A Year of Waiting - Abide

Back in January I published a post on my word for the year 2024. The word was wait. At that time I decided I was going to spend once a month looking at different words and definitions related to the word wait. This month we are going to dive into the word abide.

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When I hear the word abide I think of an image like the one above. This is a fictional place where I would like to abide, or live. I want to dwell there, not just visit. To me abiding feels more cozy and desirable than the word wait, but what if you don’t like your abode? What if you would like to move to a different place to abide, but you can’t. At that point you might feel more like a prisoner than a resident.

We learn a lot about a word by looking at its definition. Webster’s Online Dictionary defines abide in this way:

- to continue in a place: sojourn (intransitive verb)

- to remain stable or fixed in a state (intransitive verb)

- to bear patiently: tolerate (transitive verb)

- to endure without yielding: withstand (transitive verb)

- to wait for; await (transitive verb)

- to accept without objection (transitive verb)

Grammar tends to drive most of us crazy, but I found the differentiation between transitive and intransitive curious. Since it has been a long while since I took an English class, I had to look at what those words meant and how that affects these meanings.

“A transitive verb is one that makes sense only if it exerts its action on an object. An intransitive verb will make sense without an object. Some verbs can be used both ways.”

— Grammarly (online)

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I can say, “I abide in a house in California.” I can also say, “I cannot abide a house in California.” If I just said, “I cannot abide…” then you would have no idea what it is that I am not abiding. In the first sentence it is obvious, albeit an odd way of saying it, that I live in a house in California. You could have shortened the sentence and just said, “I abide in California.” Okay, that is enough grammar for one day. Ha, ha.

So when I use the word abide as it pertains to the idea of waiting what definition is most appropriate? Would it be odd to say, I believe all the definitions pertain. Let’s dig deeper.

One of the most familiar passages in scripture where Jesus talks about abiding is found in John 15.

“1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

— John 15:1-11

When Jesus says, “Abide in Me…” He is talking about continuing or sojourning in Him. Basically, when we make Christ our Lord and Savior He wants us to come live with Him. He is also saying to remain stable or fixed in Him.

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The image of a grape arbor comes to mind when Jesus is talking. The base part of a grape plant, the vine, becomes like a mini tree trunk. The branches are the long arms that extend from the vine and the part that produces the beautiful clusters of grapes. The grape clusters don’t just happen. They have to be part of the bigger vine, the part that digs down into the soil and brings nutrients to the rest of the plant. Just as the branches have to be part of the vine to grow and produce, we have to be part of Christ to bear the fruit of the His Spirit.

This is where I want to make a connection between abiding and waiting. There are seasons in life where you might feel useless, or like you are not bearing any fruit. We start to question our relationship with Christ, and maybe even doubt our salvation, but lets look back at those transitive uses of the word abide. There are times where we have to bear patiently, endure without yielding, wait for, and accept without objection.

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Perhaps the whole point behind Jesus’ talk on abiding in Him was not only about bearing fruit, but about the changes that He knew we would all face living life in a fallen world. Just like the grape arbor we face all manner of storms, from wind and hail, to lightening, to torrential rains, to snow and ice. During those times we have to wait, stand firm, and sink our roots ever deeper into the good soil of our Heavenly Father. Most importantly we need to learn to accept without objecting. Our Father is a good Father, and He knows exactly what the arbor needs to produce the best fruit. During these times of waiting out the storms we can remember what Jesus said. “As the Father has love me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love.”

Finally, Jesus ends with the statement, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Christ has made clear, by abiding in Him, not only will we bear fruit, but we will know the Father’s love and our Savior’s full joy.

If you are in a waiting time, don’t be discouraged. Look at it as the opportunity it is to abide and know your Savior even better.

Have a great weekend!

Christmas in a Verse: A Look at Isaiah 9:6 - Part 1

Since Advent is upon us, I thought it would be helpful to focus on a familiar verse from the Old Testament book of Isaiah for these weeks leading up to Christmas. I am going to take the names in this verse and divide them up over the next three weeks. I hope you will enjoy this look at our amazing Savior.

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There have been numerous discussions in theological arenas as to what the original Hebrew was saying in this verse with reference to the names listed. Were there only four names, as many translations portray, or is it a list of individual names with commas in between each of the names? (ie. Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty, God, Eternal, Father, Prince, of Peace.) Or is it some combination of both with Wonderful, Counselor, and Eternal, Father being separated and the other two being an adjective describing the noun following. In order to avoid this issue, I have decided to approach this in a way that encompasses both ideas. I am no theologian, but with the Holy Spirit we all have the ability to read and learn from His word.

Today I want to look at the words Wonderful and Counselor. After doing a little bit of research it appears the word Wonderful translates more closely to wonder. When we look at Webster’s Online Dictionary wonder is defined as: a cause of astonishment or admiration; marvel; miracle; the quality of exciting amazed admiration; rapt attention or amazement at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.

If we use the word wonderful instead of wonder, it really doesn’t lose any of its meaning. Wonderful is defined as: exciting wonder; marvelous, astonishing; unusually good; admirable. Is it possible for wonder to be wonderful? It is certainly possible for the child (Jesus) who was born to us to be both a wonder and wonderful. Our savior is both the cause of our astonishment or admiration and marvelous. He is unusually good, and also a worthy mystery for us to give our rapt attention to.

The word counselor is simply one who counsels another. This could be a mental health worker, a pastor, a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher or many other entities. A father might counsel his son on how to ask a girl on a date. A financial guru might counsel someone on how to save for retirement. A police officer might advise a young person to stay out of trouble. Other words for counselor include: advisor, consultant and advocate.

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There are numerous Biblical references that use the word wonder. See Psalm 9:1, 26:7, 40:5, and 72:18. God’s works are wondrous, and they are often referred to in the Bible as “your wonders.” Wonderful is also used repeatedly in the Scriptures. 1 Chronicles 16:24 speaks of God’s wonderful deeds. In Job 42:3 Job refers to the things of God as being things he did not know and things that were too wonderful for him to understand.

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The Bible is also full of examples of those who sought or used counsellors. During the time of kings in the old testament, many sought counsel, unfortunately from men who didn’t know God. See 2 Samual 15:12, 1 Kings 12:6, It seems that David always sought God’s counsel directly, just read most of the Psalms. This may be what made him a man after God’s heart.

Coming back to Isaiah 9:6 we can begin to understand, no matter how you look at these words, they are describing our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is a wonder, and He is wonderful. His is a counselor and offers us only the best and most perfect counsel in His word. Indeed, He is the Wonderful Counselor. No matter what you are facing in life; no matter how overwhelming the questions or uncertainty of the future, Jesus can lead the way. He is not only the Wonderful Counselor, He is the Way.

Have a great week.

Mulling it Over - Romans 8:3-4 - Easter Thoughts

When I study scripture, one of the first things I do is exactly what I do here with you, I take the verses I am studying apart. Words are important. How those words are used is important. Obviously, we are looking at English words, not the original language of Hebrew or Greek, so the words have already been translated into a form for us. It would definitely be advantageous if we could read the Bible in it’s original language to truly understand the nuances and meanings of some of the words, but I trust God. I know that the book that He allowed to be translated into our language is just as true and powerful as the original documents that were penned so many, many years ago.

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Last month we looked at the first two verses of Romans 8, which reminded us that we do not stand condemned if we are in Christ Jesus, and the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the Law of sin and death. Let’s continue our study by looking at verses 3 and 4.

“3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

— Romans 8:3-4 (NASB 1995)

As we move into Easter weekend and contemplate what our Lord Jesus did for us, it is apropos that we look over these two verses.

Let’s change it up just a little bit this week and instead of going through this phrase by phrase, let’s look at what we can learn about the Law in these two verses.

1 - The Law was weak - The Law, given in the Old Testament to Moses on the mountain, was given as both a mirror and a shadow. It was given as a mirror to reflect sin. The whole point of the Law was to point out and remind people they are sinners, separated from a Holy God.

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The Law was also a shadow of the spiritual reality. The reality is that we cannot save ourselves. No matter how much we try to obey the law, we still fall short of God’s holy identity. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is only one way to have right standing with this Almighty being and that is through the sacrifice of blood. That sacrifice came through His son, Jesus.

2 - The Law was flesh - Everything that the law encompassed in the Old Testament had to do with deeds of the flesh. The sacrifices, the portions, the building, the lineage, the priesthood, the garments, the tabernacle and temple furniture and ornamental pieces, the commandments…all of it had to do with this life, in this flesh. Even today, we are all about doing, or what can be done or accomplished in our flesh.

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Don’t get me wrong, doing is good and it absolutely should be a part of our lives as human beings and as Christians. However, the ability to save ourselves has nothing to do with our flesh. Even Paul in the book of Galatians reprimands the Jews who are trying to add to the gospel by telling new converts to Christ they have to be circumcised. (See Galatians 3 and 4.)

3 - The Law and the Flesh are associated with sin - God created Adam and Eve with fleshly bodies, but in the Garden of Eden that flesh was meant to be enjoyed, and used to take care of the animals and all the things that God had created. Sin came about when Eve, tempted by Satan in his serpent form, wanted to taste the fruit that was forbidden. It was the desire of the flesh that caused her and her husband to fall. If they would have immediately ran to their loving Father with their fleshly desire, not only would they have remained pure, but then sin wouldn’t have been given reign in the flesh. As it was, they were cast out of the Garden and became painfully aware of now frail and sinful their flesh was.

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From that first connection of flesh to sin, came about the need for the Law, a shadow of what was to come in the fleshly form of Jesus Christ who would take away the sins of the world.

4 - The Law was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ - God in His great goodness and fathomless love provided! Isn’t it amazing that the very God with whom we in our flesh, broke covenant, was prepared from before the foundation of the world to provide the needed, perfect and unblemished lamb to be a sacrifice for our darkened hearts. Not only did he provide the perfect sacrifice, but it came in the person of His own son, Jesus Christ. In this, He and the Father were one. The son did what the Father wanted, because the Son loved the Father and loved us.

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Christ was made flesh and dwelt among us…it is important that we understand He had to take on flesh for His sacrifice to fulfill the requirement of the Law. The Law required a fleshly sacrifice particularly for the atonement of sin. What was a shadow in the Old Testament became a reality in the New Testament. The Old Covenant was set aside for the New Covenant.

What a blessing is ours, for we were born in the time of the New Covenant, or the New Testament. We are not dependent on our own flesh to be one with God. The requirement of the law is fulfilled in our flesh because Jesus became flesh, and was the perfect sacrifice for all. Now we live, not according to the law of the flesh, but the law of the Spirit.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s post. Have a beautiful Easter weekend! Until next time, keep seeking Him.

A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events - Part 2: The Necessity of Misfortune

Last week I introduced you to A Series of Unfortunate Events, a book series by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) that has also been made into a movie with Jim Carey, and a Netflix series with Neil Patrick Harris. The series follows three orphans, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are trying to find out why their parents died in a fire, while at the same time trying to find a guardian who will love and care for them. The inheritance of their future fortune marks them easy prey for villains wanting their money, specifically Count Olaf.

I made the comparison that often we are like the orphaned Baudelaire’s experiencing one tragedy after another. Misfortune is, as the word’s meaning defines, unfortunate. The word fortunate is defined as - “bringing some good thing, not foreseen as certain; receiving some unexpected good.” Misfortune is defined simply as, “an unhappy situation.” When we call someone unfortunate we are saying they are “marked or accompanied by misfortune.” (Definitions from Webster’s Online Dictionary.)

All of us experience misfortune, but we don’t necessarily see everyone as unfortunate, where every day seems to be a struggle and hope is as elusive as an early morning mist. In fact, when a tragedy happens we will often say, “You were very fortunate. It could have been so much worse.” While this is true, it isn’t always the best thing to say.

If you have been following me for a while, you have probably heard me say that struggles and difficulty are not always all bad. We’ve all heard stories or watched a Hallmark movie, where something beautiful has come out of a terrible situation. In my own life I have seen the hand of God extend mercy in situations where the outcome of people’s choices could have been total tragedy.

Last week I discussed the necessity of Jesus’ departure from earth, so the Holy Spirit could come. Without the Helper’s constant guidance and revelation of God’s word we would be lost. Thus the need to recognize, not all tragedies and difficulties are truly unfortunate. With the Holy Spirit’s help we can recognize four key things about our difficulties.

1 - Allowed by God.

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If you believe what the Bible says about God’s characteristics then you must acknowledge His sovereignty. If God is sovereign, all things that come into our lives are sifted through His fingers. We have the book of Job as one for instance of God allowing great difficulty into one man’s life. But, even after all the tragedy, Job knew God was good and sovereign.

“He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.””

— Job 1:22 (NASB 1995)

“9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

— Job 2:9-10 (NASB 1995)

I can still remember a sermon I heard a few years ago when we were going through an especially hard time. The preacher made two points:

1 - God is sovereign and God loves you.

2 - When you are going through something hard refer back to point number 1.

It sounds pretty simple, but in reality it is. Our Almighty God is not trying to trick us, or manipulate us. He is completely straight forward. His holiness is pure. His goodness is everlasting. His mercies are new every morning. Most importantly, He loves us. Plain and simple.

2 - For our benefit.

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Most of us want things that are beneficial for us whether healthy food and exercise, a place to get away and rest, peace of mind and loving, nurturing relationships. God wants things that are beneficial for us as well. The difference is that as the author of all creation He has a far better grasp of what we truly need.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

— Romans 8:28 (NASB 1995)

Notice in the verse it says that God causes ALL things to work together for good. It isn’t only the happy, joyful, peaceful things that work for our good, it includes the mind numbing, tragic and ugly parts of life. How can this be the case? Because it is God who is doing the working for the good. We are hardly capable of getting ourselves out of bed in the morning, how is it we are going to know the deep needs of our own selves? We think we do…happiness, peace, no longing, no fear, no confrontation…but we are unwilling to go to the One who knows us inside out.

