What makes a nation great?

Proverbs 14:34- "Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people." (NLT)

In case you haven't had a chance to read a newspaper or turn on the news, please allow me to update you.  The world is in pretty bad shape.....The stock market is putting people on edge as they watch it take a dive and in so doing, they see their "retirement" or "future" go down the drain.  England is dealing with people rioting in the streets, France and Italy face their own economic woes, and the Middle East....well do I even have to say anything about the unrest there?  The terrorist are forever plotting and planning to make bombs or other weapons of mass destruction all in the name of a false god they call Allah.

But it's not just a nation or a government that is in turmoil....it is families, marriages, households.  Divorce, abuse, alcohol, drugs, sexual immorality, murder, pornography......does it end?  What is the answer to this madness?

Well first of all let me say that the answer to the madness is not a "what" but rather "who".  We look for answers in politicians, petitions, and policies.  While we certainly must use wisdom and caution in electing men and women to help lead the world.....they are not the answer.

We seek help from support groups and psychiatrist.  We look for answers in a bottle of pills or another self help book.....but we turned to the wrong physician and search the pages of the wrong book.

We tune into Oprah (how will we live without her?....just fine), Dr Phil or Dr Laura to help us rear our kids and save our marriages....but we fail to go the Owner's manual, seeking advice from the One who made us and the One who created marriage and family.

In our despair we finally cave to the lie of the evil one, satan himself.  "Everybody's doing it"  "It's just the way things are", "welcome to the new generation" .  So we close our eyes, cross our fingers and hope for the best.

NO NO NO!!  We don't exist on this earth to just "hope for the best" or accept what satan has thrown our way.  We have the answer.  It is Jesus Christ!

Godliness makes a nation great!!  Do we grasp this?  It is not a President or a policy or a philosophy.  It is Godliness.  It is submission to a Holy God who says if you seek Me, you shall find Me!  It is turning over our will to do the will of the Master.

God is not some bully living in heaven.  He is a pure and holy and righteous God who longs to be a Heavenly Father to all.   But He will not share His throne with another. ....and  we should be grateful for that.  God loves us so much and He understands that since He created us, He is the best One to rule over us.  God has no underlying agenda.  He is not trying to gain votes or win an election.  He is not trying to put on a great show so He can be renewed for another season.  He is not trying to write a book that makes its way to the best sellers list (although He did  do this!)

God has laid it out plain and clear.  The nation that acknowledges Him will be blessed....at the same time He lays out the consequences for the nations that forget Him.

He then gives us the freedom to choose.  Somehow we have continued to return to our folly.

Proverbs 26:11- As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness. (NLT)

Will we wake up.....will we humble ourselves and fall before His throne, seeking His face, forsaking our sin and following after His Word.  Oh how I pray we do that before it is too late.  I fear that we are nearing that point of no return.

Will you right now bow your head with me and pray?

Oh Father, right now i come before You....seeking your forgiveness for my straying for my half hearted commitment.  I want to follow you at all cost.  I want to rise up and follow you even if no one else joins me.  I want to seek you and your wisdom in my marriage, my family, my work, my friends, my decisions and my desires.  I want everything I do to bring glory to you.

Oh Father, have mercy on this world and may your Holy Spirit convict hearts and heal hearts.  May there be a widespread revival across this land.  One that is unstoppable.

Oh Father, we do not desire to hate anyone that does not desire to follow you, rather we will pray for them and  love them and look for ways to share your love with them.  At the same time, we will take a stand against an agenda to indoctrinate our children with the ungodly teachings that tell our children that there is no such thing as absolute truth and that it is ok to experiment with their sexuality.  We stand on the Holy Word of God that teaches marriage is between one man and one woman.

Oh Father, heal our minds our hearts and our land.

In the precious name of Jesus
Amen.

Do you know Him,,,,do you know Him as your Savior?  If you do not, please do not delay.  Click on my tab on how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  You can have it today.  It will be the best decision you will ever make.  I dare you to prove me wrong, my friend.  I've been a Christian for over 40 years and it has been the bests journey ever!

"Where is God?"

I have heard this question a lot.....you probably have heard it also.  It is the question used by those folks who do not know the Lord as they give excuses as to why they have their doubts about God. Truth be told, it is also a question asked by Christians who get hit with some bad news or tragedy that turns their world upside down.

 "Where was God when the twin towers were attacked in New York City?"
"Where is God when bad things happen?"
"Where is God?  I just lost my job and I have a family to feed and bills to pay?

On and on the question is asked in various circumstances.  Is it a valid question?  Well any question is valid if someone is sincerely asking....so let's look today at "Where is God?"

When God put Adam and Eve in the garden, He gave them an incredible gift called "free will".  He gave them instructions and He laid out the consequences should they disobey the instructions.  In a very short time it was all a mess right there in the garden.  The consequence of death kicked in and here we are thousands of years later still facing the consequences of the sin of disobedience that occurred in that garden.

It has intrigued me at times that God did not take away the free will of man that day.  The punishment could have been taking away the free will of man but God did not desire to make us robots forcing us to follow Him.

Today is no different.  God has given the Bible that is full of instructions....it is full on consequences for those who fail to follow those instructions and He has even laid out the blessings for those who do choose to follow.  He has then placed us in this world with a free will.

The sin that we see in abundance in this world is a result of people exercising their free will in a wrong way.  God desires that we take the free will that He has given us and surrender it to Him.  He longs for us to lay it at His feet and allow ourselves to be controlled by the Holy Spirit not by our free will.  But we have to initiate that process.  He does not force Himself on us.

Why are the bad stuff happening in the world today?  We have not consented to be led by God, and His Holy Spirit.

My job is in the medical field.  Every day I am at work my patients are asked to consent to treatments.  Someone may have cancer, they may even be in the later stages of cancer and their only hope is surgery.  A surgeon cannot just wheel them into the operating room and cut on them against their will.  They have to sign a consent form.  Most sign the consent....but their are some who refuse.  There are some who agree to it and then back out at the last minute.  By doing so, they face the consequences laid out for them by the surgeon.

A popular medical term that most folks are familiar with today is the word "DNR" .  It means "Do Not Resuscitate."  A person has signed a form telling their medical team that if they stop breathing or if they go into a coma or if their heart stops beating, they do not want CPR, they do not want their heart to be shocked with the hopes of restarting it, they do not want to be put on a machine that will breathe for them.  The medical team is required to honor the wishes of the patient, even though the consequences may be death itself.  We respect the free will of the patient to make such a decision.

I believe most folks in this world have told God, our Heavenly Physician that we want to be a "DNR"  He says "Come now and let us reason together....though your sins be as scarlet they can be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they can be as wool"  we say..."No thanks"  (Isaiah 1:18)

He says that His Holy Spirit can breathe new life into us.....we say "no thanks" (II Corinthians 3:6)

He offers us a new heart.....we say "no thanks"  (Ezekiel 11:19)

He offers to renew our mind- we say "no thanks"  (Romans 12:2)

He offers us a total body makeover- "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.  Old things are passed away, behold all things become new."  (II Corinthians 5:17) we say "No thanks"

The consent form has been laid before us.  It has been laid before every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every people.  A healing of our land by the Creator Himself.  Will we sign on the dotted line?

Time is running out.  In medicine we tell patients something obvious.  The time to operate on the cancer is sooner rather than later.  Cancer spreads, cancer eats away and in time cancer can reach a stage where it becomes inoperable.  Death is imminent.

So it is with sin.  Sin spreads, sin eats away.  The time to take care of sin is the moment we see it crop up in our lives.  There comes a time when sin can bring destruction that leaves a permanent scar.....perhaps even damage that cannot be completely repaired.

Where is God?  He is everywhere.  But He is a gentleman, intervening only where He is invited to do so.  He is  like the surgeon at the bedside of the patient saying let me help you, sign the consent....I can fix the problem.

