Walking along
And reading his Bible,
The Christian bobbled
Off the path.
The rebuke was very
Soft and warm,
Not at all
A word of Wrath.
A gentle kiss
Upon his cheek.
Drawing him back
To the narrow path
Was the One whom
Good men seek.
————-
Just a bobble,
And that’s so true,
By a well intentioned soul.
But let us strain
To watch our feet,
Lest we miss
The greater goal.
By His Grace
Please allow me to speak for you, you who have known the man I was. I perceive what you have seen in me. I understand your confusion. And, to some point, I am forced by righteousness to agree with your assessment of me.
I have been an ungodly, unholy, unrighteous, wicked, mean, and vicious man. You are not wrong. But do you know what the Gospel has to say?
I agree with you to the place I was. But at the advent of His Holy Mercy upon me, you ceased to know me. You retain the perception you had. But you did not relent with wisdom to perceive the changes He has come to make in me. How can I hold this against you? You perceive in ignorance. Your eyes are covered with “what was”.
The Gospel proclaims that God will transform any soul that calls out to Him in the power of His Holy Son. I know there have been liars who have not displayed this power. They have proclaimed that they are changed, yet no change was ever visible in their behavior. And by these liars, you count my testimony as false.
But I know what I know regarding what the Holy Lord has done in me. I know my testimony to you is worthless. For your heart rightly perceives that the testimony of a man, regarding himself, is not possibly true. On the testimony of two or three others, on this alone is a man’s behavior justified in the presence of any assembly.
God testifies for me, for my conscience is clear before His Holy Throne. The Holy Son testifies for me, for it is He who has brought these holy things to appearance. And the power of the Holy Spirit teaches me to inhabit the Holy things of the Living God. And there are many witnesses to holy behavior that you will never meet.
All three of these reliable witnesses testify to what they have made come to pass in this man. And the group of men who have witnessed a different man than you have ever known, testify to what they have seen.
But you cannot believe, for the sake of the lies, and the man I was. Two things must be spoken here.
I will not hold your opinions against you, for your opinions are built on a faulty excuse for a man. You are blinded to “what is”, by the power of “what was”. God will not judge between us, nor on my behalf (as if to defend me). Let your accusations be stricken from the accounting on the Holy Day of Judgment.
The Gospel lays in plain sight. You, like me, are invited to believe. I release you from any accusations. But you are not released to remain in ignorance. For I have testified these things before you: The transformation of a man is True! And that God, who cannot lie, has offered the sacrifice of His Holy Son, that all who will, might taste the power of God to heal their wicked heart.
These have been accomplished among you. I have not arrived at this day (this “place”) unscathed by unholy behavior. But, my dear friends, neither have you. You will be held accountable, on that Holy Day, just as I will. But I will be clothed by the Holy Blood of Christ Jesus, the Holy and Righteous Son of the Living God. What will be your case, is determined, not by my prior behavior, but on what you do with the Living Testimony that speaks far more powerfully than any man can testify.
The Gospel speaks directly to the soul of every man! No excuse will suffice. I have released you. Will you continue to use me as a shield between you and your own responsibility, or will you mount up on “Belief” to receive the power of God to become transformed? Now the choice lay squarely in your own hands.
From the bravado of a foolish man who thinks he can endure hell, to the pompous nature of the self righteous, who thinks he is something when he is not. The folly of man’s pride reaches deep.
We did not invent sin. Sin was in heaven long before we were even created. And so was righteousness in all its purity. Righteousness and rebellion go back a long way my friend. You are nothing new.
Cain was only the first to murder among men. He was not the first to murder. So where does that place any other man whose hands are filthy? And Abel was the first righteous man among men. He was not the first one who was righteous. So how can the self-righteous think so highly of themselves with any means to quantify?
By every account man is nothing. He does not have a patent on wickedness. And he can have no claim to righteousness. By every account man is nothing unless it is given to him from above. Or unless he is inspired, by those who came before, to the rebellion against the Living God.
Where then does pride among men stand? My friend, you are simply not that important. At best you can only be used by those who came before, whether for bad or good.
By His Grace
Dear world:
Will you be patient and righteous for a moment? Will you let a prisoner speak to you?
You have placed me in chains, I can do you no harm. But will you entertain the words of this man you have accused and imprisoned? I ask you no more than that.
