Are You Ready?

I35 Bridge Collapse, 3/26/2015

     Some time ago, I began writing a book. Actually, I started on two books. Through a technical glitch, I lost what would have been about three-quarters of one of those books, and this sent me into a major writer's block. Since then, I have slowly been catching up and writing more on the other book I had started. I wish I had been more diligent in my efforts at the time, because what I was writing about back then is now happening right before our eyes! I was at the very place shown in this picture only one week ago!

     The following is an excerpt from the Forward of that book, which will be entitled "Duct Tape for Wobbly Knees." The topic is of utmost importance, so I hope that you will take the time to read it through and digest it's words and meaning. And so it goes ...

        Do you believe in eternity?  If so, where do you think you will spend it? Do you believe that Jesus is coming back for His bride … us, the church?  Do you believe that it will be soon? If you lay claim to being a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, doesn’t it bother you that some of your brothers and sisters in Christ are unsure of their eternal destination?  Doesn’t it trouble you that some will be “spewed out of God’s mouth” because they are “luke-warm?” The older I get, the stronger the urgency seems to be.

      One night I turned on the History Channel.  They had a program on called, “The Crumbling of America.”  This was a two-hour show about how weak the American infrastructure system has become.  The narrator explained that all great nations, the United States of America included, became so through and because of their magnificent and complex infrastructure systems.  He went on to say that the majority of the bridges in this country are, or soon will be, forty to fifty years old.  Most are deteriorating rapidly, and tragedy is imminent.  We have neglected maintenance, overlooked normal wear and tear, and ignored the fact that our bridges and road systems are carrying loads that they were never meant to carry.  What is beyond our immediate range of sight has been basically disregarded.  All this is causing our infrastructure to crumble … slowly, but ever so surely.  

As I watched this program, I began to think about the deterioration of our infrastructure system in terms of the deterioration of our spiritual lives and the corrosion of our values and morals. I know that things have been deteriorating ever since the Garden of Eden. But in my lifetime, once we eliminated prayer from school, everything seemed to go downhill from there.  When I was young, you got detention for chewing gum in school.  My second grade teacher once smacked me on the hand with a ruler for carrying a paper plate on my head.  Back then, the only thing to fear was the punishment that was meted out for misbehaving.  Now, school grounds are places for some very appalling, not to mention frightful, activities.  Some large-city schools actually have metal detectors at their entrances so that youth can no longer bring guns and knives inside!  Rapes and beatings in school lavatories are not unheard of any more. Hazing has actually become popular! Massacres have occurred on college campuses, movie theaters, elementary schools, and in other public places.          And why not?  What else can we expect?  What else should we expect?  Children see violence, sexual encounters, drugs, drunkenness, murders, and the use of obscene language right in their own living rooms on TV every day!  Some stations show these things explicitly and without boundaries, even during prime-time. Some children grow up with it in their neighborhoods, apartment houses, and even in their own dwelling! It’s “hard-wired” into the very fibers of their being from a very early age.  

Our country had more than just its great infrastructure system to make it powerful.  Before that system was developed, we had another great cornerstone to our foundation … our country was founded on Christian, Biblical principles.  Now we have taken prayer out of school, the Ten Commandments out of public buildings, Christ out of Christmas, and in recent years, public outcry has even been against putting up a nativity scene on your own private property!  We have spent great effort on trying to take “in God we trust” off our money, and Christian programs off the air waves.  Separation of church and state is now legal.  It’s a concept I just can’t wrap my mind around … how do you separate a part of who you are from another part? 
 Corruption and greed are evident in almost every walk of life, including Christianity.  Anger is obvious.  I don’t know whether it’s worse that “road rage” exists, or that it’s actually so predominant that we have a name for it! Abuse … sexual, physical, mental and emotional … is carried out routinely against children, women, and now even men.  Honor and respect for one another has faded into the background, or deteriorated altogether … along with truth.  Little white lies and vulgar language are commonplace.  Trust is not.  Hatred, jealousy, and revenge are three of the main motivating factors behind the rising crime rate.  Respect for authority is dwindling.  In our quest not to offend, we have gone to the opposite end of the spectrum and have gotten lethargic and lazy in our battle against evil and wrongdoing.

