Biblical Principles for Living by Feed the Hunger

Biblical Principles

Living for

From the Teachings of

Dr. J.L. Williams

Copyright ÂŠ 2017 by Feed the Hunger. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in mechanical or electronic form without the express permission of the copyright holder. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International VersionÂŽ Printed in the USA

Table of Contents Introduction 5 The Blood Covenant

Life Steps 9 Understanding Your Hebrew Roots

How to Study the Bible

Understanding Proverbs 15 Authentic Fatherhood 17 Christianity and Women 19 The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The Seasons of Life

The Secret Battlefield of the Mind

Managing Your Emotions 27 Faithing Down Your Fears

Biblical Pictures of the Church

The Power of Partnership

Follow the Leader 35 The Divine Rewarder 37 God as an Investment Capitalist

Thieves in the Church

Storehouse Giving 43 Spiritual Olympics 45 The Rise and Fall of Satan

Living Dangerously for the Kingdom

A Christian Perspective on Islam

Transformation of a Terrorist

A Call to Fasting 55 The Storms of Life

Death and After Life

Hell: The Final Separation

Heaven and Eternal Life

What Time Is It? 65

Introduction How in the world do I even begin to try to encapsulate a portion of my father’s teachings into a 30-day devotional? For the sake of newer partners of Feed the Hunger, this ministry was founded by my parents 50 years ago. Throughout his time at the helm of what was then New Directions and until his heaven-going, my dad was a gifted teacher, preacher, and author. As we both mourn and celebrate his recent passing, and as this year is the ministry’s 50th anniversary, perhaps there is no better occasion than now to share several of his teachings in this concise format. This task was no small order though. Countless thousands of words on each topic had to be reduced to a single page. My dad was thorough to a fault, you see. He believed he was cheating his audience if he didn’t use as many points and Scripture references as possible. It was not unusual for him to preach a ten-point sermon (all points starting with the same letter, of course) or put out an extensive study guide or book on both normal topics and more obscure ones. For those of you who have read his writings, you know that every sentence was important in his eyes. How this manifested was that each sentence had some combination of boldfaced, italicized, quoted, or underlined material. He also loved punctuation like dashes, ellipses (. . .), and exclamation points. “The message was so important!” For the sake of maintaining a conversational style in this devotional, these elements have been modified. I’m convinced you will, however, still hear my dad’s voice clearly in the words you read and the lessons you learn. If you can hear my father’s voice speaking to you, it means I have achieved my goal of sharing the essence of the message he wanted to convey. But more importantly, I pray you will hear our heavenly Father’s voice speaking to you through the Biblical Principles for Living found in this

study. This was the name my dad gave to his collection of teachings, so it seems only appropriate that the devotional go by the same name. If my father could speak in this moment from heaven, I believe he would quote the following two verses. They capture what he would say to me, and what in turn he would want conveyed through this devotional: You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 2 Timothy 2:1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2 As you begin this month-long journey, may it draw you closer to the Savior, encourage you in your walk, and embolden you in your testimony. God bless you.

The Blood Covenant “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:20b You can’t really understand the Bible at all until you have an understanding of covenants. The Christian life is a life lived in covenant. The word covenant is both an Old and a New Testament word. The Old Testament Hebrew word for covenant is bereeth (silent “h”). Bereeth means literally “cutting” or “the act of cutting.” It means to enter into a pact, an agreement, or a testament by passing between pieces of flesh. The New Testament Greek word is diatheke, and it means a disposition of property. It means one person making a deposit of valuable property to another person’s account. What does this mean to us? God has made a divine disposition of property. He has said, “All that I have and all that I am is at your disposal.” Unfortunately, most of us live such spiritually poverty-stricken lives that we act as though we serve a God who is just barely getting by. The Bible shows three different types of covenants recorded in Scripture. A two-sided covenant is a covenant between two people who are roughly equal to each other. A one-sided covenant is a covenant that is imposed by a superior party upon an inferior party. A self-imposed covenant is one initiated by God. He does not have to enter into it because there is no one higher. He just chooses to do it because of who He is. God’s self-imposed covenant with you and me is remarkable because there is absolutely nothing in us that God needs. One of the reasons why “works” righteousness has such appeal to us is because we want to believe that there is something that we have that God needs. But, God just loves us. He has set His everlasting affection upon us, even when we fail Him.

All of us are guilty before God. We somehow must assuage the guilt in our lives either by bearing through the shedding of our own blood or by someone dying in our place. There must be a substitute; in the Old Testament, God allowed for an innocent animal’s blood to be poured out in our stead. This was a reminder to us that this should have been our lives. We are the guilty ones and the animal was innocent. There was going to be a time when all the sins of the human race— past, present, and future—would be uncovered and laid on Jesus Christ. But, once they were, the New Covenant, through the blood of Jesus, provided redemption. “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20b). Have you actually entered into this covenant relationship by exchanging all that you are, or ever hope to be, for all that He is? Remember, God willfully and lovingly offers you an irrevocable agreement. He, as the superior Person with all the resources and wealth, has chosen to dispose of His property to you. The enormity of such an offer almost stretches the mind beyond belief. But it’s true! “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). So, boldly and confidently lay hold of this covenant from the Lord’s hand, offered to you right now. He who promised you will be faithful to fulfill it (Hebrews 10:23). Today is your day and now is your time.

Life Steps Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity. Hebrews 6:1a Your decision to give your life to the Lord Jesus is the single most important decision of life. It radically impacts your living for time and eternity. That’s because only Jesus can give you new life, abundant life, and eternal life. And all three levels of life became yours when you put your faith in Him. After your decision, growing spiritually is like growing physically—both take time. There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity as a Christian. It will take time to become a mature son or daughter, a strong spiritual athlete, and a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So, we need to have fellowship with God in two important ways: prayer and Bible study. As growing Christians, we must also fellowship with other Christians through some local church where the Bible is preached, taught, and applied. We should not expect everyone in the church to be alike, because it is diversity and variety that make real harmony possible through Christ. We should not get distracted or disappointed by the hypocrites in the church, but instead keep our eyes focused on Christ. The local church needs fewer critics and more involvement, starting with us. Times may change, people may change, circumstances may change, but God’s Word never changes! Nor do the devil’s devices and trickery. Down through the centuries, the evil one has been able to successfully use the same temptations, deceptions, accusations, and condemnation to subtly ensnare and entrap new generations of young believers. That’s why we all—regardless of where we are in our spiritual growth—need to regularly go back to the basic fundamentals of our faith, as well as the

basic principles of spiritual warfare. There are three primary spiritual enemies on the outside and inside trying to sabotage our Christian life: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We must learn to fight against them and overcome them through God’s Word and God’s Spirit. We must also confront sin. No one likes to talk about sin because we are all guilty of it. We are all sinners by nature and choice and are incapable of saving ourselves from sin or removing it from our lives. It is not a sin to be tempted, but yielding to temptation is sin. If we do yield to temptation and sin, we must apply 1 John 1:9 to our lives: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” When we repent, God restores. Most Christians will hit slumps, usually because their emphasis is wrongly placed on feelings. When their feelings change, their faith in Christ tends to change. Spiritual security is based upon what God has done for us through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—not on feelings. God sometimes gives emotional experiences to encourage our growth, but He will not allow us to build our Christian lives on our fickle feelings. Christianity is firmly rooted in historical facts, and the important thing for us is faith in those facts. Feelings are by-products of our faith. So, keep fact, faith, and feeling in the proper perspective. Then and only then will your life steps be steady and secure!

Understanding Your Hebrew Roots You, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root... You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Romans 11:17–18 Christians today are rooted in everything except Judaism: Hellenism, Greco-Romanism, and enculturation with all the false “isms” of our day, such as Buddhism and Hinduism (the root of the New Age Movement so prevalent in America). I would suggest to you that the missing foundational piece of your spiritual puzzle is your Jewish roots. However, I am not speaking here of modern Israel and contemporary Judaism as it is largely practiced today. I am referring to the older, historic Judaism that the Bible records and archaeology continues to dig up. Christianity first grew in the spiritual soil of Palestine. Ours is the Judeo-Christian faith—not just the Christian faith. While what we now refer to as Christianity originated with the life and teachings of Christ, Jesus was fully Jewish. He was born a Jew, He died a Jew, and He will be a Jew when He returns to earth at His Second Coming. Throughout His entire life, His practices, lifestyle, and teachings reveal a deep commitment to the Jewish beliefs and practices of His day. It is unfortunate that our mental picture of Jesus has been far more influenced by classical art than by the Bible. Many great artworks portray Jesus as a light-skinned Aryan with sandy hair and blue eyes. He is a westernized Jesus rather than a Jewish Jesus! To think biblically is to think Hebraically—not through a Western mindset! In reading and studying the Bible we must remember that vir-

tually every writer was a Jew or a Jewish convert. If we are going to correctly interpret the Bible so that we can correctly apply it to our lives, we must learn to read it through a Jewish mindset. Throughout his entire lifetime, Paul remained a Jew. His only Bible was the Tanakh, or the Jewish Scriptures. His God was the God of his fathers. His Messiah was a Jew by the name of Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Yeshua! Many Christians today wrongly believe that the Apostle Paul totally set aside the Law in favor of grace through faith. However, Paul quotes from the Law some 80 times to establish the spiritual authority for his arguments. We Gentiles are spiritual Jews because we have been grafted into the Jewish olive tree. Paul makes it clear that Gentiles were added to the birthright promised to Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chosen people, and we can draw from that nourishing sap! However, when the early church cut itself off from its Jewish roots, it ceased to be enriched by the rich sap of the olive tree. Needing to draw nourishment from somewhere, the church turned to the poisonous sap of the Greco-Roman world. The church philosophically moved from Mount Sinai to Mars Hill and from Jerusalem to Athens. She not only forgot her Jewish roots, she became hostile to everything Jewish from the second century on. This prejudiced mindset made it easy for many Christians to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the horrors of the Holocaust. Only as we rediscover our spiritual roots in Judaism and separate ourselves from our secular roots in paganism will we begin to be the people of God that we are called and redeemed to be.

How to Study the Bible “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua 1:8 Of the over 16,000 Greek and Hebrew words used in the Bible, the Hebrew word for “success” is used only once—in the above quoted verse. So here is the one place where God offers us a guarantee of success! But the conditions on our side are plainly set forth: studying and storing up God’s Word in our minds, making it the fixed point of our thought and meditation, and that knowledge must lead to obedience. Not only will most people—even most Christians—not find prosperity and success, most will stand unapproved and ashamed one day before God because of their lack of diligent study and corresponding sloppy and incorrect handling of God’s Word! Every great heresy in the history of the Christian Church has been started by someone mishandling and incorrectly interpreting God’s Word. Because of laziness and ignorance, the lovers of the Bible have done and continue to do more harm than the haters of the Bible! I would like to make some practical suggestions to help you get started. First, take time to prepare yourself spiritually for your Bible study time. Before going to God’s Word, go to God first and ask that His Holy Spirit “guide you into all truth” by illuminating your heart and mind (John 16:13). Second, have some theologically sound biblical tools and aids on hand. These include: several translations of the Bible, a paraphrase or two for reference, a study Bible, a recent concordance, word studies, a Bible dictionary, and commentaries.

Vary your approach to Bible study. The Bible can and should be studied from many different angles. Each one will yield a rich treasure of knowledge. Several suggestions are as follows: • • • •

Thematic or Doctrinal Study—Study the great doctrines of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation: God, man, sin, salvation, etc. Word Study—Here, instead of studying the doctrines of the Bible, you study the words that teach us the great truths of God’s Word. Character Study—Go through the Bible and study the great heroes and patriarchs of the faith: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Paul, etc. Study by Outline—To really begin to grasp and digest a portion of the Word or an entire book, it is very helpful to outline it.

Let me also say a word about reading and memorizing God’s Word. This is a lost discipline in Christianity today. When I first started to read Watchman Nee, I was amazed at his spiritual understanding and overall grasp of the Bible—especially when some of his major works were written when he was in his 20s! He supposedly read the Bible through 105 times before he wrote his first book! Throughout his life he averaged reading the Bible through about once a month. No wonder God blessed him so much! You may not become a writer like Nee, but if you take God’s Word as seriously as he did, it will eternally enrich your life!

Understanding Proverbs The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 It has often been said that Psalms will keep you right with God, while Proverbs will keep you right with man. However, both Psalms and Proverbs focus on God first, and then on man. But, generally speaking, the primary focus of Psalms is vertical, dealing with my relationship with God, while the primary focus of Proverbs is horizontal, emphasizing my relationship with my fellow man. A happy, healthy, and holy life requires a balance of both of these relationships. The purpose of Proverbs is to teach us God’s divine wisdom, the wisdom that was incarnated in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). We find this purpose stated clearly at the beginning of the book in the first seven verses. In these introductory words of Proverbs, we can see both the vertical and horizontal inseparably related: “. . . for gaining wisdom (vertical) . . . for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair” (horizontal). So, biblical wisdom is not something philosophical, abstract, ethereal, or nebulous. It is intensely practical. Wisdom, therefore, is something we walk more than we talk. It is practical rather than polemic. It is experiential rather than ethereal. It is heavenly information that must result in earthly application. Information that is not followed by application results in stagnation! The Word of God, which is the wisdom of God and the will of God, was not given for our information, but for our transformation. The crucial question for each of us, then, is: How is my life going to be different as a result of what God’s Word says to me? As James asks, are we a hearer or

a doer of the Word? (James 1:22–25). There is another important aspect concerning a study of Proverbs, and that is the Hebrew literary form called parallelism. In other words, a proverb will state the same truth in different words for the sake of emphasis and understanding. Sometimes the parallel truth is one of similarity. A good example is in the prologue (the first seven verses of the first chapter). There, we are told that the purpose of wisdom is “for receiving instruction in prudent behavior.” How do we know what kind of behavior “prudent behavior” is? It is that which does “what is right and just and fair.” The two statements in essence say the same thing, but with different words. A few verses later we see a parallelism of dissimilarity. That means that there is a stark contrast between parallel statements. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Here we clearly see the parallel of contrast between the wise person and the fool, a recurring theme throughout the book. Here’s a final note to parents. Who in particular is the book addressed to? Children, young people, and teenagers (Proverbs 1:4). This is the crucial time in life when they either take the path of wisdom or the path of foolishness. They either learn to make wise decisions that result in discipline and knowledge or they make foolish decisions that result in rebellion, destruction, and death! Study and apply the wisdom of Proverbs to your life and this will be the greatest example for your children. It will cause them to want to live by God’s wisdom rather than by the world’s foolishness!

Authentic Fatherhood The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them. Proverbs 20:7 Fatherlessness is an epidemic in America today as well as in many other countries. I believe that we are only beginning to see the first fruits. The absence of a father in millions of homes has left a relational vacuum that is being filled up with the emotional demons of insecurity, loneliness, resentment, anger, and hostility. This results in a growing host of self-destructive activities like alcohol, drugs, video addiction, sexual perversion, crime, and suicide. One of the greatest witnesses of the Christian Church down through the centuries has been its witness about fatherhood. The Old Testament not only reveals the true and living God as our Creator, but it also reveals Him as our Father. Jesus not only revealed the Father, He taught His disciples to pray by saying, “Our Father . . . .” That was revolutionary for the first-century world, for much of Judaism, and to hundreds of millions of people in the world today! Some cultures do not even have a word for this kind of love or grace. Their image of God as Father is either totally unknown or obscured at best. There are also millions of people in the Western world who have heard something about Jesus, but have still grown up fatherless. They are the by-products of divorce, sexual promiscuity, unwed mothers, and abandonment. The spiritual consequence is that they project upon the heavenly Father their relationship—or lack of a relationship—with their human father. Therefore, if God is anything like their earthly father, they don’t want anything to do with Him. The result is that they grow up with

neither a human nor a divine authority figure, which is manifested by a host of rebellious attitudes and actions. The ancient world was not much different—until Christ came. After His life, death, and resurrection, and as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, Christian teaching about the role of men as husbands and fathers began to radically improve family relationships. Christian men were challenged to love their wives and be faithful to them for life. Marital faithfulness and sexual purity were a prerequisite for church leadership. Husbands and fathers were taught to nurture and discipline their children. Everything we do in life has radical, lifelong consequences—especially on our children. The biblical proverb is still true: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Jeremiah 31:29). That simply means if we as fathers develop a taste for the “sour grapes” of this world, rather than the “milk and honey” of the Kingdom of God, our children will also develop our jaded, worldly appetite! We are either passing on a godly inheritance or an ungodly inheritance. What is your relationship with God like today? Do you know and relate to Him as your heavenly Father who passionately loves you? Maybe you had no father, or the one you had was distant, unavailable, and uninvolved in your life. God said that He would be a “father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5a). Will you let Him be all that He desires to be as your Father today? Will you let Him begin to heal those broken father images in your life? Let Him embrace you and envelop you in His everlasting, unconditional love right now.

Christianity and Women Help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel. Philippians 4:3 No other religion in the world has a higher view of women than Christianity. For most religions and cultures, a woman is a second-class citizen, little more than chattel, a slave, or the property of her parents first, and then her husband. The man has all the rights, and the woman has little to no rights. She is often reduced to a sex object. Many pagan religions also abuse women through religious prostitution. But not in Christianity! Only in Christianity and in the Bible do you see not man’s view of women but God’s view of women! God gave specific laws in the Bible to protect women (Exodus 20:14, 17). He commanded that both the father and mother were to be equally honored and respected (Exodus 20:12). Both the father and mother were to be involved in the spiritual instruction of the children (Proverbs 1:8). We can see women in leadership from time to time like Deborah, who was the fourth judge of Israel. She was also called a prophetess, who made spiritual and legal decisions for Israel. In the New Testament, Luke’s birth narrative was told from Mary’s perspective. In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, four women are listed, which was against the cultural tradition of the day: Rahab, Tamar, Ruth, and Bathsheba. In addition to the 12 Disciples who followed Jesus, there were also women such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and many others. Jesus not only had close friendships with men, but also with women like Mary and Martha, whose house He enjoyed visiting for meals, fellowship, and rest. Women were with Him until the end at the cross, at the

tomb, and at His resurrection. Women were a part of the very first Pentecost and experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They were also very active in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, as the verse above shares. Paul entrusted Phoebe with the responsibility of carrying the Letter to the Roman Christians! She was also one of the first deaconesses of the church. Acts 16:14 tells us that the first convert in Philippi was a prominent woman by the name of Lydia. Paul acknowledged the great spiritual influence that Timothy’s mother and grandmother had on Timothy’s spiritual development (2 Timothy 1:5). Women are as essential to the life and health of the spiritual family— the Church—as they are to the life and health of the physical family! Just like they give birth to and nurture babies, they are also crucial in the birth and nurturing of new Christians. They are not a substitute for the men—nor should they ever try to be! But neither are the men a substitute for them! Just like a physical family needs both a father and mother to be healthy, the Church needs both men and women active in ministry to be healthy. Both women and men are equally filled with the Holy Spirit and gifted by Him. In one sense, men are the spiritual head of the church, while women are the spiritual heart of the church. A church must have both actively involved through their various gifts, and in unity and harmony, to be a healthy, growing church.

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” John 14:16–17a The Christian/biblical doctrine of the Trinity is the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three Persons in one Godhead, equal in power and glory (Deuteronomy 6:4). Here is a human example to help you visualize. One person can simultaneously carry out three distinct roles as a man: son, husband, and father. There are three basic truths about the Holy Spirit: 1. The Holy Spirit came to take the place of Christ (His physical presence). 2. He is the same Spirit who lived in Christ, and He is to be in us just as He was in Christ. 3. He is to live in us in order to reproduce Christ in us and to make us to be in the world exactly what Christ was and what He would have continued to be if He had stayed on Earth! And yet, the Church can’t seem to agree on the role of the Holy Spirit. People’s opinions about the Person and work of the Holy Spirit are varied. Charisphobia is exercised by people who have a great fear of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit—especially speaking in tongues. They have a tendency to look down on all forms of freedom and spontaneity as dangerous, disruptive, and fanatical.

Charismania is carried out by people who have a preoccupation with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit—especially speaking in tongues. They have a tendency to feel that they have “arrived” and, consequently, look down on other Christians as second-class citizens of the Kingdom. Well-balanced charismatic Christianity is practiced by those who have developed the biblical balance on all gifts of the Holy Spirit. They realize that the real proof of the Spirit’s work is moral and not miraculous. They, therefore, have a greater concern with the presence and maturity of the fruit of the Spirit than with a display of the gifts. So, how can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? We must deal with ourselves honestly. What is keeping me from being filled? What areas of my life are not fully surrendered to His Lordship? Confess all known sin to God. Appropriate your crucifixion with Christ. Ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit and accept it by faith. As a result, there will be fruit of the Spirit manifested in your life (Galatians 5:22–23). The fruit of the Holy Spirit cannot be manufactured, imitated, or worked up by the human spirit. The natural life of man can only produce what Paul called the “acts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19–21). Fruit is the natural consequence of abiding in the Word through the Spirit. So, the life of the Christian is like a field in which a farmer sows. The field is divided into two sections. One Paul calls the field of “the flesh” (what we are by nature), and the other he calls the field of “the Spirit” (what we have become by new birth/grace). We have the freedom to sow in either field. So be careful what you plant and where you plant! Once planted, life will germinate from one and death from the other.

The Seasons of Life There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Ecclesiastes 3:1 When God created the universe, He established definite seasons that His world would annually go through. His natural world would not be static and unchanging. It would be dynamic and cyclical. The cycle of these seasons is determined by the sun and the moon. Each natural season has its own uniqueness, bringing changes in temperature, weather patterns, and environment. Just as nature goes through predictable cycles, so does life. As human beings, we go through cycles of growth, from conception to birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, old age, and death. In these seasons of life, we each experience physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual change. Therefore, each season directly influences and impacts the next season. You always reap in one season what was sown in the previous season. “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7b). What you are now as well as where you are now is the direct result of past sowings in the seasons of your life—by you or by others. Your season of childhood may have been scarred by many broken relationships. Your early years may be emotionally pockmarked by family violence, divorce, alcoholism, drug abuse, verbal vilification, sexual exploitation, or just parental neglect. Your teenage years may have been spent sowing wild oats from which you are still reaping the consequences. And the result is a lot of wasted seasons of life, painful experiences, damaged emotions, barren years, and negative harvests. But, my friend, regardless of the season of life you are currently in,

God’s grace can intervene if you will give Him complete control. His love “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). His Word assures us that “where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). If you will give Him this season of your life—starting right now—the next season of your life can be radically different! At this very moment you can begin to sow positive seeds that will result in a future harvest of pleasure rather than pain. But in order to change this present season of our lives, we must begin by changing our minds. This change of mind is what the Bible calls repentance. If it is authentic repentance, there will be a change of mind that will result in a change of direction and a change of behavior. It will result in a new direction for our lives. While we cannot change or erase what happened to us in the earlier seasons of life, we can accept full ownership of our response and reaction to what happened to us. And we must begin by accepting God’s unconditional forgiveness. Then we must extend that same unconditional forgiveness to everyone who hurt us—whether intentionally or unintentionally. You are God’s field. Don’t let it lay fallow and unplanted. Don’t let Satan and the world plant weeds in God’s garden! He wants to make you fruitful in every season of life for His glory and for the good of others. So, “teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

The Secret Battlefield of the Mind We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 What causes professing Christians to act so directly contrary to the revealed Word of God? Two words: wrong thinking. Somewhere in that person’s past, a fleeting disobedient thought was not brought into obedience to Jesus Christ. When entertained over a period of time, that fleeting thought became a focused thought, which ultimately became a mindset. Once the mind was convinced, all that was left was for the will to give its consent, which it soon did—especially if it was wooed along by inflamed emotions! And in the process, lives and relationships were devastated. Lucifer tempted Eve with the same wrong thinking that had caused his own fall. He became intoxicated with a prideful and rebellious thought. Rather than continue to submit to God, Lucifer tried to usurp His throne. Once Satan got Eve mentally questioning the intentions and goodness of God, it was just a matter of time until that wrong thought produced a whole pattern of wrong thinking, which ultimately resulted in wrong action. As a result, Adam and Eve lost the Garden of Eden. Likewise, we all lose things that can never be restored or replaced by our wrong thinking and wrong acting! That’s why the only hope for man’s wrong thinking is repentance! Interestingly, the word repent basically means to change your mind. We must change our minds about God, about ourselves, about our sin, and about

Jesus Christ. Then and only then can we receive the mind of Christ. We receive His mind at conversion as a part of our new birth, new heart, and new nature. But we must then feed our new spiritual mind with the Word of God. We do that through the process of reading, memorizing, and meditating on God’s Word. When we fail to do that, we easily lapse back into our old way of thinking and behaving. We become what the Bible calls “double minded” (James 1:5–8; 4:8). In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the Apostle Paul instructs us how to win in the secret battlefield of the mind long before the disobedient thought becomes a hostile mental stronghold against the truth of God’s Word. If we do not use the Word of God through the Spirit of God to demolish those unbiblical thoughts at conception, they will surely grow and develop to the degree that they express themselves in unrighteous behavior. Christian worship and fellowship are also essential to the process of renewing our minds. As we meet together as the Body of Christ in a church where the Word is faithfully taught and practiced, we nurture the process of mental renewal. Let me give one more biblical prescription for spiritual and mental health: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” What will be the result of such biblical thinking? “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7–8). And in the process, you will strengthen your marriage, secure the emotional well-being of your children, and confirm your example as a truly spiritual man or woman. God wants you to have victory in the secret battlefield of the mind!

Managing Your Emotions I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Romans 7:15 Like every Christian, I struggle with managing my emotions. Or, more correctly stated, I struggle with letting the Holy Spirit manage my emotions through the principles of God’s Word. From your own personal experience, you already know that it is far easier to manage almost anything in life other than your emotions. Even your money is more easily managed than your emotions! Since the Bible never teaches us to be dispassionate or unfeeling— like the Buddhist or Hindu faiths—we all must learn how to manage our emotions. In their proper place, they are a gift from God. Properly used, our emotions enrich our lives and relationships. Our lives would be flat without our emotions and feelings accentuating and punctuating our lives and experiences. The Apostle Paul was one of the greatest saints who ever lived and served the Lord. He expressed this emotional struggle in Romans 7:15. What the spirit wants, the flesh doesn’t want. What the flesh wants, the spirit doesn’t want. There is enmity between these two; they are constantly battling each other for dominance. Both want to control, but they both can’t! One always has to submit to the other. The good news is that by God’s power through His Holy Spirit, we can manage our emotions. The witness of the Bible and Christian experience is that we can have Spirit-controlled temperaments rather than emotionally controlled temperaments. We were created by God for relationships. He made this possible when He created within us a radical need for all of our relationships. He did

this because He created us for a relationship with Him. He had to do this, for He is supernatural, and to relate we have to have a mind that can interact with His. Our emotions were radically damaged by the fall of man. Therefore, they have to be healed if we are ever going to have meaningful relationships. A healthy relationship with ourselves and a happy relationship with others begins with a holy relationship with God. Both sin and self have to be dealt with in order for us to be able to build holy, healthy, and happy relationships. So, the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships. Your emotions determine your relationships. Consequently, your emotional state either causes you to move out and move toward healthy relationships, or it causes you to withdraw and pull back from building healthy relationships. It is my hope and my prayer that whatever your current emotional condition, whether it is one of fear, insecurity, anxiety, grief, confusion, anger, or depression, that God will bring you emotional healing and emotional maturity (Psalm 34:17â&#x20AC;&#x201C;19). We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to live in the futility of our minds. We can be healed, delivered, and freed; we can be made whole. We must open our lives to the healing power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can become whole people and enjoy the relationships that He created us to have.

Faithing Down Your Fears I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4 A number of years ago, one of the richest men in the world died of fear. He was a Texan named Howard Hughes. He became one of the most famous figures and faces in America. He had everything money could buy—everything, that is, but a freedom from fear. In spite of his many successes, great wealth, and fame, he became more fearful and paranoid as he grew older. His fears caused him to increasingly pull away from people in an eccentric and reclusive lifestyle. As a result of his growing paranoia, this once-famous figure purposefully disappeared from public view and died alone. Fear attacks both the head and heart. As an emotional enemy, fear invades the spirit and soul of people and ultimately manifests itself in the body, as the story of Howard Hughes reveals. It can hijack the mind, distort the emotions, cripple the will, and destroy the body of its victim, slowly or quickly. But over time, nothing ultimately conquers the demon of fear. It completely and totally possesses its victim. While a person may experience eternal life through their faith in Christ, they will not really experience His abundant life (John 10:10) until they “faith” down their fears through the power of His Spirit and authority of His Word. We need to meditate on the liberating words of Paul: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). John, the “beloved disciple,” appropriately gives us the principle of lib-

eration: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). As John rightly observed, “fear has to do with punishment.” The gloriously Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus already fully faced your punishment on the cross! All of your sin and my sin and the sin of the whole world was poured out on Him. Because God is a just and righteous God, He cannot punish both Christ and you for sin. It is impossible for God to collect a spiritual death twice. Psalm 34:4 is the verse that liberated President Abraham Lincoln from his besetting fears during the very stressful days of his presidency. Just as that verse was almost worn out by Lincoln’s finger passing over it as he read in his Bible to faith down his fears, I pray that you too will let those words be indelibly impressed upon your spirit. Then you will also experience what both King David and President Lincoln experienced: “He delivered me from all my fears.” Remember that everything depends upon the object of your fear. Fear, like faith, hope, and love, must have an object. The object of your faith and the object of your fear make all the difference in the world. Therefore, if we do not fear God, we fear everything else. On the other hand, if we fear God, we fear nothing else!

Biblical Pictures of the Church For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Ephesians 3:14–15 Almost everyone in the world likes to look at pictures. All of us are especially drawn to photographs if we are in them! In doing this, we are motivated either by egotism or insecurity. Few of us see ourselves in a positive light. If we don’t like how we look on the outside, how would we feel if a picture could be taken of what we look like on the inside? How would we like to have a photograph made of our thoughts, emotions, and motives? How devastating! Man has not yet devised a machine that can take pictures of the spirit and soul. God, on the other hand, has provided us with a spiritual camera that can both photograph and reveal the human heart. What is this wonderful spiritual device that can look into the deepest recesses of the human spirit and can reveal your thoughts and motives? It is the Bible. The Bible is God’s photo album. It has very clear and vivid pictures of people under every condition and circumstance. We can watch them in happiness and sorrow, in obedience and rebellion, in victory and defeat, in life and death, in heaven and hell. It is filled with living pictures. Many of the people portrayed on the pages of the Bible think with your thoughts, feel with your emotions, act out your motives, express your fears, demonstrate your rebellion, and reveal your sin. That’s one of the great reasons why so many people fear the Bible—it is far too disclosing! It reveals to them accurate pictures of

themselves they do not want to look at. However, most of the human race has never looked through God’s camera. They have been unwilling to look at the big picture of divine revelation. Therefore, most people live with a skewed, myopic, restricted view of life here on planet earth. Even though the Bible contains thousands of individual photographs, the most important pictures are the family pictures. We see a very early family picture in His Old Testament album with the photo of Abraham and Sarah. He was the first patriarch of God’s people. Under this early snapshot, God’s Spirit wrote this amazing promise He made to Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you . . . . All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring” (Genesis 12:2–3; 28:14). From that moment on, after God entered into His covenant with Abraham, He has continually added more people to His spiritual family. That unique family is known as the Church. This word comes from the Greek root ekklesia and means “an assembly of people who have been called out.” When God first “called out” Abraham, He said, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Thousands of years later, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to continue and consummate His redemption of a people unto Himself. Regardless of your social and religious standing through natural birth, we are only members of God’s family through spiritual birth. The true Church of Jesus Christ is not a building, a denomination, a particular theology, or an organization. It does not belong to any person, priest, or pope. The Church belongs exclusively to Jesus Christ. Are you in His family?

The Power of Partnership “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35 The Bible is a book of partnership from Genesis to Revelation. One of the great, unique attributes of the Christian faith is its emphasis upon relationships. While most other world religions are ritual-based, Christianity is relational-based. Every picture of the church in the Bible is a relational picture. But, unfortunately, most of our contemporary church models are organizational rather than relational. The biblical emphasis on the priority of relationships is why the word koinonia, or “together,” is one of the defining words of the book of Acts. For many years, relationships and partnerships have been the very heart and soul of what our ministry has stood for. For decades, we have sought to build partnerships interdenominationally, interracially, interculturally, and internationally. Whatever success we have experienced for the Lord and His Kingdom around the world is primarily because of these strategic partnerships that God has sovereignly given us. If a ministry or mission relationship is primarily built upon projects rather than partnership, it will ultimately fail. The ministry principle, then, is this: Kingdom projects must flow out of Kingdom partnerships—not vice versa. The partnership is the root and the project is the fruit. One is a by-product of the other. It is sad, however, that projects often overshadow relationships and partnerships. Soon they begin to motivate, drive, and control partnerships rather than the partnerships controlling the projects. Then, the partners are only using each other to

accomplish their own agenda. When Kingdom relationships degenerate to this low level, God is not glorified. That’s because the partnership becomes a means to an end; that is, the accomplishment of a project alone. It shows that we value the project more than the partnership. And, in God’s eyes, no project is more valuable than a partnership! Jesus said to His disciples: “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35)—not by how you do projects together! So, there must be agape (love that is, of, and from God) partnerships before there can be anointed projects. While people may be helped and needs may be met by projects apart from partnerships, God will not be glorified and people will not be edified. So, if we want to do ministry that will truly glorify God and edify others, we must first be centered on people and partnerships—not just on projects and programs. A good partnership in marriage or in ministry will grow and mature to God’s glory. As the church in any country or culture emphasizes these spiritual virtues and relational principles of partnership, the watching, skeptical world will take notice. Remember: the only thing that is eternal is our relationships. Therefore, building covenant relationships and Kingdom partnerships is our highest calling and greatest priority in ministry. When we die, we will not take a single project with us to heaven. Not one. But we will take every relationship and partnership that is based in the Lord Jesus.

