Tag Archives: mercy

The Reason for Faith’s Necessity

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2 questions:
_____________

1. Why do we need faith?

2. What does the voice of God sound like?

Beginning with the second question:
The voice of God is life.  When the Israelites were released from bondage in Egypt, God displayed his voice in a thunderous noise from the mountain.  But this was for the sake of the people, that they may worship Him and obey.  As he spoke with Moses, however,  he used no such voice.  Rather, God treated Moses as a friend.  (What does that say about those to whom he spoke as a thunderous noise?)

The voice of God requires faith to hear.  God is thoroughly life.  Everything he is, everything he says, everything he does, is life.  Ask yourself then what does life say, what does life sound like, what does life look like, what does life feel like?  Look carefully at the situations and things that come to you. 

Please don’t consider that God is like a man.  The life I am speaking of is Purity, Holiness, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, and in the end Grace to us through sustaining toward the same things.

He would prefer that we gain his wisdom to perceive with our eyes and ears, mind, heart and strength.  Isn’t this why the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength and with all your soul?  Then you will begin to hear his voice.  How do I know this?

Romans 1:20 tells us how we know this.  “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

(And we have the testimony of those who do hear his voice through faith.  The one who writes this testifies.  And some who read this testify.  The voice of God, one may say, also comes from those who know him.  Perhaps better said, those God knows in Jesus His Holy and Righteous Son.  The people would find advantedge listening to the words of such people, instead of pre-judging them as worthless.)

He speaks to us from what we can say “IS”.  Because life “IS”. 

And we must inject another slice of information here.  God does not demand too much, for he gives us everything we need to accomplish his Holy will in our lives.  To say he does not, is to join with satan in the primary accusation that has caused creation of this place of testing in the first place.  We find the second slice of information in the following scripture.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1)

Rejecting this promise is a sincerely precarious place to choose to live!  For if we do not receive his wisdom, that God is so willing to give freely, we will surely lack precious gifts. (Even, perhaps, finding death in the end.  For not a single one of those who of those who heard the Thunders from the mountain receive the promise of God.)

Having read this, it is now your responsibility to act.  Though having said that, (it sounds like a threat) the Wonders that God is willing to give to any man is far worth the struggle to suppress our rebelion (That which is crouching at our very door, desiring to have us. But we must master it. [Taken from Genesis 4:7])

Think about this deeply:  we need faith because it will never cease to be necessary.

Go and see if what I have said is true.

P. S.  The voice of God is called Jesus.  Think about that for the rest of your life.

Clear Minded

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The decal on the back of an old white van:

“Catch and release
I don’t think so.
Nobody released me
When I got caught”.

A cute saying.  But it lacks the fullness of clarity.  A simple question gives it a thoughtful purpose.  “But don’t you wish they had.”

I don’t care what he does in his life.  But whoever purchased the decal for that saying was not thinking with the clarity of the gospel of Christ.  How fragile is the righteousness of man, that he should speak words that are not eternally strong.

What If It’s True?

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I was speaking with a man who is beginning to “see” the Gospel.  The subject of how grand the visible universe is came up.  I said to him, “Who are we if all that is was made, was made specifically for humanity?”  He balked at this for a moment, for he remembered the teachings about life forms on other planets (that teaching from the pit of hell).  But then he said, “We would be a very special group of people”.   Joy filled my heart to hear him admit the truth.

I don’t know if he grasped the fullness of that summation.  But what if there are no other creatures in all the universe like us?  What if the entire universe was created for us alone?

But let me state what is absolute and true, there are no other creatures on any other planet in the entire universe like us.  We are the sole purpose of God’s Glorious and Holy Will in all this vast universe.  (Note the lack of apology)

What does that mean?  And how do I KNOW this is true?

It means that we are intended to become a holy people, dressed in purity, righteousness, mercy, justice and eternal understanding.  That is the intent of God for every man, woman and child.  Regardless what background you may have, you are intended to serve the Living God with faithfulness.

