Category Archives: The Word of God

Posts that give us hope in Jesus.

Through the Storm of Life We Shall Endure

Though many of us knew it was coming; we couldn’t realize the ferocity that would be unleashed.  As we looked into the sky at the approaching darkness with trepidation, prepared as we felt necessary, we understand now that the vicious gale blows against our very souls, thus many of us realize just how ill-prepared we were.  We did not expect to face the darkness it would bring.

A solitary lighthouse stands on a prominent rock in the midst of an endless sea, its mossy stones carefully laid one upon the other over the years of its building.  It was erected by the Master Builder to withstand such storms as now assail it and on this night of the expansive dark storm, each successive frothing breaker is more violent than the last.  A great wave of hatred lashes a tremendous explosion into the psyche of the structure, always followed by another – often one of near-uncontrollable anger which threatens to undermine the very foundation supporting the tower.   Then out of the impenetrable darkness roars yet another – this time a gigantic mountain of inconsolable fear, perhaps the most threatening of the whole lot.  Oh, how these merciless waves take hearts away and destroy men who do not seek the Light!

Once in an unexpected while and blessed, there comes a peaceful, serene occasion between the violent upheavals. A precious time in which the stalwart lighthouse finds itself standing tall and still lighting the way for travelers upon the malevolent waters.  It is during these interludes that the keeper understands, yea, and renders gratitude to the One where the strength to endure the storm resides.  It is the Foundation – the Rock upon which the whole structure stands marvelously undamaged.  Through all of its years, because of the wondrous Light possessed, it has ever gained victory over storms of hate, jealousy, anger, vice, and all other malevolent depredations – because it has been built upon the Rock. 

The wise keeper gathers his strength, understanding that the gale will inexorably return, ever in greater fury than in pastimes.  He knows his lamp must be kept burning, even and especially amid each emerging tempest which threatens to extinguish its light of hope; he also has been given to understand that the sea is not the enemy. The sea is stirred by, and at the mercy of, the fearsome and malevolent storm.  Those gigantic and terrible breakers of hatred, anger and such are the real threats, to be endured, withstood until that Day upon which an unimaginably peaceful and serene expanse of calm and joy shall arrive and prevail.  Brilliant, snow-white beaches will reflect a new Light which shall forevermore put away darkness and fear. On that Day, though worn and bedraggled, the good keeper will be restored and rewarded for sharing his light – by the Maker of the sea and by whose mighty hand the lamp was lit at its beginning.

May the majestic light of Jesus shine before you on your voyage across the stormy sea.

MK

Epic Battles for Eternity

It’s close to the time of year we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and thoughts of believers naturally excurse to Heavenly subjects.  It’s amazing to try and imagine what goes on up there and how it affects us.  There’s so much to learn, so much more to know. It’s interesting to compare what we do know from the scriptures to what is happening in the world, in science, and how they might correspond.

For instance, one of the interesting things, at least to me, is that our scientific community thought it would be prudent to build a complex detection system to try and detect what they call gravity waves from the universe.  Some weird deflection system was built in a desert that would sense distortion of space supposedly caused from terrifically violent events out there somewhere.  Sure enough, they picked up some kind of disturbance they attributed to a couple of supermassive black holes colliding many light years away.  Wow! Now, these waves are thought to have derived from the physical cosmos, but what if they came from heaven?

I’m as far from being a scientist as you could imagine, but I have my own ideas.  There are proposed notions of interactions between this physical dimension where all “laws” of physics neatly operate, and other dimensions, for lack of a better description.  For instance, a lot of people believe the large hadron collider on the border of France and Switzerland was developed to institute a portal between ours and other dimensions.  I don’t know about all of that but considering the absolutely mad and in-your-face evil running wild in the world lately, they actually may have succeeded in finding the key to that place – the bottomless pit – from which demonic monstrosities come into our world to take over the populations and especially the leaders of several nations. Considering the absolute depravity, evil, and madness of some of the world dignitaries right now, who knows? It’s not like the evil is hidden as they once tried to keep it.