Follow the Leader Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to Him those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach. Mark 3:13–14 Growing up, almost every child played “Follow the Leader.” The followers had to imitate the leader and do everything he or she did. The challenge for the leader was to keep all of his playmates interested in what he was doing, so that they would continue to follow his leadership and stay close behind him. This game does not end with childhood; it is a lifelong activity. If we had a bad leadership experience as a child, we will be insecure and timid about accepting a leadership position as an adult. If we had a bad experience following someone as a child or teenager, we will have a problem trusting leaders and other authority figures in our adult life. Jesus expressed the universal need for leadership when He said that mankind is “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). If people do not have a good shepherd to follow, they are very vulnerable to the deceits and deceptions of a false leader. A leader is a person who influences people, motivating them to follow him or her toward a particular goal. There are two kinds of leaders: those who are leaders by nature, and those who are leaders by nurture. That means that some leaders are born, while many others are built. It is my firm belief that leadership skills can be both caught and taught. But if a person is going to be a good leader, whether they are a born leader or a built leader, they must be available, teachable, responsible, and accountable. We can see a clear example of both of these types of leaders in the

first 12 disciples chosen by Jesus. Some of them, like Peter, James, and John, were more natural-born leaders. But the majority of the rest of the Twelve were not so much natural leaders as nurtured leaders. We read about Jesus’ mentoring method in these verses from the Gospel of Mark. We can see at least three phrases that distinguish His leadership training with the Twelve. First, He called them to Him (mastery). Second, they were to be with Him (mentoring). And thirdly, they would be trained by Him (ministry). Christ’s mentoring model of leadership development was relational, informal, oral, practical, concrete, mobile, and transferable. His emphasis was upon learning by doing. He was not interested in producing academicians, but apostles. Jesus knew that the only way for His disciples to come to personal and spiritual maturity was in the context of intense relationships. In just three short years, He had spent enough time with the Twelve to prepare them for the greatest leadership challenge in the history of the world—leading His Church! Some of you reading this naturally exemplify certain characteristics of a good leader. However, in order to see other characteristics develop in your life, it will take a supernatural endowment by the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit and the Word, you may learn leadership characteristics rather quickly. For others to be manifested and matured in you, it will take a lifetime of disciplined study and striving. Either way, God wants you to develop and mature as a leader.

The Divine Rewarder “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16b–17 The true and living God delights in blessing and rewarding His people. He gives rewards on the basis of His love, mercy, and grace. No rewards come to mankind because they are deserved. The only thing that we all deserve is judgment, punishment, death, and hell! But because of His sovereign, unmerited grace, God redeems us, reconciles us, restores us, and rewards us—all for His own honor and glory. All rewards and crowns are awarded on the basis of who He is and not on the merits of who we are. Because of this fact, our all-powerful, all-loving, and all-wise heavenly Father created each of us with an internal spiritual and emotional response mechanism for rewards and punishments. He has written this positive/negative dynamic into His universe. More importantly, He has indelibly inscribed it on the tablets of our hearts. This internal moral compass is what the Bible calls conscience. Even a cursory investigation of the world around us proves that there is an obvious good/bad tension written into the universe. In a sense, they are opposite sides of the same moral coin. Those in the Eastern world call this tension the yin and yang. But in their minds, the difference between the two is only illusion. They believe that things like good and evil or light and darkness are all a matter of our limited perspective. What is “good” to one may be “bad” to another, and vice versa. It is only our limited perspective that causes us to call one thing “good” and another thing “bad.”

However, from the biblical perspective, there is no illusion at all between these moral opposites! Right and wrong are not the same. Holy and unholy are not a matter of perspective. Good and evil are not interchangeable. Light and dark are not synonymous. Morality and immorality are not relative. Freedom and bondage are not equal. Life and death are two very opposite experiences. Obedience and disobedience lead to very different results. One leads to rewards and the other to retribution! One ends in eternal life, or heaven, while the other ends in eternal death, or hell. The very first human experiment in this took place in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2. In that place of absolute perfection, God promised Adam and Eve fellowship or alienation, oneness or aloneness, pleasure or pain, abundance or adversity, beauty or brokenness, liberty or bondage, and life or death. And He gave each of them a will that had the freedom to choose. We all know the rest of the story! Eve listened to the serpent rather than to God. Adam listened to Eve’s advice rather than to God’s command. They both blamed God and each other for their own disobedience and were banished from the Garden. Their first son, Cain, created the first religion of good works by substituting his own sacrifice for God’s prescribed one through blood. In anger he murdered his brother, Abel. Lamech, one of Cain’s descendants, became the first polygamist—and the beat goes on until this very day! It is my closing prayer that we will have a teachable spirit, that we would be wise and choose life, so that we may receive His rewards and escape His retribution. How could we do anything but love and live for a God who delights in rewarding His people!

God as an Investment Capitalist “Put this money to work,” he said, “until I come back.” Luke 19:13b Many people are surprised to read about God in economic terms, much less in the terms of capitalism. They do not associate God with business in any way, shape, or form. He is God of the sanctuary, not God of the marketplace. His domain is a church altar, not a business counter. While He is a spiritual God (John 4:24), He never created matter to be separated from its spiritual origins. He is the Source of both. One is the root and the other is the fruit. That’s why when materialism is cut off from its spiritual roots, it becomes cold, impersonal, and unfulfilling—regardless of how much of it you make or have in the bank. Therefore, as the ultimate Owner of all of the earth’s wealth, God invests portions of His wealth in His people. Because of His love and grace, He makes a specific deposit in each person in order to make a profit for His honor and glory—as well as for the good of other people. One of the ways we worship the Creator is by being good stewards of the creation He has entrusted to us. Therefore, our spiritual faithfulness is revealed through our material faithfulness. That means that our worship and our work are to be synonymous. The parable of the ten minas in Luke 19:11–27 brings together the inseparable relationship between the spiritual and material. The master put resources in the servants’ hands that tested and brought to light the motives of their hearts. This business parable from the lips of the Lord Jesus is filled with practical principles about how we are to invest our lives and resources until the Lord returns.

God is a generous, benevolent investment capitalist. Because of His love, mercy, and grace, He liberally invests His possessions in each of our lives. He entrusts and invests life, time, talents, salvation, spiritual gifts, and opportunities to each of us. God invests in us so that we can invest in others. He blesses us as He did Abraham, so we can be a blessing to others. As a result of His investment in us, He expects us to “redeem the time,” “buy up every opportunity,” “occupy until He comes,” and “do business until He returns.” He expects us to take what He has invested in us and use it to create all the spiritual and financial profit we can for His Kingdom and glory. Because of His grace, He gives each of us equal opportunity to be faithful, to be involved, to invest, and to multiply His investment in us. If He has given you an entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen, or the ability to make money or create wealth, then He wants you to be His missionary in the marketplace! He wants you to be a wise capitalist and leverage your opportunities and finances for His Kingdom and glory. One day we will each face Him personally to give an account—either through our own death or at His Second Coming. What will you hear from Him at that time? I trust that it will be, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” I hope you will go to work tomorrow and all the rest of your life as a Kingdom entrepreneur committed to leveraging every opportunity for His glory and the good of others!

Thieves in the Church “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing You?’ In tithes and offerings.” Malachi 3:8 It is easy for all of us to point the finger of accusation at corporate executives who have exploited and plundered their company’s finances or used their assets as their own personal bank account. It is also easy to condemn the accountants who cooked the books to cover up blatant financial abuse. What about the church? What about the millions of Christians who weekly rationalize their stealing? Let’s get even more personal. What about your own financial records? What would they reveal if they were made public—not to Congress, but to your local congregation? Tragically, when it comes to money and materialism, there is more of the world in the church than there is the church in the world! Unfortunately, too many of us Christians mirror and reflect the economic greed of the world rather than the economic contentment that is supposed to characterize God’s people! Would your buying and spending habits reveal that you have been cooking the books to cover up your own economic greed? Would a total audit of your personal financial records reveal that you are also guilty of theft—not from man, but from God? One day at the Judgment Seat of Christ, God will “open the books” and “audit the accounts” for each of us (2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:11–15)! This is not a new problem for the people of God! That’s why one of the oldest and most familiar questions in the Old Testament is this: “Will a man rob God?” In this passage in Malachi, a renewal in giving was the

minimum starting point for God’s people to prove their sincerity to the Lord. It would be a tangible way of demonstrating a change of heart concerning their relationship with God. Just as God’s ancient people were often guilty of robbing Him, so His people today are consistently guilty of robbing Him. Our theft is not so much from taking, but from holding back and keeping what rightfully belongs to God. Millions of us Christians regularly steal from God just as certainly as if we reached in our hand and took money out of the offering plate when it passed by us! We pocket God’s money as if it were our own. We deposit His funds in our accounts and then we consume it on ourselves. What about you, my friend? If you want to be “filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8), then get in step with what God is doing in the world—both locally and globally! Invest your resources where God is investing His Spirit. Make His treasure your treasure. You can never know the fullness of His blessings until you quit robbing God by not systematically tithing and giving. I lovingly urge you, then, to accept God’s challenge that He lays before His people. Tithing is the spiritual and financial key to obedience that will “open the floodgates of heaven” so that God will be able to “pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (Malachi 3:10)!

