Tag Archives: war

Prove Them All Wrong

Bible Study, , , ,

PROVE THEM ALL WRONG

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. (1 Peter 2: 11, 12)

Peter spent some time encouraging his readers to understand who they were in God: elect, holy, God’s people, accepted and beloved with a great and glorious future ahead of them. However, they still had to live their lives in the real world where they were rejected, persecuted and falsely accused of doing wrong.

‘Unfortunately,’ said Peter, ‘that’s how it is! Since you are being treated as foreigners and exiles, live like that – remembering that you are not part of this present world system.’ As Paul would remind them, your citizenship is in heaven. God’s kingdom functions on different principles.

The world system is governed by the prince of this world. He has the human race under his influence – and it’s all about looking after number one first, satisfying the whims and desires of the selfish nature at the expense of others. The believer, on the other hand, has been given a new nature, the nature of God who is first and foremost, pure love.

The problem for us is that our old nature is still very much alive within us and wants to drag us in the direction of self-centred lives which leads to self-destruction. It’s war all the way; not war with the devil as we are so often erroneously taught, but civil war within. The spirit, which is infused with the Spirit of God is at war with our fleshly and nature and our sinful desires as war with God’s desires.

If so-called ‘spiritual warfare’ were against the devil, we would always be the losers and the victims of his evil power. This idea negates Jesus’s victory on the cross. Apostle John declared categorically that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3: 8b). Jesus both disarmed and overcame all the evil powers through the cross.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col. 2: 15)

We do not need deliverance from the devil – Jesus has already delivered us through His death. We need discipline. Our job is to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God and, through the Sprit, to put to death the deeds of the flesh so that we might live to God.

Jesus broke Satan’s power to lie to us. The devil wants to lead us to believe that he is Lord and in control of us. He is not! Jesus is Lord. The Holy Spirit in us leads us to the truth so that we believe what Jesus says and not what the devil says. No one can control our will. We alone have the power to choose and we have the Spirit who enables us to do what we choose.

The battle that rages is us is the battle of our desires. The sinful nature desires to indulge our fleshly appetites. The Spirit desires us to be holy, and living for God. Which one wins? The one we feed, of course. It comes down to the nitty-gritty of what we choose to indulge, the flesh or the spirit. If we indulge the flesh, we will die. We will lose our appetite for God. We will drift from Him until we are right back under the world system and on the way to self-destruction.

It’s not about going to hell when we die. It’s about living in hell now, living a life that has no boundaries, no purpose and no hope. The problem with living in hell now is that we have no appetite for God. Put us in a room full of earnest believers and we will feel uncomfortable and out of place. For a person like that it’s real hell!

What we desire we will do, and what we do we will become. The solution is simple but not easy – focus and grow your desire for God and His kingdom and the desires of the fleshly nature will lose their pull.

David wrote of the Messiah:

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come – it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’ (Psa. 40: 6-8)

When you choose to live like that, you will prove all your critics wrong by your godly life!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Vengeance Day

Christian Life, , , ,

VENGEANCE DAY

“‘When you see soldiers camped all around Jerusalem, then you’ll know that she is about to be devastated. If you’re living in Judea at the time, run for the hills. If you’re in the city, get out quickly. If you’re in the fields, don’t go home to get your coat. This is Vengeance Day — everything written about it will come to a head. Pregnant and nursing mothers will have it especially hard. Incredible misery! Torrential rage! People dropping like flies; people dragged off to prisons; Jerusalem under the boot of barbarians until the nations finish what was given them to do.'” Luke 21:20-24 (The Message).

Why is it that this one city should have experienced more war and destruction than any other city in the world? What does Jerusalem have that makes it the focus of so much conflict? It has no strategic geographical significance, no major economic or industrial function, some historical and archaeological interest, perhaps, but not enough for nations to have fought over it for more than three thousand years.

Once again the issue is a spiritual one. Three major faiths claim Jerusalem as their own. Judaism claims it because Jerusalem was the City of David, their greatest king. It was the capital of their Promised Land and the site of Temple, the symbol of God’s presence among them. Islam claims Abraham as the ancestor of their race; their great Mosque of Omar occupies the place where he offered his son and where the Temple once stood. Christians love Jerusalem because it was the city where Jesus was crucified and rose again.

