This is Why We Fight

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1Ti 6:12 

The Unseen War

To believe is to be at war.

To read the Bible is to be at war.

To meditate.

To sing.

To share.

To pray.

It is war throughout.

God Taught His People How to Fight

Not that God is combative, but the days are evil.

And the whole world lies in wickedness.

It is exhorted: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

To “work out” is to fight.

Daily we are at war.

Against pride.

Against anger.

Against fear.

Against lies.

Against unbelief.

Against false accusation.

Against laziness.

Against tiredness.

Against lust.

Against social media.

Against war at home.

Against war at church.

It is war up to the end. Be assured of that.

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2Ti 3:12-13  

So we praise, and that is war.

We serve, and that is war.

We pray and that is war.

Fight on, brethren. You are not alone.

He is there with you.

Remember his promises.

Cleave to them.

He will never leave you nor forsake you.

The Old Nature Versus The New

To “work out” is to fight.

Because the old nature will want to pull you back. It won’t die easily.

The world will want to pull you back.

The devil will want to pull you back.

Temptations and trials will arise.

Will you fight or will you resign?

To pray is to fight.

Daniel fought.

Habakkuk fought.

Abraham believed God against hope.

The prophets fought.

Paul and Silas sang in prison.

But they kept the faith.

They fought to the end.

Will you?

And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 

Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 

Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Heb 11:32-34  

 

Wrestle the Whole Night

Jacob wrestled with God the whole night.

In the morning he received the blessing.

How long have you?

And while you are at it remember to keep the joy!

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 

So take up the whole armor of God. Girting your loins with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and shodding your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And above all take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And don’t forget the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

There is a war we can see. The bigger war is the one we can’t see. Hence we are enjoined to pray always with all prayer.

Persistently.

Perseveringly.

Without ceasing.

Travel Light

To win a war one must travel light.

To win war one has to fight well according to the Captain’s instructions. To win war one has to be healthy. To win war one must know one’s enemies.

Is it self?

Is it the world?

Is it the devil?

A good soldier separates himself from the world. A good soldier of Christ guards himself against pollution. 

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed 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. Heb 12:1  

A good soldier takes care whom he mixes with in this life.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Gal 6:7  

Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 1Co 15:33  

A good soldier is loyal to his king. He does not regard his life but only that of the king.

A good soldier is faithful up to the end.

Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. 1Sa 12:24  

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Php 1:6 

Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. 1Th 5:24 

A good soldier practices daily to stay fit.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2Co 10:3-5 

Think Eternally

Choose well your fights.

Not every war is your war.

War comes in many nuances.

You want to do right by God, but then you also have to labour and eat.
You want to be honest, but being dishonest pays a higher wage. You want to remain pure, but you also want marriage and children. You want to marry, and marry in church, but you also have to pay dowry.
You are jobless, but faith says trust God.
To count it joy, when there's no iota of joy, is nothing but war.

To wait on God daily. To fast. To read. To meditate. To pray. To hope. To hide. To cry. To sing. To visit. To counsel. To keep silent. To speak.

That is warfare.

It doesn't seem so.

But it is.

And having done all, stand.

The night may be long, but joy comes in the morning.

Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever.

  

Grace: The God in ALL and ALL and ALL: A Testimony

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. 2Co 9:8 

ALL Grace

Measure it.

And you cannot exhaust the breadth, the length, the depth, and height of it.

It’s like water freely flowing from a rock.

And that Rock is Christ.

Grace and the Day I Got Saved

It was the saddest day of my life.

My whole life had just ground to a halt.

In my happier days, I had begged God never to save me. I clutched at my beer bottle at Florida 2000 nightclub on Koinange Street, when God visited me.

Life was good, and that life didn’t seem to have an end. Vaguely I wondered what thing would ever separate me from my tipple. And as if in answer to that thought of God rudely intruding into my mind, I begged him never to save me. But I added (as if to conciliate him): “Please save someone else who deserves it!”

I was in a nightclub for god’s sake. How could he visit me in a place like that? I learnt, a few years later, that I had been visited by God’s grace, and I didn’t know it.

But I Remained Hard as a Rock

Nevertheless, I ignored him. To get saved? That would mean giving up my whole life. I counted the cost, and I didn’t like it. That is what drove my anger.

On one hand I valued his concern: “Consider your ways.” I stared in awe at the utter meaninglessness of life before me. But on the other hand, the cost for giving up all that staggered me!

That is why I was at F2000 alone and at 4am.

The grace of God had just rubbed on me. But I didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.