I could go on and on.  But having said even that much, why in the world do we wonder where God is when tragedy strikes?  How can we question His existence through and after horrendous, destructive weather patterns?  During wars and rumors of wars?  After all, it is we who have eliminated Him from all we hold dear in the first place!  Do we actually believe that we can remove Him from our lives, but then expect His mighty hand to protect us when tragedy is looming? Do we expect that He is a magic genie who will appear on command when we need Him, and remain in the shadows at all other times?  Are we actually embarrassed to say that we know Him?  The narrator on the History Channel program went on to say, “America’s roads are headed for a crash.”  How much more so are we, if we don’t get our values, morals, and especially our spiritual identities out of the gutter.

        A serious lack of accountability grew out of this confusion and untruth. It's about the Bible’s inerrancy … “I’ll believe what I believe, and you believe what you believe.”  Allowing such circumstantial freedom of belief has driven us so far away from seeking truth.  Its roots are in rebellion and pride, and that’s exactly what caused God to spew Satan out of Heaven. Freedom minus responsibility equals chaos!

     Similarly, the Christian community is lacking in structure and discipline.  I once asked someone why she doesn’t go to church.  She said it’s because she knows who those people are on Monday.  Many have made similar comments.  People … we are failing in our duties as Christians!  We have become lethargic.  We have become apathetic.  We speak mainly about God’s love … and I do thank Him for it.  But have we forgotten that God is also righteous? And just?  For the Christian, self has to be removed from the throne.  This will happen … with or without our help or consent.  God will have no other gods before Him, including self. 

      We need to wake up! God is a wonderful, magnificent, all-knowing, all-loving, almighty God.  There aren’t enough adjectives known to man to describe His goodness and love.  But this book is not about that.  It’s a come-to-life cry to those of us who carry Jesus’ name and His authority … Christians.  It’s a wake-up call for a sleeping giant … Christianity.  If we don’t come to realize, believe and accept just who Jesus really is, and all He has done for us, there will be some of us left behind! 

      Thus ends the excerpt from the Foreword of "Duct Tape for Wobbly Knees."  I hope it has given you food for thought, as well as a thirst to read what follows. You see from the picture posted in this article that what was written about is already happening. How much time do we have? Are you ready?

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

 

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Spiritual Warfare

Available at barnesandnoble.com

Have you ever seen a movie containing a scene of a battlefield … for example, a scene depicting a civil war battle? You see the scene from a distance; both sides standing out in a huge field, in lines, armed with nothing but their rifles. Sometimes there are so many soldiers that they are in groups. Each side faces the other, and begins to walk towards their enemy at the command of their leaders, who generally are sitting atop a hill or mesa, viewing the same scene that you are watching. They shout their commands, which are passed on down through the ranks to the front lines.

The suspense rises as the two sides march towards each other. When they are within range, one side is commanded to take aim. They shoot, and the front line soldiers on the opposing side drop to the ground, dead. While the front line that shot first reloads their rifles, the second line on the receiving side of the first rally takes aim and fires at the front line that just shot at them. Then their front line soldiers drop to the ground, shot dead. The battle continues like that until ammunition runs low, at which point the two opposing sides join together in hand-to-hand combat. More often than not, the scene ends by showing a “scenic” view of the country-side littered with the dead bodies of many soldiers. Maybe the heroes on both sides are walking through the war-torn country side, commiserating with their second in command about one or another of the reasons for this massacre.

Now, I’m not a military person, but every time I watch a movie with old-timey battle strategies like that, I wonder. I don’t know if it really happened that way, but if it did it would surprise me. It just seems ludicrous to me … both sides standing out there in the wide open field, with no protection from the shots fired at them from across the meadow, no chance of survival unless the man standing face to face with you is a poor shot. No protection … while your enemy has the power to shoot directly at you!

