The Sword of the Spirit

After Jesus was baptized, Scripture tells us, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." (Matthew 4:1)

There are a few things in just that one sentence that are pretty interesting. Did you notice that Jesus temptation was not outside of God's plan, but seems to actually be part of it? After all, it was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus out there into the wilderness. He wasn't tempted to journey out there by Satan. God planned that it would happen exactly as it did happen.

We know from James 1:13, which says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He Himself tempt anyone", that obviously God was not the one who tempted Jesus. And in fact, God never tempts anyone. But is seems pretty clear that God allows us to be tempted, just as here He allowed Jesus to be tempted. I find that comforting. God is sovereign even over my temptations. They don't catch him by surprise.

But what happens next, in the account of Jesus temptation in the wilderness, is equally fascinating.

First of all, let me just say, that sometimes the Bible understates things to the point of humor. I don't mean to be irreverent about God's Word, but when I read Matthew 4:2, I just had to grin.

"And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry."

You think? I'd say something more like, "He was starving to death" or "He was famished." But, still, we get the point; Jesus was feeling real, physical, (probably) overwhelming, hunger.

I'm trying really hard to stay on my message here, and I haven't even gotten to it yet. But this section of Scripture is just full of interesting things, and I can't help but point some of them out. Like, for instance, did you notice that Jesus fast lasted for 40 days? Does that number sound familiar for some reason? How about the length of time that it rained in the days of Noah? Or, how about the number of years that Israel wandered in the wilderness before entering the promised land?

But here is the what I really wanted to point out. Satan tempts Jesus three times and with three different sins. But each and every time, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, refutes Satan by quoting Scripture. He uses the same defense against temptation that is available to every single one of His children: Scripture.

When Satan tempts Jesus to exhibit a lack of faith in God's physical provision for Him, by turning stones into bread, Jesus says:

"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4) This is a quote of Deuteronomy 8:3.

When Satan tempts Jesus to pridefully prove that He has the power of God to call angels at His whim, by telling Him to throw himself off of the temple wall, Jesus says:

"It is written, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'" This is a quote of Deuteronomy 6:16.

And finally, when Satan tempts Jesus with an offer of kingship, a way to rule the earth without suffering on the cross, if only Jesus will bow down and worship Satan, Jesus replies:

"Away with you Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD you God, and Him only you shall serve.'" This is a quote of Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20.

Now, if that is not sufficient motivation for all of us to get to know and understand Scripture, let me point out one more thing. And this last bit kind of gives me chill bumps when I think about the potential damage it can cause.

In this encounter between Satan and Jesus, Jesus is not the only one who quotes Scripture. Satan does the same thing. Only when Satan quotes Scripture, He does it out of context and twists its intended meaning.

When Satan tempts Jesus the second time, by suggesting that He throw Himself off of the temple wall and call on angels to rescue Him, He adds this little barb:

Matthew 4:5-6

"If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

'He shall give His angels charge over You,'

and,

'In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

Satan is quoting Psalm 91 to Jesus. The problem is, Satan is quoting it in exactly the opposite way it was intended. Psalm 91 is a declaration of trust in the care and provision of the LORD. It contains that famous verse, "I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, In Him I will trust." (Psalm 91:2)

When Satan tempts Jesus to throw Himself off of the temple wall, He is tempting Jesus to test God, instead of have faith in God. Testing God is a result of little faith, not a result of great faith.

I don't know about you, but I find it startling and disturbing that Satan quotes Scripture. And if Satan can know and quote Scripture, twisting the truth right out of it, then we can be sure that Satan's servants can as well.

Let me counter that statement by saying that Jesus is already declared victorious. The battle has been won, and Satan has been defeated. He is still our enemy, and he can still cause us harm, and we need to be wary of him, and his servants.

But we have God on our side. And we shouldn't forget that. And, we shouldn't forget that God has provided us with an extremely powerful weapon against evil: the sword of the Spirit: God's Word.

But the sharpest, most lethal sword in the world isn't going to do you any good sitting up on a shelf collecting dust. The more time you spend with your sword, the more precise you will become in defeating the enemy.

Ephesians 6:17

"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;"

The Children in the City

If you have been reading my most recent posts, you will know that I have found myself in a time of intense healing and freedom from past sins. And since I'm going to be talking about that same subject yet again, I thought I might need to clarify some things, particularly for those of you who know me personally.

You might be tempted to let you imagination run wild and begin speculating about all of the horrendous things that must be lurking in my past. Don't do that. You'd be terribly disappointed anyway. Not that my sins, and the specific sins I have been dealing with, aren't terrible enough. But, the average run of the mill sinner has enough darkness in their heart, and enough bondage and slavery to sin, to scandalize all of us.

