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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  • Facing the Challenge

    “Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 2:20).

    It is important to remember that all who are Christians have one life.  In the sight of heaven there is only one life that matters before God — it is the life of the Lord Jesus, indwelling each of us by His Spirit.  This is an amazing fellowship.  Because we share that one life, we share one great purpose and one great work:  it is the building of lives into the Kingdom of God, and in such a task one hundred per cent cooperation between Christian people is absolutely vital.  The greatest menace to revival is the Christian who refuses to work with other people because his view of Christian togetherness is different and short-sighted.

    Would it not make a great difference if each believer would say this before God, “Lord, I will make my own immediate locality my mission field. I will see to it that every family is regularly supplied with gospel literature, loved and urged to attend church“?  Would it not make a great difference if every believer was an example to their family and to others that the prayer meeting is the most important meeting of the week night?

    In the Christian work organizing and agonizing should go together.  Alas, too often organizing has crowded out the agonizing.  There is too much working before men and too little waiting before God.  There is more and more motion and less and less unction.  We wrestle with problems but we seldom wrestle on our knees before God against the real enemy, Satan.  We should have a ready burden at all times for the work of 100% cooperation in this work!  We have no room for the independent Christian; we are engaged in one supreme task, that of reaching this world for God, and it will take all of us.  This is how our God works.  Let’s allow the Lord Jesus to work in us and through us.

  • The Third Day

    God is the Lifter of the Head

    “And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.”                                         –Genesis 40:20

    The Lord Himself is the lifter up of the head (Ps. 3:3). So many times we depend upon people to help us, but their help never comes. Psalm 60:11 says, “Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.”

    It was the third day that the butler and the baker were lifted up and out of imprisonment to be placed before Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s birthday meant salvation to the baker and condemnation to the baker.

    Poor Joseph was left in prison–he who had done nothing amiss (Gen. 40:15). It was two years before the butler remembered Joseph before he would be freed. And God is the One who brought the situation to mind once again.

    God is with Joseph as he waited upon His God (Gen. 39:21). Joseph had his own dream and we have God’s promise, He will never leave us. The experience of Joseph led him to serve others even while waiting in prison. God will allow each of us to wait upon Him so that he may “put iron into our souls” (Ps. 105:17-22).

    Remember the power of the third day. God raised His Son and He will raise you and me up as well. If the Lord controls us, it makes little difference who commands us. God gives victory in the place of defeat, honor in the place of shame, health in the place of sickness, and restoration in the place of a fall.

  • Cream Puff or Rattlesnake

    “God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in Him sets us clear”

    (Rom. 3:25 MSG).

     

    One Sunday President Calvin Coolidge, a man of few words, attended church. Upon his return from the service he was asked what the sermon was about. He responded, “sin.”

     

    “Well, what did the preacher say about it?”

     

    “He said he’s against it,” replied Coolidge.
    No Christian can live with sin – day in and day out, year in and year out, without even the slightest change or attempt to stop – and remain a Christian! Christianity without any change in behavior over the long haul is synthetic Christianity – it is a false assurance. We either go to God in repentance and turn away from our sin, or we give over to sin.
    Here is the truth of the matter, we need to be afraid of sin. We have to treat it more deadly than a rattlesnake. That means we never dally with it.
    You play with fire, you will get burnt. You mess with a snake, you get bit. You dabble in sin, you slide down the slippery slope that separates from God. There is NOTHING more dangerous than accepting and excusing sin…that has the power to cast into hell.
    As we walk through life we need to follow the Appalachian warning about river trails: NEVER stop watching for rattlers! We have got to be alert and be on our guard. Sin can creep up when we least expect it.
    When it does we need to do as Barney Fife says, “Nip it in the bud.” We need to root it out even before it is a half-formed thought, before it is said…before it is done. Don’t touch sin with a ten-foot pole. And if you do, deal with it immediately.
    Stay close to Christ. Stay in God’s Word. Read it. Meditate upon it. Eat it. Memorize it. Pray it through.

  • Don’t Lose the Wonder

    “There are three things which are too wonderful for me” (Proverbs 30:18). 

     

    Science may be able to explain the flight of birds, the movements of serpents, the currents of the atmosphere and of the ocean, and human sexuality, but that does not take away from the wonder of it all.
    Life and love are not explained in the laboratory. Experiments or the formulas which are convenient to the experts do not take away the splendor and awe of God’s creation and created order.
    So many times as we go through life, we tend to lose the sense of wonder. We become farsighted and forgetful linked to unthankfulness.  If someone lives near the ocean you can find in any day many who have not been to the shoreline all year. The stars shine above us and yet we forget that they do. The birth of a baby happens and we share stares and looks and comments but it’s “just a newborn.”
    Today look at your salvation you received from God. He created you, gave you breath, drew you to Himself, changed you, remade you, and is coming back to receive you. What a great God who can change a heart into a heart like unto His. Don’t lose the wonder! It’s too precious.

  • Jesus The One and Only

    “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

    Jesus is the uncreated Creator, the second Person of the God-Head, who subjugated Himself not in essence but in function, that He would exegete God in a language we could understand.

    Do you want to know what God said? Listen to Jesus. Do you want to know what God feels? Watch the heart of Jesus as He walked among us. Do you desire to know Him? Look at Jesus upon the cross who died for our sins. Listen to His words. Do you desire to see what God looks like? Look at Jesus. Do you want to know how to live? Look at Jesus and accept Him into your life and He will live in you, through you, and for you.

    Jesus is the One and Only. He is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no going to Heaven without Jesus, no knowing of the true God without Jesus, and no real living without the Lord Jesus. He is divine and eternal. He is eternally existent, intimately close, and equally divine to God.

  • Three Days Three Nights

    “Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first” (Matthew 27:64).

    The Lord Jesus did rise again the third day. Three days and three nights in the tomb were accomplished just as He said. No amount of soldiers, edicts from Rome, nor religious power could tone down what would eventually take place.

    Why do people not desire a God who would die for them and rise again? Do they not want their sins forgiven? Do they not want the grave to be defeated? Do we not want our homes to be healed? Don’t we want what our children need in schools and in life?

    One glorious day the Lord will appear again. The stone was rolled down away for all His enemies to look into the tomb and find that He is not there. It is a reminder that He is coming again and all will see Him in that day. The child of God needs to look in for in that look we are reminded that He is not there–for in great power and provision He is seated in glory reigning from above. Child of God live in His living and find in His grace life more abundantly.