Tag Archives: Lord

“I Want to See Jesus”

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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)

Gordon rose from prayer.  He had been asking Jesus to appear to him.  He so desired to see the Lord, or perhaps even a manifestation of His presence.  But nothing happened.

Gordon looked through his soul seeking any sin that might be hindering his relationship with Jesus.  He was sure there was nothing.  And the Scripture was remembered:  “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”

With a heavy sigh, Gordon resigned himself to quit asking for an appearance.  With his head down he shuffled to the couch and sat down.  Hanging his head for a moment, and closing his eyes, he simply let his soul rest in the peace of The Faith.

After a few minutes Gordon raised his head slowly and let his eyelids raise at the same speed.  And there, before his eyes, was the Bible on the coffee table.  Then it came to him more fresh than ever before: “All Scripture is God breathed.” “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me?”  “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

It wasn’t a voice he heard.  It was a string of understandings that flashed in his mind.  Now he felt foolish for even asking.  And with a renewed effort, Gordon picked up the Bible and began to “see” his Lord and Savior.

Eternal Vote

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English: Ballot Box showing preferential voting

English: Ballot Box showing preferential voting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The call of the day is to abandon all the work of the liberals and support conservative ideals.  And millions are making plans, through educating themselves, to do just that come November 6th.  “Millions”, I say.  Millions!  People who have never voted before are now registered and prepared to take a stand for the sake of their freedom.  Wow!  The nation is divided as never before over the issues of the day.  I almost have to laugh at the response.  Threaten to take away freedom and the nation wakes up.  There will likely be more years of voting to come.  And we will see what happens this year.  But the rousing response to liberalism is impressive.

We get to vote our mind once, twice, three times and more.  It’s kind or like a restart when elections come along.  We get to keep chosing what kind of leadership we want.  But there is an election that many of those millions are missing.

Threaten America with a loss of freedom to do anything they want and they come out swinging.  Yet few pay attention to the on going, second by second election regarding the eternal freedom.  They select leaders over the “stuff” of life in the body.  But what about the election of who is Lord of their eternity?

What would America look like if the people were as worried about voting for satan or Jesus?  Satan (I had to capitalize the name cause it was the first word in the sentence, sorry)  is the king of lies, rebellion, corruption and eternal stupidity.  Jesus is King of eternal righteousness and life.  All men everywhere are required to vote for one or the other.  The voting booth is your  heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.

With so much at stake in this American election I can see why people are a bit concerned.  But with eternity at stake I would think people would be more concerned with the eternal election also.  The real question at hand is not liberal or conservative, democrat or republican.  The real question is Life or death.

Choose Jesus!

Application

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ISKCON desire tree - Quote Struggle Poster 09

ISKCON desire tree – Quote Struggle Poster 09 (Photo credit: ISKCON desire tree)

Please understand I mean you no harm.

But as farmers divide the sheep on the farm.

I struggle to keep all that is good.

While tossing away the things that I should.

I hear what you say when you chide me to care.

And you hear from my mouth “I will let loose and dare”.

Contentious am I against all man’s restraints.

Yet I’m bound as all men with fleshly constraints.

What then shall this striving produce?

With what focus will the general be reduced?

Will I set forth a desire which celebrates my demise?

Or set forth horror by willingness to compromise.

There is turmoil in this debate within.

But there is no doubt the desire to win.

Jesus is among all men to raise “the few” up.

Raise up I will if He lets me drink the cup.

I’m sorry, for now, that I’m misunderstood.

My hope is, His Day will say “Yes he could.”

 

Warning From the Season

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Snow

Snow (Photo credit: Amir Nejad)

The trees are losing their leaves.  A sure sign that the snows and ice of winter are approaching.  Even so, men are aware of the coming danger in life.  You will either clothe yourself and prepare for what is coming, or you will suffer the consequences through sickness and death. 

This set of signs, in the fall of each year, have been a clear sign from the beginning of creation.  Every generation has seen them many times in their lives.  There is a “falling” happening all around us now.  Few see what is coming.  But those who know Jesus, the Christ of God, know this is appearing as a warning.

Clothe yourself in the sacrifice of Jesus.  Obey what God has set for us to observe in the way of holiness and service to the Most High God.  Prepare yourself through Bible reading, prayer, and proper worship of the Lord, or encounter the purity of what is coming with foreboding.

