Dale Workman

April 15, 2024

Notes of Faith April 15, 2024

Dale Workman

April 15, 2024

Temptation Fighter

I have thought much about Your words and stored them in my heart so that they would hold me back from sin.

Psalm 119:11, TLB

Let’s combine two verses into one—Psalm 119:9 and 11: “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word…. [which] I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Our greatest strategy in fighting temptation is God’s Word in our heart, wielded by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Notes of Faith April 14, 2024

Dale Workman

April 14, 2024

Notes of Faith April 14, 2024

The Unimpressive Path to Immortality

Article by Greg Morse

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

I knew a man who walked away from Jesus because he did not know what to do on Friday nights. When unbelieving, he knew exactly what to do. As a Christian, he wasn’t sure anymore. Read his Bible? Pray? Hang out with other Christians? It all seemed so, well, unremarkable. Was this it?

Have you felt this way about the Christian life? At times, it feels less momentous than we expect. The means of grace can feel so normal — is it really supernatural? At times we think we hear our spiritual lives speak with the voice of Jacob, but other days we feel only the earthy hands of Esau. Is this really the life God promised? Have we really found what we’re looking for, or shall we look for another? How do we reenchant our love for what feels so ordinary?

Christian, the unimpressive path to glory is no concession. To see this, I want you to meet a man who struggled with the ordinariness of God’s miraculous work.

You Could Be Healed

Naaman was a great man in Syria, a man of war, and although a general highly favored by the king and a soldier fierce on the battlefield, Naaman was losing a different kind of war: “He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper” (2 Kings 5:1). His disease struck behind the shield; smirked at Naaman’s sword. Cry as loud as he might, his gods could not heal him.

Yet an unseen (and unthanked) God stood behind Naaman’s many successes. Naaman was great and highly favored because “by him the Lord had given victory to Syria” (2 Kings 5:1). And this Lord placed a witness to himself within Naaman’s household. “The Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife” (2 Kings 5:2). Acquainted with her master’s disease and her mistress’s distress, she boldly approaches her, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:3).

A glimmer of hope shines upon a sea of desperation. Could it be true? Hoping against hope, the wife tells her husband. Perhaps he resisted a day, then two, but could it be true? He needed to try. He brings the little girl’s words to the king, “thus and so spoke the girl.” The king approves, writes to the King of Israel: “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:6).

The King of Israel tears open the letter one minute; tears his clothes the next. “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?” He sees the threat of war behind the request (2 Kings 5:7). King Ahab’s son is not God (nor in particularly good relations with him). What could he do? Elisha, however, hears the news of the king’s dismay, and tells him to send the man to his door “that he [and the king] may know that there is a prophet in Israel” (2 Kings 5:8).

Terms of Recovery

Naaman’s impressive entourage parks outside: “Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house” (2 Kings 5:9). Knock, knock. Nothing. Knock, knock. Finally, Elisha’s servant comes to the door with the terms of recovery: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean” (2 Kings 5:10).

Imagine the tense moment of silence after the door thuds shut. Color flashes on scaly cheeks. Jaws clench. Is this guy serious? The provocation hit its mark: he grew furious and stormed off in a rage (2 Kings 5:11–12). We get a transcription of his thoughts as he turns for home:

Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? (2 Kings 5:11–12)

No, this would not do. Naaman wanted healing to be an event, something more suitable and spectacular. He wanted the prophet to come out and publicly perform the miracle — he might humbly suggest a loud and eloquent prayer to his God accompanied with hand-waving, you know, a manner worthy of miracle-making. Instead, he sends out a servant to point at some murky river.

“Do not be deceived by the littleness of the ordinary means of grace into neglecting them.”

Had not Naaman done his part to set the stage? Had he not traveled many miles carrying hundreds of pounds of silver and gold to profit the prophet handsomely (“in the vicinity of three-quarters of a billion dollars,” IVP OT Background Commentary)? Had he not stood most politely and expectantly at the healer’s door and brought an audience for his powers? Yet, in the crucial moment, the main actor seems to develop stage fright, forget his lines, and send him away just as he arrived.

Would You Do Something Great?

A servant (again) must come help the soldier rethink his tactics. Here, the ESV diverges from other major translations. The majority translation captures the servants’ reasoning this way:

And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (2 Kings 5:13 NKJV)

If Naaman was told to win the healing by conquering an army that stood between him and the Jordan, would he not have done it? If the prophet told him to recover the rarest plant that grew at the seabed of the Jordan, would he not have accepted the challenge? But just to go dip seven times — why a child could do that.

This seemed way too small, too unnoteworthy to be captured in song. But Naaman, the man accustomed to doing valorous deeds must go to a river where valor is not required. He must leave his heroics on the banks, strip off his pride, and bow beneath Israel’s waters. If he would be healed, he must first be humbled. He would not be saved by his good works or his great ones.

And Naaman did what he would never regret: “he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean” (2 Kings 5:14).

Have We Refused Healing?

Naaman reconsidered and returned to Elisha’s door, not just cured, but saved. He returned not only with the flesh of the little servant Jewish girl, but with her faith, pledging his allegiance to the one true God alone (2 Kings 5:15, 17).

Reader, take this to heart: he nearly turned away from healing and salvation because of his sense of how he ought to be cured. Have things changed today? How many Naamans will look up at the lake of fire because they looked down upon the muddy surface of the Jordan? So many turn from the only name given under heaven by which men must be saved, Jesus Christ, because they prefer the world’s Abana and Pharpar. The foolish way of faith in the crucified Messiah is still despised and rejected of men, “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (Isaiah 53:3; 1 Corinthians 1:23).

