“The unjust conceives iniquity in his heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes. He is unwilling to see his sins forgiven, or to hate them. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit, he is unwilling to do good. He devises mischief upon his bed, he walks in a way that is not good, that he may do evil.” Psalm 36:1-4 Lamsa translation . Have you met him? How did it happen to him? Easy, he simply followed the way of a human being. I saw this expression on a person’s sweatshirt: “Be better Human Beings.” Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… Forgive me for laughing. This person has likely adjusted their soul to our Psalm 36 man: alarm free-living “Consciousness of sin” free-living. “Hatred for sin” free-living. God free-living. Mischief > evil. These do not understand the concept of “weight.” First,…
Tag: <span>grace</span>
Some precious friends struggle with failure. Paul, God’s apostle to the Gentiles, learned it — His secret? Contentment. Together with godlikeness, Paul found a sufficiency in God’s grace. He had solved the mystery — to be humbled or to be exalted; to be hungry or to be well fattened. No matter the accompanying, conditioning, determining event, Paul discovered an alternate solar system, with new definitions for success or failure. Frankly, in this configuration, both abasing and abounding are absorbed into the all-defining substance — grace! See Philippians 4:11-12, 1Timothy 6:6, 2 Corinthians 9:8. How could Paul do that? He could manage it because he was filled with God’s Word of grace. In that indoctrination of the Eternal dimension, Paul learned to see harrowing happenings, planned shindigs, random competitions or happiness-determining encounters — all God-initiated, all God-allowed. Why? Because they comprise the tools of God’s forming work as Potter with Clay.…
Grace ain’t a leg to stand on — but comes running when all legs to stand on break. When all legs flounder, cannot hold up, fizzle and flop.. then comes grace. Grace exists the magic which changes hell to heaven, guilt to confidence, hurt to help, shame to innocence. Grace — “loves’ perfect transporter” — never fails. No not once! Yes, grace-upholden people fly without merit as a leg. If merit defined equals “the substance of a legal case apart from matters of jurisdiction, procedure, or form,” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ then the rational thinker feels this should be enough. For example, “Johnny kicked his brother, but because he is mostly a good boy, we will excuse him this time.” He was having a bad day, he was defending himself, etc. etc. That’s not grace. But, we must think in terms of “core:” That which determines composition, the conducting wire in an electric…
Jean Valjean, a vagabond in the classic “Les Miserables” was a just released prisoner in midlife. “Nineteen years in French prison have left him rough and fearless. He walked for four days in the Alpine chill of nineteenth century southeastern France, only to find that no inn will take him, no tavern will feed him.” Max Lucado tells the story in “Grace.” “Finally he knocks on the door of a bishop’s house. Monseigneur Myriel is seventy five years old. Like Valjean he has lost much. The revolution took all the valuables from his family, except some silverware, a soup ladle, and two candlesticks.” “Valjean expects the religious man to turn him away. “ “But the Bishop is kind. He asks the visitor to sit near a fire.” “He explains, ‘This is not my house, but the house of Jesus Christ.’””… They dine on soup and bread, figs, and cheese with…
John was beckoned to “come up hither” as he saw a door. The voice was like a trumpet. Immediately, in the spirit, John saw the throne. He saw a person, Jasper and Sardius stone emanated from the person, red, justice and pure white, holiness. A rainbow of emerald encompassed all, mercy. Green surrounded the throne, a lifting to new beginnings. All things are made new! Justice, our understanding and ability to differentiate; Purity, our foundation for wisdom, both rest in a brand new existence, to which we are birthed as mercy upholds it all. John discovered the above life. Free from Law’s judgement, one of condemnation, we find our discernment of fleshly deeds, leads now to “no condemnation,” through mercy. Yes the Law brought a sting, but sin died, so went the sting. Justice now guards the soul from all inhibitors preventing practical mercy’s life giving. Holiness, freedom from the…
So, not worthy, so unworthy, we are made worthy (…God the Father, who has enlightened us and made us worthy partakers of the inheritance of the saints…). Colossians 1:12. Lamsa translation. Unworthiness is defined, “ lacking in excellence or value, not meritorious, not deserved, inappropriate to one’s condition or station” – merriam-webster The problem of unworthiness has been tackled by many a well-meaning therapist, who offer a re-teaching, chipping away at, working through approach. However, even in visiting childhood’s ‘unfortunate but nonetheless forming events and words,’ presupposed in this visit is something not Biblical: that somehow we were seeing ourselves as worthy, but lost it, and not of our own fault, most of the time. Precious souls, our unworthiness is entrenched in the depths of an old sin nature, which has not just stigmatized us, falsely identified us, or named us wrongly, but has called us correctly; unworthy, unworthy, unworthy! Unworthy cannot morph into…
Paul considered himself less than the least. “…these have the meanest thoughts of themselves, and the best of others; they rejoice in the grace of God manifested to others; they are willing to receive instruction, nay admonition, from the meanest believer; they have the least opinion of their own works, and are the greatest admirers of the grace of God” “they have the largest discoveries of the love and grace of God and Christ, which are of a soul humbling nature; they are the most sensible of their own sinfulness, vileness, and unworthiness, which keeps them low in their own sight; they are commonly the most afflicted with Satan’s temptations, which are suffered to attend them, lest they should be exalted above measure;” Gill I spoke to a fisherman and found out he was a believer in Christ. He exhibited confidence, and a positive outlook. I wondered how much…
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, as it was the substance of things which have come to pass; and it is the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 Lamsa’s translation “The apostles said to our Lord, increase our faith.” The Lord’s reply: “If ye have faith even as a grain of mustard seed, ye could say unto this mulberry tree, be uprooted, and planted in the sea; and it would obey you.” Jesus tells a story then: Now, which of you has a servant who plows or feeds sheep, and if he should come from the field, would say to him, ‘enter in and sit down?’ But he would rather say to him, ‘prepare something that I may have my supper, and gird yourself and serve me until I eat and drink; and then you also can eat and drink. What! Will the servant receive…
“Survival of the fittest” is a mantra of the extremely observant. But, is empirical evidence the same as truth? On two levels, no. First, it contradicts the Bible, “The kingdom of God comes without observation. (ocular evidence) Luke 17:20 But secondly, even the best observationist can only find seeming truth. Why? Because our observations are only as true as we abide in The Truth. In this inner abiding is where I can be aware of the world at a level outside of myself, or, unfortunately, I actually create my own world, unknowingly. Charles Darwin (biologist and evolution’s greatest contributor), saw a problem: ” if…men were reared under precisely the same conditions as hive-bees, there can hardly be a doubt that their unmarried females would, like the worker bees, think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers would strive to kill your fertile daughters, and no one would…
2 Corinthians 5:19 speaks a great truth to us, “That is, in Messiah, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them; and He has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us.” The Savior brought us a new consciousness, and in that conscience there is no ledgering of a person’s willful trespasses. 2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us why, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” When this light enters a heart, then comes an immediate “knowing,” because Jesus is the Light of the World. Many use their eye-gate to evaluate the world, they answer for themselves the question of “how.” This means they can give a whole chart describing the function and content of the eye from scientific…