Our Real Battlefield

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rules of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)

There are several elements necessary for a soldier or a military force of any size to be successful.  One thing that is needed are the proper weapons.  The soldier or military force also needs to be properly trained.  Sending anyone into a battle or any type of a hostile situation without the necessary equipment and training would almost certainly guarantee failure.  But, even if a soldier or military force has all of the things they need to go into battle and succeed they will still fail if they are not in the right location.  To win the victory they have to be in the right place to fight the right battle.

The Bible makes it very clear that we have an enemy and that we will face challenges in life.  It is a mistake to think that as Christians we will never have problems.  It is also a mistake to think that the problems we deal with in life are purely natural.  This does not mean that everything we face in life is some demonic problem, but we can be trying to fight our battles on the wrong battlefield.  God has shown us in His Word that our enemy, the devil, comes to steal, kill, and destroy.  He will do everything that he can to hinder us and cause problems for us as we follow God and live a godly life.

God shows us in the Bible that we have been given authority through Jesus and we have been equipped with all that we will need to deal successfully with the devil and anything he tries to do.  But, if we think that our problems are just from some current social situation, a political party, or from other people we will be putting our time and effort into fighting the wrong battle on the wrong battlefield.  By using our God given authority and focusing on our real enemy we will always fight a winning battle.  We need to know our authority and understand how to use the equipment that God has given to us.

You Are A Superhero

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."
John 14:12 (NKJV)

When I was younger I used to read about different kinds of superheroes.  They all had different super powers with some being able to fly, change shapes, breathe underwater, and so on.  The one thing that they all had in common was that they were not common, they were different than the rest of society.  Whenever some problem came along the regular, common people were all looking for a super hero to save them.  The people could not do those things for themselves since they were not the superhero with super powers, without the superhero there was no hope.

Some people look at Jesus as a superhero and think that we are nothing like Him.  They think that everything Jesus did while He was on the earth was done by Him because He was and is the Son of God.  But Jesus came to the earth to live as a man (Philippians 2:5-8) and Acts 10:38 tells us that Jesus was anointed by God to do the works that He did.  Jesus was successful because He worked with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus did not just come to be a superhero for us but to be our example; the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus now empowers us!

Jesus said in John 14:12 that His followers could do the same works that He did, and even greater works! Jesus said they could do this because He was going to leave; this is significant because once Jesus returned to heaven He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us.  Many Christians do not understand this and whenever there is a problem they are looking for Jesus to do something, not realizing that because of Jesus we have what we need to deal with any and every situation that comes our way.  Don't see yourself as just some common person any more, see yourself as a superhero called by God to help others.  We can walk in the power of the Holy Spirit just like Jesus did.

Speaking Sweet Words

"Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones."
Proverbs 16:24 (NKJV)

Have you ever eaten something that just did not taste right? Maybe you have even had the experience of baking something or preparing some type of food that once it was finished and you sampled what you had made something was not right. What you ate or what you made was supposed to taste a certain way but the experience did not match the expectation.  Often the problem is a missing ingredient or the wrong ingredient in the food you ate or made.  If the wrong thing is put into food it will not taste right and it can even make you sick.  One ingredient can make a big difference.

Proverbs 16:24 says that our words can be sweet to our soul and give health to our bones.  Some people get the spirit and the soul mixed up and fail to understand the significance of what Proverbs is saying here.  We are a three part being: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).  Simply put, our spirit is the inner man, our soul is where our intellect and emotions are, and our body is the physical part.  Our spirit becomes a new creation in Christ at salvation but our soul and body still need some work.  The Bible tells us that our words can have an impact on us, our words are like ingredients in our life.

If we are continually saying the wrong things our life we not be the way we want it to be; a necessary ingredient is missing.  Proverbs tell us that the right kinds of words can be sweet to our soul and health to our bones.  People who are continually talking about the wrong things have problems in their thoughts and emotions, and people who are always talking about physical problems never seem to overcome them. By speaking God's Word, by saying what the Bible says about our life, we speak sweet words that can soothe our soul and strengthen our body.  Start speaking God's sweet words today and see what a difference they will make in your life!

