Poem: With Our God

With our God are all provisions

And the courage to make decisions;

To fulfill our purposes in life

And understanding to handle strife.

May we never cling to a victim’s view,

But being over-comers just as You.

Seeing the flower and not the thorn.

Having Christ’s glory us adorn.

We lay our inadequacies at Your feet.

Putting on Your armor we can defeat

Ghosts of the past, demons of the future

With love and compassion our world to nurture.

by Christina Morley

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Spiritual Warfare – Part 4 of 4

Another tactic the enemy uses is silence. Anything that is not brought into the light has a certain hold on us, so the devil tries to keep us locked up with secrets. I think we all go through times in our lives that we don’t want to tell the truth about things in our past or present. Usually, we’re too ashamed to talk about them. However, not talking about these things can hold us back in our spiritual growth. We need to step out of secrecy, which holds us captive, and walk into His light and into His freedom.

Sometimes it’s up to us to defend the cause of others and to speak out against injustices. Keeping silent doesn’t help our cause, but it does help the devil’s. Speaking out the truth disarms the devil, and for this we need wisdom and boldness. For example, what do we do if we hear our friends gossiping? Do we join in by agreeing with them? Do we hold our tongues because we don’t want to come across as being too Christian? Or, do we take the opportunity to speak words of life and love?

Another weapon at our disposal is praise. In the time of King Jehoshaphat, a great multitude had come out against the nation of Judah (2Chron. 20:1-30). The king was afraid, so he set his face to seek the Lord, also calling all of Judah to fast and pray. God responded by telling them to go and meet the enemy, but said that they wouldn’t need to fight. They were to stand their ground, and see the salvation of the Lord.

King Jehoshaphat trusted the word of the Lord and put his faith to work. He appointed singers to go out in front of the army to praise the Lord. As they began to praise, the Lord sent an ambush against the enemy. Where there is praise, there is God. Where there is God, the demons tremble. Prayer, praise, and faith in God’s word tie the enemy’s hands and render him powerless. This is supernatural protection.

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Spiritual Warfare – Part 3 of 4

Another strategy Satan uses is fear. Satan relies on fear tactics to paralyze and overpower his victims. Sometimes he does this through criminals who prey on unsuspecting citizens. At other times, he uses fear to keep us from doing great things for God. Jesus has given us His authority to defeat the attacks of the enemy. First of all, God says He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2Tim. 1:7). He also says that perfect love casts out fear (1John 4:18). Once we no longer allow fear to paralyze us, we no longer need to fall prey to fear tactics.

In order to do this we must allow God’s love to rule our lives by filling our hearts and minds with His Word. His Word builds our faith and is an effective weapon against spiritual and physical attacks. We can also pray scriptures that God has given to us for our families. Two excellent passages concerning divine protection are found in Psalm 91 and Isaiah 43:1-21.

We also find safety and refuge when we call on the name of the Lord in our time of need. He has myriads of angels at His disposal and He’ll dispatch them when we cry for help. God and His angels really are just a simple prayer away.

Besides praying to God for help, we can also rebuke whoever or whatever is threatening us. Occasionally, I ask my children to practice saying something like “Stop in Jesus’ name!” and encourage them to use a commanding voice. Demons operating through people tremble at the name of Jesus and are unable to withstand Him.

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Spiritual Warfare – Part 2 of 4

When Adam and Eve sinned, they unknowingly relinquished to Satan their authority on earth. But now, through the work on the cross, Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. He now sends us out into the world with that authority. We just have to learn how to walk in it.

Satan has two major goals. His first goal is to keep as many people as he possibly can from following the Lord. His second goal is to keep those who do follow the Lord from ever reaching their full potential. As with combatants in any battle, Satan not only has goals, but he also has strategies.

This is not the time for us moms to be spiritually asleep. God’s people are perishing for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Ignorance is no excuse. The Bible warns us to be always alert, prayerful, and wise.

One of Satan’s best strategies is to try to distract our focus from the real battle. The real battle is not against people, but against evil spirits. When we get tangled up in resentment, jealousy, anger, and hatred toward others, we lose the battle. We also end up wasting a lot of energy and a lot of negative emotions. To win this kind of war, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, remain in His word, keep on praying, and keep on flowing in His love and forgiveness.

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Thankful in Times of Opposition – Part 1 of 4

What was going on in the hearts and minds of the Israelites the first time they wanted to enter the Promised Land? With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, the people’s hearts were gripped with fear when they saw what stood in their way. The people of the land were mighty and God’s people felt small, so they lost confidence in themselves. They doubted Moses, and most of all, they doubted God. They had a hard time believing in others, probably because they didn’t believe in themselves.

Fear crippled them and prevented them from possessing the land by faith. Fear also kept them from experiencing God’s abundant love. Fear is the opposite of love. The two cannot coexist. Fear operates through unbelief, and love operates through faith.

