#3: Renewing/Transforming

Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

`Having seen (by the Grace of God) a pattern in a biblical method of becoming more in-focus or in-tune with Jesus in our relationship with Him, we have been looking at a step-by-step process to do just that. First we looked at a refreshing. How not to allow the world to lead you by its inherent distractions on your flesh, but to stop and get the spiritual rest you need to have a functionally appropriate look at things to come. Secondly, we realize that a refreshing is not refreshing for long if we delve right back into that pattern and lifestyle that we had been following, and that saw us getting of His track and running full-bore on our own. If we do not refocus on Jesus, and I mean everything on Jesus, than we stand firmly set in a pattern that comes with a 100% failure rate.

So what comes next? Our over-doing it physically and spiritually finds us in need of refreshing. In our moment of refreshing we are able to see (through prayer and meditation) and actually listening to that still small voice - that in fact we really do need to refocus our lives on Jesus, then what? Prepare for a total renewing.

Scripture speaks of a renewing at least 6 times by name in the NT. I used this verse in a sermon this past Sunday. The Focus on the Family series called The Truth Project mentioned it as well; and that is the fact that we cannot be renewed, truly renewed except by our minds. If we have achieved Christian burn-out and turned ourselves to the Lord in a time of refreshing, this refreshing will be at best physical and emotional, and will not last unless the renewal comes by the Spirit in our mind.

We are told that through the mouth speaks the heart, and this is true. Our inmost self is revealed by the actions of our hearts. James makes a special point of this to say in his book that our faith proves itself by our works. We are also told that our heart will deceive us. The book of Deuteronomy, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, and the brother of Jesus warns us that we can easily be deceived by our hearts – through pride or outright rejection of righteousness in favor of self. But we are also shown great examples that through (most often) times of prayer and a close refreshing of Spirit by God through meditation and His Word that we can control and overcome the desire of our hearts, as is our acceptable service.

We must be renewed! If our focus on Jesus is to be consistent, and life changing , it must be a renewing that begins in our minds so that it truly effects our hearts, and allows us to use a Spirit driven intellect to make a conscious AND sub-conscious decision to die to self, and destroy every effect of the world and our flesh that still permeates our lives.

2 Corinthians 4:16
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

Ephesians 4:20-23
²⁰ But you have not so learned Christ, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:8-11
⁸ But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, ¹⁰ and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, ¹¹ where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Renewing cannot be accomplished without a total refocusing on Jesus, and allowing our minds, our intellect to be ruled by Him and His ways. We must stop reasoning by our own thought, and reason by His. This cannot be accomplished however if we do not know what they are, therefore making our time in scripture studying God's word paramount in our lives.

Look at what some of these verses tell us: If we truly have put off the old man, we SHOULD be leaving these things of the world behind us. Things that remind us of our old man and old worldly ways need to be lost to our history to become part of our testimony of conversion. That even though we fear sickness, illnesses and getting old, that despite the fact that my right should is a wreck, and that my left knee no longer functions like a knee join but more like a swivel, that inside we can gain on God daily! Becoming more like him all the time because we are being renewed inside.

But all of this is done through the work of the Holy Spirit in our minds; by Godly knowledge. This must be our refocus: That our new focus is Jesus and Jesus only, and that we allow our thoughts and minds to be totally controlled and ruled by Christ and His understanding and will. As a man, even Jesus had to pray to realign His will with that of the Father. What makes us think that we can do well in our lives without doing the same?

My prayer is that we all seek this total renewing; a total transformation into what GOD wants us to be. In so doing, we are surly to go through a painful process of dying to self, and killing our old man – willfully. It may not be easy, but it is promised to be REWARDING.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#2: Refocusing

Yes, sometimes we need to be refreshed. Of this there is no doubt. Not only is it desirable, it is biblical. But for it to remain biblical, our refreshing must come from God, and nowhere else. Once we seek, and have received our refreshing from the Lord, yes, there is still more to do.

"There is more to do" is a line that threatens people. The first thing some will think is, "legalism!", "works-based faith and redemption!" And while these phrases should rightly so make our spiritual spider-sense tingle, it is a sure sign of an under-fed, immature Christian to stop there and look (or listen) no further. When I say there is more to do, what I am meaning in this is simply that once we have become a Christian and have begun growing in the spirit, a sure sign of a maturing Christian is an unfettered desire to grow all the more. As we are made new creatures in Christ, these new creatures will have habits and desires that the old creature, now supposedly dead, never had: to become more and more like Christ with each day. Not wanting growth, not seeking growth, is a sure sign that spiritual maturity is lacking.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's refocus on 'refocusing'.

We have just come out of our period of refreshing. We are filled to overflowing with the joys of the Lord and our faith. What next? First thing: we must make sure that our focus remains on Christ and on our growth in Him of we ever hope to continue on in our refreshing. How do we do that? WE MUST make a firm decision in our life to take control of our will, and die to the flesh. We must seek to leave behind permanently, those things that caused us to seek after the things of the flesh. We must refocus everything on Christ and nothing on self. This is the 'more to do' that I talked about. You may call this work, and it may be, but it is also our only hope to keeping our refreshing.

The world wants you to have more focus on 'self'. How do I look, how do I smell, do I have the right jewelry or accessory with me today. Does my body have the right shape or color? Do I have enough 'credentials' to be taken seriously? As if a college degree makes one more spiritual. The world (ruled by the enemy) will be well satisfied to see you focused on anything other than Jesus, but the BEST way for Satan to derail you, rob you of your peace and newfound refreshing, is to have you focused on 'self'.

We must examine everything in our lives, and make sure that each 'thing' is focused on Jesus. Our pride, joy, love, energy, time…everything is His, why do we keep it to serve ourselves? He created it, He owns it, why not give everything back. In doing this, our refreshing comes full circle through our refocusing to become… RENEWING.

Step #1: Refreshing

God really spoke to me earlier this month at the Calvary Chapel annual Sr. Pastor's Conference. Since then, His word and Holy Spirit have been working in really cools ways, and changing people's lives and faith. I really look forward to more of the same as we move forward in our growth as individual believers, and as God grows our church. This devotional is the first in a series of three that are designed to offer a God ordained path towards getting yourself and your walk with God back where you want it, and where it ought to be. This three-step process is something the Lord clearly placed on my heart that I want to share with you as a means to look anew at our relationship with our loving Father and Savior. _______________________________________________

There are times when we all must stop. Too much in our lives happens too quickly, and we just don't give ourselves time to react in a Godly way; a way that has been balanced and checked against scripture, and that has been prayed over and through. Decisions are made without devoting due effort in prayer and in time of waiting on the Lord, and then we are surprised, often devastated when the results are not what we had hoped. "Life" happens at such a quickened pace that ultimately drives us to 'self' and away from 'God'.

When we allow life to control us, instead of allowing Jesus to guide us and control us, we have not only lost our focus, but we have lost our ability to witness for Christ, and our relationship with Jesus is in serious jeopardy.

When we are not spending the quality time we need in the Spirit, getting away from the pull of the world's ways and desires on our lives, we become driven to do so much: for ourselves, for our family, for others, for the church, even for God, that when we finally slow down to catch our breath the first thing out of our minds and mouths is, something like, "WHEW! – I need some ME time!" we begin to think, that we need more time for ourselves, more time for our hobbies, more time for our likes, and our wants. Vacations, man or woman toys, boats, or technology are the things that come to mind. When this happens we have to train ourselves to STOP. And STOP IMMEDIATELY.

When we allow ourselves to get so exhausted from the things we allow to dominate our lives, we are standing on the precipice of serving God, or serving our flesh. We are just so caught up in the moment of our exhaustion and stress that we do not recognize the seriousness of our position.

Yes, it is no surprise that we need time for refreshing. As a matter of fact, it was during a time of great refreshing that God has given me this word to share. But our refreshing must come from God. Not from a vacation or a toy, or a boat or the latest piece of cool technology. It needs to come from God and God alone.

If when you think of refreshing the first thing it means to you is a weekend in Las Vegas with "the girls" or without the spouse, or if it means an evening at the pub with 'the guys' or feeding your mind with electronic gadgetry, if refreshing is designed to feed your flesh before it is designed to feed your Spirit, than we have lost our first love (Revelation 2:4-5). From here we must remember from where we have fallen. Where did our burning desire to know more of, and get closer to Jesus fall away? At this moment, and especially if you find yourself their right now, you must repent, or see your lampstand removed.

