Three Reasons to Take Care of Your Soul

During the first three Freedom Fighters for February, I’ve tried to make a case for taking care of our souls. We neglect them at our own peril.
I’d like to give you three reasons, all from Scripture, why all of us who desire to follow Jesus need to take care of our souls. Next week we’ll begin looking at how to take care of them.

Reason Number 1: The World

John tells us “Do not love the world or the things of the world.” (1 John 2:15) Christians need to grasp the reality that we live in a world that is our enemy. We’re aliens here; our home is Heaven. Everything about the world-this sphere of living where God is not revered as God-wears on us. There is a negative pull on our souls every day to love what we should hate and to hate what we should love. This world is neither our home nor our friend. Taking care of our souls becomes a necessity because this world will push us to neglect it and our God who created our souls.

Reason Number 2: The Flesh

A friend of mine talks about the “residue of the flesh” when he speaks of our ongoing need for God’s sanctifying work in our lives. That “residue of the flesh” wants satisfaction in ways that aren’t consistent with our walk with Jesus. That’s why Paul warns us in Galatians 5:16 “.
. . Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Our flesh wars against our souls. We have one way to win the war, and that is to take care of our souls.

Reason Number 3: The Devil

Every Christ-follower has at least one enemy, the devil. He is and always will be the enemy of our souls. He’ll do everything within his power to prevent the nurture of our souls, and we need to know that.
Hear Peter’s words from 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Peter didn’t give us those words to scare us. He gave them to us to help us prepare for the fight of our lives! He goes on to tell us in verse 9 to resist him. And, James tells us that if we resist the devil he will flee from us. (5:7)

Our enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil are active enemies. We must actively nurture our souls to overcome the influence of our enemies. Here’s the good news: it’s doable for every last one of us!
Keep reading. – Pastor John Strain is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist of Toms River and is our weekend Freedom Fighter contributor.

Great Quote: Jesus did not finish all the urgent tasks in Palestine or all the things He would have liked to do, but He did finish the work which God gave Him to do. The only alternative to frustration is to be sure that we are doing what God wants. Nothing substitutes for knowing that this day, this hour, in this place, we are doing the will of the Father. Then and only then can we think of all the other unfinished tasks with equanimity and leave them with God. Charles E. Hummel

EXAMINE YOUR SOUL

“Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord.”
(Lamentations 3:40)

We’re talking about taking care of our souls for God’s glory and our good. Jesus reminded us last week that all the things we can gain in the temporal world aren’t worth the value of our souls. Lost souls and damaged souls grieve the heart of God. His plan for us is simple. We find our souls in coming to Christ. The damages and hurts our souls endure find repair and healing in our journey with Christ to wholeness.

In all of that, however, we have responsibility. With the aid of God’s Word and His Spirit, we’re accountable for regular inspection of our souls. We have responsibility for the care of our souls. Jeremiah tells us to “search out and examine our ways.” The psalmist said to God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart . . . and see if there is any wicked way in me . . ..” (Psalm 139:23&24)

What does all of this imply for us today. I think we can make several observations as we begin to give attention to our souls. First, we discover that our souls don’t naturally stay well. Our souls can get unhealthy, polluted and dirty. They need care. We also discover that we have help available to us. God, who created us and made us living, eternal souls, stands at the ready. He’ll always help us see the care we need to give our souls. Further, He’ll provide the resources needed to provide the care. There is a third observation that we can’t overlook.

We’re not always smart enough to know our souls need care! I think that’s why the psalmist asked God to search his heart. God will see things we can’t see. We fool ourselves with foolish independence when we think we have all the answers. Don’t be fooled! If you are alive and reading this Freedom Fighter, you need soul care!

Let the examination of our souls begin! – Pastor John Strain is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Toms River and is our weekend Freedom Fighter Contributor

Great Quote: Will is the whole man active. I cannot give up my will; I must exercise it. I must will to obey. When God gives a command or a vision of truth, it is never a question of what He will do, but what we will do. To be successful in God’s work is to fall in line with His will and to do it His way. All that is pleasing to Him is a success.
Henrietta C Mears

Where is Your Path Heading?

