Tag Archives: The living God

Hypocritical Honor

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If I speak to receive the praise of men, can those words be words of God?  Yet if I am to speak words of any value, they must belong to the One who is eternally valuable.

I have seen how men praise one another for gallant and faithful action.  As if what is good can be borne among men.  If I join them in this praise where is my allegiance?  For anything that is truly good is born and borne of God.

Let the world praise their heroes.  I will honor, with worship, God’s hero: Jesus The Christ.

I say the following, knowing there will be misunderstanding: ‘I have come to despise the honor of men”. 

Men honor the ones who do good to and for them.  As a man may lay down his life (to whatever portion) for his fellow brother, he is honored. 

All the while, it is easy for them to despise the One who made them.  The One who truly loves them.  The One whom they have murdered.  The One who is shunned among them, even to this day.

Such honor of man is important among men, but only if it teaches us to treat The Living God with severe honor.  But this is not the definition used by men.

Men are paid to do what is good.  They are paid with money or fame; a type of immortality is placed on the mantle.  By this, men purchase honor.  Is it then truly honor?  Or does man hold one another hostage for the sake of reward?

But there is one who came, that he may do the will of the One who is forever Good.  Laying aside all possible human reward, he gave of himself without quarter.  What honor of man can compare?  Yet what distinct lack of honor men give him.

Every man knows this!  It is willing ignorance which keeps it hidden.  Willfully they are led to the pageantry of honor for those who are less than He.

They gladly stand at parades and wave their national flag.  Even a tear or two may be seen.  But mention the Living God’s Christ in a crowd of men and you will see them quietly disperse.  So man’s definition of Honor is defined.

This will not change until the Holy One is revealed.  But I am allowed to despise this hypocrisy of man.

By His Grace

Wordless Wonder

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Wordlessly my little dog speaks to me of volumes.

The rock on which I stubbed my toe proclaims to me, “I am here!”

Such is the marvelous conversation of creation.

How should we be surprised, that the Living God speaks to us by what is?

By His Grace

The Lion

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I dreamed a dream fit for no weak heart.  Yet I woke with no fear or trembling.  Sobriety was in my cup as one may sip his coffee in the morning.  I drank the wisdom of God to understand.

This is the dream:

A lion was loose among men.  In his devouring of men he was noticed.  The marks of his attack were properly identified. 

All men were called up to be on the watch and report.  As if by some means the lion could be captured and killed.

In the dream I had no fear.  I decided to hunt him down myself to see what all the ruckus was about.  Men die everyday, why such an uproar now?

I spied him running from room to room down a long and extensive hallway.  And so I followed as fast as I could.

Finally, in the open space, I found him resting.  With greeting from my mouth, I went over to speak to him.

I asked him why men despised him so, for he seemed such an amiable creature.  He willingly befriended me and took me to his lair.

There we sat, and talked of things.  He even offered me a cup of delightful drink, as we sat and mused together. 
I may have heard what he was saying, but I can’t recall one word.  The actions of another lion caught my attention.  It was then I noticed the bed.

A woman lay on the bed roasted, so that the meat of her body was tender for consuming. 

His companion, another lion, gingerly split the skin and ate.  Noticing the revulsion in my eyes, the lion explained to me that it is a delicacy and very delicious.

But I heard moaning, as if from a deliriously insane person.  I looked and saw that the woman was still alive.  Even though only her eyes could be seen moving.  They were wide open and quickly glancing about, as if one may be afraid for lack of knowledge.

After a while the Lions left, having satiated their hunger.  It was then that I awoke.

No fear attended me, and I did not consider it a nightmare.  Instead I have sought the Lord to understand.  It seemed to me that such a dream cannot have its source in the imagination of man.

In the process striving to understand, certain items of Holy Word have come to mind: define the lion, define devouring, define the amiable one who destroys men. 

Yet I am perplexed by the uproar among men.  Devouring has been a part of man’s experience from the beginning.  Why should they notice now?

The following scripture has fallen into my hand.  Let those who are wise in the Living God’s Christ understand.

Isaiah 59:
11 “We all growl like bears;
we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice, but find none;
for deliverance, but it is far away.
12 For our offenses are many in your sight,
and our sins testify against us.
Our offenses are ever with us,
and we acknowledge our iniquities:
13 rebellion and treachery against the Lord,
turning our backs on our God,
inciting revolt and oppression,
uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
14 So justice is driven back,
and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
honesty cannot enter.
15 Truth is nowhere to be found,
and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.”

I will relate no more understanding than this.  For what I have perceived may not be the full.  Yet what I have perceived is too the voluminous to write.

May God show his people what is true and faultless.  May he wake the sleeping.  May He protect and receive the righteous.

Beyond all things of man, may the will of the Living God be done forever.  In Christ Jesus he has secured his salvation.  Though the body is devoured, hope remains.

