Tag Archives: faith

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Go Out Fighting

Ephesians 6:10-18 (HCSB), “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.”

We are in a war. Sure maybe not with other people, but that doesn’t make it less evident. In fact it is even more important that we understand what we are fighting and who our enemy really is. Satan loses. God is very clear in His word. And he knows that his ultimate dwelling place will be hell. However, he won’t give up and if he has to go to hell, he wants to take as many of us with him as he can. Why? Because God loves us and he hates God. He wants to hurt Him by hurting us. If the old serpent can’t get us to hell, due to the applied blood of Jesus, then he will do everything he can to delay, distract, and discourage us. He wants us to think that we have to wait until we die to see heaven. He wants us to live sick, worn out, lives filled with anxiety and poverty. Or he wants things to look so good in the world that we choose to walk away from God and His path and plans for us.

Pretty simple. God is good and He is for us. He knows and wants what’s best for us. He already did everything needful to give us a blessed life. Satan is evil and is against us. He wants our lives to get smaller and smaller. He will try anything to get us to lose heart.

So what do we do? We find out who God is, who we are, what He says about us, how He wants us to live from heaven right now, and we STAND. We can’t just stand there in our undies. We have to put some things on.

Isaiah 61:3, 10 (NIV), “and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor…I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Ephesians 4:24 (NLT), “Put on your new nature, created to be like God–truly righteous and holy.”

Romans 13:14 (NASB), “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

We need to clothe ourselves with garments of salvation, robes of righteousness (clothing He made), and we “put on” the new nature (the nature of God), and we have to “put on” Christ! We are in Him, and He is in us. And finally over all of those glorious garments, we put on the armor of God from Ephesians 6.

Clearly we are living in the last days. It’s the final round. Let’s go out fighting! “Occupy until he comes.” Occupy means to work, gain ground, keep what you have, dig in, etc. Jesus already won the victory. We just have to keep fighting and STAND against everything the enemy throws our way and we don’t fight alone! We have mighty warring angels fighting for us, and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Pretty encouraging, yes?

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I Am a Mountain Climber

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Micah 4:1-2 (ESV), “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Mountains and “high places” have some significance in the Word. God brought Moses up to the mountain to give him His commandments, He brought him to a mountain to see into the Promised Land, and Moses died there. Aaron died on top of a mountain as well. The mountain of God was so Holy that no one other than those He permitted were able to even touch it. Pagan’s built “high places” to their false gods.

In military strategy, a mountain is a great place to defend. You could see for miles and the terrain is usually rough going. Living in a valley may be easy, but like Lot, we often find the easy way isn’t always the better way. Abraham chose the hilly ground and was the better man for it. It takes work to climb a mountain. It takes perseverance when the top seems so far away. In the mountains distances can be deceiving. You might think you have almost reached the summit, only to discover you have more climbing to do. Mountain climbing is not for the lazy or the week hearted person.

I have walked a few mountain trails in the natural, having lived in Colorado and Washington. Though pretty, and challenging, mountain climbing of this sort isn’t one of my favorite things to do. I also should mention that I always thought the dangers outweighed the rewards for climbing big mountains like Everest (just watch the movie!). So I know that climbing mountains spiritually isn’t going to be “easy-peasy” either. But, the rewards are so much better than frost bite and fifteen minutes of fame! God is on the top of that mountain and His Mountain is the highest peak. Nothing is higher than Him! And according to God’s word, we are Mount Zion. His chosen people, His peculiar people, this chosen generation. So if I am going to dwell with God, up on that mountain, I am going to have to do some climbing…

Joel 3:17-18 (KJV), “So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.”

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Destiny Revealed

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Genesis 1:11-12 (KJB), “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” (emphasis mine)

Everything God created has the seed to reproduce in itself. Our job is to re-produce. Naturally and spiritually. We as Disciples of Christ should be reproducing disciples, sheep begat sheep. From the very beginning God gave this command to Adam and Eve.

Genesis 1:28 (NASB), “God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

After the flood he gives the same mandate to Noah (Gen 9:1, 35:11, 47:27)

Picture a seed planted in rich soul. Its destiny is hidden. The sower may remember what he planted and have great expectations, but the rest of us have to wait until the seed germinates and a little plant breaks through the dirt before we can rightly discern what kind of plant it will be, what kind of fruit it will produce. So if a seed planted is destiny hidden, then a grown, fruit producing plant is destiny revealed. That is why Jesus told His followers that they would be recognized as belonging to Him, through the fruit they bore.

Discover the seed in you.

What fruit are you producing?

Ephesians 1:11-12 (Message Bible), “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

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Frail No More

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Proverbs 23:7a (ASV), “For as he thinketh within himself, so is he:”

Years ago, in my early twenties, a doctor spoke these words over me, “You are like a frail and fragile flower.” At the time, I was going through some health issues and feeling like a weakling. These words flew into my mind and quickly my heart agreed, “Yes I am like a flower! I am fragile.” I finally felt like I was validated in some way. Of course this was a self fulfilling prophecy and for years I struggled with health issues, anxiety, and stress. Like a fragile flower petal, life crushed me over and over. Unlike that fragrant rose petal that lets off a wonderful aroma when crushed, I stank! Life was about me, my sickness, my symptoms, my anxiety, my fears, my, me, mine… You get the picture.

Thank God for deliverance and healing, for sending His Holy Spirit to lead me into all truth. I have been free from that mess of a life for years now, but just this morning while listening to the message at Church, God reminded me of those ugly words spoken over me years ago. I never related those words to my constant struggle with life until just this morning! Maybe God was waiting for me to be stronger, or maybe I am just hard headed. However, now I recognized that lie of Satan coming through the foolish words of that doctor. As those words came to my remembrance, I rebuked that lie and this truth rose up in me- “I am not frail! I am a woman with a sword! I have been trained and equipped, I have the full armor of God, and I am battle ready. ”

Proverbs 23:7 explains this phenomenon, how we think about ourselves, what we choose to believe in our hearts, that’s who we become! That is pretty scary isn’t it? How many times have you looked in the mirror and thought, “I hate my hair/or chin/or nose/or whatever?” Or said to yourself, “My life sucks,” “my kids never listen,” “My husband doesn’t care,” and the list can go on and on. We even confess quite frequently, “I don’t feel good.” An older visiting preacher, who has gone on to be with the Lord, once told us that he got up every morning and looked in the mirror and said, “You look good, you feel good.” Then he would echo within himself, “We feel good, we look good!” He was rarely sick. We need to take a lesson from Dave Duel, and from the author of proverbs 23. We need to line up our heart thinking with what God says about every situation and about ourselves (about Him as well) and not allow any foolish thinking to take place.

Have you already latched onto a lie like I did? Well, it’s never too late. Repent, rebuke that thought, and thank God for tearing down that stronghold. Then change the way you think!

Luke 6:45 (NIV), “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Fill your heart with good! Fill it with the Truth, with His word. Then that will come out.

I am strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world! Amen!

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Produce Love

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Galatians 5:6 (HCSB), “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.” (emphasis mine)

I want to be productive in some way, to contribute. I don’t ever want to be accused of just taking and never giving. I don’t believe in distribution of wealth, or socialism. I believe everyone has something to give, something to do, some part they can play in making the world a better place.

As Christians we are to be productive. God told Adam and Eve, as well as Noah after the flood, to be fruitful and multiply. We are supposed to be about His business of furthering His Kingdom.

How do we do that? By producing fruit.

Galatians 5:22 (KJB), “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Some years back while studying for my bachelors’ degree, I took a class on “The Fruit of the Spirit.” It was at that time that I finally got a true understanding of what this ‘fruit’ was. The Spirit produces Love in us. All the other things listed in Galatians five are part of love. Think of an orange. Love is the whole fruit and each section is; joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self control. If we truly have love in our lives, we will produce the other things listed in this verse. For what is meekness without love, but false humility, what is goodness without love, only duty. Love is the motivation, the fuel that moves us to do good and to be better people. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit in us when we apply the Word to our lives. Our senior pastor, Dr. William Hohman, says it this way, “Love is produced by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us. Fruit isn’t a gift, it is produced.”

John 13:35 (NIV), “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

God has many plans and purposes for His children, but our main purpose it to multiply and bear fruit. We multiply by making disciples, by growing the family of God. The goodness of God, manifested in His love, is what turns hearts to repentance. So we have to sow love, plant the seeds of love so that we can produce love where ever we go.

Produce love! Be the Johnny Appleseed of Heaven and sow it everywhere!

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Hard Stuff

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II Peter 1:5-9 (NASB), “for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.”

Life is tough, living in this fallen world isn’t always easy, and we have an enemy who loves to tempt our fleshly nature to take over. On top of all of that, sometimes we are just plain stupid and we do stupid things, think stupid thoughts, and say stupid words. One of my favorite quotes is a John Wayne quote: “Life if hard, it is even harder when you are stupid.”

That kind of stupid can only be fixed by one kind of education, educating yourself, with the help of the Holy Spirit, in the word. Finding out who God really is and how He thinks of you. Knowing your rights and responsibilities as a Christian keeps you from living a life that is harder than it has to be.

I Corinthians 10:13 (NIV), “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Sure we all go through stuff, hard stuff, ugly stuff, and unwanted stuff. Stuff happens! We don’t get to choose what we are handed, but we do get to choose how we handle it. I want to learn from my mistakes, don’t you? In fact I would prefer to learn from other’s mistakes and not have to deal with it in a close and personal way, but sometimes I am hard headed and hard hearted and God allows me to go through the fire to get rid of the junk. When I do, if I really surrender to Him, I come out looking, feeling, and living better. The dross is skimmed off of the top and all that is left is the precious metal. Like silver and gold that goes thru the furnace so that it can be purified, I come out stronger, with more faith, and more confidence in the Father.

Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to so that our lives get better. We stand in the gap for a loved one (or an enemy). We do the job no one wants, we work out things in our lives that shouldn’t be there, when the easy thing is to just pretend it isn’t there. We tell others when we mess up, we confess our sin, we repent, turn back to God and move on. I choose to obey God, to follow instructions, to submit to those in authority over me because they watch over my soul.

When I do this I grow up, I mature. My weaknesses are shored up, and my strengths are used for His glory.

“Today I will do what others want so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.” – Football player Jerry Rice

We all go through the same stuff, but in Christ, we don’t lose our joy over it.

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Book Review for “The Kingdom: Here Be Dragons, Here Be Dreams -Christian Testimonial

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“This is an inspirational story of a journey on the narrow path, in a quest to discover the way, the truth and the life. In a battle between good and evil, Joanna finds the King, confronts the dragon, discovers her destiny, meets the chosen one and finds her inheritance. Those who enjoy Christian fantasy and true life adventure will appreciate this unique book.”

My Review: I was given a copy of “The Kingdom: Here Be Dragons, Here Be Dreams” by the author, Joanne Rolston, in exchange for an honest review. Ok, let me start by saying I thought this was going to be fiction, but instead I received a new and very enjoyable testimony! It is written and reads like fiction, a modern day fairy tale actually. I loved it! Candid and very open about her life, questioning God, her struggles, and her mistakes, this is a great read for anyone who is struggling with their walk, or just wants to strengthen their walk with the King. I give it five stars! Mature content so teens and up, though I would say it is more geared for adults.