Psalm 119:78 – Pilgrim's
Progress authored by John Bunyan, comes to mind. The path of the saint is
filled with the deception of the enemy. From saints who live worldly, to those
who have never known God. Some attack with words of bitterness and some in sweetness, but the one who meditates on the
precepts of God will endure to the blessing of God.
Comments and Challenges
Be
sober and vigilant; this is a military command found in 1 Peter 5:8. The world
is not a sober place, nor is it vigilant to the spiritual conflict that the
apostle Peter is focused in this section of 1 Peter 5:5-11. I believe that one
of Satan’s strategies is to devour the strength of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and that he does this by destroying the testimony of believers.
Peter
uses the strategy of a lion to alert all saints to the offensive nature of
Satan, the prowl of the lion is to devour everything in its path. Proverbs
30:30. Thus the apostle's comparison of Satan and the lion is accurate. The
devil and his demons are strong on offense, but are weak and defeated on
defense. Jude 1:9. On the other side of this, we saints living in this fallen
world are humanly weak on offense and vulnerable to this spiritual war for our
soul.
Our
only defense is to put on the whole armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-20. The world
looks good to the unbeliever and it even looks good to the weak and the
immature believer. The flesh cannot stand against a spiritual enemy. Ephesians
6:12 and we are again commanded to fight the good fight of faith; as faith is
the substance of things hoped for and faith is the evidence of things not seen.
We
do not see the fallen spiritual world around us and in order for us to gain
hope by faith we must be able to comprehend that victory over the roaring lion
is through the finished work of Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors
through Him who loves us. God in His love for us gives to each of us victory
over the one who hates us. Romans 8:37-39. Finally we are the salt and the
light to the fallen world around us. If we lose either of these attributes we
are worthless. Matthew 5:17-20.
Mark 7
Mark 7:24-30 – it
would seem to the casual reader that the LORD Jesus is being a bit harsh with
this gentile woman with words like, “Let the children be filled first, for it
is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” but I
am reminded of many days gone by when as a child I did not eat all the things
that was prepared for me. Many times I gave what was not eaten to our dog and
he ate it.
Israel rejected
the LORD Jesus as Messiah and as a result tossed much of His favor to them to
the dogs, another event in the gospels is the event of the rich man and Lazarus
in Luke 16:19-31.
Solomon says to
buy the Truth and sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding,
it is readily apparent to Jesus that this gentile woman understood “truth”
better than the Jewish people. So let me ask a question here. Why did she
understand? And the answer is: “She revealed to Jesus Christ – FAITH and this
pleased Jesus. Simple isn’t it!
Without faith it
is impossible to please God, for he (or she) who comes to God must believe that
He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, Hebrews
11:6.
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