Remembering the Poor

Gal 2:10
10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
(NIV)


Having been homeless and working as a chaplain in two rescue missions, am always reminded of those who are poor, destitute, and homeless. With this New Year we all have been very busy just as the disciples in the church in Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas were being sent to Antioch and the Gentiles and the other disciples were to remain in Jerusalem to help build up the church to the Jews. Even though they had been very busy they did not neglect the poor, the very thing that was on their heart that they were eager to do. The apostle Paul is saying here that despite the great work of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles that he was still eager to help the poor.

Paul had already done this on a previous occasion (Ac 11:27-30) and continued to do so in his future missionary journeys (1Co 16:1-3; Ro 15:26-27; 1Co 11:22). As stated by Jesus, the poor are always among us (Mt 26:11), and blessings are promised to those that consider them (Ps 41:1 and 112:9). Jesus' concern for the poor (Ac 20:35) carried down through the apostles (Ga 2:9-10) to the early church as they cared for the poor, the widows (Ac 2:45; 4:34; 6:1, and 8), and promoted special collections for the needy saints (Ro 15:26).

In the Old Testament, the Law of Moses protected the needy by supplying special legislation that gave a portion of the tithes to the poor (De 14:28-29 and 26:12-13), supplied them with the right to glean the fields (Le 19:9-10 and De 24:19-21), restored their land in the Year of Jubilee (Le 25:25-28), gave daily payment of wages rather than weekly or monthly (Le 19:13), and provided justice for them and freedom from oppression (Ex 23:6 and De 7:19).

God also promised to hear their prayers (Ps 69:33) and to help, shelter, and provide for them (Ps 72:12-13, 132:15; and Isa 41:17).

We are told in Scripture that to have pity upon the poor is to lend to the Lord (Pr 19:17), to oppress the poor is to reproach our Maker (Pr 14:31), a special blessing of healing and deliverance in time of trouble will be granted to those considering the poor (Ps 41:1-3), and those who have mercy on the poor will be happy (Pr 14:21).

Even though we are busy and some of us due to the economic downturn are struggling, we also should not neglect the poor. There are many ways that we can help out. There are Rescue Missions all across this country that are not just taking care of the needs of the poor and homeless but also supply the life giving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

All I ask for is that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I am eager to do. Are you eager also?

May this New Year be a time of Preparation?

Romans 10:9-10
9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

How many times has your heart deceived you. Your brain was saying something else, your brain knew the facts but you followed through on something your heart told you to do and it was wrong. Relatively few people are determined to do evil. They don't wake up in the morning seeking ways to transgress. Rather, they fall into sin because they have not prepared their hearts to seek the Lord.

During the time I have been in ministry, I have known many people who genuinely loved the Lord at one time and were excited about the things of God, yet they grew cold and, in many cases, completely abandoned the Lord and the things that were once so dear to them. How can this be? Why does this happen? It's because they didn't prepare their hearts to seek the Lord.

The word "prepare" means "to establish, fix, prepare, or apply." It conveys the idea of deliberate effort over a prolonged period of time. The same Hebrew word that was translated "prepare" was also translated "fixed" four times in the Old Testament.

The word "fixed" means: "1. firmly, in position; stationary 2. Not subject to change or variation; constant 3. Firmly held in the mind; a fixed notion" (American Heritage Dictionary). One of the keys to preparing our hearts is to fix our hearts on what we will and will not do before we encounter the temptation. You can settle what you would do so that there are no options left when the temptation comes. Far too often, Christians have not made strong enough commitments and, therefore, succumb to temptation.

Of course, no one can accomplish preparing their heart on their own. This is not a matter of sheer "will power." God must be involved in preparing our hearts. Psalm 10:17 says, "LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart." Only when we trust in the Lord and depend on Him can we find the strength to make our hearts not subject to change or variation. Humility is an essential ingredient in the preparation of our hearts.

Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Anytime anyone falls from their steadfast position in the Lord, you can bet that they got out of humbly depending on the Lord. Humility has to be forsaken, or at least neglected, before we fall. A humble heart makes a soft, sensitive heart.

The power of memory is a vital part of preparing our own hearts. The Lord warned the children of Israel not to forget the mighty works He had performed for them lest they turn away from following Him. He linked memory to staying true to the Lord.

No one who was dominated with thoughts of the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord would turn their back on the Lord. To turn from the Lord, Satan has to divert our attention from the Lord and block the memories of God's goodness to us. Keeping our positive memories alive will keep our hearts knit to the Lord.

The King of kings

The King of kings

It's interesting that the Lord sent angels to announce the birth of Christ to shepherds. This was the greatest event in the history of the world, and it was proclaimed to some of the most humble of men. Why did the Lord bypass the "great" men of the day?

For one thing, God isn't impressed with the things men are impressed with. These shepherds may have been the great men of the day in God's eyes. Certainly, kings would have been afraid of a new king as Herod was. It could have been dangerous to let tyrants know of the birth.

Some scholars have thought that the time of Christ's birth was around the time of the Day of Atonement. Hence, these could have been temple shepherds that were keeping the sheep to be used as the sin sacrifice. Therefore, it would be appropriate for them to come inspect the Lamb of God to verify He was without blemish.

It could be as simple as the Lord chose the shepherds because His Son would be the great Shepherd of the sheep. Maybe they were the only ones who would listen to the announcement. At any rate, it was prophetic for these lowly shepherds to be chosen for the great announcement because Jesus would always associate with the common and the poor.

What an irony that the King of kings would be in a stable! I'm sure this was a puzzle to the shepherds. Yet, no earthly accommodations would have been adequate. Therefore, it really didn't matter where Jesus was born. Wherever it would have been would have been infinitely less than the glory He had with the Father. Jesus humbled Himself to become a man.

It's hard to imagine something like this happening and the shepherds not going to worship the Lord. Yet, today, people often hear this same proclamation and do nothing about it.

When we see the Lord for who He is, we will also make this known to everyone who will listen.

Luke 2:8-18 (NIV)
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

Peace on Earth

Luke 2:14
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

If you look around you will see that there is no peace amongst people on earth. There are wars, fighting’s, government overthrows, pickets, demonstrations, fear, murders, protests, disputes, anarchy. Where is the peace in all of that? The peace that the heavenly host was singing about was not peace among men. It was peace between God and man. This can be clearly seen by looking at Jesus' statement in Mt 10:34, which says, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Although the Gospel has changed men's hearts, and there are many instances where this change has caused peace between men, that was not what the angels were praising God for. They were rejoicing that the war between God and man was over. As Isaiah prophesied, "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins" (Isa 40:2).

Jesus bore our punishment so that we could be reconciled to God. This peace came through the blood sacrifice Jesus made on the cross (Col 1:20). God isn't angry anymore. All our sins--past, present, and future tense--were placed on Jesus, and now God can justly love us. God isn't mad. All of God's judgment against our sin was placed on Jesus (Joh 12:32). He's not even in a bad mood. God is a good God, and we are to have our feet shod with the preparation of this gospel of peace between God and man (Eph 6:15).

