So Many Dry Bones

With the hand of Adonai upon me, Adonai carried me out by his Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones. He had me pass by all around them — there were so many bones lying in the valley, and they were so dry! He asked me, “Human being, can these bones live?” I answered, “Adonai Elohim! Only you know that!” Ezekiel 37:1-3 (CJB)

 I've read this passage countless times, and it's come to be one of my favorite stories in the Bible because of the wide range of applications throughout the entire chapter. In every context it's read in, there's something new to be learned. At this stage in my life, however, one specific context almost overwhelms me.

 The bones of Israel, God's people, were "so many," and "so dry." This is a representation of hopelessness and despair. God's own people, the army of God's chosen nation, defeated. Their bones were scattered throughout a valley, which is another depiction of brokenness. This valley is a low point, not a mountain. They did not die in their hope and the glory of their former victories. They died in a valley, surrounded by mountains, closed in, and defeated. Their bodies were not even given the dignity of burial, but were left uncovered for the vultures to eat, for their flesh to rot in the sun, and stripped of every honor bestowed to common man. The image here is a man of God being called Ben-Adam (which means "Human Being," or "Son of Man"), being shown a destitute, decaying army of bones that once belonged to people not unlike himself. Imagine being shown a valley of bones of servicemen left unburied and on American soil. It calls to mind every form of defeat and shame; for the army, for the civilians, for the entire nation.

 Then God has the audacity to query Ezekiel, "can these bones live?"
 Ezekiel's response shows a great faith, in my opinion one of the greatest signs of trust seen in the entirety of the Bible; "Adonai Elohim (Sovereign Lord)! Only You know that!"
 In this broken place, he still calls the Lord Sovereign, still makes the statement that His Name is Victorious in all He sets out to do. Ezekiel is saying that God has the victory, even in this defeat of His people. What I would do to have the faith to call Him Victorious, even when all I can see is the failure of His chosen nation!

 This hits me very close to home, because in the past months there have been times of severe discouragement in my life. In my relationship with my wife, in her health, in our finances, in nearly every aspect of our lives we have faced some form of despair. In those times, when friends and family have tried to use the Word of God to encourage me, my cynical mind recalls the fates of those "heroes of faith". They've all died, and often in some form of misery and without seeing His promises fulfilled. My discouragement in these scenarios comes from my answer to God when He asks, "can these bones live?"

 When He asks if the remains of the lives of these "heroes" can still live today, I am too eager to say "yes!"
 If I were to answer with "no," it would show an obvious lack of trust in His faithfulness.
 When I answer too quickly by saying, "Yes, Lord! You can do this miracle!" I'm not just saying He's able. I'm saying my trust is based upon His action in the observable and tangible now.

In Hebrews chapter eleven, we read of many who were faithful. It's been dubbed the "Chapter of Faith." I believe a more literal (not to mention applicable) translation of the word used for faith in that chapter is trust. It's the Chapter of Trust to me. By trusting, Abraham lived as if the promises of God would come to pass. But Abraham didn't see his descendants become "as numerous as the specks of dust" (or grains of sand, if you will). Nevertheless he still lived as if it would happen because he trusted God to do as He said He would. He didn't know how it would happen, but he simply decided that the Lord alone knew how and when it would happen.

 "Can these bones live?"
 Ezekiel's answer was not one of slight doubt but of absolute trust; "Sovereign Lord! Only You know that!" He didn't trust in what he would come to see happen, and he didn't doubt the Lord. He trusted that God would do what God intended to do (Sovereign Lord!), and he trusted that God would do what He promised to do, and nothing less; if God were to promise something, it would be possible (Only You know...!)

 May we be encouraged knowing that God is faithful to His Word, and that He will hold to His promises. May we not be encouraged by the things we hope He does in our lives, but may we be encouraged by the trust we have in Him to use our lives beyond the ways that we can see.
 The despair we are facing today may not be used in ways we can see to bring us hope. Just as it may not be for us but for His glory that He will act, I will trust Him in that. I will trust Him to know what He will do, and I will not lose hope if He does not use it in my lifetime.

Undrawn Lines

 It's been a great long while since any posts have been made, but not for lack of inspiration or interest. On the contrary, the inspiration and desire to write new entries has been only increasing, it's the issue of time that restrains. 

 As it stands, my perceptions of things are going through a bit of a metamorphosis. Only time will tell if they're good changes or not.

 On one side, i'm being pulled towards something i can identify as being a narrow line to walk. I will never be justified by rules, and this is apparent because Christ justifies me by grace so that i can never boast. Nevertheless, i've determined to view all things as polarized;

"Those who are not with Me are against Me;"

"Here is how one can distinguish clearly between God’s children and those of the Adversary: everyone who does not continue doing what is right is not from God;"

"We know that we are from God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One;"

"...every spirit which does not acknowledge Yeshua is not from God — in fact, this is the spirit of the Anti-Messiah;"

"Turn my eyes away from worthless things;"

"All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags;"

 It would seem as though the very Word of God tells me to polarize everything i may; to view things as holy or absolutely unrighteous. According to Levitical Law (which many seem to think we can ignore because Christ came), a man who has been touched by the menstrual flow of a woman is made unclean by it--all our righteous deeds are equivalent to the rags by which this blood is absorbed; anything it touches is to be considered unclean. Of course, my attempts at holiness are just the same, but Christ in me is righteousness. Only through Him can anything i do be made clean.

 If the best effort towards righteousness that the world can offer is something that, by contact, makes me unclean, how do i resolve my life to this? God draws pretty sharp lines here, and i'm in conflict as to how to proceed with this. Do i go about in fear of everything so that i don't be made unclean? Of course not! I'm not given a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline!
 Nevertheless, how do i approach the world? With power and love and self-control. Does this mean all things are permissible? Maybe so, since the whole earth is the Lord's, as well as everything in it. But not all things are helpful or edifying. So again, this same question returns; how do i resolve my life to this?
 If God has drawn such sharp lines, why can't i so easily see them? He knows the false Christians, i don't. He detests the facetious in faith, yet if something proclaims Christ i flock to it. Is it a lack of discernment?

 This is an introspective post. A great deal of turmoil is raging inside of me, and i know that each line i draw just pushes me towards legalism, which i know separates me from God and perverts the Law. But having fewer lines lends my eyes to the side of worthless things.

Go To The Ant!

 Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. (Proverbs 6:6-8)

 Planning ahead, especially in finances, has never been a strongpoint for me (sometimes a verse just gets personal, you know?), and only recently has any major attempt to change that been made. And while this is often seen as a message for financial responsibility (and sometimes a call for an end of procrastination), there is another, more subtle application we can get from this passage.

 To put this softly, i've been around too many churchgoers outside of church-related functions to be anything but a cynic, and only the fewest (a remnant, if you will) haven't proven the resulting assumptions correct.
 To be slightly more blunt, a lot of people going to Hell will arrive there on a pew. And it's such a tragic thing, it should bring tears to our eyes. In fact, God showed Ezekiel that His judgement would fall on the heads of those who didn't mourn; of the men, women, children, regardless of age, He tells the executioners to "Slaughter them all!" and to "Defile the house! Fill the courtyards with corpses! Get going!" What's more, there's a startling command given; "Begin at my sanctuary."

 The first to receive judgement, it is saying, are those who believe in God, who claim to follow His Law, and yet pass by the crippled man on the side of the road. Those who "love God," but not their fellow man.
And don't get me wrong, "Love always trusts, always hopes, always--" I know. And there is little defense to be made for cynicism, excepting perhaps the fact that we're commanded strictly to avoid those who "retain the outer form of religion but deny its power."
 See, there are those we're to avoid, not just blindly embrace. Love is blind, but it's certainly not stupid. Keeps no record of wrong, but isn't naive. It hopes, but hope is usually encompassed by doubt--or else it would simply be expectation.

 And where this ties up; just because we have witnessed sin and immorality by churchgoers outside of church, if we watch them raise their hands on Sunday and then hear them start cussing or talking about sleeping around with people by Monday, that doesn't mean it has to change us. This is simply those who "retain the outer form of religion but deny its power." They deserve your pity, your groaning, your weeping, your compassion and, if they will hear you, Biblical correction. After all, judgement will come first to those in the sanctuary.
 But go to the ant! It has no leader, no overseer, no ruler; it operates not based on the actions of those around it, but by its own purpose, its own mind, its own work. If you have been wounded because some people look Christian on Sunday but do it all for show, that's between them and God; it's up to each of us to do what is necessary to maintain confidence before Him, which is behaving as His children should.
 Go to the ant. Do not be led astray. Do not look to the left or to the right. Do not look at your "Paul" (your spiritual leader) unless he is of more semblance to Christ than yourself. And should your "Paul" ever stop following Christ, stop imitating Paul, stop following Paul. Look to Christ.
 Imitate Christ so that you may be "Paul" to someone else.

