The Reason for Faith’s Necessity


2 questions:
_____________

1. Why do we need faith?

2. What does the voice of God sound like?

Beginning with the second question:
The voice of God is life.  When the Israelites were released from bondage in Egypt, God displayed his voice in a thunderous noise from the mountain.  But this was for the sake of the people, that they may worship Him and obey.  As he spoke with Moses, however,  he used no such voice.  Rather, God treated Moses as a friend.  (What does that say about those to whom he spoke as a thunderous noise?)

The voice of God requires faith to hear.  God is thoroughly life.  Everything he is, everything he says, everything he does, is life.  Ask yourself then what does life say, what does life sound like, what does life look like, what does life feel like?  Look carefully at the situations and things that come to you. 

Please don’t consider that God is like a man.  The life I am speaking of is Purity, Holiness, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, and in the end Grace to us through sustaining toward the same things.

He would prefer that we gain his wisdom to perceive with our eyes and ears, mind, heart and strength.  Isn’t this why the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength and with all your soul?  Then you will begin to hear his voice.  How do I know this?

Romans 1:20 tells us how we know this.  “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

(And we have the testimony of those who do hear his voice through faith.  The one who writes this testifies.  And some who read this testify.  The voice of God, one may say, also comes from those who know him.  Perhaps better said, those God knows in Jesus His Holy and Righteous Son.  The people would find advantedge listening to the words of such people, instead of pre-judging them as worthless.)

He speaks to us from what we can say “IS”.  Because life “IS”. 

And we must inject another slice of information here.  God does not demand too much, for he gives us everything we need to accomplish his Holy will in our lives.  To say he does not, is to join with satan in the primary accusation that has caused creation of this place of testing in the first place.  We find the second slice of information in the following scripture.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1)

Rejecting this promise is a sincerely precarious place to choose to live!  For if we do not receive his wisdom, that God is so willing to give freely, we will surely lack precious gifts. (Even, perhaps, finding death in the end.  For not a single one of those who of those who heard the Thunders from the mountain receive the promise of God.)

Having read this, it is now your responsibility to act.  Though having said that, (it sounds like a threat) the Wonders that God is willing to give to any man is far worth the struggle to suppress our rebelion (That which is crouching at our very door, desiring to have us. But we must master it. [Taken from Genesis 4:7])

Think about this deeply:  we need faith because it will never cease to be necessary.

Go and see if what I have said is true.

P. S.  The voice of God is called Jesus.  Think about that for the rest of your life.

Will the Godly Stand Up?


A little boy was murdered by his mother.  She beat him  for hours until he died.

And so the talk around the coffee table will begin.  I’m going to put my 2 cents here.
…………………………

Many will say I have my head in the wrong place.  Many will say I have my mind is in a useless place among Man.  “So Heavenly minded that he is no earthly good”.

Define the word GOOD.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153436229222751&id=38342932750

_____________________
Remember these two indelible items:

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Response to tragedy:

Does the ground care that it soaks up the blood of so many?  Do the walls and rocks care that they witness such great violence?  When the deed is done, silence rules as king.  What is left to do?

Mop up the blood.
Incarcerate the perpetrator.
Sentence from Justice. 

What sentence of Man can mop up the regret of a life lived in violence?  What punitive action drives away the sorrow of having been an animal?  We throw them in jail.  We offer some meager counseling.  But nothing cleans the heart.

If they are released, have we done them any favors?  If they are put to death for their crimes, have we release them from guilt?

God Alone can clean the conscience.  I stand as one to testify that this is so.  Yes we live as prisoners because of the things we have done.  And isn’t Justice required for every man’s life?  (“As you sow, so shall you reap.”)  But the freedom to love comes from a Love that gives freedom.

Whoever has been forgiven much, loves much.  “But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”  

I’m not asking us to disband prisons.  I’m asking us to have mercy.  If you can’t hug the murders, the least you can do is appeal to the One who can.  What kind of people do we say we are? 

Is this too hard for us?  Of course it is!  But it is a simple matter for the Christ we say lives in us.

A question for us all:  who stands to gain more, the violent ones or the righteous?

