The Moon and the Stars declare who you are...

ManKind was made as an "image bearer" of God. Those who have been reconciled to Christ are called to do this in a number of ways. One of the ways this is done is to testify proclaim the "Truth" of God to a deceived world. We are to reflect and declares God's image, (God is Truth..."I am the way, the Truth, and the Life") by proclaiming his Truth (God) to the world around us. (Just as a Prince would declare the image and representation of the King for whom he travels and does battle).

The best depiction of this has been painted onto the canvas of creation in the Sun and moon. The Sun is infinitely greater than the moon, the Sun creates light and brings life, while the moon neither creates nor brings about anything apart from the sun. The moon simply testifies to the existence of something infinitely greater, that which is its source. Simply put the Moon is meant to "bear the image" or "Reflect the image" of the sun and Testify even when it appears as though the sun if no longer visible (ie. At Night). If the moon could fail to do this(I realize it does not have much of a choice), it would not mean that the sun does not exist. For example in a lunar eclipse the moon does not reflect the radiance of the Sun, but the Sun is still every bit as illuminating and brilliant.

We were created to bear his image and reflect his light, just as the moon reflects the light of the Sun. We are in darkness without the Light of God. So it is with the moon, who is unable to illumine anything apart from the Sun's light shining on it.

Today we have the choice to either be "image bearers" of God and shine HIS light, to be the "light of the world" or to not. Our participation his little to do with whether he will continue to shine, it will only affect whether or not we "enlighten" the world and testify that something greater gives us our source of Light. Or we will simply continue to tolerate the darkness, and fail "to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light".

Will we declare today? Will you be an "image bearer" and reflect his marvelous light or be content with dwelling in the darkness?

-Give us your Grace oh God, we need you...

Eternity

"Can you fathom the weight of a soul in light of Eternity?"- Charles Spurgeon

The interesting thing about humanity is that each distinct person bears the eternal weight of glory within the fabric of its makeup. Every man, woman, and child you interact with is made in the image of God. And a crucial component of being an image bearer is that we are composed with a soul.

Although most people will recognize that to some extent their is an ever longing echo inside of them that depicts there is something more than mere existentialism or simple existence. Thus if enough time, thought, and contemplation takes place, with the grace and mercy of God allowing them to see, all eventually find that the life they longingly fill their energy, money, and time pursuing is simply hollow dream that is a fleeting myth. A vacant and empty passage from one moment to the next. Where hope for more is all that sustains them.

They may for a season numb themselves to this truth, but somewhere, if given enough time they will see that "what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but forfeit his soul."

But their is more. There is life that is wonderfully contained in that grace of a God who is both good and great, wonderful and mighty, beautiful and terrifying. The King of Kings who nobly laid down his life for the life of the subjects of his kingdom. A God who longs breathe truth into the lies that fill the world around us. He is both great and good, just and the justifier. He is reconciling all things to himself in Christ Jesus and he will be victorious. He who provided peace through the cross will provide Justice unsparingly. Rendering either Glory, honor, and peace...or wrath and fury.

But for now, we who know the truth, are called to open our mouths. Bearing in mind that "faith comes through hearing", and that those who are justified by the blood of the name that is above all names are "a chosen race", called that me may "proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light."

We are not mere mortals, food, movies, television, cars, homes, status, trinkets... these are mere mortals. All of humanity created in the likeness of the invisible God are not mortals, we are immortals. And so is everyone we come into contact with. Friends, neighbors, teachers, classmates, teammates, rich, poor, white, black, asian, all are image bearers. All will stand before the throne and give an account. Man is immortal, our eternal destinies may differentiate. But there is nothing mortal about us. (Save our outward flesh that is wasting away, but make no mistake our soul will live on).

