Victory in Jesus

I wonder if anyone else ever feels this way. Sometimes I get a little discouraged. Sometimes I feel like the whole world is a New England Patriot and I am just a Miami Dolphin. (And I’m not talking about the ’72 Dolphins!)

My apologies to those of you out there who are not fans of professional football.

Sometimes I feel like I am in a battle and the score is Discouragement – 21 and Kevin – 0. And Discouragement has the ball on the 3 yard line. But then I read I something like:

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I Corinthians 15:57 NCV

or:

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.

I John 5:4 NCV

We have just come through the season that celebrates the long awaited Messiah. The score was Roman Empire – 35 and Jewish People – 3 (to keep using my football metaphor.) Yet Scriptures like the ones above point to ward a time when we have ultimate victory over discouragement, sin, death and hell. We overcome through the power of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist made that proclamation and promise a central theme in his ministry. Just re-read Matthew 3:11 and other Gospel accounts of John’s ministry.

So the score can be misleading. 21 – 0 doesn’t tell the whole story. The game is far from over. Satan must have thought it was a blow-out that Thursday and Friday before Easter!

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood's atoning,
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory.

I heard about His healing,
Of His cleansing pow'r revealing.
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus,
Come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and bro't
To me the victory.

I heard about a mansion
He has built for me in glory.
And I heard about the streets of gold
Beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing,
And the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I'll sing up there
The song of victory.

O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

Victory in Jesus by E.M Bartlett

Three Quotes to Ponder

Here are three quotes that I came across recently. Actually, I only came across the first one recently. The other two I have known for quite some time.
Here they are and I am looking for some responses or thoughts from anyone who reads them.

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”

Ernest Hemingway

“He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Jim Elliot

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.”

Philippians 4:11


Are there any common threads that run through them?

Is Hemingway somehow voicing a Spiritual principle?

What is our response to the goal of health, wealth and happiness that is so common in society?

What are your thoughts on these quotes?

What do they say to you about the life of holiness?

I Love My GPS!

One of the neatest gadgets that I have seen in a very long time is the portable GPS. GPS stands for global positioning satellites and it is some very cool technology developed by the U.S. military. I got one for my car a while ago. It audibly speaks the directions to my destination. It tells me “Turn left on Polk Street in 500 yards.”

The voice is a nice female with a British accent. I have named her “Jill”. I like mine so much that we bought our kids each one for Christmas. They are way cool. Jill tells me how to get to where I want to go in a turn by turn fashion. And if I want to take a different route, then I just hit the “Detour” button and Jill reroutes me in an instant. If I want to find a gas station, Jill guides me there. If I need to find a restaurant, Jill knows the way.

I also like maps. I like all kinds of maps. Before I got “Jill” I would faithfully print out a Yahoo map or Google map before any excursion. I even printed one out when I was just driving across town. Before that I would go down to the local AAA office and get a TripTik before any family vacation. The point is, I like to know where I am going on any trip. I even want to plan the route myself ahead of time.

Contrast that with Jesus’ call to His disciples in Matthew 4:19. It is a simple call. “Come, follow me.” And Peter and Andrew did just that! Jesus did not sit them down, discuss potential possibilities, lay out a plan, draw up a map and then present it all to them. In fact, they didn’t even have time to put away their nets. James and John were pretty much the same way.

What would I have done in that situation? Of course I like to think that I would have left it all and followed Jesus, right? In fact I am pretty sure I would have followed Jesus…eventually. I mean I would have showed up at some point after I went home and discussed it all with my friends, made a plan and drew up a map.

But that “immediately” part is real hard for me. I am the kind of person that wants a plan and a map to follow ahead of time.

Jesus says “Follow me”.

He doesn’t have the map.

He IS the map.

He is the God Positioning System.

Jesus, Savior, pilot me,
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treach’rous shoal;
Chart and compass came from Thee:
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
‘Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
May I hear Thee say to me,
“Fear not, I will pilot thee.”

Jesus, Savior, pilot me by Edward Hopper

Hills and Valleys

Many of you are aware that I am in an accountability relationship with my best friend Dave. I am holding him accountable for, among other things, Spiritual journaling. To that end, I have begun the same practice and Spiritual discipline. And during my quiet time today I was reading the Deuteronomy account of Moses charge to the people about their relationship with God and the Promised Land.

Here is the passage:

Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today — to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul — then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow — to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him — then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea. No man will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse — the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.
As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal. You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

Deuteronomy 11:8-32 NIV

What stood out to me was the description of the land. “But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.” That got me to think. And a question formed in my wee little brain.

What is the purpose of the hills and valleys?

In this passage they are to show the stark difference between the flat land of Egypt where the crops were watered by the overflowing of the Nile River or by labor intensive irrigation systems and the Land of Canaan where water fell from Heaven and flowed down the hills and valleys and onto the land. They were also a barrier of protection for the Children of God. And they were to be used for purposes of worship. But I believe that there is a metaphor here and it is a metaphor for the Spiritual life.

If we accept that our Spiritual life is journey, then we see the significance of the hills and valleys. We view every mountain as a hardship to climb and every valley as something that we must rise above and come out into the sun soaked plains. No one wants to carry a heavy burden up a steep slope. In fact, very few of us will ever see the great vistas that the mountain tops provide because we are unwilling to place foot after foot and climb to the top. Many times human nature has us looking up at the mountains and we stare in awe without ever knowing what it is like to look down from up high.

But the hills and valleys have a Spiritual purpose. They save us from the dullness of the plateau. They difficulty of climbing the hills and valleys drives us to Throne of Grace. We reach the end of our own strength and resources only to find that there are vast untapped resources from our Heavenly Father that gives us the strength we need to carry on.

The Psalmist David said it this way:

“I lift up my eyes to the hills — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

Psalm 121:1-4 NIV

As I look forward to the new year, I take courage from these passages.