What follows is a teaching I have prepared for my church, but it is bursting out of me, I just want to share this with someone. I feel as if there is something here God wants someone to hear. So I have my notes here. I have not changed the wording or linked all the Bible passages as I normally would before posting it on my Salt & Light page. I hope you get something from it.

Let’s begin by reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
 
Various trials… I would say we have seen our share of various trials recently. Yet, at least for me this church, even in its own turmoil has held me together, has been the comfort of God for me. You have wept with me, held your arms around me, and rejoiced with me.
I have not had the happiest couple of months. Losing my mother was extraordinarily difficult. It did not help that when I should have been processing that loss and the pain that accompanied it therefore healing, that it felt like a barrage of calamities hit me one after the other. I know that I was not the only person in this church to experience difficult times. Separately and together, we have had various trials hit us, we have suffered separately and together. I know that the enemy is afraid of Jesus Christ in us, he is afraid of what we can do and who we can be in the Holy Spirit.
There are a number of ways people can deal with tribulations like that.  We could let them defeat us, lay down and say, “you win.” We let the bad circumstances overcome us and become ineffective Christians or wounded self-pitying people. We could, like the world, blame God for the atrocities the enemy is performing all over this broken world.
We could try and fight the enemy, looking for solutions to the problems that pop up. We could run around looking for loans, suing people to get “justice,” or wounding those who have wounded us. But, that is us forgetting the goal, running a race aimlessly or beating the air like a boxer with his eyes closed. That is us fighting the problems, not standing in the faith and promise of God, not remembering our hope, that imperishable inheritance.
Or we could keep our eyes on Jesus, we could remember the goal, seek God, glorify the Lord and bring as many people with us to eternal life as possible. We can hold on to the hope of Christ and rejoice, even in midst of the sorrow. We can believe, truly really believe and so rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. We can listen to the voice of God and do what He tells us to do, even if what He says is, “Rest,” or “Forgive. Vengeance is mine.”
Suffering can result in us turning inward on ourselves and living in the pain the enemy wants us to live in, crippling us in the kingdom. But it can result in greater things, it can result in great glory to God. It can result in us becoming powerful and effective Christians.
In my own suffering, I felt a little like Job. I was not in a self-pity mode, but I reached a point where I was afraid to say, “At least it’s not worse,” because I felt like when I said it, the devil said, “It can be! Let me show you!” But, I stayed in communion with God, even when it wasn’t as passionate as it could have or should have been. He kept reminding me of Genesis 50:20 when Joseph explained to his brothers how and why he forgave them for what they had done to him as a teenager. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
That is the hope we hold onto, that God will bring good out of all the stuff that happens to us. Paul reminds of it in Romans 8:28-29 as well. It is very good that we are made more like Jesus and other good comes out of it. God wants good for us, He wants salvation for everyone. That doesn’t make the tribulations any less tumultuous, but it does help us to trudge on through them, to obey God, and to eventually look back and even rejoice for what came out of it. The faith that God will work good out of evil and will work good for those who love Him can give us the reason to praise Him even when we are hurting and don’t know what else to say. I can say, “thank you Lord that some of my family and friends got to hear that my mother loved you.” I can praise the Lord because I know I will see my mother again in the resurrection and I know she is with Jesus completely at peace and joy, all her doubts vanished, all her pain gone. I can praise God because through the church being forced to find a new place to meet, we have come to know that we are the church, one body who loves each other very much, who loves Jesus very much and who will continue regardless of a home. That we will be a very strong core to a growing body who will glorify the Lord and impact His Kingdom in ways the devil never could have imagined. The evil he meant for us, God meant for good and to bring about that many people will be saved.
Then my sister encouraged me with some verses from Job. Job 5:8-11 reads,
“As for me, I would seek God,
    and to God would I commit my cause,
9 who does great things and unsearchable,
    marvelous things without number:
10 he gives rain on the earth
    and sends waters on the fields;
11 he sets on high those who are lowly,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
 
Those verses and her prayers ignited me. I knew I needed to seek God even more during this time. I needed to cry out to Him and know He is omnipotent and that He loves perfectly and steadfastly.  I did. I read Psalm 42 because I completely understood what David meant when he described his soul as downcast. It’s so much more than sadness. David said his tears were his food day and night. He said that his soul was in turmoil. That is how I felt. I wanted to stop hurting. I, like David wanted to feel like I had felt in the past at a high point of faith and my walk with Jesus.
What was David’s answer? He said,
“As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
 My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God”
He said his need for God was a desperation, an absolute requirement for his life, the way a deer requires water.
He said, that he remembered the praise when he poured his soul out to God. And He said in verse 8,
“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.”
He ends the Psalm in verse 11 with,
“Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.”
 
