Blog Archives - IRONSTRIKES

Freedom Attracts

4/20/2015

When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not. Freedom attracts wherever it appears. A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell. Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us. But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom.

Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be.

For further reflection ...

When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" - Acts 16: 19, 23-30 (NIV)

This post was written by Henri Nouwen. You can find his blog at: http://www.henrinouwen.org

Sunday Meditation

4/19/2015

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Psalm 23:4

Sometimes the recovery journey takes us through the valley of the shadow of death. It is a frightening valley.

What a difference it makes in times like this to hear God's promise to be with us. It's not that the fears vanish, they don't always. But we experience them differently when we are not alone. When we are alone our fears can become the focus of our thoughts and feelings - they can consume all of our emotional resources. But when our journey is a shared one, fear does not have the same power over us.

God has made a very specific promise to us when we are going through the most difficult of life's struggles. God has promised to be with us. It is hard to say how God's presence will be made known. Our subjective experience of God's presence may vary widely. Sometimes when we least expect it, we may hear the still, small voice of God saying "I am here". Sometimes God will use a friend, a sponsor, a counselor, or someone in a support group to speak to us in ways that help us to remember that we are not alone. Sometimes God will give us a peace that needs no words.

The important reality is that God is with us. God does not come and go in the way our experience of God's presence comes and goes. God does not forsake us. God walks with us. Even through deep valleys.

God, I am walking through a difficult valley right now.
Sometimes I think my heart will give way with fear.
Remind me of your presence.
Sometimes I know you are here.
Sometimes I'm sure you have gone.
Are you really here?
Please walk close beside me.
I need your protection.
I need your love.

Amen.

Copyright Dale and Juanita Ryan
National Association for Christian Recovery

Satan Seeks To Keep Us From Church

4/18/2015

But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire. Therefore we wanted to come to you–even I, Paul, time and again–but Satan hindered us.
1 Thessalonians 2:17-18 (NKJV)

Paul had a great desire to go back to Thessalonica and be with the believers there. Paul not only wanted to see them but he had apparently tried to go see them but was unable. He was unable because Satan hindered him from doing it. According to my commentaries, the word for “hindered” meant to make a cut in a road to make it impassable. So the picture is Paul trying to go back to Thessalonica only to find the road that led there destroyed or maybe the bridge from where he was to where they are blown up. His way was blocked and he was unable to get there. The big thing here is that Satan is the one that blocked his way. I find that just a little disturbing.

We aren’t specifically told what Satan did to hinder Paul from going to them, only that he did. We could speculate what methods Satan used to hinder Paul, but all they would be is speculation. What we can know is that Satan’s purpose was to keep Paul from going to see the Thessalonian Christians. Satan didn’t want Paul to go there and encourage them in their faith. Satan didn’t want Paul to go there and strengthen them in their faith. Satan didn’t want Paul to go there and preach the Gospel. Satan didn’t want Paul to go there and help them grow spiritually. Satan wanted to keep Paul from the Thessalonians and the Thessalonians from Paul.

What Satan did then, he does now. He actively works to keep us from the fellowship of the saints. He wants to keep us from church. How do we prevent ourselves from being hindered by Satan’s roadblock? We recognize his lies for what they are, lies. Think about this.

Who wants us to believe we are too busy to come to church?

Who wants us to be too tired to come to church?

Who wants us to be too discouraged to come to church?

Who wants us to make everything else in the world a greater priority than church?

Certainly, we couldn’t answer Jesus to any of these questions. Many of us are probably familiar with the old Southern Gospel song Excuses that says Satan will provide us with all the excuses we need to stay away from church. While the song itself is kinda corny, there is a lot of truth in it. Satan wants to keep us from Church. We avoid this roadblock by recognizing that it is Satan and not God trying to keep us from church.

This post was written by Rev Ross. You can find his blog at: https://stacyjross.wordpress.com

Satan’s Roadblocks To Following Jesus

4/17/2015

I have a love/hate relationship with the saying, “The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.” I love it because when it’s properly understood it is powerful and encouraging. I hate it because it’s rarely properly understood or explained. The most common way I’ve heard this phrase used is to encourage someone to follow Jesus or serve Jesus with the idea that if they do this everything in their life is going to be great. The idea so often associated with this gives a false sense of security. It’s as though those who faithfully follow Jesus have no troubles. When it’s understood this way, it becomes a source of frustration and discouragement when troubles and trials come.

Being in the center of God’s will is the safest place to be in the sense that it’s the best place to be. However, it is not the safest place to be if your goal is to have an easy problem free life. In fact, just the opposite is often true. Sometimes the center of God’s will is where the greatest battles are going to be fought. It’s in the center of God’s will that you’ll find Satan throwing out his biggest attacks on you in an attempt to derail your service to Jesus.

We learn a powerful lesson on this in Revelation 2-3 by comparing two of the churches. There is the poor but devoted church in Smyrna (Rev 2:8-11) and the rich but lukewarm church in Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22). The church in Smyrna is a church that receives no rebuke from Jesus, only commendation. Yet this same church is poverty stricken and terribly persecuted. Jesus specifically tells them that Satan is about to ratchet up the persecution and more of them are about to suffer and may in fact die for their devotion to Jesus. The church in Laodicea by comparison is rich and seemingly living a life of ease. Yet this church receives no commendation at all from Jesus, only rebuke. There is no mention of overt satanic opposition to their lives or faith. Which of the two churches would be considered to be in the center of God’s will? The church in Smyrna would but there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly safe, at least as we seek to define it, about being a devoted believer in Smyrna.

Part of what we have to recognize from this is that Satan doesn’t want us to be fully devoted followers of Jesus. Satan is fine with a nominal belief and probably even a nominal devotion to Jesus. But a full fledged life of devotion to Jesus is something that Satan seeks to attack. If we truly devote our lives to Jesus, then we can expect that Satan will put roadblocks in our way.

This post was written by Rev Ross. You can find his blog here: https://stacyjross.wordpress.com

Satan Convinces Us God’s Word Is A Burden

4/16/2015

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 (NKJV)

Satan’s previous attacks prepared the way for this final and ultimately successful attack. He convinced them that God was keeping them from something good. It wasn’t that God had their best interests at heart. It wasn’t that God knew what was actually best. It wasn’t that God was trying to protect them from something bad. No, it was that God was trying to keep them from something that would make their lives better, more pleasurable or something that would make them from better people.

Hasn’t Satan won a huge victory in this in our day? How many people are convinced that the commands of Scripture are stifling? How many people see God’s Word as a book of rules that prevents you from having any real joy and pleasure in life? This has to be one of the most common views of God’s Word of our day. I would venture to say that this is the view of God’s Word that is held by many who profess faith in Jesus. They don’t see Scripture as a source of joy and freedom. Rather they see it as something oppressive and just look for any idea that will tell them the oppressive parts of Scripture really aren’t from God so they can ignore them.

If Satan can convince us that God’s Word is a burden in our lives, he wins a huge victory. No one keeps on doing something that is a burden to them.

Parents who see their children as burdens eventually abdicate their parental responsibilities.

Employees who see their jobs as a burden take the first job offer that comes their way that gets them out of the job.

Spouses who see their marriage as a burden eventually find a way out of their marriages.

People see church as a burden eventually quit coming.

People who see God’s Word as a burden eventually quit reading it, they quit listening to it being taught and eventually they quit obeying it.

Satan seeks to convince us that God’s Word is a burden because he knows that if you believe a lie instead of the truth, then you won’t obey God’s Word. Satan always attacks God’s Word to undermine our confidence in God’s Word.

This post was written by Rev Ross. You can find his blog here: https://stacyjross.wordpress.com

Satan Contradicts God’s Word

4/15/2015

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die." Genesis 3:4 (NKJV)

Satan moves from casting doubt on God’s Word to openly contradicting God’s Word. He tell them they shall not surely die for eating the fruit of the tree that God had commanded them not to eat when God plainly told them they would die (2:17). Satan basically told them not to worry about what God said because He was wrong.

We also see this happening so very often in our world today and some of it does come from within the church. There are few, at least few in the church, who would be so bold as to say that God was wrong, or that something wasn’t true.

Instead, they tend to contradict God’s Word in a way that makes us feel as though it must be okay. We hear things like…

Just follow your heart. Just follow your heart and everything will be okay. Your heart would never leave you astray. It’s not like your heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. It’s not like there is a way that seems right to a man but the end of that way is destruction. Following your heart is one of the surest ways to contradict God’s Word while feeling that we are doing the right thing.

Love is the most important thing. This one is used in a couple of different ways and it sounds right on so many different levels. One way we hear it is that if two people love each other then whatever they do has to be okay because love could never be wrong. Now to fully embrace this we have to ignore that the Bible teaches that there is a love God hates and that love can be expressed in ways that are clearly sinful. When we ignore truth to focus on love we will often contradict God’s Word.

Another way we hear about the importance of love is when we are told if we love someone we’ll just accept them as they are. The idea with this is love means acceptance, total acceptance of a person and their lifestyle. Again, this sounds right. However, the idea with this goes so far as to tell us that we can’t ever tell a loved one that their lifestyle or actions are wrong even, or maybe especially, when they are Biblically wrong. This would mean accepting and even affirming them in lifestyles of rebellion against God. To embrace this idea we have to ignore much of the truth of Scripture and ignoring truth to focus on love we will often contradict God’s Word

God just wants you to be happy. God loves us and wants what’s best for us. Since this is the case, then as long as we are happy it’s all good. There is a way in which this sounds right. However, very often what makes us happy is something that clearly contradicts Scripture. Also, our happiness, as we define it, is not even remotely close to God’s great desire for our lives. What God wants from us is for us to be saved and then be like Jesus. This requires a great deal of difficult changes to be made in our lives. Changes that in many instances will make us unhappy initially. Focusing on our happiness at the exclusion of all things will very often lead us to contradict God’s Word.

One of the things we see in what Satan tells them here is that there are no consequences for sin. In his contradiction of God’s Word he tells them that they can ignore God and all will be well with them. In a lot of ways, the false views I mentioned teach the same thing. As long as our motives are good, the actions don’t matter. There can be no negative consequences when we do the wrong things as long as we have the right motives. This is simply false.

Satan contradicts God’s Word because he knows that if you believe a lie instead of the truth, then you won’t obey God’s Word. Satan always attacks God’s Word to undermine our confidence in God’s Word.

This post was written by Rev Ross. You can find his blog here: https://stacyjross.wordpress.com

Satan Casts Doubt On God’s Word

4/14/2015

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Genesis 3:1 (NKJV)

The first thing out of Satan’s mouth is intended to cast doubt on God’s Word. Has God really said that you must not eat of every tree in the Garden? Well, of course God had really said that (Genesis 2:16-17a).

Adam and Eve both knew God really said that. But Satan asks this question in an attempt to undermine their confidence in God’s Word. Satan knows that if they didn’t believe God’s Word they wouldn’t obey God’s Word.

That attack worked so well in the Garden that Satan has continually used it since. There are all sorts of attacks in our day that seek to cast doubt on God’s Word.

Has God indeed said that sex before marriage is wrong?

Has God indeed said that Jesus is the only way of salvation?

Has God indeed said that all people are naturally sinfully depraved and separated from God?

Has God indeed said that marriage is only between a man and a woman?

Has God indeed said that church is important to our spiritual lives?

Has God indeed said that we must remain faithful to Jesus to the end?

Has God indeed said…?

In each of these instances, God has indeed said. What is especially disturbing about this particular attack on God’s Word is that many times it comes from within the church. Some of the greatest attack on the reliability of God’s Word come from those who profess faith in Jesus. There are several books by so-called Christian authors who ask these very sorts of question. Now, don’t get me wrong here. It’s good to ask the questions as long as you give the answers that Scripture gives. But most of these folks don’t do that. Instead, they give the same sort of unanswered open ended questions that Satan did here.

Another way we see this is in those who call into question, in their words, insignificant details. Take for instance the number of Jews who left Egypt in the Exodus. The number of people the Bible gives us is a huge number of people. Some will say things like, “There is no way that number could be real. It’s more likely an intentionally inflated number used to make the Israelites look bigger than they really were. But it’s not a big deal.”

Some will say that the Bible is correct when it speaks of spiritual things, like salvation, nature of God, Jesus, etc, but when it comes to historical events and other non-spiritual issues it can err. They also say that the Bible never errs on important issues like salvation or heaven just on insignificant things like history and science.

The problem with this should be obvious. If we can’t trust the Bible on insignificant issues how can we possibly trust the Bible on eternally significant issues? The doubt that creeps in on “insignificant” issues will eventually spread to the bigger issues. We should be very leery of anyone or anything that seeks to cast doubt on God’s Word.

Satan casts doubt on God’s Word because he knows that if you doubt God’s Word you won’t obey God’s Word. Satan always attacks God’s Word to undermine our confidence in God’s Word.

This post was written by Rev Ross. You can find his blog here: https://stacyjross.wordpress.com

Satan's playbook

4/13/2015

Satan hates you. He wants to destroy you. If he can’t destroy you, then he’ll try to destroy your marriage. If he can’t destroy your marriage, then he’ll try to destroy your children or grandchildren. He wants to destroy our church. If he can’t destroy our church, then he’ll try to destroy our love for the church. If he can’t destroy our love for the church, then he’ll try to destroy our children and grandchildren’s love for the church. Satan’s one overall goal is to bring destruction in one form or another into our lives. This isn’t my idea, this is what Scripture teaches.

