Category: Spiritual Warfare

These bulletins began as therapy — the overflow of a heart working through its wounds — which raises a question nobody warns you about: what happens when the patient starts to heal? The answer is David’s, from the safe side of Psalm 18: turn the writing into praise, turn the happiness into intercession for a broken world, and refuse to believe the joy is fragile just because the road ahead is hard. Prayers of joy are not less faithful than prayers of battle — they are the same faith with the sun out. The redeemed have a whole vocabulary for being glad in the Lord, and this is the day to use it. If you are one of the precious few who has been faithfully reading these redemption bulletins then it comes to no secret to you that it has served different purposes but a great deal of the composition of the mojo that spawned them daily was that it has been working as a kind of therapy. So what happens when the patient is healed? When he feels the love of the Lord? God forbid that the answer to that comes in the form of some calamity to struggle through. Although I know our adversary has tried recently. I woke up in the middle of the night with a blood sugar of 38 a bit over a week ago. Almost set fire to the house yesterday morning. Yet the Lord has stepped in and turned it into yet another reason to be grateful, happy and even more certain that the feeling in my gut is His love not the abdominal misfires that come from being 62. Sorry my humor will out. In truth though how does one write faithfully when the writing was spawned by the residue of self loathing (which is only the internalizing of the loathing from others) and the crispy burnt up caked on remnants of hope which are the most unkillable thing in us? Hey look, I am still very much alone. I only have me, my mom and my cats. But my cats are better cats than I had a year ago. My guitar playing still needs improvement but leaving the guitar alone for a few months gave me a fresh approach so even that has improved. I always believed I was in the Lord’s favor because there was no good reason why I would still be here after death had tried so many times to take me out but failed miserably in the attempt. It is just that, as I mentioned earlier in another bulletin, the overwhelming feeling is like David in Psalm 18 now in a safe place and reflecting; or Benjamin and Elaine at the end of The Graduate, victoriously united and now reflecting but knowing the road won’t be easy but still feeling the glow; or even God resting on the 7th day and seeing all the good that He had created but in my case I see all the good that He has instilled in me. The answers seem to be in: 1 David wrote many a Psalm in praise glorifying the Lord so I can write some psalms of praise and glorification magnifying the Lord. 2 Pray for a broken world and all the fallen. That seems to be essential now. Spread the love of the Lord to all those who are still engulfed.

Doubts are part of faith, and the Bible’s answer is not to hide them but to bring them to a God who is the most cheerful giver — He invented the idea — and who tolerates anything true from an honest heart. These seven steps are field-tested counsel: work through the doubt instead of abandoning the One who gives hope, do the opposite of the wedge by diving deeper into the Word, stay connected with Scripture and song in the ordinary hours, and keep going through the valley. The father in Mark 9 prayed the way these steps teach — “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” — and Jesus answered him. So if you are a believer who has been needing help with your unbelief, how is God going to help you? Maybe He just did. 1 Has God led you through tests to a better place you never conceived of either before or during the test? Remember that we have a God who is a cheerful giver – the most cheerful, the most giving: he invented the idea. Next He commanded us to love one another as much as ourselves and this can only be done by loving Him. Are you doubting that it was God that was involved in guiding your steps and leading you to, if not the promised land, at least a land where promises were fulfilled? Doubts are part of faith. The remedying of a breech between you and God in terms of trusting in Him and His Word always results in greater understanding. Understanding is always a composite of a toleration of closeness with agreements on the matter facilitated through communication. 2 Work through the doubt – abandoning your faith is very hazardous. In such a dark night of the soul are you sure the solution is to abandon the One that can give you hope? 3 If something in the Bible seems ungodly but is meant to represent God then do a deeper dive, perhaps using Logos software or such, into the original language and make sure it has been translated faithfully and correctly. 4 Do the opposite – instead of letting your doubts, your anguish, etc drive a wedge between you and God, ask God for help with your unbelief and dive deeper into His Word and commentaries. If nothing else, find 2-3 influencers who are not about clickbait and who have not sold out but who help you discern the scripture and who you enjoy their content (so you will keep with it) and hold on tight. 5 Don’t let life circumstances drive you away. For instance, when you are driving you can listen to the Bible on CD or Christian talk radio or Christian music. Make it a project to find old time hymn gospel-jazz or country gospel or others who can listen to while you are driving or even contemporary Christian corporate worship. Stay connected. Spend a few minutes in prayer when you hit the sack or in prayer and/or the Bible for a few minutes every morning. I find Wise Disciple YouTube channel to be very helpful. Also the deliverance prayers just go on and on and I have never heard them slip. There are also very dramatic Bible-story-based big production numbers, yes usually constructed by AI, but still very powerful stuff that can help make the Bible come to life. 6 In the valley of the shadow of death or tribulation or just chaos in your life do as Churchill was said to have said, “If you are going through hell, keep going”.

