Pure Joy?

    James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds

God is working Sanctification in your soul, praise God! Your trouble will temp you to put your focus on your idolatrous self. But God wants our focus on Him. You are in the process of learning to set your emotions and contentment on Christ. Idolatry is a wicked task master and will eat your emotions, desire and energy, your very life. Christ on the other hand will set you free to rejoice in all things. The focus is no longer you and what you get.

 

To meet the King

    There is an appointed time in the lives of all humanity when each one of us will come face to face with the creator. This is the most important meeting in all of time; this is when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord. This lord is the one in who the very fabric of time bows down and the molecules of all flesh trembles. The sun, moon and stars never cease to obey Him; he is the author of life. This is where we get the concepts of glory, honor and justice. On that great and fearful day; everyone will be giving this King of Kings the greatest gifts they are able. One by one they will be pouring them out at His feet in reverent per-session.

    But wait there is a section of this great crowd with nothing in their hand to give. They have arrived at this "the grandest of all events" having consumed their lives with a depraved self-serving existence. Woe to you who on this day of honor and glory have nothing to give.

    So what are the gifts that are given? Are they Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh? No - While these gifts have the aroma of Frankincense the value of gold and the healing properties of Myrrh; it is none of the above.

    What we are talking about is what the savior was born in a manger for. The Lamb of God was born in the humblest of circumstances. He fully deserved the worship of all creation; He suffered himself to have none. The Lord of the universe was born to live humbly and die with great despair; to take the place in judgment for self-serving deceitful men. At the throne of judgment you will either be required to pay your own sin debt or it will have been paid by another. Here superstitious religious conjecture will amount to nothing. Here you will either have nothing to give or you will present your sanctified heart to him. What is that you may ask? When someone comes to Christ in this life and God confirms that total surrender by sealing you with the Holy Spirit; the journey begins. For at the cross of Christ; it's not merely a fire insurance policy or a ticket to heaven that was purchased by the God of all glory. He was born to purchase from among men any who would seek Him and be saved from the sinfulness of their hearts; from that which wages war against things pure, just and lovely.

    All men are born in sin yet salvation means being freed from that bondage to sin. Sanctification simply means going to war against the passions of the flesh and pursuing a selfless and self-controlled life; that is the unshakable foundation of liberty. Then at the end of your life when you stand on that day you will present to Him what he gave to you; the priceless treasure of a sanctified heart.

    So confess your sins to Christ and receive from Him the eternal gift that you will carry all the way to His throne.

Angels

    Angels are heavenly beings of strength, power, and an overwhelming force beyond our understanding. Beauty and glory are in their wings – these beautiful creations of God are undone and are compelled to glorify God in heaven; which is well pleasing to all of creation.

Luke 2:

    13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Selfishness

    Selfishness is a terrible wicked beast. Who if it

sees a glimpse of unrestraint from its proper cage

leaps forth devouring your life and family. When you

feed this beast it grows wilder and stronger so that its

former restraints will no longer hold. The only clear

answer is to put this beast to death. Though it be a

gruesome battle and you perhaps may suffer injury.

The only path to peace runs through this cage and

over the grave of this beast.

    Say no to the subtle desires of your heart and yes

to the tremendous beauty of your children.

Dear Son,

                                     

 

    As you grow and learn in our home, I'm sure you have noticed that your parents struggle and sometimes fail to live right before God. Some of this you know and some you don't notice. The choice is yours as you move forward in life. How will you respond to these facts? As you grow in Christ you will become aware of truths that I either don't know or am unwilling to act on. Please continue in a forgiving Spirit, considering yourself. Our desire is to be a support and blessing to you as you lead your family in Christ. When you realize our imperfections small and great, please don't allow pride a foothold in your heart. You don't know it but pride and unforgiveness are family traditions. They have caused us to wonder through history being part of the problem and not the solution. If we are going to fight the systems of Satan and replace them with the systems of Christ. Then we must get our relationships right one generation to the next. So that the strengths of one generation blesses the others. While the weaknesses of each generation are learned from and quickly forgiven.

            In Christ Dad

Reformation

In Sanquhar, more than one protestation was publicly made by rebels, but the reading of the Declaration at the market-cross in 1680 was the greatest in historic interest, as being the first scene in the drama of the revolution in which the reign of the Stuarts was brought to an end. Twenty men raised the standard of rebellion and threw off allegiance to the king. Twenty men, out of a whole nation, with the forces of the crown to crush them, may appear ridiculous to the cynic smiling at the excesses of political zeal or laughing at the vagaries of religious bigotry. These men were traitors and rebels; but to what cause and to what person? They were traitors against organized tyranny that styled itself the Government of Scotland, rebels against the king in whose name they had been persecuted for abiding that freedom which he had solemnly sworn to preserve.

