Sneak Attack!!!

I was talking with my sister tonight, who is going to Nicaragua for a missions trip in a few days, and she was telling me about how much spiritual attack she is experiencing, both relationally with friends as well as with Jesus.

This made me think, why does it seem like Satan attacks us so much more when we are about to go on missions trips?

My answer is not one that is normally said. I would agree with those who would say that there is heightened spiritual attack to cause disunity amongst the group going on a missions trip, that Satan wants people to feel isolated and alone, that Satan wants people to keep their eyes on anything but Jesus, and that Satan wants to prohibit a work of God from happening on the trip by distracting the people on it.

But I believe there is a subtle sneak attack that Satan does to many people who go on missions trips when he makes them think they are being attacked more before going on a missions trip than normal. I think there possibly exists a greater deception that many people don’t see.

It is important for every Christian to understand that the whole of their life is to be lived on mission; and, I would say, especially wherever they call home. But many people who go on missions trips think missions consist only in going to other places, namely foreign countries. Satan loves this because it keeps people from living on mission where they call home. They associate missions apart from normal life.

This is the deeper deception that Satan promotes in many Christian’s lives, by attacking them more before missions trips. People think, “Satan is attacking me (or us) so much more when I go on mission. When I’m at home, he doesn’t attack as much; it’s because I’m not on a missions trip.” He furthers this idea, that mission is apart from one’s home, by associating big spiritual attack with going to other countries for missions.

How absurd. We are on the mission of Christ wherever we are, even if that is in our own neighborhood, ESPECIALLY in our own neighborhood.

Now that the secret is out, Satan’s subtle sneak attack, let us live on mission wherever we call home. Let us proclaim to truth of the Gospel of Christ where we live as though it actually can save the people we live with and around, not just those in other countries.

Blessed Assurance

I’ve been reading Jonathan Edwards’ The Freedom of the Will. In recent chapters he has been speaking on how, because God knows all future events, it is impossible for them to be otherwise. Whether or not God’s knowledge of the future is the cause of every single thing that happens or choice humans make is beyond the scope of this blog. The purpose of this entry is simple: the assurance of our salvation.

Edwards is refuting the thought of certain Arminians of his day that God cannot certainly know what will happen in the future because if he did, he would not be worthy of praise because he is the one who made the events take place. God can only be praiseworthy if he has no hand in the moral choices of people. Edwards thinks this to be a load of crap. The fact that God knows future moral choices people make does not make him any less worthy of praise.

He writes how it was prophesied that the Messiah would not give into sin (whether or not the Messiah was able to sin will not be addressed in this entry) and that he would be given glory, a kingdom, and success. He cites verses such as Isaiah 42:1-8, 49:7-9, 50:5-9, 52:13-15, 53:10-12 and Psalm 2:6-7, 45:3-4,110:4. Assuming Jesus was capable of sinning and losing his future glory and kingdom, it was still prophesied that he would not sin; therefore, in one sense, it was literally impossible for Jesus to have failed unless God did not know future events. Even if Jesus was on the brink of sinning, he could point back to the scriptures that guaranteed his victory and gain confidence by what was true. Even though he was tempted to the point of bloodshed, he knew it COULD NOT lead to sin because it had been written by God’s perfect foreknowledge that he would not.

The reason I say all this is because it has HUGE implications on his bride, The Church, Christians. Jesus promises The Church that the gates of Hades will not prevail against them (Matthew 16:18), The Church is promised that they will not be tempted beyond what they can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13), that they will be sustained and not moved (Psalm 55:22), that they HAVE eternal life and nobody can snatch them from Jesus (John 10:28), etc. There are many more verses that could be referenced. But these hold my point: that just like it was impossible for Jesus to fail, it is impossible for Jesus’ church to fail. We will persevere till the last day. We have a real hope that has been written down by the perfect foreknowledge of God, which nothing can change. What God has spoken, what God has written, cannot help but come to pass.

Be encouraged, that because Jesus did not fail, neither shall we who have faith and have been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been clothed in the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21) and the future is already set in stone for us! We will be raised into resurrection bodies. Death will be defeated. We will be glorified. Nothing can stop this from coming to pass. LET’S SPREAD THE WORD!!!

What John Calvin thought of the Papists

“The papists, who are accustomed to set aside the true meaning of the Scriptures, and to spoil all the mysteries of God by their own fooleries, have here contrived an absurd fable; for they have falsely alleged that the oxen and asses in the stall worshipped Christ when he was born; by which they show themselves to be egregious asses. (And indeed I wish that they would imitate the ass which they have invented; for then they should be asses worshipping Christ, and not lifting up the heel against his divine authority.)” - John Calvin