Likewise


You can not sin against God without consequences.

Likewise:

You cannot love God without consequences.

One destroys, the other brings life.

You cannot remain apart from him without experiencing death in many fashions.

Likewise:

You cannot be included in his love without experiencing life in many fashions.
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PSALM 34

1 I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to blot out their name from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
19 The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
21 Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord will rescue his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

By His Grace

Flint Feet


Will you walk with me into truth?  Even a short jaunt will produce a flame.  It is as if we are given feet of flint, at our acceptance of The Word.  With every stride we take, among the sharp rocks of truth, our feet spark with fiery intent.  Let then our feet move with dragging; that we may agree to burn the chaff.

If a man has obedience, then he is considered an obedient servant of the Most High God in Christ Jesus.  But if he is “mostly” an obedient man, yet allows sin to co-exist with holy, then he is counted as one who disobeys the commands of God.  Isn’t this so?

What fellowship does light have with darkness?  As light appears, doesn’t the darkness recede?  And if a man moves into darkness, where is the light that guided his path?  What path is he on now?

If we desire to live, forever, in the Holy House of God, we must cease walking in the dark.  And this brings up a relation to the “dragging of holy feet”.

Can a Christian, one who is being groomed for a place in the Holy City, exchange his feet of flint for those of a man (at will of desire)?  Or do those feet remain, even while we chase after pleasure?  Don’t those feet remain?  Don’t they produce a holy light of holy fire and a painful sting to the one who dabbles in sin?  If Jesus has intended to save toward purpose, those feet will remain.  Yet the man’s place is diminished with every misstep.

To our shame, we are like holy men who, traveling the holy golden path, sneak off into the thorny bushes to revel in some forbidden pleasure.  We intend to resume our holy pilgrimage in a short while.  But we have made the choice to endure a tearing of our flesh; a rending of our soul.  Do such men come away unscathed?

Does the Lord not notice such a man’s tendency toward a love of the world?  Can such a man have hope of living eternally in the Holy City of God?  Or will he be cast out among those who live in the open spaces; unprotected and tested for eternity?

12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.  13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.  15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give youa this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”  (Revelation 22)

The Shameful Testimony


image

Got hope?

I walk into Walmart to get some water.  200 people, or more, pass me by.  400 eyes look the other way.   They even teach their children well, “Avoid the weird man, honey”.

If this is what they do to a simple hat worn by a simple man, what will they desire to do at the blazing glory of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Holy Squalor


It is no shame for a man to live in the squalor of this world.  Let bugs and dust cover what he owns, it does not decrease his value.  Poverty is, and it takes its toll upon the prosperity of men.

But if a man is ashamed of the Living God and His holy Christ, what squalor surrounds him?  Though he lives in the greatest of splendor here, he is eternally impoverished, and filled to overflowing with shame.  Though he is forced to live as less, while he is here, the one who is ashamed of God while he lives in the shame of this world is impoverished for eternity.

Every man has the possessions he has.  And he has according to the place he has been assigned.  Yet how few reach to the things of promise.  How many accept their position of shame and think highly of themselves?

To this very day shame is harvested in abundance!   Where, among our things, is the prosperity of God?  Where is the strength that gives life?

There are holy kings who live among the bugs and dirt.  There are holy kings who live in rich abundance here.  These will not be ashamed as they stand before the Most High, for they have not been ashamed of him while they lived among their things.

The few


When men reach the end of their days; when their time in this place to testing is done, they will find that everything the Lord’s people have said to them is true.  They will leave this place only to enter the most hideous of circumstances.

I do not say this to laugh at them.  I say this as another means to wake a few. 

I know that most men will receive what is hideous, because the Lord Himself has testified so.  He himself has said that the way to destruction is broad and many go in there by.  And he has said the way to eternal life is narrow and few there are who find it.

Will you listen?  Will you let your ears hear these words?  For the sake of your own life will you give a moment of consideration?  Or you will you continue in the broad way to respond as most will?

All things in this world are either a warning of curse or a test for those who will live.  Which camp do you desire to enter eternity belonging to?

Certainly you want to live.  Even the most wicked among us desires life.  Have you asked yourself, “Why then don’t I take it?”  Or have you walked through time oblivious to all these things?

The Lord’s people stand still and testify day and night.  Who will hear and cease scoffing?  Who will eat at the Lord’s people’s table?  Who will remain?  Who will feast with us and find strength to live?

If there are few who understand and enter in, who are they?  If the majority of men do not consider these things and die in hideous shame, who are they?

You are urged to ask.  You are urged to separate yourself from those who die.  We are dead in our sins, even as we live with the majority.  It is by the prevail of holy struggle that we live eternally.

I did not write this to those who will die.  I wrote this to those who will hear, understand, grasp and do.  Is that you?

Will you humble yourself and receive?  Or will you retain your pride and die in hideous shame?  The door of salvation stands wide open to those who will enter in.  But it remains concealed and eternally locked to those who refuse.

Church is for Weaklings


Grass Seed

Grass Seed (Photo credit: public-sector-lists.com | gov audience delivery)

I remember how I was so easily manipulated into sin when I was young.  I knew a man who was encased in every form of evil a man might think of.  And I remember how I was shamed into participating by simple words.  He would refer to me as  “hay seed”.  And I was ashamed that I didn’t have the “man-up” to do what he did.  So I chased after the same things for years.

You might think of me as a lesser man for doing such things.  And I would readily agree.  But there is a sort of “man-up” happening all day long that never gets any notice.  It doesn’t have much to do with drugs, sexual immorality, or theft and such.  It has much more to do with ignorance regarding the things of God.  Are you being threatened with words like “man-up” and “hay seed”?  Are you threatened because you don’t revel in the same flood of dissipation as the world around you?