God is never to be trifled with. We must indeed fear God in this context. He is not my buddy nor my pal although He has called me friend. This should only make us reverence Him all the more. He is high and lifted up. He is majestic and glorious and all of heaven bows down to Him and cries ” Holy.” Indeed we have been allowed to boldly approach the throne, but not glibly. We do not skip into His presence although we can run into our high tower. We must bring to Him the sacrifice of praise. He is my savior and He is high and lifted up. He is my personal Lord and still the train of His robe fills the Temple. He comes to me in sweet and glorious fellowship and yet He holds the whole universe in the palm of His hand, the same hand that holds mine. It is a glorious mystery how one so vast as He, knows and cares for one so small as me.

Hi guys, as anyone who has read the material on this site, you will know that I typically avoid politics or the issues of the day, because typically they are a symptom of a larger disease. In order to become whole, one must treat the disease, not the symptoms. When we arrive at the heart of the matter, this is where Jesus does His work, everything else is usually nothing more than getting ” caught up in the weeds.” It is important that we have eyes to truly see. The general reaction to the release of the young American soldier is a good example of a symptom of a disease. It is a deep malady and has a central cause which exhibits itself in anger and hatred and mistrust, bitterness and fear and loathing. I want to suggest that none of these things are the fruit of the Spirit of God working in our lives, they are the fruit of another spirit that wars against our souls in an effort to pull us away from God and render us powerless and without light in an ever darkening society. We Christians are the salt and the light of the world. If our light is covered and we have lost our saltiness, what good are we for the cause of the Kingdom and to a desperate and dying world?

I recently wrote about this very spirit, based on Luke 9:51 where the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven and destroy, and presumably kill everyone in a Samaritan village because they had insulted and rejected Jesus. Jesus rebukes His disciples , much like He rebuked Peter when Peter told Jesus he would not be crucified. Jesus says to the Disciples that this anger in them, this reaction was not of the Holy Spirit in fact they did not realize ” what spirit you are of.” I would like to share a word of caution to my brothers and sisters. Do not get caught up in these situations and throw your lot in with those who are given over to a spirit that is not of God. In this particular case there is more than likely major negotiations going on with the Karzai government , the Taliban and America about America leaving. This young man is undoubtedly just a bit player, a smoke screen to cover the release of those high-ranking Taliban members.

The war in Afghanistan is coming to an end and I say praise the Lord. The day that the last young American leaves that terrible debacle will be a fine day. And if the Taliban turn on the government there, then that is their own problem, it is not worth the life or limbs of any young American. When America went to war with Afghanistan , I do not know anyone who believed anything other than that the sole purpose of going there was to punish and dethrone the Taliban for aiding Bin Laden and of course trying to capture him. No one I knew believed that America was going there to ” re-build,” that country over a period of decades, or that trillions of $$$ and countless lives, blood and treasure, would be spent on trying to create a democracy. If the American public would have been told that up front, I believe there would have been little to no support for going there.

Most of us and I would include myself in this, first instinct is to draw the sword, and when it is a seemingly ” virtuous,” thing to do, the sword comes out all the quicker. This is of the world, it flows not from the Spirit of God, but from the spirit of man. What spirit shall we be of? Shall we mind the things of God or shall we be found to mind the things of men? Jesus identifies this spirit with Satan himself. Let us walk in the Holy Spirit. This gives us the freedom not to render evil for evil. In this Spirit we can love our enemies and do good to them that would spitefully use us. The spirit of the flesh says ” strike back, lash out, get justice for yourself, destroy your enemies.” The Spirit of God say ” Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” What spirit shall you walk in? We get the choice. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

Tis a foolish task to urge the blind to see, let first his eyes be open by a greater one than he.

We can operate in our own strength and talents and the world can mistake it for anointing and blessing. At the very same time we can be moving ever further away from the Lord by the arm of our own strength yet still appearing spiritual to men. Those who do this have to glean what is going on in the realm of the Kingdom by listening to other men who are simply following the Spirit. So, we can be followers of men or followers of God but we cannot be both.