Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Selah!

"Holiness is not the highest form of legalism. Holiness is the highest expression of love." -Clyde Cranford

"The papist works that he may merit Heaven. The Pharisee works that he may be applauded, that he may be seen of men, that he may have a good esteem with them. The slave works lest he should be beaten, lest he should be damned. The formalist works that he may stop the mouth of conscience, that will be accusing him, if he do nothing. The ordinary professor works because it is a shame to do nothing where so much is professed. But the true believer works because he loves. This is the principal, if not the only motive, that sets him a-work. If there were no other motive within or without him, yet would he be working for God, acting for Christ, because he loves Him; it is like fire in his bones" -David Clarkson

Monday, April 12, 2010

For those in the Valley of Decision

"Indeed God speaks once,
Or twice, yet no one notices it.

"In a dream, a vision of the night,

When sound sleep falls on men,
While they slumber in their beds,
Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction
That He may turn man aside from his conduct,
And keep man from pride;
He keeps back his soul from the pit,
And his life from passing over into Sheol. "
Job 33:14-16
(Isn't it terrific God covers so many everyday topics in the word?)

I'd forgotten one of my favorite aspects of being pregnant. The dreams. Some dreams are so weird you wonder how in the world does your mind put such incompatible things together so illogically. I call those dreams, 'pizza dreams.' Amusing sometimes, bewildering more often.

I didn't have that kind this morning. I stirred myself out of a dream that was weaving soft, silken chords of sin around my wrists. I was very young again, about 13, & at my grandma's. All I did was walk down the street & meet the most exciting people I'd ever known in my sheltered, innocent life.

For teens today, all it takes is the click of a mouse to meet the most exciting people they've ever met. For older ones, it may be moving into the adulthood of independence by leaving home more often.
These people promised freedom, freedom to do all my flesh wanted & so greatly desired to do. Dangling the apple of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil in front of me. The world is full of those who are "promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption." I remember the exciting feeling that I was about to embark on an adventure with these unknown people, but in the back of my mind was the adult stirring me to a warning that this would not end the way I wanted it to, therefore I awoke.

Satan says God is holding you back from the time of your life. There are things out there you should know about, you should experience, but the old 'killjoy in the sky,' as Satan would call our Loving Father, tells you is forbidden. So many voices in our culture tell us to take the bite out of the apple. So few tell us, *it will bite us back in the end.*
Matt Robinson at Christ Community Church just did when gave his testimony a few weeks back about his grievous banquet of sin that he is so sorry for today & still scarred from. It isn't worth it. His emotional testimony from his journey through what Pilgrim's Progress's 'Vanity Fair' is on CD, yours for the asking. http://christchurchnewalbany.org/Contact-Us


There are two paths to choose in life, one that leads to life and one that leads to death. One starts out as a narrow gate that few there be that find. This is the way to life. The other starts out as FUN. It is easy, it is the way of the simpleton. Satan lays the world at your feet & oh, how exciting it looks at first glance. He would never throw out a rotting corpse as bait to the wavering sinner, but a tempting 'chocolate cake.' You cannot see the poisoned inner layer that is immediately addictive. You get only a bite at a time & are promised more when you come back. In the end, however, somewhere along the way, you get the 'bait & switch' routine & wind up with the rotting corpse of sin's depravity. Sin sees the bait, but is blind to the hook.

http://socialismdoesntwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/bait-and-switch.jpg

Just imagine how exciting & beautiful Las Vegas might look from a mountain top. The colorful, neon lights glittering & flashing in the dark night. Many walking the streets there would tell you how exciting this place is. (If you want advice, don't ask a fool, proverbs says.) The drunkenness that goes along with this life also brings a shallow & temporary joy. This is the only side you'll see portrayed on the TV or movies, the morning after of ripple effects to the family aren't shown.
Being drunk takes away your mind when God tells us to be sober minded & watchful for your adversary the devil roams about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he does devour many simpletons. In the jails would I suppose you would hear the truth from the policemen who've seen things there they would never tell their children. God bless those who work in the pulpits in these hell holes, I'm sure they heard a lot of heartbreaking stories of those whose lives have been devoured.
Things grow brighter & brighter on the path of the righteous in reality. Satan himself appears as an angel of light, but things grow darker & darker on the path of the simpleton. One starts with a washing, the other starts with a spot, just one little dark spot, but soon enough, you will be covered with an ugly stain that only Christ can wash away. This path demands deeper & deeper depravity for the level of excitement that you started out with, taking you to the depths of sin you never dreamed you'd go to. Satan always takes you further than you want to go. Back away from God and you go back into Satan's hands. To back away from God is to choose Satan.

God said way back in the beginning, "Sin is crouching at your door & desires to have you, but you learn must master it."

There is an extremely important statement in the Lord's prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Our souls hang in the balance. It is a fight we cannot win. We must look to our Elder Brother who has conquered sin & death for us because this is one battle we cannot win, but must be won.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs%201&version=NASB
Run to Christ!!