Truth

"He (the devil) was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies."-John 8:44

"The very essence of your words is truth;
all your just regulations will stand forever."-Psalm 119:160

"Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth." John 17:17

For a majority of my life I fell for a lie. I chased fleeting pleasure after fleeting pleasure and was left in ruin and misery. I have no idea why his grace called me out of darkness and into his marvelous light, but it did. My sin was the same as the worlds. I had "exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator." This lie is a very subtle one, it creeps into the hearts of followers by taking what are seemingly good desires and bringing them to despotic and destructive enslavement. Taking good things and making them "god" things...this exchange leaves us empty longing for more to satisfy longings or simply numb our existence. The mysteriously interesting thing of the gospel is that it is the essence and reality of all truth. Thus the lie that life will and can be found apart from it is just that; a lie. This deception will suffocate those who venture down its path, and what appeared to be pleasure filled, easy, fun, and enticing, turns out to be in truth a place of death, despair, depression, and enslaving.

But God is good, and he desires that all men and women would come to a saving knowledge of him. Of his goodness, his love, and his mercy. The thoughts of which cripple the inside of me, when I think on the benevolent mercy of the God who rescued me from myself. It is interesting that in losing yourself to something so magnificent you become the most "you" that you could possibly ever be. In other words in losing your life you find it, and in trying to preserve your "life" you lose it. The Human capacity for emotion is incredible. As image bearers of God we have within the fabric of our souls the incredible ability to "feel", and "feel" immensely. However, often the feelings we entertain are not explored for the truth behind them or the lie that is really beneath them. These emotional false prophets that come from the father of lies must be rebuked, destroyed, brought into the light and called for what they are; Lies.

God is good, he is grace, he is love, he is power, he is strength, he is immeasurably wonderful, irresistibly beautiful, overwhelming pleasure filled. He is truth. He is indescribable. He is the only hope we have, I don't have the words to give him the praise he is due, nor the power to release those captive to the lies that this world claims of him. Taste and see... the author of life longs to give it to you.

Call for truth, dig deeply into the realm of philosophical rhetoric, science, psychology, discover that there is more. Close your eyes and breath deeply feel the world around you. There is a truth that melts away all falsity. Love that breaks through all tragedy. Grace that wipes away all duplicitous self-indulgency. Mercy for all your iniquity...

Come to him, all you who search and thirst for more, you who are tired, and lonely, broken and have fallen into deceit. Find mercy from a God who is able to sympathize with you in your weakness and give you strength to find life.

C.S. Lewis speaks of the unseen longing that rings in the chaotic desperation of our souls:

"We...desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."

-Let your mourning turn to dancing, and be consumed today with hope of what is to come.

The Words of the Teacher of Israel...

A Time for Everything

~For everything there is a season,
A time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.~

What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

-Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

"gravity...has taken better man than me..."

"You can be so interested in great theological and intellectual and philosophical problems that you tend to forget that you are going to die." -Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

-keep me where the light is-

Declarations...

Inspired by the resolutions created by the young Jonathan Edwards... my own "declarations" may God be gracious to let me pursue them...

Declarations:

Declaration #1: I declare to aim with the best of my ability to perform at all times in a manner that: could and should others see my actions, they would give praise to my father who is in Heaven. Matt 5:16

Declaration #2: I declare to honor the temple of my body and withhold the utmost moderation, sobriety, temperance, and control. Recognizing the self-control is a fruit of the regenerated spirit (Gal 5:23) and that though all things are lawful to the one who is free in Christ, not all things are beneficial and I am not to be enslaved to any matter other than the Lord, his holiness, and goodness. (1 Corinthians 6:12)

Declaration #3: I declare to maintain a habit of and hunger for the study of the word of God so long as the habit of study provides the blessing of savoring him more and proclaiming his majesty to all the peoples of the earth.

Declaration #4: I declare to always maintain the practice of hiding his word in my heart (Deut 6:6, Colossians 3:16), and in this practice find the power to have victory over sin; “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you”-Ps. 119:11, as well as confidence in my witness the world around me.

Declaration#5: I declare to aim and toil to fulfill these declarations to the best of my ability, to look upon them often, and repent often of the ways that I have failed to honor them and dually my Lord and Savior who sits at the right hand of the throne of God.

Declaration #6: I declare to treat all men and women, from every tribe and tongue as though they themselves were Jesus, who is the Christ. Knowing that God loves them… loves all men and so honoring both the imago Dei, as well as Christ’s decree that “whatever you did for the least of these you did unto me” Matt 25:45

Declaration #7: To clothe myself in humility in all things, recognizing the reformers words that all of us “are beggars this is true”.

