Tag Archives: Sin

Stiff Necked Children

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You ask. You suggest. You try to reason. No success. But the matter is urgent and learning is not up for debate.

The mind is not willing. The heart is not open to correction. The child has decided to disobey.

So out of kindness, you decide to push the back of his head to make him move (any obedience is better than none). He hardens his neck against your hand, pushing his body against your will.

For the moment, he becomes a stiff necked child.

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I admit to the Lord that I am useless without his will in my heart. I ask for his leadership. Then, when a moment comes to do what is right I choose my own direction. Without saying a word I become a stiff necked child.

What is the meaning of Grace?

Stay with apathy. Stay with superstition. Stay with your own brand of religious ideals. Laugh at what is Holy. Mock sincerity. Consider godly righteousness as a myth. Leave the Bible in the room of “ignoring”. Be critical of those who try to obey. Receive gossip about Christians and pass it on with a joyous mouth.

What does stiff necked mean?

Who are we that God should even care about us, a stiff necked brood of snakes? Yet he suffered among us the most brutal life and death to redeem us as his.

Give the gospel another opportunity.

Dreamers

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They gave themselves to the reading of the word and to prayer. The result?

Thousands were saved in Christ. The power of God moved among the people with unprecedented strength. A Legacy was built for billions.

We have one life to live. What will be said of us when we are ushered into his holy kingdom?

“One good deed is more worth than a thousand brilliant theories. Let us not wait for large opportunities, or for a different kind of work, but do just the things we ‘find to do’ day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the future has not arrived; we never shall have any time but time present. Then do not wait until your experience has ripened into maturity before you attempt to serve God. Endeavour now to bring forth fruit.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Dare not just dream. Become. The thief does not steal your life. He steals your seconds.

Golden Silence?

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Every day more babies are born. Every day more children come of age to understand the complicated things of life. Every day adults are faced with their own unrighteous inadequacy before God. Every day there are people who have struggled to grasp the gospel and are losing their faith little by little because no one comes along to encourage them. Every day senior citizens reach the precipice of death, never having understood the gospel of Christ. Every day dirt covers the body of errant souls who have gone to the judgment without any shield. Considering all that, when is it OK for a Christian to stop speaking about their life in Christ?

Isn’t it a little bit like secretly nibbling from your vast resource of food in a famine struck land? While the others waste away from malnutrition you appear to be a miracle among them. All the while, the Christian knows the secret of life.

The really sad thing is that simple fear of embarrassment is what is causing so much death. If we yearn to be like Christ let us remember this: he did not fail to open his mouth.

Give?

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Is it possible that the best thing we can do for the children of the world is to give them what they want? They want freedom to be godless. They want freedom for the pursuit of pleasure. They want a certain legality for all their miss guided desires. They want to imagine there is no heaven or hell. They desire that there is no consequence to a godless people‘s existence. They want to be their own gods.

God tells us the world will certainly gain all it has desired and fought against him to keep. The deep-seated hatred for all that is true and good will eventually consume the people.

It will happen. It will come to pass that the world will be immersed in the worship of demons. Here is the question: does the beginning of that immersion begin today?

Personally, I think the beginning of that immersion is when Christ’s people are taken from this world. See how the stage is being built.

For now we stand against them by doing and saying the things of our God, Christ Jesus. See how vigorously they fight against righteousness, self discipline, purity and godly justice.

They will eventually get what they want. They will be ecstatic when they win full release. Though we can say with confidence they will rue the day of their “success”.

Above Our Ability

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Christianity is singular. Meaning by necessity it has to stand apart from everything on earth. Just as everything on earth has a beginning (a threshold) to its place. As you approach, it is not then all of a sudden it is. So what is the threshold of Christ in us?

Spurgeon points at it with this:

“Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature’s thorns never produced a single fig. ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh.’”

Insatiable Demand

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Every law ever instituted by man is meant to curb his rebellious nature. But no sooner are laws instituted, and we find people inventing ways to satisfy their longing for selfish wickedness.

To point this out is likely useless. Consider this example: speed limits are set to protect the people from simple errors. But unless the policeman is visible, the people will speed 5, 10, 15 miles over the limit.

Crime is not limited to those violations of law that can land a man in prison. Look down the road considerably farther. God is Holy and Perfect. If a man will break a small law of humanity, he is already willing to break God’s laws in heaven.

God has set the boundaries of his law to protect perfection.

What does this mean to us? With a little bit of thought, the meaning becomes glaringly obvious. The more we think about it, the more terrifying is our insatiable demand.

Who is bold enough to receive God‘s righteous restraints?