The Sword of the LORD

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...

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also." (Matthew 23:25,26).   Years ago, when my children were very young, I began using flannel-graph figures to illustrate Bible stories and lessons for them.   It wasn’t long before other parents in our fellowship asked if they could bring their children to sit in on our lessons once a week.   Word got out in our neighborhood, also, and a dear friend of ours began picking up kids and bringing them to our house for "kids' meeting" every week.   We often had 20-30 children of various ages crowding our living room to hear about the miracles of the Bible and the principles of godliness.   One lesson in particular involved white porcelain mugs and mud.   I took two white mug...

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy ." (1 Peter 1:13-16).   We often interpret this call to holiness as a commandment:"You must be holy because I am!"   I see it as more of an invitation to excellence, however.   "Come, you are now able to be holy, because I am holy!"   It is because Christ has overcome that we can be overcomers.   It is because Christ has risen from the dead that we can know resurrection life.   He is the reason that we can be loving, patient, joyful, peaceful, gentle, wise, virtuous, kind, or temperate.   None of these things grow naturally in us.   We must attached to the Vine, Je...

After Jesus called Phillip to follow Him, Phillip was excited to share his newfound faith and discovery of the Messiah with his friend Nathaniel.   Phillip went to his friend and told him, “We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,” (John 1:45).     It’s perfectly natural for us, when we have discovered something extraordinary, to want to share what we have found with those we love.   Nathaniel, however, was skeptical.   After all, the prophecies were very clear about where the Messiah was to be born.   It was Bethlehem, not Nazareth, that the Prophet Micah spoke of when he prophesied about the Lord's birth and said, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,” (Micah 5:2).   Nathaniel, not knowing that J...

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 of which I wasn’t proud.  Afterwards, I would resolve to do better, only to fall to the same weaknesses a brief 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 in much of the Bible and so he 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 years in confusion and gave myself over to many hurtful pursuits until finally 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, “F...

"And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word ." (Luke 1:38).   "And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord .   And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." (Luke 1:45-47).   Faith is an essential element of our walk with God.   Without it, it is not possible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).   Before any Christian work, before any ministry, before any sacrifice, there must be faith.   Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe in Him Whom He Hath sent." (John 6:29).   So, our faith must be based on Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh and on what He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit as He leads us to fulfill that Word.   It is not a vague faith that stabs at some promise hoping that it is God's will; it is a revelation of God's will that is spoken to our spirit th...

“ For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God ?  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17,18).   In the above verses, St. Peter writes of a time of judgment that was to start with the house of God, and, ultimately, extend to the ungodly and sinners.  This begs the question: is judgment on the house of God still going on today, and, if so, what does it consist of?    Judgment seems like a harsh word to use in terms of those who know and love the Lord, but Paul sheds some light on the concept in I Corinthians 11:31, 32.  He tells us, “ If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged .  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world .”  So, this “judgment” that the apostles are describing is also referred to as ...

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” (Moses in Exodus 1:8).   “Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.” (St. Stephen in Acts 7:18).   The words of Moses that are cited above were quoted by St. Stephen as he defended himself against those who wished to silence his Christian witness.  Stephen became the first Christian martyr to die for standing up for the truth of the Gospel, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior.  The more I consider these words, the more I am convinced of their relevance to the things we see happening around us in government and in society at large.    Society is breaking down and crumbling all around us, and it seems like no one has the power or the will to stop it.  Aggressors are labeled as the oppressed, and victims are identified as the aggressors.  Right is wrong, and wrong is said to be right.  It should be clear that we cannot fix what we se...