A.W. Tozer said it this way: "Christian churches have come to the dangerous time predicted long ago. It is a time when we can pat one another on the back, congratulate ourselves and join in the glad refrain, "We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing!" It certainly is true that hardly anything is missing from our churches these days--except the most important thing. We are
missing the genuine and sacred offering of ourselves and our worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...."

If you seek more strongly, and arrange your doctrine to defend and feed your flesh and the things of the world in the name of 'freedom in Christ', before you defend the perfect righteous of Jesus that we have been called to emulate, and before you feed your soul with the rich Words of God, than a refreshing will not help you.

You need a refocusing…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Spirit; Come.

We have probably all sung a hymn or worship song at church, or have prayed a prayer, or have heard a pastor or church leaders pray for the working of the Holy Spirit in your church or in your person. We do this because we have been asked to do so. We know that the Holy Spirit is god, and is currently not just with us, but IN us as a gift from the Father because of the work of Jesus on the cross. As mature believers, we crave the Holy Spirit working, and seeing Him perform in big or small ways. Even when the work is not in us as individuals, our Spirits are encouraged, and God is glorified just because we see Him work.
I wrote not too long ago about expectancy. It seems that in the Christian church today, at least from an American perspective, we have lost the expectation that the Holy Spirit will work in our lives and churches. As stated then and I'll reiterate now; much of this lack of expectancy is due to lack of maturity and lack of faith. We do not expect the Holy Spirit to work, because we do not know what the Holy Spirit does, or what He is supposed to be doing in our lives and churches.
Part of that falls at the feet of today's pastors. Their flocks are not taught exegetically (work foe word through the scriptures, expounding on each word or verse to better explain its meaning in context, as well as in the big picture), but rather topically, and that often allows the pastor to set the Spiritual agenda for the church, and not God Himself. Therefore, the congregation, not being well versed in the Holy Spirit, His gifts (that yes, are still alive and for today), and His purpose, they do not see the Holy Spirit working, even though He already is. But another reason that we touched on as well, and that was a lack of individual faith. While I did explain that in some detail, this lack of faith often comes from lack of maturity as a believer. We must combine these two areas, and never lay the bulk of the blame on one side or the other.
Today, I just wanted to share on one more thing regarding the Holy Spirit and Him working in us and the church before I move on. Holy Spirit finger pointing.
As Spirit-filled believers, we must remember the old adage of, 'when you point a finger at someone else, there are always at least three pointing at you.' You're probably doing it right now; pointing your finger in the direction of something near you just so you can see those other three little digits pointing back at you. Yes, it's still true, when you point one finger at someone, three point back at you. Don't be a Holy Spirit finger pointer. It makes you look bad.
I have had people visit the church where I am blessed to pastor and leave because the Spirit "wasn't there". My reply: "Than you must not be a believer because the Holy Spirit lives in us as individuals, not in buildings". Cold hearted, perhaps. Unloving? Let's just call it a 'scared straight' tactic. I make such a comment in love, but in extreme to show people how wrong they are about the Holy Spirit in the way that think that He must work.
Because you have not been personally moved by something, does not mean that the Holy Spirit is lacking. On the flip-side of that same token, just because you are personally moved, does not mean the Holy Spirit WAS working. For way too many of us, we lack in spiritual encouragement because the Holy Spirit is trying to work, but we push Him away with a hard heart.
Someone commented recently that it is nice to see the Holy Spirit softening hearts. And it is. But it would be a lot nicer if we would simply let Him! We get so frustrated with life, and busy with work, or upset with other people that these 'things' build up a Holy Spirit repellant in our lives. Our hearts become to God like bad breath is to close friends: They'll still talk to you, they still love you, but they just don't want to get that close. God tries desperately to work in us and with us, and we reject that work because we are 'too busy', or because 'that person doesn't or would never understand', or because 'it doesn't work that way'. Three words of advice: Get over yourself! We all need to get to the point where we live, realizing that our life is not our own! As a born again believers, we have been purchase by Jesus, so why not act like we are sold out for Christ? After all, we are.
Here's my main point in all this: if you do not see the workings of the Holy Spirit in your life and in your church, don't be a Holy Spirit finger pointer. The first place you need to look is in your heart! Are you open to God coming in there and cleaning things up a bit? Are you open to allowing god full access to change whatever herbage may be in that heart? Are you going to allow God to totally break your fleshly heart, smash it to small pieces and re-arrange them in the Spirit? Cause of not, remember, there are three fingers still pointing at you!
The Holy Spirit is alive in you. Let Him work through you, in your life and in your church. If each of us as individuals lived with this sort of expectation, imagine what our churches would look like? They'd look like houses where people live that actually LOVE ONE ANOTHER! And that my friends, could change the world. But is has to start with YOU. Open your heart, and allow the Spirit to lead, guide and provide. God doesn't need you to be valuable to be used, He just needs you to be available and willing to be used!

Expectancy

Acts 1:8
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

I've been away for a week at the Calvary Chapel Sr. Pastor's Conference (CC-SPC). It is always an encouraging time of feeding on the word and encouragement. I have been looking through my notes, and my head is still reeling! It's so nice as a pastor to just go and get pastored to by other pastors. Encouraging and humbling just the same.

The theme of this conference was "Continuing in Grace". The idea is that we (Calvary Chapel) as a church movement need to continue on in what has made the CC movement so effective; the leading of the Holy Spirit. I joyfully sat through roughly 9.25 hours of worship, prayer, teaching and encouragement each day. Yes, the Spirit was willing, but 9 hours of sitting each day did in fact cause the flesh to grow weak, and sore (in the area of the back-side…).

For the next few Devotionals, I'll be sharing some of the things that the Lord spoke to me while at the conference. To go to these conferences and be refreshed is so wonderful! But to not share that refilling of the Holy Spirit, and the inspiration and encouragement that comes from them with others is downright sinful!
I wanted today to just share the one theme that came to me, and was shared by Sean Hollen (my travel and bunk buddy on these trips, as well as Sr. Pastor at Harbor Calvary Chapel in Aberdeen, WA). There was one word that was shared on day one that stood out to us both. AS it was said, and then explained in context, this one word became the sounding board for the rest of the week for us. We both heard it, and immediately began writing on our note pads. It related to the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives and churches. And it has to do more with our faith relationship (thank you Jesus!) than with our understanding of it or 'knowledge'.

That one word: EXPECTANCY.

My life was changed when the Holy Spirit revealed to me while studying through the Gospel of John chapter 16. There in verse 7, Jesus tells us that it is far better that He go away so that the Holy Spirit can be not just with us, but IN US! He goes on to explain in detail later on in this same chapter. In the same manner that John 16 explains the importance of the Holy Spirit to us as individuals, Acts chapter does the same in explaining the importance of the Holy Spirit in the church.

There in Acts 1, Jesus is answering a question about the restoration of the Kingdom on earth. In dealing with the disciples He tells them that this will be accomplished by the Holy Spirit empowering the individuals. The church is thus created as Jesus ascends into heaven awaiting the empowerment of the Spirit to do so.

Since that day at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been working in the lives of His church. As we read through the actions of the first century church, the church that we all try to model after so much, all the believers, and not just the disciples, saw the Holy Spirit work in the lives of individuals and in the church.

Protection, healing, revelation, restoration, wisdom, knowledge, tongues and interpretations of tongues and more, were regular occurrences. What is better yet, when the Holy Spirit worked, they were not surprised. They EXPECTED Him to work in their lives, and in the life of the church.

For believers, we can agree that we are saved by Grace through Faith, so that none might boast (and because there is no other way to get saved). But we need to also all agree that the expectation of the work of the Holy Spirit is also by faith.

I do not write this as a 'name it and claim it' kind of guy who preaches that if you just have enough faith that you can get God to do your bidding. As a matter of fact, I find the 'Word/Faith' doctrine one of the most vile heresies that the church faces today as it feeds on people's flesh and hope, leaving them empty and with a broken heart and broken faith when things do not happen according to their manner and time table. What I am saying is that the Holy Spirit is already working in our lives and in our churches, but because our faith is weak, we do not recognize it!

Our expectancy for the Holy Spirit to do miracles in our lives and in the lives of our churches has fallen away. We have been lied to by denominations that say these things do not happen in this dispensation; that the Gifts of the Spirit (read: work of the Holy Spirit in and through believers) died with the Apostles. Satan has jumped all over this, and loves the fact that we do not see the Holy Spirit work by faith. Even more so, he's doing dances because we no longer expect Him to.

