Tag Archives: Jesus

National Day of Prayer

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National Day of Prayer

National Day of Prayer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I marvel at Jonah, a very curious prophet of The Living God.  What was his complaint as God sent him to Nineveh?  He knew that God would relent on His proclamation to destroy the city in forty days.  Jonah knew that God would warn them.  He also knew that God would provide them with the insight to repent and turn from the evil they held so dearly.

I recently wrote a short article about the National Day of Prayer.  God had me take it down.  I heard from Him that I did not understand Him in His ways, as I wrote about what destruction is about to fall on this nation.  And I confess that I still don’t completely understand the reason for taking that article down.  Regardless, it is taken down at His command.

In a fashion, I went to Nineveh with that article.  In a fashion, I preached the truth of the coming destruction for all the world’s wicked ways.  But the word of warning will not be heard as it was written.  Does this remove the prospect of destruction?  No.  It removes the urgency of sureness that the article pronounced.

At this point I understand the reason for taking the post down.  The message of destruction is true.  Do not mistake God’s patience and mercy for a licence to continue in wickedness.  But He will wait to see how His people pray.  He will wait to see how the world responds around them.  And He will make a decision regarding America based on what comes to be from His people.

We have tasted the bitterness of a lawless ruler.  We now see clearly what the promise of “hope and change” can bring from a man who does not love the Lord Jesus, thus God the Father.  America is awaking from a deep sleep.  And God will wait to hear what they have to say for themselves and those who surround them with wickedness.

May Your Holy Will be done forever, O’ Father of Jesus.  Your mercy and compassion extend to the ends of the earth, as you look upon a people who do not know their left hand from the right.  As it was for Nineveh, so shall it be for America.  If they listen to You words and repent of their evil ways, You will relent, for a time, the destruction You had set in motion.  We beg Your mercy for the sake of Your Name.  That many wicked will have their eyes open and perceive the end of their wickedness.  By Your Grace.  Amen.

The Living Language of God

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Diagram of basic procedure to determine whethe...

Diagram of basic procedure to determine whether two sounds are allophones (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My God, I thank You.  You have given us words to communicate with our brothers.  And among men we speak and are understood.  But there is a language You have used for eternity.  And it is these words You purpose to teach us to use.  When You speak, You do not use sounds.  You speak in living words.  All Your words are true, thus alive.  And I thank You that this can be understood by a people who are used to only speaking sounds.  These sounds are heard, remembered for a time, then fade away.  But Your words last forever.

There are times, my God, when I think of what You are giving Your servant and marvel.  There are times when this seems but a dream. For we are taught to doubt from the moment we are born.  Yet You continually prove Your love to my soul.  This is true of all who know You.  And we rise in one accord to give You praise for Your loving hand among us.  We say, “There is a faith which becomes a ‘knowing’.  There is a God, invisible to man, who makes Himself known.  He is the Living God.  He speaks to us with Living Words.  And we will believe because You have touched us.  We believe because You have Spoken to us by granting us Life.  Those who went out from among us did not belong to us.  For if they had belonged to us they would have remained.  For to know Your touch and instruction is to gain life itself!  And no living creature desires to die.  Rather we move nearer that we might learn to truly live.”

There are words a man might speak which require no sounds from his lips.  These “words” are deeds of love to one another; a service rendered back to He who gives freely.  They speak louder than a man can scream.  And they last through time eternal.  This is the language of my God.  It is Your purpose to create a people for Yourself who understand these things.  And You willingly teach all who will submit to You about these things.

Holy are Your ways!  Marvelously Holy, pure, powerful, and complete are Your ways!  Glory adorns You forever.  And what astounds me is this:  Though nothing impure will ever enter Your Holy presence, You dress Your servants with Your own Righteous Light.  You have provided a manner, way, power, and path, by which we have hope to enter Your Holy presence.  Your Holy Son is this means.  And it is Your own Hand which has done this.

Praise to the Father through the Son!  For He has created a people for Himself from that which was not, and now is.  Glory is the Father in Heaven!  Eternal Glory!  Great is He who purposed to collect a people for His Son from this “Place of testing”.  Glory, Glory, and Glory to He who IS!  Amen.

By Your Grace.

Starving Orphans

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Blessed Are They Who Hunger And Thirst For Rig...

Blessed Are They Who Hunger And Thirst For Righteousness (Beatitudes #4) (Photo credit: loswl)

There is a place where we were not.  There was a place of eternal peace, unity, and purpose, which thrived heartily under the Most High God.  Then one accused and all that was pure became broken.

Now there is become a place where man is.  And we are created as a garden for the Most High God, from which He comes among us and prepares a meal for His pleasure; a people for Himself.  He sends His servants to cultivate, fertilize, and harvest, at His pleasure and desire.  Miraculous work they perform.  As they cause pleasing plants for their God from a soil what once produced only weeds.  And as they work, God watches intently.  “Will any seek My face?”  Who will turn from the works of their hands and look up?  Who will allow themselves to desire cleanness?  And as they taste the cleaning, who will desire more?

