Tag Archives: worldly

The Circus Has Come to Town

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A big brick building partially complete.  I saw it across the street at an intersection.  Brightly colored banners advertised the coming sensation.  This great wonder of the world would be ready for open doors in the fall of 2016!  OH BOY!

Fun, education, community, love, entertainment and activities.  Are you ready for this folks?  It’s going to be what they’ll call a church.

No more need to be ashamed of Jesus.  A place where you’ll be proud to bring your friends.  They might even supply a pool hall in the basement (Maybe, possibly, likely).

No need to suffer for the name of Christ.  Lots of food.  Lots of laughter.  Beautiful people everywhere.  Amazing music.  Dazzling light show during the sermon.  Lots of pictures to look at.  No doubt they’ll be recruiting actors.  (Understand the meaning of the word actor)

As I saw it, and thought about it, I realized that somewhere in the world someone was being beheaded for Christ.  A church building was still smoldering.  Someone was being driven out of the city because they were Christian.  Someone was beaten nearly to death for their love of Christ.  Someone was starving in a putrid cell.  Someone was crying wrenching tears because their child had been taken from them.  And all this for the name of Jesus.

And you want to build an entertainment center?

The still small Voice reminded me that such men will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those Christians of the first-century.  They will need to explain why they turned the blood of their Christian Brothers into a circus.

And you want to entertain them into Christ?  Is that right?

“There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” (Hebrews chapter 11)

“Things”

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The day is fast approaching when I will leave this place.  Every material item in my charge will remain here.  You are welcome to take it. Use it as you please.

Only the ones who live in this place of testing, desire such things.  I have used them but I don’t desire them.  What I desire cannot be perceived by any of our senses.

You will have these things and you will think about them.  The moment I leave this place they will be forgotten forever.  What do I care who gets them or what they do with them?

The one who is held hostage, remains so, because he desires the things that can be taken away.  The one who desires the things men cannot touch or perceive, this one is free!

By His Grace

Filthy

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The blind and godless reach into their filthy bag of filthy riches.  Their filthy godless hands give gifts to men to promote a filthy love for their filthy godless ways. 

They do not allow their filthy hearts to love the Sovereign God and His Holy Son.  Nor will they put up with any who love the Holy Lord of life.  They entice with the filthy things of this world, and provoke with the power of death and loss.

“If you love God you have no part with us!”  Thus they scream by their doing.  And their will, their filthy will, is done.

They make laws, with their filthy form of love, to exclude the true love of God among men.  If there is limit to their ingenuity, it is for the sake of social prominence.  They are sons of their father, in whom there is no truth.

The weak and the blind submit without question.  They have been given gifts and favored by those who can destroy them.  An unholy and filthy love is exchanged.

“Expose her filthy ways, my people, my loved ones.  Let them not triumph without resistance!  Stand and be counted among the righteous who uphold my Father’s Holy Name. 

Come to me and gain those things which will never be lost.  I will teach you how to be strong.  Oppose the filthy ways of filthy love.”

By His Grace

Sickening tendencies

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From the perspective of Christ within me I look out on the world in which I live.  The name of our God is rarely heard in praise.  No, they use him to curse.  Among the mass of men Jesus is used in every way but Holy.  They call on him in times of trouble, but when they get their way he becomes forgotten.

They eat to their pleasure without thought of its source or thanks.  They advertise, without ceasing, the glory of man.  The news never carries any message from God’s Word.  He is not news.  His word does not sell well.  So they relegate all that is God to fully unimportant.  The very One who made us and sustains us all has become fully unimportant.  And they think this is acceptable.

If they bow down to worship, it is in a place where such activity is socially acceptable.  Therefore their worship verges on useless.  Among them no one asks, “Why do we bother to do this if we are not sincere.”  All the while, the tender Lord pricks their conscience in this regard.

If man understands anything about God he keeps it to himself for fear of rejection.  What possible reception can they expect when they appear before the Most High God?  They will surely receive what is do them in full!

Let us, who are bought by his blood, refine our will to serve the Holy Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us be the inverse of the world.  May God become everything important.  May our bowing before him be an extension of our life before him.  May our worship and life be a holy fire.  May we speak and act of him without cost to those who hear and see.

There is a sickening in me to witness these things in the world.  I am only man, and so I cannot see as God sees.  If this is unpalatable to me what is it to God?  For I understand the gospel in as far as he has taught.  But the Lord Jesus IS the gospel!  How does the rebellion of this world appear before his holy throne even now?

By His Grace