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June 2010 DevotionalThe War We Are In
As a result Lucifer (Satan) lost his place in heaven. The confrontation between God and Satan next appeared in the Garden of Eden. We are told in Genesis 3:1-14 about Satan, as the serpent, tempting Adam and Eve into disobeying God and causing all human beings to inherit a sin nature. As a result man is now capable of being used of Satan to oppose God. We know that Satan can only work under the permissive hand of God. In Job 1:6-12 we read what God allowed Satan to do to Job and how Job and his friends reacted. In the book of Revelation 12:4&5 we are made aware of how Satan was behind Herod’s desire to kill the Christ child when He was born in Bethlehem. When we become a Christian we change sides in that war. Before salvation we were a pawn of Satan being used to oppose the work of God. The Bible tells us that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (or God’s standard). (Romans 3:23). As a result we are condemned to an everlasting hell. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 3:23). We are told also in Scripture that”… while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8). Romans 10:9 & 10 states “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. For the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” three verses later in Romans 10; 13 we are told “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.”
There are no pacifists in this war. Everyone serves someone in this war. Luke 11:23-26 states “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” Your life will be used by either God or Satan in the war. If you are unsaved you are Satan’s side. God might use you to carry out His will but only in a negative sense. If you are a child of God, you can and will choose who you will serve, but the fact is, you will serve one or the other. There are three battle fronts we face in this war. The first is the battle front of the hopeless. People without Christ are doomed to Hell. Proverbs 14:12 says “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” As stated earlier we’ve all sinned and failed to live up to God’s standards and as a result are condemned to die. Every person needs to put their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. As a soldier in God’s Army we have been commissioned by God to share the gospel with those that are lost. All four of the Gospels and the book of Acts have the great commission in them. It states that we are to “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15). In the armed services a commission is” to be given an order “and failing to carry out that order can bring some very serious consequences. As a Christian have you shared the good news of salvation with anyone lately? It’s not an option; it’s a command, a commission as a soldier in God’s Army.
The third battle front is fighting for the Helpless; all human beings are precious to God, from conception through eternity. Each person was created in the image of God at conception. Twice in Isaiah 44 God tells us we were formed by God in the womb (vs. 2 & 24). We are living in a time in history when murder has been legalized. Helpless babies in their own mother’s womb can be murdered with no legal consequences. At one time the safest place a baby could be was in their mother’s womb. Not anymore, now it’s one of the most dangerous. As Christians God expects us to come to the unborn’s defense. James 1:27 …”Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions…” In fact there are some 43 references to the fatherless in the Bible. The Father was the provider for the family. There was no government provision for widows and orphans in Bible days. They were at the mercy of people taking pity on them. God made provision for them in the way they harvested and even pronounced severe judgment on those who abused or took advantage of them. We need to do what we can to come to the defense of those who cannot defend themselves. That’s what Baptists For Life of Wisconsin is all about. The question is “Where are you in the war?” Whose side are you on? Who are you helping? What are you doing to reach the hopeless, the heartless or the helpless? I pray you are active in God's Army. Pastor Andrew K. Buhrow |
There is a war going on between God and Satan. It started with Lucifer, a beautiful angel. Isaiah 14:12-15 tells us “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning; how are thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
As a saved person we are able to become a soldier in Christ’s army. In order to serve in this army we need the right Armor. We are told in Ephesians 6 that we are to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to fight against the wiles (methods or trickery) of the devil. Paul in writing to the Ephesian Christians goes on to describe each piece of armor and what its function is.
The second battle front is that of the Heartless. Many Christians have become indifferent in God’s war. In many cases our relationship with Christ has been crowded out by other things. Sometimes it’s the cares of the world like hobbies and sports. It also could just be our focus on making a living and paying our bills. In the parable of the sower and the seed, some fell among the thorns and was choked out and were not productive. Sometimes though, Christians come to the place where they just don’t care that people are going to Hell. Many Christians don’t have even one lost soul they are agonizing over and praying for on a regular basis. Our prayer meeting attendance is a good indication. Either we don’t believe it makes a difference that we pray, or we don’t care enough to make the effort. Christians who are serious about their relationship with Christ will be burdened for their fellow Christians. Hebrews 10:24 says “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.” It’s time we stopped being critical of those who have fallen away and seek to do what we can to stir them up to again serve in God’s Army.