Amazed by Grace, dumbfounded by the specific, relative efficacy of the Bible.  Although, God our Father, has no beginning or end, it seems that the Bible is closely structured around the three stages of the human timeline; the beginning, the middle and the end times.  As with our own passage through Christianity, the beginning segments of both the Old Testament and the New give all the spiritual guidance, understanding and training necessary to embarking upon a spiritual journey with God.  The psalms, proverbs and major prophets of the old testament along with the epistles of the New fully extend the meat of Christianity to the seeking believer, leading to maturity.  Then the minor prophets just as their counterparts in the New Testament tell of the times leading up to the end of days, all this is capped off with the Book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ’s Epistle to the churches regarding what must swiftly come to pass.

So, it is incredibly easy to study the Bible based upon your stage of growth.  If you want to know about God, Jesus Christ, the Jewish People or the heroes of the Bible you study the beginning books of both the Old and New Testaments.  If you want to investigate the logic, the spiritual wisdom, the formation for prophetic understanding and develop trust in the Lord you read the middle books of the both the Old and New Testaments.  And if you want to understand Eschatology or Prophecy both for the first and second coming of Christ then you look to the minor prophets in the Old Testament and the Epistles to Hebrews, 1John, 2John, Peter, the letters to Timothy and Jude.  If you want to bring it all together and understand Tribulation, the Harvest and the times following Earth’s remaking you must study Revelation.  Once again I am astounded by God’s creative mastery in giving us a guidebook that structurally matches our own walk through life.

I love to read it all but must admit that I feel led to particular passages of the Bible based upon my current question or growth need.  Lately, I have found especial comfort in the teachings of Jesus, trying to better understand the Lord in what He did, said and how He treated or questioned those close to Him.  I also find particular interest in reading the prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled, from Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah and minor prophets to seeing how closely the predictions of the human condition match our current global climate.  Knowing what is to come gives me faith and peace in God as He told us that all this would happen before it came about.  Reading this material has peaked my interest and prepared my heart and mind for what is to come.  I am only ready because He gave me the means by which to be so.  Thank you God for Your Word and Your Love.  In Jesus Name.

If you want evidence of God I will show you sinners transformed into saints.  The work done by a Loving God, who promised this result to them who believe upon Him.  I pray and pity those who must be good enough in their performance in order to gain/earn admittance to the paradise of God.  For how may I know that I am intended for glory, if the definition of my acceptance is based upon my “acceptable” deeds?  How may I ever have assurance if the criteria for entry is based on me, for we have all determined that there is nothing certain in this world except death, taxes and change.  I can imagine their despair as they seek each day to be “good” enough for God.  God wants perfection, I cannot reach perfection, therefore I will eventually fall prey to utter depression in the personal attempt of works.  I that I may hope to be is past the bar of “good” enough, every one above the line being included and below, excluded.  How do I know my standing against this measure?  The answer is I don’t, so I have to continue to strive to be good enough and “hope” that on the day of my death I had somehow “made the cut”.

I don’t care how good you are, all of us continue to sin against the mirror of God’s Law.  Remember God’s bar is perfection, so any performance below that line is disqualified.  Since, one hundred percent of us fall short of this mark, it is miraculous that God offers the Grace of Salvation, freely to them who will repent and believe.  This provides the opportunity for the assurance of salvation while removing the burden of earned entry to paradise.  Christ paid the price of my imperfection, substitutionally providing me His righteousness in exchange for my utter hopeless position in sin.  Although God still expects me to live a pure, righteous and Holy life, He has now allowed for the fact that I am incapable of doing so.  It is God who will perfect me, God who transforms, God who makes it possible for me to be in His presence throughout eternity.  What a relief, I don’t have to try and be good enough anymore and I can accept the assurance of my entry in heaven when I die.  Do you know where you are going when you leave this life?  Don’t you want to know or would you rather continue to hope, guess or live in despair?

