Satan:His Motives and Methods by Lewis Sperry Chafer

I just finally finished reading this book about Satan. I love sports and am competitive. When a team prepares for a game, they get to know their enemy as much as possible. Our ultimate enemy in Satan, knowing what the Word of God says about him is very helpful. My favorite part of this book came in chapter 10 where Chafer points out that "it was necessary for Satan to rob the church, to a great extent, of her 'blessed hope' of Christ's return, before he could attract attention to his own attempts at world improvement, and establish his own authority as ruler over this age." He goes on to say that many Christians today do not look forward to Christ's coming again. This is exactly what Satan wants because if he can take away our greatest hope, no other lost soul will want what we have and we will never be asked to give the reason for the hope that lies within us. Time and time again we see in scripture that the only way that the early church was able to endure such persecution was because they were looking for the day that they would see Christ face to face. We need to be more like the early church, especially in the culture that we live in today. I echo what John said at the end of Revelation, "Come, Lord Jesus."

Suffering with Joy

Psalm 62:5 "My Soul wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him."

"Affliction and suffering are the lot of all men, the privelege of all believers. There are joys that can come to us only throgh sorrow." -Miles Stanford

COME THOU FOUNT

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Circumstances

I was reminded today in my devotions that we should not get caught up in our circumstances, but continue to abide in Christ alone. "The unbelieving heart looks at the circumstances, and leaves God out. Faith, on the contrary, looks only at God, and leaves circumstances out."

In my circumstances, good or bad, may God be glorified.

John 14:1-3

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."

ESV

Come quickly Lord Jesus!

I Need Thee Every Hour

This hymn has been in my head and my heart for a few days now. The words are so powerful and so true.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

Refrain

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessèd Son.

The Lamb is our Shepherd

"For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." -Revelation 7:17; ESV

What an amazing thing to consider; Jesus Christ is not only the Lamb that was crucified for us on the cross, but because of that He is now our Shepherd, who gives us every good thing that we need for life. Praise the Lord that He is BIG enough to do both!! Praise the Lord for His sufficient grace!! One day we will no longer have to go through pain or have tears. I can't wait, come quickly Lord Jesus.

"Let God be God"

"The turning poing in our Christian life comes when we begin to "let God be God," the day we throw all caution (fear) to the winds and look to Him to carry out His purpose for us in His own time and way." -Miles Stanford

I've been learning that when I let God be God, He works in amazing ways. In my ministry at Ames Christian School I have had the priveledge of seeing Him work in the hearts of the students. I also have been experiencing God working in my heart. The thing that is most amazing to me is when I let God be God, He gives peace. It truly is all about Him, and not about me.

"for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
Phil. 2:13 ESV

Lamentations 3:22-23

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

NIV

Galatians 6:9-10

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."

ESV

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

ESV

Sanctity of Life Day

Yesterday, Sunday, January 21, 2007 was Sanctity of Life Day. This topic is one that is close to my heart for a number of reasons. As I was driving home from school today, I heard some staggering statistics; such as 3,000 abortions are performed everyday and that in New York City alone last year there were 86,000 abortions performed. Since 1973, there have been 47,282,923 abortions performed in this country.

To give you some perspective on these numbers, remember September 11, 2001, the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The death toll from that day was about 3,000 people. So, every day in this country we experience the loss we did on that terrible day in September. The number of abortions last year performed in New York City is equivalent to wiping the city of Waterloo, Iowa off the map. I can’t even start to make sense of the last statistic that I listed in the above paragraph. Even though the numbers are staggering, we never hear about this tragedy on the nightly news. Why? Because the world says that these unborn babies are not actually alive.

I don’t buy that, because Christ had some very important words that He spoke about children in Matthew 19:13-14, "Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’" God values life and anyone who has seen the miracle of a heart beating in the womb at six weeks would say that that is LIFE.

I am so thankful that there are organizations that are pro-life and a President that is strongly pro-life. However, I believe that Christians need to stop wavering on this issue and take a strong Biblical stand against abortion. In a book from Focus on the Family, Answering the Call (2003), John Ensor points out that one in six abortions are done on women identifying themselves as "born again" Christians... When he was a pastor in Boston in 1989 he was shocked, he said, to discover that 30% of the women in his church had had an abortion (pp. 21-22). Ensor concludes, "Indeed, the abortion industry could not survive financially without paying customers drawn from the church (pp. 21)." That is sad, but challenging to me. We need to continue to take a stand on this issue.