Declaration#8: To meditate often upon the doctrine of depravity, seeing not only that of Calvin’s followers who maintained the doctrine of Total Depravity. But also a doctrine of “Personal depravity”, knowing that all have fallen and are saved by grace, but I am deeply and totally fallen, wicked at my core, and it is only the grace of God working in me that produces supernaturally things not of the flesh but of the Spirit who is holy. And may the depravity and confessions of others stir my heart not towards disdain but compassion on them as I empathize with their condition and confession towards the Lord as I am confronted all the more with my own wickedness.

Declaration#9: I declare to think often upon my death asking the Lord to remind me that I am but a breath,(Psalm 39) and “it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting for this is the end of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 6:2).

Declaration#10: I declare to fight for immense and intense happiness regardless of the situation and to transform even to darkest of circumstance into one of a more exciting experience.

Declaration#11: I declare to pursue with all my strength new forms of pleasure, excitement, exhilaration, and life for as long as air fills my lungs.

Declaration #12: I declare to receive instruction and wise counsel from young and old, knowing wisdom has many cupbearers and to apply any wise counsel to my life that in so doing would further manifest Christ’s power and Holiness here and to the world.

Declaration#13: I declare to Pursue fun, boundless amounts of fun and joy in every facet of my existence knowing that to live is to serve the author of Life, and to die is to gain his presence all the more.

Declaration#14: I declare to Love my family with all that I have, knowing that if one does not provide for the needs of his family he is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Tim 5:8).And should God see fit to bless me with a wife and/or Children to love them with all my might. Fighting for their joy, happiness, and pleasure as long as I shall live and to make provision for them as best I can even when I no longer live.

Declaration#15: I declare to until that time fight to regard all older men as fathers, older women as mothers, and all other men and women as sisters and brothers. Loving and respecting the elders, and protecting and providing for my brothers and sisters.

Declaration #16: I declare to lay down my life for the sake of Jesus Christ, dying daily for the greatest cause of all, and should the Lord see me worthy to give my earthly life know that there is “no greater love that of him who lays down his life”, and to count myself as blessed for being considered worthy to share in momentary sufferings for the sake of Christ.

Declarations#17: I declare to never see myself as above another, but make myself a slave to all men.

Declaration#18: I declare to become whatever I must (within my conscience) “that I might win some” 1 Cor. 9. Forsaking the disdain of the religious even if my actions should cause indignant feelings among the hyper-religious, and fight with all my heart for the lost and dying world.

Declaration#19: I declare to season my life and interactions in the most gracious way imaginable, erring on the side of grace with those who are young in faith, or ignorant of it. And take no measure of Judgment on others that I would not be delighted to turn and take on myself. (Matt. 7)

Declaration#20: I declare to warm every person I meet with love and to attempt to reflect the very face of Christ to every man or women, no matter their demographic or stage of life.

Declaration#21: I declare to pursue friendships, new and old. To deeply invest in those of the closest ring, but to seek every moment and interaction with strangers and new faces as an opportunity to make a new friend. And that by that new friendship our walks would be strengthened and encouraged or that the new relationship would initiate opportunity for some unfamiliar with the good news of Christ to become familiar with it.

Declaration#22: I declare to Fast, Pray, Rest, pursue silence and solitude, as well as the rest of the disciplines often and feverishly.

Declaration#23: I declare to give generously, to give of my time, my soul, myself, and my belongings knowing that it is far better to “be rich in good deeds”; and to remember that I brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out of it. (1 Tim 6)

Declaration#24: To be the best friend that I can, and to never avoid conflict, if its resolution would draw one of those involved (including myself ) to look more like Jesus. Many of us desire to look like him and I have far to many blind spots to do this alone.

Declaration#25: To be faithful, to make all my ambitions, dreams, and desires be rooted in this. Better to be poor, unknown, dying, having nothing, foolish, and faithful, than to be handsome, wealthy, famous, successful in gain, status ,or possession, and to be “a wave tossed about by the sea…”

2 Roads:

Born once, die twice.

Born twice, die once.

-Unless a man is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven...John3

scripture is clear all are dying and wasting away, its just a matter of whether you are:

living and dying...

or dying and truly living...

Which are you?