Victory Song

Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.




I had a song come in my head last night about ‘victory’. It was there when I woke this morning, so I looked to see what scripture was related to victory and found this one (of many) in Matthew. The Lord is quoted in this scripture in Matthew and it contains an important principle which I think we sometimes tend to overlook. Many believe and even teach that if someone acquires much material prosperity, then God has surely given them favor, and that if someone is undergoing extreme trial, it must be because they have sinned or that they lack faith. But the Lord says that the sun rises and the rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous alike. A life of good circumstances does not necessarily mean that God is with us. And likewise, a life of trial and suffering does not mean that God is not with us!

⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

If we base our lives on our circumstances, we are no different than people without God. What makes us different from the world is that we have something far greater than our circumstances! We can live victoriously both in want and in plenty because we have a relationship with the living God! Note, however, we are instructed to ‘love…and pray for our enemies’ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. This is what shows we are His children, not material wealth. I’d rather be a child of the Living God in a tent than a godless wealthy person in an earthly mansion. Regardless of where I lay my head each night, the sun will rise and the rain will fall on my little tent and that mansion. The key is the love and prayer that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

This part of the scripture is probably the hardest part to walk out. It is so easy to love those that love us and our own family – our own kind - that we are connected to but the real test of this scripture is to love and pray for our enemies. I do not think it coincidence that the Spirit prompted me to pray for someone stirring up grief and conflict in our family while that little ditty about victory was flying around my head, do you? The Lord speaks to us in many ways; rare is the time you will get a clap of thunder and bolt of lightning or a burning bush. The prompting to pray for that person sure wasn’t my idea! The song was dropped into my head and spirit, I didn’t create it. Yet there they were at the same time. Hmmmmm

There is nothing wrong with rejoicing through the good times but we need to rejoice through the bad as well! If you’re going through some hard times, choose to rejoice in the Lord today! We have a greater treasure and a more amazing victory when our lives are centered upon Him at all times!

Family Ties

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

I ran across a profound story that shows what happens when the family structure breaks down — but this didn’t have to do with people — it had to do with elephants.

In Kruger National Park in South Africa a group of adolescent bull elephants whose family members had been gunned down during a culling operation were transported to another wildlife reserve. While at the other reserve, the young elephants embarked on a killing spree that lasted several years leaving more than 100 animals dead, including 40 white rhinoceroses. To stop the killing, a strategy was implemented to ship in older male elephants from Kruger to establish a new male hierarchy which would keep the adolescent elephants in check. Thus the killing stopped.

Like human society, the elephant family defines established roles for training and discipline in family life. And like humans, young elephants require a prolonged period of nurture with family units to prepare them for adult life. Damage and loss in family life will produce painful and sometimes devastating results. In this situation the loss of the mature males was catastrophic.

Many of us in the body of Messiah did not have healthy parental role models, and some have had none at all; but our life as a believing family will generally begin to improve, correct, and heal the results of broken family life from which many suffer. Mature believers need serve as role models and examples, not only to our children, but also to younger believers.

Ideally, Christian leaders are healthy role models, but we do not live in an ideal world and we are humans needing grace like everyone else. Expectations will not always be met and may even be severely disappointed. Our saving grace is that we all have a Heavenly Father who is a perfect parent, and who can love and nurture us in both male and female ways, and who is also able to provide human role models and healers to help bring us to wholeness.

Be thankful for any good parenting you have received; forgive all that was negative or deficient. Then ask your Heavenly Father to parent you by His personal parental love and providence in your human relationships. This will free you from deep resentment and bitterness, and will begin to move you toward maturity and peace, and will prepare you to be a good parent and role model for others.

Fear Not

Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

I read a story about a woman who felt God called her to move to Israel some years ago for ministry. She struggled with fear and circumstances around her.

“Times were tough in Israel at the time and I lived in an area of Jerusalem where bomb threats, bomb squads and bus bombings were commonplace. I found myself constantly looking around, imagining that this person or that person was carrying a bomb and envisioning all the terrible things that could happen to me if they were. The fear was consuming and paralyzing”.

This is a tactic that the enemy just loves to use on those who are called according to God’s purposes. For the simple reason when we are afraid, we are distracted from the calling He has on our lives. Though she had a heart to share the good news of Messiah with her people, she was not available to be a blessing to the people around her because she was too busy worrying for her life.

She goes on to say “One day, I had a revelation about this fear. The Lord showed me that I was His child and that if I know He has called me to Israel to accomplish His purposes and I am actively seeking opportunities to accomplish them, even my death would be to His glory. I needed to fear for my physical well being no longer, I was in His hands. Instead, I needed to be concerned with the spiritual well being of the people God put in my path.”

God has called us of each to do great things for Him! Let’s not be distracted by the lies of the enemy which tell us we are not gifted enough, not able enough, not strong enough, not financially stable enough to go forth and do bold works for the Lord. I am familiar with these lies because I’ve heard them all when I’ve stepped out myself.

Each time we start to work on building a new mission team, as we are doing now, I see those same feelings crossing people’s faces. Many say they’ve always wanted to go on a mission trip but the fears fathered by the lies of satan start to grow and the list of ‘reasons’ they come up with for not going grows along side it. If satan has his way, no one would be taking the gospel to those in need and there will never be a ‘good’ time to go.

Let’s ask God for wisdom, the grace and the freedom to be in the right places at the right times and the boldness to speak up for Him! There is no more fulfilling place we can be than this.

Good Fruit

Matthew 7:16-20 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a corrupt tree bears evil fruit. A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Most people reading this passage tend to focus in on the fruit that is produced. Okay…But a closer look will reveal that the Lord is really focusing on the tree. The fruit merely demonstrates the quality of the tree. We have all encountered this: there are trees whose fruit is healthy and delicious, and there are trees whose fruit is scarcely edible, or even useless.

My fig tree is about 4 years old and is small for its age. We live on a rocky hill with little real soil and the roots have to fight a lot of rock to really grow much less be healthy. We’ve been amazed at the little tree. Many times I thought it dead; we’ve lost several trees we’ve planted. This is the first year it produced more than 2-3 figs. I grew up with fig trees and know the benefit of its goodness. My Honey did not. He says the figs on our tree are the sweetest he’s even eaten. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know about figs. We need to keep in mind, the fruit doesn’t make the tree — the tree makes the fruit.

A tree that produces good fruit is firmly rooted in soil which provides adequate water and nourishment. Likewise, those of us whose lives are rooted in and dedicated to Jesus produce good fruit. Others, who try to produce good works for “religious” reasons, or to prove or approve of themselves, may produce fruit, but it will be much inferior. When our focus is on Jesus, and our lives are centered in Him, the fruit we produce will not be from self-effort, and its quality will be excellent…because it is simply the produce of a good tree.

Just tap into the Source of your life, Jesus, allowing the sap of His Spirit to flow through you – and then watch what great fruit He is continually able to produce. Your harvest will know no bounds and the fruit will be sweet. The real sweetness is in knowing Him. We, too, do not know what we don’t know when our lives are not planted in Jesus. The sweetest, plumpest, juiciest fruit comes when our roots are planted deeply in Christ and fed by the Living Water.

Through the Eyes of a Child

Isaiah 11:6 - The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

This past week we had our grandson, Braden, stayed a couple of days to visit. It was delightful to have him here. He’s an observant, deep kid in spite of his total pesky boy times. Can you hear the chorus of “Boys will be boys”? I can. During that time, I tried to look at my world through his eyes because he found wonder in the things I took for granted.

He commented one evening that we were good parents to our dogs. I had trained our little Chihuahuas, Nikos and Pan Dulce, to use the puppy stairs to get on the couch. All I have to say is ‘stairs’ and they go around to them and walk up. Braden thought that was awesome.

