Did You Know Satan Is Out to Destroy Your Faith?

Thursday, May 5, 2016

 

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail:” 

Hey Gang, do you think Satan would like to sift you like wheat?  Do we sometimes, or even often, place a bull’s eye on our back as a target for Satan’s fiery darts? “But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 31-32).

If there was ever a time when we need to heed the writer of Hebrews words it is now: “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward” (Hebrews 10:35).  If you are a child of God, you are in a fierce war.  In fact, you might even go so far as to say you are in a life-and-death war.  Satan has but one goal, to destroy the faith of all of God’s elect. And the stronger your faith, the more determined he is to sic his alligators on you.  

If there is anything that gets his dander up it is unshakable faith.  I wish I could attest to the fact that when you kick his can and stay firm on the Rock that is Jesus Christ, Satan sees he has wasted his time and moves on – but he just turns up the heat.

Why? Because he knows when God’s people, who are called by His name unite their hearts and humble themselves before Him, pray from the depth of their hearts, seek a every growing deeper relationship with Him and put away all of the bangles and beads that become idols that separate us from Jesus, he(Satan) is in big trouble. ” Throughout the Word we find that when we stand on the promises of God we gain strength.  We learn what Jesus truly meant when He said, ”Greater is He who is in you than he who is the world” (I John 4:4.

Hey Gang, yes, the times are tough.  Everything that can be shaken is being shaken so that only those things that cannot be shaken will remain (Hebrews 12:27-29), but we are also challenged by Paul in his letter to Timothy, his adopted spiritual son, “Fight a determined warfare, holding faith, and a good conscience”(1 Timothy 1:19).

The apostle Peter came under a ferocious attack against his faith.  His trust in Jesus so enraged hell that Satan asked permission to ‘sift him’ to see if he would stand.  Is not Jesus’ words of tremendous encouragement in this day of woe? “But I have prayed for you”.  I have prayed that your faith will stand the test and when you are converted, my mission for you is to strengthen your brethren.”

Maybe right at this moment you are going through a terrible storm in your life.  And the harder you try the deeper the woe in your life.  I can say, ‘been there and done that’ many times throughout my lifetime.  There have been many times when that storm has raged within my heart and soul and many times when I have cried out, “Why? Lord”?

In closing this Epistle I want to share that God has given us a powerful weapon to use against Satan’s attacks on our faith.  The weapon?  We are not to try and figure everything out.  We are to set our eyes on “the great cloud of witnesses” already in glory who have made it through with their faith intact”.  “Wherefore seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. And the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” ((Hebrews 12:1).  What joy filled my heart when this verse finally sank into my understanding.

It is these times when we need to have Luke’s words tucked away in our computer hard drive: “Now will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?  I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly.  However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth” (Luke 18:7-8). We need to we make sure our armor is in place, our lamps are filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit and we have the Sword, the word of God in sharpened and secure in our hands.

Notice Jesus’ question here:  Will he find faith in his people as they endure days of darkness and oppression?   I wonder how many would endure, if He would ask such a question today- in our nation that has chosen to ‘go its own way’.  I believe Jesus is asking, “Will the faith of the elect hold fast when the shaking storms come?”  The question each believer needs to ask, in this day of shaking is “Will my anchor hold fast?”  Or better, “Will I hold fast to My anchor Jesus?”

 I pray Father, in Jesus name, all who receive these morning gramps’ messages are solid on the Rock who is Jesus.

Blessings,   Gramps

Seed Planting Principle

 

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

“The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40).

 Hey Gang:    As exulted leader of the Village, I was invited to speak many times and share the successes we were seeing at the Village.  Each time that I was in route to where I would speak I prayed, “Lord, give me something fresh that I can share to this group that will hit their hot button.”

  On one such trip I stopped at a Burger King to get my usual burger and fries and noticed a poster on the wall.  It was in the early days of the Star Wars craze and the poster announced in very bold print “Your choices determine your destiny.”  I said, “Thank you Lord” and dug into the burger and fries.

 But, shortly after hitting the road, I received a tap on the shoulder from the Throne Room saying that there was a prerequisite to that saying.  It should read, “Your values, determine your choices which in turn determine your destiny.” 

