Tag Archives: Jesus Christ the King

Impending

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The distance so great between me and nearest star, if God had meant us venture would they be so far?  If I cannot reach a place does that mean I should never try?  Just as God is beyond my thinking, He remains the object of my eye.  The will of evil men with atomic death devices, are likely to be utilized to fulfill their wicked vices.  Artificial intelligence, designer disease and altered genetic material may bring us to our knees, before painted fallen angels and their demons in a quest to find the keys, to a dungeon and burning lake created for their fate, as they unleash lasting anger, men targeted by their hate.  The powerful and the fattened, covet all the world’s wealth,  while children die in hunger and the poor languish lacking cash for good food and preventive health.  At some point not too distant a culling will be forced as man’s good will and their senses will voluntarily become divorced, the toughest part of justice is seeing it enforced, we all shall see the coming of Jesus, Lordly Horsed.

Take comfort in all intention, plan and scheduled hope, given by our God misunderstood by followers of a pope.  A one to one relation with no one in between, no governor, priest,  ambassador or even saintly queen.  This world must come to judgment most of it by our acts, check the population numbers, pollution, pandemics, war, the sum and reality of the facts.  We are headed toward a precipice whose bottom the abyss an unavoidable future an appointment none shall miss.  Man cannot solve these problems because he is after all just a man, susceptible to his own avarice, greed and the consumption of all that he can.  That is the reason God’s plan simply makes sense when reviewed and contemplated, nothing else stands up to reason every thought repeated or outdated.  Even Solomon in his splendor, his wisdom and his wealth could not escape man’s frailty with purchase, peace or stealth.  For death is looming, it comes to every man that is what makes this life so precious, the guiding promise of God’s Plan.  So put your faith in Jesus and look forward to eternal peace, until we see His coming this madness shall not cease.

Until

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Ephesians 4:11-32

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.  But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Until the dawn, til the clouds part and our savior sets foot upon the Mount of Olives, for this we wait in patience.  Lord I see Your plan unfolding by the dark spirits that travel openly seeking to raise Your Creation.  Until Your Grace is withdrawn, they shall plunder, divide, diminish and deceive.  Until then Judgment will wait, but not for Your Glory, for it all points somehow providing insight to Your Majesty.  Until the sounds of battle, silence, I will stand with the shield of my faith, protecting my Brothers and Family as You have said that it would.  Until the sky is rolled up, falling stars littering the cosmos, I will gaze upon creation knowing it is but a clue to Your Sovereign Awesomeness.

What shall we wait upon if not for “until”.  For none of this is glory, but only tests, reflections, meanderings, diversions and wonders, set to capture our attention, while providing opportunities to rise above.  Until the moment we look into those fiery eyes and know that home for us is everlasting relationship.  Will I carry the cross made especially for me to wherever my God leads me?  I won’t know until I have succeeded.  What are we working toward, waiting upon, looking forward to?  What is that thing for you that makes you do whatever you must, stand what must be withstood, go where you should never be able?  Isn’t it simply “life” through Christ, with Christ, living in peace, contentment and service to each other to pleasure of Good Glory?  We humans crave this, paradise, this freedom, from the chaos, violence, wickedness, illness, poverty and pain of this existence.  Our disagreement and subsequently our purpose lie in the pathway to this paradise.  Where deceivers would have the bulk of humanity fooled by their own rebellion into believing that it can be collectively achieved by works, meditation, science, mysticism or cleverness, when there is but one path to Glory.

Jesus is the only way to God.  There is no tolerant way to speak the truth, for it cuts away obfuscation, deceit and flowery encumbrances.  We as Christians are left with only one stance.  It is not popular, just as warning of coming danger, whether fiscal, natural or war, our charge is to explain the need for salvation from coming judgment.  It is not my judgment, it is not up for discussion and this immovable truth, just as the commandments, leaves no room for wiggle.  God is waiting so that all who will come to salvation through belief in Jesus have had ample time to do so, for that is how much He loves us, all of us.  I cannot soften, water down, change, modify or adjust God’s Truth to make people feel better about its clarity.  That is beyond my station, my capacity or my will.  I do not want the ability to rewrite God’s Word, for it is already perfect in every way.  It demonstrates the love of the creator of every universe in that He would die for His own creation, so that we might be returned to good standing with Him.  It is man who allowed sin into the world, it is God who provided the way for us to be free, cleansed and removed from the power of our own sin.  It is therefore God who provides the door, the path, the avenue, the process.  That path is solely through trust in Jesus Christ, as God was named when He came to Earth.

