Snippets

It's time to unpack some stuff from my phone. Little jotted notes and phrases and quotes that have come to me over the past few months are stacking up and cluttering it. So here are a few.

If we are incapable of discerning anything of the Spirit, we must ask ourselves if we have the Spirit.

Often we find ourselves asking God, "What do You want from me?"
The answer is very simple. "Everything."

We were entrusted with the Law, but we broke and disfigured it.
We were entrusted with the prophets, but we broke and disfigured them.
We were entrusted with Christ, but we broke and disfigured Him.
We are entrusted with His blood, and it restores everything.

There has been war between Heaven and Hell. Jesus came to implant the world with millions of people as far from the ways and appearances of this world as He is; millions of Jesuses; soldiers who would assault the gates of Hell.
Only now, as we approach the time when we are to be glorified, instead of saying, "Take this cup if You will, but Your will be done," these soldiers turn to lukewarm pacifism and say, "God wouldn't expect a sacrifice of me when Jesus already sacrificed it all."

Christianity is the only belief system that encourages fidelity to the spouse as fidelity towards God;husbands, love your wives; to even look at another woman with lust is adultery; to break either of these rules of faithfulness to the spouse is sin and, with sin, unfaithfulness to God.

Non-profits usually equal non-prophets.

The greater the threat from the outside, the stronger and thicker the walls must be. Make the home safer by building stronger, more fortified walls as society makes its attacks.

Those who live with the most dangerous faith rest in the safest death.

The need for consecration is a reflection of the need for temperance. God does not want abusers of His grace, but people who will receive it with control and the patience to extend it to others. This is the reason for consecration is such and important element in such a flippant world.

There is no way to know God and live the same way. To believe that you're His son, or that what He says about you is true means there is no doubt, not giving way to self, no submission to the world, no struggle-free clashes with sin.

If thought and consciousness are actually mere atoms that are in our mind, moving and firing in nerves, can those same atoms, freed from the cage of the human skull, not become part of something infinitely greater?

Water your garden with blood*

Minimalists realized something true to music that is also true to conversation; as much is said in silence as is said in sound.

It's the subtle, immemorable words that convince us to believe what we once doubted, not the memorable ones. The forgettable ones stick with us as seeds that germinate as our own ideas, though we know not that they were planted as quotes we so easily overlook.

I've been reluctant, yet God has been more than faithful, bestowing blessing on top of blessing, and grace upon grace upon grace until i can stand it no longer. My mentality forces the idea that a gift must be repaid, and i can't repay Him, because He gave me more than i have to give. It's impossible. If i don't, He still blesses me all the more. What, then, is to be done? I can't escape His blessings.

Love is jealousy. That's why God is jealous for us; He loves us. Jealousy is hating anything that is trying to come between us and our greatest love. He hates sin.
When we love God, we can't help but to hate the world because it's trying to come between us and Him. When we love the world, we hate God because He's trying to come between us and it.
We will hate the one and love the other.

Getting saved, we become like empty warehouses; all has been wiped clean. As we mature spiritually, we fill the warehouse with theologies and philosophies which are as our wares. We must be careful to keep only the worthwhile ones, ridding our shelves of the worthless ones. Only God can sort through it and, with His Spirit, discern in us which are profitable and which are a waste of space.**

There is a terrible moment when the Bible ceases to fit our lives.
It is then that our lives must fit the Bible.

And then a bunch of cheesy rhymes fill much of the remaining notes.

*This came to me in the middle of the night, and i never have figured out the meaning . . . But it sounds interesting.

**Over the past year, maybe year-and-a-half, my "theology" has changed drastically. I was of the type who always said "God is love," which is true, He really is. But my view of God was shaped more by modern theologies than by the Bible itself; God is unchanging. He is exactly today as He was before He said, "Let there be...", and He will be the same after the end of the age. God did not change when Jesus was born, God was simply with us. The same God that cursed nations, mocked rulers, hated the violent, purged Israel of all uncleanness, swore vengeance, shakes the earth at the sound of His voice; this is the same God we serve today--and He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Costly Grace or Free Grace?

 After reading a paragraph i find to be borderline heretical from a book that has been otherwise wonderful, i am left with a writhing discomfort, grumbling and angry.

The specific quote is, "Paul understood that preaching truly free grace could lead a person to think they can live in sin. That's how amazing and how free God's grace is. We haven't truly preached grace in all its freeness until people say, 'Soooooo, does this means I can keep living in sin?'"

 I understand the idea here; he's not saying that we should live in sin, but he is presenting a false sense of grace if people do think it was without cost. I'm not into the free grace message. In fact, it makes me nauseous to think of grace being free. Indeed, it is something without monetary cost; the poor in Spirit are those who are called blessed and will be filled. To follow Christ wherever He goes is to be without home or pillow or even food for the next day. It's something that apparently favors the poor and, therefore, might seem "free." But it's the farthest thing from free, and i can't sit and hear the message of a costless grace without verbal objection or at least a sorely clenched jaw.

Psalm 4 says, "Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord."

 Realize the importance of the progression here. First, be angry. Second, do not sin. This is an anger that stirs up for the sake of something being righted, such as a misrepresentation of grace. Following that anger is contemplation and a great searching-after, such that keeps us up at night, perhaps tossing and turning, perhaps exchanging our comfort of sleep for night-long prayer sessions. After this, we are to be silent; to listen; God will speak, and we must listen or else we act in rash haste that leads to destruction. Then offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.

