Just Wait


A typical Deutsche Bahn railway station clock

A typical Deutsche Bahn railway station clock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What do you do if you’ve been caught up in a sin?  Confess to God and wait for Him.  It is not your eternity that can be manipulated by your own will.  It is the will of God you’re seeking.

Don’t lose faith in your waiting.  Remain solidly trusting.  Just wait.  The Lord will not reject His people forever.  We are set to the task of learning how to live under the rule of the Most High God.  Restoration after a sin is not something we can conjure up from our own words.  God is looking for a renewed interest in His ways within us.

And what if the sin we have done is one of those that have repeated far too often?  What then?  Again, sit and wait on the Lord after you have confessed it to Him.  Let Him be Lord, even of your restoration.  He has promised that He does not give as the world gives.  This requires a great deal of patience from us.  He knows what He is looking for.  And after a time He will restore you.  Do not forget that the unforgivable sin is that of complete denial of His intervention.  He cannot forgive an unrepentant heart.  That heart will not accept His gift.  But that is not the heart you have now.  Look how you yearn to be restored to Him.  Just wait and be silent.  Like a little child who has been punished, accept your spanking and be patient.  His love for you is not that of man.

POST 666! Glory to God for What He is Doing!


English: copy of 19th century photograph of 1 ...

Image via Wikipedia

 

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13)

 

Learning is the essence of life under the sun.  Yet there will come a place where learning ceases.  And this place will be under the Son.   What His people are and will be should not be compared to those who remain in darkness.  And we MUST stand apart from the masses around us.  This is not a mystery, though many make is so.  There are mysteries, but learning to grow in the knowledge God gives us should never become a mystery to those who have been granted eternal life through Jesus.

With a great sadness we say that many live as enemies of the Cross of Christ.  Though they call themselves what they will, they remain outside the will of God.  May God grant that they will not die in that disrepair.  And may God equally grant that those who endure will be found having overcome by that same mercy.

The title of this post represents the “man of lawlessness”.  But the body of this post is a celebration of what God has done for His servant.  That He has blessed me with 666 articles of good words, ideas, desires, and encouragements.

Having said that, what remains is that I do what I have said must be done.  That maturity come upon me.  That when I see a task and know it to be the right thing to do, I will put away the child and go do it.  That when I speak a word of teaching, encouragement, rebuke, or praise, I will speak it as it is becoming who this man is.

While the wicked remain in darkness the blessed of Jesus will grow from glory to glory; from faith to faith.  Patience belongs to those who believe.  And it is through patient endurance that we happily encounter each new threshold as we walk “The Narrow Way.”

 

 

Bloons, a Wonderful Game.


Bloons TD4 Lite iOS logo.

Image via Wikipedia

I play the game Bloons 4.  I’ve been playing it for over a year now.  How slow am I to have just figured something out.  It’s ok to loose a few of my 200 lives if I set up certain elements first.

The Christian life is similar.  The target is holiness before the Lord.  But when we first come to Him, we find Him working on things we didn’t expect.  He begins the work within us in curious places.  And to our perception, we think something’s amiss.  We need His wisdom to hold on while He works that marvelous salvation He promises.

I encourage all who are struggling in their faith to hold on.  What you perceive as important may not be the focus of God at the time.  Just hold on!

Allowing Time for Change.


We all have someone in our life who we would love to see grow in maturity, or experience the freedom found in Christ Jesus, or take responsibility for their own actions, or even forgive an offence.    This desire to see positive growth in that loved one is a good thing.  No doubt, in that desire is found everything “good”.  There are even places in each one of us which might draw that same desire for ourselves.  “Oh, I so wish I could just…………….”. 

Will you permit me to ask a really hard question?   What serious change, or radical change, has ever come upon anyone over night?  Oh, there might be realizations that change our direction.  But the really concrete change (so as to never go back) happens slowly.  First we realize we have a problem.  Then we try on different fixes like a child tries on daddy’s shoes.  And finally we find what we know will solve the problem.  But it’s at the last point where we realize how absolutely huge and difficult change is going to be.

Even coming to Jesus with a problem we find the same three increments: realize, try variations, come to grip with the real fix.  Our lives are slow, yet hopefully sure, steps toward what we know is “good”.  I post this because I see a whole lot of people kind of stuck in a mire of doubt and inability.  I absolutely know that Jesus is the answer to any problem you might have going on.  But there’s an element of natural progress that must be embraced.

When we see someone we want to change toward what is “good”, what are we expecting?  If we expect them to just “Get with the program”, we’re bound to be disappointed.  Look at yourself.  What are you expecting?  Since even we can’t change over night, why do we expect it from others?  And what might the first signs of change look like?  The person we are focusing on, whether someone else or ourselves, is already dysfunctional in some manner.  Do we expect the first signs of wellness to appear void of this dysfunctional behavior?

This is what forgiveness is all about.  Openning the door to the sickness. so that when we see change we are willing to embrace it.   And this is why it is said that Jesus offers the fix to our problem.  His forgiveness and teaching are sure, real, and effective.  Let yourself receive forgiveness from Him.  Let yourself receive forgiveness from yourself.  Offer that same forgiveness to others.  This is the beginning of healing for everyone, even YOU.  Put on patience and love as if you were going to a stately dinner.  Wear patience for yourself.  Love without regard to who needs it.  This is the key to healing from wounds too deep to touch.

By His Grace.

Come on in. The Water’s Wonderful.


To all men, saved and unsaved:

The will of God is being accomplished in heaven and on earth.  All around you, men and women are being transformed into creatures of eternity.  His will is that all who He accepts as “sons” will receive discipline, that they might become “sons” of the Most High God.  And He encourages all men to take from His hand this generous offer. 

Believing in God is not enough.  It is a believing which provokes a willingness to serve Him that God is looking for.  If we believe with a determined leaning toward obedience we begin to learn from Him.  And it is through patient endurance that we learn to obey Him completely. 

The finished work of God in Jesus’ death, and subsequent resurrection, is the entry point to His favor.  In Jesus we find both forgiveness of sins and the power to begin living under God’s will.  You will not find power to please God through religious activity.  

Please consider what God offers.  Count the cost, for it is high.  You will be required to die to all your selfish expectations.  And let us not forget that every one who accepts His gift of forgiveness and leading will be tested.  It is through trials that our faith is proven to be true or false.  There is forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ work for His Father.  And there is leading into the holiness that God requires of all His people.  But it in the testing of our faith that many fall away.  Seek God.  Remain seeking God.  Enter the war as a loyal servant of the Most High God.

By His Grace.