David turned to God and God covered him in His love and reminded him of the hope and salvation He gave him. I did too. I finally turned fully to God.
We can’t expect to stand firm in Christ if we are not seeking God with the desperation of that panting thirsty deer. We can’t expect to resist the devil if we are inviting him to engage with us by trying to fight him and wrestle with him rather than crying out to God and letting the LORD do great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number as the book of Job reminds us, He does.
My sadness did not magically disappear, but my hope grew and my joy grew. God showed me that a person can be in deep grief, but still have joy. The more I spoke to God, the more I cried out to Him instead of an empty room, the more I looked for the Lord, the more hope and joy I had, regardless of my circumstances.
And then I saw God moving to help me, I saw Him shining His favor on me, improving some of the circumstances that had piled on me.
How does my crying out to God, how does us putting our faith in God rather than ourselves glorify the Lord? People are watching. People are watching our responses and reactions. They see if we dig way down and flex our own muscles or we stand firm in faith and ask the Lord to be our strength, provider, comforter, counselor, and savior. It is not about changing circumstances. Our circumstances can improve but we can remain bereft or we can grow farther away from God as we become what the world sees as strong. Paul was harassed by Satan who had given him something he described as a thorn in his flesh. Paul turned to the LORD and begged Him to take it away. God chose not to change the circumstances, instead He changed His servant.
2 Corinthians 12:7-12 reads,
 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The Lord’s power, His omnipotent unimaginable strength is made perfect, that is it is shown and expressed in our weakness. God can do it all and it is shown best when displayed through our imperfection, our inability, our frailty. It is His strength, not ours that brings people to Jesus. It is God’s strength that allowed Him to lay His life down on the cross and raise up again to defeat death and sin. He empowers us and gives us strength to rise above our circumstances. Paul wrote to the Philippians and said in chapter 4 verses 12-13
12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
When we operate in His strength and not our own, the circumstances do not have to bring us down. But He can and does do great things for us. He does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number!
He will give us the church building He showed us. He will do it in a way, none of us imagined. He can do so much more than any of us can think up. He can and will and has provided for us again and again. He heals! He anoints! He brings people to Himself even through the evil campaigns of the enemy.
And what about the good that comes out of the evil that the enemy tries to work against us? Sometimes we don’t know about it. We don’t know how we were protected from some awful thing. Sometimes it takes time to come about. Scholars guess Joseph spent about thirteen years or so in prison for a crime he did not commit. It was two years from the time he interpreted the dreams of the cup bearer and baker to the time he was asked to serve Pharaoh. It was the gifts and wisdom God had given Joseph that saved Egypt and his family.
But there are many times when God let’s us see the good that came from the thwarted attack of the enemy, the weapons that tried to take us down and maybe even looked like they hit the target. I can tell you that I saw how many people I have that love and care about me, my good friends, my church, my family. God sends those people to be His arms hugging and holding you, His comfort as The Holy Spirit operates through His people as we obey the “one anothers” out of love for Jesus and each other. God sent Job’s friends to comfort him during what had to be horrific and unimaginable sorrow. His friends weren’t perfect, they proved that when they spoke out of themselves rather than the Spirit of God. But Job’s faithful response, changed his friends lives and gave them an encounter with the LORD of Lords.
And often, the good that comes from it is the transformation of our character to the image of Christ. Romans 5:3-5 describes it this way,
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
 When we’re suffering, not only does the Lord make us more like Jesus but if we choose to pay attention, we can be very aware of the awesome love He has for us. He pours His love into us through the Holy Spirit. He builds us up and He lets us feel that amazing love He is, fill us up with it and even helps us to love others with better with His agape love.
For me, the peace, the comfort, the love all came when I cried out to God, when I sought Him and asked for His help. The joy came when I praised Him for being awesome and good even when my circumstances were terrible.
We can feel so alone in suffering, in trials, and difficulties, but that is a lie from the enemy. Remember God’s promise, “I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We might ignore God, but He will not leave us, and He will not ignore us. He will not remove His hand from our lives unless we want Him to do that.
One of my favorite names for God is, The God who Sees Me. This was what Hagar called him when she was so hurt by how she was treated by Sarai and Abram after she became pregnant. God pursued her into the wilderness, comforted her and gave her the promise of her son, Ishmael, which means God hears.
We can cry out to Him and know He hears us. We know He sees us, and We know He has compassion for us, and we know that God loves us perfectly because He is love.
And we have more than Hagar’s promise of God hears, we have Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us! We are definitely never alone. And if we are part of a Jesus following, Bible believing, Holy Spirit led church, we also know that the people around us can empathize, that the people around us love us because we are called and empowered to love one another as Jesus loved us. That has been proved in us again and again. We have rejoiced together, we have wept together, we have walked and grown together. That kind of love, the love of God and the love He gives us for one another is what gives us joy regardless of the circumstances.
John 15:7-12
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
 
