Don’t Try To Wear Someone Else’s Armor

February 8, 2012 Leave a Comment

When King Saul heard that a teenage boy named David had volunteered to fight the giant Goliath, he called for David and tried to talk him out of it. He said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth.” David, however, was insistent and full of confidence. He explained to Saul that he had killed lions and bears while tending to his father’s flocks and concluded, “And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” So, finally, Saul reluctantly gave his approval by saying, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

But before Saul sent David out to fight he let him borrow his personal, kingly armor, which included a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put on the armor and tried walking around in it but found it to be too cumbersome and ill-fitting. Saul was a very tall man, the tallest in all Israel, and young David was much shorter. So David politely declined the offer and chose instead to arm himself with five smooth stones, which he placed in his shepherd’s pouch, and his sling. Of course, the rest is history.

I’m 45 years old now, and if I’ve learned nothing else about life I’ve learned one thing: You can’t be successful trying to wear armor that doesn’t fit you. You have to be yourself and strive to keep yourself in situations that suit you. Not every job is a good fit for you, even if the pay is good. Some neighborhoods just aren’t your style. Your relationships with certain people will never be quite right, no matter how hard you work at them. That’s just the way it is. The world has its Sauls, wearing their armor, and its Davids, carrying shepherd’s pouches and slings. People are different.

That’s why it’s so important that you learn to appreciate it when you find yourself in a good circumstance. Don’t be so quick to run off from a spot that is obviously well-suited to you. If you’ve found people with whom you can get along, stay with them. If you’ve got a job that provides you with not only a paycheck but also contentment, stick with it. If you’ve discovered an oasis in a desert of life’s barrenness, sink your roots down into it and enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining your individuality and being true to yourself. After all, God is the one who wired you the way you are. So why try to be someone you’re not or force your round peg into a square hole? That won’t work for you any more than wearing Saul’s armor worked for David. And could it be that Goliaths aren’t getting slain in your life simply because you aren’t fighting in a style that suits you? Think about it.

Filed under God's Will, Choices, contentment, Desires, Change, spiritual gifts, Individuality, Talents Tagged with , , , , ,

Making A Decision In Winter

February 6, 2012 Leave a Comment

Several years ago Tonya and I were shopping for a house. We had sold the one we had lived in for about ten years and were currently renting. One house we were interested in was not even on the market, but we liked its location and the owner was Tonya’s aunt. Through the family grapevine, we heard that she might be open to selling.

As it turned out, she wasn’t interested in selling at that time, but the reason she gave fascinated me. Very politely she told us, “No, I don’t want to sell right now because from past experience I’ve learned that I don’t make good decisions in winter.” I have to admit that when I heard that answer I thought to myself, “Good for you! There are people who go their entire lives and never recognize such a pattern about themselves.” I actually admired her for being able to figure that out about herself. You see, she is the type of person who is prone to melancholy and depression, and winter weather causes that to bubble up in her all the more. But through much introspection and self-analysis, she had learned that about herself and come up with a way of limiting its damaging effects in her life.

Well, in the end, Tonya and I bought another house, and quite a few years have passed since. Still, though, I remember the line: “I don’t make good decisions in winter.” I think of it when I want to resign from a church during a rough stretch of attendance, spirit, and offerings. I think of it when I want one of the boys to quit a ball team because a coach isn’t doing him right. I think of it when I want to sell our current house because I’ve grown frustrated with all the renovating and repairs it needs.

“I don’t make good decisions in winter” simply means: Always be wary of making a major, life-changing decision during a difficult time. It’s usually better to wait until the sun is warm, the birds are singing, attendance is up, the spirit is good, the money is fine, things are going well for your kid, the repairs are finished, and your overall outlook on life is upbeat. Then, if you can still make the same decision, you know the course of action is right for you.

