Tag Archives: Religion & Spirituality

hmmmmmmm.

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I was standing on the back porch, again.  And a thought came to mind.  For the life of me I really couldn’t answer a question.  Why is it that the language in print is so dramatically different than conversation?  Especially when it comes to the things of God, we are avoided and laughed at behind our back.  Even in a Church setting we are expected to speak with one another in a very different tone than what we read in Scripture or hear in the sermon.  Oh, it’s ok to speak God things like “bless you”, or speak some great thanks to God in the presence of others while we are in some kind of Bible study.  But close the book and we all seem to go different ways with our minds and tongues.

I admit I used to be very irritated when the sermon was over, the prayer was prayed, and the last blessing was given from the Pastor.  Because immediately after that people left the building.  If there was conversation it would be rather trivial.  And I wondered how such a beautiful God could be loved while a man was speaking from a certain place, yet ignored in conversation immediately after.

Why didn’t we gather together to pray in little spontaneous groups?  Why didn’t someone come and take me by the shoulder of my shirt and smile while he led me to a corner to pray?  Why was talk about fishing, cooking, football, and cars, so much more important at that moment?

Lots of questions.  Anyone got some good answers?

Detail

Detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dedication to He Who IS

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Fear The Lord The left hand of the two similar...

Fear The Lord The left hand of the two similarly carved stones either side of the west entrance to St Leonard's Church. 32432 "Fear the Lord your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name." Deuteronomy 10:20 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let poverty envelop me,

I will serve the Lord.

Let sickness render me to death,

I will serve the Lord.

Let my limbs be limp,

I will serve the Lord.

Let all abandon me,

I will serve the Lord.

Let my life appear useless,

I will serve the Lord.

Let them rail against me,

I will serve the Lord.

May my body endure the will of the Spirit of God.  Let the Lord fill up His testimony by the sacrifice of this body.  May the Living God, the Father of Jesus my Lord, find pleasure at the life His Great Mercy has sent unto me.  I am His.  I do not belong to myself.  I do not belong to the ways of this world.  I do not belong to the desires of man.  And, by His Grace, I will stand apart to serve the maker of my soul.

Amen.

Woe! What a Shame!

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Television set for Wikipedia userbox icons, or...

Television set for Wikipedia userbox icons, or other things. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is a shame, the wickedness of man.  When the veil is torn apart and man stands before the Most High God every shame of man will be exposed.  Oh how they will wish they had spent their lives searching after the things of God.

But there is an even greater shame today.  There are a people who have been bought by the evil one.  They put themselves on the block to be bought, taught, and sold into slavery.  Who are these?  They are the ones who will tell a man of God that they have no time to better themselves in the things of God.  Yet these are the same ones who will spend 5 hours a day watching television.

It is to their great and utter ruin that they allow their precious days to pass like this in this place of testing.  They allow themselves to learn the items of wickedness to a fine honed edge.  But they spend no time learning about the things of God.

They have become pawns of wickedness.  They are traded and laughed at all day long by those who hold them in a trance of blindness.  “Buy this.  Act like this.  Desire this.  Endure this.  Teach your children this.  Embrace this life of useless wickedness, for I command you who waste your time here to learn from me.”  And they will indeed buy, act, desire, endure, teach and embrace every wicked and utter abomination set before them.

Woe to those who crave the things of this world and make no preparation for the coming visit from the Holy One of Israel!  Woe to them.  For they have set themselves apart for evil and made no attempt to please the One who made them.  Do they really think they will receive a rich welcome into His presence?

Do Not Let Me Resort to Fear

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In life here there are lies.  There is death, hunger, despair, hatred, false religion, false gods, hopelessness, twisted men who present themselves as if they are “good”.  And the list I could make of what is here would go on for many pages.  Who would read what they can touch with their own fingers?

Yet in this life there is a place of understanding that strips off all that filthy list.  There is a place where a man can know truth and live it.  I know that place!  I know that many will see me type those words and balk, “No man knows truth.”  I tell you I know Him!  And, more importantly, He knows me.

You want freedom from all that detestable list?  Do you want FREEDOM to LIVE?  Pry it from my heart.  Help me testify to what He is.  Ask me.  Press me.  Help me put into words what only the soul can understand with any clarity.

We have lips, graphics, gestures, and body language to communicate.  That’s the limit of our ability.  So how can I hope to tell you what is spoken in a place where these things are NOT the limit?  Take it from me.  Ask until you understand.

God has given the Gospel to men so that men can speak to one another.  It is a humble heart who will lower themselves enough to ask another man.  It is the proud who will restrain their questions before men.  The proud will think that no man can know the truth.  The humble will avail themselves to any possible source of life.  They will seek with all their might.  And if the testimony I give you falters, the meek will understand that I am like them.

