Sitting in a discussion with an atheist, agnostic, a secular Jew and an disciple for Christ.  Having studied to show himself approved, a right divider and defender of the faith, the Christian answered all the arguments, questions and challenges with sufficient reference to God’s Holy Word, showing each of the members where to find the answers to their individual interrogatives.  However he knew the entire time that at some point their polite inquisition would turn to ridicule, then anger, as each of them refused to accept the vacuum in their position.  What surprised him was that the agnostic would not jump on board with the others in this character assault and projected anger at Christ.  The agnostic actually acknowledged the efficacy of the Christian argument, being a scientist, he could not refute the evidence, but instead came to the Christian’s defense against what he deemed an unfair, emotional assault.  The Christian, stood his ground, but comforted the deep wounds of the attackers, knowing fully their true struggle was with the free will choice which confronts each of us, when finally realizing that God is Sovereign and He alone makes the rules in His created universe.

I feel for this world, their position is both untenable and an abomination.  To choose God they must admit that their own privately constructed realities are false, leaving them in a heap of fallen cards as their psychological house comes to rest upon the Rock of Christ.  The Bible has never been proven to be false, and since they cannot disprove the Word of God they are left with the sole avenue of attacking the messenger.  The atheist demands that I we prove God exists, which is a fool’s argument.  Why is it our responsibility to prove that God exists, they are the ones who do not believe.  Let them instead prove that He doesn’t, leaving the burden of evidence where it should reside on the people making a false claim.  They cannot of course and must resort to mocking God and His followers.  The agnostic has no recourse but to consider the valid argument and evidence for Christ, eventually leading them to make a conscious decision to accept or deny Him.  The Jew is in a horrible predicament, for if their own written texts predicted the birth, death and resurrection of the Messiah, then they must accept that they closed their eyes, ears and hearts, missing His arrival.  Since Jerusalem, and the Temple records were destroyed in 70A.D. then their only proof of being Jewish is a verbal tradition passed down, like their faith in God throughout the generations, waiting for Israel’s reconstruction.

We rejoice in God’s promises to the Nation of Israel and its people.  He is faithful to complete and fulfill every yot and tittle that He told them would occur just as He is faithful to complete the work of sanctification in every believer, making them anew from their troubled pasts.  We cannot walk away from our responsibility to God in telling the Gospel truth.  Just as God, we do not wish that people would be eternally separated from God, by choice, suffering in isolation in hell.  Christians want that all would come to the Knowledge of the Truth and spend eternity with us, with God.  This world has no absolutes, it has been relegated to the mobile and vacillating reality of whomever is in charge and defines the new truth according to their own oddities, inclinations, moralities and beliefs.  We prefer to stand upon the Rock of Ages, Who never changes.  Yes, some of what His Word states is hard to accept, understand or discuss, but it is still the Sovereign Word of God and not within my capacity to withdraw, change, extend or revise.  My job is simply as believer, acceptor and reteller in faith and love.  If you have a problem with God, take it to Him.  If your problem is with my behavior, do not blame God for my offense.  I ask your forgiveness for anything I have done to dishonor God or transgress against you.  In His Name I pray for all in this fallen, shaken world.  Praise Jesus.

Do you feel the tug of the Kingdom’s approach?  Have you been lulled, confused or captured by the deceptive voice of this world calling you to despair?  Don’t you see it around you?  Isn’t it almost palpable, this call to become self-serving, distrustful, spiteful and full of fear?  What about your love?  Does your love resemble that of Christ?  Are you quickly willing to forgive, believe, encourage and forgo retribution?  This world does not see its peril, it does not know its corruption or the poison that drains its life, having been moored to the sinking vessel of global sin.

God’s judgment is near, for this nation especially, as with all whom call themselves by His name, it shall be swift, final and imminent, excepting those who cry out to Jesus for salvation.  Where does your heart abide?  Do you live in Christ, and He in you?  Do you know life abundantly? Man cannot save this world for we share the nature of its illness, our unwillingness to believe, our unwillingness to relinquish the hold our own perception holds upon destiny.  I will not be slave to my own deception, my own decadence, the wet powdered thrill of my own understanding, leading to misery and defeat.