“A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; The simple pass on and are punished.” Proverbs 27:12

“Careful about ones conduct”. That is the prudent man. When he comes into full view of the world around him he can make the righteous choice. When he comes to a crossroads, he can remain on the straight and narrow. Knowing this as wisdom I have from time to time asked myself, “Well, where is my path heading?”

When I have occasionally looked behind, I had seen the wreckage of my folly. A lot of it is just from being naïve or silly but a great deal of it from being just plain stupid. Do prudent men come that way or have they too walked the hard road? I do not consider myself much of a prudent man but I have learned enough to say, “I ain’t going’ back that way.” That in itself should be wisdom enough for most, but if my goal is to truly serve and love God it would be wiser to say “Lord, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light onto my path.”

I must be capable to surrender to that guidance. I need to die to it daily. There must be less of my word and more of His Word. But sadly my friends that is a hard list to keep enforced. I do have my times when I creep out from behind a rock and make off -the- wall suggestions that sound great to the flesh but are really not good for the soul. Oh what a wretched man I can be but prudent enough to look at the Cross and say Thank You, Jesus. Santo Padre!!

So as I walk along my path, I should be doing it as if to use the meaning of walk in the way the Greeks would say to walk. To show oneself to be upright with confidence and to do this as Paul would write to show Jesus with every step. That means to be wise handling the practical matter of being in communion with God, praying without ceasing, reading God’s word and living with the context and precepts set by God.

So where is my path heading? Wherever I am surrendered enough to go. — Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and has attended the Keswick Institute of Biblical Studies.

Great Quote: Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received CHRIST JESUS Himself. It is true that He gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; He gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ Himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received Him, and appropriated Him. What a heart-full Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain Him! Charles Haddon Spurgeon

PRIDE MAY BLIND YOU TO YOUR SIN

For the past two days we have looked at the idol of the heart known as pride. Pride is not only insidious – God hates pride. But one of the deadly things that pride does is to blind me to my sin.

Quoting again from Lou Prilio’s book PEOPLE PLEASING, he suggests six ways in which pride blinds us to our sin:

1. Pride tempts us to exaggerate our virtues. He quotes Puritan
Richard Baxter: “Self-idolizing causes us to glory in our supposed greatness, when the greatness of God should show us our contemptible vileness. It causes us to magnify ourselves when we to magnify our Maker. It makes the strong man glory in his strength, and the rich man in his wealth, and the conqueror in his victories, and princes and lords and rulers of the earth in their dominions and dignities, and abilities to do good to others.

2. Pride tempts us to minimize our flaws.

3. Pride tempts us to distort and magnify the seriousness of our
flaws.

4. Pride tempts us to change things in our lives according to MAN’S
priorities rather than the agenda of the HOLY SPIRIT.

5. Pride focuses our attention on changing the OUTER MAN rather than
the INNER MAN.

6. An excessive love of praise tempts you to believe MAN’S opinion
of yourself over GOD’S opinion.

Are you struggling with pride, my brother? If so, yield it to HIM and allow Him to transform your life in this area. Surrender the idol of your heart – pride. Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s KESWICK and general editor of Freedom Fighters, and is available to speak at your church. To schedule Bill, contact Ruth Schmidt at
732-350-1187

NEXT WEEK, George Hutchison, Board member of America’s KESWICK and an instructor with CROWN Ministries will address the area of MONEY with us.

GREAT QUOTE: Give me, O Lord, a steadfast heart which no unworthy thought can drag downwards; an unconquered heart which no tribulation can wear out; an upright heart which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon me also, O Lord my God, understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. — Thomas Aquinas

SPECIAL PROJECT: The Lord has given us the opportunity to purchase a new piano for the RAWS AUDITORIUM in memory of Addison Raws’ wife, Emma. Thanks to a local businessman, we have been offered a brand new Yamaha C7 concert piano for $28,195. The goal seemed in surmountable, however, thanks to numerous friends, we only need $13,000 to reach the goal. If you’d like to share in this project, simply respond to this email, or go the website (www.americaskeswick.org) and make your donation on-line. Be sure and designate it for the PIANO FUND. You can also make a gift by calling our toll-free number: 800-453-7942. Thanks for your consideration, brothers.

