Please, Mister Preacher


pulpitPlease, Mister Preacher, don’t preach from your own heart.  When you stand in the pulpit tomorrow, preach from the Heart of God.

What Man thinks is useless opinion.  Let us hear from the Mouth of God’s Holy Son.

Please, Mister Preacher, spend time in prayer.  Please don’t strive to remember what you were taught about the structure of a sermon.  Throw away all that tripe.

Come to us, as if you are transported by the very hair of your head.  Let God bring you among us with Glorious Power.

Please, Mister Preacher, please bring us to God.

It Shouldn’t Be that Hard


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.

Evidence of “The Faith”.


A pear tree bears pears.
A worm is readily identified.
The work of a wicked man
Is evident in the form of destruction,
Regardless the name he may give his work.

God is life.
There are many who “claim”,
They have God’s blessings;
They will be readily identified by the fruit they bear.

Any man may make any claim he chooses.
And let us not discount
The necessity of the plant to grow;
From seedling to harvest
Wisdom is known by its children.

BUT

God’s Holy Son gives what
Belongs to His Holy Father;
The living wisdom of the
Living God for the purpose of Holy Living Life;
The forgiveness of sins,
And the emergence of an eternal being.
The one who truly belongs to Jesus
Will bear the things that belong to His Holy Father.

Death is readily identified.
The life God gives is void of death by its intent.
If there is violence to be evident,
Let it be apparent by the subjection wickedness;
First within the man himself,
Then in his blossoms
Which give birth to true life.

Lies fill the Earth.
Life fills Heaven Eternal.
Every tree will be known 
By the fruit it bears.
Man may hide from Man,
God divides Life from Death.

By His Grace

Thankful Children


10,000,000 people are told the Gospel, only a thousand believe and receive eternal life.  Perhaps thousands more understood it.  But only a handful have believed with all their heart.

The message of God goes out freely and like a flood.  Many souls are washed by the message, but so few love their new cleanliness.  In the Gospel we read that there were ten who were cleansed of leprosy.  But only one returned to give thanks.

It is so simple a child can do it, and frankly folks, that’s exactly what it takes.  The mind of an adult only wants more; he has been spoiled by pride and greed.  But the heart of a child is elated at the smallest token of love.

Let me ask the Christians, “Where is the proof of your thanks?”  I am not insinuating that you are thankless.  I’m simply asking where the proof of your thankfulness lays.

Perception, that’s what it is.  That’s what steals the bold testimony of Christians to the world.  “God promises me eternal life, but if I tell this to others they will hate me.”   Is the promise of God so ineffective?  Is the promise of eternal life really such a trivial matter?

With all the strength my mind can muster, I cannot understand why Christians are ashamed to share the Gospel.  I surmise that the answer must be found in the perception of God’s promise.  “Thank you Lord for giving me eternal life.  Please excuse me now while I go join the world in its celebration of futility.”

I sat here this morning for nearly an hour, frustrated that I could not reach more people with the message of God.  That’s all that consumes me!  It’s no pat on my back, the blessing of God is that great!

And I am only speaking of the reality of eternal life.  I have not yet begun to speak of the beautiful things he has rescued me from.  And I’ve made no mention at all so far, about the billions who never heard the testimony from a Christian.

Nine of the lepers simply disappeared into society.  But one came back with a full expression of shameless thankfulness.  Did the nine ever speak again of their former shame, and how God had released them?  Who knows, there is no written record of their testimony.  But I think the story might have ended differently, if all ten had returned with shameless thanks.

But of the one who returned, we can surmise, he could not shut his mouth.  Where is the Christian who cannot conceal the Gospel of Christ?  Where is the one who is not ashamed of the love that God has given him?  It’s easy enough to find 10000 who have decided to keep it to themselves.  All the while, the world spirals out of control.

By His Grace

Construct of World Change


The world will use the Gospel of Christ as a rule of righteousness and social change.  The people of the Lord Jesus know better.

God does not save his people to be instruments of world change.  God saves his people that they may become instruments of Heaven.  The changes that are made, because of the Christian’s presence in this world, are simply a byproduct.  As we are transformed to serve the Living God in Christ, our thoughts, words, and actions necessarily influence those around us.

If you want to be a change agent in the world, for the sake of the world, then obey the constructs the world has already established.  If you want to be an ambassador of Christ to the world, you need to submit your life completely to him.

There is a distinct difference.  The world cannot see it.  But God’s people know it, very clearly.

By His Grace

Peace?


Let it be known, especially to my own flesh, I don’t want peace.  Everyone is speaking “Peace, Peace”!  Haven’t I learned, yes I have, that where the people gather to celebrate, an abhorrent sound of unholy desire is heard.

I want war.  I want to be embroiled in the war against wickedness within me.  I want to bring the smell of battle to every person I meet.  I want to enter the Holy War which stood active and vibrant when the Holy Son of God walked among us.

I don’t want to forget the demons that plague this unholy world’s unholy people.  I don’t want to turn my eyes from the tragedy of neglect, brought on by a useless people.  I don’t want to miss a whisper of hatred the world seethes toward the Living God’s Holy Son.

Let all this propel me into the place He desires.  Let the Holy Wisdom of God set me ablaze with understanding, according to His Holy Will and purpose.  Let the hatred of this place besiege me.  Let this excellence in desire cover me; let it not be a momentary lapse, as if a restraint.  But let me fall into the slice between heaven and earth that is called “ascending”.

I DON’T WANT PEACE!  I WANT GLORY FOR THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!