Real Valor

 

“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” (Matthew 7:24).

    The Navy Seals train on the sand of Coronado Island so that can fight on the rocks of Afghanistan. Actually, the SEALs can fight anywhere–sea, air, and land. Hence the name and acronym SEALs.

      The training to become a SEAL is pure torture. But there is a reason for the harsh surroundings of training. The tests, drills, the lack of sleep, is all purposed to make a SEAL. Who will make it to become a SEAL? One writer said, “Not the weight-lifting meatheads…the kids covered in tattoos….the preening leaders who don’t want to get dirty…and the look-at-me former athletes who have always been told they are stars but who have never been pushed beyond the envelope of their talent to the core of their character.”

    Who does not make it in the Christian warfare and walk? In short, those who fail are the ones who focus on show. When it comes to famine (lean times in life), suffering (hard times in life), the rough times (doesn’t seem to-let-up times in life), many look for the exit. Though it is rough, tough, and fisticuffs, God means for us to not look for the exit, but to stay the course. His desire is for us not to be all show and no go. In Texas they have a saying, “Big hat, no cattle.”  Build on the Rock of Jesus! STAY the course!

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      The enemy doesn’t mind if you are spiritually active. He just doesn’t want you to be spiritually effective. One may be active in church, doctrinally pure, serving on the church board, teaching, etc…. but if one is not involved in the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life then that life is at a minimal. Minimal in church and minimal in the family.

         “What are the spiritual disciplines?” you ask. It is the reverence for God’s Word and the power of effective praying. We owe to Scripture the same reverence we owe to God. The Bible is revered but it is not read. There is low reading of the Bible by believers.

          “Sine qua non” is a Latin phrase which means “without which, nothing.” Without a good diet of Scripture and an exercise in the effectiveness of praying, you’ve got nothing. You and I cannot finish the Christian marathon without true prayer. We cannot even enter the race without the Word of

  • The Light of the World

    “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden”  (Matthew 5:14). 

     

    God has called us to make Him known to a dark world lost without direction and a dynamic. Without light there is darkness. We have been changed within so that we would light the world. This is God’s purpose that we would enjoy our God and share Him with others.
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  • The Third Day

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    Or a Burden?

     
    “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”     (Galatians 4:19).

    Most fathers are absent when it comes to leading their children to faith/life issues. Most mothers are misguided as well when it comes to patiently loving their children to Christ. There are very few lives where Bible and devotions are in the home. Today’s generation of youth know little of the Faith once delivered. They know little of the reason for the Bible and to why they believe what they do.

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    What a great time to invest in the lives of our youth. It is a good time to always reach out to children and youth, to lead them and to guide them to Christ. Evangelism and discipleship is never easy. We seem to want everything to fall into our laps. It is not the way of the Master. For discipleship works when we work as we are led by the Spirit of God. There will be trials, tears, and at times a desire to throw it all to the side–but it is not what God would have for us or for the youth of this day.

    Paul travailed in prayer, in practice, and in perseverance till Christ was formed in the church of Galatia. Should we expect anything differently?

     

     

     

  • Deep Living

    “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (Psalm 1:1).

    Discouragement is the temporary loss of perspective. So many men for the sake of getting a living forget to live. Each day is to be significant as we seek those things which are deeper and not so much as wider.

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  • Identification and Participation in His Death

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    You and I live around death, decay, and indifference. As long as we are living for ourselves and the cross of Christ remains a distant thought from an even more distant past, you and I will not fully maximize the life we were to live.

     

    We are dead in Christ. We are not to bring our self-centered thinking, fears, actions, anxieties, and desires into the new relationship. They have been crucified, the old self-life. We are all one in Christ. He is perfect, sinless Deity. A separation happens when we try to live apart from Him. We transfer our allegiance and identity to Christ.

     

    As long as we live by rules and intellectualism and not by an ongoing participation in the death of Christ we will not see victory. It happens only through love that both honors and trusts in Jesus’ belief in Himself and what He has done for us on the cross.

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    God is not free to flow His power through you and me unless we are identified with the death we experienced in Christ when we were born again. Until we realize and make the decision that we will die to ourself daily, and live to Him, we will continue to simply exist rather than maximize God’s good plan for us. We can not bring our old life into union with His life whereas we were made one.

     

    God has given us the power of His resurrection through a brand-new reference point. How we view our self, others, our circumstances, and life must be all in Him. His life in me–my thinking, my acting, and believing must be His or there will be conflict and severance from His life. To be crucified with Jesus Christ establishes a brand-new reference for life–His life! This is the power of the third day, His resurrection life living in us and through us.

  • A Purposeful Life

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    Christ is capable of living the Christian life, for the obvious and simple reason that He is the Christian life. Allow the grace of God to work in your bad situations and good situations.  As David faced much we are grateful that the Christ who lives in us is more than able to face anything and conquer