Jesus’ answer to His disciples’ question,’ Teacher, when is this going to happen?’ takes in two major events, the destruction of Jerusalem under the Roman general, Titus, in 70 AD and the tumultuous events preceding His return. It is not easy to separate these two happenings because, in His predictions, they seem almost to run together. Perhaps He did this on purpose to prevent people from assigning dates to the ‘end of the world’.

When we read about the fall of Jerusalem, it fills us with horror because God appears to be cruel and heartless, subjecting people to terrible suffering out of revenge for not taking Him seriously. But that is not God’s way. From the beginning of their history He made it clear that their protection lay in their trust in Him and obedience to His word. He showed His love for them rescuing them from slavery and by giving them a good land but they chose to reject Him and worship the worthless idols of the surrounding nations.

It was their choice, not God’s, that brought destruction on them. “‘Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the Lord your God when He led you in the way?'” Jeremiah 2:17 (NIV).

The Jews sealed their fate by thoughtlessly calling God’s judgment upon them at Jesus’ trial. “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd.’ I am innocent of this man’s blood.’ he said, ‘It is your responsibility!’ All the people answered, ‘Let His blood be on us and on our children.'” Matthew 27:24-25 (NIV).

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to claim His rightful kingship of His people, the sight of the city reduced Him to tears because He saw the outcome of their rejection of Him. “‘The days will come when your enemies will build an embankment against you and will encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you.'” Luke 19:43-44 (NIV).

God’s word makes it clear that whatever fate we suffer is the end result of our own choices. He has given us the option to receive the mercy He offers us because Jesus died in our place. He honours our freedom to choose right up to the choice of our own destiny. For those who honour Him, there is mercy, forgiveness and a new life which never ends; for those who reject His offer, the eternal rubbish heap of wasted opportunity.

This is War

Christian Life, , , ,

THIS IS WAR

“‘When a strong man, armed to the teeth, stands guard in his front yard, his property is safe and sound. But what if a stronger man comes along with superior weapons? Then he’s beaten at his own game, the arsenal that gave him such confidence hauled off, and his precious possessions plundered.

“This is war and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse.'” Luke 11:21-23 (The Message).

The reaction of the crowd to Jesus when He drove a dumb spirit from a man gave Him the opportunity to warn them that their bigoted opinion of His mercy and their antagonism towards Him put them in a dangerous position – there is no neutral ground when it comes to Him. They could not stand on the side-lines and voice their skeptical and caustic comments and expect to be part of a kingdom that was based on love and trust.

What was His little story about the strong man intended to convey? Was He talking about His mission on earth? Was He telling them to watch out because they were backing the wrong side? Satan thought he was strong enough to guard his territory but he was powerless against one who was stronger than he and who had the authority to evict him and reoccupy the territory that He owned in the first place. The very weapons he thought were invincible, would be his undoing,

What is the weapon Satan thinks will enable him to get what he wants – the allegiance and worship of the people God made for Himself? His most effective weapon is deception, the lies he has woven around whom he is and what he does. He is the father of lies. He dupes people into believing that they can live without God, do exactly as they please and then have an afterlife of bliss and pleasure without Him breathing down their necks. What a terrible lie!

How does Jesus unmask the deceiver and take away his weapons? With the truth! The cross is the clearest demonstration and declaration of the truth. What does it say? That God is in charge, that God is just and that rebellion against Him is punishable by death. It also says that God is loving and merciful and He paid the price for our rebellion by taking our penalty on Himself. Satan’s weapon of lies is powerless to cover up the truth.

In relation to this universal conflict between lies and truth, no-one can be neutral. This is war to the death and whoever does not believe THE truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came in the flesh to reveal the Father and to take the place of sinners in order to ransom them and set them free from their debt, is an enemy and doomed to the fate awaiting the devil and his demons.

That is exactly what the devil is aiming for, that he can take as many people as he can down with him. There is only one way out of his trap – to believe and receive the truth. Not to side with Jesus is automatically to side with the enemy and to side with the enemy is to choose destruction. God gives every person what he chooses.