Where Do You Live?

"Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. 
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
John 8:31-32 (NKJV)

Everyone lives somewhere.  Some people live in apartments and some in houses. Some people live in the city and some people live out in the country.  But the fact is that everyone has some place that they call home, the place where they live.  Although a person may travel and visit another place for a while they still have something that they always come back to that they call their home.  There are some places you might visit, and even if you stay in that place for a long period of time, that place is not your home, it is not the place where you really live.

In John 8 Jesus was talking to people who believed in Him and agreed with His teaching.  Jesus told them that if they really wanted to be His disciples then there was something that they had to do.  Jesus said to be a disciple, to follow Him, a person had to "abide" in His Word.  The word "abide" in this verse means "to stay".  This means that no matter what else may be going on in your life, no matter what else you may be involved in, you always come back to God's Word and always go first to the Word for whatever questions or concerns you have in life; that is what it means to abide in the Word.

Jesus said being a disciple means to stay in is His Word.  Was Jesus talking about building a house out of Bibles, building something to look like a Bible, or wallpapering your home with Scriptures?  No, what Jesus meant is that the place we live our life, what we always come back to, is the Word.  A disciple of Jesus is someone who lives a life that is governed by the Word of God and no matter what they do in their life they will always come back to the Bible.  Are you a true disciple of Jesus?  The answer depends on where you live.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."
Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25 (NKJV)

In his play "The Merchant Of Venice", Shakespeare used the phrase "All That Glitters Is Not Gold".  While he was not the first or the last to use that phrase many people know it because of him.  What Shakespeare and others were saying with this phrase was that just because something looks good does not mean that it is good.  One example of this is something that is commonly known as "Fool's Gold", which looks like gold but is actually the mineral pyrite.  Appearances can be deceiving and while something may look good, or look like gold, is it actually not and quite possibly something very bad.

Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 both say the same thing, a way can seem right but it leads to death.  We think of death as an ending but usually when the Bible talks about death it means separation.  There are things that may look good to us but they will separate us from God and His plan for our life.  With relationships, our job, the choices we make, and the decisions we face, sometimes things look good, and they may even make sense to us, but it is a completely wrong thing to do or get involved in.  If we choose the wrong things we will miss out on God's best and the blessed life He wants us to have.

We need a way to be able to discern the good and the bad, to know what is right, and which way to go in life.  God has given us the help we need through the leading of the Holy Spirit; He will always help us to see the difference between what is really good and what just looks good.  We can learn to recognize the direction of the Holy Spirit by spending time reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit guided men to write it, and by talking to God in prayer and listening for the direction of the Holy Spirit.  We can expect the Holy Spirit to help us in life, to see what is really good and what only looks good. 

Which Seat Are You Sitting In?

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,"
Ephesians 2:4-6 (NKJV)

Have you ever had the situation of being on an airplane and you found out you were in the wrong seat?  Maybe you looked at your boarding pass and it said 25E and you sat down in seat 25F by mistake.  This is something that has happened to me and I have seen it happen several times to others.  While this situation is usually resolved quickly and easily I have seen people get somewhat upset when they are sitting in the wrong seat and someone asks them to move.  But if we are in the wrong seat we can miss some of the things that we would have received if we had been in the right seat.

The Bible helps us to understand our true position now that we are in Christ.  Once we have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are "in Him" and who we are in Christ is now our true identity.  No matter who or what we were before, no matter what we did or did not do right in the past, we now have a new identity in Christ.  In Ephesians we are told that we are seating together with Christ in heavenly places.  This means that spiritually speaking we were united with Jesus and identified with Him in His death and resurrection so that today we are seated with and in Him.

Sometimes believers do not understand who they are in Christ, where they are spiritually located.  If we will spend time reading and studying the Bible it will be easy for us to locate and identify ourselves as being seated in Christ.  Some Christians are sitting in the wrong seat, spiritually speaking.  They have seen or heard something that made them believe that they are something other than who they are in Christ.  For us to live a life in the blessings that God provided for us through Jesus, we need to know who we are in Him and that we are seating together with Jesus in heavenly places.