We now have a covenant of peace where God will never be angry with us again or rebuke us (Isa 54:9-10). We are supposed to shod our feet with this gospel of peace (Eph 6:15). Let peace reign, it has already started between God and you, it’s now time to celebrate and carry that peace to others.

Merry Christmas

Freedom is the Prevailing Cry of the World

Freedom is the prevailing cry of the world today, the overwhelming preoccupation of individuals and nations. Yet even though Scripture speaks of a liberty that Christ offers (Gal. 5:1–12), some people resist Christianity as itself an obstacle to freedom. Is this view of the faith justified?

On the face of it, it seems strange to identify Christianity as an enemy of freedom. After all, Christians have historically stood up for the poor, the oppressed, the captive, and the underprivileged. Likewise, liberation from ignorance, disease, and political oppression have invariably resulted wherever Christian faith and principles have been adopted. Why, then, would some view the faith as repressive?

Perhaps part of the answer lies in the problem of legalism. Whenever Christianity is made into a list of dos and don’ts, it becomes intolerant and restrictive. Instead of enjoying an intimate relationship with a loving God, the legalist is obsessed with rules and regulations, as if God were a celestial Policeman just waiting to catch us out of line.

To be sure, Christ does make demands on us that sometimes limit our autonomy. But true Christianity sees this as part of a relationship based on love and grace, not unlike a healthy marriage in which both partners sometimes sacrifice their own desires in order to serve the other.

But even if there were no legalists, many people would still resist Christianity because they resist any standards that would place absolute claims on them. To them, freedom means pure autonomy—the right to do whatever they want, with no accountability to anyone else.

But surely that leads to irresponsibility and license rather than freedom. Nor do people really live that way. Sooner or later they choose one course of action over another, based on some set of values. In other words, they surrender their will to standards, whether good or bad, and act accordingly. So it is not just the values of Christianity that “stifle” personal freedom, but values in general.

The real question, of course, is what kind of people are we? What is our character? Christians try to mold their character after the pattern of Jesus. He was the most liberated man who ever lived. His ultimate standard of behavior was, what does My Father want Me to do (John 8:29)? Did that code stifle His freedom? Hardly: He was utterly free of covetousness, hypocrisy, fear of others, and every other vice. At the same time He was free to be Himself, free to tell the truth, free to love people with warmth and purity, and free to surrender His life for others.

True Christian freedom is Christlike freedom. There is no hint of legalism about it. It accepts absolute moral standards that are well known and well proven, and it takes its inspiration from the most liberated human being who ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth. What is stifling about that? ¨

All Rules and Laws Take the Place of and Cannot Accomplish What Love Can

Ultimately do you know why there is speed limit signs posted on our roads? It is not to remind us not to speed or even tell us what the proper speed limit should be. It is because we do not know how to love. You see if we really loved one another we would not go faster in a given situation to cause someone else harm. We would always be looking out for one another, thus not needing a speed limit sign. Our mind set is so self orientated that we have to have rules and laws to remind us of others. Rules are also the reason to make a reputation for themselves. It does not matter what set of rules we follow or don’t follow. All that matters is that we have new life through our living connection with Jesus. If we live by love, then we as a whole family will realize God’s peace and loving-kindness. When love rules, no law is needed.

In Galatians chapter six twelve through fourteen the Apostle Paul reminds of this and even shows us how we focus those rules and laws to pronounce our own agenda. First Samuel 16:7 says, "for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Those who see the way God sees are more concerned with the condition of the heart than they are a person's actions. But those who are carnal are always focused on actions instead of attitudes. The New International Version confirms this by translating this verse, "Those who want to make a good impression outwardly...."

Galatians 6:12-14
12 Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.
13 Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.
14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

That's the way these Judaizers were. They hadn't even noticed the wonderful work that God had done in the hearts of these Galatians through the ministry of Paul. All they could see was what they hadn't done. Likewise today, legalists are so focused on outward acts that they often fail to see the deeper, more important work that the Holy Spirit does in a person's heart. If someone hasn't been baptized according to their tradition or doesn't worship after their form, it doesn't matter how much they love the Lord, the legalist pronounces them unclean.

Carnal people are consumed with carnal (external) things. They can't believe that God can accept anyone who isn't holy according to their standards. However, spiritual people are consumed with spiritual (internal) things. They recognize that holiness is a fruit, not a root, of salvation (Ro 6:22).

The Judaizers (Ga 1:1) were trying to escape persecution from their Jewish brethren who still believed Christians had to keep the law ( Ac 23:6). They maintained that if they showed the Jews that the way of salvation was still the law they could be accepted by them. So they were trying to force circumcision upon the church (Jews and Gentiles) as a "faith-plus-works" method of salvation. This would avoid the persecution that would come if they acknowledged that salvation comes only through Jesus and Him crucified.

The Simple English Bible translates this: "Some men are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do these things, so that the Jewish people will accept them, fearing they will be persecuted, if they follow only the cross of Christ."

Gal 6:13 These legalists who were demanding compliance with the law weren't keeping the law themselves. No one except Jesus has ever been able to fulfill the law, and no one else ever will (Rom 3:23; 1 John 1:8, 10). It is the height of hypocrisy to demand of others what you cannot do yourself. So, why would they demand this thing? Paul said it was so they could glory in their flesh. They glory in appearance or outward things and not in the condition of the heart (2Co 5:12).

Gal 6:14 Paul's critics gloried in the carnal things they accomplished while Paul gloried only in what Jesus had done for him through the cross. One way to discern a true man or woman of God is to see where their boasting lies. Those who boast in their own accomplishments are suspect, while those who boast in the Lord are the true and faithful witnesses.

Notice that there is a double crucifixion. The world was crucified unto Paul, and Paul was crucified unto it. This means that the world's system had nothing to offer Paul, and Paul had nothing to offer the world outside of Christ. Its one thing to remove yourself from the world's system, but it's another thing to remove the world's system from you. Paul had done both. Paul's sole purpose in life was to bring glory unto the risen Christ. The law or rules are an outside condition, love is an inward motivation that only comes from Jesus. Let’s see, choose Jesus or choose the law (rules). Choose the law and the law only produces death and cannot save. Choose Jesus and He only produces life (love) and does save.

When we truly love, no law or rule is ever needed. Don’t let laws and rules replace what love can accomplish.

Doing Good to All, Sowing Seeds for Your Future

Galatians 6:1-5
1 Brothers, if someone is caught (overtaken) in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
2 Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,
5 for each one should carry his own load.

The word "overtaken" (caught) carries the idea of something that comes upon a person by surprise. Also, the word "fault" comes from the Greek word "PARAPTOMA" meaning, "a side-slip (lapse or deviation), i.e. (unintentional) error or (willful) transgression" (Strong). Therefore, Paul is giving these instructions about how to help someone who is sincere, but in error.

The spiritual ones, who Paul instructs to restore those who are overtaken in a fault, are those who are dependent upon and led by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word that was translated "restore" literally meant to set a bone that had been broken (WWS). It takes time for broken bones to mend, and activities usually have to be restricted during the healing process. Likewise, spiritual restoration takes time and usually necessitates a change of routine. If the individual goes back to the same circumstances, chances are he will make the same wrong choices he did before.

Also, just as setting a broken bone in the natural is painful but necessary, the restoration process is always painful. Those who fail to deal with the issues completely because it is painful are similar to those who don't set a broken bone. The bone will never be straight again. But enduring a moment of pain as the bone is set will let the bone mend properly and become as strong as it was before.

Just as a cast protects the broken bone from further injury, a person who has fallen should be surrounded by brothers and sisters who are committed to keeping the fallen individual from making the injury worse. Submission to spiritual authority is just as important to a person who has fallen as a cast is to a person with a broken bone. Until the healing is complete, the cast and the curtailed lifestyle have to be maintained even though it may be inconvenient and uncomfortable. Trying to return to "normal" prematurely can prevent the bone from ever being completely healed.

Gal 6:2: The Greek word used for "burden" here is "BAROS" and means "a heavy weight, burden or trouble." It is such a heavy weight that if a person is not helped in carrying it he will be overwhelmed. This may be either a sin (Gal 6:1) or a circumstance of life. We fulfill Christ's law of love when we bear one another's burdens. Our love must go beyond just not seeing someone hurt but also to the alleviation of his suffering if it is within our power.

Gal 6:3: Paul is saying that if anyone thinks he is too important to stoop down and help others with their burdens, then he is deceived about his own importance. None of us is anything of ourselves. None of us has any good excuse for not helping restore our fellow believers. This was one of the sins of the Pharisees. The Amplified Bible translates this verse as, "For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another's load], when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives...himself."

Gal. 6:4: If we are to help bear others' burdens, we must lay aside conceit (see note v. 3, above). Intolerance towards those who have sinned is an indication of our own vulnerability. Here, Paul gives the remedy for self-conceit. A realistic look at our own weaknesses will make us better prepared to help others. This is the same message as that of Matthew 7:3-5 which says, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

Gal. 6:5: This verse is the exact opposite of verse 2 but it makes Paul's point perfectly. In verse 2, Paul said, "Bear ye one another's burdens." Verses 3-4 stripped away any objections that someone might have to doing that. Then here, he gives the clinching argument, "For every man shall bear his own burden." His reasoning is that since all of us have burdens that we bear ourselves, we ought to be quick to help others with their burdens. We reap what we sow (Gal 6:7) and God doesn't extend mercy to those who have shown no mercy (Jas 2:13). Therefore, those who don't help others will not be helped. We don't want that. So, help others and sow a seed for your own future needs.

What Reflection are We Radiating as a Church and as a Christian?

James 1:23-25
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.

You have never seen your face. You have seen a reflection of your face, maybe a video of your face, or maybe a photo (picture) of your face. Not unless you can take your eyeballs out with the nerves attached have you been able to see your face with your physical eyes. It can’t be done. What this passage though is referring to is looking into the Word of God is like looking into a spiritual mirror. If we want to see what our physical face looks like, we have to look in a physical mirror. Likewise, we can't see our spiritual self, but we can look in the mirror of God's Word and see who we are in Christ. God's Word is spiritual and reveals our spiritual self (John 6:63). We need to become as sure of our spiritual image as we are of our physical image. After all, we can't directly see either one; we look at something else and take what we see by faith.

A man who doesn't do what he has heard in God's Word (Jas 1:22) is like a man who looks in the mirror but doesn't take any action. He goes on his way and forgets what he has seen. Likewise, we have to keep in front of us the image God's Word paints of our spiritual self and act accordingly. Notice God's Word is called "the perfect law of liberty." This is specifically referring to the New Covenant and all the liberty brought to us through the atonement of Christ. It is only through the grace given to us by the finished work of Christ that we can truly see our new selves and be blessed.

Very often the Church hold’s up a mirror reflecting back the society that surrounds it rather than the Word or the life of Jesus Christ that is our true mirror. If the world despises a sinner the Church should love them. If the world cuts off aid to the poor and suffering than the church should provide healing, food, and shelter. If the world oppresses than the Church should take the hand of the oppressed and lift them up. If the world shames and creates an outcast than the church should proclaim God’s reconciling love and show the way of forgiveness. If the world seeks profit and self-fulfillment the Church seeks sacrifice and service. If the world demands retribution than the Church dispenses grace. If the world has factions that bring dissension, than the Church should join in unity. If the world is destroying its enemy, the Church loves them both.

What mirror or reflection are you bringing the world today, does it reflect the Word and Jesus Christ or does it reflect the world?

The Importance of the Word

We seem to go to the Word of God as a last resort, we’ll have people pray for us, lay hands on us, look for others to put their arms around us to make us feel good. But we won’t study and meditate on the Word to allow it to grow inside of us. The Bible is a package of seeds that needs to be taken out of the package and planted in good soil (our heart). It is that Word that we need to depend on in our lives. It is the Word that can live inside of us to grow us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

The story in Luke 7:18-28 John the Baptist had already boldly proclaimed on four different occasions that Jesus was the Christ (Luke 3:16-17; John 1:29-36, and 3:26-36). God had also given John a special sign that Jesus was the One who should come (John 1:33). In light of these things, John's question here can only be interpreted as doubt on his part. It's possible that John shared the mistaken idea with most people of his day that the Messiah was going to establish a kingdom on earth and break the dominion of the Romans over the Jews. Whatever the reasons, it is interesting to note that the man who Jesus said was the greatest of all Old Testament people (Mt 11:11) had doubts even after God had borne witness in his heart as to who Jesus was. Also, all of the great things Jesus spoke of John were said after and despite the doubts that John expressed.

We see that Jesus did not answer John's disciples immediately but rather performed many miracles in that same hour, including healing of the blind. Then He told John's disciples to report back to John about the blind seeing, the lame walking, the lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing, and the dead being raised. Jesus had already healed a leper (Mt 8:2-4) and two lame men (Mt 9:6-7 and John 5:2-15), and He had recently raised the widow's son from the dead at Nain (Lu 7:11-17).

At first glance Jesus' response to John doesn't seem adequate. Jesus later says all kinds of things about John that would seem to be more edifying. Most people would rather have had the most famous person in the nation speak highly of them than to have Him say, "Look at what's happening and you will be blessed if you will believe."

But Jesus was giving John His best. He fulfilled the prophecies of Isa 35, which spoke of the miracles the Messiah would perform. Jesus performed every miracle that Isaiah prophesied He would do and threw in the raising of someone from the dead just to make it clear that this was no fluke. Then He told John to believe.

This was Jesus referring John back to the Word. He was using the very scriptures John had quoted as God's instructions to him. Jesus sent John back to the Word to deal with his discouragement. It was only after John's disciples had left that Jesus began to say the complimentary things that most of us would rather have had.

Those whom God honors the most are the ones who He gives the Word instead of some lesser, emotional response.

