Tag Archive | guilt

What is our calling in this era of persecution? What are the fiery darts that will distract us from that calling?

Aug12

     Slowly but surely the Sleeping Church is being awakened to the horrific persecution against Christians in Iraq. Those who react with disbelief cannot deny the pictorial reports of innocent children lying dead in the arms of ISIS soldiers. Suffering and persecution seems rampant from Africa, to China, to the Middle East, and even America (remember 911?)

AND STILL THE CHURCH SLEEPS?

MAYBE NOT!

WAKE UP TO SATAN’S TACTICS TO KEEP US DISTRACTED WITH FIERY DARTS.

RECOGNIZE that Fiery Dart thinking will insure the Church remains dormant!

-Of course, the initial response for many is to pray.  But the fiery darts will attempt to convince us that praying is a hopeless effort. 

-The fiery darts will have us focus on the horrendous images in the news, on the internet to the extent that we will be overwhelmed. We will begin to despair that the evil cannot be overcome and will continue to spread, no matter what we do.

-Guilt, is one of the most effective of fiery darts. It’s poison will have us feeling guilty for every blessing that is ours, feeling guilty because we aren’t over there trying to help, feeling guilty because the fiery darts have tricked us into believing there is nothing we can do. The guilt will increasingly weigh us down with every passing day.

-We turn our eyes and thoughts away from the genocide because the fiery darts induce us to think it’s too horrible to bear. So we coil up within ourselves and hide from the evil. Besides it’s far far away from us. Perhaps, it will eventually die down and just go away!

BUT HERE IS WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY IN RESPONSE!

-First and foremost Pray!

     Especially, Christians all over the world, but especially those of us in the USA. Can you imagine anything more horrible than children being beheaded and entire Christian communities being assaulted by rape and death? I can’t. Then what would only add to this gruesome image would be for Christians to think that praying was a feeble act.

(REJECT THIS THOUGHT)

(REPLACE  THE FIERY DART THOUGHT WITH THIS TRUTH THOUGHT)

But here’s how Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 felt about prayers: 

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers,2 of mthe affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us nrely not on ourselves bout on God pwho raises the dead. 10 qHe delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. rOn him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 sYou also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf tfor the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.-

I would like to share with you a commentary made by a fellow blogger about the above verse as it relates to the heinous events taking place in Iraq and around the world.

The grievous trial that made them despair of even living was given so that they would not trust in themselves, but in the God who raises even the dead (He became their ONLY hope) AND the PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS HELPED HIM!  Can I just shout it again?  THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS DELIVERED A GIFT TO HIM THAT EVEN THEIR PRESENCE COULD NOT

http://robertsfamilyhope.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/awake-oh-sleeper/

Don’t know how to word your prayers? Here’s some help!

http://www.radical.net/blog/2014/08/take-action-looming-humanitarian-catastrophe/

  • Ask the Lord to awaken the world to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Iraq and to provide pathways for Christians and others to respond.

  • Ask God to miraculously protect the Yazidis and other Kurds who fled into the mountains; ask Him to provide a means of rescue and temporary homes for the refugees.

  • Pray that ISIS leaders and soldiers would experience the love of Jesus Christ and that their lives would be transformed.

  • Ask God to preserve and embolden the small remnant of believers in Mosul and Kurdistan, so that one day through their witness, every Iraqi might have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

AND MIGHT I ADD TO FERVENTLY PRAY 2 CHRONICLES 7:14. 

You can also GIVE and here’s how!

BP: “Help respond to Iraq’s refugee crisis by donating to the International Mission Board’s general relief fund or by texting imbrelief to 80888, which will donate $10 to that fund. To give through Baptist Global Response, visit gobgr.org/donate or text bgr to 80888.” (More info here)

Misunderstanding Freedom!

Mar10

As I listen to people who proclaim they have thrown off the shackles that have kept them in bondage, and are delirious with the joy their new found freedom has afforded them, because of what I’m learning about fiery darts, I see people who have succumbed to a dangerous deception.  The sad thing is they don’t even realize it.  Why is this?  Because their resources for defining Truth are anything BUT the Scriptures, the Holy Word of God, the Bible!

How can anyone misunderstand freedom, you might ask?  Well, in order to misunderstand freedom, freedom has to be redefined. But before freedom can be redefined you must first redefine wrong. For example, if you are doing something wrong and you desire the freedom to keep doing that wrong but you don’t want to have to feel guilty about doing it then you must redefine wrong!  Obviously, the first thing that must be done is to be selective about the sources  that are chosen in selecting the definition desired.  So, throw out the Bible!  You won’t have to go far to find people who are willing to choose any philosophy available that will condone behavior that the Bible condemns.  Once that is accomplished then you can easily redefine freedom.  And guess what?  This definition has always been around!   I’ll leave out the word and you see if you can fill in the blank!

_________ –  sometimes denotes deliberate deviation from normally applicable rules or practices to achieve a desired effect.

Did you guess it?  I bet you did.  Yep it’s license!  You see people who want to “achieve the desired effect” of doing wrong without having to feel guilty about it are in reality desiring license.  But no one would be foolish enough to demand license because they wouldn’t be taken seriously.  Therefore, call it freedom and when you start demanding your freedom then you’ll be taken seriously!

But unless you have a formidable number of people in agreement with you, you still might not succeed.  So then what do you do?  Simple! You begin a campaign where people are influenced to reject the source of truth that opposes you.  That’s right, the Bible.  Bombard the airwaves, via television, movies, radio with cleverly written scenarios of people who live their lives in direct opposition to God’s Truth without suffering any adverse effects long enough and soon people will be as easily deceived as you have been.  Then you’ll have the freedom to live anyway you want and no one will mind.  Well, maybe not everyone but enough to where you will achieve the desired effect.

And don’t be naive and lay all the blame for this at the feet of those who have rejected God’s Truth so they can have the “freedom to live without guilt“.  Yes, some of the blame should be laid at their feet but not all.  The culprit is threefold:

Satan (James 4:7)

the World (John 16:33)

and the Flesh (Ephesians 2:3)

These individuals, in not seeking genuine Truth, have sucuumbed to the flesh and are unwittingly cooperating and being influenced, by Satan and the World.  As a result they are being deceived and manipulated into thinking they have finally achieved freedom.  That sentence in a nutshell defines the work of fiery darts.

1 Tim 4:2 (GW)2 These people will speak lies disguised as truth. Their consciences have been scarred as if branded by a red-hot iron.

“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.  Isaiah 5:20, New Living Translation