I love people, I wish I had the ability to express how much I love people.  But in my humanity I want to scream at them for the things they consciously, daily and unabashedly do to each other, in the name of self service or preservation.  God’s Spirit, living within me bids me be eternally patient, understanding, kind, gentle and loving.  These are not my inherent qualities, but the characteristics of God He has grown within me.  For I often do not wish to forgive, yet I do, because God would have it so.  Until I become more like Him, I will not be able to understand the blind, irrational and frankly terminal behaviors of man.  Until I had a relationship with God, I was incapable of such compassionate understanding.  Lord, until You take me out of here or You come to set things right, I will be standing my ground, speaking Your Word, telling of Your Glorious Truth of salvation, judgment and coming Kingdom.  Give me all things that I will need to do the work you’ve set before me, until such my time is done.

A calling higher

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The past is filled with missed opportunities, avoided events and misstatements, allowing the grace of God under-utilization of this available vessel.  Some caused by personal resistance, most by diffracted focus, but the true motivator was lack of resemblance in Christ.  This world does not control my life with Christ.  I have been filled by the Holy Spirit of God, what then may stand against my dedicated efforts toward both spreading the Gospel Message or care for the sick, fatherless, widowed or poor.  Only my self, only me.  If there are no miracles happening, no break through moments, no private visions from God, must I then stand still in my walk through Grace expecting that my work is done?  The sole cause of my misspent moments is lack of growth in the facets of Spirit.  My future successes may be directly attributed to my willingness to be more like Him.  It is essential that I become “more” gentle, more patient, more loving, kind, righteous and long suffering.  Remaining on previous plateaus, with the same skills, experiences and wisdom of previous reproof will not properly prepare me to overcome the increasingly difficult obstacles awaiting me in future discipleship.

Growing in Christ requires a mode of endurance elusive to the lightly dedicated.  Those who have not fully surrendered to God will invariably run from the perfecting fires of worldly experience.  Intentionality leads to passionate plea for greater access and appropriate use of the fruits upon which each of our victories depend.  Apathy, fear, complacency, insufficient motivation, repetitive sinning and paralysis are the true daily enemies of saints.  Powers and principalities must be given permission to penetrate God’s defensive hedge, but our own internal nullification’s are free to assail us day and night.  If I continue making the same mistake again and again without adaptive employment of the Holy Spirit’s filling then shouldn’t I accept my own accountability to repeated failure.

People matter, and if I continue to treat them in an un-Godly fashion, how then will they see God in my behaviors?  My willingness to remain fleshly, inhibits and resists Spirit’s work, that is the joy of free choice.  Even the saved may determine to shut off, discount or ignore Spirit’s leading.  Will God simply leave us there in an unfinished state?  Certainly not, for we were bought at tremendous price, but the heat with which He must make further modifications shall logically increase.  So, if I keep making the same mistake with my wife, being insensitive to her wonderful and beautiful creation, then the cost of my continued lack of kindness must certainly be increased.  I must want to become more like Christ to assist in my own sanctification.  God may not provide me some earth shattering purpose for humanity but truth be told we are all called to become more and more like Him.  I am called higher to produce more bountiful fruits for Christ.  Just as a tree must expand in height and girth to sustain the weight of greater blossom, I must expand in my resemblance to Christ to support the evidenciary fruits of His labor in my life.

What does God want?

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I wanted to do so much for you Lord, that when I am old I may remember the things I accomplished.  I wanted to bring my family to Your Throne, humbled in heart and mind, craving Your Word, Your Love.  I wanted to take them by storm, wow them with my deep thinking, nurturing their creativity and watching them flourish.  I had all these ideas and I waited on you, telling everyone of the glorious things I would do for You, but You never lit the fuse.  I needed cash to get my idea off the ground, but everyone resisted busting out their wallets.  Now I just ridicule them as being insufficient Christians, having not seen the wisdom in my quest to please God and rescue humanity.  I want to save the world, if only they will listen to my eloquence.  The problem with what I wanted to do is that only my will is truly served when each of my sentences begins with “I”.

