Tag Archives: Righteousness

The Death of Dishonest Men

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English: Detail from Corrupt Legislation. Mura...

English: Detail from Corrupt Legislation. Mural by Elihu Vedder. Lobby to Main Reading Room, Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. Main figure is seated atop a pedestal saying “CORRUPT LEGISLATION”. Artist’s signature is dated 1896. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Accolades and trophies are reserved for those who compete according to the rules.  Those who cheat are not considered at the finish line.  Their name will not be included among those “winners” who played the game according to He who has created the rules.

The Man Who Lived When Men Died Quicker

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The Sacrifice of Abraham

The Sacrifice of Abraham (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A man lived, in the years when men died quicker.  It was there, a certain place in eternity, where God took His stand among men.  “I will cause you to be the father of many nations.  I will bless those who bless you.  And I will curse those who curse you.”  And the man submitted.

All things belong to God.  You who hold so tightly to what you think you own, I have a message for you.  You who think you can control your own destiny.  You who think the world is simply a place where profit lay hidden, waiting for your greedy fingers to uncover as a child would look for eggs on Easter.  You are full of pride in the accomplishments of your mind.  And your heart is cold to anyone who would compete with you to gain.  The way you are living is not the intent of God for man.

All things belong to God.  But many take as they please.  No thanks is given for the air they breathe unless it is a thankful heart that they can continue to plunder.  You will deny that your god is greed.  But your actions speak far louder than you know.

All things belong to God.  The man who lived when men died quicker was not like you.  He was a righteous man.  And his son was a righteous son.  What is it to us if we are asked to lay down our desire?  Who are we that we should compare ourselves to such a man?  “Sacrifice your son.”  This was not spoken to such a man as I.  Yet this man who lived when men died quicker was willing.  Greed was not his god.  Even to the dispatching of his lovely son, this man was willing to give all he had.  He reasoned that God was able to raise the dead.  And it was credited to him as righteousness from God’s Holy Throne.

Consider what you think you own.  Consider the way of your fingers to gain what you should not.  Consider how hard your heart has become since you were an innocent child.  For now, you believe that who you have become is who you must be.  I tell you that such thinking is a direct lie.  You need not live like that.  God will provide for you.  But you will be asked to suffer loss for His sake.  I tell you, it is worth everything you think you own to gain what God offers all men.

Consider: All things belong to God.  Get yourself away from greed.  Enter into the presence of the One who owns all things yet is generous beyond our understanding.  Sacrifice what you have.  Though you are not as the man who lived when men died quicker, you still present yourself unwillingly before the eyes of He who sees even into the darkest night.  All your ways are counted.  Yet He offers you what is Good.  Let go of what is not yours.  All things belong to God.

Starving Orphans

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Blessed Are They Who Hunger And Thirst For Rig...

Blessed Are They Who Hunger And Thirst For Righteousness (Beatitudes #4) (Photo credit: loswl)

There is a place where we were not.  There was a place of eternal peace, unity, and purpose, which thrived heartily under the Most High God.  Then one accused and all that was pure became broken.

Now there is become a place where man is.  And we are created as a garden for the Most High God, from which He comes among us and prepares a meal for His pleasure; a people for Himself.  He sends His servants to cultivate, fertilize, and harvest, at His pleasure and desire.  Miraculous work they perform.  As they cause pleasing plants for their God from a soil what once produced only weeds.  And as they work, God watches intently.  “Will any seek My face?”  Who will turn from the works of their hands and look up?  Who will allow themselves to desire cleanness?  And as they taste the cleaning, who will desire more?

The body is nothing more than a likeness to a shell.  Within the shell is the meat God is intent on harvesting; the will of man is this meat.  And it is this will that God is intent on creating in His likeness.

Man thinks the body is all.  And he praises everything to do with the body.  But such men are blind to God’s ways.  They know nothing of what was.  And they do not consider what they are.  And they miss the mark because they do not consider what He has sworn on oath will come to be.