Filed under Personal, God's Will, Choices, contentment, Patience, Desires, Change, weather, Impatience Tagged with , , , ,

The Building With The Golden Windows

January 18, 2012 3 Comments

Contentment is one of those subjects that is easy to talk about but hard to live out. Let’s say that my neighbor buys himself a brand new Corvette. The car is “please notice me” red. The interior is “please don’t get me dirty” white. The engine is the factory option “you can’t unrun me” high performance. The wheels are “you can’t afford me” aluminum. And to top it all off he starts wearing a shirt that reads: “Real men drive Corvettes.” Well, how long do you think it will take me to become discontented with my “it’s all I’ve got” Subaru? Not very long.

I want you to take a personal survey. No one is paying attention except you and God. Ask yourself this question: Is there anything in my life right now with which I am not content? Perhaps it’s your car. Perhaps it’s your home. Maybe it’s your job. Maybe it’s your financial situation.

As I was growing up, my dad would say to me on numerous occasions, “Russell, you can’t be satisfied with anything.” I remember how I always chafed at that accusation because I honestly didn’t believe that it was true. I used to think to myself, “No, he’s wrong. I can be content. I just can’t be content with what I’ve got to work with right now.”

Unfortunately, as I’ve grown older I’ve been forced to learn that my father was right about my contentment level. If it was a thermostat it would be set very, very low. It doesn’t take much to get me to looking over the hills and thinking, “Oh, how much better my life would be if I was over there.” If God had let me move every time I had a whim to do so, my vehicle wouldn’t be a Subaru; it would be a U-HAUL. As for Tonya and the boys, I guess they would feel like a military family that moves from one base to another, never staying anywhere long enough to put down roots and build lasting relationships.

Somewhere years ago I read a silly little line that has always helped me. It goes like this: “If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence it’s because it’s growing over a septic tank.” That line has often come to my mind when God has turned down my latest urge to bolt and run and seek my fortune elsewhere. Have I got problems in my current location? Yes. Would I be problem free if I moved to that latest place that has caught my fancy? Nope. It would just be a new set of problems, perhaps even worse than my current ones.

You can learn some things by watching childrens’television. I can’t remember if I was babysitting Ryan or Royce, but one of them was watching a kids’show one day when a thought-provoking cartoon segment came on. It was about a little girl who lived in an apartment building in the big city. Every morning she would look out her window and stare longingly at the building with the golden windows that sat on the other side of the city. Oh how she wanted to live in that beautiful building! So one morning she made up her mind to go and see the building up close. She got herself dressed and headed out to find it. All day long she searched and searched, but she couldn’t find the building with the golden windows. Then, late in the afternoon, just as she was about to lose all hope, she turned around and there it was. But it was way over on the other side of town. So she ran and ran and ran and ran until she finally arrived at the building. Only then did she notice that it was the building in which lived. She thought, “How is this possible?” Suddenly the answer came to her: The sun which cast its light upon the one building in rising in the morning was casting its light upon her building in setting in the evening.

Now why am I telling you all this? I’m doing it to help you realize that where you are right now is a wonderful place if it is where God wants to be. Does He ever relocate people and lead them to make changes in their lives? Certainly, but that’s a whole other post for a whole other time. Right now I’m saying that if He has you living in a certain place, working a certain job, maintaining a certain financial level, and driving a certain car, you need to learn to see the golden windows in those things. They are there. You just have to recognize them.

I’ll leave you now with some words from the apostle Paul. They are words that I know very well because they have haunted me many a time. The haunting stems from the fact that I still can’t truthfully make the statement that Paul makes. In Philippians 4:11, he says:

…I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.

I can’t speak for you, but I haven’t completely “learned” that yet. Without doubt, my classes are still in session. I’m hoping, though, that I can earn that degree one day. Until then I need to keep looking for those golden windows of where God has me.

Filed under Attitude, contentment, Desires, Disappointment, faithfulness, God's Will, Personal, Problems, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Burning Your Ships

December 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

Hernando (Hernan) Cortez was a Spanish Conquistador who launched ships from Spanish held Cuba and conquered Mexico in 1519. In doing so he brought about the demise of the great Aztec empire. As the legend goes, when Cortez first landed on the shores of Mexico he commanded his men to burn the ships. This burning made retreat impossible and has thus become the classic historical example of going “all in” for an endeavor.

