The Sword of the LORD

" 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 crucifi...

"Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.  But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD." (Jonah 1:1-3).   As much as we hate to admit it, there is, at times, a little bit of Jonah in all of us.  It's that carnal, selfish side of us that rises up and says, "I want to do what I want to do!"  Even when we know it's not a good choice, we choose it anyway.  Paul experienced it, and wrote about it in his letter to the Roman believers.  He said, "For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." (Romans 7:15).  In other words, the things that he hated doing, and in his mind he wouldn't allow himself to do, he did anyway; and the things that he knew were right and good, he found that he had trouble doing.  It's sort of like our New Year's r...

"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God" (Romans 8:15-19).   "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.   And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3:2, 3).   Each of us who have been born again by the Spirit of God has been adopted into the family of God.   From the outset we are fully sons and daughters just as surely as our own children are our sons and daughters the moment they are born.   In terms of maturity, however, we have a lot of growing up to do in order to become fully functioning children of God.   It isn't apparent, looking at ourselves now, just what we will look like or be like once we grow to full maturity.   What is evident, though, is that the more we discover of the Lord Jesus and His true natur...

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.”  (Psalms 34:8).     When I was young, and resistant to trying new foods (especially vegetables), my mother would say, “Just taste one bite, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it.”  Usually, she would have a fight getting me to try even one bite because I had already made up my mind that I didn’t like it.  Something about the color, or the texture, or just the way it lay on the plate would turn me against it.  As unsuccessful as my mom's method was, I still tried it with my own kids with similar results.  Once in a great while, though, they would actually take a taste and, lo and behold, they would like what they tried and want more.    David tells us in Psalm 34, “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”  One can never know just how good a thing is until they experience it for themselves.  We...

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 live...

I can easily identify with the sentiment that the apostle Paul expresses in the tenth chapter of Romans.   He writes, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved .  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God .” (Romans 10:1-3).   As a child, and into my early teens, I was made to attend a church that was void of any spiritual fervor.   The pastor, by his own confession, did not believe in much of the Bible, including the miracles of Jesus and the virgin birth.   The members came to church to show off their new cars and fine clothes, and leave feeling better about themselves because they made the “sacrifice” to come.   Some embraced unbiblical beliefs – such as reincarnation – and yet claimed to be Christi...

Jesus’ teaching was very hard for the people to accept.   Just the day before, He had multiplied a few loaves and fish to feed over five thousand people.   They had come out to see Him then because of the miracles that He was performing on the sick and afflicted.   They loved Him then, but their focus seemed to be more on those miracles than on trying to understand the words of life that Jesus was speaking to them.   They were ready to accept Him as a prophet, and they would have even tried to make Him a king; but they couldn’t see that Jesus was much more than that: He was the Son of God and their long-awaited Messiah.   Jesus had sent His twelve disciples over the sea to Capernaum the night before.   It was then that He had appeared to them walking on the sea as they struggled against a great storm.   When the people realized that Jesus had gone, they found means to cross the sea also and found Jesus at Capernaum.   Jesus called them out by ...

Elijah was a prophet of the Lord who lived around 900 B.C.   God worked many miracles through Elijah including sending fire from heaven in a great contest between him and the prophets of Baal.   The story with which I most identify from Elijah's life, however, is found in the 19th chapter of 1 Kings.     After Elijah's confrontation on Mt. Carmel with the Baal worshippers, Queen Jezebel of Israel was furious with him and commanded that he be put to death.  Elijah's response was like what yours or mine might be: he fled for his life, traveling a day's journey into the wilderness to hide.  While there, Elijah began to feel sorry for himself, and asked God to end his life.  Instead, the Lord sends an angel to minister to him, providing food and water to sustain him.  On the strength of that food, Elijah is able to travel 40 days to Mt. Horeb, where he finds a cave to hide in.  It is there that God asks him this pointed question, "What doest ...