The battle for a man's heart

A Christian keeps away from Satanism and all that itches at the heart, saith the bible. “But I am just so accustomed to doing things this way,” you might say. Good men and women throughout the ages have understood that it is not their history that will judge them but putting their faith in another, resting their worship, their pleading on Jesus. Thus the hardest decision of a person’s life becomes the easiest.

Abraham and Sarah had faith and conceived, notwithstanding their years of unfruitfulness. Think humbly about what an example this would set! Isaac blessed Israel again by faith, along with Rebekah. Jacob refused to accept anything other than what faith had promised him, and his wife in turn challenged authority on the basis of promise. Our promise is acceptance by God, something the world does not take seriously enough. Pray with me then for love to choose grace and not law, assured that the devil is terrified of righteous deeds but devours the stragglers.

Who was Jesus? Not a ruler as the world knows but a man who trusted in mercy, who accepted the degradation of those in robes but spoke truth to power, and that truth was this, that a new kingdom was being ushered in, one where the crippled would stand up and walk, where the poor would have their rights respected, where kindness would be a code word for, yes, I know him. He reaches out to foreign lands, to foreign customs, to all those who have yearned for salvation. I heard in a sermon recently that we would be startled by Jesus’ humility. Jesus worked for the Father of lights, the Father of spirits, who reigns in almighty glory against all the forces of evil.

What did Jesus teach? What was his secret message? Yes, to heal. Yes, to love our enemies. Yes, to feed the hungry. But this, that we live in the shadow of his death. In dying he has scorched the earth of our fears so that Satan can no more tempt us. “For I die daily,” saith Paul. This was the uncomfortable word, the spirit of prophecy. My sins are now His sins, my anxieties His. He has descended to the lowest realms, and defeated Satan by his righteousness and his fast.

A homeless man doesn’t go into a store he doesn’t have the cash for! Saith the dauphin to her untalented neighbor, “bring me a trinket, cause of course YOU CAN!”

Love conquers all sin

Thank you, sir!

When I was a kid, the good deeds of others made an invaluable impression. For example, the man or woman who would hold the door when your hands were full. Something should be done when Jesus is used as a license to damn others indiscriminately. I think it is a kind of satanism. It requires repentance, I believe. It denies the very premise of Christianity, that Jesus conquered sin and the devil by servanthood. He talked with people, even if it was to correct them. Therefore we know we can and should respond to God in our words, however faltering they may be.

Victory

When I was a kid life was a series of safe and not-so-safe places. Probably my safest of safe places was in the library or at school working on some interesting math problem or some such, deep in thought. But going to houses in the neighborhood, being at a birthday party or seeing a newborn surrounded by admirers, these were safe places too. Which is why the verse “the wicked surround the righteous” (Habakkuk 1:4) was not just for later adult life, having a bad boss, facing a judgmental persecution that does not recognize forgiveness, being distracted by little annoyances. Insane as it may sound, those who speak the name of Jesus, the Bible tells us, will enjoy the fruit of the land, the bright and new shining day, the house not made with hands. Oh happy day! They will see Jesus descend in a cloud leading a host victorious, and what a sight that will be! I have done some things I regret in life, I know. Yet on that day I will be seen as the son of God the Father, and welcomed into the company of the saints. We believers live in that peace today. Yippee!

Is it enough to lose one’s job for faith in Jesus? “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8). Yet by laying aside all that comes from ourself we are promised grace. Being an aggressive male is fine if you are in a pre-historic gang that bops each other over the head for fun, but there is one who speaks out of a gentle spirit. It is incredible the lives our forbearers have lived. The church has authority, and it is one that my soul is tormented for not listening to. I will talk of nothing but Him who saved me, I will submit to the church, the mother of grace, I will pray to God three times a day. "Kids, you do whatever your mother tells you." Yet my neighbors turn the other way. My thoughts are racing. In the quarter dollars I use for my morning coffee are the letters P, D, and S. May my soul likewise be marked as righteous, bought, no longer a sinner. "The righteous shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4)