Soldier of The Cross, always remember that you are on the move.    He leads you always.  Through the minutes and the hours and the days.  Even if you are immobile, He will lead you as vigorously as you are willing to go.    Look for Him.  Wait for Him.    Be ready

   We are told that God hates  false balance.    What does this mean?  A false balance is the human attempt to fix what only God can fix.    For example, thee are Christians who have a get-back streak.  If they think you have done something to them, they need to play God and teach you a lesson.  the problem is, anything other than what God has said is a false balance.  I{f you think someone has done ill to you, the Bible forbids you from returning evil for evil.  God also says that vengeance is His.  Anything else is a false balance and is outside of God's economy.    It is always the flesh that wants to get even.  The flesh wants the satisfaction of seeing the other party in a position of discomfort.    Those who take offense always want to do something about it.  At a minimum, the hurt feelings are reflected in a pouting countenance or a sharp tongue.  The offended always considers the other party to be the offender, and offense invariably targets the other party for payback.    Soldier of  The Cross, this only means waiting on God and recognizing that we are not equipped to rule the universe.  It is critical to be aware of the desire to even the score, and to  then take the matter to the Lord in  prayer before things get out of hand.    If you do not like the preaching, trying to influence the same speaker to preach to your liking is an attempt at a false balance.     If the finances are lacking, carrying on about the lack of money is a false balance.    If  there is guilt, doing penance is a false balance.    Soldier, depend on God's Word.  The Indwelling Holy Spirit will speak to you and will lead you.

   God's brilliant design is infinite.    Time is only one component designed by Grace.  It is intended to confront humanity with choice.    The young often imagine that there is some kind of time fence between them and the twilight years.  We all know, however, that if we live, or if the Lord tarries, we will see those years.  We must learn to live them and prepare for them.    The divisions of time have always been interesting to me.  Why are there not twenty-three hours in a day?  Or twenty five?  The day has a beginning and an end, although evening bleeds into night and night dissipates with the rising of the sun.    Once we have received Christ, the Indwelling Holy Spirit enables us to appropriate the grace made available to us.  There is new grace for each day.  Now, you can move, you can speak, you can probably feed yourself and you have many things to do.  You have projects and goals and you probably indulge in your favorite entertainments and foods.    There may come a day when you are dependent.  It happened to Amy Carmichael, and she learned to receive grace for each day, even when she could not turn herself over in bed.  She did this for twenty years.  She ministered to others and wrote her deepest and most profoundly confrontive revelations on the Cross during that time.    The course that you choose now is the same course that you will be traveling in old age.    Are you a Soldier of The Cross?     Have you crossed The Line?     Have you decided to leave all behind and be available - to the  best of your ability?     Do you understand that He will lead you with His eyes?    Have you understood that you will be with the Body of Christ eternally?    Have you understood that His Word will be forever?    Grace for tomorrow will be given tomorrow.    Live today in the fullness of His Life.       There is  nothing else.

   Jealousy is an emotion that is fed by unclean thought.    Those who would serve the King can not afford this spiritual cancer.  Jealousy wants harm to come to the object of the jealousy and nothing can satisfy the craving.   If not checked,  jealousy will create its own universe in the soul.    Jealousy is a sin and must be confessed.   There must be clean prayer about the matter and it must be left with the Lord.  There can be no fellowship with Him, as long as there is an agenda against another.    Soldier, walk with clean and empty hands.

   Soldier of The Cross, make a deliberate decision each day to dedicate all of your faculties to Him during your waking hours.    After all, there is  nothing else.    They are sighted, who pray according to God's Word.  They can see that all of creation bends and presses toward eternity.  They can see that there can be no shallow living.  There can be no untruth.  There can be no ungodly compromise.  The race must be run, and run in obedience.     Ask the Lord to let you see as He sees.  You will be enabled to minister in areas that have been closed to you.  You will be able to love the unlovely.   You will find yourself eager to walk by faith.     Living in agreement with God brings an acute awareness of the shortness of time.    Soldier, love  not the world.     When you gaze upon Jesus, you will be inoculated against shallow passivity, and energized to pursue Him.