We struggle to share what cannot be perceived.  But that inability to perceive it through our senses does not mean it is a lie.  Salvation in Jesus is absolutely real and transforming.  Consider this:  We are in the place of testing.  We are the ones who, for now, can’t see what eternity has seen all along.  We are the ones blind to His presence.  He is not blind to us.

Ask and I will tell you what He has told me.  And I am not the only one.  There are thousands of me.  Ask them.  Press them.  You know who they are.  Make them tell you.  And do not let them resort to fear.

1 John 3:14

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We know that we have passed from the death of this world into the eternal life of God’s Kingdom when we find ourselves joyfully obeying His commands.  Those who do not obey have not completely passed from death to life.  We know that no disobedience will remain when we are brought into the presence of God for eternity.  And we also know that when we obey God’s commands we become full of a desire to love.  As we mature this desire becomes a full bloom within us.  And we have confidence before the Most High God through Jesus.

We begin in a tiny shred of belief.  God grants us mercy to grow, according to His wisdom and mercy.  All along the way we encounter items of concern within us that need attention.  And to these encounters I say, strengthen your belief.  Retain the confidence you had at first and do not begin to doubt.

To those who have begun to rest on that shred of faith I say this:

If you do not have this love of God growing within you, you will regret horribly that you did not consider it important to fan it into flame.  I do not say this to frighten you for no reason.  The intent is to wake you from a slumber the music of sin and rebellion in the world has caused in your soul.  On the day you see Him face to face, it will be far too late to cultivate that obedience and love.  What you do here is what will be presented before Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

I urge you to consider these things.  Today is all you have.  Set your face in the direction of obedience and love.  Do not look back as sin and rebellion, so as to go back to it.  This is the day your heart is being tested.  I urge you to do all you can to pass that test.  The gift of God in Jesus is free.  But it is freedom to set you free of sin and disobedience, and rebellion.  It is not freedom to do as you please.   It is freedom to do as God pleases.  Do not allow yourself to be fooled.  He who sows to the flesh will reap destruction.  He who sows to the Holy Spirit of God will reap eternal life.

May God grant you understand, wisdom, mercy, and forgiveness as you contemplate these things.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent is an important ic...

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Remember!

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The saying goes, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”  I don’t believe this is true.  But it’s a good place to start this entry.

What have I learned from a recent battle against unbelief?  I’ve learned to pray for wisdom the very second I realize that I’m up against something “not quite right.”  I’ve learned to look for certain phrases and catch words that liberals use in the traps they lay for those who promote the Living God in truth.  I’ve learned, also, to look at the words surrounding those expected traps.  This might be called listening.  I’ve learned that there is such a thing as what I will call “sugar watered gospel”, which is no gospel at all.  I’ve learned that there is a “bitter truth” attached to the Gospel of Jesus.  The sugar and the bitter collide on the tongues of the proud and the humble.  Sugar is for those who remain in pride as they search out the things of God.  By its very nature pride waters down and sweetens the message of God so that the man of pride might remain proud.  This is a horrible plight for those who embrace false teachings.  Everything they learn gets filtered through the “broad way.”  The bitter, on the other hand, causes a man to fall to his knees with reverence to the Holy Law of God.  These things I have learned.

And one more thing I have learned.  I say I have learned it but . . .  I should have remembered it, for I knew it before.  Perhaps it was the heat of the battle that caused me to forget.  Perhaps it was the awe in me that men could be so very stubborn and wrong.  Perhaps it was that I was cast out by reason of the truth they would not accept.

What did I learn (again)?  I learned to pray for those of that encounter.  I too was once in utter darkness.  I too groped around like a blind man seeking “The Way”.  Even now I find that my forgetting is a sign of blindness.  I should have known.  I should have had mercy on those who bantered their way with His.  Though they thought that I was simply an obsticle to be absorbed or thrown out of the way, it was not my duty to remain their enemy.  They are enemies to themselves by opposing the Lord.  So was I, at one time.  I have learned to strive to remember.  I have learned that when the sweat of battle has evaporated, when breath slows to normal, when the blood has caked on my skin, PRAY for mercy.  Pray that their eyes would be opened.  Pray that they would read the Bible.  Pray that when they do read the Bible, that they perceive the Living God among the words.

I should have remembered.  But the Lord, in His marvelous kindness, reminded me.  Tossing on my bed all night, unable to sleep, He reminded me.  For this I give Him praise.  Not that there was a battle, not that I knew which side I was on, and not that I walked away having left a legacy of the TRUTH.  I praise Him for being merciful to me.  I praise Him that He was gracious enough to remind me to pray for those who oppose The Way.

I apologize to those with whom I fought.  I do not apologize for bringing the truth to bear on the false hood they embrace.  I apologize for not remembering that it is God alone who opens the eyes of the Blind.  May His Holy Will be done forever, for He alone is Good.    Amen.

English: The Mercy Seat, illustration from the...

Image via Wikipedia