Category: <span>First Timers</span>

   Does time heal all wounds? Well, I tire easily reading psychology books that teach: “the interplay between suppressing and exposing a hurt will eventually bring healing.” “grieving losses will eventuate a return to “normalcy.” “re-integrate a victim into society, and again they will be adjusted. “ Sincere ideas which may contribute. Friends, my problem is this; “normal” for these guys, encompasses the old sin nature. They assume wrongly that a man is born free. They suppose that the whole head and the whole heart ain’t sick and faint. In stark contrast to their evaluation,  “normal”  equals  “wounds, bruises and putrefying sores.” “My wound is incurable,” said Jeremiah. Way before time’s wounding event, man exists a ball of woundedness. God plans to exterminate all of it — every speck. Only a bloody cross, only a dying Savior can fix a man. Because man miscalculates, God’s solutions seem radical. Paul admitted, however,  “in my…

   Does time heal all wounds? Well, I tire easily reading psychology books that teach: “the interplay between suppressing and exposing a hurt will eventually bring healing.” “grieving losses will eventuate a return to “normalcy.” “re-integrate a victim into society, and again they will be adjusted. “ Sincere ideas which may contribute. Friends, my problem is this; “normal” for these guys, encompasses the old sin nature. They assume wrongly that a man is born free. They suppose that the whole head and the whole heart ain’t sick and faint. In stark contrast to their evaluation,  “normal”  equals  “wounds, bruises and putrefying sores.” “My wound is incurable,” said Jeremiah. Way before time’s wounding event, man exists a ball of woundedness. God plans to exterminate all of it — every speck. Only a bloody cross, only a dying Savior can fix a man. Because man miscalculates, God’s solutions seem radical. Paul admitted, however,  “in my…

1 Corinthians 6:7 Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated? Living Bible Luke 6:29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Why not let yourself be cheated? When slammed up-side the head, offer also the other cheek; chase down the cloak thief and give him your coat also. What religion is this? Ours. Friends, “be gentle with all men, apt to teach; in meekness instruct those who oppose themselves.” Perhaps God will grant them repentance. Really? Those who oppose you, actually, oppose themselves. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. And Proverbs 25:15 says; By long forbearing is a prince persuaded,…

“To the praise of the glory of his grace (Ephesians 1:6) Ephesians 1:3 teaches, “we are holy and without blame before Him in love.” In the Messiah he chose us in love before the creation of the universe to be holy and without defect in his presence. CJB “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Psalm 84:11 “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Zechariah 4:7 and 10. Matthew Henry says, “that we should live and behave ourselves in such a manner that his rich grace; might be magnified, appear glorious, be worthy of the highest…

   The theory of “entfremdung” or ‘alienation’ relies on Lugwig Feuerbach’s comment which states that “The idea of a supernatural God has alienated the natural characteristics of the human being.” Max Stirmer said, “even the idea of ‘humanity’ is an alienating concept for the individual man and woman to intellectually consider in its full philosophic implication.”  What the hey are these guys talking about? Are they talking about the past or future? Observation or prediction? Empiricists can only observe. Even as economists, they predict as weather-men or horoscope-heads They hold a fatalistic world view. But they do it anyway. These guys have observed through history: Fallen mankind’s balking at grasping the reality of a true and living Creator. They have predicted that it will always go this way. Yes, a world with a Maker brings uneasiness about their accountability.  Untold is that man has a will and can choose God, forsake reaction  God…

Brain-dead, stumped, with empty-headed stupor, I shiver and slap the side of my ear—a futile hope-to-jar-something-loose ritual. I dig deep, but words are not surfacing into consciousness. I scratch aggressively only to overturn more substance-forsaken fragments. “useless to inquire at the bank of ‘rationale,’ nothing of logic answers this event.” It doesn’t make any difference. “It doesn’t make any sense.” A nephew is paralyzed and in a coma after attempting to take his own life and the family calls. A dear friend gets a report that they have 6 months to live. There are no words of comfort, there are no answers. But we must talk, we must call back! Is there a hidden spring of wisdom, applied knowledge, or heavenly utterance to tap? O, The moment requires supernatural help, at the very least.     Verily, answers don’t come because the only explanation seems to exist in the sphere of…

Is America becoming a post-Christian society? What does it mean for us Christians? It directly affects believers who try to win lost souls because an unsaved person’s ground of decision making may be skewed or obscured in the river of modern relativism. See, much of contemporary thought leans toward “fate” and “fatalism.” This “higher knowledge” quaintly un-hides itself in the colloquial phrase ” history repeats itself.” People who practice “fate” as a lifestyle live in idolatry and this God-demoting practice has many variations. It starts  when some find it convenient to blame other persons, things, and events for their own sins. Adam and Eve originated this trend in Genesis 3. They duck blame and skirt responsibility. They use “wisdom from below.” We fall into the sucking vac hose called stupor. Rolling snowballs accumulate more snow, lies beget more lies, and hell is never satisfied, so says the Bible.     God…

  We walk together with a person, Jesus. We get to, actually. He moves from place to place and from glory to glory. We go too, both ways. Together we go from strength to strength, faith to faith. Strength does not move to greater strength, but new strength. Faith also becomes new faith, not increased faith. We do not progress by resisting the resistance but by following on to know the Lord. We are not associates with Him, we are One. We go from Tom to Jesus, from diminishing glory to the new inward Hope of Glory We go together to the Father, by Him. The lighted path brightens more light, new illuminations all. First pales and dies, second resurrects renewed. First withholds, next gives; First decays, next sprouts. Originally we fail, new makes it work; First ends, next starts again. In the beginning it breaks, following reveals treasure; First wounds, then healing comes.…

Knowledge …is a paradoxical thing. It must be acquired with diligence, but the more I get of it, the greater my sorrows and temptation to pride — Ecclesiastes. The wise man uses knowledge aright. The wise man studies to give an answer. He increases in learning. The fear of the Lord: …Births Knowledge and Wisdom. The application of knowledge is wisdom. Fools despise wisdom. With it, we get Understanding. Vanity cycles people around and around. Vanity is a mode of mind function. It simply thinks about, adopts, and lives out the natural mind of man. The concept of self-expression parallels the circling mind. He is the fool of Prov 18:2. He makes wrong decisions over and over. He has an opinion. He wants to discover his own heart. He has not learned how to think with God” thoughts. “The subjective mind”   …Functions according to its own feelings and opinions. We might not believe…

    God’s healing of his people contains serious aspects. I am not certain what they all mean; perhaps we must all reconcile mentally with God’s planet-wide cursing after Adam and Eve’s sin. Life at times dishes out toil and little fun; I really don’t get it. Nobody will argue against the reward found in making an honest living and raising a family; building a house etc.   Ecclesiastes 9:9 says “live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun all the days, of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun”.   Necessary degrees of resistance sharpens the face; what else can we deduce? At last, life’s puzzle bullies us into figuring it out, and as we yield to it, more…