What God has said is the only measurable, assured and guaranteed Truth.  Listen for that small quiet voice of our Shepherd, guiding, encouraging, praying for each of us as we walk, even through the valley of the shadow of death itself.  Does your cup runneth over?  Are you led down paths of righteousness for His Namesake?  Are you walking in Goodness and Mercy all the days of your life?  If you don’t know joy, then ask the Lord to free you from the enemy’s bondage.  Be free indeed.  Go in the peace of God for beyond Him there is no peace.

This is not the venture for effeminate men.  It is not the journey that may be forever pondered, but undertaken.  It is a thing of thought, action and cost.  Cost, voluntarily contributed in remembrance of Him who sacrificed all for us.  We are not the sideliners, the naysayers, the contemplaters, the doubters, aspirers and apathetic.  We are the overcomers, adept and prepared in the knowledge of God’s Eternal Wisdom.  Even in personal failure the Lord’s Will shall be accomplished, so for us, defeat cannot and may not, ever declare victory.  For Victory belongs to those marked by Grace, Filled with The Spirit, given by God, to Guide, Counsel, Instruct and Shape.  No “thing” is indestructible, only those things made of Spirit may surpass the reshaping of the world, in defiance of the alchemist’s shackle to science.  We have been created to evolve, yet not an evolution of mere gravity or law, but rather an evolution to become new creatures, those who are welcomed in the presence of Almighty God.

This is not a path of my making.  It is not a way designed in the thinking of men.  This skinny, track is God’s wake, where only those intent on eternity may follow, their way illuminated by the Word, The Light, The Door, The Truth, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  None may travel its steps without knowledge of Him who made it, through authority and sacrifice.  There are only two destinations following this mortal life, one eternally bound in Grace, Mercy and Faith to God through Life, the other separate, dark, equally eternal, filled with pain, loneliness and endless reflection, away from the Light of God.  The gift of mortal life is choice.  The measured and finitely precious opportunity to choose between two ends.  Show me the way to Your Light Father, through any darkness, armed with Your Spirit, protected by Your Strength, safe in the courageous knowledge of my kinship to You.  IN Jesus’ Name.

“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.  They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.  ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.  Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?  No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush.  So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them, ” says the Lord.  This is what the Lord says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.  But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’  I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’  But you said, ‘We will not listen.’  Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them.  Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.  What do I care about incense from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land?  Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.”  Jeremiah 6:13-20

Who will stand, chancing all, casting your lot for the Lord?  To speak out now carries repercussion.  Although, we do not wish to offend, it is impossible for people to hear the truth if we refuse to speak clearly.  This is the important time of decision and subsequent action.  We all know what is right, but many will simply stand there knowing fully, just as did Adam that we are in conflict with God’s direction.  Shall we squander the opportunity to choose rightly?  Will we listen to the voices of those whom we fear need impressing or follow God’s Law, walking the ancient paths?  Will we listen to the Words that shine above the din or turn our ears from the hearing and forget about the doing?  The Bible says, it is impossible to please God without faith.  Do we know how to get it and what to do or not do that pleases God?  Do we?

Searching around for something, anything, all things, even abstaining from things in order to discover happiness.  Nothing, maybe nothing will fill me with a sense of calm, removing this desire for peace from my worried heart.  But in the nothing you meet old powers, fallen spirits and a quest for mastery of science, light, wind, water and fire.  You give up the quest for the material only to become obsessed with the immaterial.  Joy remains elusive and still you scream at the top of your lungs when anyone suggests the hope and joy found in Jesus.  It is as a starving man who refuses porridge because he craves steak and in so doing wastes his last strength seeking what he cannot have.  This of course is insanity because who has known a man dying of hunger or thirst that would not eat anything put before him?  Even worse, Jesus is the full buffet, overflowing, with happiness, joy, peace and strength flowing from endless cornucopia, yet you will not accept His Grace.

The real power behind joy is choice.  I may exercise this Sovereign Power of choice because God first chose me, exercising His own Authority to include me in His Divine Guidance and Opportunity.  God demonstrated the gravity that comes along with self-determination, discernment and decision making.  It is the true power of this life to be fully responsible, prepared and capable of making choices.