It’s understandable that the people didn’t respect Moses much. They hardly knew him as a leader, and what they knew of his past hurt his reputation.

Imagine yourself living a slave’s life and one day finding out that one of your own people had been adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as a prince. For the first forty years of his life Moses was sheltered while his fellow Hebrews suffered under the bonds of slavery. If Moses’ luxurious life didn’t make you jealous, then what happened next might make you think he was unworthy of respect.

His whole life took a dramatic turn when, in a moment of self-appointed heroism, he killed an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew. Then, when his cover was blown, he went on the run. For the next forty years, he lived as a fugitive and worked as a shepherd. From the pleasures of palace living to the harsh realities of desert dwelling, Moses not only looked, but also felt, like a failure.

Just before Moses killed the Egyptian, he knew that he was meant to do something great for God. But after another Hebrew blew his cover, he realized his zeal had been misguided and fled the scene. This incident so crushed his pride that his dream and passion died with it.

When God got hold of him forty years later, he thought God had the wrong man. He not only didn’t jump at the offer to lead the Israelites to freedom, he even declined it. Maybe you have felt like Moses. Maybe you have stopped believing in yourself. However, no matter how bad your past might seem to you, God is in the business of giving second chances.

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Poem - Father, Thank You for Your Love

Father, thank You for the love that You give
The only love which helps me live
I would be nothing without You
You are sweeter than honey and refreshing as dew

When the world becomes too great
And I find myself in a terrible state
You lift me up with Your tender hand
And I realize that You understand

When the weight of my burdens become too much
And I feel discouraged as such
You remind me that You’re there
To take my burdens, because You care

When everything seems to go wrong
And I think I won’t last long
You fill me with Your staying power
And make me strong as a fortified tower

And when my troubles reach their peak
And I realize that I am weak
You cradle me in Your loving arm
To keep me from anymore harm

Then I realize the love that You give
Is the only thing which helps me live
You are sweeter than honey, refreshing as dew
And because You first loved me, I can love You

by Christina Morley

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Hearing God's Voice - Part 1

There’s a saying I once read that states, “Nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I together can’t handle.” The purpose of these next two blogs is to explain how to hear God's voice.

Reading God’s Word is the foundation of our Christian lives. Spending time reading God’s Word is often referred to as having a “quiet time.” This doesn’t mean that we all have to wake up at four or five in the morning before everyone else is awake or that it even needs to be all that quiet.

I’ve discovered that a personal relationship with Jesus is just that: it’s personal. Even the name “quiet time” can be a misnomer. How quiet it’s going to be really depends on you.

A successful quiet time is not measured by how rigid the program is. Instead, it’s measured by how well you connect with God. Too many people feel they have to copy someone else’s style, and when they discover they can’t keep it up, they give up.

If we live by man-made rules, then we place ourselves under a law that we can’t keep. We end up with the same feeling of guilt that comes from yo-yo dieting or owning an unused gym contract.

God is more interested in a relationship than in religiosity. This is why it’s important to find out what works for you. Some people do well at following a set routine, but others prefer spontaneity. It’s also important to note that as we go through different seasons in our lives, our quiet times may change.

Maybe you’re not sure how to know what God is telling you. I’ve already mentioned that reading the Bible is the best place to begin. It carefully answers life’s questions, it gives instructions on how to live morally, and it’s the living Word of God. It’s living, because you can always learn something new no matter how many times you read it.

The Bible as a whole looks formidable to read, but if you think of it as one big Book containing 66 smaller books, then it will be easier to manage. It all begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. There are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.

The Bible’s main intention is to reveal God’s plan of salvation for mankind. The Old Testament is about God’s laws, which were written on stone, and man’s need of a Savior. The New Testament is about this Savior who has made it possible for God’s laws to be written on our hearts instead. Through Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, we have forgiveness of sins, and through His blood we are made righteous.

God’s Love Letter to us is the Bible. Through His Spirit we can understand and correctly apply what we have read. When we are studying and building ourselves up in the faith, it’s important that we focus first on the clearly stated foundational truths. They are there to protect us from losing our way as we consider other parts of God’s Word that are harder to understand.

Even though it may seem like a very long love letter, in some ways it’s not long enough, because there are still so many loose ends. These loose ends cause lots of problems when we disagree on the interpretation of them, but I believe God knew this and has a reason for them. Mainly, He wants us to learn to rely on His Spirit for the correct interpretation before drawing our own conclusions.

The safest way to Bible interpretation is by reading it in context. Of course, if it was as black and white as the print on this paper then we wouldn’t need to learn how to tune in to the Spirit, our Counselor, who leads us into all truth.

We must keep in mind that it’s always easier to argue over our convictions than it is to love one another. Arguing and pride only bring division in the body of Christ. Love and humility bring us together.

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