Tag Archive | John 3:17

The debacle of the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics…

Jul27

When I first heard of the willful slam against Christians during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics, I was appalled. The blatant disrespect of the drag queen performers and the ones who orchestrated the parody of the Last Supper reveals an evilly inspired blindness to God’s truth.

My mind was bombarded with a plethora of negative thoughts. I read article after article describing the backlash from all over the world condemning such shameless disregard of Christ and Christians. (Notice though, you didn’t hear much from the tv news about it)

Eventually, I settled down and prayerfully sought God’s wisdom in how I should respond. A verse in Romans came to mind:“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 HCSB

God is in the business of thwarting the intentions of evil to produce good. He will not allow evil to get the upper hand. Christ’s death on the cross is proof positive of that. Satan must have thought, I won! But he had only succeeded in insuring his own demise. For those who understand that Jesus paid their sin debt, will spend eternity in heaven with Him. And those who do not? Well, they will join Satan in his everlasting punishment. Only because of their unbelief.

The good that could come from this is that Christians will finally admit that enough is enough. The time has come when we as Christians must no longer be weak bystanders when our faith is challenged. There should be no more compromising. Standing firm in our faith without being condemning should be our mantra. (Remember Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. John 3:17)

So be encouraged fellow Christians, for Philippians 2:10-11 tells us, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”   

The day will come when those who slammed God and His people will regret every word, every act, but it will be too late. So, we must pray for them while there is still time for their blindness to be exposed. 

Who said that?

Mar24

     So how do we recognize fiery darts? Examine the effect the “suspicious thought” has on you. Does it produce confusion, fear, doubt, anger, inferiority, indecisiveness, jealously, judgment, or selfishness, for example? It would be wise to consider where such thoughts could lead. For example, thoughts of self-sufficiency can lead to a decreased dependency on God. Thoughts of jealously could lead to revengeful actions. Thoughts of judgment toward ourselves or toward others fosters condemnation. (Remember, God convicts. He does not condemn.) “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, HCSB) and “For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him”(John 3:17 HCSB). I’m sure you get the point. p 53-54, 3rd ed FD’s

     The above excerpt from my book, Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice, provides essential advice on how to identify thoughts of the fiery dart kind. Recently, I was made aware of an additional technique. 

     I was listening to a sermon when this question was offered as a way to recognize the influencer of our thoughts.  It’s a simple question we ask ourselves. But the answer is powerfully revealing. So here it is:

who said that

     But there’s a catch in being able to answer such a question. We need to know about the character of God. And we also need to know the character of Satan.  When we do, then we can recognize where our thoughts have originated. For example:

     I have a tendency to be self condemning. Therefore, I battle this fiery dart often. So when a condemning thought troubles me, I ask, “Who said that?” I can answer with confidence, “Well, it sure wasn’t God.” How do I know that? Because the Bible tells me that God brings conviction; not condemnation. And conviction is given in order to restore. Condemnation, on the other hand, is given in order to destroy.  This knowledge empowers me to reject the condemning thoughts; preventing them from ruling my thinking. 

     The Bible reveals God’s character as well as Satan’s. Those of us who are not familiar with either can easily be deceived and manipulated. Pretty obvious isn’t it as to  why  Satan would be so determined to keep us from reading our Bibles? If we can’t recognize the influencer of a troubling thought then we are primed for deception and manipulation.  

     So allow me to pose this question: If we aren’t reading our Bibles due to thoughts such as, “You don’t have time. It isn’t really all that necessary. The Bible isn’t relevant to our day. It won’t make any difference.”  

“Who do we suppose is saying that?”