But Naamans also exist who begin dipping, but do not persevere the full seven times. They leave the healing tide because of a false sense of how one ought to be sustained in the faith. These waters don’t feel much different from other rivers they have been in. They dip for a time, feel the ordinariness of the Christian life, and walk away from Jesus because they don’t know what to do on Friday nights.

Deceived by Littleness

If only we could see as the angels do. Let’s reimagine, for a moment, a normal activity of the Christian life: Bible reading. Half-waking you trudge down the stairs, brew some coffee, and open to the next section of Scripture. You come faithfully, expectantly, but is this what the momentous life in Christ looks and feels like? This section of our Affirmation of Faith can transfigure normal times in his word:

11.1 We believe that faith is awakened and sustained by God’s Spirit through His Word and prayer. The good fight of faith is fought mainly by meditating on the Scriptures and praying that God would apply them to our souls.

The good fight of faith is fought mainly by prayerful, meditative Bible reading. Hearing from our Lord, communing with him, bringing his truth into the chambers of our souls, obeying what we read — this is a vital part, a sometimes-unimpressive part, to immortality.

We do not conquer Mount Everest or climb the treetops of the Amazon to receive special revelation and feed faith — we meet Jesus upon the narrow way, the hard way, the simple way of Bible meditation in the Spirit and prayer. Do we take it for granted? Some of us need to be asked: If Jesus dwelled in the Everglades or resided on the moon, and we were told we could hear from him, learn from him, and receive eternal life from him there, would you not make valiant efforts to go to him? Then why do we have three translations of the Bible in our homes that go unread?

As with Elisha, the word comes not in theatrics — not in fire, in thunder, in earthquake — but in a whisper. Will we hear it? As one commentator says, “God often tests us with small things” (Donald Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary, 220). Do not be deceived by the littleness of the ordinary means of grace into neglecting them.

Down to the River

This worn path to glory is exactly how it ought to be. Why? Because the story already has a Hero. Ours are not the shoulders to bear eternity; we are not the ones to crush the serpent’s skull; the spectacle was achieved by the God-man upon the cross and encored at his resurrection. As Naaman, we are not saved by our good or great works, before or after coming to faith; we are saved by his that no man may boast in the presence of God.

So, we quietly go down to the river, or down to the living room, or down to the church gathering, or just down to our knees, and receive from his spoils. We plunge again and again under the waters, and trust him to continue to heal us and sustain us from one degree of glory to the next. We obey his word and believe his promises that he shall finish what he began. We do not tire of this heavenly manna that sustains our souls in favor of Egypt’s steak. Even though we are not often doing anything extraordinary, something extraordinary is happening: God is walking with us, encouraging us, conforming us to his Son’s image, leading us home.

We do not do great things for salvation, nor do we benefit God at all with our wealth. He supplies all of our needs in the person and work of his Son, and gets the glory for it. But we do receive something if we continue upon this humble way: joy now and eternity with him.

Greg Morse is a staff writer for desiringGod.org

We must come to God humbly and in the faith He gives us to receive healing (salvation), and the sure hope of eternal life with Him. Our greatest works are nothing without the sovereign work of God in and through them. It is His eternal plan that is being worked out…the offer of salvation to mankind through believing in Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection for our benefit… redemption and glory. Right now, come before the Lord God, on your knees, and give Him your life, all that you are and have, humbly place it before Him who gave it to you and give thanks. Draw near to the love of God. It is He that is calling you.

Pastor Dale

Dale Workman

April 13, 2024

Notes of Faith April 13, 2024

Dale Workman

April 13, 2024

Notes of Faith April 13, 2024

POWER UP: Be Filled With His Power

APRIL 13, 2024

But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.

Micah 3:8, NIV

Notes of Faith April 12, 2024

Dale Workman

April 12, 2024

Notes of Faith April 12, 2024

Trials Are Gardens for Lies

How Thankfulness Guards Us Against Satan

Article by Marshall Segal

President & CEO, desiringGod.org

What verses do you reach for most often when you pause to give thanks to God?

Maybe you’re bowing over a home-cooked meal after an especially long and frustrating day. Maybe God came through in a moment of more acute desperation or need — at the office, with the kids, over the family budget. Maybe you and your friends got to do that thing you love to do together (but rarely get the chance to anymore). Maybe you simply felt the warmth of the sun on your skin after a week of overcast skies. And you know that meal, that friend, that sun is from God, and so you want to thank him. What verses come to mind?

One comes to mind for me, one I’ve leaned on countless times in prayer:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)

It’s a heart-warming, soul-stirring perspective: Every good thing you have, you have from God. In just a few words, James pulls every conceivable blessing — from the smallest snacks or shortest conversations to the weightier gifts of children, churches, homes, and health — all under the brilliant umbrella of the Father’s love.

Recently, though, as I slowly read through James again, I stumbled over the familiar verse because of the verse immediately before it. What would you expect to read before such an immense statement of God’s lavish generosity? Probably not this:

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above . . . (James 1:16–17)

Don’t Be Deceived?

What could be deceiving about a cherished truth like this? To understand the deception at work among these good and perfect gifts (and the real power of the verse), we have to follow the thread back to the previous paragraph.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)

The apostle James writes to a suffering people, a people bearing heavy trials. He begins his letter, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). He says that because some were tempted to grumble and despair. They wanted to give up. They also started pointing fingers at God. As James writes in verses 13–14,

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

While God stands over all that transpires, and sovereignly works all things for the good of those who love him, no one can ever say that temptations come from him. He never devises evil. He’s not trying to make you stumble, but holding out his hand to keep you upright.

No, temptations arise from our own desires, which gets to a second problem James addresses in his letter: the problem of worldliness. Christians were growing faint under painful opposition. They were also giving in to sinful, fleshly desires (James 4:1–3). They were seeking comfort and relief in indulgence. They had formed an adulterous friendship with the world (James 4:4). So, James says to the church,

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above . . . (James 1:16–17)

What might suffering people hear in such a warning? How might this kind of wide-eyed thankfulness guard us against the lies we’re tempted to believe in the midst of trials?

To the Lies of Indulgence

First, to those tempted to seek comfort and relief in sinful desires, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” How does God’s immeasurable generosity weaken worldliness? How does wide-eyed gratitude take the edge off of deceitful desires? God is the giver of every good we might sinfully crave.

When we see the hand of God behind everything we might idolize, we remember why every good and perfect gift exists in the first place: to help us see, taste, touch, smell, and hear the glory of God. The goodness of our world is rooted in the God-ness of our world. Nothing is good when it is ripped from his purposes and turned against its Maker — when a gift of God becomes a rival to him. “What do you have that you did not receive?” the apostle Paul asks. “If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Every pleasure we’re tempted to chase or demand is designed to lead us to see God, thank God, and enjoy God.

When we see he’s the giver, we remember again why we have anything we have. We also remember just how small and fleeting every other pleasure is compared with him. Jeremiah Burroughs writes, “A soul that is capable of God can be filled with nothing else but God; nothing but God can fill a soul that is capable of God” (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 43). Our sinful, worldly desires are attempts to fill a God-sized canyon with crayons and animal crackers. We remember not only that he gives every good thing, but that he himself is better and more fulfilling than every good thing, even the very best things.

So don’t be deceived when temptation comes. Your sinful cravings will not soothe or satisfy apart from Christ. In fact, they’ll kill you if you let them: “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). That means good gifts can be deadly ones if they don’t draw us nearer to the good and greater Treasure.

To the Lies of Despair

Second, then, to those groaning under trials, tempted to doubt or even grow bitter against God, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” This God doesn’t give bad gifts. Again, “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). No, if he has made you his own, everything he gives you or allows you to experience will ultimately be good for you.

Not only that, trials are opportunities to feel the goodness of all we’ve been given. He’s not only the giver of everything we might have or crave; he’s also the giver of every good thing we lose or fear to lose — a first home, a beloved pet, a dream job, a decades-long friendship, a clean bill of health, a precious spouse, a faithful church. God gave you whatever this trial has taken from you. Even the pain is its own reminder of his kindness and generosity.

And he’s still, even in the loss, giving you more than you deserve — “life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). James says in the very next verse, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). As troubled and discouraged as you may feel in these painful circumstances, through faith, you are a new creation. God raised you from the dead and opened your eyes to see, in Christ, what you could never see on your own.

This gift of new, eternal life is why Paul can say of any suffering, even what you’re suffering now, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Not only will these fleeting trials soon give way to glory, but they’re actually preparing glory for you — and you for that glory.

Could Losses Be Gifts?

If we can begin to see our trials through the eyes of these promises, even the losses themselves hold their own gift. James says earlier in the same chapter,

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

How can someone possibly count the sting and heartache of trials as joy? When the trials produce something more valuable than they took away. And is anything more valuable to you than the steadfastness of your faith in Jesus? Wouldn’t you pay any price to know that you’ll make it to glory and live in his presence — without pain, without frustration, without sin, and with him?

So, when your trials and temptations come, don’t let Satan and his schemes have your ear. Don’t assume that God’s sovereignty over all things means that temptation is from him. Rather, in your suffering, remember that he’s a good and perfect Father. He’s the giver of every good thing you might lose, and he’s the giver of every comfort or pleasure you might crave. And better than any of his other gifts, he holds out himself, the gift that surpasses every other one.

Seek the Blesser not the blessing. God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. If we believe that our every breath is in His control, then we must believe that the things of life that come our way, whether we consider them good or trials, are meant to be used for our good and His glory. Let us learn to praise Him for everything that comes our way and work to be perfected through it all!

Pastor Dale

Dale Workman

April 11, 2024

Notes of Faith April 11, 2024

Dale Workman

April 11, 2024

Notes of Faith April 11, 2024

Divine Insulation

Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

Have you ever experienced a surge of anxiety that felt like an electric shock running through your emotions as if you were being electrocuted inwardly? Psychologists tell us anxiety can feel like electrical charges flying though our bodies and minds. One anxious person described a panic attack that felt “as if electricity ran from my lower stomach down to my knee.”

Notes of Faith April 10, 2024

Dale Workman

April 10, 2024

Notes of Faith April 10, 2024

Time Bandits

By David Jeremiah

It’s hard to determine how much time we spend on leisure-based electronic pursuits. Just think of how many hours we all invest every day with our screens, whether watching movies or television, or on computers, tablets, or phones. Some of the time is well spent, but much of it isn’t.

Many parents feel pangs of concern when they see their children so absorbed in texting or gaming that they’re seemingly oblivious to their environments. One survey found that children and teens spent more than seven hours a day in media use.

We must be vigilant against time bandits.

I wonder how the Lord feels when He looks down and observes how His children are using the time He’s given them. In seeking to gain victory in every aspect of spiritual warfare, we must be vigilant against time bandits—those activities and influences that rob us of our greatest resource, the moments and minutes that fly past us in swift succession.

“Pick my left pocket of its silver dime,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes “but spare the right—it holds my golden time.”

That reminds me of the Bible’s golden rule about time, Ephesians 5:15-16: “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (HCSB).

What Jesus Said About Time

Jesus paid careful attention to how He walked, and He made the most of His time. He once implied there’s a vast difference between how godly and ungodly people view time. When His unconverted brothers tried to goad Him to go to Jerusalem and make Himself famous during the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready” (John 7:6). In other words, “My life and My time are preordained. But since your lives have little purpose, it matters little how you use your time.”

Time is the zone in which we accomplish God’s will for us. But if we’re not interested in accomplishing God’s will, time has less value. In that sense, Christians live in a different time zone than anyone else. We have a different clock ticking for us. Unbelievers can come and go as they please and use their time however they’d like. But we’re to follow our Lord’s example. Jesus chose to live a schedule predetermined by His Father, and it was important for Him to stay on task.

If you’ve studied the life of the Lord Jesus, you’ve discovered how carefully He invested His days.

If you’ve studied the life of the Lord Jesus, you’ve discovered how carefully He invested His days, months, and years, few though they were. He was born on schedule, He was baptized by John on schedule, He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He died on Good Friday, and He rose on Resurrection Day—right on schedule. Ten times in John’s Gospel we’re reminded that Jesus was watching the clock, for He often said things like, “My hour is not yet come” or “The hour is here.”

Our Lord lived out the aforementioned advice from Ephesians 5: “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (HCSB).

What Time Says About Us

If I’d been alive in Christ’s day, I’d rather have spent time with Him than with His brothers. His life had purpose, and He lived on a schedule that reflected the Father’s agenda. His brothers had no such purpose or agenda or schedule—just like lots of people today. Without a driving purpose in life, we have no compelling reason to make the moments count. Without the hope of eternal life, we’re left with a mindlessness that renders our moments insignificant.

If our lives are meaningless, our time is purposeless. If our lives have purpose, our time is meaningful.

Our culture has a million ways of distracting itself from the implications of its own rejection of spiritual values. Society says there is no God, no Creator, no ultimate meaning, no essential values. We’re simply random accidents destined to perish. Most people cannot cope with that level of emptiness, so they need lots of diversions, lots of distractions, and lots of entertainment. The rise of the entertainment industry is in exact proportion to the collapse of our personal sense of significance. I’m not saying all entertainment is bad. I’m saying our world is drowning in entertainment of all kinds because it needs to be distracted from the despair of a life without God. Christians need periodic refreshment and occasional entertainment too, but we don’t need to drown in it. We have better things to do.

If our lives are meaningless, our time is purposeless. If our lives have purpose, our time is meaningful. The value of our time cannot exceed the meaning of our lives. God’s true people—those sold out to Jesus Christ—are blessed on earth; our lives have meaning. We have purpose. There’s a preordained agenda for us, and each day is a new opportunity to serve Him.

How to Capitalize on Time

If we’re in a war with time bandits and Satan is seeking to rob us of our golden time, we need some strategies for victory.

First, give God the best part of your day. When He’s in control of your schedule, He will always make time for Himself. If one day passes the next without your quiet time or prayer time or Bible study time, it’s a warning. God may not be Lord of your hours. On a notepad or the back of an envelope, take a moment to sketch out your schedule for today, just as it’s unfolding right now. How could you have adjusted your time today to have included the Lord? How can you do so tomorrow?

Second, rein in your screen time. Experts suggest we keep time logs for a few days to help us determine how we’re really spending our moments. For the next few days, conduct an informal study of your use of time. Look at yourself as though an efficiency expert were watching you. Perhaps, for example, you legitimately sit at your computer to check your email or research a project. But how likely are you to become distracted and end up surfing the Internet for a wasted hour?

Third, do the most important things. Satan distracts us from the best things by having us do things that are merely good. Perhaps you’re too busy at church or too involved in some ministry. Perhaps you need to say “No” to something so you can regain time for your family or for the well-being of your own soul. If we aren’t careful, we’ll end up living according to somebody else’s schedule instead of the one God ordains for us. In his book on leadership, Henry Blackaby said, “The key to successful leadership is not creating more time in one’s life or packing more activities into one’s day, but staying on God’s agenda.”1

Finally, learn the value of remnants. In earlier days when women typically made the family’s clothing, there were often scraps and cuttings left on the floor. These shards of cloth were never thrown away but tossed into a remnant chest and later converted into beautiful quilts. Every day we have shards of time that shouldn’t be thrown away—five minutes here, ten minutes there. Good stewards know the value of those moments—in reading, in jotting a note, in reviewing a memory verse, in meditating on a Bible passage. Learn to use the leftover bits of your hours. Time bandits will just as soon steal a minute as a day, so guard every moment.

Are you winning or losing in the battle for your time? Life is not a game. We need a battle cry—a helpful strategy to guard and regard our hours. Time is a great spoil in spiritual warfare. If the enemy controls your time, God gets little of you. But if God controls your time, Satan will have a hard time infiltrating your days. “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16, HCSB).

1Henry Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership (Nashville: B&H, 2001), 200.

Time…we all have the same amount each day, yet we all choose different ways to spend it. It takes discipline to use it for the glory of God and not for selfish purposes. Time spent well takes care of our needs and brings honor to God and reward in our heavenly treasury. Let us strive to use what God gives us in time to be fruitful and prosperous for His name’s sake!

Pastor Dale

Dale Workman

April 9, 2024

Notes of Faith April 9, 2024

Dale Workman

April 9, 2024

Notes of Faith April 9, 2024

The Enemy Wants You to Believe the World Is out of Control

By David Jeremiah

The Wall Street Journal carried a story last year saying the new world order has fallen into disorder and the planet is beyond disarray. It’s hard to imagine how global affairs could be more dangerous. Our problems are beyond our greatest statesmen and thinkers.

Board a jetliner with me, and let’s fly around the globe to see for ourselves. Looking down at America, we see a country polarized by political division, deeply in debt, riddled by crime, and sinking into the quicksand of godless worldviews.

In times like these, we need to know more about God’s Word and His power.

Before we know it, we’re flying over Europe. The Russian government has reignited the Cold War and several hot ones. Turning south, we find failed states in North Africa, a breeding ground for terrorists. In the rest of Africa, the once hoped for democracies are battling military juntas and civil wars. In Asia, China’s military resources have exceeded anything known in human history, and we worry about Taiwan. Heading homeward, we detour over South America where runaway inflation is threatening the entire continent and democratic governments are collapsing into corruption and Marxism.

As we land, we ponder the brutal fact that we flew over 32 wars that are going on now somewhere on earth. That’s the view at 35,000 feet. On the ground the world is filled with personal suffering, war zones, refugee camps, and famine zones. Sometimes it’s we who are suffering.

Where is God in all of this?

I can understand why people who aren’t familiar with the whole counsel of biblical teaching ask hard questions about God’s role in the world. If there is a God, they ask, “Why is the world in terminal crisis? Why so much individual anguish and anxiety?”

The enemy wants us to be duped and deceived so we’ll dismiss the idea of a sovereign God who has the “whole world in His hands.” But Jesus said in Matthew 22:29, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” In times like these, we need to know more about God’s Word and His power.

The Permission of God

The ultimate plan of God is bound up in the Cross of Christ—and in His Second Coming.

Let’s begin with the permission of God. When He created Adam and Eve, He didn’t make them as robots but as people with the ability to make choices. He permitted them to decide whether to love or hate Him. All the evil and suffering around us comes from humanity’s bad choices, which represents rebellion against God. Proverbs 17:11 says, “An evil man seeks only rebellion.”

The Word of God tells us how we should live, but it also warns us of the dangers of disobedience. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life” (NIV). Much of the world has chosen otherwise.

The Plan of God

These wrong choices reverberate through millennia, but as soon as sin first occurred, God launched a plan of redemption. In Genesis 12, He called a man named Abram (whom He renamed Abraham) to establish a family, which became a nation, which produced a Messiah—Jesus Christ. Our Lord offered His life for the sins of the world, and He offers pardon and peace for all who turn from their sins and place their faith in Him. The apostle John wrote, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, NIV). The ultimate plan of God is bound up in the Cross of Christ—and in His Second Coming.

The Patience of God

God’s plans are unfolding at the speed of prophecy.

The Lord is implementing His plan with incredible patience. He doesn’t choose to solve all the problems in a day. His purposes and plans unfold over time. Erwin Lutzer wrote, “God always acts from the standpoint of eternity rather than time, and all decisions are made with an infinite perspective.”1 Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NIV).

When we’re tempted to wonder if God is still in control, we should look below the surface, at His millions upon millions of servants—people like you and me—seeking to minister to those in need and to extend the Gospel. Our Almighty Lord is much more active than people imagine. He’s doing something wonderful in this world. He is reaching the lost and building His Church. He is doing it on His own timetable.

The Prophecies of God

In other words, God’s plans are unfolding at the speed of prophecy. After Jesus died and rose again, He ascended to heaven to oversee His Church as it spreads the message of the Gospel to the earth. But this same Jesus will return in God’s timing to establish His Kingdom. Isaiah 11:9 speaks of a time when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Paul spoke of the day when “the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

The Lord intends to make all things right. Evil will be abolished, evildoers will be punished, the godly will be rewarded, and all will acknowledge that the Judge of all the earth has done right (Genesis 18:25).

The Power of God

We also need to focus on God’s power to accomplish everything He intends to do. Romans 4:21 says, “What He had promised He was also able to perform.” Daniel said, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings” (Daniel 2:20-21).

Psalm 66:7 says about our God: “He rules by His power forever; His eyes observe the nations; do not let the rebellious exalt themselves.”

He can and will do all He intends. He is able!

The Protection of God

As we await the full unfolding of God’s plan, we’re not left alone to face the turmoil of the world. The Lord watches over His children and allows nothing to touch us unless He allows it. Peter wrote, “[We] are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold…may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:5-7, NIV).

The Lord doesn’t want us to live in fear and panic. Even when we’re in dark valleys, He is with us. He has a promise for every problem, a comfort for every crisis, and a blessing for every burden.

The Paradise of God

Finally, we know how the story ends. Think of the suffering thief on the cross to whom Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The apostle Paul was on one occasion caught up to Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:4), and the book of Revelation promises a day when we’ll dwell forever in “the Paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7).

The author of confusion, Satan, doesn’t want you thinking about that. He wants to con you into believing your world is out of control. Remember, world problems are caused because God has given permission to humans to make choices and most have chosen badly. But the Lord has a plan to deal with it—one that centers on the Cross of Jesus. He’s patiently working according to His predictions and prophecies, and He’s doing so with limitless power. Along the way, He shields His children as we serve Him. Soon we’ll be with Him in Paradise, far beyond the grip of worldly woe.

When the devil tries to tell you that God has lost control, remember:

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun doth its successive journeys run, His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more.2

Sources:

1Erwin W. Lutzer, Where Was God? (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2006).

2Isaac Watts, “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun,” 1783.

When we are able to look at the world with the eternal perspective of God, we see that everything is under His ultimate sovereign control. Praise God! He will complete the work that He began. All things belong to Him. God wants relationship with His creation and mankind has the choice to believe in Him, draw near to Him, love Him, serve Him, or serve themselves and seek the blessings of the world…that God still created and preserves with His power. Seek the blesser, not the blessing.

Pastor Dale

Dale Workman

April 8, 2024

Notes of Faith April 8, 2024

Dale Workman

April 8, 2024

Notes of Faith April 8, 2024

Few things highlight the uniqueness of the Christian faith more than the dichotomies we frequently encounter when reading the word.

Psalm 30:11

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.

Mourning and dancing are not words you would normally find in close proximity to one another when talking about life experiences.

Psalm 30:5

For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Anger and favor, weeping and joy, all being found together in one sentence is a rather significant anomaly. Yet, these seemingly contradictory statements are at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian. The ultimate of these is in relation to Jesus Himself when it is said of Him:

Hebrews 12:2

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

There was a joy that was greater than the shame Jesus despised when He was hung naked on a cross made from a tree. That joy was saving our perishing souls by His shed blood. With Him as our ultimate example, we can see the legitimacy of these opposing terms being paired together so frequently. There are joys awaiting us that far exceed the pains and sorrows in this life.

Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Someday we will be in His presence forevermore and only joy and pleasure will be our experience. If we consider this when times of difficulty come, it will keep us on the path of life in our thinking. Often times our minds and emotions want to take us on a different path, one of doubt and seemingly endless despair. The enemy is more than happy to exploit these moments.

We live in intimidating times when wars and rumors of wars abound, economic struggles are a constant, truth and facts have been replaced with lies and fables, as we see the “whole world lying under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). Add to that, the earth is quaking, plagues and famine are looming, and all these things could lead to forgetting where we are going.

Another of the monuments of contrasting experiences is a reminder by the Lord Himself regarding this life:

John 16:33

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Jesus is not telling us that we will be present in the Great Tribulation, as some erringly propose, but rather that the life we now live in the flesh by faith in the Son of God will be peppered with affliction, troubles, anguish, persecution, and burdens. In fact, the word translated “tribulation” can also be rendered as any of the struggles on that list. Yet, Jesus says, when they come, be of good cheer for they have all been overcome.

It is easy to get distracted during perilous or troublesome times. It takes a conscious decision to remember where we are going and who has made our future of joy and pleasures possible, if we want to ensure we don’t let them control us. We live in perilous times and yet are reminded frequently that we can trust the Lord at all times, peace is ours to enjoy, and we can be of good cheer because we know where we’re going.

Psalm 121:1-3

I will lift up my eyes to the hills— from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.

It has been said: A single uplook can change your whole outlook. So keep your eyes on the prize and focus on the One who made the hills, the One who is our help, the maker of heaven and earth!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,

Pastor Dale

Dale Workman

April 7, 2024

Notes of Faith April 7, 2024

Dale Workman

April 7, 2024

Notes of Faith April 7, 2024

Here at the End of All Things

How to Deal with Change

Article by Gerrit Scott Dawson

Pastor, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

“Well, this is the end, Sam Gamgee,” said Frodo to his dear companion. The Ring was melting in the fires of Mount Doom. Mordor was collapsing in ruin around them. For all they knew, the whole world was disintegrating. Lava rushed down the slopes. The quest was, beyond hope, achieved. The hobbits had done what they came to do, but they did not count on getting home. Frodo had given every drop of strength and will. He sat down and waited to die. This seemed to be the world’s, and his, last hour.

In those apparently final moments, Frodo’s only comfort was the sweetness of companionship. “I am glad you are here with me,” he said. “Here at the end of all things, Sam.” These words pierce me every time. I can see Sam gently holding Frodo’s wounded hand. “Yes, I am with you, Master . . . and you’re here with me. And the journey’s finished” (The Lord of the Rings, 950).

The great burden lifted, we can feel the relief. We may even tear up over the tenderness, our hearts breaking over Frodo’s resignation. He celebrates this utter triumph for Middle-earth only in terms of having his Sam with him in the brief moments before the end.

Brushes with the End

We may well experience events that make us feel the end of all things has arrived. Once, I was young and foolish enough to keep driving on the interstate in a snowstorm. Suddenly, my car flew off the road. Airborne off a hill, time slowed down. The very heart of me spoke, “I love Jesus. I love my family.” Surprisingly, I felt companioned in those milliseconds. This was the end, and weirdly I felt peace along with the adrenalin. Then the car landed in the snow, miraculously undamaged. Completely fine, I just drove back onto the highway like nothing had happened. Yet I would never be the same. I knew I could die anytime. I knew I was never alone.

That was not the last time I braced for death. In Louisiana, we know hurricanes. A few years before Hurricane Ida in 2021, we’d lived through major damage and repairs from uprooted trees crashing on our house. So this time, as Ida roared toward us, we waited for the worst. The power had already gone out. We moved to the family room, lest the neighbor’s fifty-foot tree should crush us in the night. We settled into our sleeping bags with the dogs, turned off the transistor radio, and tried to sleep. The end of all things — that is, life as we know it — might well be coming. It was good not to be alone.

“Jesus himself is the end, the purpose, the goal, the completion of everything.”

Or take last winter. My wife put tiredness aside and drove through the night when word came that her ailing father had suffered a stroke. She made it in time to spend a day with him at hospice. Her prayerful, loving presence brought peace to her family. But more, she felt the sweet companionship with her father, even though he was not awake. “It’s good to be here with you, Dad, here at the end of all the things we’ve known together in this world. Nothing will be the same, but these moments are ours.”

Life as we know it always stands on the brink of endings, both small and momentous. The curtain closes on the final performance, and the troupe will never be so close again. Graduation means now you can never quite go home. The divorce decree arrives, stamped and notarized; the book closes on all that life you once shared. The family business shutters after generations. It was on your watch. The song ends, the plates are cleared, and each day — the best and the worst — fades to night.

The world rotates and revolves relentlessly so that change, endings, always draw nigh. We look around and see who remains when nothing will be as it has been. Maybe a friend, a son, a daughter, a spouse. “It’s good to be with you, dear one, here at the end of all things.”