Truth be told, many historians doubt the truth of the legend. Some of them contend that Cortez did purposely render his ships unsuitable for sailing but didn’t burn them. According to the theory, he did this because he didn’t want his men to mutiny and return to the safe haven of Cuba. Others say that the idea of Cortez burning the ships stems from a poor translation of the Latin in which the story was written. But, hey, let’s not let the facts get in the way of a great story!

If you want to run with the idea of going full bore into something by “burning your ships,” there’s a Bible story that you’ll like. It’s even one that you’ve heard. It’s the one about God parting the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites to facilitate their escape from Pharaoh’s army. You’ll find it in Exodus chapter 14.

Exodus 14:21 says that the Lord divided the waters and turned the sea into dry land by means of a strong east wind that blew all night. In Exodus 15:8, Moses describes this wind as the blast of God’s nostrils. Isn’t that great? And so the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea on dry land. But then what happened? The Egyptian army pursued them into the dry land only to be drowned in the depths when the waters came crashing back into place once the Israelites were safely on the opposite shore.

Okay, now here’s where I’m going with this. When those waters thundered back down and closed the pathway through that sea, that was God slamming the door shut on the Israelites possibly returning to Egypt. You see, it wasn’t just His way of slaying Egypt’s army; it was also His way of forcing the Israelites to forge onward into a new day. Going back to Cortez legend, it was God burning Israel’s ships.

As you read this, perhaps God has pushed you out into a new adventure but you are considering returning back to more comfortable ground. All I’ll say is that if you genuinely believe the adventure is of the Lord, don’t try to return to Egypt. There’s nothing for you back there. It doesn’t take much faith to live in Egypt anyway. That life is what it is. But it takes a high degree of faith to let God lead you step by step into a new, uncharted land. So it might just be that a good prayer for you to pray right now would go something like this, “Lord, if you want me to continue on with this adventure, close up the waters behind me so that I’ll have to stay here in this new land. And then help me make it here.”

Filed under Adversity, Choices, Courage, Disappointment, faith, fear, God's Provision, God's Will, perseverance, prayer, Prayer Requests, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , ,

The Clinched Fist Of Joseph Stalin

December 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Ravi Zacharias tells a story that he heard personally from Malcolm Muggeridge, the legendary English journalist, author, and media personality. Muggeridge had spent some time with Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, while they were working together on a BBC production on the life of her father. Joseph Stalin was, of course, the communist leader who once ruled Russia with an iron fist and an incomprehensible coldness. During his reign, untold millions of people were put to death by his command. The numbers are so high that experts can only give broad estimates as to the actual total.

According to the story that Svetlana told Muggeridge, and Muggeridge in turn told Zacharias, Stalin was plagued by terrifying hallucinations as he lay dying on his bed. Then suddenly he sat halfway up in bed, clenched his fist toward the heavens, fell back upon his pillow, and was dead. It was if his last gesture in life was literally a clenched fist toward God.

It would be easy to assume that a man such as Stalin had lived his entire life in open rebellion and opposition to the idea of any kind of God. That would be a wrong assumption, however. The fact is that when Stalin was sixteen he received a scholarship to a Georgian Orthodox seminary. He even did well in his classes until he missed his final exams and was expelled. Not long afterward he began reading the writings of Vladimir Lenin and became a Marxist revolutionary.

Looking back over Stalin’s life it isn’t hard to deduce that he had an excellent opportunity to not only receive Christ as Savior but also spend his life in service to Him. After all, that is what seminary students usually do. But somewhere along the way Stalin came to a spiritual crossroad and chose to reject Jesus. Then, like Pharaoh in the Old Testament story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, once the hardening of his heart began there was no stopping it.

We should all take Stalin’s example and learn from it. For one thing, it is a dangerous thing to reject Jesus when He comes to you offering salvation. For another, even if you are a Christian, it is a dangerous thing when He comes to you offering guidance, direction, and commands for your life. To reject light is to embrace darkness. To rebel against a word from the Lord is to choose to walk in your own foolishness. To shun blessing is to invite judgment.

