Word for Today SPECIAL: Sometimes Confrontation is Needed

#1 · May 30, 2001, 11:44 am

Quote from Forum Archives on May 30, 2001, 11:44 am
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

I'm sending this out to all of us, myself included, as a wakeup
call. Just this morning, I also heard disturbing reports on
Focus on the Family about other issues as well. It is never
comfortable to talk about or get in the way of things that will
result in a confrontation, but there are times when that is
precisely what we are called to do and be.

Jesus Himself was known as both the Lamb of God and the Lion of
Judah. Why was this so? If you read the Gospel messages
completely you will see this. Actually, if you ever get a chance
to HEAR a version of the Gospel on tape or CD, do so. You will
then be able to readily notice that the Gospels, and all of the
New Testament of the Bible have plenty of conflict and
confrontation in them. The greatest confrontations of all come
between Jesus and the leaders of that period of time.
Ultimately, those confrontations resulted in the death of Jesus.
One reason for that is because Jesus died as an atonement
(payment) for our sins. But another also important reason was
that Jesus wanted to demonstrate how much He loves us, and how He
was willing to stand up for those with little hope.

As followers of Jesus Christ, can we do any less? So while it is
not comfortable to write or talk about controversial subjects, it
is necessary to do so, and it is the right thing to do.

Dear Lord, I pray that You would completely eradicate, destroy,
remove, renew, and refresh, the evil that surrounds us. In some
cases, Lord, perhaps there is a way to change hearts. You know
when and where that is possible. But in other cases, evil is so
rampant that it simply must be removed. You know when and where
that is necessary, too.

In our lives, I pray that You would thoroughly cleanse and heal
us of our illnesses - often the illness of our minds, and draw us
near and close to Your side. May our hearts not ever become so
much like a flint stone that we no longer respond to You.
Instead, soften our hearts, yet firm our resolve to stand apart
for You, and be a positive influence on those around us. Help us
to show compassion and gentleness whenever possible, but never to
the exclusion of Your righteous ways. We are so needy in this
area, Lord, so lacking in the resolve to make a difference. Help
us, help our land, and help the generation to come, that there
will forever remain those who continually bring You the praise
that You deserve. Amen.

Brother Brian

Reply-to: Neil Anderson <neilanderson@lists.crosswalk.com>
Subject: Neil Anderson Devotional for Wednesday, May 30, 2001
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 04:22:29 -0400

N E I L A N D E R S O N D A I L Y D E V O T I O N A L
from Freedom in Christ Ministries

May 30

WAKE UP!

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or
his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one
who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a
sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist,
or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is
detestable to the LORD (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

The dark side of Satan's version of spiritual knowledge and power
mentioned by Moses--ritual sacrifice, witchcraft, sorcery--is
also thriving in our culture, though not as openly as some of the
more socially acceptable New Age practices. Our police
departments are trying to tell parents today, "Wake up! Your kids
are not just into drugs and illicit sex. They're into Satanism.
We've seen the blood and the mutilated animals." It's getting so
bad that one of the animal control agencies in our area will no
longer release a black dog or cat at Halloween for fear that it
will become the victim of satanic ritual abuse.

The man who heads up our campus security belongs to a group of
security officers from campuses across Southern California which
meets once a month. When it was our school's turn to host the
meeting, he asked me to speak to the group about spiritual
phenomena in our culture. "There aren't many Christians in the
group," he said, "but they'll be on our campus, so I want you to
speak to them." I agreed to do so.

It was a veteran crowd of former military men and police
officers. When I started talking about the rise of Satanism and
ritual abuse in our community, there wasn't a doubter or a
scoffer in the bunch. Every one of them had a story to share
about finding grisly evidence of Satanism being active on their
respective campuses.

Every aberration of spiritual knowledge and power that Moses
warned the Israelites to avoid in Canaan--from "harmless"
horoscopes to unthinkable atrocities of animal and human
sacrifice--is in place and operating in our culture today. We
must wake up to the reality that "our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against ... spiritual forces of
wickedness" (Ephesians 6:12).

Mighty Lord, equip me today not just to stand my ground against
the enemy but to actively reclaim in Jesus' name territory he has
stolen.

-----------
This daily devotional is published and distributed by
Crosswalk.com. It is written by Neil Anderson at
< www.ficm.org >.

You can purchase "Daily in Christ" and other titles by Neil Anderson at
christianbook.com (Christian Book Distributors - CBD).
< shopping.crosswalk.com/bye/devo_na >

Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
< devotionals.crosswalk.com >.
-----------
To read the Current Feature Story from ReligionToday,
go to religiontoday.crosswalk.com/CurrentFeatureStory/

For today's complete News Summary from ReligionToday,
go to religiontoday.crosswalk.com/CurrentNewsSummary/

-----------
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* Copyright 2001 Crosswalk.com, Inc. and its Content
Providers. All rights reserved.

____________________________________________________________

=====
--
Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/
The Rules Have Changed...Get Paid to Surf the Web!
www.alladvantage.com/home.asp?refid=BKU-690

__________________________________________________
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Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

I'm sending this out to all of us, myself included, as a wakeup
call. Just this morning, I also heard disturbing reports on
Focus on the Family about other issues as well. It is never
comfortable to talk about or get in the way of things that will
result in a confrontation, but there are times when that is
precisely what we are called to do and be.

