Tag Archives: the gospel

Again…….

by

0


Why did you leave in such a great hurry?

It was not that your work called your name.

For once in the door, to your coffee you scurried.

A sigh left your lips without shame.

Did good conscience allow you to taste the small sips?

Did you listen to conscience at all?

While in haste you retreated from my threatening lips,

Your darkness still covers your pall.

Opportunity came and was wasted again.

You had not the strength to ask.

The hope that releases the severest of pain,

Is forsaken for some trivial task.

This Day, the Trembling Rabbit

by

0


This day has never been.  And wicked men wake with fear.  Yesterday is now a testimony both for and against all men who lived it.  It is written in stone; unmovable and sure.

As men slept. their testimony of yesterday was rolled up as a scroll.  It was set in a place unreachable by the desire and hands of men.  It was set among the scrolls of all their yesterdays.  And the living God, himself alone. knows the place.

Men may remember small elements of yesterday.  But they are powerless to affect the testimony, either for good or for bad.  What remains in the hand of men is either regret or joy.

Left alone, regret is quickly covered up.  Perhaps a man drinks himself to oblivion to forget.  Perhaps he dresses his mind with the things he has learned to enjoy.  He says,  “I will cover my regret.  It is too much for me to bear.”

But regret is like a hungry wolf who walks beside you in the woods.  You hear the leaves rustle, just beyond your ability to see through the brush.  The snap of a tiny twig.  The brush of a branch against heavy fir.  The sound of heavy breathing as desire looks your way.  And if you could hear it, your ears would hear a drop of salivation strike the ground beneath his gaping mouth.  So it is with your regret which you hurry to mask as you wake from sleep.

If this is the case of yesterday, what will be today.  You will sleep tonight.  Will the morning see you scramble to cover today’s crop of regret?  Will you spend tomorrow trembling as you walk its path?

WHY?  Why do you live this way?  Why do you allow all your days to hunt you in the darkness?  Is it that you don’t know how to be released?  Is it that you have so well learned wickedness that you think it is normal?  Have you even come to the point where you attribute your own wicked ways to the living God and His holy son?  Do you say with confidence, “There is no way out!”

By this testimony you have no joy!  It is ripped away from the reach of your hand.  And you have ripped it away of your own volition.

How pathetic that men cover their regret with such trivial joy.  How sad that men should even know the word eternity.  How horrible the men should speak the word “joy”.

Black and dark are your days.  Hunted like some terror filled rabbit, you spend your day in useless trivia.  Ignoring the wolf does not quench his hunger for your blood.

Would you be free of this hideous cycle of hopeless behavior?  Or have you come to love the thrill of death?  Do you take joy in your useless life?

Have you heard of the gospel of Christ Jesus, the Holy Son of the living God?  I tell you a truth.  He can release you from your days as a victim of regret.  But the choice remains yours.

You may read the Bible.  You may listen to sermons.  You may witness people who live free of regret.  You may ask them and receive their answer.  But if you would join them you must do the things of God.

It is not enough to hear.  A blade of grass may shiver in its place from the sound waves of truth that shake its form.  Never the less, it is cut down by the gardener.  So it is with those who hear and do not do.

What is the urgency in your heart to be free of this cycle of death?  Go!  Go visit the holy and living words that can transform your very soul.  Force your blind eyes to read.  Then ask the living God for release.  And continue for the rest of your days doing these things.  This is the life that will bring you freedom.

Do you think he does not love you?  Is not this thought a product of your own wicked and unloving heart?  If God did not love you, would he have sent His Son to be murdered in your place?  Why would the Holy living God do such a foolish and wicked thing?

Release is!  The transformation from pathetic  rabbit to a godly joyous man is real!  Do not let your eyes look at others.  Many will testify that they have looked and found nothing.  How then can this man write these words?  Pay no attention to them.  They lie from the wickedness that is stored up in their own heart.

Regret comes to you because there are words describing joy.  People are clean and are free and you have seen them.  What will you give to join them?

From near miss to victory

by

0


You nearly consumed my day with sorrow.

I prepared for you.  I dressed myself in the most beautiful of things.  I allowed myself to imagine how you would receive me. Thus I presented myself to see your willing face.

To my sorrow, you would have nothing of what I offered.  And in my extended leaving I sought wisdom for my compassion.

The Holy Lord has shown me what is true.  And though compassion remains toward you, it is tempered by a hatred for your stone cold heart.