The thing is, I spent many, many years quite aware of my sin, but unwilling to treat it as harshly as it deserved to be treated. I took it lightly. I saw it through the lenses of our culture, which is exceedingly tolerant and encouraging of sin. I made excuses. I rationalized. Most of the time, I just plain ol' didn't think about my sin very much.

But when I began to, I was broken hearted. I saw and felt my sinfulness so clearly, it mourned me. It caused me deep grief. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." What I experienced is exactly the kind of mourning that Jesus was referring to. Mourning over the wretchedness of personal sin. The comforting is what comes after you have mourned properly.

So this is what brought me to tears yesterday. The comforting that God gives to us is so abundant, so full and consumingly rich, that we don't really believe it can happen until we've experienced it. We sort of think that, yeah, God can take away our sins, and forgive us of our sins, and then we can look forward to Heaven where we won't suffer from our sins anymore. What I have personally discovered is that God can not only forgive, and take away, and heal, but He can also make us completely whole again in spite of our sin. Praise the LORD. He can literally change us and make us a new creation. It happened to me. It has happened to me. It has really happened to me.

So, in Isaiah 49, in verses 15-21, there is a long description of the way that God is going to restore Israel after she has been devastated because of her sins. You have to read the following verses with a few things in mind to even begin to get a sense of the joy I have experienced. Just so you know, I read every commentary I could find to see if my personal application was somehow universally recognized. It's not, and you should know that. I'm not trying to press any kind of theological point here. I am just trying to express to you the way that these verses spoke to my heart and overwhelmed me with joy.

What you will read is an account of a city that has been devastated by destroyers and "swallowers up." If those two words aren't poetic descriptions of sin, I don't know what are. The children in this devastated city have all been taken away. Think of that as the real, practical consequences of sin. The LORD is then going to reestablish this destroyed city (me!) and fill it with so many children (abundant blessings) that the city is confused and stunned by the amount of children found within its walls.

All of a sudden, the city is so full of children that there isn't even enough room for all of them. That is exactly how I feel. I look around sometimes and think, where did all of this come from LORD? I was such a sinner, I offended you in so many ways. I did every wrong thing in the book. How is it that You could ever bless me like this?

OK, are you ready to read it now? Are you ready to try and understand what got me all worked up (in a good way) yesterday? It's kind of long, but worth the attention.

Isaiah 49: 15-21

"'Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
Your sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,' says the LORD,
'You shall surely clothe yourself with them all as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
The children you will have,
After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
'The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.'
Then you will say in your heart,
'Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?'"

I suppose I always believed abstractly that God could rebuild people, other people. You know, the ones that needed rebuilding. Not me.

When I finally opened my eyes and did an honest survey of the walls around my city, I saw the devastation. It was there all along. But somehow, I had been skipping around and having picnics in a bomb crater without even realizing it. That honest appraisal was the beginning of the rebuilding process. And it took a while, several years I would say. But one day I looked around again. And there were children stumbling over each other in my streets. Children I didn't deserve, but had anyway. And that, is bringing me to tears all over again.

White As Snow

Isaiah 1:18

"Come now, and let us reason together,
Says the LORD,
Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool."

Have you ever gotten a line from an annoying song stuck in your head, and you just couldn't make it go away? Well, that kind of happened to me last night, except it was this verse from Isaiah that I couldn't get out of my head. Today, I'm pretty sure that I understand why.

I've had an interesting couple of weeks. In 1 Peter 5:8, Satan is described as a roaring lion stalking about, seeking a victim to devour. I think that lion has been hot on my heels of late.

It all has to do with sin, my sin, and my past sin to be exact. If I was still writing this blog in total anonymity, I would give you all the ugly details. But since some of you happen to know me, I think I'll try to stay general here. Besides, all of us struggle with sin of one kind or another, and I think my experience can be applied to all kinds of sin, not just the specific one I happened to declare victory over.

I alluded in an earlier post to some sinful thought patterns that used to plague me. God has really brought about serious change in my thought life. It was not an easy battle. There were a whole bunch of lies that I had to overcome before I could really keep my mind stayed on the truth. And let me tell you, truthful thinking brings more peace to my life than you could possibly imagine. So I am not at all interested in revisiting those untruthful thought patterns. I want to steer as clear of them as possible.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I found myself in a situation that challenged me in this specific area. I was faced with something that just begged me to indulge in sinful thoughts. I did manage to quiet those thoughts down, but the whole experience served to show me that I still have some work to do.

