Enduring Consistency


“Raw raw sis boom ba!
I belong! I belong!”

The proper exaltation for one who formerly was cast out.  It is not proper that this one should hate the inclusion.  But does that joy last?

The beaming smile of a young man as he gets his first car.  “I’m free!  I can go where I please!  Finally, I am a man!”  Not really, but don’t tell him yet.

Which is stronger, inclusion or the responsibilities that will surely come?

The joy of a child is dear, and held in high esteem by all who are mature.  If this is not so, then someone needs to explain to me why grandmas talk about babies incessantly.

The beaming smile of a middle aged woman; her face constantly glowing.  Though trials, terrors and difficulties have strewn across her path, she endures with excellent consistency. 

Such things are even marketable among men.  “There’s a lot of money in that there attitude.”   (properly voiced with cigar in mouth and scowl on face)

But wrongful pride in a young girl, who has been granted inclusion, is ugly.  And the rebellion of a young man stacks up in the courts of the land.  Our joy in them is dashed. 

And the beaming face of a middle aged woman, which is only apparent by means of cosmetic surgery, is no beauty at all; the cheap imitation of truth.  Kinda like some knock off version of Kool Aid; sour to the taste and despised by all.  “Back to the real stuff we go!”

If Christian joy is not sincere, it cannot be joy at all.  that special kind of hypocrisy that non-believers post prominently in neon signs.

We read the accounts of those who sang with boldness at the prospect torture and death.  No fictitious apparel can produce that kind of joy.  No provisional joy will endure in those circumstances.  “Ya either got it or you don’t.”

How do the exceptional remain exceptional?  How is it that they have kept their joy pure; unadulterated by pride and difficulty?

We find the answer in their perception.  The answer lay squarely in their expectations.  Those who endure to the end do not consider themselves as belonging because of any special trait they own.  They keep first in mind that they are included in something vastly larger and more desirable than themselves.

The young girl becomes the appealing woman mentioned above.  And the young man contributes greatly to the society that granted him his beloved freedom.  And the division between beauty and ridiculously ugly glares brilliantly.

With this answer something astounding appears.  Correction in our attitude is simply a matter of changing perspective.  “Becoming” is only a matter of being willing to understand the value of our place.  And never to allow that understanding to dissipate, or to become poluted with pride.

The engine of truth is relentless.  It drives through humanity without respect to the desires of any.  A man will either jump on board or get squished.

But if we embrace truth we retain the things that are beautiful.  We “become”.  We desire.  We learn to “do” with excellent consistency.

___________

Please don’t allow stupidity to interpret this message.  This is not a “how to” message.  It is not the preface to an impossibly thick manual on “becoming”.  It is more like a directional sign.  “Caution detour ahead”.

The true answer for any man is within him.  It is God Himself who directs.  If we don’t point to him, then we join with liars. 

“If the Lord does not build the house the builder builds in vain.”  If you want to be excellent, you have to go get it from him.  Therefore this message is far more a description than a “How to”.

If that disappoints you, then you’re the very reason I wrote this.

The Land of Shadows


Man, who are you; you who live in darkness and refer to heaven as if it is but a Shadow?  Because you have never perceived it, you deny it.  You accuse what is true, without thought.

You have never touched it, or so you think.  You have never seen it, or so you think.  You have never heard it, or so you think.  You do not know its dimensions or what it contains, or so you think.

You mock what is holy, without knowledge.  All the while you, who live in the land of shadow, unjustly refer to heaven as shadow.  By this you speak your own language.  By this you use false accusation against He who is Holy and true.

You contrive your own vision while ignoring what can be seen.  You invent sounds of your own to replace what can be heard.  You relegate the space of a building, that you have erected with your own hands, and call it holy.  There you have placed God.  And you will not welcome him in your streets or homes!  God is driven from your business for the sake of money and power.

You dress yourself with glory among men.  But you push God of as a popper and a beggar.  You promote what is vile, while you call what is holy vile.  How shall you be received?

The glory of God can be seen in the things that were made without your hands.  All creation testifies to life and faithfulness but you close your eyes.  “These cannot be truth they are not built by man.”  So you say.  And by this saying you retain your own condemnation.

