Alpha Film Series continues on Friday. This week we are covering Jesus: Who is He? It will be fantastic. You do not want to miss out on this. Also, remember that YouthFusion will be moving to Saturdays, starting next week.
Please feel free to send us an email (lifepoint@sasktel.net) or comment on this blog post or send us a message on Facebook. We would be glad to pray with you this week for your situation.
Remember your prayer has impact in this world and in the heavenlies. So pray with Joy!
Here is a great and insiteful essay written by George O. Wood (general superintendent of the Assemblies of God.) I was greatly challenged and encouraged in it.
Saying Goodbye to Hurt, Hello to Healing: Part 2 In her autobiography, Something More, the late Catherine
Marshall tells the story of her stepdaughter, Linda. Catherine married
Linda’s widowed father when Linda was 12.
In Linda’s early
adolescence, her behavior and grades seesawed wildly. After leaving high
school, Linda joined the 1960s generation of rebellion. Catherine did
not succeed in her attempts to establish a warm relationship.
One
day Catherine read Jesus’ words from the King James Version about having
aughts against another. She learned if you did not forgive those
aughts, God would not forgive your own aughts (Mark 11:25). She filled
her journal with three pages of specific aughts she had against Linda
and forgave each one.
In a matter of weeks, Linda’s attitude
toward her stepmother began to dramatically change. Catherine had
learned a powerful lesson from Jesus: We must not retain wrongs.
On
the cross Jesus did not clench His nail-pierced hands into a fist and
yell, “I’ll get even with you for this.” Instead, He opened His hands
and cried, “Father, forgive.”
A concentration camp survivor said,
“My heart is so bitter that if you were to open me and lick my heart you
would die of poison.” What does your heart look like?
Someone
said getting even with another person for the wrong he has done is like
throwing a cactus. When the cactus hits him, he will hurt; but you will
hurt your own hands in the process.
How To Forgive
Unforgiveness has a high cost, but how does one proceed in forgiveness? Allow me to suggest three steps. First, re-evaluate.
Several
years ago I watched a motivational film that recorded a scientific
experiment done on a northern pike, a cold-water fish found in the north
central United States.
The scientist placed the fish in a glass
tank filled with water and denied it food. Next, he placed a glass
cylinder containing minnows — the pike’s favorite food — in the center
of the tank. The pike could not detect the glass that stood between him
and dinner. He backed up and charged for the kill. Smash! Smash! Smash!
After
several unsuccessful attempts, he finally stopped. The scientist then
removed the glass cylinder. Minnows swam throughout the tank, even up to
the pike’s nose. He never stirred. He remained quiet and beaten, and he
died. He died because he did not re-evaluate the changing situation.
The same thing can happen to pastors. They get hurt and find it hard to trust again. Understandable.
Re-evaluation,
however, must be ongoing in the journey of life. If the apostle Paul
had not re-evaluated John Mark, we would not have the second Gospel. Second, repent.
The
great preacher Clarence Macartney told this story about Leonardo da
Vinci. The story itself may not be true, but it well illustrates a
point.
Just before da Vinci began work on his famous fresco, The
Last Supper, he quarreled violently with a fellow painter. Da Vinci was
so enraged and bitter he determined that when he painted Judas, he would
model Judas’ face after the face of his enemy. He would get revenge as
future generations looked on Judas’ face with scorn and infamy. The face
of Judas was one of the first he finished, and everyone easily
recognized it as the face of the painter with whom he had quarreled.
The
last face da Vinci needed to paint was that of Christ; however, he made
no progress. Something baffled him, held him back, and frustrated his
best efforts.
He concluded that the one thing that hindered him
was the fact he had used his enemy’s face when painting Judas. He took
his brush and gave Judas a new face. With ease, he then finished the
face of Christ.
A pastor cannot paint the features of Christ into
his own life while painting the face of another with colors of enmity
and hatred.
Repentance means to change your mind. Some call
repentance the first word of the gospel because it was the message of
John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2), Jesus (Matthew 4:17), the Twelve (Mark
6:12), Jesus after His resurrection (Luke 24:47), Peter (Acts 2:38), and
Paul (Acts 26:20).
Repentance is unilateral. It does not, therefore, wait for another person to first repent.
Furthermore,
repentance has nothing to do with one’s feelings. It involves a mindset
change that brings different behavior. Jesus describes in the Sermon on
the Mount how we are to treat our enemy: We are to bless him, go the
extra mile, turn the other cheek, pray for him, and forgive him. None of
these actions require our enemy to do a single thing. All address our
behavior.
If a pastor waits until he has the right feelings, he
may never forgive. The Lord calls us to repent if we have any attitude
unlike His.
Third, redeem.
Goldie Bristol wrote a book entitled, These Tears Are for Diane.
A man raped and murdered her 21-year-old daughter. Police found the
perpetrator, and a jury sentenced him to a double-life term.
Five
years later Goldie and her husband Bob concluded, “We can see no other
purpose for his coming into our lives if there is no possibility that he
will be saved.”
They wrote him a letter — not condoning the crime
— but expressing their concern and God’s for him. After two more
letters, they received a reply. The man said he had not realized there
were people in the world anywhere who could place their concern for him
above their own hurt.
