Battles

  A Work of God Isaiah 60:21 All of your people will do what is right. They will receive the earth forever. They are the plant I have planted, the work of my own hands to show my greatness. Few years ago I was having a conversation with a friend about technology and we began to talk about what people from the past would think about all the things we use every day. My friend believed that people from the past would think some of the things we use are magic but I disagreed. As a historian I am familiar with the level of technical knowledge and general understanding of mechanical skill that existed in history. Some people would be amazed but most people would see a car or a plane or anything mechanical and know the basic ideas behind it. A person from the past might be surprised by the materials used or the tools that it takes to make things but there are people in every age that would grasp what was going on. The reason I talk about this is two fold. First is a deep realizat...

Serving God Isaiah 60:12 The nation or kingdom that doesn’t serve you will be destroyed; it will be completely ruined. An interesting idea that most of us don’t think about is that we live at the bottom of an ocean of air. This fact effects everything we do from how cooking food works to the way cars run. Most of us just take these things as normal and don’t really appreciate how remarkable this ocean of air is and how it influences our lives but it has a real effect on how we live. This idea also has some merit when it comes to how the world works and our relationship with the living God. Very few humans really grasp the concept of grace that God gives us. The fact is that we live every day in the ocean of grace that God gives us and we should develop an understanding of what that means. When we hear the word grace, we often don’t know what it really means but it is so essential to whom God is and How God works that we should at least have a basic knowledge of it’s meaning and ...

Watching God Isaiah 60:4 “Look around you. People are gathering and coming to you. Your sons are coming from far away, and your daughters are coming with them. Growing up my dad was an excavator and during the summer his three sons helped in his work. We all learned how to use a shovel properly and became very proficient in the use of that tool. Building things takes a degree of precision and so we learned how to keep the hole we were working in on grade. Those days were filled with hard work but it was worth it because we learned things and we helped in the process of building something. To this day there are buildings that I pass by that I can say I had a part in building that place and it is a good feeling. When I think how I feel about being a part of the building process it makes me think of how God feels about creation and what it means to Him. Our God is a God who builds which is such powerful thing. Often we do not spend much time thinking about creating things but th...

  Shine Like a Light Isaiah 60:2 Darkness now covers the earth; deep darkness covers her people. But the Lord shines on you, and people see his glory around you. One of the things that God calls people to and be and I think that in popular culture the enemy has built a lie around is to be discriminating. We have a God who is discriminating and that means God looks at things and says yes this is good and that is bad. This is called judgement and having good judgement used to be a good thing. To be able to distinguish between what is healthy and what is unhealthy is not a bad thing but a very positive thing and we as believers in the living God hang our hope in a God who has good judgement. I do have to admit that I used to fear God’s judgement and it scared me to think that I was not what I should be but my mind has changed on the subject. God’s judgement is the greatest hope we have and we should embrace God’s discernment because we are lost people if we don’t. Thinking abo...

  The Nature of God Isaiah 59:17 He covered himself with goodness like armor. He put the helmet of salvation on his head. He put on his clothes for punishing and wrapped himself in the coat of his strong love. One of the struggles we have as believers in the living God is understanding what our faith is all about. It is so easy to make our faith about religious practices because we can do those and then move on but our faith is so much more then a religion. At the same time if we get our faith right religious practices can help us in our worship and service of God. So I don’t want to reject religious acts, I just want them in the right place. Faith in God is also not centered on obedience. Don’t get me wrong God teaches us about the concepts and ideas of how the universe works and when we reject those things our faith will not be what it should be but obedience is a result of our faith not the thing that makes our faith. Our hope in Jesus flows from the nature of God and s...

  The State of Man Isaiah 59:10 We are like the blind feeling our way along a wall. We feel our way as if we had no eyes. In the brightness of day we trip as if it were night. We are like dead men among the strong. My five-year-old granddaughter has become horse crazy. For her birthday Debbie and I bought her horse toys and she loved it. Because of my hobby I have lots of horse models and this little one has discovered them. One day she and I went through every box of figures I own to look for any horses and we found dozens. She was so pleased to know I had all of these figures and now she comes down to play with my horse figures and she wants to build more and even paint some. I love that I get to spend time with her doing something we both enjoy but she does not know that I am also using this time with her to teach her. Of course we do math and we work on reading but I also speak to her about faith and what it means. It is important that she lean how to become a woman ...