Protected by the Lord

Table of Contents 2004

We know that dangerous times are upon us. If we will keep praising the Lord and calling on Him, we will be kept safe.

About once a year I preach from the thirty-fourth Psalm. If you do not know this Psalm, please meditate on it. It is a comfort when we are in trouble.

Our task is to keep lifting up the name of the Lord, even when we feel depressed and are afraid. We call upon Him continually. The Lord Jesus sends His angel to guard us. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them. When we fear the Lord, He delivers us from all of our other fears and troubles. What a promise this is!

No evil force can get past the angel of the Lord and harm us. In order to attack us, Satan has to lure us out from our protection, just as the Moabite dancing girls lured the Israelite warriors out from under the Lord’s blessing.

Satan deceives us. Any Christian, no matter how consecrated, can be deceived. We always are to pray, "lead us not into temptation." When we begin to question one of our thoughts, words, or deeds, no matter how familiar, we are to go to the Lord immediately and ask Him to put His fire on it. When it finally becomes clear to us that we have been deceived, we are to confess our sin and turn away from it with all determination possible, meanwhile asking God to help us.

Sometimes it is helpful to confess the questionable area to your husband or wife, or to another mature believer of the same gender as yourself.

I branched off to a burden of mine, which is that families be drawn closer together. Sometimes we pastors offend in this area by assigning youth activities to a department of the church, not realizing we are contributing to a generation gap.

The Lord has spoken to me to acquaint the young people with the seriousness of our times, and while we include games and good times, we must not overdo these. We Americans are apt to baby our young people, thus leaving them unprepared for the age of moral and physical horrors that are upon us in America.

"Turn the hearts of the parents to the young people, and the young people to the parents," the Lord is commanding.

Powerful forces are operating in our country that seek to divide the members of the family. "Fun" activities should be family times, as much as possible; not confined to groups of young people apart from their parents. This especially is true of minor children.