Lord, I to like Moses long Your face to see.
Yet not possible for sin in me does dwell.
Purge from me this pain within!
Mold my being to Your desired shape.

If Your face I am to see, swallowed up in glory must I be. 
For this glory to abound sin must be judged.
My sin is great but greater still Your grace abounds. 
Glory please swallow me.

Is that Your face in the distance I might see?
Remove the fog of sin; let Your glory shine.
The more clearly I see Your radiance 
the more ugly I seem to be.

Swallow me up with Your Glory;
Hurry please, come Lord Jesus, come!

This morning's prayer after reading PS 19:

The night's sky gives way to the radiance of the sun;

Your glory fills the heavens. 

At day's end the moon will reflect light in night. 

No doubt, Your glory is revealed. 

Without a word spoken I hear Almighty say, "I am!"

Then in mystical force the Spirit speaks through men. 

Your Word they write confirming glory bright.  

With light these Words my sinful nature exposed;

My only hope, my only justification Your blood!

Praise Your name Father Son and Spirit one. 

Teach me of Your way so I may be a faithful slave. 

All my day I want to sing Your praise and work Your will. 

Fill me with you Spirit so I may be part of Your radiant glory. 

The Perfect Christmas Present

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.”
II Corinthians 9:15

Isn’t it wonderful to know that God loves you so much that He gave His only Son as a gift? You owed a debt of sin you could not pay. So, God sent Jesus from Heaven to earth and required of Him that He shed His blood in order to pay your debt for sin. What a perfect gift! Jesus gave Himself.

As you contemplate giving the perfect gift to those you love this season know that the only individual who can give a perfect gift is God. James Said, “Every generous act and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (1:17). The only way we can give the perfect gift is if we become the deliverer of God’s gift. So the question becomes what does God want me to deliver to those around me? My suggestion is first make sure they have received the gift of Jesus. Second give like God gives; give yourself. Instead of spending half a day searching for the perfect present spend a half a day building an experience and sharing your love. Let God give you to someone special this Christmas. Instead of UPS or FedEx making the delivery for you slow down and take yourself. Let your presence and actions be the physical love of Jesus.  You just might be that perfect gift from the Father above.  

Agree to Disagree

Agree to Disagree

As long as there are different people there will be differing opinions. I think it is impurities that we understand that our disagreements drive us to a better understanding of why we believe what we believe. When you explain your point it forces me to reevaluate my beliefs and that is a good thing. Often this will lead us to a deeper resolve in our belief. Sometimes it will cause us to abandon them and still other times it will lead us to agree that we must disagree. All the while we respect each other as a person who has a right to believe as they choose. 

Unfortunately  a recent study of mine on tolerance in the current century has lead me to understand that there are certain things that will not be tolerated in a world of tolerance:

1. Truth established by a Deity
2. Sexual restraint except for gross pedophilia 
3. Right to corporate ownership
4. Merited reward

I expound upon this briefly. In order to be considered worthy of tolerance one must by in to the assumption that truth is to be determined by those who consider themselves tolerant. In addition the notion of a God who is all authoritative and powerful is simply not possible. With regard to sex there must be no restraint. Everyone is to be true to their personal sex drive and seek to please themselves sexually regardless of marriage, age, gender or health. (With the exception of small children being pried upon by fully grow adults and violent rapist.) Also, any asset held by a corporation or government is fair game for any individual. They may use any means to obtain said asset for themselves. To act unlawfully to obtain these assets is acceptable as long as the one obtaining is deemed underprivileged. And finally the notion that a person work and produce to achieve is absolutely absurd. Every person is entitled to an equal part of the pie regardless of contribution and participation in obtaining the overall objective. 

This new tolerance has left me behind and I understand that. I believe this world was created by God and it is His to govern as He sees fit. I rely on the Bible as the standard that teaches that sex is to be enjoyed by one man and one woman in marriage only. I hold to a concept that a cooperation may not be human and that it can have rights as can any sovereign government.  Every person deserves a certain measure of grace, but society must be built on hard work by the individuals who make up the society. 

To those of you who disagree I firmly hold to your right to disagree and hope you will agree to disagree, but if you don't I know it is because you can not tolerate someone who thinks as I do. In that case I will just have to be one of the people that those of tolerance will not tolerate. 


  
  

Poured Out,

The other day I found a bottle of water I started drinking several days ago. For some unknown reason my mind thought, “that water is old and worthless, don’t drink it.” So I poured it out. Then the ungodly thought popped into my mind, “You are like that water, you are old and worthless.” But by God’s Spirit He reminded me that a life lived in faithful service to Him is an offering of great value. 

1 Chronicles 11:16-19, tells a story of three of David’s mighty men. One day David said, “If only someone would bring me water to drink from the well at the city gate of Bethlehem!” So the three mighty men crossed enemy lines and went and got water from that well at the risk of their own lives and brought it to David. When he received the water he poured it out on the ground. What was he thinking? What an insult to these three. Here they risk their life and David pours the water on the ground. But it’s not what you might think. You see David longed to be back in his hometown drinking from his well with his own city at peace. When these men so heroically served David and brought the water, he considered it too great in value to drink. To him it was fit for a sacrifice to the Lord. In the Old Testament we see where wine was often poured out on the altar before the Lord. Jacob at Bethel on the day the Lord changed his name to Israel did just that. He poured out his offering on the altar. Nothing is wasted when it is poured out to the Lord. Centuries later the apostle Paul wrote of himself: 

• For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is reserved for me in the future the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved His appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8) 

A life that is lived for the glory of the Lord is fitting to be poured out before the altar of the Lord as a sacrifice. We may not be perfect as followers of Jesus but we are who we are in Christ. We are consistently trying to obey the Word. As we fail we see the grace of God abound, so we are motivated to try even harder. Soon Jesus Christ will return. Until that day we strive to be faithful and productive in His Kingdom. When the time of our departure draws near we will have the privilege of being poured out as a drink offering. That is not a waste that is an honor. 

A Servants"s Prayer

You are my King, King of Heaven.

I am Your Slave, doer of your will.

Let this day be all about you; your good works.

Guide me through the smoke of life to radiant light.

There are souls to save and disciples to enlighten. 

Give me words to sway, words to empower;

that I may impart truth to Your people,

and those who will be but as yet are not your people.

Faithful I want to be; Your Spirit need I in power. 

As You fill this weak feeble soul stronger will I be. 

I may not move a mountain, but so might I see You. 

This heart belongs to You and to You I fight to stay true. 

Heart of Evil Heart of God?

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn't find any. Then it says, "I'll go back to my house that I came from," and returning, it finds the house vacant, swept and put in order.  Then off it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that man's last condition is worse than the first. That's how it will also be with this evil generation. Matt 12:43-45

Total surrender of one's soul to the Holy Spirit will lead to the pushing out of the evil contained in the heart. 

My study of God's word has lead me to understand that a person's heart is deceptive and incurable apart from a miracle of God.  Every person's heart is full of evil but when the Holy Spirit takes up residence evil is going to eventually be forced out.  The believer will do well to recognize that their heart is going to be filled either with evil or with God's Spirit. 

Within every believer is the inter struggle of God's will and the spiritual forces of evil. My thought is to the degree the Spirit fills the heart evil will be emptied. In other words the greater we allow the Spirit to fill us the less evil that can exist in our hearts. But the reverse is also true.  The less we allow the Spirit to fill the greater the evil that will reside in the heart.  The believer's only option is to love God with all of their heart which will cause their action to aline with God's will and the resulting in a heart consumed by the Spirit.