Stability, power, and precision
Watch the news lately? Like it or not, it’s loaded with chaos and instability. Ever notice the values pushed in popular culture? Not the stuff of “Leave it to Beaver”, “Bonanza”, or “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. Have you ever wondered if the Good Old Book sitting on your nightstand contains the relevance necessary to counter sophisticated progressive philosophies inculcated in schools, universities, and by all the talking heads crafting their spin?
Consider this concerning culture’s obvious disregard for God or anything to do with His Word: God is not an impatient God; He’s known as the Ancient of Days and has seen and heard everything. He has witnessed philosophies rise and fall, religious and political leaders come and go, and revolutions fire up and die out. No empire has outlived Him; no godless paradigm has befuddled or outwitted Him. The nations are as a drop in the bucket to Him.
Consider this concerning your place in the grand scheme of things: a house is not built in a day; your own life is composed of one small decision after another. Likewise, your spiritual life is built over years—one thought, one decision, one action at a time. In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus clearly emphasized this fact when He taught about building a house on the rock. He compared the person who heard His Word and acted upon it to a wise builder who anchored his house on a stable foundation of rock, enabling it to withstand any storm that blew its way.
The pressure to conform to values that fly in the face of the Word of God is designed to force you to throw away your faith in God’s standards. If you were to believe in elves, unicorns, or goddesses, do you think the pressure to conform would be as great? Certainly not. But why is that?
The reasons are many. Here are a few:
A foundationless soul is an easily deceived and easily controlled soul.
- Stability. The Word of God gives you a strong foundation upon which to build your life. Storms come to everyone. Sometimes things don’t turn out as you had hoped or even prayed, but you have an anchor in your life despite those things—an anchor that will not move with a changing culture, an anchor which will endure forever. The alternative to building on the rock is building on sand—banking on the current popular mindsets and sophisticated progressive agendas that have all the appearance of tolerance and freedom. However, storms will still rage, and a house built on the sand collapses quickly—“and great was its fall” (Matthew 7:27b). A foundationless soul is an easily deceived and easily controlled soul.
If you’re linked up to God’s Word, you are linked up to His power. And His power cannot be controlled by the laws and constraints of men.
- Power. According to Luke 4:32, “…[the people of Capernaum] were amazed at His teaching, for His word was with authority and ability and weight and power” (Amp). The power that manifested through Jesus’ words back then is still alive and active in His Word now (see Hebrews 4:12). Why would that be of any concern in today’s culture? Because if you’re linked up to God’s Word, you are linked up to His power. And His power cannot be controlled by the laws and constraints of men. Therefore, great attempts are being made to separate you from your faith in His Word, rendering you unable to access His power. But remember, it is by the Word of God’s power that He upholds all things (see Hebrews 1:3)—and that includes you!
The Word of God is neither a vague philosophy on one hand nor a set of suggestions for polite society on the other. It has the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel and the accuracy of a marksman’s arrow.
- Precision. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (NIV). The Word of God is neither a vague philosophy on one hand nor a set of suggestions for polite society on the other. The Word of God has the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel and the accuracy of a marksman’s arrow. It does not miss the mark, ever, and it alone is able to pierce cleanly to the division of soul and spirit. Philosophy can only guess at the thoughts of the heart; the suggestions of a polite society can never redeem the attitudes of the heart. God’s Word, in your mouth and in your heart, can arise in the midst of chaos, turmoil, despair, and seeming defeat to bring critical deliverance and change to your life, your neighborhood, your nation, and your world. It shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it (see John 1:5). This is why the Word is so maligned by those who hate God in this hour.
In Jesus’ time, He was viciously accused of being a fraud and possessed by the devil. After a particularly intense assault against His message, He asked His disciples, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” (John 6:67b). Don’t be surprised if He asks you the same thing when you are confronted by our culture’s open mockery of His Word. He is merely testing you—will you cling to Him despite the disdain of a godless society? In response, let yours be the resolve of Peter in John 6:68. “Lord, to whom shall I go? You have the words of eternal life.”
When the world around you calls into question your intelligence or sanity because of your faith in God’s Word, remember this. His Word brings stability, releases power, and has precision accuracy. Where else could you go? He has the words of eternal life!
Dorothy
Read MoreMessage in a motorboat
I felt distinctly led to rerun this blog entry from last summer. It has a message for our time.
For a summer and a half I had the privilege of working at Ranger, a primitive camp across the lake from the main camp where I was a counselor for six summers. The boys and girls at Ranger slept on opposite hillsides in tents and lean-tos and met in a central valley between the two hills for cooking, camaraderie, jumping into the lake off of a huge two-story diving tower we built ourselves, and for massive games of flashlight capture-the-flag under the night skies.
The most memorable session at Ranger was a year and a half before I got saved. Two of my co-counselors that session were Gordy, the Ranger director that summer, and Carla, both of whom were bold, born-again Christians.
The first time I ever prayed out loud to the God of creation was after jumping off of the Ranger diving tower while taking a midnight dip with Carla.
“Let’s pray,” she suggested.
“Here? Now?!” I asked, incredulous at the non-religious setting.
“Sure! Hi, Jesus! It’s so fun to swim with You under the stars tonight. I love You, Lord…” and on she continued as we swam in the star-illumined, midnight water.
I talked to Him, too, telling Him how cool it was of Him to make nature and summer and camp and freedom. I didn’t ask Him to be my Lord that night, but how could I ever despise a God who listened so attentively and lovingly to two teenage girls swimming in a starlit lake at midnight?
