Have there ever been better writers than Shakespeare, Milton, Thackery, Longfellow,   Twain and Hemingway? Yes! The most superb of all writers is the Holy Spirit. His   writings are consistently on the best seller lists, have lasted for centuries, and continue to captivate, motivate and teach readers generation after generation. In fact, the great writers of all time have taken instruction from Him.

Consider John 10:22. “And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.” Let me tell you why that is such powerful writing.

It slowly builds in intensity by giving a little information at a time connected by the word “and.” This draws you into the heart of His meaning. This is called polysyndeton. It does not build to a climax, but adds phrase upon phrase of information, each phrase demanding proper attention. We know it is December because the feast of the dedication is in December. We discover it is very cold because a further fact is mentioned — and it was winter. Since December is obviously cold, this statement expresses the intensity of that cold. Finally, we are told that Jesus walked in the temple.

What does all this mean?  The Jews so utterly rejected Jesus that no one invited him home for the night; further, no one allowed him to get close to the many fires in the temple rooms. In order to keep warm, Jesus walked. In this small passage, the Holy Spirit has given us the physical condition of Jerusalem, the emotional condition of Jesus, and the spiritual condition of the Jews —  just as a boxer delivers blow after blow after blow.

Wow! What great writing! You see, it pays to read and meditate on God’s word. Not only does the Holy Spirit give delicious spiritual food, but he throws in writing tips as a bonus. So read your Bible every day.

By the way, is there room near the fires of your heart for Jesus?

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Do you go from stress to varying degrees of depression, a constant back-and-forth routine?  That kind of routine would eventually wear the most resilient person down.  Are you locked into stress-mode, or depression-mode?  There is help from God’s Word.  Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Some time ago, the Lord showed me two oxen.  One was Jesus, and I was the other ox.  I noticed that as He was pulling the load my only responsibility was to stay even with Him.  He was the lead ox.  Therein lay all the trouble. I saw the large field before us waiting to be tilled. If I were to pull ahead of Him, thinking that He going was too slow or not to my liking, I began to chafe at the neck.  My muscles got tight, my mind became irritated. I was really getting stressed over the situation.  Can’t He see we are moving too slowly?  Can’t He put a little more effort into the work?

The scene changed.  I was still harnessed with Jesus; He was still the lead ox.  However, this time I saw the tremendous amount of work to be done, and wilted.  I fell back, started dragging my feet and giving up.  Again, I chaffed at the neck.  But my muscles relaxed and my mind filled with whining.  I was depressed about the impossibility of it all.  Why must He pull so hard?  Why doesn’t He see I can’t go any further?

Again the scene changed.  The team was the same; the field was the same.  Now the second ox was watching the first closely.  He began to pace himself.  The yoke became a learning experience, a gauge.  When the chaffing came, he picked up his pace or slowed his step, trusting the lead ox’s obvious experience in the work.    As I watched, I learned how to find and maintain rest in my soul — take his yoke.

Pace yourself to the work of the Lord in your life.  Let chaffing be an indicator. Learn of the Lord.

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    Here is a picture of a neighborhood street where we do some of our morning walking each day. Notice the condition of the street. It is pretty rough, and to the right of the picture, some of the street has totally deteriorated into dirt, no blacktop at all! My wife and I believe that, acccording to God’s Word, we can speak to situations and call them changed. So we often call this street repaired. I don’t remember how long we have been speaking to this street to be repaired, but we have done so continually over the spring/summer walk days. Imagine our joy, the first of this week, when we were coming up on this street.  A whole convoy of trucks were turning into the street. They began unloading their huge equipment, and before noon the street had been stripped down to the sublayer.

The next day, as we walked by, the street was being repaved!!! The first 2-inch layer was applied, and is now waiting for the second 2-inch layer, probably tomorrow. Wow! Words are important. See this picture taken at the same spot.

Three years ago, when we moved in to our very nice neighborhood, we noticed at the other end of our block was an old, two-story house that was rather run down. It was obviously a ‘crack house’, and certainly did not fit in to our nice neighborhood of homes that were upscale. There were two pit bulls chained to a weak chain in the back. We did not want that house (which had been pieced up into 5 small apartments) in our area doing what the people were doing inside. So we began to call it cleaned out and fixed up.

