What Resurrection Sunday Means to Me

Every pain that you or I ever suffered, multiplied by all of mankind through out all of time.

Every sin, every crime, every wrong.  All of that was poured onto Him on that cross.  We ask “why do evil men get away with evil things?”  They do not.  God will deal with their sins.  All sin.  How about yours?

It is no wonder God had to look away.  And Jesus who had never been separated from His Father, cried out “Why hast thou forsaken me?”  God cannot look upon sin.  And in that instant, Jesus was covered in it.  He took it into His body and by submitting to it, He conquered it.

They mocked Him, they beat Him, they whipped Him, they spat upon Him, but they did not kill Him.  No one could take His life from Him.  Though He was fully human in that moment, He was still fully God, having chosen to refrain from exercising His Godly ability to come down off that cross, just like the mockers challenged Him to do, He remained there, held not by the nails, but by His love for you and me, He was the willing sacrifice, the lamb that was slain for the sine of the world.

When all of it had been paid for.  Every last sin.  Every last injustice, HE said “It is finished”.  He commended His Spirit unto the Father.  There are a good 44 prophecies in the old Testament that I know of (probably more) about the birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  And every one was fulfilled to the letter.

They laid his body in a borrowed tomb, and rolled a stone in front of it, and set guards around it so that His followers could not steal the body and “stage” a resurrection.   But death could not keep Him.  He rose up from that grave on the third day, and appeared to hundreds of people over several days before He ascended up to Heaven from the Mount of Olives, with a promise to his followers that He would some day return to that very spot, just in the way they were watching Him go.  Oh yes, I do believe it.

His resurrection is called the “firstfruits”.   It is a promise that we all will be resurrected some day from death.  There will be a “first resurrection” unto life, for those who have Him as their Savior and have already been judged in Christ Jesus, and a second resurrection unto judgment for those who have rejected Him.  (Revelation 20:4-6)

What Resurrection Sunday means to me, is that my sins are held against me no more by God.  I who am guilty, stand as innocent because Christ already paid the price for me.  It means one day an angel of the Lord will sound a trumpet, and give a shout, and those whom Jesus has redeemed, will go to be where Jesus is. No more sickness.  No more sorrow.  No more pain.  The former things will have passed away, and all things will become new.

I have been around the block a few times in this old world.  I’ve had my share of troubles, as everyone has.  There is nothing this world has to offer that I would trade my life with Jesus for.  It has been an awesome ride, hardships and all!  And His resurrection encompasses the promise of a whole other life ahead to look forward to.

A baby in the womb does not know it has not even been born yet.  It likes it where it has been, safe and warm, floating in it’s familiar surroundings.  When the contractions start, that baby gets active.  A pre-determined course of events follows God’s design, and with or without help, that baby makes it’s way out into the world, kicking, screaming, not happy for the rude introduction.

He didn’t know that all those days and hours were in preparation for “real life” that was yet to come.

God created us to glorify Him.  This life actually is a dress rehearsal.  We are not bodies that have a soul.  We are souls temporarily residing in defective earthly bodies for a relatively few short years.  There is more to life than this! Yes, a million times yes!

But only in Jesus.

Do you know Him today?

Watch the pot call the kettle black!

This video, made in the late eighties best I can tell, shows Bob Larson interviewing a self-proclaimed werewolf  and the daughter (Zena) of Anton LeVey, both members of the church of satan.  I find it very interesting the statements which the male makes about 8- 9 minutes in, about “what is going to happen to Christianity/the Chrisitian church in the 90′s” because, he was right, it is what happened!   The aspiration of the church of satan seem to have met with success as far as what has happened in “the church”.  But of course, what they are referring to as “the church” is not the true church.

It would be hard to miss the “deadness” that hangs on these two people like a heavy wet blanket.  Note the man”s definition of black magic: “The use of will and ritual combined to create change in the world without any restraint on what that change might be”.  That sounds an awful lot like the laying-on-of-hands, imparting of the “holy” spirit, name-it-claim-it stuff that goes on in many (so-called) “Christian” churches today.  As a matter of fact, Bob Larson has done a great deal to help these developments along in the “church” and seems to have quite a fascination with the demonic realm himself.  This belief of people having “power to use certain words combined with certain will or expectation, and having no limit to what “blessings” they can draw to themselves via own positive thinking, is not scriptural in it’s origin.   It’s “Law of attraction” in a nutshell!

The way these two describe satanism, it sounds just like secular humanism, a.k.a. “self as god” or at the very least, you get to determine what/who god is for yourself, which is THE common thread of all false religion, including the apostate church.  Easy to see how they all will merge once the Christians are removed.  I found the video very telling, when you consider that  the world elite, are satanists.

The sync between video and audio is very off, I’ll warn you now.  Length 1:25.

Thoughts of spring, of time and hope, of good and evil.

I don’t know what season it is where you live, but as the cold of winter begins to lose its hold, and green tips of crocus and daffodil begin to poke up between the dry brown winter brush, the coming of spring, like the changing of all seasons, is bittersweet.  As a way-marker, another season passes away, and yet a new one begins. How many more will there be?

I fixed my family a hot breakfast this morning.  There are many days that doesn’t happen because my boys are teens, they sometimes want to eat before school, and sometimes they don’t.  And hubby isn’t picky, cereal, oatmeal, a bagel, it’s all fine with him.  Me, I don’t even get hungry til eleven or noon.  Standing over a hot stove for 20 minutes or more,  then having to deal with a plumbing issue, I got a little too warm, so I went out and sat on our front porch swing for a while to cool off.

We have a nice porch.  Not fancy.  But inviting.  Screened in.  A work crew is putting up a new house across the street, so I rocked in the swing, watching them for a bit, before coming back inside.   I love the seasons we have in Virginia.  I would go so far as to say that I don’t think I could happily live anyplace that didn’t have those distinct seasons.

The years of my husbands and my life together have not been easy.  I came into the marriage with a great deal of woundedness.  I really and truly had not dared to hope that the love he and I share, would ever be available to me, much less that I’d be blessed with motherhood, with 2 such great sons.  This world can be a cruel place, and I think that people are tired.  I’d been through so much by the time my husband and I met.  I know he got cheated.  The first years of our marriage where fraught by devastating interference on the part of my mother-in-law, at the same time that I was still healing from prior abuse.  It took the unconditional love of both my Lord, and my precious husband, for me to feel safe enough to work though all that.  I do have several medical conditions which, in combination are impairing.  But I have no doubt that the years of stress that I endured in my 20′s are the very thing that set the stage for the later physical mal-functions.  Being so depleted, I did suffer depression for a long time.  And yet I fought it tooth and nail because by God’s grace and wisdom, He gave me a stubborn streak a mile wide.  The cyclic nature of my depression and mood issues was really almost like an echo of the instability of my life in general for so long. It was like when my mind got so weary it could no longer manage the burden, it was handed off to my body.  So the body compensated for a while, as the mind de-compensated.  Mental illness, depression, call it what you will. There is no darkness darker, and I’ll take physical pain any day of the week over the excruciation of deep depression.

I was sick in mind, body and spirit.  Exhausted and depleted.  I was that way as a newlywed, as a full-time RN with a new baby, and then two.  All through my 3os.  I was a good nurse.  I loved the job.  I loved my patients.  But when I got to the point that I was internally empty, to where even the “needs” of my patients caused me to feel resentment because I was so needy myself, when I could no longer keep a running “task manager” in my brain, and keep up with the demands of nursing, I knew I had to step back because my integrity would not allow me to give less to my patients.  The job of a nurse is much too serious a business to do any part of it “halfway”.  I expected it to be temporary.  Little did I know that although I would work in the capacity of an RN intermittently again, that this was the beginning of the end of my hard-earned nursing career.