 Getting back to the Scripture of the morning, the question arises, “Did What?  When hungry you fed me, thirsty, you gave me water, a stranger you befriended me, naked you clothed me, when sick you came to me and in prison you visited.  But Lord when Did I do those things to you?  What a fabulous answer He gave, “When you did it to the least…” – you did it to the Most -the Lord of Glory!”

 I was forced to go to Walmart the other day and, as per usual, I was thirty fifth (just joking) in line and it seemed every person in front of me had some sort of problem.  One had to be blind to not realize the cashier, probably a grandmother, was feeling very defeated and down. 

 When my turn finally came I smiled and said, ”Good morning.  How are you this morning?”  And then a saw a miracle – she looked up and began to smile.  Now, if I were to guess, I believe that dear lady had a much better morning after that.   

 I love the little words of the Bible, the ifs, ands, thens, the therefores, and most of all the “I will’s.  They tend to be the trigger words of the Bible that precede a truth that God wants His kids to pay special attention to.  Now, you take the challenge to invest the time to look at every one of these words in the Bible and you will be into every book and nearly every chapter and verse.

 The Book of Revelation has become a much taught, discussed and read book, especially as the alligators continue to rise in our culture and all that can be shaken is being shaken. Jesus began His dictation of the Book of Revelation with a fabulous promise: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3).   Does that light a fire in the depths of your heart to dig into the meat and potatoes of Revelation?

 I believe there are many special and very wonderful blessings hidden in the Book of Revelation.  For me, personally, I believe one of the blessings is, if you study each verse and follow the road maps that lead to other verses that add to and clarify what Jesus is saying, you will find at the end of the story you have been in every book in the Bible.

 I want to share one other word in the Scriptures that has become very special to me.  That word is “measure”.   Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, taught this: “Do not judge,…for in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of MEASURE, it will be MESASURED to You” (Matthew 7 :1-2).

 Now turn with me to Luke 6:38 and notice the good doctors challenge: “Give, and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of MEASURE it will be MEASURED to you in return”.

 Now I ask you, when Jesus said, “You did it to the least of these my brethren” does that connect with Paul’s words in his second letter to the Corinthians when he said, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully, each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”.  (2 Corinthians 9:6-11).

 If God judges you on “What you have done with Jesus in your life” using the “MEASURE” criteria, will you pass muster on the “You did it to the least of these” MEASURE? 

 Blessings,

Gramps

The Abrahamic Covenant -Does It Apply to Our Day?

 

Friday, April 15, 2016

The Abrahamic Covenant -Does It Apply to Our Day?

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to a land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation; and I will bless you and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3).

Hey Gang:  The Word of God is filled with irrevocable laws that, if we choose to tamper with, we will reap a harvest.  In my years of serving as Chaplain at the Village, the focus of my ministry was based on the Seed Planting Parable, an irrevocable law of God.  Paul taught: You tamper with God's laws at your own peril when he wrote, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." in Galatians 6:7   

 I can attest to the fact that in all the times I ask youngsters, “if I planted a seed of corn, what would I get in return?”  The answer was consistent throughout the years – “You would get corn!”   I wish I could say, when I used this analogy with kids, I wished they would see themselves as the seed, and im-mediately change their seed planting program, but seldom was that the case. 

 Do you know what the Abrahamic Covenant is? Do you think it is in still God's plan for today?  I pray all who are reading this epistle know and apply it to their lives; but let me share a point or two on this irrevocable law.  The Abrahamic Covenant is a God-given promise based on the seed planting principle that you will reap what you sow, and can influence every decision you make in this life -time - every time! – every time!

 Paul, in writing to the Galatians, was very clear; this is an irrevocable law that can never be annulled (Galatians 3:17).  

Now, I am sure most of you are very aware of what I have said so far but let me go a step further and put some meat on this principal.  For the past several months I havehad a growing feeling, in my gizzard, that I am in a cage with two ravenous beast - a hungry bear on one side and an angry lion on the other; and I hear the door opening and see they are about to slip a Tasmanian Devil into the fray.  I wonder which one will win the day and have the joy of ripping me to shreds. 

I believe we can change the characters in that analogy and put the United States of America, the "Land of the free and the home of Brave" in the cage, and replace the hungry bear with the Supreme Court’s decision on same sex marriage.   Is it not interesting that the court's decision was announced during "Gay Pride Month" as set by President O.  There was never any doubt by the court watchers that the Court would make same-sex marriage the law of the land by a six to three vote. On that issue they were off by one vote, and another nail was added to the coffin of this once proud nation.

