“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already obtained at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Phil. 3:12).   When you and I see the future, we can face anything in the present. The outward form of religion is but a husk, and we must resolve to feed upon the kernel. Oh to have substance, not its shadows.   We are a people stuck on doing things that draw us away from God. We draw from pleasure, prosperity, power, and prominence. And yet these things do not satisfy nor give life. In and of themselves they are nothing without Christ! We will not find what we need in this world or even what is inside of us. There is nothing outside of Jesus that truly satisfies with perpetuity. If you and I decided to retire, and could, we would find greater dissatisfaction if all we do is live for self. We can run up and down the east coast, east to west, jump on any and every airplane, and you will find the same conclusion:  what we are searching for is God and God alone. Just doing things to fill the day and to fill the soul, finding something new under the sun, just will not work. There is an emptiness that only God can fill. God made us for Himself. For those who are saved from sin, self, Satan, and the selfish things of this world, we find that ONLY God fills and satisfies. One can be poor in this world and be rich in the world. One can have many sorrows in this world and yet have great joy inside. Ask any movie star, any affluent person out there, any who has this world by the tail, and if they are honest, they will tell you they are not content. “Friends all around me are trying to find, what the heart yearns for, by sin undermined; I have the secret, I know where ’tis found, only true pleasures in Jesus abound.” Take fast hold upon Christ. Take hold of that which is invisible. Have this clear conviction and devout reverence. Let criticism rattle your armor like a hailstone, stand fast and defile it all.

“By faith, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt” (Hebrews 11:24-26).

How did Moses make it? He led a rebellious people through hot, dry, deserted, desert land. The people did not like him (3 million of them), even raised up with rocks in their hands to cast him down. He left Egypt with all of its pleasures and treasures, why?…for suffering, reproach, turmoil, constant troubles, hot and dry; is this why?

He endured because he saw Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27). That’s the key to endurance. You see Him who is invisible. In other words, he saw God’s hand in everything and in every situation.

We have a choice. In whatever we are going through, we can either shrivel up, pull in, fall down, and fade away or we can endure, seeing Him who is invisible, seeing His hand in everything and everything in His hand. The nail pierced hand of Christ, the visible God come down, has your world in His hand. Trust Him to frame it according to His Word.

A New Start

“For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Paul went through much of living in a culture that was antagonistic toward Christ. So many problems came and went against him, trouble on every side of him, problems that pressed hard against him, and yet he learned the secret of contentment.

Look at yourself in the mirror. Tell me what you see? I see in the mirror a man who is aging and breaking down externally. But, again,  take a look in the mirror of the Word. What do you see? Do you see the eternal springing up within you, the everlasting joy that comes from looking away from the obvious to the real?

Paul did not faint because he kept his eyes on the eternal and the internal. His daily focus was disciplined upon Christ and His Word. He learned that the outward things were temporal and could be discouraging. The things not seen were eternal and were an eternal weight of glory. What is discouragement? It is a temporary loss of perspective.

Focus on that which is unseen, the truths you know in your heart, for it is that truth that is a reality. We need to focus on the inner man. Life is passing us by. We have the opportunity to focus on the eternal and internal daily for the next 364 days of the year.

“If you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17). Remember, that the greatest danger to your child is not the evil outside them; it’s the sin inside them that is the greatest of all threats to their well-being. We have noticed that much of parenting today, especially in the church community, centers around a perimeter of human wisdom. Rigidity along with ritual brings about a conformity that does not help conform that child to the image of Christ. In the end that child runs and we wonder what happened to that training? The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus would not have been necessary if all we needed were a bunch of rules, ingenuity, and insight. Jesus came to solve the dilemma of sin. It is only through Him that a parent can supervise a child in the way he or she should go. We are losing children to this culture because many kids are conformed to a parent’s wishes instead of the power of God. Some parents don’t seem to care, while others who are in the minority do, but both sets of parenting will fall short of the glory of God when the functionality of doing is used more than receiving the mystery life-giving breath of God. The most dangerous thing in a young person’s life is his blindness to the depth of his own spiritual need. Only the Spirit of God can open the eyes of that child, and it is only the Spirit of God who will lead the dad and mom to an open field of parenting in freedom.

“For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after he is killed, he shall rise the third day” (Mark 9:31).

Why did the Lord Jesus have to teach His disciples about His death and resurrection when it should have been plain to see? One reason was that the nation of Israel was in denial and ignorance because they had not been taught the pure Word of God. Past generations were in the dark concerning God’s remedy for sin and its dominion. They did not take time to hear.

Sin will blind and deafen a soul to the voice of God. In Daniel’s day the LORD revealed by books and scripture the plan and purpose of God to Daniel. Daniel realized the people had sinned, and brought reproach unto their own head, which degenerated the minds of the people toward their promise. God’s chosen people did not hearken to the servants, the prophets, who spoke God’s name to the Kings, princes, and the fathers, and to the people of the land (Daniel 9:6).

Do you want to know how to know God? Get alone with God and allow Him to instruct you. Read His word, pray unto Him in prayer, in secret private prayer. It’s been said that the pious, religious hypocrite needs an audience to pray because he prays to be heard. To impress. But, friend, if you and I really desire God’s voice then we need to take time to hear and to be heard by God above. There in the secret place He will instruct in righteousness which yields fruit everlasting.

“I looked on my right hand…no man cared for my soul” (Psalm 142:4).

When it comes to witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ, I remember while I was in college that no one every spoke to me about my soul.  As a matter of real knowledge, I do not ever recall anyone speaking to me directly about my eternal destination.  It was all so vague to me.  As a young man, a teen of maybe fifteen, I remember shutting my Bible during a worship service and saying to myself, “One day I will understand but for now I choose to wait it out.”

I did not shut my Bible in rebellion but in mild frustration.  I said “Maybe one day I will understand.”  I just didn’t get it.  I wasn’t trying to harm or hurt anyone; I, with all of the changes going on in my body, mind, and soul of a teen, just gave up and I just shut down.

There are a lot of youth walking around the same way today.  They don’t know what the Bible, Jesus, the Church, and prayer, etc., is all about.  They are lost and headed toward a dream world that does not exist.  And there are hardly any out there who care enough to pray and prepare their own lives to tell the good news to them.

Do you remember in the first paragraph that I remarked that no one spoke up for my soul?  Well there was one.  I was in my second year of college and I traveled to the State Fair in Raleigh, NC.  While there, minding my own business, I was walking with a girl and out of nowhere God appeared.  You say, “What?” Yep!  In just a moment in time this girl stopped out in front of us and asked ME “If I were a Christian?”  I said, “Yes,” for I was taken by surprise.  The next step, I took after giving her my answer, the Holy Spirit of God stopped me dead in my soul and in such a real way said to my lost soul, “You are lying.”  And He was right.  Never before had I been confronted in that manner.

God used that girl to speak to me.  He was awakening my soul out of the lap of the evil one.  Later I understood the gospel!  He opened my eyes.  I have never gotten over it.  Someone cared for my soul.  She doesn’t know what she did for me.  I laughed inside when I saw her in front of me with her “Howdy Doody smile“.  But now it is me who has the smile.  I can’t wait to see her.  I don’t know exactly how it will happen, but one day I will thank her for her bravery, courage and her love for a lost college boy headed toward Hell who didn’t understand.  And one day I will thank the Lord God Almighty for using this young college girl in my life who stood up for Him!