The Word Produces Stability

Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the LORD is His treasure (Isaiah 33:6).

The only consistent thing in the universe is the Word of God! It is forever settled in heaven. Jesus said heaven and earth would pass away, but His Word would never change.

In a world of increasing instability, we have a rock upon which to stand! Jesus said that practicing the Word is like building your house on rock instead of shifting sand. When difficulties come, you’ll be unmoved!

The more Word you practice, the stronger the foundation of your life will be. All weakness is the results of our leaving the Word in some way. The strength, the life, the wisdom, the rest, the grace, and the power of the Word of God will sustain you in life’s most arduous circumstances.

I had been a believer for just a few years when a spiritual leader rocked my world. He said some things to me in a private meeting that were untrue but very hurtful. The impact on my life was severe. I was only 20 years old, and his words affected my mental and emotional equilibrium.

Day after day his hurtful words ravaged my mind. The enemy used them to bring great condemnation and discouragement. I felt hopeless, alone, and abandoned.

But I was not without help. I decided to ignore my feelings and these aberrant thoughts that ceaselessly attacked my mind. I would spend the entire day forcing a scripture to revolve over and over in my mind. I chose to believe God’s Word over man’s Word. And after a period of time, I regained my mental and emotional balance, and found peace again.

This experience taught me the power of the Word in my life, and how the Word can bring stability. Since then, I have given the Word room in my thoughts and in my life every day. And the stability of the Word has rooted itself into who I am and what I do.

Regardless of how tough the circumstance may be that you’re facing, choose to act on God’s Word. Say it aloud. Let it role over and over in your mind. Refuse to let your emotions rule you. The Father will provided you with needed wisdom, and the Word will produce freedom and liberty. You’ll come through the hard place. And you’ll know that God’s Word produces results.

Give room in your thought life today for the Word to dwell in you richly, and you’ll find the Father’s stability and strength for every situation!

Renewing Spiritual Strength

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

Spiritual strength dissipates just like our physical strength. When you exert yourself physically, you tire and must rest and replenish your energy reserves. If you don’t, your body will force you to rest. You’ll faint!

Spiritual energy is expended in a similar way. It takes spiritual energy to live in a fallen world, where the world (the mindset around you that opposes God and His kingdom), the flesh, and the devil must be resisted and kept at bay. And you get tired spiritually just by living for God each day. It takes energy! Be aware that one of Satan’s tactics is to wear out the saints (Daniel 7:25)!

You also expend spiritual energy when you minister to others. Witnessing to an unbeliever during a break at work, teaching a Bible study, visiting the sick in a hospital, ministering in a nursing home, even praying in intercession takes spiritual energy. And those energy reserves must be restored!

The Word is spiritual food. It feeds the spirit in a similar way that natural food nourishes our bodies. After a season of ministry and of just living in the world, we must take time to step aside with the Father and partake of His spiritual source of life and health. If we don’t, then we’ll become weak spiritually and may falter when the pressure of the world or the flesh come against us.

Praying in other tongues is another way to strengthen the spiritual nature. When we pray in tongues we edify or build ourselves up spiritually, much like an alternator in your car engine builds up your car’s battery for its next use. Jude tells us to build ourselves up on our most holy faith by praying in the Holy Ghost! Isaiah said that praying in tongues brings a rest and a refreshing! Take advantage of what God has given you!

Build yourself up from the inside out today by feeding on the Word during your break or lunch, and by praying in the spirit quietly throughout the day. You’ll find God’s power overwhelming your weakness, or as Paul said it, your mortality will be swallowed up by God’s life!

Anger Management

Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath (Ephesians 4:26).

When I was a teenager I would get angry and go into a rage. I would scream and kick. I remember one time I was working on my car and having difficulty. I beat the side of my car and slammed my fists repeatedly on the ground in anger. I knew I was out of control.

After I was born again and Spirit-filled anger sought to work its way back into my life. I saw quickly that if I didn’t get it under control, I would end up doing something that would hurt my relationships and my employment. So I researched the subject of anger, and implemented some simple principles to keep myself out of trouble. Here is what I discovered.

All of us have to learn to deal properly with anger. Anger in itself is not sinful. It’s the motive behind it and the actions that it produces that make anger sinful and harmful.

If you can be angry and not sin, then anger must at times be an appropriate emotion. A person who is never angry has some serious emotions and mental issues to deal with. Even God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11). Jesus became angry when He saw His Father’s house being defamed by the crooks and thieves doing business in the name of the Jewish religion. He overturned their money tables and turned the animals loose. He drove the hypocrites out in blazing anger! But Jesus never sinned! This episode of anger was not sinful.

Here’s the bottom line. Anger rooted in selfishness(not getting your own way) is sinful anger. Anger that is motivated by a desire to honor and please God and see fairness and right rule is not sinful anger. Anger at injustice and wrong living are appropriate, but anger must always be controlled.

Notice what the Word says about anger. An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression (Proverbs 29:22). He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city (Proverbs 16:32). A wise man restrains his anger and overlooks insults. This is to his credit (Proverbs 19:11- Living Bible). Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, For anger rests in the bosom of fools (Ecclesiastes 7:9).

Ask the Father to help you control anger. Make a decision not to confront or speak about a difficult situation until your anger is under control. I usually separate myself from the situation that brought anger and find a place to be alone. Then I ask the Lord to help me understand what’s going on. And I pray in the spirit. But I will not confront until I have love, joy, and peace within me. Sometimes I find that I must delay confrontation for hours and sometimes a few days until I know I have anger in check. Great harm results from uncontrolled anger.

