Heavy Artillery (from Peacemeal Devotional)

Don't Drop Your Weapons!

Paul also understood that God has given us divine weapons to use in our quest for peace. These weapons include Scripture, prayer, truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Eph. 6:10-18; Gal. 5:22-23). To many people, these resources and qualities seem feeble and useless when dealing with "real" problems. Yet these are the very weapons Jesus used to defeat Satan and to conquer the world (e.g., Matt. 4:1-11; 11:28-30; John 14:15-17). Since Jesus chose to use these weapons instead of resorting to worldly weapons, we should do the same.
Adapted from The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict
by Ken Sande, Updated Edition (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2003) p. 248.

Food for Thought

What weapons do you tend to use when you are in a conflict?

When we finally decide to reconcile with an enemy, we sometimes approach them with an attitude of "dropping our weapons." But Jesus never calls us to be unarmed or passive among our enemies. To the contrary, he calls us to lay down our ineffective worldly weapons (like defensiveness, anger, self-justification, and gossip) in order to take up the truly heavy artillery (like love, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control). Take time today to read Romans 12:14-21 and resolve to take up again the weapons for which the Lord sacrificed so much to equip you.


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Hebrews 11:32-12:3 Message

An excellent message from Matt Chandler via Alex Chediak:

The intro runs thru 14:15, at which point the message on Hebrews begins.

Hebrews 11:32 "And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."

Hebrews 12

1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

Ever Wonder About Biblical Womanhood? (or the real background on wonder woman)

I'm listening to Dr. Russell Moore's plenary message to learn more about "wonder women" and biblical womanhood.

ht: carolyn mcculley at radical womanhood.

black friday ads

In case you wanted to research the prices on Black Friday ahead of time, check out this site:
Black Friday Ads

Also worth noting: some of the big retailers like Wal-Mart are changing their operations to curb the abuses of the season. Some ways include: staying open 24 hours and allowing people to get in line inside the stores for the specific items they want to purchase, rather than opening the flood gates at 4AM (only to have the smaller, slower shoppers trampled in a stampeed searching for cell phones and gps systems.)

Satan, The World, Providence & Christ

At Desiring God today>>>

Quote: "Rejoice that the providence of God is so massively active in restraining evil and prompting so much external conformity to righteousness. Trust in the triumph of Christ at Calvary. Resist the devil in faith that the one in you is greater than he. Risk your life to spread the liberating news as far as you can."

On Being Content

Two great articles from earlier today on being content with present circumstances...

ByFaith Online Magazine: Be Anxious for Nothing -- Now?
Reformation 21: Welcome To Wherever You Are

Love Not Hate

This week's sermon was right on target (again!). I'm posting a link to it, because I think others would be greatly blessed to hear it. Check it out:

Proverbs 10:12 (11/1/09): Click Here

Devotional - from the Psalms

(note: I have changed the date of this post intentionally in order to remove any misconceptions, as it was originally posted on November 11th, a date which ought not be read in connection, neither in an implied or allusory way, with my sentiments below. thanks)


"Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD gives freedom to the prisoners."

- Psalm 146:3-7

Praise God, as he does execute justice for the oppressed. By His hand, we are all fed, but some will never recognize or acknowledge it. Some of the princes of the world will swear by their own power and claim their own glory. I think of this quote from Maximus in the movie Gladiator - "The time for honoring yourself will soon come to an end." Rich oppressors will have their moment in this life, but it will be but a vapor in the context of eternity. Those who abuse their power over the people in their charge are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of judgment. Leave vengence to the Lord; He is the judge and justice will be metted out - either through eternal damnation or by the propitiation of Christ on the Cross. Pray for the LORD to continue freeing the prisoners and adopting us as His children, co-heirs with King Jesus of the eternal kingdom. The princes of this world will have their glory, and we will have ours. Hallelujah!