Different View of Favor

 The purpose of this is to maybe set askew the common thought that God's favor somehow implies ease in life.

 Starting off early, we have Noah. Honestly, if i witnessed what he witnessed, i'd have preferred to have been swept away by the waters. All his friends and neighbors, extended family, everyone; wailing and screaming in fear as the first few drops began to fall after the doors of the boat were supernaturally closed. The cries would've grown louder as the rain grew heavier; as the earth itself split to release the firmament from below, the shrieks of men, women, and children would've faded into the roar of water crashing against the sides of the ark. It's hardly a wonder one of the first things he did (after setting up an altar to God) was begin fermenting beverages.
 Next would be Jacob, ever-shadowed by his elder brother, the hunter-gatherer, Esau. His mother, nigh as deceitful as himself, devised a plan to get Jacob the birthright. But what good is a birthright if he leaves his home? He works for his uncle for the better part of a decade, only to get the wrong girl, and then another seven years he labors for the girl he truly wanted--and her womb was closed up. Leah bore him child after child, and yet Rachel, his love, is left without child for decades. She became desperate (as did Jacob) and, after Leah had stopped bearing children, offered Jacob her slave-girl, Bilhah. He bore two sons through her. And Leah then offered her own slave-girl, Zilpah, who then bore two more sons. Eventually, Rachel is able to conceive, and her son is named Joseph, who is betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, leaving Jacob to mourn his faked-death. Joseph, the favorite of Jacob, eventually led the Hebrews into Egypt.
 Next comes Moses, that one fellow who was abandoned as a child, raised by those who oppressed his family, flees, marries a woman of another land (and is ridiculed for it), and mocked by his adopted brother.
 Job, the besieged, is chosen to be the target of Satan because God saw him to be a faithful man. God favored him, therefore torment was everywhere in this man's life as Satan wreaked havoc in all the authority that God allowed him to have over Job; wealth, possessions, family, health, everything. Boils upon boils, resulting an insatiable itch covering the entirety of his body that would've felt as an acidic burn if he'd tried to scratch. This man was favored by God. This distraught, helpless, poor man sitting in the ashes of his life.
 Ezekiel's wife dies, and he's commanded not to mourn or weep for her.
 David is hunted by his king like an animal.
 The author of Lamentations, presumably Jeremiah, describes his skin having sloughed off, his bones broken, his teeth shattered by gravel; he speaks of children fainting in the streets, begging for something to drink, dying in the arms of their mothers ("gasping out their last breath in their mother's bosom"); "the children I held in my arms and raised, my enemy has destroyed," he says. If there is a more tragic sight (other than that of a Father watching His only begotten Son, blameless and holy, beaten and tortured, naked and nailed to an execution stake like a criminal) i'd rather not know of it.
 Paul is described as not knowing what he would suffer for Christ's sake, and yet was one we would call favored.
 The greatest affliction, that of Christ on the cross (dubbed his "being glorified"), dripping with the sin of the world; this Man, the only begotten Son of God. Hardly an image of favor. Or is it?

 In all these examples, it would seem the greater the suffering, the greater the favor God has for the object of affliction. We are told in Romans 5 that tribulations bring...hope.
 God promises to withhold no good thing from those He favors, and that all things work out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Some examples of good things are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control; what of these do not come about except through some sort of suffering? 1 Corinthians 13 says love is, first and foremost, long-suffering; that, if we love, we will suffer long for it. Understanding of joy does not come unless one knows misery. Peace does not come without war; patience without situations that would call for great unrest; kindness without circumstances where one has been treated cruelly; all of these qualities require a grasp of their antonym, an understanding of their absence.
 And God will withhold no good thing from those He favors. Those who love Him and are called according to His good purpose are guaranteed scenarios in which these fruits of the Spirit will have the fertile, volcanic soil where they may blossom and grow (intense struggles). He also promises that, through perseverance, these fruits will set.
 Without rain, there is no harvest. Without trial, no judgement--or mercy.
 He will not leave His favored ones without struggle, or else they would bear no Spiritual fruit.

Going To The Romans As The World . . .

 "But in the prophets of Yerushalayim I have seen a horrible thing — they commit adultery, live in lies, so encouraging evildoers that none returns from his sin. For me they have all become like S’dom, its inhabitants like ‘Amora.” (Jeremiah 23:14, CJB)
 Adonai-Tzva’ot says: “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are making you act foolishly, telling you visions from their own minds and not from the mouth of Adonai. They keep reassuring those who despise me, ‘Adonai says you will be safe and secure,’ and saying to all living by their own stubborn hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you.’" (vs. 16-17)

 Adonai’s anger will not abate till he fully accomplishes the purpose in his heart. In the acharit-hayamim (latter days), you will understand everything. (vs. 20)
 When [someone from] this people, a prophet or a cohen (priest) asks you, ‘What is the burden of Adonai?’ you are to answer them, ‘What burden? I am throwing you off,’ says Adonai. (vs. 33)
 I will lift you up, burden that you are, and throw you off, away from my presence — you and the city I gave you and your ancestors. (vs. 39)
 There's more, but i encourage each person that reads this to read the chapter (or, better yet, the book) for themselves.

 There are many modern ways of evangelizing. And, lately, many have become caught up in "going to the Romans as a Roman." They mistake this for "going to the sinners as a sinner" or replace the word "sinner" with "world." This may be of the best intentions, but it is no less dangerous than a false doctrine.
 At the church i visited this past weekend, it was said that, "salvation is not by our works, so there are no works we can do to lose it." Another interesting quote was, "It's impossible to disappoint God. He knows your past, He knows your future, and so you can't surprise Him. If you can't surprise Him, you can't disappoint Him."

 Even with this kind of warning as given through Jeremiah, we still have so many social clubs operating as churches. People, preachers, saying, "God told me..." and following it up with some sort of infectious doctrine that would not encourage God's people to become too unlike the world for sake of looking "too holy," or "holier-than-thou," (and we dare not consider it a race, or should we refresh ourselves on 1 Corinthians 9:23-25?) and by doing so dissuading others from Christianity. But i tell you in the words of my Savior, "If you belonged to the world, the world would have loved its own. But because you do not belong to the world — on the contrary, I have picked you out of the world — therefore the world hates you."
 If the world loves you, there may be a problem. If the worldly look at you and aren't confused, perplexed, hateful, or angry, it wouldn't be a gamble to say that Christ hasn't picked you out of it just yet.

 Anyone who says you can be in Christ and not only live with your sin but be comfortable with it (even worse, that any facsimile or measure of worldliness as a good thing . . .); they're nullifying the sacrifice of the Messiah, the God-sent Holy Man, Immanuel Himself, Jesus the Christ, beaten and tortured and killed. If what they say was true, why did Jesus even hang, naked and bloody, on the cross? The answer is simply void. By His wounds, yes, by His stripes, by His resurrection we can be called children of God. If there was no way by our works to fall from salvation, how, then, did David cry out, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation" after he had committed murder for the sake of having adultery? David felt God's salvation abandon him, and with it God's peace, joy, and Holy Spirit.

 A friend of mine shared this on Facebook. It's a snippet from Eric and Leslie Ludy;
 As Christ-followers, why should we think that friendship with the world is something to be proud of? When Hollywood and the secular music industry feels comfortable with us (and we feel comfortable with them), it means that something is wrong with our Christianity. Many of us have come to believe that we must participate in the things of the world in order to reach it for Christ, and that the more attractive we are to the culture, the better witnesses we will be.
 But Jesus said something quite different. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-29). And, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). Let us remember that true Christianity will influence the world - but it will never be applauded by the world.

 And this is true.
 Some may say, "But we have to attract the world!"
 To them, i say, "You go. Attract the world. Be loved by them."
 "The Lost" is something wholly different from "the World." The Lost are those who would seek to be found. The World is that which believes it already is found.

