Merry Christmas, 2023.

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." -Isaiah 60:1

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." -Luke 2:14

mysticism: joy and heaven.

Joy: the reflection or residue of God within us.

As if that were not mystical enough, we are told that heaven is the perfected reflection of Earth, in the eyes of say, a sage.

Temptation overcome by faith and the Holy Ghost....

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 

And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

There hath no temptation taken unto you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

(Jas 1:2, Romans 5:3, 1 Peter 1:7, 1 Corinthians 10:13)

On temptation and the trying of faith, straight from scripture.

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

-1 Corinthians 10:13

No os ha sobrevenido ninguna tentación que no sea humana; pero fiel es Dios, quien no os dejará ser tentados más de lo que podéis soportar, sino que juntamente con la tentación dará la salida, para que la podáis resistir.

你們所遇見的試探、無非是人所能受的、　神是信實的、必不叫你們受試探過於所能受的．在受試探的時候、總要給你們開一條出路、叫你們能忍受得住。

 

"...the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ..."  -1 Peter 1:7

"...para que la prueba de vuestra fe--más preciosa que el oro que perece, aunque sea probado con fuego-- sea hallada digna de alabanza, gloria y honra en la revelación de Jesucristo...."  #espanolmoderno

"叫你們的信心既被試驗、就比那被火試驗、仍然能壞的金子、更顯寶貴．可以在耶穌基督顯現的時候、得著稱讚、榮耀、尊貴。"

Tozer on God conditioning the believer.

"I once heard a brother preach on the fact that the church should be without spot or wrinkle. To get the wrinkles out of a sack, he said, you fill it. To get a wrinkle out of a rug, you lay it down and walk on it. God sometimes fills us, the preacher continued, but sometimes He just puts us flat down so that everyone can walk on us!"  -AW Tozer

New memes from Isaiah 42, KJV

 

of an abundance of love, the mouth speaks.

from the daily bible devotionals:  "Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."  -Philippians 1:2

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you..."  -Philippians 1:3

Love you all, and out of an abundance of love, the mouth speaks.  

Glory to God.

"Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife."  -Proverbs 17:1.

  
Sometimes, its the Christian in the room that has to stand-up and get loud for the cause of peace, my friends.  

"Let patience have its perfect work."  

Love someone today; speak words of kindness and patience.

Glory to God.

"my wife made me do it": on the Adamic sin nature.

 Soren Kierkegaard wrote some very famous and once very highly-regarded philosophy books.  It was written very richly, with a lot of skill, but the surprising thing is that it offered a theological perspective in all that rich language.

He talked about the sin nature inherited from Adam and Eve in the garden, and how that still bore down hard on modern man, causing various anxieties and so forth, even in modernity.

Indeed, Adam looking for justification, blamed Eve for eating the fruit.

Could they blame the serpent though?  Indeed, blaming the serpent would mean they better understood their sin in reality, but no, they would in-fight rather than blame the eternal Enemy.

In Romans chapter 7, Paul talks about sin pressing in from his flesh, though he yet tried to live in the spirit.  His spirit was good, he said, but his flesh was full of sin.  He had those same desires we have today.  "That which I would, I do not."

That inherited sin nature, of which the King James Version uses a big word: "enmity" a kind of push-pull between the natural and the spiritual, a tension that holds some people forever in damnation, so many of the people of the world.  Even Paul laments these forces in himself, "O wretched man that I am!".

Elsewhere in the Bible, it says that we are tempted beyond what is "common to man", or in other words, we should remember that all of us are tempted.  Be inspired by those that hold the line against temptation, and pray for those that have succumbed to various temptations.

In the daily devotionals.... going back around before year's end....

"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee"   (Isaiah 43:2).

Be like the river, despite the adversity, the lack of inspiration, be like the river and just keep going, for the Lord is with you.

In the daily devotionals, a few have cycled around and back and over and under and through to repeat Isaiah chapters 40-60.  Love it.  God is with us, my friends, and we can only hope and push that more people open their hearts to the truth of Christ and the hope of salvation.

"....from Paul and his afflictions we may learn much truth, some of it depressing and some altogether elevating and wonderful. We may learn, for instance, that malice needs nothing to live on; it can feed on itself. A contentious spirit will find something to quarrel about. A faultfinder will find occasion to accuse a Christian even if his life is as chaste as an icicle and pure as snow. A man of ill will does not hesitate to attack, even if the object of his hatred be a prophet or the very Son of God Himself."  A.W. #tozer

"a thorn in the flesh" Paul called his affliction.  He spoke of sin in the body, and righteousness in the spirit, fighting against each other, locked in struggle, and only the grace found through the love of Jesus Christ was Paul's saving.

Memes created from Isaiah 40 in the KJV

 

Faith, hope and love: and the nexus of imagination.

"....faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love."

*It is chief to love God, and to love our brethren.

But imagination, as in faith working with hope, with faith being the evidence of things not seen; imagination can be a powerful force.  In the story of the Tower of Babel, it was man's imagination that perturbed God, that there was no limit to their imagination.

At the nexus of faith and hope might be the imagination, believing you are already healed, by His stripes, healed and delivered already, no matter how you may feel, no matter what you have been told, and we have only to let the imagination roll.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for..."  -Hebrews 11:1

Imagination figures in, in some vague but important way, to believe the healing, to imagine it yet before it has actually came to pass, just as God would be already working, "behind the scenes", moving unseen pieces to make healing come to pass.

Love! From the lips of Paul and Jesus.

...all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.   -Galatians 5:14-15

Its a topic I've heard LD Oneal preach on so much, and as Christ himself said, Love God chiefly, then love everyone else.  Two most important of the commandments.  LD Oneal took the core of the Gospel to heart, where other people are talking mindset and daily minutia, or preaching on the Hebrew captivity.

From Matthew 18:

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
 

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
 

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
 

And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
 

But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
 

The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
 

Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
 

But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
 

And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
 

And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
 

So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
 

Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
 

Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
 

And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
 

And likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

On Christian Productivity: The Fundamentals.

How do these mega stars in sports get by, how do they stay so sharp, you might ask.

It was a classical musician that was told at an audition that she had a glimmer of talent, but what was needed was hours and hours of practice.  She passed the audition, with the understanding that she would spend all day for days on end, day after day, stuck to that instrument, plugging away in the hopes of perfection.

Sounds dismal, yes?  Almost like a prison sentence.

That's the devotion of someone who is active in their chosen field.

The WWE movie stars, The Rock and John Cena, put in the necessary work years prior, wrestling on stacks of hay for 25 dollars a night, and even now, spend early morning hours in the gym, keeping up their physical capabilities.

Steph Curry.  Could you imagine such a talented basketball player at practice?  Is he sitting there on his phone while the others on the team work on drills?  Quite not.  He's out there, dribbling, practicing passing, free throws and other sundry ordinary tasks.

They continually put in the practice.

It's Kenneth Copeland that has landed many an aviation-centered sermon, being a certified pilot himself, he brings some of that to his preaching.  He reminds that pilots have a checklist to go through, checking the fuel and so forth, bringing the engine to so many RPMs, every time they start that plane up.

What happens if they don't go through that pre-flight checklist?

Could be a future disaster.

They practice and do drills on the "little things", continually, refining their craft, just like the crude oil brought from overseas is somewhat useless by itself, but is sent through a refinery before its put on the truck to go to your local gas station.

Incidental talent can be just seemingly a random anomaly without sharpening the skills at constant practice.