Tag Archives: Prayer

Can you see?

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One man percieves God as hideous monster; full of Holy law and demanding.  Such a man does not know the law of God, he only knows his own hideous sin.  He attributes what he knows to the Holy One.  “Surely God is like me.  He will strike me with death when I die”.

Explain to him that God is love, and out of the fear that is in his heart, he will nod in agreement.  But there is no agreement in his soul.  He keeps on in his way because he sees no hope of any change.  If God is cruel then he is a dead man, even while he lives, and he knows it.

To another man, God is purely love.  In this man’s mind, God throws His own Righteousness and Holiness aside to embrace the sinner.  The man perceives that his sin will be erased by some miraculous working of God. 

But he does not understand his own obligation to do “The Way” of Christ.  He perceives “The Way” is too hard to walk, but he does not consider the power of prayer in Christ Jesus.  This one hungers for acceptance.  He does not hunger for righteousness.

This man thinks he will be granted entry into the perfection of eternity simply because he exists.  Speak to this man of a necessity of holiness and righteousness, and he will count you a fool.

Still another man will perceive that God demands certain rituals from all his worshippers.  This man may have started out in Christianity, by receiving forgiveness for his sins, but he has studied the law of God and has determined to do the law.  This one will add to his worship “a little here and a little there”.  In the end, he becomes far less a Christian then before he began.

Each man holds the perception of God that he has grown to love dearly.  Some hold fear, some hold love, some hold law.  As a man believes so he does.

Each of the above ways is flawed, and will suffer loss.  How very sad, when the answer for wholeness in Christ lay so clearly before us.  If a man will humble himself and pray, God will direct him into what is true.

But men love sin.  Men love pride.  Men love praise.  All three of these, the Holy Most High God abhors.

You can have the perception of God you want.  No one will stop you.  They may try to teach you with all they have, but you will refuse.  You men, as mentioned above, will do as you please regardless the will of God.  The loss is yours.

What more is there to say

That is healthy to say? 

What is written here is true.  

What would you do?

Prayer Against Fear

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Mighty and Righteous Holy Lord, You who lives forever by the Righteous Judgement of the Sovereign God.  You are trustworthy and true.  No doubt is born of you!  But by Holy union, you cause us to believe.

There is no fear that shall overtake us, if we will but lay down our pride and accept your glorious gift of life.  The Holy Father himself has declared this to be true. 

Therefore we surrender as we find ourselves able.  We have called our fear humility, and we are in error.   Open our eyes that we may see and believe.

We beg you for strength, simply to believe.  We are weak in our way, please accept our apology.  But grant us wisdom to understand!

For you cannot lie and you have sealed your promise in the Holy Blood of your Holy and faithful Son.  Though our weakness is blatant, we beg you for mercy.  For we have not understood as we should.

Cause growth to our faith!  Let us rise up and believe.  Let us defend your Holy Name, in this place of testing; this by our firm trust and patient doing. 

You have displayed your intent in the greatest of possible love.  Therefore give us the gift of faith.  Do not allow your people to rest in the faith of man.  Rather transform us into The Holy Faith of your Holy Way.

Then you will have what is rightfully yours; a people separated from the wickedness of this rebellion against your Holy Law.

All day long and even into the night, temptation assails, and in our weakness we are tossed about.  Send understanding O’ Sovereign One! 

You lack by our weakness toward fear.  We are bent toward fear as the trees along the ocean are bent by the constant wind.  Holy One, this should not be!

Come among us and give us strength to serve, that your bounty may be evident before your Holy Throne!  Come and  cause to be, what is rightfully yours.

By the Holy Name of your Holy Christ, the perfect and faithful One, grant that we should rise and believe.

Beyond the Veil

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Just beyond the veil of your weakness and fear lay all the strength and promise any man can have.  No man can remove this veil, anymore than plucking out his own eyes will cause him to see better.

The eyes you now use to perceive your weakness and fear are useless in the gaining of this magnificent strength and promise.  To gain what is more you must receive.  Yet how can a man receive by taking from what he already has?

This is how many Christians live.  They strive to obey from their own resources.  But that does not come from the message they first heard.

They realized they were helpless so they turned to look for an answer.  But when the answer was provided, they turned back to their old way. 

How can they “become”?  How do they think they can now provide what they were not able to achieve before?

If peace was delivered by believing the power of God to transform, how is it we now turn to our own strength to do what is more?  By this error, born of pride and folly, many have shipwrecked their own faith.

The answer remains where it was found in the beginning.  Humble ourselves before the living God.  Ask with earnest and continuous prayer.  Read the Bible again and again; that you may learn the language of salvation.

If you will not do these things how can any man help you farther?  The sad part is you may not want what you think you want.

Prayer

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People, by majority, tend to avoid prayer.  To most, prayer is like those little hammers you can buy to smash out your window in case you drive into a lake.  In fact it is so like that little hammer, that most people can’t remember where they put it when they need it the most.  If they remember at all.

But prayer is not exclusively for men.  When you tell people they should pray, they think of themselves as ugly and unworthy therefore afraid of the Most High God.  And they equate God with a holy law they cannot and are not willing to fulfill.  They may say “okay” but they will not.