I praise the Lord. I praise Him, not because the world is honkey dory, but because He is God. Because He is God with me, Awesome Mighty God, Lord God of Hosts. The world doesn’t need the lie that life is a rose garden if you’re saved, the world needs the truth that God is always God. They need to know that He prayed for them in the garden of Gethsemane and that He died for them and resurrected for them. They need to know the hope of eternal life. I praise God because He is I Am.
The world sees the way we respond to problems. They can call us stupid or apathetic, tell us religion is a crutch, or offer advice about what they would do in our circumstances. Their response will not affect or change our lives,; But maybe they can take notice and see how good God is and start a journey to Christ and let their life be changed by Jesus, who gives us strength to do all things.
The first and most important thing we can do when we are being attacked, when we are facing various trials is cry out to God and let Him be God! If we abide in Jesus, whatever we ask will be given to us! We cry out to God. We can listen and obey. We can move as He orders and rest as He orders. We can and should put on the full armor of God letting salvation, righteousness, truth, and faith protect us and wielding the very powerful sword of the Sprit, the Word of God. Every piece of the armor is about Jesus. Jesus is our Salvation. He gives us our righteousness. He gives us our Faith. He is the Truth. He is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
You have the Spirit of God in you! He adores you that much that He chose to live in you. Live in the Spirit rather than doing what the world says you ought to do in your circumstances. Cry out to God and obey Him, submit to His will. James 4:2-7 says it like this,
You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You don’t have to do more than merely resist, the word for resist is antistēte, it means to set against and withstand.
The same word is used in 1 Peter 5:9 let’s read 1 Peter 5:6-11
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Once again we humble ourselves, we put ourselves under His mighty hand, we cast all our cares on Him and we resist.
What does it mean to resist, to withstand to stand firm or stand against? Exodus 14:13-14 describes a bit about resisting the enemy. When the Israelites reached the Red Sea and they looked and saw the Egyptian army closing in on them, they were afraid, but Moses spoke for the Lord and said, “And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
So, today whatever your circumstances, trials, anxieties, or sorrows I encourage you to cry out to God and put on the whole armor of God. Let’s humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand asking Him to fight for us; let’s resist, stand against the devil firm in our faith that God is mighty and He has called us to His eternal glory. He will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us! He is I Am! Jehovah, Lord God Almighty!

Deuteronomy 3
When Moses retold the adventure of Israel wandering in the desert to them before they were finally going to take possession of The Promise Land, He didn’t retell them their faithlessness, whining and sin. He reminded them of the battles they fought and of how God had defeated their enemies for them and given them land that belonged to giants. He began the summation of the forty years by showing them what He had done for Esau and Lot. Then He had the ragtag group of ex-slaves battle King Sihon of Kedemoth and take his land. In today’s continuation of the recapitulation of the forty years, The Lord, speaking through Moses reminded Israel about another battle. When we consider our suffering, we don’t rehash sin and guilt, we remember God’s greatness, the battles, and the victory. Verses 1-10 read,
“Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.2 But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ 3 So theLord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left. 4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 6 And we devoted them to destruction, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, men, women, and children. 7 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. 8 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon 9 (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, while the Amorites call it Senir), 10 all the cities of the tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.”
King Og was not just your average king. He was fearsome. His kingdom was large and people trembled before him. He was literally a giant among men. Verse 11 describes him.
 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.)
The Rephaim were giants. They were the people who lived in Canaan and made Israel afraid to take possession of the Land. They were the people who lived in Ar, the land given to Lot’s descendants by the Lord. By the time Israel took Bashan, Og was the only giant left. His bed was made of iron, 4 ½ yards long and 2 yards wide. That implies that Og was about 12 feet tall. Goliath was 6’9” (1 Samuel 17:4). In the Israelites time in the wilderness, The Lord had led them first to show them He could defeat giants for them, then handed kings to them and then finally handed the last giant left to them. He taught them in a manner which first gave them head knowledge, then gave them a reason to believe, then took that knowledge and put in their hearts as faith.
They were not yet to The Promised Land, they were on the outskirts of it and God let them take the Bashan. Verses 12-17 reads,
“When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning at Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities. 13 The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, all the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All that portion of Bashan is called the land of Rephaim. 14 Jair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villagesafter his own name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.) 15 To Machir I gave Gilead, 16 and to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a border, as far over as the river Jabbok, the border of the Ammonites; 17 the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth as far as the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.”
They were not done with their trek yet, the land God gave them was only a small portion of what they would possess. He let them leave their women, children, and livestock there while the fighting men were to continue on. Verses 18-22 reads,
“And I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the people of Israel. 19 Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall remain in the cities that I have given you, 20 until the Lord gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also occupy the land that the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.’ 21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. 22 You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’”
These ex-slaves were now wealthy men of valor with so much livestock that it was prudent to leave for safe keeping with their families. The Lord had made them rich while they wandered in the wilderness. He had taught them to fight, have faith, and be strong and courageous. He had brought them from up from indigent slaves to wealthy noblemen. That is what time in the wilderness does, if we allow it. The Lord shows us His strength, He shows us we do not have to fear the enemy because He fights for us. He matures us so that we are no longer slaves to the enemy but princes in the Kingdom of God.
He has given us eternal life and we enjoy it now, but there is more fighting for us, the Lord’s courageous warriors to do. We continue on until the final battle is fought and all of us have rest together. Ephesians 6:10-13 reads,
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
The Lord does not expect or want us to fight without Him. He was with Israel as they fought Sihon and Og and He is with us as we fight rulers, authorities and cosmic powers. He is the armor He asks us to put on. He is the Truth. He is our Righteousness. He is the Gospel of Peace and our Peace. He is our Shield and our Faith. He is our Salvation. He is the Sword of the Spirit and the Word of God. We can stand firm because we do not stand alone; The Lord is with us and He fights for us.
Moses had led the people out of Egypt. He had led the people through forty years in the wilderness. But The Lord had told him he would not enter it. Moses had an extraordinarily intimate relationship with God and He was not afraid to ask Him for more. So Moses asked God for more, he wanted to see The Promised Land. Verses 23-29 read,
“And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, 24 ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? 25 Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’ 26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28 But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.’ 29 So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.
The Lord would not change His mind and let Moses enter The Promised Land. He wanted us to understand the onus of responsibility the leaders hold for their charges. But He did let Moses see it. He showed Him the land and then said, ‘That’s enough! Let’s get on with business.’
Moses had seen God. Moses had been there as God himself wrote the Law onto stones, and did countless miracles. The Lord had done so many great works that they had become commonplace to Israel, yet Moses said, “you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand.” God has done great miracles in your life too. He resurrected you with Jesus and made you new. He has healed, provided, freed you from bondage, and more. His miracles can be so plentiful that we should just expect them, have a need and just know the Lord will meet it. We should always be aware that what we have seen god do is the smallest fraction of His greatness. When the people were dying of thirst, Moses just hit a rock with a staff and gave them water because a miracle is not too much to expect. (Exodus 17:1-7).
The Lord showed Moses His greatness in a way that Israel could not begin to grasp. But Believer, you and I are His friends too and He loves to show us who He is! He loves to do great things for us. It pleases God when we depend on Him and let Him fight for us, provide for us, and give us gifts. You may be in the wilderness, but God is showing you His might so that you can have faith enough to understand that He will always fight for you, hand giants over to you, and give you the impossible.