 Grace comes without monetary price, but it is actually the costliest thing in the universe.
 Giving up things for God has proven to be greatly beneficial for me. Albums, hobbies, movies, shows, what-have-ye. Giving these things up does not grant me any kind of righteousness, for righteousness comes from Christ alone. It does, however, clear out room in my self, which allows Christ to have more room within me.
 This is why we are dead to the law; we are no longer "bound" by the law, which means it's no longer a burden or a chain or an enslavement. It is now a joy. When i do something that i know Christ would want me to do, i become enthused because i know i'm making Him smile. It fires me up to do something else, something bigger, something better. It stirs up the desire to please Him even more. The more distractions and earthly joys i am rid of, the more joyous i am to let them go. This is how we're not bound by it; because it is now a joy.

 And that is not the cost of grace, that's me getting sidetracked. Let's look at that last verse once more; "Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord."
 Offer right sacrifices; sacrifices holy and acceptable, or pleasing, to the Lord. And the sacrifice God wants us to make is of ourselves. He wants us. This is why included in the Word of God is a verse that says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship"

 To present ourselves wholly to God as a sacrifice, just as Jesus was sacrificed for us. That's the cost of grace right there; Jesus was sacrificed for us. Our grace did not come cheap, and it did not come free. It came at the price of, "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
 If you tell me that grace is free, we're going to have issues. If it didn't cost you the life of the One who loves you without condition, your greatest treasure, then you need to pull yourself off the throne of your heart and take a stroll to your own personal Golgotha and weep at the foot of His cross for a while. If we haven't preached a message of grace that makes someone say, "Sooooo, i loathe myself for what i've done,"* we're not preaching the true cost of the cross of Christ. This is often overlooked, but one of the greatest things that leads us to repentance is guilt. Worldly sorrow leads to death, godly sorrow to repentance. If we mourn like the world we will die like the world, but if we have sorrow like Christ's (note the accounts and causes of His weeping) we will be led to repentance.
 Grace is costly. It cost us Christ, the Word of God. It costs us ourselves as we present ourselves as living sacrifices. It is not free, and to see it as a "get out of Hell free" card is an abuse. It is not merely a means of being saved ourselves, but a means of salvation to the whole world for the glory of God. After all (as stated in a prior post), to break down "Redemption," which is the chief aspect of grace in our lives, in etymological terms, means to be "bought back." The very term implies a great cost.

* "Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations." (Ezekiel 36:31)

Pride and Love

 We should never discount love as the greatest tool to win hearts to Christ. Our love for people should be our wordless proof of faith. Without love, we surely have only pride which was the very cause of Satan's fall. Sadly, these two, though opposites (love being submission of the 'self' in order to elevate others, whereas pride, not hate, is the glorification of the 'self' in order to put down others), can tread a very thin line.

 Allow me to quote the second verse of a song much more eloquent on the subject than i could ever hope to be ("Failing In Love" by Cool Hand Luke).

"Would you tell me if you knew that I was dying,
Some sort of parasite that got into my brain?
Would I tell you that I thought that you were lying,
Ignoring evidence, ignoring all the pain?
There’s too much sugar, too much water."

 In the first verse, Mr. Nicks (the lyricist/vocalist) even goes so far as to say that if we don't speak the truth, if we don't proclaim the whispers in our ears from the rooftops, we have become the enemy of those perishing, not by saying the unsaved are dying.
 In that second verse, love takes an entirely new light, one where we plead with people for caution.

 Instead of tolerance for sin, we have an urgency. We must not lose tolerance for people, but culture is entirely different. We can love individuals and still remain vehemently opposed to the culture they come from--that we come from. More often than not, anger towards society is seen as self-righteous and hypocritical. After all, who hasn't sinned? Christ alone.
 If hypocrisy is about me, it is born of fury against the state of society. I am not claiming to be perfect. God knows how terribly flawed and vile i have been and am. It's human nature.
 If i am a garden, and Song of Songs says i am, and God is a Gardener, and i think He is, and my flesh is a weed, and i know it is, i must apologize for how busy He must be from pulling weeds.

 Love, again, i say is our surest vessel of bringing hope to a world dying. Love is what caused the men in Jerusalem to "sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed [there]" (Ezekiel 9:4). These men are the ones who were not sentenced to execution. These men received a mark on their foreheads (perhaps like the seal of God on the foreheads of those who were to remain untouched mentioned in Revelation 9?).
 Love scarcely comes without a word of caution. In fact, it's not a great dare to say most acts of love are a word of caution.
 So here is a word of caution to those who are in Christ: Weep. Mourn. Rend garments in your sorrow for the souls who do not know the hope that lies in you.
 A word of caution to those not in Christ: "Go and sin no more." We (Christians) do not condemn you because we are all as guilty as you; we are forgiven, and beg of you to turn from your sin and ask forgiveness from God as well.
 Condemning a person's sin is not condemning a person, and this brings me back to the first paragraph.

 Love and pride sometimes walk so close together as to be confused with one another, and we must daily kill our pride lest our love become self-motivated and, therefore, prideful. It is easy to condemn the sin as though we had never committed the same. It's easy to confuse the sinner with the sin. This is where love and pride are contrasted; love is the desire to see someone become like Christ, pride is the desire to see someone become like us. I do not parrot the boldness of Paul by saying, "Imitate me," for i know my sins and shame (i would, however, when he calls himself bolder in written word than face-to-face). I would rather point to Christ's actions in my life through God's children, and say, "Imitate them." This may be shucking responsibility, but i have a lot harder time resolving myself to sin than God has absolving me . . . Actually, it was much more difficult and painful for God to absolve me of sins. I know because i know what Christ looked like on the cross, bearing no longer any human likeness or semblance. And i know that's what i should look like. This creates a great well of sadness in me, matched only by gratitude.