God’s ways are to be sought after as if a starving man might smell a hot meal in the distant breeze.  His nose is keen to search out what gives him strength.  He takes note of his lack and a deep desire welms up within him to eat what is good.  It is the hungry after God’s ways who receive the good meals.  They thrive where the others do not.  They are well fed and taken care of, as if prized plants in a man’s garden.  They are, by no means weeds.  They are not the second-rate foods which the animals might prefer.  They become the desire of God, even as they are taught to desire Him.

Who, among us, is hungry enough to seek after God’s ways?  Have we tasted a little and pushed the plate away?  Who will surrender all their pride for the sake of God’s desire?  Who will surrender rebellion and discord for the sake of His Holy name?

All good things, within man, come from God.  It is a blessing He bestows upon those who call out to His name with a pure desire to learn from Him.  He is quite able to leave a man blind and worse than an animal.  But He is also quite able and willing that we should eat what is choice from His hand.  A righteous man who turns to pride can be lowered to a fool.  And a fool who turns to God can be raised to a righteous man.

Do not mistake what man holds dear as the end of things.  Only God knows the limits He is willing to cause you to become.  Seek His Holy Face, while it is still called “today”.  For there is a day coming when all that is, according to man, will be utterly destroyed.  And all who have loved this place for the sake of the body will find themselves starved orphans.

To those who surrender to the will of God, are promises untold.  No one has seen or heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.  Learn from Him.  Give up what you perceive is yours.  And take what is His.  “There is a way which seems right for a man.  But the end thereof is death.

There is a place where we “enter in”.  And in that entering we find understanding, holiness, and a willingness to obey the Lord in all His Holy commands.  We learn to speak as if one voice, the message of God to all men.  Those who refuse His call remain in a deep and utter darkness; without understanding, holiness, and the willingness to obey the Lord in all His Holy commands.  They will not enter His peace.  They will be utterly destroyed, as a man might plow under the weeds in his garden.  God has every right to do with his garden as He sees fit.

Join with Him to restore what was once His.  Speak and act as those who will inherit what is good.  For the inheriting begins now, and will become fulfilled at His appearing.  Do not listen to those who leave this inheriting for a time when heaven is reached.  They are speaking foolishness.  God has not promised fulfillment to those who do nothing.  He has made this promise to those who will render their hands to His will NOW.  It is eternally established: He who does what is right is righteous.  And he who is righteous is born of God.  Why would you listen to a man who tells you otherwise?  Only God is Righteous.  And those who take from His table to eat become righteous.  All others are starving orphans by their own choice.  And so they will remain forever.

I have heard many complain that God is unfair.  They say that it is not acceptable that God should condemn all who will not bow their knee to Jesus, God’s Son.  In this they judge the judge, while they sit in the seat of the condemned.  They are foolish men who praise the body and hate the Lord of all creation and heaven.  They will receive the rightful due in the proper time.  And to you who know better, having read and believed, what will become of you for having turned your back?  You did not enter in.  And, even now, you accuse the Lord of lies and injustice.  Folly is yours, for you now hold it tightly in your weak and decaying hand.  But the Lord’s hand is full of eternity, life, justice, righteousness, peace, and Holiness.  He will never fail, as you accuse Him now.

Reach deep and consider what I have said.  Who are we to judge the Gardner?  We are but food for His table.  We are but grapes which will be crushed for the juice within.  But you judge the Lord as if the body were the end of things.  Such behavior will speed these men to absolute destruction.

So be it for all who hate the Lord and refuse to be taught and changed.  Hatred belongs to all who hate God’s ways.  It is all they own now and all they will own for eternity.  They will hate the Lord then just as they hate Him now.  How can they be acceptable?  What will become of those who are enemies of the Most High God?  This is the judgment that has already been rendered from the Throne of the pure judge of all.  We stand condemned before we rise up to accuse.  What utter folly.  What a complete void of understanding and wisdom.  What they now think is overly harsh will become the judgment against them.