“Ignorance is bliss!”  Is this not a saying of men?  You consider me a threat because I threatened your perceived peace; a peace that will surely evaporate in a puff as you stand before the Most High God.

Foolishly I considered you innocent!  But among men there is no such thing before God.

Whereas before I felt sorrow, now my soul is incensed at the hardness of your heart.

But you have done me a great service.  For as I was about to side with the plight of men, you have inadvertently shoved me toward the love of God.

Compassion remains, for it is the will of God to save.  But kin to his compassion, is righteous judgement.

None will escape by virtue of ignorance!  None will escape by blaming others.  God has spoken and it will not be taken out off the way, “All men are without excuse.”

Compassion tells you the only way out is readily available now.  His name is Jesus, the Excellent and Holy Son of God.

In him you live and move and have your being.  As the nature of God is displayed openly in all creation.

You can easily read his Holy words in a book they call the Bible.  They are living words that can transform your soul.

Add to these the testimony of his people among you.  That testimony you spurn by the hardness of your heart.

So be it Lord Jesus, come quickly!

The Place of No Return

by

0


I write this as help to my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I write this as instruction to the wicked that they may understand.  I write this as admonition and hope.  If you will bear with it, there will be understanding.

A man wakes and guilt covers him.  Perhaps as he closed his eyes the guilt restrained his sleep until his flesh could fight no more.  He is aware of the holiness of God.  He is aware of his own utter lack.  This awareness has crushed multitudes, and they never rise again.

Many arrive to this place of understanding.  They perceive the nature of “good”.   They also perceive the nature of their own wickedness.  This perception can be a wall of steel brick 7000 miles high.  Here, millions have died for lack of faith.

What does a man do, before the perfect face of God, when he finds he is guilty of sin?  What repairs can be made? What action can be taken?

We are forced to consider the righteousness of God.  Regardless our sin, he is faithful and true.  His Son did not bleed for no reason.  Therefore if we believe that, what we must do becomes clear.

We approach God in prayer confessing our sins.  He responds by freeing our conscience.  Now we must rise and start the war again.  Not to believe, is to call God a liar.  Not to believe this to say: “Christ died for nothing”.  We cannot do that.   Such a saying is worse than our sin.

How useless is it to beat yourself for the things you have done?  There is a mountain to climb.  Wallowing in your pityful state does no good.  It brings no glory to Christ.  And it does not fulfill the Word of God.  Not to mention the devastating blow to our testimony.  We teach, by necessity, what we believe.

I understand how difficult it is to let go and just run.  But if we believe God, what choice is there?  He takes no pleasure in our sin.  But it is his pleasure to see us have faith and go. 

Again, the proof of his desire is in the death of his Son.  He encountered death for the will of God.  The will of God reaches to reunite what is broken.  And that he has accomplished through His Holy Son.

“The Faith” does not wallow in disrepair.   It stands as quickly as legs can find balance, and strives toward obedience.  Faith that comes through any other means than the Holy Blood of Christ is no strength of faith at all.  But understanding and strength come when we believe the Holy Word of God regarding the sacrifice of his Son.

Have you been wallowing in your frailty for years?  Isn’t it about time to believe?

Gird Yourself with Strength

by

0


Is the strength of the gospel to be at peace with the world,  or is it to be at odds?

Is the strength of the gospel strength to stand and testify?  Or is it only strength to hide?

There is death to self.  There is death to temptation.  There is the death of the body.  And there is death to the acceptance of the world.

Who will testify with power, who has not testified before?  Who will embrace their fear with a death grip; restrain themselves for the sake of His holy name, and fight like a dog over a bone, mindless of injury to themselves?

The strength of the gospel is a sound mind and fearless heart.  You don’t have to ask for it.  Just take it!  He will generously guide those who step out to fight. 

This is the strength of the gospel you have received.  Do not be deceived by those who drink from the fountain of: “let’s all just get along.”

Pontification

by

0


Pontificating is the art of telling other people what to do as if God has told you personally.  Unless someone is speaking to the Pope himself, it is generally used as a derogatory label.  And it is often used in conjunction with “self righteous”.

Ok!

Perhaps Christians should get past the fear of this label.  Perhaps they ought to pontificate more often.  Why should we leave the glory of God within us to a man who wears a white robe and rides around in a bulletproof limousine?

I am not Afraid of such a label.  I can’t help but take seriously the Lord’s charge to spread the gospel and to teach.  Refer to such men as you will, such derogatory labels only incite them to more activity for the Lord.