Let us by faith, gain back our expectancy in the Holy Spirit. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit continues His work, but that our faith in Him and relationship with Him so that when He does work in and through us, that we recognize it and praise Him!

God, forgive us for not expecting you to work in our lives and in our churches. Forgive us for complacency in our relationship with you, and weakness of faith in you. Restore us unto the joy of our salvation, and set our minds on you.

Greatly to be Praised

Psalm 145:3

 

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.

 

A recent series of devotionals I have been tacking from the teachings of A. W. Tozer, perhaps best known for his books on the Holiness of God such as "Pursuit of God" and others, has touched off and on for the last week or so on worship. What worship should be, what once was, and what now has become were the basic topics.

 

Today in some many churches we seem to have gone to extremes. While some have made worship pedestrian, others have made it like a rock concert, and still others into an over-charismatic time of being outside of yourself or normal acceptable behavior "in the spirit". What I am struck by is what Tozer hit upon; it simply needs to be about praising God and His unsearchable greatness. Here's what Tozer had to say:

 

"The dictionary says that to admire is "to regard with wondering esteem accompanied by pleasure and delight; to look at or upon with an
elevated feeling of pleasure." According to this definition, God has few admirers among Christians today.

"Many are they who are grateful for His goodness in providing salvation. At Thanksgiving time the churches ring with songs of
gratitude that "all is safely gathered in." Testimony meetings are mostly devoted to recitations of incidents where someone got into
trouble and got out again in answer to prayer. To decry this would be uncharitable and unscriptural, for there is much of the same thing
in the Book of Psalms. It is good and right to render unto God thanksgiving for all His mercies to us. But God's admirers, where
are they?

"The simple truth is that worship is elementary until it begins to take on the quality of admiration. Just as long as the worshiper is
engrossed with himself and his good fortune, he is a babe. We begin to grow up when our worship passes from thanksgiving to admiration.
As our hearts rise to God in lofty esteem for that which He is ("I AM THAT I AM"), we begin to share a little of the selfless pleasure
which is the portion of the blessed in heaven."

 

All I can say is Amen!

Equality & Intolerance

Galatians 3:28
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg recently gave a speech at the New England Law |Boston campus to a group of young female law students. During her speech, designed and delivered to encourage young women in their pursuit of a achieving their career goals, she spoke at length about the importance of choosing the 'right husband'.

After hearing of the speech, and interested in what she had to say, I searched the internet to find a transcript. I could not. I did find enough links to verify some bits of information I had previously heard, and enough to satisfy my curiosity.

We are told in scripture that in Christ, there is no slave or freedman, no male or female etc, just children of Christ. Some might call me a skeptic, but I rather like to think of myself as a realist. While what my heart may want, even strongly desire and work towards that end to bring something to fruition, I realize that the world is not perfect. In this case I fully understand that all are not believers and thereby supporters of the Bible as God's Word and this axiom of equality as He has given it to us as a biblical tenet. But the point that is being made by the text is that we need to be treating people in fairness. THAT is a universal axiom, or so you'd think.

In doing some research on a totally separate topic yesterday in a local Border's Book store I ran across another incident of lack of consideration with regards to dealing with people on an equal footing. While both subjects are totally unrelated, the tie-in they do have, equality and fairness, seemed to jump out at me. What this passage caused me to think of is this: what our media calls 'intolerance' is really just bigotry, real intolerance and reverse discrimination.

In California, a council member has been banned from praying in 'Jesus name'. Praying in Jesus name is now purported to be 'intolerance' as this might offend some who are not Christians. Yet praying in the name of all other god or faith is perfectly acceptable. So what is being said, (without being said) is that the free exercise of a Christians faith, a right guaranteed by the Constitution by line item like enumeration, is now being adjudicated as 'intolerance'.