“What good does it do to hate?” Goldie
asked. Hate could not bring her daughter back; it would only spread the
poison of anger and unforgiveness in her own life, and it would not have
any effect on her daughter’s killer.
Goldie wrote: “The
dictionary associates malice with malignancy — it eats and consumes and
finally destroys. If I allow it to take hold in my life, I am anything
but a free person. The very tool I would use to get even is the one that
would chain me. Only God is able to handle this kind of treachery in
our lives and release us from the entrapment. So the decision is mine. I
either carry anger, unforgiveness, and resentment around with me, and
break under the load, or hand it over to my Heavenly Father who can bear
the weight.”
Goldie’s insight is not new. Stephen knew the power
of redemptive forgiveness when “he fell on his knees and cried out,
‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’ ” (Acts 7:60). Ultimately,
Stephen’s prayer resulted in Saul’s conversion.
This Friday at 7PM, YouthFusion is starting the Youth Alpha Series. It is 12 weeks, looking at some of life's toughest questions. We are really excited about this. Click here to see a promo video for the course.
Jennifer LeClaire ( she is a news editor at Charisma Magazine). Please read it and comment of what you think...
When you are living in covenant with God, you can stand on the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. One of them deals specifically with spiritual warfare:
“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated
before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee
before you seven ways” (Deuteronomy 28:7).
In past columns, I’ve explored how to discern demonic strategies against your life, how to break free from the enemy’s stranglehold,what Satan doesn’t want you to know about spiritual warfare, why we don’t really need to scream at the devil, one question every believer should ask before engaging in spiritual warfare, and why the devil sometimes seemingly won’t flee when you resist him.
But
let’s go back to the covenant blessing. See, God has promised us that
He will cause our enemies who rise against us to be defeated before our
faces. He declared that they shall come out against us 1 way and flee
before us 7 ways. But, as you’ll discover if you read any of my past
columns, we can get in the way of our blessing and leave room for the
enemy to stand in our faces rather than fleeing seven ways. With that in
mind, here are 7 ways to make the devil flee 7 ways.
1. Diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God. In
order to see this blessed promise come to pass in your life, you need
to understand it in context. Deuteronomy 28:1 clearly states, “Now it
shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your
God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you
today…” This is your foundation. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect. We
cannot keep the law, that’s why Jesus came to pay the price of
our sin. But we should be seeking perfect obedience. We should
diligently listen to God’s voice and obey what He tells us by His Spirit
and in His Word. This alone would cause many devils to run for the
hills.
2. Repent before you engage in battle. We
have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23).
There are sins of commission and sins of omission. Many of us think
wrong thoughts, say wrong words or take wrong actions over the course of
the day. That means we are not fully obeying the voice of the Lord our
God. When that’s the case, we need to repent so we aren’t standing on
common ground with the enemy. It’s difficult to defeat an enemy that
already has you in a corner. Repent for any known sin and run to the
battle line!
3. Know that God is on your side. In Exodus 15:3, the children of Israel knew where they stood and where God stood. After the great deliverance from
Egypt, they declared in song, “The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is
His name.” They knew that, “The Lord shall go forth like a mighty
man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes,
shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies” (Isaiah 42:13). They
knew that the battle belongs to the Lord (1 Sam. 17:47). They
understood that they were God’s battle-ax and weapons of war (see Jer.
51:20).
4. War from a position of victory. When
Goliath challenged the army of Israel, the soldiers were scared witless
of the Philistine champion. But David was a covenant man and he
understood that victory belonged to Him in God. As believers, we war
from a position of victory, knowing that God always leads us in triumph
in Christ (see 2 Cor. 2:14). We are more than conquerors through Him who
loved us (see Rom. 8:37). And if God is for us, then who can be against
us? (see Rom. 8:31)
5. Praise your way through. In
the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:2, the children of Israel sang a song to
the Lord that went something like this: “The Lord is my strength and
song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise
Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.” Of course, that was after
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. If you want to make the devil
flee, praise God before you engage in battle. Praise brought down the
walls at Jericho (see Joshua 6) and praise gave Jehoshaphat victory in
battle: “Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set
ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come
against Judah; and they were defeated” (2 Chron. 20:22).
6. Take up your armor. We
all know God has given us His armor, as outlined in Ephesians 6. But
how many of us actually put it on before running to the battle line? Get
a revelation of the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness,
the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and
the Sword of the spirit. Take some time to understand what this really
means as part of your covenant with God. Satan cannot defeat the
obedient soldier of God who is armored up and ready to fight. He’ll
likely flee toward someone who is undressed, unrepentant, or uninformed
about our covenant.
7. Pray always and be watchful. At
least half the battle is being on the offense—and that demands
discernment. There’s an oft-overlooked instruction in Ephesians 6 that
allows your spiritual warfare to transcend space and time:
“praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being
watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the
saints” (Eph. 6:18). The enemy is less likely to pounce on the one who
is prayerful and watchful because that one is in communion with the Holy
Spirit, a power which no foe can withstand.
So
go forth, spiritual warrior, with praise in your heart and prayer on
your lips, dressed for battle. The battle belongs to the Lord and the
devil will flee seven ways.