So, has the Lord been telling you to do something? Perhaps He has been convicting you of your need of the salvation found only in Jesus. Or, if you have experienced that salvation, perhaps He has been giving you some specific command or word of wisdom concerning a situation. Well, all I can say is that whatever He has been sharing with you, you need to grab hold of it incorporate it fully into your life. I’m not saying that you will ever end up like Joseph Stalin, but I am saying that there is always a great danger in clenching your fist toward the Lord and saying, “No.” With that in mind, I’ll leave you with the words of Proverbs 29:1:

He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Filed under Attitude, Choices, Disobedience, God's Will, obedience, Rebellion, salvation Tagged with , , , , , ,

What A Bird’s Nest Can Teach Us About God’s Will

December 5, 2011 2 Comments

Snugly tucked away in the Old Testament book of Proverbs is one of the Bible’s most beautiful verses on the subject of the will of God. Proverbs 27:8 says:

Like a bird that wanders from its nest is a man who wanders from his place.

Tell me, are you right now in your place? Are you living where God wants you to be living? Are you working where He wants you to be working? Are you going to church where He wants you to be going to church? Are you engaged in those activities in which He wants you to be engaged?

A nest is the best place in all the world for a bird to be. It is nothing less than home. A bird in its nest is safe because predators can’t harm the bird there. A bird in its nest is at rest because no bird can fly incessantly. A bird in its nest is perfectly natural because a bird standing in the middle of a interstate just seems out of place.

Of course, the primary reason why a bird builds a nest is to raise a family. The mother bird lays her eggs. She incubates those eggs. When the eggs hatch, she feeds the baby birds. When they are ready she pushes them out of the nest so they can fly on their own and ultimately build their own nests.

By the way, this shows us that there is nothing wrong with a person moving away from the “nest” in which he or she was raised. Remember that it was God Himself who told Abraham to leave his hometown of Ur and move to a land that He would show him (Genesis 12:1). For that matter, most species of birds build new nests each year. So, obviously, Proverbs 27:8 isn’t the Bible’s way of forbidding us from ever leaving home or embarking on some new adventure in life. The teaching is simply that each individual should strive to live each day in the center of God’s will for his or her life. If His will means staying in the same spot where you’ve been for the last ten years, so be it. If it means making a change and building some type of new nest, that’s okay too. The key is to always be at your post in life, the post where God has you stationed for the time being.

We get ourselves into trouble anytime we prematurely wander away from a nest where God wants us to remain. And most of us have faced this temptation, haven’t we? “I’m tired of this job. I’m going to quit.” “This town is driving me crazy. I need to try someplace new.” “I’ve been playing this role long enough. It’s time for somebody else to do it.” “This marriage isn’t working. Surely there is someone else out there with whom I can be happier.” Watch out, little bird, are you sure that leaving that nest is really God’s will?

Perhaps today you are contemplating making a major change in your life. If you are, please know that I didn’t write this post to scare you out of going through with what you are planning. Like I said, there are definitely times when God’s will calls for us to change nests. Even a casual study of the Bible will offer evidence of that. But I am trying to warn you about the dangers of wandering away from a place where God wants you to remain (at least for a little while longer). A bird in its nest is safe and at peace. A bird that has foolishly abandoned its nest isn’t. That’s why we should always make sure that we are moving at God’s bidding and not our own. Keep this in mind as you consider whether or not to leave your current nest, and ask the Lord to always help you to be in your rightful place, wherever that might either keep you or take you.

Filed under Choices, contentment, God's Will, Temptation Tagged with , , , ,

Common Sense & God’s Will

November 11, 2011 Leave a Comment

Today I’d like to share with you one of my biggest pet peeves about Christians. It’s this whole idea that God’s will for a specific situation must always be the logical, rational, “smart” plan of attack. Oh, I’ve heard the line of reasoning more times than I can begin to remember: “God gave man common sense, and so it’s only right that I make the move here that makes the most common sense. I mean, after all, God wouldn’t want me to do anything stupid, would He?” Once you’ve got this reasoning settled in your mind, you can then head right out and do whatever seems to you like the right thing.