I am very grateful that the battles … especially the spiritual battles … we face today are not like that. I’m glad that God gives us protection ... the armor of God (Ephesians 6: 13 - 17).

The first order of business in any warfare, is to know exactly who your enemy is. Our true enemy does not line up in a field or meadow with a neatly-pressed uniform, and take aim across space against you, a totally unprotected, brave, but extremely fearful, human being, who is just standing there waiting to die. Your enemy is one you cannot see with your eyes of flesh. He is the evil one who is still around after having deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. He puts his boney fingers into the “pot” and stirs up all kinds of strife and trouble, even in this day and age. He knows exactly what circumstances to use to get us off track, exactly what button to push and when. Without God, we would have no defense. However, as a first line of defense, God tells us exactly who our enemy is, so that we can know exactly who we should be fighting against … and who we shouldn’t.

Has anybody ever asked you: "Did you put on your armor today?" I've had that question asked of me many times in my Christian walk. I’ve thought about and meditated upon the armor of God for many years. I used to picture myself putting on this armor … placing the helmet on my head, buckling the breastplate around my chest, and folding my pant legs in exactly the right manner so as to be able to tuck them into my boots. Grabbing up the shield and sword, I was on my way into battle. But God doesn’t leave us in our foolishness for very long. I came to realize that spiritual armor is not just what we envision (through prayer) ourselves putting on every morning when we wake up.  These are very real pieces of armor that we must hone and manage our very lives with!

The first piece of armor I felt God gave me, was the helmet of salvation. That’s extremely important. We must know that we know that we are saved. This is not a matter of pride because we think we’ve done something good, so we’re going to Heaven. It’s a matter of accepting what Jesus did for us, and taking Him at His word. About this one point (our salvation) we must be absolutely sure. If doubt comes in to this issue, if we are unsure about our salvation, we will never win any spiritual battles.

Next comes the breastplate of righteousness. Interesting concept, righteousness. In this day and age when so many believe that “what’s right for you may not necessarily be right for me," it’s hard to get back to the basics of right and wrong. There are basic “rights” and “wrongs,” you know. God’s Word says so. Yes, some things are good and/or right for one that would not be good or right for another. But what is written in the Bible by the Holy Spirit of God, there can be no question or doubt about. If God says it, it’s a done deal. Righteousness is holy and upright living. Decency and honesty. It is not a bullet-proof vest that we need for protection, it’s a true and sincere desire for upright living. We don’t don a literal vest, or breastplate, we cultivate and develop a desire for doing what’s right, and then we begin to conform our actions to that desire. That’s what the “breastplate of righteousness” is all about!

Having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace means that we “walk” (live) in peace with all, as far as we have the ability to do so. Once again, this is not an actual putting on of a pair of boots. It’s a style of living that will help keep us protected against harm. The shield of faith … that one’s pretty obvious. Developing and exercising faith, provides a shield that will protect us from the tricks and deceptions of our enemy. And the sword of the Spirit … come to learn and know God’s Word, because through it and by it we can have the weapon we need to win the face-off with our enemy. With it, we can avoid many pitfalls that could produce harm, or even death, in our lives.

So you see that the pieces of spiritual armor are not something you "put on" every morning when you wake up, and "take off" at night when you go to bed.  This armor is very real concepts that each of us need to be developing and living by.  It is this armor that will help us overcome the battles we face. With this kind of protection, we're sure to be the victor!

Your Heart is NOT Your Friend!

There came an issue of grief at one point in my life. I did the best I could to override the pain with prayer and reading and quoting comforting Scriptures. As I battled, a simple yet very profound thought came to me that I believe might help others as well. That morning I discovered that my heart is not my friend. Now, I know that sounds strange. But just for a minute, try to follow me in this: my heart wants to remember and feel the pain of child rebellion, my own as well as my children's. My heart almost constantly remembers and feels the pain of widowhood and having been alone for so many years. Always at the wrong moment, my heart slams me with the pain of rejection and betrayal. And we could go on and on. My heart is not my friend. No friend wants you to remain captive and enslaved to painful experiences.