Now fast forward about a week, and I hit round two of a similar situation. Only a much more intense version of the first go round. I mean, the minute I realized what was going on, the first thing that popped into my head was, "I am under Satanic attack."

If you happen to know me, you will know that I do not typically use dramatic phrases like that. I know some people see spiritual battles every where they turn, and they might in fact be right about that, but I am not someone who spends a lot of time thinking or speaking in terms of spiritual warfare. So in other words, it was some serious testing that I faced. And I knew it.

But about half a second later, I realized that I was getting worked up over nothing. I don't know how else to say this, so I'll just say it the best I can. God threw a situation at me that I have been dreading for a very long time. I used to spend time thinking through a "plan of resistance" in case it ever did happen. And I guess I have been living in victory long enough that God felt like I was ready to face it head on...and come out shining.

Which totally turned the situation on its head. Because as it turned out, it wasn't an attack at all. It was an opportunity for me to celebrate and praise God for how far I have come. I saw up close and in vivid detail that my sin, and the grip it had on me, has indeed been washed as white as snow. What was once a scarlet stain that I carried around in my heart, has become as white as wool.

Not only has my sin been forgiven, but all of the power that it ever had on me has been destroyed.

There is a victory song that King David wrote in 2 Samuel. Several years ago, I took a section of that scripture and read it as a personal declaration of victory over sin. I want you to read the following verses thinking of "enemies" as sin; and of the battle that is described as the very real battle that each of us must face as we deal with our sinful nature. (The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, right?)

2 Samuel 22: 38-43

"I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them;
Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed.
And I have destroyed them and wounded them,
So that they could not rise;
They have fallen under my feet.
For You have armed me with strength for the battle
You have subdued under me those who rose against me.
You have also given me the necks of my enemies,
So that I destroyed those who hated me.
They looked, but there was none to save;
Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them.
Then I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth;
I trod them like dirt in the streets,
And I spread them out."

Notice all of the hard work that the warrior (me) has to do in those first verses. Sin, our sin, does not just lie down and go away when we become a Christian. Rather, it is a constant battle that we struggle against, as long as we live. But God is more powerful than our sin: He will give us strength, He will arm us for the battle, He will subdue our enemies under us. And when it is all over, our enemies, our sin, will be as insignificant as dust spread out in the street. I love it. And today, I really understand it in a new way.

Isaiah 43:18-19

"Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?"

I know it LORD, I really know it. Sins like scarlet. White as snow.

Other Masters

Isaiah 26:12-14

"LORD, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works in us.
O LORD our God, masters besides You
Have had dominion over us;
But by You only we make mention of Your name.
They are dead, they will not live;
They are deceased, they will not rise.
Therefore you have punished and destroyed them.
And made all their memory to perish."



I am currently experiencing a fairly peaceful time in my life. I don't have any major crisis looming on the horizon at the moment. More important than my current peaceful circumstances, however, is the state of my heart. My heart is at peace. I have not always been able to say that. In fact, I spent many years of my life with no peace at all.

You might think the reason my heart is at peace is because my current circumstances are peaceful. But I know that's not true, because I know my heart well enough to realize that it would FIND something to be disturbed over if I gave it free reign. But you see, that is the secret. I don't let my heart go off on wild tangents anymore, wishing and seeking and desiring things that God has not given to me.

I can only accomplish that control of my heart because God has come in and established his authority over my life, thus removing my responsibility to satisfy myself. I know that whatever comes to me in this life, is God's perfect plan. And I also know that he only purposes good toward me. Now, God's good purposes don't always feel very good at the time I'm experiencing them, but I know that they are all for my good and for God's glory.


Verse 12 in the above Scripture passage says, "You will establish peace for us." God will do it! Thankfully, because I'm pretty sure we are inept at establishing peace for ourselves. The verse goes on to say, "You have also done all our works in us." An alternate translation offers, "You have also done all our works for us." God can and will do it, all of it, Himself. But there is another part of the equation that has to balance out first. That is the issue of authority, or masters, if you will.

You can see the confession in verse 13, "O LORD our God, other masters besides You Have had dominion over us." Umm Hmm. You all know what Isaiah is talking about. Ever had another master? How about wealth, or popularity, or physical beauty, or control, or relationships, or fear, or pride, or anger, or unforgiveness. I could go on. You get the idea.

