Living Truth


I see a fearsome mistake that men far too often make.  I see it for two reasons.  First I see the mistake because I saw it in other men.  Then the mistake came to life as I saw it in myself.

The mistake is that any man should think he holds the truth in his own hand.  And the mistake becomes evident when our actions and words do not reflect perfection and purity.

I know that many will not understand this.  They will think that the body of religious words have power in themselves.  But this mistake happens when people forget that the body of religious words are but a shadow of He who is immeasurably pure and brilliantly righteous.

The mistake happens when people look to their own history, or even the history of any other man, and think the truth they perceive can belong to man.

Man, in himself, can never hold the fullness of what is true.  I used the word never and meant it with all the fullness that that means.  Man’s reliance on the Living God’s Holy Son does not cease at our eternal appearance in heaven.

Truth is the Living God himself.  Truth is not a body of evidence among men, whether in word or in deed.  Truth is the Living
Person of Jesus the Christ of God. 

Failure to pray will surely lead us into things that are not completely true.  Failure to humble ourselves before the Majesty of God, will surely cause us to live abundantly in a Body of Lies.

A Word From My Flesh


As I stand and praise God, receiving majestic revelation I am lost in the beauty of eternity.

Then a shadow catches my attention.  Someone has come, begging to be heard.

I turn to look.  It is my flesh!

With his mouth held open in awe, he speaks to me.

“Don’t you realize that what you are doing and saying is insane?”

I look down at him, and who can explain the look on my face?  What reply can he possibly expect?  What reply lends credence to my incredulity?  I speak the only words appropriate to the moment.

“Don’t you realize that you don’t understand what sanity is?”

Fear?


What is fear?  Isn’t it fear to ponder what can be done to us?  Doesn’t fear come because we know we are weak and defenseless.

What is perfect strength?  Isn’t it the knowledge that we are perfectly protected?  Doesn’t strength come because we know that He who protects us is above all things?

Therefore I am proud of my weakness and am not afraid.  For the One who has sworn, by his very blood to protect me, That One cannot lie!

I see the fear that was in me, and gladly spit in its face.  “You will not own me!  You have been dethroned.  You are destroyed before you speak!  The One who is above you owns this soul.”

Come!  Believe beside me.  The shadow of fear has no hold on those who believe!

Grace


“When you ascended on high, you took many captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious– that you, LORD God, might dwell there.” (Psalm 68:18)

If you want hope for every day and night of the rest of your life , look at what it says.  “. . . even from the rebellious”.

Jesus lives to save. 

The house of the righteous man is clean and prepared for a visitation of the Holy One.  While the house of the rebellious is infested with tiny crawling venomous snakes.

Faith has cleaned the house of the righteous.  That same faith, drops the rebellious to their knees. 

With Regal Splendor, the Living God’s Holy Son comes to the house of each.  And he is received, in each house, by a flow of tears. 

Everything the righteous man has belongs to this wonderous person, Jesus.  Everything the rebellious one wants, is in the hands of he who is willing to come among his filthy things.

Both of them fall on their face in awe.  Both of them marvel at the Majestic mercy of the Righteous One.  Both of them give the only thing they have left; willing praise to the One who can save their souls.

Burdened with limitations, each one knows they can reach no higher than their skin.  But see how it is God who moves to embrace.

10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3)

This is the nature of our plight.  The righteous man knows these things and lives because he receives from the Living God – that great mercy God has promised.  The rebellious man looks up with pleading, for he knows the same things.

One has.  The other has hopes to attain.  The Apostles walked with the Lord daily.  The man of the tombs was forced to remain.  Yet all of them testified to the willing love of the Living God’s Holy Son.

Who will bring to God the only thing he has to give?  Who will believe this message and live?  Who will offer thanks for the inexpressible gift of God, Grace?

By His Grace

The Process of Christianity


There is a lot of confusion regarding Christianity.  Granted, there is outright hatred for anything that belongs to God.  But there are also many who simply don’t understand.  I write this for the latter.  The former will remain beyond my reach.

Christianity is not a religion in itself.  Christianity spawns, or gives life to, true understanding.  It is undeniable that there are many corrupt variations of Christianity.  But the one with an honorable heart will divide lie and fiction from truth.

The process of becoming a Christian, for the most part, takes a rather predictable course.  There are great variations in means, but the mile markers are not hard to to denote.  Let us begin.

The man recognizes his lack of ability to conquer the onslaught against him.  This world is full of chaos and unknown difficulties.  Added to the physical violence he perceives, comes and almost subconscious awareness of perfection. 

With an earnest chasing after wisdom, the man begins to perceive the vast nature of perfection.  If anxiety was provoked by the chaos of this world, the nature of perfection compounds the man’s concerns.  The man has reached a milestone of understanding.  Now he is ready to encounter the next mile marker.

As his years slip by, death becomes more real.  When he was young, death was only some imaginary trouble.  But now, with the same chasing of wisdom, the man begins to examine his own end. 