 Many preachers would do well to consider, when trying so desperately to fill pews, that Jesus offered bread, and all ate till they were filled. John 6 tells us that the crowds followed Him, and Jesus would give them no more physical bread, but rather Himself, the Bread of Life, and they became angry and bitter. It says that many turned away and no longer followed Him. And Jesus' response was rather unexpected; He let them go and kept to His twelve. The reason He lets them go is because, as He says in the very same chapter, "Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will certainly not turn away."
 All who see and trust in Him will not be turned away; those who make the decision that they will starve the flesh to feed the Spirit; those who take up their cross daily and follow Him; those who trust upon His name; these are the ones He will raise up on the Last Day. The Father's will is that none should perish; we are to turn to Christ and repent of our sins or else we will perish not by His will but by our own.

 This choice is given each of us. And we would do well to share it.

How He Loves His Children

 Want to hear an unpopular opinion?
 God doesn't love everyone.

 Before claiming i'm some sort of heretic that has no place making such a claim when the Bible clearly states that, "God is love," (1 John 4:8) please hear me out. What better place can we learn of God's characteristics than in the Bible? And when i look at the Bible, i see a doting Father, a caring Provider, and a loving Friend. He is those things. I also see a very jealous and wrathful God. For instance, i see Him ordering the Levites to draw their swords against the rest of Israel, mercilessly and violently killing their own brothers and friends (Exodus 32).
 He is jealous, and in His jealousy for His people, He will destroy anything that tries to come between the Church and Himself. A husband may turn to violent rage against the man who seduces and leads astray his wife, perhaps especially so if the other man happened to have once been his best friend. God hates evil and wickedness because it draws us away from Him, but He also hates the wicked who would turn us from Him because He is jealous.

 Psalm 2 starts by telling us that the kings and rulers have set themselves up against God's people. God's response isn't, "I love these wicked kings and will have compassion for them, and I shall make a covenant with them to prosper them." No, it actually says, instead, "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision."

 Let me open this one up real quick; "He who sits in the heavens (God) laughs..."
 God sees them plotting against His people, and it entertains Him not because His people are being attacked, but because the nations rage and the people "...plot in vain." He sees them planning the destruction of Israel, and it makes Him laugh. He sees it, and gets a kick out of the fact that they plot in vain. Knowing their plans and efforts have already failed, He laughs.
 "... the Lord holds them in derision."
 Here's the first definition of derision: "contemptuous ridicule or mockery." God is contemptuous of them. He mocks these people. With contempt. He points His finger and snickers, saying, basically, "You're losing." And, again, this actually somewhat entertains God to know that those who would corrupt His people have failed miserably and pathetically.
 This isn't love towards these rulers and kings, so how do we justify God being love if He is the same God in the Old and New Covenants? Because He loves His people, that's how that question resolves. He doesn't want anyone to die (Ezekiel 18), but He is particular towards Israel.

"The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man." (Psalm 5:5-6)

Here we have the statement that God hates all evildoers, and He abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful. Hates is a simple enough word. Sure, we can muddy it up with translations enough to where it means something like "favors less," but really, in this context, it means nothing other than intention of violence. What's more, abhorrence is hard to get lost in translation; it means to regard someone with disgust. I know what it's like to abhor someone quite well; i was embittered and resentful towards someone at one point that seeing them make my stomach turn, my heart rate to spike, my hands to tremble. It was unhealthy, but this is what it means to have abhorred them. And God abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.

 He hates. And violently.

 He loved the tribes of Israel. Greatly. They're the ones He chose to be His. But look a little closer, and you'll see that He picked the tribe of Levi out of them. He favored them to the point that He made them His cohanim, His priests. This was His favored tribe (favor implying favoritism). Israel was to be God's favorite country, Levi to be His favorite of the tribes, and Moses specifically to be His favorite Levite.
 He picked David from His brothers because He was a man after God's own heart; a man who, though he might stumble pretty badly, he would try, and he would try, and he would try, because he loved God. God favored David from his brothers.

 It was asked how God loved Israel, and He says, "Is not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated." (Micah 1)
 He distinguished between brothers which He loved and which He hated, and judged not by their father's actions but by theirs. This passage later speaks an entirely resentful view of Esau by God; Esau's country was destroyed and his legacy left to jackals, unclean and scavenging beasts. And should Edom have rebuilt, God says that He would have torn it back down. In fact, God says they are, "the wicked country," and "the people with whom the Lord is angry forever."

 And to really set things off, it would seem that we have a part to play in His disposition towards us.
 The modern Church may shriek at the thought, but our works are what actually define how God sees us, not just our faith. We are justified by faith, yes, but we are glorified by God by our works of faith. As example, i'll use David again; it was his desire to serve God that God saw and picked him for. It was the Levites' willingness to do anything for God that He chose them for. It was Job's faithfulness and devotion that made God say, "Him!" It was Joshua and Caleb's ferocity and reverence that God chose them to lead Israel for. It was Abraham's subjection that God made Him father of nations for. It was Isaiah's fervency in saying, "Here I am, Lord! Send me!" It was Daniel's staying strong in faith by acting on his faith that got him a death sentence--and favor.

 He loves, and His favoritism towards us is dependent on our humility before Him. And it's our works and sacrifices by faith that gain us that favor.
 Not only this, it is our works that make us loved or hated by God. If we are bloodthirsty, deceitful, wicked, evil, He will simply hate us. If we follow His law, obey His commandments, love as Christ loves, forgive, and get over "self," we will be loved by Him.
 He loves all of His children. And we are told by John that those who are not His children, the ones that do not practice righteousness, are children of the devil.

 And here i want to address a more personal matter; some think that, because one holds to these views, i am devoid of joy, or that i'm not as happy as i could be because i'm not seeing the positive side of things.
 One would be hard-pressed to find someone more enthralled with life than myself; i look at things, even tree leaves, pebbles, clouds, insects, animals; these things are beautiful and brilliant, and to think that God could -and by justice should- make my life a living Hell, mutilate me, annihilate me, and cause my life to slowly and painfully wither away, yet He blesses me, and lets me talk to Him, and He listens. How futile are possessions when you have a source of joy such as this! How exuberant this fascination makes me! How giddy am i knowing that the Maker of all things sees me, knows me, cares about me, loves me, calls me His!

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.

Truth Hurts

 There are many times that the Bible makes me mad. Really mad, even. There are times i want to slam it shut and put it on a shelf and not read from it again. It offends me. It throws some pretty heavy stones right at my head, and i have little room to move out of the way. Other books don't ruffle my feathers this much. Sure, there is a lot of peace, hope and the like to be found between its covers. But there's also some stuff that just makes me squirm.
 Take, for instance, the book of Psalms, one of the greatest sources of inspiration for modern poets, a one-hundred-and-fifty-chapter wellspring of comfort and joy.

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

 That's Psalm 1:1-3.
 I read that and think, You know, maybe i'm this blessed fellow. Maybe i'm this man, this one who delights in the law of the Lord, who meditates on it and grows and flourishes and becomes firm in foundation and yielding a great harv--

Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

 Ow. That would be verse four.
 See, the Old Testament, which the apostles called Scripture, is God-breathed and, therefore, "is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness..." (2 Timothy 3:16) Basically, in other words, it is for us. It is an examination tool, and a method of correction and instruction. And it hurts. Because, as a human, i am evil. Horribly evil. My heart is deceitfully wicked. Every inclination of the thoughts of my heart are only evil all the time (apparently the amount of wickedness within us is sufficient to make God become rather redundant in His descriptions). So as much as those first three verses apply to me or you, that fourth one applies to us.
 This isn't a one-time ordeal. This is throughout Scripture. Proverbs, or "The Book of Wisdom," if you will, takes only seven verses.
 This book, or these sixty-six books if you like, is intended to cut. It's intended to cut. It isn't a feel-good-book. It's a two-edged sword capable of dividing soul from Spirit, and marrow from bone--and it is pointed directly at you and me. Because, by nature, we're evil.
 Yet again i say, it's intended to cut. Sharply. Swiftly. And it doesn't stop until it's separated you from your very nature.
 The marrow, the interior region of the bone, the very core of it, the heart of it, is severed from the rest of the bone by this, the Word of God. It hurts.
 It hurts because it cuts deeper than any physical sword may come close to touching, and it splits you from your core, your thoughts from your mind, your intentions from your heart. It cuts away all that exterior stuff we call the flesh. So then we may be the blessed one that doesn't walk in the way of sinners.

