Marching Forth!

" Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.  10  For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death ." 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 Paul previously wrote a letter that identified and rebuked sin the Corinthian church, and it resulted in godly sorrow that lead them to repent of their sin, an eagerness to clear themselves of all wrongdoing, longing for reconciliation before God and man, and swift readiness to do justly.  From Paul's words it follows there is a sorrow that falls short of repentance, a worldly sorrow that produces death.  We see this sort of worldly sorrow in Judas after he betrayed Jesus. During the Passover feast in Jerusalem, Judas secretly met with priests and covenanted to deliver Jesus into their hand at a convenient time and was paid 30 pieces of silver....

The words of Jesus contain great wisdom from God Himself and insight.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His disciples in  Matthew 5:33-37 :   " Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.'  34   But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne;  35   nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.  36   Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.  37   But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one ."  After receiving the Law of Moses that commanded Hebrews to keep their oaths, what developed was people felt obligated to speak truthfully only when they swore an oath.  Some made their honesty contingent on the perceived worthiness of what they swore u...

It is good for the child of God to realise we never are at the mercy of our enemies but our awesome heavenly Father.  An overwhelming trial or situation never puts us beyond God's help and perfect peace.  When the ground shakes under our feet or we start to lose our balance, we instinctively grasp at a handrail or something we know to be solid and can bear weight to stay upright.  Trials test us to see if we will run to and reach for the Rock of our salvation in our desperate state or give place to despair in unbelief. Many times in the history of the nation of Israel their enemies had the upper hand.  Due to sin, idolatry or for God's good purposes not explained to us, Israel was oppressed and the people lived in fear.  The book of Judges has a repetitive theme of people doing what was right in their own eyes, forsaking God and His statutes, and then falling into the hands of their enemies to chasten them back to the LORD.  When they cried out to God in du...

Wise Solomon observed in  Ecclesiastes 3:8 there is " ...a time to love, a nd a time to hate;  a  time of war,  a nd a time of peace ."  With spiritual insight we see love and hate, while seemingly opposites, can exist at the same time and even compliment one another.  Due to active love of God within us, a child of God chooses to hate sin and every evil way.  Even in the midst of conflict, the one who trusts God can experience perfect peace by faith in Jesus Christ.  But the point Solomon made is spelled out in  Ecclesiastes 3:1 :  " To everything there is a season,  a  time for every purpose under heaven... ".  God has good purposes and plans He accomplishes in every season of life, and we can have confidence He knows what He is doing. It may seem strange to think in this wonderful world created by God there would be a time for hate and war.  Yet this is not at all odd when we realise and acknowledge we liv...