I mourned that for a long time.  But I had my babies.  And I was grateful that the trade-off was the gift of being mostly a stay-at-home mom.  Few moms have that luxury anymore.  But it is a sacrifice.   We have lived in a house which was built in the 40′s, and maintenance, (much less improvements) has been minimal.  Thank goodness houses built in the forties were built to last.  Good, good bones!  So, it’s been a homey home.  Not a showcase, but lived-in and inviting, and not taking itself too seriously.  I have never been a frou-frou kind of gal anyway.  Neat and tidy is my standard, but I like things with some age and experience and history.  I learned from my Mama how to see the good in pre-loved furniture and decor, and how to spiff things like that up, way before “shabby chic” became a household word.

Winter has always been hard.  When my kids started school, I stayed involved as a room mom and volunteering frequently, and after some years of working on boundary issues, being on medication and ever striving to maintain an exercise program whether it entailed some gym time, swimming or walking, I saw some improvement in my over-all well-being.  Yet could never quite get over the hump in regard to fatigue and body pain.  With diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, and at first Sleep apnea and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and then only a few years ago finally discovering that I have Narcolepsy, a certain degree of permanent damage had already taken place in my body, not the least of which in my spine and joints.   Depression continued to be a problem and winter months, with short days, and cooped up indoors, I literally had to turn on all the lights in the house some days.  I would light candles and play instrumental music, all of which helped me overcome the inertia and get moving.  I learned to spend at least 15 minutes outside getting sunlight no matter how cold it was, and even invested in one of those lamps with the whole spectrum of light.  Those things all helped, but it was a constant vigilance.  I would hold on and wait for those daffodil green tops to poke out.  When I saw that, it was my sign that I had survived another dark season, and could soon look forward to working in my flowerbeds and being outdoors more.  So, as a survivor, Spring has a special place in my heart.  Counting as the seasons pass, moving from youth into middle age, watching my kids grow, losing my Dad, I’m in a different season now, but my awareness of the world and history and scripture, also tells me that the advance of seasons and years is moving forward for the world itself.  Times they are a-changin’, and not just in the way they always do from one generation to the next, but in ways the Good Book told us they would when the end was near.

Like most struggling families today, there were dreams of trips and vacations that never quite came to be.  Plans for home improvements, the financing and budgeting of which never quite came to fruition, due to some setback or other.  There were times we were disillusioned.  But we learned to concentrate on the blessings.  And we had so many.  As a couple my husband and I have always been able to laugh.  There were times we could be in the middle of an argument and we’d both be so weary from the struggle that one or the other would just decide to get over it and do something silly to make us both laugh, and that would be that.  Arguing is just not worth the energy.  But these were things we learned IN the struggles and wouldn’t have learned otherwise.  As a family we have always been able to laugh together.  The antics of our boys provided plenty of material.  And as a family we have always prayed together, discussed things, expressed our love, and been straightforward and honest.  My kids have never had to guess whether we loved or approved of them.  But they also have never been allowed to take that love and approval for granted.  Dad is the softer one.  Mama don’t give an inch.  They knew if they misbehaved, their teachers had my phone number and permission to call me right then and there.  Heck one year I was their school nurse during the elementary years.  (My last full-time position).  They are in high school now and their friends STILL come up to them and say, “man, why did your mom quit being our nurse?”.  I guess because I treated all of them the exact same way I did my own.  Tough love.

Yeah, it’s a time for counting blessings, as I am daily aware that both in the natural course of raising a family, the times we share together are finite and we are nearing that time when the little eaglets will leave the nest, but also “time” universal is winding down.

Life is beautiful but if you do it right, it isn’t easy, and even if you can manage to put a little aside along the way, the best it can provide is a false sense of security.  Treasures on earth are eaten by moths, corrupted by rust.  The honest guy doesn’t always come out on top.  People are tired of war, and crime, and struggle, and violence and hatred.  We all long for peace, but it seems there’s precious little peace to be found.  Everyone is looking for somewhere to place the blame.  Government.  Those dad-blamed Republicans.  Those dang Democrats.  Those corrupt Congressfolk.  The Muslims, the Jews, The church.  Many hate a God they don’t even believe in.  The homosexuals hold in contempt those who believe the Bible and it’s indictment of such.  Some professing Christians act as if they themselves are less of a vile sinner than the gay person, which is not true.  God’s law is one law.  Like the chain that holds up my porch swing, if we have broken one “link” the chain no longer upholds the swing, so if we break any commandment, we are in violation of God’s law.  I do not doubt that the feelings and attraction two gay men or women have for one another are real and powerful.  I just am aware that feelings can be deceptive, and most of all, they can be manipulated.  Homosexuality is no more wrong than any other deviation from God’s design for sexuality, though it does reside on a continuum of sorts.  We have so gotten the cart before the horse in the area of mates and “mating”.  There is no restraint and whatever causes the most sparks to fly, has become the acceptable indicator of what we choose to pursue.  Animals are ruled by their drives.  Humans are capable of more. Yet risky or risqué, trumps most things anymore.  The “pleasure button” has been so over-stimulated that people have ceased to be able to feel.

A people who are only guided by impulse and urges, will invariably seek the “greater thrill” to the basest nature.  When “straight sex” and self-gratification without cost, effort, or commitment are so freely attainable that they become boring and no longer titillating, the greater risk will be sought to maintain the “high”.  Each advance in degradation serves to only heighten the drive, but never satisfy.  As those who participate in these things ignore their conscience, the conscience dies within them, because they despise the truth, (that what they do is wrong) they begin to believe the falsehood that what they are doing is okay.   The current generation can hardly help being much more vulnerable to the temptations of “same-sex sexuality” because preceding generations insisted on throwing off the taboo.  For those who indulge the flesh, the “need” of their flesh consumes them and becomes their master, and in search of satisfaction, their “passions” seek that which is even lower, the violation of children.  This produces children who are damaged and who grow up confused.  Girls used by men, become women who can’t trust men, who seek solace in other women.  In their hurt they justify the aversion to the opposite sex, and the sin of the “fathers” are visited on the next generation in the form of same-sex attraction.  Because the female child looks to the father figure to cherish and affirm her, being sorely disappointed as she seeks a life mate, she has already ruled out the male half of the species, feels safer bestowing her love and affection upon a female, or in determination to never be victimized, may reject her femaleness and aspire to the relative safety of exhibiting masculinity within herself.  Because the male child looks to the father figure to set the example of how to be a man, yet the abusing male uses his power to dominate and violate, the male child rejects the notion of masculinity and waxes effeminate, or may go on to be a predator because he thinks doing what the dominant male did to him, constitutes “being a man”.  In each instance, it was the abandonment of God’s order that led to the alternate concept of what it means to be a male or female, and the abandonment of the “natural use of the opposite sex” for that of same-sex.  Sex and sexuality were meant to be powerful, to bind together two mates for life, and powerful they are. Much “potential energy” is contained within the essence of sex and sexuality.  But just like atomic energy, such potency is volatile, and very dangerous, and fraught with potential for damage and harm on a massive scale if mishandled or misappropriated.

But regardless of whether we are dealing with the issue of homosexuality, or human rights or politics, or religion, we are all deceived regarding who is our true enemy.   Some folks have no idea at all.  While even those who know that satan is the enemy of our souls, still fall prey to his efforts to rob, destroy, and kill.  He pursues us relentlessly, and though some seem to walk willingly into his arms, most of us never come to understand that it was satan and sinfulness that manipulated your abuser, it is satan and sinful human nature, that culminate in the loss of “rights and privileges endowed by our creator” at the hands of corrupt leaders. The only safety or hope of redemption is to turn the opposite direction and run back toward God.  That, in a nutshell, is what it means to repent of sin.  At one time, Humanity knew their God.  It is the sin nature that rebels, and evil waxes worse and worse until subsequent generations never even heard of their creator.  They think they came from nothing.  So they abort their babies and euthanize their elderly and handicapped, and then either shake their fist at God because breaking laws has consequences, or thumb their nose at God because they’ve convinced themselves that they’ve managed to throw Him off.

You know, I don’t know many “radical, militant” gay people.  Most gay people I personally know, are regular folk.  I have no desire to hurt them or to even dissuade them from their preference. That’s not my job.  I am happy to accept the things I cannot change (and the will of another person definitely falls into that category)  but I reserve the right to maintain my own convictions on the subject.  I don’t think that a man should “marry” a man and call it the same thing as a woman marrying a man.  Civil unions instead? I guess, but the purpose of marriage is procreation. Many gay people want to have a family but it’s not physically possible so there must be artificial intervention of some kind.  No matter what you call your arrangement,(nor the method you use), the “ingredients” for making a baby, remains God’s original “recipe”.

I went to nursing school with a gal whose grandmother was Mrs. Fearnow.  Of “Mrs. Fearnow’s Brunswick Stew” fame.  I don’t know if that is merely regionally known, or if it’s a hit across the nation.  But my point is, the stew is now made in a factory, by “The Fearnow Brothers” who may or may not be actually named Fearnow or related to Mrs. Fearnow in any way.  The recipe may be the same, but I bet you Amy would beg to differ with you if you said “I have eaten your grandma’s stew”.  Now, there’s a chance Amy Fearnow has actually eaten her grandma’s stew.  And what comes out of that can, though delicious, will never be the stew made for Amy by Grandma Fearnow’s own hand.

We can call a union between two men or women a “marriage” and the state can artificially “bestow” upon that “couple” the same privileges as a man/woman union, but a union between a man and another man will never be a marriage.  But most marriages between a man and a woman today don’t meet the Biblical definition of marriage either.  Compromise is a slippery slope.  Absolutes are considered evil by most of the world today, but if there are no absolutes, there are no reference points, all order breaks down, and what we are left with is the chaos before us today.

Gay people say “I was born this way”.  Yeah.  You were.  You were born a sinner.  That’s the point.  I was born a sinner too.  That doesn’t make my sin acceptable to God.  That’s why Jesus had to die.  But his dying would mean nothing if He had not also risen up to life again.

No matter what mankind tells himself, the unchanging facts are; in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  He created you, He designed your body.  “Male and female He created them” and charged them to be fruitful and multiply.  It’s His call.  Don’t think of His laws like civil law.  They aren’t like that.  They are more like the “law of gravity”, “the law of diminishing returns”, the laws of physics.  Who set those?  Do you have a choice in obeying the law of gravity? Can any Supreme Court judge or United Nations counsel overturn the law of gravity?  Is it “all relative” really?  Jump off your roof and see.  I’ll sit here and wait.

God will not tolerate sin.  Sin is a violation of law.  The wages of sin is death. Wages are not a penalty, they are simply the natural  outcome.  God’s not threatening you when He says that, He’s WARNING you.  We all age, we all deteriorate, and we all die.  After death comes judgment, and you and I have no advocate, no counsel, no scapegoat, but Jesus.  He is the Way.  He is Truth.  He is Life.  And no man comes unto the Father but by Him.

Man thinks he will  transcend his own humanity within a few years.  The capability is, in fact, within mankind’s power.  But God will not allow it.

This old world is winding down.  The Bible tells us that a period of tribulation is coming.  God will place your life on the scales.  It will not have “all the good you did” on one side, and “all the bad” on the other.  It will have His righteousness on one side, and on the other side there will be placed one of two things which will attempt to measure up to His righteousness and balance the scale.

It will either be the sum total of your doings in this life, or it will be the righteousness of Christ placed on your side of the scales.  Fair? Not to Jesus, yet that’s the offer.  He did not forfeit His perfection, but God accredits it to those who are willing to humble themselves to receive it.

God, knowing we are incapable of overcoming our own sinful state, arranged for His own sinless son to endure the “wages of sin” for all sinners.  A substitutionary death on the cross, dying so we didn’t have to.  The wages of sin is death, the loophole is God willingly accepts the death of One who is infinite and sinless, to atone for the infinite sinfulness of the sinner.  Then He credits to the sinners account, the righteousness of Christ.  Which will sit in opposition to the righteousness of the Father on judgment day and balance that scale, deeming you acceptable to enter into God’s eternal presence.  That is, if you are willing to accept it.  There is a catch, though.  It is free. You can’t earn it or pay for it.  You have to accept God at His word, that He is willing to extend this deal to you.  It means you have to nail your sin to that cross with Jesus.  You can’t have your sin nullified while still clinging to your “right” to remain oriented to your sin-nature.  Be your sin adultery (sex with someone you are not married to, whether male or female), lying, taking the Lord’s name in vain, stealing, coveting, failing to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, murder, or having some other god.  Anything that you refuse to relinquish is your god.

Think about these things because you know, and I know, something is up in this world.  You may not be ready to accept the things I’m saying, but that doesn’t change facts and laws and principles.  You know as well as I do that we as humans are capable of being wrong.  The world is not flat.  The appendix actually does have a purpose, blacks, Jews, and the disabled are not a subhuman species, yet these are all “beliefs” that were once embraced as fact.  Optical illusions fool our brains all the time, we even enjoy it when done by a talented magician.  There is good and there is evil.  We may not agree on what constitutes each one, but Someone must be the arbiter if truth and the very fact that “good and evil” are universal principles, is an indicator that there are absolutes so moving the visible boundary markers doesn’t actually altar which territory is which.  We merely fool ourselves.  It takes a heck of a lot more faith than I have, to believe everything came from nothing, than to believe there is a sovereign Creator who designed everything with purpose.

Think about it.

Mercy, forgiveness and the ways of God. A reflection. Guest Post ~ Jean Louis

Mercy, forgiveness and the ways of God. A reflection

Mercy, Forgiveness and the ways of God

Written and posted by Jean-Louis.

http://thelightseed.blogspot.com

This reflection follows my train of thought of a previous post on forgiveness and restoration. http://thelightseed.blogspot.com.br/2007/12/intercession-and-heart-of-god.html

The basic text is found in Isaiah 55: 8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and “your ways are not my ways”

1. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

As an interpretation of this statement of God by the mouth of the prophet, I’ve always heard that man is so much inferior to God that he can in no way be compared to him. This being true, I do not think that this is the primary meaning or intent of this passage. The usual statement´s application covers any condition and any situation that baffles human understanding and prevents any further action or probing because of the transcendental nature of God.
A closer analysis of the whole context in the preceding verses and the previous chapter show that God here is teaching by analogy a very important lesson on forgiveness and the resulting effects of the demonstration of compassion, mercy and grace, attributes of His divine nature. The way I understand it, He is saying that whereas man would exact payment for food and water and work for wages, God gives freely and graciously if wicked man would turn to him and receive pardon. Whereas man in his natural state would not forgive wrong done to him and retaliate, seeking revenge, the Lord is compassionate and forgiving. So, to this extent and in this sense, it is true that man is unlike God. It reveals more about the pettiness of man´s spirit contrasted with the magnanimous, compassionate loving heart of our merciful Father.