 You'll find cancer must be cut away, infected tissue must be torn off, and necrotic limbs must be severed. And only then can life be preserved, only then can the body be healthy. It's painful.
 The truth hurts. And the truth doesn't care about our feelings. Just because it causes pain or it offends or it's not popular; that doesn't negate the truth of it in the slightest. In fact, it may serve to compound the factuality of truth when it hurts, because it's at that point that it's being quite effectual.
 There have been times i've been reading the Bible and fell into tears wishing that God didn't ask that of me, or that He didn't say that about people with my particular mentality or sin. But He did--nay, He does. The Great Physician had to start slicing away at my flesh, splitting it from my spirit. And He still does so nearly every time i open His Word.

 Pick up the Bible. Let it . . . Hurt you.

Forgetfulness Or Remembrance?

Many of us Christians think that, when God sets us free from our sin, that He is telling us to forget it, or better yet to glory in it the fact that it happened. This comes from taking verses from the New Testament out of context (Romans 5:20 comes to mind; "...but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more"). But He does not often give us such a command.

Here's a summary/exposition of some events; Jesus is preaching, and while doing so He talks of the hypocrisy and immaturity of "this generation," and says they're like children in a marketplace, talking to each other. He speaks of how John the Baptist, His own forerunner, came in abstinence (not just sexually, but in the dietary sense), and they said he had a demon; then they say, of Christ, that He's a glutton and a drunkard because He does not observe the same dietary restrictions--and they say He's a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
After this, He is invited into the house of a Pharisee, and a sinful woman comes in, and soaks His feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, kisses them, then anoints His feet with her jar of perfume. Simon, the Pharisee, is thinking that if Jesus was truly a prophet that He would know what kind of sinner she was and that she was unclean and unfit to touch Him. But Jesus knew. He says, "Simon, I have something to say to you..." and proceeds to tell a parable about two debtors who can't pay back their dues, one who owed tenfold the other's debt, and the creditor cancelling their debts. Simon says it's the one who owed more that would love the creditor more. Jesus concurs.

Because Simon, a "holy man," had been brought up in a godly manner, lived according to the Law, had little to be forgiven of, he did not love Jesus as much as the woman who apparently didn't stop kissing His feet the entire time He was in Simon's house.
Simon didn't put oil on His head, didn't greet Him with a kiss (as was the custom), yet that woman, seeing herself unfit to put oil on His head, anointed His feet--if she were a prostitute, the "expensive perfume" was crucial in her craft, and the condition of her hair was no doubt just as important. Yet she matted her hair with mud (the tears and dirt), and poured her perfume on His feet because she was giving up what she had been.
She basically says, "I don't want to be like that anymore, so I lay all of it at Your feet." She surrenders everything for Him, not the following day, not a week from then, but at that very moment she poured it all at His feet.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. (Luke 7:47)

She was crying because of her sins, because she had sinned against Him. These were not tears of joy, these were tears of remorse. She knew He was the friend of sinners (read: He was the friend of her). And she knew this was her only hope, this man who spoke with authority from God, who the Pharisees feared, who preached a legitimate Gospel ("Good News"). And because she knew that, a Godly sorrow welled up within her until she poured tears about the floor and His feet, and she worshiped Him by giving up her livelihood to anoint not even His head but just His feet.
He did not tell her to forget her sins. He said they were forgiven--that He would forget. But she remembered her sins. And wept. And that's what anointed Christ.

See, we all have sins, and we all have a past.
Those who have been found guilty and yet forgiven for, say, stealing five dollars worth of merchandise will not be as happy and thankful to the judge as the person who has been found guilty but forgiven of attempted murder. And, sometimes, to sear one's conscience, we forgive them without reprimanding them.
This can serve to create a higher sense of guilt than punishing them. What's more, tell them that someone else decided to take their punishment; this will (or at least should) stir them up inside to the point of their tears flowing enough to soak the feet of the person who bore their sins. And they will (again, should) turn from their crimes and even say, "See this way I was? He took the blame for me. Because of that, I set my old ways at His feet and now they're an evidence to His love for me. And He'll do the same for you."

But how do we reconcile ourselves to our pasts of sin? How do we live on after this sin? Is remembering it and being filled with grief in itself a sin? After all, the New Testament says that sinful flesh, that old person has died; is remembering that equivalent to bringing it back?
Having spent time dwelling on my past, hating myself for it, i felt like i was doing something wrong because so many pastors say our sins are forgiven so we shouldn't even think of them anymore. That we should only think of good things (as mentioned in the New Testament). And now we have pastures filled with flocks acting like spotless lambs, when it was the only spotless Lamb chosen from the vile, filthy herd that we are to take our filthiness. Yes, we have been washed, but we must never overlook the fact that we were filthy, mangy, and unclean lest we forget the weight of the sacrifice of the truly perfect One sacrificed for us.
What glory does a Redeemer receive when those He redeemed act as though they're not even the same thing as was bought back?

And even so, we still have people saying we're to live like it never happened because we're a new creation. I once heard someone say we shouldn't refer to ourselves as sinners forgiven, because it in a sense dims-down the beauty of God's creation, and that it makes Jesus' work on the cross seem like less because we still focus on what we were before. Are we truly called to forget our sins? How do we resolve this?

Simple. Remembrance. Visit the grave of your old self, and do so often. Don't try digging up the body.
The Bible does say we are a new creation. But our past happened. We're not to be liars, and we're not to be ignorant. Keep reminders of the old self's death. Never forget it.
I remember my sin. And i don't want to forget it. Because i know i've been forgiven much; i never want to forget, because i don't want to love Him less. I want to see and to dance on that grave marked, "Joshua David Isaacs," because i know that self is dead, but i don't want to act like he never was a part of me or that he never lived.

I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God. (Ezekiel 16:62)

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. (Ezekiel 36:31-32)

Remember. Be ashamed. Be confounded. Loathe yourselves. All the while, praise God for Christ's sacrifice!

And what's a blog post without some lyrics?

Won't You please come and remind me?
I need to know what I've become. I need to know where I've come from.
Take me from this madness, take me from this pain.
Take me from this sadness, but don't take my memories. ("Memory" by Decyfer Down, from the album, "Scarecrow")

On Bearing Fruit . . .

 Wisdom is know by her children. Another way of saying that is she is know by her fruit. What we reap is evidence of what we've sown. Everything planted underground, which is that what we put in secret and cover and water, will sprout. If one is, in secret, a sinner, it will grow into greater sin. If one is righteous in secret, it likewise will grow into greater righteousness. This is the nature of the supernatural; it is always a seed that will grow. This is why Jesus constantly refers to the Spiritual as having to do with fields, vineyards, crops, seeds, soil, etc. It's because it must be watered, must be kept, must be weeded, must be guarded. All things, we are given accountability to.

 But when we ourselves become the proverbial fig tree . . . What must we do?

 Bear fruit.

 Now, i'm not talking about some simple thing we can manage of our own accord; "Random Acts of Kindness," anyone can do. Not to say that specific gesture is without credence, but it's hardly a fruit of the Spirit when the world is just as capable as us. That could be, with the correct motive (glory given to God), a fruit of the Spirit, if we are led to it. But that's not what separates Christians from the world.

 Anyone can love those who are pleasant and lovely, which is why Jesus told us specifically to love our enemies. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves, and our neighbor is anyone put in our path, not merely the person of close residence. Neighbors are often our enemies, and enemies are often our neighbors, because those who wish us harm are oftentimes those who we are or have associated with.

 Do you know what it means to love an enemy? Do you know what it feels like to shake hands and to hug someone whom you know to be devising against you? Do you know what it's like to genuinely hope for their well-being?
 It's probably pretty difficult. In fact, i'd even dare say it's impossible for the flesh to accomplish some such feats.

 In 2006, in Pennsylvania, an armed man entered an Amish schoolroom of girls ranging from 6-13 years old with the intention of molestation. He killed five of them, and shot more. This would seem an unforgivable act. But there are those who are entirely unworldly, who are no more of this world than Christ is, who are able to attend the funeral of the perpetrator, look his family in the eyes and embrace them, and even contribute to his family's well-being. They forgave something i (and most others) could never dream of forgiving.

 Mark 11 tells us of Jesus being hungry and seeing a fig tree in leaf, though out of season for figs. Regardless, He approached it and found none on it, so He cursed it. The next morning, He and His disciples were passing back by and saw that it had died completely to its roots. It concludes with a message about faith, and He says, "whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." (v. 25)

 There are some interesting details about that little occurrence. For one, it was out of season for figs. Despite that, Jesus still cursed it. Another thing is He would've known before approaching it that it had no figs, not just because it was out of season but also because He is Christ--He knows things.