 In a recent follow up article pertaining to this decision, I learned two very significant things: First gay- right marriages have been adopted as national law only once before in recorded world history.  I thought it might be Sodom, but not so, it was in the days of Noah!  I also learned that Nepal, the country with total recognition of gay rights recently adopted gay marriage as the law of their land. Here is a tidbit that might get your attention: shortly after Nepal passed their gay-right laws they were hit with a major earthquake where 8500 people were killed.

 I close this epistle with Paul’s word: “Be not deceived, we will reap what we sow” (Galatians 6:7). 

 Blessings,  Gramps

Return To A Very Important Principle

 

Friday, April 29, 2016

 

“Then The King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (Matthew 25:34).   “The King will answer to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it unto Me.’ (Matt. 25:40).  (read verses 34-46).

Hey Gang:  When God called me and my family to leave our home, jobs, California friends and move to Michigan and become an unemployed director of a not-yet- started Boys Home, I think I learned how Abraham must have felt when God said, pack it and follow My leading.  God sold our house, brought our income tax return back in two weeks (which was unheard of in that day) and removed any excuse I might have had for not following His lead.  So we packed all of our worldly possessions in a van and pickup truck and headed East.  A trip I will share with you in the coming days.

  So when I dotted the last “I” I asked the Lord to put His words into my heart and mind that lead us to follow Paul’s advice of 2 Thessalonians when he wrote, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus and by no means quench the Spirit and do not despise prophetic utterances.” And most of all ‘Examine all things carefully and hold fast to that which is good and abstain from every form of evil’ (2 Thess. 5:16-22). (Gramps rendition)

 I love  Paul’s words in Philippians when he said, “For I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil.1:6).  Is that your prayer this morning?  It certainly is mine.  In chapter 3:12 Paul gives me hope for all the stupid things I have done and continue to do in my life when he wrote, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already became perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus”.

 But this morning the verse that is ringing in my heart and mind is “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.  Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near!”.  Praise the Lord that even in these dark days when everything that can be shaken is being shaken “the Lord is near!”  “And we can have the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7).  And I believe that the seeds of that peace comes to life when we “rejoice in the Lord always”. 

 Kermit is not a name that will reach the top ten on the list of popular names that moms and dads will name their newborns; but, it has served me well in the occupation into which God led me.  If my name was one of the more common names, like John or Matthew, the kids I worked with would soon forget it.  Years ago, after retiring from the Village I was walking through the Chicago Airport when I heard my name called out.  It was a young man who has passed through my life years before.

 And, if you would ask that young man who Kermit was in his life, he would say he was a “seed planter”.  Are you a seed planter?  When I would ask the boys if they were seed planters, most would say “no”, but when I explained that their attitude the morning and their attitude at the dinner table were times when they were in a constant seed planting mode – positive or negative. 

 This epistle could turn into a book, so let me cut to the chase of what I believe God laid on my heart for you this morning. When we stand before God and give an account of what we did with His Son, Jesus, we will be judged by our fruits. (Matthew 7:16).     Read again the Scripture of the morning and note who Jesus said would inherit the Kingdom.  Who was Jesus referring to? The hungry. The thirsty. The stranger. The naked. The one in prison.  I do not believe the list is all conclusive but includes all who are down and out and in need of a helping hand.   Perhaps it is your next-door neighbor. 

 I close this epistle with what I adopted as my creed many years ago. It contains a challenge and a blessing, if we accept the challenge.  It is found in Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  For by your standard of measure, It will be measured to you in return”.  Malachi3:10 God said, said, “Now test Me in this! 

 Blessings, Gramps

  Walked Today Where Jesus Walked!!

“But "Thanks be to God who gives victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding n the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:57-58).

 

Hey gang: As I have become more mature (older to you city folks) many things that used to be important are no longer important.  And most things that are important to me seem to have lost their importance in many folks lives.   Joy has taken on a different meaning.   I love to see my grands and great grands exceeding in things in their young lives, but my real joy is just being with them and watching them grow.

 

I had the privilege of returning to the U.S Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio with part of my family.  I wish we lived closer and that I could volunteer there a couple days a month.  As I was walking among all the relics of the past and reading of the many battles that were won to protect our nation, I sensed in my heart that I was in a sanctuary. 