How do I know this is true?  Because the Gospel of Christ Jesus is TRUE.  God has sent his one and only Son, He who has been with the Father of Life from the “Beginning”.  Jesus taught us this truth in every thing he did and said.  He was murdered for our sake, and by our own hands.  But God has raised Him from the dead and seated Him eternally in Glorious Majesty.  And this was done in THIS PLACE!

According to what I have written, let everyone consider what this means.  May everyone believe the Gospel of Christ.  May everyone become the majesty of God’s intention among Man’s place in eternity.  May all men stand in awe at the revelation of Truth that God has shed His blood to attain.

Amen.

Desire for Cleansing

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I have noticed that the more familiar I am with the righteousness of God, the more blatant the wickedness of this world appears.

And the more aware of God’s mercy I become, the easier it is to look past the profane.  It’s not as if I don’t see it any longer, but it’s more like I can more easily ignore it.  Like the man who constantly lives with a barrage of flies, you kinda get used to the irritation.

People can say what they want about Lot.  They can ridicule his choice of dwelling.  But I understand what was written about him; how his righteous soul was tormented, day and night, by the wickedness he saw all about him.

How I wish the American church would put away the soft soap gospel, and bring out the bar of lye.

Exposed?

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I wake this morning from a dream.  I dreamt that all my sins were exposed before all men.  There is no fear from the dream.  Expectation, yes.  Fear, no.  For even if all the world were informed about the things I have done, in their total, it would not change the message the Lord has given us all.

All this exposing would do is expose the wickedness of man to accuse.  There is one who bears that name eternally.  They would, then, be showing who their father is.

It is Christ who saves.  It is not the righteousness of any man that can save him.  Yet it is the humble confession before the Living God, regarding a man’s sins, that brings the Mercy of God to the rescue in Christ Jesus.

This message will not leave my lips because others proclaim what can be easily dredged up from the filth of my days.  I will give willing and continual glory to the One who has saved my soul.

Though they point to my sins, they cannot point to the beautiful hours the Lord has spent with me in prayer.  Though they can accuse, they cannot defend me.  It is Christ who defends me.  And the Holy One of God is beyond their reach to accuse.

It is in His Righteous blood that my soul finds joy.  Without question, their unholy accusations can only touch me.  Even so, no accusation from any man can touch my soul, which is cradled in the Living God’s Promise.

Let all who worship the Living God in Christ Jesus say the same.  Without this proclamation, there is no boldness.  And I refuse to cower because a few unholy servants of the Liar rise up and speak what can be easily be found.  There is sin in every Man, yet they will cast stones when the passion for self righteousness overcomes them.

Grace

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“When you ascended on high, you took many captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious– that you, LORD God, might dwell there.” (Psalm 68:18)

If you want hope for every day and night of the rest of your life , look at what it says.  “. . . even from the rebellious”.

Jesus lives to save. 

The house of the righteous man is clean and prepared for a visitation of the Holy One.  While the house of the rebellious is infested with tiny crawling venomous snakes.

Faith has cleaned the house of the righteous.  That same faith, drops the rebellious to their knees. 

With Regal Splendor, the Living God’s Holy Son comes to the house of each.  And he is received, in each house, by a flow of tears. 

Everything the righteous man has belongs to this wonderous person, Jesus.  Everything the rebellious one wants, is in the hands of he who is willing to come among his filthy things.

Both of them fall on their face in awe.  Both of them marvel at the Majestic mercy of the Righteous One.  Both of them give the only thing they have left; willing praise to the One who can save their souls.

Burdened with limitations, each one knows they can reach no higher than their skin.  But see how it is God who moves to embrace.

10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3)

This is the nature of our plight.  The righteous man knows these things and lives because he receives from the Living God – that great mercy God has promised.  The rebellious man looks up with pleading, for he knows the same things.

One has.  The other has hopes to attain.  The Apostles walked with the Lord daily.  The man of the tombs was forced to remain.  Yet all of them testified to the willing love of the Living God’s Holy Son.

Who will bring to God the only thing he has to give?  Who will believe this message and live?  Who will offer thanks for the inexpressible gift of God, Grace?

By His Grace