Temptation increasingly abounds to be enrapt with the world's schemes and narratives--selfishness all the more exalted under a guise of righteousness. Death is increasingly a fixation, blatant--anything to avert, just anything to preserve self and those things which self wants. This, as though we have control of life and death. I can tell you from personal experience that even suicide attempts aren't successful unless the Lord allows. Which is not something to be taken lightly. Period.
I wouldn't generally speak so flagrantly about such wretchedness, but in the noxious cacophony which is standard fare for discourse these days, such searing has occurred that little bears weight.
Speaking plainly, though prayerfully, is what's seemed best.
He gives wisdom for each instance, however.
But if you're here, online, I fear that you may be consumed with much of the current mania, also.
We are God's, dear friend. His to do with as He wills. Period. He has created. He sustains. He gives and He takes away--life and blessings. And we dare not look askance at Him for any of it, for not only are we mere creatures and utterly beholden to Him, but also we've gone astray and defiled ourselves by defying Him. We're under judgment. We remain under His wrath, in fact, unless amends are made, the debt is satisfied, and we find redemption.
Problem being, we're not capable of any of that latter, in our own strength, by our own devices, according to any merit we would assert or grasp toward by our own understanding and strength. Our error, once effected to any slightest degree--even merely by not wholly deferring to Him in abject, loving devotion for an instant of our lives--is unto absolute poverty of spirit. We're so self-focused that we can't conceive how anything we do or don't do could merit eternal judgment and punishment, which is all the worse to our standing: to so fundamentally defy Him, body and soul, as to smugly ignore His immanent supremacy, His surpassing worthiness, His absolute holiness, and His complete, sovereign majesty is to deny Him sufficient to merit eternal judgment from the fore: God is superior in all ways, to such a degree that to relegate the notion of erring against Him, in the slightest as being minor, is so dire a fault as to itself require eternal punishment, as righteous justice.
If we had any sense at all, even the remotest recognition of that reality would strike a chord of terror in our hearts. But we've grown senseless, dumb, insensate, callous, apathetic, in our amusements and by our distractions and complacencies with sin. We feast on the rites of passage for the masses, and consider it benign, all the while our souls are gradually curdling within. Just one story more, just one moment more of rest.
This is all of us, perhaps. Or at the very least, this is a battle we're all called to wage against the flesh, against sin, against complacency.
We are to fight to remain sober-minded and alert to the real snares and dangers which are presented daily--even by our own flighty thoughts, given too much free reign then pandering to whatever the day's fickle fancies happen to present: anxieties over all the things "which the gentiles" strive unto, infatuations with the latest trending ideologies, fearful fixations upon mortality, boundless desires to attain that..one..next..thing..or..event..or..dollar..or..relationship, self-actualization according to whatever paradigm is perceived as most socially righteous or prestigious at a given moment (that we may signal our virtue to those around us, for gratification through group-think reinforcement)...and on, and on...
And the solemn assembly so quickly had been abandoned by most. God is He with whom we must do. And whatever treasures we might think to store for ourselves here and now, they are wind. If we do not seek Him, to be rich toward Him--in knowledge of God, deference to Him, right relationship with Him (believing Him, moreover...having faith)...we truly are as grass or the flower which simply fades away, and yet the more: to be burned. All the more, this latter, if we defy Him all our lives.
Seek Him while He may be found. Ask, and it shall be given. Truly, knock, and the Door will be opened to you.
He came for that. God Himself took on flesh, and dwelt among us. He satisfied the perfectly righteous requirements of that which is a moral law sewn into the very fabric of creation, having been woven by a Creator who is moral. His nature is evident in creation's order. Our very consciences cry out to this reality. Though they become seared, and all the more as society runs further and further into declension, despising Him, loathing His sovereignty. Yet He has always set aside a people for Himself, to preserve for Himself, to show mercy to, for Himself. For His great love, His good pleasure. He has satisfied the wrath which is due to each of us, if we will but turn to Him, pleading mercy--owning and taking fully the responsibility to know that we deserve His wrath and have no means to satisfy it, and pleading mercy--He will forgive us, and we will be reconciled to Him...
