I have been hearing a troubling theme as of late:

     An ostinato has crept into the church today concerning life's priorities - that a Christian should put God first, family second and ministry third.

     Not only is there is no such teaching in God's Word, but is the opposite of how we are intended to live.    We were not designed to worship at three altars, or even two.    We are to love the Lord with all that we are and have.

     If we are fully His, nothing can be deliberately separated out.  If I am putting the Lord first, I will want to learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in everything from floor-sweeping and diaper changing,  to leading the lost to Christ.

     There is no formula.  Such a list produces passivity and allows excuses for avoiding living by faith.

     Soldier of The Cross, every minute is about Him.  It isn't about you or me or our families or our ministry.  Those expressions are gloriously released when we are willing to be alive unto Him and take up The Cross and follow hard after Him.

     How can it be that someone could  be a Living Sacrifice, let the Lord have full play in the heart, pray according to God's Word,  yet  be a jerk at home and a dud in ministry?  It isn't possible. 

     He has called us to Himself.  He wants to express Himself through us in word, thought and deed - all the time.

     He wants the ground under our feet to be a place where He is revealed and glorified.

     Only to be what He wants me to be, every moment of every day;
     Yielded completely to Jesus alone, every step of this pilgrim way: 
     Just to be clay in the Potter's hands, ready to do what His Word commands; 
     Only to be what He wants me to be, every moment of every day.
                                           (Norman J. Clayton)
 

     Lord, as I come before you tonight I thank you for separating the days.  I want to learn to live in today, with thanksgiving for yesterday and faith for tomorrow.
     Lord Jesus, I need to be able to see beyond the matters of sight so that I can be free to minister your Life no matter what.   It is my longing to be a no-matter-what-who-or-where Soldier of The Cross.
     So Lord, please do whatever is needed in the deepest places of me in order to bring this about.  Teach me to honor your Word with regard to the passing of Time.
    Anything, Lord.

     Marriage was never intended to be a state of human bliss.

     For the period of Time, marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church.  It is an opportunity for the taking up of The Cross. 

     Today's modern Christianity proposes some kind of formulaic allowance for domestic fulfillment.  God's Word does not indicate any such thing.

     The Soldier of The Cross is to lay down his or her life for the other and is to be a Living Sacrifice.  There is not one verse in the Bible indicating that marriage is about personal fulfillment or human happiness.  That is a modern philosophical slant concerning the matter on which God has made Himself abundantly clear.

     Marriage is an opportunity to die to self.

     I see no wiggle room in God's Word.

     Over the years, many have said to me "I just don't love him any more. . ."  I say, according to God's Word, you lower your horns, you serve the Lord, and you behave as God's Word indicates - you lay down your life for the other.  

          There are situations that are not as they appear.  We are not free to judge.  Each is in his or her own situation.  Inasmuch as we are His and find ourselves under The Blood, we submit to Him and we refuse the screaming demands of the flesh.

     Give it to Him and do it aloud.  Over and over and over.  Hold His Word in your hand.  Lift it up as high as you can and declare that you agree with Him. Tell Him that you want Him glorified more than you want your feelings to be assuaged.

     God's Word is More Real Than the Way That You Feel.
     There is nothing else.
     Make your decision and make it aloud before Him. 

     This is you.

     You have been called and chosen. Yes, you have free will and have the freedom to refuse Grace.  The problem is,  those who turn a deaf ear to the call of God have what I call the "Jonah Syndrome."

     They are miserable and find themselves discontent in storm after storm.  They want to examine circumstances themselves, refusing glad obedience.  When they finally move, it is with grumbling and resentment because they did not get their way.

     Seeking respite and shade, they find the rays of Time beating down on them and they have no recourse because they have already rejected and disapproved of the Plan of God.

     Soldier of The Cross, listen to the call.  Agree with God.  He chose you for Himself and that is no small thing. 

     Abundant Life?  Not in the search or the program or the mission.  He calls us to Himself and then teaches us to follow Him into places that forbid entry.

     His hand is on your heart and you know it well.
     There is nothing else.
     When you have learned to follow, you have learned to lead.

     It is easy to want to feel strong.

     We talk about and sing about His strength, but when it comes down to it, so much of the time, we are wanting our own strength.

     You were not created to do it on your own.    You were created to be dependent on Him and to need Him. 

     Remember, His Strength is made evident in our weakness (II Corinthians 12:9)

     I am not implying that we are jellyfish and have no spine.  It is about learning to follow.  Learning to lean.  Learning to let go of the things that make us wish they could be redone.  Learning to obey.

     Your job is to know the Lord.

     Look up and move on!

     The Soldier of The Cross is available without reservation or condition.

     What if there is rejection?
     What if there other Christians do not agree?
     What is there is no money ahead of time?
     What if there is false accusation?
     What if I appear to be a failure?
     What if I am not supported by backers?

     Soldier of The Cross, whose are you? 

     Margaret Clarkson, who was born in 1915, was a teacher in a gold-mining camp in northern Ontario, Canada. It was a lonely life for this woman.  God's call was on her life. She wanted to be a missionary,  but was ill. One day she was reading again the verse John 20:21, "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." While meditating on this verse she wrote the words to a hymn that has become a favorite during missionary conferences, "So Send I You."

      This is my favorite hymn:

       So send I you to labor unrewarded,
       To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
       To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing-
       So send I you to toil for me alone.

       So send I you to bind the bruised and broken,
       O'er wand'ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
       To bear the burdens of a world aweary-
       So send I you to suffer for My sake.

       So send I you to loneliness and longing,
       With heart ahung'ring for the loved and known,
       Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one-
       So send I you to know My love alone.

       So send I you to leave your life's ambition,
       To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
       To labor long, and love where men revile you-
       So send I you to love your life in Mine.

       So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
       To eyes made blind because they will not see,
       To spend, tho' it be blood, to spend and spare not-
       So send I you to taste of Calvary.   

     The natural gifts and the spiritual gifts are entirely separate.

     A speaker may have a tremendous oratorical ability and may be able to stir the masses.  But when it comes to the spiritually gifted,  they are appointed by the Lord and only they can move the heart of the Blood-bought believer.  The speaker may stutter or shuffle or lack training.  The words may be simple.  The power does not come from the ability, but from the speaker's availability as a lightening rod for the voice of God.

     I have heard many fine singers.  The most moving singing I have ever heard was by a man with multiple scleroses, bent and twisted in his wheel chair.  He was difficult to understand.  He sang "Victory in Jesus" and I was touched beyond words.  Not because of his handicap, but because of the depth of his agreement with God.

     Soldier of The Cross, shake loose from self-consciousness.  Stop reviewing your service and words as though evaluating a performance. 

     He has asked you to be a living sacrifice, and as such, you may not lie on the altar holding up a mirror.

     We move on.  We welcome correction.  We are servants of the Loving God.  May He use us as He wills?

     Tell Him.
     Alone and aloud.   

     I have never known an effective missionary to be a fussy eater.

     Children must be trained to eat what is put before them.  A child's world is tiny and he will test at every turn.  When something is distasteful, of course, he will reject it.  Although we know that "foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child", it is too easy to forget that "The rod of discipline will remove it far from him." (Proverbs 22:15)  This does not always mean corporal punishment, but discipline.

      While I have never been an advocate of the "Clean Plate Club", it is essential that children partake of more than the the familiar or favorite.  Things must be introduced and eaten, even in tiny amounts. And eaten without making a face.

     The training I received as a child has gotten me through many situations that have nothing to do with food.   Firstly, the family meals are times that should be about one another.  Courtesy should rule, and no one should be allowed to complain. 

     As a child, mealtime meant, singing together and finding out what each had done during the day.  Friday nights were the nights when something bizarre would always appear on the table and I had to eat five bites.  I often "lingered" for a long time. 

     For little ones, it is a wonderful opportunity to learn to stretch - to do things that are hard and possibly even distasteful. 

     Our children must learn not to be self-centered.  It is not natural and has to be taught.  A child who is trained in graciousness becomes an adult who is aware of others, available for others and, if filled with the Lord, puts other before himself.

     It isn't about food, it is about one of the primary things in the world of a child.

     How does our Heavenly Father deal with us? According to what is best for us and according to what will prepare us for heaven.

     Determine to raise Soldiers of The Cross.

     The Lord is always available to reveal Himself.

     In the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, Elijah was sure God would answer.  He had a history of experience with God and he knew God was watching, was listening to his prayer and would send the fire.

     Then, the fire fell from heaven:        
           ^"At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and that I have done all these things at Your word.
           Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You, the Lord, are God, and have turned their hearts back [to You].
           Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and also licked up the water that was in the trench.
           When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!

                                I Kings 18: 36-39 (Amplified Bible)

     The work of the Lord is marked by the requests of His people in prayer and His faithful response.  The story is so familiar to us that it is easy to overlook the security Elijah had in God.  The power of the fire was more than able to burn the meant to the extent that it licked up all of the water.

     Today, God's fire is still a consuming fire.  When His Own pray in agreement with His Word, He will send the flames of heaven to reveal who He is. 

     Soldier of The Cross, Elijah was just one person.  One person who knew God.  One person who was willing to represent Him. 

     There is no mistaking God's work and His Presence.  When prayer makes way for the Lord, His majestic fire descends upon the hearts of men and He is revealed.

     Always.       

     Lord, there is none but Thee.

     The enemy is always projecting something, but, your reality is more than any thing else. 

     So Lord, I give myself to you for anything and everything.  I agree with you.  I embrace every Word of Yours.  As I stand before you, I declare you it is my heart's desire that you do anything needed to bring about your likeness in me.

     My Lord and my God.