Tag Archives: love

Freedom or Chains

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I wanted to be careful about how I wrote this. But then the Lord reminded me, “Every word of God can be misused”. So I’ll just write what I saw and let be what will be.  

It is not the size of our sin that condemns us to hell. It is the size of our faith to receive his desired gift of forgiveness.  


We were dead in our trespasses. We can’t possibly know the grandeur of that death. Likewise, with his forgiveness we are offered eternal life. We can’t possibly know the grandeur of what he holds in his hand.  


But what if someone holds onto remorse and shame, thus spitting into the hand who offers life? Hiding in the shadows, not daring to draw near.  


Do you believe? Then take his joy. Take his strength. Take his fearless abandon. Take his dedication. Take his wisdom. Take his godly and never ending love.  


Aren’t those the things that are spawned by the forgiveness he offers? For by those things we approach the throne of the living God with confidence. There we learn things we did not know. There we are strengthened by the touch of his hand or the smile on his face. But without forgiveness, God remains no more than a religion. And the shadow of death is our closest friend.  

Useful Contrasts

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We best define the Sun light 
By the darkness of the night.  


A thirsty throat can sing so well

Of a fresh and vibrant flowing well.  


A body racked with pain

Speaks best of peace to gain.  


And I suspicion thoughtfully

Defining love is brought to be

When the lack thereof oppresses me.  


Belief Matters

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What is it to believe in Christ? Is it just being righteous in some kind of religion? Is it just a clean conscience? How am I going to speak the answer I see?

If you believe the Living God has forgiven your sins. If you believe that you will live forever in a perfect body. What kind of joy you should fill your every day? What kind of love would you be pressingly anxious to deliver every moment in this life? I guarantee you it’s not the same joy and love the world talks about. They try to motivate each other all day long, but nothing ever changes does it.  


Look at this. These are just words. And that’s how most people take them. That’s not what they’re intended to be. They are the promise of the Living God in Jesus his honorable, faithful, righteous, and beautiful Son. And it is impossible for God to lie. They are words that are sealed with the blood of Christ, as if a wax seal on the scroll.  


Yes, I talk about God constantly. It’s because of his promise. And I would do it a lot more if I wasn’t shut down every place I turn.  


People say they believe in Jesus. There are a couple of definitions about believing. One definition is believing like a demon, “Yeah, I know God exists. And that doesn’t make me all too happy”. The only thing such a creature ever sees is sorrow and trouble. He thinks all there is to life is sorrow and trouble. He thinks all there is in eternity is sorrow and trouble. He thinks God is nothing more than sorrow and trouble. It’s no surprise that people who believe like the demons struggle in their faith and religion.  


Demons have a religion too you know; avoiding the Son of God if at all possible. They practice absolutely everything but what is good. They are eternally devoted to being utterly useless. And there are billions of people who follow their example.  


The other definition has to do with believing that God cannot lie. If he promised eternal life and forgiveness of sins, it is as if it has already been done. Such a creature lives for one specific purpose: to receive the things of God’s joyfully extended promise. And in the receiving there is a phenomenally generous giving. It’s impossible to shut that kind of person down.   


That’s what a Christian is. It’s got nothing to do with religion. It’s got to do with an enormously thankful heart. It’s got to do with the developing love for the One who has given life.  


Yeah, these are just words. But they are endlessly full of potential. Who will dare to believe? And how can such a believer be afraid of what others will think? Everyone will do what he has purposed in his own heart.  

The Plead is Challenged 

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Desire lay soft upon the sea.  
Desiring life for you and me.  

Joy abundant thrashes about;

Celebrating what’s come to be.  


The joy dispels as the predators come.  

Each back to his business,

To where he is from.  


Still Desire continues unpraised.  


Praise to the fins.  

Praise to the gills.  

Praise to the waves,

Which for now run still.  


Desire desires to hold and protect.  

But hark to the fishes,

“We consider guile best”.  


Down to the bottom,

Scattered about,

Perplexed, disassembled,

They answer the shout.  


The whisper forgotten.  

Their joy turned to gloom.  

“Better living with trouble 

Than to turn to the groom.”

Heart Transplant

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Plead all you want to a heart of stone,

There’s no way it’ll ever love you.  


Offer up the finer things,


Greed hates them 


When they’ve lost the “new”.  


No.  


What’s needed here resides outside;


Strategic war, 


A genocide.  


Lift out the stone.  


And in its place,


A heart of flesh from God replace.  


It’s easy for a heart of stone


To love those things it calls its own.  


But love like God’s is foreign ground.  


To the heart whose beat makes not a sound.

Love is Life

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Two roads diverged, in a vast wilderness. From the womb they went separate directions. Unknown to her, the mother gave birth to a broken heart.  

One was full of love and nurturing, and never ceased to be straight. As soon as it could stagger, the other road turned a crooked difference away.  


Mama and her son.  


From time to time the roads would intersect. But the traveler wore a knapsack full of deviance. Worn and tattered as it was, he had no intention of laying it down.  


When he would come near, mama would speak with every resource she had. “I love you. Come home and love me.”


Sometimes he would stay. But he never could love his mother. Eventually he would go back on his crooked path. Eventually the flood of tears would come to mama.  


Again and again and again and again, sorrow broke her heart.  


The mother died alone. A few decades later, the son also died. Estranged in life, estranged in death, estranged from each other for eternity.  


The horror of this story dragged on for 40 years. And the horror of the story is forever written in stone.  


How many billions of times must this story be written!

……………………………


The point of the story may be hidden from most who read it. If you understood it before now you are one of the very few.  


Nothing can change the will of a man to love. No words, no deeds, no pleading, no promises, no rewards, nothing. If a man will not love willingly he will not love at all.  


And if anyone had told the man, “You should go home and love your mother”, he would’ve been filled with indigence. Isn’t pride lord over deviant hearts?


Isn’t this the plight of our God? So willing to embrace ALL humanity. So deeply craving to be loved, so that he can give Life. But in almost everyone, he is considered a last resort. He’s just a place of warmth, security, familiarity, food, clothing, and trinkets.  


He promises eternal peace to those who love him. But like the man who could not love his mother, greed for the things she would leave him when she died is not the same as love while she was living.  


There are no words I can say. There is no deed I can do. There is nothing outside of a person that can change the will of anyone to love God. We either love him or we don’t. And if we don’t we never will.  


No promise of reward, no threat of destruction, no encouragement from our brothers, nothing. Salvation to glory forever rest in the will of every person. God is willing, are we?


And by this I am struck with amazement, even in myself.  


“Many are called but few are chosen.”