Psalm 76

This psalm of Asaph is entitled “Who Can Stand Before You.” As Christians we know the answer to that question. Only Jesus, the Son of God, who is with God and is God can stand before The LORD. The people of earth will not stand before Him. We will fall to our knees, either in adoration or terror. God is awesome. He is not awesome in its vernacular meaning like that cake is awesome, Dude. He is awesome as in, He fills us with awe, amazement, wonderment, veneration, and reverence. Verses 1-3 reads,

“In Judah God is known;
    his name is great in Israel.
2 His abode has been established in Salem,
    his dwelling place in Zion.
3 There he broke the flashing arrows,
    the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah”

We, the followers of Christ know God, and we make Him known to all those around us. We are distinctive in our actions, words, and faith. (John 13:31-35). He has established His tabernacle in us now, and His home in New Jerusalem with us after The Day of Fire. (2 Peter 3:10-13, Revelation 21:1-4). Here and now He fights for us, He is our armor and our sword. (Ephesians 6:10-20). And when we live in eternity with Him there will be no more need of weapons. Isaiah 2:4-5 describes it this way,

“He shall judge between the nations,
    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore.

5 O house of Jacob,
    come, let us walk
    in the light of the Lord.”

God is awesome! He is bigger than any problem we face. He is stronger than any chain, more powerful than the fiercest opponent, and more desirous of us than the hungriest predator. The enemy cannot stand up to The Lord. Not one of God’s enemies will prevail, not one will live. None will even be able to face Him. God’s presence brings them to their faces in shame and dread. Verses 4-6 say,

“Glorious are you, more majestic
    than the mountains full of prey.
5 The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;
    they sank into sleep;
all the men of war
    were unable to use their hands.
6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
    both rider and horse lay stunned.”

Our Lord is so powerful He only needs to rebuke and His Word is enough to disable the enemy. All those fighting against God with their pride will find out that this temporary earth is just that and they will perish without any of the gains they made in this life. They will find out that 120 years is an extremely short amount of time. The money they made as they stepped on the backs of the poor will mean nothing in eternity. Their pride was misdirected. Their faith was misplaced. Their souls were lost.

There are so many who need to know who The Lord is. They need to be brought to peace with Him through Jesus Christ so their condemnation will become reward, their terror at God’s wrath will become joy at His love, and their subjugation under the enemy will become victory and freedom in Christ. On Judgement Day we will all face God, with or without Christ. The sentence will be either eternal death or eternal life, eternal Hell or eternal Paradise, eternal prison or eternal freedom. Verses 7-9 read,

“But you, you are to be feared!
    Who can stand before you
    when once your anger is roused?
8 From the heavens you uttered judgment;
    the earth feared and was still,
9 when God arose to establish judgment,
    to save all the humble of the earth. Selah”

Submitting to Jesus as Lord seems to the lost, to be foolish. Humility seems ridiculous to people who take pride in themselves and their works. But in the end, the humble will be exalted and the proud will be bought down. 1 Peter 5:4-11 tells us,

“And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

We are on this earth for just a little while, 120 years at most. That is nothing, not even a drop in the bucket of eternity. While we are here we do our best to honor the Lord, to glorify Him and make Him known to the world. We know one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus is Lord. (Philippians 2:9-11, Romans 14:11-12). We want all of those knees to be compelled by veneration of The Lord, not by terror and dread. Verses 10-12 read,

“Surely the wrath of man shall praise you;
    the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt.
11 Make your vows to the Lord your God and perform them;
    let all around him bring gifts
    to him who is to be feared,
12 who cuts off the spirit of princes,
    who is to be feared by the kings of the earth.”

Our covenant with The Lord is simple, He has made many promises to us and He fulfills them all. We make one vow to Him and that is He is our Lord, our Master, He has charge over our lives. When we live in obedience to Jesus, He is glorified. People want to know what it so extraordinary about us, they want to know what we have. As we use the gifts He gave us for Him, others want to know too and then they can bring Him their gifts. Like the old shampoo commercial, you will tell two friends, and they will tell two friends and so on until Jesus’ name is acclaimed all over the world.