Now, I’ll grant you that 2 Timothy 1:7 does say that God gives the Christian a “sound mind.” The Holman Christian Standard translation even renders the Greek as “sound judgment.” Furthermore, the Bible offers us an exceedingly practical and commonsensical book (Proverbs) on the subject of worldly wisdom. So I’m not saying that you always have to check your brains at the door in order to choose God’s will. But what I am saying is that you’d be amazed at how illogical, irrational, implausible, incongruous, and inconvenient God’s will can be. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a quick tour through the Bible:

1. It made no sense to Cain to kill a defenseless animal just to bring an offering. (Genesis 4:1-7; Jude 11)

2. It made no sense to Noah to build a gigantic ark in a world that had never seen rain. (Genesis 2:4-6; Genesis 6:13-22)

3. It made no sense to Abram (Abraham) to leave his country and his family and travel to an unknown land that God would show him. (Genesis 12:1)

4. It made no sense to Abraham to take his son Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering atop Mount Moriah. (Genesis 22:1-19)

5. It made no sense to Joseph that it would be God’s will for his father Jacob to pronounce the patriarchal blessing upon Ephraim (Joseph’s youngest son) rather than upon Manasseh (Joseph’s oldest son). (Genesis 48:8-20)

6. It made no sense to Moses that God would want him to return to Egypt after forty years away and lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. (Exodus chapters 3 and 4).

7. It made no sense that God would lead Moses and the Israelites to the shore of the Red Sea, a place where Pharaoh’s army could easily close in behind them and trap them. (Exodus 14:1-12)

8. It made no sense to the majority of the people of Israel that God would want them to enter into the land of Canaan and fight against the giants who lived there. (Numbers chapters 13 and 14)

9. It made no sense to Gideon that God would want him to lead the people of Israel against the Midianites. (Judges 6:11-24)

10. It made no sense to Jesse that God would chose David (his youngest son) over all his other sons to be king of Israel. (1 Samuel 16:1-13)

11. It made no sense that the young David, armed with nothing but a sling and some stones, would take on the giant Goliath. (1 Samuel 17:1-54)

12. It made no sense to Naaman to go wash in the Jordan river seven times to cure him of his leprosy. (2 Kings 5:1-19)

13. It made no sense that God would allow Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego to be thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. (Daniel 3:1-30)

14. It made no sense that God would allow Daniel to be thrown into the den of lions. (Daniel 6:1-28)

15. It made no sense for Jesus to command His disciples to get into a boat and row to the other side of the Sea of Galilee when a tremendous wind storm would prevent them from doing so. (Mark 6:45-52)

16. It made no sense to Peter to let down his fishing nets in the deeper water during the day when fish were usually caught in the shallower waters at night. (Luke 5:1-11)

17. It made no sense for Jesus to delay in going to visit His gravely ill friend Lazarus. (John 11:1-44)

18. It made no sense for God to pull Phillip away from a tremendously fruitful evangelistic work that he was doing in Samaria just so he could go and witness to one Ethiopian eunuch in Gaza. (Acts 8:4-13, 26-40)

19. It made no sense to Ananias for God to command him to pay a visit to Saul of Tarsus, a notorious persecutor of Christians. (Acts 9:10-19)

20. It made no sense to Peter for God to show him that he no longer had to abide by the dietary regulations of the Old Testament law. (Acts 10:9-48)

I trust that this list of examples makes my point. And the fact is, the list is not even remotely near being all-inclusive. You see, it’s quite common for God to mess up our neat, ordered little lives by asking us to do things totally unexpected, things that don’t add up on paper. That is when we must step out on faith and do what He is asking. If your own logic keeps you from stepping out, you’ll never know the thrilling experience of watching God make a way where there seems to be no way. You’ll also miss out on the incredible blessings that can only be found in walking with God out on the edge. Think of it this way: Your logic, human reasoning, and common sense will never take you to those God-anointed places where the human race is preserved via one family aboard an ark, you become the forefather of God’s chosen nation (Israel), you see the Red Sea parted, you come out unscathed from a fiery furnace or a lions’den, you get cured of leprosy, you experience a miraculous catch of fish, you see Christ walking on the water, or you see Lazarus raised from the dead. Such illogical blessings only stem from you obeying illogical commands. Keep that in mind the next time you are faced with a choice concerning God’s will.