 Christ doesn't want us to produce only when we're in season, only when we're strong in faith or ready to take on a mission. He wants us producing now. At His approach. And the sad thing is, that tree reflects so many Christians. It's green. Looks healthy. It's in leaf. But it has no fruit.
 A quote i often sarcastically use is, "We're all about appearances here." That's exactly how so many Christians these days are, though; as long as we look Christian, as long as we give the appearance, we're okay. But no, this is fruitlessness!

 We don't even produce fruit in season (when things are going well), let alone out of season (we curse the sky when it falls--praise God for holding it up as long as He has!).

 If we're patient and loving and gentle and faithful (and the rest of the list from Galatians 5:22-23) when we have a roof over our heads, financial and emotional and physical security, and when we're healthy and have a computer to blog on, that we're doing pretty good at living by the Spirit and bearing good fruit.
 Take it all away; no water, no heat, no shelter, sleeping on the ground in the rain, eating the refuse of others, what do we have? Joy? Peace? This is the out-of-season that God expects us to bear fruit in. This is His approach. And if we can't offer such fruits as He asks for when we have nothing else, when we just have Him before us and asking us to be patient and self-controlled, we will be cursed and will wither to the roots, fit and ready to be thrown into the fire.

 It's not enough to simply be Christian. We have to be like Christ. It was not yet His "season," and even still He turned water to wine--the best wine at that.

 We can't settle for loving those that love us, but no less than compassionate for those that harm us. While we are still enemies, we must be reconciled to others that wish ill against us. This is bearing fruit out of season. Any fig tree can produce in season, but it takes one living for Christ to produce fruit out of season. Any worldly person can love those that love them, but it takes a Christian to truly and selflessly lay down their life for someone that hates them. And this is what Christ demands of us.

 Disclaimer: i am by no means perfect. I could not, presently, do as i've been writing. Forgiving a minor offense is simple enough. Love always trusts, though, and i'm one of the most untrusting people there is. I have witnessed too many hypocrites (of which i am the chief)--i don't want to see a perfect person, i just want to see people genuinely trying. And that's where the problem lies; i have too long been around too many churched people outside of Christian gatherings to trust but the fewest of few, because "nobody's perfect," so they refuse to even try to be Christian outside of the church walls.

 Tallying it up, there are literally six people outside of immediate family that have my legitimate trust. And i've learned that people are people; my faith does not rest in their faith. To see any of these fall, i've learned to callous myself in this way, would not make me falter.

God Is Love

 Let's address something real quick; God is love.
 That's become such a cliche phrase that i'm almost tired of hearing it (if that were even possible). The saying itself is truly undeniable. It's not the quote that i'm tired of hearing. It's the context. The context is modern. And, like almost all thoughts modern, it disturbs me.
 To understand love, we should also look at pride. Many would think hate is the antonym, but it's actually pride. I honestly believe the Spirit revealed that to me a year or so ago, and the more i read and know of love, the more i understand that it is true.

 To love something is to put it first in your life--or at least hold it in high regard (to submit in humility). If you love someone or something, you do what's best for them. If you love someone, you sacrifice some (or all) of your comfort for them. If you love someone, you raise them above yourself. If you love someone, you keep no record of wrongs,
 To be prideful is to hold the image of self above all things. Hate is a symptom, but the disease itself is always pride; it is a desire for having your own way (Ever had someone cut you off in traffic? Or how about someone who feels it's their right to meddle in your life? Obviously, your own life is worth so much more than theirs, your time and comfort invaluable by comparison . . . At least that's what i tell myself under such circumstances, and this is a definition of pride, and hate being a single thread of it). The love of money, even, as the "root of all evils," is, again, pride; a craving for more for yourself.

 The reason it's so important to understand pride, though, is because to support one thing is to oppose another. That's just a fact, and it will make enemies.
 And discipline -how beautiful is the Latin root, discipulus!- is not hate, nor is it pride. Discipline, true and honest in method and motive, is a form of love. In fact, Solomon once said of it, that, "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." This is because a lack of discipline allows a child to wander a path that the parent knows leads to destruction. How do you keep a child from playing in the street? Incessantly warn them not to, and discipline them when they do. You train them. You disciple them. And then, when they are old, they will teach their children, God-willing, to also not play in the street. This is not cruel, this is love. And this is precisely what God does to us.

 Regard your endurance as discipline; God is dealing with you as sons. For what son goes undisciplined by his father? All legitimate sons undergo discipline; so if you don’t, you’re a mamzer (literally: bastard) and not a son! Furthermore, we had physical fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them; how much more should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! For they disciplined us only for a short time and only as best they could; but he disciplines us in a way that provides genuine benefit to us and enables us to share in his holiness. Now, all discipline, while it is happening, does indeed seem painful, not enjoyable; but for those who have been trained by it, it later produces its peaceful fruit, which is righteousness. (Hebrews 12:7-11, CJB)

 This is why modern ideas disturb me. We have forsaken a selfless and true definition for love and replaced it with, tolerance. If we don't tolerate a behavior, people inevitably think we hate them. When you see someone smoking, if you truly care for them, you will tell them the undeniable, common-sense truth, "That will kill you." That's not bigotry, it's care.
 Now, there are several responses, but a common one is, "I'm trying to quit." Sorry, but you'll quit in due time, either because you died, or else because you heeded logic for a change. Yes, it's an addictive drug, but when does an addiction trump life? When you love it. When you love self to the point of pride, and you ignore the feelings of those who love you (in other words, you cease to love them, at least more than you love yourself).
 Another common reaction is excessive defense, even to the point of becoming offensive. This is the world's reaction to hearing that sin is doing the same thing to their spirit; they get bitter. Do you think that when i was stuck in an addiction to sin, i enjoyed hearing that it was killing my soul? Of course not. I hated (read: prided myself over...) that kind of message--but it is the Gospel of Christ that says, "Go and sin no more," that led me to repentance. It was discipline that allowed me to become a disciple (two words that are, quite literally, joined at the roots).

 I'm all for growth and maturity, and even the evolution of ideas, but at a point we must start over, get back to the basics, stop worrying about offending people--the Lord does offend people. If He didn't, He'd not have been executed. If He didn't offend people, none would hate their sins enough to come to legitimate repentance.
 That wasn't a pass to be malicious, but it was an example of how the world will see us, and we must give no credence to the threats and preoccupations of man. For what can man do, after all, but kill the body? This is the beginning of wisdom, that we fear the One who is able to destroy our bodies and throw our souls into Gehenna.

Choosing Friends

 Something has been plaguing me lately, and it's a matter concerning those i call friends. This is not a post intended to share anything that has been learned, but rather a bit of a rant tinged with introspection.
 Second Timothy has a clear warning that, in the "last days," perilous and terrible things will happen.

People will be self-loving, money-loving, proud, arrogant, insulting, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, uncontrolled, brutal, hateful of good, traitorous, headstrong, swollen with conceit, loving pleasure rather than God, as they retain the outer form of religion but deny its power. (v.2-5, CJB)

 What's worse is these things are taught as not only normal, but good.
 "Yes! Love yourself! Be empowered! Do what you want to--" No! This is not the way it's supposed to be.
 And the love of money? Well, golly, nobody loves money, they just want more of it!
 Proud, arrogant, insulting . . . Our society tells us that we should love ourselves, and the result is just these things; we think we're better than everyone else.
 Disobedient to parents. Scarcely in a secular (read: popular) children's program are children actually encouraged to obey their parents. In fact, some actually discourage it. And the generation is evil, wicked, lawless, faithless, and so on.
 I could go on with each topic listed, but i'll cut to the chase.

 One sentence was left out from that passage.

Stay away from these people!

 Other translations (KJV) say, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
 This isn't aimed at heathens--at least not at heathens that don't know Christ. This is aimed at those falsely claiming to be Christians; people that clap their hands on Sunday, pray a prayer, maybe even shed a tear, then go back to their sexual immorality, their vile tongues, their intoxicating drink, their cigarettes, their sports worship, their idolatry, their obsessions with money, their obscene gestures, their crude joking, their filthy forms of entertainment . . .
 Shall i go on, or would that step on even more toes?
 People who claim to follow Christ but ignore the voice of God, are without conviction, teach a false gospel, say something is "innocent enough," make God into a magic genie, repost everything that says to repost it in order for God to bless them (this is a contrary gospel) . . .

