Our text tells us the environment in which we live and work and play is no less deadly than the Viet Nam jungles, or any other field of physical battle. There are no frontlines and the enemy surrounds us, as it were, in civilian clothes; shrewdly masquerading as angels of light. The intensity and energy of vigilance and alertness is required far more to overcome this unwearied enemy. The Christian’s greatest protection is God Himself; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But He has provided means for you to wrap yourself in His grace; namely, undiminished prayer, Bible study and meditation; the Sacraments: improving your baptism and feeding on the real presence of Christ in the Supper; and hearing the Word preached, repenting, and obeying. But God has also given you your fellow believers as a means of protection against Satan and his fallen angels.

The writer of Hebrews wrote: “And let us consider how we may spur each other on to love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as we see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)There is the strongest implication that the enemy’s attacks will increase in intensity as the Day of the Lord’s return draws closer. I believe the focus of the proper application of this instruction is the more intimate, accountable relationship of one or a few fellow believers rather than the relative anonymity and distance permitted in the larger crowd that constitutes the church.  Peter spoke in the same chapter as the above verses of his close relationship with fellow elders and particularly with Silas and Mark (see vs. 1, 12, 13); Paul at the end of his epistles always made mention of the few who stood closely by him in the faith and in his work. Jesus gathered 12 around him for a more intensive relationship than with the crowds who constantly sought him out.

James tells us we are to have a relationship with some believers in which we confess our sins to one another; a relationship where you have the confidence to ask the right questions and in turn give forthright, non-glossed-over answers. Our text tells us that the biggest obstacle in calling on a few to draw near to is our own pride. It is precisely why humility is a necessity to a successful defense against the lion that stalks you. Peter reminds us, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble!” Close, honest, accountable relationships require humility, which produces a heart in which there is no guile. Truth dies in the face of pride, but flourishes in the heart of humility. Our spouses ought to be our greatest human confidant and fellow warrior in this fight, but there is increased strength in one, two or three others of your gender to encourage you in the battle. It is worth your earnest prayer and search that God would bless you with such fellow warriors.

I just read the blog of a friend who was bemoaning being away from his young granddaughter for a month.  Many have to endure separation for much longer periods, as soldiers who a year or longer at a time are away from wife, children, family and friends.  Missionaries often are separated from loved ones for months, years, a lifetime, and before modern transportation their first goodbye was frequently their last. In our life experience we come to understand the nature of such reality, but we surely wish it were different and we yearn, like the Apostle Paul, for the time to get “caught up” even while we bemoan the fact that we can’t recapture all we have missed in-between.

Paul’s letters are filled with references to his eager desire to be with many loved friends and family of the household of God.  Paul was not married, but his children in the faith numbered in the thousands.  Just to see them he had to brave long, arduous and dangerous trips by ship and on his own two legs; and then he had to part all too soon, knowing he might not see them again for a long time, if ever in this life.  Such separation produced real pain and sorrow that pierced his heart and he wasn’t reticent in telling us about it in his epistles.

There are many illusions that keep our perspective and our hearts earth-bound.  This should not be one of them.  Paul’s vision of heaven was not so muddied as ours when it prompted him to say he desired to depart and be with Christ; for he was utterly convinced that this meant he would more quickly be reunited with what he called his joy and crown: his brothers and sisters and sons and daughters in the faith, for whose presence, but also for whose eternity he yearned.  I do not know the specific nature of getting “caught up” (as we so often say to one another) in heaven, or in recapturing the years of relationship and personal interaction missed on earth, but I am sure God has it well thought through.  Timeless eternity removes the obstacle of time-bound fallen-earth, opening all kinds of imaginable and unimaginable interaction and relationship in the new heavens and new earth (more than we can ask or think!)

I doubt you or I are done bemoaning our separation from those we would love to be with so much more than is now possible.  But every occasion of remembering and bemoaning their absence ought to be compelling reminders of what lies ahead, restoring and fulfilling what we think we missed.  The very thought of those for whom Paul yearned compelled his prayers (night and day) and his actions to do all he was able, even at a distance, to supply what was lacking in their faith, to the end that they may be “established in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, with all his saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:9-13)  Paul’s goal in writing this is that it might also be your personal mind-set every time the sorrow of absence strikes?  You can make it so; and if you do, like Paul, your joy and crown will be greatly enlarged when The Day arrives and the shadows flee away.

When you study the life of Jesus, the Son of God, you see a life increasingly beset by persecution at the hands of bullies. They pursued and hounded Him unto death. You can say He was the chief of the bullied. Often we will restrict the term “bullying” to the interaction of children and teenagers, and not to the altercations that take place with “more sophisticated” adults. Yet the unjust persecution of another at any age has the same characteristics as the evil actions of a bully. Ultimately as the anger and bloodthirstiness of the bully remains unabated it leads to murder. He or she simply wants to see the person or persons they are bullying destroyed; note the language in the current political discourse in public and in the blogs.

There are times and circumstances when a child or a person being bullied cannot escape. It persists for months, even years. And when one bully goes away, another (or others) appears. Indeed, being bullied or persecuted is what is promised to the person who takes seriously the claims of Christ and strives to be obedient in his own words, and actions to His commands and example. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.” (Matthew 5:10-11)

There is little doubt that such bullying is going on at every level in our modern day, on the playground, in school, in the political arena, in all areas of life in this culture. Parents ought to begin from the time their children are toddlers teaching them about the fallen world in which they are growing up; that they will encounter many a bully in their lifetime, and that they do not want to be a bully themselves. All too often we do not instruct our children in the knowledge of the evil world around them and how one whose Lord is Jesus Christ can and should live in a world of sin and sinners. The first time they are bullied even in their interaction with brothers or sisters is a great opportunity to teach them about the Savior who encountered bullying His entire life.  We do not know about His years from 2-12 or 12 to near 30, but you can be sure that a righteous child and man invited and encountered bullying at every age, and all the way to Calvary’s cross.

The route of true blessing and happiness is to respond to bullying righteously and refrain from the evil of perpetrating it on others. When bullied the righteous response is not vengeance. A bullied child ought to be protected as much as possible by his or her parents and the relevant authorities, but also instructed in the knowledge and example of their Savior.  Jesus gives us the glorious promise that our fellowship and bond with Him is cemented in the crucible of persecution, not unlike His. “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:44) It is never ever an easy task, but the reward at the end of the journey is worth every painful inch of it.

For example the fears of another Chernobyl have been fired up by the media creating nuclear energy knee jerk reactions around the globe. Unfortunately, the true facts of Chernobyl are in very short supply as the pundits show they are neither aware of the final results of Chernobyl nor able to accurately portray the potential damage to people’s health in Japan and elsewhere; note the run on anti-radiation medicine in the stores of California, Oregon, and Hawaii.  In actual fact the only people after thorough study and investigation who died as a direct result of Chernobyl’s meltdown were the 30 people in the plant who died in the explosion. Perhaps you did not know this because you relied on the news media to tell you the truth. Additionally, the Sunday Times of London reported April 28, 2002 that the animals around Chernobyl are “thriving.” 50 years after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear bombs, the 90,000 survivors had experienced only 700 cases of cancer in excess of the normal rate of cancer in the population, and half of the 90,000 survivors were still living.

One of the most important aspects of the impact of this natural disaster is not even on the radar screen of the media. From a career missionary friend to Japan, who was born and raised there, I received a letter with the expression of hope that this upheaval of shocking proportion will awaken the Japanese people from spiritual lethargy to think about eternal values. He wrote that on any given day in Japan 90-100 people commit suicide. Even as the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami climbs to above 10,000, such a number represents only a third of the people in Japan who die every year by taking their own lives.

As in any disaster, natural or man-made, the question inevitably arises, strangely enough from even atheists and agnostics (go figure), “Why did God allow this, or if He is sovereign over all creation as the Bible teaches, why did He cause it, or why didn’t He stop it if it is just nature running its course?” It’s a good question to ask, especially if you also consider your answer to the following questions along with it: “Why has my ignoring of Him been so pervasive in my life in the past? And why am I concerned about His plan, purposes, and practice only when my life is inconvenienced by a disaster that really gets my attention?”

This last earthquake, tsunami, or what have you is not nearly the final one we will see or experience. The doozy of them all is still to come, described graphically in Revelation 16, not to mention all those in-between.  Whatever the full ramifications of God’s purposes in the many devastations of the past, the present and the future, this much is surely true; it has been seen that is often the only way to shock spiritually dead or lethargic people into  seriously evaluating where their life is headed eternally and to seek out the Almighty and Living God. Would that Japan would experience a spiritual revival as a result of this upheaval, as well as other peoples of the world who are able in this 21^st Century to see firsthand what is happening across the globe from them.  For every believer Japan’s pain should motivate our own prayer life, and stir us more readily and earnestly to speak the gospel into our own personal world, to those near and around us who are devoid of any relationship with Jesus Christ or hope of heaven.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night.”
Psalm 1:1-2

Application:

The very public pain inflicted by one disturbed individual on so many in Tucson this past week is another opportunity to question the goodness of God and the nature of life in a world which God created and sustains. Most often the questioner is an atheist, a skeptic, a seeker, or one described in the Bible as an infant “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph. 4:14) But then our observation and experience tells us that doubt is not unknown to those who do believe in the loving-kindness, justice, and goodness of God; the living God who is there. When pain and anguish for any reason pierces the threshold of our own dwelling, doubt follows, fighting for a foothold in the heart. It is not so much the fact that the Bible has withheld information from us that this world would be anything other than a spiritual and physical battlefield saturated with death, destruction, wounding; ambushes, retreats, and defeats sprinkled among the triumphs. It is more that we believed promises of protection, prosperity, blessing, and peace with our own “understanding” of what it should look like for me and mine despite a fallen world. When our understanding is shaken by the entrance of pain, doubt will often rear its ugly head. It is not that God’s promises are not effectual for us in this life; we could not live without them, nor even see our way to heaven. But they must be viewed and understood in light of the purpose of this life and the ultimate goal of eternity.

In the early 1980’s a journalist asked the novelist Saul Bellow this question: “Mr. Bellow, you are a writer, and we are writers. What’s the difference between us?” Bellow quickly answered, “As journalists, you are concerned with news of the day. As a novelist, I am concerned with news of eternity.” I am afraid we are too much drawn to living life in the nature of the journalists. We see our life as “news of the day,” not with the perspective of “news of eternity.” People who cannot hear musical pitch and then recreate the same sound are sometimes called tone deaf. That is partially me. Many believers because of our sinful nature are too prone to be God-deaf or God’s Word-deaf and in the critical moment cannot remember His words. We too often prove with our thoughts, words, and actions that we do not know His Word nor see life through its lens. The promises of God for all practical purposes are sought after and valued for “the day,” not “eternity.” Abraham, the “father” of what it means to live by faith, did not put his stake in this world, but was “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11: 9-10) If we live any differently, we will be rudely awakened when we discover the truth; “this world is not my home.”

The one who lives as though this world is his home and the home of his treasure, will be blown around by every wind of tragedy, devastation, and sudden cataclysm that rocks his life, and will question “Why did God let this happen?” Well, God did let it happen and in other cases brought it to pass, always with the perspective of eternity. He is well acquainted with pain and tragedy, suffering and tears, massacre and death, accidents and planned terror; He knows it not just because He is omniscient, but because He lived it in the flesh. God in the person of Jesus Christ was tempted and tested in every way that we are, yet without sin. In fact, He was crushed for our sin. (Hebrews 4:14-16) He is more than able to empathize with your circumstance, no matter the immediate source of your anguish and doubt.

There is an ordained time for this fallen world and there is an ordained time for your life. This is not heaven and was never intended to be. It is a spiritual and physical battlefield in which your pathway is now being forged leading to one of two destinations: heaven or hell.  We may not fully grasp the plan and purposes of God in building faith in us, but that is what trust in Him is all about.  

Encouragement:

“This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; the angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

(1st verse of African-American Spiritual of unknown author or date)

Scriptural Basis:

“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other………I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:30-31, 34-35)

Application:

There is a perspective of Christmas that may well precipitate a great let-down after the holiday is past. When all the focus is upon the buying and giving of gifts, being with family and friends, putting up and enjoying Christmas tree and decorations, singing and listening to carols, all the sights, sounds, smells, tastes that remind us of this special season; when it is abruptly past how do we feel? What does this say to our carrying the message of Advent into and throughout the New Year? The Bible’s perspective is never like this. The Bible speaks nearly always about Advent in its twin phases; like two mountain peaks, one behind the other that appear in our perspective to be right up against one another, when in reality there is a great plain that lies between them. But the great plain is not important, the nearness of the two peaks is. When biblically aware Christians celebrate the first Advent, the birth of Christ, they anticipate all the more the Second Advent, the return of their Lord.

Jesus saw it no differently even at the young human age of his early 30’s. From His perspective His return was near. In the same passages where He spoke of its nearness, He also said that no one knows the time of His return, not even Himself, only the Father in Heaven. So what did Jesus mean when after events are described in Matthew 24 leading up to and including His return, He says that all this will happen before this generation passes away? Some feel that the word “generation” can be translated “race,” speaking of the Jewish people; they will not pass away as a race until all these things have happened including the Lord’s return. That may well be the correct translation, yet the nearness of Christ’s return was not only His words, but is the message of the Bible: “Behold I am coming soon,” “The Judge is at the door,” “For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay,” You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

This is exactly the perspective that Jesus desires you to have, whatever your generation. It is not untrue nor without essential spiritual power to every believer even though 2000 years have passed from when Jesus spoke those words. C.S. Lewis captures beautifully the meaning of this in his article “The World’s Last Night”:  “The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say before you have finished reading this paragraph. This seems to some people intolerably frustrating. So many things would be interrupted. Perhaps you were going to get married next month, perhaps you were going to get a raise next week; you may be on the verge of a great scientific discovery; you may be maturing great social and political reforms. Surely no good and wise God would be so unreasonable as to cut all this short? Not now of all moments!. . .The doctrine of the Second Coming, then, is not to be rejected because it conflicts with our favorite modern mythology. It is, for that very reason, to be more valued and made more frequently the subject of meditation. It is the medicine our condition especially needs. What death is to each man, the Second Coming is to the whole human race. We all believe, I suppose, that man should “sit loose” to his own individual life, should remember how short, how precariously, temporary, and provisional a thing it is; should never give all his heart to anything which will end when his life ends.”

The passing of Christmas 2010 means for believers that the Second Coming is nearer and is near. In the truest perspective “the Judge is at the door,” our Bridegroom is on his way, and our life in 2011 should reflect our meditation on that glorious truth. If in the New Year “the curtain rings down” on you individually or on the entire world, will you be prepared to go out to meet Him?  

Encouragement:

“Rejoice all you believers, and let your lights appear; the evening is advancing, and darker night is near: the Bridegroom is arising, and soon He draweth nigh; up pray, and watch, and wrestle; at midnight comes the cry.”

(1^st verse of Laurentius Laurenti’s hymn, “Rejoice All Ye Believers”, 1700)

Scriptural Basis:

“So they hurried off and found Mary, and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” Luke 2:16-20

Application:

Have you ever wondered what became of these shepherds, whatever their number, who were, as far as we know from the Bible, the only people other than Joseph and Mary who witnessed and worshipped God in the flesh, a new born baby, in a Bethlehem stable the day of Jesus’ birth? They are never spoken of again in Scripture. Did any of their own babies die when Herod perpetrated his terrible slaughter of the baby boys of Bethlehem over a year later after the visit of the wise visitors from the East? Were any of them around to see and hear Jesus when he began his public ministry thirty years after?

In any case the Scriptures seem to imply that these lowly shepherds surely believed and can be counted among the saints of glory, for Luke tells us they glorified and praised God for all they had heard and seen. But what about those to whom they spoke of their glorious experience. Luke’s account tells us they were amazed by what the shepherds told them; they were astonished, surprised. When we examine the use of this same word “amazed” elsewhere in the New Testament, we find that simple amazement does not always produce a faith that transforms one’s life eternally(compare Matthew 13:54-58 or even later in the same chapter of Luke verse 47). Very possibly some came to faith while others did nothing to follow up their amazement with a desire to know more about what they were told by the shepherds.