Above all, mediate on God’s Word about anger. Go to a concordance and find the scriptures that relate to anger and mediate on them daily. The Holy Spirit will then empower the Word and enable you to control your responses to difficulties. Make a decision to walk in peace, and when you lose it, get alone and sort out what happened. Ask the Father to help and cast the care of the situation on Him. Never speak when overly angry. Remember, a soft answer turns away wrath.

Virtue Maintains Freedom

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34).

Freedom is an expensive thing. Its cost is blood. Our spiritual freedom was won by Jesus spilling His blood for us. The freedom that we have to worship, to express ourselves, and live as we please has cost many thousands their life. Let’s take moment and thank God today for the privilege we have of living in a free country. And let’s remember that with freedom comes responsibility.

We’re responsible as citizens of a free society to uphold the law and to honor God. No nation can remain free if it does not adhere to moral law, and each citizen be held responsible for his own actions.

Back in 1983, during the cold war, the Christian school in our church had a guest speaker from Russia speak to the high school. He was a former military man in his country. This man was not a Christian, but had a message for America. I will never forget his words. He said, “If you want to remain a free country, you must be a moral people. If you lose your morals, you will one day lose your freedoms!” His words have resonated within me since that day.

I’ll leave you with a few quotes from our civil leaders of the past. Let’s re
member to pray for our president and leaders daily.

It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favors. (George Washington - 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation).

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (John Adams - 1798 Address to the Military).

The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. (Benjamin Rush- 1806).

Statesmen my dear sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people, in a great measure, than they have it now, they may change their rulers, and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. (John Adams -1776 letter to Zabdiel Adams)

Vacation Time!

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28 –NIV)

My family and I will be on vacation this week in North Myrtle Beach. We all need the relaxation and rest that comes from taking time away from the normal routines of life.

Our culture does not value rest as it should. And I am a “delivered” workaholic! Over twenty years ago I was not able to take a vacation and enjoy it because my sense of personal value was all tied up in performance and works. I would become agitated and upset just a few days into a vacation back then. To feel good, I had to perform.

Now I am settled in who Jesus is to me, and I know that He loves me, not based on my performance, but based on the fact that I am a human being made in His image, and cleansed by His blood!

In the above verse, Paul held a pastor’s conference in Ephesus and admonished the pastors to take care of themselves so they could take care of the church.

Before a pastor can really help others, he must take care of himself spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and in his personal relationships with his family.

So I’ll miss the Victory folk during my vacation! But I know that if I’m going to continue to be an effective pastor I must do as Jesus told the disciples and come away and rest awhile.

I’ll continue my blog during vacation though. I enjoy staying connected with you.

Pray for America

On July 4th we’ll be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our nation’s founding. Today we stand as a nation in desperate need of God’s intervention. A house divided against itself can not stand said the Lord Jesus. And I see division assaulting us in so many ways. Without God’s direct intervention, our nation is on a path to self-destruction. The national graveyard of history should be a sobering reminder to our national leaders of the price paid when right becomes wrong, darkness becomes light, lies become truth, immorality is shown as moral, and the family unit based on marriage replaced by “partners.”

This is a call to the church to pray! We’re admonished in 1Timothy 2:1,
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Before we pray for anything else, we should take time to pray for our president and all who are in positions of authority. Notice that the reason we do this is that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. We must call on God to deal strongly with those in government offices who lead by creating strife and division, and who put self-interests above the interests of the whole.

We must remember that demonic forces are working ceaselessly to bring unrest, division, sin, darkness, and war to the nations of the earth. And they are working for the destruction of our beloved country. We believers have authority to bind these forces in the name of Jesus. And our prayers will hold back the onslaughts of evil that seek to tear the very fabric of our culture.

Let’s pray and believe God for revival in our land from coast to coast. I have a personal conviction that our only hope as a nation is a move of God that produces great conviction and repentance.

May this revival start with us as Christians as we keep our priorities in line; seeking first His kingdom, loving our spouses, being examples for our children, and working honestly before an unbelieving world.

Let’s keep before us 2 Chronicles 2: 14: If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. What God does in America starts with you and me!

How Do You Treat Jesus?

And the King will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me (Matthew 25:40).

We are the body of Christ and are interconnected. The way we treat fellow members of the body of Christ is the way we treat Jesus Himself! John said that if I can’t love my brother who I can see, then how can I love God who I can’t see?

Do we reach out to the sick, the poor, the hungry, or the imprisoned? Are we kind, compassionate, and understanding throughout the day as we interact with fellow workers and family members?

Our spiritual activities have little impact if they are not translated into our actions and reactions towards others. Prayer meetings, church services, fellowships, bible studies, bible reading, are wonderful activities. But do we go from these legitimate activities and show the love of God to regular folk that we meet in our daily contacts?

This is where the rubber meets the road. Let’s choose today to be the hands, arms, eyes, and ears of Jesus. Be aware of what you say and how you say it to every person you encounter. Remember that you are an extension of Jesus and His ministry. The world understands Him by seeing how we act! What are our actions telling others about Him?

Jesus appeared to Paul when his name was Saul and he was persecuting Christians. He said to Saul, Why are you persecuting me? Saul had never seen Jesus, but Jesus took personally everything Saul did as he harmed believers.

Jesus never changes. He still takes personally our actions towards our fellow man. Let’s face today with a new sensitivity to how we treat others. And let’s be aware that we represent the Son of God with every look, reaction, word, and deed!