Tag Archives: Ownership

Mutual Tears?

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The warnings for sin have gone out since man was first made.  Sin is death.  When you have committed sin there will be consequences to follow.

Such consequences as Sin rears up will often charge you with horrifying and utterly devastating sadness.  Eventually, hopefully in this life, you will cry great tears of sadness for the things you have done.

But when you cry because you have broken life’s rule, do not expect others to give you a loving embrace.  You have no right to expect them to cry with you.  Those tears belong to you.  They are not tears of suffering for the name of Christ.  They are not tears a man may cry when unjustly persecuted.  They are tears that you have brought death upon yourself.

Face reality.  Seek strength.  Strive to understand.  All the while, get up on your shaky legs and start walking.

The Lord loves mercy, yes.  But mercy comes in a variety of forms.  Our need may not be as we perceive it.

Parable of the Mansion

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Man is like those who have unrighteously broken down the doors of The Mansion on The Hill.  With great rebellion they entered and tore down the beautiful things.  The things that were sacred, to he who owns the mansion, were replaced by plastic trinkets.  Worthless painted, fradulently filthy objects, replaced the purified gold.

They have reveled in that spacious Palace, without regard to its heritage.  With drunken revelry they have made his beautiful place a stench.

In some of the rooms they have set up idols to their own hands.  They set up guards to restrict entrance to what they call sacred.  The rebellious restrain the rebellious.  This is what they call truth.

But the owner has known.  He has sent spies among them to report the evil that lives in his house.  He has sent servants to warn the rebellious.  “The one who owns this place will return to it.  He will see what you have done.  He will see your face; the face of those who have called his house theirs.  Not a single one will escape punishment!”

He owns the house.  He owns the hill.  He owns the seas, the air, the food, and even the souls of those who have taken what is his.  He owns the vastness of the universe.  He owns the language that man has turned evil.  He owns the brains which have conceived worthless imaginary religions.  And he will tear this place down!

Man will be caught.  He will be stopped in stride.  Even while he goes about his filthy business, God will pluck him up.

Who is wise to cease his madness?  Who is wise to listen?  Who is wise to beg mercy even while his hands are filthy with destruction?

See how the Mansion resists the will of man to destroy.  See how, though it is a shell of what it was, it remains a place of testimony.  See the strength of God and consider!

Spiritual Dynamics

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A politician sat down with his advisors, that they might conspire how to get him reelected next year.  His record was not stellar.  By a considerable margin, he might well lose the next election.

They discussed six or seven alternatives, but none of them were rated very high in probability.  But the last option rang like a new brass church bell.

“If you are reelected”, one of them said.  “You could easily pocket 7 million over the next four years.”   The politicians eyes smiled, but in his soul the word “if” stood out largely.  He turned to look at Fred.  “What’s your point Fred?”

Fred began.  “It takes money to make money Stan.  How would you like to get 7 million for a 10 percent investment?”   He captured Stan’s imagination like a magnet to iron filings.  “Why don’t you make a conspicuous donation to father Briers little Church?   He’s got a tiny little place and a lot of land to build on.  We will make sure it’s leaked to the press that you are a godly man, and can be trusted.  I guarantee it’ll pop your numbers over the top.”

Stan fell in love with the idea.  The next day Stan and six of his Advisors showed up at the little Catholic Church.  After a bit of small talk, Stan handed father Brier a check for $725,000.

Father Brier accepted the check with great joy.  And Stan’s advisors made promises to help advertise the new building.  Soon father Briers Church would be full of people! 

The priest was overjoyed.  The building was completed long before election time.  The people floated in, as promised.  Needless to say, the income of the Church rose dramatically, and Stan got reelected.

The politician had done what politicians do; they often use whatever means is necessary to secure their position.  But the priest had done something he should never have done.  I’m not referring to accepting the money.

The priest considered his building as the Church.  And from that misconception everything else fell flat. 

A man can own a building.  A man can gain a title.  A man can play politics with the things that are in his hand.  But no one can own the Church.  The Church belongs to Jesus, the Christ of God.

No building, no title, and no politics, are able to wrench it out of the Lord’s hands.  Forgetting that the word church refers to “the called out ones”, can be a grave mistake.

