Logic

P 2487 The power of God is for the persistent.

/ DVH

The Lord Jesus went out into the wilderness and He was led there by the Holy Spirit, but, when He comes out of that place — He comes outin the POWERof the Holy Spirit. So this is what I want to say for today … some times when I am tempted to fight I think to myself – just one more time! The power to overcome comes with perseverance. Therefore, I will say that soft word that turns away wrath, one more time, I will turn the other cheek, one more time – I will forgive… one more time. Our enemy defeats us by projection – he projects a future that is not there, and he uses our past to do it. he says: “It has always been this way, and so it will always be this way. You have to fight or you will lose something valuable.” 

If God has not spoken to you, it is not over!  STAND. Sometimes we give up and quit fighting our enemy too early – we give in to our baser nature. Christ fought His battle through until His enemy was defeated. (Read Matthew 4:1-11) He stayed the course until the end! The power of God came and empowered the Lord in the middle of His weakness as He stood firmly on what the Holy Spirit gave Him to say, in this incredible fight. In those moments, it could have become a battle of wills, but Jesus was too spiritually attuned to play satan’s little game, He used God’s wisdom to bring about God’s purposes.

We cannot fight our enemy by ourselves! We too, need to be too smart to be pulled into “if only” and “what if.” It is what it is. A battle. Quitting early means we are letting our flesh win. Keep fighting until you hit His peace. Without His peace we can easily be sidetracked into places we were not meant to go. Seek God for a word, (or three) … and then WAIT. Let the Holy Spirit pick your battle ground – sometimes the battle is not ours. Whatever the circumstances, let the Holy Spirit guide you through them.

It was the verses with the POWER of the Holy Spirit on them in this incredible battle that WON! After the Lord was tested 3 times, the enemy had to leave. Jesus did not buy into satan’s ?logic? Remember the introductory verse to Matthew 4 says,  it was God’s idea for Jesus to be tested. The Holy Spirit led Him into that battleground. My advice is this – don’t be led into a battle you cannot win. When it comes to someone else’s will, or mind attitude – you and I cannot change it. We need to step back and let the Holy Spirit have His way … by letting love for the other person reign, the Holy Spirit knows the way through. Sometimes we fight, sometimes we die to self, sometimes we stand. But we always aim at maintaining LOVE for the other person.

In the first two of the three temptations mentioned in this scripture, satan says “if.” What is he doing? he knows the weaknesses of human flesh and he plays upon those weaknesses – he’s trying to get Jesus to accomplish what He was sent to do, in the flesh. Christ’s flesh was weakened by that fast. But Jesus had the One Who wrote the bible, with Him. (He is with US too!) We cannot fight without the Holy Spirit’s help.

In the end satan drops his pretence of helping, and blatantly goes for what he really wants … Christ’s worship. he wants the throne … satan has always wanted the throne.  he is jealous and he wants power. But because of what Christ did, we can sit, stand and walk with Jesus Christ daily. Never forget, that in times of trouble WE can walk right up to the throne of Grace and GRACE WILL MEET US. 

The Holy Spirit knows the perfect word of God to make our enemy flee. You and I may end up using more than one verse, but as the Holy Spirit hands them to us, we fling them at the things that are assailing us. Blame is useless in this place of battle – we are fighting the devil, not a human being. Stop fighting the person – resist the devil. Don’t be tempted to think up some snappy reply … the other guy has heard them all!  Just like Christ’s ministry belonged to Him, whatever we are fighting for belongs to us. But the way to win, is to lay whatever it is down at His feet, keep walking in Love, and use the scriptures that the Holy Spirit gives us to defeat our enemy. 

Lastly, Jesus had to fight the enemy in His weakened flesh – He was hungry and thirsty he needed food. The enemy is a snake, he will come at you when you are already weak. Then in Christ’s mind – He was offered everything He came to earth to buy back, without the cross. He saw those cities. Just one word and they were His … because satan owns them. The cities of this earth are corrupted. The power of God is the only true, permanent vehicle for change. There are no short-cuts. The only way up is down, the only way to live is to die, and the only way to do what He sent you here to do, is to lay it all down. Let the dream die. Maybe God gave you that dream … now, lay it down at His feet. Remember, this is one of the purest forms of worship. 

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1&2. The power of God is for the persistent, those who will do whatever it takes, and give up everything, for His sake. Doing that will not be comfortable! “If we perish, we perish …” Esther 4:16. God’s will be done. His will, His way. Bye 👋🏻

P 2476 Ruth.

/ DVH

Ruth 1:9-17 “May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”Then she (Naomi) kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?  Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” Then Ruth uttered one of the loveliest lines reported in the bible,  But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Naomi did all that she could to send these two young women back to their homes… but logic wasn’t the tool of the day – FAITH WAS!  Orpah returned to her homeland, but Ruth chose to stay with her mother-in-law. That just blows my mind. Think about it… one person turns back to the familiar and the household of their birth, and the other is activated and presses on into faith. Every step Ruth took after her decision to stay with Naomi, was one of faith.

Everybody loves the book of Ruth, it is a brilliant, inspiring, redemptive story about the power of God to redeem every type of human condition, and transform difficult situations for everybody’s good. The stars of this story were quite clearly not anybody fame-worthy.  But God, took an older lady whose faith had taken a battering, and a younger one who didn’t have much to look forward to, and put them smack in the middle of His-story and they didn’t even know it.

Boy is that saying heaps!! This is what the Christian life is like, it is a series of choices and we cannot always see the results. And some of them don’t seem all that significant when we make them! But Orpah’s choice separated her from a totally different destiny. She leaves the story at this point, and we don’t know what came next for her. Maybe she married again too, and had a very nice life … but there is more to this life than safety! There is courage, and innovation and freedom and the future to be fought for and won.

Our heroine Ruth starts out by being poor and having to scrounge for food, but eventually she finds a new husband, by following instructions, and by using her faith! She even has a family, when she thought that opportunity had passed her by. And she ends up being Jesus great great great great great great etc.etc. GRANDMOTHER. This story is so rich in spiritual imagery. Ruth chose to follow Naomi and use her faith and love for this older woman to move on, she seized the adventure as it unfolded before them both. Everything Naomi told that young woman to do, she did – she trusted and then she acted.

I’m starting to believe a lack of inspiration to be spiritually mature, is part of the problem today, particularly with many Western Christians. Plus we’ve all stopped being pilgrims. We seem have lost our sense of adventure. Instead of striking out in our little boats for foreign shores … stretching our faith and watching the Lord protect, provide and lead us … we’ve become settlers.

Settlers can’t wait to have a family, get a house and earn a living! BTW, we don’t need more pastors – we need more missionaries, at home and abroad!  People who leave comfort behind to make sure that others find out about Jesus. Surely we were born again for bigger things than normal! Our biggest claim to faith, these days, seems to be whether the Lord gave us the spouse/car/family/job we wanted! 

Pilgrims and pioneers press on, always believing there is more. More to know about Him, more to learn about themselves and others. Meanwhile we don’t have to go to the darkest places on the earth to become pioneers. We can reach unreached people groups in the alleys and doorways of our own cities! Or our offices, or schools, or at the shops. Pioneers are people with more than a dream – they are people of action. Ruth made a choice and she did not turn back. After all, she was not Jewish she was a Moabite, and yet God provided for her … all because of her obedience and loyalty. 

The Lord loves loyalty. Loyalty is more than an attitude, it is the way we live. Ruth is a wonderful example of a woman who could easily have seen her life as being over … instead she decided to take her chances in an unknown land. Today I want to leave you with yet another one of my icky questions …where have all the home-grown missionaries gone? Bye 👋🏻