People think of prayer as something they are expected to do as a righteous ritual.  But prayer is not for us.  Prayer is for God.  He takes delight in seeing his creatures come to him.  So when we don’t pray we rob him of his joy.

I will make a fool of myself by giving this example.  I lay on my bed one day, feeling fully unworthy of his presence.  I spoke a few words to him but did not kneel before Him in prayer.

Then I sensed that familiar loving voice of the Lord Jesus.  “It is not right to keep what belongs to him.”

The understanding was immediately clear.  Humanly speaking, I was hurting God’s feelings.  I was busily robbing him of his joy.  With that understanding, it was very easy to get up and kneel in humility to give him praise and thanks.

When people refuse to pray, they are often correct about their guilt.  But the guilt will not dissipate unless we go to the one who can remove it.  He will remove it if we come to him in humility and earnest intent.

How do I know this?  Because Jesus willingly allowed himself to be murdered so that he may become the mercy of God.   He is the crown jewel in all God’s creation.  No one exalts trivia.  Rather, he gives glory to his greatest prize.  How much more does God?

If we are guilty of sin, that is one thing.  But to be guilty of non-belieg is an entirely different matter.  By refusing to believe we are counting God’s greatest prize as far less valuable.

God was deadly serious about offering his Son as the sacrifice for our sins.  He is deadly serious about how we receive that sacrifice.  (It is not possible to put that more strongly.)  Therefore he is deadly serious about saving us.  Therefore he is deadly serious about his desire to commune with his creation.

There is holy wrath waiting for those who refuse to believe.  But his generosity and mercy are even more potent for those who receive His gift. 

This is true.  It is a faultless saying.   Why then would anyone refuse to give God what is rightfully his?

With the promise of utter annihilation , and the promise of eternal embrace, how can anyone choose the former?  It is not logical.  It makes absolutely no sense.  God refers to such a choice as foolish.

His people, in this place, willingly testify that God is a beautiful loving Father.   Ask and they will tell you how much God loves them. 

(I can only hope that the man you think is a Christian, and approach to ask, is truly in love with God.  Beware, many masquerade by wearing the name.)

With even a summary view of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you will get the picture of God in Jesus.  If you approach those books with humility, understanding will come.

There is no safety away from him.  But near him there is all safety and confidence, not to mention a clean conscience.  And by going to him we give him what is his. 

I had a dear old friend you once told me, “It is impossible to out give God.  He has a bigger shovel.”  If you give him what he wants, do you think he will not rightly give you what you need?

Do you remember?

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Do you remember?  Do you remember what hopelessness feels like?  We struggle along the “Way”.  But how can the struggle be compared to endless sins?  Do you remember?

Do you remember when there was no prayer?  We look back now and have forgotten the agony of life.  Like the rest of the world, we called on things of our imagination.  We learned from others what they thought worked.   We did not know God’s Christ.  All we knew was his Holy Law. 

Let a vicious dog stand in my way, and I will find another way around.  Even if the way around takes far too long and robs me of my expectation, it is better to arrive with all my limbs.  Do you remember?

So it is with the world.  Do you remember?  They have nowhere to go but expectation of judgement.  Their soul knows it and they avert their eyes.  Do you remember?

The cold of hopeless sleep.  The necessity for sin as a distraction from what is sure to come.  The chasing after things that do not last, for what lasts does not belong to them.  Do you remember?

They cannot pray and no one prays with them.  So they worship angels and idols.  Prayer to them is the hope of gain.  What little and temporary they can gain with their hands is the sum of their prayer.  Do you remember?

Or have we begun to feel sorry for ourselves?   The way of God can be impossibly arduous if we’ve try to walk it in the flesh.  If such is the case, we have forgotten.  Remember.

Many men

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Many men do the things that are good.  Thousands and millions, even now, give praise to God through Christ Jesus.  Forced to their knees in prayer by the Holy Love that is Christ, they give earnest prayer that their life might come to reflect the will of the living God.

His holy law is written on their hearts and seared into their mind.  And before the world awakes, these have come before Him that they may be prepared for the things the day will bring.  He will honor what is His.  And as he gives to them, they receive.

The world will see them all day long.  The world will see the witness that glows in all their actions and speech.  The world will know these men are different.  But they will not understand the reason or means for it.

Thousands and millions have received.  But millions and billions are yet blind, deaf and righteously infirm.  They do not have foundation of life. 

It is for the sake of these dead that Jesus has given what is His.  It is for the sake of the millions and billions that He dresses His people in righteous behavior.

Not one of His people were born righteous.  They are of those dead; those millions and billions of lifeless souls.  Their eyes have been opened and their ears released to hear. 

If you would be a part of them then ask.  Appeal to God.  Seek His face while it is yet dark.  Go into a secluded room.  And ask.  Make it your habit to seek the face of the Holy Lord.  For God is not willing that any should die.

He searches the earth to listen and to see. 

Finding those who bend a humble knee.

Those who cry out loud, “God forgive me!”

These catch the attention of HE.