Sun, May 31st - 9:41PM

Sun, May 24th - 9:22PM

It would be very unwise for someone to enter the baseball field, ready for a game of baseball, dressed in shorts, wearing tennis shoes, and carrying a tennis racket. That person would be dressed in the wrong uniform for the game at hand. Tennis rackets and baseballs simply don’t belong on the same playing surface. I think everyone will agree!

So often in life, Christians aren’t fully and properly dressed for the spiritual battles they will face on a day by day basis. Paul reminded the Ephesian church in the New Testament, as well as all Christians who would follow in the years to come, that " . . . we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places"(2 Cor. 6:12).

Battles faced by Christian folk are brought upon them because of the evil force of Satan in the lives of lost people who aren’t embarrassed to admit they hate Jesus Christ. Satan has tried throughout history, and for sure at the cross of Christ, to silence the Christian faith. And if governments today, ours included, think they can wipe the fundamental Christian faith off the face of the pages of history’s future, they will only succeed in increasing the numbers of people of faith.

Socialist governments, along with the communist rulers and dictators of the world, have all failed to kill the Christian movement. They keep trying but out of persecutions comes people with even deeper faith.

So, what should be the attitude of Christ’s followers? Paul’s counsel to the young preacher Timothy should awaken the body of Christ to its responsibility. Wrote Paul, "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ"(2 Tim. 2:3). The word endure can be translated as "share in" the hardship as would a good soldier. The illustration is clear. Soldiers have it tough! Away from home, carrying heavy weapons, being shot at and trying to eliminate an enemy. Their hardships to be endured are much more than any of us can imagine sitting in our comfortable air conditioned living rooms drinking ice tea. But they serve under a commander and must be loyal to that commander’s commands.

The Christian army also has a commander. His name is Jesus Christ. He doesn’t sit in a control room, pushing buttons and directing our movements into dangerous territories. Instead, He is going out there before the troops to prepare the way for a victorious march. To be success in this spiritual battle, believers must put on the uniform described by the apostle Paul to the Ephesian church.

Let’s summarize what Paul writes in Ephesians 6:10-19. The whole armor of God consists of: a belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with preparedness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, a life of prayer, and constantly seeking for the correct words to say in this spiritual battle.

The first two items are very important parts of the believer’s uniform. The waist had a belt around it and hanging from that belt would be instruments for battle and perhaps items such as food. The spiritual uniform has truth as its belt. Truth doesn’t come from the secular world-view, from individuals and groups who make up their own rules of conduct. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me"(Jo 14:6). Did you catch what Jesus Himself said? "I am . . ., the truth". Absolute truth comes through a study of God’s Word. When your decisions are made, when your answers are given, when you speak His Name and His will, you won’t have to worry about error.

Note the second part of the uniform. The breastplate of righteousness! Right relationship with God through Jesus Christ and right relationship with your fellow man on the basis of His truth will protect your heart from the fiery arrows shot your way by the devil. Your shield of faith will direct them away from your mind which is protected as your brain is fixed upon the Word of God.

I long for the night when an invited guest on one of these talk shows, where moral issues are debated, shouts out "but the Word of God says . . ."! To win the debates, the Bible as a source reference and the name of Jesus as the provider, must be hurled into the fray!

Hear Paul’s counsel! "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles (schemings) of the devil"(Eph 6:11).

Mon, May 18th - 1:27AM

The parade moves down the Avenue. People on both sides of the street are in a festive mood. Individuals and groups in the parade wave and smile to the gathered crowds. Everything is coming up roses.

In a distant building overlooking the crowds below, a lone gunman watches the activities through a long range scope. He is looking for a certain individual. When found, the scope is brought into focus and the individual below is unaware that he now in the cross-hairs of a sharp-shooter’s rifle.

At a moment determined by the gunman, the trigger is squeezed, a bullet is on its way, and the individual in the gunman’s cross-hairs lies dead on the street.

The prophet Nahum reported to the people of Nineveh that they were in the cross-hairs of God’s fierce judgement. Remember Nineveh? That’s the city to which Jonah was sent to pronounce God’s coming judgement upon the city. The people heard the prophet’s message and repented. The whole of the city repented in one of the greatest revivals in history.

Now, some 110 years later, the people had returned to their old ways. They were once again a hated people. Their armies were cruel, they were mean. They had forgotten the revival which came to their forefathers and the mercy which God had shown toward them.

All three chapters of the book of Nahum is about the coming judgement from God upon the unrepentant Nineveh. We know no more about this prophet chosen to announce this coming judgement

There is a message for today’s society in Nahum’s words to this city which had forgotten the revival of past years. No other nation on the face of the earth has been as blessed as has America and her people. She is a nation birthed by the guiding hand of God. Many of our forefathers believed in His guiding, invisible hand over their affairs.

John wrote in his first letter, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love"(1 Jo. 4:7-9). This scripture was written to believers of their common faith and as encouragement to them about God’s love for them.

In the Ten Commandments, God’s finger wrote, "You shall have no other gods before Me . . . For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God"(Ex. 20:3,5). The Bible declares, "Vengeance is Mine" (Deut. 32:36; Heb. 10:30). We need desperately to experience a spiritual awaking in our nation before the trigger of His judgement is pressed against us.

Nahum’s revealed burden shows a side of God we don’t like to discuss. "God is jealous, and the LORD avenges"(1:2) wrote the prophet.

God judged His people with 40 years of wandering in the wilderness as a result of their unbelief. He allowed generations of His people to die in Egyptian bondage. Sodom and Gomorrah were totally destroyed with God’s fiery judgement from Heaven because of sexual perversion. Israel was carried into captivity by the Babylonians. Yes, He is a God of love, but the flip side is His judgement against sin.

Could America be in the cross-hairs of God’s judgement? Certainly there are pagan influences at work in our nation which would indicate a definite drift from Biblical truth. The Bible is totally disregarded as a reference to determining right and wrong or moral issues. To safeguard against intolerance toward certain groups, the media, areas of government, organized groups, and even some religious organizations think nothing of taking away the very "core reference" for God fearing people.

It seems to me that our nation, our communities, and many of us individually are in the cross-hairs of God’s fierce judgement. We better seek revival before He presses the trigger to send devastating judgement our way. Remind us dear Lord, of your blessings and hear the prayers of your people for our nation.

Mon, May 11th - 12:58AM

The focus of the New Testament church from her first day was the evangelization of non-believers. In Acts 2:14-40, Peter preached the first salvation sermon. The scripture records his concluding remarks: "And with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation"(v. 40). The result was the salvation of 3,000 people.

In the days which followed that spiritual explosion was the teaching ministry of the apostles. That set the pattern for the focus of the New Testament church. It also followed the Lord’s command to "go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age"(Mt. 28:19-20).

Fast forward to our modern church focus. The question arises! What is the modern day church’s focus? Is it discipleship with a little encouragement to evangelize? Is it evangelization with a little discipleship mixed in? Or is it equally evangelism and discipleship? It is of course, the latter. Discipleship fosters evangelism and evangelism opens doors for discipleship. The two go together and should be every local church’s focus.

The modern day church has many obstacles to overcome. Matter-of-fact, I believe the society of today is more difficult to penetrate with the gospel than in the days of the apostles. I’m sure I’ll have naysayers, but let me explain my reasoning.

The first Christians, I recognize, had tremendous opposition. The world had never before heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and most were either in or influenced by pagan religions. The gospel was heard and many came to faith in Christ and suffered because of their decision.

But they were teachable. And outside the pagan gods to whom they were forced to bow, there was little other pressure to influence their decision.

In today’s society, we have the 24-hour talk heads on radio and television spewing out their hatred. We have column writers who write thousands of words daily on every facet of living one can think up. There are blog-writers who express themselves openly, often without any consideration of the words they use nor of the people they hurt in their process of self-expression. Most newspapers give internet response opportunities to readers of their newspapers. And some of them write vicious words about events, people, religion, and opinions.

We don’t only minister in a world becoming more pagan each day, we minister to people who are hearing many-sided arguments about the faith walk and the way to Heaven. It has become more popular of late to express the good ole-boy attitude toward religion. I heard one woman express her views about the many ways to Heaven the other night. She was a little mixed up on what the word "Christian" means because she lumped Muslims, Buddhist, Hinduism, along with Jews and Christians, together as one. When in fact the word "Christian" refers to people living a life-style like Christ lived.

