Spiritual Fashion


The old man sits on his porch dressed, and covered with a white blanket draped around his body.  While it was yet dark he appeared.  No one saw him emerge. 

It is his habit to go to God early.  And the blanket has become this spiritual fashion of choice.

Cigar in hand, he ponders the things that man, rarely knows or senses.  So on the front porch, he sits as light begins to dawn.

Lost in a world invisible to men, he is not aware of approach.  Feet carry another; perceptions cross as two paths conjoin. 

One sees truth.  The other is lost in lie.  Nothing is spoken, yet God hears:

“Teach me ‘Great Sovereign One’ what is true, that I might serve You with faithfulness.  I beg You, let me become your desire.”

“What an odd excuse for a man.  May my future have mercy on me, that I may not become as he.”

As time moves quickly, they part present company.  Never again opportunity.  One has won.  The other has loss.

The glowing cross


Bob:  “That’s a great saying!  I’ll have to practice that one.”

Nancy:  “Oh I adore it!  We’ll have to use it in our evangelism  push this year.”

Drew:  “Absolutely!  Nobody in the world would take offense at that.  We start saying things like that and the entire world will realize we love them.”

Ben:  “Well I hate to be a stick in the mud, but I have to disagree with all of you.  Its sayings like that that turn the offense of the bloody cross into a pink warm fuzzy one.  A cross that glows at night so nobody gets scared of the dark.

We ought to be so different that we scare the socks off of people.  They hated our Lord why are we trying to make them love us? 

I just don’t get it.  I realize I don’t fit in here.”

The power


The world says, “We are many.  There is nothing we cannot accomplish.”  The church has heard them say this.  Mistakenly, they have taken these words to them themselves.  Instead of relying on the power of God, they have turned to the strength of numbers.  And the work of Christ has suffered horrible loss.

The church has failed to learn or remember that the kingdom of God is not to be quantified.  The kingdom of God is the power of Christ in His Holy Spirit.  And the strength of righteousness is manifested in every believer.  God does not look for numbers.  He looks for faith and faithfulness.

How many times has God done wonderous things through one man?  All the while, in that man’s time, there were hundreds and thousands of believers.  With a few, God has crushed vast numbers of enemy.

How is it we have not learned?  When the world makes boasts, their words are not for the church.  Yet, even now, Psychology, sociology, politics and various other sinful teachings have crept in among us.  Why do we make the same mistakes in every generation?

Righteous World?


I read the news and I see promising headlines.  Certain things are discontinued because the world has considered them obscene.

I used to be fooled into thinking the world had second guessed its war against God.  But age has taught me something valuable.

The world makes not one small step toward God.  It simply hauls back the things that are not acceptable among those with money.

They make no moves to become righteous.  Everything they do is simply a re-posturing in their greedy desires.

Those who see these things and feel a twinge of hope, are willingly deceived.  The righteousness of God continues uninterrupted.  And of the wickedness of the world continues uninterrupted.

Do not be fooled.  The righteousness of God is holy; the very thing the world hates with all its strength.  Holy provides no profit for the things of men.

Useless Christianity


The kingdom of heaven seems infinitesimally small to the man of the world.  What is important to him is to gain the things he can hold.  The natural man has no desire for the promises of God. 

“These are things that have no use among those who desire to be useful.  I would rather profit by the work of my own hands than to become so heavenly minded that I am of no earthly use.”  So says the man of the world.

But the one who enters into the kingdom of God says no such thing.  This one says to himself, “I perceive that men die.  I have faith that God is, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him.  Therefore I would rather be your fool among men and embraced by the living God, than to gain 10 pounds of the world’s riches.  I will become so heavenly minded that I am no longer of any worldly use.”

The one who sets his mind on the things of God will be come a son of God.  All the steadfast righteousness of God rises up within the man.  By rejecting the usefulness of the world. The man becomes indispensable to the world.  What the world counts as useless is exactly what it needs.

By His Grace

Here


Night Sky 5

Night Sky 5 (Photo credit: dgrice)

Here, you dress me.

Here, I submit.

Here, I learn of my sins.

But

Here, I learn of Your mercy.

It was here that I found precious things;

The things that belong to You.

It was here that Your beauty shown in the darkness;

I came to understand lovely things.

Here, I find Grace.

Here, I find Mercy.

Here, my mind is become filled with the Hope that belongs to You.

And leaving Here, that hope becomes mine.

Thanks will roll from my lips forever

Because You were Here.

 

Thank You Lord, because You are Here.

By His Grace.  Amen.