By the necessity of survival, you have made laws against such men as I. And it doesn’t matter if your laws are just. They are your laws and you enforce them just the same.
So I have been accused and condemned, before the Society of men, as one who does not play well with others. For the sake of propriety I speak softly among you. But propriety is the steel you have forged to enclose me in my cell. But if I must speak to you for the sake of understanding, I must speak to you in the language of propriety.
Propriety is a shifting mechanism; it changes according to the fashion of men in every generation. And so men like me are forever jailed by your own laws. You do not seek to rehabilitate me. Your accusations, condemnation, and imprisonment are sufficient to please you. The horrors of your prisoners never enter your mind as you celebrate at your feasts.
I do not hold this against you. You will not change, and it does no good to accuse you. But I must begin this message with what is true.
You have tattooed my forehead with the word “MEAN“. And you were not wrong to wield the branding iron. At first when you accused me I was angry. And I gathered what truth I could and slung it back at you. So your accusation was confirmed among you. And you rightly confined me. And this according to your own laws.
But in my confinement your accusation has become unfounded. For since you would not let me be a one with you, in my confinement I searched for what is true. And I have found Him!
Your own laws of confinement speak of corrective action. But this is the purpose which you ignore. For if one who is confined by your laws turns away from violent behavior, you do not accept his change. You do not offer corrective action! You simply seek to rid yourselves of what you do not approve. Anyone who is not profitable to the ways of men is cast away forever.
By this foolish standard you are the ones who are jailed. And the brand you have placed on my forehead has become my glory. So I am right in releasing you from any accusation concerning me. You have meant it for evil, but God has used it for good.
The One I have found, while imprisoned in your social standard, is the pure standard you think your yourselves to be. He is not limited by death, as are we. He is not limited by a tidal wave of lies. He is the absolute truth. And he teaches all his people to be bold among you. Thus I have written this message.
He is the standard by which every man will be judged. For he has walked among us with perfection. And God the Father has placed Him eternally as FIRST.
While I have been imprisoned, he has come to set me free. Even while your bars of social standard are placed squarely between you and I. I range freely in the open space of forgiveness and love. And from this place I warn you. Your ways which you hold in such high esteem are wrong.
Were I to gather a crowd of a million people, and speak these things to your face, you would no longer desire to jail me from your celebrations. You would, in fact, desire to kill me. Even as the men of a generation, which saw the Christ walk among them, murdered the Holy One of God.
You would see a man who is just like you. And this man would proclaim that you are wicked and worthless, as one. I do not make the proclamation on my own. I speak only what the Living God has said.
Yes I am a man like you. Yes I was trained in the volume of your lies. Yes I was violent toward you, both in word and in deed. For you yourselves trained me!
But the Christ has come to set us free! And any who believe this message, can have this freedom. We need not be chained in the volume of teaching that is a lie, any longer.
I stand boldly and tell you, “Man can become holy”. I stand boldly and proclaim that we need no longer to live as liars. God is willing to teach us what is true and faultless. And his teaching is full of power to overcome the lies of this place.
Most of you will balk at this message. For you love the volume of lies more than you love the volume of truth. And you will not put up with one who calls your ways wicked. But I will call your ways wicked just the same.
I was mean when I did your will. Now you count me mean when I do His will. You see how your corrective action is at fault.
But I have not written this for the sake of meanness. And I have not straightened my back before you as an act of defiance. I have appeared before you as one who is not ashamed or afraid any longer. And it is love that straightens my spine.
Love makes me turn around. I had been kneeling before the One who is love. With awareness of what he has done for me, I have remembered the people from which I came. I have returned without fear to give you this message of truth. God will see, how many of you respond.
These words belong to God. They are only mine, in that he has given them to me. Yet they are not mine, for I give them to you. I have come as a messenger and nothing more.
By His Grace
As I drove along in the dark last night, I let my thoughts drift to the nature of heaven. With whatever my imagination could provide, I thought about peace, living creatures, a safe and inviting environment, and a people that will never again know any sin.
I tried to think of heaven millions of years passed the day of judgement. I thought of a place where what is here is never mentioned. They do not remember the wicked greed of man. They do not remember sickness and death. And for eternity this will be their life.