Jesus Himself was known as both the Lamb of God and the Lion of
Judah. Why was this so? If you read the Gospel messages
completely you will see this. Actually, if you ever get a chance
to HEAR a version of the Gospel on tape or CD, do so. You will
then be able to readily notice that the Gospels, and all of the
New Testament of the Bible have plenty of conflict and
confrontation in them. The greatest confrontations of all come
between Jesus and the leaders of that period of time.
Ultimately, those confrontations resulted in the death of Jesus.
One reason for that is because Jesus died as an atonement
(payment) for our sins. But another also important reason was
that Jesus wanted to demonstrate how much He loves us, and how He
was willing to stand up for those with little hope.

As followers of Jesus Christ, can we do any less? So while it is
not comfortable to write or talk about controversial subjects, it
is necessary to do so, and it is the right thing to do.

Dear Lord, I pray that You would completely eradicate, destroy,
remove, renew, and refresh, the evil that surrounds us. In some
cases, Lord, perhaps there is a way to change hearts. You know
when and where that is possible. But in other cases, evil is so
rampant that it simply must be removed. You know when and where
that is necessary, too.

In our lives, I pray that You would thoroughly cleanse and heal
us of our illnesses - often the illness of our minds, and draw us
near and close to Your side. May our hearts not ever become so
much like a flint stone that we no longer respond to You.
Instead, soften our hearts, yet firm our resolve to stand apart
for You, and be a positive influence on those around us. Help us
to show compassion and gentleness whenever possible, but never to
the exclusion of Your righteous ways. We are so needy in this
area, Lord, so lacking in the resolve to make a difference. Help
us, help our land, and help the generation to come, that there
will forever remain those who continually bring You the praise
that You deserve. Amen.

Brother Brian

Reply-to: Neil Anderson <neilanderson@lists.crosswalk.com>
Subject: Neil Anderson Devotional for Wednesday, May 30, 2001
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 04:22:29 -0400

N E I L A N D E R S O N D A I L Y D E V O T I O N A L
from Freedom in Christ Ministries

May 30

WAKE UP!

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or
his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one
who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a
sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist,
or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is
detestable to the LORD (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

The dark side of Satan's version of spiritual knowledge and power
mentioned by Moses--ritual sacrifice, witchcraft, sorcery--is
also thriving in our culture, though not as openly as some of the
more socially acceptable New Age practices. Our police
departments are trying to tell parents today, "Wake up! Your kids
are not just into drugs and illicit sex. They're into Satanism.
We've seen the blood and the mutilated animals." It's getting so
bad that one of the animal control agencies in our area will no
longer release a black dog or cat at Halloween for fear that it
will become the victim of satanic ritual abuse.

The man who heads up our campus security belongs to a group of
security officers from campuses across Southern California which
meets once a month. When it was our school's turn to host the
meeting, he asked me to speak to the group about spiritual
phenomena in our culture. "There aren't many Christians in the
group," he said, "but they'll be on our campus, so I want you to
speak to them." I agreed to do so.

It was a veteran crowd of former military men and police
officers. When I started talking about the rise of Satanism and
ritual abuse in our community, there wasn't a doubter or a
scoffer in the bunch. Every one of them had a story to share
about finding grisly evidence of Satanism being active on their
respective campuses.

Every aberration of spiritual knowledge and power that Moses
warned the Israelites to avoid in Canaan--from "harmless"
horoscopes to unthinkable atrocities of animal and human
sacrifice--is in place and operating in our culture today. We
must wake up to the reality that "our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against ... spiritual forces of
wickedness" (Ephesians 6:12).

Mighty Lord, equip me today not just to stand my ground against
the enemy but to actively reclaim in Jesus' name territory he has
stolen.

-----------
This daily devotional is published and distributed by
Crosswalk.com. It is written by Neil Anderson at
< http://www.ficm.org >.

You can purchase "Daily in Christ" and other titles by Neil Anderson at
christianbook.com (Christian Book Distributors - CBD).
< shopping.crosswalk.com/bye/devo_na >

Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
< devotionals.crosswalk.com >.
-----------
To read the Current Feature Story from ReligionToday,
go to religiontoday.crosswalk.com/CurrentFeatureStory/

For today's complete News Summary from ReligionToday,
go to religiontoday.crosswalk.com/CurrentNewsSummary/

-----------
For Copyright Terms go to http://www.crosswalk.com/info/copyright

____________________SUBSCRIPTION INFO_______________________

* To subscribe, send an email to:
< SUBSCRIBE-neilanderson@lists.crosswalk.com > or go to
< http://www.crosswalk.com/lists > for a complete list of
our newsletters.
* Copyright 2001 Crosswalk.com, Inc. and its Content
Providers. All rights reserved.

____________________________________________________________

=====
--
Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
The Rules Have Changed...Get Paid to Surf the Web!
http://www.alladvantage.com/home.asp?refid=BKU-690

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35
a year! personal.mail.yahoo.com/