Tag Archives: Righteousness

Inexpensive Poverty

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It affects us all; the infection of want.  And a world of commerce which lowers the prices of goods aids in its own decline.

The rich get richer, while the poor become more greedy.  Empty houses fill up with shining objects.  Thus lives are lit on fire with trouble.  Thus invisible greed takes shapes we can hold. 

Financial ruin brings poverty back home.  But this time poverty lives in a house filled with shining objects, and greedy eyes.  But it is not just shining objects which bring poverty.  Moral decay is worse.

A society that does not divide between righteousness and sin, is bound to bring eternal poverty.  The lust for women is set on fire by inexpensive clothing, jewelry, perfumes, and makeup.  The lust for the man who has a nice car, clothing, house, and purchased social position, sets ablaze the wayward wife’s desire.  And all of this a godless society promotes with abandon.

The children learn early that divorce is an option.  No longer are they taught to work out their troubles.  Mommy and daddy prove that righteousness can be attained through the back door.  The children are taught to bind quitting with their vows.  The word “vow” becomes diluted and worthless.  The once stable world spins out of control.

The wicked man never wonders why he does what he does.  The greedy man simply reaches for “more” to massage his aching conscience.  But time moves by and the cost increases.  Time goes by, and the expense of poverty increases exponentially.

The life span of a man does not give him the luxury of finding righteousness by mistake.  As if we stumble over a stack of 100 dollar bills as we walk down the street.  The odds of finding righteousness by happenstance are billions to one.

Blessed is the man who is concerned by his wickedness.  Blessed is the man who wakes in the night for fear of what he has done.  Blessed is the one who allows himself to feel burning and consuming regret.  Blessed is the man who panics for the sake of his wrongdoing.  This one has the potential of learning to do what is right.

Blessed are those who have never tasted wantonness.  Those beautiful souls who have patiently endured with what they have.  Blessed is the one who considers greed a sin, and keeps his hands to himself.

The proverb still rings true:  every man will reap what he has sown.  But a godless world teaches that this is a lie.

By His Grace

The Intent of God

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God is the maker of your soul.

He wants it back under his control.

To curb your hands with which you stole,

His righteousness and joy.

By His Grace

Ethics 101

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We all see it happen all day long.  Relatively decent people making wicked choices.  But let’s face facts.  Wicked choices are expected among the population of this world.

If you don’t strive to be first, your counted as insignificant and stupid. 

If you don’t break the law, just a little, you’re just not an intelligent person.  After all, they won’t throw you in jail for small infractions.

If you don’t lie a little bit, you will be hated by everyone who knows you.  No one confides in the man who tells the truth.  Curiously, such a man is utterly untrustworthy in this world.

In light of all this, I thought to myself, I would like to teach a class whereby men are taught ethics.  But within a fraction of a second, I changed my mind.

Though they would all nod with agreement while they were in class, by the time they got out the door they would forget everything they learned. 

So I thought, the fix, then, is to create a fast search chart.  Let the men hold it while they do all the things they normally do.  But who would be stupid enough to do that?

It was then that the comparison ignited in my mind.  This is what the Holy Spirit does for those who believe in Christ Jesus.  He is the living educator.  And he lives in the soul of those who trust in the Son of the Living God.

What is the summation of all this?  The summation is that those without the Holy Spirit have no hope of doing righteousness.  They are locked in a battle to see who can be the most wicked and get away with it.

They are not free men, regardless what society says.  They are bound to wickedness as surely as the moon is bound to the earth.

As the Apostle John wrote, “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous . . .”  (1 John 3: 7)   And surely, the one who does what is wicked is a wicked man.

No man can hope to do what is right without the Spirit of God leading him constantly.  No one can hear the Holy Spirit accept that God gives him spiritual ears.  Man is completely hopeless without the sacrifice of Christ.

It is important to note that the word “practice” is often used in conjunction with righteousness.  He who practices righteousness will eventually do it habitually.  We already know how to be wicked.

There, I just held ethics 101.  You don’t need a cheat sheet.  You simply need to fall to your knees and ask God for help.  Or you can remain just like you are.  The choice is right there before you.

By His Grace

Losing the War

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I have made complaint, over and over, as to how the world is plummeting to destruction.  I have said, over and over, it is because they denied the truth of the living God among them.  But this morning, understanding comes, as to the mechanics of this plummeting to destruction.

No doubt this subject requires a rather lengthy book.  But I am forced by the willing restraint of the reader to keep it short.  Keeping it short however, will mean a loss of important trains of thought.  So I will leave it to the reader to fill in the blanks.

______________

I do as my daddy taught me.  His teaching is like a shadow lurking in my mind.  I listened to him speak.  I watched him act.  I gathered the trains of thought in his mind and made them my own.  So also, was the influence of my mother. 

To some extent, their example remains within me.  No matter how I try to shake it with the truth of God, I cannot completely undo their influence.

This is true of every man and woman.  The better the example of truth, the more readily truth is received when we mature. 

But let us now look to the larger scale of things.  Adam and Eve could have told us what perfection was like.  Not so our parents.  And if the destruction of truth was made apparent in Cain, their son, how much more so is it today?

On and on, through the generations to now, the truth has been obscured and forsaken.  If perfection was squandered within one generation how much more so now?

The miracle of change is not the destruction of society.  (The constant pulling away from what is real) The miracle is that truth even remains at all.   The miracle is that the human race is not destroyed already.

What has prevented complete and catastrophic failure in humanity?  The power of God has restrained destruction among us.  As it is written, “Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9)

The world speaks of truth as it applies to society at the moment.  But God has raised up men and women who know the truth according to Eternity.  They have lived among us and taught what they knew.  Those whom God inspired, listened to them and did likewise.

