It seems my blog is squeaky-clean, holier-than-thou and just all round annoying.
On a whim, I put in some other blogsites and was shocked – shocked I tell you – at the results. Seems that Felix Hominum has some serious cleaning-up to do and CaNN? CaNN is beyond the pale. Not that we didn’t know that already.
Go play here.
Now, I’m no economist, but I’ve been watching closely the recent troubles with the economy what with sub-prime defaults and credit crunches and the like.
I guess some folks might regard this as judgment, and I suppose it is in a way – but really it’s similar to the final situation of a person who takes a jump off a cliff. That is to say – there are consequences to actions.
If you do decide to jump off a cliff, everything is good for a while (falling never hurt anybody). However, the reality of ground at the bottom does tend to put a damper on things eventually. That’s not far off the situation for those who could not afford what they borrowed, and for those who lent based on greed. The sensation of ‘flying’ is just great – but all untenable things must come to an end. So it is now.
Now, all this got me to thinking that this scenario is not far off from where we all are in life. God makes it abundantly clear (Matthew 18 v23-35) that we are major debtors. To whom? To Him. Our credit cards are maxed out – out as far as it is possible to go with sin. We have, all of us, a huge, huge sin debt to God. And, this life is pretty much like that time of falling. It’s just great – while it lasts. But there comes a time of reckoning, when cold hard reality will intrude on our fantasies of flying. When the debt is called in.
There really are two choices – one of two ways to go. We can either believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and become His disciple – the Way that costs both nothing and everything. In following that Way your debt is paid off in full, dying in Christ His payment covers you, that you may then live in Him.
The other way is to pay the debt off yourself, in eternity, in Hell.
Those are your choices. For, whoever you are, however good or otherwise you regard yourself to be, you cannot hold a candle to the Holiness of God. You are living far, far beyond your means. Only in Christ is there a Way to meet that payment. But – it is a hard road and few find it.
Come to me, all who labour and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11 v28)
When reading this yesterday, about the approval given to create human-animal embryos, I was just sickened. Then I just wondered how we could fail to be judged for such a thing? How long can this kind of evil be perpetuated? Will we continue to provoke God in as many ways as we can possibly think of? Now we’re starting to mess with what makes us ‘us’.
Putting aside the spurious scientific justifications for embryonic stem cell research (which never cured anything, unlike adult stem cell therapy), it seems to me that we are continuing to construct our technological Tower of Babel. The ancients may have done it by building a tower to the heights, we have many new and innovative ways to do it. What do we want? Just as before, really. To make a name for ourselves, to set ourselves up as gods, masters of all that we survey.
We may indeed have made a name for ourselves, even set up ourselves as gods of a sort. Only, we are dark gods, and the name we have given ourselves is evil. God have mercy!
Oh, and while I was away on self-imposed exile, I did notice that the slope may indeed be slippery after all….
Read on here. Gotta love that Charter of ours. Course, Magistats has been all over this for ages, and SF linked up recently too. I’m just chiming in with my belated 2p worth.
Canada – proudly serving as an wholesome example of national self-destruction.
I guess I neglected to mention that The Age to Come is all of a year old. I plan to celebate by jumping up and down in my seat, making funny baby noises and dunking my head into a birthday cake adorned with a single candle. Or…maybe not… Maybe I just need to get a grip….
Hey, so where did August go? Suddenly we’re here at the gate of September – the trees are yellowing, the frosts are coming, children go back to school. And so the world turns.
I have to confess that I posted this a little early – when it appears on the blog I shall be doing the Canadian thing and enjoying the long weekend, out with our trailer camping. However, after this long weekend I’ll be back and hopefully posting on the blog more often.
Somebody once said the only thing worse than blogging is not blogging. I think I am beginning to understand. However, I’m likely to become a little more measured as we move into the fall, in that I’ll post when there is a need to post, rather than posting because I haven’t posted for a few days. It’s kind of stupid, but it can get to be real pressure to keep those posts coming. Anyway, so I’ll take a step back from that a little and post more when there is a need.
I am currently working on a sermon that’ll be delivered at our church 16th September, so that may take precedence for a while. I say sermon, though it’s more likely to be an extended prophetic message. I’ve been feeling the urgency to do that – it’s kind of an Ezekiel watchman on the walls kind of thing. It’s hard to know who is more stupid, me for asking to fill a sermon slot, or the church for letting me. 😉
Anyway, what can you do? I’ve been calling for us in Christ to be prepared, and I have to continue doing so while I still can. The hour seems more short, the times to come imminent – there is a real urgency to call folk to wake up! However, urgency does not always translate well into timing. All that can really be done is to issue the call. Anyway, I’m rambling a little here. Suffice to say that the final approved etc etc version of this sermon will find its way onto this blog site in due course.
