When disappointments would come my mother would say, “its not the end of the world.” Since those days I have had many “end of the worlds.” Perhaps some of us are having a doomsday even as we write — a grand parent, mother or father, even a son or daughter have gone away. Friends, Jesus is the glory and the lifter of our heads. Psalm 3:3 Robert Nathan wrote his poetic cry: God of pity and love, return to this earth, Go not so far away, leaving us to evil, Darkness is loose upon the world, the Devil Walks in the land, and there is nothing worth. Death like a dog, runs howling from his lair; His bite has made men mad, they follow after All howling too, and their demoniac laughter Drowns like a sea our solitary prayer. Return, O Lord, return. Come with the day, Come with the…
Healing at the Cross Posts
There’s a new world coming, with a new world order. Are we excited yet? “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” Isaiah 11:6 On the earth, yet “not of this world,” the righteous shall enter the kingdom; Matt 25:37 teaches, “then shall the righteous answer.” and Isaiah 60:21, “Thy people also shall be righteous, they shall inherit the land forever.” In that day, “Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Psalm 85:10 “With righteousness shall He judge the poor; righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins.” Isaiah 11:4-5 Other characteristics: Israel shall…
J.B. operated as a spy of the K.G.B. in America during the cold war. A brilliant intellect, J.B. was especially chosen, trained and then sent. In America his skill developed in his ability to merge unsuspected into society; he worked, attended university, married and parented a child. At a time when J.B. would be recalled to his homeland, he discovered a problem: he had fallen head over heals for his newborn daughter. The love for her grew so great during her early years that he refused to go back; he made up a brilliant excuse, and stayed. This man, whose testimony is heard in churches, was later introduced to Jesus Christ, whom he received gladly. Love did it. Can we underestimate the dynamite called love? Bursting forth on the stoic intellects of men and women, love, in all of its purity, excitement, joy and exchange, overpowers the heart and soul,…
Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” Proverbs 20:28, “Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.” Romans 14:4, “…to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.” A person stands, is upheld, and his rational service is founded, in something he does not deserve. Paul the Apostle beseeches men, by the mercies of God… William Newell comments, “We must believe that these divine mercies have persuasive powers over our wills.” “It is not that we can move our own wills; but that faith in God’s…
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…
I’m so glad, He saved my weary and wayward soul! I will go to heaven one day, because He came to earth and died. Through His blood poured out, I was washed. Some folks feel He came to give us a second chance. Sorry, that would not be enough for me because I am a hopeless sinner. A second chance would imply that I could change myself; I could not. I write with thanksgiving deep in my heart, but many do not have this. They are still trying hard, religiously dedicated. They feel that some day their fervency will measure up to a reward from God. It will not. More honest are the drunks, addicts, and prostitutes; they are closer to the kingdom. But will they come to God for cleansing in His blood? If not they will die in their sins. A third group have adopted one of many…
“The survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem, left in Judah after the banishment of their fellow countrymen to the Euphrates, seemed, for the time, overwhelmed by the calamities that had befallen their nation. The Temple they had thought invulnerable was burnt to the ground; Jerusalem, in which they had gloried as “the joy of the whole earth” was a waste of blackened ruins. The town gates seemed to have sunk into the ground; the roads to Zion, once thronged with pilgrims, lay untraveled; no concourse gathered outside the walls, for gossip or business; even the walls themselves were thrown down, the jackals haunted the holy hill!” “For ages past every event in their national history, whether glorious or sorrowful, had been commemorated in the lyrics handed down from generation to generation. The defeat of Pharaoh, the triumph over Sisera, the death of Saul and Jonathan, the overthrow of the northern…
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…
” For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Our lives are hidden lives, we are with Christ, and we are with Him in the Father. Who is to call into question the Chosen ones of God? God justifies. He declares them legally righteous. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and rose again, and He is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. Who can separate you from the love of God? Tribulation or imprisonment or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Romans 8:33-34 All is actual in the place of “dead and hidden.” All is legally ours, but what about in our experience? The plan of God goes to work. “According as it is written, For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for…
Love, with heat and moisture, irons out a wrinkle, mends a broken heart. It even unifies a division, straightens a crooked or double mind. An animal may respond to love, so might a tree; these have some form of life in them. But, a man or woman cannot survive without love! The sophisticated psyche of a man checks his barbaric side. He remains cool. He would like to run amok all over the planet, but stifles his urges. Then he is told of “liberation” and feels cheated and hypocritical. He begins to explore his dark barbarism, but has no understanding of its depth. He senses that the cost for “liberation” will be rejection from the sophisticates, but the feeling of “free” empowers him forward. He affirms his rights of individuality; becomes more and more barbaric. He wonders where love has gone, but he has forsaken its initiation; he has chosen…