3 - Meant for God reliance.

A trapeze artist knows the importance of being in excellent shape physically, and mentally. They know their muscles must be strong and their minds must not be distracted by the difficulties of life. In addition, they are completely reliant on their equipment. A broken wire, or rusty chain must be repaired or replaced. How do they know these things? By being taught by others who went before.

When we encounter unfortunate events it is the perfect opportunity to check our relationship with God. Are we maintaining our connection with Him. Are we keeping short accounts on our sin? Are we spending time in His word? Are we searching for scripture and advice on how to get through our difficulties by His strength and with His grace?

I don’t care what the commercials are telling you…be all you can be. I don’t care what the social media influencers are preaching…you are strong, you got this, you are woman hear you roar…most messages that come from a source outside of God Himself, while encouraging are not going to keep you sane when the bottom falls out of your world.

“5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.”

— Proverbs 3:5-8 (NASB 1995)

“6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

— 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NASB 1995)

“63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

— John 6:63 (NASB 1995)

“8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Than to trust in man.”

— Psalm 118:8 (NASB 1995)

“10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”

— Isaiah 41:10 (NASB 1995)

We are meant to be God dependent, not independent.

4 - Renewal: God’s best outcome.

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Coming through a series of unfortunate events is the perfect time for God to build something new in you. As you practice abiding in Him and relying on Him He will begin to weed that garden that He is cultivating in you. It may be that the misfortunes are actually His way of pulling the weeds of pride, self-centeredness and bitterness from your soul. Let Him be about His work for this will have the best outcome. You will come through your difficulties with a deeper, new found faith and knowledge, not only of who you are, but more importantly of who God is.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

— Romans 12:2 (NASB 1995)

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”

— 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NASB 1995)

“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,”

— Titus 3:5 (NASB 1995)

I want to encourage you to remember, you are not alone in your difficulty. There is a loving, omnipotent God working through your series of (un)fortunate events.

A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events - Part 1: A Necessary Departure

In the book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (real name Daniel Handler) we follow the tale of three orphans whose lives could only be described as a winsomely tragic. I have not read the books, but my grandson has, and the two of us have worked our way through the Netflix series starring Neil Patrick Harris as the persistent bad guy Count Olaf, and Patrick Warburton as the author/narrator, Lemony Snicket.

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From the start the audience is told by the author to “look away” to keep themselves from having to see the tragic misfortunes of the three Baudelaire children who become orphans at the very start of the tale. What follows is misfortune after misfortune. From the reader’s or watcher’s perspective, the difficulties are seat squirming events that rapidly unfold taking the three children from the safety and security of their home and their parents, into the ugly, downtrodden clutches of Count Olaf. Time after time we think things will get better to only end up in a worse place, or more difficult situation.

Our own lives can often seem like a series of unfortunate events. Most of you probably have experienced those times in life when one thing after another goes wrong: the refrigerator dies, the car won’t start, you have a fight with your spouse, the kids get sick and you can’t find that piece of paperwork you needed for an important work meeting. I am not sure why things go this way. Perhaps it is the reality of the fallen world we live in: things break, stop working and get messed up. Relationships are hard. Children require energy and work, and some of us are constantly fighting the battle against clutter.

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Trouble is not anything new. Since the fall of Adam and Eve from God’s grace in the Garden of Eden, trouble has hounded mankind. Jesus gave us a heads up in the New Testament when he stated:

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.””

— John 16:33 (NASB - 1995)

When we look at the full chapter of John 16 we see Jesus talking to his disciples about the future, theirs and His. What he tells them is not pleasant. He tells them that they will be outcasts from the Synagogue and that people will want to kill them. He also tells them that He will be leaving. Their hearts are heavy, but He reveals that if He doesn’t leave he cannot send the Helper (Holy Spirit) to them.

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“13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

— John 16:13-15 (NASB - 1995)

Let’s think on this for a minute. Jesus in His human form was just like us. He was limited by time, space and even gravity. If you are familiar with the New Testament and Jesus’ life you know there were instances where he moved from one place to another mysteriously. He also walked on water, so He obviously still had Godly abilities. However, Jesus could only be in one place at a time.

Now think about how the Holy Spirit works. He is spirit as God is spirit. He has the ability to dwell in me, you and every other believer all at the same time. Since the Spirit brings the likeness of Jesus into our lives we all have Jesus with us all the time. Isn’t that amazing? I don’t know about you, but that makes my unfortunate events seem easier to handle and not so overwhelming.

Let me give you a few important points about the Spirit that I hope will encourage you like it encourages me.

The Holy Spirit is not constrained by time or space.

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God’s Spirit, or the Holy Spirit shows up repetitively in the Old and New Testament.

“Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

— Psalm 51:11 (NASB - 1995)

“But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.”

— Isaiah 63:10 (NASB - 1995)

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.”

— Matthew 1:18 (NASB - 1995)

““As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

— Matthew 3:11 (NASB - 1995)

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

— Luke 1:41 (NASB - 1995)

We can see that the Holy Spirit was around back in the time of David and Isaiah. He was also present with Mary and Elizabeth during their pregnancies. Time and space do not constrain this being. There are other places in the scriptures where it mentions the Spirit of the Lord. My assumption is this also is a reference to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit reveals truth to us.

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Jesus not only called Him the Spirit of Truth, but He also said that He would reveal truth to us. I often find when I am going through an unfortunate event, God will bring back to my mind certain scriptures that help me stand firm in the difficulty. Words like:

“He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,””

— Hebrews 13:5b (NASB -1995)

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”

— Romans 8:28 (NASB - 1995)

“6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 4:6-7 (NASB - 1995)

The Holy Spirit will guide us.

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Jesus said, “…He will guide you into all the truth.” I personally feel that this isn’t just about guiding us to which verse to use in a particular situation, but I think it also means the Spirit will guide us in our decisions and direct us as we seek answers to the questions we are asking in our unfortunate events. What I struggle with the most is not whether the Holy Spirit will guide me or not, but when.

Over the last year as I have been maneuvering these health issues I always felt the Spirit there with me, but finding answers to my issues has been illusive. I have to keep putting myself back into God’s hands and wait…wait for healing, wait for wisdom, wait for guidance to a doctor who knows exactly what to do. Waiting is hard, and I don’t foresee waiting ever getting any easier. I have to cling to what Jesus said, that the Spirit will guide me into all the truth.

The Holy Spirit speaks only what the Father and Son desire.

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You will never be mislead by the Holy Spirit. He cannot tell you anything that is contrary to the scriptures because the Scriptures are the written words of God. If you hear a voice telling you to rob a bank, that is not the Holy Spirit. If you think God is telling you to paint your kitchen a certain color, it is probably not the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit busies Himself with the Words and the Works of God. The color of your kitchen is your own free will. God has given us freedom to make choices, even bad ones, but when we walk with the Holy Spirit as our guide and we are in tune with Him we will desire to please God.

The Holy Spirit discloses God’s words to us.

The word disclose as defined by Webster’s online dictionary means to make public or to expose to view. This is quite telling of out the Godhead operates. Many who do not believe say the Bible is unreadable and hard to understand, but they are reading it without the disclosure of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our lives, He not only makes us more like Christ, but He gives us the ability to understand the deeper things of God.

Next week we’ll take a look at why how unfortunate events can be turned into fortunate events. Until then have a great weekend.

My Word for 2022: Believe

According to Webster’s Online dictionary the word believe means:

- to accept or regard as true

- to accept the truth of what is said by someone

- to have a specified opinion

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I have signs all over my house with the word believe written on them. The idea of belief is not new to me. I was raised in a Bible believing church and understood the concept of belief in God at a very young age. Belief is not strange to me, in fact, it is a word that has impacted most of the decisions I have made in my life. My belief, not only in a divine being, but in His perfect plan for our world and my life, has become the foundation from which everything else has been built.

You might be wondering at this point, why I have made it my word for 2022 if I have such a familiarity with it. I chose this word, because I know there is so much more to God and His will for my life I have yet to delve into. There are boundary lines He wants me to cross over, to walk in the promised land, and yet I hesitate. What is it about this wilderness that I so desperately cling to?

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The wilderness is familiar. I am comfortable with it, even if it is arid, dry and rather dull. It is a dryness I am not afraid of. Going into the promised land means I need to be willing to confront some giants. I might even need to fight a battle or two. What if I can’t do it? What if I fail? It is scary over there. Yes! It looks amazing; all green, luscious, and ready for the taking, BUT WHAT IF….?

“17 And one person from the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, because he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes stiff. And I told Your disciples so that they would cast it out, but they could not do it.” 19 And He answered them and *said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” 20 And they brought [m]the boy to Him. When he saw Him, the spirit immediately threw him into convulsions, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 But Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again!” 26 And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him, and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began asking Him privately, “Why is it that we could not cast it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything except prayer.””

— Mark 9:17-29 (NASB)

The boy’s father said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” All of us who have made a profession of faith can identify with this man’s statement and plea. We do have faith. We do believe, but still we lack, we struggle, we know our belief is not complete. This process of growing in our faith and maturing in our belief is called sanctification. It is a work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in us, but we must accept the teaching with humility without doubting the end result of the Godhead.

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How do we get out of this blistering wilderness we are in and cross into the promised land flowing with milk and honey, and what does it have to do with belief? I think the problems comes down to two actions: abide and trust. To keep this post from getting too long, I want to look at these two things just briefly.

Abide

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I have talked about this idea of Abiding in Christ on the blog before, or at least referred to it. Andrew Murray’s work, Abide in Christ, goes into specific depth with regards to all of the ways we abide in Him. The original reference is as follows.

“4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

— John 15:4-5 (NKJV)

Abiding is not a passive action, though it might seem to be. When we abide with our spouse, our children or other significant people in our lives, we are living with them and they are living with us. Living is not a passive thing. I don’t just sit around, waiting for things to get done, or events to take place. I do things. As we abide with Christ we are expected to bear fruit, not just the fruit of sharing our faith with others, but the fruit of His Spirit. See this article at Christianity.com for a more detailed rendering of what Christ meant when He said to abide in him.

Trust

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I looked at this word last week, and this is really where our belief must take the next step. In God’s commission to Joshua He told Joshua to enter the promised land (see Joshua 1). He didn’t tell Joshua it was okay to wander around in the wilderness for another 40 years. He expected him to move forward, to take the land and possess it. Joshua was commissioned to act. Joshua did, because he trusted God. Before he took action, God reassured Joshua.

“9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.””

— Joshua 1:9 (NASB)

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If we ever want to get out of our wilderness, we need to trust God. We need to believe what He says in His word. We need to trust in the work that Christ did on the cross. We need to trust in the all the many promises we are given, and we need to spend time with Him; living with Him.

For me the word believe is a reminder to abide and to trust in the God I have given my heart to. Now it is time to cross over into the promised land.

What if Life Doesn't Give You Lemons?

You’ve all heard the quote, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” My husband, who is ever the melancholy Dane said, “Well what if you don’t get lemons? What if you get rotten tomatoes? What are you supposed to make with those, rotten tomato juice?” We could go on and on with a list of bad things that we really can’t find a way to turn into something palatable. The whole point of the quote is that when bad things happen, turn them into something usable and good. That’s great when life is dealing you items that you can actually turn into something good or useful, but what about those situations where it seems that there is nothing good that can come out of it?

It is very easy to get focused on the bad. I know. I have to keep reminding myself, that even though my sense of smell is wonky and I can’t taste anything right now, I do have so many other blessings. I have most of my health back after a long illness. I have a beautiful new grandson and still get to enjoy time with my older grandson. I have a home, blankets and a working furnace, which is so wonderful during these cold days and nights. I have been reminded, however, that when we are going through something difficult it is okay to feel bad. My discomfort and pain is just as real as the next person’s, even if it isn’t at the same level.

I want to look at a few steps that I have found help me when life is throwing rotten tomatoes at me rather than lemons. I hope these will be helpful to you as well.

1 - Hide

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There are days, weeks and even months where hiding is not a bad idea. Getting away from the constant barrage of negative news, or input is not only important it is essential for good mental health. I know a number of people who have taken breaks from various forms of social media. Some have even pulled away all together, feeling that it was adding to their already anxious and discouraged mindsets. Even God’s word encourages us to occasionally hide.

“Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings”

— Psalm 17:8 (NASB)

“For on the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; He will hide me in the secret place of His tent; He will lift me up on a rock.”

— Psalm 27:5 (NASB)

“A prudent person sees evil and hides himself, But the naive proceed, and pay the penalty.”

— Proverbs 22:3 (NASB)

“Come, my people, enter your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while Until indignation runs its course.”

— Isaiah 26:20 (NASB)

There are times when life becomes overwhelming and the rotten tomatoes are coming at you; some of them may even contain the missiles of the enemy. Those are the times to hide. Hiding with an almighty God is an especially good place to be.

2 - Stand Up

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I know this might sound counterintuitive, especially when the world is flinging gloppy, rotten tomatoes at you. I also just got done telling you to hide, but there are times in life when the best thing we can do is take a stand.

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I have done studies on our unseen enemy and on the armor of God. As a refresher, take a look at these verses from Ephesians.

“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
14 Stand firm therefore... ”

— Ephesians 6:10-14a (NASB)

Certainly, there are times those tomatoes are flying from the chaos of the lives we are living; cars breaking down, the dishwasher leaking, the kids getting sick, these are all struggles that we deal with. There are other times, where those stinky, red missiles are coming from an unseen source; the very one who is wanting us to give up hope and turn away from our Lord and protector.

