Tag Archives: love

Before the Weeping and Gnashing

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28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.  29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.  30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”  (Luke 13)

But before that time comes, many will endure a foreboding in their hearts.  They are currently throwing away marvelous things.  Many have received the word of Jesus.  But they have not loved him.  Nor did they care to understand.

I write this, that some may understand and wake to their current state.  I recognize that it doesn’t matter what I say.  But it matters greatly what we do.

This song from Sara Evans provoked the understanding for this post.  God will have what is rightly His, whether that includes us or not.

The Sprout of Salvation

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It is not frustrating.  And it is not in vain.

It is frustrating when we perceive the things of God from our own mind and heart.  For then, our work for the Living God seems fruitless.

We speak to our brother about Christ, but he casts us away as if we are insane.  He goes about his business of death with a smile on his face, as if he has just vanquished a foolish enemy.  Calling us names in his mind, heart, and words, he considers us vile and useless.

He happily goes back to his useless gods:  “To these I am familiar.  I understand when they speak about my dreams and ambitions.  They are set concretely by the evidence of History.  This nation or that has relied heavily on the traditions I love so much.  The after life is mysterious.  But these gods give me consolation in my sorrow.  They speak well of my potential.”

With the sleight-of-hand that belongs to death, he throws away our testimony for Christ.  Our words are full of fault in his eyes.  For they give no praise or quarter to man.  The testimony of Christ is foolishness to such people.

I consider this with sober mind.  I want his salvation.  I want to hear the praise of Christ on his lips.  I want to see a changed heart that is willing to learn and love.

But I am caught up in frustration.  The very thing I do not have a right to own.  For salvation does not belong to me.  It is not within my grasp to grant or to take away.  I cannot open the eyes of his heart.  I cannot open his ears that he should hear.  And I cannot manipulate his heart that he should learn to love and to be humble.

Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.  For he dispenses his wisdom from heaven.  What he gives, when he gives, and how he gives, is dictated by eternity.  And he does not speak the Gospel to us in words that can be spoken or perceived by Man. 

God speaks his Gospel to us in the faithfulness that surrounds us.  He speaks in a language that never ceases.  He speaks vast volumes of books in a short and poignant sentence. 

All the while Man looks for the key.  But his hands are not big enough to handle the object of release which God offers from heaven.

What is the summation of this?  I confess I do not know. 

I have spoken to my brother.  I have acted toward him in a godly fashion, full of love and desire to understand.  I have prayed for him consistently.  And I strive, with all I have, to be patient.  Still the sun has not risen in his heart.  And now he has ordered me to stop speaking to him about such things.  In fact, he has vowed to stop speaking to me altogether. The door to him is now slammed shut.

Here I sit, just outside his door, wondering and perplexed.

Let the wisdom of God be the wisdom of God.  What more can I say?  It is not mine to wield the mystery of salvation.  It is simply mine to cast the seeds about, letting the wind of God direct their fall.

I cannot give the Living God counsel.  It is mine simply to be faithful.  In war we can watch as others are killed.  And there is nothing we can do to stop it.  In life, some will live and some will die.  Who are we to say no to the One who has made all things perfectly well?

But I wonder.  What are we learning through all this?  What are we gaining through the loss that is so prevalent about us?  Who are we, as we stand in the midst of a Slaughter?  Hip deep in spiritual blood, what is the value is our life in Christ to those who die?

The answer lies in a language I have never heard.  This puzzle piece fits perfectly in the vast array of God’s glorious eternity.  God is not anxious about such a question.  For he has had the answer long before the world was ever made.

Does this give me peace?  The peace this gives me lives in the place I cannot translate.  For still I am anxious to see Christ appear in my brother.  And doesn’t every Christian feel the same?

Holy Father, we leave these things in your hand for that is where your wisdom has dictated it shall be.  Salvation is yours.  Still we pray in earnest that your love should appear. 

“By Your Grace”, you have taught me.  And I am convinced there is no other answer.  Your strength is Christ Jesus.  Still we beg you to move, yet according to your wisdom.

America the Beautiful

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America is such an interesting case study for Human Nature.  Freedom is flaunted as the most desirable thing.  But what do they do with their freedom?  They sell it to the highest bidder.