Because Jesus Christ--God in the flesh, Son of God who added a body to Himself--satisfied all which is righteous throughout His earthly life, and gave Himself as a sacrifice in our place, suffering the wrath we deserve. He paid our penalty in full. On the cross, in His death. He was despised and rejected. Counted wretched and despised of God. And it pleased God, the Father, to crush Him. That justice would be satisfied, and mercy may be righteously extended--the punishment having been meted out, to full measure.
Fully satisfied.
And He resurrected Himself on the third day after dying, which was for our justification. This is a testament to the reality that His sacrifice was acceptable and we are made acceptable in Him, the Beloved: death could not hold Him. So, as we cry out for His mercy, submitting to this great reality: God Himself has paid the price, satisfied our debt, redeemed us from the curse of the law...and He is merciful in Christ Jesus...we can fully trust Him to save us. He promises to in no way cast out anyone who comes to Him in truth. He is indeed near to those who are broken-hearted over their sin, who are keenly aware of their guilt...He has mercy, as we plead for mercy.
We do not deserve it. But Christ does deserve the portion for which He died. Period. And He will have those whom the Father has given Him, and none can snatch us from the Father's hand.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
So, why should we fear? Why should we not give our all to seeking Him, day by day? Why should we want to do anything other than truly cast ourselves at His feet, pleading to be His instruments of mercy? Is there any higher calling than to forsake all, to follow Him? So, why are we consumed with worldly inanities?
I loathe my own lack of discipline. It's vexsome. But to Christ I commit this, to reshape me and give me strength and increasing desire to overcome waywardness all the more.
Friends, we have to set aside distractions and every weight of sin that hinders us from wholly setting ourselves apart for Him. Let us cast these things off, as worthless, and run the race set before us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, who has gone before us, entering the veil, tearing it in two, Who has made way that we can boldly come before the throne of grace.
If we take our eyes off Him, we are so prone to veer off course. Matters now are so consuming, and especially some which have some appearance of being good.
The problem is, if God--who and how He is, what that means for us as creatures, and central to our standing with Him, remembrance of His Gospel: of Jesus Christ, the good news of salvation in Him, acknowledging and embracing truth--wholly including the truth of our unworthiness and sinfulness and insufficiency, in light of His particular worthiness and mercy and love toward us--so yes, if God is not wholly central to whatever we are undertaking or pursuing--and I do not mean merely mention of Him, not some nod toward Him, but if seeking Him is not central--then our course is askew, inherently set toward deception and leading to further destruction: We are only healed and reconciled as we are healed and reconciled in and by God. Truth sets us free, alone. There is not any other healing which is viable. There is not any other reconciliation which is substantive. There is not any other hope which is secure. Everything else is some paltry approximation of that which He is and provides (hollow imitations, moreover), which is conceived to afford room for presenting man as capable of effecting righteousness, independent of God. Idolatry of self, in other words: that we would consider ourselves gods of our own lives and of reality. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, in such matters--apart from seeking God centrally and foremost, we may think we seek good, but we deceive ourselves and others. For God, alone, is good.
So, again, apart from being fixed on Him steadfastly in heart, thought, and intent...we wander into deception. Thinking ourselves wise, we become fools. All the more. And we love it. We congratulate ourselves on such things, and one another, also.
But this is not the way. God, Himself, is the only way. Period.
We will not find help or hope apart from Him.
Not to say He won't still use efforts of men to accomplish what He deems as good: Concurrence of will is actual. His will is and will be done in all the earth.
Yet if our efforts are not rooted and grounded in steadfastly being fixed upon Christ and submitting all things as unto His glory, we are working toward our own destruction, though He will be glorified in spite of our defiance and the punitive damage further wrought to ourselves and creation thereby. If we are sons, though, He will chasten us for this. And if such a one is not chastened, then they are not a son.
So, seek Christ. Press on to know Him. Live in the light of His love and His mercy. He will provide. We may not know how or where, but He always does, for those who are His.
And the sun shines and the rain falls on all, nonetheless.
Do not be consumed with the world. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Set it aside, dear friends. For the love of the Lord and one another, we must. Father, help us in this. That we would be diligent and steadfast, disciplined and charitable of heart and spirit. Dear Lord, we need your aid or otherwise we would be consumed.
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