There are countless things that we chase after and worship besides God. Or, that we cling to tightly and refuse to let go of, even though we know that we should. We can't help ourselves really, it is part of our nature apart from God's redeeming work in us. See for yourself in the next verse, "But by You only we make mention of Your name." Only by God's power do we even know enough to make mention of His name, much less cast of the oppression of other masters. How humbling is that!

And what about these other masters? When God gets to work establishing Himself as our authority and our master, what becomes of them? We can see clearly in verse 14, "They are dead, they will not live; They are deceased, they will not rise. Therefore you have punished and destroyed them, And made all their memory to perish." That sounds like a total victory to me.

So what do you do if you find yourself unable to stay in the place of victory? What if you find yourself creeping back under the authority of another master? Well, this very issue is fresh on my mind right now. One of the biggest victories God has ever given to me is control of my thought life. There are literally dozens of lies that I have overthrown in the battle to reclaim my thoughts, and it took several years for it to happen.

But this past weekend I found myself slipping back into a pit I thought I had sealed off for good. It wasn't a fun realization. I was so tempted to indulge it. Because in the short term, those other masters aside from God can seem like great fun. But in the end you always find yourself back in a pit, far away from the joy and peace that God promises.

What did I do? Several things. First, I pinpointed the lie that was masquerading as truth. Then I followed my sinful train of thought through to the ultimate conclusion it would bring. I prayed (many times) that God would take control of my thoughts again. I repeated the truth that spoke against the lie over and over in my mind. And, as a very practical matter, I spent time listening to Christian music, instead of indulging my thought life, even singing out loud if needed. So far it is working. I can't promise the thoughts won't creep in again. But when they do, God has armed me with the weapons to fight them.

There will never come a time in my life when I have it so together that I can stop guarding against sin. In fact, I have often heard it said that Satan will step up attacks when we are becoming a threat to him. Well, whatever, I don't know if that is actually true or not. But I do know that in the book of Job, we clearly see that even Satan must ask permission from God before He does anything. (Booooo Satan!!!)


Isaiah 9: 4

"You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of Midian."

Look, God has already done the defeating. There is no other master that can force you to stay under its control. God has broken the power of sin to hold you captive. There is only one Master, one Authority that you cannot escape, and that is Adonai, Lord and Master.

True peace apart from God is a lie. But true freedom, and peace, are found resting under the shadow of God's authority.

I'm Sorry...(Yet Again)

I have been working with God on the problem of pride lately. This is sort of an ongoing struggle for me. I think its probably a common sin to get wrapped up in. But I don't want anything at all to do with it. So I try to keep a close eye out for ways pride might be creeping in to my life. I can claim some victory here, things are much better than they used to be. But still, some sins are just a life long struggle, and pride just might be one of my ongoing construction zones.

I had a victory this morning! Its a small thing really, but its the small things that lead to bigger things, so I'm going to celebrate where I can.

It all started about 5 or 6 weeks ago. I was at the grocery store, pushing a cart full of groceries, with two wiggly kids, heading for the checkout isle. I also happened to be in the midst of a horrendous sinus infection. So I was kinda primed to act not-so-nice. That is when it happened.

I was about one cart length from the end of the checkout line, clearly about to enter it. A woman with an equally full grocery cart approached appearing as though she needed to pass through the line and keep going. I politely backed my cart up and gave a little wave of my hand to indicate that she could cut through before I officially got in line.

To my great dismay, instead of cutting through and passing by, she stole my place in line! I couldn't believe it! I still can't decide if she was taking advantage of me or if she really thought that a hunched over woman, with two highly active kiddos, a cart full of groceries, and tissues in both hands really intended for a relaxed, well-dressed, no children luggin' woman to just go on ahead. Anyway, being the restrained southern belle that I am, I seethed and thought ugly thoughts at her instead of saying anything.

Naturally, by the time I got to the front of the line, it was time for the cashier to end her shift. So I had to stand there another several minutes waiting for the drawer to be switched out. The very friendly and polite check out woman gave me a big smile and said, "It'll just take a minute, I'll be right with you."

I scowled at her. Then I let out a big exasperated sigh to make sure she understood how displeased I was with this whole scenario. She got my drift. Her smile disappeared, she started moving very quickly, and she didn't say another word to me. The equally cheery bag boy gave me a big grin and said, "How are you this morning? Do you want paper of plastic?"

"Paper," I whisper-shouted, because I was pretty sick, remember.

"You sound terrible," he helpfully added.

I just glared and him and decided I had said enough. We walked tersely to the car and I drove away in a grumpy funk.

I hope I don't have to tell you that I felt bad about it, almost as soon as I got home. It has bothered me ever since. I hate it when people are rude to customer service employees. I've worked in those types of jobs several times, and I know the abuse that gets heaped on them. I didn't want to be one of those rude, angry customers.

But every week, when I have seen that same woman working in the check out line, I have deliberately gone through another aisle. I was afraid she would remember me as that mean, loudly-sighing woman. And I was too proud to apologize for my rudeness.

Until today. As I have been praying about keeping my pride in check and cultivating a humble heart, God kept pricking my conscience about that grocery store incident. It was a sort of, "how can you ask me to use you in mighty ways and root out the pride in your heart when you are too stubborn to even apologize to a stranger, much less someone who is close to you?"

So I decided to offer her an apology. I prayed that she would be working this morning. There she was when I walked in the door. As I wove through the grocery isles, I kept checking to make sure she was still there. She was. As I finished getting everything on my grocery list and headed to check out, I was all primed and pumped up to give her an apology. But suddenly, she walked away from her register!

Confused, I made a hard right back into the frozen food section and looked at some truly disgusting frozen stuffed mushrooms for a few moments. After reading the ingredients and turning the mushroom box around a few times, the cashier came back to her line. Whew!

As she was scanning my items, I did it. I offered her an apology. She seemed confused at first, but eventually she understood what I was saying. Of course she couldn't remember the incident, I really didn't expect her to. She said she always figures someone is just having a bad day when they act ugly. But she smiled and thanked me for apologizing. I had shared with her that I was sick that particular day.

Right before I walked off, she asked, "Are you feeling better now?"

"Oh, yes," I answered. In more ways than one.

Proverbs 29:23

"A man's pride brings him low,
but a man of lowly spirit gains honor."

Death Be Not Proud

John Donne's famous poem, Death Be Not Proud, expresses exactly what I have been thinking about all day. Because just as Christ rose from the grave, in a bodily resurrection, so will we all who have faith in Him.

"Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so"

Or how about the Corinthians 15:55?

"O death, where is your sting, O grave where is your victory?"

We spend a lot of time at Easter thinking about Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, and justifiably so. But I'm not sure I have ever heard an Easter sermon that elaborated on the fact that because Jesus rose again from the dead, we will as well. Imagine the comfort of that. Of knowing that your loved one, if he or she belonged to Christ, will rise up in a glorified body one day. Of realizing that even more than ascending to Heaven to be in the presence of God, there will be a time when each of God's children will be given a new incorruptible body that will never die.

1 Corinthians 15:13

"But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised."

Stated in the positive, what that verse means is if Christ was resurrected from the dead, than so will we all be resurrected from the dead.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."

Don't be confused by the word sleep in that verse, it is just a way of referring to death that was common among the people who lived at that time.

The point of this blog has never been to frighten people with the prospect of Hell, but I feel like today is an appropriate time to mention the reality of its existence. I'm like most of you. The idea of it makes me very uncomfortable. I feel a strong urge to cover up the stark reality of Hell. It just seems too naked to trot out in polite company sometimes. But you should know that the Bible is explicitly clear about its very real existence.

Matthew 25 talks about God separating the sheep (believers) from the goats (non-believers), and in verse 46, their respective fates are summed up this way.

"And these (the goats) shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life."

The words in parenthesis are mine.

So as we wind up this Easter weekend, take heart, fellow Christian. Death has been defeated. It has lost its ability to terrorize and consume us. Again in the words of John Donne,

"One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt die."

I seriously couldn't have said it better myself.

It Shall Not Come Near You

Psalm 91:7

"A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you."

This verse immediately sprung to mind a few weeks ago while I was watching the movie Letters From Iwo Jima with my Dad. Normally, I avoid war movies like the plague, but I love my Dad, and I will usually watch whatever he is watching. I was visiting my parents with the kids, and he said it was a good movie, which it was, but much, much, much too gory and tragic for my usual taste.

There are a few scenes in which soldiers must run across open areas that are being riddled with bullets and explosives. Most of them never get to the other side, but are struck and killed as they attempt to make the crossing. Really, with all of those bullets flying around, it's almost impossible to imagine that any of them would make it across. The scenes were very similar to that scene at the beginning of the movie Saving Private Ryan. Again, a movie I did not particularly want to watch, but this time it was my husband who did.

Look at that verse at the beginning again, "it shall not come near you." What exactly is it that won't come near us? In verses 3-6 it is described this way:

"Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday."

According to those trusty footnotes in my Bible, this Psalm was probably written to describe the realities of life for a soldier at war, who would be in fear of literal arrows and pestilence that might sweep through the camp. But most of us are not in a literal, physical war. We are however, faced with a very real war every day of our lives. A spiritual war.