Storehouse Giving “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10 Due to this single reference in Malachi, many churches have adopted the concept of “storehouse giving.” This is interpreted to mean that the entirety of one’s tithes is to be given to the local church. The pastors and churches that teach this concept of giving equate the local church with the Old Testament temple. How are we to view this concept of storehouse giving? Is it a biblical principle? Does it represent a balanced teaching on giving? Is it to be the norm for all Christians today? The Bible must be our final authority on all matters of faith and practice. And we must never base our theology regarding any biblical subject upon just one isolated verse. One of the clearest New Testament examples of storehouse giving is Christ’s observation of the “widow’s mite” (Mark 12:41–44). This poor widow was giving her sacrificial gift to the temple storehouse. As Jesus was making His observation, He made no comment on the practice of giving to the temple treasury. His purpose was not to focus on the place of giving, but on the practice and proportion of giving. A second teaching of Christ is about giving in secret (Matthew 6:1–4). This was a reference to the public and ostentatious manner of giving often used by the religious hypocrites of His day. This passage can be equally used to substantiate both storehouse and secret giving. There are many additional exhortations about giving in the New Tes-

tament—mostly from Christ—that do not explicitly relate to the temple storehouse. Matthew 10:5–10 clearly shows that Jesus expected His disciples to both give and receive material and financial help directly. Jesus implied that the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:21 should liquidate his wealth and give it personally and directly to the poor. It is obvious in Luke 8:1–3 that women financially supported Jesus and His disciples directly. We see God’s people sending financial support to meet the needs of Paul in Philippians 4:14–18 with no involvement by the temple storehouse. Christians today should certainly give a majority of their tithes and offerings through their local church storehouse. It is the believer’s primary spiritual community, just like the temple was for the Old Testament saints. A Christian owes their presence, participation, and support to their primary spiritual community. However, if the local church is either selfishly hoarding resources or wasting them on unbiblical programs or monuments to human ego, a reevaluating of church involvement and giving must take place. To continue to attend and tithe to a church that has lost its biblical focus and spiritual priority is very poor stewardship of your time and God’s treasure. Storehouse giving, then, is a biblical principle and guideline for Christians. But even though it would represent a norm and starting point for one’s tithes and offerings, it certainly should not represent the totality of giving for any individual Christian. The opportunities and needs are too broad for any serious Christian to be that narrow and exclusive in their giving.

Spiritual Olympics For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8 Top athletes from all over converge in the Olympics to compete for the gold, silver, and bronze medals in their areas of athletic prowess. Many have been in training almost all of their lives for these two weeks of competition. Unfortunately, the majority of the athletes will go home empty-handed. They will not take any medals home, but will lose by milliseconds or millimeters and forever second-guess themselves. They at least had the thrill of competing for the gold, while most of humanity spent their lives “sitting in the stands.” While the rest were spectators, they were the participants, and all the eyes of the world were on them. The Bible teaches that the eyes of the universe are also on you. You too are involved in running a marathon race—and it is literally the race of your life. As exciting as the Olympics are, your race has eternal consequences. It will result in a clear win-or-lose finish. Although God is impartial in His judgments (Acts 10:34; 1 Peter 1:17), I want you to know that He wants you to win—not only for time, but also for eternity! He did not send His Son to die so that you would be a loser. He died and rose again to make you a winner in the game of life. And to help ensure that, He has made His Holy Spirit totally available to live within you and empower you to be a spiritual winner. Also, our Master Coach has not left us without a “sports manual” to help train us for victory. It is known as the Bible, and it speaks a great deal about running and competing.

The Apostle Paul often traveled and worked in places like Greece and Corinth, where the Olympics were held every few years. Is it any wonder, then, that Paul uses so many athletic metaphors or figures of speech to illustrate his own Christian life? He especially emphasized this when he was writing to a young spiritual athlete he was coaching and mentoring: Timothy. Paul reminded Timothy of the unique benefits of a total workout that includes body, mind, and spirit. He did not in any way discourage or disparage the importance of “physical training.” However, he did point out the superiority of spiritual training that resulted in “godliness.” How are you doing in the game of life? How do you feel you are running? Are you sitting in the stands, or are you competing on the field? Do you feel that you are winning or losing in your spiritual Olympics? What kind of award do you feel the Judge of the universe will give you when you stand before Him? Paul summarized his own Christian life with athletic metaphors. He could say in humble confidence to young Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). May you and I strive to be that kind of spiritual athlete. May we, too, be the kind of Christian champions who start well, run well, win well, and end well. By His grace may we also stand on the winner’s platform and receive the medal we will wear for all eternity—for God’s glory!

The Rise and Fall of Satan Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 In today’s world, it is safe to say that most people are ignorant as to the origin and nature of Satan. We would do well to remember that our two greatest enemies in the Christian life are spiritual ignorance and spiritual disobedience. Spiritual ignorance is the result of biblical illiteracy, while spiritual disobedience comes from a rebellious will. Those without biblical literacy are completely vulnerable to what the Apostle Paul called the “the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11). In another similar passage, we are again admonished not to allow Satan to outwit us. “For we are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Likewise, spiritual disobedience due to a rebellious will serves the purpose of Satan and thereby dishonors God. We are engaged in a life-and-death spiritual warfare with the adversary of our soul for as long as we live on this earth! The Lord Jesus called him a “murderer from the beginning,” and a “liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). And so we “put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground” (Ephesians 6:13). There are three popular ideas about Satan—all wrong—and we want to put each of them to rest. The first myth is Satan does not exist. This is a very popular opinion among the so-called educated and enlightened people of the world. The second myth is Satan is only the personification of evil. This philosophy says Satan is not a real, objective, malevolent being. And the third is Satan is a mythological billy goat-type of being with hoofs, horns, and a tail. This is a holdover from the Middle Ages when Satan was depicted in religious dramas and books in this graphic manner

for the benefit of the illiterate. To find out more about his origin and rebellion, study the 28th chapter of Ezekiel and the 14th chapter of Isaiah. There, we learn that he was created by God and was once an angel of the highest order. His biblical names include Lucifer, the angel of light, Satan, the father of lies, the evil one, and the god of this world. It is important to remember that he is not eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient. His doom was sealed at the cross by Christ (Genesis 3:15). Christ will one day cast him from heaven to Earth (Revelation 12:12), then from Earth to the Abyss (Revelation 20:1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3), and finally from the Abyss to the lake of burning sulfur or fire (Revelation 20:10). Until that time, believers have victory over him now (1 John 4:4; 5:18)! Yet, will we follow in the folly of Lucifer, the rebellious angels, and the majority of mankind that populate our world? Will our daily experiences increasingly be those of frustration, nothing but dust in our mouths? Or through obedience to God will we increasingly know the fulfillment that He can bringâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;delight to our soul? The choice is yours.

Living Dangerously for the Kingdom For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10 Every American should be profoundly thankful for the great opportunities we have in this country—the most prosperous, powerful, and peaceful on Earth. But we are also aware of the equally great dangers of allowing those freedoms and opportunities to make us ungrateful, prideful, greedy, selfish, and indifferent to the needs of others who do not enjoy what we so easily take for granted. The good life of America can lull us to sleep in our comfort zones to the degree that we accept selfish living as the best there is. Once we set up our housekeeping, vocations, and church life, we can miss God’s best for us. We mistake the “good life” for the “God life.” We become addicted to playing it safe rather than living dangerously for the Kingdom of God. It causes us to seek and settle down into what I call middle-class mediocrity. Are you living within your limits or beyond your limits for the Kingdom of God? It is only when we live, love, and lead beyond our limits that His Holy Spirit manifests His power in our weakness, limitlessness in our limitations, sufficiency in our insufficiency, and ability in our availability. True Christianity has always been radical! Authentic Christian living has always been dangerous. And we know that Satan is the angry, antagonistic, animating force behind all of this. Since he hates Jesus Christ, he hates His Bride, the Church. Since he cannot assault the exalted Christ, he constantly attacks His Church.

But, if we consciously choose to live dangerously for the Lord Jesus, what does it mean? Will it mean that I will always experience success in the Christian life? It all depends on how you define success. According to the New Testament, success in God’s eyes is defined by faith and faithfulness. That’s the wonderful theme of Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter. There we walk through the faith “Hall of Fame” and read about the spiritual lives and exploits of the great patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith. People like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David. Then we read their epitaphs: “Through faith [they] conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised” (11:33). But it does not end there. As we continue our walk, we see another door marked “Others.” What does it record of them? They were tortured, imprisoned, persecuted, and mistreated (11:35–38). Which group was the most faithful and successful from God’s perspective? Both! “These were all commended for their faith” (11:39). That means that the individuals in both groups lived dangerously for the Kingdom of God. Whichever group God sovereignly chooses you and me to live and die in, we can have the confidence that Paul wrote about: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Go for it! Rush the enemy lines! Then attack the strongholds in your sphere of influence. Live boldly, proactively, radically, lovingly, and dangerously for the Kingdom of God. You will never regret it!

