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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

"Then, What Are You Prepared To Do?"

"Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hands?  Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." (Job 13:14, 15) 
 
"Take my flesh in my teeth."  This was a desperate soul.
 
During the film, "The Untouchables," Jimmy Malone asks Elliot Ness several times, "What are you prepared to do."  The first time the aging Chicago cop asks the question, Ness responds with some text book answer.  Malone responds, "Then what are you prepared to do?!?"  When Malone says that "they won't give up the fight until one of you is dead," he then asks, "Do you want to do that?  Are you ready to do that?"  Malone was taking Ness beyond the text book.
 
Desperation will take you where nothing else will.  Most religious text books will help in average problems.  But "then, what are you prepared to do."  The NLT translates our text, "Yes, I will take my life in my hands and say what I really think.  God might kill me, but I cannot wait.  I am going to argue my case with Him."  This is the response of a truly desperate, yet righteous soul.  "In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong....In all this Job not sin with his lips."  But he did go where few people are willing to go.  He pressed into the Living Triune God with abandon. 
 
We who live in Jesus Christ and trust Jesus Christ are those who can live in the, "then, what are you prepared to do?"  Text books and religious cliches have limitations, but we go beyond them.  We can overcome "then-s" in life.
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, only You are "my Light and Salvation," and because You are, "Whom (and what) shall I fear."  Amen.
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See Article about Hilary cozying up to Muslims:
 
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What Attracts You?

"For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of...his brother Philips' wife."  (Matthew 14:3)
 
John the Baptizer was a prophet.  He told the king that he was living in sin, and was finally turned over to the executioner for it.  More true prophets end this way than not.  Unrighteousness is the enemy of Truth.  Our text is a classic example of hearing the truth and even loving the truth-- one Gospel account says of the John/Herod relationship that Herod "heard him gladly"-- yet he "bound him, and put him in prison." 
 
Why did this happen?  John was a man of God.  Herod was a man of unrighteousness.  No matter how you may try, the two just do not mix.  The Bible teaches that "everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." 
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to recognize what attracts me.  Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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Monday, April 13, 2009

"The Lord...Has Appeared"

"The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared...." (Luke 24:34)
 
Just after the rise to power of Joseph Stalin in Russia, the murderous dictator herded a group of Russian pastors into a stadium for public execution, but not before he gave a tirade on the stupidity and idiocy of Christianity.  When he ended, he allowed any pastor who wished to recant his faith in Jesus to step forward.  One elderly pastor was brought to the microphone in the packed stadium where he simply shouted, "He is risen!"  The rest of the condemned pastors responded with a resounding, "He is risen indeed!"
 
Yesterday many people in America gave this traditional Easter greeting and response under bright, sunny, Sunday skies, just prior to a feast of ham, potatoes, green beans, etc., with family and friends.  Yet many around the world declared, "He is risen," under repressive regimes, hiding, in prisons, alone, without family and friends.  And make no mistake; there are still "Stalins" in the earth, and those yet to come.  They will come in many guises, many ways, mocking, threatening, murdering.  "He is risen!"-- has won the victory through the centuries, and will keep the victory until the Risen One, Jesus Christ, returns. 
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, I rejoice in my Risen Savior.  May the rejoicing never cease.  Amen.
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New, Commentary:    www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
 
 
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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