Tag Archives: pleasure

That Peculiar Brand of Fear

by

0


Sin has its own distinct pleasures.  There’s no reason to lie about it, sin is fun.  Preferring to live in sin is to live a life full of joy and laughter.  It’s kind of like being drunk with abandon instead of alcohol.

But there’s also no reason to lie about the following.  Sin has its own particular brand of fear. 

The one who lives a life of sin fears everything.  He can’t trust God to watch out for him, so whatever is unknown becomes a potentially destructive enemy.  And the volume of unknowns is endless.

The sinner may say he fears nothing.  He may make great bold statements of his ability to cope.  But as Shakespeare wrote, “Me thinks thou dost protest too much”.  The bold proclamations of a sinner, in regard to his fearlessness, are nothing more than a golden blanket covering the thumb sucking child within.

The sinner knows he stands in a very precarious place.  God has promised to rip him apart at the judgment, and the sinner knows it.  By sheer will and deft ignorance the sinner simply puts it out of his mind.

On top of the coming promise of destruction, is a very curious fear.  They call it bad luck.  It’s also called Murphy’s Law. 

The sinner is always looking over his shoulder to see what’s coming to bite him in the butt.  He’s absolutely sure God has it in for him.  In the sinners mind, God is always trying to cause him trouble.  But such thoughts are only a mirror of his own evil heart.

The sinners fear is equal to his pleasure.  All the while he goes about trying to secure his next joy, he worries and frets that he will be assaulted in some peculiar manner.  Perhaps a broken bone, perhaps severe sickness, perhaps he will be caught doing what he should not be doing and end up in jail.

It’s ridiculous the measures people take to avoid thinking about God and the judgment to come.  But even more ridiculous is the ease with which his fearful burden can be lifted.  All it takes is a tiny measure of humility.  But humility isn’t fun, so it’s given no place on the sinners agenda.

God will not despise the humble heart.  And God will teach the humble man how to be fearless. 

Forgiveness from Christ Jesus provides a distinctly different joy.  While apparently the body is cast into sorrow, the forgiven sinners soul is laughing in the language of heaven.  While the sinner’s joy ends when his current preoccupation is taken away, the joy of the forgiven sinner never leaves him.  Little by little that peculiar fearfulness is replaced by a gentle confidence.

Serving God in Christ Jesus is pure and true freedom.  Pursuing sin and joy of the body will always result in slavery to fear.

The forgiveness of Christ Jesus is not just an arbitrary phrase.  When it is received, the soul knows it has been set free.  With forgiveness from God comes peace and hope.  Two things the sinner cannot possibly attain and retain.

By His Grace

True Pleasure

by

0


If sadness does not accompany us on our waking.  If what is first in our desire, is to be full of joy and laugh.  If we find we can look back at our past with great pride.  If there is no fear within us for the things we love to do.  I submit to every man (Christian or not) , that such a life may not have the Living God within it at all. 

(By using the phrase “may not have”, I mean the odds are 99:1.  For those of you who know nothing about gambling or other games of chance, such odds are not even worth playing.  What sane person loves to play a game he knows he can never win?)

What is pleasurable in the flesh, stands at odds with the desire of the Living God.  There is a joy in the Holy Spirit.  But it is not like the joy of man.  Man is full of joy at what he has.  The Christian is full of joy in The Promise.

There is a history in every Christian that is worthy of peaceful contemplation.  But the world would not recognize it as peaceful.  The world would perceive such a life as a desperate insanity.  For the Christian finds that not one single thought of his own was worthy of thinking.  The Christian’s only moments of sanity, are those places where he obeyed. (And this in direct conflict with the desires of his body)

The Christian may carry a great pride, but it is not for the things he is, nor the things he does or has done.  The Christian’s pride is exclusively in the Lord who has purchased him.  Thus the vibrant testimony, which the world hates, thrives within the man of God.  The man of God will find it impossible to keep his mouth shut.

There is a trembling in fear the man of God owns.  But it is not a fear that restrains.  It is rather a fear that provokes.  It is the very engine of godliness.

The man of God will find that he loves to do the things the world hates.  He will also find that he is full of hatred for the things the world loves.  The people of the world are like a high maintenance woman; they must be entertained 24/7.  But the man of God is full of joy to do the simple things.

To those who stand outside Christianity, I testify that Christianity is not just another religion.  Christianity is always a becoming.  And to those who consider themselves Christians, yet find entertainment their highest priority, I suggest strongly that you reexamine your faith.

While the man of God lives on this earth, he is never at rest.  And the closer we get to the Living God in Christ Jesus, the more dynamic the separation appears.  The closer we get to Him, the less we are in turmoil.  But the journey is easily compared to a bloody and protracted war.  What man can endure such a life on his own?

You can have your life of joy, and peace, and pride.  I would much rather live the life of humiliation before the Living God.  I would rather own no righteousness, than to be full of self praise.

For when I find my own ways abhorrent, then I know I agree with eternal ways of the Holy and Loving God.  And this, my friends, is peace eternal.  This, my friends, is Christianity.

My brothers and sisters in Christ: Check the boxes.  Where has your faith agreed with these things?  Do you find yourself afraid to testify?  Are you fully absorbed in the things the world loves? 

How could you possibly be at peace in godly testimony?  Such a fear testifies that you agree with the world; “Jesus is an embarrassment to you”.

