Opposing The Darkness

War is horrible! Any war! There is another idiom which people often use to describe war, but I will not avail myself of it at this time! Whether it's a war for independence or a war for a nations freedom, or even a war against domestic violence, every war is waged with the notion of winning it! Neither side is out to lose and for Christians, the 'spiritual' war is no different!  As followers of Christ, we are engaged in this spiritual warfare every moment of every day, without exception! Satan does not take 'breaks' or call for a cease-fire! Instead, he wages his side of the war with a relentless ferocity which has no retreat!  The enemy is consistent and so must we be as well! As it has been previously stated, no one wants to lose the war! Christians must learn to be as virulent and consistent as the devil and his demonic-force, or we are headed for destruction! Tragically, many of our brothers and sisters in the faith have fallen or have been severely injured in this battle by temptation or trials, both of which can and do inflict mortal wounds upon believers that must be dealt with quickly or defeat waits on the horizon! This war, like every other one, is serious and a Christian has to be dressed in full -battle-armour without which he or she will fall! The battlefield in spiritual warfare begins in the mind! The enemy is very adept at planting the wrong type of thought into the mind of a Christian, whether it is one of violence or lust or jealousy, and we usually take it from there and run with it! Satan knows full well our weaknesses and more often than not we let him know all about our areas-of-weakness by telling it out loud so all can hear! The first shots of the war are often 'self inflicted', unfortunately! Because of this horrible mistake, Christians are very quickly put into a disadvantage! But there is encouragement, however, because of the great which every, true, believer-in-Christ has through the person of the Holy Spirit, who resides within us, to be able to get the victory! Once again this is a war which must be fought at every moment and our enemy never sleeps! In God's word we are given the weapons used in our battles, shown in Ephesians 6, that reveals the armour we must be outfitted with and a reminder that the war wages on and on! We are further told in the bible that the "battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness in high places"! It's a spiritual war, as we have already stated! We shouldn't be surprised, really, because Jesus dealt with the enemy on several 'fronts' during his earthly ministry! While the LORD healed the sick and made the lame to walk and the blind to see, he also had to confront demonic forces who had possessed many and he cast them out by his words! These demons had no choice but to surrender to Jesus and obey what he said! Because of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the authority which the LORD Jesus gave each believer we, too, can command the demonic forces of Satan to surrender and leave! However, we should not boast of this fact but we should rest in the power of Jesus' name which brings the victory! The war is ongoing and will continue to be until we are, either, taken away from this temporary life or the rapture (harpazo-Greek) occurs and the LORD returns for his church! In either case, war is horrible and very dangerous, and we are engaged in it whether we want to be or not!

My Anger Struggle: The Questions!

I am perplexed by this life-long struggle with a 'spirit of anger'! It has been a very constant thorn in my side for decades now! I have succumbed to this side of my personality far too many times in my life, from my teens until the present time! It is quite draining on me, taking the strength out of me physically, mentally and emotionally! This ongoing problem has caused a great deal of stress on relationships, especially with my wife and my daughter's over the years! It has even effected co-workers at times! Giving in to a 'quick temper' is labeled as foolish in God's word, and I am certainly aware that I have been very foolish because of this albatross around my neck! I will not offer any excuses for giving in to a raging spirit of anger, but I do acknowledge that there is a very real problem here! I have been under months of counselling for it but there has been little breakthrough! I am overcome with questions as to why the anger wells in me so readily! The bible is the best recourse for any of life's challenges and mine are no different! I realize, as well, that many people, more often men than women, have this same challenging situation as me and they, too, are asking the same, pointed question....why?  Through much prayer, fasting and thanksgiving to God seems to be the 'way to victory' and I am more-than-ready to avail myself of this solution!

At The End Of The Day

  When you wake up each morning, what is your goal or your purpose? Why do you get up and go to that job, that office, that arena or ball-park, why do you do it? Each of us must realize what our motives are and the reason we are involved in a 'routine'! Motives can be deceptive and they can look like something their not! For example, if we have a desire to do something 'meaningful' but you go into it with mixed-emotions, your only halfway committed, so you 'fake it's! What was your true motive in that moment? Desire or necessity?  We can fool ourselves into thinking our reason for doing something is noble and deserving of respect, but we could be very wrong! It's vital for us to know, beforehand, what our motives are to accomplish the task at hand!

Whether it's your marriage, your children or for yourself, at the end of the day, it truly matters to you and to everyone around you why you did what you did and what keeps you going until you reach that desired mark! The only requirement is to be absolutely honest with yourself, first, and to everyone else second!  You decide!