The World Is Passing Away

These personal tastes of the end remind us that the whole world, even the cosmos, will not remain in present form. Indeed, the conclusion of this age has already been set in motion. Peter writes, “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). The completion of everything has drawn near. With the incarnation of the Son of God and his journey through death, resurrection, and ascension, this world has entered the last days. Of course, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8). The world may endure for centuries more, but the last day, as we know it, is now inevitable. Jesus will return.

This awareness changes how we view the world. We may be despairing of the future. The earthly powers bluster and threaten, posturing that they know the score and call the shots. The world insists that now is all. We’re prodded to accept that the way things are is the way things always will be. We can rush into our days filled with the dull but persistent anxiety that comes from hopelessness. We try not to think about the end. But when we gather around the word in worship with other believers, we see more clearly. The new age of the reign of Christ has begun. The old world in all its rebellion is fading away (1 John 2:17). The true purpose of every created thing will be made clear very soon.

Jesus declares, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). Jesus himself is the end, the purpose, the goal, the completion of everything. Apart from him, we find only the emptiness and abyss of being outside his purpose. Joined to him, we will find that everything gets resolved.

What Matters in the End

This higher view of where the world is going gives us hope. But it also presses on us the urgency of accountability. Every moment may be our last. So, Jesus told the parable of the complacent man who believed he had secured enough goods for a comfortable future. The man told himself, “Relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But then God said, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you” (Luke 12:19–20). Our personal endings can come at any hour. And then an accounting of our lives must be given.

That’s why Peter expands on the implications of his statement, “the end of all things is at hand.” He writes, “Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:7–8). This life counts. This life could end in an instant. So, live with the end, the goal, the purpose in mind. Live for what lasts.

“This life counts. This life could end in an instant. So, live with the end, the goal, the purpose in mind.”

In his great love chapter, Paul concludes, “Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Only what partakes of faithful trust in Christ and lovingkindness toward others will survive through the end into the new creation. Jesus both evokes fear and inspires hope when he says, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Because we know what the end of all things will be, we also know what matters. Every present moment is charged with the future end of all things. And our personal ending could arrive any second.

So, we live with the end in mind.

With Us to the End

We cannot stop the ever-arriving endings in the world, or even in our personal lives. Endings come because change continues. But when we trust that the world’s true end is the day of Christ Jesus, we live in hope. We live for his mission. And he promises that we are companioned. “Go . . . and make disciples of all nations. . . . And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

We are not alone. We face these endings, even the endings of life as we know it, with one who has endured the end of all things, the plunge into the utter darkness of God-forsakenness on the cross, so that we do not face any ending, any nightfall, alone. And usually, in his mercy, he sends us a fellow believer, a Sam, to keep us company along the way.

I am a lover of books, especially the Bible, but also those that stimulate my imagination, like the Lord of the Rings series. If you have not read it, I encourage you to do so. There are three movies and a prequel that have been made from those books, but they can’t hold a candle to reading and your own imagination.

We experience the end of things all the time…some good, an ice cream cone on a very warm day, some filled with sorrow, the loss of a loved one, or in the case of the example above, the end of a good book or story.

Our ultimate end, as believers and followers of Jesus, is more blessed than we can imagine. God wants to and will bless those who seek Him and do His will. If our focus is on our ultimate end, everything else will fall into place where it belongs. Until then, let us love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves! See you at the end…

Pastor Dale

Dale Workman

April 7, 2024

Notes of Faith April 6, 2024

Dale Workman

April 7, 2024

Notes of Faith April 6, 2024

Wrap Your Soul in Truth

Under-Armor for Spiritual War

Article by David Mathis

Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

Given enough time, men and women of principle stand out. After waves of social pressure and the mounting cares of this life, such people are left standing, long after others around them have compromised and toppled.

I’m referring to Christians who don’t play favorites and aren’t partisans of this age. They don’t bend the truth or sweep respectable sins under the rug. Rather, they call Jesus “Lord,” and standing with two feet on his soil, they call “spade” and “evil” to all sides of error and unbelief. Such men and women refuse to cut moral corners, or presume that strategic wrongs can make others right. They shun small compromises and may not stand out at first. But give it time, and their truth and good will be conspicuous (1 Timothy 5:25).

When justice is at stake, such people are not partial to the rich, or the poor. They don’t pick a favorite group, or preferred person, and twist truth and righteousness to fit their darling. Bearing the name of their God, and the Messiah he sent, they judge with impartiality and decide with equity.

And in the spiritual conflict in which we’re engaged, they “stand against the [plural] schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11) that come from every side. They remember that our warfare is spiritual, not “against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12) — and that this war cannot be fought with the weapons of the world.

If such men and women seem to be in short supply in some circles, we might ask, Where do such people come from?

God’s Armor and Ours

“God shows no partiality” is a striking refrain across Scripture, and particularly in the New Testament (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Galatians 2:6; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25). The implication for God’s people is plain and explicit: do nothing from partiality (1 Timothy 5:21). This is James’s memorable teaching about rich and poor who come to worship: “show no partiality” (James 2:1). “If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9).

“The Christian who wraps his soul in the objective truth of Scripture shapes his subjective heart for the wiles of war.”

But all this truth and righteousness, precious as it is, remains downstream when we come to “the whole armor of God” — and what Paul lists first. Before we start reaching for God’s armor, we should know whose it is, and who wore it first.

Now, some of Scripture’s most magnificent passages can be lost on us through over-familiarity. Such chapters as Isaiah 53 and 1 Corinthians 13 are deservedly famous — and in that due emphasis and celebration, many of us need to move past our dulling acquaintance with them and see them with fresh eyes, and amazement.

The “armor of God” in Ephesians 6 is one of these stunning flourishes. This is Paul at his best, with dazzling Christian creativity, if we might call it that. In one powerfully rhetorical swath, he both pulls together Old Testament references to armor and presses them into Christian use (perhaps even against a Roman backdrop). This is instructive of the range of usages the apostles can make of the Hebrew Scriptures, not only as simple promise-fulfillment, but also illusions and types and patterns and artistic syntheses crafted to serve the holy designs of the authors and needs of their readers. Here the apostle is both poet and pastor.

Iain Duguid makes a compelling case that

each of the pieces of armor has a rich background in the Old Testament, where they describe God’s armor — the armor that God himself dons to rescue his people. The Old Testament, not the Roman legionary, provided Paul with his inspiration — and if we miss this background, we may misinterpret and misapply the various pieces of the armor.

So, we begin with the first — “the belt of truth,” which strictly speaking isn’t armor, defensive or offensive, but pre-armor or under-armor. Let’s see it first in its original context, and what it shows us of our Divine Warrior, and then how we, very practically, might “wear the belt” today as Christians in a world of half-truths.

Messiah Wrapped in Righteousness

Isaiah 11 tells of the coming “shoot from the stump of Jesse,” David’s father. The mention of Jesse recalls the humble origins of Israel’s greatest king. The wide trunk that is God’s first-covenant people may be felled by an invading army, but God will see to it that a stump will remain — and in time a new shoot of life will spring from David’s line.

The prophet anticipates that this coming Messiah, with the Spirit of God resting on him, will delight in the fear of God — and so will be no partisan king. He will not be deceived by appearances and personal preferences, “but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth” (Isaiah 11:3–4). Strikingly, he will not then take up the physical sword to enforce his will but exact justice with the word of his power: “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4).

Seven centuries later, when the apostle writes so memorably to Christians about putting on “the whole armor,” he draws first on Isaiah 11:5:

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,

and faithfulness (truth) the belt of his loins.

Gracious and merciful as will be this Messiah to rescue his people, he will not act unjustly. He will not take bribes or underwrite half-truths. He will not treat wrong as right, or sweep injustice under the rug. Delighting to reverence his divine Father and cosmic justice, he will be a king who delights in right, does right, and is known for it. Even his opponents will have to admit, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God” (Luke 20:21).

So here, looking to the righteous actions of Jesus, Paul notes our first step in dressing for spiritual battle.

Prepare Your Soul with Truth

Before reaching for breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, or sword, first comes the under-armor. There’s technically no “belt” here in Ephesians 6:14. This first step of preparation is literally, “having girded up your loins in truth” (perizōsamenoi tēn osphun humōn en alētheia). We might say wrap your waist in truth.

In the ancient world, “girding up your loins” meant wrapping your waist with the excess fabric of a long robe as “preparation for vigorous activity” (O’Brien, Ephesians, 473). Drawing up the dangling garment, and securing it at the waist, enabled running, free movement, and unhindered combat. With this foundational fashion in place, warriors then could secure their armor and go into battle.

For spiritual war, the Christian first is to wrap his loins in truth. Now, as “the belt,” this is not yet truth on the offensive (that’s the sword of the Spirit), but this is God’s truth applied to oneself, to the inner man, the soul, the “inward being” or “secret heart” (Psalm 51:6). The Christian who wraps his soul in the objective truth of Scripture shapes his subjective heart for the wiles of war. He takes the divine word deep into his human center, for transformation and joy. He not only searches the Scriptures, but lets the Scriptures search him. He ingests God’s truth both to feed and to condition his soul, subjectively using the objective truth to shape his pliable affections.

Slowly, one day at a time, over months and years, this wrapping makes him a vastly different person, far better equipped to both identify truth and embody it.

Wrap Yourself in His Word

Wrapping ourselves in truth applies to more than personal Bible intake, but not less. Those best prepared for spiritual war are those who not only dip into the word briefly but saturate their lives with it. They wrap their souls in God’s truth through various habits and patterns, personally and corporately — through reading and rereading and study and meditation and memorization and discussion. They click on content that strengthens their bearings and their delight in truth, rather than error.

We all wrap our souls in something. Is it truth or error? And as we practice choosing truth daily, reading truth, clicking truth, meditating on truth, talking truth, then we become ready to discern truth from error, counterfeits, and half-truths.

“Those best prepared for spiritual war are those who not only dip into the word briefly but saturate their lives with it.”

And having wrapped our souls in truth, we become the kind of people who bring truth with us wherever we go. We not only speak truth but embody it, and even more, speak the truth of the gospel into places and hearts of unbelief. We are truth-tellers in our jobs, on our taxes, when we fill out insurance claims, when we serve as jurors, when we find a financial error in our favor, and when we hear someone speak a half-truth about someone else. Like Jesus, we will become agents of truth wherever we go: when we walk into a room, or stand up at a school-board meeting, or sit in a conference room, or engage in conversation.

Wrapped in truth, we’ll be the kind of people who say, in every crisis, Let truth hold sway. Let the unvarnished truth be discovered and known. Truth will not undermine the cause of our God and Christ, who is the Truth. Rather, the cause of truth — openhanded, not angling, full exposure, light into darkness — is an effect downstream of our knowing and enjoying the word of truth, the gospel, about the one who is Truth himself.

And so we call out spades and evil, and call on Jesus as Lord. We refuse to cut moral corners, cater to lies, or presume that some wrongs can make others right. First, we wrap ourselves daily in God’s truth. Then, we reach for the armor, and over time we grow increasingly bright and shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father, and in this age besides.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org

We all too often take lightly the reading of God’s Word. This is God speaking to us, to teach, to reprove, to make us more like Jesus! Read it often. Read portions over and over even if you are familiar with them. There is much truth to be gleaned, learned and used. These Scriptures are applicable to our every day. Wake up and put your armor on!

Pastor Dale