Van Gogh in US All


Van Gogh’s work is held in high esteem.  But he himself was a drunken, shiftless man.  He was violent because no one would give him fame, and he despised humility.

The world is full, in its history, of men who were forced to obscurity, all the while desiring to be first.  It is the way of men.  And it plays out strong even today.

Van Gogh desired to be considered a great man.  But what did he own that was admirable?  And I write the words I do, desiring to change the scheme of things.  But I will not desire what I cannot have.

I am with man.  I am of man’s things.  And one might think, that by the words I write, I am a very violent man.  If that is so, then my end should be like Van Gogh’s; to dismember some part of my body in a drunken and violent  protest.

But no such thing shall happen.  And I am no longer a violent man.  The Lord himself will sustain me in joy.  He will place humility on my forehead and keep it there with great pressure. 

This is no personal boast.  If the Lord does not build the house, the builder build in vain.  But if it is the Lord that builds the house, nothing can shake it.

It is like man to see the wicked things around him and explode in violence.  But it is like Christ to see the wicked things around him and respond with truth.

He was not touched by our filthy ways.  And those who submit themselves to his leadership will not be touched by it either.  Yet they will proclaim in truth.  Yet suspicion and gossip will abound in regard to their tendency toward violence.

Rest easy my fellow men.  I do not desire your demise.  I speak the things I do by the will of the Living God himself; that all men may be wakened to the reality of their own violence, appealing to the Christ to heal them.

By His Grace

Destruction of Christ


You want to destroy Christianity.  You want to wipe out the name of Jesus from every square inch of this planet.  It would give you great joy if the name of Jesus ceased being given to the new-born.  Yes, I do understand your desire.

But your desire is filled with ignorance.  (please understand the true meaning of the word “ignorance”.)  Two things you do not know.  You do not understand the depth of your wickedness, for your estimation is held from the expectations of faulty men.  And you do not understand the height of joy that could be yours, as it is now among so many, who thrive with joy while they live their days along side you.

Forgiveness of your sins waits for belief to dawn in your frozen heart.  All you need do is ask, and the Lord will look into your will.  All you need do is ask in a continuing belief, and He will grant you that same joy.

Your desire to tear down Christ is understandable.  Because you know that you are at fault.  But you don’t understand that those who love Him were at fault before they asked also.  And you don’t understand that if you received your desire of destruction of Christ’s message among you, your life would cease.

For the Living God has placed all life squarely under the control and dissemination of Christ.  You desire what you will never have.

This message is true for two things.  That you desire the destruction of Christ among you, and that the very breath of your lungs comes from Him, these are true.  It is also true that you are invited to join Life.  Will you look into these things?

Lustful Hearts


What is the nature of he who visits the prostitute?  Is this he who would pay his money, or anything else, to see the intimate nature of another human being?   And must this nature only belong to a man?  Shall it not also belong to a woman?

Look around you.  Where do you live?  If you are a television watcher, do you consider the intimate nature of the people they display to you? 

You pay with your soul and mind, for things you should not see.  Women allow themselves to lust for men who are not their husband.  And men take great pleasure in the display of every woman who is not their wife.

Define wickedness correctly!  For we will all be held accountable for how we define the word beautiful.

By His Grace

Ownership


From the bravado of a foolish man who thinks he can endure hell, to the pompous nature of the self righteous, who thinks he is something when he is not.  The folly of man’s pride reaches deep.

We did not invent sin.  Sin was in heaven long before we were even created.  And so was righteousness in all its purity.  Righteousness and rebellion go back a long way my friend.  You are nothing new.

Cain was only the first to murder among men.  He was not the first to murder.  So where does that place any other man whose hands are filthy?  And Abel was the first righteous man among men.  He was not the first one who was righteous.  So how can the self-righteous think so highly of themselves with any means to quantify?

By every account man is nothing.  He does not have a patent on wickedness.  And he can have no claim to righteousness.  By every account man is nothing unless it is given to him from above.  Or unless he is inspired, by those who came before, to the rebellion against the Living God.

Where then does pride among men stand?  My friend, you are simply not that important.  At best you can only be used by those who came before, whether for bad or good.

By His Grace

Corrective and Punitive Action


Dear world:

Will you be patient and righteous for a moment?  Will you let a prisoner speak to you? 

You have placed me in chains, I can do you no harm.  But will you entertain the words of this man you have accused and imprisoned?   I ask you no more than that.

