Tag Archives: Religion

What are we lookin at?

by

0


Don’t look at the bum.  Look at the man.  Look past his position in society.  Look past the dirt and a shame.  Look past the isolation.  Look past the potential violence.  See the child who desires love.

Don’t look at the Fashion, pretty hair, makeup and elegance.  Look at the woman.  See the precious little girl she still is.  See how she is caught up in what she was taught; the lie of seduction.  Help her see that what she has learned is not helpful; love her as a soul. 

Don’t look at the flashing smile, rehearsed gestures, pretty words and promises.  Look at the man who says he’s a politician.  In his place, the tools of his trade are lies.  But he is still a little boy.

Don’t listen only to the religious words a man speaks.  Look at the man.  Full of misunderstandings, he strives to master the unknown.  Help him do so with you in mind.  Then, benefit comes to both.

Why do we refuse to judge rightly?  Why are we so lazy that we receive the veneer without thought?  Love is not that willingly blind.  Why do we refuse the eyes that God is so willing to give?

Help where we can.  Correct where we must.  In all things, let our minds be directed by the Holy will of God.  Then our judgments can stand the test.

Don’t look at your accomplishments, no matter if they’re religious or secular.  Look at the man and weep.  Yet do not judge before the appointed time.  Assess with the sobriety of Christ.  Leave room for Life.  Forever, you will be nothing more than a baby.

Judge all things with eternity in mind. 

“THINK ETERNITY!”  Think love.  Do what it says!  Become the people you say you are.

Onward.

by

1


The religion of a man comes about because he thinks he has found the extent of God’s requirement for him.  How far the man goes in Christ depends on how much he desires to learn.  Doesn’t our obedience to the Living God’s Holy Son depend on our will?

God has in mind for us great things.  He has in mind for us beautiful, holy, righteous, eternal, and glorifying things.  But far too often man settles for some small routine.  He gathers about himself just enough to say, “I have done the Lord’s will.  He is pleased with me”.  Such religions have a veneer of righteousness.  But consider the following.

God is not my co-pilot.  He is the one at the helm.  He owns the ship.  He owns the Sea and the Wind.  He owns the place we are going to.  He owns the place we have come from. 

The religion of man tends to say, “I have pleased God by coming through that door.  I will then go back through that door and return to the place I am”.  How can that be reasonable?  It is so easy to do the things we have learned to do.  Still, the Lord beckons us unto death; death to self and Life to Him.

Home?

by

0


The Lord, The Sovereign Lord, the Source of life, ever-present Righteousness, Glorious mercy and justice.  He has all things, doesn’t he?  He lacks nothing, how true.  That’s what Sovereign means.

But let me speak to the rich man.  Let me speak to the perverted drunk.  Let me speak to the beautiful woman.  Let me speak to the greasy whore.  Let me speak to all those who have a place among Man, whether glorified or horrified; those with clean hands and those whose hands are covered with blood.

God has all things for he is all things.  Yet what he does not have, he has poured out his life to gain.  He does not have your love.  He does not take first place in all your days, though he is first in all eternity.  All creation honors His Holy Name, except here.  His name is Jesus the Christ, look into it.

“You ask too much of us!  You sit in your religious Chapel, carved of pure Ivory, and judge us.  You have forgotten the demands of life that are far more then we can bear.  We cannot put God first we must defend our home!”

Your home?  Your home is a soleless pair of old shoes.  Your home is a worn-out pair of jeans filled with holes, and leaving your buttocks bare.  Your home is an umbrella missing it’s purposed fabric.  Your home is a cave filled with Wolverines and poisonous snakes.   The floor of your home cannot be cleaned!   Why can’t you smell the stench of your household enemy’s feces, which lay in the crags you can’t reach?  Precious place, isn’t it, this place you call your home.  The place where you fear even in what you call solace.  You light a lamp, but still darkness pervades.

8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6)

He is your potential friend.  He is your potential Guardian.  Already he provides what you call your home. 

Who causes the lava to harden?  Who plants the seed of a tree in its craggy niches?  Who brings the beautiful erosion to cause a paradise?  Who gave you this place?  Who dressed you with skin?  Yet you would fear and keep him far from you?

Trust him and do the things that belong to him.  Then you will have a home that is not filled with stench and death.  Your home provides you no pact with death.

