What Is Your Will In Christ?

Who am I but a single lowly seed bearing a certain promise, plucked from a fire ignited by my own iniquity... The promise I bear was endowed prior by the same hand that saved me and I am saved by no redeeming quality or accomplishment of my own, but purely by the grace of my redeemer. I am but a seed, small and indistinguishable among countless others. I bear the traits of the heritage of my forefathers, stained by the same imperfections as they. I could be counted worthless as I am no noticeable prize among the innumerable horde of others. Yet, lowly as I may appear even to myself, I have been counted worthy to be saved and singled out by the hand of my savior. My redeemer knowingly suffered the burning pain of my iniquity to save this single lowly seed, saving the endowed promise within. Now I am willingly and joyfully convicted by my own conscience to bear the fruit of the promise within me to the one who gracefully saved me. And I discover that through no credit to myself,...

I pray that the crushing of my heart - the grief and repulsion that becomes exposed when revisiting the true and extreme anguish suffered by my Savior in the course of my rescue becomes unwavering resolve. His suffering leading up to the cross, every humiliation, every blow, every lash and every insult and finally, every moment that He hung on that cross was knowingly and patiently suffered with intention - to save me. I am and will be unendingly grateful for the forgiveness that I've received because of what my Lord has done for me. His grace in my salvation will always be heralded and responded to with extreme gratitude in my heart as is right. But every opportunity to meditate even briefly on the subject exposes something more in my soul that is hard for me to contain. It provokes something more, something always present, residing just beneath the surface - raw and very powerful....  I've been married to the same awesome daughter of God for forty years. We married young...

*** I wrote this piece n early five years ago   after years of attention to the changing spirit and values of our nation and surrounding world. I was considerably concerned then. Now, I'm even far more deeply concerned by what I see and hear being raised up against what was once considered valuable and acceptable and were once based on Godly standards. And while these current societal standards seemingly change on the whim of both individual and collective lust and pride, our God's standards haven't changed in the slightest. There's a collision and a reckoning coming and that day's not far off - it gets closer every day. If you've read this piece before, I hope that you'll read it again and consider while you read what's changed in the last five years to further conflict with God's standards and His people. Where are the mighty men of valor and the awesomely powerful, Godly women   warriors  standing firm and raising their voices in objection to th...

I remember that back in Mrs. Sprague's fifth grade class (many years ago) we were each given an assignment to create a poster reflecting the virtues of eating a healthy diet. The particular subject at hand was related to the benefits of drinking milk and each of us were given the task of creating an artwork reflecting the positive slogan "Milk, It Does A Body Good". With that, I began to become conscious of the physical benefits of eating a healthy diet. It wasn't too many years later that I began to realize that another popular and similar health related slogan - "You are what you eat"... might have dual implications The ability of our diet to affect our physical bodies has of course been known for a very long time. In fact, the Bible even makes some reference to this truth. For example, take our brother Daniel and his three companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their all vegetable diet. The results of their experiment, taken in spite of their c...

I've wrestled with the notion that I'm about to bring up - not because I have any conscious tendency to espouse it, but because the very attitude that it conveys presents the tempting opportunity to offend me. It tempts me because I have a jealousy for, and a reverence for my greatest love. At the same time, in bringing it up, I fear that there may be some who are offended by my pointing it out. Offense in all honesty is truly not my purpose. My true purpose is to call attention to something of supreme importance out of love and concern - to sharpen those to whom it may still apply - sharpening I once needed myself. I'll let a brother in Christ who's now waiting, resting peacefully in grace, set the table... "The prevailing idea seems to be, that I come to God and ask Him for something that I want, and that I expect Him to give me that which I have asked. But this is a most dishonouring and degrading conception. The popular belief reduces God to a servant, ou...

Psalm 122 (NLT) 1 "I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD .” 2 And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem. 3 Jerusalem is a well-built city; its seamless walls cannot be breached. 4 All the tribes of Israel—the LORD ’s people— make their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the LORD, as the law requires of Israel. 5 Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David. 6 Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. 7 O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. 8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.” 9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem."" Jerusalem, and indeed all of Israel is threatened even now. But Israel's greatest enemy isn't her mortal foes of flesh and blood who rail against her very right to exist. Her gr...