Scripture teaches us that Satan is a tempter who had the audacity to tempt Jesus Himself (Matt 4:1).

Scripture teaches us that Satan is a liar and the father of lies (Jn 8:44).

Scripture teaches us that Satan is a thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy (Jn 10:10).

Scripture teaches us that Satan is our enemy (1 Pet 5:8).

Scripture teaches us that Satan roams the earth looking for any and every opportunity to destroy us.

Scripture compares him to a lion and says that he wants to devour us. If you’ve ever watched nature shows then that makes for a pretty powerful picture.

Scripture teaches us that Satan is the deceiver of the whole world (Rev 12:9).

That is just small sampling of what Scripture teaches us about Satan and his desires for humanity. That small sampling is pretty serious. We know that he actively and consistently does these things. We know from looking at the world around us that he successfully does these things. But the question we need to think about is how does he do this? He doesn’t usually physically attack people. Since he doesn’t necessarily physically assault people, how does he deceive and destroy?

Scripture warns us about the “wiles” or “schemes” of the devil (Eph 6:11) In another place it says we are not ignorant of Satan’s “devices” “designs” or “plans” (2 Cor 2:11) The overall idea given in these passages is that Satan uses deceitful methods and strategies to deceive and destroy human beings. He employs these strategies against believers and unbelievers alike. His ultimate goal for these strategies is to keep unbelievers blinded to the truth of the Gospel and to deceive believers into believing a lie instead of the truth. He uses whatever will best trick people into believing a lie knowing that this will result in their destruction.

This post was written by Rev Ross. You can find his blog here: https://stacyjross.wordpress.com

Sunday Meditation

4/12/2015

Then they led him away to crucify him.
Matthew 27:31

There are days when we find it difficult, if not impossible, to sustain hope. The day of Jesus' death was such a day. It was a day of despair for all who had put their hope in him. It was a day of unbearable grief for those who had

been changed by his love. In such terrible moments hope disappears. Darkness seems to be all that remains. God seems absent.

It is, however, one of the most fundamental convictions of the Christian faith that, in those times when hope seems unattainable, God is at work. In that moment when even Jesus had a difficult time sustaining hope in God's redemptive purposes, God was fighting the decisive battle which would extend the rule of the Kingdom to all peoples. In that moment of terror, the foundations of reality were exposed and God was at work on the deep structures of the world. God could do work at that moment which would have been impossible during ordinary times.

Much the same is true of our moments of hopelessness. It is when hope grows weakest that our foundations are most exposed. It is when the struggle to sustain hope is most difficult that God can work on the deep structure of our persons. It is at those times that God can reach the unreachable crevices of our hearts and work on regions where fear and despair seem to reign.

It is a terrible thing to lose hope. But all is not lost. Though we lose hope, God is still at work. It may be that during our season of hopelessness God will extend the rule of the Kingdom of God into new regions of our lives.

In those times when I cannot hope, Lord,
help me to remember the work which
you accomplished during Jesus' hour of darkness.
Remind me, when I lose all hope,
that all hope is not gone
because you continue your work in me.
Extend the rule of your kingdom
into the deepest regions of my heart
where fear and despair have reigned for too long.

Amen

Copyright Dale and Juanita Ryan
National Association for Christian Recovery

Dear Enemy...

4/11/2015

The evil that turns away the human heart
I have battled you before
That which destroys the souls of men
Which erodes to the core

Know that I see your smug face
Peaking behind their eyes
Laughing as if you have won
Whispering to them your lies

Don’t think you will have them for long
Your play time is almost through
Get the tantrums out of your system
Because your number is almost due

To be honest, I think you are scared
I think you are trembling with fright
You know you don’t have a prayer
In fact, you hide under the cover of night

You are merely a weak pest
That leads so many astray
If it were up to my strength
Your work would end today

So, be in our guard, dear dragon breath
Be on the look out for me
I have the winner on my side
And His name is Victory.

Look out behind you; enemy of souls
Put a chain on your gate
The church is about to mobilize
You are about to meet your fate

You have taken too many friends
Yet you are entitled to none
Have your fun now weak serpent
The battle has already been won.

This poem was written by Rev DeCrastos.
Click here to go to his blog: http://other-words.net