Home

Inside of everyone there is basic longing for Home. It has manifested itself since the time of the fall, and yet, even before that. A longing to walk in the garden with our Lord. It is a need for security, but at a deeper look, it is a need for Heaven.

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” — II Timothy 4:6-8

The cry of the heart never ceases. As a society, we are told to “follow your heart”: a seemingly simple idea. When applied to most situations it leads to a selfish move, usually at the expense of others. But this advice, which has been silenced by a correctly conservative faction, is not totally wrong. The long lost memory of Eden and the presence of God is written in the inward-most parts of men and in that context, we are to follow the tug on our heartstrings backwards, toward Him.

For we all, young and old alike, look towards “home” with longing. We all seek a safe abode. Is this selfish in itself? No. It is God’s stamp on His children that we belong to Him. As prodigal children we know we have failed, and we look with shame upon ourselves. We doubt that anyone could love us in spite of our failures, especially a perfect and faultless God. But that is not the case. In fact, the opposite is true. God loves His children indefinitely.

And though here below we find little to console us, there is this fact that Paul issues to Timothy. The Lord of All has stored for us crowns of righteousness to be presented on the day of our arrival home. His love for His children is unfailing, even as ours wavers. Those who are bought by the blood of Christ are redeemed in full, not to be burdened with grief and self-pity, but with rejoicing that we have a Home to return to. We will someday walk once again in the presence of our God.

And there in Heaven we are made perfect, and we will sing praises to the Author of Grace, without a question or doubt. There, at Home, we will find fullness and our thirsting hearts will be quenched. No more will we lie in desolation, depressed by the pain of sin. There we will be made whole, those who are saved, and we will no longer bear the iniquities of our mistakes.

And yet, there is more. Not only will this process happen in Heaven, but it has already happened! Nailed to the Cross of Calvary, our sins perished and our shame was laid upon the shoulders of the Almighty. On Golgotha’s Hill the guilty were made guilt-free and our poor souls chained in sin were abolished. There our guilt was taken away, and in its place, hope and confidence in the Spirit were administered.

For the Christian, Home is just over the next rise. Heaven is near, and never a sweeter sound could be heard than that of our Master saying “Well done my good and faithful servant.” In that, find peace. Know that God’s grace is sufficient for the brokenhearted and downtrodden. Your sins, once repented, are relinquished and no longer have any hold on you.

Turn your eyes steadfastly to the New Jerusalem and look not on the blunders of yesterday. Repent, and move forward! For what does it profit a man to stand looking into the past with remorse, when Home, and peace, lies ever so near?

Establishment

“In the Beginning…” We all know exactly what one is talking about when we hear those words. We know the story…God was there and did some stuff, said some words and BAM, everything was made in the course of a week. Its good stuff, and its imprinted into our minds just how we think it went down. But there, “in the beginning,” an unfathomable amount of establishment took place, in short, three very big things were established: The Heavens and The Earth, The Trinity, and The Battle of Fundamentalism vs. Apostasy.

As we can see obviously from the written text, God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence with the sound and power of His voice. He called for it and saw it happen. He put the planets into spin and tilted one specifically on its axis to support seasons and thus, life. God went on to make all forms of plant life, animals and the crown jewel of His creation, humans. And He made them, male and female, Adam and Eve, for companions. God has an unimaginable amount of angels and seraphim and whatnot in the Heavenly Places for His glorification, but the Bible says the we were given a special place in the heart of God, by the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, a place that “the angels would desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:12). So God establishes, opening and clearly, the heavens and the Earth, for His glory, in His time. But upon observation of the verse, there are other things moving, as we work backward into the depth of the first chapter of Genesis.

We will be focusing on the first three verses for the rest of this writing, and they read (in the KJV) “1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” In these few verses, the Trinity is made manifest (established for us to witness). The very first verses of the Bible and we already have its main Character(s). First we see God, the Father, and He is creating. “He created the heaven and the earth…” That is His role here, to create. By what power does He create it, but as His [Holy] Spirit moved. The Spirit of God entered into this new creation and stired those dark waters, that was the medium of creation. And the Way that He created was through the Word of God. He spoke, and said “Let there be light…” From the start He establishes the Trinity: The Father, The Holy Spirit and The Son (who truly is “the Word” as sited by John in the beginning of his gospel). So notice there that Jesus was present and all that was made, was made by Him, for surely He was the very Word of God that caused that great light to exist (John 1:1-3). So we can say that the Trinity was established, although all parts totally infinite, They entered into a finite world, created by Themself, and were made manifest for the coming of mankind.

