Tag Archives: trust

Home?

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The Lord, The Sovereign Lord, the Source of life, ever-present Righteousness, Glorious mercy and justice.  He has all things, doesn’t he?  He lacks nothing, how true.  That’s what Sovereign means.

But let me speak to the rich man.  Let me speak to the perverted drunk.  Let me speak to the beautiful woman.  Let me speak to the greasy whore.  Let me speak to all those who have a place among Man, whether glorified or horrified; those with clean hands and those whose hands are covered with blood.

God has all things for he is all things.  Yet what he does not have, he has poured out his life to gain.  He does not have your love.  He does not take first place in all your days, though he is first in all eternity.  All creation honors His Holy Name, except here.  His name is Jesus the Christ, look into it.

“You ask too much of us!  You sit in your religious Chapel, carved of pure Ivory, and judge us.  You have forgotten the demands of life that are far more then we can bear.  We cannot put God first we must defend our home!”

Your home?  Your home is a soleless pair of old shoes.  Your home is a worn-out pair of jeans filled with holes, and leaving your buttocks bare.  Your home is an umbrella missing it’s purposed fabric.  Your home is a cave filled with Wolverines and poisonous snakes.   The floor of your home cannot be cleaned!   Why can’t you smell the stench of your household enemy’s feces, which lay in the crags you can’t reach?  Precious place, isn’t it, this place you call your home.  The place where you fear even in what you call solace.  You light a lamp, but still darkness pervades.

8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6)

He is your potential friend.  He is your potential Guardian.  Already he provides what you call your home. 

Who causes the lava to harden?  Who plants the seed of a tree in its craggy niches?  Who brings the beautiful erosion to cause a paradise?  Who gave you this place?  Who dressed you with skin?  Yet you would fear and keep him far from you?

Trust him and do the things that belong to him.  Then you will have a home that is not filled with stench and death.  Your home provides you no pact with death.

Toward Release

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What does it look like when someone trusts Jesus?  What does it look like when they put all their confidence in the power of Christ to save?

Polycarp was burned at the stake.  But when he was encouraged to run and hide from his captors, instead he invited them to a dinner in his home.  Later he said, “80 and 6 years he has served me well why should I deny him now”.

Legend has it that Peter was crucified upside down, hardly feeling worthy to suffer as his master did.  But readily willing to suffer for the one he loved.

Apparently the Apostle John was boiled in oil before he was banished to the Isle of Patmos.  In that place he told us in writing about the beauty of the living God’s Holy Son.

There is a story of a mother and her two daughters who were captured by the Romans.  On the journey to Rome, understanding that they were beautiful women, the mother fained a desire to bathe before entrance to Rome.  A raging Creek was near, so the Romans let them go and bathe.  At the side of the torrent she grabbed her two daughters and through all of them into the raging river, choosing to drown rather than be molested by vulgar men (and this for the sake of purity in regard to the name of Jesus).

If I had time I could fill up far more than 100 thick volumes of testimonies.  Even today there are stories of people who are suffering brutally because they trust Jesus.  Beheadings, burnings, stabbings, and on and on.

I knew at least one faithful loving Christian, who up into his eighties, loved the Lord more than anything else in the world.  Even to his death bed he waved us away lest we interfere with his communion.

“If you love me you will obey my commands.” 

“Never will I leave you or forsake you.”

Such a short few years we are asked to trust him like this. 

Then FREEDOM!

Living Mystery

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Billions of things I can’t explain or understand.  But the most mysterious are those things that are in our hand.

I look at myself, I look around at all the people, I listen to my heart, I listen to the fears of others.  The mystery rises up when I look at those who call themselves Christians (even in myself).

Someone needs to explain to me why those who believe in the love of God in Christ to save us, fear so many things.  We fear sickness.  But didn’t he sustain his people for forty years in the wilderness?  Curiously, they perished for their unbelief, yet we seem to carry on their tradition.

We fear economic loss.  But didn’t he command Peter to go catch a fish, that he may pay the tax?  And didn’t the widow of Zarephath find that she had plenty to eat for her and her son while she gave residence to the Prophet?

We fear our sins and failings of the past.  Yet a single drop of the Holy Lord’s blood heals the sins of billions.  How much more his dead body?  And didn’t he say that as far as the east is from the west our sins are cast from the memory of the Living God?

What is the power of Christ if those who say they believe refuse to receive?