The body is nothing more than a likeness to a shell.  Within the shell is the meat God is intent on harvesting; the will of man is this meat.  And it is this will that God is intent on creating in His likeness.

Man thinks the body is all.  And he praises everything to do with the body.  But such men are blind to God’s ways.  They know nothing of what was.  And they do not consider what they are.  And they miss the mark because they do not consider what He has sworn on oath will come to be.

God’s ways are to be sought after as if a starving man might smell a hot meal in the distant breeze.  His nose is keen to search out what gives him strength.  He takes note of his lack and a deep desire welms up within him to eat what is good.  It is the hungry after God’s ways who receive the good meals.  They thrive where the others do not.  They are well fed and taken care of, as if prized plants in a man’s garden.  They are, by no means weeds.  They are not the second-rate foods which the animals might prefer.  They become the desire of God, even as they are taught to desire Him.

Who, among us, is hungry enough to seek after God’s ways?  Have we tasted a little and pushed the plate away?  Who will surrender all their pride for the sake of God’s desire?  Who will surrender rebellion and discord for the sake of His Holy name?

All good things, within man, come from God.  It is a blessing He bestows upon those who call out to His name with a pure desire to learn from Him.  He is quite able to leave a man blind and worse than an animal.  But He is also quite able and willing that we should eat what is choice from His hand.  A righteous man who turns to pride can be lowered to a fool.  And a fool who turns to God can be raised to a righteous man.

Do not mistake what man holds dear as the end of things.  Only God knows the limits He is willing to cause you to become.  Seek His Holy Face, while it is still called “today”.  For there is a day coming when all that is, according to man, will be utterly destroyed.  And all who have loved this place for the sake of the body will find themselves starved orphans.

To those who surrender to the will of God, are promises untold.  No one has seen or heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.  Learn from Him.  Give up what you perceive is yours.  And take what is His.  “There is a way which seems right for a man.  But the end thereof is death.

There is a place where we “enter in”.  And in that entering we find understanding, holiness, and a willingness to obey the Lord in all His Holy commands.  We learn to speak as if one voice, the message of God to all men.  Those who refuse His call remain in a deep and utter darkness; without understanding, holiness, and the willingness to obey the Lord in all His Holy commands.  They will not enter His peace.  They will be utterly destroyed, as a man might plow under the weeds in his garden.  God has every right to do with his garden as He sees fit.

Join with Him to restore what was once His.  Speak and act as those who will inherit what is good.  For the inheriting begins now, and will become fulfilled at His appearing.  Do not listen to those who leave this inheriting for a time when heaven is reached.  They are speaking foolishness.  God has not promised fulfillment to those who do nothing.  He has made this promise to those who will render their hands to His will NOW.  It is eternally established: He who does what is right is righteous.  And he who is righteous is born of God.  Why would you listen to a man who tells you otherwise?  Only God is Righteous.  And those who take from His table to eat become righteous.  All others are starving orphans by their own choice.  And so they will remain forever.

I have heard many complain that God is unfair.  They say that it is not acceptable that God should condemn all who will not bow their knee to Jesus, God’s Son.  In this they judge the judge, while they sit in the seat of the condemned.  They are foolish men who praise the body and hate the Lord of all creation and heaven.  They will receive the rightful due in the proper time.  And to you who know better, having read and believed, what will become of you for having turned your back?  You did not enter in.  And, even now, you accuse the Lord of lies and injustice.  Folly is yours, for you now hold it tightly in your weak and decaying hand.  But the Lord’s hand is full of eternity, life, justice, righteousness, peace, and Holiness.  He will never fail, as you accuse Him now.

Reach deep and consider what I have said.  Who are we to judge the Gardner?  We are but food for His table.  We are but grapes which will be crushed for the juice within.  But you judge the Lord as if the body were the end of things.  Such behavior will speed these men to absolute destruction.

So be it for all who hate the Lord and refuse to be taught and changed.  Hatred belongs to all who hate God’s ways.  It is all they own now and all they will own for eternity.  They will hate the Lord then just as they hate Him now.  How can they be acceptable?  What will become of those who are enemies of the Most High God?  This is the judgment that has already been rendered from the Throne of the pure judge of all.  We stand condemned before we rise up to accuse.  What utter folly.  What a complete void of understanding and wisdom.  What they now think is overly harsh will become the judgment against them.

Follow Up to Article on Isolation and Greed

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First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pi...