First notice the order. The verse begins with the Alpha, the beginning, the initiator of everything good and holy in our lives.

This verse does not mean that man is unable to think like God because man as a new creature, born again by the power of the Holy Spirit has the indwelling Spirit of Christ as Paul says in I Corinthians 2: 12-16:

¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.^{[c] 14} The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for,“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”But we have the mind of Christ.”

     2. “And your ways are not my ways.”

In the first part of the verse, the contrast between the OT and the NT scriptures is obvious and clear. On the other hand, the second part speaking of the ways of the Lord presents a word order in the reverse, beginning with man and his ways.

Psalm 103: 7 states that: “He made ​​known his ways to Moses.” But “he made ​​known his deeds to the son of Israel.”

“The Jews require a sign,” Paul said in I Corinthians 1:22.

To me, the verse in Isaiah 55 simply means that man in his natural state as a sinner would not forgive an offense against him. Rather he would seek a means of revenge for expressing his resentment, bitterness and anger.

An example of these attitudes and intentions of the heart occurred very early in the history of man. Genesis 4:23 tells us how a descendant of Cain, Lamech, known for his jealousy, anger and murder of his brother Abel, boasted of his intention to avenge an injury by the death of his opponent and that he would be willing to take revenge seventy-seven times.

Contrast this malicious intent in the heart of a wicked man with the Lord Jesus´ answer when Peter asked how many times we should forgive our brother who has offended us. Here is the beginning of the parable of the unmerciful servant: ^“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21,22. NIV While man since the dawn of time has sought revenge, the Lord God full of compassion and forgiveness has reconciled us to himself through the sacrifice of his Son, the Lord Jesus-Christ. It is He through the operating power of the Holy Spirit who gives us the will, the courage and the strength to seek reconciliation and to forgive those who offend us. The Lord does not ask us to do whatever He commands us without giving us specific instructions, clear explanations and strength to do His will.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁷ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Romans 15:5-7. “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” New International Version (©1984) Understood that way, the Lord reveals the chasm between sinful man and a Holy God and provides the only way to ford the distance between the two by the power of His word in His Covenants and promises. This way is found throughout the whole Bible as being the Lord Jesus-Christ, the Word of God.
Revelation 22:12,16,17 sets the final stage: ¹² “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man ^[g]according to what he has done. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” ¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. ¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things ^[h]for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
In Isaiah 55, the Lord alone extends an invitation to the sinner hungry and thirsty for real spiritual bread and water because of His mercy and compassion for His rebellious wayward children.
Now, it is at the end of the time of grace, the church age, that finally the bride (the church) and the Lord Jesus (who is the spirit of prophecy) both in one accord reiterate the invitation to those who hear and desire to come and share of the heavenly banquet. ¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. ¹⁸ I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; ¹⁹ and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and ^[i]from the holy city, which are written in this book. ²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. ²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with ^[j]all. Amen.

Read more: http://thelightseed.blogspot.com/2012/12/mercy-forgiveness-and-ways-of-god.html#ixzz2EIAyLP1d

Looking forward to 2013 Guest Post Jean-Louis

Looking forward to 2013

(No, I didn´t take that from Obama. I wrote the
original way before he was elected. We Christians do not need to imitate the
world)

Posted by Jean-Louis -

http://thelightseed.blogspot.com

“See. I will send you the prophet Elijah
before that great and dreadful day comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers
to their children and the heart of the children to their fathers: or else I will
come and strike the land with a curse.” Malachi 4:5.

The ministry
of reconciliation

“Therefore if anyone be in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not
counting men’s sins against them. As ambassadors committed with the ministry of
reconciliation, as though God were making an appeal through us, we implore you
on Christ‘s behalf:
Be reconciled to God.”
2 Corinthians
5:17-20.

Distance and separation

Definition of “Far
away” in The Fuegian language of
Tierra del Fuego. A seven syllable word
which means:

“They stare at each other, each waiting for the other to
do what each wants but is not able to.”

One can appreciate the rich
and insightful imagery of primitive language, but the question remains: Is it a
matter of inability or unwillingness?

When the Lord Jesus was approaching
the hour of His death, He himself prayed giving us a model prayer: “Father
not my will, but yours be done”

What keeps us separated? Basically it
is our pride and unwillingness to humble ourselves. We prefer to remain in a
prison of our own making, when the key has been given to us that could release
us from being captive to our own will and stubbornness.

Every argument
won in a verbal conflict at the detriment of forgiveness and reconciliation ends
up being one more brick we use in building a wall of separation protecting us
from the very ones that Christ has sent our way to help them in their struggle
to find forgiveness and freedom from spiritual captivity.

Every argument
won ends up being one more shovel full in digging deeper the ditch of distance
between persons whose ministry is to be a bridge builder, not a wall builder or
a ditch digger.

The remedy

Do we have the key? Only God can
give us the key to freedom.

Isaiah declares: “He will be the sure
foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;

The fear of the Lord is the KEY to this treasure.” Isaiah
33:6.

Do we need a sure foundation in our present time of confusion,
perplexity, and contemplating our navel and worshiping the earth to find the
solution with the greatest brains as guides in our cultures of death?

The Lord Jesus to John the apostle in Revelation chapter 3:7: “These
are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he
opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

There is a
time and a season for everything under the sun, but Jesus is sending his
servants to proclaim that “NOW is the day of salvation and that there is no
other name under heaven but the name of Jesus by which man can be saved”

The only way men can experience real peace and reconciliation with
others is to first be reconciled with God

Oh, that we would heed the
command of our Lord Jesus to build bridges and tear down brick by brick the
strongholds in our hearts that we have erected patiently, day after day, month
after month until it becomes the very fabric that makes up the callous covering
of protection keeping other people from being welcome in our hearts.

So
looking forward to this New Year’s eve, this is my hope and wish for the New
Year for the readers of this blog:

Be reconciled first with God through
recognizing and accepting the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus for you, He brought
peace to us who were enemies of God; receive the pardon and salvation that are
already paid for by His blood shed for you on the cross and the free gift of
eternal life available to all who humbly turn to His light and life from their
slavery to sin.

If you already know the Lord Jesus, His peace to you and
may His grace and love abide and rule in your heart as you seek to do His will,
to be fruitful and keep looking for His soon return.

Heavenly Father, by
your grace and the power of your love through your Holy Spirit, free the
prisoners in our families, our churches. You alone can penetrate through and
behind those brick walls and fill those ditches of separation. You alone can
heal bitter, broken hearts and restore us to our call to love you and serve you
as we obey your command to love each other sincerely from the heart and serve
our brothers in humility and submission to your will and purpose in our lives.

His Name is a strong tower and we are victorious by the blood of the
Lamb and the word of our testimony that Jesus alone is Lord of Lord and King of
Kings and worthy of our praise. Blessed be His holy Name. Amen.

Jean-Louis
12/3/2012 Edited and from previous posting
12/2009.

Read more by this author: http://thelightseed.blogspot.com

Overwhelming gratitude

The word Thanksgiving occurs 28 times in 27 verses in the King James Bible.  Most often it is in the context of “a sacrifice” and in the other instances it is either in tandem with song, or prayer.

Thanksgiving is not just a Holiday commemorating the pilgrims first celebration of their newfound freedom in America.  It is a heart attitude that makes all the difference in life.  It is best when Thanksgiving is a natural and spontaneous response, but that is something that has been stripped out of our make-up over time here in America where we have “had it so good, for so long” that we take it all for granted.  But thankfulness can be cultivated once again.

