Children must learn priorities.    God is the first priority.  The next is the person before you, and you are last.  This is the formula for release, security and sight.    Soldier of The Cross, without training, children will become the center of their own universes.  They will dictate everything around and they will easily manipulate unenlightened adults.    For a child, it does not take a lightening bolt.  It only takes a living example, and verbal explanation of what is happening.  Have you noticed that your children imitate your speech as well as your mannerisms?    If you speak negatively about others, your children will don the cloak of your opinion without understanding that is is wrong or sinful.  Even if they sense that something is not right, children instinctively reflect their parents.    What a tremendous encouragement.  It means there is an open avenue for training.    What are your values?  Your real values?  Do your children see and hear you fretting about finances all the time, or are they hearing your daily verses?  Do they hear your concerns about the lost?   When they need discipline, do you pray with them?    Are your physical possessions in order?  Is your use of time according to God's Word?  Are you in church every time the door is open?    Soldier of The Cross, your children must be prepared for eternal delight.  They should be disciplined without anger and they should be secure, because you are consistent.    Be sure to raise your children on your knees.

   Soldier, when you crossed The Line, you told the Lord He could have you.    The Spirit moved within you and revealed the beauty of being willing to let Him take your life in order to do whatever would glorify Him.  From that time, when you have read of those who have gone before,  your heart burns with the longing to serve Him, and to love Him with all that you are and have.    There is no second best.  Nothing else is eternal.    So, develop an awareness of what gets your attention and why.  The battle is in the mind.  Learn to govern your thoughts.  Bring the matter of your focus to the Lord in prayer.  Tell him about it.  He will train you.  That means that there will be exercises in faith and in learning not to look to "the left nor to the right."    Look up and move on!

   It is too easy to limit prayer to what can be.    We have the God of the Impossible.  In fact, the Bible reveals a Sovereign God whose relationship with man is characterized by miracles.    It is not possible to know Him , pursue Him, worship Him, and continue to pray according to human concept.    Those who are willing to take up The Cross and follow Him will be led of the Spirit.  They will pray for things they have never thought of.  They will pray for things they have not heard of.  They will pray for things that absolutely can not be, by human experience or knowledge.    Soldier of The Cross, there is no limit.  No boundary.  No request can be contrary to His Word, but prayer should be framed by the delving in to the infinite frontier of faith.    Most do not pray much.    Those who do are often limited by human perspective.    He can do anything.  Anything. Anything.    He can do anything, but fail.

   The Glory is in Obedience.    The Glory is in His Presence.    How can His Glory be experienced?  How can the Shekinah Glory be experienced?  By faith, of course.  By taking Him at His word and  agreeing with Him.    When the Soldier of The Cross agrees with God, there is a supernatural empowerment that is ushered in by the Indwelling Holy Spirit.  Even the most difficult matters are lubricated supernaturally    Soldier,  there is nothing more important than agreeing with God.  It is the theme of His Word.    Tell Him.    Today.    Aloud

There is a wonderful and divine lubrication that is experienced by those who walk by faith. When The Soldier of The Cross gazes upon Him and looks toward the heavenly home, the hard things of life are sweetened. It becomes a delightful sacrifice to let go of self-protection, self-exaltation and self-defense. No longer are the efforts of the enemy a successful distraction. The Soldier of the Cross has put on the Full Armor. He realizes He is not His own and has been Bought with a Price. He is covered by the Blood. He has the precious down payment of his inheritance - the Indwelling Holy Spirit's Seal of Promise. Stand still and look. All will die. All live only a few years. All must make an eternal decision. All will stand before Him. All will account for his or her use of time. Also for all spoken words. Everything that is not of faith will be burned away. Any questions?

   His Word says that He goes to the Father on our behalf.    As an attorney, that is a stunning statement to me.  An advocate puts himself in the shoes of another.  An advocate pleads the case and must know it well.  An advocate is thoroughly familiar with the law.     As believers, we have an Advocate who created us and named us.  He put the stars in place.  He designed the lily and the rose.  He runs the Universe "by His Word of Power. . ."    If all this is true and He is who He says He is, why is it so hard to pray?    Because all hell comes against it.     When you pray, you have the only Perfect Advocate who intercedes for you.  You also have the Indwelling Holy Spirit,  who enables you to communicate with Him, beyond your verbal skill.    Why does He say to come as a little child?  Because children to not have preconceived ideas.  Children come as they are, state the matter and look for the answer.    Soldier of The Cross, the more you serve Him, the more childlike you must be.    Trust Him.  Tell Him    Wait for Him.        The King of Glory will plead your cause.

