Dear One,
If you love your neighbor, if you love your land, and you are an American citizen, then please vote November 5th! Some reports say 104M evangelical voters won’t vote this year. That is insane! We are called to be salt and light in our communities and stand for righteousness. How can you allow a party to come to power, or remain in power, that supports the murder of babies? And yes, God recognizes and supports borders. It’s all about property rights. Without property rights, you have no wealth, you don’t own anything, you are BEYOND poor. Israel tried to negotiate legal border crossings when they came out of Egypt, but the others chose war. People say, my vote doesn’t count. Yes, it does. In 2000, Bush won the presidency by a few hundred votes in Florida. In 1960, Kennedy won the popular vote by less than one vote per precinct nationally. What do you choose? Do you choose to stand up for property rights? Do you choose to stand for the unborn, and the elderly, and the weakest among us? Then VOTE! Drag ten of your friends to the polls with you. For the love of God’s sake, VOTE! Vote and pray…
Once again we get a RHEMA word from our dear friend Steve Ladieu. When I published Steve’s word on SUFFERING years ago it got more opens and more forwards than any piece we’ve done in twenty years. This one is spot on…hope you enjoy it and send to all your friends!
Love you! KRP
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Praise Yah! Blessed is the person who fears Yahweh, who greatly delights in his commandments.For he will never be shaken; the righteous person will be remembered forever. He will not fear bad news; His heart is steadfast, trusting in Yahweh. Ps.112:1,6,7 REV
Ah, bad news. The time in which we live swims in it.
“Ukraine has over 11,000 civilian dead and 70,000 military casualties. Russia has over 1 million dead as the war closes on the 3-year mark.” “Hurricanes destroy hundreds of lives and thousands of homes and dreams.” “Israel is attacked by Hamas and over 1000 slaughtered.” The details of the barbarity are pre-flood gruesome. “Hezbollah shoots thousands of missiles into Israel.” “Israel bombs top Hezbollah leadership and attempts thousands of remote detonated pager circumcisions.” (OK, there is some humor in the news, too!) “Iran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel.” “We’ve never been closer to World War Three than we are now!” Donald Trump. The federal government (FEMA) announces that it’s about out of money after it provided over $600 million dollars to help resettle illegal immigrants.
Holy Armageddon! Add in inflation, an over stressed society, and an election… Oh yeah, the election! One side is for open borders, where in the last few years tens of thousands of felons have been admitted into the US. They won’t do one on one press interviews because their policies are indefensible and the candidates themselves are congenital liars, unable to tell the difference between truth and lies even when it’s coming out of their mouth – even in front of a television audience of tens of millions! Then the news is that these candidates are ahead in the polls and their victory is inevitable. 4 more years of the last 3 ½ years!
And then there are the American citizenry… it seems many are dumber than a box of hammers and tuned out to reality. They hate the better candidate. “Why?” you ask them. “I don’t know, but I do!” they sputter. So here we are, surrounded by people immune from logic and led by incompetent liars. We are so screwed!
Really? “We’re screwed?” It sounds like the person thinking this way is “He will fear bad news” instead of “He will not fear bad news”. Let me ask you, why is “the person who fears Yahweh, who greatly delights in his commandments” not afraid? The end of verse seven gives the answer “His heart is steadfast, trusting in Yahweh.” That person glances at the news, but keeps his gaze on Yahweh. Know the difference between glancing and gazing?
A definition of “glancing” is “to look at quickly or briefly.” The definition of “gazing” is “to look at steadily and intently, as with great curiosity, interest, pleasure, or wonder.” To illustrate, once I was driving on the freeway while trying to get a ball game on the radio. To find the game, I went from gazing at the traffic and glancing at the radio, to gazing at the radio and glancing at the traffic. Stupid! I met a couple of fellow citizens that day by accident – literally! Ran right into their rear bumper. No one was hurt except my pride and pocketbook. When we allow our gaze to fix on ‘the news’ we will get afraid. Why? Because we are in the midst of a war. “Wait,” someone says, “I don’t see any war around me!” Exactly, I respond.
Finally, be empowered in the Lord, that is, in the might of his strength. Put on the whole armor of God so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Because of this, take up the whole armor of God so that you will be able to stand your ground in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. Eph. 6:10-13
This doesn’t describe a county fair. It’s an exhortation to put on spiritual armor because we’re in a spiritual war. And the battle in the unseen realm spills out into the seen realm regularly, causing lots of “bad news”. Those of us who fear God only glance at the news but keep our gaze on Jesus. If you gaze at the news, you will get afraid. If we keep our mental gaze on the Lord, we will be “empowered in the Lord, that is, in the might of his strength.” Our “heart is steadfast, trusting in Yahweh”. We look to Him – at His written word and revealed word. “What should I do?” we ask. What He tells us to do, we do, trusting Him despite whatever is going on around us. He will carry us through to victory.
His heart is firm, he will not fear as he looks down at his foes. Ps. 112:8
I have been a New Orleans Saints football fan for a long time. I was at the very first game played on September 17th, 1967, and then at all the other home games in that inaugural season. On the very first play, the Saints ran back the kickoff for a touchdown. It was bedlam! Then it was all downhill from there because they lost the game, the season, and became one of the worst franchises in history. It got so bad that fans would wear bags over their heads in the stands! Although the Saints became a joke, I still rooted for them – sometimes silently to escape scorn.
Things began to really change in 2006. A terrific coach, Sean Peyton, and quarterback, Drew Brees, joined the organization. Soon they began winning games – lots of them. By 2010 the Saints were in the championship game, the Super Bowl. At the beginning of the game the Saints fell behind and looked inept, unsure of how to play against the recent champion Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. I remember my decades-long anguish churning into anxiety because of the many, many times I had watched the Saints “steal defeat from the jaws of victory”. (I think it’s a form of fan PTSD.) I was a nervous wreck. But then they won! It was incredible! The headline on the local New Orleans newspaper was “Hell Freezes Over!” I awoke the next day saying, “Did that really happen?” Yes, it did!
I bought the CD of the season and the big game and watched it a few months later. This time I wasn’t fearful at all when the Saints began the Super Bowl badly. Why? Because I knew how the game ended, of course. This is like how it is for us today. Sometimes the news is good and sometimes bad. Sometimes very bad. But guess what? We know how the game ends, right? Spoiler alert… We win!
And the God of peace will crush the Adversary under your feet swiftly. Rom. 16:20a
There is absolutely no doubt about how this life we’re living ends up. We win – they lose. Why?
…but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 15:57
Do we earn the victory? Do we get it because we deserve it? No, it’s a gift to us because of what Christ earned and he involves us because we made Him our Lord.
His heart is firm, he will not fear as he looks down at his foes. Ps. 112:8
When we realize that our enemies, seen and unseen, will be beneath us (the Adversary can’t be ‘crushed under our feet’ unless he’s beneath us, right?) then we can live today with confidence, not fear. That’s why Ps.112 says “he will not fear as he looks down at his foes.” We are “watching the game being played out”. Sometimes we lose a play and sometimes we win a play. So what?! We know the result…we win – they lose. That’s why we allow our minds to only glance at the bad news but always return our gaze on the Lord, asking Him what to do and what to praying for. We do this despite whatever bad news today’s spiritual war collateral damage might be.
Ps. 112:8 (I changed the pronouns from third person to first) “My heart is firm, I will not fear as I look down at my foes.” Why? Because…We win – they lose!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…