HELP

The following statement is from a previous post that caused a misunderstanding, "Now I know that there were people in Scripture who prayed for help, which tells me it is not wrong. It is good to pray for help." Those of you who thought that I said that the point of my post was that praying for help is wrong, I am sorry. That was never my intention. However, I am excited to see people thinking about God's Word.

There has been and will be many more times when I will fall to my knees and call out to God for Help. When I do that, I am declaring my dependence on Him all over again because I probably was trying to do things on my own and He placed me into the "Fire"(suffering) and all that was left was Him. This is illustrated by the verse below. Read the context, the man is facing a hard time and understands that His belief in Christ is not what it should be and begs for help. This happens in my life from time to time.

Mark 9:24
"Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

However, everyday as I declare my dependence on Him and am not trying to do it on my own, I find myself praying beyond just "HELP". Through this challenge, I have grown closer to God. I definetely have not "arrived" yet, but there is much joy in resting in God. I am learning to be still, and know that HE IS GOD!

Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Prayer-Not as Easy as I Thought

As a teacher, I enjoyed a nice two week break over the Holiday Season. During that break, I had the great opportunity of teaching an adult Sunday school class about prayer from the book Desiring God, by John Piper. As I prepared and presented the lesson, I was convicted about how much I need to get back to a consistent prayer life. I also was convicted about prayer in my ministry at school. I decided that it was time to get back into the habit of praying on a more consistent basis.

Little did I know what God had just around the corner for me. A colleague of mine gave me a book entitled, The Green Letters by Miles Stanford. The book talks about how we as Christians need to put more of an emphasis on focusing on what Christ already accomplished for us versus focusing on what I can do for Christ. It is all about Him, and not about us. As I read that book I came to a chapter entitled “Help.” I was stopped dead in my tracks when I read the first sentence, “It is time to stop asking God for help. He didn’t help us to be saved, and He doesn’t intend to help us live the Christian life. Immaturity considers the Lord Jesus a Helper. Maturity knows Him to be Life itself.” The verses that He points out are Philippians 1:21 and Philippians 4:13a. Wm. R. Newell said, “Satan’s great device is to drive earnest souls back to beseeching God for what God says has already been done!” I realized then what he meant by the first statement about “help” was that God has already given us everything that we need for this life and godliness in Jesus Christ and that asking for help is asking God to do things He already has accomplished for me through Christ.

This makes a lot of since, considering what I taught in Sunday School. “So we see repeatedly in Scripture that prayer is a walkie-talkie for warfare, not a domestic intercom for increasing our conveniences.” (John Piper) The majority of the time when I ask God for help it is as if prayer is a domestic intercom and not a walkie-talkie for warfare.” All of the sudden prayer is really hard for me. I think that it should be hard for every believer to pray. Words in our pathetic English language are not adequate for the Almighty God.

I challenge anyone who is reading this post, to look at the spiritually mature believers in Scripture (Jesus and Paul) and pay attention to how they prayed. They did not ask for help. They were much more specific and had a warfare mindset. Now I know that there were people in Scripture who prayed for help, which tells me it is not wrong. It is good to pray for help. But the best way to pray is not for help. Those who prayed for help in the Bible, were number one, part of a different dispensation, or two, spiritually immature.

I will leave you with this thought, How much more effective could God be through you this year, if you did not pray for help, but prayed the way Jesus and Paul did in Scripture?

What I Learned this Christmas

God is so good. Friday, December 22, I went out with my lovely wife to celebrate our 9^th anniversary. It was a great time. We went and saw The Nativity movie out at Jordan Creek Town Center in Des Moines. I really enjoyed it, I was happy to find Christian Hedonism in the movie. Joseph, after the angel came to him, decided to give up the entire honor he had in Nazareth and take Mary as his wife, even though she conceived before the betrothal period was finished. Nothing else mattered to Him, except doing what God wanted him to do. Joseph gave it all up because he knew that God would satisfy. Little did I know at that time that God was going to test me in being satisfied only in Him soon.

My wife and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner and headed home. We had many plans for the holiday weekend with her family and I was looking forward to being home with my family. That night, it happened. I got really sick in the middle of the night. I don’t know if it was something I ate or just the flu, but it hit hard. I was in bed all day Saturday and most of Sunday. I did not get my appetite back until just recently, but it gets worse. We as a family went to spend the night Christmas Eve at my in-laws in Huxley. As we are all settling in for the evening, my little 15 month old boy gets sick and vomits three times during the night. I remember praying through the night that God would give us all grace the next day, so that we could enjoy celebrating Jesus’ birth together. Remember, God is good all the time.