Let us make proper assessments.  But let us be restrained from taking God’s rightful place of judgement.  “Do” the Gospel.

(Is the Gospel of Christ only reserved for those who do what is good?)

THINK ETERNITY

Home?


The Lord, The Sovereign Lord, the Source of life, ever-present Righteousness, Glorious mercy and justice.  He has all things, doesn’t he?  He lacks nothing, how true.  That’s what Sovereign means.

But let me speak to the rich man.  Let me speak to the perverted drunk.  Let me speak to the beautiful woman.  Let me speak to the greasy whore.  Let me speak to all those who have a place among Man, whether glorified or horrified; those with clean hands and those whose hands are covered with blood.

God has all things for he is all things.  Yet what he does not have, he has poured out his life to gain.  He does not have your love.  He does not take first place in all your days, though he is first in all eternity.  All creation honors His Holy Name, except here.  His name is Jesus the Christ, look into it.

“You ask too much of us!  You sit in your religious Chapel, carved of pure Ivory, and judge us.  You have forgotten the demands of life that are far more then we can bear.  We cannot put God first we must defend our home!”

Your home?  Your home is a soleless pair of old shoes.  Your home is a worn-out pair of jeans filled with holes, and leaving your buttocks bare.  Your home is an umbrella missing it’s purposed fabric.  Your home is a cave filled with Wolverines and poisonous snakes.   The floor of your home cannot be cleaned!   Why can’t you smell the stench of your household enemy’s feces, which lay in the crags you can’t reach?  Precious place, isn’t it, this place you call your home.  The place where you fear even in what you call solace.  You light a lamp, but still darkness pervades.

8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6)

He is your potential friend.  He is your potential Guardian.  Already he provides what you call your home. 

Who causes the lava to harden?  Who plants the seed of a tree in its craggy niches?  Who brings the beautiful erosion to cause a paradise?  Who gave you this place?  Who dressed you with skin?  Yet you would fear and keep him far from you?

Trust him and do the things that belong to him.  Then you will have a home that is not filled with stench and death.  Your home provides you no pact with death.

Why the Wrath, Here?


I sat with the Holy One, reflecting on the nature of things in this world.  I saw that His Holy Wisdom has been loosed in this Place of Testing; a Great display of His Majesty to sustain life, even among a people who detest His Holy Right to Rule.  Then I settled on a question.  “If the destruction of the wicked will surely come to pass, why bring the volume of the seven seals among Man?”

I did not mean to judge His Holy Wisdom to seal the end of this Place of Testing with violence.  I simply did not understand the necessity to bring the plagues upon humanity, since the destruction of rebellion will surely come to pass.

I asked this question.  He told me to go and write, as is the custom of revelation between He and I.  He spoke to Moses face to face.  He speaks to many in dreams.  He has spoken to me in the means of writing.

Let understanding come as it will.  The following is His answer.

They will receive (even in their place of flesh; even in this “place of testing”), the due penalty for their willful ignorance.  The punishment of wickedness will certainly begin while the consummation of the war against evil rolls toward finality.

It is not the state of man to endure this war.  It is not Man for whom this war has been engaged.  But it is the state of those who side with the unholy one to endure the same “ripping away of willful disobedience”.  Those who desire to side with evil will certainly endure that taste of coming and sure destruction.  All that belongs to the hands of the accuser will suffer loss, even while those hands are busily destroying.  Man is caught in the war between God and the accuser, whether he desires to be involved or not.

It is Man who is become the display of contention.  It is Man who is either saved for the Glory of Christ, or it is Man who is delivered to humiliation for the sake of he who is humiliated for his accusation against the Holy One Forever.

________________________________

Who can understand the Holy Wisdom of the Most High God?  What man can speak of the beauty that belongs to He who Lives Forever?  As we endure in His Marvelous Mercy, so the wicked will surely endure in His Marvelous, Righteous, Just, and Eternally Powerful Wrath.  May the will of the Living God be done forever, and that in His Holy and Righteous Living Son, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

The Cost


Toledo Municipal Court Judge C. Allen McConnell issued a statement Wednesday on his refusal to perform marry a same-sex couple earlier this week.
McConnel says he declined to perform the marriage based on his “personal and christian beliefs.”

Christians have rights too.  Isn’t it curious how it always ends up costing the Christian everything, while the world gets just what they want.

No matter.  We have every confidence that God will reward accordingly.  In the meantime, I’m proud of my brother.

Finally, I Speak of Divorce


Often at the completion of some writing, I have thought to myself, “This one is the best”.  But I have added these beginning words after I have written all that follows. 

This writing may not be the best for all men, but it is the most sincere gathering of words I have ever gathered together in one place.  With the greatest sincerity that any man can write, I have written.
_________________

All the evil and boastful words I hear others speak in regard to their ex husband or ex wife.  You will not find those here!  Instead I will expose self-loathing. 

“Here I will expose,

For all the world to see,

The end result

Of our stupidity.”

What follows is the picture of a Christian who knows he has done wrong, and knows he has no means to make it right.  This is not the picture of hatred that I hear so many paint; of a righteous choice to inflict pain, or gain release, called “divorce”.

This is my testimony of joining with the mindset of God.  I testify that now I agree with him in all his Holy judgments concerning divorce.  For he spoke his final word in regard to this murderous actions of men, “I hate divorce”.  Now I testify, I know why.

My sins are paid for by the inexpressible strength of my Lord Jesus.  And for that, there is peace within me.  Then what are these tears this morning?

They are tears for the sake of others.  They are not tears for the sake of the lost.  They are not tears for the sake of what men do to one another.  They are tears of realization for what I have done to so many.

As the dawn breaks and the Sun comes up, old age has slipped upon me.  The righteous man smiles with his family all about him.  But my family is called regret.

I will lay in my bed and die, perhaps with the company of one or two.  But I am given to take note of one who will die without her husband.  The joy of marriage ripped from her by the selfish sins of this man.

The tender hands of care will be absent, at the excruciating moment of her completion.  The sight rips my heart in two! 

Still I urge this enemy of mine, come and shove the dagger deep.  Let the remembrance of my sins penetrate to the very marrow of my bones!  Let my selfish heart, that was once like granite, feel the pain of my senseless stupid choices.

When my heart was cold and dead I did as I pleased.  But now I have sobriety of soul, and a heart of flesh.  With this, awareness dawns like the blazing heat of a Summer Sun on a man who has not slept well.  In a vast arid desert, he wakes alone!  And but for my Holy Lord of compassion, I could not bear this eternal pain.

I write this as a testimony.  For one, that understanding has come, and with it inexpressible surprise of horror, sadness, and pain.  And another, that those who live their lives with selfish abandon, can expect a visitation from regret; that relentless monster of remembrance.

I testify that divorce is a hideous and unholy choice.  It is Murder of the vilest kind!  While it may have appeared palatable at the time, the time will come when bitterness will cleave your tongue to the roof of your mouth.  You will despise yourself like you have never despised a man before.

Expectations of joy were dashed to pieces.  Hopes and dreams of childhood find no place of welcome.  Shame and despair will take their place.  And without the mercy of God, hopelessness will be the banner of all your future days.

Does this sound like the foolish and simplistic picture the world paints of divorce?  Does this have any resemblance to the hope of satisfaction that the court of Man does promise? 

This is not an exposé of some macabre selfish ambition; that I will display my horror as if for the sake of entertainment.  No, this is to show the end of what God plainly says he abhors.

It is an apology with tears and sincerity.  It is an expression of the hope that is in Christ, even for a man such as I!  But it is a sincere warning for those who think divorce is some pleasant place to live.  The fruit at first is sweet, but it is poison indelible for your soul.

To the sweet mother of my children, who did no wrong, I am deeply sorry.  I wrote this here so that I would not dig up old pain by bringing this to your door. 

Let this be a place where a gift is given.  Let some poor wayward soul come and understand what I have written.  Let his selfish longing for divorce be stymied by this confession of pain.  Then the turmoil and trouble, between her and I, has found some fruit of hope.  As if a man stands and warns the travelers, “A lion waits at the edge of the woods ahead”.  Indeed, let someone take heed lest his children live as orphans and his wife shed tears that did not need to fall.

Amen, amen, amen!

By His Grace