The Word of God is present among the people but you refuse to listen.  You prefer the sounds of shadow.  And you sin against the Lord by calling the shadow good.  You refuse to listen to the words of life.  Therefore you remain a shadow.

The dimensions of your world end at the sight of your eyes.  What is within your world is not holy and good.  You know this but prefer to ignore.  Therefore you are blind.

Holy is a blazing, eternal life.  When it appears the shadows are dispelled.  Your eyes cannot stand the intensity of what is true.  Your ears cannot interpret the sounds of heaven.  And though you live your life of shadows within the holy God, you cannot perceive his dimension or nature.

Who are you?  Who are you to love what is shadow and ignore what is pure light?  You hinder yourself.

The door approaches.  Even as you live this day, it has come that much closer.  Soon it will engulf you.  And you will permanently leave this place of shadows.

Allow yourself to wake up.  Now is the day of salvation.  The sights, sounds, dimensions, and nature of eternity will confront you.  If you remain in shadows you will not perceive correctly on that day.   Though you will stand in the presence of heaven you will be locked eternally with blindness deafness and no ability to perceive.

Salvation is near.  You live in eternity.  For God lives forever, and this place of shadows is in his presence.

By his great wisdom he has created this place of blindness.  Frustrated by he who accused, it has become a land full of shadow and sin.  By this place he will know the heart of all men.  By this place he has proved his faithfulness.  By this place his Holy Son sits enthroned forever.

Will you mock him?  Will you continue to contrive your own heaven?  Will you remain apart from him?  Will you invent your own God?

Or will you stop?  Will you humbly ask for eyes that see?  Will you humble yourself and ask for ears that hear?  Will you throw away your pride and receive the knowledge his wisdom is willing to give?

A cloak is placed over what is holy, in this realm of shadows.  It is not to be perceived nor movable by man, without the mercy of God.  But to those who will humble themselves, and ask with consistent and earnest heart, the Lord reveals what is true.

The land of shadows today says, “We are better than those who came before”.  Prove to me then how you are dissimilar to all men!   You elevate yourself!

If you point to your toys I will call you a liar.  Your toys are not you!  This is a lie you embrace willingly, which is spawned from those who live in the land of shadows.

If you show me what is called the modern God, I will call you a liar!  For Jesus Christ is the exact representation of the Heavenly Father, and he is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Your modern God is nothing more than some rock you have carved.  With great pride and a lifted chin, you look down on what is true. This idol is a spawn of those who live in the land of shadows.

Testify!  Prove to me that you know the living God, and I will remove these words from before your face.  I have eternal confidence these words will never move.

You punish a man who in endangers others and himself.  You restrain him for his safety and that of others.  You chastise the rebellious among you liberally. Yet you balk at these words.

You consider these words harsh.  They are but the tip of a feather against the skin.  These words a testimony from a man.  On the day you are engulfed the approaching door, you will hear these words from the Holy One himself.  Do you think you will balk then?

The lies of man


There is a yearning in heaven for the souls of men.  If this were not so do you think God would have allowed us to crucify his son? Do you say, “I was not there to crucified him! I would have done no such thing!” Really?

Who are you, that God should think so highly of you as to send his Son into your hands?  You are wicked beyond repair.  By yourself you are nothing but death; both death to yourself and to all else. In your nature selfishness consumes you.

I do not say this to shock you.  I do not say this to make you feel bad or to elevate myself.  I say this to starkly point out the truth.

I have examined myself, and that by His grace.  I find no beautiful thing that lives within me.  Without the Lord Jesus I am hideous and violent.  And you, my dear friend, are no different.

If a man is civil it is either because he has loved lies, or that God has had mercy on how he was raised.  There is not one shred of decency among men, except that God has placed it there.  Left to our own we would devour one another into oblivion. Let me expose the truth with an example that most will find offensive.

In my younger years I lived on the Prairie in Montana.  For a price a farmer would allow you into his field.  But it was not a price you paid.  Rather it was a price paid to you.

I forget the exact amount.  But a farmer would pay you a small price for every tail of a gopher (prairie dog to those who know) you could bring back to him.

The animals would destroy precious farm ground.  They are exceedingly plentiful.  And a horrible nuisance to he who would profit from the land.