“PRIDE” – Part 2

“First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.”
Proverbs 16:18 (The Message)

Yesterday I shared with you some insight on the idol of the heart (sin) of pride. Amazingly, most people who struggle with being a “people-pleaser” have major pride issues.

Author and speaker, Lou Prilio, in his book, PLEASING PEOPLE, says that “pride is an insidious thing. Just when you are convinced that you have one of its tentacles under control, another one snakes out to grab you … Pride is like a garment with a million secret pockets that you’re constantly discovering.”

In his book, Lou shares a list of questions to help determine if you and I have pride as one of the idols of the heart. I shared several questions with you yesterday, here are some more:

Am I more prone to command than to obey, to teach than to be taught, to speak than to listen?

Do I have little or no respect for authority in general?

Do I become impatient or upset when contradicted in speech, especially publicly?

When wronged, am I unwilling to forgive an offender who has not demonstrated extreme submission or repentance?

Do I invest more resources to establish my own honor than to establish God’s honor?

Am I unwilling to admit when I am wrong?

I am inordinately curious about those things that I do not have a biblical need to know?

Am I discontented with my position in life?

Am I ungrateful for God’s mercies?

Do I fail to pray?

Am I insensible to the dangers of temptation (being self-confident about handling temptations)?

Am I oversensitive to correction?

Do I have difficulty in being pleasing (because of excessively high expectations)?

Take some time today and work through these questions. I will put the whole list of the website later today so you can download it as pdf handout. Are you wrestling with the idol of pride? Think about it! — Bill Welte is the President and CEO of America’s KESWICK.

Great Quote: What a humbling thought it is, that so often there is earnest prayer in which the desire for our own joy or pleasure is far stronger than many desire for God’s glory. No wonder there are so many unanswered prayers! Here we have the secret. God cannot be glorified when that glory is not the object of our prayers. — Andrew Murray

THE SIN OF PRIDE

“A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.” Proverbs 29:23

Several weeks ago one of my Board members gave me a powerful book entitled “Pleasing People – How not to be an ‘approval junkie'” by Lou Priolo (P & R Publishing). It is a must read book for every believer whether you struggle with being a people pleaser or not. It was one of those reads that left you feeling very convicted about the idols of the heart in your life.

In one of the chapters, Lou shares some valuable insights into the idol of pride. Let me give them to you the next two days and then I will put a handout on the website for your use:

1. Pride is the delusion that our achievements are primarily the result of our own doing.

2. Pride is esteeming ourselves above and beyond the condition and proportion that God has appointed for us.

3. Pride is the desire to be ESTEEMED BY OTHERS above and beyond the condition and proportion that God has appointed for us.

4. Pride is the desire to EXALT OURSELVES above and beyond the condition and proportion that God has appointed for us.

So how do you know if you are a “pride-aholic”?

Do you boast about or take credit for your wisdom, abilities, and gifts as though they were acquired primarily by self-effort?

Do you selfishly use for your own glory and benefit the wisdom, abilities, and gifts God has given you for His glory and the benefit of others?

Do you view God in such a way as to think He was made for your pleasure rather than vice versa (making God a means to an end rather than worshipping Him as the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe)?

Do you have a greater desire to be loved by others than for others to love God (wanting others to love you more than they love God)?

Do you have a greater dependence on self than on God’s grace and provision?

Do you resort to defensiveness, blame-shifting, justification, or anger when lawfully reproved by another?

Do you have a censorious, critical, condemning, accusing, judgmental attitude toward others, especially those in positions of authority?

If so, my friend, then you may very well be struggling with the idol of the heart known as PRIDE!