The priest may be happy today.  But he has missed the fluid dynamic of the Holy Spirit’s power.  Stop up the flow of a river, and it will eventually turn putrid.

By His Grace

Ownership

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I own nothing, because I am nothing.

God is All.  In the terms of man, God owns all things, and is All things.  From the vacuum of space to the qualities of the tiniest diamond.  God owns, and is, all things.

Righteousness is, because righteousness sustains.

A man may drop his pen.  Therefore he is not righteous.  Righteousness sustains perfection.  This is Jesus, the Christ of God.

I may know certain righteous things.  But they only belong to me because I perceived them in a moment of my life.  Yet, memory fails me to remember them with perfect consistency.

Not one scale of skin belongs to me.  How can the Righteousness of God be mine?  No, All things belong to God.

Sin is “Not”.

God is perfect, and sustaining in all His Holy ways.  Sin is destruction of perfection.  Yet this too does not belong to me.  For all I have done is destroy the things of God.  I have not sustained, even my sins.

Wickedness is “Not”.

I cannot even be considered to be fully wicked.  For every man stumbles across a righteous act from time to time.  Even a drunken man can make a few steps toward his bed before he staggers into the wall.

I have “righteous” knowledge within me.  But where did I get it?  And considering my faulty mind to remember, how is that knowledge sustained?  Personally, I can trace the beginning of understanding of what is good and Holy to the reading of Proverbs.  But from where was every single word in the Proverbs of the Bible before it was written down?  They were in the Holy Mind of the Living God.

Summation:

We are nothing.  Jesus is All.  He is the very Living Word of the Sovereign God.  In all He does, he is perfection, for He sustains All.  As the Holy Father thinks, so the Christ does.

Where is pride?  Where is accomplishment?  Where is “a sustaining” among men?  For failure accompanies all our moments.

I do not own the past, for I cannot undo or add to anything I’ve been.  I do not own the very next split second, for I live in a constant state of surprise.  Yet Jesus is the “Same, yesterday, today, and forever”.

From mercy to murder, man is “Nothing”.  For God owns Eternal Mercy, as well as the soul of the one murdered.

All things belong to God, for God is All.  As it is with the Living God, so it is with the Living Word of God; Jesus.

Today in the Sandbox

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Flatter a man, and nothing ever happens.  In effect, you’ve lied to him.  You only gave him the strength to stay where he is. 

Speak to him about how his pride is condemned, and the chances are pretty good, he will hate you for life.  Again you’ve accomplished nothing, but at least you told him the truth.  And the “nothing” produced, belongs to him.

Or you could choose the road that most people take.  You could simply stick your head in the sand and refuse to help one another see.

There are three approaches to our plight as human beings: flattery, bold truth, or ignorance.  If there is another one, somebody has to show it to me.

Most of the time people play in the sandbox together, and refrain from war, by busying themselves with the toys at hand.  Until a squabble develops over a certain toy.  Then the three approaches come to bear with immediacy.

One of the protagonist will obviously be in the wrong.  I’m not saying the other was right.  But one of them abandoned his own toy with greed for what lay in the other man’s hand.  That’s pretty much the sum of what causes wars in the world.

Now let’s look at the options.  Maybe we will flatter the man and say something like, “Wow you’re a good looking and strong fellow.  Perhaps you would play with this toy better than me”. 

Success!  The man gives you I look of filthy distain, grabs your toy, sticks his nose up in the sky, and walks away. 

Well maybe you weren’t very successful.  Because now you’re sitting there trying to make a sand castle out of dry sand.  But at least you live to play another day.

Yeah, you live to play another day.  He gets what he wants because your flattery worked.  But you have not helped the next poor bloke.  In fact you made it worse on the next guy.  Now Mr Pompous, the thief, believes he deserves to win.  How cool is that?  I feel horribly sorry for the subsequent victims. 

Now since this is my story, I’m going to inject a lover of ignorance as his next victim.  I was going to put a truth teller here.  But that doesn’t follow suit with Hollywood’s playbook.  And I was afraid you would think it was the end of the story.