3 - Trust

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Let me take a moment at this point to talk about that idea of the Lord as our protector. Who hasn’t asked themselves, “If God loves us and He is our protector, then why are all these bad things happening?” The best way for me to explain this is to point out two factors.

The first is to remind all of you, we live in a fallen world. I was doing some reading in Hebrews for a devotional group I am in on Saturday morning. The comparison was being made of the old system of sacrificing bulls and goats to the one sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The author points out that God was not pleased with the system of sacrifice and provided a better alternative…the one time sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. The Father did not want to have the system of sacrifice, because His desire was to walk with the humanity He created in the perfect garden. It was mankind who chose to do wrong. The moment sin came into the world, God set Plan B into motion; the system of sacrifice and blood offerings.

The second point I want to make is that God provided a way, even after we messed things up. He always provides a way. It might be a way out, a way over, a way across, a way to hide or a way to take a stand, but He will always provide. Sometimes, we just have to wait on Him, as hard as it can be. Waiting is excruciating, especially when our struggle is overwhelming. We might have a terrible illness. We might be in constant pain. We might be battling an addiction either to drugs and alcohol or to pornography and toxic relationships. Still, if we can be still and wait, He will provide a way.

“23 Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; ”

— Hebrews 10:23 (NASB)

4 - Believe

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What is the difference between trust and belief? I would define them this way: trust is believing that someone or something is good or reliable. Belief is accepting that something is true. We can easily believe that God is good, yet not believe that everything that is in the scriptures is true. We can also believe that the Bible is true, but not necessarily believe that God is entirely good.

Belief is essential to having a right relationship with God. If we do not take God at His word we will always be doubting whether He can be trusted.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

— Romans 8:28 (NASB)

When we put our faith in God the Father, and in the plan of salvation that He set forth though His Son, Jesus, we are also putting our faith in His Word. Believing what the above verse is saying is true makes it easier to know that even the rotten tomatoes will somehow turn into something good, even if the only thing they are used for is compost.

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5 - Rest

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I decided to separate rest from hiding, because while it is true that we could rest while we are hiding, much like Elijah did in the cave in I Kings 19, it is also true that we can be hiding, but be all pent up inside and not truly getting any rest. There is physical rest, emotional and mental rest. The type of rest you might need when the tomatoes are flying might be all of them or it might just be one.

When I was sick back in the fall, I really needed physical rest, because with my cough I was not sleeping at all. However, I also needed mental and emotional rest. I did not know what was wrong with me and I also did not know if I would ever get better. I had to keep going back to the truth of what I believed in Scripture.

“28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.””

— Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)

I would get off the couch the next morning, having to face another day of not feeling well, but I trusted what Christ said in that passage. Even though I wasn’t actually sleeping, He always got me through every day. I am so thankful He finally got me to a point where I was able to get help and start healing.

Rest may not always be the physical rest or the mental rest we think we need. There are times where the rest is simply laying back in the arms of our Savior and letting Him get us through those really bad days.

I don’t know what you might be facing as this new year progresses, but I hope that you will remember, even if you are being assailed by rotten tomatoes, God is right there with you and He will help you through.

When Darkness Comes - Wrap Up

We have been doing a series on when darkness comes into our lives. Darkness can be anything that you encounter that causes you to struggle, doubt or grow weary. From the very beginning we learned that darkness is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact when we read the creation account at the beginning of Genesis we learn that God created the darkness for our benefit. However, there are times when it seems that darkness has moved in to our lives like some sort of dank, slimy giant who is determined to make his new home with us. It seems that life will never know the light again and that the only thing we will know is that musty smell of wormwood.

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

For this final post, I just want to review some of the things we learned over the last few weeks. It is rather apropos that in the midst of doing this series, I was blasted with a health crisis. It has stretched me to my limits. I know there are so many people who have had much more difficult health problems, but it is the incessant illness and the ensuing steps of trying to get things diagnosed, going to doctors, urgent cares and even the emergency room, still to no avail. The waiting; the not knowing; the feeling of hopelessness that things will ever get any better wears a person down.

The very thing that kept me going through all of this, were the lessons I had been learning previously when I was going through more of a mental and emotional crisis. That is what I have shared with you in this series. The verse that has kept coming back to me during the non-stop coughing, long nights of wheezing and not being able to sleep, and the not having answers is this:

“Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.””

— Psalm 27:14 (NASB)

All to often waiting is exactly that, waiting. It has more of a passive feel to it. There are times, where that is exactly what we need to do. However, many of the verses in the Bible that use the word wait, have an active voice. Waiting, involves, anticipation, expectation and even an element of seeking. Waiting is not for wimps! Why do you think the psalmist went on to say, “Be strong and let your heart take courage…”? He knew that waiting requires strength. I will leave that for another lesson. Today, I just want to review what we can take away from the series, When Darkness Comes.

1 - God created the darkness - The very first lesson in this series explored the truth, God created the darkness. While dark and light are no different to Him, He knew that our world and the people He created would need the darkness and its benefits.

2 - Darkness became associated with being bad when Satan challenged God’s authority - Remember, not only did Satan challenge God’s authority, but he was angry. In his anger he attacked God’s creation by tempting Adam and Eve to sin. It was after this event that the darkness became a place to hide and cover sinful deeds.

3 - God is in the darkness - No matter what dark days we are going through, God is over, under, around and within our darkness. The darkness is as light to Him, so there are no worries that He won’t be able to find us. He is right here with us.

4 - Being in the dark does not mean we did something wrong - God is sovereign and it is in this Lordship over all that He determines when and where we walk, and whether that way will be in the light or in the dark.

5 - When we are walking in the dark we need to remind ourselves of who God is - This is the first step in being able to dwell in the dark place. We have to remember who God is. A good way to do this is to write in a journal, but that is not the only way. Writing, singing, reading all help us to get back to the core truths in scripture about who God says he is.

6 - When we are walking in the dark we need to remind ourselves of who we are - We tend to put on false faces when we are going through difficulties. We tend to not want others to see how we really feel, or what we are really thinking. In order to dwell in the dark place, and even flourish in that darkness, we need to be honest about our feelings, and who God’s word tells us we are.

7 - There is a time when we need to reveal our true hearts - In other words, there are times we need to be starkly honest with God. Yes, He already knows what we are thinking and feeling, but we need to acknowledge these things out loud. Being able to vent our true hearts before Him is an important part of being able to survive a dark time.

8 - Growth, in a dark place, is directly related to letting God’s truth meet the raw edges of our ragged emotions - The scriptures are full of people with real emotions. David, Abraham, Moses, Paul and others didn’t just bring us the inspired words of God, but His truth, seasoned with their very own emotions. So much of scripture is meant for helping us deal, temper and work through our intense emotions. Letting His truth touch our emotions allows His Spirit to bring light to all of our dark places.

9 - Thanksgiving is essential to the growth process - There is a reason God said to give thanks at all times and in everything give thanks. Gratitude is the next step in allowing the darkness to empower, rather than overpower us.

10 - Dark places cannot remain dark when God’s piercing happens within our hearts - The process of going through these steps as we walk in darkness has the ultimate outcome of light coming in to the dark place. Truth, while not always pleasant, will always reveal. Obedience to God’s movement in the dark place will always open small windows that will let the light in.

I hope you enjoyed this series on When Darkness Comes and that by sharing my own process of walking in a dark place you will be better able to get through your own times of darkness.

Thanks for following along, on the blog. Have a great weekend.

When Darkness Comes - Part 6: Remembering Who We are in the Darkness

Many times when we are walking in the darkness, especially if we are doing it for an extended time, we tend to forget who we are meant to be. We fall back into the pattern of listening to the manipulator’s voice, rather than the Creator’s voice. We focus in on our insecurities, rather than our place on His solid foundation. We begin to obsess over all that is wrong, rather than being thankful for all that is right. I know. I have been there.

Image by Darkmoon_Art from Pixabay

Being a low energy person, it is easy for me to get tired, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. There is a reason, Jesus said to come to Him when we are weary and need rest. He wasn’t just talking about our physical weariness. In fact, I think He was referring more to the weariness we feel when we are walking in the darkness. What did he say in those verses?

“28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.””

— Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)

I want to come back to these verses when I explore how to survive the darkness, but for today, I want you to notice verse 29. We are to take His yoke on ourselves, but not just that. We are to do it so that we can learn from Jesus. Why? Because He is gentle, humble and in Him we will find rest for our souls. We can see here, it is not just our physical bodies that can find rest in Him, although I believe we can find that as well. In Him we find rest for our souls.

Once again, I want to draw on my own experiences to help you understand how important it is to remember God’s eternal truth when you are going through dark times. If we forget who He says we are, then we open the door for Satan to influence us with his lies and manipulative whisperings. Let’s look at a few of the false faces we wear when we are maneuvering the dark places in life.

False Face - The Mime

Image by Rudi Maes from Pixabay

You all know this one. They don’t talk about their struggles. You might even identify with this one. Unfortunately, the Christian church has made the mime one of our most numerous congregants. We don’t talk about it. When life gets tough, we sink down into our character and keep silent. Are you struggling with mental illness? Don’t talk about it. Are you frustrated in your marriage? Don’t talk about it. Are you shell shocked after a great loss? Don’t talk about it. We are too busy, too tired, too wrapped up in our own selves to take the time to listen, even if we wanted you to talk. Then, like the mime, we occasionally act out. We blow up at inappropriate times. We cry for no reason. We are alone in our silent performance as the rest of the world wonders why we are acting so odd.

False Face - The Stoic

Image by Szilárd Szabó from Pixabay

Definition of a stoic:

“a member of a school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium about 300 b.c. holding that the wise man should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law”

— Webster's Online Dictionary

A person who maneuvers the dark times with this philosophy will often exhibit no emotion at all. Their attitude might resemble that of a rock. While even those who identify with stoicism do have emotions, their desire is to not give in to extravagant or showy emotion, choosing rather, to maintain a steady, even keeled composure.

False Face - The Dancer

Image by Vladimir Yuminov from Pixabay

When difficulty comes, this person will often be flitting from one thing to another, like a bee buzzing from flower to flower. An individual who exhibits this behavior, is often afraid to slow down or sit still, knowing that when they do the full weight of their struggles will overwhelm them. They believe if they keep moving, they will not have to really deal with their pain and eventually it will become less difficult.

False Face - Pollyanna

Image by Christopher Ross from Pixabay

If you are not familiar with the term Pollyanna, it is defined as a person that is excessively positive or optimistic. Originally, Pollyanna was a novel written in 1913 by Eleanor H. Porter. It told the story of eleven year old orphan girl Pollyanna Whittier, who is sent to live with her stern, cold, spinster Aunt Polly. Pollyanna maneuvers life playing a game she learned from her father, called the Glad Game. The premise being that there is always something to be glad about, or an opportunity to always see the brighter side of any dark cloud.

While I do believe there is benefit in looking for the good in life and in finding things to be thankful for, it is equally important to not deceive ourselves into believing there is nothing wrong, when in fact we are still truly hurting and struggling.

I am sure if we looked deeper we could find more False Faces that we adopt and use when we are not willing to face the darkness we are going through. However, it is of great importance that we do recognize our struggles and difficulties.

What does God’s Word say about us? Let’s look at another page from my journal.

Image by CharuTyagi from Pixabay

I recognize my standing as a sinner.

“23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

— Romans 3:23 (NASB)

I called on Your name and You washed me whiter than snow.

“13 for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

— Romans 10:13 (NASB)

““Come now, and let us debate your case,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They shall become as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be like wool.”

— Isaiah 1:18 (NASB)

I know, according to Your word, my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

“27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

— Revelation 21:27 (NASB)

I am sealed by His blood.

“30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

— Ephesians 4:30 (NASB)

“22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”

— 2 Corinthians 1:22 (NASB)

I know according to Your word, I am not condemned.

“Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

— Romans 8:1 (NASB)

I know when I am weary and burdened, I can come to You and You will give me rest.

“28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

— Matthew 11:28 (NASB)

I know that Your yoke is easy and Your burden light. I can come to You and learn from You because you are gentle and humble.

“29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.””

— Matthew 11:29-30

I know You are always with me.

“5 No one will be able to oppose you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not desert you nor abandon you.”

— Joshua 1:5 (NASB)

“5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you,””

— Hebrews 13:5 (NASB)

I know You have given me, Your precious and magnificent promises.

“4 Through these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust.”

— 2 Peter 1:4 (NASB)

I know that You work all things together for good.

“28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

— Romans 8:28 (NASB)

I know You love me.

“See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.”

— 1 John 3:1 (NASB)

In order for us to be able to walk in the darkness we must remember, not only who God is, but who we are. I hope you will find encouragement in these verses.

Next time I will delve into what our response should be when we are walking in the storms.

Have a good week.

When Darkness Comes - Part 5: Finding God in the Darkness

This post will be rather long and contains aspects of my own experience in the darkness, but I share the details to help you understand the process.

We have been learning about the darkness. We have seen its beginning; created by an Almighty God for the benefit of His creation. Darkness was not meant to be bad. It was not meant to hide evil and torment the sinner, but our unseen enemy wanted to make the good bad. From the moment he became enamored with his beauty and too proud to place himself under the authority of the divine creator he has chosen to manipulate that which is good, right and true.

Image by Brigitte makes custom works from your photos, thanks a lot from Pixabay

If I came to you and said, “I am going through a very dark time,” wouldn’t you assume I was struggling? Wouldn’t you pray for the light to come back into my life, so I might once again be walking in the blessedness of my Savior’s love? Why do we assume, darkness is not the place we are meant to walk? How did we get to the point where struggle and disappointment in life is thought to be in our lives because of something we did or did not do? Why do we embrace the light, the sun, the beautiful blue skies and gentle breezy days, but not the night, the dark, the gray lumbering clouds over a storm tossed sea? Isn’t all of it allowed by our Heavenly Father? Doesn’t every circumstance that comes into our lives come first through the gentle and loving hands of our risen Lord?