"People whose minds no longer function properly and who have been deprived of the truth, so that they imagine that religion is a road to riches." (1 Timothy 6:5, CJB, emphasis mine)

 Stay away from these people (CJB). Have nothing to do with such people (NIV). From such people turn away (NKJV).
 Basically, don't associate with them. Avoid them. Get them out of your life. Purge the contaminate before it makes you sick.

 Again, it does not say to avoid those who don't know any better; Jesus ate with sinners--find me one instance where He chose the company of anyone who claimed to follow Him but only publicly. He didn't. He kept company with sincere hearts and those who had not heard.

 And here we are in the twenty-first century, where ungodliness and vulgarity are praised, where Christ is more often used as a curse than a blessing, where music and movies and television shows openly deny God to the point of portraying anyone who does believe in Him to be stupid. And it has seeped into our churches.
 If a pastor actually condemns sin, he's got a small congregation. If a person speaks of God in daily life, he's laughed at*. If anyone chooses a stricter way of life, they are scorned and people cry, "legalist!*" If one abstains from sexual immorality or from alcohol, they are repeatedly invited to bars and strip clubs*.
 Why?
 Because people hate a Gospel that actually changes you.
 Because it's all supposed to be on the outside.
 Because nothing that flows from the mouth (the overflow of the heart) should have anything to do with God.
 And if it does, it bothers them. They cringe. They don't want to believe that anything is honestly wrong with acting like everyone else. They don't want to see it change someone else because they don't want to have to change themselves. They want to be comfortable with their flesh.
 They're lovers of self.
 Lovers of sin.
 Stay away from these people!

 Who, then, are we left to fellowship with? A circle of honest believers we can count on a single hand? Are we to seek purposeful naivete? Not so! for Christ knew the hearts of those He walked past--He discerned, and yet He chose only eleven (a twelfth that He knew would betray Him).

 And here is a glorious promise, unknowingly fulfilled by the world: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19, ESV)

 We will be hated. Though i have never been beaten nor spit upon nor threatened, merely mocked and ridiculed, for my faith, we should greet it as the apostles; "...overjoyed at having been considered worthy of suffering disgrace on account of Him." (Acts 5:41, CJB)
It is sad for sure when people can insult the idea of Christ dying for them, and that often brings me to tears. But our personal disgrace in the eyes of the world we will count as a grace from God. It means we're doing something right.

 And then there are certainly those who will say, "Well, you know, you have to look at who that was written to," or, "That was for a specific person or group," or, "That doesn't apply anymore because of Christ."
I am taking for granted those same people are discounting the fact that, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living." (2 Timothy 3:16, CJB, emphasis mine)
 All Scripture. That does not have an asterisk, a footnote, a cross-reference, it is just simply put that all Scripture is applicable. That the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the same God who wrought destruction and wrath on Sodom, the same God whose anger makes the earth shake and tremble, the same God who has wrath and fury, is in all actuality the same God that loves us enough to give us Christ as propitiation for sin. Christ did not abolish Scripture, but fulfilled it.
 All Scripture, regardless of who it was written to, is valuable to us for the things mentioned because it is God-breathed.

 *denotes that which i've experienced from Christians

We Stick To Our Guns . . .

 It has been my prayer that God teach me to mourn over those who are perishing, and He has. I can't look at my fellow man, namely those who loosely tout the term, "Christian," while living no differently than the world save for an hour and a half on Sunday. And now my prayer also includes a reputation in Hell.
 This song that's played on the radio where i work ("This Is How We Roll" by Florida Georgia Line--thank you, Google, for supplying lyrics and title) sums up the state of Christianity so well, and it grieves me:

Yeah, we're proud to be young,
We stick to our guns.
We love who we love, and we wanna have fun.
Yeah, we cuss on them Mondays,
And pray on them Sundays.
Pass it around and we dream about one day. 

 That is what Christianity consists of in today's world. "Cuss on them Mondays, pray on them Sundays."
 If this doesn't make your stomach turn and your heart ache, then that song may very well apply to you. "The mix in [your] drink's a little stronger than [i] think." It pains me to see those i respect that call themselves Christians turn around and follow the rest of the world as it heads towards destruction.
 Israel, people of God, Church, Bride! Weep! And do something about it! If people apologize for cussing around you (this is a remark on my own complacency after this past weekend), then by all means apologize to them for not caring enough to impact their lives! Apologize for not desiring to see such a radical change in their lives that they can coexist with a Christian for forty hours a week and not want to experience what you have! Apologize for not caring about their soul enough to show them something real! That's who needs to apologize: you and i, not them.

 God has given each of us mission fields. Yours may be your neighbors, for some of you it may be your families, for others it could be coworkers or friends. That is your mission, and that is your responsibility. You will be held accountable for those put in your path that you don't reach.

 In the name of Christ, make for yourselves a reputation in Hell (Acts 19:15).

 There is a war raging, and Christians have been brainwashed by a very appealing angel of light that we're supposed to be on the defensive, laying down our weapons . . . But gates don't move; they open and close--why, then, will the gates of Hell not prevail against the Kefa, or rock, on which the congregation of Christ is built upon? We are made for siege. The gates of Hell cannot stand up to the battering from the rock of Christ.

 Here are some interesting words in red.

...let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. (Luke 22:36)

 If you are clothed and yet unarmed, you are misprepared. If you have dignity but lack a blade for which to hold against the throat of the devil, you are ill-equipped.

 Our armor of God, which is primarily defensive, conveniently contains a Sword: the Word of God that can separate soul from Spirit, bones from marrow. This is far from defensive; this is a weapon of assault -dare i say, of mass destruction even- in the spiritual realms. This is that Sword which proceeds from the mouth of Christ in Revelation chapter one.

Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishments on the peoples,
to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron,
to execute on them the judgment written!
This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 149:5-9)

 This is not subtlety, this is not passivity, nor even passive-aggressive tendencies. This is full-on warfare. Capturing kings, imprisoning officials, these are acts of war. We are to be exacting justice swiftly all the while singing praises to God.

To quote a song ("Devastator," by For Today),
Hell, fear me. I am the one that will bring you down.
And when you fall, feel me. You’ll see my face on the battleground.
Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Savior,
The One that died to buy my victory, and gave me a new name.
Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Savior,
In the name of the Holy One of God!
I will cast you down at the foot of the cross He hung from.

 This is a proper stance in the realm of spiritual warfare; taking the fight to Satan, all the while exalting Christ.
 Weep, friends, and groan over the abominations committed within the Church (Ezekiel 9). We can't sit idly by and watch the world perish--not while twiddling our thumbs and whistling a catchy, trendy worship song. If the world is going to perish, it must only be allowed to do so as we rush in without care to our reputation while dragging others out.

Unabolished Law

 We do not love more than Christ did. This has been a repeating idea in several of the books i've recently read, and it's true. As much as we water down the Gospel to make it purely "loving," we overlook the idea of Christ in the temple with a whip, shouting, and throwing tables. He also spoke truth to people's sin, cast out demons from people who hadn't asked for prayer, and had little regard for public opinion when He spoke. Much of what He said was harsh.
 We skip much of the Old Testament because, frankly, God just seemed rather ticked off. We don't want to mess with God when He's grumpy.
 But here's the thing; we write off unappealing passages and entire books of the Old Testament because, well, we say, "That's Old Testament." Christ fixed all that, didn't He? Who needs Levitical Law when we have Christ? Who needs Deuteronomy, Numbers, or Exodus, either? Might as well drop part of Genesis, too, since it has a mitzvah or two that we aren't overly fond of, right?
 This is idolatry.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (Torah) or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law (Torah) until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments (mitzvot) and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

 Is Heaven still here? Is earth still here? Then the Law, the Torah (the Law of the books of Moses), does still apply. He, Jesus, even went so far as to say we're not even to relax even the least of them.
 Why would God have written it if only to void it later? Is not the Bible infallible? Is it truth? Or is only part of it of concern for us in the Anno Domini? You may say, "That's Old Testament," but i tell you right now that it is still Testament. If the Ten Commandments are still worth following, why not the rest? I'll tell you why--because the Ten Commandments aren't all that hard! We're okay with them because we can manage them without it creating too much derision between soul and Spirit.

