Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality

Don’t versus Belief

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Measure how great and sure is the promise of God to save those who trust in His salvation. It is delivered to us in the body of an individual called The Word of God.  

No promise on earth has ever been kept in fullness until it’s completion. Understandably then, doubt continues to plague believers. But God is not like the fallen hearts, minds and souls of Man. He is forever Other. God is Sovereign Life; He answers to no one. Believe.  


Although we already know this, doesn’t our belief suffer loss? Isn’t our loss because we compare Him to the things we witness here? Christian belief then is a Life full of willful action based on trust. That’s how it is said, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”.

Safety Is

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Written on the ocean on March 2, 2017. But ever so eternally poignant.

The waves beat against the hull of the ship.  

With a silent and determined anger;

With gluttony for autonomy,


They desire “unimpeded”.  


See how the steel says, “No”.  

See how they are forced to go,


Dissipated.  


How the strength of their ruin is utterly devastated.  


How, with present Will

pressed against them, 

they turn to white frothing.

At the majesty they encounter;  

They turn to –

Mere nothing.  


Like they do as the wind whips them up, 

in small measure 

The sea is dotted with purity.  

Yet:

With impassable Will

All is turned back.  


“You will not pass.  

I cannot relent.  

I move through your midst,

My strength never spent.”


Be still!

Cease your work!

Bow to Me!

My people will pass


Speaks The Maker He.  


Move Holy Spirit.  

Move through my soul.  

Be the ship that carries 

The desire of Your own will. 

As it has been from old.  


Be in me the strength of your love.  

Keep me on the

“Inward side.”

Seven Spanish Angels?????

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You got to this post across a certain trail. Stop a minute. Pick a rock. Have a seat. Let’s do a little traveling that doesn’t require legs.  

I’ll tell you about the trail that brought me here. I was practicing guitar this morning using YouTube; A little Skip Ewing, a smidgen of Vince Gill, a sliver of Keith urban, and just a dab of Carrie underwood. I just finished “mama’s song”, and looked down at the next few songs. There was Willie Nelson singing “Seven Spanish Angels”.  


In a flash, I was no longer playing guitar. I was transported to this place where you meet me.  


15 minutes of thought can be rolled up in one question. Does Man have a right to play games with the concept of heaven, angels, salvation, death, vengeance, and what is Holy?


It’s kind of sentimental and cute to think that seven Spanish Angels even exist, let alone that they immortalize people just because they die. But is there any possibility that it’s true? Is everyone taken to heaven simply because they lived here on earth? Take a look at what happened to Isaiah. Then tell me what will become of the godless and the sinners of this life.  


1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3. And they were calling to one another:


“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”


4. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.


5. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”


6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (chapter 6)


God is HOLY. Everything of heaven is Holy. Angels do not come from Mexico. They are of heaven, where everything is holy.  


Those who live by the gun will die by the gun. And in the end they will be assigned the place of those who murder and are of vengeance.  


I am caused to consider this, how much of my own life is a room of lies filled with stupid and ignorant tapestries that will most assuredly destroyed me? What are you thinking?


Thanks for having a seat. Thanks for listening. May God bless the path you take from here.  

Another Religion?

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Why do Christians preach to man?  What right do we have to firmly believe that we have the answers? Men will say to us, “You are just like us.  We see your sins.  We perceive your faults.  There are plenty of religions among us.  What need do we have for yours?  By some reason, you think what you believe belongs in the belly of everyone.  You are no different from any other cultish behavior of any other obnoxious religion.”

We are just like you.  Therefore we know the extent of man’s rebellion against God.  We too are sinners with plenty of faults among us.  And what we preach presents itself faultlessly as the final answer to all man’s troubles.  From without, you cannot understand what we say.  But if you would enter Christianity the Lord would prove His words to you.

However, your problem is that once you enter you will find yourself compelled to stay.  By your questions you prove you are not ready or willing.  But neither were we.  We do not preach fables.  We do not believe as we do because a man has told us.  We believe because the Heavenly Father has drawn us to His Holy Son.

Because of the rebellion of man against the Holy One, there are plenty of religions, indeed!  But we have found that man’s need is not satisfied by opinion.  We have found that Christ Jesus fulfills every need of every religion.  He leaves no stone unturned.  He is Holy Truth embodied.  For this reason (That the Lord Jesus is the embodiment of truth) we are obnoxious to you even as the Lord Jesus was once obnoxious to us.

The pride of man will refuse to believe that he is nothing.  The pride of man builds his own answers, as if a man can say he has seen the Holy Living God.  But as we believe, the Lord strips that rebellious spirit from us.  Humility comes to understand.  Humility fears the Living God.  Humility is the necessary first step in understanding what is Holy and Good.

Jesus proves to His people that He has every right to claim the singular title of “Son of God”.  We are not tossed about, as are other religions, by every desire and fabrication of man’s mind.  Yes there are many who claim to be Christians yet offer a seriously blemished testimony of God’s perfect commands.  And the best of us will falter from time to time.  But Christ Jesus remains the same in His Holy command to, “Be holy, even as your Father in Heaven is holy”.   And He teaches His people to understand these things.

You may find fault with us.  But you will also find absolute truth within us.  Ask.  Provoke the testimony within us.  Keep asking questions.  The Lord will testify from within His people.  We willingly confess our lack before all who ask.  But you will not find fault with the Son of God.

You will say, “How can you be sure that what you believe connects with Heaven?”  We know it by the living words of the Bible.  And it is confirmed within us by the Holy Spirit He gives; the Spirit which is sent from the Living Lord Jesus Himself.  Though it is by faith, this faith is not like that faith a man holds in things unseen.   The faith we have is given to us from the Heavenly Father. He confirms His Lovely Son’s position before Him.   There is a leading from the Lord.  There is a “proof”, which over time, confirms without doubt those things we preach to the world.

Remember

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Am I sober?  Am I willing to walk in the day undressed before Him?  Has He shown me what I am before Him, that I might remember?

 

Or am I as the man who owns a mirror?  I saw my reflection but I can’t remember what I look like.   My mind is so tiny.  I am so very small and fragile.

 

But He has not left me alone, without instruction.  “Remember”, He commands.  And my mind is quickened to look around.  Do I remember what I once knew?

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  (Romans 12)

Reinventing God

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payitforward

 

“Pay it forward.”  It’s a great idea isn’t it.  The Lord thinks selfless giving is a great thing too.  Let’s get sneaky, wise and stealthy.   It does only a temporary good to announce our good deeds.  But deeds done in secret last forever.

If you’re worried that others won’t pick up the lesson of “pay it forward”, teach them privately and without the use of personal examples.  Every good deed you do that has an announcement after it becomes owned by you.  Every good deed you do without being detected is owned by The Father in Heaven who is undetectable.

“Loose lips sink ships.”

2  “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3  “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4  so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”  (Matthew 6)

I take note that “Pay it forward” is used by secularists now.   It seems to have become popular lately as people try to “reinvent the wheel” of righteousness.  Trying to escape Christianity, people are busy building a man based “religion” without Jesus.  The problem is, all the really good ideas belong to Jesus.  They have to get a bit crafty when they present their own rendition.

This “Pay it Forward” seems to have come from a play in Athens Greece around 317 BC.  Here’s the script that has been passed to us as having come from that play.

“I do not pretend to give such a deed; I only lend it to you. When you […] meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro’ many hands, before it meets with a Knave that will stop its Progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.”

Jesus said it better by doing it with His body.  And look how many have been granted access to heaven.  It is this granting that spawns all Christian giving.

Think about it.