Last fall, a man purchased the house. Since then he has gutted the inside of the house down to the bare 2×4 structure. He has remade it into a beautiful 4-bedroom home with white sideing, a circular drive and back patio. The inside is all new wood floors upstairs and downstairs. There is a wide front porch all along the front side of the house facing the main street. (By the way, the man is a Christian man, who is re-selling the house.)

It took 3 years, but it certainly came to pass! Now we are calling the right family into that house. A family that will love it and take care of it. A family that will be part of the neighborhood. And a family that serves the Lord. I believe we will get what we speak.

These are just two examples of many I could offer. But I give you these to encourage you to call into being those things in your life, the life of your neighborhood, the life of your family, and so forth, that would bless the kingdom of God.

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says” (Mark 11:23).

So, go for it! Have patience! And enjoy the change! You can do it! (Return to Victory Ground website)

Hebrews 2: 1 says, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” (NKJV) The Greek verb for “to drift away” is a nautical verb used to describe a rope knot used to tie a ship to the dock. It can gradually, almost without notice, come undone. Then the boat drifts away from the dock. Before you know it, the ship is too far to reach, and greater measures must be taken to make things right.

Sometimes that is true with us in many areas of our spiritual lives: healing, prosperity, relationships, etc. Without meaning to, without notice, the victory we were experiencing has slipped away. Why? Lack of attention. Daily we must remind ourselves of who we are and what we have in Christ Jesus. Paul tells the Romans to “keep on reckoning themselves dead to sin and alive to God” (Romans 6:11). Like our hair, waistlines, grass, etc., things change ever so slowly. Diligence is of utmost importance.

So let me encourage you, while I encourage myself; don’t let victory slip away. When we do, getting it back where it should be is not as easy as maintaining it. Let’s encourage one another in this matter.

Blessings! (Return to Victory Ground website.)

My internet has been down for about 24 hours. Finally, I got it fixed after a technician came to the house to repair the outside line – at no charge to me. I couldn’t help but make some parallels to my spiritual life. The parallels might just help you some, too.

The technician found that other phone lines in the house (which I don’t use anymore) were creating static for my internet line. So after attaching equipment to the line outside to determine that he had the right line inside, he then disconnected the out-of-use lines. It cleared up the static and made my internet super-double fast. Wow!

I couldn’t help but compare the problem with static communication with my Heavenly Father due to old ways (lines) of doing things which were slowing down the line of communication with my Father. (“If we confess our sins, he is just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1John 1:9.) We are constantly encouraged to put aside those things that easily beset us from having great communication with heaven.

The technician told me that my modem (the thing that makes the connection between the company and my computer) tries to “hear” the message from outside and bring it to my computer. If the static gets too very loud, the modem finally just gives up, Imagine! When the static of this world gets so loud, our spirits just shut down from trying to hear from heaven. (“…be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can discern what is the good and perfect will of God” Romans 12:2.)

The situation got so impossible that I finally had to call for help. Sometimes, we get ourselves in such a mess, or satan tries so hard to overwhelm us, that we need to call our pastor or a prayer-friend to help us through the problem. (Always be sure to get one who is liscensed by the company!)

Well, I could go on and on; and I am sure that you could add some very helpful parallels yourself. But I just wanted to encourage you that no problem is without a fix, we just need to call for help. (“Bear you one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” Galatians 6:2.) (“We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous” 1 John 2:1.) (Return to Victory Ground website)

This is what the Lord has been saying to me for the last few days.

He has been reminding me that He is the One Who is able to do exceedingly above what I ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). He reminds me almost daily that I keep Him small in my life by thinking small and asking small. He reminds me that Jairus thought big to go find Jesus and ask Him to come to his house to heal his dying daughter. And he asked big of Jesus to come. But guess what, Jesus said, “I will come.” Or we might say, “Let’s roll!”

So I have been thinking big and asking big this whole week. The devil doesn’t attack, he just gnaws around the edges of my thoughts. Asking big and thinking big is almost like inviting him to gnaw at the edges of my faith. But then again, it is proof that I am on the right track. Sure enough, when Jairus and Jesus were returning to his house, people came to say it was too late, his daughter was dead. Jesus immediately spoke up and said, “Fear not, only believe.” So after asking and thinking, when the gnawer (new word) comes, don’t get into fear, just keep believing.

Looking closely at Ephesians 3:20, we begin to see that the size of God in our life is directly proportional to how big we think and how big we ask. His “exceedingly above” is hampered by our littleness. Hmmm… Exactly what could He do…? (Return to Victory Ground website)