A sobering thought

How beautiful is a word in season that is brought to one’s recollection. To be reminded that regardless of where you find yourself, “if there is breath there is hope”. Today is another funeral, someone I knew well, someone I shared the gospel with, a man aged 48, dead with no more “breath” feeding his carnal organs. He has moved on and now he will stand trial and await his judgement. Oxygen no longer needed to survive, with his soul alive and his awareness of it as if he never died. The eternal phase of his existence has been realised and no more questioning of it, it is as real to him as me sipping on my espresso as it will be for each and everyone when we breath our last regardless of our take on life after death. We have no say in the matter as we are the created and we exist because of God’s will and purpose. He is the director of His production and it’s up to us to be the best we can be within our specified roles. But it is critical that we find Christ and call out to him so that we may be forgiven for our sins, so that when we move on to chapter two of our lives we will escape God’s judgement and only because Christ has already taken the punishment for it. That is if we have fallen to our knees and cried out to Him with an urgency of desperation acknowledging our sin before a holy God, in order to find His forgives and escape the ultimate eternal sentence, the Lake of Fire! But this can only ever be achieved in this phase of our existences.     

Regardless of who you are or where you fit in, you are just a cry away from the saving and healing hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. It rather remarkable, how often God is willing to come to the rescue of his children. Then again is it, or do I just feel like that because I reason with the mind of a man? If God is for his children, who can actually come against them? To catch glimpses of God’s brilliance as he allows certain weakness to play themselves out in my life is rather incredible. It is all about the lessons of life. Sadly many are driven by a different barometer, power, wealth or success which in turn brings about different results, paraphernalia for this life and not much more. Whereas those who are driven by the Fathers will, even if the attempt is pathetic at times is all about a perfect treasure that will last for eternity. It’s God’s goodness that leads an individual to the bridge of repentance and yet it’s up to the individual to act out in faith in order to cross that void. Yes, yes and yes; it’s God who gives us all a differing measure of faith. He is the one who hands out the portions, but faith remains dead without works. Sadly faith so often seems to be surrounded by delusional reasoning or even worse by the pretender.

We all only get one crack at this and then the opportunity is dead. Just like Quinton died at 48, his time ran out before it possibly should have, nevertheless none of us know when we will frantically gasp for our last breath, assumption could be catastrophically detrimental to our eternities.

Today is the day of salvation, make it count…

Signing off

Tyrone

Survival

On reflection I have realised how my drive has pushed me in certain directions to achieve different objectives through the differing stages of my life. However as life has ticked by those goalpost have shifted. When one thought died or had been ticked off my bucket list a new awareness would spring to life depending on my situation and state of mind. I surmise that we can all be tarred with the same brush as we are all made from the same matter and driven by the will to survive at the core of our being. No-one purposefully goes out of their way looking for death and yet we will all face death in one form or another, bar a few in the days of the rapture.

I often catch myself saying “I love you Lord” but of late I am questioning the severity of that statement, it is obvious that I love the Lord, or is it? I have realised that I need to prove that statement by my actions. Here is the ultimate tester; “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.” (Matthew 7:21) - True love is full of evidence...

   

Society and all those taken by her teachers us a certain way, it cries education and stashing money for old age. I must confess it is rather an appealing lure. It is the safe bet, the trap the majority are taken by. A rather large distraction that keeps us busy and away from what really counts, fearing God and keeping His commandments. Why should we realign our mental rudders? The truth off it all is that God will judge the world and all its citizens, so instead of being so caught up with our own selfish wants, whatever that may be. We need to understand and accept King Solomon’s truth and wisdom, if not we will bear the brunt of our own actions, period! Mistakes are normally habit forming and the longer they are left to run riot the more a formidable opponent they become. Sin needs to be dealt with at its core, and for this reason Christ Jesus died on behalf of the sinner, the work it complete and nothing can be added to it. You are either covered by His blood or not and there is no in-between. But what I will add, is something that I struggled with for many years, in fact for most of them and it is this; we (the Christian) have all been called to put off the old and put on the new, the areas of our lives where we have struggles must be braved head on. We must not continue to lie to ourselves about those regions that keep us from walking in the light. We are so naturally drawn to reflex reactions that we believe so many of them to be acceptable and yet so few of them are suitable to our great God. We have been called to mimic our Saviours reflection. This is the call for the Christian and that type of mind-set must never be stripped from our reckoning. If and when we err in this area of our lives, do not be fooled, we are lying to ourselves and correction or chastisement may be just around the corner.

Examine your lives and then ask yourselves, can I with a clear conscience bring every area of my life into the open for all to see. If not those then are the areas that need to be confronted and we need to seek out God’s grace to overcome? However we must not make the mistake of shelving those areas of our lives. We can never grow up into our blessed Saviours image if those rough corners of our lives are not ironed out, or rather eradicated and plundered to death. Righteous anger is a requirement that is vital for the Christian to have in their armoury.        

