“God’s will is a paradox. It’s both easy to find and difficult to discern. God’s will can be immediate, or it can take years to figure out. God’s will can frustrate you or give you tremendous peace. One thing is for sure. YOU CAN KNOW GOD’S WILL. Although it may seem
mysterious, there’s really no mystery to it. If you know where to look, God’s will is there. And if you listen carefully, God will speak to you in amazing ways.

First of all, God speaks through His Word. Everything we need for living a life that pleases God — and what could be more in His will that — is in the Bible. As you get to know God’s Word, you will get to know God’s will.

Second, God speaks through your own judgment and common sense. BUT BEWARE! Your decisions will line up with God’s only if you know God personally in the first place, and then only if your relationship with God is right. When you’re in this condition, you will operate with ‘the
mind of Christ.’ The Holy Spirit will guide you from the inside.

Finally, and most commonly, God speaks through the details of your life. Oswald Chambers put it this way: ‘God speaks in the language you know best — not through your ears but through your circumstances.

Some additional thoughts . . .

* God’s plans are always perfect. Seek HIS will.
* Don’t make plans and then ask the Lord’s approval. Ask God to direct your planning.
*If you’re going to wait for someone, wait for the Lord.
*GOD MAY BE USING PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU.
*The call of God is sometimes difficult to hear.
*Once discerned, the call of God is difficult to avoid.
*Remember that God’s will is not so much a function of time and place as it is an attitude of the heart.
*If you want to know God’s will, spend time with Him.
*Circumstances may be outside of your control, but the way you respond to them is not.
*You will begin to live when you lose yourself in God’s purpose for you.
*When God speaks, listen.
*When God commands, obey.
*When God leads, follow.”

from GOD IS IN THE SMALL STUFF . . . AND IT ALL MATTERS by Bruce and
Stan, published by Promise Press.

Good reminder for today. Are you living in God’s will?

THE NEGATIVE AND THE POSITIVE

Sometimes we fill our heads with all the negatives . . . God has a positive answer for the negative things we think and feel . . .

You say: “It’s impossible!”
God says: “All things are possible. (Luke 18:27)

You say: “I’m too tired!”
God says: “I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

You say: “Nobody really loves me!”
God says: “I love you.” (John 3:16; John 13:34)

You say “I can’t go on!”
God says: “My grace is sufficient. (1 Corinthians 12:9; Psalm 91:15)

You say: “I can’t figure things out!”
God says: “I will direct your steps.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You say: “I can’t do it!”
God says: “You can do all things through Christ. (Philippians 4:13)

You say: “I’m not able!”
God says: “I am able!” (1 Corinthians 9:8)

You say: “It’s not worth it!”
God says: “It will be worth it.” (Romans 8:28)

You say: “I can’t forgive myself!”
God says: “I FORGIVE YOU!” (1 John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)

You say “I can’t manage!”
God says: “I will supply all your needs. (Philippians 4:19)

You say: “I’m afraid!”
God says: “I have not given you a spirit of fear.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

You say: “I’m always worried and frustrated!”
God says: “Cast all your cares on Me!” (1 Peter 5:7)

You say: “I don’t have enough faith!”
God says: “I’ve given everyone a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)

You say: “I’m not smart enough!”
God says: “I’ve given you wisdom.” (1 Corinthians 1:30)

You say: “I feel all alone!”
God says: “I will NEVER leave you or forsake you!” (Hebrews 13:5)

Is the glass of your life half empty or half full? Are you focusing on the negative instead of the positive? May these truths encourage YOUR heart today!

The preacher was Jonathan Edwards, pastor of the Congregational church in Northampton, Massachusetts, and a future president of Princeton College. The date was Saturday, July 8, 1741, and the place was Enfield, Connecticut, where Edwards had been invited to speak.

Enfield was not a religious place. The Great Awakening had touched surrounding towns but not Enfield. In fact, Christians nearby feared that God would pass them by because of the lethargy of the folk of Enfield. As the crowd entered the meetinghouse to hear Edwards speak, it was with curiosity and nonchalance.

Then Edwards began to speak. He did not sound like the evangelists of today. He wrote out his sermons word for word and then usually read them. Listening to Edwards was like listening to a lecturer who made his case in an even-tempered, intellectually demanding style in which he
tried to develop each step of his argument logically.

The title of the sermon? “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” His text was Deuteronomy 32:35: “Their foot shall slide in due time.” “As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning. Which also is expressed in Psalm 73:18, 19. “Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down in destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment . . .” The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being drunk with your blood. Thus all you that have never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new. and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God . . . And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands calling, and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are coming from the east, west, north, and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.”