Amazement or astonishment does not always lead to a pondering or treasuring of these life-transforming mysteries as did Mary here and again in Luke 2:31. Though she was specifically chosen to be the Mother of God, even Mary did not immediately understand the mysteries that were invading her life.  Nevertheless, she pondered and treasured them in her heart. This is exactly what the mystery and the Advent of Christ asks of each one of us: a “pondering” leading to “treasuring.” Saving faith knows nothing of amazement and astonishment that leads to less; a pondering (earnest, continuing, probing, meditative  thought) drawn to treasuring the mysterious, personal One who through faith inhabits your life; not as some distant relation, but One who is personally close and intimate unlike any other.

The human spirit is amazed and astonished by all kinds of incitements in the world: birth of children, particular people in our life, sex, food, money, discovery, sights, music, success, failure, unexpected healing or sickness, “coincidental occurrences,” tragedy, and appropriate to this time of year, surprise gifts. We tend to place Christ and the eternal future of our souls in these same temporal categories; among those “amazing and astonishing” things that often pass until the next one arrives. We go from one to another, while not pursuing or pondering Christ’s coming to us (i.e. an  Advent). We experience one amazing moment and are all too quickly anticipating the next, while not understanding that only One Object of our heart search will ever satisfy and never disappoint or fade away; rather the relationship grows, as the Bible says, from glory to glory.

Again this Advent Season you will experience some “amazing” moments; eliciting joy, sadness, passion, or something else. The opportunity is there to meet Christ in it; pondering and treasuring who He is and who you are in Him. In essence did Mary ponder anything more than this that first harrowing Christmas night in which she gave birth? Mary must have thought to herself, “Who is this baby? Who am I in relationship to Him? Why are these shepherds here in the stable telling this mysterious story?” The amazing moments are not just Mary’s. They keep on coming in your own life with a purpose of drawing your thoughts and affections in a Christ-ward direction. The spiritually thoughtless life leads eventually to despair; pondering and treasuring Mary’s way leads to heaven.  

Encouragement:

“O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin, and enter in, Be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels  The great glad  tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel.”

(4^th verse of Phillips Brooks Christmas Carol hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, 1868)

Scriptural Basis:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

Application:

A recent issue of World Magazine recounted the story of Sam Kolden. He is a Wisconsin High-Schooler who has autism.  From the eighth grade to his senior year Sam practiced and participated with the Menomonie Indians football team. On homecoming night this last October his years of perseverance and commitment paid off with a 66-yard touchdown play which none of the spectators, coaches, and players from either side will soon forget. Late in the fourth quarter when the Indians were leading 46-14, the Menomonie coach yelled over to the opposing coach with a request. Would the Superior Spartans, who were already soundly beaten, be willing to fulfill the dreams of a developmentally challenged young man? He asked the Spartan’s coach if they would allow Sam to catch a pass and be sure to not injure him by tackling him gently after he caught the ball.  But the opposing coach, Bob DeMeyer, had a better idea: “Let’s let him score a touchdown, coach. That’s what it’s all about.” So on the next play, Sam ran into the left flat, hauled in a short pass, and raced 66 yards past the futile tackling attempts of the Spartan players. The touchdown ignited a cheering frenzy throughout the stadium of fans from both teams appreciating a moment far grander than any common football contest. Sam’s father, watching from the sidelines, was deeply moved by this display of character and sportsmanship. Sam’s teammates who had known and played on the same team with him for years celebrated enthusiastically, while the opposing Spartans’ reaction was even more impressive. Once downtrodden from suffering their fifth straight loss, they now saw the game in a whole new light. One of them put it into perspective, calling the moment “the highlight of anybody’s life.”