So we would take our little 22’s and go out.  The sport was to see how far away you could be and still make the kill.  A scope was an essential to the game.

I played this game long before I knew about Jesus.  I do not say this to justify myself.  But I say this for what comes next, that you may understand what I wrote first.

What I have witnessed in human nature I witnessed at the killing of Gophers.  Do you think you are sweet and lovely?  There is not one shred of love in you but that God has placed it there. Please allow this example to show you you are not lovely in yourself.

From a hundred yards or more we would take aim.  Through our scope we could see the dust fly up. By that we refine our aim.  The Gophers just sat there and watched with mute curiosity.

Finally a tiny piece of lead found its mark.  One down, more to go.

( If you are not a student of human nature, the following is not for your eyes to consume.  But if your soul is strong, and you are hungry for the truth, I will teach you something valuable.)

At 100 yards a man’s aim must be good.  Accuracy 150 yards is rare.  So we would challenge one another with distance.  The Gopher was our enemy.  The Gopher meant bounty.

Shot by shot we focused in.  Finally, a strike!  A kill!  A bounty!  But where there is one there is fifty.  Patience.

We learned to wait.  They will come at the smell of blood. 

They will sniff around; look, listen.  They are not concerned with their dead relative.  But in amazement I watched, learning what I would later call the “Gopher syndrome” in humanity.

They appeared from the hole to see what had happened.  The smell and sight made no impact.  But let one be wounded and thrash about, and frenzy consumed the mass.

The Gophers have no compassion.  They are full of hatred for the weak.  With a chirp he calls his buddies.  And with frenzy, they devour the one wounded.

They have absolutely no compassion.  They do not care about the dead.  They care only to kill the weak.  And God has left them as a sign.

Look at man. (If I could yell in text, it would happen here!)  Look at men!  Look!  See how selfish and hungry for hatred he is.  Do you think he is beautiful?  Then add to his plight folly.

Man is wicked to the core, and hopeless in his plight.  But for the grace of God we would be as those Gophers.  Did not for Nazis show us this is true.

Don’t we witness violence in rush hour?  Isn’t the workplace made to do harm to your way?  Promotion is made on the backs of many.  And we consider it a privilege and honor. Indeed, add folly to our plight! Aren’t families played with hatred for one another? And because of a lack of God in the house doesn’t America lean towards destruction?

But that God should leave a remnant among us we would be as evil as those animals are to their weak.  we would have destroyed one another a long time ago. The heart of man is desperately wicked and helpless, hopeless, beyond repair.

I have written this to show the need for redemption. I have written this to expose the shame of man. There is an answer to our helpless state. And God has allowed me to write extensively in this regard.

But let man first come to understanding of how wicked and helpless he is. Only then is the beauty of Christ reveal.

Will you agree?   Likely not.  The lie of man’s beauty was proclaimed long before you were born.  And it is only by the Spirit of God that we understand.

I know that what I have written here its distasteful to the majority.  They will write me off and give me no room to answer.  They will treat me as if I am one of the wounded on the top of the hole.  They will devour me with obscurity.  perhaps they will devour me with far more violence.

I call attention to the filth of men.  I call attention to the glory of God.  I call attention to the beauty of his Christ!  And for this these words will be hated.

The Fix


William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - The F...

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) – The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1880) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Curb the animal within your tainted heart.  Oh, I see that can’t be done.  Sorry to have bothered you.”

_________________________
I wake to find myself amazed.

The plight of man surges up like a wild rogue wave.

against a determined crew.

Mindlessly, endlessly, remorselessly, we search

for what is secure in our own little berth.

Attacking, defending, accusing, for what?

_________________________

Hideous folly attends our earth bound thoughts. And in our frustration we reach for the most firm item in our rotting little minds.  Wielding it like a mob of mad men, we thrash at one another.

Some one of us has a lucid moment and yells “STOP!”  All the crazed people cease in mid-swing.  Spit, blood and dust flutter to the ground.  A wicked silence ensues.  And they all listen to words spoken, too late and untimely.

“This is religion we’re swingin around!

Just look at the blood that covers the ground!

Is this truly the best we can do;

to kill one another with He who is true?”

The ceasing remains for a couple more breaths.

Then back comes the hitting, the gouging and stabbing of chest.

________________________

Hopelessly man is locked in minds of singular thought.  We make our way through a morass of unknown futures.  And we, too reliably, resort to violence of every form to do what we call survive.  Worse than that, we justify ourselves by calling down “TRUTH FROM HEAVEN”.

There are but two repairs to this seemingly endless dance of stupidity.  Each repair is useful only to the individual.  One is sure yet not recommended by any.  The other is sure yet few give it full application.

The least profitable repair is death.  If you wait patiently it will come to you on its own.  But likely as not some one will be willing to go fetch it for you.

Death brings silence and a sort of peace.  But it fails to deliver release from the central problem of “a valueless life”.  And once applied it cannot be undone.  (Sticky lil bugger, ain’t it.)

The best is to die to self.  We will find this in its full when we surrender to the Lord Jesus.  We will continue in this place of folly, but we will come to know how to stop bashing others.  Only in Him can this madness cease.  Yet His repair is not designed to cover the masses.  One by one we lay down our desires.  And the culmination of His work appears in an entirely different place.  There, a great throng of mentally vibrant folk will live out eternity void of the familiar bashing.

I wrote as the one who called attention to the childish nature of our filthy mob.  I do not think it will have the effect of stopping more than two, let alone the world.  Still, I have written what my mind saw.  We will see what comes.

By His Grace.

How could you!


A man caught in a small amount of trouble receives the accusation that if he were given the chance he would do far worse.  When asked to explain himself, the accuser goes on to describe some heinous crime.  And in the accusation he points at the poor man as if this man had already done these things.  From his own wicked imagination the accuser hopes to destroy another.

Sadly I am not just writing fiction here.  This happens all day long across the entire surface of the globe.  From their wicked imagination men blame others for faults they do not possess.  Then, as if that were not sufficient, they turn to look at the ugliness around them and blame God.

They themselves have caused this putrid stench.  Yet they have the gall to blame God.  But the Lord will remain blameless, for even as they accuse He holds out his hand that He may save them.

For now they do not know righteousness.  They do not know love.  They do not know kindness, mercy, or justice.  They do not know the living God we serve through Jesus The Son.   But this is why I have written this post.  I write this that some may come to their senses and learn from Him who is Love.

The Threshold of the Second Coming


greed [aka cost/benefit]

Image by the|G|™ via Flickr

How fast the world is deteriorating into evil.  The darkness covering the land today makes the 60’s look more pure.  While there was nothing holy about the rise of immorality of the 60’s, the embrace the world is giving to wickedness today has increased by folds.  And all indications are that this increase will explode.  Are you ready for absolute chaos?  It is coming.

 

Throughout the ages, since the resurrection of Jesus, men have proclaimed the return of the Lord of Glory.  I’ve often pondered, as have others, just what the signs will be when the Holy God of Israel has had enough.  Because, when the Lord God sends His Son, this world will endure all manner of horror.  Many thought their age was the one in which the Lord would surely return.  But wickedness had not run its course.  This observation has given birth to an understanding within me.

If the world has become increasingly wicked and the Lord has not yet returned, just how wicked must the world become before the Lord comes?  Personally, I believe anyone would not be far wrong to expect His return very soon.  But how much more violence, godlessness, and unholiness needs to come to maturity before God responds with His Holy Promise to do away with man’s rebellion?  If it’s this bad now, how much more horror must man manufacture?

God has given man over to the desires of his heart.  The central desire of man is to rid himself of the God who made him.  How long will man rebel?  How much destruction will he be willing to reap from the works of his own hand?  The answer is “A LOT”!  Murders, greed, anger, rapes, thefts, lies, corruption of every sort on every level, even within families, all these things are going to increase until there is no one left on the face of the entire earth who is willing to allow God to be the King of their life.  At this time, the Lord of Glory will appear with Great suddenness; when they least expect it.

May the Lord have mercy on those who read this post.  May He open their eyes to see.  Billions and billions of blind are, even now, awaiting their fate at the hands of the Living God.  Yet hell still has room.  Why would you seal your eternity as they have?  Why not humble yourself before the Most High God, through Jesus, and accept the testimony of His people?

By His Grace.