Christmas finally arrived and to my amazement I was felling better than I had all weekend long. Also, my son was excited and back to normal. It is amazing how God watches over us and cares for us. Throughout my experience, I learned that God satisfies us even when our physical bodies do not work right. God answered many of my prayers over this past weekend and I give Him all the glory. He continues to use circumstances and His Word to teach me so much about how sufficient His grace is. I praise Him for the trial. To God be the Glory. Also, I am looking forward to eating Christmas goodies now that I am feeling better. I have to make up for the lost days this past weekend.

Tattoos and Body Piercing: Not can we, can we, but why would we?

As a Bible teacher at Ames Christian School, I have been asked by students to voice my opinion on the issue of tattoos and body piercing. At first, I was handling the question by discussing Christian liberty and talking about how it really comes down to the personal convictions of the heart. For me I would never get a tattoo or pierce my body, not even with Christian signs or slogans. However, this does not make me more saved than a Christian who does have these things. I have to finally confront my views Biblically and see if they measure up to God’s standard. I believe that they do.

The first scripture in my search for truth that I came across is this Leviticus 19:28, “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.” This sounds pretty black and white, however, as good Bible students would point out to me, consider the context. This is a legalistic approach and will not hold up because we are under grace and not law. So the search continues.

As the discussion went on, a student brought up this verse, “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’" (I Samuel 16:7) This student’s point was that God doesn’t care what is on the outside; therefore tattoos are okay as long as it is glorifying God. This sounded really good, but for some reason, I was not convinced.

As I thought more about this concept, this thought came to me. If the LORD looks on the heart and only the heart, then why would we desire to spend our money and energy defending a tattoo or body piercing that is merely an outward appearance. The outward appearance is the mode we use to please man. The heart is the mode we use to please God. I Thessalonians 2:4 says, “but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.” We, as Christians, must concentrate our energy on our hearts, not our outside appearance. The writer of Proverbs puts it this way, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23). If our hearts are being satisfied only in God, then we will not desire satisfaction from tattoos, body piercing or anything else this “world” promotes as satisfying. Remember, God is most concerned with our hearts.

Another view was presented in my class by students. If a person is sporting a Christian tattoo or Bible verse tattoos, could they not be a light to others around them. How many people do you know have been converted because of a tattoo on someone else’s arm? There might be a few because God is bigger than tattoos and can use anything. However, I do not believe this method to be the most effective method of evangelism. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus addresses what is an effective way to be a light; “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Christ says, so that they may see your “good works.” Christians do not need a specific marking on them to show the world that they are Christ’s. Our deeds should speak for themselves. The way we talk, act and choose to separate from sinful things speaks more about our allegiance to Christ than any tattoo or piercing ever will. A person who needs a tattoo to draw people’s attention (and even his or her own attention!!) to the One they have accepted in their life is acting out superficial Christianity.

This issue fits perfectly with what Paul said in I Corinthians 6:12; “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.” Tattoos and body piercing may be lawful, but I know that they are not helpful and they do enslave people. No one has ever regretted not getting a tattoo or body piercing, but many have regretted it.

In closing, as a Christian when I see another Christian that has a tattoo or a body piercing, I do not hold that against them. I get to know their heart. As Christian young people read this article, my prayer is that they see that the issue is not a matter of can we have a tattoo or can we have a body piercing, but why would we waste our money and efforts on something that is merely an outward appearance. God will satisfy your heart, He is waiting to do it. Are you going to be willing to let Him?

Why a Christian Hedonist?

According the dictionary.com the definition of a Hedonist is “a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification.” This does not sound very Christian, does it? Hedonism is the philosophy that I would say is ruling in this World. Everyone wants joy and they will do anything to get it and they want it right now. I believe that every human has a natural desire for joy. However, we all tend to find joy that is superficial and not lasting in this world. The funny thing is, it "satisfies" us even when there is a greater joy to possess.

That brings me to the answer to my question, why a Christian Hedonist. As I have been reading Desiring God by John Piper I have learned what a Christian Hedonist is. A Christian Hedonist is a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure in God. John 10:10b tells us that Christ came to give us life, abundant life. Psalm 103 is a psalm of David and it starts out by Praising God and then it comes to verse 5 where it says that God satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. My purpose in living is to give glory to God. Therefore, “God is most glorified in me, when I am most satisfied in Him.” (John Piper) When I am most satisfied in Him, He gets the most glory and I get real lasting joy, unspeakable joy, inexplicable joy, REAL JOY! Therefore I will devote my life to the pursuit of pleasure(joy) in God and not in anything this world has to offer. This is very difficult to constantly do, but it can be accomplished because of who Christ is and the provision He has made for each of us.