As Edwards preached, members of the audience cried out, ‘ What shall I do to be saved? O, I am going to hell!’ Some crowded toward the pulpit begging him to stop. At one point during the sermon there was so much noise that Edwards asked everyone to be quiet so that he could be heard. He ended the sermon by saying, ‘Let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and fly from the wrath to come! The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom: Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.”

The little town of Enfield was never the same.

from THE ONE YEAR BOOK OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY by Michael and Sharon Rusten
published by Tyndale House.

What a great message that needs to be proclaimed from the pulpits of America on this July 4, 2005. May God bless America! May God bring revival to America.

This poem was written by my childhood Pastor and friend, Pastor George
Van Sandt. It is a powerful! I trust on this Lord’s day it will
encourage your heart.

AMERICA’S 229TH BIRTHDAY

I try to remember just how long it is.

Israel was 500 years in Egypt held

Then Moses came to them

Just to ring liberty’s bell.

Among the nations of the world

We may be the youngest of all

Yet in the annals of history

No one can recall

A nation that grew so fast

Or that has traveled so far.

Industrialization came first to Europe

Yet they are not where we are.

How long will we be the leader?

Who would dare to guess?

A nation that forgets its God

Cannot by God be blessed.

When all of the nations of the world

Rise up to stamp us out,

Who will come to aid us then?

Do you know what its all about?

Talk about Goliath

And David with his sling,

But it was the God of David

That enables us to sing.

Our weapons may be many

And powerful beyond any known

But without the Lord of Hosts to aid

We will stand-alone.

“If my people…” God said,

Not President, Congress or Court.

If only God’s people will repent and, as

His soldiers, for their duty report.

The God who opened up the Red Sea,

Who made Syrian soldiers run,

Will fight our battles for us

Will stop the enemies gun.

So trust not in diplomacy

Or military might.

Trust in our Lord above

For He will do what’s right.

When they killed the Righteous one

And laid Him in His grave.

They thought they had destroyed all hope,

Killing Him who came to save.

They thought that the war was ended

For His disciples fled and froze.

Yet Easter dawn turned it all around

As from the grave He arose!

gvansandt@yahoo.com

There are times in all of our lives when we need to confront. For some, confrontation is easier than for others. Francis Schaeffer said, Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is
always accommodation regardless of the truth involved, there is something wrong.” Confrontation often has a negative connotation, but biblical confrontation, done in love, can be the greatest platform for change and influence.

Here are eight principles that will help you when you need to confront in love:

1. Anything and everything can be worked out.
2. Deal with the issues at hand, then forgive and forget.
3. Keep a low tone of voice and speak slowly.
4. Depersonalize everything.
5. Remember that there are two sides to every story.
6. Ask for forgiveness. Even if you believe you were right and the other person was wrong in a disagreement, you can certainly say with sincerity, “I’m sorry if I upset you. That was never my intention.”
7. Never discuss issues of intentional conflict on the phone or via email.
8. Never talk about anything important when you are tired.

Good words to consider. These are taken from Am I Making Myself Clear? by Terry Felber — quoted in Leading With Billy Graham by Jay Dennis — Baker Books

“When you take your stand on the finished work of God in Christ, and begin to drink at the River of Life and eat the Bread of Heaven, and KNOW that you have found the end of all your longings, you only get HUNGRIER for God. The more satisfaction you experience from God, while still in this world, the greater your desire for the next. For as C. S. Lewis said, “Our best havings are wantings.”

The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get FOR Christ . . . the more homesick you get for heaven . . . the more you want ‘all the fullness of God’ . . . the more you want to be done with sin . . . the more you want the Bridegroom to come again . . . the more you want the church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus . . . the more you want a great awakening to God’s reality in the cities . . . the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ to penetrate the darkness of all the unreached peoples of the world . . . the more you want to see false worldviews yield to the force of Truth . . . the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed . . . the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the just and the grace of God to fill the earth like waters cover the sea.

If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this There IS an appetite for God. And it can be awakened!”

from the pen of Dr. John Piper in his powerful book, A HUNGER FOR GOD, published by Crossway Books.

“As a disciple I must be rightly connected at all times with my headquarters. Paul gives the location: ‘Seek those things which are above . . . Set your affections on tings above’ (Colossians 3:1-2). Heaven is the nerve center of everything that controls my life, or the life of the church, or even the life of the world. Just as a soldier ‘lives’ in the mind of his commanding officer, so I must live in the mind of Jesus Christ. Phrases like ‘independent operation,’ ‘unilateral action,’ and ‘self-devised plan,’ never occur in the vocabulary of the military man. He waits for the signal from the proper authority, then he moves.