How shall we ever access overwhelming or abundant joy if we continue to worry about being good enough for heaven?  My heart is filled with thankfulness for the great gifts God continually gives me, my eyes well with size seven tears when I realize the wonderful friendships with which I’ve been blessed.  I cannot begin to tell you about the number of people I’ve encouraged with a smile, a reminder of love or just the authentic will to listen and share a bit of their burden.  I could have done none of that without the assurance of my salvation and the knowledge that I cannot sanctify myself.  God did the work of conquering sin and death and He continues the work of transforming my life to resemblance.  Lay down your burden at the cross, be forgiven for every sin and be transformed by a renewing of your mind.  That is the free gift each of us is offered.  It is ironic that the only way to be found good enough for heaven is to give up on trying to be good enough at all.  Find rest and truth in Jesus.

The yearning in your heart, can you name it, or does it just pester you anonymously?  Is there a place to which you feel drawn, a task that begs your completion an idea or word you are compelled to author?  Do you know and have you acquainted yourself with the indwelling Holy Spirit of God?  You being a believer are the tabernacle of God’s Holy Spirit on Earth, the Holy of Holies in fact, where God dwells among men.  Are you afraid to ask God’s Holy Spirit to guide you, counsel you or show you God’s Will?

The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our salvation, according to Ephesian’s 1, sealing us for our inheritance in Christ.  So, if the Holy Spirit is not present, then there is no seal, no salvation and no inheritance.  Wouldn’t it be logical at this point to inquire as to the evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit?  Have you ever asked God to assure you of salvation, to show you His indwelling Spirit?  Have you seen His fruits in your life, your rebirth, your transforming or renewing of your mind?  That’s okay as we grow in our faith and Biblical understanding we all investigate this question on the way to established faith.  Aren’t we told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling?  What is the Holy Spirit telling you and if you do not hear His convicting, assisting or guiding prompts, don’t you wonder why not?

Get close to God and He will come closer to you, that is how this Christian intimacy thing works.  Seek Him and He will always respond in kind.  Don’t be afraid to ask God questions, that demonstrates belief in His Word, for who asks questions of someone in which they have no belief?  Have you resisted the tugs upon your heart, have you ignored His correction or guidance, have you effectively silenced God’s small quiet voice in your life?  We are all made for something and that something is between you and God.  Certainly, pastors, teachers and other Christians can give you some direction but the hunt for intimacy with God through the Holy Spirit via the Door of Jesus Christ our Lord is personal, individual, specific to your course in this life.

Don’t you want to know why He made you?  Doesn’t everyone?  The fact that people avoid God’s Will confounds me, isn’t that what makes life worth living?  Of course I could fill my life with idle pursuits, utilize my gifts for my own determined pursuits or basically deny that I had any specific design, but why on Earth would I choose a lesser existence than that which I’ve been promised by my faith in God?  I delight in your making.  Let us see what God has crafted in your mind, heart and spirit.  Perhaps we will see God in its reflection and it will lead us to a deeper relationship through Christ.  Wouldn’t that be a miracle?  In Jesus’ Name.

Are you telling them what He told you to tell them?  Have you ever mentioned judgment, or does the idea make you feel as if you are being intolerant?  I know, we have been told so many times by the feel-good society that they cannot imagine a loving God could ever send good people to Hell simply for declining His offer of saving grace.  Do not make for yourselves a custom designed image of God, known in the Bible as a graven image.  God may be the most loving idea you can imagine but He has also been saving up wrath for the day of judgment ever since we chose to sin.  Make no mistake, those who ignore, decline, deny or foolishly join satan in direct conflict against God’s Will shall all be sentenced eternally to the lake of fire for their own recorded works.  He is a just and righteous God, who cannot stand sin and has warned everyone that if they do not accept redemption they will choose their own end, eternal separation and judgment.

Yes, I want to be gentle in my loving expression and relationship with all humans.  However, does being gentle require that I refuse or overlook warning those whom I love of the dangers of God’s eternal judgment?  Christ died for our sins and that is a serious thing, that God would come to Earth in order to save us from righteous judgment.  That He would go to such humbling and extensive action to provide each of us the possibility of eternal reconciliation should not be underestimated.  He obviously takes sin very seriously or otherwise He wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to cleanse us of its stain.  We cannot simply choose to teach the parts of the Bible that we feel comfortable in expressing.

