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"Since we know not who are elect, and who reprobate, we are to preach promiscuously to all." George Whitefield
George Whitefield, 18th Century Anglican Evangelist and leader of the First Great Awakening in America. For over 30 years, God used his powerful preaching to save thousands, to develop a sense of national identity among the 13 colonies, and to prepare the next generation of leaders of the American Revolution.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
"He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise an and he will love you." PR 9:7-8
All of us have "facebook" followers, and twits on "Twitter" who do not share our core convictions. This week our mailboxes have bulged with "eloquent" emails that have raged with pious perspectives or ranted with rancorous rhetoric. They range from childhood friends, casual acquaintances, disturbed relatives, and cyber space stalkers. Reading their "wise words" or connecting to one of their "insightful links" reveals more about them, than you ever wanted to know.
Responding to their insipid remarks, with the hope of enlightening them to the truth, is a fool's errand. It is like being a designated driver, in car full of drunks and asking them to agree on the directions home. Attempting to get a consensus out of them is sometimes hilarious, but always an act of futility. They are going to have to sleep it off, and sober up, before they can see straight.
So many fools, so little time, what is a wise person to do? First, remember, you are the designated driver, so don't drink the Kool-Aid. What ever the ship of fools has been drinking, stay away from it. They may be singing, slobbering, and laughing their way home from the victory party, but don't be tempted to join in. Don't sell out your values or turn in your sobriety coin, just to be one of the gang.
Some of my Fundamentalist friends don't know the truth of what I am about to say, but here it is. You can't stay drunk forever. Chemical additives, and false philosophies do not provide permanent satisfaction. There is a hangover coming, and when it comes, it is not going to be pretty. Note: If this is something you have never experienced, ask a former Baylor frat boy. I can introduce you to a few, and they can explain it. Nuff said.
Nations and individuals have one thing in common. They can both get drunk on pride. Personal preference and self-centered navel gazing make a heady brew. When swallowed by a fool they pack quite a wallop. The Wise drink from a different well. They draw their drinking water from God. He is their source of direction, protection and correction.
The Wise learn how to operate under the control of, the influence of The Spirit of God. They have chosen not to yield to chemical additives, conventional wisdom, contemporary culture, or political correctness for their sense of well-being. They have placed themselves under the influence and control of the character of Christ. They have obeyed the command...
"Be not drunk with wine,...but be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:18
This is always harder to do, in the early stages of a party, when it appears to be going well. Any designated driver or hair holding friend, standing over a toilet, knows. Appearances can be deceiving. If you throw in with the wrong crowd, when all appears well, you will throw up with them, when it doesn't end well. Don't ever envy what you really don't want.
The Wise know that only God can transform a fool. Fools are not sobered up by logic or facts. They are no less foolish because they know they are wrong. They must choose what is right. The next Great Awakening will be led by those who are controlled by The Spirit of God. The Wise save their breath, to pray for the next Great Awakening. In the meantime, they refuse to engage in futile arguments with drunken friends, or delusional enemies.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The entire chapter of Proverbs 8 documents the credentials and the personification of wisdom, with a feminine noun that refers to
a) skill (in war)
b) wisdom (in administration)
c) shrewdness, wisdom
d) wisdom, prudence (in religious affairs)
e) wisdom (ethical and religious)
This chapter provides an insightful prayer guide for those who choose to intercede for the POTUS. For those who choose to criticize him, more than they pray for him, let me remind you of the words of Oswald Chambers.
"Discernment is God's call to intercession, never fault-finding."
Using God-given insight to point out the short-comings of another person, does not endear you to them, or correct their behavior. Praying for them, purifies your motive, and prepares them for a change in their life, that only God can bring.
Too often, God changes a person's sense of direction, and our own hearts are not prepared to receive them back into the family. The Elder Brother, loved a fatted calf, more than his own brother. His heart had hardened towards him, during the time his brother was living in darkness. When God changed his brother, his heart had grown too cold to enjoy what God had done. He missed the point and the party.
How do you avoid freezer burn on your heart? "If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." James 1:5
This wisdom exhibits discretion, discernment, and the capacity to determine the difference between the opinion of man and the counsel of God. Those who need it the most, God's people, are encouraged to ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, or require it from their Father. Before His children represent Him or speak for Him, they do well to exhibit His character.