Yes, of all the things I can’t understand, the greatest lay our unwillingness to believe.  It is as if we say, “You will get no glory from me!”

How Far is Too Far?

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Who is the Christ?  He is the absolute of everything good.  He is the absolute end of everything wicked or ungodly.  He is the very Living Word of the Living God.

Every word of God continues forever, for the Sovereign God is Living purity.  But God has sent his Living word among us that he may cease for the sake of his enemy’s lives; that God Himself may become the sacrifice. 

How great, earnest and eternal is the Living God’s pledge to save our souls?

Considering this I am struck by our lack of confidence.  Though it is eternally impossible for God to lie, and though he has sealed his intent in his own blood, somehow most people just can’t believe it.  No matter what they hear they want their own righteousness.  To those, I must say: what you want is an absolute impossibility.  Nothing that is unrighteous can, all of a sudden, become righteous by itself.  And all it takes is one tiny misstep or mistake.

Others have believed the message, but they find themselves doubting with a horrifying frequency.  They lack the courage to trust the word of the Living God.  They do not trust him enough to give him the entirety of their life.  To these God’s Living Word remains a nice religion, perhaps even a means of socially acceptable behavior.

How is the second group any different than the first?  First is to proud, the second is filled with cowardice.  What should either Group expect to hear on the day when they see the face of the Living God’s Holy and Righteous Word? 

Can it be said that by their lives they have called the Sovereign God a liar?

It is not for me to judge.  It is not for me to condemn or extend ungodly mercy.  I have only presented the argument and asked the question.

The Woman

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I watched a woman drive by me.  With both hands on the wheel, she watched carefully straight ahead.  But the car spoke louder of her character than her attentiveness.  It was a rusty beat up old boat from the eighties.

Obviously, she is trying hard to do the best she can with what she has.

But I wondered about her hope.  Being a born protector, the woman is concerned about her family, children, parents, friends, sickness, stability.  Does she know how intensely greater a protector is the Lord Jesus?

Has she learned to be protected?  Does she have joy inside all that dutiful good habit?

Setting a man on one side, and a woman on the other, consider their characteristic behaviors.  If a man could lay his hands on the father of lies, he would tear and punch and kick and scream venomous violence, as he tried to take down his foe.  How would this woman act in the same environment?

Would she huddle with her children in a darkened corner?  Or with excellent fearless violence, would her face explode with fierce anger as she rushed to dismember this one who has harmed her so; this one who threatens her great instinctual desire?

Would she cower in abject terror, or would she do as Peter has told her: Be fearless!  Believe!  Live your life in Christ with complete peace of heart.  Show no fear, trusting that God is greater than you.

Love Wins

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http://www.10tv.com/content/mediaplayer/embed.html?ooid=5zNWx4dTqDyHO2mOE5AwHgSyucl_qwZI&cmpid=share

A new billboard scars the land of man.  “LOVE WINS”.

I was in the room while the news spoke of this.  They showed an old man with a white beard saying that they chose this message because it is not offensive to either side.

With what control I could use, I restrained my voice as I muttered, “Define love, son.”  Love honors what is Holy.  It is the lust of man that renders Holy as if it were some evil thing.  It is the “love of man” that obscures the Love of God.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7New International Version (NIV)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

So I have some questions about this:

Is it love to demand your own way at the insult of others?

Is it love to redefine a great volume of words so that they match your ideology?

Is it love to force your preference of sexual experience on others, simply because you think you have “rights”?

Hey folks.  Listen to this.  “God is Love”.  Man is, by his nature, an offence to the Love of God.  Are we exempt from offence because we nullify the Love of God; the Holy One before whom NO evil will ever stand?

You think you’ve come up with another victory because you think you can use the word love to uphold your selfish choices.  You think, “Surely, they will respect this message.  ‘Love Wins” can’t possibly upset anyone.”  Have you considered the Only One who matters?  Have you consulted His eternal wisdom as you make your plans to retain your sins?  God is Sovereign.  Why do you allow yourself to “guess” about what offends Him?  All the while, the Bible stands ready to be read with understanding.

But this is your day to do as you please.  I, and many others, stand to warn:  The day is soon coming when all Man will be silenced.  God will have His Holy Day to do as pleases Him.  No longer will there be a redefinition of words.  He will speak with eternal clarity.  He will not hide behind crafty words.  Who will be able to bear what He will say?

So much to say.   Who will bother to listen?