Chaplains all around the nation and in our military are being forced to use prayers that do not mention the name of a particular God or 'Jesus'. Yet, to require a Muslim in the military or a workplace not to pray to Allah 3 times daily during work or duty hours is discrimination, and now a Federal Hate Crime. So what we see is that the rights of those outside of Christianity are defended, while the rights of the Christian are eroded.
In Justice Ginsburg's speech she lamented about how her husband gave up his career so that she could better pursue her career seeing that she was being elevated in her profession. She even made the comment that, "Since 1980, I haven't made a single meal,"

While I think it is honorable (although on admittedly shaky biblical grounds) that Justice Ginsburg's husband, who had very successful law career in his own right, gave up his career to become a chef so his wife could continue to further hers, how would the media react if this story were recounted by Justice Scalia or Thomas? What if any of the male Supreme Court Justices spoke so loudly and proudly they were that the careers of their respective wives were put on hold (voluntarily or not) so that they could spend the next 30 years relegated to cooking dinners for their husbands? What if one of those male Justices told hundreds of other young, single men at a law school official conference or assembly to be very careful how they choose their wives, making sure that they choose one who will be happily willing to remain in the kitchen cooking meals for him for the next 30 years while they themselves went out and furthered their careers Something tells me that would not fly. Anyone of those men would be branded a sexist bigot. Yet Ginsburg is flaunted as a most excellent example with young women like Carol Ricker a third-year law student from Franklin who asked the question on same-sex marriage, said after the event that she found Ginsburg a "captivating speaker". Leaving the conference Ricker said of Ginsburg, "By her sharing her experiences, she showed how she was able to change things, which should be an inspiration to not only women, but to men, people of color, everyone who wants to be successful". Change is not always good. All I can say about this is that I must remember the name of Carol Ricker so that if I ever find myself being sued for sexual discrimination or intolerance, that I need to not hire her.

While you cannot go so far as to call it intolerance in the case of the comments of Justice Ginsburg, we can see that it is acceptable bigotry on the side of the liberal mindset. This is the same side of the liberal coin that will label us/Christians bigots for wanting to pray in the name of Jesus. Justice Ginsburg's speech, and so many more like them, is not only tolerated, it is championed by them. It's OK for men to put their careers on hold for their wives, but for a male to ask his female 'life partner' (and yes, you do have to specify these days) to put her career on hold so that he can climb the ladder of his career would be seen as bigoted and racist. Any male Justice to make such a comment would be tarred and feathered in the media.
What do I want? The same thing Jesus wants: True equality. Every man, woman and child treated with the equal respect that would have been afforded them by Jesus Himself. Loving the sinner/the man hating the sin. We need to be preaching the Bible for what it is: The truth, and the Word of God without compromise. That's what I want.

But when we cannot even get real, true teaching of real, true equality that from our Evangelical pastors backed by scripture in this country, what in the world makes us think that we just might get it from the media? Yet to face the media bias and stand firm requires resolve. It requires resolve and strength, not of ourselves, but from Christ and His Word. Of ourselves, we can do nothing, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. When we are persecuted for our faith in Christ, and make no bones about it, that's what this is, we are not called to arms to fight to the death to defend these rights. We are to be encouraged by this persecution, and to find it pleasurable to suffer alongside Jesus for such. But at the same time, Jesus did give us tools to fight these spiritual battles; His word, and the Law of the Land. To not use the tools that He has given us, is not to be a good steward over that which He has given us control.

We are seeing some people stand up and fight. In the fine State of Virginia, State Trooper Chaplains recently had a two year old moratorium put on them from praying in Jesus name, are now being told by the governor to pray in Jesus name all they want. More and more schools are recognizing that the right to Freedom of Religion really means freedom 'of' and not freedom 'from'. We need to do our part to educate people that requiring a person NOT to pray in the name of Jesus or any other particular way is itself discrimination, and that trying to force me or you not to do so is in fact showing the same intolerance to us as they proclaim we show when we pray in Jesus name. They just don't get it.

Luckily God does. God knows the hearts of men, and we have to simply trust Him to deal with each situation as it comes up in our lives. But we cannot go into this intellectual fight unarmed. Arm yourself with the knowledge of God's word. Arm yourself with scripture and a heart that is renewed daily to be more like Jesus. Arm yourself with fellowship in a strong bible teaching bible believing church that will equip you to defend yourself with scripture, against the onslaught of the world's wily deceptions and winds of doctrine. Arm yourself with love that can see everyone equally for what they really are: fallen sinners in need of Grace. This and only this will see the walls of true intolerance and real bigotry come to an end.