For me there is a reverence to walking among the hundreds of retired aircraft that served their country well.  Out in the garden that surrounds the museum is very a special place; several years ago it became even more special, sacred to me, when a memorial bench was placed in the garden memorializing my brother’s graduating class from pilot training.  He is gone now, as is most of his class, many having given their lives in combat.

 

I have felt this same “awe” at another place that I have been privileged to visit.  In my several trips to Israel there are those places that bring the hair up on my neck.  I remember the first time I looked at the mountain where I could see a perfect picture of a skull, the place where many feel our Lord was crucified, and my first trip to what many believe was the tomb where Jesus was placed on that fateful night.

 

 It really does not matter whether either site is correct, what is important: “For God so loved you and me that He gave His Son to come and take our sins to the cross and prepare way for salvation.   And equally important is the truth that the tomb was and is empty!!!

 

I was excited to return to the Air Force Museum.  It was like revisiting some old friends.  There was the F-51 fighter, the one that helped win the war in Europe and the P38 that was the key to success in the war against Japan.  There was the Boeing 707, the first airliner jet that I worked as a radar controller. 

 

But there is also a greater excitement in growing in my heart and soul today; we have made our reservations to return to Israel and celebrate early our sixtieth wedding anniversary.  Wow, does that warm the cockles of my heart.  We will return to Ir Ovot, now known as Biblical Tamar Park;  we will get our hands dirty in Israeli soil, once again.  We will revisit the Garden, where the battle of the cross was won, and walk the shores of the Sea of Galilee. 

Some feel we are foolish to go to a place where violence is a way of life and I agree, for we have to go through Chicago and New York.  But when the air craft landing gear touches the ground a peace that surpasses human understanding fills our hearts, we are home.  And from that moment on there is a deeper understanding of the Scriptures that comes alive in the depths of your heart.

 

We have been to Israel with many people and there is a common agreement among them all, it changes and deepens your relationship with Jesus.  There is still room, come along and see for yourself.  If interested, let me know and I will send you a trip description.

 

Blessings,

Gramps    (I would go back today…Gma Jean)

In All of History There Was No Greater Price Paid

 

Monday, March 21, 2016

 

“This is My Commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends; you are my friends, if you do what I command you”.   (John 15:12-14).

 Hey Gang: Years ago I made a tragic mistake.  I prayed a prayer that I was not prepared to accept the consequences of that prayer.  It was about this time of the year and, during my devotion time, I was preparing what I prayed that God would give me a very special message for the coming Easter Chapel Service. Simply, (I learned very rapidly that it was not so simply), I prayed God would teach me about the agony of the cross.  And that He did!  I am not one to measure and weigh one week’s woes against another, but as I recall, I do believe it was the toughest week of my life ,and the pain still lingers.

 Part of my devotions, the other morning, centered on the Palm Sunday entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; a Scripture that I have read several times every year for the past fifty years - but there was something different that dug deep into my heart and mind.  I did not ask the Lord to teach me about the agony that followed his triumphal entry – I had learned that lesson well.

 As a reread the account of that day in the life of the Lord, I wondered what was going through Jesus’ mind when he rose from sleep that morning.  He had told his disciples that He would soon be glorified, which I sense they did not have a clue what He meant.  He was man and He was God.  We sometimes forget that He was man- and felt the same pain, the same anxieties and I suspect even some of the same fears that I experience.

 Did He not come to walk in our sandals and learn the trials that we, His creation, go through?  I once made a comment, in one of my speaking excursions, that Jesus probably had acne as a teen and perhaps was even constipated one or more times.  That was not well received by some of those salt-colored heads in the back pew.  But Isaiah did say, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried” (Isaah53:4).

 It was Passover time and the streets were packed with more than two million people jamming the narrow streets of Jerusalem.  The city was a buzz- the man who raised Lazarus from the dead was on His way to the city.  I believe there was great anticipation as word began to circulate that Jesus, the one who had the power to heal the sick and raise the dead, was nearing the city.

 Within he masses there were three very distinct groups of people: those who knew Him intimately and believed that He was truly the Son of God, the ever present curiosity seekers who were always in the market for something unusual, and the religious leaders who feared Him and sought a way to remove this thorn from their side.     