Being thankful means living consciously.  That’s another thing most in America have forgotten.  Well, not just Americans, but all of us, most of the human race.  Always plugged in, constant vigilance that we not miss a text or an important news item or in many cases, the latest song, episode of the favorite show, or whatever.  Fill in your own blanks.

I am thankful that my Dad is in heaven with Jesus and with his brothers and sisters and mom and dad, who all went before him and whom he has really missed.  I am thankful we had him here with us, all of my life my Dad was present and he was my Dad.  He was faithful to his wife and faithful as a provider.  How many people can say that of their dad these days?  Our neighbor and dear friend Johnny who died the previous month, too is with the Lord.  I’ve been more attentive of our other dear friend, his widow, who has been like a second mom to me, since then and not taking her for granted as before.  We don’t neglect each other on purpose.  Just like my brothers who live nearby, we know they are there and we can see them anytime, therefore we are often less intentional about actually making that time to see them, and before we know it, they could be gone.

I am thankful that my parents took me to church, and for the many good adult influences I had in my growing-up years.  From neighbors to school teachers and sunday school teachers.  I live in a small town of about 25K residents.  It is about 4 miles in a radius as the crow flies.  That sounds like we are packed in there, but no, it is just a little “factory boom town” that mostly was built up in an era of simplicity, where houses were not gargantuan monstrosities, just simple 2 and three (small) bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, and one bathroom.  For the most part we still have families here whose parents and great-grandparents immigrated here and settled here, and they remain active in maintaining the roots of the town.  There are still lots of families who know one another and speak as they meet at the post office, or will pick up the phone to let someone know if they saw their kid up to no good, and have that be appreciated rather than offense being taken.

There is lots of parental involvement in the schools, although less in middle and high school, and good cooperation between police and citizens and very active neighborhood watches throughout the city.

I am thankful that not everyone has thrown out all of the “old ways” to the extent we have forgotten them, because the longer the Lord tarries, the higher the likelihood that we are going to need to re-learn some of them.  And frankly, it would be hard but that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Even though I have staunchly stood by the probability that things are on a trajectory which is not going to turn around, in my heart of hearts I do know that with God, all things are possible.  There is possible, and then there is likely.  Still, in the event that enough of us cry out, in genuine mourning over our own sins and that of the church and the nation, and God, who hears and is ever-merciful even in the midst of wrath, He could choose to push the middle East back from the brink, see us through a dark and extremely difficult restructuring period here in the U.S., and maybe restore in us the humble submission to Him with which our Christian forebears initiated this nation to begin with.

Do I want to hang out here on this Earth with things continuing on the road this world is currently on?  NO! Not me, not my kids.  My cry as I see what is happening, is “Come, Lord Jesus” and come quickly.  I am 100 percent NOT a citizen of this world, my citizenship is in Heaven and that future City of the New Jerusalem.  But!  Here is the thing:  Jesus, being yet GOD, :thought it not robbery to be equal with God, But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.

You see, when Jesus hung on that cross, He didn’t just die for me, although if I was the only person on Earth, I believe He would have done it just for me.  Jesus who was master over Death, Hell and the Grave, was not KILLED on that cross, though He did most definitely die there.  He died, willingly giving up His life ( the words from His own lips about His life were: “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again”).  But He did so, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  It is not God’s will that any should “perish”.  Perish, here doesn’t just mean the natural death of the human body, but the eternal death of permanent separation from God, the source of all life.

I am a sinner.  I understand that I sin because I have the nature of sin in my mortal flesh, like a genetic aberration, it is a condition in my flesh that I am powerless to change.  God is not some stern taskmaster in the sky with a whip who watches like a predatory hawk, for me to slip up and break one of His laws so He can gleefully swoop down upon me with wrath and punishment.  God in His genius, instilled in us a “counterpart” to the law, called a conscience.  He gave the law to act as a mirror to reflect back to us our behaviors and actions and attitudes, and this conscience is like a sensor that reads our actions in light of the law, and if it is working properly, this sensor tells us whether what we are doing is good or is evil.  Notice I did not say “good or bad”.  When Eve and Adam ate of the forbidden fruit in the garden, it was the fruit of “The knowledge of good and evil”.  A baby of 18 months knows good and bad.  But a baby of 18 months has no ability to discern evil.  A baby of 18 months is guileless.  They may poke you in the eye and maybe even inflict real harm, but they in no way had evil intent.  Adam and Eve first walked in the garden with God Himself and in perfect innocence and yes, naivety, like that innocent baby.  Then along came the tempter Satan, and against God’s direct command, Eve and then Adam violated their own consciences and did that which they knew was “wrong”, and in doing so they opened up in themselves a “Pandora’s box” of understanding.  You see, what you don’t know, you aren’t accountable for.  What you do know, you ARE accountable for.  God would have preferred for us not to ever have to “know” firsthand what evil is.  But because He created us in His image with free will of our own, and even with curiosity, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jesus took not just the sin of myself and other Christians upon Himself on that cross.  He took the entire “phenomenon” of Sin into Himself and became sin, so that sin itself was crucified with Him and in Him on that cross.  Therefore look at sin as a disease such as Cancer.  It literally is a very auto-immune type condition which always ultimately destroys the host.  God has offered the antidote and any fool who chooses not to take, will experience the ultimate end of that “cancer” within himself which is death.  That is WHY the Bible says the wages of sin is death.  Death is not a punishment, so much as it is just the natural course and ultimate end of disease and decay.

I am so thankful that God sent Jesus to take that sin, my sinful state, unto His own body and bear it for me, and conquer it, so that it has no more power over me.  When my Dad breathed his last breath here on this Earth 2 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours and thirty minutes ago, he went immediately into the presence of His Savior and has now seen the face of Jesus!  That is all my heart desires.  I don’t want anything in this world.  Not money, not freedom, certainly not “stuff”, but to be in the actual physical presence of Jesus, and see His face in person!

I know that when we see Him we will fall on our faces in the glory of His Holiness and majesty.  But I also look forward to getting up from that, and just giving Him a hug and saying “thank you” in person.  Thank you for saving me.  Thank you for loving me.  Thank you for all the times You forgave me when I did the wrong thing, and loved me when I was unlovely and unloveable.  Thank you for removing the scales from my eyes and letting me see truth.  Thank you for what You went through on the cross for me.

Because I am thankful, I am grateful for these things, I want others to know Jesus and be saved.  Not because of my own “benevolence toward my fellow man”.  No, seriously, I don’t have the kind of love I ought to have for others.  I am cynical, and suspicious by nature, or, well, maybe by virtue of my life experiences.  I would love to be able to say that I love everyone so much that I want to give them Jesus, and show them “the way” but the honest truth about me is that just as the Bible said would be the case in these last days, my love for people has grown cold.  I find it harder and harder in a world where most people have zero regard for others, where even life itself is not valued, to uphold that standard of love which a Christian is meant to be known by.  Even though I made a conscious choice to “care anyway”, it is a monumental struggle sometimes.  I do care.  And when I see someone hurting, I respond to them, and reach out to them, but find myself counting the cost.

So, if not motivated by love for others, then what is my motivation to tell others the Way?  Is it because I think it will earn me heavenly “points”, a “favored status”, or other rewards?  Nope.  I’m about the most uncompetitive person God ever made.  I’m pretty satisfied with the simple basics even here in the Earthly sphere.  Though the one “reward” I would like to earn is to hear my Lord say “well done, thou good and faithful servant”.