We are constantly surrounded by arrows and threats of destruction and pestilence. Some of the wars we deal with might seem quite harmless on the surface. That television show that glorifies adultery. That magazine that worships beauty. The music that romanticizes things we should view as evil and corrupt. There are also the threats that we know are dangerous, the kind of thing that catches us off guard and threatens our safety and well being. An unexpected attack of some kind, a loss of job, an illness, the threat of financial ruin. You get the idea.

All of those arrows carry the threat of danger to our spiritual well-being, and in some cases our physical well-being. They are very real.

I Peter 5:8

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

But again, back to my original question. What does the scripture mean when it says that "it will not come near you?" This is just my opinion, but I think that scripture taken as a whole bears me out. It does NOT mean that bad things won't happen to you. I know there are people who believe that and even preach that. But, don't they live in the same world that I do? Don't they see very real tragedy and pain in the lives of people around them? Don't they read verses like James 1:2, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,?" What about verses like 1 Peter 4:12, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;?"

So, I don't think that "it shall not come near you" means we will have a pain and trial-free life. But there are some things that it does mean. In the midst of our spiritual warfare, we are assured of very real help and comfort. God is described as a refuge and fortress in verses 2 and 9. We are told that He will be with us, deliver us and honor us in verse 15. In verse 11 we are told that He will give His angels charge over us, that these angels will keep us and bear us up. All of it is a very descriptive way of saying: We are not alone! God goes with us! He will take care of us! We do not need to be afraid!

The very best of all these victorious promises comes in the last verse, verse 16:

"With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation."

The greatest hope of all, eternal salvation. I believe that is ultimately what is meant when verse 7 says, "it shall not come near you." Eternal death and destruction will not come near us. It won't even get close.

So picture with me that battlefield full of flying bullets and bombs. In a sense, our lives are like a dash across that open field so full of peril. There are trials to endure, temptations to avoid, and even a roaring lion stalking about. (Interestingly, in verse 13, we are told that we will tread upon and trample underfoot the lion. How cool is that little tidbit?) But we can walk through it all with a head held high and a confident stride. We have no doubt about getting safely to the other side. We know that despite the dangers, it will not come near to us who have known the name of the LORD.

Even when the fighting is fierce, when the shrapnel is flying and bullets seem to be grazing our ears, we have the shield of God's truth. We know truth! We do not need to be vulnerable to lies about God, that He doesn't love us, that He won't take care of us, that He will let us slip away from Him in the heat of battle. No, the truth is that we are tucked up under the downy feathers of His all-powerful wing. (verse 4)

Psalm 91:2

"I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.""

Two for the Time of One

In lieu of a real post, today you are getting treated to two mini-posts, because I am thinking through what I hope will be a real post in the next few days; but in the meantime I want to share two brief things.

First, have you ever been curious about this scripture, and what on earth it means?

Psalm 24:7-9

"Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up you heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of Glory shall come in."

I have a CD of Celtic Psalms that includes a hauntingly beautiful song based on this very passage. And I just bought another CD of scripture set to music last week that included these verses too. I always kind of wondered what they meant with all those doors and gates being lifted up. I just figured that maybe it was an allusion to the doors and gates of our heart needing to be "lifted up" in order for God to come in.

But the following footnote from my Bible has helped me immensely:

heads-the city or temple gates are personified.

shall come in-The return of the King of glory implies that He has gone out to battle and returns in victory.


OOOOOOHHHHHHH! So next time I have struggled (gone to battle) with a sin, and returned victorious, I can say this verse to myself.

For example: I really wanted to repeat that salacious rumor that another woman told me (before I could stop her of course!) It was a great battle with myself, and believe me, without the help of the LORD mighty in battle, I could never have been victorious over my own desire to gossip. But, because the LORD is strong and mighty, He made me victorious, and I kept my big mouth shut!

Now, que the music, I'm going to sing Psalm 24:7-9 in my heart.


And second, I took a gamble in the kitchen last night and it paid off.

I love beef stew. It is one of my favorite dishes when it is done properly. But, I'm trying to lose those five pounds I gained during my pig-out at the end of 2007. (Most of you would call this the holidays, but in retrospect, I think it was just one long culinary indulgence for me.)

And those potatoes that are traditionally included in beef stew? Well, they are not on my diet. So what to do? I have used rutabagas in place of potatoes before, with delicious results. But my local grocery store has an annoying habit of running out of rutabagas (of all things! really! are they that popular?) So I gambled and diced up some turnips instead. I highly recommend it--turned out tasty.

Hmm, for those of you who have read my Hot Pot post, we really do eat things besides beef around here, I promise.

My Precious

All of you Lord of the Ring fans out there will appreciate this. The trilogy of movies was on television over the weekend here. Against my better judgment, I stayed up late three nights in a row to watch them, even though I own the DVDs of all three and could have watched them without all of the annoying commercial breaks. And gotten to bed at a decent hour.

At the end of The Return of the King, we see Frodo standing above the molten lava flowing in Mount Doom, poised to accomplish the destruction of the ring he has borne through great trial and sacrifice. But as you know, when the moment comes to separate himself from the thing that has brought him so much misery, he cannot bear to let it go. He loves and desires it more than he hates it or wishes it to be destroyed.

How like our sin. We love our sins so much more than we care to admit. We feel justified in committing them. We tell ourselves that they are harmless. We pet and feed and nourish them. Sometimes, even when the moment comes to cast them away and be forgiven of them, we cling to them, cradling them to our breast, refusing to be parted from them.

This would result in great tragedy for us if we were left to our own devices to deal with sin. Fortunately, we are not. For those who belong to Him, God provides sanctification.

Allow me to stretch the illustration of Frodo and the ring a bit more. When it becomes clear that Frodo does not have the will to part himself from the ring, a "terrible" thing happens to him. He is viciously attacked by Gollum, who was once the ring bearer himself. A mighty struggle ensues. In the end, Gollum seems to prevail, by literally biting the finger off of Frodo's hand, and with it, the ring. Gollum's victory is short lived, as he tumbles to his destruction, down into the lake of fire, all the while clutching the ring to himself in ecstasy.

Frodo is left with a permanently maimed hand. But, despite his resistance to the point of violent struggle, he has been freed from the terrible power the ring held over him.

I see a great parallel to sanctification in that struggle. Sometimes God uses "terrible" things to free us and give us life. Surely you know of someone this has happened to? To a small degree, that has been my own experience with sanctification. I resisted it. It hurt and was unpleasant to go through. But in the end, I found myself free. Usually I wasn't even aware of the destruction I was binding myself to until I was free of it. And then, oh, I could fall on my face in thankfulness for the mercy of sanctification.

It would have been so much easier to be obedient to God from the start. To look at my sin and cast it into the fire and be free of it. But I just couldn't. Not in my own power. Mercy was required. Mercy that certainly didn't feel anything like mercy when it happened.

1 Thess 5:23

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

One more thing here. In my own life, the mercy of sanctification has accomplished something I never imagined I would have. A real hunger and thirst for righteousness. I can honestly say that I have it for the first time in my life. I can also say that I have no doubt that I did nothing to get myself to this point. It was all God. It was all mercy.

A little sin...

Job 37:10

"By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast."

About four days ago, as I was sitting in my kitchen, quietly reading my Bible, before the whole house was awake, I noticed that my refrigerator was making a strange, tinny sounding noise. "Strange noise," I thought. Then I ignored it. This went on for about 3 days.

Then Friday, I took what should have been a frozen waffle out of the freezer. Problem was, the waffle was not frozen. It was kind of soft. "Hmm, maybe this is related to that strange noise I have been hearing." I decided to call in an appliance repairman immediately. He showed up at about 4:15 p.m. This is on Friday, remember.

He walked straight into my kitchen, pulled my fridge away from the wall, tinkered around for a pair of minutes (as Beth Moore would say), and pronounced that my compressor was broken and my refrigerator and freezer were worthless, and in fact had not been working properly since the first time I heard that strange noise. This was not a good moment for me.

There was, however, some good news. My fridge was still under warranty (being only 3 years old). The parts and labor would be completely covered under the standard warranty. Bad news? Oh yes. The broken part would need to be ordered, and would take 3-4 days to arrive, and they couldn't order it until Monday. It took me a while to realize what that would mean.

"Oh, that means I have no refrigerator or freezer all weekend? And probably until Thursday of next week? Umm, what am I supposed to do?"

This was apparently not the problem of the appliance guy. He was ready to go and enjoy the weekend.

At first, I thought things would be relatively fine. We have a mini-fridge in our wet bar. I emptied all of the bottles (I'll let you guess what those contained!) out of the mini-fridge and managed to salvage the milk, eggs, butter, lunch meat, cheese, juice, mayo, and cream (gotta have that for coffee). That was all that would fit. My husband brought home some bags of ice, and we stuffed them in the fridge and freezer and hoped that would keep things cool enough. I did do one smart thing, and took all of my chicken and put it in my deep freezer outside.