Filed under Choices, Courage, faith, God's Will, obedience, Reward, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , , ,

God Knows Your Size Exactly

November 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

The Cornish preacher Billy Bray was a well known Methodist leader of another day. One day he was approached by a Quaker who said, “I have often observed thy unselfish life and feel much interested in thee, and I believe the Lord would have me help thee; so if thou wilt call at my house, I have a suit of clothes to which thou art welcome if they will fit thee.” “Thank’ee,” said Billy in his thick Cornish accent, “I will call, and thee need have no doubt that the clothes will fit me. If the Lord told thee that they were for me, they’re sure to fit, for He knows my size exactly.”

Jesus said, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30). When was the last time that you really grasped the full significance of that statement? Perhaps you’ve never grasped it. If that’s the case, then it’s time that you did. A God who has every last hair of your head numbered surely has an incomprehensibly thorough knowledge of you. He knows what makes you tick. He knows what appeals to you. He knows what’s in your wheelhouse. How well would you say that you know yourself? He knows you even better than that.

This is why you mustn’t be afraid of His will and plan for your life. Whatever it is, it will be your size exactly. It will play to your strengths and make use of your talents and gifts. Remember that you are unique. God doesn’t use a cookie-cutter to create people. So never try to be someone that you’re not. Be yourself. That’s the role you were born to play.

Filed under Choices, God's Omniscience, God's Will, God's Work, Individuality, Ministry, Service, spiritual gifts, Talents Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Elephants, Grass, & Spiritual Warfare

September 12, 2011 2 Comments

My mother is a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Dr. C. Mark Corts was the pastor of that church for almost forty years. He died in 2006.

In his retirement years, just before his death, Dr. Corts wrote an excellent book entitled The Truth About Spiritual Warfare. In the first chapter of the book, he deals with the story of Job and explains that spiritual warfare isn’t about us. It is, instead, a battle between God and Satan. Corts writes:

Natives in Africa say, “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” That’s what we see happening in the Book of Job – the clearest look behind the curtain in the Bible. Two titans, God and Satan, were engaged in warfare, and Job was the grass that got trampled.

This whole understanding of spiritual warfare has become very helpful to me whenever I find myself having to play the role of the grass. Nowadays when I sense that I’m in the throes of spiritual warfare, I ask myself two questions. Question 1: What is God trying to accomplish in this situation? Question 2: How is Satan working to keep it from happening?

Let me illustrate. A mother approached me a few weeks ago and asked, “Aren’t you Russell Mckinney?” When I answered, “Yes,” she proceeded to tell me how much she enjoyed my Sunday morning radio broadcast on one of our local stations. She is particularly enjoying my current series Life-Lessons From Proverbs and asked if she could get copies of the sermons for her teenage son. I said, “Sure, I’ll get you some. Give me your phone number and I’ll call you when they’re ready.” She promptly obliged. But a couple of weeks later I called the number and got no answer. I ended up leaving a message saying that the first round of cds was ready and if she would call me back we could agree to a meeting place where I could give them to her.

Several days afterward, though, I hadn’t received a callback. I thought that seemed kind of odd because she had seemed so genuinely interested in getting the sermons. My first instinct was to call her again, but then I got to thinking that I didn’t want to pester her. Perhaps she had changed her mind. I certainly didn’t want to make a nuisance of myself by forcing my own preaching onto her!

So what did I do? I took the matter to God in prayer and asked Him if I should make another run at contacting the woman. He answered by reminding me of what Dr. Corts had taught about spiritual warfare. I asked the two questions. What was God trying to accomplish in this situation? Answer: Obviously, He wanted that teenage son to hear the spiritual truths of those life-lessons from Proverbs. And how was Satan trying to keep that from happening? Answer: He was somehow keeping the lines of communication broken down between me and that mother.

