God Hates Cowardice, Proverbs 25:26

Buddy is nearly always at my heels. He doesn’t seem to fear that I’ll drop something on him or step on him. He believes that it’s to his benefit to be near me. Or else he’s just extremely curious and needs to keep an eye on what I’m up to.

Cowardice appears to be a big problem in our society. Too many Christians rationalize being passive or not taking a stand. They don’t seem to realize that cowardice is a sin.

“Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who” gives way before the wicked.” Proverbs 25:26

“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9

I don’t believe that Jesus, when He asked His disciples to “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39), He intended men to stand by while the Communists raped their wives during the Russian Revolution. Or to remain silent when anarchist groups are declaring that white statues of Jesus should be destroyed or churches set ablaze. The two proverbs above make it clear that God intends for us to stand up against evil and not let it prevail.

If you disagree, let’s also look to the New Testament:

“But for the COWARDLY and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolators and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death,” Jesus tells the Apostle John in Revelation 21:8 (emphasis mine). Please note that not only are cowards the first on Christ’s mind on the list of persons to go into eternal punishment, but are also considered as bad as murderers, etc.

I meet too many “suitcase Christians” who are packed and waiting for Christ to return and rescue them from evil or masochistic, fatalistic Christians who presume that our culture will go from bad to worse because we’re in the End Times. So the latter create self-fulfilling prophecy, not expending their energies to impact our culture for Christ and for good because it’s all going to Hell anyway.

Christians believed that Hitler was the anti-Christ. He rose to power in the 1930s. How many lives would have been saved if the Church had stood against his anti-semitism early in his political career? Even Mussolini hated Hitler for giving Fascism a bad name with his race-based National Socialism (though later aligning with him politically).

I’m not saying that I am free from cowardice. There are several occasions when I should’ve overcome my fear of starting an argument and stood up for Christ when I was outnumbered. But I am working hard at trying to be more courageous.

The apostle Paul told Timothy that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Revelation 21:8 lists unbelief as one characteristic of those who are going into the lake of fire. The opposite of fear is faith: the more faith and trust in God a person has, the less fear and vice versa; they cannot coexist.

We live in a time in the USA (and other nations) when people are openly hostile to Christians and Christianity; Satan is the prince of this world (Ephesians 2:2) and is influencing our culture, politics and compromising church for evil. When I am trusting God has my back, I have the faith to step forward and “speak the truth in love” as Apostle Paul commands (Ephesians 4:15).

If you are born again, you have a mighty power working within you, the Holy Spirit, God Himself. God gives us the power to take back territory for His Kingdom. King David clearly had absolute faith that God had his back when he moved against his enemies (which were also God’s enemies):

“For by You (God) I can run upon a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall…He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your help makes me great.” 2 Samuel 22:30, 35-36

David recognized that, as a child of God (His salvation), he could conquer evil.

Don’t let people intimidate you into being silent. YOU ARE A CHILD OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD, THE LORD OF HOSTS, OF ANGEL ARMIES. The Lord Who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Don’t ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit to stand for what is right. Don’t hide away from our ungodly culture, but invade and influence it for good.

You don’t know which souls you may meet in heaven one day because you took courage, trusted God and stepped out in faith when prompted by the Holy Spirit.

Remember, the criticism and opposition you encounter now will pass away; those who oppose you will have to answer to God on Judgment Day. Satan is loud and contentious and angry; he roars like a lion (1 Peter 5:8) and tries to intimidate us into being fearful.

“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus, Matthew 10:28

It’s hard, I know. But God does have our back, for He promises victory:

“I will build My church; and the gates of Hell will not overpower it.” Jesus, Matthew 16:18

God bless you.

Love from Dawn and Buddy

***

If you’ve read the blog post above and realized that you are bound by fear because you haven’t come to faith in Christ, please know that Jesus can help relieve your fears. Now, everyone has a different experience when they become born again: some people are immediately delivered from bondage to whatever is enslaving them and some, like me, have to go through a gradual learning process to get free. So I cannot promise immediate relief from fear, if your life is presently characterized by it. But faith in Christ can remove the fear of death, for Jesus conquered death when He rose from the grave and promises eternal life to His disciples.

If you’d like to begin a journey into freedom, please pray the below.

Dear Lord God, I have offended you by sinning, by deciding right and wrong for myself. It has only given me a life of fear and inner emptiness. I want you to be my Lord and be my Great Shepherd. I want to follow you. Please forgive my sin. I believe that Jesus is the Christ, God in the Flesh (Matthew 1:23) and rose bodily from the grave. I invite the Holy Spirit into my life to give me a new heart that follows You. Thank you for hearing my prayer. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Please find a Bible-based church or Bible Study. Or if you’re confined at home right now, start reading the Bible. It’s best to begin with the first book of the New Testament, Matthew, because it’s easy to understand. There are also many godly ministries on the radio, TV and internet. I highly recommend Dr Charles Stanley’s ministry at http://www.Intouch.org, Dr Michael Youssef at http://www.ltw.org and Pastor Bob Christopher at http://www.BasicGospel.net.

Plucked Out of Satan’s Kingdom, Colossians 1:13-14

Buddy resting peacefully on my bed.

My bed is too high for Buddy to leap up onto by himself, so he sits by the bed and stares at me expectantly. Since he asks, I pick him up so that he can rest.

What most people don’t understand is that there is no spiritually neutral territory: We are all born into Satan’s kingdom. The Lord Jesus claimed that Satan was “the ruler of this world” (John 14:30 and 16:11) and the Apostle Paul referred to the devil as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

No one exists in a neutral zone.

The problem is: Just as Buddy has to ask me to lift him up onto my (our) bed, because it’s impossible for him to reach it on his own, so, too, we must ask Jesus to lift us up out of Satan’s kingdom, because it’s impossible to lift ourselves out.

