Marching Forth!

" For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted ." Luke 14:11 Jesus set forth this principle in His teaching we see exemplified throughout scripture.  He spoke a parable to the lawyers and Pharisees after observing how they jockeyed for position to secure the best seats for themselves.  In that culture and time the placement of a seat conveyed social status, and these men sought honour for themselves.  Jesus explained it was better to humbly take the lower seat at the feast and for the host to provide a better seat than to proudly take the best seat and be humiliated when directed by the host to take the worst seat.  The LORD Jesus used this dynamic to reveal spiritual truth they did not comprehend, for the one who humbles himself now before God will be exalted later by Him. This principle applies, not only in social settings, but in the reading and study of God's word.  The Bible provides an unvarnished view of humanity...

At the beginning of the first Star Wars movie (Episode 4, A New Hope ), Luke Skywalker was a farm boy in a barren desert who would rather be anywhere else.  His eyes were on the stars and his heart drawn to serve in the rebellion against the empire.  He was not interested to drive around in his land speeder when he could be flying through space in a starfighter engaged in combat on an important mission.  It seemed he was going nowhere in Tatooine, and all the meaningful opportunities that could offer excitement and satisfaction were somewhere else in the galaxy. The perspective of Luke on Tatooine is not uncommon among people today.  Whether it be a dead-end job, the drudgery of school, a health struggle or conflict due to relationships, we might want to be "anywhere but here."  Dissatisfied with where we are or by what we are obligated to do, we imagine there is something out there that will provide what we are looking or longing for.  In His wisdom, God c...

I was reminded recently of the time God used a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses who came to my door to teach me some valuable lessons.  I was running late for a Wednesday evening service when two fellows carrying magazines knocked on my apartment door.  At the time these men were unwanted obstacles who prevented me from going where I wanted to go.  I was in a rush but I thought it impolite to leave without saying something. I had several personal interactions with Jehovah's Witnesses before and understood some important deviations in their theology from mine as a born-again follower of Jesus Christ.  After sharing my conviction that the Watchtower was a false prophet not to be trusted because of many historical errors, I told them I was convinced by scripture God has revealed Himself as one God in three distinct persons:  God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.  They seemed interested when I told them the Holy Spirit is referred to as God by Peter i...

It is ironic when unrighteous man tries to pin blame on God for His righteous judgments.  In addition to being holy and righteous, God has by His grace given each man a conscience so everyone from a tender age is keenly aware right and wrong do exist.  For all the times we know we have been correct, we have also been incorrect--and thus exposed our self-confidence as wrong too. The final Great White Throne judgment of God is described in  Revelation 20:12 :  " And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books ."  God will judge the dead according to their works, and some take issue with this.  They are like a person pulled over for speeding and complain it was because the signage was poorly lit or partially blocked by a tree.  Such a one feels the system is unfairly ri...