Tag Archives: The Way

Do you remember?

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Do you remember?  Do you remember what hopelessness feels like?  We struggle along the “Way”.  But how can the struggle be compared to endless sins?  Do you remember?

Do you remember when there was no prayer?  We look back now and have forgotten the agony of life.  Like the rest of the world, we called on things of our imagination.  We learned from others what they thought worked.   We did not know God’s Christ.  All we knew was his Holy Law. 

Let a vicious dog stand in my way, and I will find another way around.  Even if the way around takes far too long and robs me of my expectation, it is better to arrive with all my limbs.  Do you remember?

So it is with the world.  Do you remember?  They have nowhere to go but expectation of judgement.  Their soul knows it and they avert their eyes.  Do you remember?

The cold of hopeless sleep.  The necessity for sin as a distraction from what is sure to come.  The chasing after things that do not last, for what lasts does not belong to them.  Do you remember?

They cannot pray and no one prays with them.  So they worship angels and idols.  Prayer to them is the hope of gain.  What little and temporary they can gain with their hands is the sum of their prayer.  Do you remember?

Or have we begun to feel sorry for ourselves?   The way of God can be impossibly arduous if we’ve try to walk it in the flesh.  If such is the case, we have forgotten.  Remember.

A Righteous Murder

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Blazing Fire

Blazing Fire (Photo credit: Poe Tatum)

I registered a complaint to the One who could accomplish.  “I am yoked with a fool who will not obey!  Help me in my plight for he detains me from coming to You!”

The One who could accomplish heard my words and drove me into a wilderness of brilliant fire.  The flames reached to the stars.  Without fear I walked, driven by the Love of He who lives forever.  And as I went, the fool dragged along behind.

I reached a place far from prying eyes.  Joy filled my heart as I felt new release.  Then the fool spoke with whining complaint, “Go back!  This place is not comfort!”

My joy was interrupted by his whining, raspy, irritating voice.  And with violent anger I turned to look at him.  Hatred blazed from my eyes, yet he stood so proud and confident of his words.  I looked down at my hands.  They had become as the fire around us.  And with great delight I put my hands of holy fire around his sinful neck.  “I will leave you where I find you!”  And with that said, the sinful nature died.

A vision of conquest is granted to my heart.  I will not be shackled to this fool of fools forever.  There is a place of release!

He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ 28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”  (Luke 13)

The Slough of Dispond

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Slough

Image by born1945 via Flickr

The Lord has given me many words to the unsaved and the proud.  Yet there are many who will take heed from those words.  I write this post for them.

As we encounter the Truth of God regarding our sins, we often fall into a state of disrepair and despair (I take note of the similarity of those two words).   It will be expected that receiving Jesus’ gift of Life is going to become a heavy burden at first.  More weight will be pressed upon the one who receives His guidance.  For all we have done will surface for us to examine.  This is expected and will surely surprise the one who thought “The Way” would be an easy saunter, all the way to the Holy Throne of God.  “The Way” is both the hardest way for a man or woman to live and the easiest.  John Bunyan wrote of this in his book “Pilgrim’s Progress”.

“This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond: for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.”

I do not want anyone to fall into hopelessness because of the burdens that will press upon them.  Keep your hope in Jesus and believe.  This place of horror will not last forever.  Yet it is a necessary part of accepting Jesus.

By His Grace.

“The Way”

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What shall be said of “The Way”?  The Way is a term God uses to describe how a man must live his life if he is to please his Maker. 

Some say They Way is too hard.  That’s because they don’t want to let go of their self interests.  They are considering their selfish desires as more important than God’s ways.  To them, it is a hard thing to ask them to forgive others.  It is too hard to ask them to be merciful to their enemies.  It is too much to ask them to pray without ceasing.  And it is over their heads to ask them to worship God in Spirit and Truth.  The fact is, such people cannot worship God in Spirit.  For their selfish nature blocks the Spirit’s prompting.  And as for worshiping in truth, they are still living in the Great Lie.  What is truth to such people?

But the one who humbles themself before the Lord will know The Way is easy.  It is not man’s accomplishments that will cause a him to be acceptable before the Lord.  We begin by admitting that we are fools about what is true.  We ask God to show us what Truth is.  And when He shows us, we gladly lay down our foolish ways and spend a great amount of energy adopting that to our mind. 

The Christian is one who has admitted they are not able to please the Lord.  And it must be said that it is the work of Jesus that makes us acceptable.  I’m not talking about the righteousness He brings us to that makes us acceptable.  It is faith in what Jesus did for us when He hung on that “tree” and became our perfect sacrifice.  It is Jesus who has been raised to Godship.  And He alone can make you acceptable before His Father. 

If you’re one of those who think “The Way” is too hard, then you have my pity.  But it doesn’t have to remain like it is for you.  Summon every strength you have to become feeble before the Lord of Life.  This is the beginning of “The Way”.

By His Grace.