Category: Devotional

The Journey Starts

Imagine this: From the day that you were born, you knew that you only had about 33 years to live.  And you were very much aware that your entire life would be measured by what you did with the last three years…how would you spend that time?

The Journey-6

I believe that most people would agree that Jesus accomplished more in those last three years than any other person could do with their entire life…or any other nation for that matter.

H. G. Wells, the famous author, one of the top historians of the 20th century said this about Jesus:

“More than 1,900 years later a historian like myself who doesn’t even call himself a Christian, finds the picture centering irresistibly around the life and character of this most significant man…. the historian’s test of an individual’s greatness is, ‘What did he leave to grow?’  Did he start men to thinking along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted after him?  By this test, Jesus stands first among all who have ever lived.”[i] 

James Merritt once said in a message, “You can gauge the size of a ship that has passed out of sight by the huge wake it leaves behind.”  By any measure, Jesus left the world’s largest wake behind Him.”

This incredible three years began with a journey that the disciples took with an unknown carpenter from Nazareth over 2,000 years ago.

Did you know we have a missing person epidemic in this country?  Reports of people who have gone missing have increased six-fold in the past twenty-five years.  Every hour 100 Americans, both adults and children, are reported missing (that is 2,400 a day, 900,000 a year).

When you look at the three years of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels you find that His life primarily revolved around missing people.  Every person far from God is a missing person.

Jesus spent the three most important years of His life doing two simple things:

  • Finding missing people
  • Making disciples

Of all the things, He could have done (write books, make money, start a business, go to school) He gave His life to those two things.

His example teaches us that He desires for you and me to give our lives to those same two things.

When we make the purpose of Jesus’ life the purpose of our life…we will find real purpose.

You can sum up everything Jesus wants you to do in the very first command He ever gave to anyone.  It is found in two words that Jesus said: “Follow Me.” 

Those two words are the foundation of living a purpose-filled life with eternal consequences.

Over the next few posts, we are going to read the story of how Jesus called His first followers…but we need to remember that we aren’t just reading a story about the disciples.  It is a story about us.

The steps they took are the same steps that we must take if we want to go on the greatest adventure of all…a journey that will lead us right into a God-prepared eternity.

[i] H. G. Wells: Quoted From The Greatest Men In History in Mark Link, S. J., He Is the Still Point of the Turning World, Chicago: Argos Communications, 1971, p. 111.

Full Combat Load

When I was in the Marines we had an expression: “full combat load.”  This term could be used to refer to the individual Marine or equipment.  For the Marine it meant that you would be carrying on your body every item needed to wage war in the field against the enemy…all of the ammunition, weapons, grenades, food, gear, medical equipment, communications gear etc.

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If you went into combat without your combat load you could quickly find yourself at a disadvantage.  Not only that, but you would also be risking your life and the life of your brothers who went into combat with you.

In previous posts we talked about the fact that we are at war.  This war is a very real spiritual war that is going on all around us…unfortunately, too many of us have failed to show up for the battle.  We talked about how important it is to know who our REAL enemy is: the devil.  His plans for you are different than God’s plans.

Paul says in v.11:

Ephesians 6:11 (NKJV) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God…

Literally what the verse says is this: “Put on the whole armor of God and keep it on.”  That is your “full combat load.”

There are no furloughs; there are no truces; there are no leaves of absence; there are no cease fires in this spiritual war.  You’ve got to keep your armor on and you’ve got to keep your guard up.

You don’t get weekends off…you can never let your guard down because just as surely as you do, Satan will hit you.  He will hit you at your weakest moment when you least expect it.

There is no point in denying it: Satan is dangerous.  He is deadly.  He is deceptive.

But listen to me carefully.  He is not invincible.

I will never forget how frightened people were of Saddam Hussein at the start of the first Gulf War, and people thought his armies would be incredibly strong (I believe he had the fourth largest army in the world at the time) and that he would be a dangerous enemy.

But after the war was over, in just a matter of hours, General Norman Schwarzkopf stood before a press conference and gave this assessment of the same. 

He said, “Saddam is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier; other than that he is a great military man.”

  • Satan is not omnipotent.
  • Satan is not omnipresent.
  • Satan is not omniscient.

God is all three.

But other than those qualifications he is a powerful foe.

“But greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”  You see, we have an advantage over Satan.  It is the armor of God.

Hold your hands 24 inches apart, that is how thick some of the walls are on older battleships.  In fact, the armor-plating on an American battleship is so thick that a Russian Styx missile would bounce off an armor-plated bulkhead on the direct hit. 

Armor on a ship is placed in areas where the ship is the most vulnerable to enemy attack. 

Normally, an armor belt is placed around the sides of the ship from about ten feet below the water line to just above the water line.  Theoretically, a torpedo hitting the armor belt would not penetrate into the hull and cause flooding. 

Likewise, armor-plating would be placed along the upper surface of the ship to repel bombs dropped from airplanes. 

God has given us armor guaranteed to repulse the most powerful missiles, the strongest bombs, and the mightiest torpedoes that Satan can fire at us.

No wonder James said in:

James 4:7 (NKJV) — 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Did you know there is not a single verse in the Bible that tells us that we are to run from the devil?

The Bible says we are to flee temptation.

The Bible says we are to flee sin.

But the Bible never says we are to flee from the devil.

The Bible says we are to resist the devil and he will flee from us.

Jeffery C. Ward in his book, The Civil War, tells a story about a scene that took place on a battlefield during the battle of Gettysburg.  He said:

“Right in the middle of the Battle of the Wilderness, all the staff men who had been fighting in the east all this time—Grant had just come from the West—kept talking “Robert E. Lee, Robert E. Lee.  He’ll do this, he’ll do that, he’ll do the other.” 

Ulysses S. Grant heard all he wanted to hear and finally said to them, “I am tired of hearing about Robert E. Lee.  You would think he was going to do a double somersault and land in our rear.  I want you to quit thinking about what he is going to do to you, and I want you to start thinking about what you’re going to do to him.”

We’re in a war.

We need to stop thinking and worrying about what the devil can do to us and start thinking about what we can do to him.

How will we win?

Our victory is assured because of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, because of the awesome power of the Holy Spirit, and because of the armor of God.

It’s time for all of us to carry a “full combat load.”

Know Who Your Real Enemy Is

General MacArthur, a great military leader of his time once wrote an article that dealt with what was necessary for military success.  He gave four principles that he thought were the most important: Morale, strength, adequate supply source, and most importantly, a knowledge of the enemy.

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The Bible tells us exactly who our real enemy is:

Ephesians 6:11 (NKJV) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

When thinking about the devil we need to be careful and avoid two extremes in attitude that you may have towards Satan.

One extreme, many people ignore the devil; some even make fun of him.  They think of the devil as some kind of a mythical figure like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

I’m not ashamed to tell you, I believe in a personal devil just as much as I believe in a personal God.

When I hear people say “there is no such thing as a personal devil” I’m reminded of the prize fighter whose opponent was beating him about half to death.  Every time he would come back to sit on the stool between rounds, his manager would say, “Go get him tiger, he hasn’t laid a hand on you!” 

Well, for seven rounds this guy was getting beat from pillar to post and every time his manager would say the same thing. 

Finally, with both eyes closed shut, bleeding from the nose and his lips cut wide open, when that manager said, “Go get him tiger, he hasn’t laid a hand on you!”  the fighter looked at the manager and said, “Then I want you to keep your eye on that referee because somebody is beating the daylights out of me!”

But we also need to avoid the other extreme of being obsessed with the devil.  I’m always concerned about Christians who see a demon in everything.

A preacher told this story:

I heard about a woman that went to a church picnic and the ladies were having a covered dish luncheon.  When she walked in one of these super spiritual ladies walked up to her and said, “What did you bring to eat?” 

She said, “Deviled eggs.” 

 Well, immediately this woman flung her hands up high and said, “I bind everyone of them in the name of Jesus!”

That of course is a silly example…but, we must be careful with extremes.

I encourage you to give the devil his due, but don’t give the devil the farm. But we need to know who he is.

We’re told in v.12 that our battle is against:

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) — 12 … against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

That tells me that Satan is a spiritual being and that ought to tell you that not everything spiritual is necessarily good.

But it shouldn’t surprise you that our fight is spiritual because our foe is spiritual.

You’re not going to win your war against Satan by sheer will power… this is a spiritual battle.

“He quakes at the sight of the breastplate of righteousness. 

He quivers before the shield of faith. 

He quails before the sword of the spirit.” 

Those are the only weapons that the devil is afraid of…and they are also the only weapons that will work.

Don’t take him lightly:

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) — 12 …principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age…

Don’t ever think you can handle him on your own because you can’t.  On your own he will overpower you every time.

Here is the key:

Ephesians 6:11 (NKJV) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

 Now the word “wiles” is a very interesting Greek word.  It gives us the English word “method.”  It literally means deceit or trickery.

It basically says, “Look out for the tricks of the devil.” Satan is the master of deception.

The devil has even deceived us in the way we think about him. 

We conjure up the picture in our mind of a little man wearing long red underwear, with horns on his head, a forked tail and a pitchfork in his hand, walking around looking for somebody bending over.

A lot of people think of that kind of devil and think to themselves, “I can’t believe in that kind of devil.”

Well, I’ve got news for you.  I don’t believe in that kind of devil either.

The Bible says:

2 Corinthians 11:14 (NKJV) — 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

I think if we saw the devil today that it would shock us how attractive he would look.  It would even shock you how nice and generous he could seem to be.  You would never know that he is the most wicked, treacherous force in the universe.

I want you to understand this devil is interested in darkness and wickedness.

We hear people say all of the time: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  Well, I think we ought to add to that this reminder: “Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for your life.” 

You mark this down.  The devil is doing everything he can right now to either take you to hell or, if you’re going to heaven, to make that trip as miserable as possible.

“God wants you to be happy and holy. 

Satan wants you to be depressed and dirty.” 

If you’re not saved, he’ll do everything he can to make sure that you never get saved; and if you are saved he’ll do everything he can to make you sin and cause you to lose the joy of your salvation.

As I talk about the devil, I realize that many of us could be intimidated because he is powerful.  But he isn’t “all-powerful” and it’s important to know who your real enemy is.

In the next blog post we will talk more about how to defeat him.