Everything we love and everything we hate.  Everything we use and everything we are willing to destroy.

If you make it a habit to think about it, the association between the common and the Holy will come to you in a split-second.  The real plus here is that it takes almost no discipline at all.  I guarantee you the Lord is willing to help us understand.

The Promises


I wanted to post this this morning.  But I wasn’t sure how it would be received.  As the day passed however, it’s urgency hasn’t left my mind.

Most people, if they love to listen to the words of the Bible, enjoy the pleasantries that God has in store for us.  But when we speak of the warnings God has delivered to us, we often find a deaf ear.

Revelation 21 speaks of the beautiful promise of eternal life in the Glorious City of God.  It’s a passage one might find in a modern devotional.  But I don’t remember ever reading the words that follow that passage in any devotional.

These are the words that follow the beautiful promise of joy:

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Our Personal Altar


I wrote this in 2012.  By his Grace, my wanderings have brought me back to the spectacular.   May The souls of my brothers find cool water here.

Picture borrowed from http://www.westhighlandbaptistchurch.com/
Jesus, my God and King.  I stop here to lay a white stone on the top of my altar of life.  As a child I started this altar with little balls of mud I rolled in my hands as I encountered the truth of Your Holy ways.  Each little ball  represented a firm truth that was only perceived, not yet learned to live out in my ways.  But each one gave you Glory for Your perfect teachings.

Next came the smooth little pebbles I found on the edge of the River of Life which you took me to go see from time to time.  You let me drink from the edge as was wise according to Your endless wisdom.  Then you drove me back to where You found me to have advanced.  In this You watched to see what I would do with what You had given.

Then You drove me to the edges of that vast desert of life among men.  Walking out a half day’s journey, I received what you offered to prove my heart.  Dryness, loneliness, stark reality appeared before me as a living image of the relationships between man and man, and God and man.  Jagged rocks began to be placed on this altar of Glory to You.

You gave me strength I did have.  You gave the strength of Sampson from time to time.  And I placed immense boulders on the altar as You brought me to them in “The Way”.  You did not let me go around them.  Rather You bid me pick them up and stack them for Your Glory.  Amazement and worship filled me as each bolder of trouble was removed and placed on this Holy testimony to Your eternal love.

And now I reach in my pocket and pull out a smooth white stone.  With loving fingers I place it atop the great and growing pile of worship to You.  Through prayer I let it go to see where it will rest.  Little noises come to my ears as it finds its way to rest amid this pile of testimony.  And I watch it disappear into the pile.  As it became Yours, it now is hidden from sight.  Only You know where it now lay.  And all the more is Your Glory.  For You will testify that it has been laid within the altar which can never be torn down.

Glory is Yours!  For You see what we cannot.  Even the understanding You give us finds its place in our heart.  We perceive where You placed it.  Yet, even as we perceive it the understanding disappears into the man You are causing us to become.  Only You know where it lay.  And on the day You cause us to appear before You, You will expose each response to what You have done.  All Glory is Yours.  And this will be so forever.

These words are Yours.  They come from a servant You have blessed with life.  I testify to man.  But You see the testimony that even Your servant cannot perceive.  Thus all Glory is Yours Forever; and that to the Glory of Your Father who Lives in unapproachable light!  You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God, are worthy of every possible good word.  May all who call on Your Holy Name do so with a trembling soul.  For You are given Immense Beauty from the God of all things.  You are worthy!  And Your worth is stamped with the approval of the Father of Life.  Amen!