Marching Forth!

When I was a kid, there was a popular educational program called "School House Rock" which used the slogan, "Knowledge is Power!"  School House Rock helped me to memorise the Preamble in my year 8 History class taught by Mr. Kennedy.  I even had a retro School House Rock t-shirt when I was in high school!  But as educational and useful as the program was, after assessing the slogan biblically I must confess the slogan "Knowledge is Power!" is untrue.  Whilst knowledge is beneficial when used wisely, it has no power in itself to accomplish anything.  Education alone does not have the power to cure any ills.  Being able to recite the Preamble in no way supplies power to live in the way the forefathers of the United States intended. Knowledge is a useful means, but not an end.  God lamented His people perished for a lack of knowledge.  He had the power to save and deliver them, but they continued to ignore His Law and live as was right in their ow...

One of the audio messages which has been a blessing to me lately was one spoken by the late pastor Steve Mays called "Being Content."  He broke down the last chapter of Philippians 4 into three major points:  I accept all things, I can do all things, and I have all things.  Paul had learned in whatever state he was to be content in Christ, and it seems through many trials Steve Mays could say the same.  Often God uses trying circumstances to teach us these invaluable lessons. The point " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me " was the one most often stressed by my teachers during my young life with Christ.  Yet with added clarity looking back, because I could not say "I accept all things" or "I have all things" meant I actually could not do all things!  It is a seldom discussed concept that there are things God allows in our lives we must learn to accept.  In some things we overcome not by their removal from our lives but by o...

I am amazed and grateful how God is able to redeem flawed people for His glory.  In the fable of Rumpelstiltskin, that conniving imp was able to spin straw into gold but God does infinitely greater still.  Even the most fantastic fantasies cannot measure up to the wisdom and power of God in saving lost sinners and making them children of God.  God's grace and power is revealed in our weakness, even our failings He redeems for practical good and eternal glory. After preaching yesterday, God spoke to me as I sung songs of worship to Him.  I had concluded the message, but God had more to say to me.  In a lovely way He laid out some additional points I hadn't even considered during study - really good ones.  When Jesus fed the 5,000 to the full there were still leftovers, and it was true concerning the message preached yesterday.  I trust even as God was able to speak to my heart, He spoke to others as well despite my shortcomings.  Over lunch we ...

In my primary school years I enjoyed the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.  With plenty of pictures set in exotic locations, reading those books was almost like a game because the reader's decisions affected the outcome of the story.  At the bottom of the pages you could choose an action which directed you to a numbered page to continue to story.  One choice would bring you closer to treasure and the other ended in death as frogmen cut your oxygen supply.  The one thing I didn't like about the books is sometimes no matter what choices you made, the outcome was always a disaster.  I can't count how many times I retraced my steps and changed my decisions along the way, but it seemed there were no happy or victorious endings possible.  If this was the case, it was onto the next book to seek the ever-elusive satisfactory ending.  Besides, the school library had heaps of them. The life of faith in following Jesus is always and adventure, and has the b...