My motivation is this:  If Jesus died for all the sin of every human who ever lived, so that not a single one had to perish, just think about that for a second.  Have you ever been just overcome by the sheer magnitude of evil in this world.  Maybe you watched the tragic loss of life during the Columbine High School Massacre, or even just the unceasing wars.  Aren’t you sick to death of wars?  I know I am.  That is just the evil of one generation.  It can weigh on you and make you feel tired, hopeless and depressed about life.  We most of us love this Earth, nature, the beauty around us and recognize the tragedy of defiling it.  That is just a drop in the bucket of evil, and we “feel” the effects of that and we mourn it.  Jesus had ALL of that evil, all the evil of the Crusades, all the evil of the Holocaust, all the evil of human trafficking, all the evil of slavery, all the evil of the entire history of the human race converged in His body on that cross.  It wasn’t the crown of thorns, the cat of nine tails and multiple lashes which ripped his skin to shreds, nor the pulling out of his beard.  The real agony was to take all of that evil into Himself and then to experience the separation from God the Father in that instant, when God had to turn away and the world went dark for half an hour.  If Jesus did that, for every person who ever lived, what a horrific shame it is, that even one solitary human being ought to go to their death without having had the opportunity to know about it, and choose to receive the benefit of it.  If they reject it, that is their prerogative, but for me as a beneficiary of that kind of grace, generosity and love, to take my lovely “gift” and keep it all to myself and not extend it to others, well that is the most ungrateful act any Christian could ever do.  It is a slap in the face of Jesus in return for what He did.

I am not promoting the movie “The Passion of the Christ” one way or another.  I know it has “doctrinal issues” but it moved me greatly.
There are two parts of that movie that are burned permanently in my memory.  I was a mother of young children when I watched it, and the scene where Mary sees them leading the wounded and bleeding Jesus to Golgotha, and she flashes back to his childhood, when he would get a boo-boo and her mere hugs and kisses could take away his pain, OH how my heart squeezed.  To be the mother of Jesus?  To have raised him from a baby.  Surely, blessed are you among woman, Mary.  Though human and not to be worshipped.  And the most moving part was really a tiny segment.  Jesus has uttered “it is finished” and given up the ghost.  And the camera pans from above, away, up up up, and we are viewing the scene as through a water droplet.  Then the droplet falls and a deluge of rain splashes over the entire scene.  That effect was lost on a lot of people because of the rain.  But that first droplet wasn’t a rain drop, and symbolically neither was the rain itself, meant to be rain, but God’s own tears as He sacrificed His only son.  To recognize the world through a falling tear, you have to have spent some time crying.  I have. Have you?

I have mourned my own sinfulness.  I have mourned the evil in this world and I have mourned and grieved in weeping and tears and pleadings with the Lord over this nation.  And others have as well.

But the loss of freedoms, and even the loss of the greatness of the good old U.S. of A. is nothing, when laid alongside the tragedy of millions who will spend eternity in hell unnecessarily because we didn’t give them the gospel, or because they chose not to receive it.  Your free will is intact.  You can take it or leave it.  But I give you Jesus.  He died for you.  He did not die to give you a better life.  He is not interested in turning you into a “saint” who must forsake all fun and freedom and change everything about your life.  What He has to offer, is completely free and there is nothing you can do to earn it, only believe it and receive it.  That means faith.

“But I just can’t believe all that stuff in the Bible, I mean, Noah’s Ark, a worldwide flood?”

That’s okay.  You don’t have to “know” it for a fact, you can choose faith and take God’s word for it.

“Oh, come on, there are a million and one religions in this world, don’t you think it is just a tiny bit arrogant and closed-minded to think yours is the ‘right’ way?”

This is not a religion I am talking about.  Religion is man reaching, striving, to reach God. Christianity is not a religion.  It is the only belief system wherein God seeks YOU, comes to YOU, and accomplishes the mending of the breach, the divide that is between you and Himself.

A lot of people will say “God is a gentleman” He won’t force you.  No, God is not a gentleman.  What He is not, is a beggar.  And frankly because of that fact, I don’t believe I ought to be either.  Nor should the preacher be.  Nor should the evangelist.  We are not responsible for what anyone chooses.  We are responsible to extend only the truth and the invitation.  The choice is yours, but there will come a day of winnowing.  A day of judging and sorting.    On one side, will go those who acknowledged Jesus as Lord.  On the other, those who did not.  When we are gathered at that judgment bar, there is only one matter that will be weighed, and that matter is, what did you do with Jesus.  Those who remained in their sinful state, reconciled with God via the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, will hear “depart I knew you not”.  But those who are reconciled with God through Jesus will have the blood on their hands, of the lost whom they personally had opportunity to reach, and the agonizing realization that that soul is condemned to hell for EVER, when that Christian might have prevented it.

I don’t want to ever experience that moment.  It is not fair to Jesus.

And so, for my many Christian friends who do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, who have questioned me “what will you do when the tribulation starts and you are still here, then what will you do” I say this: I deserve everything that I have coming.  I do see the pre-tribulation rapture in scripture, and I expect it, not because I am under any delusion that I have earned an escape, any more than I deserve the salvation Jesus so graciously has given, or the eternity in His presence I look forward to.  God’s nature is love, and that is why He loves us.  Not because we are so darn loveable, because anyone who is honest will admit we are not.  I don’t know why He loves me, but I know He does.  I don’t know why He saved me, but He did.  I can’t explain everything about salvation and God and how He operates any more than I can explain to you the ins and outs of my car’s engine and transmission and drive shaft, torque, combustion, and all of those principles.  But I don’t have to know all that in order for my car to get me from here to the grocery store.  I just have to have enough faith in my car to get in, insert the key, start the engine, put it in gear and go.

That is how it is with being a Christian.  Like the funny videos I reblogged, we like the Pharisees of old, make things much more complicated than they really are.  It is the faith of a child that saves us.  At Christmas, a 5 or 6 year old kid doesn’t deal with “oh, but I didn’t get YOU anything, and that makes me look like such a loser”, no, he sees a package with his name on it and is immediately filled with excited anticipation and wonder.  When the gift is offered, he receives it eagerly and tears into the wrappers with gusto.  How simple is that?  How pure?

Giving the gospel to others is also as simple as that.  It is our own pride that prevents it being as simple as God made it.  I must not look foolish.  I don’t want them to think me a kook.  To be honest with you, I have never had anyone react to the gospel that way.  Even if people disagree, they generally appreciate the thought behind my sharing.  The recognize it as concern and genuine, even if their opinion is that it is a misplaced or unnecessary concern.  The only people who react negatively are the churched.  Pride rears up in them.  “Don’t tell me about Jesus, I have been teaching Sunday School for Thirty Year, young lady, so you just take your tract and give it to someone who needs it”.

Oh boy, those are the ones I pray for the hardest.  Because even if they are saved, they still have not come to terms with just why they needed a Savior.  Because when you fully realize your own defilement and stench when compared to God’s own Holiness, all pride is obliterated.

Some of us have been “Saved so long” we begin to believe by now we have earn  some credit for our own goodness.  We give Jesus credit for the initial redemptive act, but we intend to retain unto ourselves ”credit where credit is presumably due” for “all that we have done for the Lord” since then.

I hate to break it to you but I don’t care if you are D.L. Moody himself, YOU have done nothing.  God has done it all.  You have merely been permitted the privilege of being a vessel.  Or perhaps you have so thoroughly fooled yourself that God has gone on without you, and you’ve been building houses of straw on foundations of sand and will be among the shocked an appalled who will cry “I healed the sick and cast out demons in your name”, but will hear “depart, I knew you not”.