 You may say God's not like that anymore, but i tell you that He is eternal and unchanging! He is the I Am (not to be confused with "I Was;" this is not a temporary statement, but a statement of His nature; He Is)! He does not change like the seasons, He does not go back and forth as the tides.
 You may say He is ruthless, and i would agree; He is ruthless in His pursuit of those He loves. And He is ruthless against those He hates. But how can God hate when God is love? Well, reading over the book of Psalms will confirm that He hates a great many things, including violent and wicked people.
 "But that's not my God," you might say. Precisely. A god made in our finite definition of "good" is much more appealing to us than the universally "good" and true God. To deny the Old Testament God is to deny the One Christ calls "Father."
 He was, He is, and He is to come. Anything that He was, He also is and also will be.

 Do not think this a fit of rage, for this is a moaning of remorse.
 I do not wish to condemn, i only wish to encourage teachers to do what is necessary in order to become "great in the kingdom of Heaven." So often preachers give potent laxative to the order of the Old Testament in some attempt to nullify its authority, but the Word of God is eternal authority, Old or New Covenant. This, again, is an idolatrous misconception. This is a futile attempt to make God in our image, to set Him in a cast to be formed as small, weak, and impotent. The truth of the death of the Law of sin is that the sacrifice has been made.

 I also understand how Paul said that death with Christ and resurrection with Him has made the Law dead to us, but looking at it from Christ's words, the Law is fulfilled and certainly not to be relaxed. The Law of sin, the rituals determined for redemption, this is what is dead to us. The Law has been fulfilled, Christ our provident propitiation. The Spirit descended like a dove, the Lamb was slain, the birds have been rent and their blood spilled and sprinkled with hyssop, whatever it was that had to happen for sin to die, it happened. But that doesn't mean the Law is to be ignored. We can't behave as though it has been relaxed or abolished.

 This is not a free pass to live however we wish. This is a costly pass to enter into the holy of holies, or rather it is a costly pass for the holy of holies to enter into us.

 God was wrathful, He is wrathful, and He is to be wrathful.
 God was ruthless, He is ruthless, and He is to be ruthless.
 God was patient, He is patient, and He is to be patient.
 God was compassionate, He is compassionate, and He is to be compassionate.
 God was merciful, He is merciful, and He is to be merciful.
 Above these things, and Christ our proof, God was love, God is love, and He is to be love.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)

 Christ is the single offering to prove that God was, and is, and is to be loving, faithful, merciful, and compassionate.

All Or Nothing

 God is a complete God. He does nothing part-way, and expects nothing left unfinished by us, either.
Now, when i say that He is a "complete" God, that is taking into account the partial sentence in Genesis 3:22 (unless you read from certain translations such as the NIV). That's a topic for another day, lest i digress. But even that is resolved by His next action.

 It would be easy to get far more in-depth than i'm planning with this, and so will refrain, using few examples.

 Joshua 6 contains my first example; the fall of Jericho. God gives rather strange, albeit specific directions for the Israelites to follow, which includes a week of marching around a city. It wasn't until they had fulfilled all the commands that the walls finally fell. It wasn't until everything God commanded had been fully completed.
And this presents the question of why they had to march instead of God just destroying the stronghold outright. It's a matter of discovering one's level of faith.
And a further question could arise; "If God knows all things, He knows how much faith we have, so He doesn't have to test us." And that's true. He does know how much faith we have. We don't. Job's story is one not of God discovering Job's faith in God, but Job discovering his own faith in God, as well as God's confidence in His faithful ones.
Digressing again.

 The next i'd like to bring up is Abraham and Isaac's encounter at Moriah in Genesis 22.

"After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'"

 Abraham gets the trying directive to go to a place that isn't shown to him at the time of his departure. This isn't the first time, either; in Genesis 12:1, he's told to go to a land that God would show him. That in itself begs more faith than many would be capable of displaying.
But in this, he's told to take his only son (to address the elder brother, Ishmael, born to Hagar, would be another digression), whom he loved, and offer him as a burnt offering. This required Isaac to be tied and placed on a pile of branches, his throat slit, and then burned.
Isaac asked where the lamb was for the offering. How it must have grieved Abraham to tell him that Lord would provide it. Like pouring salt on a wound, or twisting a knife.
He bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, the wood for which Isaac carried himself. Abraham was a hundred years old at Isaac's birth. It's unlikely that Abraham could have tied him up had he resisted, without consent.
And Abraham even gets as far as holding the blade to his son before the angel stops him.
It wasn't enough to just say, "Okay, God, you're most important to me." It took a days-long venture with his son to go and sacrifice his son, all the way unto putting the knife to his son's throat.
There was no doubt in God's mind, no doubt in Abraham's at this point, that God was first in his life.

 There are many other references that could be made on this topic, but those are the only two i have the time (or energy) to read up on and type.
Here's the thing, however; He asks us to do things as completely as He does. He wants utter submission to His commands. He wants us to be limitless on what we'd do in order to serve Him.
We often get into the mindset of, "If I just set myself up to do something, He'll bless me like I did it completely," but that's not how it works. If He asks you to give something up, be it a specific behavior, friends, family, a job, dreams, anything, He means for you to do so without thinking of how to get around it. He is intending to bless you however He intends; the grace part is giving you the chance and conviction to give up something for Him, to act recklessly for Him, to lose everything for Him. That is a grace in itself. Cherish it. Everything you have gained should be counted as loss for His sake. Our glory comes from what He asks of us, the sacrifices He calls us to make; not by our means, but by His grace.

 I'm sure, at times, we'll say, "God, what on earth are You thinking?" And His answer will probably be silence. The more you ask that, the more silent He may seem to be. But that's perhaps good. The more reason for doubt there is in something that we persevere through, the more wondrous the glory we see.

 There are no partials in Christ. There is all in Christ, or not in Christ. He loves entirely, wants to be loved entirely. Better to be hot or cold than lukewarm.
Surely, the greatest case against a belief in God's grace is seeing someone living the same after meeting Him as before. Someone who is one way in church and another outside of it; this is the greatest representation of why someone should not believe their testimony.
He wants living sacrifices of our human nature to be fully engulfed in the flame on the altar so that there is nothing left of it. He wants everything we are to die there, so that everything He is can live where it was.
The opportunity -and calling- to lay myself down in such a way is the greatest grace i can imagine Him asking of me.
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Too Busy . . .

So, brainstorming last night, after a time in which such an occurrence would've been most advantageous, even healthy, i came across an interesting verse. In all actuality, what brought me to this particular verse was an 'extra-reading prompt' in a book.
The verse that has becmoe the object of my attention and fascination is Psalm 37:3.

"Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness."

I love that. There are various types of poetry in the Bible, and this verse is of a particular type where the first line is supplemented by the second without furthering degrees.
That's focusing on the technical, and nothing technical is ever quite as beautiful as the poetic, so i want to bring out something especially poetic about this verse.

A friend is someone you enjoy the company of, someone you trust, converse with, observe, and admire.
It's not the person you think, "Oh, well maybe this would be better without them."
No, a friend is the person who makes things more pleasant just by having them around, someone you discuss things with and have room in your mind and schedule for. Anything else is not true friendship.
And here, in this verse, the Bible says to befriend faithfulness as if it were an incarnate being, tangible and living.

Wisdom, likewise, is given imagery as a woman crying out in the streets.
Wisdom is the person we all glance at as we walk past, avoid eye contact, and say we wish her the best, all the while secretly having some sort of pity for her.

"Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks..."

That's Proverbs 1:20-21.
To make a correlation, here's a verse from Psalm 24:

"Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in."

Lift up your heads, O gates! You are the gate, lift up your head so that God may enter. We are the visible Body of Christ to the world; it's through us that His glory makes entrance into this world.
Now, at the city gates, wisdom speaks and beckons you to hear her words so that you may be prosperous and safe. For your good, and at the entrance of the city gates no less.

She cries aloud in the street; she is on the street where you walk, where you live, the path on which you travel daily.
Where you carry out errands, work, shop, she is shouting, here at the markets.
At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; wherever we are, she is at the center of it, trying to be noticed, crying out for your attention, but it's a loud street.
She is trying to speak to every thought that comes into your head by being stationed at the entrance of the city gates, the head of the street, the markets . . .
In everything, Wisdom is trying to make herself known to you.

Here we have two virtues, wisdom and faithfulness, being presented as embodied and living, and with intent.
Two qualities of God that are either offering friendship or else screaming at you to just give mind to her words.
And yet, the streets stay busy and loud, the gates are still being told to lift up their heads, we are still being told to befriend faithfulness, as though these were not commonplace and already accepted among all. On the contrary, Wisdom would not have to raise her voice nor cry out. If we gave due mind, she could whisper and we would listen.
But our streets are yet still noisy.