My failure in many areas of my discipleship stems from misinterpreting the signals from my command post. Sometimes I have read my own desires into the command and acted as if the command were mine. Sometimes I simply could not hear the signal because it was drowned out by the interference of the world! There is only one cure for failure: STAY CLOSELY TUNED TO YOUR COMMAND POST! I must not be distracted by earthly activities, rumors, or fears. I even must not let frontline action dictate my next move.

If I live in my headquarters, that is, keep my mind in heaven and what is going on there, it will make a vast difference in my behavior on earth. I wonder how many ‘important things’ on earth are really important in heaven? How many things that I consider essential are really peripheral? Does heaven worry about the things that vex and worry me? Are they top priority with God? If I could only visit my command post and visibly see what is top drawer to my Commander, I think I would come back with a complete reversal of my priorities. This I must do, for I am a man ‘under authority,’ the authority of my Commander in Chief, Jesus Christ.”

Good words from the pen of Pastor W. Glyn Evans in his daily devotional, DAILY WITH THE KING, published by Moody Press

Your feed back is important. I’d love to hear how Freedom Fighters is encouraging you.

For two days now the following verse has appeared in my daily quiet time readings . . . “Great peace have those who love Your law, and NOTHING causes them to stumble!” (Psalm 119:65)

I thought that it was interesting that these two verses came up after our Supreme Court made the decision to not allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed at various places in our country. Unfortunately this is another step indicating the dangerous path we are walking as a nation. God help us!

David gives us to precious promises to anchor our lives on in relationship to God’s Word. He promises GREAT PEACE and the ability to live VICTORIOUSLY in this ever-changing, crazy world. The Psalmist doesn’t say we just have PEACE — we have GREAT PEACE. The peace that He gives is not explainable by the world. It is the peace that gets us through the difficult circumstances in our lives. Many of you have experienced it — PERFECT PEACE in the midst of a storm in your life.

Can I remind you this morning that

He is the LORD-Of -PEACE (Judges 6:24)

He is the God of all peace (Romans 1:7; I Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20)
He loves to bless His people with peace (Psalm 29:11)
He gives PERFECT peace (Isaiah 26:3)
He gives peace that TRANSCENDS all human understanding and comprehension (Philippians 4:19)

No wonder David wrote that we those who love His law (Word) has GREAT PEACE. And that WORD will KEEP YOU FROM STUMBLING . . .

Good words to ponder today.

Dr. Nathaniel Branden, a California doctor, suggests that there are seven keys to a happy marriage:

1. Frequently say, “I love you!”
2. Be physically affectionate, holding hands, hugging, cuddling.
3. Express your love sexually.
4. Verbalize your appreciation and admiration.
5. Share your thoughts and feelings, learning to self-disclose what’s on your minds and hearts to each other, confiding in each other.
6. Express your love materially, giving little gifts to each other.
7. Create time alone together.

from Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes by Morgan

So how do you rate your marriage this morning? Purpose in your heart to work on one of the seven keys.

Have a great day!

By Philip Atterbery

1. Listen to what is being said rather than planning the next statements you intend to make.

2. Eliminate distractions such as loud noises, the telephone, the TV, or computer.

3. Repeat what has been said. This helps your wife know you have truly understood what she said and meant.

4. Ask questions if you need something clarified.

5. Stay on the issue being discussed rather than making it personal. I Corinthians 13:5 declares that love keeps no record of wrongs. That means a loving spouse does not bring up old arguments or issues to use in an attack. Statements such as, “There you go again!” or “You always . . .” only create hostility and defensiveness.

6. Remember that love always hopes for the best (I Corinthians 13:7). It assumes the best. Assume that your wife is concerned about what is best for you and herself.

7. Use “I” centered messages. Make statements such as “I feel discouraged,” rather than “You make me so mad!” Center upon you own emotions and feelings, but remain on the real issue. The use of “you” during an argument may cause the listener to be defensive and feel
personally attacked.

8. Remember that love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4). Wait for the most appropriate time to bring up an important issue. Introducing a big issue when your spouse first comes in the door from a long day at work or after a hectic day of running errands is simply not a good idea.

Practical Tips on Listening and Speaking

Romancing Your Wife … A Little Effort Can Spice Up Your Marriage by
Debra White Smith and Daniel W. Smith published by Harvest House

Good words for your consideration on this 27th day of June, 2005.