Tag Archives: sickness

Risk

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To live is Christ.  To die is gain.

It is the Christian who should be willing to take chances, so to speak.  He is the one who has God in his favor.  And he is the one who is promised eternal life.

It is not good to shrink from danger, for the ones who say they believe in the promise.

Imagine a group of five people, one of which is a Christian.  If one must give his life for the other four, which one should it be?

And if we find ourselves vying for the resources of this world, who should take the less?  Isn’t that the one, to whom God has promised all that he needs.

It is the Christian who should be willing to take great risk.  If you pay attention, you will find opportunity every single day.

By His Grace

That Peculiar Brand of Fear

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Sin has its own distinct pleasures.  There’s no reason to lie about it, sin is fun.  Preferring to live in sin is to live a life full of joy and laughter.  It’s kind of like being drunk with abandon instead of alcohol.

But there’s also no reason to lie about the following.  Sin has its own particular brand of fear. 

The one who lives a life of sin fears everything.  He can’t trust God to watch out for him, so whatever is unknown becomes a potentially destructive enemy.  And the volume of unknowns is endless.

The sinner may say he fears nothing.  He may make great bold statements of his ability to cope.  But as Shakespeare wrote, “Me thinks thou dost protest too much”.  The bold proclamations of a sinner, in regard to his fearlessness, are nothing more than a golden blanket covering the thumb sucking child within.

The sinner knows he stands in a very precarious place.  God has promised to rip him apart at the judgment, and the sinner knows it.  By sheer will and deft ignorance the sinner simply puts it out of his mind.

On top of the coming promise of destruction, is a very curious fear.  They call it bad luck.  It’s also called Murphy’s Law. 

The sinner is always looking over his shoulder to see what’s coming to bite him in the butt.  He’s absolutely sure God has it in for him.  In the sinners mind, God is always trying to cause him trouble.  But such thoughts are only a mirror of his own evil heart.

The sinners fear is equal to his pleasure.  All the while he goes about trying to secure his next joy, he worries and frets that he will be assaulted in some peculiar manner.  Perhaps a broken bone, perhaps severe sickness, perhaps he will be caught doing what he should not be doing and end up in jail.

It’s ridiculous the measures people take to avoid thinking about God and the judgment to come.  But even more ridiculous is the ease with which his fearful burden can be lifted.  All it takes is a tiny measure of humility.  But humility isn’t fun, so it’s given no place on the sinners agenda.

God will not despise the humble heart.  And God will teach the humble man how to be fearless. 

Forgiveness from Christ Jesus provides a distinctly different joy.  While apparently the body is cast into sorrow, the forgiven sinners soul is laughing in the language of heaven.  While the sinner’s joy ends when his current preoccupation is taken away, the joy of the forgiven sinner never leaves him.  Little by little that peculiar fearfulness is replaced by a gentle confidence.

Serving God in Christ Jesus is pure and true freedom.  Pursuing sin and joy of the body will always result in slavery to fear.

The forgiveness of Christ Jesus is not just an arbitrary phrase.  When it is received, the soul knows it has been set free.  With forgiveness from God comes peace and hope.  Two things the sinner cannot possibly attain and retain.

By His Grace

The Division

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I doubt that it is possible for man to understand the things I am about to say.  For he will perceive through his own understanding.  And the understanding of man is filtered through greedy desire.

I do not mention greedy desire as a slur, but simply as a fact of his own nature.  For every man is born of severe limit.  Ignorance, death and sickness belong to him.  Wherever he perceives an individual who is overcoming these things, he desires with greed to have (or with his pride, to reject).

You want the love of God’s people.  You reject them because they do not love you as you love yourself.  In the weakness of your being, you think it abhorrent that anyone should love God’s ways more than they love you.

But you do not understand the differences in love.  We love you as a matter of mutual weakness.  For the things that plague you also plague us.  Ignorance, sickness and death cover all men.  So that the love we have for you is born of compassion.

But the love we have for the Living God’s Holy Son, is not filled with compassion!  He is endlessly wise, full of life, power beyond the wildest imagination of man, and eternal.  Our love for Him is full of awe, reverence, worship, thanks and praise.  How is it possible for us to give you this same love?

We serve you with the compassion that is born from our love for God.  But your pride gets in the way.  You don’t want to be thought of as weak.  You don’t want pity, unless it comes dressed as excuse.

There is so much more to say regarding this.  But let this stand as it is.  Those who will ponder these things may well find understanding.  For in their pondering, they may turn to God to understand.

Do not think we chide you because we hate you.  We hate the weakness that was ours.  As long as that weakness still dresses you, you receive the hatred of those who love God.  Yet even in our hatred for the things that cover you, you receive our compassion.  Even as our own weakness has received the compassion of God.

Yet with compassion, we deliver you the message of God.  Boldly, we deliver you the messages of warning.  Boldly, we speak to tear down the things you currently love.  We make fun of what you think is sincere.  For there is no life in the ways of man.