A War of Reason Against Righteousness

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Atheist symbol

Atheist symbol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A man came to me to fight a war of reason.  He came to do war with the Gospel of peace in Christ Jesus.  He presented an argument which, at the surface, appears to be a valid questioning.  He asked, “How is it that your God will consign millions of people to hell simply because they worship Him under different names and ways of worship?”  In his question he assumes that those people worship the Living God.  And he assumes that his answer has a perfect right to be asked.  There is a difference between ignorant worship of what is false, and worship filled with understanding by the Holy Spirit of God in Christ Jesus.  And he assumes that their earnest ignorance is equal with innocence.  And he assumes that his lips have a right to be heard, and his ears deserve to hear the answer.

While we talked I found the only answer I could give him was that he was being arrogant, full of pride and pomp.  He did not approach me to understand but to tear down and destroy.   But now with reflection, prayer, and a searching out of the matter, I have come to understand the answer with clarity.

We read Abraham’s words: “Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?”  When God judges a man fit for the kingdom of heaven He does so by His eternal wisdom and understanding. With humility, we leave such judgments of ignorant men to the wisdom and understanding of God.  Who are we to know the answer to a question that should never be asked without humility?  Regardless the answer God might give for any one man of ignorance, we can be sure that there is an innocent ignorance.  And there is also a proud ignorance; that which a man holds dearer than the wisdom of God (arrogance).  Which do you determine will find favor with the Lord of Life?

It is folly which judges the Most High God in His Holy ways.  It is rebellion, hatred, envy, greed, lust, and an unholy madness to call the Lord of Life to judgment by our own limited understanding.  Who are we to know what is right?  God saw fit to present His Son with Greatness.  Man is part of that Glorification for God’s Son, in that God allowed us to kill Jesus.  And should we then judge His decision?

The one who asks such things, for the sake of self-justification, is not looking for what is good or right.  That one is looking to find fault in the God of eternity, and to do harm to God’s people.
Had he been looking for righteousness the question would not have been spoken.  There would have been humility and a willingness to understand what has been given to man to know.  There would have appeared a desire to know the basic things of Jesus.  He would have earnestly desired to know if worshiping Jesus produced that “something better” that the worshipers of false gods could not find.

Had there been a sincere concern for the state of those who do not know the Lord Jesus, he would have been asking for help to come to know the God we serve, so that he too could help them avoid certain death.  Instead, he used the hapless unbelievers to make an accusation toward Jesus.  His folly was perceived, and is now made plain.

He had not grasped the basic concept of The Holy God.  That man did not consider that God has always been active in the affairs of man.  He assumed that invisible is equal to ineffective.  How then would he grasp what follows?  All men are without excuse and steeped in wickedness.  If they did not know this there would be no religions on the face of the earth.  But there is a great variety of religions.  So we see that men know they are full of fault and we see them attempt to right their plight.  The one who accuses is a religion and a god in his own mind.  And he will be shown for what he has allowed himself to become and continue becoming.

All men come from various backgrounds and traditions.  And they are quite able to see the “fruit” of what they are being taught.  And every one of them, if they were honest, could point to a meager harvest from their labors.  It is they who allow themselves to be fooled into a sleep of false religion.  For every man perceives his own short comings.  Even in society and among the things of this world, every man can see the destruction he brings by virtue of what is within him.  There is, bottom line, an awareness is present, that we have not attained a clear conscience.  We perceive that a clean conscience will produce a radically different man.  Yet they continue in their way without considering the end result of false religion.  All their life they cry out to things that do not produce what they are looking for.  But for fear of rejection and comfort they continue in their way.  This is a testing of the heart for all men.  And, rest assured, God is watching to see who will admit their folly and lift their hands in despair.  This is true of every false way, and it is true even of Christians.  It is not just the false religions which will end in utter destruction.  We are told, and it is plain to see, that many who consider themselves Christians walk through their lives as enemies of the Cross of Christ.

