Spiritual warfare and Salvation

Hi everyone.
Yesterday we had yet another chance to minister outside the abortion mill and once again the wickedness of this world was displayed in those we saw. We thought that we would not have as many people as usual but it turned out to be a good size crowd standing for life.

We had a few of the occasional fingers and people yelling from cars but not too many unusual things happened. We did have one man who was a cross-dresser who was mad at me and Daddy. He was very angry and told us that "God is dead, science killed him." I wonder if he was an atheist. I wonder how atheists can believe that God both does not exist and is dead. Did he exist in the past and has since died? I'm confused. They already don't make sense and have no justification for knowledge anyway, their entire worldview is wrong so why should I expect that they would make sense in any of the things that they say.  They have rejected the truth about God and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever amen. Romans 1:25 says that instead of worshiping the one true God they instead serve themselves and fulfill the lusts of their evil hearts. We preach to people such as this in the hopes that God will save them from their sins and trust in Him alone for salvation.

We had one man who said that their baby had died 2 weeks ago and they were going to Planned Parenthood because it would cost them a lot of money to go to a hospital. As we have said, the hospital cannot deny you access to a procedure without regard to cost if it is life threatening and you cannot afford it. You do not need to go to the murderers for healthcare!

Daddy had a heckler. It was a man from the 4th story of the apartment section of the building that the abortion mill is located in. When Jeremy finished preaching the man called out the window, "finally, some peace and quite." Daddy told him that we were just taking a break and we would be back soon. He probably did not like that but we do not stop preaching because someone does not like it. If we stopped every time someone got annoyed with us we would never be preaching.

Since we did not have much happen today I thought I could write about something else. I chose Spiritual warfare and the need for Gospel proclamation.

Today in our culture many wicked things such as murder and perversion are not only accepted but celebrated. This is wickedness and in the end it will lead to eternal damnation for those who practice such things. By the grace of God we have been saved from our transgressions and sins and we have the message of hope for those who are still dead in their sins. Why are we ashamed of sharing that message? The world is proclaiming their false views with a loud and powerful voice, where are the Christians who will stand up and proclaim the truth to counter the lies of the world?

We are at war and many professing Christians are sitting at home watching football instead of studying the Word and proclaiming the Gospel. I am not saying that watching football is evil, but I am saying that our command to preach the Gospel must be of first importance. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to watch football but we were commanded to preach the Gospel and to make disciples. It is not only football that comes in the way of our Christian life though. Movies, sports, jobs, school and whatever else we do, can become things that hinder us from learning how to better glorify God and obey His commands. Let us all work to give God fist priority in our hearts and lives!

The weapons of war which we use in the fight for men's souls are not physical but they are real and powerful! The devil is real and is at work in the sons of disobedience and he wants the minds of people. Are we willing to accept this truth and do whatever it takes to battle the culture of death and lies with the message of truth and life through Jesus Christ? Christianity is not a game, it is a matter of eternal life and death and must be taken seriously! We do not become a Christian and continue to live our life as if nothing had ever happened. When we become Christians our life is completely transformed. We are now new creations is Christ Jesus and He is Lord of our lives.

We no longer work to fulfill our own agenda, we are the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is His agenda that we seek to fulfill in everything that we do and say. As men created in the image of God our chief end is to glorify God. God is glorified in our proclaiming His truth to the world and our obedience to His word. Are we willing to give everything we have to see Him glorified, even our very lives? Are we willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of Christ's glory, Gospel and kingdom? Many men and women have sacrificed their lives for the Gospel! But in America people have accepted a watered down version of Christianity where you say a prayer and walk an aisle and then you are saved and you are going to heaven and no matter what you do God will forgive you. This is not how it works. You must repent and turn to Christ in faith, trusting in Him alone for Salvation. You are not saved by saying a prayer because you think it will do something good for you even though you still love sin and do not want your life to change, you just want to add Jesus to your life.

Once you are saved your life will be hard. Your friends may reject you. You will be persecuted. And you may lose your very life for the sake of the Gospel. The only way that anyone can be saved is if God in His great mercy has chosen from the creation of the world to save them. Not because of anything that they did but because of His great mercy and love. (Yes I am a Calvinist and I am proud of it!!! I still love people who are not Calvinists though!) If you are saved you may still sin but you will hate it because God hates it. You will love righteousness because that is what God loves. You will not continue to live you life the same way as you did before you were saved, because then you were dead in you sins and now you are alive in Christ! Christ is not something that you can add to you life. Jesus Christ will change you life! This is true Salvation! We must realize that the war on sin is not trivial! It is real and we are fighting against a powerful force of evil. But our God is more powerful and he has already won the fight. Will we continue to trust in Christ alone to give us the power to win the world for His glory? Fight the good fight and do not stop until Christ comes again and we are taken to glory!

Prayer
Continue to pray for Mike Stockwell and Mike Overd as they go back to court on Monday. Adrian Clark was acquitted by the grace of God! I hope that this is a good sign for the proceeding court dates. But continue to pray that these men will not be punished for crimes that they did not commit. Pray that God would give them opportunities to preach the Gospel. Pray that God would grant repentance and faith to those who are judging their case. Pray that they would be given comfort in this time, that God would give them the words to say, and that God would be glorified!


With love in the Lord,
Virginia