There is a clear and ever-present message which comes from the Lord’s people.  “Repent and accept the leadership of the Living God, or perish with the ungodly.”  Hiding your head in the sand of society’s unholy behavior will offer you no more protection than if you plan to encounter the coming winter with the clothing of summer.

Opportunity

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Vision from Book of Revelation

Vision from Book of Revelation (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

The current movement of the world toward a one world government, the rise of Islam, the promotion of “good works” driven by secular man and government, the demise of freedom, and the imminent threat of violence against Christians and Jews, can be a frightening concept to watch appear.  But there is a word from the Lord that must be spoken now.

All these things hasten the believer in Christ Jesus into a realm of strength never before seen on the face of the earth.  If you will hold your hope in Christ Jesus you will see your strength increase dramatically.  Do not fear what they fear.  Hold your head high as you see the day approach.

This will be a day of extremes.  One side will see the extreme hatred unleashed against the Lord and all His people.  The other side will see the Holy Spirit as never before give “The Faith” to all the Lord’s people.  This is not the horror for the Lord’s people that it will be for those who are not.  This is a day, coming quickly, when men’s hearts will become hardened in their way.  But it will also be a day when the hearts of God’s people in Jesus will become free to worship in fullness.

This day we are entering will be a singular opportunity to shine like the sun as we hold out the words of life.  Men will torment us.  But they will not break the Spirit’s power within us.  Instead it will fan our Spiritual gifts into a raging fire of steadfast hope.  Many will witness God’s people suffer with joy.  And they will wonder at a people’s religion and faith that can withstand such an onslaught and grow.

Hold the Lord high within your heart!  We are offered a time to gather for Him a marvelous abundance of glory!

May the Lord be blessed by His word among all His people.  And may we render what is His with a glorious joy, which is unknown among the faithless, sinful, godless, and wicked.

Amen

Regret

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Regrets

Regrets (Photo credit: chris.chabot)

There is hope for all who believe Jesus is the Christ of God.   This hope we own varies from one man to another.  Though the Lord would have us all own proper and full hope in our faith, it goes without saying that each of us is limited in our hope by the faith we employ.

There was a man who found himself a hindrance to everyone he touched.  No matter how he tried, he found himself full of trouble for everyone.  And the longer he lived the worse it seemed to become.

Now, there came a day when he had done damage to one soul too many.  The desire to become helpful was replaced by a simple desire to die.  “What good am I accomplishing?”  He said to himself.  “My faith is my life.  But my hope is becoming nothing.  If I cannot do good for my fellow man, what makes me think I will be received in eternity?”  With this in mind the man contrived a solution.  He thought to himself: “Sin is death.  I am not worthy of life.  So I will turn to sin so that I will kill myself.  Worthless is what worthless does.”

While in some respects this is a rather noble idea, but it did not bear the fruit he had hoped.  One day, while the sin was a distance from his mind, the Lord spoke to him.  “You will be completely forgotten.”  The meaning of this was not lost in the man’s mind.  For every word of the Lord brings with it an image of meaning.

At the gathering of God’s people on the day of judgment, this man would be gathered with the rejected.  And those rejected will be completely forgotten.  The man had thought that the Lord would recognize his sacrifice of himself.  He had in mind that the Lord would balance the scales the man could not.  The man understood the message and stopped the path he was on.  He turned toward the Lord again with a renewed effort.

On another day, after the man had turned from the sin of destruction to accept his place according to his ability, the Lord spoke again.  “You sacrifice for the sake of death.  I have sacrificed for the sake of life.  It is enough that you hope in Me.”

Many, so very many, are doing the same thing today.  They hold regret for the things they have done.  They drink themselves to death.  They do drugs until they perish from over dose.  They waste away their lives through self-debasement of every form, hoping that their self-hatred will be noticed by the Lord.  How are any of them any different from the man in this story?

Any sacrifice we make that has to do with the destruction of our lives is a sacrifice toward death.  But the Lord has already sacrificed what is Good.  He has sacrificed toward life.  Let us gather our strength, whatever is left, and turn to look at what He has done.  What have we accomplished if we are, in the end, gathered with the rejected?  We will end up rejected from man and rejected from God.  How pathetic is the end of such men?

He sees what we are and what we are able to do.  Rest in His perfect understanding and strive to trust.  There is no other release from the regret we all hold.  And let us ponder this saying:  “Regret is not in the family of repentance.  It is of a different family.  Repentance belongs to the children of the Lord.  Regret belongs to the children of this world.