"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.  The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple."   ---Psalm 19:7

“Be very strong: be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.”  ---Joshua 23:6



"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
---James Madison



One of the greatest debates raging today concerns privately held weapons in the United States.  Americans in every quarter are wrestling with the Constitutional right to "bear arms."  This right was enacted very purposefully in our Constitution as a societal protection against despots and tyrannical governments.  As Founding Father, James Madison, pointed out above, bearing arms is an issue of trust --- the people trust themselves with weapons as a guard rather than a government mistrusting them!  Another of Madison's generation, George Mason, said, "To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."  When people lack the ability to defend themselves, they are prey to anyone --- government, gang, robber, or tyrant --- who would rob them of what they have or exercise effective control over them.

This is doubly true in the spiritual realm, also!  Living our faith is described in Ephesians as "spiritual warfare."  From Israel's prophets in the Old Testament to our Lord Jesus in the New Testament, the Word of God is described consistently in the language of weaponry.  The Word of God is "a fire" in Jeremiah 23:29.  It is "the power (dynamite) of God" in Romans 1:16.  It is the "sword of the Spirit" in Ephesians 6:17, and Hebrews 4:12 says it is "sharper than any double-edged sword."  All of these passages and more illustrate graphically its power and use.

For God's people of faith, the Word of God is an absolutely essential offensive and defensive weapon.  We defend ourselves against attack by reading it, by meditating on and internalizing it, and by quoting it as Jesus did in His great temptations in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11).  We use it offensively by sharing it in personal conversations, lessons, and in preaching.  Hebrews 4:12 even says that it "judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."  What a blessing it is that God has entrusted this Word to us!

Therefore, if we neglect God’s Word, or fail to read it, or do not study it, or we disbelieve it, then we've become thoroughly spiritually disarmed!  Disarmament in this sense only leads to eventual defeat!  Just as nations and kingdoms have learned in the difficult crucible of experience, the world is a dangerous place, indeed!  To be disarmed is to be placed at the mercy of those who would rule you, rob you, or mistreat you.

So, in the week ahead as you fight the good fight, do not neglect your most valuable weapon, God's Word.  Like the finest swords of another era, it will not fail us!  Feed yourself on the Word and make it an inseparable part of your daily life.  Make its precepts your foundation and its commandments your rules for living.  Let its life invigorate you, and let its words be your comfort.  It will steer you straight and take you to the destination that is eternal and blessed.  May the light of God’s Word give you light for each day’s path this week and for ever.

“Almighty God, Thou hast deigned to show Thyself so intimately to us and also daily deignest to confirm us in Thy truth.  Grant we may turn aside neither to the right nor to the left, but depend wholly on Thy Word and so cleave to Thee that no errors of the world may lead us astray.  May we stand firm in that faith which we have learned from Thy law, from the prophets and the Gospel (wherein Thou has more clearly shown Thyself through Christ), that we may finally enjoy Thy full and perfect glory, being transfigured into it, at last attaining that inheritance acquired for us by the blood of Thine only begotten Son.  Amen."   ---John Calvin
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2005

"Of God, what should we now learn?  With sure faith, we ought first to hold He is wisdom infinite; is righteousness, goodness, mercy, truth, power, and life.  For utterly no other wisdom there is; no other righteousness and goodness, no other mercy and truth, power and life.  Wherever seen, all these come from Him alone.  Second, we must learn that for His glory have all things in heaven and on earth been made.  Right requires we serve Him for His nature's sake alone; keep His rule; accept His majesty; in obedience own Him Lord and King."   ----  John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Somewhere in the past 200 years, the basic approach to life and religious devotion changed significantly.  In academic circles, the change was relegated to the demise of theology and the rise of philosophy and psychology......particularly existentialism.  For those not initiated into those ethereal realms, that means that people have found the "center of their existence" to be their experience of life rather than some higher or divine authority.  In short, humankind has despaired of any genuine, concerned God outside human life, and, therefore, they have tried to find their ultimate meaning right here in the middle of their own lives.

What we've accomplished, in spite of all our scientific achievements and advances in the arenas of living, is nothing short of a sterile life of depression and defeat!  We can put a man on the moon, but we cannot seem to curb our own appetites for violence, murder, and destruction.  The more energy and money we expend upon human self-discovery and self-help, the more deluded we are and in need of help we become!