 We remember the stinging words of Caiaphas when he said, “It was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people”. (John 1:14). The die had been cast, Jesus must die to protect their way of life.

 We are told that those who knew Him intimately “…spread their coats in the road, and other spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields” and those who went in front and those who followed were shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David: Hosanna in the Highest” (Mark 11: 8-10).

  I wond red how He felt as He approached the city and saw the great multitudes of people lining the streets to get a better look at this “raiser of the dead”.  I have heard many renditions of this, which is called the Triumphal Entry, but how did the ‘man’ in this God-man feel? Was He filled with anxiety?

He knew what awaited Him.  He knew soon He would not leave this city again on foot. He knew the Roman soldiers knew their craft well and could strip the skin off the backs of the convicted clear down to the bone.  He knew that the soldiers knew how to drive the spikes into the hands and leg with such precision as to cause the greatest pain, but also do it such a way that death came slowly and pain that is indescribable to man lingered.

 As I tried to put myself in His place, sitting here in the plushness of my home where I have been so abundantly blessed, I just could not go deep enough into my soul to truly understand.  How could the God, who created the perfect universe and all that it contains- including me, agree in that meeting- before-time began to be my sacrifice and free me from the bondage of sin.  I could think of nothing- because there was nothing.  He reached out and said, “Here is gift from the Father, don’t walk or jog but run as fast as you can to His arms and His forgiveness and His salvation.”

 I thought of that night when Jesus and His disciples had finished the ‘last supper’ together and gone to the place where Jesus loved to pray.  I remember the first day that I stood in the midst of the huge olive trees that now make up the garden.  And I thought of the story when the King of Aram sent a great army of horses and chariots to capture Elisha.   Elisha’s servant was in great fear when he saw that the city was surrounded and “…cried out to Elisha, what shall we do?”  

 “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.  Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.”  And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”.  (2 Kings 6:16-17).

 I believe that is a perfect picture of what transpired that night at the Garden of Gethsemane.  I recalled the times I stood on the Mount of Olives and looked across that vast expanse surrounded by the Kidron and Gehenna Valleys, the Gate Beautiful,  in the Old City Wall, and The Garden of Gethsemane. I visualized it filled with those same horses and chariots, all in battle dress with swords in hand waiting for their orders to rescue the Lord of Glory from the hands of the evil ones.

 There was a precedent for that way back in the life of Abraham and Isaac.   God tested Abraham, “He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.  So, Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood and for the brunt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him…

 Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?  God will provide!  Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” Do nothing to him for now I know that you fear God” (Gen 22:1-22).

 Just as Abraham was about to thrust the knife in His only son’s heart, the Lord said Abraham, put down your knife, I see the sincerity of your heart.  The angels knew that story. They were probably there and prepared on this fateful night to stop Caiaphas and his cohorts from fulfilling their prophecy that it was more expedient for Jesus to die than to have their world turned upside down.

 It was here that Jesus, the man, cried out to “Abba Father, All things are possible for You, remove this cup from Me”.    And it was there that the battle of the of cross was won- when God’s Begotten Son cried out, “Yet, not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:35-36).  And our salvation was secured for all eternity.  The Garden of Gethsemane that night was filled with God’s angel warriors in full battle gear with swords in hand ready to rescue God’s Son but - without the shedding of blood there is no atonement!

 My heart is filled with sadness this day because of the part that I paid to place my Lord Jesus, God’s Son, who came into the world as God-man to prepare a way for me to be freed from the bondage of sin.   When He entered the city that day, some, a small contingent, cried out Hosanna, Hosanna to the King of Kings -but soon the mob, who choose to go their own way and reject God’s love, cried out, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”

 If the news were to report that Jesus, the Christ, the Son of Jehovah, was coming to your street today, would you be in the Hosanna shouters crowd or would you be with the mob shouting “Crucify Him”?

Or perhaps you would be standing in the middle of the street not sure what direction you need to go. 

 esus said, “I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life, there is no other way to the Father except my Me” (John 14:6).  The price for redemption was paid in full on that hill called Calvary, ““For God so loved you and me, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

 “Greater love his no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends, you are my friends if you do what I command you”.  I died for you, will you die for Me? Signed Jesus! (John 15:13). 

 

Blessing,

 

Gramps