In the meantime – time to enjoy the last weekend of the summer! 🙂
I guess I am following what now appears to be a well-worn trail when I say that it is time to take a little pause in the world of blogging. The reasons are numerous and not entirely clear yet to me.
Certainly I feel the need for some time to recharge the spiritual batteries. The intent of this blog has always been twofold – to glorify God and build up His Church; as much as it is given to me to so do. Right now, it feels that all that can be said, has been. My heart has been to call the Church to prepare, to be ready, to be found in the only place that will stand firm, that is Jesus Christ. I hope I have played a small part in doing that.
I sense the seasons are changing, and time for new things comes to pass. I wonder, does the time of warning and exhortation now slip into a time for us to enter into what the Lord has prepared for His Church; the arks if you will, for the times to come? Well, I do not yet know, certainly this is something I want to reflect on more fully.
How does it go? “The world is changing. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.”
I shall be back, God willing, but it seems time, at least for a season (short, or long, I do not know) to lay down the keyboard, and to seek Him first and hear His heart.
Gods richest blessings be upon you!
UPDATE: A little clarification for you. I’m not planning at this moment to give up blogging entirely, but rather take a timeout. My current thought is that I’ll take August off and then may rejoin the fray come September.
Check out this parable.
Like the wise sea Captain, God is choosing vessels for his own fleet and for his own purpose, and those vessels do not always conform to our ideas. The question is, what type of ship will you be?
Just been spending the weekend ‘visiting’ (as they say here) with Richard and Susan. We took a trip into the foothills to look at a building that would be superb for community (something on my heart and that seems increasingly likely to be a necessity in the days to come).
Rest of the time we chatted, shared histories, scared unsuspecting people (“how did you meet”…..”via the internet”….”ah, um” (pause) ), prayed and spent good time just hanging out. Talked a bit about what we see coming up, more on that later if it seems right. It was good to turn the months of e-communication into a real visit! 🙂
Blogging will resume, God willing, as the week progresses……
Just thought I’d link up to a dream I found edifying.
I do not think we can hear this kind of thing enough. Pride is in my estimation one of our most insidious enemies. It has a capacity to worm its way secretly into just about any of our thoughts and actions. We can even be proud of our own humility!
Actually, I think this is one of the reasons to have a good sense of humour. You want to know the definition of a fanatic? Someone with no sense of humour. Why? Because they have no sense of proportion.
A sense of proportion is essential to a sense of humour, which in its turn is a great weapon against the kind of prideful building up of self which we can all indulge in, often without being aware of it.
Course, the real thing here is our utter need, our desperate need for God. Recently, I have become more and more aware of my various faults and foibles, and intensely aware that without God I would drown in them.
The best we are able to do in our own strength is to concentrate in one area where we can, possibly, whitewash it to the extent where it looks better from the outside. At the same time the half-dozen other things we are not aware of are steadily getting worse. Yes, without God we are truly lost and ruined. It is His grace, I think, that opens our eyes to our true state.
Certainly recently it seems that there has been an alarming increase in the number of areas in which I fall short. 😉 Indeed, I thank God for it!
Anyway, in dealing with pride, C S Lewis mentioned spiritual pride as being the very worst sort of pride, and one to which religious people easily fall prey to. As Christians we have grace – mercy and forgiveness undeserved, which can help somewhat in this area. However it is easy for pride to rear its ugly head in other areas, as in the dream, areas of our ‘ministry’.
I know, from experience, that once you invest something of yourself in any area of ministry, there is a corresponding danger of idolatry. You’ve put your time and money into something, and you feel that you partly own it. Pride in ‘my’ ministry is never far away then.
The antidote? Give it over to God. Not superficially – give it over and do not complain if you do not get it back. You may indeed get it back, and find your fruit-picking ability enhanced a hundred-fold. However you may, like in the dream, find yourself a picking fruit in an entirely different place, one with a much reduced perception of glory and honour. Would you do this?
The analogy of migrant fruit picker is a good one, for it is what we are called to be, even if we do not fully realise it. Migrant labourers in a world not our own, seeking to pick some of the fruit for our Father. Let’s never forget that!
The Age To Come 