Ruined by Prosperity.

Photo by:Georges Jansoone (JoJan) 

" There are more men ruined by prosperity than by adversity. If we had our own way in life, before this we would have been impersonations of selfishness and worldliness and disgusting sin, and puffed up until we would have been like Julius Cæsar, who was made by sycophants to believe that he was divine, and the freckles on his face were as the stars of the firmament."

"It was out of Dante's suffering came the sublime "Divina Commedia," and out of John Milton's blindness came "Paradise Lost," and out of miserable infidel attack came the "Bridgewater Treatise" in favor of Christianity, and out of David's exile came the songs of consolation, and out of the sufferings of Christ came the possibility of the world's redemption, and out of your bereavement, your persecution, your poverties, your misfortunes, may yet come an eternal heaven."

New Tabernacle Sermons: T. De Witt Talmage

I remember hearing a sermon where the preacher said, "If you are a Christian, you will be happy all the time." I thought, "He has never suffered a great loss." Even Jesus wasn't happy all the time. And we have this comfort, that if we never suffered we would be hard-hearted. We would think about people, "Why can't they just pull themselves up by their bootstraps? I can do it, why can't they?

Prosperity ruined Solomon and King Saul. David fell into adultery and murder when he was prosperous. Joseph did better. He was righteous in slavery, in jail and in a palace sitting next to Pharoah. Sometimes God tests us in prosperity and in suffering. Let us pray we will all pass these tests.

Our Champion Jesus.

Photo by Harry Kossuth

Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, proclaiming victory, mighty to save."
 Isaiah 63:1

 Who is this? Jesus - mighty to save!

"Blessed be God, we have a Champion! He is so styled in the Bible: A Champion who has conquered death and hell, and he is ready to fight all our battles from the first to the last. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, mighty to save?" If we follow in the wake of that Champion death has no power and the grave no victory. The worst man trusting in Him shall have his dying pangs alleviated and his future illumined."
New Tabernacle Sermons: T. De Witt Talmage

The Conflict Within.

These first paragraphs are written by Charles Spurgeon, 1862.

"About five days after I first found Christ, when my joy had been such that I could have danced for very mirth at the thought that Christ was mine, on a sudden I fell into a sad fit of despondency. 

I will tell you why. When I first believed in Christ, I am not sure that I thought the devil was dead, but certainly I had a kind of notion that he was so mortally wounded he could not disturb me. And then I certainly fancied that the corruption of my nature had received its death blow. I felt persuaded that it would never sprout again. I was going to be perfect—I fully calculated upon it—and lo, I found an intruder I had not reckoned upon, an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. 

So I went to that same Primitive Methodist chapel where I first received peace with God, through the simple preaching of the Word. The text happened to be ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’  (Romans 7:24)

‘There,’ I thought ‘that’s a text for me.’ I had got as far as that—in the middle of that very sentiment—when the minister began by saying, ‘Paul was not a believer when he said this.’ Well now I knew I was a believer, and it seemed to me from the context that Paul must have been a believer too. Now I am sure he was."

My husband told me when he first became a Christian he thought he would never sin again - until he grabbed a guy around the throat. He said he realized then that he wasn't perfect and needed God's help. 

Let us not become discouraged by our sinfulness. It keeps us humble and makes us see how much we need God to live a good life. When we fall, pray, pray, pray. The Lord will change us.

Politics and the State of the World.

We are not kings, we are not senators. Let us beware lest, while we torture ourselves in vain about the state of Europe, we neglect either Verona or Oxford.

In the poor man who knocks at my door, in my ailing mother, in the young man who seeks my advice, the Lord Himself is present: therefore let us wash His feet.

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II

Many Christians worry about their nation being too sinful for God to abide any longer. Many worry about those who fight against Christianity. But I don't remember there being a verse in the Bible telling us to worry about that. 

We should do good where we are planted and leave the rest with God. He is big enough to take on atheists and, in fact, the whole world. We should pray for our leaders and then help everyone we can who is in corner of the world.

"Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 82:3,4

"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17

God Can Do Anything.

"So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty."  Zechariah 4:6

God said this to encourage Zerubbabel in his building of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem.

Pulpit Commentary
 "Doubtless Zerubbabel was dispirited when he thought how much there was to do, how feeble the means at his disposal (Nehemiah 4:2), and how formidable the opposition; and nothing could better reassure him than the promise of Divine aid."

 "What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it! God bless it!'" Zechariah 4:7

God says he will level mighty mountains for us. Not by our power or might but by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

God has leveled mountains of difficulty for me and He will do it for everyone. 

"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"  Jeremiah 32:27

In our prayers we need to believe God can do anything but also say with Jesus, when he asked to not have to go to the cross, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42

Persecution of Christians by Christians.

I recently read about Quakers and how they were treated by fellow Christians. I think this can be a warning against the unity of church & state. Freedom of religion is one of the greatest freedoms we have. 

Quakers:

George Fox (1624-1691), began a four year journey throughout England in the mid 1600s, seeking answers to his spiritual questions. Disappointed with the answers he received from religious leaders, he felt an inner call to become an itinerant preacher. Fox's meetings were radically different from orthodox Christianity: silent meditation, with no music, rituals, or creeds.

Fox's movement ran afoul of Oliver Cromwell's Puritan government, as well as that of Charles II, when the monarchy was restored. Fox's followers, called Friends, refused to pay tithes to the state church, would not take oaths in court, declined to doff their hats to those in power, and refused to serve in combat during war. Further, Fox and his followers fought for the end of slavery and more humane treatment of criminals, both unpopular stands.

Once, when hauled before a judge, Fox chided the jurist to "tremble before the word of the Lord." The judge mocked Fox, calling him a "quaker," and the nickname stuck. Quakers were persecuted across England, and hundreds died in jail.

Quakers History in the New World

Quakers fared no better in the American colonies. Colonists who worshiped in the establishedChristian denominations considered Quakers heretics. Friends were deported, imprisoned, and hanged as witches.

Eventually they found a haven in Rhode Island, which decreed religious tolerance. William Penn (1644-1718), a prominent Quaker, received a large land grant in payment for a debt the crown owed his family. Penn founded Pennsylvania colony and worked Quaker beliefs into its government. Quakerism flourished there.

Over the years, Quakers became more accepted, and were actually admired for their honesty and simple living. That changed during the American Revolution, when Quakers refused to pay military taxes or fight in the war. Some Quakers were exiled because of that position.

In the early 19th century, Quakers rallied against the social abuses of the day: slavery, poverty, horrible prison conditions, and mistreatment of Native Americans. Quakers were instrumental in the Underground Railroad, a secret organization that helped escaped slaves find freedom before the Civil War.

http://christianity.about.com/od/quakers/a/quakershistory.htm

In England as well as in a number of American colonies the Quakers faced violent persecution. Some 15,000 Quakers were jailed in England between 1660 and 1685. In 1660, Edward Burrough catalogued the maltreatment of Quakers in New England: 64 Quakers had been imprisoned; two Quakers lashed 139 times, leaving one "beat like into a jelly"; another branded with the letter H, for heretic, after being whipped with 39 stripes; and three Quakers had been executed.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=94

Loving Irritating Christians.

A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed. 

I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. 

In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner. 

That is a blessed discovery for the Christian who is beginning to offer intercessory prayer for others. As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer. 

Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

http://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-day-journey-dietrich-bonhoeffer/2012/12/08

It is true you can no longer dislike someone you are praying for. I guess that is why Jesus told us to pray for our enemies. Praying for them changes our hearts.

"But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!

In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike." Matthew 5:44,45