Most of us are like John the Baptist, we are looking for accolades, or kudos, and not the Word. Jesus wants to give the best He has to us and that is His Word. Jesus could have sent the messengers back to John the Baptist with accolades towards John, but He sent his Word instead. What we need is God’s Word, it is that preference that God wants to give us. We can look for kudos, or an arm around us, a pat on the back to make us feel good, but what is needed is God’s Word. Depend and act on God’s Word and your life will never be the same. It will lift you out of the rut, overcome obstacles and giants in your life. God’s Word will never fail you.

Polarization and Reciprocal Grace

I am amazed how we as Christians (including myself) get caught up in the day to day happenings that surround us. Be it politics who are ruining us with moral decay, drug use and the drug lords that rule our cities, the Hollywood producer who is polluting our culture, or the wars we are fighting, the abortionists, or the whatever bad circumstances that we all find ourselves in, it's all on how much we have retreated from the gospel of grace.

Though were active in our endeavors in combating evil in the many ways that it surfaces in our sphere of influence we tend to use the wrong weapons of these wars. We may find ourselves in the middle of a cultural war but the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. We are involving ourselves in the wrong war using the wrong weapons. Our war is not against flesh and blood. If we find ourselves fighting against anything made of flesh we are combating the wrong war. Jesus said that there was one distinguishable indelible mark that stood out and showed who we are as Christians and that is the love that we have for one another.

Who then becomes our enemy, is it the drug dealer, the politician, the abortionist, other people in other nations, the man across the street, who is it? Are we so still stuck with the law that we have forgotten about grace? Instead we have traded the gospel of grace for political correctness, moral superiority, and judgment of anything outside the law or our own rules. We have been polarized with the lines we have drawn with our so called enemy on the other side when all we have done is not loved that same enemy that Jesus has taught us to love. If polarization has occurred than we must cross those lines with love in our hearts. That very same grace that has been given to us we need to be reciprocal to others. Most likely the reason why we have not been reciprocal with grace is that we do not understand the love that Jesus has for us and the amazing grace that has been bestowed to our lives.
Eph 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but mighty through God and Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus we fight with love and as 1 Corinthians 13 says that we can do nothing and become anything good without love. No great spiritual awakening, no great miracles, no mighty move of faith, no great spiritual growth, no great benefit of society can happen without love. It will all come to nothing.

When we love is when others will see Jesus love for us, which is true reciprocity.


I Jn 2:9-10
9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

Soylent Green, coming to a theater of Earth near you or maybe it’s already here?

In the film Soylent Green the police procedural and science fiction it depicts is an investigation into the brutal murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect and climate change. Much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green" which is processed food (small green wafers) made from humans who were euthanized at a designated early age.

Even though this film is science fiction it has some truth in our reality today. The earth is suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, and climate change. Even though these are the categories most known they are not the least. As in the film we are also coming to the place of genocide where the earth and its resources are more important than human life. With the advent of terrorism, risk of nuclear war, and conventional war our hubris on handling such proves how naive we really are. We are already heading towards the brink of denying human life not just by the depleted resources which lessens availability to each person but we are already eating other human beings as in Soylent Green.

How so you ask? It is our sexual appetite that has caused a Soylent Green type situation. Since January 22, 1973 we as Americans have had over 50 million abortions. If that date sounds familiar it is the landmark decision of Roe vs. Wade. It is legal euthanasia and no matter what words that someone wants to put to this, it is still killing babies. Some say they are not babies, for they have not been fully conceived. However you want to call it, it is still not allowing life to continue. It does not matter if the person is 1 month old in the womb or 95 years old out of the womb it is still not allowing a life to continue.

This way of life, which has continued for almost 40 years, has now been accepted and imbedded in our psyche, what is our next step as we look at pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, and climate change? Will we be more interested in saving our planet and less interested in saving life. Are animals more important than humans, are the oceans more important than humans, is our climate more important than humans? If we think that sex is more important than humans then why not these other things. Wars and terrorism is already denying humanity of others and killing them, why not climate control.

Soylent Green is already taking place, like anything when it is done in small ways it will always be a precursor to larger events. Never underestimate what a small band of committed people can do. Do you know why? It is because it is the only thing that has worked. It is the small group of people who were dedicated with our new government in 1776, it is the small group of disciples of Jesus Christ that turned the world upside down. But just as much as these were two positive instances, the same applies to negative ways. These precursors of eliminating life has grown into 50 million with abortions, now add wars, terrorism, and ecological disasters and we have the making of genocide on a major scale. Put into our psyche that your own carbon dioxide, and depletion of resources footprint can be the precursor to global genocide. That is when Roe vs. Wade will be a minor law in comparison to euthanasia to save our planet.


btw - The movie Soylent Green was released in 1973

We need to Pray Rather Than Just Vote

We don’t need to pray for change of government, nor change of politician, nor change of laws. We need to pray for change of hearts, for when the heart changes, the politicians change, the laws change, the will of the people change, and the government changes.

Christian Growth only comes from the Combination of the Word and the Spirit

Mark 4:21-23
21 And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.
23 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

There are a couple of things here that Jesus is pointing out to us. First, that His word should be prominent in our lives. As other scriptures point out that the word is the most important aspect and should be searched out as if it were gold. Secondly, is that the Word and the Spirit need to be used together? One cannot understand the Word without the Spirit. Here in this parable the candle would be representative of the Word and the Light would be representative of the Spirit.

With this in mind one cannot understand the Word unless Light is shed on it. Light alone cannot burn unless it has an accelerant, oxidation of combustible material. A candle (the Word) is that material illustrated in this parable. We need both a flame and the candle to produce a sustainable light. We cannot have one without the other, and so it is in our Christian walk.

If you’re wondering why the Holy Spirit is not working in your life maybe He does not have the word to produce a sustainable light. In John 14:26 Jesus illustrates the point that the Holy Spirit will illuminate only what Jesus has spoken.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Also in John 15:26 and John 16:13-15
John 15:26 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

If you really want to change, if you’re tired of not seeing God working in your life, than the word is the missing portion in your life. You see the Holy Spirit always wants to help you grow, wants to help you be transformed into Jesus’ likeness, but He may be lacking the Word in your life that He can use as kindling, as combustible material. The greater part of your life should be spent reading and meditating on the word, when you do so you shall be planted by streams of living water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. (Psalms 1)

The Holy Spirit needs a candle (the Word) in order to burn brightly and as the parable in Mark 4 says then it will not be kept a secret anymore but be manifested through your life.

Forgiveness to the Banks but no Forgiveness to Their Customers

The many banks who were helped through the financial crisis are failing their own customers. It seems that our Government, and the people forgave the Banks their debts. The Banks were helped by loans and given time to repay those loans. But the banks have forgotten what reciprocity means. We have gone out of our way to help in this economic crisis and the climate that we now live in. But enough is enough, apparently there has been no lessons learned when it comes to the morality of the many issues that we now face.

With the foreclosure problems, people being locked out of their homes when it is not necessary reminds me of a parable that Jesus taught.

Matt 18:23-35
23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.'
27 The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
29 "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
30 "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.
33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'
34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Should the banks be now thrown in jail for their neglect of the people who were their customers? The Banks have been forgiven, will they now forgive in return. But that would be Altruism and that is not the current moral endeavor in this present economic climate.

There has been an impassioned plea for morality in recent weeks, but they are not calling for a return to biblical ethics. Instead, they explicitly reject Christian and Religious morality in favor of a code that exudes selfishness and living in the light of Randian and Libertarian ways.

Though Ayn Rand has been dead for three decades, her philosophy is still embedded in the American way of life. It also has embedded it’s way into our churches by using quasi-biblical principles to obtain wealth but disposing of God’s principles. The big emphasis lately is on homosexuality and promiscuity which have replaced greed as the root of all evil. Gordon Gecko (movie “Wall Street”) is now rolling over in laughter, because greed is good, everything else is bad. So the battle cry for the libertarian worldview, as it is with Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged, is replacing the cross with the dollar sign and making that a good thing.

But Altruism is the opposite of Randism/Libertarianism. Though it might seem obvious that altruism is central to the teachings of Jesus, one important and influential strand of Christianity would qualify this. St Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, I:II Quaestio 26, Article 4 states that we should love ourselves more than our neighbor. His interpretation of the Pauline phrase is that we should seek the common good more than the private good but this is because the common good is a more desirable good for the individual. The Apostle Paul in First Corithians 13 says "love seeks not its own interests." We need to shed light on tensions by contrasting the impostors of authentic self-affirmation and altruism such as Randism and Libertarianism. By analysis of other-regard within creative individuation of the self, and by contrasting love for the few with love for the many. Love confirms others in their freedom, shuns propagandas and masks, assures others of its presence, and is ultimately confirmed not by mere declarations from others, but by each person's experience and practice from within. As in practical arts, the presence and meaning of love becomes validated and grasped not by words and reflections alone, but in the making of the connection.

In saying all this, America is in trouble and headed down a path that reflects the good of the corporation over the good of the people. In the Constitution of the United States it says “we the people” and it is heading towards “we the corporations”. The rest of the preamble of the US Constitution reads “in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

With Altruism out and Randism/Libertarianism in, that part of the Constitution should read “in order to form a more perfect union, establish greed as good, insure selfishness, provide domestic breakdown, provide corporations with profits by any means, promote the dollar by the dollar, for the dollar for posterity for all corporate holders.

I’m sad as I look out at this once great nation to see it has not learned from history. Everyone thinks this way of Libertarianism is new, it’s not, it’s only new to you. It’s old and it’s called greed at any cost.

Lord forgive us of this root of all evil?

Homosexual Behavior and the Christian Faith

Why as Christians are we taking the wrong road to those who sin. As if we never have and now are pointing fingers at others. When Jesus said to the one who was caught in adultery "Neither do I condemn you", the Church and Christianity are replying "go and sin no more for we will continually condemn you and make sure by pointing out your faults." Like the speck in your brothers eye when we have a plank of wood in ours. So all that are spewing out condemnation Jesus' first reply is "Ye who have not sinned cast the first stone."

This, I believe, sums up a proper Christian attitude toward homosexual behavior. Go to www.ManhattanDeclaration.org , and read their information. Read the Manhattan Declaration below and sign it. And then learn how to use these kinds of arguments to address this issue in public. Share it with your friends—especially with those who may disagree.

PREAMBLE
Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.

While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire's sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.

After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the 16th and 17th centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce's leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.

In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.

This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes – from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.

Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.


DECLARATION
We, as Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered, beginning in New York on September 28, 2009, to make the following declaration, which we sign as individuals, not on behalf of our organizations, but speaking to and from our communities. We act together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and all nations to seek and defend the good of all who bear his image. We set forth this declaration in light of the truth that is grounded in Holy Scripture, in natural human reason (which is itself, in our view, the gift of a beneficent God), and in the very nature of the human person. We call upon all people of goodwill, believers and non-believers alike, to consider carefully and reflect critically on the issues we here address as we, with St. Paul, commend this appeal to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.

Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.

LIFE
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

Although public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with sadness that pro- abortion ideology prevails today in our government. Many in the present administration want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense. Majorities in both houses of Congress hold pro-abortion views. The Supreme Court, whose infamous 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn of legal protection, continues to treat elective abortion as a fundamental constitutional right, though it has upheld as constitutionally permissible some limited restrictions on abortion. The President says that he wants to reduce the "need" for abortion—a commendable goal. But he has also pledged to make abortion more easily and widely available by eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring waiting periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification for abortions performed on minors. The elimination of these important and effective pro-life laws cannot reasonably be expected to do other than significantly increase the number of elective abortions by which the lives of countless children are snuffed out prior to birth. Our commitment to the sanctity of life is not a matter of partisan loyalty, for we recognize that in the thirty-six years since Roe v. Wade, elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II described as "the culture of death." We call on all officials in our country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable among us.

A culture of death inevitably cheapens life in all its stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are imperfect, immature or inconvenient are discardable. As predicted by many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion has now metastasized. For example, human embryo-destructive research and its public funding are promoted in the name of science and in the cause of developing treatments and cures for diseases and injuries. The President and many in Congress favor the expansion of embryo-research to include the taxpayer funding of so-called "therapeutic cloning." This would result in the industrial mass production of human embryos to be killed for the purpose of producing genetically customized stem cell lines and tissues. At the other end of life, an increasingly powerful movement to promote assisted suicide and "voluntary" euthanasia threatens the lives of vulnerable elderly and disabled persons. Eugenic notions such as the doctrine of lebensunwertes Leben ("life unworthy of life") were first advanced in the 1920s by intellectuals in the elite salons of America and Europe. Long buried in ignominy after the horrors of the mid-20th century, they have returned from the grave. The only difference is that now the doctrines of the eugenicists are dressed up in the language of "liberty," "autonomy," and "choice."

We will be united and untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to kill that began with the abandonment of the unborn to abortion. We will work, as we have always worked, to bring assistance, comfort, and care to pregnant women in need and to those who have been victimized by abortion, even as we stand resolutely against the corrupt and degrading notion that it can somehow be in the best interests of women to submit to the deliberate killing of their unborn children. Our message is, and ever shall be, that the just, humane, and truly Christian answer to problem pregnancies is for all of us to love and care for mother and child alike.

A truly prophetic Christian witness will insistently call on those who have been entrusted with temporal power to fulfill the first responsibility of government: to protect the weak and vulnerable against violent attack, and to do so with no favoritism, partiality, or discrimination. The Bible enjoins us to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to speak for those who cannot themselves speak. And so we defend and speak for the unborn, the disabled, and the dependent. What the Bible and the light of reason make clear, we must make clear. We must be willing to defend, even at risk and cost to ourselves and our institutions, the lives of our brothers and sisters at every stage of development and in every condition.