How does the Lord wish to use me as a vessel for “His” Good Will?  That should be the beginning of each sentence I utter regarding any true purpose or service for the Lord our God.  If I keep praying for something and He continues to say no or just makes me wait then does it make sense to logically assert my own will in the gap, hoping to somehow bring glory to God.  Certainly He will use all things to the greatest good of His unfolding plan, even though I am unabashedly serving, self.  Have I searched the scripture and gone to the Lord through prayer thoroughly understanding His Will for my efforts or patience?  I say patience because, often in our quest for guidance, we are instructed to stand still and wait upon the Lord.  This appears to be the single hardest discipline for each Christian to accept, tolerate and then fully comprehend.  Patience, must like mature faith requires indwelling and movement of the Holy Spirit, thus it is something beyond our own ability.  We then must, “put aside” ourselves and mimic Christ’s behavior, not our own.  How then would going and taking actions, based on our own understanding begin this process of learning patience?  How does “I” at the beginning of each sentence in any way reflect an inclination to walk according to God’s Will for my life?

Lord lead us, provide for us, give us strength, courage and love when it comes to fulfillment of Your Will.  Keep us from self serving temptation.  Let us not go astray by hearing noisier voices then Your Peaceful, Quiet Wisdom.  Praise God, do His Will alone.  In Jesus Name.

Who decides

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The problem with man self defining limits of morality, corruption, behavior and law, is that the bulls-eye becomes mobile.  Is there one person that we could look to with the “appropriate”, socially acceptable list of human behavior, one upon which all of society would affirmatively agree?  That is what the great law school’s did back in 1872 and America has been screaming down the slippery slope of relativism ever since.  During that time we were told that the Bible would no longer be used as the definitive guide to arguable law that it instead it would be replaced as guide, by the history of man kind.  One man’s immorality is another man’s daily devotion for we do not all serve the one God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  Some serve the dark and would legalize things that most of us would immediately condemn.  The problem is that these people now have control of our educational system, our courts and our media.  Who can tell me that they will not use their position of influence to change the moral topography of America’s societal norms?

We cannot remain on this ethical relativist footing for the ground is malleable.   The basis for determining what is right and what is wrong is now a prize for the best argument.  In effect we have left our moral determination up to the best lawyer with the greatest political or monetary backing.  That is not the intention of America’s founding, that our stand would be daily defined by mood, lobbyist or worse yet nobility.  We the people, stands for the collective determination about a set of “self evident truths” to which we all agreed.  Our moral, and ethical standing must not be up for compromise, revision or bargaining chips.  We must return to an agreed upon standing based upon the only immutable truth in this world or the next, The Word of Almighty God.  Without an immovable, unchangeable truth, we remain on a platform doomed to continuous movement, impossible to pin down.

That is why America’s existence is doubtful for there is now a population of ethical relativists large enough to drown out the voice calling us to return to the absolute surety or our dependence upon Divine guidance.  All around us they call us to a Morpheus future where everyone will define legality by what satisfies each man’s lusts.  Thanks be to God, this is a sign of His imminent return, for the requirement for Him healing our land shall not be met as those who call themselves by His name will never now humbly repent.  America may go away or be transformed into a quasi socialist dictatorship, but God still remains on the throne and His truth shall never be changed by the vileness of man’s sinful and self-serving passions.  There is an immoveable truth America, written for all to review in the Word of Almighty God, given us for direction, correction and guidance in our battle for purpose and understanding.  I implore us a return to reason in our constant vacillation to the solid footing of God’s Word as law, grace, prophecy, praise and security.  To God be the glory of our lives well lived.  In Jesus Name.

It isn’t that difficult

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Men put the complications in Christianity.  Christianity is simple. Follow Christ.  This begins with repentance and forgiveness, then continues to prayer and study followed by copying His behavior in our own lives.  Then we must learn to walk through this life relying upon the Holy Spirit to guide, change and transform us to His likeness.  What the Bible says we need to know.  Why? So that we must first begin to know God.  Then when tested, tried, subjected to corrupted teaching or called upon the give testimony, we are prepared to share the Truth of Christ.  We must avoid the naive temptation to resist the devil utilizing our own strength, authority, reason or justification for it is not us that the enemy fears.  He fears Christ and must flee the Word of God.  That is why Christ demonstrated how to resist the enemy while fasting in the desert.  He always answered attacks with the Word of God.

Honesty is also simple.  How many Christians do you know who are fulfilling the great commission and making disciples of people?  How many Christians do you know that have a thorough knowledge and practiced usage of Bible text?  How many Christians do you know who are out there putting their money, time and energy in first priority to further the Kingdom of God?  In how many Christians do you see the “fruits” of the Holy Spirit of evidence of their salvation?  Are you kinder, gentler, more righteous, long-suffering than you were when you first begun your walk with Christ?  Have you begun to resemble Christ and if not, then why not?  Have you taken time to learn the Bible, pray about your questions and put into practice what you learned?  If not how do you expect to learn a discipline you are unwilling to practice?  Do not allow folly to rule your existence.

We were “set aside” to be different than this world.  The differences are not mystical, magical, spiritually high-minded or lofty, but simple.  Simple common sense and orderly living, just as our God demonstrated and bid us follow.  Radical questioning of foolishness, hypocrisy and loving care for the unfortunate, just as our God demonstrated for us to follow.  A willingness to choose God over all other things, establishing, nurturing and growing closer in relationship with the Living God so that we are transformed in our nature and subsequent reflection upon this planet.  And finally, growth to the point of “Trust” in the promises, nature and faithfulness of God to do what He said that He would.  Then reliance upon that trust to the point of standing in hope and courage in the face of battle, especially when the circumstances seem to contradict God’s Word.

Do not allow men to complicate what God has made straight forward.  Do not allow atheists to put the burden for the existence of God upon us, for His truth is know by every man.  They know He is there.  If they “choose” not to believe then it is there own folly which shall bring them into conflict and judgment of Christ. It is not my job to prove to every foolish or rebellious man that God exists, it is my job to love that man in spite of his ridiculous behavior and to forgive his transgressions, leaving the rest to God.  It is my task to repent, forgive, learn God’s Word, pray and walk spreading the Good News of the Gospel, following Christ to the Good Will of the Father.  My faith will grow by hearing the Word of God, so I should shower myself daily in that Word remembering to follow only God’s Voice.  Christianity is simple.  All efforts to complicate it have nefarious intention.

To God be all the Glory, Honor and Praise, in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

I’ll meet you there

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The thing that I love the least about you are your accomplishments.  I am proud of the work you have done, but that does not gather my love, only attention.  This world has convinced us that we must measure up, and if we haven’t done everything to stay in stride with peers then the sum total of our lives will never really matter when the chips are tallied.  It is beyond me to declare that this is falsehood, for it is what you believe.  As such it is the reality which guides, controls, governs and constrains your self-image, emotions and sense of achievement.  Telling you that it is not true will only close your ears to the Wisdom of God and I do not wish to undo any good that He has done in your life by shutting down your listening channels.  I would ask you to remember the feeling of accomplishment, the charge, the upside and next time you feel it, measure exactly how long it lasts.  If they have subscribed to truth, then it should fill you up indefinitely, unlike a drug which must be continually ingested to maintain, increase or recover that “rush”.

I love you for all the things that you are not.  You are not too proud, walking in self-oblivion, blinded by your own image.  You refuse to mock God, although you have never surrendered to Him, you see the wisdom in not taking the chance of angering the creator.  You are not callous, forgetting and overlooking everyone around you in their moments of extended agony, simply to maintain your own sense of well being.  You are not cruel, believing yourself elevated over those who have been created for their own purpose.  You are not hateful, twisting your spirit into knots with enmity of your fellow humans for whatever it is that they will do, not do or become for you.  You are not a fool, and you listen to reasonable discussion, even when it is something for which you have little consideration or perspective.  You do not look away from your gifts but use them to the best of your ability, although they are primarily utilized for your own gratification, amusement and edification.  I love you most, because God cared enough to send His son to retrieve you from certain damnation, by dying upon the cross for each of your sins.  It may seem odd to you for someone to say that they love you for the things that someone else has given you, but if you think on it for a bit it will all make sense.  For God gave you life, breath, health, wealth, the capacity to think, talents, conscience and love.  So you are the sum total of everything God has done for you and that is why I love you.

How then can I love you now, when I see you in misery, incapable of sharing your heart for fear of appearing misguided?  Don’t you know that there is a solution to every problem?  Unfortunately for your reputation the answer to your current dilemma, is God.  I do not wish that you would try every other available solution as physical scientists have confined themselves to doing.  I know that you will have to try them all, I just pray that the time goes swiftly and that you come rapidly to the eventual conclusion; God has always been the only answer to the problem of your fulfillment.  It makes sense to go to the creator of any system, engine, product or artifice when seeking resolution to efficient tuning, calibration and longevity.  That is why God is the only answer, for He was there at the beginning of all things, speaking us into being, encoding our DNA with purpose, function and operational parameters.