I choose to believe in Jesus Christ as the only way, door, avenue and sacrifice, available to save me, cleanse me, deliver me and justify me from the contagion of sin that infected humanity after Adam and Eve’s failure to choose appropriately.  I choose not to be an intimidator, a victim, an avoider or a finger pointer, accepting the full authority, impact and responsibility for the choices I have and will make.  I choose to understand God’s Word to the extent that when someone attempts to twist, adjudicate, manipulate or rewrite that Sovereign Word, I may not follow them down the road into conflict with the Almighty.  I choose to serve His Will for my life, putting aside my own minor perceived and often flawed perspective, relinquishing my own “understanding” when there is question between God’s view and my own.  I choose to accept that He Alone Is Sovereign in the universe and my life, whether or not those who live within His creation accept that Eternal Fact is irrelevant to my thinking.  I choose to accept the JOY available to me via the indwelling of His Spirit within my heart and mind, regardless of the impending pressure, opinion or appearance of circumstance.  I choose to do what God would have me do instead of following or placing any other philosophy, person or spirit in the driver’s seat of my life.  I choose God in the single greatest application of my Divinely Given authority granted by His grace.  I choose abundance and life in Jesus Christ the King.  I choose God and ask His forgiveness for my past and future sin, repenting of the learned or practiced influence of my own sin, knowing fully that He has redeemed from that power and, even now, is cleansing me of all unrighteousness in preparation for spending eternity with a Holy God.  I choose to love, even those who hate me and know that even when I may be incapable of such grace that He will overcome my own shortcomings, giving me the power to overcome even myself in loving kindness.  I choose to believe, come what may, against all odds and influences, knowing that at some point my faith will grow beyond the minor influences of doubt and indecision.  I choose Jesus.  All that comes after that choice is secondary.

How do you view the struggle between God and the fallen?  Isn’t it the same choice that was made when creation first challenged their own Sovereign God?  The power of choice is the truth of this seemingly eternal struggle between Good and evil.  Choose God and victory or choose anything else, whether satan, self or sin and lose, now and forever.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

https://youtu.be/ncNTKr_4J3c  If you hear this speech and turn away then chances are you have never been called of God.

Fear stands as the single largest motivating factor when making eternal decisions.  I either fear the Sovereign Lord, God, Yahweh, Jesus, Spirit, Jehovah leading me to begin my course on wisdom OR I fear my impending mortality and its inherent loss of worldly position/prestige/power/authority and treasure.  What then life becomes is an opportunity to either stand against the inherent fears and concerns of mortality by understanding the nature of eternal existence OR all are relegated in their thinking to the confines/limitations and determinism of what this life may offer.

If I choose to fear God, out of reverence and an albeit, limited understanding, then the effects of mortality lose their impact on my ability to ascertain and achieve peace.  If I choose to dedicate myself to “getting everything I can get out of this short life”, then I must in some manner consciously or unconsciously dedicate myself to the impacts of worldly fears.  For inevitably, the mere shortness of this lifetime will inspire total concentration to achieving the “legacy” that unbelievers desire as their nirvana.

Thus the fear of my non existence after my last breathe will guide my every waking action, fearing that inevitable, indeterminable, unpredictable moment.  We all want to be pure, some purely good and some purely evil, it is the fear, the ravages and controls of “time” that equal the playing field.  On one hand it is an unbeliever’s responsibility to purify themselves.  On the other hand each believer is redeemed, justified and sanctified by a Holy God. Both processes begin the moment after each person perceives and chooses how to deal with fear as our greatest motivating influence.

Now that I fear the Lord, the wisdom of His Sovereign Truth has released me from the ever-present pangs of worldly fright.  My time on Earth is His time to use as He pleases to His good glory.  And, when I go, as we all must, I will be with Him throughout eternity, forgetting my feet of clay.  Love, power and a sound mind are the spirits that indwell the heart of every Christian.  Besides fear is truly a poor motivator, I can think of greater ways to  encourage those I love to reach for the stars.  Praise God in all His Glory.  In Jesus’ Name.