America and many other nations have kicked Him out and then wonder where He is at when a tragedy occurs.  It's like a patient who refused the surgeon's help now lying on their death bed and wondering where the surgeon is at and why he is not helping to save their life.



Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me..Revelation 3:20

He is knocking!  Will we open the door?
To God be the glory!

The "right wing Christian fundamentalist"

Last Friday will forever be described as a horrific nightmare for family and friends of 92 people.  Last Friday, 92 innocent people had their lives taken from them by a 32 year old male who has been named as a "right wing Christian fundamentalist".  Many of the victims were children....teenagers at a youth camp.

May our sincere thoughts and prayers be turned toward the family and friends of these victims and may they find even some small peace in knowing that this murderer is in custody.

As I was reading about this tragedy, I kept reading the term "right wing Christian fundamentalist" and I became curious as to the exact definition of  that term.  I have heard that term for a long time but I just wondered how the world was defining the term and I was kind of curious to know if I am one of those folks since I am a Christian who stands on the authority of the Word of God.

As I searched my computer to find my answer, I found some information about  the beginnings of "Christian fundamentalism " in America. This is what I read and I want to share it with you.  I think it is important for us to know about such things that we make speak with wisdom and be able to give answers to those who ask us questions.

My source is Wikipedia

Fundamentalism as a movement arose in the United States, starting among conservative Presbyterian theologians at Princeton Theological Seminary in the late 19th century.  It soon spread to conservatives among the Baptist and other denominations around 1910-1920.  The momvements\'s purpose was to reaffirm key theological tenets and zealously defend them against the challenges of liberal theology and higher criticism.

The term "fundamentalism" has it's roots in the Niagara Bible  Conference (1878-1897) which defined those tenets it considered fundamental to Christian belief.  The term was popularized by "The Fundamentals", a collection of twelve books on five subjects published in 1910 and funded by the brothers Milton and Lyman Stewart.  This series of essays came to be representative of the "Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy" which appeared late in the 1920's.  The first formulation of American fundamentalist beliefs can be traced  to the Niagara Bible Conference and, in 1910, to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which distilled these into what became known as the "five fundamentals"

1.)The  inspiration of the Bible by the Holy Spirit and the inerrancy of Scripture as a result of this
2.) The virgin birth of Christ
3.) The belief that Christ's death was the atonement for sin
4.) The bodily resurrection of Christ
5.) The historical reality of Christ's miracles

By the late 1910's, the theological conservatives rallying around the Five Fundamentals came to be known as "fundamentalist".  In practice, the first point regarding the Bible was the focus of most of the controversy.

It is important to distinguish between "Fundamentalism" as the name of a militant style and "fundamentalism" as a theology.  Evangelical groups typically agree on the theology "fundamentals" as expressed in The Fundamentals, but often are willing to participate in events with religious groups who do not hold to the essential doctrines.  Fundamentalist groups generally refuse to participate in events with such groups who don't hold to the essential doctrines.

Well.....that was a learning time for me when I read that.  Those 5 "fundamentals" are doctrines that I take a solid stand on.  I guess that would define me as a fundamentalist, theologically speaking.  Wikipedia ends by encouraging people to understand the difference between "militant" style fundamentalism and "fundamentalism" as theology.  Wikipedia defines the "militant" style fundamentalism as the unwillingness to participate in events with groups that don't hold to the essential doctrines.

I have thought about that and have drawn some conclusions that I believe are based on the Word of God.

Jesus did draw boundaries for His followers- We are reminded to: "Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord"- II Corinthians 6:17

Jesus said that His followers are "not of the world, even as I am not of the world"- John 17:16

Jesus warned His followers that the "world " would hate us - I John 3:13

Jesus tells us not to be unequally yolked with unbelievers- II Corinthians 6:14

Jesus tells us to not be conformed to this world- Romans 12:2


This is just a short list of verses that deal with the followers of Jesus and their relationship with the world and it's philosophy.

But I want to stop there and get to the what seems to be the "Internet question of the day"- Was this killer in Norway a Christian?  Good question....so what is the answer?

Well, I am not God and only God knows the hearts of men.  However if he was accused of being a Christian and I was on the jury- I really don't have enough evidence to convict him.

While the world will have a great time associating Christianity with this killer they call a "right wing Christian fundamentalist, I want to talk about the one thing that was missing from this killers actions.  It was LOVE.  This is very telling as it was Jesus who gave the commandment of love and God is the definition of love

When Jesus talked about the life of a believer, He said this:  "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."  John 13:35.

Let's look at our own lives for a minute.  Are we called to take a stand against what is contrary to the Word of God?  (abortion, homosexuality....just a few hot topics)  Absolutely!

Are we called to be separated from the worldly philosophies?  Absolutely!

If so, then why didn't Jesus say "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye.....take a stand against homosexuality.....if ye take a stand against abortion....if ye.....fill in the blank.

No! Jesus said the world would know we were His followers if we had love for one another.  Why?  why did Jesus say that?

Well, I believe Jesus was teaching us that taking a stand can never supersede love.  Even when we stand up for what is right, it must be done in a heart of love or it is not of God.

Love and standing up for the Word of God must go hand in hand- Love without standing for principal also bears rotten fruit- It is the fruit of walking away from Biblical principals in order to just "love everybody".  This is why we see churches now marrying homosexuals...just one example.  We are called to love homosexuals, we are not called to compromise principal for love.  That is not true love!


I think this "love" thing is bringing a crisis to churches.  Either we have gone so far to one side of the scale that we have done away with our convictions or we are so set on taking a stand that we fail to do so in love and gentleness.  The world has a lot of criticism toward the church and sad to say, at times it is deserved.

Sinners loved Jesus when He walked on this earth!  It was the "religious" folks who gave Him a rough time.
Jesus never softened His message but at the same time, He never failed in the area of love.

Back to my original question- Was this killer a Christian?  Well as the saying goes, if he walks like a duck and talks like a duck then he probably is a duck.  Or, to apply it to our lives, if we walk like Jesus and we talk like Jesus, then we probably belong to Jesus. This man did not walk like Jesus, he did not talk like Jesus.  Just the opposite, he resembles the evil one the Bible names Satan.  We know that satan came to steal, kill and destroy.  It is Jesus who came to give life and life more abundant. (John 10:10)

Jesus would have never condoned such behavior as we saw from this killer.  Today Jesus is walking in the midst of hurting families and a country asking "Why?"  He is there to comfort and to bring peace to all hearts that will invite Him in.

Pray for all the hurting family and friends of the victims.  This is an opportunity for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

It's Still the Blood...and it Will Never Lose its Power!

I am in the medical profession and therefore blood is something I deal with each day that I work.  I am either taking blood for some lab test, giving blood via a transfusion or looking at lab results from someones blood, making decisions accordingly.

Gloves are an important part of my job.  There are too many diseases out there that we know are spread through the blood.....who knows how many more we may learn of before I retire!  Therefore, before I draw blood, before I place an IV in someone, before I change a dressing, I am putting on my gloves!

However, there is one place that involves blood where I don't need gloves.  In fact, it is a place where I must come bare.  That place is the fountain of the cleansing blood of Jesus.  It is there I can come transparent, I MUST come transparent and I need not be fearful.  This blood is cleansing and healing.

Blood is life giving, it is energy giving.  I don't know how many times I have given someone a blood transfusion and after it is through they talk of how much better they feel, how they have more energy!  Where once they felt drained, they now feel alive.  How true, the life of the flesh is in the blood. (Leviticus 17:14)  Yet a blood transfusion is not without risk.  We are required to present those risks to the patient for these risks come with life long consequences (AIDS, hepatitis)  Yet, when a patient is confronted with life and death and a blood transfusion will give life, the patient will choose life and be willing to take the risk.