Brighter And Brighter

"But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day."
Proverbs 4:18 (NKJV)

Have you ever bought a product that claimed to be better than before but you found out that it actually wasn't any different?  Have you ever updated an app only to find out that the supposedly improved version of the app was really the same as what you had before, or maybe even worse?  Sometimes with what we buy, the things we use, and even in our life it seems like we get stuck or hit a high point and go down after that; it seems that things do not get better and better but they either stay the same or they get worse.  Sometimes that's how things are, but is that the way they should be?

Some Christians seem to view their relationship with God like being on a treadmill.  Something is happening, there is some activity going on, sometimes things move faster or slower, but it is all pretty much the same year after year.  Even though there may be highs and lows, things are not too much different today for some believers in their walk with God than they were last year, or maybe things even seem worse.  But we can, and should, have a better relationship with God and a better Christian life today and in the next year than we ever did in the past; that is how God wants us to live.

Proverbs 4 talks about the path of the just, their course in life, getting brighter and brighter.  As Christians, those who are justified and made right with God through the blood of Jesus, our life should improve each year and never stagnate, and definitely not get worse.  Our relationship with God can have a greater depth this year than last year, we can learn more, give more, and do more than ever before because God's plan for us is to improve and develop year after year.  Expect your life to be brighter this year than ever before as you continue to develop in your walk with God and His plan for your life.

Shining Star

"When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy."
Matthew 2:9, 10 (NKJV)

Matthew 2:1-10 gives us a familiar Christmas story about how wise men came from the east to see Jesus.  It is very likely that this was actually a large group of men who made the long journey and it is also quite possible that these wise men were of some high rank since they had access to King Herod to ask about the star.  Why did these men come to Jerusalem?  No doubt they were familiar with the scriptures concerning the Messiah and with Numbers 24:17 that refers to the Messiah as a Star rising out of Israel; but it was the star in the sky that actually led them to Jesus.

People are searching for truth today and they are looking for answers.  Problems come to everyone sooner or later and if people are not facing difficulties from external problems they are dealing with questions, despair, loneliness, depression, and other issues.  The thing these people need is someone to guide them to the source of the answers to their problems, which is Jesus.  The wise men were looking for Jesus, they just needed direction and that came from the star they followed.  Today people need someone to be the guide that helps to bring them to Jesus, that someone is you and me!

Matthew 5:14-16 says that we are the light of the world; we use a light to see and help us find our way, we are the light shining in the world today to show people the way to Jesus.  Putting a light into a dark room enables you to see where you are going, it guides you.  We need to be a guide to lead people to Jesus just like the star led the wise men.  Christmas is a time of joy and celebration, but in the midst of our celebration let's not forget that we need to be an example to the world to show them the true source of joy, Jesus!

Desire The Word

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,"
1 Peter 2:1, 2 (NKJV)

There is one fact that everyone who has a baby, or anyone who has seen a baby knows, babies get hungry, often.  Once a baby is born they don't do too much other than eat.  If a baby does not get their food when they want it, then they will cry and let you know, there is no mystery about it.  When it is hungry, a baby wants to eat; babies will even wake up in the middle of the night and want to eat.  It can be a sunny day, rainy day, hot, or cold but it does not matter because that baby still wants to eat.  It seems that just about all the baby ever wants to do is to eat.

Peter makes an interesting comparison between our desiring the Word of God and a baby desiring milk.  Peter talks about our putting aside some negative, ungodly things and instead choosing the Word in the same way that a baby chooses milk over everything else.  Just like a newborn baby wants to eat and will not be satisfied until they do eat we need to have a desire, a craving, for the Word.  God's Word will help us to grow, but if we neglect the Word we will hinder our spiritual development.  Still, for some Christians having a strong desire for the Word is something foreign to them.

Some believers have filled themselves with other things that have spoiled their hunger, so to speak, for God's Word.  Many people have neglected the Word for so long or have heard it mixed with non-biblical teachings to the point that God's Word is an afterthought to them.  But if we spend time reading the Word and getting to know God through it our perspective would change.  By spending time with the Word we will find ourselves being drawn more and more to it, just as a baby desires milk we too will desire the Word.  What are you craving today, is it God's Word or something else?