This morning I realized that the ice-stuffing had been pointless. There was a puddle of water in front of the fridge and condensation all over all of the things left in the fridge. So, facing reality, I got out the garbage bags, and to make a story that is already too long just a little bit shorter, I cleaned that baby out. Four trash bags worth.

Then, I took a good look at what the inside of my refrigerator and freezer looked like when emptied. It was horrible. I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that I spent a majority of what was a beautiful day, up to my elbows in a sink full of bleach. I never realized how many parts could be taken out of a fridge to be cleaned. All of you women who do this on a regular basis, well, good for you. I don't.

As I was scrubbing mystery goo off the bottom of the freezer, I started thinking that I was going to find a way to turn this into a good spiritual illustration. I may have to stretch to make it work, but I was going to turn this into a good blog post. So, here is my best attempt....

Galatians 5:9

"A little leaven leavens the whole lump."

You know, if I had paid attention to that first tinny sound the fridge was making, I could have spared myself a whole heap of trouble. Chances are, the part would have arrived on Friday, and I would now be enjoying properly cooled food items. Sin is like that, too. We always get a warning sign when there is a problem. Even if it is just a little prick of the conscience. Sometimes it is much more than a little prick, it is more like alarm bells and red flags competing for attention.

At the point of first being aware of the sin, the smart thing to do is take care of the problem immediately. Before it "leavens the lump" and starts causing all kinds of scary things. Just take your pick of sins: romantic thoughts about that guy you dated before you got married, hateful feelings towards that neighbor who lets her dog bark at all hours, gossiping about that woman in church whose children are always out of control, not paying for your Bible Study book because it's done on an honor system, I could go on, but I hope you get the idea. They all start small, but left unchecked and unresolved, could lead you straight into disaster. And you should have at least a prick of conscience if you are doing any them.

But, say you see the problem and choose to ignore it. This is a bad idea. That strange noise my fridge was making should have been enough to make me call the appliance guy. But I chose to ignore it. Really, I did. It was a conscious choice. And by choosing to look the other way and let the noise go on, I ended up with stinky shrimp and slimy goo. The same thing can happen to our hearts and minds. Even our actions. And instead of handling a relatively small sin, with few, if any, consequences, we could be left having to break out the bleach bucket and do some serious work. I would rather deal with small problems, wouldn't you?

1 John 1:9

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Acts 3:19-20

"Repent, therefore, and turn again,that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,"


(Now, go back and read the verse at the top of this post. And smile with me!)

One of my friends who read this post told me that she was a little unclear as to why I had to bleach my entire refrigerator. So, in case any of the rest of you have the same question, I thought I would elaborate. There are two reasons I had to bleach everything. First, my refrigerator had not been cooling, AT ALL, for the entire three days that it was making the noise. I guess there was enough cool air, and ambient chill to keep things from being obviously not refrigerated, but by the time I noticed the problem, defrosting, dripping and oozing had already been happening. Second, and probably more importantly, I had not given my fridge a thorough scrubbing in the entire three years I owned it. Now, you know all my dirty little secrets. I don't clean my fridge on a regular basis!

I'm pretending...

...that I don't have a ton of other things to do right not. So this will have to be brief. I ran across one of my favorite passages of Scripture this morning.

Psalm 18: 37-42

"I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them;
Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed.
I have wounded them,
So that they could not rise;
They have fallen under my feet.
For You have armed me with strength for the battle;
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
You have also given me the necks of my enemies,
So that I destroyed those who hated me.
They cried out, but there was none to save;
Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them.
Then I beat them as fine as dust before the wind;
I cast them out like dirt in the streets."

My enemies have come in many forms. A particularly potent enemy was my thought life. I was constantly recycling old sins in my mind, sometimes with guilty pleasure, but more often with accusations against myself, and loads of guilt. I really thought I might never be free from those thoughts.

But God armed me for the battle, and I destroyed those who hated me. I always picture demons pinging me with accusations and memories. Those demons hated me. And I got em good. They cried out their accusations against me to the LORD, but He did not answer them. Instead he gave ME victory, He gave me the oil of gladness, beauty instead of ashes and a robe of fine white linen. Then He rejoiced over me with singing, and quieted me with His love. Oh the mercy of our Father. And because He did these things for me, I was able to beat my enemies as fine as the dust before the wind, and cast them out like dirt in the streets.

I really have defeated those thoughts They are gone. If even a hint of them creeps in, it is like a very vague recollection that I can't seem to remember fully. The power they once had is destroyed.