God’s timetable is not ours, because He is timeless: He looks down on every war, every battle, and every engagement at once, while we watch one train at a time. Scripture holds both patterns — Abraham waiting decades for Isaac and Joseph thirteen years in a dungeon on one side, and the Red Sea splitting overnight, Jericho’s walls falling with a shout, and Pentecost arriving in a whoosh on the other. When God’s moment comes, He arrives swiftly, and the movement is undeniable: circumstances, mathematics, and timing all carrying His handprint. Until then, keep your eyes on the prize and your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel — when Jesus takes the wheel, let Him drive. Yes it may seem that everything we pray for, even if ultimately, it comes to pass in God’s sweet time. In other words – according to His timetable. Not ours. See? This is easy for God because He is timeless. It is a creation or an illusion that he created our brains in such a way as to perceive but He sees all the wars, all the battles in a single war and every engagement between two opposing soldiers, as an example, at the same moment looking down from above. He doesn’t walk around the extensive elaborate train set to take it all in. He looks down on all the tables that it is on an looks in on every square inch at once. So, of course, His thoughts, His ways and His timing are different from ours. Let’s look at what Jesus said about when He would return as the perfect example. He said that He would come swiftly. That doesn’t mean He is 2000 years late it means that when His time to return comes He will arrive swiftly (“like a thief in the night”) and at a time that only the Father knows (as per ancient wedding ceremonies in Nazareth and Galilee and elsewhere where the Jews followed their customs and traditions). Now ask Abraham – the father of faith and he will tell you how long that he and Sarah had to wait for Isaac. The Jews had to endure slavery in Egypt for 400 years. Ask Noah how long he had to work on it with primitive tools to build a boat that was not a yacht and where the curvature of the wood itself was next to impossible. And how about Joseph? The one who is famous for being said that which man (his brothers) meant for evil, God used for good had to be, above all things, patient. He had to wait 13 years as a falsely accused prisoner before suddenly things changed for him. Not only was his accusation false but he was accused by one who wanted him to sin but he was too righteous and so he ended up in jail for 13 years. He spent 20 years separated from his family before his dream would be fulfilled. Ultimately God worked all things out for Joseph’s good and he never lost faith. Now let’s survey quickly some things in the Bible where God move swiftly and in a timely fashion. Red Sea – split the sea immediately after one night of fierce winds. Babel’s languages – instantly confused everyone as they were speaking different languages so as to thwart their plans of becoming like God Jericho’s walls – yes 7 days they marched around the city but then on the 7th day they marched around it 7 times and with a shout the walls came a-tumblin’ down.

Human strength fractures under pressure, but God’s strength cannot break. From Moses’ song on the far shore of the Red Sea to the least of these in Matthew 25, Scripture keeps awarding the victory to the unlikely — empty hands are the only kind the Lord can fill. Paul found the pattern and made it his boast: God’s power is perfected at the exact address of our weakness. Whatever is least about you today is precisely the terrain where He gives His strength, with every step and every breath. Contextual Grounding Exodus 15:2 is the first worship song in the Bible. Moses and the children of Israel sing it on the far shore of the Red Sea, hours after they had been a trapped, powerless rabble — the sea in front of them, Pharaoh’s chariots behind them, and nothing at all in their own hands. The anthem they sing attributes everything to God and nothing to themselves: “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” It is the founding pattern for every weak-handed believer since: strength confessed as received, never achieved. And the pattern runs all the way to Matthew 25, where the King declares that He takes the treatment of the least of these personally. From the seashore to the judgment seat, Scripture keeps awarding the victory to the unlikely. Emotional & Theological Depth Human strength fractures under pressure, but God’s strength cannot break. When fear rises, His light cuts through. When weakness overwhelms, His power sustains. To confess “The Lord is my strength” is to anchor your life in unshakable hope — and Paul found the same anchor from the opposite direction: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The apostle begged three times for his thorn to leave and heard instead that the thorn was load-bearing; God’s power shows up at the exact address where ours runs out. That is why the least of these are His specialty — the empty-handed are the only kind of hands He can fill. Zeb has sung the same confession in his own words, from his original song “Lord Of My Soul”: let Your love give us love, Lord of my soul… let Your strength give us strength… and when I’m walking out alone, remind me I am not alone; when I’m far from home, remind me I’m always at home in You. And from “With Every Step and Every Breath”: as we navigate this tumultuous life with our sins and our regrets, we hold on tight to Jesus with every step and every breath. Dear Jesus give us wisdom, Blessed Jesus give us strength, Jesus help us follow you with every step and every breath. Application For Today Whatever feels least and weakest about you today — the plan you cannot force, the fear you cannot silence, the strength you do not have — is exactly the terrain where God gives His. So bring Him the empty hands. Confess Exodus 15:2 out loud until it becomes your anthem too: The Lord is my strength. Stop measuring what you can hold and start marveling at what He holds. The One who taught a panicked, unarmed crowd to sing on the seashore can teach your weakness the same song today, with every step and every breath. Classic Commentaries Corner Charles Spurgeon delighted in the arithmetic of grace: our emptiness plus Christ’s fullness is the whole account.