 Pride and love are often hard to tell apart when it comes from Christians. With that said, woe to those who would use Christ for their own gain, for their reward has already come, and they have stored up treasures not in Heaven but in Hell.
 For them, we should surely pray.

Merry Christmas . . .

It's Christmastime, so this, herefore, is the obligatory Christmas post.

To sum up Christmas would be to say Christ was born, that He stepped down from Heaven, and was born to die for us.
Hallelujah!
It couldn't be truer. But to say that's an adequacy would be a gross misunderstanding of Christ and His purpose.
To say He merely died for us scarcely does justice to what He truly did. To say He merely performed miracles would be an understatement. To say anything of the like, actually, would be as saying the moon just gives light at night. Yes, that's one thing it does, and that's the most plain and simple thing it does. The miracles, though supernatural, were not just miracles.
The moon causes tides, affects winds, weather, seasons, gravity, animals' behavior, growth of plant life, and so much more. The most obvious effect we can observe, though, is light, so we say it shines in the night. But the fact, and the beauty of it, is that the light is hardly worth noting in comparison to the rest.

To say Christ just gave up His life for us is overlooking so much, though it's the most visible quality of it, so that's what we often focus on.
Anyone can die for another. Many do. Soldiers give their lives daily for their home, friends, and family. People lose their lives in dangerous workplaces trying to provide for their families.

John 15:13 says the all-so-familiar quote of, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
And that's true. Nothing we can do can be more significant a gesture of love than the self-sacrifice of the greatest cost for the cause of preserving another. But this is a human limitation. Jesus is speaking of the greatest thing a "son of man" can do. This is the greatest gesture of love His mortal shell could express.
But He is, while fully man, also fully God. And the eternal, infinite God can -and did- sacrifice so much more than these temporary, finite shells we live in on this earth can.

Philippians 2:5-8 says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Firstly, our way of thinking should not be to count Him as a mortal dying on a cross. That's only what's going on at the very skin of it.
Have this mind, instead, that Christ was in the form of God; the infinite, eternal, almighty, exalted, and untouchable Ruler of the universe.

Have this mind that He gave that up, not counting that nature as something to be had but to be laid down for your sake.

Have this mind that He not only gave that up, but came as a slave, humbled, ruled by men, and given up to suffer every temptation -and more- than we know.

Have this mind that He was obedient, unquestioning, while being beaten and spit on, whipped (not to be overly graphic, but He was whipped with a "Cat of Nine Tails," which was a nine-stranded whip with shards of glass tied into the ends which stick and must be ripped out; the skin of His back and sides would have been literally torn off with great force, exposing His bones and perhaps more), and then nailed, naked, to a cross which was reserved for thieves, murderers, and absolute degenerates. Left to die. In the name of God. In the name of the God that we didn't recognize--Himself. He was killed in the name of Christ.

Have this mind that He suffered through Hell, infinitely worse than the torture He endured here on earth where His physical body eventually died.

This is what He knowingly gave up for us. Not just His physical life, but He went from one absolute to the other. That was His purpose. To give up everything out of a love greater than we can fathom, greater than the mere laying down of one's life.
The miracles were not just miracles. They were the fulfillment of everything prior to His birth; four-thousand years of prophecy brought into fruition. Four-thousand years of Law embodied. Four-thousand years of man that cried out for a Savior.

This is what Christmas is. It's not just the birth of Christ. It's the conception of hope for mankind, it's the dawn of eternity birthed within us, it's the glory of God walking among -and living within- us. It's God with us. Immanuel! 

I may seem a Scrooge at times around Christmas, but only because our modern images and traditions (namely Santa Claus) take from the glory due to God. But how little can be taken from Him! All creation sings His praise, and the Heavenly beings cry out "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

So That No One Can Boast . . .

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:8-10)

These verses are seen whenever i open a book lately, as they're printed on my bookmark. And this passage, though short, is such a profound explanation of the Christian mindset.

"For it is by grace you have been saved..."
This, grace, is the encompassing definition of Christianity. It is the Law fulfilled on our behalf. It is the humility of the Son of God, through Whom the universe was made; a King—The King of the universe, of creation in its entirety; from, through, and to Whom are all things and is all glory due. The King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the roaring Lion and the gentle Lamb, the Conqueror of nations and the seeking Shepherd who searches always for the lost sheep. This is grace, that He gave up His place to not only live like one of us, nor just to die for us, but to go to Hell on our behalf. It's by this that we are saved.

"...through faith..."

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is belief in something, true, but it goes deeper than that. To say i have faith in my closest friend would not be to say i believe he/she exists, but that i have trust in them to keep something entrusted to them, to look out for my well-being; faith is a sort of love. It's always hoping, always believing, always trusting. Faith ensures loyalty; it is not being able to see the entirety of a situation, yet knowing far deeper than words that all is not lost.
And all is not lost, i tell you, because we have faith. We have faith in God. It's not merely a belief in His existence (for even the demons believe—and shudder!). And that faith is what drives us to give of ourselves, to hope that what little help we can offer will, in turn, change the world over the course of generations for the better. We have faith that drives us on to works, but the idea of works will be addressed presently.