We keep a blanket or sheet folded up on one end of the chaise part of our sectional couch for another of our dogs, Chelsie. She has long beautiful blond hair and our couch is dark denim blue…We allow Chelsie on the couch, too, but she knows the command ‘blanket’ and stays there for the most part. She gets sneaky and tries to inch her way to any people sitting on the couch but goes back with a reminder command. She’s not exactly lap dog size, though she thinks she is.

None of the dogs are allowed up on the couch unless they are invited. This lesson has been the hardest for Nina, the youngest and rather impulsive ChiWeenie, our Chihuahua/Dachshund mix. She can spring up like a gazelle and takes every opportunity to do so, right into anyone’s lap to kiss their face all over. To maintain any semblance of order in a four dog house, boundaries have to be set.

When I started writing this I was frustrated by our dogs barking in the back. Any little wild rabbit or feral cat that crosses through our back yard sets them off and they bark. I was telling myself, “Dogs will be dogs and they think they are protecting our home.” I know that to be true, but it was irritating anyway.

Back to their boundaries, we have our back porch and their potty run fenced in so they cannot just run about the neighborhood. It is neighborhood policy to keep dogs penned, though not everyone complies, but our concern is also for the small ones. They would be a tasty treat for a coyote or hawk. And they are just too cute not to tempt an unscrupulous person to claim them as their own. We have a friend in the village that does not pen their dogs and have lost several over the years to cars, snake bites and even other dogs. So, fence it is. They have a doggy door and can come & go into the house as they choose. Even within the flexibility of that they have boundaries. When we need to keep them contained, like when I’m cooking dinner, we put a baby gate in the doorway between the kitchen and utility room. They are in out of the elements but not under my feet as I cook. They have automatic feeder & water bowls available to them at all times in the utility room that has blankets covering the hard floor for their comfort. It’s a pretty cushy life, all in all.

I said all that to say this, seeing it through Braden’s eyes gave me a new perspective. Even as a child, he saw the love and care we had for our pets and commented on it. He knew the rules and boundaries we kept for them and still called us good parents. Each of the four dogs has their own personality and quirks and tries to push the boundaries when they think they can but thrive in our home under those boundaries. Are we any different from them when it comes to living within the boundaries of a Christian faith walk?

 
Our loving Father set boundaries for us to ensure our eternal safety and well being. Some ‘bark’ about it, calling it restrictive and confining. People will be people, after all. Others, like Nina, are repeatedly rebuked when they ignore the lessons. Some, just as Chelsie, think they can sneak slowly into disobedience and no one will notice. We’ve all seen those people that think their ‘cuteness’ will buy them favor and parental attention, this is Pan Dulce’s ploy. Last but not least, we have those, like Nikos, that hold fast to their leadership positions believing they are exempt from time to time. Still, our Father loves us unconditionally and leaves the boundaries in place because He does. He’s a good people parent, an example to follow.

Be Glad and Rejoice

God–and Psalm 69:32 Amp - The humble shall see it and be glad; you who seek God, inquiring for and requiring Him [as your first need], let your hearts revive and live!

There is an important lesson in this and other places of God’s Word, namely that humility and gladness go together. What do the humble and the joyous have in common? They both look up. The humble are those who don’t look down on anyone because they look up all the time. They have to look up, because their eyes are on God, and He’s above them. The joyous always look up as well, otherwise they wouldn’t be rejoicing. The joyous believe the Good News, so they rejoice!

The prideful, however, are those who think they’re above everything else and so they look down on people. The prideful are connected to the others who look down - the cynical, the doubting, the despairing, the depressed, the sorrowful and the hopeless. In the same way that the humble and the joyous go together, so do pride and despair. Humility leads to joy. Pride leads to despair.

Let’s get our eyes off ourselves, off of our problems, off of the world around us. Let’s fix our eyes on Him, the Redeemer of our souls. Those who look up in humility, also look up in joy!

Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

When the kids still lived here I woke them every school morning with, “Rise and shine, rise and shine! This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” It seemed to me a much more positive way to wake up and more loving than flipping on the lights. When the first words you hear are words of rejoicing in the day God gave us, rather sets the tone. This day and every day, let’s fix our eyes on Him and be glad!