Let's Remember

"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you; that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes."
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NKJV)

If you have ever taken a trip to popular tourist destination you have probably seen souvenir stands selling all kinds of things that are associated with that place or some famous landmark there.  When people buy these souvenirs it is normally not because the souvenir is so valuable or that it even meets a need in their life.  People buy souvenirs to remember their trip and to remind themselves about all of the wonderful things that happened during that time, it is all about remembering.

For many Christians, Communion (or as some call it, the Lord's Supper) is nothing more than a ritual with no real significance to it.  Others have ideas, some of them not even biblical, about the meaning behind Communion.  Still other believers argue about how often someone should have Communion or exactly what someone should eat or drink during this time.  The problem with all of that is that the true meaning behind Communion and what it should mean for us today is lost.

Paul said that as often as we take Communion we are proclaiming the Lord's death; it is a time to remember what Jesus did for us.  It is not a time for us to think about our past mistakes and failures but to remember that through the blood of Jesus we have been forgiven.  Communion is about remembering that God loved us so much He sent His only Son to die for us.  The next time you receive Communion make it a time of remembering all of the wonderful things that Jesus has done.

Teach Your Mouth What To Say

"The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips."
Proverbs 16:23 (NKJV)

If you were interested in getting physically fit you might hire a personal trainer to design a set of exercises to help you reach your goal.  That person could also monitor your progress and help you make any necessary corrections.  If you needed to learn how to drive you would find a qualified driving instructor to give you lessons on how to drive a car and they could ride along with you during the learning process to help you.  If you wanted to learn another language you could go to a school or even hire a private teacher to help you with the language and give you advice on how to speak the language.

One area that everyone can use help with is with the words we speak.  Our words are very important, which is why we see over and over again in the Bible an emphasis on being sure we speak the right words.  How do we know the right words to speak?  The first way is by seeing what God Himself has said about us and our life in His Word, the Bible.  Secondly, the Holy Spirit will help to guide us into speaking the right words.  However, even though the Bible shows us what to say and the Holy Spirit will direct us about what to say it is still up to us to say the right thing, we must choose the right words.

Proverbs 16:23 gives us the answer to how this will work in our life.  From our heart, our inner man, our spirit, we must teach and train our mouth about the right things to say.  We should never allow our mouth to just express whatever might come to our mind or repeat anything we hear.  We must keep a constant vigil over our words to be sure that what we speak is in line with God's Word.  We must fill ourselves with God's Words and choose the right words to speak in every situation; God will help us, but from our heart we must direct our mouth about what to say.

An Attitude Of Gratitude

"And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.  So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.  And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."
Acts 5:40-42 (NKJV)

The perspective you view things with is very important.  It has been said that people view a glass of water as either being half full or half empty.  The contents of the glass are exactly the same for both people but the perspective the glass is seen with is different.  Our attitude is based on our perspective and people with a positive perspective will have an overall better attitude than people with a negative perspective.  If we look for the positive aspects of things rather than the negative it will help us to be thankful and have an attitude of gratitude.

In Acts 5 we see that the disciples were put into prison by some religious leaders but God miraculously delivered the disciples.  Then God told the disciples to go to the temple and teach the people, so they did, and then the disciples were arrested again!  This time the religious leaders were so upset that they wanted to kill the disciples, but instead they just beat them and told the disciples not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore.  When the disciples were set free they went away rejoicing!  The disciples saw a positive aspect in their situation and rejoiced and gave thanks to God.

Many people focus on their problems rather than on the good things in their lives.  This is seen in their unthankful, ungrateful attitude.  God wants us to have an attitude of gratitude and to be thankful in every situation and circumstance of life. No matter how bad things might appear to be, or how bad things really are, if we look a little bit we can find something to be thankful for, just like the disciples did.  We all need to guard ourselves from the ungrateful, unthankful attitude that is so prevalent today.  By being thankful for the things we do have we can keep an attitude of gratitude.

What Would Jesus Do?