            The question is why? Why do our hearts want to remember and feel such hurt? And the answer is…so it will never happen again! It’s the heart’s defense mechanism, so to speak, to remember everything that went sour in our lives so that we won’t fall into that same trap again. Remember this? Remember that? Remember how it felt? Our hearts don’t want to be hurt anymore, so they throw up walls of protection against being hurt again. We could give these walls names…anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, fear, to mention just a few. These things stand in defense of our hurting hearts, making certain that we “never do that again!” One thing about those walls, though: they may protect the pain that our hearts hold so that we won’t be hurt again, but guess what else they do? They also provide a barrier against God’s blessings and keep them from getting in! This setup that our emotions have developed keeps us focused upon self, and the end result is that we become unable to receive God’s promises and blessings.

            I’m not the only one this happens to. More than likely, you have experienced something similar as well. Later that evening, I received a phone call from a friend who was also going through a hard time. As he spoke, I was praying, asking God for wisdom. When my friend asked, I explained what was happening to him was that his life was being “tilled up” right then. Before you can plant seeds, the soil needs to be prepared. It’s the same with us, especially emotionally. When God is about to bring new things into our lives or head our lives in a new direction, our emotions and thought processes need to be tilled up so we can get rid of the old and replace it with the new. You see, while my heart is not my friend, God is. He’s your friend as well. God does not want us to remain captive to those negative emotions that are so painful. He wants us to live by the grace and power of His Holy Spirit. He wants us to walk (live) by the Spirit, not the flesh. “Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” He tells us in Romans 8:1-2. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

            God wants us to be more than conquerors. Why? Because as much as He loves us (and it can’t be emphasized enough here that Jesus loves each and every one of us, as individuals), there is something else just as important. There is a common good, or goal, as well. A purpose for being, if you will, which includes many more than just one individual. When we are in pain, it’s that pain we tend to concentrate on. Self becomes our focus. God wants…God needs…me (and you) to get past focusing on self and start focusing on the very important purpose for which He created us in the first place! Whether we realize it or not, God created everyone for a reason. You and I were each created for a purpose, and we have a mission to accomplish. Whatever that mission is for you, it’s an important assignment that no one else on earth can fulfill quite like you can. Focusing on the negative keeps self on the throne. Being stuck on self keeps us far removed from the goal, assignment, and purpose for which God created us. It keeps us far removed from others. The flip side of the coin is that focusing on our purpose for living keeps us focused on others. In focusing on others, our own pain subsides. There is no room left in our hearts for it.

            The greatest spiritual battle ever occurred in the garden of Gethsemane approximately two thousand years ago. On that evening, one Man, Jesus Christ, was on His knees before His Father, asking that this cup (this dreadful horror that Jesus knew He was about to experience) be taken from Him. Jesus didn’t want to suffer any more than we do. But He knew what was happening. He knew the purpose for which He was brought to earth to be born of woman and take on the form and flesh of man. He knew there was a great task at hand—salvation for all mankind—and He knew what had to be done in order to accomplish it. He didn’t want to suffer, but the bottom line for Him was that He wanted His Father’s will to be accomplished more than His own.

            Therein lies the heart of spiritual warfare. Trusting that the Father knows all that’s happening, that He’s in control of it all, and wanting His will to be done even when it doesn’t line up with our own. Even when it seems like the darkness of the night will never give way to the light of the dawn. Because there’s a greater good at stake. Jesus struggled so much with what He knew was coming…the suffering He was to endure…that He shed great drops of blood. Yet he relented. He submitted to His Father’s will. It is because of His great sacrifice that you and I can have times of refreshing. Our greatest spiritual warfare battles will follow in His footsteps. They will not occur on a battlefield; they will take place on our knees. And what will be happening is that we will be overthrowing the reign that self once had over us, so that others can take its place. That’s when we will amazingly discover that the greatest spiritual warfare battles are followed by the greatest times of refreshing. 

These are my thoughts ... what are yours?  

Tate Publishers