Author: Nick

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.   But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?   You observe days and months and seasons and years!   I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.   (Galatians 4:8-11) I spent much of the day yesterday seeking photos of other members of the Kairos 53 team and posting them to the internet. Much of our team “training” is getting to know each other better and I have a terrible time with names. My intent was to provide a photo album with the photos labelled with the name of the team member. It turned out to be a fun exercise. If you have someone’s email address, you can learn a lot about them on line. Not everything you learn is completely flattering. It’s amazing what information people will put out for the world to see. I think we have a strong natural desire to know […]

 10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we

Yesterday I took my grandson home after church and we tackled my store and lock. I had a pick up truck bed full of items to go in the unit and I knew there wasn’t enough room. I had been putting off (procrastinating) removing some items and delivering them to the rightful owner. It’s a long story that doesn’t deserve telling here. Nicky and I tackled the problem, removed the offending items, called the owner, and delivered the items. Bad news is that I then had room for the new stuff that should have probably been thrown away, but is now safely in storage. The entire evolution took a couple of hours at the most. I had put it off for over a year. I have ignored the fact that even having a store and lock is an act of procrastination. It is a sign we are putting off throwing away things that we really don’t need. We just stick them in storage. Later, maybe much later, we’ll get around to throwing them away. It’s kind of like left-overs. At our house we have the procedure of putting left overs in the fridge, growing a little mold and then, […]

35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 Like destruction is the result of warfare in the nature, dissension is the result of warfare in the spiritual realm. Dissension is defined as disagreement among those expected to cooperate. Since Christ gave us a mission, we are expected to cooperate to accomplish that mission. Dissension makes mission impossible to accomplish. But more Christ promised something greater than simply agreement among His people. He made possible a love so dramatic that it causes ordinary men to desire to participate. So when Satan can stir dissension among the people of God, he wins at least  twice. He destroys the witness of the church while robbing the members of the church of the ability to work together to accomplish its mission.  But dissension gives Satan victory in another sense. Not only does it destroy witness, and mission, but it steals blessing. Agape love is a selfless love that is only possible when gifted from God. It is a blessing in itself. Anyone who has experienced the glow of selfless love wants never to lose it. There is likely no greater experience than to […]

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians 6:10 Maybe before reading this you should spend a few minutes listening to a song. The first thing Kaydance asks when she sees me for the first time in a while is, “Pick me up.” As independent as a three year old is, she wants to be held and her instincts scream at her to find a greater source of strength. Somehow Thursday night she ended up on the floor by her bed. She lay there crying although she was completely capable of getting up on her own. She wouldn’t stop crying until I picked her up and crawled into bed with her. It’s good to be stronger than someone, even if that someone is only three. It’s good to know when we fall, there’s someone to pick us up, crawl into bed with us and comfort us. It’s as true at 62 as it is at three.  We know there is a spiritual war going on around us. There is no avoiding it. When spiritual warfare is discussed, Ephesians 6:10-20 is usually the center. These verses are the instruction manual. They are meaty and need to be […]

In the 1970s, a talented comedian named Flip Wilson, made the phrase “The devil made me do it” famous. He portrayed characters like the “Rev” and Geraldine who liked to blame things on the devil. If you have forgotten or you’re too young to remember you can watch this segment. I have to think Satan loved Geraldine. She helped in both of his strategies: to get credit for things he didn’t do and to be made such a comic character that no one would take him seriously. Hollywood has helped him out often. Who can forget the sinister movie, the Exorcist? To those who are too young, I won’t help you with a video clip…too scary.  When we begin to consider spiritual warfare we will run into both of Satan’s schemes. Like so much in life, balance is what is required. Satan wants you to sin, but sometimes you want it yourself or the temptations of the world are just too strong. Yes, demonic possession and lesser levels of influence do exist. Satan is real. But just because you’re not spewing forth pea soup and your head is not spinning around 360 degrees, doesn’t mean he’s leaving you alone. […]

1 John 2:5-6 New King James Version (NKJV) 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. When we focus on what Jesus said we tend to drift into theological discussions that can distort his message. We would often do better to focus on what. he did. If we live like Jesus did, we can know we are like Him.  Those who preach a prosperity gospel should consider that Jesus didn’t seem to own anything and even noted that He had no place to lay his head. Those who urge political correctness, being nice, and not offending; would do well to consider Jesus’ anger at the Pharisees, and his physical violence when offended by the money changers. Those who just hang around with Christians and go no where but church, would do well to consider where Jesus went and with whom he talked and ate. Those who believe that the bigger a church’s building the more efficient the ministry, might consider Jesus preached on hillsides and in […]

I know about the reality of war. I served two tours in Vietnam. But that’s not where I gained war experience. In fact, I spent those war years in a legal office in the belly of an aircraft carrier. I killed no one and saw no one killed. I weep with those who did and then came back home not to ticker tape parades but to the jeers of hateful demonstrators. I gained my war experience at home where the enemy is more deadly and more cunning than the Viet Cong. In this war the enemy is seldom seen. He has the ability, it seems, to get into the heads of his enemies and confound and confuse. He can turn combatants against each other. You seldom see his missiles coming or hear his footsteps in the night.  Leave him alone and he doesn’t seem to notice you. Yet he honors no rules regarding noncombatants. In fact, he seems to relish injury and pain in the weak and innocent. He has no concept of fair fighting nor has he heard of the Geneva Convention. He fights fearlessly and relentlessly though his cause is lost and his defeat inevitable.  He counts his victories […]