Mister pompous looks over and sees the toy in the hand of the one who loves ignorance.  (The guy really should have been born an Ostrich.  But God decided to withhold the feathers.) 

The second Mr Pompous’ shadow darkens the toy,  the lover of ignorance finds something immediately more pressing to do.  Leaving the toy unattended, as if by mindless action, Pompous gets what he wants.

Bolstered again.  “I really do deserve everything!”  Just peachy.

But you know who comes next.  I only have four people in this story.  Two of them have already given up, and one of them is still quite active.

There’s Mr Truth Teller. playing with his toy.  He saw what happened to the other two.  In his nature, he determined to stand his ground. 

Most people would call him an idiot.  Because there’s a very good chance he’s going to get buried in the sandbox.  But it simply isn’t his nature to care.

He’s not a hero.  That’s how people are going to paint him though.  He just leans hard on the truth.  That’s his home.  And he’ll stay in it, even if it burns to the ground.  “Bring it on Mr Pompous.”

The shadow arrives, and it’s as if the owner of the toy is blind and deaf.  And when the filthy hand reaches to grab, it receives a sharp slap on the wrist.  The statement of war is pronounced.  And the sandbox gets really quiet.

Mr Truth Teller stands up.  If you look real close, you can see his knees shake a little bit.  But he sticks his face right into near proximity with Mr Pompous.  And then he says something that saves his life.

“You see all these people around us?  They lied to you.  They told you you deserve to have everything you want.  Well I’m going to tell you the truth.  This toy belongs to me.

Now you stand in front of me, faced with a dilemma.  You can slap me to the ground and take what you want.  But those who lied to you are watching. 

When you slap me, you just might wake them up.  And there’s a whole lot more of them then there is of you.  You might want to give that some thought before you raise that greedy hand.”

Then Mr Truth Teller gives Mr Pompous a stern sharp nod, and goes back down to play with his toy.  I’m not going to finish the story here by telling you what happened next. 

Chaos does what chaos does.  You know the odds as well as I.  And you fully understand the risk Mr Truth Teller is taking.  But you also perceive it is for your good. 

There’s a good chance Mr Pompous will back off.  There’s also a good chance, that if he strikes Mr Truth Teller, all of you will stand up and pummel him into the sand.

But there are greater odds that he will strike Mr Truth Teller.  And you will do nothing in response.  One of you might dial 911.  But you won’t stand up and get in his face.  There’s a reason why those kinds of headlines are sensational.  It’s really rare when people do the right thing.

By His Grace

The Hard Baked Clod of Dirt

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Oh, Man!  Look and see what you have done.  See how you quibble over a clod of dirt; dried into a hard, tiny, rock.  You see it in the hands of another.  You desire what the other has.  So you threaten.  You plot.  You contrive reason to steal.  And with various means, you attack with purpose filled vengeance.  You take what is not yours.

First you offer compensation to the other, that you might have what does not belong to either of you.  For all things belong to God.  Then, if he refuses, greed burns within you.  The clod fills your dreams in the night.  The clod preoccupies all your thoughts during the day.  And the man who holds it secure in his house becomes your enemy.

How is this right?  What right do you have to envy another man over a clod of dirt?  What folly is this that men do?  Yet you call it reasonable!   You call it legitimate business.

Go!  Finish what is in your heart to accomplish!  Kill the man so that you can have your desire.  Take from him what does not belong to either of you!  Go ahead!

Then, then you will both find yourselves in another place.  Your hands empty of dirt, but over flowing with greed, and every wicked thing.  Shame covering your face, you will see the One to whom the Living God has given all things.  You will both stand before the One who owns it all!  Your life having been filled with greed for what you have no RIGHT to own.

What then?  You have lived your entire life full of purpose to gain.  Now you have nothing.

Why won’t you hear these words?  Why do you pay money for that which is not food?  Why do you hate and murder your brother for what neither of you owns?  Why won’t you look into these things before you are forced to appear before the owner of all heaven and earth?  Why would you finish your pathetic days in shame?

The Gospel answers you.  The Gospel waits to be read.  There is understanding, so very near the tips of your fingers.  Why won’t you pick it up and learn?