In my lifetime, I have seen America exemplify the reality of human nature, sin.  The pendulum of Freedom swings wildly between love and hatred.  Right now they are thinking of the definition of love.

I have seen America hand the fabric of their freedom over to social etiquette.  America will do whatever Society demands.  Regardless the cost, regardless collateral damage.

Right now it’s popular to love.  So America is all about equality and love.  But I have seen America hate for the same reason.

This is a very unpopular message.  But you should know, the pendulum will swing again.  Remember the British, the Indians, the Chinese, the Blacks, the Japanese, it’s own soldiers, the Hispanics, and the list keeps going on. 

Who’s next?  It seems like America is willing to love, but it also needs someone to hate.  Evidently this is what free people do.  But I refuse to believe that this is what godly people do.

Desire For Inclusion

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If I wrote worthless words

Of shadowed dreams and hopes,

Surely the entire world

Would flock wildly to my door.

If I were a righteous man,

Even as they say- “Is the Pope”.

Surely His people would beg me for more.

But fool that I am I double it down,

I speak a word of heresy among a people who drown;

Hated for who I am,

Despised, ignored to shadows,

Missing that “glorious” gown.

No lovely poetry escapes my lips. 

You want to know the reason why?

Because so very few even try,

So many live as sailless ships;

Like I:

Preferring the darkness of Lies.

Home?

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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.

Legislative Freedom

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The freedom of a child turns first to love.  Innocence demands inclusion for all.  In a child’s heart, there is no separation between us but the surface of our skin.  The child’s heart does not see colors of skin or deviant actions (The blackening of Souls).  The child’s heart does not understand violence born of selfish greed.  And the child’s heart is innocent before God.

But soon comes rules and regulation.  “You shall do this, you should not do that.”  The lack of self discipline demands law.  Innocence, or ignorance, is not a license for deviant behavior.  The love of a child quickly turns to obedience in lieu of punitive action.  And isn’t it tragically necessary.

As it is with the little child, so it is for every man.  Law stands as a wall around everyone.  Law is for the deviant.  Freedom is for those who love.

I spent the night in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan.  I learned about the Chippewa who held this land before the Whites came.  I was curious about the state of the Chippewa Nation in today’s economy.  So I looked up their law.  I was surprised to find a lengthy and comprehensive code of law.  For whatever reason, I did not expect to find the law of the Greeks.  I think I expected to find something more akin to the law of natural order.

But my heart is bruised to find such a free people compelled to recognize the laws of the Greeks.

Gone is innocence.  Hello, the literary form of love. 

“You will do this and you will not do that.  You will accept mechanization and technological order.  You will live in houses.  You will drive cars.  You are compelled to receive the education of the Greeks for your children.  You are compelled to bury your people according to the ordinance of the Modern Age. You are no longer a Free People.”

Yes my heart is bruised for the sake of their loss.  It is the same bruising that comes when I look at the transformation of love to a written code. 

Codes of law are for the deviant.  They are not for those who love without restraint.  Beyond the loss of their Natural Freedom,  they have become like the rest of the world; permanently labeled deviant.  And this by a forceful compulsion beyond the dreams of their ancestors who lived long before the law of the Greeks appeared among them.

There is so much to write about this.  So many understandings flood my mind.  From the fact that law is given to man by the wisdom of God, through the indelible stamp of “Guilty” that lays upon all men, and into the regulation of God to restrain the greed that is the nature of man.

The bruise in my heart is to see the loss of freedom.  Perhaps the bruise in my heart is a longing for the place of promise while I live in this place of disrepair.  Perhaps the bruise in my heart is the same engine the prompts fairy tales for children.  Those beautiful stories that remind the child, “Love is still real”.

Love does not need law.  But if you want to see how deviant man has become, look up the code of law for the Greeks.  Visit a library for lawyers.  Every possible infraction against society, and even ourselves, has been written down with its appropriate boundaries and punishments. 

What then shall we say about those who call themselves “The Free World”?  The love of God in Christ is the only freedom that has no boundaries.  The love of God in Christ is the only freedom against which there is no law.  The love of God in Christ is the Light that shows me the bruise on my heart.  It is, indeed, a longing for a land from which I did not come.

If you want to see what shook my soul to write these words, here is the link.  http://www.narf.org/nill/codes/sault_ste_marie/