Why does a live Church talk?

Many times, in the pre live state of my soul, I wondered why Christians must fellowship before service. I wondered why must they enjoy one another's company so. I was really jealous that I thought that my silence was the reality of solemnity. That my silence was reverent. God showed me otherwise. I thank you God that I am not like these talkers who must chatter before You when they should be reverent. God showed me the silence of the dead and the sound of the wailing that is prefaced by the silence of the damned. Those that do not know Him, have no care about what someone else is doing next to them, whether there is a crying or needy soul that needs tending to, or not. The normal human courtesies are missing from the sitting, supposed sullen and silent majority. God is not impressed by silence, nor by noise. But, He does condemn the judgmental heart that puts the worst construction on the bleating of the sheep of His pasture. A real shepherd knows what each bleat means and a real shepherd knows what the silence means. It means that they are dead. God bless the noise of the loving of one another.

Proverbs 24

Truly it is a sad thing to see the land of the man who is void of understanding. Seeing the thorns and the thistles heaping over the walls and the breaking down of the protective elements, walls. A little sleep... Obvious that the person is left desolate in the day of want. I remember seeing some of the most exciting scenes in some of the Disney movies is when the Prince takes his effort and his sword and hacks at the overwhelming thorns and thistles that envelope the Princess. What a picture of deliverance. The position of being enveloped by the thorns and thistles is certainly a sad condition and oft times lethal, but the spiritual thorns and thistles have much more eternal consequence.
I passed by the soul of the man void of understanding and it was overgrown with thorns and thistles. Ignorance and confusion had enveloped his soul and he was blind to his spiritual condition. He was entertaining himself with much distraction and completely unaware of the place where he is in truth.
I remember my Grandmother's face, every time that I came over, after she had been diagnosed with cancer. Am I going to Hell? She would ask me. I said, Grandma, I can't tell you that. You must believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ. I can't tell you, where you are going. We hardly think about our eternal condition until we are peering through the window of eternity. Heaping teachers to ourselves that will tell us what we want to hear, doesn't make us right. God knows if our spiritual wall is collapsing. God knows if our hearts are toward Him or toward our own comforts. We keep educating the rich young people to preach what we want to hear. Am I going to heaven? We ask these young people. Let me tell you that we know we are missing the mark in this. God will hold us accountable for every poor but godly man that has been muzzled, by the condition of the Church in our day. The condition of that kind of laziness is eternally lethal. God knows that He has created the godly for the day of evil. Help us Lord to see the truth that You have exposed to us in this day.

Proverbs 24: 30-34-I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
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And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
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Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.
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Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
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So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man

And, Can It Be?

As icing on the cake{as it were}, as if grace would flow upon grace, on top of the presence of God with us on earth, we have more communion with Him to anticipate in glory. After the presence of God being with us through life, we still have eternity to gain. I should gain this? I should enjoy the life with God upon earth and still have heaven to look forward to? Yes, because of the grace and mercy of the gracious and condescending Savior. No one is too poor or too rich to have communion with Him. He excludes none from His communion on account of their station. I can know Him now and still have more communion to anticipate.
Some teachers seem to make knowing Christ an unattainable task, but I think that the Old Testament saints prove to us that God is more willing to commune with us than we are to seek Him. Every kind of people and every kind of sin is cleansed, by the Blood of Jesus, when confessed and forsaken. Cleanse us, Lord, draw us nearer to Thee and keep our eyes fixed upon the glories to be gained, continuing to walk with You. Do not allow the deceits of this world to cloud our vision.

Rediscovering The Christian Manifesto!

It was Francis Schaeffer's 70th birthday in 1982, the version of the Bible Hour that featured his most famous of sermons. I have heard it many times over the years, but today, it was timely to me. In the light of a new generation of family, represented by the Prince having engaged, Kathryn to be his bride; I feel challenged to identify the enemies of soul and family anew and engage my soul in the focus upon the fight for the true values that create and congeal the family unit. In Christ, God stands with those true core values. Francis Schaeffer identified some of them, in spiritually uncovering the enemies, in our country that crush or eradicate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This is the 3rd of 3. All are worth listening to.

I am always awed by the beautiful and civil way that our forefathers left us to express our differences.

I love the voting and democratic process. It was Teddy Roosevelt who went to England and said that the concept of a King was so repugnant to him that if he had to live there, he should have to kill the king, to take over. How does one govern such a bunch of pugnacious independants, as we Americans are?
I think that the voting process takes our Adamic natures into consideration.We want a part in our own governing. Honoring our parents, in our nation, means voting and being willing to follow the protocol in the decisions that may, at times seem so capricious, in that they are decided, nearly by lot. Can that be civilized that we don't know who or what will govern us next? Of the people, by the people, for the people is what we have instituted and continue. I think it is, not only glorious and wise, but God glorifying. People are what they are and they will make mistakes and mess up and some sort of checks and balances must remain for them. The American people, may not all be Christians, but many pray and then vote and we trust God's guidance to a system which is {without a God} very dangerous. The safety of the system is the God whose hands we depend on, when we cast our vote. Monarchs are the image of God in His Glory, Republics are the image of man in his humility, shut up to...the system? God of the system.
Honor your father and mother...That it may be well with you.

The day after the "revolution"--The Republican Takeover?

I am so encouraged at looking at the imprecatory Psalm 35 with Pastor Boice. So much of the power of the Word of God is evident in that Psalm, which we never sing and we never really meditate on much, because it is so repugnant to our redeemed humanity, or should be and so convenient for us, in our wrath and anger, to identify with. The fact and the reality of conflicts and enemies of our souls is the first truth, on the surface of the passage. We are always going to have conflicts to assuage, dissuade, or navigate around, or through. Like storms, the truth of conflict and enemies is consistent. I see, how God gave David, leave and encouragement to write his heart toward his enemies and allowed and preserved it for us, by the Holy Spirit for our good and profit and instruction. I think that it is obvious that because David was a man of prayer and meditation, the expressions of his anger and wrath were mixed with mercy, because he allowed God to touch his anger through prayer. When we allow God to deal with our sinful anger, in private, we can be convinced that we will not act in the full extent of our sinfulness. { I.} “The wrath of man cannot glorify God.” God gives us clear instruction on what should be the first thing that we should do with our anger. “Take it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He’s a friend that is well known.” Perhaps tell it to Jesus alone, perhaps tell it to Jesus and then act on it. Pastor Boice's helpful sermon today

FOR--Isaiah-9:6

Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

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Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

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Isaiah 9:8
The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.

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Isaiah 9:9
And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,

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Isaiah 9:10
The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.

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Isaiah 9:11
Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;

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Isaiah 9:12
The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

What an unusual place for God to put this most comforting passage. It looks like all is lost, in the early parts of Isaiah. Judgement and sad circumstance for the people of God, but there is a treasure, a real treasure the likes of which only heaven can calculate. I can hear the angels singing this portion when they were speaking to the shepherds at the birth of the Messiah. Earth is calculating the losses and Heaven is calculating the gain. I see the angels passing these wonders to each other as we would pass money. "Wonderful" on earth? "Counsellor" in human form? "Mighty God"? "Everlasting Father"? They divide the knowledge of the true riches, while we calculate the riches upon earth...Halleluia, What a Savior"