Jesus came to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

When Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority over their lives, they unwittingly chose to place themselves under Satan’s rule and authority. As a result, all humanity is born separated from God–spiritually dead. As a result of our dead spirits, we are self-willed and act contrary to God’s holy standards. The “soul that sins must die” (Ezekiel 18:20) as punishment for sin. But because God loves His creation, Jesus died for our sins, suffering the punishment we deserve.

What we are doing, when we ask Jesus to forgive our sins and accept His rule and authority, God plucks us out of Satan’s kingdom and makes us one of His children, binding us eternally to Himself. We are no longer under Satan’s authority.

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”–Colossians 1:13-14, Apostle Paul

So where do you prefer to dwell? Continue in the kingdom of darkness?

Or dwell in the kingdom of light?

“This is the message we have heard from Him (Jesus) and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”–Apostle John, 1 John 1:5

***

You may notice, despite all your efforts to distract your heart and mind, that you feel incomplete, that there is an inner emptiness that can never be filled. Made in the image of God, we are meant to be triune beings: body, soul and spirit. The Holy Spirit left humanity when the first couple rejected God’s authority, so we are all missing the Spirit of Life (Romans 8:2): We are all born incomplete. Yielding your life back to God’s authority restores you to the original relationship with God. He is a God of Love (1 John 4:16) and cannot tolerate sin. When we come under the power of the Holy Spirit, He guides us into being more loving people.

Why not ask God to forgive your sin and ask that He become your Lord? Also, request that the Holy Spirit indwell and guide you.

Please find a Bible-based church to grow as a Christian. And begin reading the Bible each day and praying. It is God’s main way of communicating His will to us–and speaking to our hearts.

Power For Living, Ephesians 1:19

Buddy resting after a long trip.

Buddy and I recently drove down HWY101 on our return trip to Arizona. We stopped for a few nights at Seaside, Oregon and then for a night at Gold Beach, Oregon so that Buddy would have some ocean beach time before returning to the desert. The entire trip lasted 6 nights as I avoided I-5.* Apparently, fussing for several days in the car and attempting multiple times to get onto my lap exhausted the little guy; he ran out of energy.

Like many Americans, I celebrated the successful launch of the SpaceX spacecraft, Dragon. Pastor Ben Davis of Hope Fellowship, Maple Valley, Washington compared the rocket that sent the two crew members to the International Space Station to the Holy Spirit: Just as it took a massive amount of power to transport astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley into outer space, so there exists a mighty force to empower the body and soul of the human race.

One of the most vital components of being a Christian was totally unknown to me as an ubeliever: that a person becomes born again when the Holy Spirit indwells their inner being. No one had ever told me what being born again meant, not even the Christians who had tried to convert me. So it was a total shock when the Holy Spirit entered into me after I’d given my life to Christ via a volunteer phone counselor during a Billy Graham Crusade TV program.

God created people to be triune beings: body, soul and His Spirit. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s authority, wanting to be their own gods and decide for themselves what was good and evil (Genesis 3:5-6), God’s Spirit left them. Therefore, all of their offspring–the human race–was, and is, born devoid of God’s presence within their inner being.

There is great power available to transform a person’s life, but they are usually unaware of it.

As I was.

Therefore, the problem with humanity is not that we sin, but that we are sinners.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”–Apostle Paul, Romans 3:23

We are sinners because the human race is separated from God Almighty, who is the source of all life. He created us, gives us a soul and a personality. But we have no spiritual power because we are incomplete, devoid of the Holy Spirit.

I believe that at some point in their lives, every person becomes aware of this inner emptiness, but most try to ignore it or don’t understand why it exists and just limp along, living with the awareness that something is wrong in their soul.

Or attempt to quiet the distress of their souls through “enlightenment” or politics or other compulsive behaviors.

The true cure for this inner emptiness is a relationship with Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the One through Whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16) and Who is our life (Colossians 3:4).

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know…the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”–Apostle Paul, Colossians 1:19

With the help of God, my energy level is improving, despite some chronic health issues. When I choose to forgive, I can literally feel a heavy weight lift off of my mind and soul. Loving, grateful and kind thoughts are slowly pushing out the bitter, selfish and unkind thoughts that once characterized most of my thinking.

Letting go of these heavy anchors of sinful thoughts…

My soul feels lighter!

And like a Dragon, I can soar toward the heavens!

***

Do you want to experience the power of Christ in your life? Please pray this simple prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, I’ve done things that grieve you because I’m spiritually dead. I want to repent of my sinful, unloving and selfish behavior, and invite you to be my Lord and Savior. I believe that Jesus died for my sins, taking the punishment I deserve for my wrongdoing, because you love me and want me to spend eternity with You. You don’t want me to suffer the consequences of dying for my own sins, separated from You, the source of all life and power. Jesus rose bodily from the dead, conquering death and proving that He is God. I humbly ask the Holy Spirit to come into my life and make me a new Creation. Thank you in Jesus’ great name. Amen

Please start reading the Bible daily. Before you begin to read, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into understanding what you are reading and how to apply it to your life. And, if possible, please attend a church or Bible Study where the people truly believe in the Bible. It is much easier to withstand the pull of our ungodly culture when you are not walking alone. If COVID19 is preventing you from going to a church, there are great ministries on YouTube, the TV or radio. I highly recommend Dr Charles Stanley’s ministry at In Touch (www.InTouch.org).

*Sorry to state this but the landscape in Nevada was generally pretty boring. I recommend a different path heading South. It appeared to me that God dumped the rubble from digging out the Grand Canyon into the Nevada desert. (Don’t take me too literally! I’m being a little facetious here!)