By the necessity of survival, you have made laws against such men as I.  And it doesn’t matter if your laws are just.  They are your laws and you enforce them just the same.

So I have been accused and condemned, before the Society of men, as one who does not play well with others.  For the sake of propriety I speak softly among you.  But propriety is the steel you have forged to enclose me in my cell.  But if I must speak to you for the sake of understanding, I must speak to you in the language of propriety.

Propriety is a shifting mechanism; it changes according to the fashion of men in every generation.  And so men like me are forever jailed by your own laws.  You do not seek to rehabilitate me.  Your accusations, condemnation, and imprisonment are sufficient to please you.  The horrors of your prisoners never enter your mind as you celebrate at your feasts.

I do not hold this against you.  You will not change, and it does no good to accuse you.  But I must begin this message with what is true.

You have tattooed my forehead with the word “MEAN“.  And you were not wrong to wield the branding iron.  At first when you accused me I was angry.  And I gathered what truth I could and slung it back at you.  So your accusation was confirmed among you.  And you rightly confined me.  And this according to your own laws.

But in my confinement your accusation has become unfounded.  For since you would not let me be a one with you, in my confinement I searched for what is true.  And I have found Him!

Your own laws of confinement speak of corrective action.  But this is the purpose which you ignore.  For if one who is confined by your laws turns away from violent behavior, you do not accept his change.  You do not offer corrective action!  You simply seek to rid yourselves of what you do not approve.  Anyone who is not profitable to the ways of men is cast away forever.

By this foolish standard you are the ones who are jailed.  And the brand you have placed on my forehead has become my glory.  So I am right in releasing you from any accusation concerning me.  You have meant it for evil, but God has used it for good.

The One I have found, while imprisoned in your social standard, is the pure standard you think your yourselves to be.  He is not limited by death, as are we.  He is not limited by a tidal wave of lies.  He is the absolute truth.  And he teaches all his people to be bold among you.  Thus I have written this message.

He is the standard by which every man will be judged.  For he has walked among us with perfection.  And God the Father has placed Him eternally as FIRST.

While I have been imprisoned, he has come to set me free.  Even while your bars of social standard are placed squarely between you and I.  I range freely in the open space of forgiveness and love.  And from this place I warn you.  Your ways which you hold in such high esteem are wrong.

Were I to gather a crowd of a million people, and speak these things to your face, you would no longer desire to jail me from your celebrations.  You would, in fact, desire to kill me.  Even as the men of a generation, which saw the Christ walk among them, murdered the Holy One of God.

You would see a man who is just like you.  And this man would proclaim that you are wicked and worthless, as one.  I do not make the proclamation on my own.  I speak only what the Living God has said.

Yes I am a man like you.  Yes I was trained in the volume of your lies.  Yes I was violent toward you, both in word and in deed.  For you yourselves trained me!

But the Christ has come to set us free!  And any who believe this message, can have this freedom.  We need not be chained in the volume of teaching that is a lie, any longer. 

I stand boldly and tell you, “Man can become holy”.  I stand boldly and proclaim that we need no longer to live as liars.  God is willing to teach us what is true and faultless.  And his teaching is full of power to overcome the lies of this place.

Most of you will balk at this message.  For you love the volume of lies more than you love the volume of truth.  And you will not put up with one who calls your ways wicked.  But I will call your ways wicked just the same.

I was mean when I did your will.  Now you count me mean when I do His will.  You see how your corrective action is at fault.

But I have not written this for the sake of meanness.  And I have not straightened my back before you as an act of defiance.  I have appeared before you as one who is not ashamed or afraid any longer.  And it is love that straightens my spine.

Love makes me turn around.  I had been kneeling before the One who is love.  With awareness of what he has done for me, I have remembered the people from which I came.  I have returned without fear to give you this message of truth.  God will see, how many of you respond.

These words belong to God.  They are only mine, in that he has given them to me.  Yet they are not mine, for I give them to you.  I have come as a messenger and nothing more.

By His Grace

A Ruse and a Noise


I have come to perceive that nothing men do in this place of testing matters. 

They can not sin against me, for I am no standard of excellence, and that the Lord has promised me eternal life.

The only thing that will stand forever is the work of Christ Jesus among men.  This matters greatly!

No, there is nothing men do in this place of testing that matters.  All their wickedness will be covered with an eternal grave.  And too, the sins of those who place their trust in Christ alone will be covered over and obliterated.

No, the things men do in this place of testing are of no consequence.  They do not matter.  They are only a ruse and a noise.

By His Grace