The Jeep

            I was born and raised on a farm west of Plainview, so we were a pretty good ways from the hustle and bustle of town. My father has a 1956 Willis jeep. All of my older siblings learned to drive in this jeep and I was no exception. The story takes place about the time that I was in fifth grade.

             It was my birthday party and I had a bunch of boys from church over to spend the night out in the tent and do the regular tough guy things that fifth graders do. Well about two or three in the morning we get the bright idea to take the jeep out for a spin around the farm. We knew that my parents were asleep and we didn’t want to wake them up, so me and the other boys pushed the jeep far away from the house before we started it up. We got what we thought was far enough away and we started the jeep and went for a ride. What we didn’t think of was that the jeep didn’t have a muffler and sounded like a Bumblebee on steroids. The next morning we all came in for breakfast. My father let us all get set down and eating good and dropped the bomb on us “so you boys have fun last night when you took the jeep out for a spin?” You could have knocked us down with a feather. The obvious response was how did you know? We were so clever to push it away how could you have possibly known? Well what we didn’t take into consideration was that at night your father can hear better and second that fathers have superpowers to sense young boys stupidity.

             I think some times we think that we are so clever with our sins that no one will know what we are up to. Eze_21:24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand. There isn’t any place that we can go that God can’t see or hear us. We may be able to hide what we do or say in private from others, but not our God he knows the secret parts of our hearts. Brother Leland wrote a devotional titled walk the talk. We also need to walk the walk in our lives. We need to keep in our daily thoughts that God can see our every thought and action we have and live our lives accordingly. We don’t want to find ourselves surprised on the Day of Judgment by the sins we thought were hidden. 1Jn_1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

             The other part to the story was that my father taught me a good lesson that morning. He taught me that I wasn’t as sneaky as I had hoped to be and he let me know that he was watching and looking out for me.  God is doing the same for us he is not looking for a reason to condemn us, but wants all to be profitable children of his.

Callen Pinkerton

There is a Battle to Fight

The very idea of War is most unpleasant to the majority of people.  Thoughts of death, torture, violation, murder, unrest, destruction, loss, fear, dread, uncertainty, and struggle are very unpleasant thoughts that are associated with War.  I venture to say as long as the Lord allows this earth to continue there will always be ongoing War.  Deep seeded hatred for a certain group of people a contributing factor in driving the development and continuation of War and this world seems to be overtaken by this kind of hatred.  Men seeking their own desires and lusts will always be opposed by other men of different self-serving motives and therefore there is and will continue to be conflict between men.  War is seemingly inevitable.  Physical War is certainly destructive and you can make your own decision about how you feel toward the idea of fighting in a physical earthly war.  But as Christians we must understand that another War is raging among all mankind. 

 This war has been ongoing for mankind from Adam and Eve’s confrontation with and introduction to their enemy, the serpent, in the Garden of Eden.  There are no guns, planes, tanks, grenades, missiles or physical weaponry used in this war.  This war is not fought on land, sea, the desert sands, in the mountains, or caves of this earth but it is fought on the Battleground of Man’s Heart.  This is why I chose the title Battleground.  We must all equip ourselves with the weapons and tools that the Lord has given us to use in this War so that the evil, which is in us, is overcome by the wonderful spirit that the scriptures instruct us to have.  Through this series we will identify the weapons that we can utilize, and also understand the plan that God has set forth for you and I to follow so that we can be faithful and fight the battles of sin everyday.  The Lord desires us to be successful in this effort and we certainly have the ability, through Jesus Christ, to overcome and be victorious against anything that our enemy may fight against us with. 

This battle is very complex in scope and theory because of its magnitude and impact and the nature of this war.  Because every person on this earth is involved in one way or another in this Great War.   If there is a battleground, that means that a War is going on, and if a War is going on then someone is fighting, and if someone is fighting they are fighting for a purpose.  The lines have been drawn and you are occupied in this War whether you like it or not.  The key participants in this War are Satan, God, and you! Satan who is crafty and very dangerous who operates through Sin and desires nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) battling against God who is all powerful and desires that none perish but that all would come to repentance (II Peter 3:9) and accept his offer of eternal life through his Son Jesus Christ.  And finally, there you stand.

You must fight evil everyday, with every decision that you make, whether to obey the Lord and live a spiritual life guided by Jesus Christ and his example or to give in to the fleshly lust that we all have and struggle with.  This cannot be used as an excuse to justify sinful behavior before God therefore we always battle the inward war between our flesh and the spirit that the Lord desires for us to have.  I want all of us to continue to fight and never, never, never give up and concede defeat in this War.  I Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

The ultimate war between good and evil and you have a vested interest in the outcome of this War because the prize that is sought is your eternal destiny and soul.  Satan knows that he cannot defeat God in the big scheme of this war, for Christ was victorious over him by his resurrection but small battles for the souls of men continue to rage on.  You are one of these souls.  Your family members souls are at stake, the neighbor, the teacher, the classmate, your co-workers, the doctor, the waitress, the best friend that your are scared to lose by mentioning the Lord, every person you meet has something to lose in this war.  You cannot remain a neutral third party during this war.  So I close with asking this question:  Are you in the fight, on the frontline, on your own Battleground?

 

II Corinthians 10:2-5

2 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Chase Palmer

Teachings in the Bible “Christians” dislike?

As we live in this world to day and go about our daily lives we come in contact with many people, and most of these people if you asked them if they are Christians the majority of them would answer yes. Contrary to what has been put forward lately this is a nation that was founded on Christian principles, and is inhabited by people who believe in Christ as the Savior (60 something % depending on the poll). I am glad to live in this nation and have the freedom that I have. But there is a problem that seems to be growing in this country. “Christians” are falling into the belief that the bible can be interrupted different by different people and everything is ok even if we have different thoughts on the words of God. I would like to put forward to you that the Word of God is not open to personal interputation. 2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. We need to read the word of God and when we see a conflict in the way that we are living our lives we need to change our lives to fit the commands of God rather than changing the word of God to fit our thoughts and ideas.

Going to church seems to be a teaching that some “Christians” dislike. When you start to visit with people about church and inviting them to come and visit a lot of times you here things like my church is when I am hiking in the Woods, or I don’t have to go to church to worship God he is in every thing around us. While this true to some extent, God has commanded us to come together to worship him. Heb 10:24-25-24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Many times “Christians”  use activities of this world to make excuses for why they can’t come to church. I want to ask a question who is more important to you God or the, (you fill in the blank here……. )You are so important to God that he sent his son Jesus to die in one of the cruelest ways possible, the Cross of Calvary, and shed his blood so we could call him Father and he could call us his children. We should go to church to worship God not to be entertained. Our purpose here is explained well in Eccl12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Denying self seems to another thing that not only everyone has a problem with but “Christians” also. This is something that is almost against human nature. We don’t want to deny ourselves anything, but if we want to follow the teachings of Christ this is something that we need to practice. Sin is the biggest form of self-indulgence there is. If we become involved in sin many times we will go to great lengths to follow after that sin what ever it may be. Matt 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. We also need to consider what we become if we follow after sin. Rom_6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Another thing that “Christians” dislike is the thought of being different or peculiar. We see a lot of people who profess to be “Christians”  but when they open their mouth or we see them away from church we can’t tell them from others. Tit_2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. How sad it would be for Jesus to come back to this earth and not realize his people. We as humans don’t want to stand out in a crowd as a general rule, but we are to be different as Christians. We are not to be weird, but people should see Christ and his teachings in our daily lives not just on Sunday morning and Wednesday night. We need to remember when we are away from church that we are still bought with a price, and that price was the precious blood of Christ.

When we study the bible and learn what God expects from us we should have an open heart to what it says to us. Follow what it says, and when it conflicts with the way we want to live change the way we live not what the bible says. Hide the word in our hearts and never let it be defiled by our thoughts and actions. Rom_8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Callen Pinkerton