I’ll share more on this tomorrow. Take some time today to review the list. If this is an issue in your life – Cry out to God, repent and ask for His help in this area of your life. – Bill Welte is the President and CEO of America’s KESWICK and the general editor and writer for the ministry of Freedom Fighters

Great Quote: “Pride makes men more desirous to be over loved by themselves, than that God be loved by themselves or others. They would gladly have the eyes and hearts of all men turned on them, as if they were as the sun, to be admired and loved by all who see them.” Richard Baxter

TAKE CARE OF YOUR SOUL
TAKE CARE OF YOUR SOUL
“Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in trouble; Hear me speedily. Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. . . .” (Psalm 69:16-18)

We’re thinking about “soul care” each weekend during February. David wrote Psalm 69, crying out to God because His soul needed care. Notice that even one as close to God as David (a man after God’s own heart) experienced times when his soul was overloaded and needed God’s attention. We are no different!

Let me share some things that may indicate the need for soul care in your life or mine. If we are neglecting God’s Word, we need some soul care. When we sense no joy in our walk with the Lord, we need soul care. Ongoing struggles with addictions definitely tell us we need soul care. Soul care is a need in our lives when we’re not growing in grace.
The list of indicators could fill this edition of The Freedom Fighter!

Soul care really needs to happen regularly in our lives. Think of it like taking care of your physical body. Most of us do some “preventive”
things to take care of ourselves. Exercise, vitamins, rest and a healthy diet all fall into the preventive health care category.

Other occasions require more invasive measures. One of us may need a heart cath to take care of a blockage. Another of us may need surgery for a bad gall bladder. Our care is more aggressive because the problem is more dangerous. When life threatening issues attack us, we pull out all the stops. Major surgery, radiation, chemo and whatever else is needed come into play.

Soul care has counterparts to all the levels of medical care. Each of us, no matter how well we’re doing in our walk with Jesus need a maintenance level of soul care. We’re spiritually healthy and want to stay that way. So, we take care of our souls.

Times come when we struggle. Something happens that brings greater pressure or temptation to our lives. We see an issue and know that it’s going to require more than a maintenance level of soul care. So, we get more aggressive about “watching over our hearts/souls” (Proverbs 4:23)

Some of us will experience times that demand major soul care. Times of great grief or temptation create a need for that level of soul care.
Times of failure demand intense soul care. We do whatever it takes to protect and fortify our souls because of great danger.

I hope you’ll this week about the care of your soul. I invite you to join me this month in learning how to take care of our souls.

John Strain is Senior Pastor of First Baptist of Toms River.

Great Quote: Wise leaders should have known that the human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. If Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the Spirit they will turn to the wine of the flesh…Christ died for our hearts and the Holy Spirit wants to come and satisfy them.

A. W. Tozer

WATCH OVER YOUR HEART
“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

I had an email from a pastor friend last weekend. He had just returned from a pastor’s retreat focused on “soul care.” He closed the email, after telling me how much he had enjoyed the retreat, by asking me “How is your soul?” I’m not sure anyone had ever asked me that question in just that way.

I thought I’d take the February Freedom Fighters to think about the question and about how we can take better care of our souls. Most men, I think, are too action-oriented, and we really don’t like to do the interior work that “soul care” requires. If that’s true, then most of us who read this need “soul care” more than we know!

The Wisdom Writer of Proverbs gives us a good admonition in Proverbs 4:23. “Watch over your heart,” he says. That’s just another way to say “take care of your soul.” The metaphor speaks to the control center of our lives. It’s that inner most part of us that determines the quality of our lives. All the issues of life flow from that center. The way those “issues of life” play out is the result of how we take care of our souls.

I read recently of an old African proverb that goes like this: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”
None of us can undo the lack of care our souls have received. We can make sure the lack of care doesn’t continue. We can “watch over” our souls from today forward.

So, I ask you the question I was asked last weekend. “How is your soul?” Be honest with yourself. Get past the surface “feel good” stuff and determine your true spiritual health. All of us may need to consider what we’re devoting ourselves to that hinders our soul care.
I’ll finish with one of Jesus’ most famous and probing questions. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for h is soul?” (Matthew
16:26)

Pastor John Strain is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Toms River and is our weekend Freedom Fighter contributor.

Great Quote: God has a time for everything, a perfect schedule. He is never too soon, never too late. The when of His will is as important as the what and the how. Richard C. Halverson