A Christian Perspective on Islam Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2:22–23 By its very nature, Islam, like Christianity, is evangelistic and expansionistic to the core. The Qur’an demands a world that is 100% Islamic. Therefore, it cannot and will not stop until it has sought to extend the Islamic crescent across the entire globe! But, neither can Christianity rest until she has clearly communicated the message of the cross to the entire world. We, too, are under a Great Commission to evangelize. Christianity seeks to extend the message of the cross in the spirit of the cross and in the agape love of Jesus Christ. The only force we are to use is the force of love! We are compelled by compassion, not by compulsion. However, we have no illusion that we will one day Christianize the world. Nowhere does the Bible even hint at the fact that every person will convert to Christianity. God’s true people have always been a remnant, a minority, or the few who enter at the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13–14). Faithful Muslims are out to “Islamicize” the world, or impose the theology and ideology of Muhammad upon every human being. That is known as the forceful imposition of Shari’a, or Islamic law, upon the world under a Caliphate led by a Muslim ruler. In obedience to the clear dictates of the Qur’an, they must seek to make their religion and culture the dominant one in any country they are in—including America. We Christians also believe in the spiritual superiority of our faith.

When it comes to Islam, we firmly believe that Jesus Christ is superior in every way to Muhammad; the Jehovah God of the Bible is the only true and living God and not Allah; the Bible is a far older and superior revelation than the Qur’an; and the spiritual ethics symbolized by the cross of Christ are a far greater blessing to mankind than the crescent of Islam. The revealed nature of the Triune God of the Bible and the Allah of the Qur’an are eternities apart. Islam and Christianity are mutually exclusive in their absolute claims about God, men, women, marriage, politics, law, and culture—about all of life. Was Christ a great teacher, a great moral example, a wise philosopher, and a great prophet as Islam believes? Or was He God incarnate? The entire witness of the Bible is clear on this: Jesus was fully God while being fully man. That is the great mystery and miracle of the Incarnation, the true and living God! Did the prophet Muhammad deny the Incarnation? Did he also deny the crucifixion of Christ? Clearly he did, according to the witness of the Qur’an (Surah 4:157–158). Does that put his witness in the realm of the antichrist (1 John 2:22–23)? I believe it clearly does by his own testimony. Does that mean further that Muslims are spiritually lost? Or do we worship the same father and just use different names? The biblical witness is clear. We can only pray, then, that the living Christ will continue to sovereignly and supernaturally reveal Himself to millions of Muslims the world over, so they will come to true saving faith through Him. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). Amen!

Transformation of a Terrorist Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 1 Timothy 1:13 It has become one of the defining words of our day. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the word terrorism has been constantly on our minds. It has become a household word. Virtually every newscast has some kind of report on this menacing evil. As a result, consciously or subconsciously, the reality of terrorism hangs over America like a dark, threatening cloud that could unleash its destructive and disruptive fury upon us at any time. We need to remind ourselves that the true and living God is in the business of transforming terrorists. Like the name of Osama bin Laden, this manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very name struck panic in the hearts of those whom he sought to eliminate. His name was Saul. In Acts chapter 9, God transformed this terrorist on the Damascus Road. He changed Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle. To any rational person, this radical transformation of Saul to Paul is explicable only as a direct divine intervention of the true and living God. As a result of his radical conversion, the blasphemer became the believer, the persecutor became the preacher, the accuser became the apologist, the terrorist became the teacher, the antagonist became the apostle, and the murderer became the missionary. In Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sight, a radical is a radical. If God can convert a Jewish radical, He can just as easily convert an Islamic, Hindu, or Buddhist radical.

If He can transform a Jewish fundamentalist into a Christian apologist, He can do the same for the fundamentalists of our day, which He is doing in many countries around the world. Today, some of the most bold and fearless preachers of the Gospel in Islamic countries are converted mullahs and Qur’anic scholars to whom Jesus supernaturally appeared in a dream or vision, just like He did to Paul on the Damascus Road! We must also pray that God will raise up more bold Christian disciples like Ananias (Acts 9:1–19) who will put it all on the line in forceful faith and radical love to reach out to the terrorists in our world. As believers, we need to pray and work for this because radical enemies make radical friends! Converted terrorists make radical Christians! That’s because they already understand radical commitment. They already have vision and passion—although misguided. They are already zealous. They are already turned on and on fire. They already understand what it means to be sold out for a cause. They understand the cost of discipleship. When necessary, they are prepared to be persecuted for their faith and even die a martyr’s death for their faith. So may God motivate and empower each of us to be radical Christians for the Kingdom of God! Only then will we see God transform terrorists by the power of the Spirit and the Word. Only then will His Holy Spirit turn the Church back into a radical, transformational fellowship of Christian revolutionaries who will again turn our world upside down for God’s glory!

A Call to Fasting “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?” Isaiah 58:5 The topic of fasting is not a very popular one in Christian circles today. You seldom hear preaching or teaching about its importance. In the American Church we are not often exhorted to fast regularly. It is something that is associated with mystics, ascetics, and fanatics—not with mainstream Christianity! If we are honest, we will all confess that we greatly prefer feasting to fasting. I certainly do, because we were created by God to eat, and we naturally prefer eating to starving. From the moment of birth, one of our strongest drives is for food and liquid. Without it we cannot long survive. Fasting, then, goes against our basic instincts to eat and drink. It is a conscious resisting of our hunger pangs that constantly drive us to food. Therefore, it takes a willful decision for a person not to eat and drink. It is a subjugation of our natural appetites with a supernatural expectation. Fasting is a constraining of the outer man in order to release and strengthen the inner man or woman. It is not something that we do thoughtlessly, unconsciously, or involuntarily—unless we are physically, emotionally, or spiritually sick. Let’s look at several examples of what we might call false fasts. First, there are involuntary fasts that millions of people in the world face regularly simply because of a lack of food to eat. The Apostle Paul experienced this type of involuntary fasting from time to time in his ministry (2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:27). Secondly, a person may give up eating temporarily because of physical sickness. There are a number of illnesses that can cause one to lose their

appetite for food for a period of time. Thirdly, a person who is emotionally sick will sometimes consciously starve themselves through some disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia. Finally, there are millions of sincere, well-intentioned people who starve themselves physically in order to gain merit or “appease the gods.” You often see this kind of voluntary fasting in religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. In a similar way, millions of faithful Muslims fast yearly during the month of Ramadan. From a Christian perspective, all of this fasting has little or no authentic spiritual merit before the true and living God. So, if there are so many counterfeits and false fasts, there must be an authentic faith fast that pleases the Lord. In the Old Testament, the word fast comes from the primary Hebrew root tsuwm and means “to cover over the mouth.” In the Greek of the New Testament, the word is nesteia (noun) and nesteuo (verb), which means “not to eat.” There are only a couple dozen references to fasting in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. But one thing is absolutely clear, and that is that fasting was definitely a normative practice in Judaism and later in Christianity. As Christians, we fast for a season for at least seven reasons: humility (Ezra 8:21), humiliation (Psalm 35:13), helplessness (2 Chronicles 20:2–4), healing (Isaiah 58:6–9), holiness (Mathew 6:16–18), hope (Mark 2:19–20), and harvest (Acts 13:2–3). It is my prayer that God will use fasting to add these spiritual virtues to your life.

The Storms of Life You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. Isaiah 25:4 Make no mistake about it: the Christian life does not exempt you from experiencing times of trouble. The storms will be ominous and threatening. It will be a time of darkness and danger. The dark clouds may be so thick and intense that they will seem to enshroud you and cut you off from God. Sometimes they will be brief. At other times, they will seem unending. God providentially designs some storms for His children to test and try them. His storms purge from our lives those things that are not eternal. God uses them to separate us from our love affair with the temporal, trite, and trivial, so our lives will not one day be reduced to ashes. These stormy times of darkness and danger are also part and parcel of the Christian life, because we live in a fallen and rebellious world where everything is spiritually upside down and the natural realm is out of balance. While your storm may leave you with some scars, your relationship with Him is totally secure. Remember that He loves you with an everlasting love. Jesus promised that nothing or no one can snatch you from His Father’s hand (John 10:28). He has you in His eternal grip—and no storm can wash you out of His nail-scarred hands! Jesus came to meet you and minister to you in your storm. He came to comfort you when you mourn (Matthew 5:4). He promises to take you through victoriously to the other side. And there He will give to you “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3).

Whatever storms you have been through in the past, whatever storms you are in right now, or whatever storms you will face in the future, only Jesus can be your sure anchor and secure harbor! Only in Christ can you find a “shelter from the storm.” “It Is Well with My Soul” is a hymn written by a successful businessman, Horatio Spafford. The ship carrying his family went down at sea in a great storm. His wife was saved, but his beloved daughters were lost. When he visited the place where the ship sank, he looked into the deep, dark waters and penned these words: “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.” That’s my prayer for you, my friend. I trust that whatever storm you have gone through and whatever you have lost, it is still “well with your soul!” Now, with your spiritual anchor securely fastened to Him, I pray that you will also reach out to others who are being devastated by life’s storms. Just as Jesus has ministered to you in your storm, I pray that you will minister to others in their storms with the love and compassion of the Lord Jesus!