"...and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God..."
It's easy to picture this as meaning grace is not from ourselves but from God, but that much is obvious about grace. Grace is always the undeserved gift. It would seem redundant to point this out. Therefore, my opinion is that this is speaking of both faith and grace, the two aforementioned topics. Faith is a gift from God, and this is evident when reading 1 Corinthians 12. It, like prophecy or healing, speaking in tongues or wisdom, is a gift of the Spirit, and we cannot come to faith except, and solely by, the grace of God, the gift of God. Not from ourselves do we enter into the gift of faith, but by the grace of God's calling. We have nothing to do with it except readiness. The moment we think God calls us because we are a good or deserving person, pride has already flecked the heart with blackness. But humility is, like faith, a gift He calls us to; all we have to do is submit. In submission, pride is killed. In submission, the coals of humility are kindled to flame.

"...not by works..."
This is a particularly interesting section to me, because i am of the sort that believes works are a fruit of the Spirit, and that faith brings forth these fruits. Anyone can do "good" works, but no one can become "good" by them. There is none good but God. Works by themselves are for naught; vain. They are often self-serving if not carried out for the sake of God's glory. By doing things, such as giving to the poor or volunteering, we are seeking glory and recognition. There are, however, two motivations to this. The first is self, which is always pushing us to be seen by our peers, admired and congratulated (not that these things are wrong in and of themselves; they should not be the driving force for anything, for if we do things to be recognized, our fleeting and momentary recognition is our reward). The second motivation is the Spirit, which urges us to always love more deeply, and to be nameless in the sight of man so the glory may be directed to God.
Also, i have been discussing works with people lately, and come to the conclusion that people need to earn something. They feel they must earn their way into Heaven, when the man on the cross beside Jesus is too simple a model for us. We must make our beliefs tangible by changing it from solely Christ's work (the Gospel) to also a few things here and there that we do to "win" Heaven. This ideology is flawed, though it gives us something to grasp. All in all, it is grace, not works, that gave us entry into the kingdom of God.

"...so that no one can boast."
If we think that something we can do gets us a little more recognition with God, we are deceived by our works. Nothing we can do can make God love us more or gain us entry into Heaven (what is impossible with man is possible with God). We have no boast in anything we do, but we do have exceeding reason to boast because of what Christ already did—before we were even born. If we're at a place where we are praying in thanks that we're not like someone else, we're boasting in our hearts. God desires humility; it was the tax collector that went home justified, having been too ashamed of his human nature to even lift his eyes to Heaven or approach the altar, rent his garments and beat his chest, pleading "God have mercy on me, a sinner," not the Pharisee who thanked God that he was not like the tax collector.

Boasting is not as simple as humility in public, but humility in heart. When we approach God, we are to have confidence, not cockiness. We're to be humble, meek, but sure that Christ is our Mediator, our propitiation for sin and that, through His works, and not our own, we can boast and proclaim "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
Not by what we can do, but by what He did do.

The Rocks Cry Out

Surely, should mankind cease to give praise unto the Lord God Almighty, even the rocks would cry out. Yes, the trees already reach for Him, the birds sing for Him, the oceans torrent for Him, the wind rushes, the mountains tremble, the clouds dance; all things are made for the glory of God, and give glory they shall. It is not reliant solely upon mankind to glorify God.

Often, we think we are the sole proprietors of praise, practicing worship of Him in exclusivity of ourselves, but we are vain.

God wants our praise, of course, and He desires our love. He craves us more than we crave water in a desert, air under water. He craves intimacy with us. His relationship with each person is like that of a Father to a child who can't even grasp what “I love you” fully means.
But we are not the sole shareholders when it comes to giving Him glory.

When asked by the Pharisees to rebuke His disciples for praising Him as coming “In the name of the Lord,” Jesus said “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
The stones would cry out.
The rocks along the road, the foundations of buildings, the markers for graves; these things would cry out to God, giving Him praise.
And since the dawn of creation, we have not been able to bring enough glory to Him to keep the universe silent.

We were made for fellowship. When God made Adam, He made Eve as well because He saw that it was not good for man to be alone. He made a companion. In everything, we should have fellowship with others.
Where two or three gather in His name, He's there.
To bring confession to fulfillment, it requires a person to confess to.
Even Solomon said it's not good for a person to be on their own because when they fall, they have no one to help them up.

Teams work together in ways that don't make a whole lot of logical sense; the result is greater that the sum of the whole. Three people can get a job done in less than a third of the time it takes one person. It's why we have assembly lines.
So with this thought of a fellowship working together to amass or exude greater glory than the sum of its parts, we should turn our thoughts heavenward. Not necessarily to the place of Heaven, but to the sky, the heavens above.

Suns burn, planets form and circle, and the cosmic ballet ensues.
More than this, they are things crying out for the unquenchable fire of God's glory.
Dust in space sticks together, and with the fellowship that follows, an infinitesimal amount of gravity is displayed, which draws more dust. It piles and combines and grows until it reaches a mass sufficient enough to ignite—and thus a new star is born. A process that, according to physicists, should take billions of years.
But God said “Let there be light,” and there was. It doesn't say over the course of billions of years the sky grew speckled with the light of stars. No, the stars appeared then. At that moment.
The glory of God is so demanding that physics bends to suit it. His voice created the physics in which the dust even exists—it is not a far-fetched thought that certain rules are note so certain when He requires them to take a measure of malleability.

