The Sword of the LORD

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:1-5) I think that these verses in St. John are best illustrated by the first few verses of the Bible in Genesis. Both of these passages start with the words, "In the beginning...," and tell the story of the world when it was fresh and new. To me, they also give an allegorical description of the human condition. "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." (Genesis 1:2a) For whatever reason - and theologians and scientists will debate this until the end - the earth was empty and without form before God began His work of regeneration in Genesis. Similarly, our lives outside of Chr

"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come. Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the Son of Peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into wha

"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." (John 8:28) There is an old hymn that we sing that says: Must Jesus bear the cross alone And all the world go free? No, there's a cross for everyone, And there's a cross for me. Unfortunately, these words are lost on many Christians today. It's easy to understand and believe that Jesus carried a cross to Calvary, and there died for our sins; but it is more difficult to grasp the idea of bearing crosses in our lives. The whole idea of resurrection power working in us to make us more Christ-like is based on the concept of life from death. Jesus' illustration of the kernel of wheat being buried in the ground and dying before it can sprout and grow is the perfect picture of what our spiritual life must be. It is a continual process of dying to self so that the l

There is a wonderful verse in the 2nd Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. It is found in chapter 16, verse 9: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” I have often aspired to be one whose heart is perfect toward Him, but thought that it seemed like a very tall order to have a perfect heart; and yet, time and time again God has proven Himself strong in my behalf. I have learned, though, that being perfect in heart is not the same thing as being perfect in thought, word, and deed. No, it is simply this: believing the Lord, and trusting His Word. Asa, king of Judah, was the man to whom these words were originally spoken. In the beginning of his reign, he did that which was right before God. He trusted the Lord for deliverance from a great army that came against Judah. He also removed the idols out of the land and encouraged the people to keep the commandments and la

A neighbor who lives behind me has an amazing apple tree. It is enormous, and has been there for a very long time. It affords a great deal of shade to them in the summer time, and an ample amount of fruit in the fall. The amazing thing about this tree, though, is not its size, or age, or even the amount of apples that it bears; no, the amazing thing is that it bears five different varieties of apple! Someone years ago took the time to graft the branches of other apple trees into the trunk of this existing tree. Now, that which was not possible for this tree to bear on its own has not only become possible, but a reality. Of course, you know that I am drawing an analogy here to the Word of God. It is something that is, unfortunately, very foreign to man in general. Paul tells us in Romans 7, “In me (that is in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing.” My nature is to be very carnal and selfish, but God in His infinite love and wisdom, grafts His own nature into me through the Word of God. Th

Baptism is often overlooked as simply a ritual or act that Christians perform as a show of obedience to the Lord. Once baptized, a Christian usually never thinks of it again. The obligation has been fulfilled. I pray that after reading this today, your view of baptism is changed, and your whole walk with God transformed forever. The sixth chapter of Romans, which teaches us the principle of baptism, begins with a question: “Shall we continue in sin?” The answer is clearly, “no;” but the reason is very intriguing. The writer asks how we, who are dead to sin, can live any longer in sin. Many Christians I know struggle from day to day to do the right things, make the right choices, and live a life that is pleasing to God. They live their life in full awareness that they are open to temptation and subject to attack, and, therefore, are ever busy fighting and resisting those temptations – sometimes successfully, and sometimes not so. The real secret to victory over sin, though, lies not

I’m sure that you have heard the popular expression, “Seeing is believing,” but I would suggest instead that believing is seeing ! Believe is an action verb. We must deliberately believe God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Substance is something that is tangible, not something elusive and vague; and evidence is something that is solid and concrete that will hold up in a court of law. That’s the kind of faith that we must have. Scripture tells us that the Jewish patriarch Abraham, “against hope believed in hope,” and “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.” Though he and his wife were both well beyond years to have a child, Abraham trusted God anyway and saw the promise of Isaac come to pass! Today, folks seem very timid about believing in God – they are easily swayed by their fears. Faith and fear are polar opposites, and yet the definition can be the same for both of these words: “To believe that what you cannot

It wasn’t difficult to receive Christ as my Savior as I think about it today. I was brought to a point in my life where I knew I’d messed up and couldn’t fix things or go back and change the choices I had already made that had brought me down this road. I needed help and, more than that, I needed forgiveness. I didn’t need a theologian to tell me I’d offended the Creator. What little I knew about God was enough to tell me I’d blown it. That’s when someone found me and told me about Jesus. I was amazed to hear that my past could be forgiven, and that I could have a clean slate to write my life on. It wasn’t difficult – I simply believed it. As a gift from heaven, I just accepted it and discovered the joy of salvation. It was sometime later, after I’d settled in to this thing called Christianity, that I began to struggle. Things that I suddenly felt guilty about doing, I had trouble doing without. I would want to do the right thing in my heart, but my body would fight against me and so

