Stand

By Kim Beach

  “Stand on your feet.”  

                                                             Daniel 10:10

I am a soldier. I am part of an eternal army. The Commander says, "Go!" I go.  And when He says,"Stand," I also obey. 

Standing gets wearisome. My muscles ache for action. The sword gets heavy. My biceps long to stretch out and lash the air. My thighs struggle against the weight of my body, longing to spring into action and sprint into battle.   

The small of my back seeks to stretch, bend, push against the weight of the world. My arms quiver under the weight of the shield. The helmet of truth is hot and heavy and my tongue pushes against my teeth, longing to shout out in a righteous war cry. My feet are wrapped in readiness to run into battle.

But I stand. Fully dressed. As the Commander as decreed in the Battle Plan of Ephesians 6:13, I take my stand.  

Silent. Fighting against my will. My flesh. Battling the very nature that the Commander has placed in me; He requires self control.  

The enemy roars.

From his battle line he paces, spewing vile defamation. Accusations. Curses against my leader. Baiting me to battle.

I stand.

The enemy draws closer. I can feel his spit on my brow as in desperation he curses me.

I do not move.

The enemy begins to tremble. The tried-and-tested tactics of the Bully do not work. I am not baited.

I wait for the Battle Commander to blow his trumpet! With sweat in my eyes, the iron taste of blood on my tongue, muscles primed to strike, I wait for the enemy to draw near.

For the Commander is nearer still. And His whisper is greater than the shouts of the accuser.  

Nothing frightens the enemy more than an army he cannot predict, manipulate or conjole.

I stand. Ready. The enemy will be defeated in the timing, on the day the Commander decrees if I obey His battle plan.

The enemy I fight most resides in my helmet - my mind. That tells me I am alone. Everyone else has fled. No one stands with me. My vision is obscured from my helmet but I dare not look left or right. I steady my mind with this firm resolve - I will not run from battle nor will I run before I am called.

I am a soldier in the army of the my Lord. I do not stand alone.  

He stands with me.

Talents, Time & Treasure

By Esther Belin

Dear Readers,
I am honored to be a guest blogger.  I have been praying that God would direct me because I tend to complicate simple tasks.  I retreat.  I ponder.  I meditate.  All these things are wonderful to produce great writing, but my problem was that I never got around to the actual writing.  I often say that I am writing in my head – which is true – however the problem with that type of writing is it is only for me (and I rarely remember the masterpieces composed in my head).  I never used to think there was anything wrong with that until I realized God gave me the love and gift of writing to fulfill part of His will.  So here I am, a guest blogger – writing with the sole purpose of giving God the glory.  This commitment was renewed during a study on the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30 NLT).

This parable is amazingly simple yet mysteriously complex which is probably the reason Jesus taught using parables.  Out of his compassion, he used examples humanity could grasp.  I laugh as I write that last sentence because I feel like I have only recently grasped the meaning!  I was familiar with the lessons of being a good steward of God’s money and possessions, but I never really thought about being a good steward of my spiritual gifts and time.  If I believe God created each person with their own unique giftings and He created time, then of course both gifts and time should be used to bring Him glory.  We limit ourselves when we hide our talents (pun intended).  But more importantly, we limit the building of God’s kingdom.

Understanding the context to stories, parables or people has deepened my Bible studies.  Because the Bible provides only minimal information about the servants and the Master, it can be easy to disassociate from the parable.  Yet because the Bible is truth, we can assume that the servants would have similar emotions/motives/responses we would.  Because the Master entrusted select servants (rather than business partners, family members or friends) with his money reveals fascinating qualities.  Did the Master not have any trustworthy business partners, family members or friends?  Or was the Master just a cool boss who was giving his employees a career opportunity?  If your boss handed over part of her/his personal fortune (a talent is like a million dollars) while s/he went on a long vacation, what would you do? 

Ultimately, what you do with the money depends on how well you know the Master.  I believe that the Master wanted to bless her/his employees and that is the reason why s/he entrusted the money accordingly – and in that sense, it was a test.  I also believe that each employee knew the Master to be kind and generous.  Two of them were challenged by this opportunity, and they accepted it because they knew their Master was kind and generous.  Did they know how to make more money?  Did they know anything about investment? Perhaps, but maybe not.  It seems the first servant had some knowledge about investment, but the second servant “went to work.”  

Our culture in the U.S. is all about the opposite of work.  As a culture, we are aware of the work ethic that founded this country, yet that ethic is very much buried by an entitlement ethic – that we deserve to be happy and wealthy with the freedom to do what we want.  In short, I had to finally position myself to go to work for God.  In order to get to that place I grieved over my past choices to work for my own ideas of happiness, wealth and freedom.  Then, I spent some time in His word trying to figure out what the will of God is for my life.  After much retreating, pondering and meditating, God whispered that I am in His will. Now I am just eager to go to work. 

The process was not easy because I had been so worried (which was a diversion from the enemy) that I was missing out; I almost lost hope until I realized the enemy was creating chatter in my head.   The chatter created confusion, doubt and fear, and would have destroyed my desire to write because I couldn’t hear God’s voice.

Psalm 25:14 states: “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant” (ESV).  

The KJV replaces “friendship” with “secret.” Of course God whispers when he is telling secrets! What he was telling me was only for me to know.  He was whispering my part in fulfilling his will – based on my abilities! 

I have asked God many times to reveal to me things in my life – and He has, however I haven’t always been ready to hear it.  Maybe he revealed this same information to me years ago and my heart simply was not positioned to receive it.  I am thankful He is a faithful and consistent God who patiently waited for me.  My prayer is for each of you to reaffirm your belief in a Master who wants to bless you – to create opportunities to hear His whispers.