First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pitsak, a Medieval Armenian scribe and miniaturist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Behold! A rather lengthy preface:

I wrote an article about isolation and greed.  And I am sure it is of value.  But I had added what follows.  The Lord showed me that what you are about to read should not accompany that article about desire.  This addition is harsh.  I will warn you of that.  Being a man, however, I feel it necessary to post this.  There is jail for criminals.  And the court system necessary to put them there is not kind and cuddly.  In this same fashion I present this for those who would ridicule the message about greed and desire.  I am obviously compelled to agree with the Lord in His wisdom.  It is His perfect right to divide what belongs among men from what is God’s.  Men are allowed to have words among themselves about what is right.

I say what follows as a man who will stand judgment just like the rest of you.  It is meant to shock. It is meant as an alarm to a heavy sleeper.  It is loud and does not pull any punches in the war against foolishness.  It is a very concentrated warning to the proud.  In my mind (perhaps the only valid place for such a message) it mirrors the messages which brought America to its knees in the early part of last century.  Truth is often so very unwelcome among us.  And this rings more true among the proud.

This message is not the kind, loving, and cuddly message that a father might give his dear child.  It is more like that message a judge might give just before rendering the sentence to a criminal.  I am not any man’s judge.  But I do feel compelled to offer this helpful tool in the rehabilitation of those who think they are beyond the Gospel’s reach.  That is to say, those who think they are better than everyone else and who do not need to learn about the restraint of greed or desire.

I suppose the Lord decided to leave this message apart from the other because such foolish men would not likely read it anyway.  And there is no need to shrink the heart’s faith of those who are striving to obey the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  On that note, it is likely a waste of time to post this.  But I feel the urge to scratch an itch.  Maybe that’s all this is.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the real ending to the post about greed:

Now, I know, there are some seriously hard-nosed people who will laugh at this message.  They will mock its author because they will say, “He just gives up because he can’t compete in the real world.”  Do you who laugh really think there is no message for you in this?  Do you think words can’t be produced and strung together so as to penetrate your hardened heart?  Do you think I had finished the message without considering what applies to you?  Prepare yourself and I will have a word presented for your sake:

Look at you.  Take a good look at who you really are.  You are like a driver on the interstate who wants to be first.  Look at how utterly foolish that concept is.  Were you the first one to ever drive on the finished road?  And you want to be first at what?  The construction crews even beat you to your perceived proper place in society.   You destroy the desires of others because you consider yourself to be more important.  You foolish man or woman!  You live in a world, which you call the “real world”, as one who travels where millions have gone before you, all the while thinking you are the only one who has ever gone this way.  Look at how foolish and wickedly stupid that idea is.  Yet you mock me because I say that being first is an utterly worthless and destructive endeavor, it is less than nothing.  Look at yourself for a change.  It will be like a fire if you have the guts to do it.  That fire already consumes you and you do not notice.  You rot like a dead pig in the hot sun.  And you can’t smell the stench of your ways.  Yet you mock what is true.

I am harsh with you because, if you inhabit that mocking attitude, you deserve harsh treatment.  The “REAL WORLD” is in eternity.  And eternity is now, as it has already been established in this message.  Yet you mock.  If stupid needs to be defined, I just did.  I would wager such people think that God will gladly receive them because they were strong enough to endure anything that stood against their desire.  Foolishness!  You endure against the Holy God of all eternity for the sake of your sinful and selfish desires!  And, rest assured, He will call you to account for that attitude and those actions.

You are the ones who wake in the morning, carry out your day, and plot on your bed, so that you will be “first” in your “real world”.  You consider anyone who defies your stupidity as a fool.  All the more then, you add to your self-made plight.  Selfishness is pure vanity.  Vanity is less than nothing; it is destructive, completely worthless; a drought of value.  It is worthless dribble from the slobbering mouth of a man who cannot tell the truth from a lie.  Harshness is what you deal to yourself.  I am only like a bird in a tree, chirping, singing what is true regardless the perception of the receiver.  You do not hear truth because your ears are filled with the song of “ME”.  And you chide this man for telling you the truth!  So be it.  Either listen to what has been spoken or continue in your way.  What is that to me?  It will be something to you.

What is spoken in the message about greed stands firm.  All your railing will not change one iota of truth.  I have some serious advice for you.  Perhaps I should say God has a message of advice for you.  Shut your slobbering mouth for a while.  Straighten your lips from a smile to a look of serious consideration.  Allow your ears to stop the song of “Me”.  Look around you and consider that you were born when you were.  You were never first!  And you will never be the last!  Nothing is available to you in which you can claim any ownership of “first”.  You will be lumped together with all humanity when God judges us.  And you will stand in that crowd of billions all alone, waiting your turn to give account of yourself.  Even in that place you will not be first.  All your strivings will amount to horror as you realize what you have done with the life God gave you, and now demands an accounting of.  And you laugh at me?

