Tag Archives: knowledge

Cut to the Chase

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When you go to church on Sunday morning, will you be prepared?  Or will you go with only a partial clue as to why you’re there?

Wishing is useless.  But I wish that in my forties I had known what I know now.  I had all the right knowledge.  I said all the right things.  And everybody thought I really understood.

So no one took me aside, that they might mentor me.  No one challenged my life.  No one asked me to prove the things I was saying.  So I fell flat on my face and squandered a beautiful gift from God.

I will not blame anyone.  They couldn’t possibly have known how shallow my faith really was.  And frankly, out of the hundreds of people I knew, only two had the things I have now.

When you go to church on Sunday, will you be prepared?  Will you go there to worship the Most High God with everything you have?  Or will you worship him with everything he is willing to give?

There is a statement I wish someone had said to me.  “When you worship the Lord, try to percieve the first worship session in heaven.  Then worship the Lord as if you were not here.”

We are so caught up in the things of this world.  We are so caught up in the things called “Church”.  Mistakenly, we think that if we have banded together with men in the name of Jesus, we have fulfilled a proper worship of the Most High God.

There is so much more I could say about this.  But I’ll bet you have many things to say in regard to this also.  And I have learned that it is so much better when we understand these things personally. 

But I will give this a shove in the proper direction.  What we are looking for is the full power of God in a Christian.  Not just the proper words, knowledge, or timely arrival in the proper place

It might be good to ask someone you can trust, to sit you down and grill you about Christianity.  Submit to all their questioning.  Let them either prove what you really have, or show you plainly what you lack.

It doesn’t matter to me how you respond to these things.  Who am I to order anyone around.  But what you stand to lose is a pittance.  There is no profit at all in being incomplete.  What you stand to gain is immeasurable.  What fully profitable things might be accomplished if you fully belong to God?

You could be like me, and wait until you’re 60 to get a partial clue.  Assuming God will be merciful and let you live that long.  Or you could just cut to the chase today.  What could you be in Christ if you gave everything you had to find out?

I thought it might be good to add the following.  Instead of looking for only one man to grill you about your Christian life, perhaps you want to look for a team of three. 

And who knows, in the process of questioning the three may be grilling themselves.  Certainly a profitable circumstance for all.

Humility is the target.  Profitability to Jesus is the cash flow.

By His Grace

Spiritual Gifting

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This morning I took a “spiritual gifts” test.  It’s been some decades since I took such a test.  I don’t know what I found out the last time I took one.

I wasn’t too surprised to see the outcome.  Here’s the page for the test I took:  http://www.spiritualgiftstest.com/test/adult

I’m going to display the results here so that those who read the things I write might better understand the intent and gifts God has seen fit to place within me.

I don’t know how accurate such a test can be.  And I’m not sure what value they might be to others.

Administration
12
Discernment
23
Evangelism
22
Exhortation
25
Faith
35
Giving
13
Serving / Ministering
20
Knowledge
27
Leadership
22
Mercy
6
Prophecy
26
Pastor
23
Teacher
29
Wisdom
17

The Fullness

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The Wisdom of God among men is that they should have faith.  The miracle among men, from God, is that there are many who do have faith.  The Faith from God believes (with a certainty) that Jesus is the Christ of God.  The Faith from God among men believes that Jesus is risen from the dead, for death had nothing with which to hold him.  And The Faith does more than remember that history was made.  The Faith becomes the Love of God, which is the Holy Will of the Father in all creation.

Yet Love does not appear without dressings.  Fear of God, knowledge of the Holy Word he sustains among us, right assessment of the fruit of men, and that specific “doing” that comes only from the power of the Holy Spirit among and within us.  With the appearance of these things within us, we can define the Love of God.  Yet our definition of the Love of God is limited to the wisdom of God to send his knowledge among men.

There is a fullness in heaven, regarding what is revealed of the nature of God.  There is a fullness on earth, regarding what is revealed of the nature of God.  In heaven, the fullness of revelation is embraced without question or reserve.  But on earth, the fullness of revelation of the Love of God is restricted by our willingness to believe to the “doing”.

Who, then, of men, are willing to throw off restriction?  Who, among men, are willing to embrace the fullness of God’s wisdom of revelation to Man?  Who, among men, finds the will to “Become”?

Able to Drink the Cup

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The profitable things of God are not given to the weak and unstable.  But let them repair their habits, as they are able, and God will provide the next element.