Back to gravity waves.  There are references in the bible about a time in heaven when the angels were at war.  We’ve all seen Hollywood depictions of epic violent and catastrophic events, but as far as I’m concerned, they only reveal the limit of human imagination when it comes to real apocalyptic happenings.  In fact, even with CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), Hollywood’s as pathetic at trying to imagine, as they are at depicting such things.  Let your imagination go nevertheless and remember the Creator who makes things like galaxies and supernovae, who knew all things related to nuclear power eons ago, also created angels and gave them unimaginable power.  He also created those supermassive black holes, quasars, pulsars, magnetars, gamma rays, and other phenomena, probably many of which are yet to be discovered.  Now, what kind of absolute mayhem might have been afoot during that battle?

I believe whatever cataclysmic events took place in that heavenly war, when the archangel Michael and his angel army defeated Lucifer and his army, was far beyond the imaginations of mortals.  It must have been quite the battle!  What kind of space and time warping weapons did they have at their disposal?  For lack of a better description, this undoubtedly would have been the greatest and most epic battle event in all of creation, and you know what?  From the way it reads, the most powerful Being of all did not even participate.  He obviously knew Michael and his angels could deal with the cosmic insurrection.  We can’t even begin to imagine what actually did happen, much less what might have taken place if the Creator Himself had taken an active part. Maybe in some way He did, but as with all else heavenly, we wouldn’t be able to understand it.

I can’t even find words to begin to describe what that awesome monstrosity of a battle must have been like.  And we think our puny nuclear weapons are fearsome.  The angels took “shock and awe” to a whole new level! We’re talking about beings who could no doubt destroy entire galaxies!  There probably are things way more phenomenal than galaxies, after all that realm is where the Creator of all things has His throne.  Jesus told us we couldn’t even imagine the joy that we would experience when we get there and I’m quite sure there will be other things, entities, events, that we cannot imagine either, at least not from this side.

It’s important to remember though, that even with all of the unfathomable powers of spiritual beings, there are a few things we know of that cannot be destroyed.  Among those things that were created to be indestructible is the human soul.  Wow!  Imagine that!  God was so thoughtful when He made us (for His fellowship) that He gave us a soul that could never be destroyed – other than by His own hand!  (Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.) Not even those powerful angels can destroy the soul, even if they had a mind to.  The notion of an indestructible soul can (and was intended to be) a very, very good thing, but it also has a potential downside.  You see, while we are here on this earth, He gives us opportunity to choose whether we would like to get to know Him and be in His presence – to go with our soul to exist in that place of unimaginable joy for all of eternity, or allow ourselves to get caught up in all the distractions of this brief, fleeting physical world where we exist during this time set for choosing, and thereby consign our souls to a place of eternal damnation – a place where the very indestructibility of the soul dictates that if torment is where it ends up, it will be forever, but again, that was not the intent when the soul was created, that turns out to be instead a consequence of our bad choices.

That creature that was kicked out of heaven was, unfortunately for us, sent to the earth where we also must dwell for a short while.  He obviously made it his purpose to try and thwart God’s plan to enjoy fellowship with His beloved human creation. As part of doing so, he got us kicked out of the paradise of Eden and to this day continuously presents temptations and distractions to keep our focus away from God’s love and mercy.  Sadly, for so many of our kind, he has been highly successful.  Especially when it comes to luring and corrupting people with riches and decadent lifestyles, his greatest weaponry.  He evn tried tempting the Lord Jesus with that, but it didn’t work. People don’t realize they are trading an eternity of incomprehensible joy which exists in God’s presence – indeed as a consequence of His presence – for a few fleeting days of fame, wealth, and immorality which brings no real joy at all.  Regardless of what it looks like to the peasantry, rich people are not happy.  They trade the joy of having friends who love them, for throngs of adulating people who just want to be close to their money.  Even their own families circle like vultures waiting to pick their bones when they pass on. The lifestyle they experience is empty and unfulfilling, therefore they mindlessly, slavishly, and continuously seek more of whatever they already have. In fact, their whole existence is caught up in greed such that they never experience meaningful satisfaction. There is no mortal love in their world.

The bible says that when the former heavenly “luminary”, Lucifer, and his angels were kicked out of heaven after that epic battle, the phrasing the scripture uses is that no place was found for them in heaven anymore.  Wow!  Let that sink in. Can you even begin to imagine the implications?  What were they thinking?!! Eternity is such a long, long time that even the concept of time itself is meaningless. When the soul – which is indestructible, and as mentioned, will exist forever – and the human consciousness with which it was graced, finds itself in an outer darkness so complete and overwhelming that not even a distant star will ever be seen again – forever* – it will be a sad realization indeed. Especially when that soul is forever cursed with the awareness that there is a place somewhere, a kingdom of which God gave them a glimpse – they will never see again, a place where there is an unimaginably joyful heavenly gala and the souls of those who were pragmatic and sought Him enjoy eternal bliss in the company of The Father and the Lamb and glorious angels singing with unimaginably beautiful voices in a place of unfathomable joy, peace and love.  In eternal torment, that unfortunate soul who chose to go the other way will finally and forever understand that no matter how much earthly wealth and popularity they attained for that ridiculously short time, they are now alone – forever alone and in darkness – and worse, forgotten by all, including the Creator Himself. They were invited and turned it down – this was their own choice – what a dismal realization to carry in torment for all eternity in a very dark and lonely place where among other unpleasantries, there will undoubtedly be pain and horror – probably like a nightmare from which one can never awaken, eternal thirst without water, and no rest!

Heaven is a spiritual place, a spiritual dimension. We are admonished that while we exist in this life, we are to attain to this spiritual premise, and as possible, reject the physical, worldly aspects of existence. We can only achieve this by putting our complete trust in Jesus Christ, there is simply no other way. Those who choose to stay engaged in the physical world and reject the spiritual will ultimately find their souls stuck in the physical dimension they so desired, with no longer any opportunity to ascend into the spiritual dimension. Though the soul is indeed spirit, the person’s desire for satisfaction in the physical world might just be granted to them – it is in this sense that their spirit forever may remain in the lonely physical realm of the damned – while those who chose to seek Jesus in the spiritual dimension will have found their way there. Will this be the final – and eternal state of our being?

God loves His human creation so much that He even sent His beloved Son to live among men and provide us the way to reconnect with Him, the Father, with Whom a formerly blessed couple shared a truly divine fellowship in Eden.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God Whose birth we celebrate during this season, is our Invitation to that great eternal reunion in Heaven.  The bible refers to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and every human with a God-given soul who has ever existed got a chance at an invitation.  That opportunity is before all of us living now, in the Words of the humble Son of a carpenter born in the diminutive town of Bethlehem in Israel long ago, ever knocking on the door of our hearts.  We must not take this Invitation lightly; our RSVP will absolutely determine the future of our souls!  The great battle of good vs evil has been fought and decided in heaven, but it’s still going on down here and the time for us to gain our own victory is getting very short – on which side do you choose to be? We all have to remember – there is no third choice, nor is anyone merely an onlooker. Like it or not, we’re all part of this great war – in fact, our eternal souls are what the war is all about!

If this makes sense to you, then by all means go find a for real preacher and get yourself baptized and start learning about Jesus Christ Who loves us – even though we’ve been sinful – enough to have suffered and died a horrible death to save our souls from that horrible, eternal damnation and at this very moment offers us something unimaginably precious! If you already know of Jesus, don’t make the mistake of listening to the false prophet millionaire evangelists – none of those charlatans know Him. They will lead you astray. Break out your own Bible and READ IT! Knock and it shall be opened. There are like-minded folks around you who would love to accompany you on the journey. Get in touch with them. Repent and pray for God’s forgiveness for pursuing that worldly life and its attendant evils. We’ve all been there.

As for gravitational waves being from the angelic battle, I don’t know. But it’s something to think about. Maybe those who wind up out there in the black nothingness will experience them once in a while.

*Astrophysicists believe that space is expanding and that somewhere in the distant future, there will be so much space between everything that even molecules will be so far separated as to never encounter other molecules again with any notion of light being but a distant memory, but it’s conceivable the human soul could still be out there forever alone and forgotten in that bleakness.  An understanding of how scientists arrive at the belief the scientific part in this possibility can be found at youtube journey to the end of the universe   It’s a thirty-minute documentary that is very interesting but at the end it gives you pause to think about how science can arrive at a scriptural concept without actually admitting, maybe not even realizing it. This post tries to connect this spiritual possibility within the context of science, and the biblical concept of “outer darkness” fits perfectly.

Where the Poor Go to Weep

Pray, beloved child, your prayer in sadness, silence and wonder for He patiently waits in silent and peaceful places where He watches for wholesomeness of heart, even – and especially – on somber mornings of clouded silence.  His gaze is ever upon your humility and compassion, for the blessing he desires to visit upon you is predicated on these.  Keep your own eyes to those fellow travelers endowed flush with righteous purpose and bestowed with wisdom; emulate such as you may be able and as your spirit allows. Surely the Creator will rest His mighty hand on your hope, for shipwrecked ever become ambitions elsewise, although it may seem not so for now.  With purity of heart, keep your sanctuary of solitude in His reach.  For it is but with purity of heart that we may behold Him.

Take shelter there and trust your tears go not unheeded, that your despondent mourn is indeed regarded by the Master, whose abundant presence ever awaits your return to that burning bush in your place of solitude.  Weep then, loudly if at all – fervently cry for mercy and for justice – for assuredly He gives pause to those hopeless, woeful echoes such as fill the heavenly censer.  As surely as the morning star arises from a pale dawn of twilight to beckon your spirit, encouragement such as may be rightfully and fruitfully gained from His compassion and wisdom shall blossom from the very despair you presently endure.  From eternity itself, incomprehensible peace shall indeed reveal to you His presence and the depths of His love.

Go then, to your fortress of solitude, that simple haven chosen by you among strewn leaves beneath oaken boughs where your tears as rivulet testimonials entreat His presence into your spirit to lift, to promise of eternal hope, eternal life, eternal love.  Consider always your burden as a blessing, through all awaiting sorrow and trepidation to which you must return from this sanctuary of tranquility ere you suffer the beastly conflict once more and with such steadfastness as you are gifted. You need not face it alone. Reap and gather courage here, then embrace it as you return to that life of need and poverty.  With passion, regard such destitution as His grace to you, for the wealthy ever deny themselves purity of faith.  Consider the patch on your garment as witness of travail you’ve endured in humble determination to remain faithful in the tempest. The wealthy cannot fathom a need of fortress against those merciless winds blowing covetousness and impurity upon the dark, endless paths they travel.  Such need is never regarded as they dwell within ornate decadence of realms unknown to you, but trust that unfamiliarity is for your benefit. They have no place to pray.  They have no place to weep.

Few souls among the multitudes of the uncompassionate whose hearts are laden with envy and desires of the flesh – sadly so few – shall ever come to know the blessing to be had spending time and tears of despondence in His presence.  Burdened with such pursuits of vanity as they carry, they deny themselves the incredible grace that awaits their presence in those humble silent places where Jesus Christ seeks to meet them!  To mend them. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Walk upright, holding the hem of His garment through each emerging shadow and understand that misfortune befalls every soul, therefore find that sacred place and avail yourself of an instance to pray.  And as need demands, to spend tears.

If the Almighty awaits our fellowship beneath forest boughs in a misty wood or within a secluded glen among rocks on a mountainside – a meeting place where thoughts and tears are spilled before Him, there go I.  If we must shun the allure of worldly lust and desire so that we may be comforted in such places where it is meet to tearfully implore the mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ, there go I.  If I might find that place where God abides awaiting the piteous cries of the needy and destitute so that there I too may be blessed – blessed indeed to be one with fellow sojourners in poverty and tears in the sanctity of His Holy Spirit – there, in poverty and purity of heart and by any means, go I.