So much of Christian experience today is centered on the knowledge that God loves us and wants to heal our brokenness. As this is part of his intention, it often is short-changed by a lack of true experience.

In the last article on living in fear, I talked about the fact that men and women struggle with fear in various forms, but it all goes back to creation when man walked away from a trusted relationship with their Creator and bought into the lies of Satan, thus making fear a cornerstone of his deception. All too often we try to deal with the effects of fear and not the root cause. If you haven’t read the first installment on this subject please read that first.

My last blog I talked about being in a relationship with God that goes beyond the elementary things of acceptance and forgiveness.

Heb 6:1

So let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on, instead, and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start all over again with the importance of turning away from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.

Far too often, non-believers are convicted of their rebellion to God and His purposes, and are ready to deal with their guilt over past sin and rebellion. They come to Christ as their Savior, to be forgiven an embraced as an adopted child, but there is so much more that God has in mind for this new relationship which Christ paid for.

Ever wonder why your Christian walk seems to be erratic? Why you just can’t seem to have a stable Christian walk with God and people?

This is a complex question, but one worth investigating. Just because the question is hard doesn’t mean we should avoid it. The soul itself is often a mysterious topic, and most writers in the last 50-75 years don’t refer to the soul much at all if ever. If you go back 100 years or more there was a lot of discussion about the soul and it’s importance. Writers in the past spent their whole life trying to understand the soul and it’s function.

Today, if a writer or commentary refers to the soul they say it’s not important, only a person spirit is what’s important because they say our soul will be lost when we die and only our spirit survives. First, this is totally false as the soul and the spirit are often the same word in Hebrew as well as greek being “breath” or air. Now I am no scholar, but there is a enough passages of scripture to see that the soul and the spirit often are inseparably link to each person. Secondly, they assume the soul fades when a person dies. King David wrote about the soul a lot.

Philippians 1:6 says, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Try as he might, my son couldn’t force enough air from his full lung capacity to blow up the little red balloon he was trying to inflate. Dizzy from the strain, he collapsed into a chair in frustration, just as his father walked by and held out his hand. He took the balloon and started to work.

After four or five stretches of the latex material, he pressed the opening to his lips and gave it several strong blows, then cinched it between two fingers and handed the partially filled balloon back. Our son looked confused.”

“You’re not going to finish it? I’ve already tried and can’t do it.”

“You can now because I got it started. You can take care of the rest.”

As a non-Christian growing up, there were a lot of things I had to change when becoming a Christian. My thinking had to change. My behavior had to change. Almost everything I learned to rely on as a non-Christian had to change. Learning to trust God has been a life long pursuit.

One of the most confusing concept most Christians wrestle with is the idea of whether “Fighting” should be part of a believer’s life. There are two major ideas regarding the idea of fighting, and they are very much opposed to each other.

One side of Christian teaching calls believers to be passivits. The idea that all resistance is contrary to Christianity and the teaching of Christ. The other side of the argument believes that fighting is part of the human experience Christian or not. What matters is why. Is it a good cause? Is it standing against evil, etc?

Waking up this morning, I had desired to see the recent primary election outcome. Just as I turned on the news, the Lord spoke to me.

“I can use anyone I want and if I want to use someone you think is unworthy, will you accept that and support them?”

The next thing I heard was the Lord bringing up the Persian King Cyrus, whom I have not thought about nor read for a long time. Then He spoke again.

“Study my Word to see how I do things that many will find hard to accept”

As I started to read the book of Ezra, Isaiah and Daniel, I was reminded how God used a secular King to change the condition of Israel from one of slavery and bondage to freedom. Let me post just a few passages.