The final thing that was established that we will look at was the conflict of Light and dark. As John again states, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:4-5). When God said “let there be light,” He meant it! And light came into being. From that moment on, in our world, there was conflict. There was “Light vs. dark” and as established in the beginning, Light wins. Always. When God’s Word, Christ, came onto the scene at creation, darkness fled because it had to. Light and darkness cannot co-exist, for that would negate the being of darkness (which is, in fact, a simple absence of light). So in this world God has established, from the beginning, a fight. A battle of wrong and right of galactic proportions. He battled the darkness in the beginning and He established that Light in His people. Christ, who is the “light of man”, by way of the Spirit, moved in and overcame the darkness, and He is still in the same business. He was when He came to earth in the form of a man, and He is today, after defeating darkness once and for all on that rugged cross of Calvary.

We have in our created bodies, a Holy war, established by God and quickened in our souls by the Spirit through the Word. We are to stand against darkness and evil, just as our example in the beginning showed us. Stand strong, friends, for the battle is won, through the Blood of Christ, and we are on the winning side.

Now, as to not totally take credit for this, I highly recommend the sermon “Fundamentalism vs. Apostasy” by Dr. Ian R.K. Paisley, on sermonaudio.com. This sermon is an honest picture of God’s call on the hearts of His creation and paints a true portrait of His character in our lives. Check it out!

Slaughterhouse

The Grass is not
The sidewalk is hot
then soft, then hard
as we peer through iron bars
Clutching Lifelines
(mostly deified)
All the others have their Mother
but I pray to the Father,
Not out of arrogance
Just difference
I suppose
Only Heaven Knows.
Regardless, here we stand together
Against this wicked blockade
Buffeted by hellish weather
and angry horns honk on the highway
While those we try to save
Just drive away
Nothing left to say
Just Stand
And Pray.

The New Gnostic

The Christian fight has taken an interesting turn, hearkening back to the days of Justin Martyr battling the gnostic sects bent on destroying the opportunity of Free Grace preached in the Gospels in the first century after Christ’s resurrection. In that early church setting, intellect was prized above all, and only those devoted to a life of humility understood that in this drama written by God’s own Hand we are not the main characters, He is. The perverted “christianity” that the gnostics taught in their schools of theology placed the uttermost importance on self-service and learning the hidden meanings to the Scriptures, meanings that were not there to begin with, in order to make yourself a better man, and in thus, fixing yourself a better seat at the Heavenly Table. Though technically this practice of thought is dead, go into your local bookstore and locate the “Christian” section. Read through the titles and select a few books. I can promise you that most will be not on Christian living, nor tips on witnessing, no compelling sermons of the Spirit, but on a new gnosticism, in search of wisdom of this world.

We are not called to be partakers in this kind of wisdom. It is very important to be versed in the Scriptures and to be walking in accordance with the Holy Bible, but there is a “secret knowledge” that these books teach of “lost gospels” and “hidden meanings” that is supposedly also God-breathed. Don’t believe it. We have the books of the Bible, all of which are infallible and perfect (in their original languages, mind you) from the Mouth of God by way of the pen of His servants. It is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” and it is as applicable today as it ever was (II Tim. 3:16). These newly found “gospels” are not the words spoken of the Spirit, but they are used in our society today to claim falsehood on our Holy Bible and to throw a hint of gnostic revelation on the scene in presenting wisdom to be added to the Book.

Be careful of this ancient wisdom, as it were, for it is a snare set by Satan. He used it against the church once before, long ago, and he is trying to use it again. With such a draw to these things by “The DiVinci Code” and our undying love for ancient, secret lore and treasure (“National Treasure”, “Indiana Jones”, “Jewel Of The Nile”…) we hang ourselves by letting it enter our hearts, and permeate our relationship with God. We douse the flame of the Spirit with the dust of long dead heretic doctrine and silence the voice of God for the rattle of dry bones. There is nothing to be gained in these false wisdoms, only a separation from the God of Truth.

We not only have to guard our own hearts against these atrocities, but we must be able to speak against them. When Paul traveled to Athens and wandered through the pagan temple square, he stopped on Mars’ Hill and he preached with fire in his belly and the Word of God on his lips. He didn’t preach a soft-hearted sermon of peace, he preached the Truth in all its boldness. And amongst the temples that he was tearing down with words he stood before a people who were foreign to him in nature, belief and culture, he did not err on one jot of the Gospel. He preached it in it’s fullness. The Love of God and the rejection of evil. You must have both! And we must have both when we speak out against the wicked one. We must stand tall on the “Mars’ Hill” of our neighborhoods, our mission fields, our pulpits and preach the Truth without fear. We must combat against evil, and “when done all else, to stand” against wickedness.

We have the mystery of old. The wisdom that the world seeks, the knowledge that these new gnostics turn up in broken jars buried in sand, the hopeless drive to “understand” your way into Heaven, only leads in the opposite direction. They chase wisdom and understanding, but not the Author of those, and we, who know that Author, must not allow the true blood salvation of Christ to be tainted by the poison of the new gnostic.

Pillars Of Fire, Pillars Of Ash

Throughout ancient history, the most glorious honour awarded a man was to be burned a top a pyre and have his life commemorated through stories of his chivalry and mastery in the field. Though this is, obviously, a self-glorifying end, we can recognize this as the end goal for our lives as Christians as well. I struggled with this for a long time, thinking how terrible it would be to simply live your life in hopes of being remembered for generations after you are gone. But in light of bringing glory to God, a new factor is introduced to this seemingly pagan ritual, and I can say that surely, at the end of our lives, we should be remembered as pillars of ash, totally consumed by Holy Ghost fire, that fire itself shining a light towards the Lord of Heaven for passersby of the next and next generations.

As the conversation commenced tonight on the veranda, with the company of the “gentleman’s group” that I’ve mentioned before, we discussed the theology of cremation. Should we opt for our bodies to be burned rather than buried, and is it at all linked to Christianity? Although we came to the understanding that, as a testimony to our faith in a resurrected body, we should opt to be buried (as if we truly have any say in the matter, as we are dead and gone when those arrangements are made), another form of cremation should be taken into consideration. Like the stub of ash that remains at the bottom of the pipe bowl, we too should strive to be so totally burned up with the Spirit that our lasting remains, in the spiritual sense, are left as a pile of ashes: none of our own glory to be remembered, but a true reminder of what a life dedicated to Christ looks like. And in our ashy remains there is glory to God, in showing that we are nothing, if not His servant.

The greatest authors in the Christian faith that have passed before understood this and left their works for us to follow by. Not to glorify themselves, but to clarify the Gospel and instruct further in the Ministry of the Holy One. From the great prophets of old, on to the New Testament pastors and up through Augustine, on to Luther and Calvin, Wesley, Whitefield and Edwards, Spurgeon, Chesterton, Lewis, Tozer and Ravenhill…and that tradition of Godliness carries on to our generation as well. To be servants to the Almighty and not lack in leaving instruction for our successors.

That in itself is a scary thought perhaps: to live as a bondservant to Christ. In truth though, it is only there that freedom is found. For before, we have nothing, no possibility in doing good, only those things perceived as “good.” Without Christ mankind is fallen, and fallen completely, totally absent of God and all that is good. Without the Author of Good dwelling in our hearts, we are in fact bad. He is “I Am”, we are “i am not.” In a life of servitude to the Father, we find ourselves free to experience His Joy, at the liberty of following the straight path, and knowing that His Will reigns sovereign and true. With this life of selflessness, we find ourselves also at the liberty of being able to leave a legacy of Christian faith for those who come after us.

We must build our fires, as we are “the light of the world,” and burn brightly for those in the darkness. Are we stoking the fires of revival in our breast, or are we smothering them in humiliation? God I pray that you would engulf me in Your Spirit, that I would burn completely for your glory and that the smoke from my ashes would stand as a “sweet savour” unto your nostrils and as a guidepost for brothers and sisters in Your Way.

Gospel In The Streets

American society revolves around politics. So much so, in fact, that we find it odd to recognize many middle eastern governments being centered on their belief system. To combat the declining moral standards in our beloved country, the general consensus is to vote for a political policy that sways to your economical and moral convictions. Though this is true, the populous has lost sight of a very valuable tool for social reform: itself!

So often we hear “well this would not have happened so poorly if ’so-n-so’ had been in office” or “vote for ‘whats-his-name’ for a brighter tomorrow,” yet we see no personal action toward improving our world. Its as if we expect revival in our streets by the conduct of one man (or as this year has posed, woman) in the White House and expect nothing of ourselves. A word of “prophecy”, there will be no reformation until the hearts of the public are reformed. How can we say that our neighborhoods are overrun with evil, when we are too selfish to love our neighbor? Is there any hope for a nation that looks only to its elected officials for hometown hope?

America needs revival. Wickedness riots in our streets with hate and racism and death lives in the homes of so many in the form of thievery, rape and abortion. We don’t even cry to God anymore for salvation from these evils, we look only to the ballot box. Can we find a renewed America in a new president? No. I encourage the population to vote according to your personal convictions (and pray that those be Spirit-led) but moreso, I must stress the importance of personal politics. God outside of you comfort zone and identify with your neighbor. Engage in a selfless act of kindness. It is not new policies from Washington that will end the corruption in our nation, it is personal renewal, through the Holy Spirit, that will force our nation into a subsequent reformation.

