Tag Archives: joy

Perfecting Afflictions

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Ramah: In Biblical, the meaning of the name Ramah is: Elevated, sublime.  People with this name have a deep inner desire for love and companionship, and want to work with others to achieve peace and harmony.  (It is not a name given by the mouth of man, so much as it is a name given by the horrors of this place.)

For such people to witness the tragedies that come from sin, it is too much.  And if the horrors associated with sin come home in a personal manner, destruction has a whole new body.

This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”  (Jeremiah 31: 15)

Take away the best of hope from Man, and you will see deep and irreparable mourning.  This is the kind of sorrow that is born in the crucible of war.  But don’t we also find it in our streets?  Isn’t it also in our homes? 

Such sorrow does not choose between male or female.  Money or social position is no barrier for this kind of destruction.  And those who taste this are never the same again.

But this does not mean they cannot have hope.  God is able to open our eyes to a hope that is stronger than death; that death which is the end of Man’s greatest possible desires.

Even while we mourn the loss of what could have been, we rejoice inwardly at his Holy promise.  He has written perfectly in His Holy Blood.  “I stand ready and willing to give you eternal life.  I will wipe away all your tears and sorrow.  I will give you a joy in your heart that cannot be crushed.  And never again will you be disturbed in your place of holy peace and joy.”

Such is the power of the Living God’s promise.  Such is the strength of Righteous Mercy.  Even those souls, blackened with sorrow, can be filled with joy.  They can become useful to Life in this place of death.

I testify that this is true.  For I am one of those who has had exceedingly great loss yet has become useful to the Living God’s Great Mercy.

Take heart and understand.  Seek the face of the One who has tasted even the grave for your sake.  All his servants are broken and shattered in this place of “Perfecting Afflictions”.  Where sin was born to take away, Life has come to restore.

Amen.

Escape, Because You Can

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The title of this post was on a billboard for a casino.  We all know what they meant.

But in the blink of an eye, I think we can all see how that applies to the judgment of God.

No one needs to stand in the great assembly of sinners that will be cast away from His presence.  Every single man and woman can enter into the joy of Christ for eternity.  How?

Humble yourself in prayer and ask God to show you.  Read the Bible with an earnest desire to learn.  Strive to do what it says.  And continue to return to earnest prayer, that God may show you what to do.

No one needs to be cast away from God’s presence. 

Positive Thinking

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I just read that stuff about Olsteen.  I don’t follow the news anymore,  so I didn’t even know there was a problem.

In a way he’s right.  But only in a small way.  A very very small way.

Our Lord didn’t say, “Come be happy”.  He said “Come and suffer and die with me”.  And he made that point lot more often than he talked about happiness.

When he met with his disciples again, he didn’t chide them for their grief.  Before he was crucified, he warned his disciples that they would have grief.  But he assured them it would turn to joy.  He urged them to have faith. 

Remember how he told them the horrible things they would endure for his namesake.  Does that sound like today’s teaching about joyous positive thinking?

Olsteen, you forgot about the brotherhood of suffering for the name of your Lord. 

Hoorah for the broken hearts!   Shame for the hearts who binge themselves on joy. 

Integrity of faith is tested in the crucible of suffering.  How some people miss that is beyond my understanding. 

Research the English saying, “Stiff upper lip”.  You’ll find it reflects an honor even a godless man can respect.  How much more the servants of Christ?

Rule of thumb:
If a Christian teaching gathers a vast multitude of followers, be suspicious.

It Can’t Be, But it is.

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I am remembering.

How blessed I am.

For consciousness no sooner returns to my sleeping mind, and the things of my God come flooding in.

I am remembering who I was.

What an unspeakable blight to heaven and earth, was I.

For in those days,

No sooner would consciousness come to my sleeping mind and everything I could do came flooding in.

No thought of God.

No thought of righteousness.

No thought of restraint,

Except for apprehension by the laws of society.

I am considering.

There is a place where creatures are not blind.

There is a place where there is no break of sanity.

It is not a place of “was”.

It is not a place of “will be”.

It is a place of “is”.

Here, righteousness floats about like Cottonwood seeds on the breeze.

Here, righteousness is like the irritating mosquito.

Here righteousness is, “I will get to it when I feel like it”.

But in the place of “is”, sin and blindness are like those things.

So I wake to eyes in my soul that see.

Among the people of abject blindness, this one can see.

I am remembering.

What mercy is the Living God, that a man such as I should know these things like this?

I am remembering.

What potential lay in the blind souls of every man on this planet?

And now I remember my pleasurable duty;

Speak release to the captives.

With the cunning of a predator,

With the gentleness of a good mother to a newborn.

With every skill of captivity man has invented.

Yet with every possible release the living God offers.

I wake to holy sanity.

This cannot be!

But it is!

The glory is not mine.

I am no inventor of righteousness, skill, hope, regeneration, or release.

I do not have it in my hand to do any of those things.

What is in my hand is only to point:

There is God.

Here is God.

All around inclusive and exclusive, there is God.

Nothing is hidden from his sight, as it is in the eyes of dead souls.

He is perfectly dependable,  full of righteousness, peace, mercy, justice, grace, patience, life and hope.

Show me the place here that even is a shadow of a likeness to those things.

That I should know these things!

It can’t be, but it is!

Turn or False

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True humility is not a brand of servitude.  It is a joyful and willing acceptance of one’s place in life, according to ALL that is true. 

Pride is the exact opposite.  Pride thinks it is humble.  But such false humility only weighs itself against a certain compartment of life.  Pride refuses to take into consideration the fullness of what is offered.

Humility receives all and is glad.  Pride rejects all, and sadly keeps what it thinks is his.

But let’s not be mistaken here,  pride seamlessly believes it is humble.  Therefore it is fully incapable of understanding true humility.  It is fully incapable of receiving anything.  Pride will gladly die, in abject poverty of truth.

By His Grace

No “Crap” Can Help!

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Yes, I’ve decided to use the word.

With all the “Crap” that man imagines, to heal and to make life valuable, Christ Jesus is the answer.

I testify with all the strength of the Living God, Jesus’ strength is endless.  There is ZERO shame in me for saying so.  Is there too much shame in you to believe it?

You have faith to go to the doctor.  You have faith to believe in the pills he gives you.  You have faith to lie on a table and let him cut you to pieces.  Do you have the faith to believe that simple message I just wrote?

You will consider your life every moment of the day.  You will look at all your problems and all your troubles.  By some fairy tale hope, you think that man can heal you.  But I am telling you an absolute truth; Christ can heal you from the inside out.

He may not heal your ailments.  He may not take away all your troubles.  But he will teach you how to have joy in the midst of them.  He will take your tiny belief and make it an absolute fact.  You will come to believe that you will never die again.  You will come to believe that you are loved by the very one who can never lie.

He will teach you how to use all your difficulties for his Great and Magnificent Glory.  He will show you how to perceive this world from his point of view; love for His Heavenly Father, was the strength that allowed him to endure the cross for your sake.  He will teach you how to have that same strength.  He will show you how to love him.

Believe and pray.  Read his Holy story in the Bible.  Commit to Christ and He will commit to you.  That is the only release that is offered to mankind.  Who will take it and live life to the fullest?

By His Grace