Praying for the next Great Awakening requires a preparation of our own hearts, to receive what God is going to do. You once were blind, but now you see. Jabbing a stick in a blind man's eye rarely improves his vision. Pray for the healing of a your nation, one life at a time. Start with the POTUS, and work your way through the rest of the population. God will take care of the rest.
I don't always pray for those I can't stand. But when I do, God changes me, and prepares me for what He is going to do in them. When I can't stand them, I choose to kneel for them. Stay humble my friends.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
WARNING: Surprised myself this morning. Quite impulsively, I started singing an old hymn. This blast from the past was God's way of jump starting my soul, and putting "things" in perspective.
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
Refrain:
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
Perhaps showing my age, with the song selection, but some things do get better with age. Not me, not my singing, but Jesus never fails to stabilize my life, even in shifting sands of chaos, chemo and confusion.
My friend, Ron Dunn, often said, "I have been to the bottom and it is solid." Today, I will sing some more, and invite you to join me as I...
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
"Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God." PS 20:7
PRAY FOR THE NEXT GREAT AWAKENING! We don't deserve it, but we are going to need it. After billions of dollars spent campaigning to vilify one another, and almost two years of destructive ads, our nation is more divided than ever. This POTUS is going to be around for four more years. Ignore praying for him, the Awakening this nation needs, and the protection of Israel, at your peril.
"Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain." PS. 127:1
"A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers; who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, who spreads strife. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly; instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing." PR 6:12-15
Proverbs does not paint a very pretty picture of the The Fool. Adjectives describe a person as worthless, wicked, perverse, relentlessly deceptive, and destructively divisive. Any similarity, with current public figures, is totally coincidental.
There is no remedy for the self-destructive behavior of The Fool. He must run his course, and come to the calamitous end that he so intensely pursued. The mission statement of Thelma and Louise must have been, "FORWARD!" Screaming, as they plunged off of a cliff, they were never heard from again. No sequel. No reunion tour. No second term, so to speak.
This passage in Proverbs describes someone who is not what he seems to be. He is a con artist, a slight of hand expert. Walking one way, and pointing to another, he distracts attention away from what he is really doing. Stirring up strife, to cause a riot overshadows his personal corruption. It is his personal m.o. He lives to lie. He cannot speak the truth, even when it is in his best interest to do so.
The Fool is not a leader in the classic sense of the word. Leaders influence people, and inspire them to greatness. Fools use them and manipulate them for their own glory. Blinded by a passion for personal preference and aggrandizement, The Fool sees people are merely speed bumps, a means to an end. When the cry of people interferes with the plans of The Fool, they become road kill on highways from Benghazi to Brooklyn.
The Fool cannot see beyond his own ego, and that his actions will lead to his own destruction. The ash heap of history is full of them. Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and Omar Kadafi, just to name a few. You get the picture.
What should a Wise Man do, when encountered by The Fool? Don't imitate his behavior! Talking to, and about The Fool, leads The Wise to fall into a pit.
Talking to The Fool only puts The Wise Man deeper into the hole. When The Wise Man discovers what he is doing to himself, he must stop digging, throw out the shovel, and call for help.
Prayer is the tool God places in the hands of The Wise. It is not a shovel, designed to dig a deeper hole. It is the ultimate "Deus ex Machina" designed by God to get His children out of, what appears to be, at first glance, an impossible situation. Prayer transforms the tongue, from a shovel in a pit, into a staircase to God's Presence. Stop digging and start praying.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
"For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He watches all his paths." PR 5: 21
This passage in Proverbs provides both, a word of comfort and a word of warning. It is mentioned in the context of a powerful commentary on the consequences of marital infidelity and sexual impurity.
Politicians and preachers share an amazing similarity to one another. They both have the capacity to ignore God in the most vital areas of their lives. The result is the same. Men embarrass themselves when they don't restrain themselves.
If the Redneck Mantra is, "Watch This!" The Fool's Mantra is, "No one will know!" The Redneck hurts himself in a multitude of different ways, trying to prove he is a man. The Fool hurts everyone around him, and proves he is not a man.
The ash heap of history is filled with the residue of once great men, and those who were on the threshold of greatness, but could not master the one thing that greatness calls for,...the harnessing of oneself.
Male PMS has been described as Power, Money and Sex. It is never a pretty picture, when men behave badly in any one of these three arenas. The Wise humbly yield to God's plan for their lives, and receive His direction. The Fool proudly blasts through life, politely and privately ignoring God or publicly and loudly insulting Him. The result is the same. The Fool invites God's correction.