It is a hopeless thing to think that our nation of fallen souls can actually accomplish anything selfless. It is true, they cannot. We cannot. Only by God’s power in our justification that we are made into the image of holiness, and then we can, in turn, express that holiness through His commands (“love thy neighbor as thyself,” “preach the Gospel to all the nations,” “…visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”). This world is broken, and the politics that here in America, especially getting more and more this time of year, are incomplete. Without a population of changed people willing to leave their comfort zones to make a difference, without a dedication to the Work of the Lord (and I say work in not the easiest manner. This will be no easy task, but a necessary one) and the spreading of His Love and Gospel, we will continue on this vicious, self-devouring cycle into the grave.

Pray for your nation. Pray for its leaders. And follow the Lord into the battleground of your neighborhood, for He has called us in the localest of mission fields as well as those far away. You are a soldier for God, stop cowering in fear of your fellowman.

The Sound Of The Abundance Of Rain

The thing the floors me the most about God might just be the rain. I love the rain. Never in another natural occurrence is God’s Mercy and Grace so fully understood. Its raining here after a very hot week, and in Texas, rain is almost always seen as a blessing. What God speaks in His rain is that He cares for His children. And as Elijah, I can say now “I hear the abundance of rain…”

We have no control over the rain. We cannot make it rain anymore than we can take a leap into the air and fly to the moon. God gives rain as a free gift, and in that gift, is Grace: His forgiveness of our sins. This Grace is given freely, of course, as there is no act that we can do that will forgive us. We are helplessly stuck in the quicksand of self-involvement. If we, who are indeed stuck, look around for help, that help cannot come from us. For how can one man save another from the same fate he himself is destined for? How can one hell-bound soul save another on the same path? We must look up! And from the highest throne of Heaven comes that magnificent rain of Grace upon our wounds, the Hand of the Lord is upon us to pull from the mire.

It used to bother me that I could not control my fate, that God was in control. But rebellion is a dangerous thing, and it only drags you down deeper. As you struggle to free yourself you only sink more until finally you must recognize that the only way out is up, and the only one up is God. And His hand of mercy, not by any act, but as a free gift, chooses to reach down and save you. Thank God that He alone is sovereign and I am indebted to Him. Praise Him, for He alone is worthy and not one of us is. This free Grace, falling on our sins and washing them all away, bathing us in the precious Blood of Christ and claiming us for His Kingdom is a gift that we do not deserve, but I thank Him for it. Praise God that He is mighty to save, and bathe again!

“Grace, Grace, God’s Grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse, within
Grace, Grace, God’s Grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

Keeping The Faith

In this rough and tumble world of sin we are constantly bombarded with temptations from the mouth of Hell. It is not enough to call yourself a Christian, and have your belief weakened daily. We must consecrate our vows of servitude to the Almighty with a life bound to His Will, for His glory. To seek God in His fullness, we must first reject ourselves, in our fullness. For God has a place for us already, He has a plan and a perfect Will for our lives. In order to follow that already written script, we must lay fresh our iniquities and daily ask forgiveness of our trespasses. To quote Leonard Ravenhill, “we must lay down each night to our funerals and cry out to God to crucify our flesh anew…” No doubt this crawling to the feet of Jesus and confessing our sins causes more than a little discomfort in our tainted hearts, but we can take joy in knowing that through praying to our Father for a renewed mind and sound heart, we shall receive.

The kicker of the whole matter is that God is worthy of our praise and we are not. Though it seems harsh from the world’s view that we, as Christians, should call for a total dependency on God (“bondservants” as Paul), the truth is that all of humanity, nay all of Creation, operates in existence by His Hand and Good Nature. So to live for ourselves is not only a dangerous road to walk, but a complete disregard for power. What power have we to turn the tides or spin the planet on its axis? What power have we even to breathe? The human body cannot, in fact, keep itself running without miracles daily. When was the last time you had to tell your heart to beat or tell your lungs to breathe? The subconscious mind is something of a spectacular supernatural script, written for each of us, to ensure a, more or less, smooth operating machine without our conscious mind having to run it. It is in our hardest of hearts that we tend to take the glory from God and somehow place it on ourselves. But can you have faith in yourself without faith in God?

