This morning’s devotional in “Days of Praise” continues an exposition on Martin Luther’s grand hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”
This week the Charlie Kirk trial has been happening, and I have always been interested in him since he came on the scene years ago. After all, we share the same values.
I am also a hated “white Evangelical.” Actually the DNA says I am mostly Norwegian, even though I always believed my dad was 100% Swedish. Anyway, I am Scandinavian, and since my maternal grandmother WAS 100% Norwegian it sort of got through to me. The lefse, the lutefisk, the sandbakkels, the krumkaka….
I guess I identify as a Norwegian Evangelical.
The Enemy has turned me into a pariah. Are there any Evangelicals on the Norwegian soccer team?
It is good and sweet to note that the Enemy has not had his way over the past weeks, when people of divergent mindsets have united in bidding farewell to a matriarch.
Mom and I share the same political and theological views. I listened when she taught me. I read the things she wanted me to read. I agree. We are on the same page.
But many who know and love her do not hold our views, and I can say with gratitude in my heart that people have been gracious, willing to check the disagreements at the door, for the sake of saying a final word of love.
We forget who our REAL enemy is. In such circumstances we realize that we are not each other’s enemies, but that the devil has created a wedge between us. He is the real enemy, and we mustn’t forget this!
As Charlie Kirk always sought to dialogue, that should also be our method. He was masterful, and the devil hated that.
His death has lit the fire under many quiet ones, and perhaps this rush to reasonable debate is a last breath of hope before God allows the End to manifest. The Last Days.
I’d like to think so, because I want the Enemy defeated. I want Jesus to come for His bride, the church. I welcome the last days!
God will deal with His promised and chosen bride as prophesied: Israel, He is true to His promises! Jacob’s Trouble is truly at the door as Erdogan, Putin, and Trump form alliances and declare that Israel “is a burden.”
Isn’t that prophetic?
God’s Word is true.
Read it plainly. Read it literally. Understand the contexts.
Satan has wormed his way into every cultural institution.
Do you know what fascism is? I looked up the definition on Google today. I wanted to be reminded of the “correct” meaning.
Collective dictatorship. Socialism under totalitarian authority.
It is definitely coming in the form of an economic global world order under the likes of Soros, Harari, and Schwab. They march to the drumbeat of our Enemy. They seek to implement his will. They have pledged themselves to his side, as so many of our public figures have done.
Watch for those eye-covered photos, you know, the hand covering half the face? Such a blatant symbol of the satanic agenda, and who belongs to it. It’s a dead give-away.
The enemy has effectively brainwashed our world. Open your eyes and see it! His order is coming at break-neck speed!
Our younger generation has swallowed his hooks completely: abortion, trans, sex, fornication, (our churches are full of fornicators and divorce.) MORAL FAILURE. Look at all the duplicitous leaders!
The enemy appears to be winning.
Let us not forget the enemy in our own moral failures. Let us daily bring to God our sins, repent, and begin anew. Let Jesus wash us with the cleansing blood of the cross.
Let us be lights in a darkening world.
Are you praying for Klaus Schwab? Yuval Noah Harari? George Soros? His son, and daughter-in-law Huma Abedin?
Are you praying for Trump?
We need to be DAILY praying for their salvation. They are servants of the enemy.
I struggle to pray for leaders I despise, but I am called to pray for them in love.
“Lord, I pray for the Obamas, the Clintons, the Bidens. I pray for the Putins, the Trudeaus, the Machrons. I pray for the English king, who is so lost. I pray for the Epstein perpetrators. I pray that all of these people would become right with you before the end, that they, in your great mercy, will not have to spend eternity in hell.
I pray for the Muslim world, the Buddhist world, the Hindu world. I pray for those ensnared in mind games and technocracy, in atheism and agnosticism. I pray for the lost. I pray for Asia. I pray for dark Europe, dark Africa, dark South America.
I pray for the influencers in China, Japan, and North and South Korea. I pray they turn their lives over to you and tell the good news of your love and the hope of our future. Lord, you know my list and my contacts there. Work in their lives! AMEN.”
My dear friend told me this little anecdote recently:
When Jesus wept, at the tomb of Lazarus, He wept because he had to call Lazarus back from his eternal home. He knew how hard it would be to leave that glorious place of light and love and come back to this hell-hole that the devil rules. He wept.
My dear mentor, Hazel Goodrich, who passed away years ago, was deathly sick as a child. She went to heaven and spoke with the Lord Jesus. She says this, and I believe her. Jesus told her that she had to go back.
Her heart almost broke as she “went back” to her earthly body.
BUT, the story went on. “I never feared dying after that,” she said, emphatically.
If you knew Hazel (she was my dad’s cousin, a missionary to tribes in Canada and northern Minnesota all her subsequent life) you would know that she had a twinkle in her eye and a purity in her heart. She spoke truth to me and gently curbed my errant behaviors and ideas. She was a stellar mentor.
I think of her so often! A woman of God, she exemplified what I would like to be as well. I seek to mentor, not because I am worthy, but because I know great women like Hazel, and my mom! I need to pass on these convictions that they had!
Mom is still with us, but I know she wants to have a quick passing. Who wouldn’t? Can you pray with me for God’s mercy in her home-going?
Or, Lord, this is a fine time for the Rapture! (PERHAPS TODAY?!)
We know that her days are already numbered and her lingering is in God’s plan. We know life is a gift, even if our heavenly home is much more desirable. We must wait patiently and see what God is teaching us even in these Last Days.
God gave us some signs to watch for in this generation, the church age. They are plainly verified in Scripture. God is not willing that anyone perish!
It is His incredible patience with mankind that stays His ultimate plan of destruction. He wants you to come to Him!
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death.
Song of Songs
Regarding the enemy: Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Regarding Love and Life: 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13.
I remember that chapter being read at Prince William and Kate’s wedding, being so moved by it. Such powerful words of love. It shouldn’t be underestimated from familiarity.
Find your Bible and read it again this glorious Sunday morning. Let the Word wash you.
The time of the singing of birds is here. As I write the chickadee is calling, and there are wrens trilling. I love hearing the blue Jays bicker in the late afternoon. Crows spat. Cardinals have been keeping mom company as she fades. Glorious sound and beauty.
Don’t forget your Enemy, but realize that with Christ you are MORE THAN CONQUERORS.
We conquer death.
Come Lord Jesus!
MARANATHA!