I do not love your folly, I do not love your sin, I do not love your rebellious or stubborn nature, but those are characteristics or actions they are not you, unless you allow them to define your existence.  I do not wish to change you, but I do wish that this life does its work and gives you the impetus and experiences necessary to bringing you into inevitable questioning and discussion regarding your God given purpose.  That is where our roads converge, that moment when the words I have offered will somehow make sense and lead you forward into an active search for Almighty God.  I look forward to that day and cherish it before it has even come, for I love you enough to wait upon God.  In Jesus Holy Name I pray.

The hardest

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Which is more difficult to exhibit, the capacity to love and forgive your enemies or the ability to wait upon God, no matter how long it takes?  Often my grief and unforgiveness has lasted decades while waiting upon God may take a lifetime.  Both require transformation, both are beyond our ability and can only be endured/completed through the Holy Spirit.  Which then is your greatest burden?  Are there those in memory who you refuse to let go?  Or have you asked God for delivery, grace, blessing and find it beyond reason to continue on in patience, leaving the outcome to God’s determination.  We have entered an era in God’s blossoming plan within which the slights, mockery and injuries against Christians and the innocent have become commonplace.  The chaos, lawlessness and denial of truth rule each day and continue to increase in frequency and severity.  Do you feel the stress increasing, is it nearing your capacitance limits?

I submit that both of these victories are inherently tied together.  We cannot forgive and love without the patience to wait upon God’s filling and supernatural peace.  For some things to humans, are unforgivable; the abuse of a child, extortion of the elderly, murder for greed’s sake and withholding readily available/bountiful food stores or medicine from the sick and starving.  These require something beyond us, but praise be to God that we are indwelt by the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT.  When I am exhausted, tapped out, drained and beaten is when I can truly give God the reins of my life, to be used as vessel for His Glory.  It is at my end that I shall truly know, respect and surrender to God’s Sovereign authority and omniscience.  Through Him I can love the unlovable, forgive those, who like, me never deserved grace and wait upon His Divine intervention through prayer, fasting and growing faith.  These things will always be outside my capacity in this lifetime, but I continue to learn through God’s ministering power, overcoming these obstacles when I cannot.

This world cries, hold on, never surrender, don’t give up, you can do it.  It seems insanity to them when a Christian proclaims the opposite.  I know that these things are beyond my capacity, but they are thoroughly within the power of God.  The quicker I get to the end of myself in realization that these things lay beyond my ability the earlier the Lord may intervene, with caveat, in His Timing.  I never saved a soul, but I led them to the one who could.  I never created a miracle, changed time, saved a life or cured a disease, but I know the great physician so intimately that He shows up when I need Him most.  I cannot forgive those who deserve damnation, punishment and judgment, but I can warn them of the consequences of their actions while asking God to forgive for me.  I have no authority except that derived by prayer.  I will exercise my authority as an Ambassador and joint heir through Christ, asking God for patience in unleashing His judgement and wrath upon humanity.  I will forgive now and wait upon God to make it real within my heart.

Reconstruction

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Doesn’t it amaze, this Word?  Reading it is comfort, rest and calm.  Learning to use it, wisdom, peace, protection and love.  I see the anger of unGodly men and I forgive. Lacking the knowledge of its passages they are left, unprotected to the pressures, urges and simple wanderings of flailing babes.  If they could rectify one understanding, that of God’s intention in our redemption, they too would cherish its words, phrases and parables.  Put plainly, it is described perfectly, without obfuscation, in Ephesians 1 so that we might be put right with God in our consciousness.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.  Ephesians 1:2-4

Who among us would not wish to be loved so much that we are shown a blameless and holy place before the Creator of the universe, adopted, simply because He chose it?  And with said gift the knowledge that it was not of our choosing, but His, and that being before the creation of the world.  Would this understanding breed contempt or the justified worship and adoration?  Finding our places, true purpose and worth in the plan of God, gives us honor, family, reason and destination all at once and perpetually.  Being saved by Christ is not a badge for boasting, but a humble place of knowing enough of God to remain in awe of His character.  Then that knowledge growing to security as we begin to grasp the deeper meanings associated with being given “every” spiritual blessing in Christ.  None could have conjured this as fiction, a God, so loving, kind and mighty, but also so Holy and Pure that He could have preconceived a process of our salvation before the need ever arose.  The most wonderful thing of all is that He touched the lives of specific, chosen, men to put His Living Word on paper for our edification, education and emancipation.