A lot is said among Christians about the love of God and it's true that we can rest assured that His love surpasses the attempts to describe it... Ephesians 3:18-19 (NLT) 18 "And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully." In fact, beginning to understand the truth about His love opens the door to deeper relationship with Him for many. But it also opens another mystery for understanding to grasp... 1 John 4:7-8 (NLT) 7 "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love ." I have no argument with the truth regarding the love of our God or the truly indisputable fact that He is indeed love. If it were not true we would now all be condemned to a horror ...

As followers of Christ, we know that marriage vows are w ords that should be carefully considered and soberly spoken as a lifelong contract - a holy covenant acknowledged by God that is truly fulfilled only by living it out - a vow recorded as sworn before Him and binding... Numbers 30:1-2 (NLT) 1 "Then Moses summoned the leaders of the tribes of Israel and told them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: 2 A man who makes a vow to the LORD or makes a pledge under oath must never break it. He must do exactly what he said he would do." To say the words alone, without the true promise of an enduring commitment, without the full intent of fully engaged and sustained relationship for the full span of a lifetime allowing the potential possibilities of life and living them out, is an empty use of them... and provides for offense. We have interest and concern for our own feelings, thoughts and needs and are intimately familiar with ourselves. As followers of Christ, we unde...

The social world pulse presently calls for the pursuit of many, many things and the pressure to succeed in all of those prescribed efforts is intense...  For a time the enemy of our souls has been allowed to orchestrate a limited opposition against mankind in the world and has a certain amount of success where he's able to exploit human weakness.  According to the relentless assault of advertisements in every form of venue humanly possible, mankind himself has made an incredible effort to assist his own enemy in his attempted conquest. We must be this, look like that, wear this, have that, live here, travel there, drive that, drink this, eat that,... possess... achieve... enjoy... do... love... ... ... idolize anything other than our Creator and Judge. And it obviously works or the drumbeat we're constantly subjected to would collapse under its own weight.  If the advertising didn't pay off, there'd be no point to advertising. But it does pay off, to more benefici...

My life is in some part a history of past failures. It's record contains a variety of moments when decisions, words and actions made in the past brought home their own foretold reward. But as I move forward to navigate what remains of this life, there's one mistake I refuse to make and it breaks my heart to think that I may be watching some others making it... Sometimes in ignorance and others in unthinking disregard, some of my decisions, words and actions in those past moments have run counter to the wealth of wisdom contained in the grace of biblical scripture. A nd each of those occasions in prophetically declared certainty, whether in immediate or eventual reward, has often carried with it a knowable price.  Living in conflict with what we've been instructed biblically often brings a knowable and certain cost to our lives. The details and particulars of that cost in some instances may not be clear to us in how they will play out, but the burden of a price is most u...

We're followers of Christ living in a world of growing offense and degradation. It's all around us and it's sometimes hard for some of us to not allow ourselves to be influenced by it. It's one of the things that a tender heart can struggle with the most in a world inhabited by insensitive, self promoting and apathetic people. But it's a tender, loving heart that we find in our Savior. And it's one that we come to recognize and love even more immeasurably with every new revelation of His kindness and grace as we grow in relationship with Him. It's a heart that we're continually drawn to and that we're continually seeking to emulate as we come to know Him better in a world that's not moving in that same direction...  In this world we're swimming upstream against the current and sometimes it can be rough going, but keeping who we're swimming toward and our end destination in sight continually can help keep propelling us forward even in ...

The Lord's given the ability to utilize reason to mankind and it's a useful tool in resolving problems and formulating conclusions. We use it commonly and possibly without much consideration to it's usefulness or even how often we use it. But as followers of Christ, a problem with the usefulness of that ability to reason arises when it comes in conflict with the divine authority of the God that created us. For example, our own reasoning can become a dangerous tool when allowed to be manipulated by the enemy or when reason is allowed to depart from the established decrees and declarations of the Ultimate Authority (E.g.- Adam and Eve and the Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil). In one definition - the one most applicable to my thoughts here, Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "reason" as follows: reason verb "the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways : INTELLIGENCE" Above all that we could possibly ...