A big deal that summer was the copperhead infestation at camp. As more and more of the snakes were discovered, it became a badge of honor among the guy counselors to catch a copperhead with their bare hands. Even one of the female counselors caught one. I was secretly envious of her; I wanted nothing more than to say I had captured a copperhead with my bare hands, but alas, I had already been bitten by three non-poisonous snakes that summer at different times while holding them. I knew something was off with my snake-handling technique, and therefore, catching a copperhead—although awesome—was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.
Gordy did catch one late in the summer, though, and holding it, asked me to drive him across the lake in the motorboat so he could release it way back in the woods. (We didn’t believe in killing copperheads back then. We all thought that “the children and the flowers are our sisters and our brothers”, a la “Rhymes and Reasons”, a John Denver song. That included copperheads, too.)
Gordy sat in the bow of the boat facing me with the copperhead in his hands. I pulled away from the Ranger dock and motored toward the other side of the lake.
“He’s trying to get away. If he does, he’s mad enough to bite one of us before flopping out of the boat,” Gordy observed.
“Well, don’t let him go!” I demanded, one eye to the lake and the other on the snake.
After a while, the snake stopped lashing around—and that’s when Gordy started preaching a message I’ll never forget. “He’s relaxing. His muscles are not tensed up beneath my hands. He’s just like the devil. If Satan can’t beat you by fighting, he’ll bide his time and seek a different strategy, just like he did with Jesus when he left Him for a more opportune time.
“You see, this snake is very aware of my grip. He’s testing me, I can tell, just like the devil does. He thinks if he backs off, I’ll get lulled into complacency. He’s waiting for my hand muscles to relax. And if they do, he’s ready. He’ll swing his head back and latch onto my arm!
“If a believer stands his ground against the devil, then the devil will back off—but he won’t give up. He’ll bide his time and watch for the Christian’s guard to drop and his life to get sloppy—and then, just like this copperhead, he’ll swing back and strike!”
I didn’t even believe in a literal devil at the time, but eyeing that copperhead as it went through its stages of fight and relax, fight and relax, everything Gordy said in that boat made total sense to me.
You certainly do have an enemy over whom you have authority—the devil. Resist him, firm in your faith, and according to the Word, he will flee from you (see James 4:7). But once he flees, don’t drop your guard; live not only harmlessly, but also shrewdly (see Matthew 10:16), armed with God’s Word every day of your life. That way, when the enemy seeks to return for a more opportune time—and he will—he will find you alert, ready in season and out, and without a single toehold by which he can slither back into your life.
Dorothy
And do not give the devil an opportunity. Ephesians 4:27
Read MoreDallas reality check for believers
When I heard about the Dallas shooting, I went to bed with a heavy heart. The Lord placed three Scriptures on my heart as I laid in my bed, weeping and praying.
Well-pleased with insults
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10
I like to enter into discussions on various topics—including cultural issues—on Facebook, and use it as an opportunity to share a biblical perspective.
Be on the alert
I wanted to share on my blog something I posted today on my Facebook page concerning the horrible mass shooting early this morning at the Orlando, FL nightclub:
Each one of my friends here on FB is an individual, interesting, and very unique person in the way you think, believe, live, and approach—or don’t approach—God. I respect each one of you and am glad to be linked up with you in whatever capacity we can connect despite our differences in thinking, believing, living, and approaching—or not approaching—God.
That said, I want to share with whoever reads this something that gripped me this past Thursday afternoon. I had just worked at my church’s vacation Bible school (called JUMP) and was walking along the huge strip mall in Chesterfield Valley, thinking nothing in particular except perhaps how I had just blocked a bevy of 8th graders from jumping line ahead of some 7th graders at the inflatable Bouncy House maze. Of course, after 22 years of teaching 8th grade, I felt right at home bossing around the big guys and gals with a smile on my face.
So there I was, minding my own business when I sensed the Lord command me, “Be on the alert!” I looked around, saw nothing out of the ordinary, and went into quiet prayer/probe mode—my habit when it seems as if the Lord wants to give me specific direction. After a short time I knew He wasn’t indicating any immediate danger; He was letting me know that real trouble was brewing for the near future in various places and was about to spill over. I was not to allow my spirit to cruise on “sleep mode”; He was requiring me to enter a more alert, focused, “antenna up” prayer mode.
I remembered this when I heard of the Orlando nightclub attack this morning. My gut feeling is this: Many places—whether gay bars, churches, synagogues, shopping areas, sports venues, concerts—whatever—are being scoped for targeting. I’m certain that is what I was sensing from God.
What do we do? If you, like me, are a believer, don’t allow yourself to go into “sleep mode” spiritually. Let the Holy Spirit lead you—or restrain you—as you go about your daily life. Might He direct you to cancel fun plans? Yes, if He knows something up the road could place you in danger. Is it possible that He would lead you to pray for someone or something for which you have no affinity? Yes. Perhaps you are the one He will prompt to pray—and another gruesome attack just might get thwarted. Be yourself, live your life, but keep your spirit primed and ready to hear from God so you can pray or change direction at a moment’s notice.
If you don’t view yourself as a Christian—whether you’re not entirely sure about God or you’re fairly convinced He doesn’t exist; whether you hope He’s real or just don’t want to be bothered, do this for me, anyway—as a friend. If you ever get a “funny feeling” about something—perhaps an event or a place, a setting or a person—and you feel sort of uneasy, then back off. Change plans. If you must continue on that pre-arranged path, at least be on the alert. I want you to live out your life and do your thing as only you can do it.
As you probably suspect, I’m praying for you. I believe that no matter who you are, what your worldview may be, or where your life has taken you, you are loved by God, He sent Jesus specifically for you, and He has a plan for your life. For that full plan to take place, you’ve got to be alive—hence, this warning:
Be on the alert.
Dorothy
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