Tag Archives: the gospel

No Punishment?

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They say, “Look I have lied and nothing has come of it.  God has not punished me.  I am perfectly sound of body and mind”.

By this they go about lying without fear of punishment.  Could it be that the punishment is not physical?  Could it be that the punishment comes in the way of denial; that the Glory of God is distant from them?

They lie because it is their nature.  And the transforming power of God to be faithful to truth is distant from them.  But they don’t see this.

Their eyes are on the things of this world.  They expect the things of God to appear in the same way that a man will appear. 

God is Spirit, man is flesh.  But the day will come when every man is no longer flesh.  On that day everyone will appear before the Most High God and receive the just and full punishment for his wickedness.

By their lack of punishment, men even have gone so far as to say there is no God.  But look how blind they are to what is forever.  Look how they fail to to take into consideration that God has never lied, from forever to forever he is true.

There is the gospel; the sacrifice of Christ Jesus for every liar.  But let this article simply point out our need for the gospel.  The words of Christ are not far from us.  Go and search them out.

Cutting the Difference

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Christmas is coming.  Many will now turn to a false religion.  From their daily life of caring nothing for the things of God, they will now act as though the gospel belongs to them.  They will quote a portion of Scripture that says, “Peace on earth and goodwill to men”.

Smiles on peoples faces, music of God will fill the air, and winter will force a certain diminishing of wickedness.  Ungodly behavior is but a seed planted in late fall.  A treasure of the wicked waiting to sprout in spring.

Christmas is a time of year when the word of Jesus gets passed around rather fluidly.  But what about the other 11 months of the year?

Consider these tidbits  from the Bible.

1 Peter 4:
17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And,

“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

Proverbs:
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and the one who is wise saves lives.
31 If the righteous receive their due on earth,
how much more the ungodly and the sinner!

Luke 2:
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

2 Timothy:
19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

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Seek the Lord’s favor while it is still called today.

To the Journey

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We have a tendency to trivialize everything.  But we come to own this tendency with good reason.  Absolutely everything we know deteriorates.  Even the compassion of Man is in a state of flux; needs come and go, the sick get better or die, poverty evaporates at the end of its work, hatred goes to sleep when it is tired of destroying.  So even Man’s compassion (what is considered the best Man can offer) rests from its work.

We strive hard, but at the end of the day everything we know is trivial.  Everything we know is in a constant state of repair or deterioration.  Isn’t that why we sleep?

Most people, including myself, tend to apply this trivial mindset to the gospel of Christ.  We can’t help it, it’s in our nature to perceive things as if they are passing.  And without the constant help of the eternal Living God’s Holy Son we would never perceive the gospel as eternal.  It would remain in a mode of choice.  And isn’t that what we see when we look at those who call themselves Christians; constantly making the choice to do (or not to do) Christ-like things.

We need to be reminded that his promises last forever and never change.  That’s why we read the Bible often; to renew our decaying mind.  That’s why we pray, with whatever earnest soul we can muster.  Isn’t that why we are told to encourage one another?

Connected to this is an understanding that has come again to me this morning.  Everything we do is manufactured.  It’s in a constant state of repair.  But a love for righteousness cannot be in a state of repair.  For whatever constantly needs repair is also constantly deteriorating.  Love does not deteriorate, and eternal Righteousness does not fall into the realm of choice.  Let’s be honest, we either love righteousness or we don’t. 

What an amazing place God has created; it is not a place of deterioration, it is a place of potential eternal life.  There can be no better testing of a man’s heart than the state of affairs I have spoken of here.  On top of that, God knows the difference between a manufactured love of righteousness and one that is ingrained and sincere.

This is the nature of salvation.  It is not something that will be.  It is something that IS.  Christ has come, as the great power of God, to redeem the humble of heart.  He has come to teach us eternity.  Imagine that!  The sum of what we know about eternity is the simple word itself.  And without the presence of God, that’s where our knowledge remains.

Every man is encouraged to begin the journey of truth.  The journey is called Christianity.

The Ant Head

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They gathered in a building.  The final place of the final test.  They came together to prove the value of Man.

The question was leadership and righteousness.  Who is worthy and why.

From the body of the elders they pick the wisest one.  They said to him, “Choose for us a prize that we may begin the contest”.  The old man, bent over and half blind, said to them, “Bring me the head of an ant”.

The youngest of the elders was the first to move.  He ran outside and grabbed the first ant he could find.  With urgent dispatch he returned with the head of an ant.

The elder told him to put it plate and set the plate the middle of the table. 

The elder sat at the head of the table.  “Now debate among yourselves who is worthy to eat this head.”

They all stood speechless for the space of a minute.  Then the first to move was the youngest.  As his fingers reached for the prize, one of the elders slapped his hand with disdain.  “What gives you the right to think you are worthy?”  The reaching and the slapping became a spark to a pool of flammable liquid. 

It started with a response.  But it soon developed into an all out brawl.  This went on for quite a while until a breeze came to the top of the table.  Not even one elder noticed the ant head drift off the plate, down to the floor, and disappear in a crack.

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I have looked at Man.  I have tried to discover why righteousness eludes us.  I thought I had the answer.  But in the telling of it, it took too long.

In my life I have testified well over fourteen thousand times, trying to nail down the reason why we are full of disarray.

I have come to the conclusion of the elder who ordered the ant head.  There is no righteousness among men.  There is no peace to be found anywhere on this earth.  Man simply does not have eternal life in him.

And I have understood from all that is Christianity, Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.  Except that the Living God had done his “Strange Work”, not one man would rise from the grave.

I used to stand at the edge of the city and wait to hear wisdom.  I stood along the path where men walk and waited to hear someone utter something wise and beautiful.  But I realized I will starve to death before I find a wise man walk by me.

Unless the wisdom of God comes down from heaven, man has no option but death.  And hasn’t this been done?  Christ Jesus crucified on our behalf.  Yes, the wisdom of God has come down.

In Man there is no life.  But God has sent mercy.  Let every man do as he will; seek righteousness with all your heart.  You will not find it here!

The Pursuit of Discipline

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A man will lack sleep.  He will let go the essential to focus on his desire.  The night is witness to his shadow on the wall, busily pursuing his ambition.

Suffering comes in variety of form as he disciplines himself to his intention. 

He loses friends.  His house becomes unkempt.  His belongings rot away.  His reputation suffers irreparable damage.  With extremely keen focus, he chases after his desire with the most excellent of discipline.

Discipline has specific marks.  Ideally chaos suffers defeat through discipline.  But even in chaos (wicked abandon) a man may cause damage to everything and everyone else; that he may pursue his desire.

See how every man has intense desire within him.

The question is, intent.  To what does a man’s desire aspire?

By our nature our desire is bent toward selfishness.  But if a man will turn his desire toward the Holy One of God, discipline becomes the roots of life.

With excellent abandon of all that is around him, men pursue with diligence the discipline of accomplishment.  If this is true in the things that are useless, why not turn our discipline to what is Eternal Life?

No “Second” Chance

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2,365,200,000
That’s so many seconds you can live if you live to be 75 years old.

Refusing eternal life from Jesus makes everyone of them worthless.