Tag Archive | Creator

Be prepared!

Nov22

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Yahweh is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the whole earth.
He never grows faint or weary;
there is no limit to His understanding.
 He gives strength to the weary
and strengthens the powerless. Isaiah 40:28-29, HCSB

   Isaiah was writing to the Israelites who were in captivity in Babylon. God through Isaiah meant to encourage them as they looked forward to returning to Israel. And as they waited for the promised hope, thoughts (of a fiery dart nature) would tempt their minds with discouragement. They would grow faint and become weary. 

   But God had promised them they would return to their beloved homeland. And because He is everlasting, the Creator of the whole earth, He had a ready supply for their weariness. They knew that His strength could be their strength from the promise of His Word. Therefore, each temptation to despair could be extinguished by these true and powerful words from their Creator God. 

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   We live our lives with the hope of John 3:16. And like the Israelites, we must wait for that hope to be fulfilled. In the meantime, things can get pretty rough can’t they. And if we are not on our guard, those trials can overwhelm us. Especially, if our minds are not saturated with the words of God. With every trial, our strength can be worn down and our power can be depleted. In such a state we become vulnerable to the destructive force of fiery dart thinking. Ill prepared to receive the promised hope.

   You see, as we wait for the sure hope of heaven, Satan is working on a plan to impair our witness. He tempts us with thoughts of doubt concerning God. He secures the success of this plan by tempting us to ignore God’s word. Ever felt too busy to read the Bible and pray? We put it off till later but often later doesn’t come. 

   But if our minds are saturated with God’s words, fiery darts get exposed pretty quickly. Verses like Isaiah 40:28-29, remind us that God is our strength and source of power to defeat the enemy’s fiery darts.

   As we encounter weariness and become weak from the trials we face, it would be helpful to remember Isaiah 40:28-29. Yes, the reality concerning our life here on earth is that it is fraught with trials and temptations. Yet, those very trials can make us stronger and more prepared to receive God’s promise. God’s strength will become our strength and we will have more power to resist temptations. 

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Marriage? Why does it exist?

Jul3

Marriage exists to. .

This may be news to you!

. . .Because of the Adamic Curse everything in this world serves our flesh. Therefore, relationships will exist to serve our wants and needs. This is why the fiery dart that “marriage exists to make us happy” is so powerful.
. . .Yet, when we become a child of God’s and the growth process begins, we will come to understand that this attitude is the consequence of sin. We will also learn if we avail ourselves to the teaching of it, that marriage is designed for something far more beautiful and loftier than society is equipped to understand.p.67, FD

 And maybe this is too!

. . .The purpose for which we exist is to be conformed into the image of Christ. Colossians 3:9-10: “Do not lie to one another, for you have taken off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself.” (Good News Bible)
   That means that everything and every relationship in our experience exists to serve the purpose of conforming us into God’s image in order to bring us into a full knowledge of Himself. As we become more like Christ, we are going to grow into a fuller knowledge of God.p.67-68, FD

 Hum! What’s the connection to marriage!

         So, how does the purpose for which we are to exist relate to the purpose of marriage? In the book entitled, Sacred Marriage, by Gary Thomas, an intriguing question is asked, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?” p. 68, FD
   In my research, I came across this statement from an excerpt entitled, Help for the Struggling Marriage by Reb Bradley, “To evaluate our personal success in a marriage we must not then look to see if our needs are being met, but we must ask ourselves, ‘Am I demonstrating the image and character of Jesus Christ?’ God knows that as we grow into the image of Jesus our greatest needs are met.”p. 70, FD

 How can you redefine something you don’t understand? 

    Because many don’t have a clue as to the purpose of marriage (even within our churches), our nation’s leadership is floundering around trying to redefine everything they don’t understand in order to fit it to the chosen lifestyle of a growing number of individuals.

   In essence, we are attempting to remove (but only in our minds) the absolutes established by our Creator. Yet, those absolutes remain in place,and no fiery dart formed against them will ever prevail!  from Is. 54:17 

Read more about the attack of fiery darts on marriage in my book: Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice  (click on the image in the sidebar to order)