What is the grace of God?
It is his faithful promise.
For even while the wicked rose from the unholy beds, God has done this as a token of his love.
Yet, with their minds full of gain, who has truly seen?
By His Grace
Tag Archives: love
Suffering Complaints
Are you suffering under a burden that threatens to drive you to the dust? Has your heart become calloused, so that you will not call out to God for the sake of the things that oppress you? Have you allowed yourself to blame the One who made you? Have you come to believe that you are righteous in blaming God for your trouble?
Jesus did no such thing! Faultless, blameless, and full of love for his Father, the Lord was beaten beyond recognition. Yet he did not blaspheme the will of God.
He endured his Holy Father’s will, because he knew his God can do no wrong. And he considered even the greatest of torment as if it should not be compared to the Glory that awaited him. How is it that we cannot even sustain the sufferings of the common cold without complaint?
The Holy Bible uses a very curious word to describe the testing of the Holy Lord Jesus, “crushed”. Have you been so treated? And that for no apparent cause? Are you without sin? Don’t we deserve to be crushed?
10 “But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” (Isaiah 53)
For our sake, and his love for God, he was sustained through it all. For the sake of his Father’s love for man, he endured the most vicious possible death. For your sake Christ was purified of all possible pride. Stripped of his Glory and Majesty, humbled to the likeness of an animal, Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins.
He did not complain. He did not beg for mercy. He did not resist the ungodly hands. He did not strive to evade the whip. He offered the tender portion of his hands to the nails. He forgave sins as he hung toward death! And all of this with the most resolute heart!
And then horror came to visit him; his Loving Father turned his face, as his son became a curse for hanging on a tree. As it is written in the law of the Most High God, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God”.
Still he did not all allow sin to encompass him. He endured the will of his Holy Father. Shall we do any less?
Consider the tiny burden we bear. Even if we suffered as Christ Jesus, we deserve the beating.
As we consider these things, so we become more like him. As we consider these things, we reach to the victorious one for the strength which sustains.
Do you want strength to overcome your intolerable need to complain? You will find that strength in Jesus the Christ of God.
Amen!
By His Grace
Big and Small
Big people are big.
Big folks can’t be small.
Whether they’re long and lanky,
Or anything but tall.
They may not hold a grasp on love.
But never does that stop them.
They just slip off their greedy gloves.
And do best with what comes.
Small people are small.
Small folks can’t be big.
They think they’re long and lanky,
But they’re everything but tall.
They never grasp for what is love.
Their selfish hearts restrain them.
They always wear their greedy gloves,
Grasping lust where ere it comes.
By His Grace
Scissors and Worms
The righteous man walks carefully down the wet slippery alley, holding his scissors points down. The moisture has brought out the worms. And hardly a step can be taken without sliding.
The righteous man does not run with his scissors. Nor does he eat the worms. For he remembers the words of his parents, and strives diligently to obey.
Yet behind him is a clamor. And not a worm is left in sight. With their eyes stabbed bloody, bellies full of wiggly things, and the cry of complaining anxiety, the wicked urge him to run and eat.
Blessed is the man who loves to obey God. He will see with clarity. And he will eat of the finer things in the land.
But cursed for eternity are those who love rebellion. They close their own eyes forever. And they feed themselves on those which will feed on them.
Choose you this day whom you will serve!
By His Grace
Obey?
The ignorance of man is astounding! I say that knowing that I am a man. And that I am ignorant of many things. But there is a difference between not knowing something, and knowing it for the sake of abuse.
How dearly humanity loves the law of God. But we do not love it so that we might obey it, for we know that is impossible. Men love the law of God because it is a tool with which they can readily hate their brother.
But this is so absolutely contrary to the nature of the law of God.
I don’t want to make this a long post. But there is something key to understanding the law of God, that I have never heard men speak of: how all of heaven embraces the law of God without question, yet man turns it into a tool of death. Enough apology. Let’s get at it.
When the law of God was delivered to Moses for the people, at a certain point they begged that no further word be spoken. Realization struck them and fear overwhelmed them. Yes they wanted God but they knew they could not have him. The inability of men to obey the Holy law of God was blatantly obvious.
But still God commands us to be holy, and to obey His law. How can this be? Does he demand too much? Is the devil’s accusation against him valid; You demand too much and you do not give the resources to obey?
Isn’t this what men say? Isn’t this what every single one of us finds our soul believing at one point or another? But we know that cannot possibly be true.
We know we will die and we know that God never will. He obeys his great Holy Law with the most perfect ease. And so do all the other creatures in heaven! And the Christ of God has walked among us, fulfilling the law completely, again with the greatest of ease! How can this possibly be?
Because the creatures of heaven, and the Christ himself, love the Father more than anything in all creation. Never once does rebellion cross their mind. Eternity is sustained by this love. It is not sustained by obedience to a set of rules. Yet this is the perspective of man!
We raise the Ten Commandments and scream at our brother! “Do these or you will die!” But we know they cannot. And even the one who is screaming knows he cannot obey these laws! And so we divide and hate one another by the very law that brings unity in heaven. By the very law that is the foundation of eternity.
There. That’s what I wanted to say. But I don’t find myself feeling any better for having written it. For I know it will not be received or understood.
We will all nod our heads in agreement. But we will turn right back around and hate our brother. We will read the Ten Commandments as if there might be something we missed. But we will not find it.
Let’s add one more key to this proclamation that will devastate the heart of the one who considers it.
What is the first and greatest commandment? Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22: 38)
There’s the key to obedience. Love. But when we read the Ten Commandments we don’t hear love do we? All we hear is fear.
Fear gives birth to rebellion and hatred. Fear reads the law of God and despises it. Fear turns away from God with a great willing heart. And fear will eventually lead to complete obliteration.
You ask perhaps, how can I love God? There is only one way. Look to Jesus the Christ of God.
Without him you will never love God. Without him you will only obey according to your understanding; you’ll find your obedience is nothing more than a mental exercise. It never finds its way to your fingers or feet. Not to mention her filthy mouth.
I do not need to say more than this. Because if you will not turn to Jesus, you will not believe these words anyway. Yet if you do turn to Jesus you will find yourself in complete agreement, and I will be rightly pushed to nothing. That is my proper place. I am only a messenger of he who lives forever.
May God bless this testimony to the very door of eternity. Amen.
By His Grace
The Fullness
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”?
Words From There 