Unreasonable Anger

   An angry man impacts much more than just himself! His angry disposition brings an impacting atmosphere all around him! His friends, family and by-standers feel the impact as well. His anger brings a threatening aspect to the atmosphere as well! Anger is draining too! It zaps us all of our natural strength and resolve to the point of affecting our mental thought-process! When we are angry, we make pointed evaluations about what has happened in a certain situation! We often blame others for our situations rather than putting aside the circumstance and going on about our more pleasant business.

The answers we come up with when angry often are strongly biased! It many times shapes our thoughts about others. The way we see it from our point of view, instead of the actual way it may be,

we blame and take things personal! When we personalize a situation, such as road rage, we often end up appearing threatening and could end up causing much more damage than anticipated! We become threatened and react as the victim!

Assumptions get us all into major trouble most of the time! Instead of looking at the circumstance as

being just an accident as we ought to do. There is way too much anger, rage and blaming going on in this world today. From the centuries-long mid-east scuffles and hatred to the present-day sibling rivalries which can split a family apart. The point here is that when we form opinions about others we often do so in error!

Another situation which can come is that we end up criticizing ourselves over an incident, perhaps a repeated habit or situation....."why did I do such as a stupid thing like that".  "whats wrong with me"?

And that can lead to depression which lies deep within us! Not a good thing! Anger is associated with feelings of 'certainty', according to research! If we feel certain about something, it usually comes to pass!

For a certainty, anger is a disabling emotion, not a strength or a right motive for any situation! So lets begin today, right now, to forgive and let go of falsely-placed blames.

jeff pendleton

6/16/17

Star Trek TNG Theme Boston Pops Orchestra

Our Fight Is Not Againt Us

  Spiritual warfare is a very real thing!  Most often we engage in this warfare without being aware of what it is!  According to Ephesians 6;12, "our fight is NOT against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers against the rulers of this dark world, against demonic forces in the heavenly places". That means that within the powers of this world their are wicked forces pulling the strings behind politics and finances attempting to manifest their control over our lives!

What we often do, rather, is fight among ourselves! Since we are all made of flesh and blood, that's the intention of the powers that be to stir up as much hatred, fighting and mischief among ourselves that their job is won. Or so it appears! Within the pages of scripture is the formula and the clear warning of our fight and how to win it!

Throughout mans long history there have been wars and exterminations of whole peoples by falsely accusations and unprovoked provocations! These confrontations have been fueled by the unseen hands of the demonic forces in the heavenlies. They stop at nothing, apart from the power of the holy spirit and the permissive will of God, to try and destroy God's creation, mankind!

What we need to understand and get hold of is the fact that our fight is not against each other but it is against them. We have all the armor and weapons we need to fight against every temptation they through at us within the holy scriptures. Ephesians 6 is a chapter full of descriptions and instructions on our warfare battles and how to 'stand against the schemes of the devil"! We can not win this battle in our own strength. In fact, we have none!

So, in this short message, it is my hope that this will help someone to learn that through prayer and the covering of the armor of the holy spirit, we can be victorious in our lives.

jeff pendleton

6/6/17

Trusting God's Character

  There are times when God will ask us to 'step out' on faith and do something that seems unreasonable or that doesn't make sense! The world calls that, "a leap of faith" but its actually no leap at all! It's 'baby-step' of faith!All it takes is putting one foot in front of the other and you begin the

task.

It takes faith in God to accomplish anything for his kingdom, anything at all! Where is our faith placed? It is squarely placed in the character of God! It is in the fact that God will keep his word and

be faithful in what he says! You won't have to doubt when God tells you something! We can trust him him fully with all our heart!

This is part of the character of God, keeping his word as he has stated it to be. He is faithful and can

never lie to us. Truthfullness is another of the points of Gods character! There is no other that we can put our absolute trust in than in the mighty character of the most high God!

So if you are impressed by the Holy Spirit to do a thing for God, you must first put faith to action.

Take 'baby-steps', a we stated before and then hit full stride! Full stride is when you have abandoned

all reason and give it over to the act of faith! That's not believing it before you see it, exactly, its

obeying God because you know he is truthful!

Paul states in the book of James..."faith without works is dead"! That means that we have to put feet to belief. If we hesitate, we really don't believe God or his word! So when the LORD says, "I want you to do this", can we truly trust his character that it will work out as he has said? Yes, we can!

In fact, much of what is said in God's word doesn't make sense, natural sense anyway! But the bible is a 'supernatural' book and full of the acts of God that are strange to a natural creation and seem odd to us. It makes absolute sense to the 'spiritual' man, indeed! After all, Jesus walked on water, raised the dead to life again, put a coin in a fishes mouth in order to pay tribute to Ceaser and caused a donkey to speak. Now that's supernatural!

If we are going to do anything worth doing for God, we have to risk everything in the natural and it's just that simple. When we are obedient to Jesus Christ we then find out what he ask us to do makes total, common sense.

The world will hate us but God will elevate us in our faith.

jeff pendleton

6/1/17