The blood of Jesus is life giving.....it is ETERNAL LIFE giving.  It also provides strength to the weary sojourner, feeling beat up by what this world has to offer.  There is risk involved, there are lifelong consequences.  It is the risk of the Lord cleansing you in His blood and then molding you and making you to what HE wants you to be....this never comes without some pain involved.  It is the risk of being sent out by the Lord to do a work that you've never done before....to open your mouth and proclaim the Gospel where once you would have remained quiet....there's the risk of being rejected by this world, even the risk of death because you make a decision to take up your cross and follow the One, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave it all for you.

Yet, hopefully we are like that patient...  drained and in need of life giving blood.... faced with the choice of life and death, may we accept the risks and choose life.  Plunge into the life giving fountain filled with blood and be cleansed and be refreshed.

IT IS STILL THE BLOOD.  Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Do you know Him as your Lord and Savior?  Do not wait another moment.  In prayer receive Him into your life, ask Him to forgive you of all your sin and invite Him in.  Begin to live each day walking and talking with Him.
Maybe you know Him but you are weary....you've been living with 1 foot in the Word and 1 foot in the world and it just isn't working for you....plunge yourself in the cleansing, healing fountain and rise up renewed and refreshed.  Allow Him to lead you and don't live to please God and the world.  We only have one Master and the Bible is clear that no man can serve 2 masters! (Matthew 6)

Whatever is your need, He stands ready to meet you right where you are at!  IT'S STILL THE BLOOD!

Oh what a Savior!

If you are breathing right now then you probably have some knowledge of the Casey Anthony trial that recently finished up in Florida.  A young woman accused of murdering her little girl has spent the last few years in jail awaiting trial.  Her trial recently finished up and she was found not guilty of the murder.  She was found guilty of lying to the police and was sentenced for that crime but time already served was credited to that and she was released from jail this past Sunday.

Oh the outrage that this verdict caused!  This woman will probably not have an easy life outside of jail since most think she is guilty of this murder and the threats toward her and the media that are trying to follow her every move must make life very difficult for her.

Did this woman murder her child?  I do not know.  I did not follow the trial and I am not God.  Only God knows for sure whether this woman is guilty or innocent.....and rest assured nothing escapes His watchful eye.

So I do not write this entry about Casey Anthony.  I want to talk about our amazing Savior.  Yesterday as I was among someone who was talking about this woman, she turned and said to me "Of course, you subscribe to the theory that all she has to do is call on Jesus and ask Him for forgiveness and everything will be ok for her and she will go to heaven"  I was caught a little off guard as I had not said anything about this trial or this woman.   But this was my reply:  "I do not subscribe to a theory.  I stand on the Word of God...."  She then said "And where is that in the Bible?"  I replied "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13).  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life"  (John 3:16)

Those of us who have been Christians for a while and are familiar with these verses can quote them quickly without thinking about them....but God caused me at the moment I quoted them to really THINK about what I was saying.

The world may never leave Casey Anthony alone, hunting her down, harassing her..  She will remain "Guilty" in the eyes of the world and hated by many folks who believe with all their heart that she is a murderer of a beautiful little girl.  But God...(you've got to love that phrase..."But God") is not like us.  Even if she is guilty, the Hound of Heaven is on the hunt of her!  Not so He can follow her with a camera and televise her every move, not so He can harm her and harass her and make her life a living nightmare.  The Hound of Heaven hunts her down that He might wash her in His blood cleansing her soul and pronouncing her blameless before His Father.  (Colossians 1:22)

Oh what a Savior!  Oh what a friend of sinners!  He can make the vilest sinner clean!  Who is the vilest sinner?  Oh we don't like to admit it but Casey Anthony is not the only "vilest of sinners".  You and I are right there with her.  Our only hope is not our life or our actions but our only hope is Jesus Christ.

It is not mine to judge the Casey Anthony trial.  The verdict has been read the the verdict stands.  I don't know if she is guilty or innocent.  There is probably a lot of arguments that support both sides of the story.  My job, your job is to shout from the rooftops that Jesus saves!

Are you on the run?  Are you entangled in sin, running from your accusers?  Let me encourage you to run in one direction, toward the cross!  Run into the arms that are open wide, waiting to embrace you and cleanse you!

Oh what a Savior!

If He's Not Lord of All, Then He's Not Lord At All!

This is a clip from the movie "Bruce Almighty"  .  Let me say that I have never saw the movie and I am not endorsing the movie.  However, this clip I saw caught my attention.  It's about surrender.....but look at the desperation of this character played by Jim Carey.  He is exhausted from doing things his way....playing God.  (The opportunity given to him in the movie.)  He is now in the midst of this rainstorm, totally drenched from the rain and drained from the price he paid......  all to realize that he couldn't be God.

If you are a Christian, you will find yourself going through many storms.  John 16:33 promises that .( "In this life you will have many problems, but take heart, I have overcome the world.")  But some storms are self inflicted.  When we fail to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ then we set ourselves up for the storm that will come sooner or later.  We may think because the storm didn't come sooner then somehow we have escaped God's watchful eye.....but no we have not.  We have a long suffering Heavenly Father.  But, we also have a loving Heavenly Father who loves us too much to not go to great lengths to bring us back.  Even if
it means allowing us to encounter a storm.

I don't know about you but I have encountered enough storms that are not self inflicted to just live my life in such a way that will self inflict yet another storm for me to encounter.

A wise person will willingly submit.

Listen to this story:

The captain of a ship looked into the dark night and saw a faint light out in the distance.  He ordered the message to be sent, "Alter your course 10 degrees south"  In a few moments they received a message "Alter your course 10 degrees north."

The captain was annoyed.  He sent another message, "Alter your course 10 degrees south, I am a captain!"  The response?  "Alter your course 10 degrees north, I am a seaman third class."

Now that made the captain angry.  He sent the threatening message, "Alter your course 10 degrees south.  This is a battleship!"  The final response, "Alter your course 10 degrees  north.   This is a lighthouse!"

Jesus is our Lighthouse.  He does not alter His course.  We must alter ours.  If we choose to not surrender and alter our course then we will end up like the battleship.  He almost crashed.

Is Jesus telling you to alter your course?  If so, what is your response.

May you and I find ourselves surrendering!

To God be the glory

Surrender

On March 10, 1974, almost 30 years after the end of World War II, Lt Hiroo Onoda finally handed over his rusty sword and became the last Japanese soldier to surrender.  Onoda had been sent to the tropical island of Lubang in the Philippines in 1944, with orders to conduct guerrilla warfare and prevent enemy attack on the island.  When the war ended, Onoda refused to believe the messages announcing Japan's surrender.

For 29 long years, long after all his fellow soldiers had either surrendered or been killed off, Onoda continued defending the island territory for the defeated Japanese army.  He hid in the jungle,m living off the land, stealing food and supplies from local citizens, evading one search party after another, and killing at least 30 nationals in the process.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent trying to locate the lone hold-out and convince him that the war was over.

Leaflets, newspapers, photographs and letters from friends were dropped in the jungle.  Announcements were made over loud speakers begging Onoda to surrender.  Still he refused to give up his fight.  Some 13,000 men had been deployed in the effort before Onoda finally received a personal command from his former commander and was persuaded to give up the futile, solitary war he had waged for so many years.

In his autobiography entitled, No Surrender; My Thirty Year War, Onoda describes the moments the reality of what had transpired began to sink in:

"I felt like a fool....What had I been doing all these years?...For the first time I really understood...This was the end, I pulled back the bolt on my rifle and unloaded the bullets....I eased off the pack that I had always carried with me and laid the gun on top of it.

The war was finally over.