To us God is Love and Peace, to the world He will be wrath.

Psalm 64

Does it seem sometimes, as Jeremiah complained that evil men prosper? Jeremiah 12:1-2 says what so many of us think from time to time.

“Righteous are you, O Lord,
    when I complain to you;
    yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
    Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
2 You plant them, and they take root;
    they grow and produce fruit;
you are near in their mouth
    and far from their heart.”

We look up from walking our difficult road in choosing right to see people who don’t care about God or beneficence or goodness, running past us toward money, power, and an easy life. It can be discouraging. But we are not alone in this grievance. And we are not seeing the whole picture either. When we take our eyes of The Lord and compare ourselves to the people around us, we can become blinded by faithlessness. David’s enemies sometimes seemed to be winning in their quest to destroy him. He like Jeremiah complained about it in Verses 1-6 of the Psalm.

“Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
    preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
    from the throng of evildoers,
3 who whet their tongues like swords,
    who aim bitter words like arrows,
4 shooting from ambush at the blameless,
    shooting at him suddenly and without fear.
5 They hold fast to their evil purpose;
    they talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking, “Who can see them?”
6     They search out injustice,
saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.”
    For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.”

Our enemy the Liar and his followers bitterly hate us. Their hate comes out in vicious words accusing us of many wrongdoings. The enemy lies in wait for us and even though we are forgiven and righteous in Christ, he attacks us. He is determined to destroy our walk with Jesus, our testimony, and our effectiveness. Our enemy thinks we are stupid and won’t recognize his attacks. Sadly many Christians do fall for his lies, accusations, and schemes. They do not know who they are in Christ. They forget who The Lord really is. And they succumb to Satan’s attacks. They are not wearing the full armor of Christ because they don’t understand their identity in Him well enough to wear that noble armor. Paul encouraged us in Ephesians 6:10-13,

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

Armor is protective. But it must be worn deliberately and properly to be effective. We have to put it on. We have to choose to know who we are and trust who God is to avail ourselves of God’s perfect protection. Paul described the armor in Ephesians 6:14-18,

“Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”

When we know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6) we can understand who we are in Him and combat every lie with the Truth. When we know who we are in Christ and what He has done for us we know we nothing can take the eternal life Jesus’ righteousness gave to us. When we understand who God our Redeemer is we are able to boldly be a testimony to Him, always ready with the Gospel which makes peace between God and man. When we know who Almighty God is we can have faith in Him, and then the lies and attacks of the enemy bounce off of our Shield unable to hurt us. When we know who we are in Christ, Salvation which can’t be taken from us protects our minds and souls and gives us the ability to fight back. We don’t fight with just any weapon, we don’t sling useless retorts at the enemy, we cut him down with the Word of God, the Scriptures and Jesus Christ whose very name holds immense and holy power. When we know who God is and who we are, we don’t worry, we pray in The Spirit for all the saints battling the enemy.

Satan doesn’t care about justice. He lies to people and blinds them to the consequences of sin and the cost of rejecting Christ. But our Lord God Elohim is our Justice and our Righteous Judge. He is The Truth and the Way. He is our Righteousness, our Shield, our Salvation, and our Sword. He is The LORD. Verses 7-9 describe The Justice of The Lord for us.

“But God shoots his arrow at them;
    they are wounded suddenly.
8 They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them;
    all who see them will wag their heads.
9 Then all mankind fears;
    they tell what God has brought about
    and ponder what he has done.”

God avenges us. He wounds the followers of the prince of this world. He gives them a chance to turn to Him. But whatever their choice, God’s mighty power and perfect love are demonstrated for the whole world to see. He is glorified. And more people can come to Him as we, wearing the readiness of the Gospel tell of the awesomeness of our Lord.

Why do evil men seem to prosper? So that when they fall the impact will be felt, seen, and heard by the multitudes. God will be glorified. And we will rejoice and glorify Him further. Verse 10 tells us to stop complaining and whining and rejoice instead because we know who The Lord is and we know who we are in Him.

“Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord
    and take refuge in him!
Let all the upright in heart exult!”