They tell me of a peace that passes understanding –a certain discernment, a spiritual insight, an intuitive state. In it abides happiness, joy, love, and well being. Imagination births this blessed sphere, God lives in it, sorrow is dismissed, the two cannot co-exist. Christmas ignites itself abroad it and excites good emotions; purity and blessedness. We are closing in on home. Fantasy? Not if we have ever been touched by an angel, or even a fellow person. Perhaps we have encountered the Christ and been swept off our toes into an euphoric joy. Doesn’t this “condition of being” pass understanding? But how real are these states of soul? Are they not dangerous? Answer: not if they are founded in the objective truth. Can there be falsehood in them? Yes because ” the Christian admits the universe has many miscellaneous parts, just as the sane man knows he is complex.” G.K.…
Tag: <span>Christ</span>
As the sun goes down on the world, a Christian looks upward. We must refocus — since we actually and easily belong also to this world — tainted by a sin propensity inherited from our parents. (They got theirs from their parents who got theirs from their parents and so on.) We gaze skyward to where our precious Father and Savior has prepared a sinless residence, which awaits us at the time of our death or even before — at the snatching away of the Church at 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. The shout of the Lord, as a commander inciting his troops, will pierce the sky. A trumpet will reverberate, or bombastically blast out. Bright angelic tones sound out like the sun bursting through clouds — and all of it happening in a moment, (indivisible time), in the twinkling of an eye. (the flapping of a wing,…
Instead of confident walking, we shake. Instead of inward peace, our heart divides. Instead of trusting our Savior, we distrust our threatened fortunes — poor health, financial strain, relationship shortcomings. Our trials and testing are greater than we have ever seen before. We fear we are going to die, or suffer pain, or lose everything. In the case of some, the above rattles their cage like a rain storm in the desert, maybe a flood on a mountain. Things hit us as strange, mystifying — out of the ordinary — to say the least. Help stands aloof, we fear an abandonment has somehow taken place, a forsaking or betrayal. Forgive me if I sound a bit familiar, but, at my age, all of this kind of talk has overtaken me Z times. These kind of words, and even more dire ones, more descriptive, more hopeless, appear to me as Christianity…
“Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.” ― Phyllis Diller A joke? Yes. By a famous comedian and told laughingly. However, anger reveals a huge plague in the souls of many. It’s a pit which drags us in to it over and over. Some Bible verses are telling: “A soft answer turns away wrath: but a grievous word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs_15:1 “A meek tongue is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a breaking of the spirit.”- Proverbs_15:4 “A wrathful man stirs up contention; but he that is slow to anger appeases strife.”- Proverbs_15:18 Here’s some outside the Bible quotes: “The best fighter is never angry.”― Lao Tzu “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”― Ambrose Bierce “Anger … it’s a paralyzing emotion … you can’t get anything done. People sort of think it’s an interesting, passionate, and igniting…
Song of Solomon 1:12 While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. Song of Solomon 1:13 A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. Song of Solomon 1:14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi. “The spikenard is a lowly herb, the emblem of humility.” “…as Mary did when she anointed Jesus’ feet with the ointment of spikenard that was very costly, one pound of it worth three hundred pence, and so fragrant that the house was filled with the pleasing odor of it. (John_12:3) ‘Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” Very precious and fragrant, an herb grown…
Do you often grapple over the many decisions, including non-decisions, that brought you to your present circumstances? Lets try. There was the life changing time when Christ became real, the decision to marry, and the decision to have children. There was the decision for Bible College, moving to another state, finding a new job. These events are on the positive side of planning. Then there was the unforeseen happenings: the departure of a spouse, the death of a child, the loss of a job, the pains of sickness. On top of that are the many unthinkable mistakes, abuses, betrayals, and cowardly opting-outs. These were the lessons, hard to be learned, and may have stolen a large part of our lives. Nevertheless here we are. What are we to think about it all? The Apostle beautifully says: ” But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of…