Seeing and Hearing

by

0


I said to a man, “I have prayed often that the Lord would cause you to see and to hear”.  What is his best response?  “I see just fine.”

I know the man meant to be truthful.  And I don’t doubt that he does see.  For he was asking me questions in regard to the Living God.  But what does he see?

Earlier he referred to me as a religious man.  He does not yet make the distinction between religion and faith, lawful and holy.  He does not yet see any differently than any man who ever lived.

We have spoken together about the things of Christ hundreds of times before.  But he has not heard my words.  He still thinks he is a religious man.  He has not yet comprehend it the Eternal meaning of righteous.

Jesus heard the Father clearly, for he is the very Word of the Living God.  And he saw all things from the perspective of Eternity.  For he was sent from eternity into time.  There never was a man who could be said to have accomplished that in his life. 

What locks us in such a place that our eyes and ears can only see and hear the things of man?  Simply put, it is the pride of man; that somehow he is able to save himself.  Perhaps we estimate by percentage; “I am more good than evil.  I am as compassionate as I can be.  And I give to others what I think I can afford.  I strive hard to restrict judgement of others within myself.  All of this because I know God is watching”.

Is that how we find ourselves perceiving the things of salvation?   Is that how we see and hear?

Fatal Education

by

0


I saw the M & M’s display in a store.  The little M & M’s dude was dressed up like a rabbit.  What am I supposed to think?

I talked to the clerk.  I mentioned that the celebration of Easter is about someone special who was raised from the grave.  She happily agreed, and the conversation began.

My summation to her was a question.  “If this is the state of affairs today, what will it be in 30 years?”  And in retrospect, I remember the Lord saying, when the Son of man returns will he even find faith on the earth.

Driving down the road, I thought about the complexities of religions.  I came to that train of thought because most people will tell you there are too many opinions and not enough facts.  They refuse to investigate because they think there is no hope of conquest.

Well let me answer.

In the field of religions someone has to be wrong.  Someone has to be lying whether they know it or not.  And in all the field of Religious Studies someone has to be right.  Whether they KNOW it or not.

But using the excuse regarding opinions, people decide there is no use in chasing down the facts.  There’s too much confusion, they will say.  That’s an education that will turn out to be fatal.

A man says he doesn’t go to college because he has no need for the things they teach.  But he is educated enough to make that choice.  He has attended some sort of education that made him believe college is worthless.  His rejection of college is not necessarily fatal.  But in everything we decide, there is an inevitable outcome.

But let a man use that same premise to disregard the Living God’s Holy Son, and he commits a fatal education to himself.

Teach your children what you want.  Remain blind and ignorant all your days.  Excuse yourself from of education because there are so many variations.  Yet the Living God owns all things and will call every man to account.

He is willing to guide anyone who will humble themselves to receive.  And of all the things men strive to learn, there is nothing more important than the shape and texture of eternity.

An education of excuses.  Is this what you want for your children?  So be it.

How Far is Too Far?

by

0


Who is the Christ?  He is the absolute of everything good.  He is the absolute end of everything wicked or ungodly.  He is the very Living Word of the Living God.

Every word of God continues forever, for the Sovereign God is Living purity.  But God has sent his Living word among us that he may cease for the sake of his enemy’s lives; that God Himself may become the sacrifice. 

How great, earnest and eternal is the Living God’s pledge to save our souls?

Considering this I am struck by our lack of confidence.  Though it is eternally impossible for God to lie, and though he has sealed his intent in his own blood, somehow most people just can’t believe it.  No matter what they hear they want their own righteousness.  To those, I must say: what you want is an absolute impossibility.  Nothing that is unrighteous can, all of a sudden, become righteous by itself.  And all it takes is one tiny misstep or mistake.

Others have believed the message, but they find themselves doubting with a horrifying frequency.  They lack the courage to trust the word of the Living God.  They do not trust him enough to give him the entirety of their life.  To these God’s Living Word remains a nice religion, perhaps even a means of socially acceptable behavior.

How is the second group any different than the first?  First is to proud, the second is filled with cowardice.  What should either Group expect to hear on the day when they see the face of the Living God’s Holy and Righteous Word? 

Can it be said that by their lives they have called the Sovereign God a liar?

It is not for me to judge.  It is not for me to condemn or extend ungodly mercy.  I have only presented the argument and asked the question.