This act of kindness, compassion, and concern for the other stands out simply because it is not the expected behavior of man. We notice when behavior does not conform to man’s typical nature. Oh yes, as we have heard so often before, there are those who will describe such an event as proof that most people, if not all, are “basically good at heart.” But any thoughtful observation of humanity puts the lie to such an idea quickly. At least it ought to. Even those in the football stadium who were so impressed in the moment would not necessarily be transformed by it.  Within a day or two they might not show even their spouse the same compassion and concern displayed that night.

This is the first week of Advent, a season of the year with the glorious purpose of reminding us of our Savior’s Advent in history, and of His promised Advent ahead. St. Bernard (not the Swiss mountain dog, but the saint) in one of his Advent sermons contrasts the devoted disciple of Christ with those who pay no attention to the coming of the Savior. These are in no way aware that they even need a Savior! Consequently, they are unaware of His presence. Bernard develops in his Advent sermons the idea of the “three Advents” of Jesus. The first and the last are obvious to us: Jesus’ incarnation and birth and Jesus’ return, His promised coming again. The first is that in which He comes to seek and to save that which was lost. The third is that in which He comes to take us to Himself. But what is this second, or “middle Advent” of which Bernard spoke?

He describes it like this: every moment of time between the first and last Advent is a moment of judgment; that Christ is passing by and that we are judged by our awareness of His passing.  If we join Him and travel with Him to the Kingdom, the judgment becomes for us salvation. But if we neglect Him and let Him go by, our neglect is our condemnation! The night last October in the Menomonie Football Stadium was just such a “middle Advent;” Jesus was there and He gave those who witnessed and participated an opportunity to respond to His grace and be transformed by it. This “Sam Kolden story” did not just happen as though man’s nature in itself would produce what took place. There are countless “middle  Advents” in each of our lives. Just as Jesus’ noticeable “visit” in the stadium that night, so he passes by in each of our lives over and over again. Sometimes we notice His presence, while other times we may be completely oblivious. Meditating on the first and the last Advent of our Lord and Savior awakens us to His countless “middle visits” where we are judged by our response to Him. Think about it. This is a season to do just that. But there may not be many more.

Encouragement:

“Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay, close by me forever and love me I pray; bless all the dear children in thy holy care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.”

(Last verse of the “Cradle Song” attributed to Martin Luther,” Away in a Manger”)

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Application:

I have been in a funk all this last week. While transporting quite a number of the most used books in my library back to Georgia, they were all stolen off the back of our car in Tennessee; a large container of 70-80, many large hardbacks. Since they were all theology books I am hoping Tennessee is a bit more sanctified than it was. Many can be replaced with enough money; unfortunately, there were out of print and hard to find books mixed in, and my late mother’s Bible in which she had written extensively in the margins throughout. I have been using it in my Bible reading for the last two years. As I was sharing my misfortune with a close friend he brought my feelings under divine scrutiny by telling me of the severe troubles that have just recently impacted two families we both know. After hearing the depth of their suffering, my case is brought into a more realistic perspective: truly  “light and momentary.”

Isn’t it true that all of us who claim Christ as Lord and know His Word still need to be reminded of verses like the text above on a regular basis to get our “eyesight” properly aligned? Perhaps one of the most thought and asked questions in life is, “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17) Or, how soon will the injustices of life be avenged? In the Apostle John’s Patmos vision of Revelation when God draws back the curtain on heaven past and future, even “righteous men made perfect,” martyrs who inhabit the courts of heaven now, are seen to call out for justice and the avenging of their blood, as they ask, “How long, O Sovereign Lord, how long?” (Revelation 6:9-11).  Even Jesus’ response to these crises of injustice is, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” Time creatures that we are God’s “quickly” and our “quickly” are two quite different things, but the difference in perspectives will be obliterated in “due time.” The “due time” of Deuteronomy 32:35 and 1 Peter 5:6 will come; some will be made ready and “fit,” while others will receive their due!

The interim is definitely not “wasted time.” Nothing even close to “wasted.” There is a process going on in the “interim” that one day we will not be able to find enough words for which to thank God that He did not bang the gavel of justice any sooner. Though we often have to have the wax cleaned out of our ears, this message of the resulting glory of the perseverance and patience of faith practically leaps off the pages of the Scriptures throughout the entire Bible. But often we are stone deaf to it. The chiseling of the Magnificent Sculptor of our lives is ever at work using orchestrated events, troubles, people and time to insure that we will stand in the judgment that is coming. Malachi 3 and 4 is one of those many bull horns of Scripture used of God to penetrate the wax build-up in our ears. This is what God is about in the interim of which we often complain, because the Day of the Lord is coming when the Sculptor’s work will be forever complete; and He will say, “Today is due time!”

