2002-11-21
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
There are times when we look back on our lives and say to ourselves, “I was raised to be a business person, a welder, an auto sales person, a secretary, a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer, a pastor, or whatever, but I was never raised to be a soldier. And yet, from the moment we repented and came to faith in Christ, we became soldiers in His great army. We ask, “why is this?” I don’t want to seem like second guessing God here, but we are given enough evidence in the Scriptures to understand that God’s agenda is at least twofold. 1) He wants as many of us to be perfected to the point where we can return to His side for eternity as His friends, and 2) He needs us to help Him do the work of setting up the conditions whereby Christ can wrest dominion over the earth from Satan and bring Satan to His appointed demise. It is precisely because I can testify to you to today and always that I believe that every word of the Scriptures is true and consistent that I can say this. That is the faith that God has given me. It is my sincerest hope that these messages might help to convey that same faith to you. Just as I testify to my faith here, I will also testify that I didn’t deserve to be saved, I am a sinner, and that anything that I am or that I have has been given to me for His use by the Lord. That is why He deserves any glory that comes from it.
Having said that, I am reminded that as a gift of our salvation, we must recap the “combat intelligence” on what we learned so far about Satan’s attacks on the mind. Remember this is the enemy’s favorite way to spread evil and to establish strongholds that lead to evil actions. God wants us to know this, so that we are fully prepared to stop Satan at his own game. 1) The mind is Satan’s favorite point of attack [1 COR 2: 14; RO 1: 18-25]. 2) Your thoughts shape your life [PR 4: 23]. 3) Avoid duplicitous personalities, as they lead to trouble and pain [PR 23: 7]. 4) Evil ideas lead to evil acts [MT 15: 18-19; RO 1: 26-32]. 5) God’s weapons are more powerful than Satan’s [GN 3: 15; EPH 1: 18-20; EPH 6: 10-20]. 5) We must use God’s weapons and not those of the world [2 COR 10: 4-5]. 6) We need to alert and watchful to Satan’s attacks [1 PET 5: 8-9]. 7) We must keep the things of God on our minds [PHIL 4: 8]. 8) God never tests us beyond our limits [1 COR 10: 13]. 9) The way Satan establishes a stronghold is to attack our minds; then his evil is to converted to actions, which become habits [RO 1: 18-32]. 10) Stupidity, arrogance, hypocrisy, stubbornness, grudge-holding, and the like are the attitudes which make people vulnerable to Satan’s attack [JAS 4: 6; RO 2: 3-4; EPH 4: 25-27; PR 9: 5,18]. 11) Know that God has the power and the desire to protect those who endure in faithful obedience [PR 21: 1; JER 20: 11-13; JER 29: 11-13]. 12) God will never abandon those who love Him [IS 49: 14-16; PS 9: 9-12].
With all of that, God has even more for us to see, and so I’m led to continue on this topic awhile longer. He never ceases to amaze me with all He has for us. When we were still in sin, we were not ready to be used by God to join Him in His work. That left God with the sizable task of bringing as many of us to faith as would come and then training us to deepen that faith by study of His word, an active prayer life, congregational life, and the circumstances of our own lives. It’s no accident that Solomon begun the book of Proverbs with advice for youths surrounded by temptations to sin. Timothy picks up on this in 2 TIM 2: 20-22, “In a large house there are dishes and bowls of all kinds; some are made of silver and gold, others of wood and clay; some are for special occasions, others for ordinary use. If anyone makes himself clean from all those evil things, he will be used for special purposes, because he is dedicated and useful to his Master, ready to be used for every good deed. Avoid the passions of youth, and strive for righteousness, faith, love, and peace together with those who, with a pure heart, call out to the Lord for help.” We are called upon to seek God first and often for His guidance. David’s example is seen in PS 5 :3, “Each morning I will look to You in heaven and lay my requests before You, praying earnestly.” We all too often underestimate the power of prayer, something we shouldn’t do. 1 THESS 5:16-18, “Be joyful always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” From Satan’s point of view, those are “fightin’ words!”
If we examine the citations in today’s message, there is an underlying theme. That is God’s message that He wants us to be informed soldiers and equips us well to persist in resisting the enemy. His weapons, which He freely gives us and trains us to use are so much more powerful than anything Satan can conger up. He wants us not to lose sight of the big picture, His plan for us to eventually return to His side and be showered with His blessings forever. Those of us who persist, are obedient to Him, and fight with valiance and courage will be richly rewarded. We need never question if these battles are worth it or be concerned that our Commander-In-Chief will abandon His troops. Our God loves us enough to have sacrificed His own Son on the cross for us and given us the gift of His Spirit to indwell in us, to make our salvation and our victory possible in Christ’s holy name.
PRAYER: O Lord, even with the sophisticated technology available to human soldiers today, no weapon a human ever made is as effective as those You give us to fight against the adversary. The Psalmist’s words which follow express how we feel about You. PS 96: 1-6, “Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing to the Lord, all the world! Sing to the Lord, and praise Him! Proclaim every day the Good News that He has saved us. Proclaim His glory to the nations, His mighty acts to all peoples. The Lord is great and is to be highly praised; He is to be honored more than all the gods. The gods of all other nations are only idols, but the Lord created the heavens. Glory and majesty surround Him; power and beauty fill His temple.” We shouldn’t be surprised that the Psalmist referred to the Good News here. You always planned to make our salvation possible, and You always recognized our mutual need for us to be Your soldiers in Christ fighting to victory against the enemy. You needed us to help get Your work done, and we needed to be fighting this battle to demonstrate our strength and courage of faith so You can perfect us. We go on with PS 98: 1-2, “Sing a new song to the Lord; He has done wonderful things! By His own power and holy strength He has won the victory. The Lord announced His victory; He made His saving power known to the nations.” Even before mankind had ever heard the name, Jesus Christ, we see in this wonderful psalm, Christ’s deity, His identity as Your second personality. It goes along with JN 14: 9b, 11, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father…Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. If not, believe because of the things I do.” We stand ready to resist the devil and are honored to one day march in Christ’s victory parade. In humility, we confess our sins and offer our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, honor, glory, trust, obedience, thanks, and praise to You. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I am led to share some citations with “combat intelligence” about why we should live lives of holiness, God’s will for us, and how to avoid some of the snares Satan sets for us. All of this information comes to us, because of our salvation. Being born again in Christ is only the beginning of what His soldiers must do. The next step is harder and leads to great rewards. That is building our faith in Him through obedience and trust throughout some tough battles with the enemy. When we show courage of faith and real willingness to put ourselves on the line, God doesn’t ignore that. Instead, He blesses us even while we are still in our temporary homes on earth and continues to bless us abundantly in our permanent home for eternity in heaven. Our Lord loves us more than any human can comprehend. His greatest desire is to have us with Him, enjoying eternal peace, joy, and fellowship. Is this love worth all our effort? You bet it is! Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn