“The Mississippi’s mighty but it starts in Minnesota at a place where you could walk across with five steps down.” (Indigo Girls, Ghost)

This past Sunday, I preached on one of the most stunning passages in the whole Bible, the story of how King David, the man after God’s own heart, slept with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his best friends, and then had his friend killed to cover it up.  That passage, in 2 Samuel 11, begins famously with these words:  “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army… But David remained in Jerusalem.”  As the narrator makes clear, if David were only where he should have been, none of this would have happened.  But instead, we find David arising from a late afternoon nap, wandering up to the roof of his palace, and seeing Bathsheba bathing naked nearby.  One thing leads to another, and soon David has broken almost half of the Ten Commandments in an incredibly thoughtless escapade.

As the aforementioned Indigo Girls’ lyrics put it, even a raging river begins as a little stream.
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Each month in 2010, I am challenging our church to memorize one verse of Scripture together, and to spend time that month meditating on that month’s theme.  In January, we focused on our new life in Christ, memorizing 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  In February, the theme was spiritual warfare, with the key verse James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  In March, we will be focusing on the power of prayer, and the verse I am challenging you to memorize is John 15:7 – “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”  This powerful promise is located in a passage where Jesus talks about himself as the vine and us as the branches, and exhorts us that we can do nothing unless we are connected to him.  I highly encourage you that when you memorize this or any verse, that you do your best to understand the context in which it is found so that you do not take it to mean something which it does not.

 As simple as prayer can be – at its heart, it is a conversation with God – it can also be hard to make sense of the different passages about making requests of God.  Read more »

Today’s guest blogger is Laura Motola.  As we focus on spiritual warfare with our memory verses for February, Laura will be sharing her reflections on spiritual warfare.

In 2 Kings 6:15-17, we read,

“When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. ‘Oh, my lord, what shall we do?’ the servant asked.  ‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered.  ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’  And Elisha prayed, ’O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

If only our eyes could be opened and we could see the spiritual battle going on around us!  We are at war!  The enemy of our souls wants to destroy us.  He wants our Christian lives to be ineffective and unproductive.  He wants us to feel unworthy and unloved.  He wants us to hold on to bitterness and resentment, and to feel anxious and afraid.  “But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.15:37).  One of the ways we can have victory is to put on the armor of God.
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Today’s guest blogger is Jim Quigley.  Jim has been a part of NewLife since August, after moving up from New Jersey, and is an engineer who also works with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Trinity College.  As we focus on spiritual warfare with our memory verses for February, Jim will share the second part of what he wrote, “Preparing for battle.”

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  (Ephesians 6:10-17)

How often do you see a football player in a game without his pads and helmet on?  Or a marathon runner without sneakers on?  If you were a betting man, would you put your money on the team that didn’t use baseball gloves or the one that was fully equipped?  Sure, you could run a marathon without sneakers and you could play football without pads.  But the risk of injury greatly increases and you could very well be sidelined for the rest of your career.  A team has a better chance of being victorious and avoiding injury if they are using the proper gear.  While this may sound obvious, far too often we see Christians marching out to battle stark naked as it were, with nothing to protect them.  And far too often they get hurt badly.  But God has provided us with armor to wear for the spiritual battles that we face.  But again, we tend to dismiss its importance, neglect it all together, or think that we can just suit up when we need to.  But the spiritual battles we face are constant and the enemy is not going to wait for us to get our armor on.  We need to be ready every day to engage in spiritual warfare and that means we need to be geared up and game ready at all times. 
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Today’s guest blogger is Jim Quigley.  Jim has been a part of NewLife since August, after moving up from New Jersey. He is an engineer who also works with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  As we focus on spiritual warfare with our memory verses for February, Jim will share on “knowing your enemy.”

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

 It is a week before the big championship game.  What do you think each team is doing in preparation for the big match?  Do you think they are just goofing around and have no set game plan?  Absolutely not!  They are watching video of their opponents, studying their tactics and strategies, and figuring out how their offense and defense works.  If the team knows what their opponent will do and how they play, then they will certainly be more prepared and have a greater advantage in the game to come. 

 In the same way, do you think that the military just goes on raids without strategic planning first?  Of course not!  Generals and analysts are studying the enemy, how they attack, where they hide, and the tactics and tricks that the enemy has used in the past.  In both scenarios, each squad is fully prepared for what the opponent or enemy has in store for them.  They know who their enemy is and what to expect when they encounter their opponent.  So, as a warrior for Christ, do you know who your enemy is in the spiritual battle that we all face every day?  Do you know the tactics that the enemy uses to attack you?  Are you aware of the constant battle raging all around you?  The enemy is not some dumb, red creature with pointy ears, a mustache, and pitchfork as depicted in many Halloween costumes - far from it.  He is a formidable adversary.  And if we want to be successful in battling him and fighting in the spiritual realm, then we had better know exactly who our enemy is as well as his malicious tactics.  The enemy that we face can be broken down into three main parts: the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
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This week’s Pulse is a moving story from Haiti that I have copied from Albert Mohler’s blog, www.albertmohler.com.  Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and his blog is the most popular Christian blog, according to technorati.com.  As someone with a heart for adoption and who himself has been adopted (by my Father in heaven – see Galatians 4:4-7), I found this story particularly poignant.   

Arno was inseparable from Mr. Penguin. The little Haitian boy was almost three years old, and the plush penguin with the word “love” inscribed upon it was his most treasured object. The orphan and his penguin were always seen together.

The boy had been given the penguin just after his birth. A Dutch couple was in the process of adopting him almost from the start of his life — they had been matched to him when he was only two months old. The penguin represented a promise.

The process of adoption took two years — the length of time considered adequate to determine that no living relatives might claim him. According to official estimates, there were over 50,000 parentless orphans in Haiti before the earthquake came and orphaned many thousands more.
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“Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, ‘Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.’” (1 Samuel 15:12)

I’ve been preaching through the life of David on Sunday mornings, and as I was talking about King Saul this past Sunday, this verse in particular stood out to me.  Saul has just finished leading the armies of Israel against the Amalekites, and as the prophet Samuel goes out to find him, Samuel is told that Saul is busy setting up a monument in his own honor.  All throughout the Old Testament are examples of the people of God erecting monuments and markers to God that commemorate places where God does something meaningful, so that future generations would be reminded of what God had done (e.g. Genesis 28:18-19, Joshua 4:2-9).  But this is the first time I ever came across a man of God – the King, no less – erecting a monument to himself!  Saul’s goal, obviously, was that future generations would be reminded not of what God had done, but what HE had done, and of the great leader HE was.

I find this story to not only be an indictment against Saul for just how unfit he was to be the king over God’s people, but also a great metaphor for what can happen when we are as insecure as Saul was about who God is and who we are in Him.  Read more »

The story goes that there once was a man who, in order to seek God’s will for his life, was fond of opening up his Bible and reading whatever verse he first laid his eyes on, so that he might obey it.  One day, as this man was going through a particularly difficult time with his family, he sought the Lord for guidance.  Opening his Bible and pointing, he found his finger resting on the second part of Matthew 27:5, which read “Then Judas went out and hanged himself.”  Puzzled by the Lord’s directions, but still hungry for a word from God, he called a “do-over” and flipped to another page, where his eyes fell on the latter half of Luke 10:37:  “Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”  Flustered, but chalking it up to coincidence, the man decided to give his method one last chance.  Saying a quick prayer, he flipped the pages and inserted his finger between two of them, pointing to the end of John 13:27.  There, staring up at him, were these words:  “‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him.”

Beginning this month, I have challenged our church to make a greater effort to memorize Scripture, so that we might be people who are led and transformed by the truth of God’s Word.  This month’s verse is 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” which reminds us that the sins of past have been forgiven and that we now belong to Jesus and have His Holy Spirit giving us new spiritual life (among many other benefits of salvation).  However, as the above story reminds us, one of the greatest cautions with Scripture memory is the folly of taking verses out of context, so that they speak things which they were never intended to speak.  Read more »

Today’s guest blogger is Jim Quigley.  Jim has been a part of NewLife since August, after moving up from New Jersey.  As we continue our focus on Scripture memory in 2010, Jim is going to share with us about the blessing this practice has been in his life.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”   (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Like any discipline, Bible memorization is an activity that is not always enjoyable or easy.  But memorizing Scripture is crucial to going deeper in your relationship with Christ.  We can see from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that knowing Scripture will help us to teach and train better so that we can serve the Lord better, being ready to do every work God has in store for us.  Knowing God’s Word is essential in spiritual warfare as well.  In Ephesians 6:10-17, the Lord has provided us with plenty of armor to protect ourselves from the enemy, but only one weapon:  the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  We don’t need any other divine weapon.  No Golden Gun of God or Javelin of Jehovah, just the Word of God.  Once you wield the Sword of the Spirit, temptations are cut down, demons flee, and the prince of darkness himself is defeated.  The Word is so strong that even the enemy tries to use it against us with malicious intent to get us to fall.  Take, for instance, when Jesus is tempted by the devil in the desert (Luke 4:1-13).  Satan on his second temptation quotes Scripture in hopes that Jesus would buy into his lies.  Jesus counters this temptation (and the other two as well) with Scripture and with each swing of the Sword, Satan concedes and flees.  What is also important from this is that Jesus could have said ANYTHING and it would have been Scripture for us.  But instead, He chose to use existing Scripture as a model for us when we are tempted.  Memorizing Scripture will help sharpen our Sword so that we can use it to ward off the enemy. 
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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

So… how’s your New Year’s Resolution going?  Still going strong?  If you’re anything like me, you know how difficult it can be to sustain any change, no matter how minor or important, for much longer than the time it takes to type this line.  On January 1st I find myself writing down all of the things that I want to do differently in 2010, on January 8th I’m still working on half of them, and by January 15th I’ve lost the list and can’t remember what it was I wanted to change in the first place!  Like most people, however, the more accountability I have, the more successful I will be.  If I try to go it alone, I am probably doomed, but if I go with others, I am more likely to make it. 

All of this is to first of all say a big CONGRATULATIONS! to all who Read more »

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