My friend, I am no one special.  I am a 48 year old mom who has broken all of Gods law.  In me is no good thing.  Like Paul, I am the chiefest of sinners.  I have contributed to the statistics that reflect poorly on Christianity, by divorce, but the words of my mouth, by actions unbecoming.  I am not better than you.  The fact it is likely you are more gracious, more selfless, more charitable, more trusting, more forgiving, and nicer than I am.  Maybe.  Or maybe you are sitting in a prison, guilty of murder or rape or worse.  We are the same, you and me.  The difference between us as far as “how good or bad we are” is as negligible as the physical differences between identical twins.  The difference that makes the ultimate difference, lies solely in whether or not one of us has embraced the pardon freely offered in Christ, and the other has not.  I have received that pardon.  Have you?  I am 100 % positive that like my Dad, when I close my eyes in death here, I will wake up in Heaven with Jesus, or go up to Him in the rapture if that comes first, regardless of it ‘s timing in relation to the tribulation.  Are you?  Do you have that peace? You can.  If you see the truth in what I have said, you see it only because God has witnessed the truth of my words by way of the Holy Spirit and your own “answering” conscience in your heart.  If that is the case, then you need merely to admit that you understand you are a sinner, and ask Him to save your soul by applying His righteousness to you, in exchange for guilt.  You’ll still be a sinner but your sin will no longer be accounted against you.  You will be “reckoned” as righteous by virtue of Jesus having already borne that guilt on the cross and fulfilling the due sentence.  You see, for infinite guilt, you must either have infinite and eternal punishment, or a once and for all punishment must befall an infinite being, in order to be sufficient atonement.  God is your judge, your jury, your executioner.  God has pronounced your guilt and the penalty, which is death, but then He did an amazing, unimaginable thing.  He took off his judges robe, stepped down off the bench, and received the indictment, and served the sentence for you.

But don’t think “well, then I’m covered, there’s nothing more to be done”.  No, it doesn’t work that way.  By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not “of yourself” (doesn’t come from within) but is a gift of God, lest any man should boast.  Even the faith to believe what I have told you, comes from God Himself.  That’s why you “can’t believe it”.  That’s why it seems “too good to be true” and “too easy, there has to be a catch”.  If you are unsaved, God does not even hear your prayers.  There is only one prayer of the unsaved man which God will listen to.  That is the prayer asking to be saved, or the prayer asking for the faith which is needed in order to entertain the plausibility of His offer of Salvation.

If you don’t pray that prayer, you will go on being blind to these truths.  And your literal ticket out of hell will sit at the “will call box” unclaimed and tragically and needlessly wasted, while you spend eternity in hell,  literally having had to walk around Jesus to get there.  Not His “dead body”, for He rose back up from the dead, and that is the other difference between Faith in Jesus, and “religion”.  We don’t worship a dead prophet.  We serve a living Savior and God.

And for that, I am most thankful of all!

As you sit around the table this Thursday, celebrating “Thanksgiving” ask yourself this:  “Who am I thanking?”  Our Holidays don’t need to be hollow and meaningless.  When you sit there on January 1, after partying it up yet another year, or after crying yourself to sleep, at the futility of it all, facing the futility, wishing there was “more to life”, I want you to remember this. Because there IS.  Jesus is real.  God is good and He cares about you personally.  He knitted you together in the womb, He picked out your eye color, deliberately put those dimples there and that freckle here.  He gave you your personality, and your gifts and abilities and has a purpose for you life.  It’s all true.  Do you have the courage to believe it?  Don’t take my word for it.  Ask Him yourself.  He speaks your language.  May you truly be blessed to meet my Savior and discover you are not a random accident of “nature” with no purpose and no hope. Even in face of these troubling times, my heart overflows with hope.

This world is not my final destination, and death is not the end but the beginning.  Praise Almighty God, Elohim, the great “I AM”, the Alpha and Omega, JHVH Jireh, my provider, JHVH Nissi, my banner, JHVH Rapha, my healer.  He never leaves, He never forsakes or abandons, or abuses.  Praise my wonderful Savior!

We sin, we repent, God forgives, we sin…Shampoo, Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Spend any time at all in the Old Testament and you will see a pattern begin to emerge.  God reaches out to someone, they draw near to God, endeavor to follow His guidance and live a life that Glorifies Him, and then they are enticed away either by simple complacency in the midst of blessing and ease, by pride, or by lust, be it physical lust or greed.  Then that person is chastised of God.  If they receive the chastisement wisely, repent and re-apply themselves to doing what they know God requires, they again enjoy a period of blessing, but if they do not, then they will stumble in darkness and get drawn deeper into sin, and further from the Lord..  God will continue to correct and rebuke for a time, but if the wayward one does not turn back, He will eventually leave them to their unfortunate choices and give them over to their sinful ambitions.  This holds true both for nations and individuals.

Doesn’t that pattern sound familiar?  Can you look back over your own life and see it?  There really is nothing new under the sun.  Though Satan is masterful at “repackaging” and selling the same “product” again and again.  No new experiences, only new fools falling for them.

Israel and Judah made foolish alliances with pagan nations again and again, though God forbade it clearly in His law.  Kings had harems and multiple wives, though that also was forbidden.  And just as God warned, these practices resulted in trouble for Israel, Judah, and their kings.

If it feels like you are always hitting snags, encountering set-backs, can’t catch a break, maybe it is time to examine where you may be trying to fudge your way around God’s express law.  We can’t have it both ways.  We can’t skirt around God’s law, or violate it, and still expect His blessing in our endeavors.  We may seem to get by with it for a while.  God didn’t always give nations and kings the consequences and punishments they had coming, right away.  But without fail, He eventually does mete out those consequences and punishments.

Right now our world is reaping the consequences of borrowing and spending money we didn’t have to spend.  We are reaping the consequences of violating God’s law against murder (millions of abortions), and the consequences of forgetting our God, trying to pretend He does not exist, when every person knows He does, no matter how adamantly they deny it.

There are many people who are calling for Christians to fast and pray for this nation.  They are hoping for a 3rd Great Awakening in America.   We do not know if God has given over America or not, therefore, yes, we should continue to ask for His mercy and pray for Revival.  But He doesn’t owe it to us.  Like many great nations before us, we could be literally witnessing the demise of the great U.S. of A.  Pray for mercy all the more, if that is the case.  I am convinced that either way, we are going to need it.  But God sees His beloved children and He does not desire to mete out the punishment that is proportionate to our sin.  He longs to be merciful and compassionate.

And He deserves to be praised and obeyed, regardless.  He has every right to be angry with us.  Yet His mercies are new every morning.

Praise ye the Lord, praise Him all ye servants of the Lord from this time forth and ever more, praise His holy name!

Sin Leaves Scars and God Loves Us Anyway

Forgiven!

By nature I was one of those children who is compliant, motivated by praise, and for the most part, a stern look could keep me in line.  I longed for affirmation, to know I had done a good job and made my parents or teachers proud.

And I loved the Lord.  We have walked together since I was nine years old.  I longed also to please Him.  To be virtuous and good.  I loved attending church, singing in the choir, participating in youth group, helping with Vacation Bible School.

When other young ladies dreamed of being romanced and wooed, or having their careers, or becoming moms, I dreamed, literally had sleeping dreams, of Jesus calling out my name on the mountaintops, seeking me to spend time with me.  I dreamed of sitting in a garden in the cool of the evening and chatting with Him about the things that were on my young heart.

At 15 I had the wonderful privilege of attending a Christian school for a year, and then going on missions the summer between my junior and senior year, during which time I felt that I was called to full-time mission work.   My last year of High School I had to return to public school, but my goal and dream was to go to Bible College and then serve the Lord.