Yet, let all men worship Him, especially those of The Faith.  Let my brothers and sisters renew the urgent calling within them.  Christianity is not just religious habit.  It is a vicious and vibrant struggle between life and death. 

Let sobriety speak!  Those who count the things of Christ as if they are of this world, will not stand well on the coming day. 

But God is first.  As is the Father, so is the Son.  For the sake of His Holy name, may His will forever be done.

Even so, Lord Jesus come!

By His Grace

Sweet Dreams are Made of These

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I was at a truck stop scanning in my papers while I listened to a song that was playing.  The song is “sweet dreams are made of these”, by the Eurythmics.

I’ve heard that song hundreds of times before.  But the power of what she was saying dawned on me like the rising Sun.

Everyone is looking for something.  That must mean we are all compelled to search.  And she’s right.

The variety of religions in the world range from obedience to what they call holy law, to the abuse of self and others.  Regardless, men search as a compulsion.  This is proof that there is something to be found.  Even the atheist searchs diligently to disavow the search.  But his activity proves there is something to be disavowed.

How happy then is the one who finds it?  How secure in his way, does his life become?  And what great peace should overshadow him 24 /7?

Christ is the answer.  He is the one that is provoking the search.  The errant things men do are caused by their misunderstanding. 

If you would have what everyone is looking for, search diligently into the things of Christ Jesus.  You are compelled to search. Why not search what is true?

If a man can’t find the truth he’ll create his own series of lies.  But I testify that the Living God is alive among his people in Christ Jesus.

By His Grace

Reading the Bible Cannot Save You

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Living a life provided by us, can only lead to an eternity provided by us. “Unless the Lord builds the house the builder builds in vain.”

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“Salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb!”  This will be the song sung by those who arrive in heaven, dressed for eternity.  It will not be sung by those who think they can save themselves.  No work of man can produce the attire necessary to stand before the Living God.  Simple logic brings us to this conclusion.

As an aside: I met a man who told me he had no time for Jesus.  He said he would take his chances in the Judgment Day.  I will give the man this, at least he was being honest with his folly.

The power of God alone can turn a man from fool to wise.  Those who live in truth before the Holy Lord, will cannot lie.  It is impossible to stand before Him and do anything other than tell the truth.  The perfection of God demands it.  How then can the man who trusts in his own strength sing that song?

I do not write this article to make fun of people.  I write this article that everyone may understand.  From the simple to the great, salvation is extended freely.  Yet only those who humble themselves before the Living God, will find it.

39  “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.  These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5)

No righteousness belongs to man.  If a man is able to memorize the entire Bible, it does not save him.  God does not take pride in such a child.  God in his excellent wisdom has reserved His Holy Son alone, that men may be saved.  The song does not say, “Salvation belongs to those who have saved themselves”.

When the Lord Jesus was with his disciples on the mountain, and was transformed before their very eyes, the Holy Father spoke.  Of all the myriad of things the Holy Father could have said, what did he say?  “. . .This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”  (Matthew 17:5)

God did not say,  “Read the Bible and do what it says”.  The Bible is a written and concrete evidence of the covenant of God toward man.  But the Living God, and His strength to save is, found exclusively in his Living, Righteous and Holy Son.

Pride comes when man thinks he owns anything by his own strength.  But salvation comes when all the man has belongs to God. 

If anything is not of God it will not endure the Judgment Day.  Eternity is Holy.  Nothing will ever be in it but that which is God.

There will be no pride in heaven.  There should be no pride among us here.  If a man thinks he is something, he deceives himself and does not understand the truth.

Reading the Bible, alone, cannot save you.  It is necessary that every man should humble himself before the Living God, and receive the power of his Holy Son’s sacrifice and eternal Kingship.

Find a man who knows the Bible through and through, yet does not commune with the Living God in Christ Jesus, and you will find a man who is full (to overflowing) with pride and false humility.  But living in vibrant fellowship with the Living God’s Holy Son, produces humility, by crushing the pride in which a man trusts.

If still you need proof, read the Holy Law that God gave to his people through Moses.  Now for 24 hours, do that law.  You will find yourself falling short within an half hour.

Those who think they can save themselves by memorizing and understanding the Bible, are like those who live by the law.  Not one man can obey it completely.  And every man who tries will die.  Remember what the Apostle Paul said.  “Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, ‘Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God’s curse!’” (Galatians 3: 10)

May the Living God grant understanding.

By His Grace

The Ride of Your Life

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Have someone tie your wrists to the tail of a powerful horse.  Now strike the horse with a stick or the sting of a whip.  You are about to encounter the ride of your life.

Tie a rope around your waist and connect the other end to the bumper of a car.  Select a careless teenager and let him drive.  At the moment of your word, you are about to encounter the ride of your life.

So it is with all who give themselves to the will of the Holy Living God.  As you have bound yourself to him, so will your life be changed.

By His Grace