In the midst of this mixed up message of religion and non-religion, Christians are called upon to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way the world can understand and lost people can become believers in the only way to Heaven.

It is certainly more difficult to reach lost people today than it was 50 years ago when I first started in pastoral ministry. It is even difficult to get the people in the church committed to faithfulness in their church life and in their daily walk. The same tools which Satan uses to keep the gospel away from the hearts of lost people are also utilized to keep the saved church members away from full commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every part of their daily walk.

It’s time to change the focus back to what we find in the first church back in the book of Acts. We must, in this modern world, seize the moment and integrate our focus of evangelization and discipleship. Praise the Lord for the churches which are on the front lines in this fight to win the souls of lost people. May our Lord add yours (and mine)!

Mon, May 4th - 1:19AM

The world has become fearful of a potential new pandemic that will effect the whole world. This danger is called the Swine Flu, or to be more politically correct, the H1 N1. It’s feared thousands of people worldwide might die from this disease. From its epicenter in Mexico, it has already been spread to several countries, including America.

The last report I could find, the night before this article is written, revealed nearly 800 worldwide cases of the Swine Flu. The vast majority are in Mexico and the United States: 473 in Mexico and 160 in America. According to a couple reports found when Goggling Swine Flu revealed 19 deaths in Mexico and 1 in America. The one American death was a Mexican child who had come to Texas from Mexico.

Pandemic refers to a disease prevalent over a country or a large part of the world. And now there are reports the flu is showing signs of running its course. Still, disease control organizations are warning world citizens to keep up their guards.

Citizens everywhere are being encouraged to hold their hand over their mouth when they sneeze and to wash their hands often. That’s pretty good advice whether or not a flu fear!

I read somewhere that thousands of pigs were slaughtered in Egypt because of a fear that they might cause the pandemic to spread. We hear also that millions of face masks are being purchased by government bodies around the world. Those same masks have become common in pictures out of Mexico. Fear grips the minds of peoples around the world.

This is potentially a severe flu. People have died from it and the fear is that thousands of others might likewise die as the disease continues to spread around the world. I would never be guilty of making light when communities seek to stop the spread of any disease. And I pray that it won’t become as serious as some are predicting. It is a potential world problem, but not yet a world dilemma. After all, some 40,000 people die each year from the regular flu and no one has proclaimed a pandemic because of these deaths. Still, when there is evident danger, every precaution should be taken to protect the health of people.

But there is a world-wide pandemic already on the scene for which millions and billions of people worldwide aren’t ready to face. Unlike the Swine Flu, which can generally be defeated by taking special medications, this pandemic has fatally infected every single human being. It is called the Pandemic of death.

Hebrews 9:27 makes this truth very clear: ". . . it is appointed for men to die once . . ." History has proven and continues to prove this scripture to be true.

The medical and scientific fields are seeking medicines which can defeat the Swine Flu, but God already offers a remedy for the disease of death. Victory over death is offered to whomever will come and partake.

The text sighted above, along with verse 28, tells us a lot about this victory. To understand exactly what these two verses means, one needs to take a look at chapters 8 and 9. There you find explained the two testaments, or covenants of the Bible. Genesis through Malachi are found in the Old Testament while Matthew through the Revelation are found in the New Testament. The total composite of these books tells the story of redemption.

In the old, the High Priest carried the blood from a sacrificed animal into the Holiest Place as a sin offering for the sins of the people. In the new, Jesus Christ Himself is the Lamb Slain and Whose blood it is that cleanses from sin.

And just as it is the ordered plan for man to die, because of sin, and then face the judgement, so did Jesus Christ die once for all so that mankind can have a Savior.

The worldwide problem is, scores and scores of individuals aren’t prepared, according to the Bible, to die. Some might think their way is just as good as the Bible way, but in the end, they will discover that which they described as the ignorance of preaching Christ, is after all the only way to Heaven. The door is still opened today, but it could close at any moment. Jesus has promised His return in an hour when people aren’t expecting Him. This could be that very day!