“I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.”

— Isaiah 45:7 (ESV)

I will be the first to admit, I do not like this truth, but truth it is. The scripture is full of God’s truth. We are not allowed to take one truth, but not the other. We do have a free will and we can dislike some of the truths that are in the Bible, but that does not change the fact that they are the truths put forth by a holy and perfect God. Part of the key to being able to accept God’s truth is to really get to know Him. Many people read one verse and decide, God is fickle, or angry, or malevolent, but they are not seeing the entire picture. Just as we take time to get to know the person we fall in love with, falling in love with God takes time and a willingness to trust.

Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

I want to take this part of my series on When Darkness Comes, slowly. These are the things we need to understand, and know with the very core of our being. This is where the Holy Spirit makes effective the work that Jesus did on the cross. This is the time when our head knowledge, must become heart knowledge.

My Experience

About a month ago, I was having a particularly difficult time. I have long struggled with my self image, often feeling worthless and useless. Over the last 34 years as a wife and mother I have struggled with the poor choices I made, my lack of love and compassion for both my spouse and our daughters. I grieved over the death of my father, the ensuing changes in my mother’s life and how that made life more complex. I witnessed divisions and strife in our church. I became aware of the trauma one of my family members suffered at the hands of a supposed “man of God.” I saw this same family member walk away from the church and begin a self-destructive path of rebellion against God and self-indulgent behavior. During this period I sought counsel from a licensed counselor and was told I was “mercy gone wild.” I learned about boundaries and letting go of many of the dreams I had for myself and my family. I was regularly building coffins, throwing my dreams inside, nailing them shut and burying them.

Image by Rob van der Meijden from Pixabay

Life slowly began to be less chaotic, but things were, and still are, hard. Recently, we learned our youngest daughter has a brain tumor. In addition to that she has been having a multiplicity of symptoms such as numbness, pain, tremors, dizziness and nausea. To this day, those things are still unresolved and the doctors do not believe her symptoms to be related to the tumor, which is very small and which, for now, they are keeping an eye on. This is just another straw on that proverbial camel’s back that makes the load heavier and heavier.

In my desire to draw closer to God, He lead me to see there is only one way to do this. I must take Him completely at His word. During that time a month ago, I had a three day period of a sadness so deep, I did not know how God was going to bring me out of it. I was hopeless. Hopeless for our country, hopeless for my daughter, hopeless for those who think they know truth, but are wearing blinders, hopeless for so many young people who have walked away from the church and from Him, and hopeless for myself. I never felt so completely lost in the darkness. I cried. No, I sobbed. I could not stop sobbing. Hour after hour I wondered how I could make so many tears.

Finally, when the tears began to dry up, I heard God’s voice telling me, “Get your journal and tell me what you know.”

This is the first step to finding Him in the deep darkness. Remind yourself of who God is.

Learn Who God is, and then Tell Him

Photo Rebecca Trumbull.

(excerpt take from my journal - Bible verses added after)

Lord, I know Your truth. Your word gives me that truth and it never changes.

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

— John 17:17 (NASB)

“The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”

— Isaiah 40:8 (NASB)

I know Your lovingkindness is everlasting.

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting for those who fear Him,
And His justice to the children’s children,”

— Psalm 103:17 (NASB)

I know Your mercies are new every morning.

“For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.”

— Psalm 30:5 (NASB)

I know Your grace is matchless.

“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”

— John 1:16 (NASB)

You have freely given, so I might freely receive.

“Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.”

— 1 Corinthians 2:12 (NASB)

You have bridged the gap between our sin laden world and your perfect heaven. I know You gave us Jesus. It was Your plan that He be the perfect sacrifice.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”

— John 3:16 (NASB)

I know all have sinned and fall short of Your glory.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

— Romans 3:23 (NASB)

I know the punishment for sin is death.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 6:23 (NASB)

I know, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

“for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

— Romans 10:13 (NASB)

I know it is not by my own power and strength, but because of your mercy, that you saved me.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

— Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)

I know you have removed my sin as far as the east is from the west.

“As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.”

— Psalm 103:12 (NASB)

Every truth, I believe about God is backed by scripture and these are just a few of them. You could do whole studies on the attributes and characteristics of our Almighty Redeemer. It is important when we are in the darkness to go back to what we know is true and to cling to it.

Next week we will look at the next phase of our journey as we walk in the dark. Thank you for following along.

When Darkness Comes - Part 2: The Dark

Last week I started a series on When Darkness Comes. I don’t know that I really need to define what I mean by that, but just in case, I will. When I talk about darkness, I am talking about those times in life when things are very difficult. I am not talking about simple inconveniences, although get enough of them all at once, and I certainly start wondering who is trying to beat me up. What I am referring to when I say darkness are those times when you feel alone, discouraged and overwhelmed. However, it is not just feelings, that make something dark. It is a blend of what is going on in life, either your own or in the lives of those you love, a weight that feels especially burdensome, and how much of it you are carrying alone.

Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.’”

— Exodus 10:21 (NIV)

There are times darkness can be felt. This type of darkness is thick, dank, visceral, like a fog that rolls in over our souls from which we feel we will never be free. Grief is one of these dark times. When my father passed away 15 years ago, I felt as though a fog had rolled into my life and it seemed that it would always be there. Obviously, over time, the fog lifted and the darkness finally pulled away, but it is inevitable that these dark times will come. Let’s take a look at what God’s word says about darkness.

We already know that darkness was at the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.

“ 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

— Genesis 1:1 (NASB)

Image by Ronile from Pixabay

I really like how this is phrased in the New American Standard Bible, “…and the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness.” I know when I am going through an especially dark struggle, I feel as though I am like that formless and desolate emptiness. I think many people can relate to this feeling. If we started to look at statistics on how many people are on psych medications, I would say that this feeling of emptiness is becoming more and more prominent.

As we look at darkness there are several things we must understand.

1 - To God Darkness and Light are no Different.

Image by jplenio from Pixabay

We looked at this verse last week, but let’s look at it again.

“Even darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

— Psalm 139:12 (NASB)

For our limited minds it is hard to think that light and darkness could possibly be the same thing, but to an Almighty Creator, they are. Obviously, God can see just as well in the darkness as He can in the light. The differentiation of light and darkness was for our benefit. Knowing that God doesn’t make this differentiation can help us to understand how we can be walking through darkness or at least things that appear dark to you and I, and still have the solid assurance that God is with us.

Many times when we are encountering difficulty we tend to think God has left us, or at the least, that He is not listening to us. This is where we need to go back to the truth of God’s word. Hasn’t His word told us He is with us, always?

“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or in dread of them, for the Lord your God is the One who is going with you. He will not desert you or abandon you.”

— Deuteronomy 31:6 (NASB)

2 - Darkness was for our benefit.

Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay

God knew exactly what His creation would need, from the plants that grew, to the creatures that walked, flew and swam, to the people He made, God knew that darkness would be a time to refresh, rest and relax from the busyness of work. Just like so many things that God made that were good, it is our enemy that has taken them and twisted them for his benefit alone.

“14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years;
15 and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.
17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.”

— Genesis 1:14-19 (NASB)

When we look at this passage from Genesis 1, we see that God made the differentiation between day and night, and the lights that were to govern these time frames. There was even a reason given as to why He made the sun, moon, stars and planets; it was so we could use them as signs for days, seasons and years. If you know anything about how the earth is positioned on its axis, how far it is away from the sun and the way it rotates, and revolves around the sun, you understand the complexity of this Creator and that even in the darkness, He provided the light of the moon and stars. This was all done for our good!

3 - Darkness is not bad.

Image by Tim Hill from Pixabay

It is easy to be afraid of the dark. Darkness can be a scary thing, especially if you have watched a creepy movie, or read a horror story. When I was growing up I loved to watch scary movies. I am also a fan of books like Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. However, in this world of incredible evil, spending too much time immersing ourselves in scary things can easily cause us to forget that darkness was created for our good.

Darkness is the absence of light, however, as we saw in the first chapter of Genesis, darkness wasn’t meant to be something evil, oppressive or gloomy. Darkness was created by a loving God who cared for His creation. Next week, we will take a closer look at how our enemy, Satan, turned what was meant for our wellbeing into a tool for our destruction.

I hope you will continue to follow along. If you ever have any questions or concerns about things you see on my blog, feel free to shoot me a message via Facebook, Instagram, or if you are a subscriber, you may email me directly. Thanks for all your support.

A Walkabout with God

The term walkabout was first heard of in 1897 and was used to describe the Aboriginal period of wandering bush life. A young man between the ages of 10 and 16 would go on his walkabout to make the journey to manhood, spending anywhere from a few weeks to six months out in the Australian bush country fending for himself. In more recent times the term walkabout is used in Britain to describe a casual outing among other people, mingling and socializing.

Image by falco from Pixabay

The other day I was struggling. I am human and real life often weighs heavily on me, causing me to lose clarity about who I am and who I belong to. I was sitting at the small, bar height, table that is strategically placed in the corner of what used to be a dining room, right next to a window. I love to sit there, (see below) especially in the winter, as that is where the sun light streams in for a good portion of the morning and afternoon. I was trying to pray, pleading with God to clear the fog out of my brain and help me to get back to His center, because that is always where I am most content.

Picture from Pantone Spring 2018 photo shoot by Rebecca Trumbull.

As I am often inclined to do when I am alone in the house, I got up and started to pace around the kitchen table and pray out loud. At times, I will stray from my elliptical orbit around the table, and walk a lap or two around the living room. I told God how I was feeling. I confessed my struggles: those of the flesh and those of the spirit. Like a young Aboriginal boy on his quest for manhood in the open country of the Australian outback, I walked, searching for a way to survive. I needed to find my place, my purpose and His peace.

The journey to spiritual maturity, or what we as Christ followers often refer to as holiness, or Christ-likeness is not an easy one.

“10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.”

— Hebrews 12:10 (NASB)

Life is often harsh and unrelenting, much like the heat of an Australian day or the deep, bone chilling cold of that same country’s nights. Survival depends on a variety of factors, including food, water, and a way to keep cool during the day and warm at night. In the same way, the process of maturing in our life with Christ is dependent on several factors. Let’s look at these more closely.

1 - The Need for Food

Image by cattalin from Pixabay

Obviously, we are talking about spiritual food, but the analogies I am going to draw apply to both our physical and spiritual beings. What we put into our bodies directly affects how we feel, what we are able to do and our quality of life. Believe me, this is an area I struggle with, and I know for a fact when I am eating better, eating less and getting enough water and exercise, I feel like a new person.

The need for the right kind of food for our spiritual lives is just as important. If we are feeding our minds a steady diet of news, social media, music without a positive message, movies, books or other forms of entertainment that do not glorify God, we are going to feel it. I am sure most of you, like me, were caught up in watching the news nonstop when the pandemic began. I am also sure many of you followed the media storm leading up to the election and its ensuing aftermath. It is very easy to become discouraged and hopeless when things are out of control, thus the need to feed on the good food of God’s word.

We are living in different times, but our God has not changed. He has provided all the nutrients we need to endure in this harsh reality we now find ourselves living in.

“For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.””

— John 6:33 (NASB)

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty.”

— John 6:35 (NASB)

Jesus said He is the bread. He also says that if we come to Him we will not be hungry. Are you feeling a bit peckish in your spiritual life? Come to Jesus. Is your heart longing for fulfillment and satisfaction? Come to Jesus. What spiritual food are you longing for? No matter what your heart is aching for, Jesus can fill it up and make it feel whole again.

2. The Need for Water

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

The human body is made up of approximately 60% water. Our cells, tissues and organs cannot operate effectively if we do not have enough water. I am constantly telling my family to drink more water. This life giving substance is even more important if you are in a survival situation like the Australian outback. The area is arid and there are very few trees. Having water with you, or finding a clean water source is essential to survival.

Once again, we see this need for water extends to our spiritual lives. Without true water, we will always be returning to the well to try to quench our thirst. That well may be food, alcohol, drugs or sex. It could also be buying more things, or immersing ourselves into romance novels and pornography. It seems to satisfy for a time, just like drinking a soda or a cup of coffee can give you a little hydration. The problem is, it does not last.

Jesus told us in John 6:35 that if we come to Him we will never be hungry. He also says we will never be thirsty. Many of you know the familiar Biblical event of the woman at the well, found in John 4. You can see two posts I did on that passage last fall: May the Source Be with You: A Woman, a Well and Some Water and May the Source Be with You: An Exclamation, an Explanation and an Effect. What did Jesus tell her?

“13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again;
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.””

— John 4:13-14 (NASB)

Imagine you are walking in that dry, arid bush country, or perhaps you are crossing a vast desert. How would you feel after days and days without so much as a drop of water, to come upon an oasis; a place of palm trees and a cool, bubbling, trickling spring of precious water? Wouldn’t your heart swell with relief and your throat constrict with tears of gratitude? My dear friends, Jesus is our oasis. He is the water we need when our lives have become a long journey through the arid regions of living. He is that cool, sweet, bubbling brook, when we no longer have the strength or the will to go on. He is the God who fills our hungry stomachs and soothes our parched throats. All this He does for us, and more!

3 - The Need for Comfort

Image by Katrina_S from Pixabay

We all want to feel comfortable. In the cold of winter we never give a thought to turning up the heat. In the heat of summer some of you switch from heat to air conditioning. Others of us, throw open the windows and get out the fans. When we have a headache we take medicine and when we are anxious or upset we find a friend to talk to who will listen and give us comfort. Is our God, not so much more than heaters, fans and pain medication? He is the God who comforts.

