This Christian life is one of faith. This faith is a gift from God. Those who have it are His children. God will not lose one of His children. He delivers them from the hands of the wicked. God promises to deliver His children from the wicked. Does this also include deliverance from that horrible religious fanatic who lives in our hearts who draws us into all sorts of fleshly pursuits? I think God wants His children to learn to walk according to the Spirit. He wants us to be Spirit-filled. When we are, didn’t we become this way by seeking refuge in Him, drawing near unto Him, worshiping Him, praying to Him, reading His word, obeying Him, and submitting to everyone He desires for us to submit to?

 Wait for the LORD and keep His way,
And He will exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you will see it. Psalms 37:34 (NASB) 

Several years ago The Discovery Channel released a movie that supposedly showed a grave from an archaeological dig in Israel that contained the bones of Jesus, Mary, and other members of that family. Before people actually saw it the hype certainly caused many interesting responses from people. I remember reading responses that I agreed completely with which were obviously based from the foundation of faith. I mean either we believe God or we believe men. However, I read responses from some professing Christians who were distraught about this “news” as if it would somehow destroy Christianity. I pitied them. Their faith seemed to be based entirely on sight. Now here we are in 2021 and the unbelieving Main Stream Media still does this sort of thing it seems annually. Their goal seems to be an attempt to destroy our faith. Of course, they never get anything right about our Lord Jesus because they don’t know Him because they are ignorant of the Truth. Those professing believers who have angst about these things show that their faith is not genuine by how they react to the lies. 

There was one comment I received back then that seemed like a slap in the face. It caused me to want to revert back to that old confrontational nature of mine to write a comment to put that liberal and his buddies in their place. I didn’t do it and I am very glad I didn’t. The comment was from an anonymous person using the name “Liberal Christian.” His or her comment went something like this, “I believe that the movie speaks the truth. We have been trying to educate you fundamentalists for years. Now we have proof that you must believe.”

I could write volumes about the absolute absurdity of that mind set. However, that is not what this post is about. I read a great deal. I also walk through each day “listening” to the message from God from my circumstances, interactions with people, and what I read both in the Bible and from whatever book God has me reading. When it comes time to sit down and put together a message I try to put all of what I have “heard” that day together as I ask God for guidance. I seek scripture that speaks of the “Headline” that God has given me throughout the day. I suppose this is the same thing as God laying a certain message on a preachers heart. In any case, all today I could not get past how God has blessed me and my wife. My joy has been extreme for several days despite many ongoing trials. I have been delighting in God and He has answered our prayers in ways I thought I could not imagine. Our faith is growing and we are both extremely amazed at how He has taken care of us.

All day today I knew that this post would have something to do with the importance of our delighting in God for who He is, not just for the blessings, but primarily for how awesome it is to be known by Him and for us to know Him. I have been adopted by our Sovereign, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Immutable God and He cares about me and takes personal care of me. Are you kidding? How is this possible? I deserve nothing but Hellfire, yet I am His adopted child with full inheritance rights as a son.

As I contemplated this I also contrasted this with those Christians who are paralyzed with fear and doubt and those who are desperately trying to please God with their works like I did when I was a new believer. My joy remained, but my heart went out to them. O, if God’s people could have their bondage to their flesh broken and done away with! The spiritual blindness that goes with self-focused bondage to the flesh keeps them in the dark and ignorance of the incredible wealth of joy and peace awaiting those who become Spirit-filled. We cannot earn God’s love because we already have it. The following study is from Psalm 37. I pray that all who read this will be blessed and drawn into the light of God.

1 Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not envious toward wrongdoers.
2 For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:1-4 (NASB)

God is calling all of His people to get their eyes, their focus if you will, off of the temporal and onto Him and the eternal. People who are not God’s people are the evildoers who are slaves to the world system and their flesh. They hate God and they do not understand our faith. Christians who are in bondage to their flesh are actually wearing self-forged chains that they took on in full cooperation with their flesh and pride. As they believed the lie that acts of the flesh would be more fulfilling than the joy of the Lord then acted by exposing their members to their sin nature, their chains of bondage were strengthened and their spiritual blindness deepened. What they are pursuing by their flesh is evil and will not last. It will fade like the grass. Some of those evildoers actively attack our faith and even attack those Christians who will not yield or compromise their faith. Why would we want to partake of that which is bound for the fire? The Psalmist, King David, tells us in this passage that God’s people should not worry or fret over the evil people who attack them nor should they envy those evil people who seem to be glamorous, or rich, or dynamic, or popular. Instead we are to trust in the Lord and do good. This statement is often overlooked as we read this passage. The doing good is a many manifold set of acts by Spirit-led believers who delight in God, respond to everyone with joy and peace, and submit to everyone the Lord desires for us to submit to. This is doing good. Those who live like this will do good works and will stand out in the crowd that is populating this lost and dying world like a search light piercing the darkest dark imaginable. The more we walk in the spirit the more the desires of our hearts become molded unto Christlikeness. We desire what God desires. We love what He loves and hate what He hates. Will He not lavishly give good things to those who love Him and partake of His Son’s divine nature?

Over the last couple of weeks here in Oklahoma we have had weather that can only described as oppressive. Low clouds, rain, fog, temperatures that are more early spring like rather than late May like. Yesterday, I ran several errands for my wife who is painting several rooms in our home. We were in my pickup after picking up some supplies for her at a local hardware store. My grandson and I decided to stop to get snacks at the 7-Eleven that is close to our home. I pulled in and just as I did that this very tall guy who was standing there by his car asked if I had any jumper cables. I do carry some under the back seat of my pickup. I told him yes. He asked if I would give him a jump. I said I would after we got our stuff. One thing I forgot though was that I had just had scheduled maintenance done on my Nissan pickup and one thing they did was treat the terminals on my battery with some gunky looking stuff. In any case, we got our stuff then I pulled my pickup nose to nose with his car. It was then that I noticed that there was an older lady in the front seat. She looked worried. I opened my hood. I got my cables out and we hooked up. However, as soon as we did that the gunk my dealer’s service department had put on my battery ignited. The flames were very small, but the cable ends got very hot. We disconnected. I blew out the flames. The fellow I was trying to help looked worried and thought we had crossed the cables. But I told him about the gunk. We tried it again and this time his car started right up. We disconnected and shook hands and he said, “Have a blessed day.”

For some reason that really surprised me. Why? All this took place in a driving rain storm. I wondered if he had seen that decal on the back window of my pickup that invited people to our church. I wondered if it was my willingness to help. Perhaps it was that I helped him when no one else would, which he told me. I do know that it was nothing in me, but could only be something he saw that the Holy Spirit was doing. I take no credit at all for that, nor will ever do that. I do pray daily for Christlikness and to be used for His glory.

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