You who judge the validity of Jesus’ claims are in a false religion of your own making.  It belongs to you and it is false.  You accuse without knowledge.  You lift up your voice to condemn the God who made you.  And you will certainly answer for your self-made plight of folly.  There is an emptiness of humility in the accuser’s words.  There is a lack of wisdom in his way.  Instead of asking, “What must I do to be saved?”  He accuses Righteousness because he himself is full to over flowing with wicked thoughts and desires.   No accuser will not stand on the day when The Righteous One calls men to account for their lives and words.  For you turn away from every possible help today.  You scoff at God.  You deny His right to judge.  And He will judge all men regardless of their recognition of His Holy Court

I will add this final point.  Today has been given to man to prove his heart to the Living God.  Men have been saying that the coming judgment will divide those who have done “mostly right” from those who have done little or no righteous things.  How absolutely false this is.  None of man’s righteous acts, those things done without the leading of the Spirit of God, will enter into the pleasure of the Most High God.  The pride of man will be crushed.  And only faith in Jesus, born in humility, will be rendered a favorable decision.

If you want to secure a knowledge of safety, do so now by accepting the message of the Gospel of God in Jesus.  He will come to you and show you how to please His Father.  There is no other way to prepare for the coming judgment of all men.  God has spoken it on an oath He took by His own Glory.

Responsible

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Father Ford in the fire truck

Father Ford in the fire truck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A dead body cannot be responsible.  Neither can a fool be responsible.  It is even hard for a righteous man to be responsible.  Why?  In answer, let me take responsible apart:  Response Able.

God has given gifts to men for the sake of His Holy name.  He has given forgiveness for sins.   What is our response?   Do we dress ourselves with ability to respond?  Or do we take His Glorious gift for granted.  He has spoken in the gathering of wickedness.  He has danced a Holy dance in a body for all to see.  He endured this place of testing without sin.  And God has granted Him, (Jesus) Glory, Joy, Eternal Life as the Ruler of all.

I look at the ability of Jesus to respond to His Father as He walked in this utter black world of decayed souls.  And I am amazed that He performed perfectly!  He did not cave to the words and actions of man.  He desired only to be available to the will of His Father.  And He shunned all proposals to capitulate with the enemies of His Father.  He made Himself able to respond to the will of God.  He is perfectly Responsible to God, the Father of all Life and Righteousness.

With that in mind, I ask again, are we individually able to respond to the Grace given us?  Are we responsible Christians?  I write this with a severe anger at the sinful nature within me.  I remember what was spoken, and will not be taken out of the way, “Hate what is evil and cling to what is good.”  This is what is asked of us.  And it is not an unjust request.  For He gives us the power to over come.  What will be our response?  Are we able to be willing to work?

We retain men who have learned to put out fires.  If they are not responsible, what is the possibility that they can carry out the charge that has been laid upon them?  God has retained us through the sacrifice of His Holy Son.  Are we responsible?

Rights or Obligation?

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Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven, as in the r...

Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven, as in the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33, after Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A “right” can be established if the proper means has been gained.  An obligation really doesn’t care whether you want to meet it or not, it remains against you until the contract between you and the obligation expires.  A “right” never dispels as long as the giver of that right remains.

Sometimes people who have lived a relatively “righteous” life will look down on a drunk (or worse) who has gotten a handle on life’s prerequisites.  And when the sinner begins to live a “righteous” life and speaks about it openly the “righteous” folk will come to detest him.  You would think they would embrace the sinner gone “good”.  But that is rarely the case.  The sinner is embraced by the perceived righteous if he has some quality that they themselves admire.  But if he has worn out his bodily welcome he is shunned and laughed at as a fool.

I can see why the “righteous” think they alone have the corner on speaking about what is right.  After all, they have worked hard to guard against the kind of behavior that the sinner allowed to swamp his boat.  But there comes a place where their perceived right becomes judgment against others.  To them, their “rights” are being usurped by an illegal citizen of their ranks.

But the obligation to speak belongs to the sinner more.  He has been lifted from certain death to a place of understanding.  He knows the ground he has covered.  He knows better what it is to be filled with wickedness.  So he has an obligation to warn others.  Not to mention that he is likely far more thankful for being set loose from his former life.  So the very fact of his thankful heart compels him to meet his obligation to speak about what is “righteous”.

“But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” (from Luke 7:36-50)