The Sword of the LORD

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...

Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. Matthew 26:13 Two days before the Jewish Passover, Jesus and His disciples came to Bethany where Lazarus and his two sisters lived. It was Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Jesus was invited to dine at the house of a man named Simon, who was a leper. While there, a woman entered the room carrying an alabaster box that was filled with a very expensive ointment. The box itself was very beautiful. Alabaster was similar to onyx in appearance and must have been fashioned into a very attractive container to house such a precious ointment. The cost of the ointment was equivalent to about $50.00 in today’s currency. This would be an expensive possession today, but at that time it was a very valuable treasure. It was certainly this woman’s greatest possession and something that she had guarded and cherished. It is co...

I remember well as a young man growing up in church, I wanted to do well and make right choices; but I found that, despite my best intentions, I still did things that I was not proud of. Afterwards, I would resolve to do better, only to fall to the same weaknesses a short time later. Unfortunately, the church that I grew up in could not offer me the answers to the conflict I was feeling. The Pastor himself admitted openly that he didn’t believe much of the Bible, and so substituted a social gospel that was devoid of any true power to change lives. For this reason, I thought I had seen religion and found that it had nothing to offer me, so I turned my back on Christianity. I wandered for a number of years in confusion, and gave myself over to a lot of hurtful pursuits until one day God called me to Himself. I was amazed one day when I discovered a passage in scripture that exactly described the dilemma that I faced as a teenager. I read in Romans 7, “For I know that in me (that is, in...

“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the right­eous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25) During my first year of Christianity, I felt inspired to write a small tract entitled God Is No Pauper . It was a simple treatise on trusting the Lord for His provision of our daily needs and the needs of the ministry. It exposed the notion of having to appeal to man to supply one's needs rather than trusting in the promises of God. One section of that message is as follows: "If the earth and all the fullness thereof is the Lord’s, then surely He is capable of carrying out His work without His saints having to beg and yahoo for funds to support that work. Neither is it easy to imagine God’s holy apostles and prophets “passing the plate” to procure wages to support the work that God had given them to do. Why, therefore, should it be any different for any of His other ministers? "The apostle Paul worked with his hands as a tentmaker to support h...

After the death of Moses, Joshua became the spiritual leader and commander who would bring the Israelites into the land of promise after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. The first great obstacle that the Hebrews encountered after their miraculous crossing of the Jordan River was the city of Jericho. Jericho was a formidable city with a stone wall that presented a difficult challenge to Joshua and his army. This city was key to the conquest of Canaan in that it defended the central hill country and the other cities of the region. Joshua had sent spies into the city to survey its defenses and had learned, among other things, that the people were terrified of the Israelites and their God because of all they had heard that the Lord had done for them. God spoke to Joshua and told him, "See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour." (Joshua 6:2) Moreover, the Lord appeared to Joshua in the plain of Jericho and reveale...