The truth has this unique characteristic that it only remains the truth when it is stated clearly, completely and openly without obfuscation, illusion or contextualization.  That is why satan is so insidious and the Pharisees/Sadducees are always referred to as vipers, speaking with a forked tongue.  Take for example the Biblical Truth, stating that “the truth will make you free”, John 8:32.  Read the whole truth, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  Taking those lines that are appealing to us out of context removes the qualifying statements that precede it thereby disseminating or warping truth for our own palatable purpose.  According to the commonly used version, “the truth shall make you free” requires nothing of the recipient and additionally all people, believers and unbelievers to be set free by truth, nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus, is the Way the Truth and the Life and No one comes to the Father but by Him.  How can anyone wishing to know the truth, know that truth without first knowing Jesus?  The world hates Jesus and by relation Christians and Jews.  They cannot tolerate that God would hold them “Absolutely” accountable to His absolute truth.  Historically and subsequently, since they cannot hope to harm God directly, they take their anger out on those whom He loves.  Christians and Jews need not worry though they suffer in this life, God will relieve that suffering and deliver righteous vengeance on all it perpetrators.

God is God and He makes the rules in this and all His universes.  Just because I do not wish to follow my Father’s rules does not free me from His judgment, especially when I am a member of His household.  The only way that a previously disobedient child escapes a Father’s discipline is by being obedient.  God requires that we obediently choose between service as Kin to Jesus in heaven or as suffering eternal slaves to our sin in hell.  That choice does not make Him an unloving God but exactly the contrary, providing a method of salvation where no hope existed.  His judgment is coming, I pray that I have sufficiently prompted you to investigate your own decision for or against Christ.  You see I love you enough to warn you away from the edge, not just tell you the sugar coated version of God’s Word.  Read it for yourself, decide for yourself for you alone shall benefit or suffer for that decision.  My job is to tell you and that I have done.  In Jesus Name.

We seek to be different yet we crave togetherness.  How is this resolvable?  How can I seek to blend in when my DNA, my skin, my fingerprints, hair and eyes have been uniquely crafted so that I am particularly discernible from each of you?  Why create such a uniqueness if randomness, chaos and collective non-singularity are the objective?  What is the power of indoctrination, conformity and communism if not to take that which is unique and make it indistinguishable?  Why does my heart yearn and burn for something that this world desperately seeks to conceal?  Why was I made unique, because that uniqueness implies individual and singular purpose?  If that were not so I would not “be” but rather, we would exist.

The thing we reach for that is just beyond our extended fingertips, drawing each of us to tip toe, reaching out to grasp the sky.  I have a picture in my mind, one that I would love for you to see, yet I cannot paint.  I have a story that I would love for you to hear yet I am outside those that have the means to publish thought.  I am a shepherd.  The smelly part of humanity that we would rather ignore, forget or banish to our necessary fields on the untenable highlands.  We see, we protect, we love and we adore God in our quiet, windy moments spent in reflection upon the hill hoping that nothing happens outside the ordinary but preparing for those times as we know they shall come.

I do not expect that you will find my thoughts acceptable or logical or palatable.  I hope for the opposite, that you find me unique as God has made me, that my oddity inspires your need to figure it out, wondering why I am so strange.  For this is the light of Christ.  It is not like this world yet reflects Him in the world He created, for what created thing does not demonstrate the signature, aspects and insights of its Maker.  Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun.  This I believe, except when it applies to each human being that is conceived for you are uniquely spectacular to me.  There is a song in your heart that I wish to know, a building you alone were meant to construct a problem whose solution resides in your mind alone.  Do not allow the powers of this world to package, can or lump you collectively into a beige or mauve mundane torturous nightmare.  For this life is meant for joy and realization of unique purpose, leading each of us to an intimate relationship with God.  You hold the key, it is choice and the choice is named Jesus Christ, the Door, The Way, The Light, The Lamb, The King, The Good Shepherd for all men.  He resides in Glory and in each believers heart.  Reach for Him, He is waiting.