   If we needed to know more about the future, He would have told us.    We know all we need to know.  We have seen a pattern of fulfilled prophecy and we know the overall plan for the remainder of Time.  We know He is coming for us and we know He is preparing  a Place for us.    We know we will be with Him for eternity.    We don't know what will happen tomorrow.  Or even in the next few hours.  No matter how much we try, we cannot anticipate much of lies ahead until He comes.   So, why try?  Why ask to know the outcome?  Many are so invested in protection from undesired results or events that the  moment is lost.   Does He know best?   Does He keep His Promises?   Is He Love?   Soldier of The Cross, the thrill of knowing Jesus is in the experience of Salvation,  enjoyment of His Body of believers, the satisfaction of service and the security of standing on His Word.    Prayer is a place to go.  We meet with One who listens attentively and who is just as interested in us in the next hours and He will be during all of eternity.    No wasting of time in wondering and fantasy.  He can be trusted.    Why worry when you can pray?

   Some of the greatest heroes of the faith are recorded in the eleventh chapter of the letter to the Hebrews.    The writer says that they were "those of whom the world was not worthy."  Yet, they were persecuted. Some were obviously doing without and many died terrible deaths.  We are not told why, only that they are heroes of the faith.    Soldier of The Cross, age brings an acute awareness of numbered days.  God's Word makes no bones about God's call to serve and obey.  What else is there?    All without Christ are approaching the cliff.  Remember Amy Carmichael's dream?  She saw people going over the edge of the cliff one by one, and  no one was doing anything.  In her dream, there was a little group of Christians sitting under a tree, singing together and making daisy chains.    Everyone is watching you - Christians and non -Christians alike.    Serving Him makes us more practical.  Gazing at Him, pursuing Him and speaking with Him means that there will be vision for the thing to be done, whether it means doing dishes or loving the homeless person with huge dandruff flakes and horrible body odor.    This is about eternity.  This is urgent.    He has initiated.  He came, died for you, rose again , and called your name.  You have been set apart to follow and serve.  Stop and consider - is there anything else?    How does being right compare with eternity?    How does being financially stable compare with eternity?    How does looking great compare with eternity?    How does the worldly success of your children compare with eternity?    How does a visible position compare with eternity?    He is looking for those who will know Him by faith, serve Him by faith and reveal Him by faith.    Are you His or are you yours?

    Your days are numbered.     God's Word says that He and He alone knows when life will end.  In the meantime, the whole of the Bible instructs the Soldier of The Cross to leave all behind and follow Him.  The Soldier is instructed to take courage and march into the fray.  The Soldier is commanded to leave all anxiety with the Lord.    Deep in the heart of man is the desire to know what is going to happen after death.  No human adult has escaped the thought.     Soldier, step out.  Reach out.  Share your own experience.  After all, there is nothing more powerful than an honest accounting of a personal experience.    We are not dealing with a belief or doctrine.  We are leading the lost to an encounter with the Living God who will, in fact, touch each one who is available.    This must be a habit, and must be a matter regularly addressed in prayer, and aloud.  If this is not done, you will be waiting for an obvious open door, instead of being available to bold obedience.    We share in season and out of season.  Ask for energy.  Ask for vision.  Ask for Love and tell Him you are available.    The days are short and few.  Eternity is not a "long time."  It is without measure.  Forever is not a concept the mind can ingest or file.    By faith and because of Love, we are His and He must be allowed to reveal Himself in and through our lives.    Soldier, Take up the Sword and move!

   Are you willing to plant your life on the Word of God?    Do you believe He has told you the truth?  Do you know you have experienced the New Birth? If so, you have a witness that all He says is true.    Why then do the winds of emotion seem so contrary to the precious verses to which we cling?  If we are not to be offended, why are nasty comments to piercing?  If we are to return good for evil, why is there such a strong urge to balance the scales and get back?   If we are to walk by faith, why does the lack of control loom so large?   Is worry an emotion?   A feeling?  What does the Bible say about worry?  About resentment?  About jealousy? About misunderstanding?   Loneliness?    The issue is, is He who He says He is?    Soldier of The Cross, have you or have you not made the decision to take up The Cross and follow Him? You have crossed the line.  You have moved away from the crowd and have determined to follow Him no matter what.    So then, rely on His Word.  After all, He is The Word.    The creatures of the sea do not have choice.  They must move as the Creator has designed.  They move in tandem with the water flow, the temperature and other forces that God has designed and set in place.  The fowl of the  air and the animals of the jungle are also without choice.    You, on the  other hand, have exquisite choice.  You can chose to follow, not to follow, to object, disobey  or to agree.    Your feelings are not illusions.  They are real.  At the same time, what does the Bible say?  If your feelings do not line up with God's Word, you must choose God's Word as truth and you must govern your body, your thoughts and your countenance in order to agree with His Word.    When you talk about the issues at hand, do you listen to yourself?    You are able to obey because when you gave your life to Him, you were immediately made an Adopted Son and you were given the privilege and Promise of the Inheritance by virtue of the Indwelling Holy Spirit.     If you know He tells the Truth, you must make a choice between your feelings and His Word.  Is He who He says He is?    You have the Power.    Which will you choose? Time or Eternity?