If we want to know why we continue to fail, it is because of the unseen shadow of lies we were taught as children.  Add to that, our natural proclivity toward rebelion, and destruction will run rampant in our streets.

To whatever degree we find ourselves willing to obey the Living God in Christ Jesus, we will become shining examples of what is true and faultless.  But to whatever extent we agree with man, that truth is relative, we will remain filthy examples of rebellion.  (Of which, by the way, are vastly more than those who teach the truth.)

A man’s response to these things, is determined by his desire to love the living God.  Will he allow himself to be used as an agent of truth; helping to sustain life?  Or will he continue in his fellowship with the agents of destruction?

The Lord Jesus is able to change a man’s perception.  Many things we were taught as children remain.  But they are subdued by His holy words that live within us. 

The choice belongs to every man to accept or reject this message.

I will add this final note.

The world will be destroyed. 

The moment will come when God will send His Holy Son take all of his people from this place.  Along with the absence of these people will be the absence of His Holy Spirit among men; that Great Spirit of influence that saves humanity from utter, and catastrophic failure.

Consider this, if you are willing.  When the Lord returns, this place will plummet to destruction.  Violence, chaos, illicit and immoral behavior, will become the norm, within a day. 

Within 24 hours blood will fill every street.  Hatred and violence will rise as the preeminent behavior of all men.  Add to that, the horrors God has promised to unveil in that time. 

We live as a people under duress.   By compulsion we are forced to grapple with these things.  We want to live.  But by ourselves there is no eternal life in us.  We are only wicked animals waiting to devour one another.

You, like I am, are forced to make a choice.  Receive the Lord Jesus, and obey Him, or die a most hideous death for eternity.  The wicked nature of man has no place in heaven.  And without the restraint of God’s Holy Spirit we are nothing more than wicked animals.  Those who think otherwise are convinced of the lie they were taught as children.

The Lord Jesus will return without notice.  It could be today.  It could be a hundred years from now.  It will certainly be when you die and leave this place. 

We are under duress let’s make a choice.

By His Grace

How Comes Failure?

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The Lord came to me, in the Promise to all men: “I will be with you, teaching you what is right and good to do and be”.  And so I grew in His Holy wisdom.

Misunderstanding dressed me, as He offered His pledge.   “He has made me a righteous man; by knowledge, He has lifted me from sin to righteous doings.”  But days passed.  Years came and went.  Though knowledge came, I found sin and folly were bound up in me still.

Perplexity confronted me.  In my days and nights I pondered.  “How can I know these things, yet do the abhorrent?  Where is the fruit of purity?  Where are the things, among my belongings, that pleased Him so in His Holy Son?”

Desire to become, rages within me.  Yet I find mistakes.  Where I expected to find clarity of truth, I found only sparadic (as if by mistake) “good works”.  How can such desire, diligent desire, produce such shoddy a crop? 

How could it be, that I should set my hands upon a sturdy and well honed plow, hitch it to such a strong and well trained work horse, set my eyes on the singular oak at the end of my field, yet plow such a crooked line?

And if I had reached into my bag of seeds, placed each one by careful measure, covered them with tender fingers.  Why does my field produce bitter and wicked fruit?

Wisdom brings the answer, two fold.

I had not emptied my bag of seeds; that only good seed might remain.  My balance is not perfected.  Knowledge, within me, lacks a studious audience.  And my expectations are those of a child who puts his tiny feet into his daddy’s giant shoes: “I see him walk well in these.  I will also use them to do the same”.

And wisdom speaks from far beyond the ability of man: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder builds in vain”.

“Be patient, my frail and tiny child.  I hold your promise in my Holy hand.  When I call you to be an eternal man, you will have your desire in full.”

By His Grace

Humility Wins, Hands Down

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The humble man in Christ Jesus may suffer a great deal of loss.

But the proud man, who fends for himself, suffers no loss at all.

The true Christian will be compensated beyond his wildest imagination.

But the godless man will die with the things which now protect him.

Define loss and gain, as you perceive them.  Consider what is written above.  Then redefine loss and gain.

When you have read this far you have lost that much more time.  How much more time will you squander, o’ godless man of self?  The door to your life has closed a fraction more as you read these words, which you are likely to dismiss.

Dear Christian brothers and sisters:

Entice loss to come up on you, even as our spiritual siblings before, enticed the wild beasts.  Let the glory of our Lord Christ Jesus excel!  He will certainly not withhold his hand from reward.

We suffer but a little while.  Then the glory of the Living God explodes upon our soul, and it will never recede.  How insignificant this time will become; as we have willingly suffered for his Great and Majestic Glory.
         ____________

While you, godless men
and women,  continue in your willing blindness.  The Holy Lord stands ready to give you eyes to see, a mind to understand, and a heart that is willing to obey.  But you will have none of it.

Each man decides for himself.  Will he humble himself and pray, and seek the Lord’s Holy Face, and read his Holy words, and strive with all his mind, strength and soul to learn?  Or will he count all these blessed words as if they are less than trash?

15 “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24)

Shake the trees with your great in majestic strength, O’ Living God in Christ!  Send your righteousness upon all men.  Inspect them, Father in Heaven,
even as they live dead among the dead.  Rise up and judge your enemy.  Bring a close to this great place of testing. 

Let the righteous remain
righteous.  Let the wicked remain wicked.  Let all who seek Your mercy find it in vast abundance.  But let all who hate you now be put to utter shame on that great day when you stand to judge the world.

In Christ Jesus, the Holy Son of God, amen.

By His Grace