Spiritual Warfare

Now here’s a topic that is certain to raise some eyebrows.  Bring up the subject in mixed company, and the unbeliever thinks you’re ready to be checked into the nuthouse, and many who claim to know Jesus will think that you’re one of those fanatical fringe characters. 

Let me attempt to begin a conversation that I believe to be balanced and in line with what the Bible teaches.

The other day I was talking with a friend who just happened to mention that the spiritual warfare had been intense in her life lately.  I probed just a little bit, maybe because I’m nosy, and asked her what she meant…in what way was that manifesting in her life?  She described some thoughts of doubt, insecurity, and loneliness that have been issues of the past, but are also places that the Lord has ministered and brought healing to.  But recently there have been some of the same old struggles.

I thought for a minute, and I said, “Yeah, the battle is in the mind, huh.”  And that was it.  End of subject.

But as the evening wore on, I was having this running conversation with myself, and with God, about that battle in the mind…particularly in my own mind.  I realized that I had been mentally lazy lately,  allowing some of those old thoughts that rise out of those places that were wounded, but were healed by the Lord Jesus, to return and settle in my mind…where I could look at them and think about them.  Of course, feeling and emotion accompanies the looking and thinking.

How easy it is to just lie down and let those emotions run over us.  I think that’s why the Apostle Paul told us to take every thought captive.  (2 Corinthians 10:5)  When the voice in our head is telling us that we are all alone, will always be alone, that nobody loves us, that things will never work out…it’s our choice to meditate on that voice, or to meditate on God’s Word. 

The decision to resist the negative voice and go to His Word is spiritual warfare, my friends.  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:6-9)

To rely on and trust in God’s Word is to humble ourselves before Him.  When you embrace your anxieties, you are not only meditating upon the picture the devil has put in your mind, but you are saying to God “I’ve got it all under control.”  That is pride.  It’s also giving in to the devil’s plan for your life.

We become what we think about.  The Apostles Peter and Paul were evidently concerned with this.  Peter wrote about wholesome thinking:  “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.  I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.”

What sort of thoughts occupy your mind?  Wholesome ones?  Or ones that make you feel like giving up?  As 1 Peter 5 says, let self-control and alertness characterize your life, paying attention to your thoughts.

I urge you to choose life, and to fill your mind with God’s Word.  Go to Psalms, Proverbs, and the glorious words of the New Testament.  When a verse jumps off the page at you, write it down and carry it with you throughout your week, and think about it often.  Memorize it.  And live it. 

This is spiritual warfare…choosing life, instead of death.

Heaven Is For Real

When I read a book, I want it to be something that impacts my life….that it either corrects or changes faulty thinking, or clarifies vision.  Here’s a book that has done both for me…Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo.  The subtitle is “A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip To Heaven and Back.”   It was at the top of the New York Time’s Bestseller’s List a few weeks ago, and caught my interest.

 I read this book in just a few hours…couldn’t put it down…and my emotions ran a full gamut from anger to joy, from shock to elation…but there was not one moment of boredom in this little book. 

As a three-year old, Colton was misdiagnosed….the doctor said he just had the flu, but he really had appendicitis, and it burst inside his little body, and emergency surgery was required.  While on the operating table, Colton left his body and went to Heaven.  His dad has chronicled many things Colton  said about what he saw and heard in Heaven in this book.

If you don’t believe in Heaven, and don’t want to…don’t read this book.

A Tender Heart

In a previous post I had mentioned that I thought I should talk to my dad about forgiving himself.  Well, I did.  In that conversation he told me he would talk to God about it.  He did.  He called me a few days later, and told me he had done business with God, and given that stuff up to the Lord.  He said that he felt like a huge weight was lifted off him, and rejoiced with me about the new freedom he was now experiencing.