The scene at Sanquhar was the work of Richard Cameron. His action was rash, if a deed be rash when a man must die for it. Not many were joined with him in it. The Covenanters were all but crushed under the weight of despotism; and there were few with strength and courage to resist. Yet twenty men in Scotland in 1680 threw off Charles Stuart, as the kingdoms threw off James Stuart [James II.] in the year of the Revolution [1688]

The Reformation is simply symbolized in a few short sound bites;

1. Sola Sciptura      =Scripture alone- is the foundation of truth
   
2. Sola Christus     =Christ Alone- there is no other way to be saved
   
3. Sola Gratia     =Grace alone- salvation is an unearned gift.
   
4. Sola Fide         =Faith Alone- justification is received by faith only.
   
5. Soli De Gloria     =The Glory of God alone- all glory is to God alone.
   

 

1. Ecclesia Semper Reformanda = The Church is always reforming
   

This is where we find ourselves today if we are building on what these faithful servants of Christ have laid before us. As we go fourth generationally, the traditions we pass on are in themselves not the object of attaining righteousness but mere signs pointing to Christ. There are things we are just starting that have been long forgotten and we don't know where the heart of God will lead. I believe we are seeing the change we read about in Malachi 4:6

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

    The ramifications of this are unknown but we should let this fill us with faith and hope.

As we serve Christ right where we are for His glory the world is being changed. When you reach out with the gospel message the world is being changed. When you send out your arrows and they touch others in the name of Christ the world is being changed. Everyone with the spirit of God in them is a world changer, that's what we are here for, to be the hands and feet of Christ. We are to bless the needy and protect the helpless from tyranny. The tyrants vanquished today will not enslave others tomorrow. Reformation is not just church history it is world history. It is the people of God making things "on earth as it is in heaven".

    If you remember this reformation as a church holiday, then you have missed the mark. This reformation is what brought us the liberties we hold dear and because of their great sacrifice we now have hope for the future. We have family, church and civil reformation. When we look upon this creation it all should cry out Glory to God in highest!

 

 

I pray that our posterity is not punished for ours sins and apathy, but that the world would be blessed by our sacrifice.

 

In spite of certain death, a bleeding remnant of 200 Scottish Covenanters at Blackgannoch Moss in May 1685, loudly proclaimed their fervent declaration of faith:

 

"LET KING JESUS REIGN, AND ALL HIS ENEMIES BE SCATTERED!"

Pietistic Life w/stone Heart

    When a Parent is deceived by a pietistic view of Life it is dangerous for their children. The parents themselves become a self-righteous servant of empty religion. They are also unable to extend a hand to the very children they love. A self righteous servant of empty religion sets up pharisaical parameters by which they live and judge themselves good. "There is none good" These are not necessarily biblical but always religiously self aggrandizing. We know that this is an empty shell because God has said that "all have sinned" and we have a heart for sin "slaves to sin". So it was necessary for Christ to come and "is our righteousness", because we have none and are incapable of it.

    So how does this affect our children? For example let's talk about lying. We are all liars, we have wicked self justifying hearts who serve only themselves. When our children lie we should discipline but we cannot hold up an unattainable standard by which our children will be degredated and will not be able to attain it. We are all liars and Christ made us love the Truth. It is not we ourselves! If our children don't see us at the cross confessing this they may adopt our religious practice of pseudo truth and get a heart for truth. Their hearts won't learn to love the truth which is Jesus Christ.

    When your child sins confess your sins with them while you pray together, tell them how the Lord Jesus Christ gave you a new heart. He is the one who made you love what is true because you love Him! That on your own you were a lost retched liar who deceived yourself into believing you were good. All the while protecting and hiding your sin. When the Way the Truth and the Life came in, your heart became flesh and those same sins became repulsive to you. Tell them without the Cross of Christ all their good deeds will be an offense to God because he supplied the Way and He is the Truth and in Him is Life! If somehow they are able not to lie, they may have a better life but they will still miss the mark, heaven is for lovers of the Truth and judgment for the self righteous.

    Glory to God in the highest, this indeed is good news.