"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand" Isaiah 41:10
Do you battle fear? I know that at times I sure do. We are clay pots, weak and broken and battling anxieties and doubts. Fear has been a part of the human existence since the fall of man in Genesis 3:8-10. Everyone, regardless of how brave they seem, is afraid of something whether it be Snakes, Spiders, Disease, Financial Setbacks, Old Age, Gray Hair, Rejection, Disappointment, Exposure, Being Forgotten, Even fearing fear!
Someone defined fear like this: “Fear is the worst use of the imagination. It is anticipating that the worst, not the best, that can happen.” I have heard an acrostic that helps define fear: False Evidence Against Reality. Fear stands in the way of love. If we feel fearful, we may not approach a stranger in church who might need a word of welcome or encouragement. Or we may reject ministry because it sounds dangerous, risky, or because we might fail. Fear may cause us to waste money on excessive insurance. Fear swallows us up in all sorts of little phobias that make us preoccupied with ourselves and blind us to God’s call and the needs of others. Fear may cause us to hold on dearly to life on this earth and focus on survival at all costs. It enslaves the soul and hinders radical obedience to Jesus. Fear is a complete denial of the providence, love, and sovereignty of God in our lives.
In my own life I have experienced what John Maxwell calls “The Fear Cycle”. The fear cycle works like this: Fear leads to inaction, inaction leads to inexperience, inexperience leads to inability, inability leads to fear. To be more specific, a situation pops up that is similar to what I faced in my past where perhaps I failed or was rejected. Then, the fear of failure or rejection creates inaction. When I don’t act, I don’t gain personal experience in that situation, my faith isn’t strengthened and built up. Thus I face future situations and am unable to handle similar situations. And that ultimately increases that fear. The longer I don’t combat the unbelief of fear the harder it is to break the cycle of fear.
How do you overcome fear? Is there a way and a means to victory over this powerful emotion?I have learned that faith pushes fear out of our hearts. The way we find faith is by welding the promises and truth of God against the lies and unbelief caused by fear. One text has served to combat and relieve my fears more often than any other text in the Bible is Isaiah 41:10.
There are two commands in the verse not to fear and five pillars of fearlessness.
"Fear not" is the first command at the beginning of the verse and then the second is "be not dismayed”.
Then there are reasons for the commands. When God commands us to do something there are good reasons to do it and the power to overcome fear comes from understanding and believing those reasons.
Here there are the five reasons we need not fear and be dismayed:
1.God is with me: "Fear not, for I am with you."
2.God is my God: "Do not be dismayed, for I am your God."
3.God will strengthen me:"I will strengthen you."
4.God will help me: "I will help you."
5.God will uphold me: "I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."
These then are the five pillars of fearlessness that you can apply to whatever fears and anxieties pop up in your mind:
Fear not . . . God is with you!
Fear not . . . God is your God!
Fear not . . . God will strengthen you!
Fear not . . . God will help you!
Fear not . . . God will uphold you!
The key to overcoming fear is resting on the pillars of the promises of God.
Do you hear His voice dear reader? I am your God over you. I am with you by your side. I will strengthen you from inside of you. I will help you all around you from wherever the enemy comes. I will uphold you from underneath you. Over you, by you, inside you, around you, underneath you. Therefore do not fear. The one great ground for fearlessness is GOD!
Is there fear in your heart today? Bring it to God! Dear reader, let not your hearts be troubled, BELIEVE IN GOD." Believe in God! Trust God! Let God be your God! Your help. Your strength.
Holding on in my fears to God's indomitable promise,
Pastor Bill
Friday, August 24, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
YOUR TEARS IN HIS BOTTLE
"You have kept count of my tossings;put my tears in your bottle.Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call.This I know, that God is for me.In God, whose word I praise,in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.What can man do to me?" Psalm 56:8-11 ESV
I consider myself somewhat of an expert on tears. It has come through taking a course that I did not ever want to take. I did not take this course in seminary, at a seminar or conference, or read in a book! The course is called Tears 101! The reason being because over the past two years of my life has been filled with so many tears. Oh how I have wept countless tears of repentance, tears of regret, tears of inconsolable grief, tears of mourning, tears of loss, tears of anger towards myself, tears of brokenness, and tears of bitterness. But, there have also been tears of joy, like this past Sunday when I gave away my daughter on her wedding day; or tears of gratitude to God for the incredible mercy, kindness, grace, and provision I have experienced from Him during this season.
All of us are familiar with tears. There are many kinds of tears. Tears sum up everything gone wrong in this fallen world. Grief, frustration, pain, disappointment, loss, stress, tragedy, disaster, regret, mourning, depression, lament, brokenness, abandonment; all of it can be expressed through the universal language of tears. Is there not one of us who at least in our solitary moments have not shed tears?
