"Therefore watch yourselves carefully. Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep...," or, "not even enough to put your foot on." (Deuteronomy 2--from today's Pentateuch reading)
Why is it that too many of us do, "meddle with them..."? Could it be that too many want, "of their land, of their, "footstep"?!? Wanting what the world system wants has been and is the downfall of too many. The admonition from the "God-Breathed" Word for you and me today is, "....Watch yourselves carefully....Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." There is a principle of life for the Followers of Jesus that we are in this world but not of it. Our Lord Jesus prayed for you and me, "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one." (John 17)
I awoke to this today: "India: Prayer for the believers whose church leader was murdered for being a believer." This is from the Open Doors With Brother Andrew Prayer Force Alert. This Brother was, "not a friend of the world," and paid with his life. Now some people would say, "O, well, what do you expect from 'those' countries." I could respond by saying that you can expect from third or "second world" countries what exactly was not expected from a "first world" country like Germany, yet, nonetheless, burst upon the world. I hope you do not grow tired of my repeating the quote of William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but his words continue to be very sobering to me. "How did it happen that an ancient and cultured people, steeped in Christianity, cultivating the arts and sciences, preeminent in modern technology, who gave us Luther and Kant, Bach and Beethoven, Goethe and Einstein, collapse into savage barbarism in the mid Twentieth Century?" I agree with Shirer when he added, "These questions haunt us still." Beware even the thought, "This could never happen here."
Someone with whom I spoke in Berlin has the attitude that suffering is a part of "the Christian Faith," QED, we should not concern ourselves with such mundane things as governmental elections. I have often taken note of those who can talk of "suffering" and persecution so glibly. Yes, of course, we are promised that, "all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Our Lord Jesus tells us, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me, before it hated you." Yet maybe there is, however, a consideration here. Maybe if we can do something to oppose evil, if, as in the United States of America, we have the constitutional purpose (and I believe a God-given commission) to "form a more perfect government," then resisting the forces of evil, which are intent to give us totally humanistic government, is an imperative. We should be about the great Command, "Go...and make disciples of all nations,... teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you...." This is not the great option. This is the great command of King Jesus. This is a command against passivity. Indeed, this is THE Command.
I say and stand on, "The Word of God, " King Jesus, and His Words. I don't, "meddle with them," but I do resist "them." While life and society around us are crumbling, you and I are of those our Lord Jesus describes, "And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock," or, "it was well built." The great Biblical principle is that though we, "will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me," we have the great universal principle for those who obey Jesus, "But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank you that You have given me, "the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Amen.
***********************
Why is it that too many of us do, "meddle with them..."? Could it be that too many want, "of their land, of their, "footstep"?!? Wanting what the world system wants has been and is the downfall of too many. The admonition from the "God-Breathed" Word for you and me today is, "....Watch yourselves carefully....Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." There is a principle of life for the Followers of Jesus that we are in this world but not of it. Our Lord Jesus prayed for you and me, "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one." (John 17)
I awoke to this today: "India: Prayer for the believers whose church leader was murdered for being a believer." This is from the Open Doors With Brother Andrew Prayer Force Alert. This Brother was, "not a friend of the world," and paid with his life. Now some people would say, "O, well, what do you expect from 'those' countries." I could respond by saying that you can expect from third or "second world" countries what exactly was not expected from a "first world" country like Germany, yet, nonetheless, burst upon the world. I hope you do not grow tired of my repeating the quote of William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but his words continue to be very sobering to me. "How did it happen that an ancient and cultured people, steeped in Christianity, cultivating the arts and sciences, preeminent in modern technology, who gave us Luther and Kant, Bach and Beethoven, Goethe and Einstein, collapse into savage barbarism in the mid Twentieth Century?" I agree with Shirer when he added, "These questions haunt us still." Beware even the thought, "This could never happen here."
Someone with whom I spoke in Berlin has the attitude that suffering is a part of "the Christian Faith," QED, we should not concern ourselves with such mundane things as governmental elections. I have often taken note of those who can talk of "suffering" and persecution so glibly. Yes, of course, we are promised that, "all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Our Lord Jesus tells us, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me, before it hated you." Yet maybe there is, however, a consideration here. Maybe if we can do something to oppose evil, if, as in the United States of America, we have the constitutional purpose (and I believe a God-given commission) to "form a more perfect government," then resisting the forces of evil, which are intent to give us totally humanistic government, is an imperative. We should be about the great Command, "Go...and make disciples of all nations,... teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you...." This is not the great option. This is the great command of King Jesus. This is a command against passivity. Indeed, this is THE Command.
I say and stand on, "The Word of God, " King Jesus, and His Words. I don't, "meddle with them," but I do resist "them." While life and society around us are crumbling, you and I are of those our Lord Jesus describes, "And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock," or, "it was well built." The great Biblical principle is that though we, "will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me," we have the great universal principle for those who obey Jesus, "But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank you that You have given me, "the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Amen.
***********************
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
