Everyday is Gettysburg for God's People
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." * Ephesians 6:12
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." * The Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln
Worship is our battle cry and Prayer our call to arms. God's enemy surrounds us to oppress us with the seduction of the charms of the world and the opposition of sinful tolerances. Everyday is a battle, Christian. It's a frontline in The War. Who will we choose? Whose will we be? The question demands an answer and is not so easy to make as it may seem.
God is at war in the earth for the souls of men and women. In Bethlehem, his humble entrance into the world marked the threshold of a never ending invassion. In the desert temptation, the first battle was won. At Calvary, the death blow was issued. Today, the world is in a civil war, divided more clearly everyday between light and dark. Tomorrow, it will soon be too late to enlist in God's victorious ranks.
Christian, we must dedicate ourselves to the unfinished war of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. It is for us to re-enlist daily to the service of our King in the world. Though we fight against tyranny, socialism, abortion (neo-necromancy), compromise, drugs, sickness, poverty, violence, etc. Our real battle is firstly spiritual. We must stand together on our knees, fight with folded hands, and overcome through submission to our God, who has chosen us to be his instruments of warfare.
Your life is God's battlefield. You are his warrior. He knows the enemy and he brings the victory. Ours must be a decisive choice, without compromise. If we compromise, we cannot be victorious. We fail to fear the Lord and we bear his name in vain.
In 2 Kings 17, the king of Assyria brought foreigners to live in Israel after he had carried the northern nation into exile. They struggled to prosper there because they did not understand "the custom of the god of the land" (v.26). So, the king sent a priest to teach them the ways of the Lord, the God of Israel. yet, even as they learned about the one true God, they continued in their pagan rituals and worship. They simply added God to their traditions instead of being transformed by the reality of who he is.
Verses 32-35 contain a commentary and a seeming contradiction:
"They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places.They feared the LORD and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel; with whom the LORD made a covenant and commanded them, saying, 'You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them.'"
The truth of their situation is that they believed they were fearing the Lord, but because of their compromise they were actually not fearing him at all. There is no cotradiction: They believed they had a relationship with God; they did not really have a relationship with God. They were eternally wrong and completely ignorant of it. What a scary place to be in: to believe you are serving the Lord while he considers you still his enemy. Yet, it is the place where I believe many of us live out our not-really-faith everyday.
I remind you of this passage, Christian, because of the covenant it refers to, the reality it recognizes, and the promise it makes. Verses 36-41 continues the explaintion of why these Samaritans could not experience God's victory or be counted as his people because of their compromise:
"'But the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice. The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods. The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the LORD your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.' However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day."
In The War, the promise is God's promise to deliver his people from the hand of all our enemies. The reality is that we are not God's people if we fear other gods (compromise with darkness) and not the Lord alone. The covenant is one of absolute devotion to God, exclussive of all other gods (traditions, heritages, powers, authorities, principalities, religions, sociologies, secularites, philosophies, etc.).
Everyday is a battle, a choosing between the sides. Who will we choose? Whose will we be? Are we dedicated to the unfishined work of the finished work of Christ on the cross? For Christians, the choice should have been made already, but the devil is crafty and compromise slides easily into our lives.
I have no condemnation for you. I have compromised as well. What I do have is a word of challenge and of restoration: God is able to rid our lives of this deadly compromise and use us in The War. The fear of the Lord is to recognize our guilt, confess it, and be restored to our greatest effectiveness for God's Kingdom.
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen." * 1 Peter 5:6-11
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." * The Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln
Worship is our battle cry and Prayer our call to arms. God's enemy surrounds us to oppress us with the seduction of the charms of the world and the opposition of sinful tolerances. Everyday is a battle, Christian. It's a frontline in The War. Who will we choose? Whose will we be? The question demands an answer and is not so easy to make as it may seem.
God is at war in the earth for the souls of men and women. In Bethlehem, his humble entrance into the world marked the threshold of a never ending invassion. In the desert temptation, the first battle was won. At Calvary, the death blow was issued. Today, the world is in a civil war, divided more clearly everyday between light and dark. Tomorrow, it will soon be too late to enlist in God's victorious ranks.
Christian, we must dedicate ourselves to the unfinished war of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. It is for us to re-enlist daily to the service of our King in the world. Though we fight against tyranny, socialism, abortion (neo-necromancy), compromise, drugs, sickness, poverty, violence, etc. Our real battle is firstly spiritual. We must stand together on our knees, fight with folded hands, and overcome through submission to our God, who has chosen us to be his instruments of warfare.
Your life is God's battlefield. You are his warrior. He knows the enemy and he brings the victory. Ours must be a decisive choice, without compromise. If we compromise, we cannot be victorious. We fail to fear the Lord and we bear his name in vain.
In 2 Kings 17, the king of Assyria brought foreigners to live in Israel after he had carried the northern nation into exile. They struggled to prosper there because they did not understand "the custom of the god of the land" (v.26). So, the king sent a priest to teach them the ways of the Lord, the God of Israel. yet, even as they learned about the one true God, they continued in their pagan rituals and worship. They simply added God to their traditions instead of being transformed by the reality of who he is.
Verses 32-35 contain a commentary and a seeming contradiction:
"They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places.They feared the LORD and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel; with whom the LORD made a covenant and commanded them, saying, 'You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them.'"
The truth of their situation is that they believed they were fearing the Lord, but because of their compromise they were actually not fearing him at all. There is no cotradiction: They believed they had a relationship with God; they did not really have a relationship with God. They were eternally wrong and completely ignorant of it. What a scary place to be in: to believe you are serving the Lord while he considers you still his enemy. Yet, it is the place where I believe many of us live out our not-really-faith everyday.
I remind you of this passage, Christian, because of the covenant it refers to, the reality it recognizes, and the promise it makes. Verses 36-41 continues the explaintion of why these Samaritans could not experience God's victory or be counted as his people because of their compromise:
"'But the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice. The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods. The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the LORD your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.' However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day."
In The War, the promise is God's promise to deliver his people from the hand of all our enemies. The reality is that we are not God's people if we fear other gods (compromise with darkness) and not the Lord alone. The covenant is one of absolute devotion to God, exclussive of all other gods (traditions, heritages, powers, authorities, principalities, religions, sociologies, secularites, philosophies, etc.).
Everyday is a battle, a choosing between the sides. Who will we choose? Whose will we be? Are we dedicated to the unfishined work of the finished work of Christ on the cross? For Christians, the choice should have been made already, but the devil is crafty and compromise slides easily into our lives.
I have no condemnation for you. I have compromised as well. What I do have is a word of challenge and of restoration: God is able to rid our lives of this deadly compromise and use us in The War. The fear of the Lord is to recognize our guilt, confess it, and be restored to our greatest effectiveness for God's Kingdom.
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen." * 1 Peter 5:6-11
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