“When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your comfort delights my soul.”

— Psalm 94:19 (NASB)

“Shout for joy, you heavens! And rejoice, you earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.”

— Isaiah 49:13 (NASB)

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. ”

— 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NASB)

These are just a few of the verses in the Bible that mention the word comfort, but there are so many more. In addition, if you look up the attributes of God and the characteristics of those attributes you begin to realize, God loves to comfort His people. Yes, He is a righteous, holy and just God and He cannot tolerate sin, but He has provided the way, through His son Jesus Christ, the Lord of all comfort.

When we are faced with difficulties, it is easy to run to things that are convenient and well, comfortable. I have gone shopping when I am stressed. I eat junk when I am discouraged. I veg out on Netflix shows when I want to escape, but none of those things are going to give me the comfort I really need. God, and God alone, truly knows how to comfort the deep layers of my soul.

4 - The Need to Change our Mindset

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

I have to believe that a young man who walks off into the Australian bush country alone, to survive for who knows how long, has to be going into it with a certain mindset. He knows what is expected of him, because it has always been expected of young men by his people. His mother may feel anxious about this step for her son, but she knows it is what he must do to become a man. She knows he will draw upon all he has learned up until this point to survive, including how to find food and water, and how to get through the harsh conditions.

I think that we have done a disservice to our children. We have coddled them. We have protected them. We have neglected to put the expectation on them, that one day they have to grow up and be men and women. We have also not taught them the truth, that life is harsh and hard; that people will hurt them and that they will need to understand forgiveness and love are choices, not feelings.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

— Romans 12:2 (NASB)

One of the most important things I have learned over the last decade as a Christ follower, is growing in Christ is a choice. I cannot just sit around thinking I’ve got the ticket to heaven so all is good. I want to know God. I want to enter in to His inner most layers, because that is where I will truly find His peace, His joy and His contentment. That only happens as we walk, run and fly with Him. That only happens in the dark places, when the clouds are relentless and the pain is an hourly companion.

If you are struggling, take a walkabout with God. He will bend you, stretch you and sharpen you. He will also encourage you, comfort you and remind you of His great, undying love!

“37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 8:37-39 (NASB)

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 7: Zoomorphism - The Dragon

This final post in Our Unseen Enemy series has been long in coming and I apologize. Life is just very busy and sometimes overwhelming, but then, isn’t that exactly like our enemy? He likes to distract us from the things that are really important.

Whether you believe in dragons as actual created beings or not, the imagery of a dragon has been around for a very long time. The Bible uses the word dragon according to the New American Standard translation 16 times. Three of these are in the Old Testament and 13 are in the New Testament, with all thirteen used in the book of Revelation. Why God chose to relay the image of the dragon to John on the Isle of Patmos when he received the vision of the revelation of God, we are not sure, except that the idea of a dragon has always been one that evokes the idea of strength, and power which is used for fiery destruction.

Being a writer and reader of fantasy, I have always liked the idea of dragons. Until shows like Merlin and movies like How to Train Your Dragon, dragons have typically had a nasty reputation. While I enjoyed the aforementioned shows, a dragon is not really a creature you want to cozy up with. They are scaly, stubborn and vengeful.

Image by KazuN from Pixabay

If we look at history, early dragons were serpent like in their form and it wasn’t until later that dragons acquired wings, armor and the ability to breath fire. The idea that there might have been something closer to the image of what we think of as a dragon, as being real comes from a few passages in the Old Testament, where a great beast, called the Leviathan, or sea monster is mentioned. Note in the following passage Leviathan is referred to both as a serpent and a dragon.

“On that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”

— Isaiah 27:1 (NASB)

This next passage is the one that causes me to pause and think, that maybe, dragons were real. After all, why couldn’t a God who created the earth from nothing, and man from dust, make a dragon? Perhaps that serpent that came to Eve in the garden, was actually a dragon. He walked upright and was very beautiful. I am pretty sure a dragon would be a beautiful creature to behold.

““1 Can you drag out Leviathan with a fishhook,
And press down his tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a rope in his nose,
And pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he make many pleas to you,
Or will he speak to you gentle words?
4 Will he make a covenant with you?
Will you take him as a servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as with a bird,
And tie him down for your young girls?
6 Will the traders bargain for him?
Will they divide him among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons,
Or his head with fishing spears?
8 Lay your hand on him.
Remember the battle; you will not do it again!
9 Behold, your expectation is false;
Will you be hurled down even at the sight of him?
10 No one is so reckless that he dares to stir him;
Who then is he who opposes Me?
11 Who has been first to give to Me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the entire heaven is Mine.

12 “I will not be silent about his limbs,
Or his mighty strength, or his graceful frame.
13 Who can strip off his outer covering?
Who can pierce his double armor?
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth there is terror.
15 His strong scales are his pride,
Locked as with a tight seal.
16 One is so close to another
That no air can come between them.
17 They are joined one to another;
They clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18 His sneezes flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eye of dawn.
19 From his mouth go burning torches;
Sparks of fire leap forth.
20 From his nostrils smoke goes out
As from a boiling pot and burning reeds.
21 His breath sets coals aglow,
And a flame goes forth from his mouth.
22 In his neck dwells strength,
And dismay leaps before him.
23 The folds of his flesh are joined together,
Firm and immovable on him.
24 His heart is as firm as a stone,
And as firm as a lower millstone.
25 When he rises up, the mighty are afraid;
Because of the crashing they are bewildered.
26 The sword that reaches him cannot prevail,
Nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
27 He regards iron as straw,
Bronze as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make him flee;
Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.
29 Clubs are regarded as stubble;
He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.
30 His underparts are like sharp pieces of pottery;
He spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mud.
31 He makes the depths boil like a pot;
He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
32 Behind him he illuminates a pathway;
One would think the deep to be gray-haired.
33 Nothing on earth is like him,
One made without fear.
34 He looks on everything that is high;
He is king over all the sons of pride.””

— Job 41 (NASB)

Presupposing Leviathan is a type of sea dragon, there are several characteristics I want to draw out here and then we will move over to Revelation to look at what those scriptures say about that dragon.

1 - He is strong and armored.

2 - He has sharp teeth.

3 - He has scales (that is part of his armor).

4 - He breathes fire, or is able to produce fire, in the same way a snake produces poison.

5 - He is stiff necked (part of his strength).

6 - His heart is as hard as a stone.

7 - He is able to raise himself up and crash around. (This might mean he could walk on land, perhaps even on his hind legs. It could also mean he could fly. I think this is less likely the case because God mentions so many other parts of his anatomy, but not wings.)

8 - Weapons of that time: spears, javelins, swords, were really not sufficient to kill him.

9 - His underparts were somehow armored or at least sharp.

10 - There was nothing on earth like him.

11 - He did not fear.

We might question, why God would even make such a fantastical beast, but God is God. As a writer, I can understand that desire to create. God could have made a dragon, if that is what pleased Him, just as easily as He could have made a unicorn, a griffin or a three headed dog.

The book of Revelation, which is the last book of the Bible has long been held as a book about end times, or a book of prophecy of things yet to come. The imagery and things talked about have been debated and discussed over and over and there are various interpretations of just what exactly the images are referring to. My best girlfriend, Stacey Kowalewski, who is a believer, became interested in end times prophecies, when we were in junior high and we used to discuss what that would look like. It wasn’t until a few years ago, that Stacey decided to research and do her own in depth study of Revelation. I asked her for some feedback on these specific dragon related passages in Revelation and she provided very interesting insights.

Image by Ray Shrewsberry from Pixabay

The following is a document Stacey wrote up that specifically addresses the dragon as mentioned in Revelation 12. I know this is long, but she explains it so well. I am going to type BEGIN where the document starts and END, where it ends, as well as put quotation marks.

BEGIN (The first section is from a Bible Study that Stacey wrote. After it says “end of excerpt” is the rest of her commentary.)

“Revelation 12:4
4 And his tail *swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

This passage shows the tail of the dragon sweeping away a third of the stars and throwing them to earth, which stands in contrast to the passage in verse 9, where the dragon and his angels are thrown down to earth with his angels by Michael and his angels. It also implies that the 1/3 of stars being cast down by the tail of the dragon happens before the dragon stands before the woman to devour her child. There are some similarities to the following passage from Daniel, and most commentaries believe that the verses in Daniel 8 were fulfilled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes who serves as a type of the Antichrist to come.

Many scholars say that the stars and host here are speaking of the Israelites themselves, in light of the twelve stars of the woman’s crown, this is possible.

Daniel 8:9-12
9 Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land.
10 It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down.
11 It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down.
12 And on account of transgression the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice; and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper.

The casting down of these stars by the dragon fits with the timing laid out in the scripture, under Antiochus (the tail of the dragon?) as Daniel shows, the Israelites were cast down. This happened roughly 170 years before the birth of Christ. Then the dragon stands before the woman about to give birth to devour her male child upon his delivery. This initially was Satan’s attempt to kill Jesus shortly after His birth, when Herod slew the male children (Matthew 2:13-23) , as well as His crucifixion, when the dragon thought he had gained victory in cutting off the life of the messiah, but he could not prevent His resurrection and His birth into the heavenly Kingdom. You see that it is the redemption of the child that Satan is trying to prevent. He could not stop the “Head” of the Child from being born into the heavenly kingdom, and He will not devour the “body” of the child, the body of Christ, also known as the Church from being born into the heavenly kingdom either. Just as Jesus was caught up, so will those who are part of the body of Christ be.

Revelation 12:5
5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

Following the rapture or catching up of the child we see the woman fleeing

Revelation 12:6
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness where she *had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Though the timeline seems to put the flight of the woman directly after the catching up of the child when moving on to the rest of the chapter we are given more clarity, that the woman flees “after” the dragon is cast down to earth (Revelation 12:13-17). So the timeline is as follows:

1.       The tail of the dragon sweeps away 1/3 of the hosts (Israel under the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes).

2.      Satan stands before the woman (Jerusalem/Israel) to devour her male child. Jesus the head plus the body of Christ. This encompasses the gap between Daniel’s 69th and 70th week.

3.      Jesus (the head) is caught up to His throne, followed by His body- the church, who is also caught up (the rapture).

4.     War breaks out in heaven between Michael and his angels and the Dragon and his angels.

5.      The dragon and his angels lose and are cast down to earth.

6.     The dragon persecutes the woman.

7.      The woman flees to a place of safety prepared for her by God.

8.     The dragon becomes enraged and makes war with the rest of the woman’s children.

Though parts of this passage had a past fulfillment under Antiochus, according to Jesus who lived after that happened, it will have a future one as well, when authority is given to the mouth of the beast or the “little horn” as Daniel calls him when the Antichrist is indwelled by the beast from the pit and commits the abomination of desolation as spoken of by the prophet Daniel (Matthew 24:15), he will then turn against the “host” or “saints” and trample them down.

_______________________________End of Excerpt________________________________________

The birth of the male child encompasses the church age; or the age of grace as we call it.  Jesus the head is caught up to His throne and then one day His body will also be caught up to His throne.  We know that in a normal childbirth the head is delivered first, followed by the body. The church age, is essentially the birthing process, hence the “birth pains”. It isn’t about the church being born onto the earth, but rather being delivered into heaven via the rapture/ resurrection.

What I would say this shows about the dragon, is that he is always standing before us, looking for an opportunity to devour us, which is consistent with:

1 Peter 5:8

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

The dragon shows up in Chapter 13 standing on the seashore welcoming the rise of the “beast”, the chapter goes on to tell us that people will worship the dragon because he gives his authority, power and throne to the beast. This “beast” IMO is the kingdom of the antichrist. And the head that was “slain” and the mouth are the antichrist. The reason people are so enamored with the beast is because he basically comes back from the dead.

Revelation 13:3–4

3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;

4 and they worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”

How can you wage war with someone who defies death?! Think about it, Jesus rose from the dead and forever changed the world as many followed in His ways. This imposter will try to do the same!

We see another picture of the beast in chapter 17, shown with the “woman” sitting upon him. This “picture” is an analogy that looks very similar to the description of the dragon in chapter 12. We see the scarlet beast defined in the passage as representing various elements of the end times Kingdom of the 70th week. It is the geopolitical representation of Satan’s kingdom on earth, that kingdom reflects the attributes of Satan the dragon.  Just like Jesus came to establish a kingdom, Satan also sets out to establish a kingdom.

This tells me that the dragon is powerful and cunning and has a plan to deceive the nations into worshipping him as God. That has been his goal from the start; to be worshipped as god and for his protégé the antichrist also to be worshipped by the people of earth. The following passage in 2 Thessalonians speaks to this idea, the Thessalonians falsely believed that the Day of the Lord had come and IMO they thought they missed the rapture.

2 Thessalonians 2:3–12 (Parenthesis mine)

3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,

4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. (The abomination of desolation)

5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed.

7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. (The rapture)

8 And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;

9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,

10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

11 And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false,

12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

The “dragon” will be working fiercely during the 70th week to accomplish his goal while he is given the authority to act.

Isaiah 14:13–14

13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.

14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

I wonder if Satan actually believes he can succeed, or if he just wants to take as many down with him to the pit as he can.

Obviously, the dragon in this passage is referencing Satan.”

END

As we are have learned over the last few months of studying our unseen enemy, we know that Satan, the accuser wants to bring us down. His focus is on the individual, the family, the church and even on our government. A dragon knows, just like the snake to go for the prey when they are weak, when they are at odds, fighting among themselves. He knows to tear down truth and muddy the waters is the best way to shred our belief system.

By using the analogy of the dragon to compare Satan to, we see that he is a beast with a heart of stone whose only goal is our destruction. While he knows he cannot destroy God, he will do the next best thing and destroy His creation and try with fierceness to scratch out the name of Jesus, not only from our country, but from our hearts.

Now, what are you going to do about it?

“3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh,
4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
5 We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”

— 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NASB)

Image by Mark Frost from Pixabay

“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against [f]flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
14 Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 With every prayer and request, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be alert with all perseverance and every request for all the saints,”

— Ephesians 6:10-18 (NASB)

Image by DarkmoonArt_de from Pixabay

“10 Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will spring up quickly;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”

— Isaiah 58:10-9a (NASB)

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

“15 Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “This is hopeless, my master! What are we to do?”
16 And he said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them.”
17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “Lord, please, open his eyes so that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

— 2 Kings 6:15-17 (NASB)

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 5 - Zoomorphism - The Lion

The idea of comparing a human to an animal, more specifically, comparing the human’s behavior to animal behavior is called zoomorphism. I only know that because I looked it up. Ha, ha. While our unseen enemy is not technically human, he does have human characteristics. The scripture uses three different animals to describe Satan: the lion, the serpent and the dragon. Over the next few weeks we will look at each of these more closely.

Many of you may remember C.S. Lewis’ fictional series, The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. It is an amazing fantasy series, geared especially to young people, but equally appropriate for fantasy lovers of all ages. In C.S. Lewis’ story, Aslan, the Lion was the good and kind King of Narnia. At one point in the series, Aslan dies and then comes back to life. Obviously, there is a direct correlation to the death and resurrection of Christ. As much as we would like the ideal of the Aslan type lion representing God and God alone, there is a verse in scripture that compares our enemy with the king of beasts. Let’s take a look.

The Lion

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

— 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)

I want to point out that the most important word in this verse with regard to Satan, is the word “prowls”. God the Father and Jesus are both referred to as the Lion of Judah, so the idea that both God and Satan are compared to a lion is a little unsettling. I had to think about this for a while before I decided what to write. My belief is the lion is used in this verse to better exhibit the actions of our unseen enemy; the action of prowling about.

Remember when Satan came to God at the beginning of Job. God asked him where he had come from and what did Satan respond?

““From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.””

— Job 1:7 (ESV)

There is a distinct predatory vibe in Satan’s response. He didn’t say, “Oh, I was going for a walk and I stopped by the ocean and watched the waves.” No! He was going to and fro. He was walking up and down. I get the definite impression that Satan was pacing. He was looking for something to do; for someone to pounce on.

When a lion prowls, he/she is typically looking for prey. The action of roaring when in tandem with prowling shows the lion’s attitude of dominance. The lion is saying, “Hey! This is my territory. If you are in my territory, I am either going to have you for dinner, or I am going to give you such a butt whipping that you will have to crawl back to your pitiful cave!”

Read 1 Peter again. Satan isn’t just prowling, he is roaring and he is seeking someone to devour. Let’s take just a few moments to talk about that idea. Typically, it is the female lions that stalk and kill prey. The male then comes, often chasing the females and cubs away, so he can have the first morsels of the dead.

“The canines of a lion, which are long, sharp and slightly recurved, are excellent tools for grasping and wounding prey, while the sharp premolars are effective in tearing away chunks of flesh. The molars are rudimentary because their food is swallowed in chunks, unchewed. The skull has large surfaces for the insertion of the powerful jaw muscles.

Male lions usually leave almost all of the hunting to the females, but once a kill is made, they will sometimes drive off the females and cubs in order to be the first to feed upon the prey.

Usually, several lionesses, working as a team, spread out and approach a herd from different directions. They stalk up as close as possible, using every bit of available cover before making a final charge, going for the closest individual. There is a rush and a leap as the lion comes in range of its victim. But, although lions can reach a top speed of 60km/hr for short distances, their prey usually escapes (only about one stalk in six is successful).

Typically, a lion kills a large animal by strangulation, biting down on its throat or, sometimes, on its nose and mouth. Small animals are killed with a bat of the paw or a quick bite to the head.”

— What do lions eat? - Online Biology Dictionary - article by EUGENE M. MCCARTHY, PHD

The above description deserves a little bit of our time. I want to look at three of the lion’s attributes and show how our enemy is very much the same.

The desire to stalk.

Image by Corinna Stoeffl from Pixabay

When I looked up this word in Webster’s online dictionary it lists several definitions, but the one I want to focus on is the verb meaning: “to pursue obsessively and to the point of harassment.” I also found it interesting when I looked at the word origins.

“Middle English, from Old English bestealcian; akin to Old English stelan to steal ”

— Webster's Online Dictionary

A lion is looking to steal a life. He or she searches until they find their prey. Once they find it, they begin to stalk. They follow. They pursue. They obsess. They harass, then they attack and they kill.

Our enemy and his pride of demons behave very much the same way. They search for their prey. Usually, they will look for prey that has wandered from the herd, or attack one that is very young or very old. They follow. They pursue. They obsess. (Can’t you just see the drool hanging off of their sharp fangs?) Then they begin to harass. I think harassment is one of the enemy’s defining characteristics.

Have you ever had those thoughts that you just can’t get rid of; thoughts that keep coming back either dragging you down to the pit of despair, or leading you down the steps of temptation. This is a tactic of our enemy, the roaring lion. The more he harasses, the more discouraged we become.

Often, when a lion is harassing its prey it will run after them trying to catch them and get their sharp teeth or claws in. However, as the above article states this is only effective about 1/6th of the time. The tactic that seems to work best is to gang up on a victim that is young, elderly, injured or ill. Isn’t that just like our enemy to come after us when we are already down? That is part of the dilemma with this long term pandemic. It grates on us, harasses us and just when we are feeling discouraged, it kicks us in the teeth.

The desire to bite.

Image by Cayenne8 from Pixabay

God obviously created many creatures with teeth and the lion is no exception. Look at those fangs! As the above article states the sharp canines of the lion are meant for grabbing hold and tearing flesh. These large incisors enable the large cat to eat the muscular flesh of a zebra or other animal without having to tenderize or cook it first.

Just as with the tactic of stalking, the devil wants to grab hold of us and sink his teeth in. Obviously, we are not talking about real teeth, but let’s go back to the idea of lies. If Satan can get us to hear a lie, and then start listening to a lie, and then slowly start believing the lie, isn’t that very similar to the physical beast sinking its teeth into its victim? Just as every bite the lion or lions can get on their intended prey starts to drain it of blood, sending its body into shock, and eventual collapse, so too our enemy intends that every lie drains us of truth and sends our minds, hearts and souls collapsing into darkness.

The desire to kill.

Whitby England

The final desired outcome for both the lion and the devil is death. They want to end their desired prey’s ability to breath. I found it very interesting that a lion kills a large animal by strangulation or asphyxiation. That is a very disturbing image, especially when we know this current virus is killing many people by literally taking their breath away.

This analogy goes all the way back to the beginning. When God created man, He formed him from the dust of the earth and then breathed life into him. Satan has been trying to remove that life giving breath, both physically in the form of physical death and spiritually in the form of deceit, since the Garden of Eden. If he could he would burn the very image of God from our literal souls…that is how much our enemy hates us and the One who created him.

I know that all of this may seem overwhelming and it can be, but we need to remember we worship an Almighty God who is much more powerful than our enemy. The enemy’s time will come, but until then, we need to stay in the protection and care of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to remember truth and dwell on it. We need to remember and claim those precious and magnificent promises.

Sending each one of you hugs and prayers. Have a good weekend!



When I looked up this word in Webster’s online dictionary it lists several definitions, but the one I want to focus on is the verb meaning: “to pursue obsessively and to the point of harassment.” I also found it interesting when I looked at the word origins. The verb came from an

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 4 - The Divider

Last week we finished looking at why Satan is called the Father of Lies. While I gave you samples of the lies he weaves about God, about ourselves and about others, my study was not all inclusive. There are many lies that Satan whispers about so many things. What I am trying to accomplish is to get you to think about this characteristic of our unseen enemy, so that you can be better prepared to “truth check” the messages that are constantly coming at you from all directions. Believe me, I know what it feels like to start questioning what I believe to be true and what I think is right, when I come up against pressure to believe otherwise. That is why it is so important to know your scripture and understand how Satan operates.

This week I want to look at another of Satan’s characteristics. If it weren’t for his ultimate goal of devouring us, I’d say division is of prime importance to our scheming enemy. Most of you will remember this famous quote:

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

— Abraham Lincoln - address at Republican State Convention - 1858

You might also remember that approximately 1800 years earlier Jesus said the very same thing to the Pharisees:

“25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”

— Matthew 12:25-26 (ESV)

In my opinion part of what has made our country thrive and prosper has been the work of God who blessed us because we formed this nation using His principles and truth. Obviously, not everyone was a Christ follower. In fact Abraham Lincoln was a deist who believed in a deity, but never really made a proclamation of faith in Christ. Many of our forefathers were slave owners and obviously the Civil War saw true believers on both sides of the debate.

The other factor that contributed to our country’s strength was its ability to be unified even though we were and still are a conglomeration of differing beliefs, backgrounds and cultures. There has always been enough of an ideological crossover in our differences to keep us all pulling for the same thing. We idealized freedom and rights. I think we still have those things in common, but our enemy is striving to get our focus off of the foundational building blocks to create division and strife. Under these circumstances we will not stand.

I want to take a look at several areas Satan has targeted to bring about division. I will also try to explain why these areas are important to unity as a whole.

Politics

Gettysburg Battlefield

I put this one first because with our presidential election only a week past we are feeling the ramifications of the outcome, good or bad. The use of Abraham Lincoln’s quote was no mere coincidence with regard to the direction of this post. It is completely obvious that our country has not always been united. The Civil War in the United States produced one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts in history. We were not fighting a force from outside our borders, we were fighting for a principle from within.

While we have always been a country with differing political parties, in the past we have not spent large amounts of money and time purposefully attacking the current incumbent. We have allowed the media to take over implanting opinions into the general public by vehemently suggesting we think a certain way. This is the work of a manipulative enemy.

Politics has always been an area of differing opinions and beliefs about how the country should be run and what ideals are of prime importance. However, with the evolution of media, freedom of speech and the lowering of societal norms and mores politics has descended into a muddied battle of cynicism and wit, and, unfortunately, this battle is out there for all the world to see.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

— Henry Ford

Henry Ford’s words make a lot of sense. Keeping our nation together as a unified entity is work and will only be successful if we are willing to make it work. Our unseen enemy will do whatever he deems necessary to cause division in this area.

Religion

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

It is understandable that a country founded on freedom, which has opened its doors to immigrants from all over the world and has prided itself on being dubbed a “melting pot” of cultures, personalities and beliefs, will have division with regard to who or what to worship. The problem does not lay in our differences, but in the actions we deem necessary to live out those differences. In addition, our beliefs about the deity or deities we worship will make a difference in how we behave.

Unfortunately, it seems to me the greater problem is the divisions created in same-faith based churches or more specifically the Christian church. We have so many different extensions of the Christian church that is hard to keep track of them all. There are similarities with regards to doctrine: Jesus was born to a virgin, He died on a cross, He rose again, but we tend to get lost in the details. Do we worship with electric guitars and drums? Do we allow gay marriage? Do we believe in evolution or creation? There are multiple layers of points of view and opinions about how everything is suppose to work and what exactly the Bible is teaching about various things. It is normal to have differing opinions about things, but our enemy targets those differences and works to make us believe they are the primary point of contention.

God desires unity, more specifically, He desires unity among those people who claim the name of His son. Arguing about things like what color carpet to put in the foyer, whether to have wine or grape juice or whether or not to have an evening service are details that should not be creating division.

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ...”

— Ephesians 4:1-3 (ESV)

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

— Psalm 133:1 (ESV)

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”

— 1 Peter 3:8 (ESV)

Family

Image by sathyatripodi from Pixabay

Unfortunately, due to the division in the above areas, we are seeing marriages and families falling apart at an alarming rate. It is too easy to allow differences of opinion to turn into hurt feelings, and years of dysfunction. Those of us who raised our children in the church are seeing them walk away from the faith and beliefs we tried to teach them as they were growing up. Family gatherings that were once happy and carefree are now fraught with tension over political and religious differences. This is the work of our unseen enemy.

“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”

— Romans 16:17 (ESV)

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”

— 1 Corinthians 1:10 (ESV)

While these verses were written specifically to the church as a whole, they certainly pertain to our families as well. God does not want us to be divided. Divisiveness is listed along with idolatry, immorality and other sins.

“19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ”

— Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)

I believe that those who purposefully create division are not looking out for the best interests of our country, our communities or our families.

How, then, when we are living in a world where the enemy is working overtime to tear us apart, do we keep our marriages, our families and our communities from completely collapsing. The answer is found in 2 Timothy.

Image by Angelo Giordano from Pixabay

“22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.
24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,
25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”

— 2 Timothy 2:22-26 (ESV)

I did a study on these verses two years ago. There are several directives we can see if we give the passage a brief look.

1 - Flee

2 - Pursue

3 - Have nothing to do with

4 - Do no quarrel

5 - Be kind

6 - Teach patiently

7 - Endure

8 - Correct with gentleness

This is one of those passages that really packs a punch and if you are interested in seeing the original study you can click on the link: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.

Our unseen enemy is doing everything he can to divide and conquer. Unfortunately, in many ways he is winning, but we know this earthly battle will not end well for the beautiful serpent.

Next week we are going to look at the beasts that Satan is compared to. I hope you are learning from this study. If you have any questions or suggestions, leave me a comment below, or shoot me an email.

Have a good weekend.

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 4: The Liar - Lies About Ourselves

Last week we saw how Satan uses lies about God to manipulate our feelings and beliefs towards Him. I showed you specifically lies about the earth’s origin, God’s goodness, God’s authority and God’s desire to have an intimate relationship with us. There are many more lies that Satan weaves about our sovereign God, but I only want to spend one week on each of these areas.

Today we are going to look at lies Satan tells us about ourselves. Have you ever noticed that voice that whispers in your ear, telling you, you aren’t pretty enough, smart enough, good enough and so on. Have you ever felt that your rights are being infringed upon, that you deserve better or that you are not being treated fairly? I believe most of us could say yes to at least a few of those questions, if not all.

Let’s look at a few of the lies Satan tells us. Be prepared for a multiplicity of opposing messages.

I am Not That Bad

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Aside from our struggles with self-worth I think many of us like to think, we really aren’t that bad. But, what does God’s word say about us?

“23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

— Romans 3:23 (ESV)

“6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

— Romans 5:6 (ESV)

“ 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

— Romans 5:8 (ESV)

“23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 6:23 (ESV)

We really are a hot mess aren’t we? We are sinners. This is a word we rarely see in our society and one that is preached on less and less in the church. We are sinful. We have missed the mark of perfection that God ordained from the first day of creation, because Adam and Eve chose to listen to that beautiful, beguiling serpent.

No matter how good you are, you are not good enough. That doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of doing good things, of serving others, of donating money, of helping those who are not able to help themselves, but that does not make us good enough for heaven.

“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

— Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)

This is an important tenant of the Christian faith. Look at that verse again. What was Satan’s biggest sin? Pride. If he had never been prideful, consumed with his beauty and desirous of God’s position, he probably would still be in heaven. Pride, is an insidious sin. It reaches its tendrils deep into our hearts. Why is salvation a gift of God? Because he knew our capacity for pride. Humility is key to entering the Kingdom of God. Remember the Rich Young Ruler? (See Matthew 19:16-26 for the full story) How many will be kept away from the streets of gold, by Satan’s lie, that they really aren’t that bad?

I am Not Enough

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

Is it any wonder we feel confused all of the time? When we listen to Satan’s lies, we hear messages like the first, telling us we aren’t that bad, we are all going to get into heaven in the end. On the other hand he is constantly telling us, “You are a loser, a failure and you are never going to measure up.”

Our enemy is quite proficient at making us feel like we don’t quite hit the mark. We are constantly being bombarded by these messages through social media, movies, books, advertising and so on. Believe me, even in the blogosphere there is a great temptation to compare ourselves to each other. I fall easily into the message that I am not as pretty as, as thin as, or as productive as. When we hear these voices (or more specifically, our enemy’s voice) in our head we need to go to scripture and see what God says about us.

Yes, we have already established that we are sinners and nothing we can do will measure up to God’s perfection, yet, there is something we can do. We can acknowledge Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is by His perfect sacrifice and His spilt blood that we come to realize our worth in God’s eyes.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

— Romans 8:1 (ESV)

If we are Christ followers, then Satan’s words are useless against us, as long as we claim truth. I have done a study on Romans 8 and if you remember verse 1 is one of my favorites. Every time, I hear those thoughts in my head that say, “You are an idiot; What a failure; You’ll never amount to anything,” I take that verse and I wield it like a sword. No one can condemn me, because I AM HIS! His blood made me enough, no matter what anyone else says or thinks.

I Deserve This

Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

Being a wife and mother, as you have no doubt heard, is a thankless job. One of the lies that Satan loves to taunt us with is the idea that I deserve something. How many times have you felt let down because your husband didn’t notice your new hair cut, or remember your birthday or anniversary? How often did your kids neglect to say thank you or acknowledge all that you have done to make their lives easier? How did it make you feel when that friend who said they’d meet you for lunch, never showed up? It definitely makes a person feel invisible. I know, because I have been there.

During these times, it is easy to listen to Satan’s voice telling us we deserve to be angry, feel slighted or discouraged because of the way others have treated us. In addition, we often feel, that because we have been wounded we deserve to treat ourselves whether it be to a shopping trip or a pint of ice cream. Unfortunately, the only thing that listening to Satan’s lies gets us is a bad attitude, bills and extra pounds.

Our best defense is to be on the offense. Recognize that your spouse, kids, friends and others who have let you down are human, just like you. We will look more at that when we look at Satan’s lies about others. The best thing to do when we are feeling like we deserve something is to take those feelings to our Lord and let Him examine them. Are they feelings brought about by a success or an accomplishment? By all means treat yourself, but if they are feelings brought about by pain and discouragement there is only one place to feel fulfilled and at peace. At the nail pierced feet of our Lord, Jesus.

Read the whole of Psalm 139 for a reminder, that God knows you inside and out and He is always attentive to your feelings.

“23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!”

— Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV)

I Have a Right

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The desire for rights is innate in us. We want things to be fair. We want to be treated with respect and dignity and want that all people are treated that way; at least we say we do, until our rights are infringed upon.

I do believe there is a place for rights in our world, but I also believe that what God intended as a preservation for those who were and are afflicted and needy has become the war cry of anyone who wants to get their way. Look at all the law suits that have gone to court over attempts at misplaced rights. How much money did McDonalds have to pay to compensate the customer who spilled coffee on themselves and sued the retailer because she got burned? I’m sorry, but if I am buying a cup of coffee at McDonalds, I want it to be hot. If I spilled scalding coffee on myself, I would automatically think, “What a klutz I am,” and then go home and nurse my wounds. I would have never thought that my rights had been infringed because the retailer gave me exactly what I asked for.

The problem with a rights based mentality is that everything that does not measure up to your standard suddenly becomes about your rights. How many of the riots that happened over the last few months were truly about rights? How much of the violence that ensued at many of them were instigated by people who had nothing at all invested in the protest? Please don’t get me wrong. I believe racial, and economic disparities need to be investigated and changed, but in a true rights oriented society rights are for the good of the whole society, not just one particular person or group.

Satan will use whatever means it takes to create division, hatred, lust and covetousness among us all. He knows that these things will be our undoing and undoing is exactly what he wants.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is probably one of the first people we think of when we think of human rights in our country. He was a man of spiritual depth and wisdom. Read the following quotes.

“Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are many more tidbits of wisdom from this man. Being a black man at the time, he completely understood the gaping crevice caused by the disparity between blacks and whites, but he also understood that the way to bring about change was not through hatred. Demanding our rights through anger, violence and force is a plot of the enemy, to be sure, both for those who are angry and for those who are fearful.

I Shouldn’t have to Feel Pain

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Perhaps one of the most detrimental lies the enemy dangles in front of our faces is that we shouldn’t have to feel pain, have things go wrong or live without pleasure. I am lumping this all together, because so often pain and pleasure go hand in hand.

God created a perfect world; a world without pain or suffering, but Adam and Eve’s choice to eat from the tree God had told them not too, ushered in a lifetime of generations of pain, sorrow and hardship, most of which are directly related back to sin. Childbirth, as most women who have had children naturally know, is painful. Kidney stones are painful. Surgery, cuts, headaches, achy joints and aging can all be painful. The amount of money, time and effort that our world spends trying to deal with pain is overwhelming and the ramifications of the desire to live without pain is evident in the catastrophic use of pain meds, psych meds and related therapies that cost millions of dollars every year. Many of these drugs lead to permanent addictions, that are extremely hard to pull out of and cost millions more to pay for different drugs, counseling and therapies.

In addition our society is consumed with pleasure. The desire to feel good all the time has become a way of life that eats away at our time, our pocketbooks and our very souls. Pleasure seeking and its related pursuits also results in many forms of addiction and bondage from eating disorders and drug use, to pornography and human trafficking.

Satan would like us to think that we shouldn’t have to deal with pain or that gnawing sense of emptiness. His lies tempt us to believe that people, or things, drugs or drink, sex or perversion will assuage the numbness that becomes our death companion when we are alone. People do not want to be alone and they don’t want it to be silent, or they will remember they are not fulfilled or happy.

“Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones,”

— Job 33:19 (ESV)

“For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me.”

— Psalm 38:17 (ESV)

“But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!”

— Psalm 69:29 (ESV)

“Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you.”

— Jeremiah 30:15 (ESV)

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.””

— Revelation 21:4 (ESV)

Pain is a reality and the yearning we feel that often goes unfulfilled is the imprint of God on our hearts. He was, is and always will be the One who was meant to fill all of your longings.

Satan is lying to us about God and he is lying to us about ourselves. He uses our desire to be “somebody”, our desire to get what we think we deserve, our demand to have our rights fulfilled, and our desire to not feel pain, but only pleasure, to control us. The freedoms we as people are yelling about have become the shackles binding our hearts and our minds. He has us bound and has thrown away the key.

But, there is good news. Someone has a copy of the key and He can release us from these binds.

I hope you are encouraged in your walk with Jesus through this study we have been doing on our

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 4: The Liar - Lies About God

There are two books I want to recommend right off, before I even get started. I have been through both of these books as part of a women’s Bible study at the church we used to attend. These are excellent books, both by women. I referred to Lies Women Believe: and the Truth That Sets Them Free by Nancy Leigh Demoss, last week. The other is Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. I am not receiving any compensation to recommend these books, I just believe they are two of the best books on this topic of lies of our enemy. I will definitely be using some of the same ideas as Nancy Leigh Demoss’s book and I want to say that at the outset. I would have never gotten to the point in my walk with Christ that I am at if it weren’t for the teaching and wisdom of other believers.

Let’s start by taking a look at why Satan would seek to discredit God. He can’t possibly think it will make any difference in the long run. Of course not, but remember we are dealing with a creature who is full of pride. Even though he knows the ultimate outcome is his demise, I believe he is seeking to take as many unbelievers down with him as possible. I also believe, he finds great joy in every failure on our part as Christ followers. Can’t you just see him, “Ha! You are a failure! So much for being bought with the blood. So there!”

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Let’s take a look at some of the main areas where Satan lies with regard to God’s character and His relationship with His creation.

Earth’s Origin

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You might wonder why I am delving into this particular lie. I believe when we don’t adhere to the Biblical teaching of Creation, we set ourselves up for additional problematic issues concerning other truths that the scripture teaches, the first being the omnipotence of the Almighty God. As my husband always says, “I don’t know why God took so long. He could have created the whole world and all that is in it in six seconds!” I try to reassure him God did it for our benefit, because only one second of sleep would certainly not be enough. Ha. ha.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”

— Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

— Genesis 1:31 (ESV)

Why would this lie be so important to Satan and what does it mean with regard to God? Taking away the dignity of the creative effort with regard to humanity takes away the dignity of the human being. Why do we have issues with race and hatred? Could it be one man believes he is more “evolved” than another. What exactly was Hitler doing when he condemned millions of Jews to concentrations camps? What about the whole history of slave trade. Black slaves specifically, were looked at and talked about as being less “evolved”, even by people who called themselves Christians.

If you don’t believe Satan is involved in this lie, then take a deep breath. Do you smell that? Doesn’t it smell like pride? Isn’t pride the very thing that brought our enemy from his lofty position to a place of “going to and fro on the earth…” Pride can be blatantly worn on the sleeve in the form of white supremacy, or it can be as subtle as the thought, “They are not the same color as me, so they must not be as smart as me,” or “They live in that part of town, so they must be criminals.” By believing the lie that the earth evolved over millions and millions of years, we deny the most beautiful part of being human, the imprint of God on our very beings.

God’s Goodness

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When God created the world, He “saw that it was good.” It was good, because the Creator was and is good.

“Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.”

— Psalm 25:8 (ESV)

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

— Psalm 34:8 (ESV)

“Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!”

— Psalm 25:7 (ESV)

“And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.””

— Matthew 19:17 (ESV)

While the Bible does not have a ton of verses that say specifically that God is good, it does contain plenty of verses that show the results of God’s goodness.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

— Romans 8:28 (ESV)

“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,”

— 1 Timothy 4:4 (ESV)

The reason Satan focuses on God’s goodness is simple. If we question His goodness, then we will begin to doubt His love. When bad things happen we are all tempted to question whether God really has our best at heart, this is a result of questioning His goodness. The problem with that is, our doubts about God’s goodness do not change the fact that He is good.

There is a place where a choice has to be made to believe what God says. Faith is the tool that enables us to take the step out into the unknown. Choosing to believe, when the tsunamis of life assail on all sides, is the process that takes us into the deeper layers of God. You see, God’s characteristic of goodness does not change. He is fully good, all of the time. The only thing that changes is our perception of Him. If we allow pain, tragedy and discouragement to become the focus of our thoughts, we slowly begin to believe the lie, that God is not really good.

“Listening to counsel or ways of thinking that are not according to the Truth is the first step in developing wrong beliefs that will ultimately place us in bondage. Once we have listened to the lie, the next step toward bondage is that we . . . DWELL ON THE LIE.”

— Nancy Leigh Demoss - Lies Women Believe: and the Truth that Sets Them Free

God’s Authority

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This is an area that Satan has done intense work to spread the lie that God is a tyrant and does not truly love His creation. The very essence of secular humanism is to take away authority from a good and sovereign God and give it to the created being. While humanistic ideas such as equal treatment of all individuals, looking out for the good of others and being involved in entities that help others are good and needed parts of society, the more militant secular humanists, insist that we are perfectly capable of muddling through life without a tyrannical God looking over our shoulders waiting to squash us the very moment we mess up.

