Marching Forth!

David spoke of God giving him skill for war, ability to leap over a wall and defeat his enemies.  The battles he fought were physical as well as an inner war that raged against fear, worry and despair.  While most will never experience warfare in muddy trenches or run across a beach with bullets flying, we each face real conflict where triumph can only be experienced by faith in Jesus Christ. Paul provides insight concerning one of the primary locations where spiritual battles take place, and it might surprise you:  it takes place within our own hearts and minds.  Paul recognised we live in a body of flesh yet we are not to fight according to the flesh.  There are established strongholds and fortifications of lies, attitudes and habits in our own minds and hearts revealed with the word of God.  To the church Paul wrote in  2 Corinthians 10:3-6 , " For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  4 For the weapons of ou...

" Thus says the LORD : "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,  l et not the mighty man glory in his might,  n or let the rich man glory in his riches;  24  but let him who glories glory in this, t hat he understands and knows Me,  t hat I am the LORD , exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD ." Jeremiah 9:23-24 Throughout the Bible we observe people who knew and understood God because He revealed Himself to them.  Before the Law was written on tablets of stone Abraham asked the LORD knowingly, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"  Based on the righteous character of God Abraham knew God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked.  Instead of glorying in what is temporal and fading away--by what we know, can do, or have acquired--God says we ought to glory that we understand and know God who is the LORD of all.   Knowing God is the LORD means He ...

I attended a memorial service years ago that impacted me.  The thing I remember the most is the point emphatically driven home by the impassioned speaker was death was not God's will.  He bristled at the suggestion the sudden passing of his family member could be the will of God.  The point he made is supported in scriptures like 2 Peter 3:9 which reads, " The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. "  God's will is for people to repent of sin and receive salvation, and though our bodies will go the way of the earth the souls of God's redeemed will be clothed with eternal life in glory. The fact people physically die shows God allows things to transpire on earth that are not His will.  Mankind has chosen to rebel against God in sin and this has brought innumerable horrors into the world God created good.  Even God's peopl...

I've been reading the book of Ezekiel each evening and I am always impressed by the intricate object lessons God provided His people through Ezekiel's obedience.  The prophet Ezekiel had an inquisitive audience who wondered over the strange things he did, like making a model of Jerusalem on a tile and laying siege to it, lying on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days, ate his food by weight (20 shekels a day) and drank water by measure (about 600 millilitres), and even baked bread with cow dung.  God made Ezekiel a sign to the rebellious house of Israel, to people who largely ignored God's warning of coming judgment. It requires faith in God to obey Him, especially when it seems nothing positive comes from our efforts.  It would have been easy for Ezekiel to be discouraged if he looked to his hearers for justification to continue.  Some have said, "If only one person hears the message, it's worth it."  Every person is precious in the ey...