Worship! … and War …

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 7, 2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

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What if this year we make the upcoming Lenten season one of unceasing worship – worship as warfare? What if we began to worship in the fullness of the deliverance Jesus bought for those who cannot worship Him or rejoice in His resurrection in their present condition?

Those who do fast during Lent know that 40 days of rediscovering the mysteries and intricacies and glories of the Passion of Jesus Christ can hardly be matched, but what if, for this year, we decided to direct all that personal passion, all the joy, the humility, the soul-searing realities of Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection, turning it all into worship, and directing it toward the redemption and the liberty that is in Him for a handful of souls He has given us to love.

Some are or have been in prison.

Some are imprisoned by addictions and anxiety.

Some are struggling in their marriages, and some have marriages that are holding, but against the almost crushing weight of fear, loss, and enemy oppression.

Some, many, have left their first love, some have left the church, and some have left their joy somewhere and cannot find it.

Some are public figures, and some are all but forgotten.

 

 

Parenthetically, but not, I have seen more movies in the last couple of months than I’ve seen in the last couple of years, and there are quotes and lines from those films that are resounding in my heart.

See if you can match the quote to the movie. There are four choices, Darkest Hour, 12 Strong, Justice League, and The Greatest Showman.

 

“When will the lesson be learned, you cannot reason with a tiger while your head is in its mouth!”

 

“There’s no playbook here, we’re gonna have to write it ourselves.”

  

“I had a dream, it was the end of the world . . . I think it’s something more, something darker.”

 

“The greatest weapon in history is this …” (pointing to the Captain’s heart.)

 

“Ain’t no drill . . .”

 

“Show me exactly where we’re goin’!”   …   “Over the mountain!”

 

“Divided, we are not enough.”

 

“No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”

 

“We would need a miracle to get our men out.”

 

“I’m not a stranger to the dark.”

 

“Every step we take will be on a minefield from a hundred different wars.”

 

“Without victory, there can be no survival.”

 

“I’m not scared to be seen, I make no apology … this is me.”

 

“I’m not losing one man on this team.”

 

“That’s your signal … that means we have to go now!”

 

“Great … this’ll be fun!”

 

“Keep your finger on the trigger …”

 

“Let’s do it!”

 

“We shall never surrender!!”

  

“You could stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.”

 

 

 

 

I haven’t forgotten my promise to write about a superlative weapon!  Coming right up!

Marines singing Days of Elijah at Camp Pendleton, see video.

 

Darkest Hour

12 Strong

Justice League

12 Strong

12 Strong

12 Strong

Justice League

The Greatest Showman

12 Strong

The Greatest Showman

12 Strong

Darkest Hour

The Greatest Showman

12 Strong

Justice League

12 Strong

12 Strong

12 Strong

Darkest Hour

12 Strong

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s Play, Name that Weapon!

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 2, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Spiritual Warfare 101, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Happy_boys.jpg

 

 

 

 

The LORD is such a tease sometimes, and always toward the lifting of our heads.

 

Just when we begin to wonder, “What am I doing here?” “Shouldn’t I be somewhere else, doing something else, no matter what! … anything else! … this, whatever it is, doesn’t seem to be working!” … He comes along and ups the ante.

 

It never fails. Before QUIT or SLACK OFF or GIVE UP or GO HOME, there is always … “Do more – PREVAIL – go the distance!” I do love that about Him.

 

There is a little “trick” in prayer, in warfare, that is as seldom used as anything can be, and as powerful as anything we could ever imagine. You will guess what it is in a moment, when I tell you that it is a practice with these attributes:

 

  • It is almost always apparent, often prescribed when great battles are fought and won.
  • Women are among the chief combatants.
  • It strikes terror in the heart of the Lord’s enemies.
  • Even a child can participate.
  • King David made constant use of it.
  • Books have been written on the subject.
  • With all our wisdom and knowledge, we scarcely make use of its power and effect.

 

Can you guess? Do you know?

 

I will tell you what it isn’t, but it can incorporate all of these tremendously important aspects of our worship and intercession. It isn’t …

 

  • Praying in the Spirit
  • Praying the Word
  • Praying in faith and hope
  • Listening, waiting on the Lord
  • Taking time
  • Praying in the Lord’s compassion
  • Personal repentance
  • Proclaiming truth
  • Fasting

 

 

Who knows? Who would like to hazard a guess? Perhaps one of you will mention something even more effective than what I am about to share, but that would be hard to do!  Give it a try!

 

I’ll be back next week with the answer, and a few days of practical steps toward wielding this mighty weapon.

 

 

 

Jeevan Jose, by permission, Wikipedia

Happy Boys

To the Point

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 23, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Lamb_09807-a.jpg

 

 

 

I wasn’t happy with yesterday’s entry.

 

Too long, true, but not precise, not accomplishing what I wished.

 

So today, pithy and pointed:

 

We pray, we seek the blessings and mercy and the grace of God for those whose lives are damaged or derailed.

 

What Jesus came to do, to seek and to save that which was lost, we do, and we are beyond privileged to be included in the undertaking.

 

Now … how?

 

These last few days have intended to say,

 

First, we make sure we know how GOD feels about them, what He has for them, and how greatly we are held responsible to join in His compassion and the powerful effects of Jesus’ resurrection.

 

Then … we discover how to go on. How to pray, making sure we are listening, ready to obey in spiritual and temporal matters.

 

Okay. That’s concise.

 

Now … it is a good thing to identify which is the lost lamb. Jesus saw sheep scattered, and so do we when we look around. Some are gathered and returned, some are sought and brought near to the love of God for the first time.

 

All have something written about them in the Word of the Lord, something the Lord has said, many things He has said, relative to their isolation, their denigration, the infiltration of darkness into their lives, their souls.

 

A MILLION things said … start with one.

 

Any one that is true and expresses the heart of God … I’ll begin here, for one on my heart this day,

 

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; with my unfailing love I have drawn you to myself …” Jeremiah 31:3

Lord God, this is JUST how you feel toward this one, these several, that I love with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. In your amazing un-failing-ness, both draw them and give them all grace to be brought near, to see You as You are, to hear Your Voice, to believe, to turn and be healed. In Jesus’ name … Yes, in Jesus’ Name! I ask it. Amen.

 

 

 

 Nevit Dilman, by permission, Wikipedia

What We Know When We Go

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 22, 2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

DiezAlbumsPrisoners

 

 

We, those of us who minister to God and on behalf of others at the Throne of Grace, have only the Word of the Lord. And our faith and compassion. It is enough.

(From Marketplace Monastics, January 19, 2017)

 

 

We said last time that there are those who can loose burdens with the stroke of a pen, as when a prison sentence is commuted, or heavy taxes made light and payable.

 

There are those who can run to the battle, a street fight, a hostage situation, a violent campus uprising, who have public authority to protect and defend life and liberty.

 

Sometimes I smile a wry little smile to myself and think, it’s too bad we don’t have to pin on a badge in the morning. If we had to go to a desk and sign off to receive our service weapons, we would know what we do and why we do it.

 

But us … we are housewives, businessmen and women, retirees, artists, fathers, mothers, students who love the Lord God and love people. We do not ask to be seen or known, we don’t ask for an engraved sign on the door, name and title, check spelling.

 

Yet, it is essential that, having no corner office, wearing no shoulder holster, with no badge or even a stick-on name tag to identify us wherever we go, whatever we are doing, it is essential that we conduct ourselves and our office as if we were out and about with an entourage, as if wherever we go we might be called into action.

 

Have you not run to the battle when in line at the grocery store and a young mother or father begins to berate a child with that tone of voice that reveals how frustrated and intimidating they have become as a woman, a man, a mother, a father, a person. We can hear it, and it goes off in us like a cry for help. The child, too, whether in tears with that sound of hopelessness and fear that cuts through us, or wheedling for the lollipop refused five times until crying and begging carries the day (“Danger, danger, Will Robinson!”) … we are on point, and I might be standing two customers behind you, both of us on the clock. We will likely never see them again. We have that one opportunity. It is possible that nobody else has been or will be praying for that little family, but one day it will be me and another day, you, and things will change for them; the prayer of faith changes things.

 

We believe.

 

But we have to know. By the Word of the Lord, we have to know what that level of anger, that degree of fear, of resignation, of revolt against the goodness of God, of parental abdication, of childhood manipulation will produce in families. We have to know, and we have to care. The minute we write them off as fools, as their behavior is foolish, unbelievers, unimportant, we have become just that ourselves. God always starts with unbelievers, all foolish, but all important to Him. Really, the minute we think we only came out for cream cheese and laundry detergent, we forget who we are. We operate inside our vocation, 24/7, because we know. We know so much.

 

 

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.  

Psalm 37:8

 

Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools.

Ecclesiastes 7:9

 

 All of this just toward one minor grocery store occurrence, but such opportunities to pray crop up everywhere, along with the others that loom large in our churches, our families, our nation.

 

It’s what we believe that matters, about the world around us and our part in it. Two little verses above, of many, but if we take them to heart, if we believe the harm that is being perpetuated, father and son, mother and babes, if we were able to care deeply the way a Secret Service agent cares professionally about one angry, scowling person, glancing around furtively in a crowd at a political rally, with a bulging coat pocket and a hand that keeps slipping inside, we would pray quietly on the spot, we would go home and pray on our knees. On occasion, under orders, we might advance, we might offer to hold the crying baby while the mother lifts the roaming toddler into the buggy.

 

The Secret Service agent might be wrong. It might be a man who just had a bad encounter with his boss and is looking for a park bench where he can eat the sandwich he picked up on his way out. We are never wrong when we care deeply and appear before the Lord on behalf of others, without malice or condemnation.

 

These incidents are minute in the grand scheme of things, but not to those at risk.  We pray at home for governments, for the Body of Christ, for nations in peril, for masses of people oppressed, endangered, and for their oppressors.  We pray for those who have never known us, who never will know us this side of heaven. We pray for those who do, but who can have no idea how deep is our love for them, how far-reaching our watch-care over their souls.

 

Did you hear it? Have you ever heard it?  That little insinuation, “Who do you think you are, to judge how to care for the soul of another? People don’t need you to pray change into their lives. They like themselves and their lives as they are. They have a free will. Back off. You’re meddling and who do you really think you are??”

 

That is the question we are here to answer this morning. I think we are ministers of righteousness in hidden places, warriors given to unlock prison doors and let the oppressed go free. Men and women who know that when the will of another is caged and tormented, it is never free.

 

 

Mongol Riders With Prisoners,

artist unknown, public domain, Wikipedia

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First You Know – Then You Go

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 19, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

 Espadon-Morges

 

 

“The Man On Top of the Mountain Didn’t Fall There”

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       For me, I don’t think it is possible to have real, effectual faith unless one knows what God has said on any given subject.

 

I believe that must be the import of the Scripture, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17, KJV)   We capitalize the word, Word, concluding that it means “the word God has spoken,” but we also consider it, without consistently training our souls, to be advice and instruction closed up in a book, reference material, available for correction and reproof. It is that.

 

Again, however, without consistently training our souls, we grow lax. Here is just one of so many indications that we have, in this case, we share with the Lord Himself, a task, a purpose, an assignment:

 

 

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6)

 

 

The words read by Jesus in the synagogue (“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon Me …), taking upon Himself the fulfillment of them (Luke 4:18) were given to us, delivered to us, given for us to hear the Father’s Voice, speaking His own heart in this passage, but echoing the words in Isaiah, defining our fast and our fasted lifestyles. That is the hearing that helps me. It personalizes things and makes them serviceable.

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

There is no Word (no Biblical, Scriptural word,) but what God has spoken. If He speaks and I hear it, even off the printed page, then I can have fullness of faith in what He has said.

 

And so, we fight …

 

This is important to warriors. If we don’t know of a certainty that men and women – children, too – are meant to be set at liberty, released from all spiritual and emotional captivity, which is our part, then we will leave them where they are. In the most difficult cases, we won’t go the distance.

 

We have police officers, soldiers, good politicians, public defenders, even economists, who serve and strive to set at liberty those that are bound. Some of them can do with authority, with the stroke of a pen or with the back-up of a ready weapon, amazing feats of liberation.

 

We, those of us who minister to God and on behalf of others at the Throne of Grace, have only the Word of the Lord. And our faith and compassion. It is enough.

 

 

Swiss Longsword

Rama, by permission, Wikipedia

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The Practicum

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 16, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Spiritual Warfare 101, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Cooked_cilantro_lime_dish_basmati_rice_India.jpg

 

 

Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? (Isaiah 58:5)

 

We have spoken of the benefits of an engaged spiritual life, and we are entering into new levels of intentional devotion, prayer, worship, stillness, and fasting. It is crucial that we understand this, that the Lord is never looking for new religious fervor apart from faith, hope, and love, but we aren’t interested in providing Him that, either. We are interested in getting the job done, not through showing off our spiritual progress, but by employing those methods that bring us into greater depths of love, obedience, and success.

 

 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness,
    to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke? (verse 6)

 

So, what does constitute, what does trigger spiritual success?

 

I know we don’t use that terminology, but it works. To the pure in heart, all things are pure, and if we, from personal purity of heart, want to see success through our devotion, that means we want to see ourselves

 

  • more fervently in love with our God and Father, in and through His Son, ever more obedient to His faithful Spirit, and

 

  • more profitably employed in the liberation of souls from darkness and despair.

 

So, may it be that we will be careful, as so often we must in this life, to be moving in two directions at once, which will ever be straight forward, living to love our God with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength, and loving others as we would want to be loved if we were ensnared, unbelieving, wounded, blinded, without strength.

 

Today we determine that we are stepping out, stepping forward, toward a deeper love for God, demonstrated in our obedience, not for show but for others, for we will encounter them along the way, making advances, fasting the Lord’s fast. Today.  

 

Lord God, we fast, we pray, in worship and stillness we seek You that we may know and love You better, and that we may see others at liberty to do the same

 

 

 

Cilantro Lime Rice

Brian Child, by permission, Wikipedia

Do-Able

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 15, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Spiritual Warfare 101. Leave a comment

 

20170421_091756 copy 2.jpg

 

A word this morning about fasting. We are, after all, endeavoring to

 

  • Find those that are lost or “stuck,”
  • Release them from their bonds,
  • Bring them back into the fold,
  • Turn back the enemy at the gate,
  • Learn and teach the importance of watchfulness,
  • Keep ourselves sober in spirit, ever on guard against evil and destruction,
  • and our hearts always in the love of the Father.

 

This about fasting … at least part of its effect is to keep us on point. The smallest fast, the refusal to eat between meals, as we have said, or to watch more television or to spend more time online than we’ve allowed ourselves, sometimes not any for a season of special nearness to God, keeps us in holy subjection, subjection to our own will as guided by the Holy Spirit.

 

This is for us, a people who have often submitted to nothing more strenuous than the necessity of showing up on time to keep a job we don’t want to lose, to keeping dishes and laundry clean enough that we have dinnerware at mealtime and clothes to wear when we dress in the mornings. This isn’t that we are good-for-nothings, it is that so little necessity falls to us in this time in history.

 

Fasting humbles us to something greater than we ourselves, and to efforts in a spiritual vein to rattle cages and pick locks that are otherwise often unmolested by the people of the Lord.  No sooner than we begin than we know our flesh is about to pitch a tantrum.  We persevere, for otherwise, we

 

  • see those lost or “stuck,” and merely lament their condition
  • we wish they might be free
  • we look to someone else, perhaps a pastor or good preaching, to bring them back into the fold,
  • we mourn and berate the advance of evil
  • but seldom see ourselves as watchers on the wall, as warriors in the Spirit,
  • and while we may stay clinically sober for social reasons, we don’t often want the divine responsibility of keeping spiritual enemies in our sights, under guard, and stripped of their power,
  • and as a result, we never come to know the unfailing love of God for those who have failed in this life, much less His love for those who share His compassions toward them … to us the love of God remains always emotional and seldom, if ever, effectual, and so, His love remains tremendously unknown.

 

The smallest start will help us to see, to discover, to discern, to decide, to set out, to continue … fasting encompasses all of the above. Fasting increases our ability to discern, to believe, especially in our own rights, privileges, and responsibilities in Christ Jesus, and with the smallest start, or the largest that we can be sure we will not abandon, we are arrived. We have joined in.  We have come where we were invited, even commanded.  We can gain and grow from the slightest beginning, and our fasting can become strenuous without being at all dangerous to our health, rather the opposite, but let it be without shoddy fear. We, of course, are the mighty ones of God in Christ.

 

 

 

 

Image … My own incomparable breakfast at Le Pain Quoditien in NYC … which can be part of a traveler’s fast if I skip lunch and snacks.  It’s small, but it can be a part of a fasted lifestyle, with time set aside for prayer morning and evening.

Tens of thousands of restaurants in the City, but here is where I can be found.

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Like a Burst of Flaming Lightening

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 14, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

LightningAboveCloudsView

 

I submitted the following words yesterday . . .

 

Do we have the faith that through our prayer the status quo can be shattered? Can we believe that at our call Christ will come among us to judge and save? When we ask for the Holy Spirit, are we ready for God to strike us like a burst of flaming lightning, so that at last we experience Pentecost? Do we really believe that God’s kingdom is imminent? Are we capable of believing that through our pleading, this kingdom will break in? Are we able to believe that as a result of our prayer the entire history of the world will be turned topsy-turvy?

                                                                                                Eberhard Arnold

These words so spoke my heart in this battle and on this battle ground that I left them without comment for you to consider.

 

Today I would like to make this comment, that when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to us that we would be, would become, ONE with Him and the Father (John 17:20,21 and Colossians 3:1 and 11) we sometimes failed to consider that we would be as warlike as He is, as bent toward the coming of the Kingdom of God as He, as determined to rescue from death as He. More than as spotless and pure as He – that, too in ever unfolding measure – but we share His heart and His mind in all things.

 

If He is at war with Amalek, spiritual forces of darkness, depression, and destruction, so are we.

 

If He would seek and save every lost lamb, so shall we.

 

If the bruised reed and the smoldering wick are safe with Him, to be made strong and supple once again, to be fanned into flame with Him, so shall we. (Isaiah 42:3)

 

How, now, but through prayer, through fasting*, which is the prayer of our life force, if you will forgive a metaphysical perspective, and through the speaking forth of the Word of God. If we open our mouths to speak into the atmosphere, words that demons and angels and the Lord Himself shall hear, let it be that we speak like a “burst of flaming lightening,” to see His kingdom “break in.” How else shall these things be that must be?

 

Otherwise, men will die in their sins, the Gospel will not go forth, light will not pierce darkness, the breach will not be restored, bonds will not be loosed, captives will not go free (Isaiah 58.)  Not through us, not perhaps in our time.

 

He is Master, we are His friends, friends who are on this planet, on a mission. We would call ourselves servants, but He called us friends, because we do know what the Master is doing. (John 15:15-17)

 

The friends of this Man must have His faith, and here it is expressed:

 

Do we have the faith that through our prayer the status quo can be shattered? Can we believe that at our call Christ will come among us to judge and save? When we ask for the Holy Spirit, are we ready for God to strike us like a burst of flaming lightning, so that at last we experience Pentecost? Do we really believe that God’s kingdom is imminent? Are we capable of believing that through our pleading, this kingdom will break in? Are we able to believe that as a result of our prayer the entire history of the world will be turned topsy-turvy?

                                                                                                Eberhard Arnold

 

  • A word about sensible, do-able fasting tomorrow.  Fasting better than not fasting.  Beneficial, effectual fasting.

 

Lightening Above the Clouds

recommended for Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, by permission

 

 

 

At War With Amalek, Forever … Part Two

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 12, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

VictoryOLord-2

 

Now they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink. They gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate; then his spirit revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.  David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.” Then David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.”