We know you will not accept our word as long as you are dressed in pride.  For you consider us rebellious.  We were once of you.  And now you can’t understand why we have turned against you.  But the compassion of God within us, drives us forward to speak, regardless your response.

You are urged to come and be with us.  Not a single man who loves the Living God in Christ Jesus, desires this division to remain.  What holds you back is not our hatred for the things that now cover you; as if we are snobish and proud.  What hold you back is your own weakness in pride.

Only the Living God will reveal these things, and this through his most excellent wisdom.  The weakness of flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God.  Only those things born of the Holy Spirit of God may enter the kingdom of heaven.  You cannot join us without the humility of Christ covering you.  You cannot truly love us unless your sins are forgiven.

May the Living God, the Holy Father of Christ Jesus, His Holy and Righteous Son, have mercy to wisely open the eyes of all who read this.

By His Grace

Victorious in Loss

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Among people, who are those who suffer well?  It is those who own nothing of what they own.

These are prepared to lose everything, even while they have it all.  It is the one who is determined, while in wealth and health, to die penniless and miserable.  This one cannot be held hostage to expectations full of error.  If prosperity of possessions continues to a peaceful death in his own bed, such a one will have lived his life without fear of loss.

Though all he has is taken.  Though sickness viciously tears at his body.  Though the wicked greed of man rips his belongings from his control.  This one will prosper.

Yet is it enough to be stoic in our life?  Is it necessary to pass by the loaf of bread while you have money and hunger?  Is it right to purchase the rust bucket chariot so that you will suffer the pains of upkeep?  Is it required of us to live under a pile of leaves in a part of the forest we don’t, and can’t own?  Such people are not being responsible with what has been given them.

What provokes the Responsible life?  Is it the desire of a man to become completely humble among all men?  That mind-set is produced from the pride of life.  Pride can’t, by its very nature, produce humility.  Such a man might feel pretty proud of himself, after all, he has forsaken what other people crave.   But his humility is crushed by a whisper of pride.

Jesus provokes the true strength of life.  His strength in a man is beyond ALL the things of this world.  Because His teaching and “in dwelling” comes from Heaven; a place which has never entertained the temporary wealth of this place.  And NEVER will.

If we want to be strong.  If we want to endure with stellar conviction.  If we want to live that “over coming” life, we will have to appropriate the teaching and character of the Lord Jesus.  While we live in relative peace, it is best to be prepared for the worst.  Let us not compile “things” so that we will be able to endure hardship.  Let us prepare our heart to be God’s champion, even if the entire world comes after us.

How does cancer become a trophy to be desired?  How does molestation become a crown of joy?  How does losing our job, or place in the family,  become a stepping stone to eternally born victory?  All these things, and the myriad of things that can happen to a person, become glory when we embrace failure.  We love our weakness, because it gives us an opportunity to overcome!  Even our own sins can become trophies of Grace.  Such things  can produce a certain kind of humility that cannot be manufactured by the desire of a man.  Nor can it be purchased by any of our possessions.

We encounter hardship for the sake of Christ.  We encounter hardship for the sake of testifying that God’s love and promise are vastly more, and true, than anything the world can provide.  We testify that life can be lived, even while this world has strapped us to a post in the middle of a raging fire.  We can clap our charred hands, even while the skin of our bodies walks toward becoming a lump of coal.  Thus, we encourage others to love the God who bestows such incredible strength.

Let us testify that God in us, is greater than all things.  Prosperity, health, wealth, sickness, persecution, joy, poverty, alienation, or fame,  cannot take away the riches of Christ in any man!  It is the man who counts any of these things as more valuable or stronger than the promise of God.  This is the one who will likely lose it ALL.

Death

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He always gets his way.  If he ever announces his approach he does not invite debate.  He is charged to render helplessness.  And there is not a fiber of compassion within him.

Often he sends out his emissaries to prepare the way before him.  Sickness and Chaos do his bidding.  Their love for their Lord is unswaying.  Singing their own special songs, they move through this world with dedicated heart.  Despite their cleverness, no one ever stands against them.

The sins of man have ushered in the power of death.  It is the will of the Sovereign God that all which is unholy will cease.  And death has come as an obedient servant.

Let all men be aware.  There is a place in eternity where death will be given great power.  For now, his power is limited to a few everyday.  But at the end of his existence he will slay countless hordes.

With one fell swoop of his power he will destroy all the wicked.  Not a one will go unattended.  As Sampson was given the strength to kill more Philistines in his death then all in his life, so death will bring down the house of God’s enemies.

Did you not perceive these things?  Have you really thought you would live a life of peace forever?  Did you honestly believe you could do as you please and escape the power of the second death?

There is no escape from death but by the power of the One who made him.  The name of this One is Jesus.

By His Grace