All Things to All People

from Michael McKinley's new book on church planting:

"Not many books or church leaders these days speak anymore about the homogeneous unit principle—appealing to one homogeneous group of people. Somewhere in the 1980s or 90s church growth writers stopped using the phrase because they had heard enough complaining about it being biblically problematic. Still, they needed some way to target particular groups, so they began to speak in terms of “contextualization”—adapting yourself to a context. I don’t want to totally knock the good people-sensitivities involved with contextualizing. But the evangelical fascination with the topic makes me wonder if it’s just an updated version of the homogeneous unit principle: Pick your social demographic and appeal…I mean, contextualize to them.
When we start churches intentionally designed to appeal to a certain kind of person, we fail to heed the biblical mandate to become all things to all people (1 Cor. 9:22). It seems like many churches want to embrace the first phrase without the second. We want to become all things to some people. The problem is, becoming all things to some people, say, by rocking the tattoos and turning up the music often keeps us from reaching all kinds of people. After all, wooing one demographic (like urban young people) often means alienating others (like older people or foreigners).

It seems to me that Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 wasn’t saying that he would mimic the people he was trying to reach, you know, with a ripped tunic and Doc Marten sandals; he was trying instead to remove unnecessary offense whenever possible. He wasn’t telling them to sport goatees, he was telling them not to flaunt their Christian freedom in everyone’s faces. He was encouraging the church to be sensitive to their cultures, yes, but by being sacrificial in its love, willing to give up things it might not have preferred to give up. To this day, I enjoy punk rock. I could flaunt the tatts and plant a punk rock church that took its musical cues from Stiff Little Fingers and its attitude from the Clash. But how would this show love for the elderly women in my neighborhood, the same kind of elderly women who welcomed me to [my former church]? It seems like we should intentionally plant churches that will, as much as possible, welcome and engage people who are different and diverse with respect to age, gender, personality, and nationality….

Perhaps you’re thinking, “But young people simply won’t go to churches where the music is not tailored to them.” That may be partly true, but it’s only true insofar as they’ve been in churches with no biblical vision for reaching all people. But what if pastors everywhere decided to stop capitulating to consumeristic demands? What if pastors taught church members to lay down their rights for the sake of people who were different? Pastor, are you afraid that if you tried doing this, you might lose some of your market share?

So then, what should characterize a church plant that wants to reach people from all kinds of backgrounds? Well, it obviously needs to show intentional love to people from different cultures. People from other cultures will know pretty quickly whether they are welcomed or merely tolerated as a curiosity...

Also, the way that we order our gatherings can impact the way international believers feel. Many of the brothers and sisters in our congregation from other cultures were attracted by how similar our services are to the ones in their home countries. The music is different, sure. The way people dress is different, of course. Our services may be quieter or louder than what they’re accustomed to. But Christians gathered in churches in Thailand, in South Africa, in Niger, in Guatemala all do the same things: they pray, sing, read the Bible, and listen to the Word being preached. The more we focus on doing those things, the more “at home” international brothers and sisters feel. The more we import ... pop-culture into the church, the more specific and targeted our gatherings feel and the less comfortable these brothers and sisters feel."

Getting Rid of The Root of Bitterness

I'm currently reading a very good book that I purchased at a women's retreat called "How to Be Free From Bitterness" by Jim Wilson.



In chapter one, the author comments on Hebrews 12:15: "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."


He writes:

"Here it describes bitterness as if it were a root. A root is something that is underground and cannot be seen. But there can be visible evidence of its presence, as when sidewalks are lifted. Roots do other things. The fact that you cannot see roots does not mean they are not there. Neither does it mean that you will never see them. They drink in nourishment, and they do not stay roots under the ground. Eventually they come up....Beware lest any root of bitterness spring up, cause trouble, and defile many people, which means to make many people filthy."


and

"So the world has two solutions. Keep the bitterness in and make yourself sick, or let it out and spread the sickness around. God's solution is to dig up the root. Get rid of it. But this takes the grace of God. A man must know the Lord Jesus Christ... He is the source of grace. The world's solutions for bitterness shouldn't be used by Christians... The Bible says get rid of all bitterness. You must not keep it in and you must not share it. Surrender it to the Father, through the Son."

How often do I follow the world's solutions, rather than the Biblical way of dealing with bitterness? This is a good word to start the morning off and to motivate me toward reading the rest of this book.