Tag Archives: Peace

Futile Response

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The eyes of a man see the things of a man. And from his perspective he is locked forever.  

He will live and breathe, move and die, locked in a futile perspective of hopeless wasting. All the perspective of man can give us is its end result, death. And don’t we see the futility of that perspective being played out as people trying to grapple with the results of the election.  


From gloating to riots, the perspective of man seeks violence.  


All the while, the Mercy of God whispers, “Come to me and see these things from my point of view”.  


Who will stop long enough in the morning to listen to the whisper? Who will let the grace of God massage their mind and heart? The answer is obvious as you see people dance in futility all day long; not many.  


Jesus, the Christ of God, offers release from futility. To know about it is not the same as receiving it. Please take the time to think that through.  


By His Grace.  

What is Forgiveness

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Lord Jesus, Holy Father:

That you should be willing to forgive our sins as we forgive others. Such an awesome mountain of failings blown away by a breath from your nostrils. And all we have to do is humbly ask you and receive. Living out a life of thanks in the valley of penetrating knives. Just as you showed us should be done.  


What incredible power to overcome that is; eternally beyond our words to describe. Not only does someone love us, but the very creator of all things!


Spoken at your birth sustained by your righteousness forever: “Peace has come to earth, and goodwill to all men” (paraphrase).


Billions thank you. Recognizing that we can’t thank you enough. And even while we thank you, doesn’t the next failing prepare.    


By your display and patience you are astounding! Ceaseless and endlessly powerful is the love of God for all who call on his Holy name.  

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.”

The Promise

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It is not obedience that opens the eyes.  

It is not repetitive chanting 

That brings the luscious surprise.  


It is not among the gaggle 

With whom we choose to mill about.  


It is simply our believing that brings the joyous shout.  



He said:

“I have a throne of Glory.  

My Father makes it mine.  

The joy and peace in which I live,

I desire to make it thine.  


And do you doubt,

Poor wandering soul.  


Take my hand,

I’ll prove to you.  


I’ll take you on a journey.  

To the place where all is new.  


There was a pool of blood.  

There was a rending a flesh. 

There was a place,

An indelible race,

Wipe the tears from your lovely face.  


If a man ever wanted a woman.  

If a woman ever wanted a man. 

How much more the living desire

from the Son of the great I AM.”


In the Blink of an Eye

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Have you looked into the coming future of Man?   Do you know about the utter devastation of all wickedness?  Do you know how sure it is?  

At the very moment of Eternity when God lips cease speaking the command, a devastating and eternal blow will be sent to all this darkened the creation.  Like a lightning bolt that strikes a pea, the earth and all this black universe will be no more.
Everything man currently loves will become nothing more than a floating ember of ash.  Absolutely nothing, of even the dust, will remain.  
Heaven will move, taking its rightful place.  This place of testing will be no more.  The joy and righteousness of God will prevail forever.
When this happens it will be as if this place has never existed.  All the things men love will be gone.  And it will happen in the blink of an eye.
It will happen faster than it takes an atheist to remember he has said there is no God.  Have you considered these things with serious and vibrant desire?  Or have you been like so many others?
Lashed to a portion of the ship, the man proclaims there is no storm.  The ship is tossed 45 degrees to the left, then is forced the other direction 90 degrees.  All the while he stupidly proclaims, “There is no storm”.  
It’s easy to see there is no common sense in such a man.  Are you living your life like that?  Or are you letting common sense cause you panic?
Such realization ought to send us to the words of God.  Truly believing this ought to make our fingers tremble as we turn the pages.  Is this the way you see people reacting to this News?
It doesn’t matter how we respond, does it?  It doesn’t matter what comes of us when God puts an end to all the things men have loved. 

Heaven will gain its rightful place, that place that this place of wickedness has consumed for so long.  And it won’t matter whether we believed this or not.
I urge you because I love you, think about this.  If I despised you I would say nothing.   Please let your mind think this through.

From Peace to Murder

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​The rest stop was full.  But I’d driven as far as I could for the day.  I have to stop somewhere.  So I parked on the shoulder of the off-ramp.
I was exhausted.  A little bit of winding down, and sleep came pretty easily.  The noise of the traffic going by hardly reached my ears.  But now I’m awake, the sun is coming up, and the noise gets louder and louder.  It’s hard to believe that tires on asphalt can be so loud.
I know there’s a measurement called decibel.  But I don’t know how to quantify that.  If I hear an explosion I know that it’s a lot of decibels.  If I hear a whisper, indeed if I could hear a whisper, I’d know it was very few decibels.
I sit here thinking about my family and all the people who rush about everyday.  I wonder if there is a decibel measurement for anxiety.  I’m thinking about the anxiety called desire, or greed.  While the world sleeps, there’s a few who make those anxious noises.  But on the whole, it’s barely more than a whisper in this world.  If greed wasn’t quieted down during the night no one would sleep.
Then I wonder something useful.  Does man even know what peace is?  Only Adam and Eve knew peace.  Apparently that didn’t last very long  Days, months, years, decades, who knows?  I don’t know for sure, perhaps it lasted more than a hundred years.  But once peace was gone, it is as though it never existed among us at all.  And the proof of it’s leaving lay in the ground with their son Abel.  And the proof of their realization ran down their cheeks as tears.  Peace was forever gone, replaced by something new – horror.
Greed’s particular name that the time was Cain.  But his mindset goes about in this world today under the use of a billion different names.  Now, all we know is murder and chaos.  But you could easily refer to all of us as Cain.
Cain committed the first murder; The taking of life from his brother.  But I have committed murder.  Haven’t I taken away hope from hundreds of people?  In that sense, haven’t we all committed murder? 
In those days I was not peace and I did not know peace.  But ignorance is no excuse is it?  Once a life is shattered, how can any words of Man (or excuses) fill the void?  Whatever hope of peace and trust there was I ripped away with a rock called greed.  I guess we could say there’s a murder of death as well as the murder of life.  The latter, by the way, is legal in this place.
But let’s get back to the theme here .
Peace is an individual.  He withdrew from this place because of sin.  But he is peace.  He is not disturbed by the death of Abel.  And he is not disturbed by this wasting disease called sin.  And he is not disturbed by the volume of noise greed makes in this wicked place.  He is not disturbed by what we do.  In the blink of an eye he will shut it all down.  But he is very concerned to come and give us peace.  He is very concerned about teaching us how to stop murdering life.
We may get some quiet time from here and there.  But do we know He who is Peace?  I asked that because even while I sit among all this increasing noise,  my soul is not disquieted.  My body perceives the chaos.  But my soul is in his hands.  Where does your soul find itself today?  Do you know Peace?