What an incredible, absolutely mind-boggling concept it is that the God of heaven, Creator of eternity, cares enough about my (our) tears that He knows and remembers each and every one.
"Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears." (Isaiah 38:5)
"Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you" (2 Kings 20:5)
God saw Hezekiah's tears and He responded to those tears and to his crying out in prayer.
Perhaps you are searching for answers to your own tears. Maybe your hopes and dreams have been shattered by the loss of a dream, the death of someone dear, or some other tragedy in your life. Satan may even have whispered to your heart that nobody understands your pain and nobody really cares that your world has crashed into little pieces at your feet.
King David was someone who knew what it was to shed many tears. Yet even in his tears and in exile, he found comfort. He realized that God was taking note of everything he was going through. A record was being kept in God’s book of all that he suffered. Even his tears were not shed in vain. They were tears of grief and loneliness, but not of despair. There was a future to them. At present they were a token of suffering, but one day each tear would become the theme for a song of praise. "In God, whose word I praise..., in the Lord, whose word I praise,So David says to God, “Put my tears in Your bottle—store them up carefully for me.”
I can envision shelves filled with bottles in Heaven, each with a name on it, and an accompanying scroll documenting every tear and lament. Or maybe it is just one huge bottle with all of our tears mingled together. Each and every teardrop is precious to God. They are eternal keepsakes. Not a single tear is lost on God. He remembers each and every one. He collects each one.
I like the idea that God has mingled all our tears together. The Psalm does refer to God’s “bottle” in the singular. And if He has collected every tear in that bottle, then mingled with our own are the tears of Jesus. He Himself is well acquainted with tears. I have been very encouraged that there is one I can come to in my lonely, broken hearted, sad tears, Jesus, the savior who wept. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” It is also the most poignant. Those words are like a window pointing to the nature and glory of Jesus. It cuts the heart out of any view of God that places Him in some distant universe looking down dispassionately on His creation. Jesus wept. Maybe that surprises us, or frightens us, or threatens us, or embarrasses us. It is all too easy for me to think of Jesus always as unemotional and always serene facing danger and crises without even flinching. But Jesus wept. Never has so much been said so succinctly.
Here is the love, mercy, passion, compassion, grief, and anger of Jesus chiseled down into two words: Jesus wept. On three separate occasions, scripture speaks of Jesus weeping. The first instance was at the grave of His friend Lazarus. "When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept"(John 11:33-35). I don’t think Jesus was weeping because Lazarus was dead – He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Rather, I think He wept because of the compassion He felt for humanity as we weep over our own tragedies and losses. It is us that He loved so much that it brought Him to tears.
The second occasion is found in Hebrews 5:7,”During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”
The third occasion is in Luke 19:41-44, "And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”".
Luke tells us that as Jesus entered the city to the tumultuous welcome of the people, His own spirit was not festive. When He saw the Holy City, He wept over it. With all these people, all this excitement, all this joy, and all this acclaim, Jesus wept? We must never forget this. The Greek word for "wept" is much fuller. It comes from the Greek word, "klaio”, which means to sob, to wail aloud." This is much more than just a few tears; it was loud and deep sorrow. Imagine the Lord of the universe wailing over Jerusalem!
Jesus who keeps your tears in a bottle, weeps! He wept over a friend who died and he weeps over a nation who wanted its own way and died as well. He is God, who became a man, a real, vulnerable, touchable, man entering into all the grief and suffering you know including tears.
The day will come when He who wept and stores up all of your tears will as Isaiah says. "will wipe away tears from all faces" (Isaiah 25:8). Until then, God will move heaven and earth to honor every tear that has been shed by you.
"Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). And when that morning comes, “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Revelation 21:4).
So if you weep today, remember that God is collecting your tears in His bottle, and mixing them with the tears of our dear Savior.
Weeping with joy,
Pastor Bill
Thursday, August 9, 2012
A CALL TO WAR Part 2: KEYS TO WINNING THE WAR
"...And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." Revelation 12:11
What difference does it make when you we begin to realize we are at war and not at peace? The difference between sleeping and waking. When you are at war, your adrenaline flows. You are passionate. You willingly make sacrifices. You don’t expect or demand constant comfort, security, enjoyment, and entertainment. Each days tasks become a spy mission, an assignment from our commander. The one thing life never is in battle is boring and purposeless. We have been given a biblical reality check and wake up call. We know we are at war, we know we are soldiers, we know we have an enemy to fight and are aware of his strategy. What are we to do?