It would follow me (many years later) at my hospital bed at KNH, and this time I recognized it for what it was. It was at night in the ward.

And in that chilling stillness a single man appeared “from nowhere” beside my bed. He preached to me until the whole bed shook. God’s grace had caught up with me at last. And this time it never left.

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? Heb 2:3-4  

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Heb 3:7-12 

ALL Sufficiency

By the time of my salvation I had nothing.

Everything had gone.

The business.

The health.

The wife.

The friends.

Everything that is called “life” had gone.

But strangely I felt a great relief (which was a far cry from the rollercoaster of emotions I had experienced before). The world would never again exert its power over me. I would no longer be subject to its tyranny: living the life of a false image, and the pressure to be liked.

“Come unto me all ye that labour… and I will give you rest.”

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It was like a fire was lit in my heart.

Every word of God spoke to me powerfully, as if it had been written exclusively for me.

Every need I felt, every question I had, every hunger, and every thirst, I found the answer for it in his word.

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” 

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” 

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” 

I only had to name my hunger and Christ’s grace was sufficient for it.

I only had to name my thirst and Christ’s grace was sufficient for it.

That’s how I have stayed single and celibate for 25 years now.

ALL Things

And his grace has poured forth… into every part of my life. As it is written:

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isa 55:1-2   

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 

And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Rom 5:2-5 

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Joh 10:10  

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 

Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Eph 3:20-21  

Sufficient Up to the End

How is his grace sufficient in the hour of unbelief? “Just believe.”

How is it sufficient in the hour of anxiety?

“Consider the lilies.”

How is it sufficient in the hour of pain?

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

He is sufficient in riches.

He is sufficient in poverty.

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Joh 4:13-14  

Come brother, come sister, let us drink to this amazing grace. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” 

Even our faith, his gift!

Yes, guys, let us drink this to the hilt! 

Feelings, Moods, Conviction, Truth and Peace – Part 2

Finally, Think on These Things Php 4:8 

The Bottom Line is What is True?

Some say truth is flexible.

Some say truth is inflexible.

I am old fashioned and proud of it.

I love the old rugged truth.

It makes believing so easy.

In his word I meet my God, the great God.

Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. 

Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. 1Ch 29:11-12 

Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Jer 10:6  

Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee. Jer 10:7  

Sometimes it is not about feeling, but about obedience.

Man changes.

God does not.

Man is finite.

God is infinite.

Man is unforgiving, bitter, and vengeful.

God’s mercy is everlasting.

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. Psa 103:1-5  

Jesus: The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Then I dip in the gospels and there I find my truth.

My Jesus.

“And you will now the truth,” he promises. “And the truth will set you free.”

What is the purpose of life, but to feel free?

In Christ I meet the perfect truth. And where true Christ is there is true liberty.

So the verse screams:

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joh 8:36  

But truth about what?

About Creation

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Col 1:16-17  

About Man

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 

All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Psa 8:3-9  

But O there is more!

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 

For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 

Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. 

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Psa 139:1-6 

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psa 139:14 

About Woman

Oh, the glory! Oh, the joy!

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Gen 2:23  

For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 

Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 1Co 11:8-9 

Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. Pro 18:22 

Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. Pro 5:19 

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? Son 6:10  

About Life

O this life! The depth of it! The length of it! The height of it!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Joh 3:16  

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Joh 6:35  

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom 6:23  

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Joh 10:10  

About the Future

This world is not my home. Heaven is my home.

I am a traveler here. Pilgrim.

One day I will die, and I will be gone. Then I shall know no more pain, or sorrow or death.

Because this first world shall have passed away.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Mat 6:19-21 

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jn 2:15-17  

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. Joh 14:1-3 

Yes, Think Again

So I am reminded to think on these things every day.

For my own joy.

For his glory.

Thinking is not sweet.

In fact it is boring.

But nevertheless think.

It is about discipline.

About commitment.

The road is narrow, but with him at the head everything is made easy.

Yes, for his commandments are not grievous.

They are for our peace.

As it is written:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isa 26:3  

There. The truth. There is a peace which truly passes understanding.

It is a mystery. Like contentment.

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen: 

The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. Job 28:7-8  

God knows us, and he knows what is good for us. Though we doubt. Though we fight. Though we pant. But in the end we see.

The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Psa 94:11  

Job and his friends were very wise. Every word of theirs dripped with wisdom.

But in the end Job owned up:

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 

Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:5-6  

So too the wisest king that ever lived, saw.

“Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”

God grant us to see, and to feel rightly.