The universe is already crying out for the glory of God, it's a sad fact that we're seldom observant enough to notice.
But this negligibility was spawned at the moment of creation; not by God's negligence, but by the inability of things limited to these few dimensions to quench all that He demands.
The physical realm, this universe, cannot contain Him sufficiently to not be in a constant state of radiance on His behalf.

A prime example would be Moses after receiving the Ten Commandments; his face was glowing with blinding intensity.
Elijah, Moses, and Jesus, at the Transfiguration, were all radiating His glory in the visible spectrum.

Being close enough to someone (as in a level of intimacy), mankind starts to take on certain physical attributes of others (I think there's another post about this).
But being close to God alters the physics of our being. We don't know what He is like, but we know that we'll be like Him (a paraphrase of a verse in 1 John, I think chapter one). We will emanate the same light as they did, because we will be that close to Him, and it will be for His glory, not ours.

Truly, the universe, nature, and all of creation for that matter, already is brimming because there is not sufficient glory to be given to Him in this realm to sate that which His very presence demands, therefore it all burns for His glory.

For Such A Time As This

First, let me explain that this is, quite simply put, grace. All of this, a derivative of grace bestowed on an undeserving (and apparently simple-minded) fool such as myself.

“Grow where you're planted,” is a quote I've read countless times.

Basically, we can be most effective “here” instead of “there.” God will transplant us if/when He desires to have us there (I would say “need,” but how self-righteous would it be to think that God needs me? Is it beyond Him to create another like me, only exceeding in all ways? Certainly not. Therefore I am, by grace, called according to His purpose, and solely out of grace do I become a tool for Him). But where we are is where we're planted so the obvious thing for us is to grow in the pot we're in. When we're ready for a bigger container, He will transplant, but only in the Good Gardener's perfect timing.

We should never desire to be “there,” because “there” will become our “here” when He wills it (in other words, He will put us there).

Here's where I get a might bit personal. I've shared this thought with few, and only close and trusted friends at that.

I've struggled with why I'm here, free, in America. It's legal for me to worship in my own home, to own a Bible, and even to attend fellowship meetings with other believers two or three times a week, depending on the schedule. I'm blessed.

Why this is a struggle for me is because there are millions, perhaps billions, putting themselves in harm's way for the sake of the Gospel. I believe it's around fifty to fifty-five countries that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is illegal to distribute and/or display, and over ten of which are actively hostile to Christianity.

So why me?

Many ask that question when life is going wrong or they're facing persecution, so I am impelled (inwardly from external source; opposing “compelled,” which means outwardly from internal source) to ask why, on their behalf, I am free to exercise my faith. This has plagued me, kept me awake at night, and turned my stomach to consider. A freedom so basic to me is a crime so treacherous to another. Why do I get water from a faucet, in accommodating quantities that I can shower with, water the dog, water plants, and all with clear and cool water, yet another person is in such desperate need for water that they will drink from a stagnant, murky pool—one I'd scarcely even touch, let alone think to drink from?

And I'm complacent in faith sometimes, all the while enjoying (read: overlooking) blessings that countless in the world will never know.

I'd come to the conclusion that it was grace, and grace alone as to why I'm at this locality and this freedom.

I was wrong. And right.
It is grace. But it's also for a reason I can comprehend.

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14, ESV)

“For such a time as this,” we're told, Esther was put in place as queen. Not to remain silent in the grace bestowed upon her, but to act. Surely, the salvation for the Jewish people would come from somewhere else and at a different time, but we surrender our crown, our glory, and our hope when we give up the place God has put us in.
“For such a time as this,” then, I am blessed with the freedom to pray, to read, to glorify God in my daily life, to congregate with fellow believers in a building designated for the church to gather in. For such a time as this, we're called not to be silent, but to pray night and day that the Lord of the Harvest would send laborers into the field, for the field is quite ready. And who knows? Maybe I'll be one such laborer? All I can say right now is that my duty is to pray that He will send workers, and be open to the idea that I may be one of them in due time.

For such a time as this!

I am not given grace to enjoy this life without regard, but for such a time as this I am given the grace to act in ways that others are restricted.

This phrase given to Esther by her cousin, Mordecai, is relevant not just to the queen of the Jews of the fifth century before Christ, but to each Christian today that is living in luxury while neglecting the grace not of their material blessing but of the calling of Christ.

Fruit of The Spirit pt. II

Some time back, i came to a conclusion about the "Fruits of The Spirit," and recently came to realize something supplemental to that post.

What does an apple tree produce?
Seems a rather pointless question; the obvious answer is apples.
A pear tree produces pears, an orange tree produces oranges, oak tree produces acorns, so on and so forth. A tree produces whatever it's assigned to producing. The thing is, though, it doesn't have to be careful about what it produces. It just does.
An apple tree doesn't have to concern itself with producing apples or not producing peaches. It is given unto producing apples by its nature.
When we give up our earthly nature for Christ's (to be grafted in Him), we don't have to be anxious about what we're producing. A Spirit-borne person will produce Spirit-borne fruit. It just happens because our nature changes into the extraordinary, and the "worldly fruit" (that of self-destruction) is no longer part of us.

If you're going around trying to make sure you're doing things that are of the Spirit, being worried or anxious about what kind of fruit your life is producing, here's part of a verse that i've been fascinated with lately; "Be still, and know that I am God."
Settle down. Relax. Take a breath, and focus on that fact. He's God, He will work through you, will cultivate you. And you don't have to be preoccupied with living a holy life because, frankly, neither you nor i are holy--Christ in us is. Christ in you is righteous. Christ in you is the fruit of the Spirit exuded. It's not by you that you produce Spirit-borne fruit, but by the grace of God through Christ.

Only by acknowledging ourselves as unrighteous can humility be concreted.
Thinking we're worthy of anything, even of being called by Christ to follow Him to our death, is vanity and self-righteousness.
By acknowledging that we're unable to produce wholly good things of our own accord is to confess in our heart that we need Christ for anything and everything. And in the realization of our need for Him, we likewise become compelled to live accordingly, as though we're striving to earn the goodness of Christ's effects on our lives. But we must continually remind ourselves, it's not by our works, it's not by our wills. It's by grace alone that we can do anything good, and so we remind ourselves also to live as Christ-like as we can.

Love, Justice, And Mercy

There are several ways of writing either "mercy" or "compassion" in Hebrew.

The three most common for compassion are follows:

1. חֶמלָה
2. רַחֲמָנוּת 
3. רַחֲמִים 

And for mercy:

1. רַחֲמִים
2. חֶמלָה 
3. רַחֲמָנוּת 

Same three words.
And to anybody who may be curious, i did use Google Translate for this--shoddy source, but it gets the job done. I'm not a multilinguist; barely have i a grasp on my first language, let alone a second.

This is the reason some versions say God has compassion for us, whereas another would say He has mercy on us. Essentially the same words, same expressed meaning.
A friend and i were discussing how justice and love come together, and how mercy would fit into the mix. This is my personal opinion.

Firstly, i'll state that compassion has the prefix of "com," which means "together" or "with." Passion is "ardent love."
So compassion means, in essence, "with great love."
The Passion of Christ was His transference from King of The Universe to Servant of All and, ultimately, obedience to men unto the point of receiving a criminal's death sentence (Philippians 2:5-8).
We, as Christians, must show mercy to all without exclusion or condition. In this mercy, we show compassion to them for the glory of God. We share with Christ His passion for them.

Galatians 2:20, Paul says it's no longer he that lives, but Christ living in him, as he has been crucified with Christ.
When we show compassion for people for the sake of God's glory, we share in Christ's passion, in His crucifixion, and we crucify ourselves with Him. We cannot show compassion except at the cross, and not because of us, but because of Christ.

Now, love and justice are a tricky pair.
Love is undue. In terms of its nature, it is not treating someone how they deserve to be. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Justice is treating one how they deserve to be treated, taking into account their wrongs and their sins.
Justice and mercy seem to contradict, but there is a point where the two marry.
At the cross.

At the cross, justice for us was set upon the shoulders of Christ, yet by His very nature, He is love (looking over those who had crucified Him, He said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.")
That is love. There is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus, embodying love, was now holding justice upon Himself as He hang from the cross.

They fused at the cross and became something new. They became passion.
For this, as products of that passion, as people set upon by grace, sinners who are forgiven by God's love and mercy, we are to look at others "with great love," or with compassion--with His passion.
When we forgive, when we have compassion for someone, we do as Jesus did; we take their sin upon ourselves to unburden them of it, and in sharing His passion with them, sharing the cross with Christ, He takes it from us ("For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you").

We forgive because He first forgave us.

By forgiving those who have wronged us, we show them love by not counting their transgressions against us. This love expresses mercy. But it's no longer mere mercy that we show them, but justice since the death of Christ. It's justice because God showed us mercy, and it would be unjust for us to not show them the same mercy that was shown to us ("while we were still sinners, Christ died for us").

At the cross, justice and mercy become united, and love is their conduit.

Some Brief Correlating . . .

The other day, i was having a conversation about forgiveness, and who it benefits. I find that forgiving someone does little good for me, but it's me offering grace (what little i have to offer), a wholly Christian theme, to someone who doesn't necessarily deserve it. Christ on the cross, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," (or something along those lines) did little good for Christ's sake but show yet a further example of grace. It was for their sake that He forgave.

I digress. That has little to do with this post. Now to the meat of it.

As said, i was having a discussion about forgiveness. I thought back to what happens if a "brother" wrongs us.

We are told it's our duty to take it up with them, not theirs to come to us. We do this to cause a stirring inside of them so that they may see their wrong and right it, or at least apologize. If they do not hear us, we're to go and gather one or two witnesses so that it may be established by the testimony of two or three (Matthew 18:15-17).

Now in Romans 3, we have this little passage: "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." (v. 20)

As those two seemingly unrelated passages came to mind, so did a revelation.

The law, the Torah, is from God. It is how we become conscious of our sin. In Matthew, it's our duty to make our brother conscious of his sin against us by telling him what he's done.
God does just that; through the law of the Old Covenant, the Torah, He confronts us, He brings the wrongs we've committed against Him to our attention.

Then Matthew 18 goes on to say that, if they do not hear us, we're to get one or two witnesses and confront him again.
God did that, too. He sent His Son, through Whom all things were made to be. He came back with a witness. Christ. We killed Christ. What greater witness to our wrongs than the very One we crucified?
No, not just one witness; He sent another. The Comforter, the Helper, the Advocate. The Advocate. An Advocate that stirs up our heart to repentance. Through the Holy Spirit, we are inclined to godly or spiritual sorrow, which is seeking penitence with God through Christ.

We sinned against God.

He sent Christ.
We crucified Him, emphasizing our breaking of the Torah.
He sent the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit inclines us to apologize for our wrongs.

In this, the selected passage from Matthew 18 is fulfilled; God made known our sins by means of the law (Romans 3). We didn't hear Him, so He came to us with the two Witnesses.

"Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear, you Israelites: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sin, they will die for it; because of the sin they have committed they will die. But if a wicked person turns away from the wickedness they have committed and does what is just and right, they will save their life. Because they consider all the offenses they have committed and turn away from them, that person will surely live; they will not die. Yet the Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are my ways unjust, people of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?
"Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!" (Ezekiel 18:25-32)

We know we've wronged Him the moment we accept the Torah as His law. That is His beckon to you; He wants you to repent. He wants you to seek Him. He wants you to live.

Woe To Worthless Salvation . . .

You know, i find it interesting that so many people see their salvation as being for them. They say "I'm saved." That's a result of salvation, sure, but that's not the purpose of it. Something that a lot of people don't seem to realize is that the Holy Spirit wasn't sent for our good.
I think the newly redeemed know this without knowing it consciously. They are fervent; they're excited to spread the news about what God has done for them. That is true salvation. It's glorifying God for what He's done for us. That's the reason the Holy Spirit was sent. Not so we could say "I'm saved," but more specifically that "God saved me."

I don't know that this is even making sense, so i'll put up a passage to emphasize this point.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel."

That's Ezekiel 26:22-32, ESV.

That's a little clearer. He cleanses us, gives us definition of holiness, so that we can see that we were not holy nor righteous, and it causes us to be disgusted with who we were without Him. But it's for His sake that He puts the Holy Spirit in us; so we glorify Him. Being saved from damnation is only a benefit of it, something for us to look at and say "Hey, see? That's what we deserve, but He saved us from it so that we would be inclined to do anything for His glory."
But here we are, in a state of spiritual decline because we're slowly allowing the world into our hearts, turning us back to stone. Are we truly so vain that we can have salvation and not be exuberant about it forevermore?

This is going to sound rather harsh, but i think it needs to be said. Yes, you're a Christian. Shut up, and act like it. Stop convincing people you are by your words and prove it with your actions. If you have faith, you will not be content to merely stand with hands raised saying in your heart "Thank You," but you will be compelled beyond your ability to resist to help others. If you have driven faith, you will not have to say "I'm a Christian," because people will know by how you love others--and act upon that love.

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?" (James 2:14)

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?" (James 2:18-20)

"For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." (James 2:26)

Nothing we can do can earn us salvation. Only God has secured that for us, and He made Christ the only way so that we would be dependent on His grace, dependent on giving Him glory. Works alone cannot save. Faith alone withers and dies. Faith needs revitalized; it needs kicked every now and then.

See, doing good will do nothing for us if we do nothing out of faith.

Show me what your faith is without action, and you show me nothing. If i show you a good work, it's only because of my faith.
And even at this, it's not for our sake that we have faith and works; it's for the glory of God, and God alone. All glory we receive is due Him.

Therefore, i end with this single woe: "Woe to the sluggard in faith, the bestowed upon of inactive Salvation!"

Prophecies of Wrath Abstained--Love Abounding.

Ezekiel 16 is a very harsh chapter of the Bible, describing many deplorable acts committed by Jerusalem (enough to make her sisters, Samaria and Sodom, look innocent by comparison). It starts by saying God found her out in an open field, having been abandoned, her umbilical not having been cut, nor having been cleaned or clothed. Left to die, forsaken in an open field.
"No one seeing you had enough pity on you to do any of these things for you — no one had any compassion on you. Instead, you were thrown into an open field in your own filth on the day you were born." (Ezekiel 16:5)

It says God found her, and clothed her, gave her a name, made her a princess; "'Thus you were decked out in gold and silver; your clothing was of fine linen, silk and richly embroidered cloth; you ate the finest flour, honey and olive oil. You grew increasingly beautiful — you were fit to be queen. Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, because it was perfect, due to my having bestowed my own splendor on you’ says Adonai Elohim." (v.13-14, CJB, as that is the version I've been cross-referencing with as of late)
It says that, at a certain point in her youth, God covers her, makes a covenant with her, declares her as His ("...you became Mine.")

She was beautiful. The most beautiful. Perfectly beautiful. And instead of appreciating what God had done for her, she went out and became, pardon the term (it's used many, many, many times in this chapter), a whore. She had sex with anyone who would have her, and instead of being like the typical prostitute, she would instead pay her clients (described as being the opposite of other women). This is how lowly she had become. The vilest, most perverse possible.

"The crimes of your sister S’dom (Sodom) were pride and gluttony; she and her daughters were careless and complacent, so that they did nothing to help the poor and needy. They were arrogant and committed disgusting acts before me; so that when I saw it, I swept them away. Shomron (Samaria) did not commit even half as many sins as you did. You committed many more disgusting acts than your sisters; in fact, in comparison with all the disgusting acts you have committed, they seem innocent!" (v. 49-51)

God speaks of punishment. He speaks of gathering all her "lovers" together, and stripping her bare before them so she is so set upon by shame as to probably wish for death. Then she would be stoned to death, the punishment of an adulterer and a murderer, and hacked to pieces with swords.

The last few verses really shocked me, though.
After having read nigh sixty verses about how adulterous she had been, I had forgotten something; the covenant He made with her.
“For here is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘I will do to you as you have done — you treated the oath with contempt by breaking the covenant. Nevertheless, I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl and will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your behavior and be ashamed of it as you receive your older and younger sisters and make them your daughters, even though the covenant with you does not cover that; and I will re-establish my covenant with you. Then you will know that I am Adonai; so that you will remember and be so ashamed that you will never open your mouth again, so ashamed will you be when I have forgiven you all that you have done,’ says Adonai Elohim.” (v. 59-63)

The promise made to Jerusalem in this chapter was because God alone had compassion for her.

