Arise

I cannot be certain about death! I have been told that death along with taxes is certain and unavoidable; yet, I proclain in my being to hold the scripture as fact; therefore, death is powerless for me, for within scripture it is shown powerless and uneccesary for life. Death has no victory in me nor must anything of this earth; while the concepts of science and logic will affect me at times, they must not prevail less I deny the truth of resurection in the full promise of life. Arise! Stop caving in to death! Stop metering your life by the concept of time. Become a new transformed self in fellowship with eternity...BE transformed in your daily vigor, show the world your truth. Accept the cold criticism which will come to break you ad walk purely through this world reaching out to those in desperate need of life.

Repent

I have found that which I have desired in the everyday life as well as in the eternal. there is a goal which I feel necessary to obtain, yet I am painfully aware of the cost which I myself must pay to achieve. I press on forsaking all worldly entanglements to rid myself of the burden of guilt associated with the inevitability of failure. My goal is salvation, atonement, redemption, and fellowship of which I have already achieved by no power of my own, yet this which I have achieved I have yet to fully grasp for I have yet to come into the fullness of all that is in store for me. I repent! continuously, not because I have been already forgiven and redeemed, but because I am in need of forgiveness and redemption and it is given through my act of acceptance by repentance freely. I do not call those who have obtained all these things to repentance for they do not need or desire this work yet, but for those who long for it as a deer panting for gentle streams of water it awaits; it beckons to the broken, and calls to the worn down...repent, repent, be relieved of your burden and so more become absorbed by rest.

Paradox: Luke 21:1-4

The paradox in our religion is that there is with Christianity no developed levels of sin, yet within the scriptures we find highly developed levels of offerings and repentance. the degree of sinfulness is determined by the individual yet the price of sacrifice is defined at length in the law. While our community continues to speak of Jesus as the fulfillment of the law this same community speaks of proportioned giving. The reason this widows offering was the greatest is because she gave it all. It is what Jesus did in his atoning sacrifice. Modern Christianity is rating sin effects of that sin in the sinners life rather than on the effects of salvation in the sinners life. For if I sin only once and realize His salvation it was the worst, most vile sin ever done; yet if I live a life of sin and regret and never reach out for salvation then my sin was nothing, for it lead me toward nothing; until salvation came to me I could not realize sin.

New Decade

AS this new year unfolds and the beginning of the next ten years takes place, we remember the hopes and fears of the past ten years as we found a nation divided by war, by class, by every difference that has driven us apart beginning with the issue of knowledge. It seems hard to believe that just over ten years ago we saw our friends scamper to protect their information as the threat of Y2K robbed every tech savvy citizen of their waking hours. Banks went on alert, businesses backed up their inventory lists fearing the "bug" would wipe them out, and the home office began to explore the concept of using the calculator. The year 2000 passed without any major hoopla as did most of 2001, but as our mind were eased and our pride bruised by speculations of defeat our enemies readied and pounced in our hour of rest. This started the lengthy process of our nation being at war. Many lives lost, destroyed and broken, we saw little victory in our efforts to retaliate, but in the business of retaliation, any victory can be celebrated, yet will never suffice. Our nation, with a damaged pride, still debates the merits of war. Some take the stand against moving forward while others take the stand against remembering the past. Where is it one nation stands? And when is it that a nation falls?