Our concern is not confined to our own nation. Around the globe, we are witnessing cases of genocide and "ethnic cleansing," the failure to assist those who are suffering as innocent victims of war, the neglect and abuse of children, the exploitation of vulnerable laborers, the sexual trafficking of girls and young women, the abandonment of the aged, racial oppression and discrimination, the persecution of believers of all faiths, and the failure to take steps necessary to halt the spread of preventable diseases like AIDS. We see these travesties as flowing from the same loss of the sense of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life that drives the abortion industry and the movements for assisted suicide, euthanasia, and human cloning for biomedical research. And so ours is, as it must be, a truly consistent ethic of love and life for all humans in all circumstances.

MARRIAGE
The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:32-33

In Scripture, the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as husband and wife, is the crowning achievement of God's creation. In the transmission of life and the nurturing of children, men and women joined as spouses are given the great honor of being partners with God Himself. Marriage then, is the first institution of human society—indeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation. In the Christian tradition we refer to marriage as "holy matrimony" to signal the fact that it is an institution ordained by God, and blessed by Christ in his participation at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. In the Bible, God Himself blesses and holds marriage in the highest esteem.

Vast human experience confirms that marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society. Where marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefits—the spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly manifest themselves. Unfortunately, we have witnessed over the course of the past several decades a serious erosion of the marriage culture in our own country. Perhaps the most telling—and alarming—indicator is the out-of-wedlock birth rate. Less than fifty years ago, it was under 5 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. Our society—and particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sectors, where the out- of-wedlock birth rate is much higher even than the national average—is paying a huge price in delinquency, drug abuse, crime, incarceration, hopelessness, and despair. Other indicators are widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation and a devastatingly high rate of divorce.

We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage. Insofar as we have too easily embraced the culture of divorce and remained silent about social practices that undermine the dignity of marriage we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the same.

To strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore among our people a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of the institution of marriage, including the discredited idea of unilateral divorce. We must work in the legal, cultural, and religious domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make.

The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil and religious law and in the philosophical tradition that contributed to shaping the law. Yet it is critical that the impulse be resisted, for yielding to it would mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of marriage and, with it, the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage culture. It would lock into place the false and destructive belief that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and not, in any intrinsic way, about procreation and the unique character and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by their aptness for the generation, promotion and protection of life. In spousal communion and the rearing of children (who, as gifts of God, are the fruit of their parents' marital love), we discover the profound reasons for and benefits of the marriage covenant.

We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard as wayward. We stand with them, even when they falter. We, no less than they, are sinners who have fallen short of God's intention for our lives. We, no less than they, are in constant need of God's patience, love and forgiveness. We call on the entire Christian community to resist sexual immorality, and at the same time refrain from disdainful condemnation of those who yield to it. Our rejection of sin, though resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all who wander from the path of virtue to "a more excellent way." As his disciples we will reach out in love to assist all who hear the call and wish to answer it.

We further acknowledge that there are sincere people who disagree with us, and with the teaching of the Bible and Christian tradition, on questions of sexual morality and the nature of marriage. Some who enter into same-sex and polyamorous relationships no doubt regard their unions as truly marital. They fail to understand, however, that marriage is made possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman, and that the comprehensive, multi-level sharing of life that marriage is includes bodily unity of the sort that unites husband and wife biologically as a reproductive unit. This is because the body is no mere extrinsic instrument of the human person, but truly part of the personal reality of the human being. Human beings are not merely centers of consciousness or emotion, or minds, or spirits, inhabiting non-personal bodies. The human person is a dynamic unity of body, mind, and spirit. Marriage is what one man and one woman establish when, forsaking all others and pledging lifelong commitment, they found a sharing of life at every level of being—the biological, the emotional, the dispositional, the rational, the spiritual— on a commitment that is sealed, completed and actualized by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one flesh, not in some merely metaphorical sense, but by fulfilling together the behavioral conditions of procreation. That is why in the Christian tradition, and historically in Western law, consummated marriages are not dissoluble or annullable on the ground of infertility, even though the nature of the marital relationship is shaped and structured by its intrinsic orientation to the great good of procreation.

We understand that many of our fellow citizens, including some Christians, believe that the historic definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a denial of equality or civil rights. They wonder what to say in reply to the argument that asserts that no harm would be done to them or to anyone if the law of the community were to confer upon two men or two women who are living together in a sexual partnership the status of being "married." It would not, after all, affect their own marriages, would it? On inspection, however, the argument that laws governing one kind of marriage will not affect another cannot stand. Were it to prove anything, it would prove far too much: the assumption that the legal status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not only argue for same sex partnerships; it could be asserted with equal validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships. Should these, as a matter of equality or civil rights, be recognized as lawful marriages, and would they have no effects on other relationships? No. The truth is that marriage is not something abstract or neutral that the law may legitimately define and re-define to please those who are powerful and influential.

No one has a civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage. Marriage is an objective reality—a covenantal union of husband and wife—that it is the duty of the law to recognize and support for the sake of justice and the common good. If it fails to do so, genuine social harms follow. First, the religious liberty of those for whom this is a matter of conscience is jeopardized. Second, the rights of parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes as "marriages" sexual partnerships that many parents believe are intrinsically non-marital and immoral. Third, the common good of civil society is damaged when the law itself, in its critical pedagogical function, becomes a tool for eroding a sound understanding of marriage on which the flourishing of the marriage culture in any society vitally depends. Sadly, we are today far from having a thriving marriage culture. But if we are to begin the critically important process of reforming our laws and mores to rebuild such a culture, the last thing we can afford to do is to re-define marriage in such a way as to embody in our laws a false proclamation about what marriage is.

And so it is out of love (not "animus") and prudent concern for the common good (not "prejudice"), that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to rebuild the marriage culture. How could we, as Christians, do otherwise? The Bible teaches us that marriage is a central part of God's creation covenant. Indeed, the union of husband and wife mirrors the bond between Christ and his church. And so just as Christ was willing, out of love, to give Himself up for the church in a complete sacrifice, we are willing, lovingly, to make whatever sacrifices are required of us for the sake of the inestimable treasure that is marriage.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Matthew 22:21

The struggle for religious liberty across the centuries has been long and arduous, but it is not a novel idea or recent development. The nature of religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ. Determined to follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early Christians appealed to the manner in which the Incarnation had taken place: "Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness..., for compulsion is no attribute of God" (Epistle to Diognetus 7.3-4). Thus the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example of Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in the image of God—a dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in every human, and knowable by all in the exercise of right reason.

Christians confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from religious coercion is the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience. No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.

It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by law—such persons claiming these "rights" are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.

We see this, for example, in the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore to compel pro-life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions. We see it in the use of anti- discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the judicial imposition of "same-sex marriage" in Massachusetts, for example, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its century-long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in same-sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New Jersey, after the establishment of a quasi-marital "civil unions" scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of homosexuality. New hate-crime laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.

In recent decades a growing body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in restrictions on the free exercise of religion. We view this as an ominous development, not only because of its threat to the individual liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but because the trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of freedom on which our system of republican government is founded. Restrictions on the freedom of conscience or the ability to hire people of one's own faith or conscientious moral convictions for religious institutions, for example, undermines the viability of the intermediate structures of society, the essential buffer against the overweening authority of the state, resulting in the soft despotism Tocqueville so prophetically warned of.1 Disintegration of civil society is a prelude to tyranny.

As Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and obey those in authority. We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose of law is to preserve order and serve justice and the common good; yet laws that are unjust—and especially laws that purport to compel citizens to do what is unjust—undermine the common good, rather than serve it.

Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King's willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.

Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's.

Click here to sign the Manhattan Declaration

Be Still!

Psalms 46:10a
10 "Be still, and know that I am God; "

God's power and might were manifest if we had the hearts to perceive. This verse tells us how to acquire that type of heart. We have to be still and listen.

To have full knowledge of the greatness of God requires us to be still. This implies that busyness will keep us from that knowledge. Being still is talking about more than not moving; it is speaking of meditating and being reflective. We must calm ourselves and spend time just musing on the goodness and greatness of God. A hectic lifestyle is detrimental to really knowing God. (Ps 143:5) 5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.

The word "muse" is defined as "To ponder, consider, or deliberate at length." It is used in the same sentence with the word "meditate," and I believe they are related. In fact, this same Hebrew word was translated "meditate" five times in the Old Testament (Ps 119:15, 23, 48, 78, and 148). Musing is just another word for meditating. It is focusing upon something long and hard enough in our thoughts until it forms an image in our imagination. If this is negative, it's what the Scripture calls vain or evil imaginations (Ge 6:5 and 2Co 10:5), and if it's positive, it's what the Scripture calls hope. And as we imagine in our hearts, that's the way we are (Pr 23:7).

I woke up one morning with the reference "Ps 46:10" going over and over in my mind. Even though I was very familiar with this verse, I couldn't remember what it said. So I looked it up and decided that day I would literally sit totally still for one hour and see what happened. It was amazing. I sat on our porch and noticed things I would normally have missed. For instance, I noticed thousands of ants that I normally wouldn't have paid any attention to. I noticed the wind in the trees. I noticed sounds and smells that I would have missed if I had been busy doing something else.

So one of the things I think this verse is instructing us to do is to quit being so busy that we don't notice God's working. It's always going on, but we often miss it in our busyness. Stillness increases our awareness. God is being exalted among the heathen and all throughout the earth, but we can miss this if we are too busy with the affairs of this life.

(Mr 4:19). but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

The point being made by this third type of ground is that we only have so much attention. If we want fruitfulness, we need to focus on the Word and not other things that can occupy us. Just as the earth only has so many nutrients and weeds take nourishment that could be going to the desired plant, so all the things of this world will steal energy from us that could be going into the Word of God.

Notice that these aren't necessarily bad things. We have to be occupied with the affairs of this life to a degree. But there has to be a proper balance among job, family, leisure, and the Word. We don't strike this balance once and are through with it. This is something that constantly varies based on our seasons of life. The only way to maintain the proper balance is to maintain a vibrant relationship with the Lord. He will reveal to us any time we begin to be too focused on something other than Him (Php 3:15).

The strength of the laser lies in its focus. If the focus is diffused, the laser ceases to be powerful. Likewise, the power of the Christian is amplified by a single focus. The way to destroy a man's vision is to give him two.

(Php 3:13) Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

The "thus minded" Paul is speaking of is the single-mindedness he had just described, where he is forgetting everything else and seeking only after God. When we do that, if we begin to think otherwise, the Lord will reveal that unto us. This is a promise that when we are putting first the kingdom of God, the Lord will show us if we begin to get off track. That's a wonderful promise. We don't have to be introspective. We just have to seek the Lord with all our hearts.

Matthew 6:33
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Notice the use of the word "first." This is speaking of priorities. We have to focus some attention on earthly things, but they should never be our priority. God and His kingdom should always come first in our priorities. When they are, He supernaturally takes care of all the natural things we need.

Matthew 5:8
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

The word pure is being used such as a purebred animal. Comes from a single line of ancestry, such as a Labrador Retriever is a purebred dog. Pure meaning singular, with the exclusion of all others. So when we are purely seeking God and nothing else (exclusion of all else) is when we will see God.

You want to hear from God? Be Still! Seek the Lord! Exclude all else! Be of singular thought towards Jesus.

To Be Free from Fear

1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he that fears has not been made perfect in love."

I don't remember where it started, but for most of my life, I lived with fear. Fear of the school bully. Fear of not being accepted. Fear of dogs. Fear of failure and fear of success. I remember one incident that illustrates the foolishness of fear. There was a time when I was a paper boy, delivered the Chicago Sun Times in the morning and the Herald in the afternoon. Lived in a small neighborhood on the south side of Chicago and I would begin my route before the sun rose. One morning, as I was beginning to approach a house, I saw a shadowy figure crouched in the corner of the front lawn. The sun was just beginning to crest above the horizon. I froze. Fear gripped my heart. I stood as still as I could, waiting for him to move. After about three minutes, the sun came over the horizon enough for me to see that this menacing figure was really the silhouette of a bush. I felt stupid.

This is exactly the strategy of Satan. The Bible says that a fearful man runs when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as lions. Satan's primary weapon is intimidation. If he can get you into fear through circumstances, then he will stand back as you sabotage yourself. The only cure for fear is love. When you become convinced that God loves you and is for you, then fear will be replaced with confidence and boldness. It is perfect love that casts out fear, and God's love is the only love that is perfect. I don't know what you are afraid of, but I do know that His love is greater than your circumstance. Today, meditate on the greatness of His love for you. Allow His love to drive out the fear and let you enjoy His peace.

Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry

Not long after moving back to Colorado Springs Colorado, I called on a wise friend to ask for some spiritual direction. I described the pace of life in my current ministry. The church where I serve tends to move at a fast clip. I also told him about my rhythms of life: driving, baseball-league, music-lessons, bible school, counseling, ministry moving pace of life. I told him about the present condition of my heart, as best I could discern it. What did I need to do, I asked him, to be spiritually healthy?

Long pause.

"You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life," he said at last.

Another long pause.

"Okay, I've written that one down," I told him, a little impatiently. "That's a good one. Now what else is there?" I had many things to do, and this time together needed to move on, so I was anxious to cram as many units of spiritual wisdom into the least amount of time possible.

Another long pause.

"There is nothing else," he said. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."

I've concluded that my life and the well-being of the people I serve depends on following his prescription, for hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry destroys souls. As Carl Jung wrote, "Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil."

For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

One of the great illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time. I pulled into a service station recently where the advertising slogan read, "We help you move faster." But what if my primary need is not moving faster?

Time magazine noted that back in the 1960s, expert testimony was given to a sub-committee of the Senate on time management. The gist was that due to advances in technology, within 20 years or so people would have to cut back radically on how many hours a week they worked (or how many weeks a year they worked), or they'd have to start retiring sooner. The great challenge, they said, would be figuring out what to do with all the excess time.

Yet 50 years later, not many of us would say this is our primary time challenge. In fact, quite the reverse. Robert Banks, author of All the Business of Life, notes that while our society is rich in things, we are extremely poor in time. In fact, never before in human history has a society been so things-rich and so time-poor.

Our world has become the world of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland: "Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that."

Meyer Friedman (who with Diane Ulmer wrote Treating Type A Behavior -- and Your Heart) defines hurry sickness as "above all, a continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other persons."

Though our age intensifies "hurry sickness," it's not a new problem; people in ministry have been subject to it at least since the days of Jesus. During one hectic season of ministry, Mark notes of the disciples, "For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat."

Far too many people involved in ministry think of this as a life verse, as if God will reward the hectic one-day with, "What a life you had! Many were coming and going, and you had no leisure even to eat. Well done!"

Not quite. Jesus was aware of this problem, and he constantly withdrew from crowds and activities. He taught the same to his followers. In one instance, when they returned from a busy time of ministry, filled with adrenaline, he told them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while."

The question becomes “was Jesus ever in a hurry about anything He ever did?”

If you want to follow someone, you can't go faster than the one who is leading; following Jesus cannot be done at a sprint. Jesus was often busy but he was never hurried. Being busy is an outer condition; being hurried is a sickness of the soul.

Jesus never went about the busyness of his ministry in a way that severed the life-giving connection between himself and his Father.

In Jesus' main parable about the sower and seed He shows us the principals of farming. The three main principals are seed, time, and harvest. Time is a principal that we cannot bypass or cram for. You cannot hurry the growing process along, it must be done in its time. You can't hurry God up, but you can slow Him down by not participating in the rhythms of His time. How fast did Jesus move?

Just think if God came along and said that you have only three and a half years to complete your life and then I will take you home to heaven. You would try to cram a whole life time of living and ministering in that short time. Jesus had only three and a half years to complete all of the ministry to benefit the whole world. Jesus still was not in a hurry about doing all that He needed to accomplish.

He never did anything in a way that interfered with his ability to give love when that was what was called for. Laying down laws does not take any time at all, but to love, that takes time. Laws take the place of loving, that is why we put them in place so we can speed the process up. Jesus observed a regular rhythm of withdrawal from activity, for solitude and prayer. He never was in a hurry, ever.

Jesus ruthlessly eliminated hurry from his life, and He always had time to love.

Psalms 46:10 Be Still and know that He is God.

Do You Have an Overcomer Mentality?

Joel 2:25-29
25 'I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm-- my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.
28 'And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

4 things about an overcomer mentality
1. This great promise in Joel does not mean that it will automatically come to pass.
2. We need to do our part in providing an overcomer mentality. We must do everything we can to recover everything the enemy has stolen from us. We will never experience this supernatural restoration power if we passively sit back and never take action to recover what the enemy has stolen from us.
3. We need to start expecting things in our favor.
4. We need to be stronged will, determined and courageous about the right things.

David was a prime example of this:
David had an Overcomer Mentality, he had been through some very devastating times. He suffered some major setbacks. Never gave in, never gave in to mediocrity, he never sat back and took it easy. Never allowed the enemy to dominate him. He had sticktoitness

1 Sam 30:1-25
1 David and his men reached Ziklag (sicklag) on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it,
2 and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
3 When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.
4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.
5 David's two wives had been captured-- Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Bring me the ephod." Abiathar brought it to him,
8 and David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?" "Pursue them," he answered. "You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue."
9 David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Ravine, where some stayed behind,
10 for two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the ravine. But David and four hundred men continued the pursuit.
11 They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat--
12 part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.
13 David asked him, "To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?" He said, "I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago.
14 We raided the Negev of the Kerethites and the territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag."
15 David asked him, "Can you lead me down to this raiding party?" He answered, "Swear to me before God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them."
16 He led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah.
17 David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled.
18 David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.
19 Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.
20 He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, "This is David's plunder."
21 Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Ravine. They came out to meet David and the people with him. As David and his men approached, he greeted them.
22 But all the evil men and troublemakers among David's followers said, "Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered. However, each man may take his wife and children and go."
23 David replied, "No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the LORD has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the forces that came against us.
24 Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike."
25 David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this.

600 men out protecting, while away the enemies came in and took their women including David’s wives and burned the city to the ground.
David could of, gotten down, depressed, woe is me, distraught, how could this happen to me.

David had an overcomer mentality, (def of a champion)
Overcomer:
1. Overcomers are champions, they get knocked down but not knocked out.
2. Overcomers are encouraged and strengthened in the Lord
3. Overcomers may fail but they will try again.
4. Overcomers may lose a battle but they win the war.
5. Overcomers may experience setbacks but they arise and recover all.


David and the 600 hundred men got:

1. Family back
2. Herds back
3. Recovered all their gold and treasures
4. Received everything back that was taken
5. Received bounty of the Amalekites

But God is not satisfied to bring you out the same way you came in.
1. Bring you out in abundance
2. Better off then before the fact. Saw what the enemy had and David and his men walked out with more then they had before.

Obstacles to overcome.

There are three things that are the same in this parable and one thing that is different, what are they?
Matthew 7:24-27
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

The three things that are the same is they both built houses, they both heard the word of God, and they both experienced storms. The thing that is different is that one did the word of God and other did not. The thing that was different was not where they built their houses, by doing or not doing the word of God determined where they built their houses. So consequently, following through or not following through with the word determined if their house would stand and where it would be built. It is your attitude that determines the end outcome, stronger and healthier, or defeated and broken.

The Word does not call us as survivors, we are more then survivors,
Rom 8: 37-39 We are more then conquerors
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

All this depends on your attitudes; your attitude determines your altitude.
1. Rule over your emotions.
2. Doing what’s right even when you don’t feel like it.
3. David recovered all that the enemy stole from him because he had this Overcomer Mentality.

But he was King, He was called, He was anointed over all of Israel.
David’s Grandson Rehoboam did not have Overcomer Mentality.

IKing 14:25-28
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.
26 He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.
27 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.
28 Whenever the king went to the LORD's temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom.

Lost everything they had, just like David.
Vs 27 replaced with bronzed shields,
1. Lowered the standards.
2. compromised and settled for less.
3. It’s really not even worth the fight, These bronze shields look just as good as the gold ones.
4. We talk ourselves into living with things that are far less then God’s best.
5. We compromise with living with depression, poverty, marital problems, and constant pain.
6. We give up on our dreams because it is not worth the fight.

Rehoboam compromised and settled for mediocrity.
1. Did not put forth effort
2. Did not want to put up a good fight of faith. 1 Tim 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called.
3. He did not want to stand strong and missed out on God’s best.

God wanted to do the same for Rehoboam as He did for David. So He wants to do to you.
1. Overcomer Mentality
2. Joy to be full, John 15:11, John 16:24, 1 John 1:4, 2 John 1:12
3. Prosper and be in health, 3 John 1:2
4. Bring out of the battle better off then before 2 Chronicles 20.
5. Stand strong and refuse anything except for God’s Best. 1 John 5:4
6. Refuse to lower the standards in your life.

Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.