A promise was made in Isaiah 54; “'Briefly I abandoned you, but with great compassion I am taking you back. I was angry for a moment and hid my face from you; but with everlasting grace I will have compassion on you,' says Adonai your Redeemer.
'For me this is like Noach’s (Noah) flood. Just as I swore that no flood like Noach’s would ever again cover the earth, so now I swear that never again will I be angry with you or rebuke you. For the mountains may leave and the hills be removed, but my grace will never leave you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,' says Adonai, who has compassion on you."
Notice the key similarity here? Compassion. Even in His wrath, He is gracious and loving. That is His promise to us; that He will love us no matter how irreverently we act.

Fair Wages

Currently, I am reading a book titled “What's So Amazing About Grace” by a wonderful fellow by the name of Philip Yancey. It's been recommended to me several times, so I've finally picked it up and started it. There's a lot to digest in it, and much has stuck out to me. One such thing is that he covers a parable that, as he points out, is not often brought up in modern sermons because, plainly put, it just doesn't make sense in our world.
It's the parable found in Matthew 20:1-16; the Master of a house going out to hire workers for His vineyard. Summed up, He hires some men in the morning (presumably 6am) under the promise of a full day's wages (one denarius), then hires more at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, and 5pm (third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, and eleventh), all under the promise of a denarius. He has them paid last to first, as in those hired at 5pm to be paid first, then those at 3pm, then those at noon, and so on. The first-hired, last-paid get upset, saying they deserve more. The owner's response is that it's all generosity, and He can distribute His money as He wishes.

In this book, it's described as a grace and that, if paid according to what we deserve, we'd all get Hell. Instead, it's moreover gifts that God gives us rather than wages; that the grace of it is that it's not about counting, because grace doesn't work by measurement. And that's true, I will not deny that. It's a great example of grace in that sense.
Reading over that parable again, I've realized something I'd care to add to this interpretation.

Firstly, a lifelong Christian will get Heaven. A lifelong Christian who turns away in his final hour will get Hell. Likewise, a lifelong heathen will get Hell. Inasmuch, a lifelong heathen who repents in his final hour will receive Heaven. And with Heaven comes all the glories that God bestows upon His beloved.
The thief on the cross beside Christ, despite asking Christ to remember him as he was dying, was given -that day- the same amount of Heaven as, say, the most notable reformer, the widest-reaching evangelist, the most faithful disciple, or the greatest of apostles. They all received the same Heaven, the same God, the same blood of Christ covering them. This is grace, but it's also fair in the sense that if any of these people had disowned Christ, even a second before their final breath, they would have received the same amount of Hell, despair, and absence from Christ.

Secondly, this is reminiscent of the mentality of the first son in the story of the prodigal; when the younger son demands his inheritance, it's made clear that the older gets his share as well, at the same time. Yet, when the younger returns after having squandered everything, the older son is irate when the Father throws a party, has the prize calf butchered for a feast, and the younger son's return treated as a monumentally joyous occasion. His case is that the Father had never thrown a party for him, saying, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” (notice how he doesn't even claim his brother, except as “this son of yours”)
It doesn't seem fair, but it is. The Father's response was “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”

In both senses, the fault lies in the ones receiving; it's not up to them (this is you and I) to bargain with God, nor to look at what others are getting. We should focus on how He's blessed us, not how He's blessed another person for the same (or less). Our walk is not with them, it is with God. Our walk doesn't concern them, nor does theirs concern us. Both concern God, and it's between the two.
To paraphrase the way one of my favorite singers put it in her book, titled “What Is The Point?,” God doesn't measure the size, timeframe, or impact of our ministry. He measures the heart of it. If we help lead one soul or one thousand souls to Him, He does not favor one over the other; He watches the heart we put into the one or the one thousand.

Good Friday

The last two or three weeks have been of absent-mindedness on my part.
I seem to lack "fervor" in the things i've been meditating on.
But this day, roughly two millenia ago, my Savior died for me. And He died for you. Broken souls, unworthy and filthy beings, hopeless people . . . All of us. We were truly hopeless without Him.
But in my seeming absence of passion, i'm reminded of the Passion of Christ. He was stressed to the point that He was sweating blood. This is something that happens to mortals, though not often. Facing death isn't enough to cause it. He knew what awaited Him after the torture, after the beatings, after the crucifixion, after the death . . . He knew what awaited Him when His Father would forsake Him, when He would bear the shame and penalty for every sin you and i have ever committed, when He would be face-to-face with Satan who would be laughing and mocking, beating and tormenting Him.
And He did not turn away, He did not flee, He did not hesitate to offer Himself for us.

Like a lamb to the slaughter He was silent.

He did not so much as offer a word to avoid what was coming.

No, instead He looked at the crowd and said "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Instead, He turned to the man on the cross beside Him and said "today you will be with Me in Paradise."
Instead of you. Instead of me. In our stead.

As my favorite secular author described it in "The Traveller," which i highly recommend,
"Those eyes. Those eyes. My God, they’re so—they’re so hurt! Like a father who’s been beaten by his own children. Yet who still loves his children. Who’s been set upon by loved ones and stripped and beaten and nailed and humiliated!"*

*Matheson, Richard (2011-09-27). Steel: And Other Stories (p. 185). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.