    In the year of Joy, we will learn to delight in the Lord.    How does this happen?    First, the Soldier of The Cross must learn to enjoy the Lord in prayer.  This happens when he or she tells the Lord the ways in which He is enjoyed.   When the believer prays in this manner and tells the Lord what thrills him, the Holy Spirit always reveals more and more about God.    This leads to true private worship.  Private worship lifts the believer above physical circumstances and aborts the insistent harassment of the flesh - the demand to stick to the do-it-yourself plan.    We were all created to know Him and enjoy Him.  Tell Him you are available.  Be willing to be led in personal worship.    Tell Him aloud.  Then start in.  You will be supernaturally released to worship God.

    Struggling?    Almost without exception, there is time.  Once in a rare while, there is a fire, or an emergency illness or some other thing that sucks up the day. But for the most part, there is time.    I am not one to say it must always be in the morning.  It is true that the day must begin with a connection to the Lord and it must be deliberate.  It can be in the bathroom.  It can be in the car.  It can be anytime, even before arising, but it must take place.    There must also be the Word of God at the beginning of the day.  If there are morning issues, the verse should be written out the night before.  It should be memorized, all or in part.  That is not a problem.  If the verse has been written out, it can be carried around and memorized.    None of the above is the quiet time.    The quiet time is a season set aside when there is no motion or sound present, and the Soldier of  The Cross stands before the Creator of The Universe.  It is a time of adoration, worship, petition, possibly confession, intercession and most certainly , listening.    The praying Soldier is changed by the things he or she prays for andby the manner in which the prayer is offered.  There must be a deliberate and affirmative clasping of the truth that He listens and answers.    Some sing to the Lord.  Some kneel.  Some stand.  Some lie face down.  All meet with Him.  If you are not imprisoned or mute, it must be aloud.  Attempts at silent prayer usually result in woolgathering.     Those who meet God walk with a clean soul.  Those around them are healed.   They do not whine.  They do not talk about themselves all the time.    They are calm.    They are healed.    They are loving.    They are secure.        They are looking at Jesus.

      Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others' joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others' grief].                    Romans 12:15   (Amplified Version)    The above verse is about empathy - not to be confused with sympathy.    The Holy Spirit gives the Believer a special provision to obey the Word of God.  Those who agree with God are able to know what others are experiencing and are able to bear that burden with the one who is suffering.    The problem comes when Christians are so sympathetic that they become useless.  Sympathy is the beginning of awareness of the plight of another, but when one is  not in fellowship with the Lord, sympathy becomes sentimentality.  The sentimental one begins to feel what they think they would feel if they were in the situation, and it has little to do with the one actually going through the hardship.  The sentimental one begins to suffer a blight on the personality because they have taken on an anxiety and a pain that is fantasy and not real.    The pitfall is deep and immediate for those who are faking the Christian walk.    Soldier of The Cross, this is about following hard after Jesus.  This is about taking up The Cross.  This is about the death of the flesh.  This is about dropping the things that would encumber - not picking them up and adopting them as your own.    Travel light - serve the King of Kings.

  Soldier of The Cross, you must be aware of The Goal.    To know Him.    To serve Him.    To Love Him.   That means you must  lay down your life for the Brethren and respond to the Great Commission.   Pray.   Give.   Go.

   Nothing ever stays the same.    We live in a world that is groaning and travailing as time moves toward its end. Everything that is born is moving toward physical death from the moment of birth.   For His Own, there is a sense of momentum that precludes burying treasure on the earth.    As the Soldier of The Cross moves through life, the theme of prayer, song and thought must be "change me."  We are to be like Him and that is a process.  It is nothing we do ourselves, although there is no sweetness apart from walking in the Light.    As you get older, you are finding the body wants to move less.  The mind resists new exercises. The soul craves familiar assurances.    Those who agree with God become more flexible and available for adventures in faith, even in the twilight years.    Be available to Him for anything.  Tell Him so.     Aloud.