God wants us to realise that we have need of Him far more than we are willing to admit or allow, life’s journey must bring us to places that reminds us that it’s in our weakness that God strengthens our sense of what He is doing in our lives. Firstly our dependency on Him must be evident in our own minds and then become evident to those around us. Whilst our enemies do their utmost to slow down the process. But if God is for me who can be against me? If He is in my corner I may lose some fights, so that I may learn some very valuable lessons along the way, but never the ultimate battle, praise His glorious name.

All hail king Jesus! He is the Lord of Lords and the Lord of my life! Thank you Father God for raising Him from the dead, which in turn has brought about new life for so many and to be numbered with the believers, those who have the ability to cry Abba Father, I am truly privileged and words will never copiously illustrate my gratitude. But it is words that God has chosen to equip individuals with, so that through confession a soul may be saved. Do you believe that God raised the man Jesus from the dead? If so, then cry out that you believe that Jesus is Lord, that he is the only way to God and that there is no other way whereby a person may and must be saved.

There is no confusion with the Gospel message, it is rather a simple choice, but choose you must.

Signing off

Tyrone

Interpretation

It is good to view scripture on face value but even better to have it confirmed by other confirmations throughout scripture.

What do I mean by this?

Let’s look at a point that is very close to my heart, salvation! God making allowances for sinners to be saved. There is much which covers this particular topic, but it is the simple instruction that I want to travel around; “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” (Romans 10:13)

Let’s explore the meaning of “who calls on”; to make a plea to someone who has it in their power to change a particular outcome. Imagine you are fast asleep but suddenly awakened to a thick fog of unbreathable smoke and due to the increasing power failures throughout the land you then remember the gas lantern you left burning in the lounge. Oh no! is the cry, as the obvious must have happened and you conclude that the light must have been blown over by a gust of wind. In the confusion admitting how careless you had been, the flames in the lounge begin to gain momentum and then you realise that the only way out of the house from your bedroom is through the front door, which is via the lounge, you try your best to make your way towards the door, but to no avail, the fire is far to fierce. What to do flashing through the mind’s eye as panic begins to work its magic and before long you find yourself huddled in the furthest corner with your wet duvet cover which you managed to soak under the shower as a shield, somewhat like religion trying to appease our consciences before a holy God. Sadly you soon realise that your valid attempt is no match for the blazing inferno with death looming and with no escape.

Having exhausted every possibility your mind was able to conjure up under extreme pressure, you eventually hit a wall and you are done, the inevitable now ogling you in the face, death by fire! It’s at this point that you hear a voice on the opposite side of the inferno, “call out”, it’s a fireman, a trained professional capable of handling extreme conditions. You have been thrown a lifeline. What do you do? You obviously do not remain silent hoping to be found, nor do you put up your hand hoping to be seen through the dense smoke, how about a courteous diplomatic whisper in the hope of being heard, never! You cry out on the top of your voice, “SAVE ME!” You call out to the fireman, the person with the power to save.

In like manner you need to cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. However until you realise that your life is doomed for destruction and that you are a sinner who needs saving, the absolute urgency will elude you. As a rule even those on their death bed do not find a resolve to call out unto the Lord to be saved from their looming judgment. Miss it along life’s journey, that time when you were confronted with this exact question and the probability of calling out on your death bed is highly unlikely. However if death looms for you even now you are just a call away and I will remind you; “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

We have establish that a cry depicts urgency of ultimate proportion. It’s not a whisper, or a hedging of ones bet just in case, it’s all in or nothing. That is what it means to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for help and to be saved, period!

We have seen how I understand taking a verse on face value, believing it for what is taught and yet when we peal back its layers we get a deeper understanding of the author’s intent. Explore the pages of scriptures they are marvellous.

Now to find another verse that confirms and builds upon my initial thought. The objective for us is to be saved, right! So, what else will help me achieve my objective? Here is another thought needed to help me arrive; “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him…” (Hebrew 5:9) – Now that I have been saved there is a responsibility placed upon me to OBEY HIM. We now are called to work it out, but work it out with God’s help we must. This verse also addresses salvation. Without obedience we will never arrive. Do not be fooled, and believe that you can live a life is in opposition to the Bibles teachings, rebellious disobedience. In other words we must conclude that rank defiance equals an exclusion to the salvation of God. Therefore this verse must be taken very seriously, if we are to arrive in heaven one day as the sons of God.

Let me leave you with these verse that we may all consider our lives seriously; “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.’’ (Matthew 7:21-23) 

I trust we understand the urgency to call out unto the Lord so that we may be saved… it is imperative not to be amongst the many! Praise the name of Jesus Christ now and forever more, Amen and Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone