Always Faithful (Semper Fidelis)

 

“…So David prepared abundantly before his death” (I Chronicles 22:5c).

   Did you run track in high school? Perhaps you ran the 95-yard dash, or the 215. I ran track for one year while in high school. I wasn’t the fastest or the best, but I enjoyed it. I was young, ambitious, and just wanted to do something. But one thing I do know, I never ran the 95 or the 215. My friends ran the 100-yard dash and the 220. I ran the longer distances.

     The point is this: In marriage, as well as the Christian life, it’s not how you start that really counts, though important, it’s how you finish. You can run for 95 yards and even lead the field, but if you stop five yards short, those 95 yards were an exercise in futility. There are too many Christians, too many fathers and mothers, who are running the 95-yard dash. They quit on God and stop on each other.

    We are losing our families to this culture. Our boys and girls need to see personal commitments from each of us (dad, mom, grandparents, teachers) to finish the race. It is a surrender each and every day to the new mercies and compassions of Almighty God. We must repent each day of our own desires and allow God’s ways to saturate and permeate our lives. There is a race to be run; there is a race to be won!

Similar Posts

  • Stubborn Faith

     

     “At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us (Nehemiah 4:20).fisher of men net

    When your faith begins to wane before the goal is finished and reached, remember the One who:

    * so agonized in prayer that He sweat drops of blood;

    * so despised, rejected, and crucified by the ones He loved very much;

    * suffered so often that He was referred to as the “Man of Sorrows” who was acquainted with grief.

    Remember that our strength is not compared to the enemy, on the other hand, we size up with the power of God. The enemies we have absolutely have no chance against God, the mighty Warrior!

  • I May Be Wrong…But I Doubt It

    “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lists, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3).

    In this diet, fitness-crazed world especially found in America, there are many conversations when it comes to good cholesterol, bad cholesterol, fat, fiber, calories and carbohydrates.  The wellness teams are coming up with all kinds of programs to help us lead better and healthier lifestyles.  They want us to live a long time.

    I read about two elderly ladies who died and went to heaven.  As they walked the streets of gold, one said to the other, “Just think, if we hadn’t eaten all that bran, we could have been here years ago.”  We are in a fitness craze today.  We live longer and we enjoy it less.

    I only wish that the Christian community was as into a rigorous spiritual exercise as they are with their physical exercise.  We are so focused on the temporal more than the eternal.  We worship dust when we are more concerned about our temporal bodies than the eternal body.

    Firm faith is better than firm bodies.  We have promoted buns of steel and brains of silly putty.  This is a scandal and a sin.  We have dumbed down our minds.  Although there are more Christian Bookstores today, only 10-12% of American Christians ever visit them.

    The majority of the Christian world would rather be ignorant than learn.  People no longer read, or think.  And because of that fact we have raised a generation that cannot endure sound doctrine.  There are many in our church pews today who desire not to be taught or to teach.  And when we watch the news we see the Philistine mindset which promotes untruth.

    There needs to be a return to seeking the face of God and the mind of Christ.  We must call people to discipline their minds as well as their bodies.  God expects us to take care of our physical bodies but not at the expense of not exercising our spiritual minds for the glory of God.  There needs to be a real turn to Christ and His Word.

  • Positive Peers

    “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Proverbs 1:10).

    “I am the peer pressure,” said a young man in high school. He was being interviewed by a reporter who asked him how he lived the Christian life in front of his peers. He pointed out that it was not the culture that swayed him but he the culture. He would not back down or stand down. Who taught him this mode of affront?

    We hear of all kinds of horror stories about the local “goings on” in the public schools. There seems to be a certain death knell that is pervading and depressing many Christian parents about our local schools, even our youth groups in our churches.  There is a modern, degenerate America,  we all know that is before us. And the reasoning given to us today is that we can shelter our children in our “mission schools.”

    The “woe-mongers” are all around us. Their forecast is intimidating. Their language is severe. We who are children of God live by faith, and we are to stand up with conviction with courage and declare with a great emphasis, “I refuse to be intimidated. I believe that our children will be the positive peers!” Parents train, pray, and send them out as arrows that leave their hands.

    It is better to allow tough things for our children to encounter than to take every obstacle away from them. Let’s train our kids to win their peers to Christ and rejoice in that. Let’s train our children to be a catalyst which stops the other sheep dead in their tracks, letting them know everybody’s not doing it.

    The faithfulness of God is to be depended upon and not the faithfulness of a dad and mom who “outthinks” God. Students swimming against the stream, students strengthening the spiritual sinew of their own bodies, who lean hard upon God is the joy of doing life God’s way.

     

     

     

     

  • Terrorism: What do we do?

    “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing?”  (Luke 23:34).

     

    May God continue to be especially nigh to those who are being persecuted. May He use our prayers and our concerns and our monies to help the persecuted church. We know that the primary mission of the church is not to protect itself from the world, but to protect others from the world to come
    In the economy of God’s time today, what do we do for those who are being hurt by others who have no regard for God and the church?
    1. We mourn the loss of the victims. The Lord Jesus wept many times in His life on earth. Yet, God is afflicted with our afflictions even now.
    2. Pray for the Terrorist’s Salvation. Ours is to persist in loving, even if men persist in enmity. We are to bless when they curse, pray while they persecute. We are to “do good to them, and pray for them.”
    3. Keep Calm and Preach On. We are to continue to preach the gospel. It is the Master’s mandate, and it is the Master’s power.
    4. Forgive the Evil. The Christian man is not allowed to hate anyone.
    5. Live Each Day in Light of Eternity. If God had willed it we might have entered into heaven at the moment of our conversion, but He has not. Why are God’s ships still at sea? One breath of His wind might waft them to the haven of rest. We are not here in vain. We are here to glorify God, and that we may see others come to know his love.

  • A Revival of Repentance

    “…as many as I love I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19).

    Daniel was a man who lived among a people that was sinful and recalcitrant.  He found that even in his own heart there reposed a sinfulness that was not according to God’s righteousness.  His sinfulness within reflected the sinfulness of others without.

    What do you do when you find yourself in the midst of pride and disobedience?  You get on your knees and pray.  We are not looking within or without as we should.  We have too much of the world in our view that is blocking our AWE of God.  Can you imagine the heartbreak of God to look down upon the ones He created who do not realize how good He is?  And we continue to do what?  To take God for granted and tolerate the only One who is able!

    Let’s look and fervently ask the Lord to use us today.  It is of great joy to be in Rightness with God.  May we ask for His mercy to enter into our circles of influence so that others would feel the same about our God.  We need a revival of repentance in our circles that we travel in.

  • A Worthful Church

    “Ye sent unto John, and he bore witness unto the truth” (John 5:33).

    The duty and delight of every Christian is to bear witness to the truth. Our behavior and our beliefs are to be saturated by the Spirit of God. When we are living by God’s Word in the keeping, drawing power of God, then we are bearing witness to God’s Son who lives! We choose to flesh out what has been worked in by dependence upon God’s Spirit.

    John bore witness to Christ. He bore testimony to the Son of God. There can be no shining if there is no burning. John burned for Christ and was passionate about the Spirit’s work in his own life. The flesh was burned away and the Spirit of God burned within.

    A.W. Tozer said, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

    Churches are only as powerful as their dependence upon the Holy Spirit. We can say that any man who is bored with church work and worship is not ready for Heaven. People of God are renewed daily by the inward pressure of the Spirit of God who leads. He does not drive. The external situation or climate dictates to the leader of a family, a Sunday School class, a work place, or a church, that God desires to move in! And to take over! And To change it! This is a man/woman who lives in God.