Do you still laugh?  Then have your fill.  Laugh and mock at these things.  Laugh till you vomit.  Enjoy yourself with the trash you hold so dear.  Again, what is that to me?  You have been warned (If, indeed, you had just enough unselfishness to read to this point).

The Way

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Iceland - The End.

Iceland - The End. (Photo credit: alicethewhale)

I perceive a powerful meaning today.  I see that “The Way” of Christ Jesus among men is impossible to walk by the will of man alone.  For my brothers and sisters this is understood.  But for those who do not know these things I relay this truth.

For a man to be consumed with purity before the Most High God, and to love his fellow man willingly and quickly, without reservation, is far too much to ask.  On the one hand, a man will become consumed with self as he strives with all his might to obey what is pure and true.  On the same hand, he will be asked to render complete forgiveness to others and that without judging; a sacrifice of self for the sake of others.  What an odd and perplexing difficulty.  Only the “God man” can accomplish this (that man who has surrendered to the will of God and has accepted God’s “terms of peace”).  Only those who have received power from God can make this happen.  A simply religious man will not gain “The Way”.  The Spirit alone gives the strength, wisdom, understanding, and forgiveness from Christ, to accomplish “The Way”.

The world is quite keen to point out these things to Christians.  “You judge me”, they will say to us.  And they count it unfair, even illegal for us to do so.  By this accusation they prove that they know they are condemned.  But they do not understand the difficulty presented to God’s people.  They only respond by virtue of the knife which is thrust through their soul by remarks made against wickedness.

Now I am not advocating that “The Way” is too hard.  Though no man can walk this way by his own power, God has granted the understanding and means to accomplish this.  The primary accusation against God was that He asked too much of His creation.  I am convinced that the primary accusation is the very reason for the entire universe, up to , and including, the death of His Holy Son on a Cross.  And we should never join in that bitter song of accusation against our God.  Instead, we testify that it is entirely possible to walk according to the law of God.  And this appears within us because He has made it possible by the Holy Spirit He has freely given us.

I am pointing this out for the sake of my weaker brothers and sisters.  This article admits that “The Way” is difficult to attain and remain.  This is a testimony from man’s perspective.  It is not God’s perspective.  His expectations upon us are quite clear.  “Attain release from sin by My Son’s sacrifice.  And hold no ill will against those who hate My ways and you”, God could be said to say.

There is a truce to strike between God and man, terms of peace to comprehend.  There is a building to build which cannot be built by our own will.  And anyone who sets out to accuse “The Way” of being too difficult remains in a blind state.  They remain in the state of utter destruction.  It is given to those who have struck a truce between themselves and The Holy God, through Jesus, to live their lives in a manner pleasing to Him.  Those who do not receive the terms of peace remain in death.

You who accuse us of unfairness and illegal activity know nothing of “The Way”.  You simply fend us off from your selfishness by making accusations unfounded.  And your way is not hidden from the Wisdom of God within us.  Instead of accusing you should accept the terms of peace the Most High God has prepared for all men.  Then you would be able to prove what is true.   And you would no longer be at odds against the Lord of Life, or His people.  If you hold us against the Holy Law of God and find fault in us, what will be said of you?  In this you judge us, even while you accuse us of judging you.  God has plainly said that when we judge our brothers we are judging The God who made them.   You walk your way according to your own desire, accusing, finding fault, and carrying on as if there was no judgment.  Surely you will be proclaimed as an accuser.  What, then, will be your plight?  Join us and live.  Come to see the perplexing difficulty, which is “The Way”, for yourself.  Taste and know that the Lord is good.

28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t sit down first and compute the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish the tower, all who see it will begin to make fun of him. 30 They will say, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’ 31 Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down first and determine whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot succeed, he will send a representative while the other is still a long way off and ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way therefore not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his own possessions.”  (Luke 14)

Giving Due Where Due is Due

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Perception

Perception (Photo credit: Genna G)

I have often had rather harsh words with atheists.  But I will admit something crucial.  Those who are active atheists are not stupid people.  And though they stand in their life as enemies of the Cross of Christ, they are not my personal enemy.  That is to say, if I met them on the street and we had the kinds of discussions we have here, I can assure you there would be absolutely no physical signs of hatred.  We are enemies of concept, at the least, and of pride, to say the most.

I write this because I know that these men consider what presents itself to their senses.  And they are just as adept at perception of possible lies as I am in the Lord.  The only difference, as the chasm it is, is that they rely on what is seen alone while Christians are able to rely on both the perceived and the invisible.

These men (ok….. and women) are not stupid.  And once they have perceived something worth looking into they will pounce on it like a hungry tiger.  The same vigor they use to fight for the sake of what is perceived is the same strength they will use once they taste a possible truth in the message of Christianity.  And if one of them comes to know the Lord, watch out!  All heaven on earth is about to break loose.