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me." 
John 6:38 (NKJV)

Several years ago there was a popular wrist band that had the question, "What Would Jesus Do?" on it.  Most of the time the wrist band simply read, "WWJD" and people understood the reference.  The idea behind this wrist band was that if we want to know the right way to live we can look at how Jesus lived and do that same thing.  Although it is nice to think that we can always know what to do by just simply reading about the life of Jesus and imitating what He did, that is not exactly how our life should function.

While Jesus is our example for how to live a life pleasing to God we cannot just imitate everything He did in every situation.  For example, we read about Jesus going to a wedding where He turned water into wine.  It is doubtful that this is the will of God for us the next time we go to a wedding but it is the only example we have of Jesus attending a wedding.  Another instance would be with the people that Jesus raised from the dead.  The next time we go to a funeral are we supposed to raise someone from the dead?  That is most likely not the case.

Jesus came to do the will of God, not to do His own will or just copy someone else.  God had a plan for what Jesus was to accomplish while He was on the earth and the same thing is true for us.  While there certainly are many principles we can take from the life of Jesus and use examples from how He did things to be successful and pleasing to God we must realize that we are individuals that God also has a plan for.  God has given us His Word and placed the Holy Spirit inside of us to help direct us in every area of our lives.  Jesus purpose in life was to do the will of God, let's have the same goal!

Influences

"Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them."  
2 Chronicles 24:2, 17 (NKJV)

We have all seen examples of how one thing influences another; like how the moon affects the ocean's tides.  Another example would be how the shining of the sun influences the temperature.  But what if somehow the moon no longer had an effect on the ocean or the sun did not shine?  The results would not be good.  God created things to be interconnected with some things having an effect on other things.  Our world is an amazing place when we understand how so many things have an influence on other things and if that influence would be removed negative consequences would follow.

King Joash reigned over Judah for forty years.  For a time he did well and followed God, but that only lasted as long as Jehoiada who was the priest at the time was alive.  The influence of Jehoiada was seen in how Joash lived and reigned and how that once Jehoiada the priest was gone things changed.  Joash went from being a good king to a bad king largely due to the people who influenced him.  He did what was good when he had the influence of Jehoiada the priest, but Joash became a bad king once Jehoiada died and Joash even ended up killing the next priest, who was Jehoiada's son!

God created us as individuals and while it is important for us to grow and mature spiritually so that we can stand on our own, we were never meant to live life alone.  Even people who are not believers in Jesus are aware that anyone who has no relationships, or only has bad relationships, will not do well.  We are all influenced by the people around us and we need to be sure the people we allow into our lives are good, godly people.  Christians are a part of the Body of Christ and we should be a positive influence by helping and encouraging one another; we all need to be a good influence on others.

Smoothing Out The Rough Spots

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 3:16, 17 (NKJV)

Recently I was at the dentist having a cavity filled.  Dental work is not something that people necessarily look forward to but when something needs to be done just putting dental work off is not a good idea.  My dentist does a great job and I am always satisfied with the work that has been done.  But after this recent visit I noticed that something was not quite right.  The tooth that I had the work done on had a rough spot on it, a bump that needed to be smoothed down.  While I might have been able to just ignore the bump it was better to have it taken care of so there were no further problems.

One aspect of the Christian life that people do not necessarily look forward to or get excited about is in the area of spiritual growth.  Once we become a Christian and make the step to follow Jesus by receiving Him into our heart and life we start the process of spiritual growth.  As we walk with God there may be some rough spots in our life, some bumps along the way that need to be dealt with so there are no further problems in the future.  The way we take care of the bumps and smooth out the rough spots in our life is through the Word of God; God's Word is given to us to help us grow and develop spiritually.

Paul told Timothy that God's Word is profitable for our doctrine, for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness; it is what we need to show us the right things to believe, to help us avoid error, to correct us, and to guide us in our life.  The Word of God is necessary for us to live a successful Christian life because it will help us to grow and develop spiritual showing us the right and wrong in every aspect of our life.  God's Word was given to us so we would be complete (mature) and equipped for all that God has called us to do; we need to let God's Word help us smooth out the rough spots in our life.