These tendencies have not escaped us in the religious community.  Those of us who call ourselves "Christians" seem to have a never ending penchant for centering our walk of faith in ourselves.  We enthrone ourselves and our views of the world!  The original sin of "becoming as God" reproduces itself in our lives daily, I'm afraid.

This week, focus instead upon God and His qualities of holiness.  Feed on His Word and truly own Him as Lord and King.  Serve Him because He deserves it, He demands it, and His love and grace draws it from us.  It is when we serve our God because His nature makes anything else ludicrous to us that we can be what Paul calls "instant in season and out of season."

May He be glorified in this dark world through us this week through our words, deeds, and the secrets of our hearts!
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2001

"For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"   ---- Isaiah 14:27

"A ship, like a human being, moves best when it is slightly athwart the wind, when it has to keep its sails tight and attend to its course.  Ships, like men, do poorly when the wind is directly behind, pushing them sloppily on their way so that no care is required in steering or in the management of sails; the wind seems favorable, for it blows in the direction one is heading, but actually it is destructive, because it induces a relaxation in tension and skill.  What is needed is a wind slightly opposed to the ship, for then tension can be maintained, and juices can flow and ideas can germinate; for ships, like men, respond to challenge."   ---James Michener, Chesapeake



If you've been paying attention lately, virtually every form of media is telling us that conditions in the world are not good.  North Korea has restarted their nuclear program even as much of their population is starving.  Iraq and their Presidential Thug are playing fast and loose with the United Nations and the mandates for disarmament.  Numerous other "wannabe" rogues are waiting in the wings to ply their trade of armed blackmail and international thievery.  For any person of faith to believe in a Sovereign and loving God honestly seems  ludicrous!

There's a certain desperation in the air these days; a desperation born of declining economics, the racial balkanization of America, and the sense on the part of young adults that their futures may not likely be better than their parents.  This negativism affects our politics, our interpersonal relationships, and our business and industry.  Sadly, too, it affects our faith communities.

The stress of the times, though, has the effect of revealing to us exactly what kind of God we believe we have!  Just in the past few weeks, hardly a day has gone by that I have not received at least one email message imploring me to help distribute a "prayer wheel."  This is a bit like the Christian version of a rabbit's foot --- a good luck charm calculated to manipulate God into performing our bidding.  You'd think we were whirling prayer wheels to get our way.  The hand-wringing and desperation reveal to us that some people have a weak, pitiful God Whose actions are largely only an impotent response to developments in the world.

Dire conditions and difficulties, though, CAN have a far more significant role to play for us.  They CAN show us that our vision is out of focus and our faith is misplaced!  They CAN force us back to our spiritual "bottom line" in devotion and doctrine.

First, the difficulties, threats of war, and less than ideal conditions around us force us to consider that GOD'S focus is to fulfill HIS eternal purposes in the world!  God's decrees --- His eternal purposes --- ARE being worked out in the world and WILL be accomplished.  His purposes are spiritual in nature and they are realized in Jesus Christ.  "According to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (Ephesians 3:11)

So, for us Christians, there is NO room for despair, NO place for worry, and NO excuse for anything other than strong, unalterable faith!  God has already written the history of the world --- He wins, His ends are accomplished, and His people are victors!  We MUST live by faith --- in faith --- and through faith.  It is NOT faith in conditions, NOT faith in ourselves, and NOT faith in what we want or what seems to be good to us.  It IS faith in our Sovereign God and His Sovereign power.  The Apostle Paul said it this way, "For I am convinced that [nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (Romans 8:38-39)

Second, the difficulties, threats of war, and less than ideal conditions around us force us to understand the role that immediate difficulties play in our lives.  As the quote above shows, the real effect of consistently favorable conditions is that ships and people BOTH become sloppy and inaccurate.  Opposing winds and winds that seek to blow us off course require much out of a ship's crew --- constant vigilance to the skills and duties inherent in good sailing, and consistent attention to the destination intended.  In fair winds, anyone can be a sailor.  Foul winds turn recreational sailors into true seamen!