Revelation 12:11 tells us, “They overcame.” The call and the promise to Christians is to be overcomers not overcome! God doesn’t want us just to hang on, survive; He wants His church to win! The devil is your enemy. Our strategy is simple. James said, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you". (James 4:7). The word resist means the same as Paul uses when he exhorts us to fight in 1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses" and tells us the outcome of his life 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith".
The apostle gives us three keys to victory in Revelation 12:11:
1. The cross of Jesus Christ- "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb." Did you know that the blood of Jesus renders Satan powerless against you?. We see in Revelation 12:10 that Satan is the accuser of the brethren,"the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.". You can see a more graphic picture in Zechariah 3:1-5,
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
What is the weapon that renders Satan’s accusations powerless? The blood of Jesus! It is a scud missle against his condemning lies. (Ephesians 6:13-16)
Colossians 2:15, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Romans 8:31-39, "what, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
What does the blood give us? Right standing, no guilt, no shame, sonship, forgiveness, cleansing, transformation, price paid, Jesus has died, raised, sits at right hand, and intercedes for us!
2. Word of {our} testimony- "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony"
This has to do with our public identification with Jesus. It has to do with how we speak and live, whether we make His name known accurately by reflecting Him, acknowledging Him before the world, and pointing people to Him. Jesus says in Matthew 10:32, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven." You see Satan tries to silence us and contain us. He loves carnal Christians whose lives bring dishonor to the name of Jesus and he rejoices in secret agent Christians whose lips are sealed about Christ at work, home, or anywhere else!
Martin Luther said "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the Devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."
In Acts 8:5-8 we read that "Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city. “ Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds".
Proclaiming Christ breaks demonic power
3. Commitment "...for they loved not their lives even unto death''.
Some people can't take a stand. There was once a man in the civil war who couldn't make up his mind what army he wanted to fight with. He wore a blue coat & grey pants & they found him shot front & back. Listen to battle cry of a man who overcame because he loved Christ more than life.
Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Philippians 1:20-21, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. "
To fight means somebody has to die. There are some things worth dying for. Jesus said in Luke 9:23-25, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"
If your mentality is survive it will be easy to compromise and impossible to confront! The result being a stagnated, powerless, ineffective, fruitless, we burn out instead of move out, preserving our flesh, powerless, weak, and non-threatening.” Remember in Acts 19:15 when the demons spoke to the seven sons of Sceva? "Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?"
We can be known in hell! I want you to be known in hell! The devil is not afraid of a man with a weapon but no will.
There are three key commitments a Christian must make:
To Christ
To his church
To his cause
In 1 Samuel 17:29 David asked, "is there not a cause?"
The sad situation of today is the situation is desperate, but the saints are not. Dear reader, the greatest days of your life will be when you get committed!
“Until I am committed, there is a hesitancy, a chance to draw back. But the moment I commit myself then God moves also and a whole stream of events erupt. All manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, persons, and material assistance which I could never have dreamed would come my way begin to flow towards me- the moment I make a commitment.”
There is one other key way we overcome: By Prayer
Ephesians 6:18-19, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel."
I believe the answer, beneath and behind the renewed empowering of the Word of God, is a movement of persevering, believing, expectant prayer. Prayer is the walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world. It calls on God for courage (Ephesians 6:19). It calls in for troop deployment and target location (Acts 13:1-3). It calls in for protection and air cover (Matthew 6:13; Luke 21:36). It calls in for firepower to blast open a way for the Word (Colossians 4:3). It calls in for the miracle of healing for the wounded soldiers (James 5:16). It calls in for supplies for the forces (Matthew 6:11; Philippians 4:6). And it calls in for needed reinforcements (Matthew 9:38).
This is the place of prayer on the battlefield of the world. 2 Thessalonians 3:1 says, "Pray that the Word will triumph!" I take this to mean that God will indeed cause his Word to be glorified. But he does not intend to win without prayer. God has given us prayer because Jesus has given us a mission. We are on this earth to press back the forces of darkness, and we are given access to Headquarters by prayer in order to advance this cause.
When Jesus walked, hell broke apart at His feet. Jesus and hell could not occupy the same spot, so wherever Jesus went, hell was dismantled. When our goals reach beyond making it into heaven to a life of ministry and impact here on earth, we can see hell break apart at our feet; Satan-shaking, captive-releasing, kingdom-taking, revival-giving, Christ-glorifying power channels for God!
Dear reader, is hell breaking apart at your feet? If we don't experience the dissolution of hell in our own lives, we would do well to ask ourselves why. Are we flirting with hell and thus unable to confront it? “You cannot flirt with hell and confront it at the same time.” Have we blinded ourselves to the needs and hurts of others? Or have we just become lazy, content to coast into heaven rather than be faithful servants?