As I woke up this morning I tried to consider my thoughts about heaven. I recognize that they are only based on what I can perceive here. And then I found myself amazed at how little God has revealed about eternity.
His message to man does not contain the indescribable beauties of his heaven. God and all his creatures have lived in splendor for millions of millions of years. But exceedingly little information has been given to man.
Partly, the restraint has to do with our language. And partly the restraint has to do with the frailty of this creation. But more so, the restraint has to do with God’s will toward Man.
God is not interested in making us happy here. The entirety of this place is designed to cause us to hate it. Nothing is stable. There is no secure place. Nothing is friendly unless it is manipulated. And the strength of our bones wears out so that we can no longer manipulate.
The entirety of this place is designed for faith. We have hope in faith alone. We are to put our trust in the Living God and His Holy Son Christ Jesus. Even the very character of our mind is full of unrest and unpredictable behavior.
God did not desire that we should live at peace here. It is God’s desire that we desire his peace. So instead of describing what is his, he tells us that he is firm and true, peace, safety, strength, purity, and that his promises are fully reliable.
The nature of this place is designed to test the heart of every man. The question hangs in the sky over the head of every man here:
“Do you desire what you have; this place full of chaos and unpredictable things? Or will you open your heart to honesty; looking about you and confessing the true nature of this place of testing. And that you yourself are not able to do one right thing.”
If we will turn to God out of despair, for the sake of the things we can see that are wrong, he is willing to embrace us. But if we want to dig in our feet, and live in this place of lies, full of rebellion, full of unbelief, full of hatred for our fellow man and for God, we will suffer unto death then be cast away as unprofitable.
If you want to know the glories of heaven, listen to the righteous words of God and do them. Allow yourself to believe in the Holy Son of God, do not harden your heart with restraint.
Read his Holy words that HAVE been sent us. Believe them and stop second guessing the Holy Word of the Living God. Listen to your conscience and confess your sins to him. Ask him to strengthen you in the things that are pure and right. Then do what you are told to do.
All of these things can be gained in Christ Jesus. He has promised, and is reliable, overcoming this place of chaos is possible. Heaven can be attained if we listen to him. Then we will know the nature of the eternal heaven of the Living God. Then our language will be like his, for the place of our perception will be an eternal place.
So many like me desired to know what is in heaven. What a perfect example of wasted time. A better deployment of the minutes is to teach myself godly restraint, and this according to His Holy Word and the prompting of His Holy Spirit.
May God have mercy to grant understanding to those who read these words. Those who desire will hear. Those who hate God will stop up their ears.
In Christ Jesus, the Righteous and Holy Son of God, I pray. Amen.
By His Grace
Those who know me, know that in my past I have been an agent for destruction. Everywhere I went, I destroyed lives. Selfishness was all I knew. I had no respect for anyone else’s life, or prosperity. Only God knows how much of that man is dead.
But a new man has risen from the carcass. This one is thoroughly ashamed of such behavior. He strives to let people be more than himself. But again, only God knows how much.
I did the things I did out of habit. One might say out of compulsion. And I don’t know how many of those habits or how much selfish compulsion to be destructive still lives in my mind. All I know is that I strive everyday, all day, to be a different man.
Prayer has become often and earnest. With a great abandon, I have thought the truth of God through and through. To the point that what you see written in this blog is likely less than 1/8 the volume. And with all my might I strive to do the things I learn.
I’m not trying to praise myself. And it would be ridiculous to look for pity. For justice remembers that I had no pity on others.
I write this for the sake of those who are like I was. I write this that you may know there is a way out. And the exit door has a name, Jesus the Christ of God. But I also wrote this as a testimony to what you can expect.
You can expect to remember what you’ve done. You can expect the Lord Jesus to forgive your sins. You can expect God to teach you how to put selfishness away. You can expect him to teach you the real meaning of love. You can even expect to become quite trustworthy.
But you cannot expect those who knew the man you were, to trust you. Just as you will not forget the man you were, they remember all the more.
But doesn’t that painful experience give you a magnificent opportunity to be humble, forgiving, patient and understanding? And aren’t those four attributes foundations for love?
You can expect that becoming the new man will be a horribly painful experience. But I have determined, it is about time I tasted my own medicine. And the Lord Jesus reassures me that the pain will be worth it all.
By His Grace
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