Futility looms heavily over the path he knows he must walk.  How deep the chasm of his futile life becomes, especially while he has begun to examine the nature of perfection.  One aspect of perfection rises very tall;  “If there is life, why is there any death at all?”

At this mile marker the man is forced to make a choice.  Will he resign himself to obvious oblivion, or will he seek that perfection he is coming to desire?  Wisdom says, There really is no choice son”.

This is the very place where many fall away to pleasure; “Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”.  But a few will press on, for they know there is something more to be had.   Exactly how they know this, they cannot explain yet.  But it is these few who will proceed to the next milestone.

Again, the man is faced with a choice; should he swallow his own observations and simply join the crowd, or does he dare to step away from others?   Though his soul cannot agree with them, the temptation of his body is to remain included with humanity.

It is exceedingly difficult for anyone to say that God began a work in a man’s life at a certain place.  But regardless when it happened, there is a marked difference which a man can perceive.  Such a man does not think like the masses, and he knows it.  This sliver of knowledge is found as the man approaches the next milestone.  Metaphorically speaking, that awareness shoves the man through the door.

It is the diligent, honorable, and earnest heart that decides to encounter the obvious best solution.  Nothing has changed regarding his futile life.  His death still looms vibrantly before him.  And the nature of perfection has more clarity than ever before.  Whether others perceive these things or not, the brave will enter in.  Welcome to isolation.

Now God moves to introduce perfection.  The Holy law of God is introduced to the man.  Here many perceive the height of expectation, and run back to the crowd for solace.  But the man with an earnest and true heart will kneel before the Living God in prayer. 

The standard of perfection is too much for him to bear.  But so is the futility of his life.  With no place to turn, he has dropped to his knees to seek mercy.  “If God is real, he says to himself, “he will show himself to me now.  I have encountered the absolute impasse.”

The man has examined his life and found fault.  The man has examined the world and found the same.  But with his earnest heart, he cannot find fault with the laws of God.  Now the specter of his death is set ablaze with a Holy Fire.  There are no more choices left for him to take.

The only possible choice, to avoid the inevitable, is to turn away from this search completely.  But with all he has invested, that is no choice at all.  Willingly, the man rises to his spiritual feet and walks into a firestorm of the unknown.

His faith has come alive, but not for no reason.  The mutual work between the man and God has produced obvious conclusions.  It is time for God to make an eternal choice; at this point it is righteous to introduce the man to the Holy Son of God, Jesus.

The man has reached the first milestone of heaven.  he has become a Christian.  After this, there are thousands markers more to attain. 

But it is at this place where I will cease this writing.  This sessation comes, because beyond this place, the predictability of the man’s encounters with spiritual milestones belongs to the invisible God.  Where God will take this man is absolutely unknown.  What service the man will supply for the Holy Son of the Living God, is up to God to decide.

Beyond this milestone, the choices of the man matter very little.  It is the intent of the Living God that will drive the man from here on out.

I have written this for the sake of those who argue against Christianity by the use of the human experience alone.  To some degree, the human experience begins the search.  But our experience on this earth is not capable of grasping the fullness of God’s Grace, or will.

I know there will be arguments against these things I have written.  But there will also be honest questions.  I publish this, willing to receive either.

I have not written this to challenge secular mindsets.  And I cannot say that what I have written is a blueprint for every man.  But I have written this that it might be seen, there is a relatively logical progression to be taken between the mind of a worldly man and the mind of a Christian.

I will finish this writing with the following thought.  True Christianity is not a product of any man’s personal choice.  It is produced by a mutual willingness between God and his people.  Christianity is a living experience in which the truth of eternity is revealed, to whatever extent the Living God is willing to reveal it.

With what relative innocence I can muster, I have written this without a desire to judge, chastise, pigeonhole, or destroy.  There are battles to be had.  But let this stand as an offer for peace.  The Spirit of God within me is quite capable of waging wars of words and ideas.  But such things will present themselves when they do.

May God grant understanding to anyone who reads these things.  For without his help, no understanding will rise to the surface.

By His Grace

A Word of Sobriety


To those who think they can do as they please while they bear the name of Christ.

The Living God will enter your sinful place.  His messengers will come among your putrid house of defiance.  The Lord will know what the people do, and he will surely reward with justice.

Have you listened to the lie?  Have you preferred disobedience over righteous humility?  Then do not be surprised when your house becomes desolate.  For the Lord will surely make an end of rebellion.

But to the diligent who resolve to love him and obey His Holy commands.

Do not fear.  The Lord has seen your heart.  It is for joy that He has given salvation.  Nothing that belongs to the Living God’s Holy Christ can taste destruction.  As the grave itself was not able to hold him, so destruction will not touch those who belong to him.

But the Lord will make a distinction.  He will surely divide the people one from another.  Be wise.  Honor His Holy Name and live.  Remain foolish, and you will surely taste his wrath.

Yes Christ Jesus is the Love of God!  But the love of God is directed to what is righteous and true, faultless and clean.  To this he draws us out of sin, and will accept no other engine.

Be wise and live, remain in sin and die.

1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  (Luke 13)

By His Grace