When High School ended, so did youth group, and much of the structure and support that I had previously had  suddenly shifted.  My parents vetoed my college plans, not believing that I knew what I was doing, or what I wanted, and also not able to pay and not willing to sign financial aid forms.

I was at that normal age when the primary developmental task for a young person, is to differentiate from their parents.  But with my one and only plan gone up in smoke, I found myself cast adrift as my friends all moved on with college, engagement, and jobs.  I felt God Himself had rejected my desire to serve Him, knowing He could have made a way but didn’t.  Everyone seemed to have places to go and plans in place, but me.

I took a job with a great company that was very positive and faith-friendly, had a very high standard in their hiring and training.  They invested in their workers, even helping facilitate their education, whether or not they would remain with the company, the goal was to mold them into fine, contributing members of society.

At that point I was in dire need of any help and direction that I could find.

There was a young man whom I worked with, the “company darling” actually, who was a real up and comer: Honor student, white-collar aspirations, all that.  He was well-liked by everyone who worked there, and a little older than me, and we found ourselves the center of many match-making efforts.

He was polite, clean-cut, and a very hard worker.   And he certainly seemed to maneuver through life as someone who knew who he was and where he was headed.  He had his 5-year plan, his 10-year plan,  at 21 he already had his retirement plan.

He seemed in agreement with the matchmaking efforts and pursued me for many months, asking me out again and again, while I politely declined.  I was not attracted to him though I was impressed by him in many ways.

As more time went on, I began to feel a  little like “defective goods”, like a loser, with no goals.  Disillusioned in my faith, I was vulnerable, feeling lost, and beginning to feel pretty lonely, until finally one day I capitulated and agreed to go with this young man on a daytime outing, which I did not consider a date, hoping that if I did, maybe that would be the end of it.

But it wasn’t.

He treated me like a princess at first.  All flattery.  He lavished me with attention and gifts, and praise.  He told me I was beautiful and I believed him.  He said I made him feel like a million bucks.  He gifted, wined and dined me, and it felt good to feel wanted.  He made me feel “like somebody”.

But the clean-cut “All-American” boy had another side.  Being with him was ultimately like being in a “cult of two”.    He found me when I was already questioning everything I ever thought I knew.  He had the instincts of the perfect predator.   He never had my heart, but I fell for the head game, having never been able to tolerate idling in neutral for very long.   He systematically went about remaking me into the “perfect for him” girl he wanted me to be, as the icing on the cake of his perfect future.

Everyone who knew me “before” and “after” would tell you that the person they knew just “went away” and some other person took her place.

He isolated me first, and then stripped away everything that didn’t fit into his plans.  And then one day he stripped me of something I would never be able to get back, laying ultimate claim to me in the Biblical sense.  That was the moment that the person I once was really did go away.  I went away deep inside my mind.  It would be years before I could think clearly enough, and muster the courage to break away.  And strange as it sounds, I did benefit some from those years.  I learned what I was capable of.  I did go to college.  I did get a career and a means to support myself.  But it would be many years before I even told anyone the truth about that period.  There would follow more heartache and damage, and loss because once distanced from God, I felt trapped in no-man’s-land.  I felt like God had given me a “clean garment” when I was 9 but I grew up and got it soiled.  I felt that I was no longer worthy to call myself a Christian, so I didn’t think I had the right to call on God anymore.

I was so ashamed, so stripped and decimated.   I was all shattered inside.  I had trouble even thinking clearly and functioning in my work.  One day I was on my way out the door to my job, when I just couldn’t take one more step.  I collapsed 2 paces from the front door, and crumbled into a sobbing heap on my living room carpet.  I felt like I hadn’t taken a deep breath in years.  My wounded heart just ruptured.  I was such a far cry from that virtuous girl I had been.  And God seemed very far away.  But I did cry out to Him: “Lord, you know my life.  I have made a real mess of it, and I can’t fix any of it.  I have sinned and I have failed You, and there is not much left to offer, but if there is anything of me, or my life that you still want, that you can use, that you can salvage, will you take it Lord? Will You accept me back?

The instant the prayer left my lips, I felt the bands around my chest break loose!  The inner turmoil instantly ceased and I had utter peace like I had not known since I was just a child.  It just seemed as if the Lord had back-handed the hounds of hell off of me and I could almost hear Him proclaim ” Enough! She is MINE!”   That was when I really knew that He had been there all along, only waiting for me to call on Him.  It took Him a while longer to help me understand that I had never been “worthy” to be called a Christian to begin with.

I had thought Him a hard master.  But I didn’t know Him.  I only knew what I had been told.  I grew up in a “tradition” that was heavy on rules and piety, and didn’t teach grace.

When I got up off the floor that day, my troubles were not magically gone.  My life was still a mess.  But I was able to get up off the floor, blow my nose, wash my face, and take one more step.  The first step of letting God be not just my savior, but my Lord.

I was never out of His hand.  Do you know the implications of that? It means that the scars and wounds were applied while I was in the Master’s hand.  He is the potter, and I am the clay, and even evil is used to achieve His ends.  God in His wisdom broke me of the notion that I am capable of being good.  He showed me the worst of human depraved nature, both my own and that of others who harmed me, and He showed me how destructive that nature is.

Yesterday I had to leave church because I was sick.  I was so disappointed because I wanted to be there.  But God had a reason in it.  I came home and I listened to a friend who webcasts his sermons by live stream.   He is all the way in Missouri.  But his sermon was meant for me to hear yesterday.  God used that pastor’s illustration to bring it all home.

I don’t blame the people who harmed me in this life because I know they act from the very same nature that is in me.  “There but by the grace of God, go I”.

God has allowed and used all of it to shape me for a purpose that He has had in mind all along, to be a useful vessel in His hand.   Cuts heal into scars that aren’t pretty but are more durable and less vulnerable than untouched skin.  Broken areas of bones grow back stronger than the original bone.   And wounded and broken people become compassionate and humbled, and therefore useful for God to comfort and reach others.

He didn’t make me a dainty china cup to sit on a shelf and be admired.  Though I wanted to be “good” we don’t have it in ourselves to be good.  Through life’s trials I am more like that old tin cup that is all dented up, but sturdy and useful.  Jesus Himself was not beautiful by the worlds standards. The Bible says “he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him”.

I see now that God had a lot to teach me before I could ever really serve Him.  The missionary dreams of my youth had more to do with my misplaced admiration for those on the mission field.  I thought there being there was like the crowning achievement of “arrival” as a Christian.  I coveted “goodness” within myself, and the praise of God.  Wanting to be good doesn’t sound like a bad desire.  But it is an unrealistic one.  Goodness is never achieved.  It is not within the scope of human capabilities.  When men called Jesus good, He asked them why they called Him good, and said only God is good.  This was an acknowledgement that Jesus was God in the flesh.  But goodness is only in Him.

I had thought God made me righteous at the age of 9.  But I was never righteous.  Only Christ was righteous in me.  The tradition I grew up in was very unforgiving.  When I was faced with the very depths of my own sinfulness as an adult, I was missing any understanding of the part grace plays in salvation.  I had the faith.  But I didn’t understand that God remembers our sins against us no more.  Past, present, or future sins have all been laid to account on the cross, if we have trusted Jesus as our Savior.

It has been a battle of my pride, even this many years later, to finally fully tell my story.  I have posted many pages on this blog.  Facts and truths about myself that even in their  layout here, are buried in layers, and poems and stories.

But I stand today with no longer any pretense of there having ever been anything good in me.  And what a relief it is.  I am a sinner. The only difference between me, and the vilest offender in the worst prison, or hell itself for that matter, is that I am forgiven.