One Christmas Eve in snowy Goodrich, Michigan, I insisted on staying up until midnight. I had heard and believed that animals could speak as humans do during that dark hour. It was a type of miracle that was an extension of the Nativity birth. I was about eight years old and sincerely wanted to speak with the rabbits we kept in cages out behind our house. My mother wanted nothing to do with this. She made me go to bed at my normal time because Santa was waiting to come!

The irony, believing in Santa but not the animals having the ability to speak. Both are fairy tales.

To the world, the story of the virgin birth of Jesus, His life, death and resurrection are a myth. The Bible to the world is a book of fictional or at best, somewhat historical tales. Yet we believers truly and sincerely believe the Bible. To us it is holy and contains the oracles of God.

Why? Why do we believe?

Because our lives have been changed with a touch from The Lord, through reading and applying Scripture to our lives, answered prayers, from witnessing great miracles, even others being resurrected from death.

During my journey with God I have had to stop and ask myself, “Do I really believe this part of Scripture?”

Did Noah and his family really survive a worldwide flood in an ark which he himself built? (Genesis 6:14-18)

Was Jonah actually swallowed by a whale? (Jonah 1-2)

Could Paradise or the Bosom of Abraham have actually existed prior to Heaven being opened to believers? (Luke 16)

I had to remove areas of unbelief until I believed the whole Word of God.

We must all do this. We must believe Scripture as a whole, because it is whole and cannot be broken. (John 10:35)

The world wants us to deny our Godly heritage, our Word, a gift of God by eroding and whitewashing truths from it little by little. The world wants us to believe that God is not able to do what He says He has done.

But God has done these great things, and He will do many more.

Knowledge of the glory of God will fill the Earth just as waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

The Word of God is divine. Lord Jesus is the Word. Lord Jesus is God. He cannot be stopped, neither can His Word. All things are in His hands. All things are His. (Psalm 24:1)

Lord Jesus is coming again. He will come for His bride. He will come in judgment upon the world. He will come on a white horse with fire in His eyes. (Revelation 19:11-16)

And what is His Name given at His return?

“His Name is called The Word of God.” (Revelation 19:13)

Listen not to the world which denies Him and His return. This is a lie from out of the deep hearts of iniquity. (Psalm 64:6) But even this will not stop Him.

Nothing can stop the return of Lord Jesus. Not even the burning of Bibles. (J. Davidson/The Federalist)

Believe upon The Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. (Acts 16:31)

THE CHURCH'S HIDDEN ENEMIES

One summer I went away to a two-week Girl Scout camp in Northern Michigan, near Traverse City. The lakes there are pristine and good for many water activities. As Scouts, we didn’t just sell cookies, but also learned survival skills like starting a campfire, digging a latrine, and preventing drowning.

Camp leaders taught us girls swimming strokes, how to tread water for extended periods of time, how to float to survive and how to rescue another person in danger of drowning. It was excellent training which carried into my older years.

The camp also had kayaks, the type used by Eskimos in the Arctic. A seal comes up around the waist, keeping the lower portion of the body dry and enclosed within the kayak. Getting out of a flipped kayak was very unnerving. I was upside down in the water and sealed in. I had to keep my cool to tuck my body forward, pull the loop in front of me, and push my body out of the floatable all while underwater holding my breath, eyes open. This “wet exit” required training.

A believer’s life is similar to learning drowning prevention techniques. It requires training. All Scripture is suitable for training. (2Timothy 3:16)

Training means to practice something until the process is mastered, learning a skill, or type of behavior. It takes diligence and time. One has to set his mind to it and not run away in fear, just as I had to overcome my fear of being upside down, stuck in the kayak.

Scripture reading and its application is necessary for life, for survival. (John 6:63)

One of the ways God speaks to us is through the Word of God. (Psalm 1:1-3)

The Word of God is not like other books; it is alive, supernatural, and its content has come from God, to tell us Who He is. (Hebrews 4:12)

Jesus is the Word of God. (John 1:1-2)

There is no life, no survival without Him. (John 14:6; Psalm 66:9)

Training also means teaching. Leaders must teach Biblical skills to the younger generation, like how to hear from God and follow Him. Without God’s leadership, they live in darkness and will follow any shepherd. (John 10:1)

Just as when a kayak is upside down, without proper technique and knowledge, drowning occurs. But when we practice and prepare ahead for danger, we keep our calm and know exactly what to do. Ask God. Hold to God. Stay in obedience to God.

In the Old Testament, there were three young men who would not bow nor take a knee to what was the religion of the moment, the worship of a newly created image of Nebuchadnezzar. They had already been through many traumatic situations, and The Lord had preserved their lives. Trusting Him, they stood when others bowed. King Nebuchadnezzar had them punished by throwing them into a fiery incinerator, but a fourth man walked around inside with them. The Lord. The three came out of the furnace without even the smell of smoke upon them. These young men grew up learning the Scriptures. Their life-threatened witness changed the course of religious freedom for true believers. (Daniel 3)

In the New Testament, Lord Jesus went through many trials. In the wilderness, tempted by satan, He resisted the devil with the Word of God. He is our example, He would not bow to the enemy. (Matthew 4:1-11) His physical witness produced the fruit of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Peer pressure, political pressures, and spiritual dangers come to believers. Without having received the preparation of training and the knowledge that goes with it, we will not know or even recognize the way out of danger.

To bend a knee or bow to anything other than the true living God, Lord Jesus, His Son, is idolatry. (Exodus 20:3) It is sin.

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

Are you training your children to remain obedient to God, to Lord Jesus?

Pastors—are you teaching your flocks how to follow Lord Jesus even in dark times?

LOOK UP!

THE CHURCH'S HIDDEN ENEMIES