We are creatures of habit. We all have our routines which we cherish and protect. Some habits are good, like reading the Bible or praying at a certain time each day; but other habits are not so good (do I really have to name them?). Even our good habits can get in the way of God's will if we become so rigid that we will not allow anything to interfere with our routine. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and scribes in His day saying, "This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." (Mark 7:6-9) Whenever we get too set in our ways, we are in danger of quenching the Spirit in our lives. God wants us to be a spontaneous peopl

"And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish." (Luke 14:25-30) My wife and I just celebrated our 40th year of marriage, and many folks have asked us what the secret of our success is. We are always more than happy to share what has made it work for us. I could mention that my wife and I are the best of friends and enjoy many of the same interests, but have learned to give one another space to pu

Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27) There are many of you who are sincere Christians, but you struggle with some besetting sin or another, and don't know how to get free once and for all. You feel hypocritical every time you fall down, and you are battered by your guilt, and hindered in your ministry. This message is for you. There is an answer to yuor dilemma, and it is much simpler than you might imagine. I recently read a tract by the great Charles G. Finney which was first published in 1839 in the Oberlin Evangelist . The tract was entitled, How to Overcome Sin , and the portions that I quote were edited by the late Keith Green. In it he writes: “There are multitudes of anxious Christians who are inquiring what they shall do to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil...They ask, "Why am I overcome by sin? Why can't I get above its power? Why am I the slave of my appetites and passions, and the s

There was a man by the name of Naaman who lived toward the end of the 9th century B.C. This man was the captain of all the armies of Syria. He was vastly wealthy and powerful, and he was trusted and respected by his king. Despite all that Naaman had going for him, though, he was a leper. Leprosy was a dreaded disease. It caused the flesh to rot from the bone; and it made outcasts of those who were afflicted by it because no one wanted to be exposed to it or to look on those who had it. This was obviously a traumatic state of affairs for any one, let alone a man in Naaman's position. During an earlier raid into the land of Israel, the Syrians had taken some captives among whom was a young girl. This little maiden was placed in the house of Naaman to wait on his wife. Upon hearing of her new master's affliction, she said to her mistress, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." (2 Kings 5:3) God use

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God THROUGH FAITH unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice THOUGH NOW FOR A SEASON, IF NEED BE, YE ARE IN HEAVINESS THROUGH MANIFOLD TEMPTATIONS: THAT THE TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH, BEING MUCH MORE PRECIOUS THAN OF GOLD THAT PERISHETH, THOUGH IT BE TRIED WITH FIRE, MIGHT BE FOUND UNTO PRAISE AND HONOR AND GLORY AT THE APPEARING OF JESUS CHRIST: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” I Peter 1:3-8. “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” St. Luke 18:8. The most valuable possession one may have today is

As Jesus journeyed from Judea to Galilee, He passed through Samaria. As He traveled through, He came to the city of Sychar, which was part of the parcel of land given by the patriarch Jacob to His son Joseph. In this location was Jacob’s well, which still exists to this day. The group stopped at the well and Jesus sat down to rest from the journey while His disciples went into the town to buy provisions. As Jesus sat there on the well, there came a Samaritan woman to draw water from the well. Jesus, looking at her, said, “Give Me to drink.” The woman, surprised that a Jew would speak to her, said, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” Jesus’ response transcended the simple conversation that they were having, and went straight to the spiritual level. He said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would

The thing that distinguishes the God of the Bible from every other so-called god that this world has worshipped over the course of time is: He speaks. St. John writes in his Gospel, chapter one, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” From the time of the creation of our world, when He uttered the words, “Let there be light,” even until now, He has delighted in speaking to man. It was not just a one-sided conversation that He desired, however. He came down into the Garden of Eden seeking man so that He could walk and talk with him, and find fellowship with him. The most significant thing about speech is that it reveals the nature of the speaker. We can make any number of judgments about a person if they never open their mouth; but once they begin to speak to us, it reveals something of their nature. Their personality, their beliefs, their likes and dislikes: they all begin to take shape the more they speak. Of course, in the case of a pe