Story from "Old Soldiers Never Die" Newsweek 25 March 1974

I read this story in amazement!  The brutality of war is something that I can't begin to comprehend.  But, I do know that even the most committed soldier is ready to run home after the war is over.  A soldier longs to see his family again, to sleep in his or her own bed, eat some home cooked meals, catch up with friends and just watch a good movie or a favorite TV show.

Mr Onoda not only faced the brutality of war while it was in progress but then spent many wasted years fighting a war that had ended.....the outcome of the war already determined.

Sound familiar?  We are born sinners and we spend our years resisting the call of salvation from the King of Kings....Once we accept Christ as our Savior, we might find ourselves resisting the call of total surrender that is coming from the lips of the King of Kings.  We resist and fight, refusing to surrender in a war where the outcome has already been determined.

Resisting, running and hiding can become a way of life if we continue in it for a period of time.  That is what happened to Mr Onoda.  In spite of the numerous attempts to notify him that the war had ended, he refused to believe and continued to fight.

God uses military terms throughout the Bible when talking about our Christian walk.  I want to talk about the wars we encounter while we are on this earth.  None of them easy, but winnable when we choose to obey the Captain of the Army.

1.)  The first war is the battle for salvation- Salvation is a free gift and don't misunderstand me, this is not a battle we fight to be saved.  We are born lost sinners, bound for hell.  When we are introduced to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, the armies of hell stand ready for Satan never gives up a soul that easy.  He, in his hopes to keep us from accepting Christ as our Savior will begin to use whatever tactics he can to keep us from doing so. "You're too deep into the mess of your life to be saved", "God doesn't really care about you", "You do this and your friends and family will abandon you"  ......lie after lie, tactic after tactic....the war is on.

But, my friend, don't be deceived.  This was a war that was won by Jesus Christ that Resurrection Morning!  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!!!

2.) The second war we find ourselves fighting is the war of surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.(I see it as a war with our will)  The initial surrender to the Lord, which happens at the point of salvation, is not the end of the story.  In fact, it is a starting point.  Now we must engage in a daily surrender, a hourly surrender, a moment by moment surrender to the authority of the Keeper of our souls, Jesus Christ.  We must engage in discipleship and be eager students of the Word, learning how to live a surrendered life.

This is not always easy but it is attainable and we are foolish to live our lives any other way.  To engage in this battle is like America declaring war on her greatest ally.  God is on our side.  Jesus has already declared victory.  He is fighting for us, let's not find ourselves fighting Him



This is why God gave us the weapons of our warfare as laid out in Ephesians 6.  They are not carnal weapons but mighty weapons given to us by the Captain of our Army!!  Our defeat comes when we try to use our own tactics in fighting the devil.

Think of it this way:  I enlist in the army and sent  to Afghanistan to fight.  I am supplied military weapons, but I refuse them and tell the Army I didn't need their weapons because I brought my own.  I begin to pull out of my bag a sling shot, a BB gun, and a water pistol.  These are the weapons I plan to use going up against our foe.  Crazy! Right?

Yet as a Christian, we live defeated lives because essentially we choose to fight the devil with a sling shot, a BB gun and a water pistol instead of using the most powerful weapons offered to us by our Commander, Jesus Christ.

Where are you at right now?  Perhaps you have yet to make that initial surrender to Jesus Christ, inviting Him to be your Lord and Savior.  If this is so, please click on my tab on how you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Perhaps you are saved but you have yet to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, allowing Him full authority over your life.  Instead you are running and resisting.  Stop!  You are wearing yourself out!  Find the peace you long for by allowing Jesus to take the wheel.

If you are a Christian then you are definitely engaged in the 3rd war I spoke of.  What are you using as your weapon against the devil?  If it is anything else other than the Word of God, you will live a defeated and exhausted Christian walk.

II Corinthians 10:4-5- For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal; but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations and every high things that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Are you surrendered to the Lord?  Lay down your weapons, stop running and surrender!  Don't come to the end of your life saying essentially what Mr Onoda said;  "I felt like a fool.....what had I been doing for all these years?"

To God be the glory!