Jim Wilson's Blog, page 49

The Spiritual War Today

 

In the last century, many changes have taken place in the sophistication of weaponry for physical war. We now have smart bombs and guided missiles that are very accurate. If a cruise missile were fired from Boston, it could be guided through the goal posts at JFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

The principles of war have not changed. Superior weapons have always had an effect on the outcome of a battle or war. However, superior weapons have not guaranteed the outcome. The morale of combatants, the reason for fighting, and most of all, the implementation of the principles of war, are the main guarantees of victory.

The United States lost the war in Vietnam because of the practical disregard of these principles. We had no clear political or military objective. We had clear superiority in weapons, training, and men. But morale was low, and the men did not know why they were fighting. If they did know, the people at home did not know. The Viet Cong, in contrast, knew where they were going and observed the principles of war. I will mention other examples of violated principles in the appropriate chapters. In the war to liberate Kuwait from Iraq, we had clear superiority in weapons, training, and morale. In addition, we observed the principles. Ultimate and limited objectives were clearly stated. Even with multinational forces, and with different services in the same theater of war, there was clear unity of command, and clear cooperation between units. The blockade of Iraq, the interdiction of the lines of communication, and the encirclement of Iraq’s Republican Guard showed clear understanding of the principle of lines of communication.

We as Christians may not have learned as much in the last forty years as the military has learned. Even so, there are some positive signs in the prosecution of the war in world evangelism. The most positive sign is the aggressive translation, retranslation, publication, and distribution of the Scriptures in modern languages. The next most positive sign is prayer meetings for revival. Both of these are using the principle of the offensive.

Other good signs are changes in mission organizations so that the doctrine of operation is not fixed. More versatility and flexibility are allowed. However, there are a few things that we are still doing wrong. We are still using the challenge/volunteer mode of recruiting instead of teaching obedience. We are still teaching loyalty to organizations and methods that hinder obedience to God and cooperation with other units. We have many individual Christians and married couples in Christian work who are emotionally and/or morally fouled up. If these people are in leadership, this affects the morale of everyone and results in a consequent nonaggressiveness in evangelism.

Our hospitals for casualties are staffed by casualties, and by sympathetic but misguided people who accept the casualties as permanent casualties. People are not being healed so they may get back into battle; they either become permanent invalids, or the cure is planned to take the rest of their natural lives.

To be continued…

*Excerpted from Principles of War. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Only True Liberation Front

There is only one solution to our country's problems, and that solution is Jesus Christ. The church today is in bad shape. We are not men and women of the Word, we are carrying around a great weight of unconfessed sin, and we are ignorant of God's commands. We are in a spiritual war, and our troops are unfit.

What are we to do about this?

Be in the Word every day. A few verses or one chapter is not enough; I recommend at least four chapters a day. To help keep you reading, join a plan like the one at TotheWord.com. Learn what God commands and put it into effect in your life by obeying it.Get free of your weight of unconfessed sin and get back in the joy of the Lord. For help with this, read How to Maintain Joy, available as a free PDF here, for purchase here, or on Kindle here.Begin praying for the unbelievers you know and tell them the good news of Jesus Christ.

For those of you who intend to take point 3 seriously, over the next few months I will continue to have posts on many subjects but will also be posting short messages on this part of the spiritual war. Here is the first one:

Men and women are never the enemy in the spiritual war. We have only one enemy—Satan. We fight him and those spiritual powers in league with him.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers introduction and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Eph. 6:10–18).

The unsaved are captives of the Enemy. We fight to deliver them from his power. They are what the war is over—they are the contested territory.

“Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:23–26).

These people are slaves to sin, and we are to seek their liberation.

“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted” (Rom. 6:17).

“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness” (Rom. 6:20).

Those enslaved to sin are not our enemies. At the fundamental level, we do not fight them; we are fighting to rescue them. The gospel is therefore the only true liberation front.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

How Do You Love Your Neighbor?

 

"Jesus replied: '"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself"'" (Matthew 22:37-39).

How do you love your neighbor? The same way you love yourself. “Yourself” is someone you already greatly love, and therefore is a good standard for how to love someone else. Even people with “low self-worth” love themselves very much. They are much more concerned about themselves than they are about others.

How do we love our neighbor as ourselves? For a start, calculate how much time you spend thinking about yourself on an average day. Second, list all the things you do for yourself, including bathing, eating, sleeping, and studying. Third, admit that these things are expressions of love for yourself. Fourth, admit that you do not love your neighbor (even your best friend) this much. Fifth, admit that that is a violation of God’s command and needs His forgiveness. Turn to Him for forgiveness. This will not make you loving, but it will make you clean. From that position you can choose to love your neighbor.