And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.  For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.  Now, therefore, you are no longer stranger and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in Spirit.  Ephesians 2:17-22

Does this speak to your place among the saints?  Do you see yourself a stone, placed on the foundation lain by believers of old?  Becoming, part of the whole kingdom of God, leaning on Christ the cornerstone of God’s construction.  No national foreigners, estranged by acres, language or physiognomy, but individuals with a unique purpose in the entirety of universal scripting.  Filled with the Spirit of God Almighty, Him Living in us and us through Him.  Protected, directed and corrected by the Spirit of the Lord dwelling in each of us as individual temples to His Glory.  Each of us a constant reminder to a world that desperately needs redemption, that there is hope to be found in a repentant return to God.  All of this found in the words of our predecessors, spoken in public so that His Glory might be remembered for all men know the truth that is God.

If all would read, understand and make a conscious, rational choice about God following its review, then none could truly feel that they have been judged by God, but rather by their own reflective choices.  For this Word tells us the fair measure of truth necessary to establishing reason and discernment in life.  None would be left at the vacuous mercy of fallen angels, becoming protected, prepared and prospered by the promised power of Almighty God.  They would be armored in their travels through this world, this testing place, properly adorned for the battles, scratches and weepings incumbent to a place that chaos calls home.  Oh that all would know they have been set aside for God’s intention, being shaped for a place in His eternal kingdom.

Faith working through love

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What is it that I really want?  Maybe riches, in gold, land, material goods a conglomerate of immeasurable wealth?  I doubt that any of us would say that we have never contemplated being truly wealthy.  I like to think that I would be a philanthropist, changing the world, utilizing my great wealth to further the kingdom, keeping myself pure, remaining consistent with the Word.  But it just doesn’t match up with the reality I have seen in my own heart.  Typically for me, the wealthier I become the less concern and focus I pay to the things of Christ.  For me the foothold of the enemy in my life is complacency, comfort and a luring away from the things of God.  For this reason wealth may be poison to my walk with God.

Perhaps, I would like to be in love so much that I would go to war, travel the seas, sell my kingdom, just to spend all my moments with the one that I love.  She would fulfill me in a such a way that I could dismiss my ambition, my envy, my longing for purpose.  There are few of us who have never imagined this type of consuming romance, losing ourselves in the eyes of our beloved for eternity.  But, I know myself, and I always wake up at some point realizing that this other person, however astoundingly beautiful is after all just another human.  I come awake to the fact that it wasn’t as life altering as I originally expected and frankly leaves us with the realization that a love relationship with another human often entails a lot of work, growth and personal sacrifice.

If not love or wealth, what then would fulfill my life, power perhaps?  Conquering, leveraging, strategizing and overcoming every land, group, individual and corporate/political entity standing between me and total control.  Maybe standing at the top of the world overlooking all the territory over which I extend my authority would give me peace.  But, I know the tyrant within me, the consuming maw of controlling master, the never ending quest for more power.  This beast would never allow me to be at peace.  And evil has no partners only servants.

What now, not money, nor romance, nor power, will nothing fulfill my agonizing quest for purpose and understanding?  Could it be magic that I seek, maybe a control of matter, manipulation, cleverness and science?  Would that endow me with the completeness heretofore unattainable?  No, for I would conjure evil, even when I intended greatness, for this is the true alignment of my heart in wizardry.  I would be bent on obtaining all power, all knowledge all craft turned to the fulfillment of my own desires.  No this too would be spent on nothingness, pain and suffering for those around me.  Arch angels were incapable of self control in their self-worship via God given power, how then could I hope to maintain reason?

You see my service to God is not only a faithful walk of love but also withstands reason’s interrogating finger.  I know myself and I want to know God, more and more each day.  This is my purpose to love God and do His work for there is no other fulfillment in this life or the next.  I have seen love, power, money and magic and none possess the qualities of a life well lived for God through Christ.  Do I want miracles, yes, when God in His wisdom shows me the glorious imagination of a child or the caring heart of a saint, I am amazed.  Do I want power, yes, I want the power to choose to obey, having the faith in something greater than myself, standing in the face of overwhelming adversity, believing God for His Divine Promise.  Do I want love, yes,  the love of my wife, equally human and wonderful, struggling to remain pure in the world seeking to consume our goodness.  Do I want magic, oh yes, the magic of God’s wisdom finding a home in the mind of a man who deserves neither wisdom nor the love of God.  I choose God because it makes sense to do so.  For in so doing I am fulfilled as with no other device known to humanity.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/fmr-israeli-general-iran-hezbollah-planning-joint-invasion-of-israel/  Hiding, turning a blind eye or cowering will never make evil simply, “Go away”, some conflicts must be confronted before the threat becomes reality.