Tag Archives: Religion & Spirituality

Nail it Down Now. Don’t Add to Regrets.

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Screw the deck boards in

Image by mathowie via Flickr

The deck out back wasn’t built very well.  The uprights aren’t spaced evenly.  And there aren’t enough of them to steady the weight from wiggling laterally.  It’s old.  And the nails they used are beginning to loosen.  I’ve hammered them back in a few times.   But they come loose again each year.   The frost, rain, and heat do their work to loosen what was done.  So I’m putting deck screws into the joints to help the deck last a few years longer.

While I’m doing this, I’m looking for similarities between my Christian walk and the deck I’m working on.  (No. It never stops with me.)  Then it dawned on me.  I consider the shoddy work done at the beginning of building.  And I’m here doing work to make that bad work last longer.  It will either come down on its own some day, or it will need to be torn down and rebuilt.  Either way, it won’t last as long as it might have done if the work in the beginning had been done well.

Consider your Christian life.  If you have had a rather shaky start, or allowed the world to mingle with your Christianity while you were forming the foundations of your faith, you’ll be fixing it till your last day on earth.  If you’ve begun a strong foundation to your Christianity, you’re likely going to be able to support more weighty problems.  And you’re less likely to be swayed by the winds of wickedness that the world will throw at you.

If you’ve had a shaky start, get in there and strengthen what remains.  Isn’t that what the Lord told us to do?  Keep what you have.  There’s no sense in tearing down what remains.  Refine your faith in the Lord.  Nail down those weak questionable choices you keep making.  Solidify your understanding in the Lord and learn what the Lord’s will is for you.  

Why am I out there sweating like a water faucet today?  I’m out there working on the deck because it needs to be done if I expect it to endure another winter or two.  What about you?   How long do you expect to have to endure this world’s assaults?  1 year?  30 years?  You’d do well to start strengthening yourself now.  The Christian walk either gets harder or easier come the end of your life.  Either you’ve planned and learned well to obey the Lord, or you’ve begun to forget the foundational teachings because you’re letting the world influence your choices.

By His Grace.

“I have said, ‘You are gods.'”

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Sculpture - head of Jesus Christ

Image via Wikipedia

Who are we?  Why did the Glorious God of all create us?  We are a jewel in His Majestic Glory.  We are the work of His hand.  Yet the wicked abound.  Even the wicked are created to become sons of the Most High God.  They spurn His rule over them.  They are men of His creation.  But they desire their own desires.  He would have us all desire to serve Him.  And in His service there is no shame nor burden.   With His Word, he proclaims “I have said you are gods.  Yet you will die like mere men.” 

He has set us to live that we might learn from Him.  We are led by the Mighty Hand of God’s desire and Glory.  We are placed in a tent of flesh that we might learn humility and obedience.  Yet men by millions hate His guidance.  They build for themselves every pleasure they imagine.  And the Lord has allowed that they should have their day.   I have heard a man say “Read the books of those who hate the Most High God and His people.  It’s only fair that you read the books of my longing, if you expect me to read and understand the Book of yours.”  And what was the reply of the Lord within me to this man?  “I do not seek to be fair.  I seek the truth of God in Christ Jesus.” 

We are set apart to glorify the Lord of our Calling!  We do not strive under the same dementia as do those who throw away the very One who gave them minds to consider the world around them.  They are lost in a place of testing and can give no answer for their lives.

The Lord will have His day and He will not be put off.   Every man will answer to His Majestic Righteousness.  He has been patient with those who are now His enemies.  He has given every opportunity for them to consider His ways and to humble themselves under His Beautiful Will.  Refuse, you hated of the Lord’s Glory.  For you turn from His pleasure to seek your own.  Refuse and die.  Or choose to accept His gift in Jesus, His Christ, and live.  He offers, with open hand, a peace between you and His Glory. 

May the Lord of Life forever be glorified for the work of His powerful hand in the works of His people.  May His people know who they are and become pleasing to the Lord.  Rise up and dress yourselves with the Glory of God!  You are His sheep.  He has set you to wander in this Place of Testing, that you might learn of His ways.  Jesus has gone before us that we might perceive both the punishment of the wicked, and the reward of the Most High God for those who desire His ways.

By His Grace.

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A Testimony Given.

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In this 1768 parchment, Jekuthiel Sofer emulat...

Image via Wikipedia

The following is from a conversation with someone else.   The Lord allows His people to speak according to His wisdom.  And His wisdom should not be bottled up.  So I post this here that more people might have a chance to encounter the Gospel.

I am not a wise man.  But God is Fully Wise.  It is God who will be glorified.  And it is simply man’s duty before Him to serve in whatever arena God allows. 

The person had made the statement that the first command Jesus gave was that we love our brothers as we love ourselves.

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Actually, the first commandment Jesus gave us all was to Love the Lord with all . . .

Now let me go a bit afield, then I’ll try to narrow it down a bit. I hope this isn’t one of those stupid moments.

I have to go to the dentist soon. OH MAN I HATE GOING THERE! I’ll sit in that chair and she’ll do a number on me. The smell of burning bone is hideous. But I gotta go if I want avoid looking like Mater in the movie cars.

How do I know I have to go to the dentist? It’s because I have a mirror. I notice that I chew kind of awkward. Sometimes there’s a whistle attached to my “S”. And my Lady has kind of let me know a few times that wedding pictures would look better if I went.

Ok… that was as far afield as I planned to go. Let me try to bring it back home.

If the first commandment is to love the Lord, then everything after that is going to have God in it, solid and foundational.

I know the things that suck within me because I have looked long and hard into the words of the Bible and saw as much of my real self as I could stomach. I listened to the preaching and teaching of hundreds of men who knew the intimate details of that Word. I noticed how much of a fool I was compared to the Glorious nature of the God of the Bible. And as for a comparison to my Lady’s comments: We who have accepted the gift of forgiveness of God in Jesus, and allow ourselves to be taught by the Holy Spirit He gave as a seal are refered to as the Bride of Christ. There is a wedding to attend. And it won’t be good to attend full of evil, foolishness, unholiness, and rebellion. So as much as it can be a hard task, pride must go by the wayside, and humility must take it’s place.

The second commandment, which you mentioned is to “love your neighbor as yourself. So if I love my neighbor as myself, what’s that mean? I hate who I am. So am I allowed to hate my neighbor also. Not likely. I find I don’t hate everything about me. What I hate is the stuff that doesn’t align with God’s Holy ways. I don’t hate being alive or free to choose. I hate being a rebellious fool. So when I see others acting like the things I hate about me, I’m allowed to speak up, given that I’ve begun a rapport with the person. And allowing that I’ve at least begun to address the same behavioral problems with in myself.

I know it’s a long answer. But I thought the clarification might be useful.

“Not to mention the Christian God simply cannot exist because it defies every understanding of every fundamental law of physics.”
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The Bible teaches that God is completely “other”. He is absolutely not like us. Nor does He live in a world restricted by the same physics we endure. So I’m not sure judging the validity of Christianity based on the known science of the day is a really sound refute to the claims of the Bible.
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On top of that, something that is supposed to be perfect cannot create imperfection. If God is perfect and created humans, because humans are imperfect that makes God imperfect which would make God LESS than God.”
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What God made is a creature who is able to function with free will. (I have a personal theory why the creation happened in the first place. But maybe that will come up at a later date.) He didn’t create sin. He created a place removed from His Holy Throne where free will could play out among a people who had never seen the face of the Most High God. In the end, God reserves the right to harvest from this place of testing. But there is absolutely no indication that God created anything imperfect. He did warn Adam and Eve that if they chose wrong there would be a deadly horrible price to pay.

And please don’t forget that the Bible mentions another character who has no regard for anything pure or Holy. He plays a rather central role in what I’ve come to refer to as “This Place of Testing”.

By His Grace.

From Not to IS.

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GLORIOUS COLORS

Image by whologwhy via Flickr

Ah, the wild imagination of man without God.  That he calls what IS as though it were not. 

Ah, the Glorious strength of God.  That He calls what is not as though it IS.

Bend the knee and worship He who redeems the wicked!

By His Grace.

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What do I Know of the Night Sky?

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The oldest star of our Galaxy: HE 1523-0901

Image via Wikipedia

I step out early while the stars proclaim the season.  The Sun will soon take their place.  There are noises of night that the day does not hear.  Few move.  Most are sleeping.  What an awesome time of reflection.

Note how the stars move.  Silent in their position and obedient to the Lord to shine for billions of years.  They do not care that I see them.  They take no notice of the cycle of day and night here.  God has placed them where He saw fit.  And He has not given man any more information as to why.  He told us that they are placed in their positions to help us note the seasons.  And while men speculate regarding other planets where life like ours might exist, speculation is all man has about the stars.

I come inside to ponder what I saw.  What of life on other planets?  I shrug my spiritual shoulders.  “What is that to me?”  I live here on this blue marble.  Even at this moment I have no concern regarding life on any other planet.  My concern ends at the limit of my ability to do something about my concern.  The work I have to do is limited to the skin I wear.  And study of things “other” is fascinating, but relatively useless.  I am forced to admit that I don’t even know how to read the stars positions for the purpose God told us He created them.  I can’t tell the position of the stars for summer anymore than I can tell them for winter.  They appear to be in the same place to me.  But I believe what God has told us regarding their purpose.

So I turn my mind to what I can understand.  And apply myself to things I am able to do.  I can pray.  I can witness to the things I know.  I can testify regarding the Lord of Glory.  And I can trust that He is able to fill in the gaps, both for my understanding and the understanding of others.

Billions of years?  I’m concerned with the next 20 minutes.  How limited is man.  And God has done this.  Adam lived hundreds of years.  And so did many who lived at the beginning of man’s war with God.  I have lived less than 60.  What do I know of the night sky?  And if those people knew something of value, there is no record of their wisdom passed to us.  They are dead now.  And we are left to ponder such things without their help.  Does this make us less?  No.  For, even in their time, men died both old and young.  The amassing of wisdom is not the key to life’s meaning.  Nor is the gaining of knowledge regarding the world and the universe.  For when we die we come face to face to He who made all this.

My task is to try to notice His hand in everything I see and experience.  And I am to prepare myself to receive His instruction every moment of every day.  So the stars become a curious quandary to me.  A puzzle I have no way of putting together.  Though I admire their beauty in this pitch black sky, I am left to ponder the approaching moment of the Sun.  For the people will wake.  They will go about this world in a frenzied attack untill the moment of the Sun is passed.  And, again, the night lights of God will reign over man.

By the Lord Jesus I make my way in this Place of Testing.  And by the Lord Jesus I testify to His Glory.  This is the sum of my encounter with the stars in the early morning darkness.

Prepare me, Father, to receive the tasks which rightfully belong to a slave of Righteousness.  I am Yours by the Blood of Your Son.  Speak by Your wisdom.  Guide by Your eternal and powerful hand.  Your servant is listening.  May the peace you had before the foundation of the world return to You.  And may your servants worship you with that certain peace of knowing.  Praise the Lord God of all creation, all you saints of Glory.  For He is worthy of praise.

By His Grace.

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Good Morning My Son.

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tiny bird believes in values you believe in

As I wrote this morning, a little bird hopped through the door.  Afraid that it would come in too far and get in trouble by the windows as it came to understand its misstep, I whispered “hey, you don’t want to be in here”.  With one hop, my little friend left.  What a beautiful way for the Lord to say “Good morning my son.”

By His Grace.