He IS


Consider the Lord Jesus.

From the beginning the Living God spoke Living words.

This is the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God.

He IS.

Consider His testimony among us. Faithful,

He IS.

His crucifixion is not what He was.

He IS.

The machine of our sin had no hold on Him. From the Living God,

He IS.

Of the Living God,

He IS!

The “Other” People


God is permanently first. Those who earnestly seek his lovely face in Christ will be living an entirely different life.

Their life is born from heaven. It is a life granted by the Living God out of his mercy in Christ Jesus and for His own purposes.

It is a life lived by the rules of heaven. It is a human heart that aches for home. For them, the voice of the Spirit of God overrides society’s supremacy.

Outwardly, they are like any other human. Inwardly, the violence of the war within them evades description. The end of their war will come the moment they can tear off their flesh and ascend to the home they desire so deeply.

They cannot define peace like the world defines peace, they cannot have tranquility here. Tranquil, to them, is the promise of God.

21. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5)

We are forced to ask this question, “Who does our actions and thoughts say we are?” The answer is already in the hand of God the Father.

How many even ask the question, comparing themselves to the expectations of Christ?

Acts 17


22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (copied from biblehub.com)


Photo of lithograph from wikipedia

An Imaginary Friend


Close your eyes. Imagine that your house is perfectly clean. Keep them closed long enough, imagine hard enough, and when you open them you will believe it is clean. Imagination is powerful enough to destroy reality.

Imagine that you are a Christian. Keep your eyes closed to the reality of the things you do. And when you open your eyes, before The living God's Christ, you will believe that you have been a Christlike one all your life.

How many live their religion in the realm of imagination? The sunrise is not imaginary. Neither is the Son, nor He in us.

Baptism


I was rightly convinced decades ago. Reverence for Jesus, the fear of God, (in the book of acts, in the first century) was not at all like Christianity today. The people were not baptized as a beginning of their Christian walk. They were baptized because they were "walking".

They were not baptized because they believed the message of the gospel. They were baptized as a sign and seal that they were living the Gospel.

How does that compare to what you have witnessed?

Billboard Hysteria


Two women were complaining about all the Bible billboards down south. One said she was tired of being inundated about sin, Jesus, and condemnation. She made some remark to excuse herself for being callous to the words. Something like, “I know the gospel is important, I’m just tired of it being in my face all the time”.   Surprisingly, her friend agreed.  

Are you tired of hearing about God? You might want to get used to it. He owns eternity, you know. And the conversation about his glorious Son Jesus is never ending. Such people as those women are not likely to have a good time.