The Engine of Peace


I look at what Man has accomplished.  How he has established law, regulation, procedure, and expectations, to force love upon the people for one another.  What I see is that punishment is the motivator.  Look with truth and you will see it also.

If you do what is evil the law will come and take from you.  If you contribute according to the law of the land you will reap what they say is great benefit.

I see how they encourage one another to do good works.  But again, the motivator is gain or severe loss.

Every day, every man wakes knowing that if he does not do what is expected he will lose horribly.  This is not the gospel of Christ.  It is the so-called good news of Man.

This good news of Man is dependent on the resources available.  There’s only so much money in the world.  There’s only so much food.  Politics restrains the gain for all.  And the vast majority find themselves suffering loss as the sun goes down on each day.  Even the so-called winners are exhausted from their efforts.  And there’s no need to itemize the broken families the come from the so-called good news.

In this good news of Man greed must be honed to a fine edge.  Look at the advent of training and implements that has been made available to help.  In all these things, the motivation for adherence comes from outside the man.

You know what’s funny?  With all this trust toward the ability of Man to create peace, the world is no better off. 

What does God say?  “14 . . . if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  (2 chronicles 7)   This Promise of God does not present itself as a manipulation.  It’s the offer of free and complete help.

Take note of how God strips the strength of greed.  In its place he only requires humility.

This is no empty promise.  But who will take up the mantle and respond?

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.

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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

If I Could Tell the Truth


If I could tell the truth, people just might see who I really am, not who I have to be.
I get so darn tired of playing by the rules.
Afraid of what I’d lose, if I could tell the truth.

Nobody wants to listen when it comes down to this.
We’d rather take the truth and twist it, than to tell it like it is.
I don’t know how we got here, there’s really no excuse.
I do it to get by, but I wouldn’t live this lie, if I could tell the truth.

If I could tell the truth, girl, we’d end up in a fight.
And I would still be wrong, and you would still be right.
We could stay right here another year or two.
But I’m already gone, if I could tell the truth.

Nobody wants to listen when it comes down to this.
We’d rather take the truth and twist it, than to tell it like it is.
I don’t know how we got here, there’s really no excuse.
I do it to get by, but I wouldn’t live this lie, if I could tell the truth.

I do it to get by, but I wouldn’t live this lie, if I could tell the truth.

Perfecting Afflictions


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.

What is the Nature of Love?


The parents of a murderer are pressed hard against the wall.  They remember when he was a baby; purely innocent and full of potential.  But now, like he, they must face the fact of the things he has done.  If he is sentenced to life in prison, they have to wrestle with the understanding that he will never come home again.

With the purest possible love, and the greatest possible regret, they remember him when he lay so sweetly in their arms.  But mistakes, the influence of outside forces, and the choices of the man, have ripped potential from their dreams.  Who can voice a sadness like that?  Tell me that loss isn’t personal.

Tell me they don’t think of how much better it might have been if their sweet baby had been stillborn.  Better for the victim’s family.  Better for the society that was robbed of precious potential.  Better that a prison cell should house anyone else, and that for lesser crimes. . . PLEASE!  Better for the sounds that the walls of their house remember.  Better for their aching hearts that cannot find healing.

They cannot love their child to the potential they once desired, for once a deed like that is done it cannot be erased. 

But you will not rip away what love remains, from their hearts.  For they will seek with great diligence to find the shreds of their baby that remain in their son.

Love is not passive. 
Love is not blind. 
Love is married to wisdom.
Pure love understands what is pure. 
Love makes way for reality.
Love may experience restriction.
Love may be forsaken!
But it is impossible for love to die.

With Blazing Clarity


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What loss does he sustain who enters into full obedience to The Gospel?  Name it.

God.

By His Grace