Let them prove, by their doing, that they have a desire for God.  God is merciful.  He will not give what is Holy to he who cannot even find the will to get up out of bed. 

Were God cruel, he would give great gifts to the weak and infirm of will, and even to the young pride filled heart.  His rightful expectations would crush the man.

Be careful not to listen to the advice of man.  Do not be unwise, asking God for the great things of his Holy Kingdom that you are not willing or able to sustain.   For if you receive, you will be held accountable.  And there are many who run about thinking they have received, but have not.

And I have seen an act of “love” among us that should be considered an abomination.

In this day a man must go to college.  At least that is the common understanding.  And many parents who think themselves godly, desire to send their child to a Christian college.

But is the child prepared to receive the things that are Holy?  Take the time to look into it, the loss of faith among the young who go to Christian colleges is astounding.

It would be better to send them to a trade school.  Let them learn the discipline of hard study and work, while you maintain a tight bond with them to teach them the things of God.

It would be better to see Christian colleges populated with people in their forties, fifties and even perhaps sixties.  But what an incredibly unpopular message this is.  There is a lot of money to be made by the exploitation of foolish parents.

The vision of holiness is becoming and incredibly rare animal.  The expectations of parents toward the teachers in Christian colleges has no reasonable foundation.   The bar of Christian maturity has been lowered nearly to the ground.

Having been caught up in the things of this world and an emaciated church, the parents think their next duty is to hand their child over to those who know.  But they themselves have not looked into the things of the Holy Lord God Almighty.   So they pay good money to men who wear the appropriate title.

How foolish to put our reliance on the unstable things of man.  How foolish to think that money can buy what Godly wisdom alone provides.

Men will do what they do, until catastrophic change appears.  They will not listen to this message.  They will attend emaciated churches.  They will be emaciated Christians.  They will teach their children emaciated things of God.  And their children will rise up emaciated.  What hope is there for the future of the church, as it is left in the hands of those who desire nothing!

When will you look out your window into the street?  Have you noticed the chaos that runs about unchecked?  Have you taken a close look at the children who graduate from Christian colleges?  Are you willing to perceive their unexpected lack?  Then, are you willing to do something about it?

By His Grace

Knowledge and Doing

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If you want to receive the blessing of God.  If you want to become a real Christian.  Then set your mind, and very will, to do the things you know he requires.

Where many stand confused, is that they misperceive knowing for doing.  A man may know how to drive a car, but never start the engine.  The transforming power of knowledge comes in the doing of it.

God will surely bless the one who does what he is told to do.  There is no other path to the blessing of God in Christ.

By His Grace

Wisdom

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Wisdom is the application of achieving our desire.  The Fox is called wise.  It is not because of his knowledge of the things of men.  Rather it is because he likes to eat and to survive.  He is exceedingly stealthy and skittish.  For he perceives that there is no one else to provide for him.  So with all his strength, he applies himself to the things of himself.

The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God are utterly different.  The wisdom of this world is stealthy and skittish.  It is designed to protect against loss.  And in this pathetic way, men call it gain.

But the wisdom of God is gain with no loss.  It is not defensive in nature.  For there is nothing to lose.  God is pure gain, unto eternal stability.

The things of men rust and dissipate quickly.  So, to the extent that a man desires these things, he will join with the world’s definition of wisdom.

The Holy Lord is, and will never cease to be.  All that is his, and that which he offers, can not fade or dissipate.  Therefore, those who desire His things define themselves by the wisdom of God.

The world will kill to attain and retain.  They are wise in defending their noxious desire.  But God freely gives from his endless Reserve.  What he gives is pure life. Those who receive his things fully, find themselves free of the greedy wisdom of this world.

This is central to the reason why men hate the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is also central in understanding Christians.  To the extent of their belief, you will never move them from their place.

The wisdom of God goes directly against the wisdom of loss.  Worldly people are “hardwired”, if you will, to remain defensive.  So a man of this world can never receive the gospel.

To desire the things of God, a man must find fault with his own way.  Only then does he desire to find what is sure.  God comes to him and shows him the folly of man’s desire.  Now the choice belongs to that man.

Will he abandon, or embrace, what he knows to be folly.  See how his heart is laid bare.  God knows the man’s every thought. 

And so it is with all men.  For the Holy Lord has promised, there will be no excuse.  The wisdom of God still cries out in the very streets men walk to protect against loss.

Wisdom from God is offered to men freely and without judgment.  A man need only to believe that there is a difference between the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God.  Men lie in their wisdom.  God does not.