The Sword of the LORD

“And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. ” (Luke 4:21 NKJV).   Jesus had just been in the wilderness for forty days of fasting.   It was the Spirit of God that led Him there.   At the end of His fast Satan tried to divert the Lord from the purpose that He had been sent to earth to fulfill.   Of course, Satan failed in his attempts, and Jesus returned out of the wilderness "in the power of the Spirit" and entered into Galilee.   At that time Galilee was one of three provinces in Palestine - Judea and Samaria were the other two.   It was referred to as "Galilee of the Gentiles" because of the large percentage of Gentiles that inhabited the area.   To say that the "purer" Israelites of Judea looked down their noses at the Galileans, and felt superior to them, would be an understatement.   When Philip first told Nathaniel about Jesus, Nathaniel’s comment was, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazaret...

"Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom." (Psalm 51:5).   God desires that we be honest with Him.  He is interested in both what we do, and why we do it.  Our actions may seem good on the surface, but the Lord searches out our innermost intentions.  He examines our motives to see if our works are wrought in Him, or are "self" propelled.  In another Psalm, David says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23, 24).  David realized that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; therefore we need the Lord's help in discerning what makes us tick.   In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul explains that if he were to possess the faith to move mountains, or give all that he had to the poor, or even give himself up as a martyr to the Lord, yet, if he di...

"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned . " (Isaiah 40:2).    2 Chronicles, chapters 17-20, tells the story of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who lived during the 10th century B.C.  Jehoshaphat was a good king.  Scripture tells us, "his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 17:6).    He was not a perfect man, however.  He made the mistake of allying himself with Ahab, king of Israel, against the Syrians.  This displeased the Lord because Ahab was a very wicked man who had led Israel away from worshipping God and taught them to worship Baal instead.  It is said of Ahab, "Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." (1 Kings 16:33).   After the battle with the Syrians in which Ahab was mortally wounded and Jehoshaphat escaped with his life only because of God's divine inte...

“ As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him : rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6, 7).   I am forever amazed at just how ready I was to receive Christ as my Savior.   I had been 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 the road that I was on.   I needed help, but more than that, I needed mercy.   I didn’t need a theologian to tell me I’d offended my 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 the rest of my life on.   It wasn’t difficult – I simply believed it.   As a gift from heaven, I just accepted it and di...

THE MESSAGE OF the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, is one that is central to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Kingdom of Heaven is a place we hope to inhabit after we die, but we are often unclear about just what it is and how it has any relevance to us in this present world.  Without a proper understanding of the heavenly Kingdom, we fall short of living a truly Spirit-filled life, and we become entangled in a temporal system which God has condemned and intends to ultimately destroy.    When John the Baptist began his preaching in the wilderness of Judea, his message was simple and direct.   He said, “Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. ” (Matthew 3:2).   His purpose was to announce the imminent appearance of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the ushering in of a new dispensation of grace.   He was also announcing a shift from the importance of an earthly, visible kingdom (the Jewish nation) to an invisible, al...

" And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ..."  (Matthew 6:13)   Growing up, I was taught to recite the Lord's Prayer in Sunday school, and I committed it to memory at an early age.   It wasn't until years later, however, that the words began to sink in, and then only little by little as the Lord opened my understanding to what I had learned.   Most recently, though, I was brought up short by the words quoted above.   I have always considered that temptation was an inevitable part of life, and that there was nothing that I could do to avoid it.   These words promise something altogether different than I had ever considered.   They indicate that the Lord is willing to lead me in such a way that I will not walk into temptation blindly, and that He is able to deliver me from the evil that would seek to divert me from following Him.   When Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray before His betrayal and ultimate cru...