 

Once armed and dangerous – that is to say, once we set out in the power of the Word and the Spirit of the Lord – we do well if we keep our eyes open for every help along the way. That David and his men were not hasty or treacherous toward this man may have saved the day.  A chance encounter, a verse of Scripture, something revealed in our understanding … we have to pay attention.  

 

                   When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.  David slaughtered them from the twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.

 

Our unending battle with Amalek is not a battle against flesh and blood, but against powers and authorities, spiritual rulers of darkness, and when we see them tormenting, plundering those we love, those we choose to love, we take up arms in the Name of the Lord; we run to the battle, for it is raging against the weak and the strong alike, and we will make a difference if we will fight.  Our sword is sharp and double-edged, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal … we fight according to the Word of the Lord.   (Hebrews 4:12, Ephesians 6:17)

 

So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives. But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back. So David had captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of the other livestock, and they said, “This is David’s spoil.”

 

“David slaughtered them from twilight until the evening of the next day.” It has been a month at least since the last time I fasted a full day for those I love. If those men could fight for twenty-four hours consecutively, I can fast and/or pray that way from time to time. When the “strong man” is overcome, we plunder his spoil, and what is returned to those we love – their peace, their joy, their strength, their hope, their faith – might be called “ours” in the records of warfare. Ours not to have taken, but to have returned.

 

When David came to the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow him, those who had also been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, then David approached the people and greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless men among those who went with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.”

 

There is always an opportunity for pride, for vanity, for selfishness or jealousy or greed. Stay clear!   

 

Then David said, “You must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, who has kept us and delivered into our hand the band that came against us. And who will listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.” So it has been from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

 

            I want this heart, that the more my prayers are answered, and the more my warfare is effective, the more I draw my brothers and sister in, rather than close others out.  

 

            Some are on our shoulders, heading home. 

            Some are lost and not yet discovered. 

            For some we battle, and the battle is fierce.

 

            But always and forever … the victory belongs to the Lord.

 

 

“Victory, O Lord!”

by John Everett Millais

 

public domain, life of the artist,

by permission, Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At War, With Amalek, Forever

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 11, 2018
Posted in: 40 days of Prayer, devotional life, personal devotion, Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Poussin_Nicolas_-_The_Victory_of_Joshua_over_the_Amalekites_copy.jpg

 

 

Let us take a close look at what happened, what did not happen, and what David did to affect the outcome on the day that the Amalekites raided his camp.   It might bless you to pray your way through these verses, 1-25, today and tomorrow.

 

From 1 Samuel, chapter 30 . . .

 

Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag, and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire;  and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way.  . . . David was a soldier, a fighting man, doing what he was assigned to do, but his camp was raided, and the results were grievous. Might the camp have been safe under guard? Perhaps, but that is not the import of this story.

 

 

When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. Now David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. . . . Few things are more traumatic, more apt to embitter, more able to devastate than the plunder of a family or a family member. When men weep in Scripture, I try to remember that these are man tears, and not to denigrate a woman’s, this happens but seldom, and it would be chilling. David and his men wept aloud until they literally could cry no longer. But then, David shows his mettle …

 

            “But David strengthened himself in the Lord.”

 

                   Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.  David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” And He said to him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue all.” So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those left behind remained.  But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor remained behind. . . . What might be the difference if we fought under this measure of supervision, with the faith that comes through hearing the Lord’s instruction and encouragement?

 

            When we do take up arms, we may look around and see others who either have no stomach for the fight or seem not to know that “there is a cause.” No matter. We soldier on.  We’ve been told, the Lord’s battle with Amalek does not cease from generation to generation, until the memory of that tormentor is blotted out forever.  (Exodus 17 and Deuteronomy 25)

 

More tomorrow … for today, for whom do you fight?  Name those you would see released from captivity in the camp of spiritual marauders.

                 

 

Joshua Defeat Amalek

Nicholas Poussin, Wikipedia, by permission, public domain, life of the illustrator