A business man may have faith in his skills to trade stocks. He somehow “knows” when to buy or sell. A physician may have faith in his instruments, that the defibrillator will not fail in the moment of necessity. A pastor may have faith in his sermon, that it will be attractive to the masses and bring his church more members (and therefore more tithes); but all of this is in vain without a faith in God. For who holds the universe in His palm? We, who can no more “turn one black hair to white,” have no power without that which is given us by our Father. The servants of the master in Jesus’ parable in Matthew, did not own the talents they were entrusted with, but were to use them in the place of the master. So we, who have nothing, are taken into the fold of God and entitled to His Will, not because we have the ability to do so ourselves, but because He adopted us into His Family. We now share in “Abraham’s blessing” and are part of God’s chosen people.

So where does our faith lie when times get tough? Can we look to ourselves for salvation? No…for we are fallen. We must turn our eyes upon Jesus in those times, for He bought us with His blood, we are His bride, and He is the Almighty “I Am”, only in Him is there strength. Only in Him can we find hope.

The Truth of Tobacco

By the title you would think this is to be about the harmful effects of tobacco on the human body. Quite the contrary, as I could care less what the media suggests is good or evil. In fact, this is about the helpful effects that tobacco has produced in my mind and soul.

Well, kinda.

Last night an exclusive club of gentlemen (myself included) took the liberty of traveling to the local cigar shop and…well that part of the story is not compelling to the rest. The only eventful thing there was that one of the members bought a pipe, much like my own. Anyway, we retired to the veranda and as we began to discuss life and God (as we seemingly always do) we came to the conclusion that we do a lot of talking. Now, that is not to say that we are chatterboxes, but that is to say that we do a lot of talking in comparison to our actions. We have these conversations on how to beat addiction, how to live in faith of the Will of God, how to minister to the lost and I would imagine that if these practices came into play in our everyday lives, we would be effective pieces in God’s game plan.

The sad part of it is that we are all talk. “We,” our group of smokers, and “we,” the protestant side of the Bride of Christ (as I am not a Catholic, I cannot speak for them, though I would imagine that they too share in this epidemic of sluggardness) are non-actors. What will it take to get us to apply this Godly wisdom to our existence? We treat it as though we can sit around and talk about God and that is good enough. Inside, we all know that we are called to follow Christ in His simple outreach of “follow Me” and we know that we ought to live according to Paul’s dissertation at the end of I Thessalonians: “…warn them that are unruley, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil…” That was written for us!

What will it take to wake us up? What will it take to shake our foundations of founder? “Pray without ceasing.” This is the pinnacle of Paul’s sermon. Prayer is the most effective tool that the Christian church has at its disposal. And yet, how often do we take it for granted? How often do we simply push prayer to the side of the bed and once in a while, as we are crawling in (and only then if we are not too tired) do we offer up a little “forgive me of my sins” or “thank you Jesus”? Prayer is the uttermost precious gem in the crown of life, but we have turned it into “more of a purgatory than a privilege,” as Dr. Ian Paisley has so emphatically put it. This is our lifeline. This is our hope for a strengthened resolve against the guiles of Satan. We must take this seriously. It is a war out there, would it do any good for a soldier to go into battle without consulting his commanding officer? And yet we think that we can, by our own strength, fight without communing with the Chiefest of Generals.

I find it hard to put constraints on prayer. The most of effective and heartfelt prayer in the entire Bible may very well be Peter’s cry to Christ as he is sinking on the sea, “Lord, save me!” I am not sure I totally agree with Leonard Ravenhill that “any pastor who does not pray two hours each day is not worth his weight in salt,” but there is no excuse for a poor prayer life. Refusing to speak to God? We ought to be ashamed! Our Master and Creator, the Ruler of the Universe, and we have more important things to do than communicate with Him? How ludicrous! But I am guilty of this negligence, and I see it throughout the Christian body today.

I say all of this, not to condemn our pipe-and-cigar group, but to say that as we got down into our tobacco last night, God met us there, opened our spirits to His Spirit, and convicted us of this truth. Whatever harm tobacco may do to the body is no comparison to the help of this one realization that the Father has brought to our attention. Oh God, that our eyes be opened to see Your Hand, that our ears be open to hear Your Voice and our hearts be open to Your Spirit daily!

Grace to Grass

In mortal mind I could not fathom
Through freeform or the strictest verse
The glory giv’n from an atom
To the Creator of our universe
And how the sea of sin-made chasm
Is Crossed entirely
By the sacrifise of the last Adam
For wretched lot, like me

But come not I in questioning
That Grace so freely given
But here I fall on bended knee
Before the throne of Heaven
With star-stuck eyes that cannot see
And ears closed up from sin
But heart, He-turned, He turned in me
That I might burn in Him

And should I live till He returns
It will never cease amaze
That He would love what should be burned
Enough to give His Grace
For grassy set, no roots to sod,
Though made to be a flower,
We were nothing more than fire fod
Before His Grace devoured.