Encouragement:

“The Son of God goes forth to war, a kingly crown to gain; His blood red banner streams afar: Who follows in His train? Who best can drink His cup of woe, triumphant over pain, who patient bears his cross below, he follows in His train.”

“The martyr first, whose eagle eye could pierce beyond the grave, who saw his Master in the sky, and called on Him to save: Like Him with pardon on his tongue in midst of mortal pain, he prayed for them that did the wrong: Who follows in his train?”

(First two verses of Reginald Heber’s hymn, “The Son of God Goes Forth to War”, 1827)

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8

Application:

I never felt closer to death than when serving as an infantry platoon leader in Viet Nam. For the purpose of preserving my life and the life of my men I learned everything I could about our enemy; how they operated, where they set ambushes, the way they camouflaged booby traps; anything I could learn from the Vietnamese soldiers who had come over from their side and worked for us as scouts. Unfortunately, many Christians do not have such an appreciation for their greatest enemy and seldom study his methods. The Scriptures are not silent about him, and Jesus exposes him as a masquerading, cunning, persevering master liar; a lethal destroyer of lives, relationships, marriages, families, churches, reputations, and anything good. Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of the most distinguished man of letters in English history, observed, “I know of no thought that so wonderfully concentrates a man’s mind as the thought he will be hanged in the morning.” The devil goes into every day planning how he might hang you and yours in some temptation or another; some masquerade that he uses to divert your path into ruin; some method by which he may entice you into some pleasure leading inevitably to his greatest delight: your pain!

There are two familiar passages of Scripture where the devil is stripped naked of all his manifold disguises: Job 1 and the wilderness temptation of Jesus after his baptism. Satan planned to ambush Jesus there, but his ambush boomeranged. Jesus stripped him of his mask drawing him out into the open that we his prey might get a good look at our arch-enemy’s methods. We have no excuse to ever say, “I never knew he was so cunningly dangerous to my soul, my heart, my life.” Luke 4:5-7 reads, “The devil led Jesus up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” This encompasses any and all “pleasing to your eyes,” “convincing to your senses,” “too good to pass up” temptations that could ever possibly lead you into ruin; the ruin of your marriage, your children, your business, your calling, your relationships, your reputation, your faith. Why do we always think we alone are stronger, smarter, more capable than the devil and can navigate through any and all booby traps and “escape with the prize” upon which we have set our heart? Yet we always think, “I can do this; I can have my cake, eat it, and survive the poison.”



The three responses of Jesus to the devil are His antidote for us to escape the “hangman’s noose” on a daily basis. “Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Those who “get hung” invariably are avoiders of the Word of God. They seldom ever feed on it and it doesn’t take many days without food to starve. Two: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Essentially, He is God, trust Him! What He has said is trustworthy, so don’t deviate from it. And finally, worship Him; not people, things, or money.   
You will never fully appreciate the greatness or the presence of God in your life, until you get serious about knowing how the enemy who is stalking you operates especially on you. The Lord’s words to Cain are true for every one of us; “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” And in all this never forget the Lord’s promise, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world!”

Encouragement:

“Christian dost thou see them On the holy ground, How the powers of darkness Rage thy steps around? Christian, up and smite them, Counting gain but loss, In the strength that cometh By the holy cross.”



“Christian, dost thou feel them, How they work within, Striving, tempting, luring, Goading into sin? Christian, never tremble; Never be downcast; Gird thee for the battle, Watch and pray and fast.”



“Christian, dost thou hear them, How they speak thee fair? “Always fast and vigil? Always watch and prayer?” Christian answer boldly, “While I breathe I pray!” Peace shall follow battle, Night shall end in day.”

(1st three verses from an unknown Greek source, by John Mason Neale, 1863)