You may think this is a very harsh statement.  But remember that Jesus was not ashamed of his Heavenly Father.  Even to the extreme humiliation of beating and death, he knew he was at war with the things of this world.

Every hero in the Christian faith has lived his life in a desperate war.  If you find yourself living a life of peaceful joy, as you pursue and mingle with those things of the world, how could you possibly be a disciple of Christ?

Any man can call himself anything he pleases.  But there is a line of demarcation.  God himself has drawn the line, in the bloody body of His Holy Son.  And there are far more who straddle that line than those who cross it.

I wrote this to describe the radical difference between Christianity and any other way of life.  But as I came to completion, I began to realize that Christianity has been so watered down that it is almost unrecognizable.

If you consider my last few words to be an attack, you are reading with the glasses of pride, proudly poised on your upturned nose.  The man of God takes instruction where he finds it.  He may not yet be humble, but he knows that is the desired place to live.

I am finished writing this post.  I realize it is not only an instruction, it is also a declaration of war.  So be it.

By His Grace

Regret is But a Vapor

by

0


Among men, there are things that are referred to as truth.  In this place of testing, this place where wickedness is king, such a statement has a moment of viability.  For men will do what they do.  They will accept what they consider profitable.  And they will praise one another for obedience to the expectations of men.

But there is a place where such things called truth will leave all their hands empty.  They will be void of praise for the One who has allowed them freedom to do as their pleasure has demanded.  When Glory no longer allows the pleasure of men, they will have no praise for God.

They give gifts to one another for the sake of worthless profit.  But their hands will be full of regret, at the time of appearing before Him.

How can I help you, my brothers of flesh?  How can I inspire you to gather profit?  How can this tiny man urge you to fill up your gifts for Him?  How can these words displace the pleasure of man within the souls of my fellow man?

Please consider, with the greatest sobriety, how that moment will be.  Every man will see the Holy Angels bowing at the Glory of Christ Jesus.  Every man will witness those whose hands are filled with the Holy Works of God.  Every man will hear the praise, that holy praise, which is rightfully due to the One who has redeemed their souls.  And shame will fill those with empty hands.

Eternity, that great door of Life, will open for those who accept the Lord’s offer of humility.  Void of pride, they will enter His Holy Kingdom.  While the great assembly of eternal dead are ushered to their place of horror, the righteous will abound in joy.

Who are the righteous?  Are they those whose own works of pleasure has filled their holy hands?  No.  This is a fable of man.  The pride of man has promoted this lie.  The righteous are those who have sought the Living God.  It is God who has endowed them with righteous and eternal ways.  They have received!  They have not provided for themselves.

Such people will have what cannot be taken away.  For what belongs to God will remain forever.  But the pleasure, pride, accomplishments of the flesh, and desire for what brings temporary peace, will utterly be void of praise for the Living God.

Regret is a vapor.  Do not let your hands be filled with vapor when you appear before Him.  He offers you profit this very moment.  Be full.  Become profitable for He who is Life Eternal.  Let Him dress you according to His Holy Will.  Why would we remain naked all our days here?

God is First

by

0


Some men are given to love this world with all their heart and mind and soul.  I cannot help them more than to say, “God is first”.

Some men are given to love His Holy Word with all their heart and mind and soul.  I cannot help them more than to say, “God is first”.

Some men are consumed with the world’s idea of aliens on other planets, or perhaps with nothing but prophecy.  I cannot help them more than but to say, “God is first”.

The living God is more than this world.  The living God is more than the written word. The living God is more than conjecture.

God is first.  Nothing counts but faith expressing itself in love.  And our faith is firmly grounded in the Holy Son of God.  Eternally, it will not be otherwise.

By His Grace

News Flash!

by

0


You’ve heard what the world calls news.  Have you heard what God calls news?

1 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Timothy )

3 “Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” (2 Peter 3)

By His Grace

“NARROW!” I Said, “Narrow!”

by

0


13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7)

What is this “narrow gate”?  And why did Jesus say, “few there are who find it”?

The narrow gate is this: “37 . . .Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22)

“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” (Luke 13:24)

The reason why there are so few who find it and enter, has everything to do with greed.  Men are destroyed because they want everything for nothing.

No man will enter the hope and Holy will of God, thus eternal life, without putting Christ first among all his things.  Take note of how greedy desire restrains you.  Take note of how callously you use the name of Christ Jesus.  Take notice how carefully you avoid prayer.  Take note of how many pages in your new Bible are still uncut.

How can any man travel any distance while he has tethered himself to a heavy weight?  All the pleasures that belong to this world will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Nor will the man who holds them dear.

Look within you.  See, with honesty, what you hold dear.  Is it the will of God?  Or is it love for what you can gain here? 

You say you don’t know the will of God.  I ask you, have you looked into it?  Or have you preoccupied yourself with all the pleasures of this world you can gather?

There are two reasons why most men never enter the narrow gate.  The first is that they hate restriction.  The second is they love pleasure more than they love God.

If you want more provocation to do what is right, consider this, “Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many go in there by.”  If you are one of those, you will certainly be destroyed.

If you don’t care if you are destroyed, what more can be said.  But if you care about whether you live or die, be wise.  The choice is entirely yours. 

Follow the crowd and you will die.  Follow after God and you will live.  Follow the crowd and you will feel safe.  Follow after God and they will abandon you.

By His Grace