2 Timothy 2:3 (Amplified Bible) Take [with me] your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good (first-class) soldier of Christ Jesus.
Saturday night, I wanted to write some about the situation and trials that I am facing in this place and time. I had just finished with the M3 meeting (see www.mmmministries.org for information on the group). Scott Engelman had spoken further on the topic of releasing and restoring, which are the two main parts of forgiveness. I focused on the perseverance part of the notes and 'googled' the e-sword program (not that google has anything to do with E-Sword, it's just slang for research to me) for the word perseverance in the Bible. It came up with a 2 Timothy verse and I proceeded to start writing………
And it wouldn't work out.
I had intended to write about the struggle, personally, that I was dealing with right then….and I was typing out another 'complaint' about how we, as a church and community, are failing our children in the wake of another college shooting. How the message has become so distorted that we are giving our children the loaded weapons (figuratively) to destroy themselves. And we wonder why. But I have written about that topic for so long and so loudly that surely someone must be listening…..but it doesn't seem so. Why would they listen to a person like me? I kept erasing and restarting, erasing and restarting. But that was all that came out of that verse and it wasn't smoothly flowing.
So I quit.
And then today, I arrive and work frustrated and depressed. No car, and no money to get a new one (at least to me). I have been forced to beg, borrow, and whimper for a ride. And that will not last too long. But a dear brother in Christ, who works with me, gave me encouragement to endure. To persevere. So I felt the calling to go back to that verse in 2 Timothy and write.
Or so I thought.
I couldn't find the verse in the 'google' program of the website I used; it just isn't as easy as E-Sword's and I once again got frustrated. I put in endurance, what my friend had encouraged me to have, and found what God wanted me to hear today.
A battle is coming. One that will make the historical battles of old and current conflicts between men seem like child's play. And it is a time of training, for the warriors within the Body, to face this battle with honor and endurance. As Matthew Henry says, "We need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger."
To be the warriors that God has called us to be, we must face the regimen of training He is presenting us in this day and time. We must strive for perfection in the correct manner, in a way pleasing to Christ, and must strengthen our faith to be faithful in the battle to our Captain. There will be an unleashing of weapons common and uncommon in the final engagement and we must endure to insure ourselves immune to the betrayer's call.
We must remember who we are fighting for and with…..
2 Timothy 2:10 "Therefore I [am ready to] persevere and stand my ground with patience and endure everything for the sake of the elect [God's chosen], so that they too may obtain [the] salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with [the reward of] eternal glory."
Until the Lord declares, the battle will not be finished. We should strive to make the enemy's forces as unpopulated as we can in pursuit of the Great Commission.
Let's draw our Father's line in the sand and tell the enemy,
YOU SHALL HAVE NOT ONE MORE!!!!
Monday, February 18
Sunday, February 17
Another article by my friend Steven Coffman
Christianity in America
At the infamous Scopes Trial of 1925 Christianity in America was dealt a serious blow. After the Scopes Trial ended, Christians retreated from American public life with their tails tucked between their legs. Then, over the next 50 years Christian Americans stayed almost silent and allowed Secular Humanism to replace Christianity as the official religion of America .
The result, our cherished freedoms to express our Christian faith eroded before our eyes. Judges began banning nativity scenes, retailers renaming Christmas trees " Holiday trees," public schools forbidding our children from having group prayer or from even singing Christmas carols. The quality of our Christian education also sank to new depths.
It was not until around 1975 and the "born-again" era ignited that Christians began to re-emerge and re-engage the American culture once again. Christian Americans have made progress since 1975. Many Christian American ministries and Christian American organizations have risen out of this "Christian Reawakening" to challenge and debunk the theory of evolution, to challenge the ACLU, and to take on the 14 percent of those that do not believe God exists.
Yet, with all the ground we have taken back from the secular humanists and the non-believers, there is still work to be done. If the 86 percent of Americans who believe in God want America to truly be restored to the Christian American nation it once was, we first need to teach and prepare this generation, and the generations that follow to recapture their Christian American future.
Since 1999 I have also noticed that some Christians seem to be paralyzed by an obsession with life in the "Last Days." Because of this notion some Christians have become so preoccupied that have lost sight of our fight to restore our nation to the same Christian American values it once held in our government institutions and as a way of life demonstrated publically in our culture. These Christians should refocus on what it means to truly be a Christian in America!
Over 200 years ago, our "Constitution" made the following statement:
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
Should we abandon what are Constitution says for Christian Americans to do? Are we to forsake our heritage? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:
"Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."
He made this statement to reinforce what are Constitution instructs us to do as Americans to help ensure that our Christian heritage, values, and way of life would never be changed.
Are we so preoccupied with our daily lives that we will just stand by and stay silent, as the Christian Americans once did for 50 years following the Scopes Trial, and continue to let our America 's values, heritage, and way of life erode? Remember, in a Democracy the majority rules, but only if each and every person of that majority takes action and speaks out, can we exercise our Democratic rights and truly make a difference.
In his Inaugural Address on Friday, January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy said, "United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder." Then later in this speech President Kennedy goes on to say, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
And so my fellow Christian Americans, what are you going to do for your country today?
At the infamous Scopes Trial of 1925 Christianity in America was dealt a serious blow. After the Scopes Trial ended, Christians retreated from American public life with their tails tucked between their legs. Then, over the next 50 years Christian Americans stayed almost silent and allowed Secular Humanism to replace Christianity as the official religion of America .
The result, our cherished freedoms to express our Christian faith eroded before our eyes. Judges began banning nativity scenes, retailers renaming Christmas trees " Holiday trees," public schools forbidding our children from having group prayer or from even singing Christmas carols. The quality of our Christian education also sank to new depths.
It was not until around 1975 and the "born-again" era ignited that Christians began to re-emerge and re-engage the American culture once again. Christian Americans have made progress since 1975. Many Christian American ministries and Christian American organizations have risen out of this "Christian Reawakening" to challenge and debunk the theory of evolution, to challenge the ACLU, and to take on the 14 percent of those that do not believe God exists.
Yet, with all the ground we have taken back from the secular humanists and the non-believers, there is still work to be done. If the 86 percent of Americans who believe in God want America to truly be restored to the Christian American nation it once was, we first need to teach and prepare this generation, and the generations that follow to recapture their Christian American future.
Since 1999 I have also noticed that some Christians seem to be paralyzed by an obsession with life in the "Last Days." Because of this notion some Christians have become so preoccupied that have lost sight of our fight to restore our nation to the same Christian American values it once held in our government institutions and as a way of life demonstrated publically in our culture. These Christians should refocus on what it means to truly be a Christian in America!
Over 200 years ago, our "Constitution" made the following statement:
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
Should we abandon what are Constitution says for Christian Americans to do? Are we to forsake our heritage? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:
"Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."
He made this statement to reinforce what are Constitution instructs us to do as Americans to help ensure that our Christian heritage, values, and way of life would never be changed.
Are we so preoccupied with our daily lives that we will just stand by and stay silent, as the Christian Americans once did for 50 years following the Scopes Trial, and continue to let our America 's values, heritage, and way of life erode? Remember, in a Democracy the majority rules, but only if each and every person of that majority takes action and speaks out, can we exercise our Democratic rights and truly make a difference.
In his Inaugural Address on Friday, January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy said, "United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder." Then later in this speech President Kennedy goes on to say, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
And so my fellow Christian Americans, what are you going to do for your country today?
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