My dad is 80 years old.  What openness, what a tenderness he is displaying as one who comes before the Lord with open hands and open heart…and an open mind….to shed every weight and restriction that might keep him from being all that God wants him to be.  (Mark 10:15)

The Church Died In That Town

 Oh yeah, I was the driver yesterday…on the Road to Hana. I capitalize the word Road because it’s not just a road, but an adventure that is known as an attraction on Maui. This is a Road where even the driver can get carsick. But it is beauty unsurpassed. The jungle of the rainy side of Maui holds hundreds of breathtaking scenes of the coastline, and numerous tropical flowers, trees, vines, ferns (think Jurassic Park), and great road-side stands selling homemade banana bread and delicious smoothies made with fresh sugar cane juice. (otherwise known as sugar-water).

At one point we departed from the Road, turning left to descend into a valley that took us right to the water’s edge into the village of Ke’anae. There were some old Hawaiian style houses, tarot fields, a soft ball field, a community center, and a Congregational church built in 1860 out of lava rock. The church was open, as most Hawaiian churches are, and we were able to go in and take a few pictures. We felt the presence of the Lord in there, even though there had been no church services in decades. I prayed for God to once again use the church to His Glory.

Outside, a Hawaiian woman who was around 40 years old, had a table set up under a shady gazebo, and she was selling homemade Macadamia Nut Brittle. (Yes, I bought a little bag, $4). Yummy. I asked her about the church’s congregation. This is how I found out there WAS NO congregation. She said that the people of the church grew old and died off just a couple of decades ago, and the children didn’t follow after God and keep the church going. (She described herself as Catholic.) I was heartbroken that a church that was alive for over a hundred years would die in our lifetime. (Perhaps a microcosm picture of what is going on in our country?)

As I walked away after that conversation, the gravity and the importance of reaching our children, and other’s children with the Good News of Jesus Christ, and how critical this is, weighed upon me. I love how we do everything we can to reach the kids through VBS and other kid programs, including Sunday School. But I believe that’s not enough. Each one of us must find and disciple some kids, inside and outside the church…making it a personal project to reach them and mentor them in the love and power of God.  We start with our kids, and include other people's kids.  Otherwise, our town may have an extinct church in a generation or two, like in Ke’anae.

Take Jesus on Vacation

Church, Maui style

Hey, have you ever taken a vacation, and when you come back home you feel dry spiritually?  I have.  But not these days.  Vacation is a great time to re-charge in every way: with your family, and with yourself, and of course, with God.  

Pastor Steve Santos, Calvary Chapel Westside, Maui. 

I like something Pastor John Bristol has said a couple of times in church…let’s see if I can get this right.  It’s something like this:  we all need to have a time each day where we set aside the time to pause and reflect, and we all need to take a day each week that is set aside for worship and family, and we all need a time once a year where we completely unplug and leave the area for re-charging.  So true.

But so often, we remember to take care of all the other areas except the one that will truly give us re-creation.  I am ashamed that the last time I did that I was already in the ministry.  We were so busy and occupied with having fun and seeing everything that we could see, and in the meantime my spiritual well-being drained out….and when I got home I felt like I needed somebody to pump me up like you would pump up a bicycle tire.

I encourage you to take Jesus on vacation with you this summer.

Do You Need To Forgive God?

In my last post I mentioned that sometimes we need to forgive God.  What??  That just doesn’t make sense!!  Why would I need to forgive God?  I mean, after all, He’s God.  He hasn’t done anything wrong.  He can’t…because He’s God.

That’s true, certainly.  But that doesn’t mean us humans don’t blame Him for perceived wrongs.  As I have mentioned before, I turned my back on God when I was 15, when my dad walked out of my life.  I didn’t want to have anything to do with a God who would allow my family to break up. 

I’ve talked with a number of people who are blaming God for the death of a child, a divorce, loss of a job, and other things.  While that may seem irrational to many of us….it is anything but irrational to the one who is holding the unforgiveness against God.

In my own story, I was listening to the wrong voice….the voice of the one who hates God and His people.  When the prayers of God’s people broke through the fog that had my mind clouded, I was able to see whose voice I was listening to, and I decided to stop listening to that garbage, and listen to the One who loves me.  He loves you too.  (John 10:10)