Let this be your battle cry this week: I WANT HELL TO BREAK AT MY FEET!
Peter Kreeft says, “when there is a clear and present danger, life brings a great purpose and a great choice.” We are at war! God has saved us to be victorious in this war and we must be satisfied with nothing less than knowing we are living and experiencing the spiritual reality of John’s words, “Greater is he who is in us than he who lives in the world.” May you this week begin to know and experience the thrill of victory.
What difference does it make when you we begin to realize we are at war and not at peace? The difference between sleeping and waking. When you are at war, your adrenaline flows. You are passionate. You willingly make sacrifices. You don’t expect or demand constant comfort, security, enjoyment, and entertainment. Each days tasks become a spy mission, an assignment from our commander. The one thing life never is in battle is boring and purposeless. We have been given a biblical reality check and wake up call. We know we are at war, we know we are soldiers, we know we have an enemy to fight and are aware of his strategy. What are we to do?
Revelation 12:11 tells us, “They overcame.” The call and the promise to Christians is to be overcomers not overcome! God doesn’t want us just to hang on, survive; He wants His church to win! The devil is your enemy. Our strategy is simple. James said, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you". (James 4:7). The word resist means the same as Paul uses when he exhorts us to fight in 1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses" and tells us the outcome of his life 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith".
The apostle gives us three keys to victory in Revelation 12:11:
1. The cross of Jesus Christ- "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb." Did you know that the blood of Jesus renders Satan powerless against you?. We see in Revelation 12:10 that Satan is the accuser of the brethren,"the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.". You can see a more graphic picture in Zechariah 3:1-5,
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
What is the weapon that renders Satan’s accusations powerless? The blood of Jesus! It is a scud missle against his condemning lies. (Ephesians 6:13-16)
Colossians 2:15, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Romans 8:31-39, "what, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
What does the blood give us? Right standing, no guilt, no shame, sonship, forgiveness, cleansing, transformation, price paid, Jesus has died, raised, sits at right hand, and intercedes for us!
2. Word of {our} testimony- "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony"
This has to do with our public identification with Jesus. It has to do with how we speak and live, whether we make His name known accurately by reflecting Him, acknowledging Him before the world, and pointing people to Him. Jesus says in Matthew 10:32, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven." You see Satan tries to silence us and contain us. He loves carnal Christians whose lives bring dishonor to the name of Jesus and he rejoices in secret agent Christians whose lips are sealed about Christ at work, home, or anywhere else!
Martin Luther said "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the Devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."
In Acts 8:5-8 we read that "Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city. “ Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds".
Proclaiming Christ breaks demonic power
3. Commitment "...for they loved not their lives even unto death''.
Some people can't take a stand. There was once a man in the civil war who couldn't make up his mind what army he wanted to fight with. He wore a blue coat & grey pants & they found him shot front & back. Listen to battle cry of a man who overcame because he loved Christ more than life.
Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Philippians 1:20-21, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. "
To fight means somebody has to die. There are some things worth dying for. Jesus said in Luke 9:23-25, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"
If your mentality is survive it will be easy to compromise and impossible to confront! The result being a stagnated, powerless, ineffective, fruitless, we burn out instead of move out, preserving our flesh, powerless, weak, and non-threatening.” Remember in Acts 19:15 when the demons spoke to the seven sons of Sceva? "Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?"
We can be known in hell! I want you to be known in hell! The devil is not afraid of a man with a weapon but no will.
There are three key commitments a Christian must make:
To Christ
To his church
To his cause
In 1 Samuel 17:29 David asked, "is there not a cause?"
The sad situation of today is the situation is desperate, but the saints are not. Dear reader, the greatest days of your life will be when you get committed!
“Until I am committed, there is a hesitancy, a chance to draw back. But the moment I commit myself then God moves also and a whole stream of events erupt. All manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, persons, and material assistance which I could never have dreamed would come my way begin to flow towards me- the moment I make a commitment.”
There is one other key way we overcome: By Prayer
Ephesians 6:18-19, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel."
I believe the answer, beneath and behind the renewed empowering of the Word of God, is a movement of persevering, believing, expectant prayer. Prayer is the walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world. It calls on God for courage (Ephesians 6:19). It calls in for troop deployment and target location (Acts 13:1-3). It calls in for protection and air cover (Matthew 6:13; Luke 21:36). It calls in for firepower to blast open a way for the Word (Colossians 4:3). It calls in for the miracle of healing for the wounded soldiers (James 5:16). It calls in for supplies for the forces (Matthew 6:11; Philippians 4:6). And it calls in for needed reinforcements (Matthew 9:38).
This is the place of prayer on the battlefield of the world. 2 Thessalonians 3:1 says, "Pray that the Word will triumph!" I take this to mean that God will indeed cause his Word to be glorified. But he does not intend to win without prayer. God has given us prayer because Jesus has given us a mission. We are on this earth to press back the forces of darkness, and we are given access to Headquarters by prayer in order to advance this cause.
When Jesus walked, hell broke apart at His feet. Jesus and hell could not occupy the same spot, so wherever Jesus went, hell was dismantled. When our goals reach beyond making it into heaven to a life of ministry and impact here on earth, we can see hell break apart at our feet; Satan-shaking, captive-releasing, kingdom-taking, revival-giving, Christ-glorifying power channels for God!
Dear reader, is hell breaking apart at your feet? If we don't experience the dissolution of hell in our own lives, we would do well to ask ourselves why. Are we flirting with hell and thus unable to confront it? “You cannot flirt with hell and confront it at the same time.” Have we blinded ourselves to the needs and hurts of others? Or have we just become lazy, content to coast into heaven rather than be faithful servants?
Let this be your battle cry this week: I WANT HELL TO BREAK AT MY FEET!
Peter Kreeft says, “when there is a clear and present danger, life brings a great purpose and a great choice.” We are at war! God has saved us to be victorious in this war and we must be satisfied with nothing less than knowing we are living and experiencing the spiritual reality of John’s words, “Greater is he who is in us than he who lives in the world.” May you this week begin to know and experience the thrill of victory.
Friday, August 3, 2012
A CALL TO WAR Part 1
"Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea." Revelation 12:7-17 ESV
Remember that old newsreel that shows President Franklin Roosevelt addressing Congress the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941? Calling it "a day that will live in infamy," the president declared that in reality, America was already at war. Roosevelt just needed a declaration of Congress to make it official.
I am not the president, but as a pastor I have a declaration to make. You and I are at war! In fact, we are engaged right now in the mother of all battles. No war in history can compare with the battle you and I are fighting. It can be either the cause of your greatest joy as a Christian, or of your deepest pain. The war I am talking about is the spiritual warfare that you became a part of the day you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. This war affects every area of your life. There is no way you can avoid the conflict. There is no bunker or foxhole you can crawl into that will shield you from the effects of this cosmic battle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan.
A lot of Christians don't even know they're at war. But others can see the results of the battle in their lives, because they have become casualties of spiritual warfare or see others who have been taken out. The church expends much of its energy like a hospital trying to heal all the casualties, rather than training, equipping, and fighting the battle. Some Christians are emotional casualties of spiritual warfare. They are discouraged, depressed, downtrodden, and defeated. Others are marital and family casualties. Divorce, conflict, and abuse are some of the battle scars these believers bear. Still others have been morally wounded in the battle. They cannot control their passions; or else they make poor moral choices. Others have become wounded in their attitudes by apathy, complacency, and loss of passion, boredom, lack of expectancy and faith. Still others are casualties who don’t even know it who are taken out by their misplaced devotion to this world,work, money, possessions, leisure, sex, power, and selfishness.
In Revelation 12:7-17 we see a couple of key things in regards to spiritual warfare:
In other words, it effects you and me!
3. We did not start it, the devil did (the dragon, the accuser, the devil)
One of the things Satan wants to be is incognito---he doesn't want people to think that he is real, or be anywhere around, or has any kind of power, and belittles anyone who would advocate the fact that he is powerful and is a ruler. But God's Word plainly says he is.
John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. "
1 Peter 5:8, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
2 Corinthians. 2:11, "... in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.(I find it to be the opposite in the church. Most people are utterly clueless)
Ephesians. 6:11, "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."
If I told you that a cold-blooded killer was coming to your house tonight to kill you and your family, would you get ready to resist him? I'm telling you on the authority of God's Word, Satan is a cold-blooded killer and he wants to destroy you, heart, soul, mind and body. I know by experience! Satan desires to ruin your relationship with Jesus Christ; to make you utterly ineffective in ministry; to keep you focused upon you and your needs, problems, desires, and goals; to ruin your marriage and family; to destroy the church; to keep people blind in their sin and lost. We have a vicious and cunning spiritual enemy. The Bible says Satan is actively opposing us. He is real. He wants us to sin. He plots to see our downfall. Plans are being made, right now, for you and me to fall.
Our modern age has caused us to lose sight of spiritual realities of Satan's individual attention to the believer. Paul warns us in Ephesians. 4:27 to "...not give the devil a foothold". “Satan’s number one aim is the destruction of your faith.” Faith is the root of living the life of God, our love for God, and our hope in God and His promises. Therefore, Satan’s whole war efforts are aimed at the prevention or destruction of faith.
1Thessalonians 3:5, " For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless."
Luke 22:31-32 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." 2 Corinthians. 11:3, "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."
John 8:44, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
2 Corinthians 4:4, " The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
4.The war is against God and His church
"And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus" (Revelation 12:13-17)
There is everything at stake here. God’s purpose is to make His name know throughout the whole earth (Matthew 5:16-18; 1 Peter. 2:12; John 17:20-25). Satan is trying to stop that. If he can stop the church, he will be able to thwart God’s plans and purposes. That is why Paul so strongly exhorts us in Ephesians 6:13, "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
In the book of Ephesians the church is 5 things. It is first an assembly, then a family, then a temple, then a bride, and then an army. A bride is a lover. An army is a fighter. Now some of you are lovers and not fighters and you do not fight because you do not see the relationship between what's going on in your life and Satan's attack upon you to deceive you into feeble worship, sporadic church attendance, to be users not givers, having no thirst for depth, no long term commitment, no faith beyond feeling, and no sense of mission to a hurting lost world. Satan wants to blind you to think that the thought of denying self to grow and being equipped to serve is like quantum physics. The effect of this is it causes churches to stagnate, leaders to be exhausted, and people not listening to us!
The devil wants to you a high-maintenance/low impact kind of Christian. He wants to keep you in the hospital your whole Christian life. He wants us to think that we’re on R+R focused on planning our vacations, retirements, leisure, pleasure, sipping Mai tai’s while people are getting their heads blown off in the front lines! He wants us to think we are a peace time army focusing on parades, making beds, reading manuals, having studies on warfare, focusing on each other, doing KP instead of living on the front line of battle. Thousands of Christians do not hear the diabolic bombs dropping and the bullets zinging overhead. They don't smell the hellish Agent Orange in the whitened harvest of the world. They don't cringe or weep at the thousands who perish every week. They don't reckon with spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places and the world rulers of this present darkness. In fact, it is not dark, they say. Why are you being so negative. Don’t worry, be happy. It is bright and comfortable and cheery just look at my home and car and office and cabin and boat. And listen to my surround sound home theater. In short, Saved, satisfied, and stuck; Living in a virtual reality type existence in which my comfort, security, survival, and happiness become the driving forces of my life. War changes priorities, perspectives, and focus. The great general George Patton once said, “War makes all other human endeavor shrink to nothing.”
IN THIS WAR GOD HIMSELF IS INVOLVED
God isn’t an antiwar pacifist! Moses writes in Exodus 15:3, "The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is His name."
Anything that is a lie, evil, sin, destructive GOD IS TOTALLY AGAINST! You are His foot soldiers! The need of the hour is a global wartime mentality. I say "wartime" because life is war. I say "global" because "the field is the world" (Matthew 13: 38). And because thousands of unreached peoples are scattered around the globe. "Peoples," not just people. The command to the church is not to win every person before the Lord comes, but to win some from every people. This is the great unfinished task!
"To him shall be the obedience of the peoples" (Genesis 49:10).
"Let the peoples praise you, 0 God, let all the peoples praise you" (Psalm 67:3).
"Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples" (Isaiah 55:4).
Now you may not believe in war but you will get bombed just the same. Most of the church is AWOL running over to spiritual Canada or neutral thinking they live in spiritual Switzerland. When we made a commitment to Jesus Christ, we enlisted in God's army. Some may have thought they were only making their eternal destiny secure. Others may have thought that they were simply dealing with their sins. Still others may have thought that they were just subscribing to a higher moral code. Sill others thought they were entering a club-med vacation of peace, happiness, and bliss. We have joined forces with God and with one another in a spiritual conflict. The cause to which we have committed ourselves is a cause that is being attacked at every front. We have sworn our allegiance to a New Kingdom. And that kingdom is a threat to the kingdoms of the god of this world. As citizens of that New Kingdom the enemy is attacking us. By virtue of the fierceness of this attack, all citizens must become citizens/soldiers. We can do without no one. We must all combine our efforts if we are to win the battle. The crying need of the hour-every hour-is for Christians to be put on a wartime footing. To be a mighty army willing to suffer, moving ahead with exultant determination to take the world by storm
How will we come to feel the extraordinary satanic devastation being wreaked among the remaining unreached peoples of the world? How can our people come to see the irrationality of a persistently bouncy, peacetime, Disneyland mentality when the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16), and the god of this world is blinding billions (2 Corinthians 4:4), and Satan is filled with rage because his time is short (Revelation 12:12), and the stakes are infinitely higher than any conceivable nuclear World War III or any environmental disaster (Luke 12:4-5).
What's the main reason sergeants are in the trenches? To settle soldiers' disputes? Do chaplains come along just to bury the dead? Or is there a war to be won? There is. And the victory is near. But it will not be easy or cheap. The awesome mission is clear:
"This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).
Christ has his elect from every people, tribe, tongue and nation (Revelation 5:9).
They are held captive by the Enemy (2 Timothy 2:26).
And so the minefields must be crossed, the barbed wire cut, the snipers evaded, and gospel antidotes for Satan's mind-altering drugs administered against immense opposition (Luke 21:12-19)
So we know we are at war, we know we are soldiers, we know we have an enemy to fight and are aware of his strategy. What are we to do? That’s what we going to discuss next week.
Pastor Bill
Remember that old newsreel that shows President Franklin Roosevelt addressing Congress the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941? Calling it "a day that will live in infamy," the president declared that in reality, America was already at war. Roosevelt just needed a declaration of Congress to make it official.
I am not the president, but as a pastor I have a declaration to make. You and I are at war! In fact, we are engaged right now in the mother of all battles. No war in history can compare with the battle you and I are fighting. It can be either the cause of your greatest joy as a Christian, or of your deepest pain. The war I am talking about is the spiritual warfare that you became a part of the day you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. This war affects every area of your life. There is no way you can avoid the conflict. There is no bunker or foxhole you can crawl into that will shield you from the effects of this cosmic battle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan.
A lot of Christians don't even know they're at war. But others can see the results of the battle in their lives, because they have become casualties of spiritual warfare or see others who have been taken out. The church expends much of its energy like a hospital trying to heal all the casualties, rather than training, equipping, and fighting the battle. Some Christians are emotional casualties of spiritual warfare. They are discouraged, depressed, downtrodden, and defeated. Others are marital and family casualties. Divorce, conflict, and abuse are some of the battle scars these believers bear. Still others have been morally wounded in the battle. They cannot control their passions; or else they make poor moral choices. Others have become wounded in their attitudes by apathy, complacency, and loss of passion, boredom, lack of expectancy and faith. Still others are casualties who don’t even know it who are taken out by their misplaced devotion to this world,work, money, possessions, leisure, sex, power, and selfishness.
In Revelation 12:7-17 we see a couple of key things in regards to spiritual warfare:
1. There is a war going on John Piper says that the Christian life“is a battleground not a playground.”
2. It is first and foremost a spiritual battle that is being waged in the invisible spiritual realm that is being manifest in the visible, physical realm.
In other words, it effects you and me!
3. We did not start it, the devil did (the dragon, the accuser, the devil)
One of the things Satan wants to be is incognito---he doesn't want people to think that he is real, or be anywhere around, or has any kind of power, and belittles anyone who would advocate the fact that he is powerful and is a ruler. But God's Word plainly says he is.
John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. "
1 Peter 5:8, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
2 Corinthians. 2:11, "... in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.(I find it to be the opposite in the church. Most people are utterly clueless)
Ephesians. 6:11, "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."
If I told you that a cold-blooded killer was coming to your house tonight to kill you and your family, would you get ready to resist him? I'm telling you on the authority of God's Word, Satan is a cold-blooded killer and he wants to destroy you, heart, soul, mind and body. I know by experience! Satan desires to ruin your relationship with Jesus Christ; to make you utterly ineffective in ministry; to keep you focused upon you and your needs, problems, desires, and goals; to ruin your marriage and family; to destroy the church; to keep people blind in their sin and lost. We have a vicious and cunning spiritual enemy. The Bible says Satan is actively opposing us. He is real. He wants us to sin. He plots to see our downfall. Plans are being made, right now, for you and me to fall.
Our modern age has caused us to lose sight of spiritual realities of Satan's individual attention to the believer. Paul warns us in Ephesians. 4:27 to "...not give the devil a foothold". “Satan’s number one aim is the destruction of your faith.” Faith is the root of living the life of God, our love for God, and our hope in God and His promises. Therefore, Satan’s whole war efforts are aimed at the prevention or destruction of faith.
1Thessalonians 3:5, " For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless."
Luke 22:31-32 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." 2 Corinthians. 11:3, "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."
John 8:44, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
2 Corinthians 4:4, " The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
4.The war is against God and His church
"And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus" (Revelation 12:13-17)
There is everything at stake here. God’s purpose is to make His name know throughout the whole earth (Matthew 5:16-18; 1 Peter. 2:12; John 17:20-25). Satan is trying to stop that. If he can stop the church, he will be able to thwart God’s plans and purposes. That is why Paul so strongly exhorts us in Ephesians 6:13, "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
In the book of Ephesians the church is 5 things. It is first an assembly, then a family, then a temple, then a bride, and then an army. A bride is a lover. An army is a fighter. Now some of you are lovers and not fighters and you do not fight because you do not see the relationship between what's going on in your life and Satan's attack upon you to deceive you into feeble worship, sporadic church attendance, to be users not givers, having no thirst for depth, no long term commitment, no faith beyond feeling, and no sense of mission to a hurting lost world. Satan wants to blind you to think that the thought of denying self to grow and being equipped to serve is like quantum physics. The effect of this is it causes churches to stagnate, leaders to be exhausted, and people not listening to us!
The devil wants to you a high-maintenance/low impact kind of Christian. He wants to keep you in the hospital your whole Christian life. He wants us to think that we’re on R+R focused on planning our vacations, retirements, leisure, pleasure, sipping Mai tai’s while people are getting their heads blown off in the front lines! He wants us to think we are a peace time army focusing on parades, making beds, reading manuals, having studies on warfare, focusing on each other, doing KP instead of living on the front line of battle. Thousands of Christians do not hear the diabolic bombs dropping and the bullets zinging overhead. They don't smell the hellish Agent Orange in the whitened harvest of the world. They don't cringe or weep at the thousands who perish every week. They don't reckon with spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places and the world rulers of this present darkness. In fact, it is not dark, they say. Why are you being so negative. Don’t worry, be happy. It is bright and comfortable and cheery just look at my home and car and office and cabin and boat. And listen to my surround sound home theater. In short, Saved, satisfied, and stuck; Living in a virtual reality type existence in which my comfort, security, survival, and happiness become the driving forces of my life. War changes priorities, perspectives, and focus. The great general George Patton once said, “War makes all other human endeavor shrink to nothing.”
IN THIS WAR GOD HIMSELF IS INVOLVED
God isn’t an antiwar pacifist! Moses writes in Exodus 15:3, "The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is His name."
Anything that is a lie, evil, sin, destructive GOD IS TOTALLY AGAINST! You are His foot soldiers! The need of the hour is a global wartime mentality. I say "wartime" because life is war. I say "global" because "the field is the world" (Matthew 13: 38). And because thousands of unreached peoples are scattered around the globe. "Peoples," not just people. The command to the church is not to win every person before the Lord comes, but to win some from every people. This is the great unfinished task!
"To him shall be the obedience of the peoples" (Genesis 49:10).
"Let the peoples praise you, 0 God, let all the peoples praise you" (Psalm 67:3).
"Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples" (Isaiah 55:4).
Now you may not believe in war but you will get bombed just the same. Most of the church is AWOL running over to spiritual Canada or neutral thinking they live in spiritual Switzerland. When we made a commitment to Jesus Christ, we enlisted in God's army. Some may have thought they were only making their eternal destiny secure. Others may have thought that they were simply dealing with their sins. Still others may have thought that they were just subscribing to a higher moral code. Sill others thought they were entering a club-med vacation of peace, happiness, and bliss. We have joined forces with God and with one another in a spiritual conflict. The cause to which we have committed ourselves is a cause that is being attacked at every front. We have sworn our allegiance to a New Kingdom. And that kingdom is a threat to the kingdoms of the god of this world. As citizens of that New Kingdom the enemy is attacking us. By virtue of the fierceness of this attack, all citizens must become citizens/soldiers. We can do without no one. We must all combine our efforts if we are to win the battle. The crying need of the hour-every hour-is for Christians to be put on a wartime footing. To be a mighty army willing to suffer, moving ahead with exultant determination to take the world by storm
How will we come to feel the extraordinary satanic devastation being wreaked among the remaining unreached peoples of the world? How can our people come to see the irrationality of a persistently bouncy, peacetime, Disneyland mentality when the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16), and the god of this world is blinding billions (2 Corinthians 4:4), and Satan is filled with rage because his time is short (Revelation 12:12), and the stakes are infinitely higher than any conceivable nuclear World War III or any environmental disaster (Luke 12:4-5).
What's the main reason sergeants are in the trenches? To settle soldiers' disputes? Do chaplains come along just to bury the dead? Or is there a war to be won? There is. And the victory is near. But it will not be easy or cheap. The awesome mission is clear:
"This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).
Christ has his elect from every people, tribe, tongue and nation (Revelation 5:9).
They are held captive by the Enemy (2 Timothy 2:26).
And so the minefields must be crossed, the barbed wire cut, the snipers evaded, and gospel antidotes for Satan's mind-altering drugs administered against immense opposition (Luke 21:12-19)
So we know we are at war, we know we are soldiers, we know we have an enemy to fight and are aware of his strategy. What are we to do? That’s what we going to discuss next week.
Pastor Bill
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