Cultural Differences

"Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies...Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" (Psalm 27:11, 14 ESV)

The world is entirely opposed to Christianity because Christianity is entirely adjacent the world.
Christianity does not conform to the world nor the "progression" (a misnomer, as progression implies a measure of positive change; progress) of the world in such that the Bible does not change. It is a living thing, it affects everyone differently, but the words stay the same, and the world has an issue with any two-thousand year old text written that shapes lives today in different ways than it did a century or a millennium ago.
What's more, society is against a belief system that says that all people are equal, believers in it or otherwise. We crave exclusion, something that says we're of an elite group, even if we're not. That's why so many organizations exist, as well as titles and such. We always want to have a one-up on everybody else, and the Bible destroys that line of thinking by telling us that anyone can be saved, and that God loves all of us, even the sinners and the "Christ-killers." They are opposed to the idea of a merciful God who loves unconditionally and tells us that if we're to be truly abundant outwardly and inwardly, we must love both our neighbors and our enemies alike (as G. K. Chesterton said, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people”).

The world hates the idea of a murderer being no more a sinner than a petty thief or a liar or an adulterer (being one who looks at another with lust, not only those that have sexual relations outside of marriage). This ideology says that we all have sinned, and that all have broken part of the Law and, therefore, broken the whole Law, and that we must humble ourselves to overcome our offenses. And, simply put, people who have said a seemingly innocent "no" when the answer was "yes" or have malicious/hateful thoughts just don't want to be lumped in together with a murderer or a child molester.
So the only answer to how society sees the Christian culture is for them to shun it.
Jesus covered this, as did certain apostles, in saying the world will hate us because we're not like them, because of Christ's sake.

But i would like to look back, pre-Christ, for an answer, and the verses at the beginning of this post, though not written about this particular situation, are not irrelevant.
I don't want to call the world our enemy, but the world has set itself against Christians, be it in the tame mocking we receive here in the United States, or the martyrdom found in other nations. Persecution, in all its forms, of Christ is becoming quite rampant, so it is safe to say they're our enemies, whereas it's perhaps more precise to call us their enemies.
But if we have faith in God, He will lead us on a level path because of our enemies. So wait, be strong, have courage--wait for the Lord.

Not By Faith, Nor By Works . . .

Most of us know the line, "Faith without works is dead." James 2 says it rather bluntly. James even goes so far as to call one who believes in faith apart from works a "foolish person." He then says it was Abraham's works that justified him when he offered Isaac on the altar.
So there's an example of works justifying a person, but note it does not say works alone. "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works..."
See, it's not faith alone, but certainly not works alone either. Faith is completed by works, by the heart of servitude, but a heart of servitude is nothing of itself. Faith; it says even the demons believe—and shudder. Faith in itself is without merit, lest we respect the demons for their belief that Christ is the Son of God.

Romans 3 seems to have another perspective on this; if we preach, if we do works in the name of God, it's nothing.
"For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin."

If we are a good person, living by the Law (Torah) of the Bible, it does no good. Therefore, Paul says, no human being will be justified by his works.
It seems to contradict, but they fit together in a puzzle of logic that, after it's realized, is quite plain. It goes back to several things Jesus spoke of, which i will reference in a moment.

Faith justifies, not works of the Law, Paul says.
Works justify, not faith alone, James says.
The contradiction melts when you see that Paul and James both amount to faith requiring a resolution. To bring one's faith to fruition, we become inclined to follow the Law of God. And in order to follow the Law, we are to love others as ourselves. This singular commandment is manifested by doing what we to align others to our own level, or else lower ourselves to theirs. This commandment, this Law, is fulfilled when we have works, not just when we say to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body.

"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

There are the words of Jesus from Matthew 7:21-23

He makes it very clear in this that "workers of lawlessness" will be cast out. Not everyone who says to Him "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of Heaven. Not by faith, but by works.
However, many who have cast out demons and done works will also be cast out. Not by works.
The culmination here is the very seeming contradiction between Paul and James; faith is justified by works, and works justified by faith. Works alone are futile, likewise faith alone is futile.

I think most anyone reading this would know the story of the "Rich young ruler," but i'll post it anyways.

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

This is interesting to me because it emphasizes that which was said in Matthew 7; a man came to Christ and wanted to inherit eternal life. He called Jesus "Good," which was a no-no, because only God is Good. This implies he has faith.
Jesus then set out a list of commandments and said to follow them. He had since youth. This implies he has works.

He should be good. But no. One more thing is necessary. Show a work of faith. He has faith, and he has works, but he has them apart from one another. Now Jesus is calling him to have works entwined with his faith. And that's where he falters. He is not able to do works out of faith.
And he leaves very sad, because he was extremely rich.

By no works can a man enter Heaven, nor by faith alone. It's impossible for man to enter Heaven by earthly means. However, what is impossible with man, Jesus says, is possible with God. Only with God can we be saved. Do not rest on your faith, nor on your works, but let your faith change your heart and resolve it in works--and know it's not by your doing that you're saved, but by the grace of God.

All Things Work Together for Good . . .

Romans 8:28.
Many of us have it memorized without knowing what verse of what chapter of what book it's in.
"Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with His purpose;"

That's the CJB translation. That verse doesn't apply to everyone, obviously. "Those who love God and are called in accordance with His purpose."

This verse is speaking specifically to the "called" to God. Some have a natural tendency towards faith, and what a blessing that must be.

But let's look at the two promises in this.

"We know that God causes everything to work together for the good . . ."

That is only one statement, but two things are actually being promised here.

First, we have things working out for the good of God's people. This seems a joyous promise -and oh, how it is!- but we must look at what good is when it comes to humanity. Good is the fruit of the Spirit. Good is loving, good is humility, good is being gentle, good is having hope, good is . . . Good is such matters.

Now look at some other verses for the second promise of this.

Romans 5:3-5;

"But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope; and this hope does not let us down, because God’s love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) who has been given to us."

2 Corinthians 12:7;

"Therefore, to keep me from becoming overly proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from the Adversary to pound away at me, so that I wouldn’t grow conceited."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7;

"Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful,

not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered,
and it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not gloat over other people’s sins
but takes its delight in the truth.
Love always bears up, always trusts,
always hopes, always endures."

Now, look at those verses. These are how we gain hope, humility, and love (for many years, I did not know that 1 Corinthians 13 was a poem), respectively.

1) Hope; through tribulation, trouble, suffering, pain, misery . . . Despair! The very antonym of hope is the means by which we achieve it. We must suffer to gain hope.

We must suffer to achieve this good--and not by our own means, but by the Holy Spirit. Not only are we to accept our trials, but we're to delight in them because they will be used by God for our good.

2) Humility; through a thorn in the flesh, through a messenger of Satan himself. It was likely a constant reminder of his past (it could be anything, but i perceive it to be a memory, possibly of a Christian he'd killed "in the name of God." But that's just my imagination). It was this very thing, this demon, this tormentor, this thing "pound[ing] away" at him that kept him humble.

Humility achieved through, again, suffering. God used this suffering for good.

3) Love; we often think of this passage as being all kind and sweet and soft and mellow . . . But it should be applied to us.

Someone getting on your nerves and not leaving you alone? Be patient (or, literally, long-suffering; suffer endlessly through what you're being put through; that is love).
Return evil with kindness. Don't be jealous that someone who has wronged you is being promoted over you--be happy for them. Don't boast that you have this certain skill, or you have achieved something great. Don't build yourself up in the eyes of others, but elevate them. If someone insults you, hold your tongue; don't be rude, but rather, again, kind.
So on and so forth.

This isn't so easy when it's seen as an application for your own life. Are you living in love?
Do you forgive completely, keeping no record of wrongs (not seven times, but seventy times seven; that's how often we're to forgive a person in a single day--losing track of their sins against us probably around the fourth or fifth)? Do you always bear up, though you have little encouragement to offer? Are you always trusting, to the point of naivete? Do you always have a hopeful perspective to a situation, confident that God is in control, even to the loss of a loved one? Do you persevere, enduring to the end, despite being in a sea where the end is a horizon that is retreating at the exact same pace in which you pursue it?

That is what good is. It's self-sacrifice. It's loss of self for the benefit of others. Our love is good, because it is selfless.

Now, let's look again at Romans 8:28; "Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with His purpose;"

See the second promise in this? God is promising we will be tested, we will be stressed, we will suffer, we will know despair and pain and torment.

But the first promise, the obvious one, says that He will work it together for our good, if we wait it out. If we trust. If we hope. If we endure.