Just like a young person begins to question the ideas and authority of his/her parents, when humanity begins to question and cast aside the authority of God, he/she becomes a chaotic tangle of questions, emotions and doubts. When Satan steps in during these vulnerable times, it is easy for the teen, or other seeking individual to look to places, teachings, people and experiences that have nothing to do with a Holy and loving God. From there it is just a step into beliefs and mindsets that are either destructive or at the least blinding. During these times, many people would rather believe the lie, that they themselves are the ultimate authority, than believe there is a God who is bigger than they are.

Just like with God’s goodness. The fact that people choose to not believe in God’s authority, does not make it disappear. God was, is and always will be the One who has complete control over the whole picture. We may think it is our vote that determines the outcome of the upcoming election, but God has already determined the outcome. Does that mean we just don’t vote, or get involved? Certainly not. Everything in this life is allowed by the authority of the Almighty God, yet He gives us the freedom to make choices.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

— Matthew 28:18 (ESV)

Who was it that gave Jesus “All authority…?” It certainly wasn’t Satan, and it wasn’t Aristotle or Socrates. God the Father gave His Son, all authority in heaven and on earth. Only one who has ultimate and full authority could give another deity, ultimate and full authority.

God’s Intimacy

Image by My pictures are CC0. When doing composings: from Pixabay

While there are many other lies our unseen enemy bombards us with about God I only want to look at one more. This one, I believe, is important to us as Christ followers. When I was a child being taught Bible stories in Sunday School, my teachers talked about “asking Jesus into my heart.” I wanted Jesus to be in my heart, because then I knew he would always be with me. When I got older and learned more about God, I began to see that He didn’t just want to be in my heart, He wanted to have a relationship with me. I surrendered my life to Christ when I was 12 years old, but it wasn’t until I was a senior at Moody Bible Institute that I realized God didn’t just want a relationship with me, He wanted to be intimate with me. This came about in a counseling session with a theology instructor, who helped me to understand, that my father issues with my own dad (he was somewhat distant and uninvolved in my life as a young person), were affecting my understanding of God.

Now, before some of you start accusing me a blasphemy, saying that a Holy God would never assume an intimate relationship with his creation, let me take you back to the Garden of Eden.

“8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.””

— Genesis 3:8-13 (ESV)

God walked in the Garden. He talked to Adam and Eve. I have to believe that this was a regular occurrence. If God had simply created them, gave them a few instructions and then left, I don’t think we would see this conversation play out the way it did. He speaks to them gently. He already knew what they had done, but like a gentle parent he coaxes the truth out of them and then delivers the consequences.

I know that we must have respect and “fear” towards this Almighty, Omnipotent being. He made us from dust and to dust we will return, but I also see repeatedly throughout His word, His desire to have a relationship with us. Satan will say there is no God and there is no greater being who controls the things that come in and out of our lives, but the truth is, He is! The last thing Satan want for you and I is to be an Enoch.

“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”

— Genesis 5:24 (ESV)

“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.”

— Hebrews 11:5 (ESV)

A number of years ago I did a Beth Moore Bible study (I don’t remember which one, because the work book has been packed away), but she talked about how Enoch walked with God. Enoch’s name means dedicated, trained or diligent. Beth, who is an avid student of the Hebrew roots and meanings of words explained that Enoch’s name conveyed the idea of narrowing. As he walked with God, his focus narrowed, so that his main desire in life was to please and glorify God. Can you imagine how much demon butt we could kick if we were more like Enoch?

I hope you are learning and enjoying this study. Be sure, our unseen enemy does not want you to benefit from this study. He wants you to remain focused on the pain in your life and not the God in your life. The truth: God is the Omnipotent Creator of the world, God is good, God is the true Authority and God desires to have a relationship with you.

Have a good weekend!

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 4: The Liar - Introduction

We have seen that Satan is a manipulator, and a schemer, but one of the characteristics that we most often associate with this unseen enemy is that of lying. We often hear of Satan referred to as the Father of Lies. Jesus called him this in the following passage.

“39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,
40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.
41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.””

— John 8:39-47 (ESV)

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The Bible doesn’t talk a great deal about Satan being a liar, yet there are various passages that talk about lying, our thought life, and being truthful. It makes sense that a being whose sole desire is the fall of what God created, and whose characteristics include scheming and manipulating, would also feel at ease with lying.

God has commanded us to not lie.

“11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another.
12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.”

— Leviticus 19:11-12 (ESV)

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
but those who act faithfully are his delight.”

— Proverbs 12:22 (ESV)

“9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

— Colossians 3:9-10 (ESV)

“12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”

— Revelation 22:12-15 (ESV)

It would seem that God absolutely does not approve of lying, in fact, to Him it is an abomination. Those who practice lying will not be allowed into the Celestial City of God. I am a firm believer in honesty. Have I lied? Yes, and I have always felt bad about it and tried to repent as soon as possible.

Do you know why Satan uses this tactic so frequently? He uses lying because it is easy. His ability to prod and manipulate a person might cajole them into telling a small lie, but the small lie becomes another, and soon another, and eventually, lying is a chronic condition. All Satan had to do was get the ball rolling.

Image by Smim Bipi from Pixabay

An analogy comes to my mind about the ferocious carnivore, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It has long been touted that this beast was the king of dinosaurs, tromping about in prehistory, gobbling up his prey like a toddler would gobble up candy that was within his grasp. While it is true that he was large, toothy, and made a formidable opponent, many times he fed off the carcasses of other beasts that had previously died. It seems Mr. T-rex wasn’t always the most motivated when it came to obtaining his supper.

Satan is much the same way. He will do as little work as possible to obtain his desires. He knows the sinful nature of humanity will go a long way to achieving his goals; all he need do is arrange a meeting, whisper a lie, and let hatred, pride and lust take over.

“Listening to counsel or ways of thinking that are not according to the Truth is the first step in developing wrong beliefs that will ultimately place us in bondage. Once we have listened to the lie, the next step toward bondage is that we . . . DWELL ON THE LIE.””

— Nancy Leigh DeMoss - Lies Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets them Free

In order to do this tactic of Satan justice, I feel that I need to divide this into three more posts. It is essential that we understand what this tactic looks like and how it affects our world view. Over the next three weeks I am going to look at three areas that are affected by our unseen enemy’s lies and how these are brought about. I will divide these posts as follows:

1 - Lies that affect our view of God.

2 - Lies that affect our view of ourselves.

3 - Lies that affect our view of others.

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 3: The Schemer

Last week we looked at Satan’s tactic of manipulation. Truly he is a master manipulator. He takes truth and twists it so that it seems different than it was really meant to be. We saw that specifically in how he manipulated Eve in the Garden of Eden in his form of a serpent. While last week we saw that he stuck to the truth, but bent and twisted it so that it was a slightly different version of the truth, this week we are going to look at how Satan schemes. This ability to connive and plot affects not only unbelievers, but Christ followers as well.

The Schemer

This guy looks like he is scheming doesn’t he? He’s hunkered down, his beady eye keeping watch for the prey and he is probably thinking about when his quarry gets close enough, he is going to use those powerful toothy jaws to latch on and gobble it up. Our enemy is much the same way as our reptilian friend. He has a scheme, a plan, and a plot. He is waiting, hunkered down, looking for each and every opportunity to trip up his quarry or even more boldly, to latch on and swallow them down.

Image by Surendra Shekhawat from Pixabay

“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

— Ephesians 6:10-12 (ESV)

We can see from the above passage that our enemy already has schemes in place to use against us. Verse 12 reiterates that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, although in our country right now it seems that many of our problems are being manifested on the physical plateau. Obviously, Satan will not keep his battles in the spiritual realm. He will strike in our physical realm whenever he is given the leeway. Let’s take a look at another passage in the Bible that deals with just this issue.

“6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?
10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

— Job 1:6-12 (ESV)

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This passage might be a little uncomfortable to read. Here we see Satan coming to God, so it tells us that he still has access to God. I have to imagine, that even though Satan was cast down from heaven, God still knew exactly what he was up to and where, after all, God knows everything and is everywhere present. Whatever the case, Satan came to God among the other sons of God. Perhaps he was wearing his disguise as an angel of light, and while God would know who he was, perhaps the others in attendance, most likely other angels, would not see through his fraudulent exterior.

“13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”

— 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (ESV)

Looking at what takes place in this passage, I am sure, Satan entered into this assemblage with a scheme in mind. Whether he was hoping to make a fool of God, usurp his throne or just wreak havoc, Satan wasn’t coming hoping to have tea. He was plotting. Of course, I am convinced that God knew exactly what Satan was up to.

We might be tempted to think God was unfair to Job to unleash Satan’s wrath on everything he had. If you read the passage following, we see that Job lost all of his children, everything he owned was destroyed and his health evaporated. This only happened because God allowed it. God knew Job’s heart and knew through it all Job would remain faithful. He also knew the ultimate outcome, restoration. If you read the book through to its conclusion we see that Job learned some very important lessons about God, but God restored him sevenfold. Yes, he would always miss the children that he lost, but he knew this fully to his core:

“But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”

— Job 23:10 (ESV)

Let’s move this into the context of today’s world. There are many terrible things happening. We are inundated every day, multiple times a day with the knowledge that evil is running rampant. If you don’t believe in the devil, I would ask you to reconsider. He is alive and well and scheming to bring about your ruin. However, nothing comes into our world without God knowing. It says in Matthew 10:30 that every hair of our heads is numbered. God knows what Satan is about and the time will come, when all that is lost will be restored, but know this, until that time Satan is scheming to take us down.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

— 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)

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Satan isn’t just sitting around twiddling his thumbs. He is at work. He is plotting, planning and scheming the best ways to keep the world in darkness and extinguish the lights of those who know Jesus. Think about the state of our country. Darkness is being exalted and the light is being hidden. This is not just a matter of political and socioeconomic differences. What we see happening has the mark of a hidden power; one that will not rest until every flame is put out.

But…we have hope! Jesus is alive. Everything that He did on the cross still stands. The only way we can change this world is by bringing the light of the Gospel to those who are walking in darkness. Do not be afraid. Do not hide. Pray, speak truth and lift up the name of Jesus.

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“16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints”

— Ephesians 6:16-18 (ESV)

May the Source Be With You: An Exclamation, an Explanation and an Effect

Last week we looked at John 4:7-26. This passage of scripture tells us about the encounter a Samaritan woman has with the Lord Jesus. We learned that Jews and Samaritans had long been bitter enemies and would not talk to each other, let alone would a Jewish man approach a Samaritan woman to give him a drink. Jesus did, however, and a conversation ensued that would not only change the woman’s life, but the lives of many in her village. Let’s look at the next part of the passage.

“27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her water pot, and went into the city and *said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.”

— John 4:27-30 (NASB)

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The Exclamation

We can see in the verses above, the disciples were “amazed that He had been speaking with a woman.” They did not question him however, and the woman, who was obviously so excited she left her water pot behind, went into the city and exclaimed, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”

I find it interesting that the men of the city listened to her. Once again, I think this woman, while not the most proficient at keeping a husband, seemed to have some amount of sway in the community. She asks them to confirm what she was already on the verge of believing herself: Jesus was the Messiah. She was not afraid of being laughed at, bullied or ridiculed. Her excitement seemed to overflow and she could not resist the urge to let the truth of what had happened to her and what Jesus had taught her, bubble forth, like a spring of water.

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“31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.””

— John 4:31-38 (NASB)

The Explanation

After the woman left, the disciples seemed overly concerned with Jesus’ physical need for food. Knowing their eyes were still not open at this point to His true identity he takes a few moments to teach them about His true purpose and mission, to do the will of His Father and to accomplish His work. He draws an analogy from the fields around them likening them to the harvest of souls for eternal life. While I am not Bible scholar, it seems to me, Jesus was not only teaching them about His purpose, He was going back to answer their initial question as to why He was talking to that woman. She was part of the harvest that He was going to reap. He was also drawing the parallel that physical food is not as important as doing the will of God.

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“39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.””

— John 4:39-42 (NASB)

The Effect

It is with excitement and awe we read about the effect of this woman’s testimony. The Word is clear, “From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all the things I have done.’” Jesus stayed on two more days at their request and, “Many more believed because of His word.”

There are several things I want us to take away from this: As women we have value, we can and should be bold, and we have the source of living water.

What prompted me to go this direction on my Faith page was a devotion I read in Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His highest. If you regularly follow me, you know that is one of my favorite devotional books and I use it regularly. The title of September 7th’s devotion was, “Fountains of Blessing.” You can read the entire devotion by clicking on the link.

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Our value is directly tied to the fact that we are a creation of God, and His Son, Jesus, chose to give His life for our eternal well being. It doesn’t matter if you are a man, woman, adult, child, black, white, red or yellow; you have value because of who God is and who you are to Him.

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We can and should be bold in our witness for Him. That doesn’t mean we need to know special verses or have just the right words to say. All we need to do is be obedient. If He gives us the opportunity to share the gospel, we need to do it. If we merely share what Christ has done for us, or as the Samaritan woman did, share that Jesus knows everything about us, yet He still loves us. There is nothing in the Bible that says we have to be another Billy Graham to share God’s love. Believe me, in the world we are living in right now, we need to speak truth, His truth, even if it is uncomfortable.

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If we have the Spirit of Jesus living in us, we are a fountain of living water for everyone around us. A fountain continues to give water, at all times. It doesn’t get tired or turn itself off, because its source is coming from deep down inside. Recently, I have seen how Christ has been this source of living water in my own life. It seems everyone around me, needs something and many around me are tired, overwhelmed and negative. All of that has the tendency to suck us dry. However, when I know the source of my strength, joy and peace is coming from Him, I never do run dry. His living water keeps me from becoming a desert wasteland.

The best way to receive the living water is to know the source of that living water. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior you already have that source and you only need ask and He will give you refreshment over and over.

I hope you are having a great weekend and don’t forget to spend some time going to the source .

May the source be with you always!