Pride places the foolish man in the position of being exposed for who he really is...a fool. The humble man knows that he is not perfect, and more than capable of foolish behavior. This knowledge keeps him close to God, and away from those who encourage him to disrespect the boundaries God has, for his protection, in the use of power, money and sex.
Proverbs reminds a grown man, he never outgrows the need to hear the words that always strikes fear, in the most rebellious child..."Wait til your Daddy gets home!" When my mother spoke those words to me, I always knew I had crossed the line. I had worked hard at getting into trouble, and payday was coming. It was never pretty.
There is a boundary that God has placed on decent behavior, and those who cross it invite His correction. The Wise invite God's direction, protection and correction into their lives. Prayer provides daily, moment by moment, uninterrupted, consistent companionship with Him. Saturating oneself with prayer gives God elbow room to guide a man in the proper use of power, money or sex. Wise Men never substitute status, stocks or soul-mates for success. They know God is watching and they...
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
"Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right of God, who also intercedes for us." Romans 8:34
Jesus believes intercession is of eternal significance. His followers should place a high priority on it, or at least admit they just don't get it. Believers often try to resolve their differences, by talking through them. God's plan calls for praying through them.
Talking something to death only results in breathing new life into an old argument. Putting rouge on a corpse does not bring it to new life. Talking and praying are as different as a funeral service and a resurrection. One only prolongs the burial. The other makes it unnecessary.
"Discernment is God's call to intercession, never to faultfinding." Oswald Chambers
When we see someone in need of prayer, it usually because they got under our skin or in our face. The proper response is to pray for them. Our usual reaction is to criticize them. Guess which one Jesus would choose? Yeah. I know. Sometimes, it doesn't help.
I am new at this praying for people, I would rather criticize, but I am pretty sure God intends for me to grow old doing it. Today I heard about a young friend, in need of encouragement, and I passed these words, on to her.
"If I could hear Jesus praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies, but the distance makes no difference. He is praying for me." Robert Murray M'Cheyne
I followed up with a gentle reminder, that people have passed on to me over the years. Those who know about the fog of war, have learned from experience the ancient truth, "This too will pass." I put it to her this way.
Dana and I believe in you. More importantly, God believes in you. He has placed His Son in your heart, and He has a great plan for your life, and His Spirit will lead you through the battles that come your way. If you listen closely, you can hear him say, "Comfort!" He is reminding you of who He is, and what He can do for you. Right now, He is all you need.
Comfort is a word of great power. It sometimes loses a bit of its punch in the contemporary use of it. "We must not be content to be cleansed...but be filled with the Spirit. The word 'Comforter' as applied to the Holy Spirit needs to be translated by some more vigorous term. Literally it means 'With strength! Jesus promised His followers, 'The Strengthener' would be with them. No lullaby for the fainthearted, but a blood transfusion for courageous living." E.P.Hovey
When William the Conqueror's men were retreating, before the shield wall and the arrows of King Harold's Anglo Saxon archers, his brother, a Bishop, road his horse up into the middle of the men and began to shout "Con Fortis!" He took his shepherd's staff and began beating them back into formation. His action was rooted in the ancient meaning of the word comfort - it is a shout that empowers us to fight with strength, with courage, with heart,
I am praying for you to hear the Holy Spirit whisper these words to you, and to have the courage to take Your Savior by the hand and take the hill. He did it once for you, and that is all that really matters.
Til the storm passes and the fog lifts...
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
"A man who is laden with the guilt of human blood will be a fugitive until death; let no one support him." PR 28:17
There is no statute of limitations for the act of murder. This is a statement that can still be made, even in the arena of ever-changing public opinion and shifting moral absolutes. This legal doctrine is rooted in the mind of God. It is His view on the sanctity of human life that established it, as the law of the land.
God loves those He has created. His children matter to Him. He is relentless in the pursuit and punishment of those who do kill them, and He has no patience for fools who support those who do.
God intends to pursue and punish those who take human life. His followers must never forget how precious life is. Those who believe America can run from the blood of 60 million babies, murdered in this country since Roe vs Wade, are wrong. They are kidding themselves to believe; God hasn't noticed or He doesn't remember. He does. His people should too.
Many have no concern for the death of millions of babies, at the hands of abortion, in America. They cannot be expected to express angst over the death of just one murdered ambassador in Libya. Expecting the mainstream media to report one murder, when they ignore millions, is a placing faith in a false messenger. Look elsewhere.
What can you do? Stop supporting people who are "laden with the guilt of human blood." Stop voting for any candidate; Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian or Vegetarian who supports, personally or corporately, the "legalized" murder of innocent children. It is not enough for a person to be able to parse their words and say they are personally pro-life, but support a pro-death agenda. It is a ridiculous use of language.
The death of innocence, through abortion, is a shame and a scourge on the soul of America. It makes what happened, to an ambassador in Libya, pale in comparison. Yet there is a parallel, between the two national scandals, that should not be missed.
The real scandal, in the death of our citizens in Libya, is the cover up of it, in America. The stubborn truth continues to unravel, and it reveals a callous disregard of those who were in charge. When the attack was underway, the evidence is mounting, that cries for help were ignored, for hours.
The current administration and the mainstream media cannot get their stories straight or their anger up for the real tragedy. Lives were lost. They might have been saved. Lies were told. They didn't make sense, at the time, and they do not age well, when repeated over and over again. Everyone is passing a buck, that has yet to land, on anyone's desk who will take responsibility for their actions.
America is better than this. People who pledged loyalty to this nation, served under the flag of this nation, deserved better from the leaders of this nation. Crisis always reveals character. Pressure from the outside, always squeezes out what is on the inside. It is rarely a pretty sight.
Time will tell if the American people will demand justice, for those who cannot speak for themselves. They too may be as preoccupied with the election as others were, who were at the time of the attack. They may be too calloused to feel the pain, or too deaf to hear the cries of the parents of the young men who died. Perhaps, ignoring millions of deaths, does make it harder for a people to be outraged, at just a few, bumps in the road.
So, here in lies the lesson. Abortion is the murder of innocent children. It is the taking of life, from the defenseless. Cries take place. Pain is felt. One thing is constant. When an abortion takes place, the baby always dies. Pro-choice people choose to kill a baby, every time. No judgement. Just fact.
Many pro-life people believe they are not supporting this act of murder. They could be wrong. God hates the shedding of innocent blood. His Word says, He is relentless in the pursuit and punishment of those who carry out the murder. His word also warns those who support the murderers, to stop doing it.
Ignoring murder, making excuses for it, and supporting those who do it, doesn't make a person innocent of it. God puts murderers and their supporters, in line for the same pursuit and punishment.
Delayed obedience is just another form of disobedience. Immediate obedience is the first step, to the next Great Awakening. Don't delay in praying for the soul of America. When you open your eyes, look at your leaders, and into your own heart, through the eyes of God. Vote accordingly.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
"A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin." PR 26: 28
The tongue is a powerful instrument, for good and evil. When it speaks the truth, it edifies. When it lies, it destroys. God considers lying, hating, crushing, flattering, and ruining to be synonyms. Good to know.
The Fool lies when the truth would serve him better. Lying is the language of Hell, and it has always been its greatest export. God knows that a lie is the fruit that comes from being connected to the hidden tap root of hate. Unless the connection is broken, the mouth of a fool can only produce the fruit of the root. The lying words can be sweetened, and softened, but the intent remains the same. Great nations and individual lives are ruined by liars.
The Wise tell the truth, even if it hurts. The words may sting, but they bring healing. The challenge remains, to always speak the truth in love. When in doubt, pray it before you say it. Prayer takes the edge off of a scalpel that may do more harm than good, if the words cut too deep. Prayer purifies the intent of the heart, and allows the tongue to be honed into gentle messenger.
Evil intent changes the very meaning of a word. It doesn't matter what comes out of your mouth, if your heart is up to no good. Parsing words does not purify them.
Meaningless phrases, strung together in an eloquent way can be used by a fool to manipulate people. Eloquence and oratory lose their power over people, when they equate moving lips with a lying tongue. Powerful phrases that come from an evil heart irritate God, even when they are prayed.
"And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." MT 6:7-8
The Fool places power in his own eloquence to mobilize people to do what he wants done, for his glory. The Wise place confidence in prayer to do for people what only He can do, for His glory. Tired of the sound of your own voice?
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
What a privilege to be invited into your “home”. We take that very seriously and understand that our calling and mission are completely and confidently to exalt the name of Jesus as we impart the powerful knowledge of intercession. Therefore, the moments we spend with you are dedicated to exhorting the people of God to Talk Less! Pray More!