Well, once I had that information, I called the woman again. I was disappointed to have to leave another message, but this time she called me back pretty quickly. We worked out a plan for how I could get the cds to her, and she’ll be getting them either today or tomorrow. She also explained why she hadn’t called me back the first time. It hadn’t been anything personal. She had meant to call but, for whatever reason, just hadn’t gotten around to it. I didn’t tell her that I truly believed that Satan had assigned some of his troops to her case and was actively working to keep her son from getting those sermons. I didn’t want to scare her.

And now we come to the application portion of this post. Do you feel like you are currently under spiritual attack? Is the aura of spiritual warfare hanging heavy around you right now? If the answer is yes, please take some time right now to ask yourself the two basic questions about the warfare. What is God trying to accomplish in the situation? And how is Satan working to keep it from happening? You’ll probably be surprised at how straightforward and simple the answers are. Then, once you have those answers, you’ll be able to move forward wisely concerning the situation. Understand that you are the grass upon which two elephants are engaged in battle and keep doing your part to help God accomplish His will.

Filed under Adversity, Angels, Choices, Demons, Doing Good, God's Will, Influence, Personal, prayer, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil, trials Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Labor Day

September 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

Labor Day isn’t one of those holidays that Americans classify as “religious.” We associate it more with the end of summer, the start of school for many districts, and the beginnings of the college and professional football seasons. However, we do tend to loosely classify Thanksgiving as “religious,” and I would submit to you that a holiday that celebrates the concept of work is just as Bible-based as one that celebrates the giving of thanks.

Of course, you won’t find a mandate for workers’unions in the Bible. (And such unions were the launching pad for the Labor Day holiday.) What you will find, however, is a plethora of passages that sing the praises of work. Here are a few:

1. “He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” (Proverbs 10:4)

2. “The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor.” (Proverbs 12:24)

3. “The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” (Proverbs 13:4)

4. “Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread.” (Proverbs 20:13)

5. “Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds.” (Proverbs 27:23)

6. “He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!” (Proverbs 28:19)

7. “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Ephesians 4:28)

8. “that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.” (1 Thessalonians 4:12)

9. “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

10. “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8)

The truth is that it has always been God’s will for men and women to work. Going all the way back to the garden of Eden, the Bible says that God put Adam in the garden to tend (cultivate) and keep (guard) it (Genesis 2:15). As for Eve, God’s command was, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Does anyone want to argue that raising kids doesn’t involve work?

You see, the idea of Adam and Eve working was entrenched into God’s plan for them well before they sinned and fell from innocence. This means that work wasn’t a byproduct of the fall. The byproduct was that the work would now be hard. Adam’s job was to tend and keep the garden, but when sin came into the picture God said to him, “Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground… (Genesis 3:17-19). Eve’s job was that of motherhood, but when sin came into the picture God said to her, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children…” (Genesis 3:16).

Moving ahead into human history, God eventually began a new nation (Israel) with one man (Abraham). Ultimately, He gave that nation a body of law by which they were to live. We now call that body of law the Old Testament law, the law of Moses, or the Mosaic law. The moral center of it was found in the famous ten commandments which served as its introduction (Exodus 20:1-17). The fourth commandment on that list involved Israel’s keeping of a weekly Sabbath (rest) day. God said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work…” (Exodus 20:8-10). Rather than me tracing the topic of the Sabbath all the way through scripture, let me instead draw your attention to the fact that the commandment also called for six days of labor. It’s yet another instance of God telling mankind, “I want people to work.”

For many folks, the dream is to make enough money to retire early and never work again. In the light of the Bible’s teaching, though, we have to seriously question that life goal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against retirement; it’s just that we shouldn’t become slugs and sloths during our retirement years. Remember that there are all kinds of ways to work and all kinds of different jobs to do. Volunteering at a Christian ministry is work. Keeping the house is work. Tending to the yard is work. Putting out a garden is work. Babysitting grandchildren is work. You get the idea.

In conclusion, let me say that God understands the human body far better than we do, and He knows that it functions best when it is active. That’s why He commands us to work. He doesn’t see work as a necessary evil. To the contrary, He sees it as a foundational building block of human existence. And let’s admit that if He sees it that way, you and I should as well.

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