SO --- this week keep your attention on the "map of life" found in God's Word.  Focus on the destination decreed by God's eternal purposes and sail for them.  Keep your equipment in good order and your rigging tight.  Stand tall --- you serve a Sovereign God.  Live with strong and unwavering faith.  Remember --- all things will come out just as He decrees.  May He give us the kind of faith that can say like the Apostle Paul, "If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord."  (Romans 14:8)

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2003

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’  ‘Yes, Lord, ‘he said, ‘you know that I love you.’  Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’”   ----John 21:15
 


Perhaps one of the greatest challenges to most Christians is the tendency to quit after they have failed.  Our contemporary culture has not exactly bred resiliency and tenacity into us, so overcoming obstacles and persevering in the face of difficulties prove to be illusive for so many people who claim to have faith.  Our situation in life is not helped by the fact that the Scriptures tell us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God!”  (Romans 3:23)  The history of Christianity is littered with the stories of people who ran the race of life well and accomplished a great deal only to quit and fall by the wayside after one great failure or another.  Of course, in our own day, who doesn’t know the names of Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert?!

 
Over the years, I’ve had person after person tell me in excruciating detail why they could not serve God or live a Christian life.  I’ve learned of humiliating defeats, moral failures, and awkward attempts that fell short of their goals.  So many of us live our lives for years with the heavy burden of failure imagining that God oppressed us as much as we oppress ourselves!  Literally, we become the victims of our own evaluations ignoring the fact that God forgives.  Much of our lives becomes frozen in time tethered to past failures, sins, and defeats.  The acid voice of the Evil One whispers his crushing messages that magnify our foibles and errors from the past.  He tells us that God cannot or will not use us in His kingdom’s work because we are sinners.  And --- the trouble is that we tend to agree with him!
 

It doesn’t have to be that way, you know.  The Scriptures are filled with the stories of men and women who would be evaluated as “failures” but who were used by Almighty God in marvelous and wonderful ways.  The prostitute Rahab became God’s human intelligence gatherer in Canaan for the Israelite spies, and she is listed in the ancestry of our Lord Jesus Himself!  Moses, who threw away his royal upbringing and failed at bringing revolution to Hebrew slaves, became God’s spokesman to Egypt’s Pharaoh and God’s leader for the Israelites.  Simon Peter, the big fisherman who once claimed that he would die with Christ denied Him three times on the night before His crucifixion.

 
As a consequence of his failure, Peter did exactly what most of us would have done in his place.  Though he left his fishing boat and nets to follow Christ as a “fisher of men,” following his monumental failure in denying Christ he returned to fishing thinking that ministry was over for him.  It was after the resurrection that Jesus found him and asked three times if Peter loved Him.  With each question, Peter was cut to the heart.  He had not changed his allegiance to Christ nor his knowledge of Who Jesus really was.  What had changed was Peter’s grand failure and his disqualification, he thought, from further service.

 
In the passage cited above, Jesus made it clear that Christian living and Christian service are, at their heart, matters of our love for Christ more than our inherent abilities and acquired skills.  We are to “feed His lambs” as an outgrowth of our love for Jesus.  Though bruised and battered, though painfully aware of our failures and inabilities, though not wanting to forgive ourselves, we MUST NOT GIVE UP!  The remedy for our shortcomings is to repent of our sins and continue working in the ways and places God sovereignly allows us!  To continue in service requires courage, and God supplies it when we need it in abundance.

 
Two times in the Scriptures Jesus finds Simon Peter and his fellow fishermen with their boats on shore and nets hung up for repair and drying.  They’ve done their best and have caught nothing.  In both instances, Jesus makes it graphically clear that HE brings the success, not them.  His challenge to them, as well as to each of us, is to “keep on keeping on.”  When we fall down, we get up!  When we stumble, we regain our footing and continue going forward.  When our friends fall down, we pick them up and encourage them to move forward in faith and love.

 
This week, DON’T let the voice of Satan keep you from doing what you should in your faith and service.  You may have lost faith in yourself and others may have lost faith in you, too.  However, don’t lose heart!  for God knows that we are weak and that we are sinners.  His “faith” is in Himself to work through us accomplishing His eternal purposes day by day.  He asks us the same question He asked Peter, “Do you love me?”  Our positive response to that question is also our volunteering to continue serving Him.  He hasn’t given up on us --- for He is in us and can accomplish more than we imagine.

 
Look up, friend, from the hanging head and shrugged shoulders of defeat and despair.  Do you love the Lord Jesus?  Then serve Him this week!  Look for the people He will bring across your path for ministry and witness.  Look for the opportunity to serve a covenant body where you can worship, grow, and learn.  Tomorrow really IS the first day of the rest of your life!  Use each day to His glory…..starting now!  God bless you as you do.
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2004