Death and After Life The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:26 The question of death slumbers and periodically arouses and shouts in almost every experience of life. Falling leaves, wilting flowers, the death of a beloved pet, an accident in which a friend is killed, or the sight of a hearse leading a funeral procession are just a few of the constant reminders. Man has arrived at many theories concerning death and the afterlife. Most have been the result of ignoring the biblical revelation. Others have been drawn from incorrectly interpreting what the Bible teaches. Death was not a part of God’s original plan for man. It came as a result of the fall of man. Ever since Adam sinned and died spiritually, every human being has been born spiritually dead. It is, therefore, an enemy and “the last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Physical death is the separation of the spirit and soul from the body, the material from the immaterial, the temporal from the eternal, the mortal from the immortal, and the physical from the metaphysical. Death and the grave are not the end of man’s existence. God will redeem the righteous from the powers of death and the grave. The righteous will see God face to face after physical death when the glorified spirits and souls of the righteous will be united with their glorified bodies. The spirits and souls of the unrighteous, however, go to torment to await the second resurrection, final judgment, and their eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Daniel 12:2). Jesus died the death we deserved, and He conquered death through His own resurrection from the grave. Therefore, death has been changed from a period to a comma, a question mark to an exclamation point, a

conclusion to an introduction, a final destination to a rest stop, a tomb to a tunnel, and an earthly end into an eternal beginning! In many ways, death for the believer is the wedding day. Christ is the Divine Bridegroom and we are His bride. He has bought us and we are betrothed to Him! At the moment of death, the engagement is over and the marriage begins, face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). What absolute liberty from the fear of death we will have when these truths fully penetrate our lives. Death cannot separate us from God! Satan is the master counterfeiter who “masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). He knows that death does not change anything, but only makes eternally secure the spiritual condition in which he lived his life. Two of his many deadly deceptions are suicide and the study of death through science, or thanatology. That is why we should expect him to make his final deception and goal-line stand about the point of physical death. If he can be successful at this, he knows that he can plunge the person into a Christ-less eternity! There are three important questions that you need to ask yourself regularly concerning death: Am I in right relationship with God? Am I in right relationship with others? Am I investing myself in things that will last for eternity? Only confessing your sin to God and accepting Him into your life can guarantee that you will have eternal life. Your salvation and God’s justification give life where there was death. God’s holy and sanctifying presence will make it possible for you to experience abundant life, which is the earthly experience of eternal life. Decide now!

Hell: The Final Separation Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15 Physical death is the separation of the body from the soul and spirit. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul and spirit from God eternally. It is sometimes referred to as the second death. Neither physical death nor spiritual death is a state of non-being, unconsciousness, soul sleep, annihilation, reincarnation, etc. Gehenna is the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word for Gehennom, or Valley of Hinnom. It was located on the south/southwest side of Jerusalem. In post-Old Testament times, the Jews referred to it as the entrance of hell and later as hell itself. Because it was declared by God to be an abominable place (Jeremiah 7:31–32), the Jews could not use it for anything but the city garbage dump where fires burned continually. It existed during the time of Christ, and He repeatedly referenced this physical place that everyone was familiar with to illustrate a metaphysical place called Gehenna, or hell fire. Hell, then, is the absolute withdrawal of God from men. Life without God, the Light of the world, is hell! One of the common words used to describe it in the Bible is “darkness.” And it is a place where God’s wrath will be poured out on all unrighteousness. The Bible speaks a lot about the permanence of hell. The word for unending in Greek is aioonios. There is not one single instance where it means temporary or lasting only for a period of time. Another similar expression is forever and ever (eis aioonas aioonoon). It is used in reference to Christ and of God’s existence, the unending bliss of the faithful, and the unending punishment of the wicked.

God has total power over Gehenna; Satan does not. He originally created Gehenna for the devil and his angels, not for mankind. However, when people willfully reject God’s love and refuse to let Him be their Father, they become children of the Devil (1 John 3:10) and are destined for the same eternal end that awaits Satan. In some way, the resurrection body of the unrighteous will be able to experience torment, pain, and anguish. No one is in Gehenna now because all the activity surrounding it takes place in the future. For now, all the unrighteous are in “torment,” or a temporary hell (Luke 16:19–31). The first ones to occupy Gehenna will be the Beast and the False Prophet, and then the Devil a thousand years later. But be assured that when Satan goes to hell, he will do so as hell’s greatest prisoner—not as its chief proprietor. The second group will be the unrighteous from the Great White Throne Judgment who were not recorded in the Book of Life. Finally, Death and Hades/Torment will be thrown into the lake of fire. Let me close with a popular question: “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” One should respond, “How could God be loving if He denied us the freedom to choose an alternative to heaven?” So, at physical death, God only ratifies man’s choices. In hell, there will be no complaint of injustice because God’s judgments are both right and righteous. The existence of hell, then, is proof of God’s love—not a contradiction of it.

Heaven and Eternal Life “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4 The Bible divides the life of man into three stages: the period from birth to death in a physical body and a physical world; between death and resurrection, which is a life without a physical or glorified body; and the final, or eternal, state in the resurrected, glorified body. No believer has entered the eternal heaven yet, just as no unbeliever has entered the eternal hell yet. Man cannot attain eternal life through any means. It is a free gift of grace (Ephesians 2:8–9). This knowledge comes only through Christ. The unrighteous cannot receive it, and the believer can never lose it. Eternal life guarantees heaven for the believer immediately at death and, ultimately, eternal heaven after the first resurrection. There are three heavens. The first is the atmospheric heaven. It is the location of the sun, moon, stars, and heavenly bodies. (Genesis 1:14–18). The second heaven is the heavenly kingdom of Satan. This is a spiritual place, not a physical one, and is the realm of the principalities, powers, world rulers of this present darkness, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). Satan was thrown down to this sphere after he tried to ascend into the highest heaven and supplant God. The third heaven is the highest heaven. It is the dwelling place of God (Deuteronomy 10:14). It is the location of God’s throne and the dwelling place of His angels. It is also where Christ sat down at the Father’s right hand, where we are seated with Him in the heavenly place, and where

He intercedes for us. This is where the believer is to lay up their treasure, where his affection is to be, and where he will be rewarded with his imperishable and undefiled inheritance. He or she will receive their crowns there, and there will be degrees of rewards. Because the eternal heaven is indescribable and incomprehensible, God could not give us anything but general characteristics of heaven. What He did tell us about it should totally excite the spirit with joyful anticipation concerning the things God has prepared for those who love Him. It is a place/state filled with the glory of God and His joy because none of the things that cause unhappiness on earth can enter there. It is a place/state of blessedness and rest and intense pleasure. There will be no more tears or pain, no more sickness or death, and no hunger or thirst. We will be satisfied with the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. There will be no sun or heat or night. After all, sleep is to restore tired bodies, and our glorified bodies will never get tired. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no marriage, because the fulfillment of marriage will take place in the marriage of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9); no temple, because God and Christ are the temple. Finally, there will be no sun or moon, because the Lamb is the Light. God is populating heaven from every group of people He has ever created, and they will all be around the throne glorifying Him. They will have been purchased with the blood of Christ and will be standing before the throne!

What Time Is It? From Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. 1 Chronicles 12:32a If you are an adult, you know how to tell time. You can read your watch as surely as you can read these words. We have clocks everywhere: on our walls, TVs, radios, cell phones, and computers. When it comes to time, the most important question of all is this: Do you know what time it is from God’s perspective? You see, the Bible is God’s clock. It is His timepiece. The Scriptures, especially the prophetic passages, are His revelation about time. Since God created time and exists outside of our human time capsule, the Bible reveals time from the vantage point of eternity. It tells eternal time and not just temporal time. Obviously, then, it is only when we understand what time it is from God’s perspective that we will be able to be like the men of Issachar. It is only when we properly understand the times that we will know the proper course of action to take. If we wrongly interpret time, we will wrongly invest our lives. In the Bible there are two primary words used to describe time. The first biblical word is chronos. It primarily means a period of time, duration of time, segment of time, or moment in time, whether short or long. Chronos time is measured by clocks and calendars. From the human perspective, there can be no more important word than chronos. It represents the very essence of our lives. In one real sense, it is what will one day define each of our lives. Therefore, chronos has both temporal and eternal significance. But there is another word for time in the Bible that is even more important than chronos. It is kairos. While chronos refers to a quantity of time,

kairos refers to a quality of time. It usually means a particular point of time, the right moment, a special time, or a special season. You might think of it as the divine time measured by the watch that God wears on His arm—a significant timepiece indeed! It is God’s sovereign kairos that determines our chronos. That’s why the Bible reminds us: “My times are in Your hands” (Psalm 31:15). What time is it? It is time to synchronize your watch with God’s! It is time to adjust your chronos to His kairos! I’ll leave with you a challenging, anonymous poem entitled “God’s Minute”: I’ve only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, I can’t refuse it, I didn’t seek it, I didn’t choose it. I must suffer if I lose it; Give an account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute, But eternity is in it. So, saint of God, it is the time for salvation, sanctification, service, and stewardship! It is time to wake up, get up, stand up, lift up, look up, speak up, and give up—all for His Kingdom and glory!