Now, decide to love your neighbor. The choice is yours. The power to carry it out is God’s. The love will not be an emotional feeling, at least not at first. When you choose to obey God in this way, He provides the emotion and the means of expressing it so that it will not be phony.

*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore. 

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

When God Forgives

There is a wonderful phrase in the poetry of Jeremiah that tells us something of the character of God’s forgiveness.

“‘In those days, at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare’” (Jeremiah 50:20).

Guilt and sins, regardless of how great and how many, cannot be found even when searched for, when God forgives. Zechariah said in Luke 1:77 that God sent John the Baptist “to give His people a knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sins.” Sins gone, guilt gone, and a knowledge of salvation, all through the forgiveness of sins.


This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us. We would love to have you reading with us.How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

God's Forgiveness

 

There is a great phrase in the poetry of Jeremiah about the character of God’s forgiveness:

“'In those days, at that time,' declares the Lord, 'search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare'” (Jeremiah 50:20).

Regardless of how great your sins or how many there are, they cannot be found once God has forgiven them. Zechariah said of his son John the Baptist,

"And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people a knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sins" (Luke 1:76-77).

 

Sins gone, guilt gone, and a knowledge of salvation¾all through God’s forgiveness.

*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore. 

This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Speaking “Your Own Truth”

“But you must not mention ‘the oracle of the Lord’ again, because every man’s own word becomes his oracle and so you distort the words of the living God, the Lord Almighty, our God” (Jer. 23:36).

This sentence shows up in a paragraph in Jeremiah 23. For study, the whole paragraph should be read. I pulled the sentence because of its application today. Weekly I come across people whose own words are their revelation of truth. It is always a distortion of the Word of God. In churches that recognize the gift of prophecy, the same thing occurs. In many instances, there is no means or effort to shut down these false prophecies. Several chapters in Jeremiah are given to shutting down or standing up against these “prophets.”


This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us. We would love to have you reading with us. How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

A Great Contradiction: Loving God & Hating Someone Else

 

Once, I received a letter asking for help with getting rid of bitterness. The correspondent was so bitter that he admitted he could not do the will of God. However, there was a great contradiction in his letter. He said that he believed in and loved Jesus. I am sure he thought he did, but he did not love Jesus by Jesus’ definition. He said that he could not do the will of God. If he loved Jesus, he would have obeyed Him:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15).

"Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me'” (John 14:23-24).

If he loved God, he would also love his brother:

"If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother" (1 John 4:20-21).

This man did not love God. He did not obey God, and he did not love his brother.

*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore. 

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Trust: Cursed or Blessed?

"This is what the LORD says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit'” (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

Note the contrasts:

·   cursed or blessed

·   shrubs or trees

·   desert or water

·   parched places or roots by the river

·   shall not see good or is not anxious in the year of drought

·   uninhabited salt land or bearing fruit unceasingly 

The contrasts are great, and the difference is whether we are trusting in man or in the Lord.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore. 

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Standing Against the Devil's Schemes: The Full Armor of God

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand" (Ephesians 6:10-13).

The first three chapters of Ephesians tell us the riches we have in Christ. It would be difficult to meditate too much on these riches. In the final chapter, Paul teaches on standing strong in the Lord. Notice that verses 10 and 13 both say to “put on the full armor of God” to take your stand against the devil. The emphasis is on the completeness of the armor. The devil is not stronger than God’s armor, but he is wily enough to hit us where we are not covered.

When I get defeated, it is not because of Satan’s strength. It is either because I am uncovered or because I mistake the enemy for flesh and blood (a human being) instead of the real Enemy.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Worthy of Respect

"Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach" (1 Timothy 3:2).

"Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain" (1 Timothy 3:8).

"In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything" (1 Timothy 3:11).

"Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other" (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).

Children must respect their parents simply because they are their parents, not because they are respectable. It is the same with kings, governors, and masters. They are to be given respect regardless. This is not true in the church. Church leaders/servants must be worthy of respect. Elders must be examples to the flock—the kind of example that, if imitated, would make the church more godly. 

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. (Hebrews 13:7)

If we consider the outcome of their way of life and find out that they are not worthy of respect, we should not imitate them, and they should not be elders or deacons.

This post coordinates with last Saturday's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us. We would love to have you reading with us.

Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships