Such is our goal if we are wise!
Such is our goal if we are wise!
"Defense" and "song" are alternate readings of the text. Both are true. When Christ has become our Life, then we are safe from all the attacks of Satan and his warriors. When they attack us they are attacking God!
I favor "song" as the reading of Verse Two. There is something about it that suggests to me the joy we have as we trust confidently in the Lord Jesus.
We are not panicked when the demons come to terrify us at night. We sing, because we know Jesus Christ is vastly more powerful than any of the dark forces. Christ is not moved by their threats. Christ knows and trusts the power of the Father. So may we, when Christ is our life.
God is our Salvation. God does more than save us in every circumstance. He Himself has chosen to be our Salvation. He Himself is our Salvation. How much more authoritative and powerful is this fact.
For God to save us is understandable. For God Himself to be our Salvation is so marvelous, so extraordinarily wonderful, that one scarce can comprehend the scope of it all!
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Can you picture what it will be like when God leads us to men and women, boys and girls, and charges us to issue eternal life to them? As we draw out from our inmost being that incredible righteousness, love, joy, and peace, and see them begin to radiate the Divine Life of Christ, we will experience a joy that cannot be equaled in any other circumstance.
In that day you will say: "Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.
That day, as I stated previously, occurs when we grow in Christ to the point that we always are exalting the Lord.
It can be a temptation to give praise to a religious organization, or to some system of faith that we have found helpful. We need to listen to our speech and see if we are glorifying something or someone other than the Lord.
God becomes jealous when we become infatuated with something or someone other than himself, and He will take steps to free us from bondage and turn our attention back to Himself.
Today, more than ever, the nations of the earth are oblivious to the greatness of God and His love toward people. Nations compete with one another for money and power. But it all means nothing and less than nothing.
I hope that in our time God will restore the working of miracles in Jesus' name, restoring sight to the blind and raising the dead, and moving mountains, until the nations tremble at the name of Jesus Christ.
I believe such supernatural events are going to take place in our day. The problem will be that people who are seeking glory for themselves will attempt to pervert the work of God for their own benefit. We will have to be careful that we are not involved in any activity, unless we are positive that Christ is directing us.
It is not enough to do a mighty work in the name of Christ. We must be certain that Christ Himself is doing this work.
"Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done by Christ will last."
"On this rock I will build My church." "I will build My church!
Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.
It certainly is true that spiritual darkness is increasing in the world. The temptation will be to spend our time fretting and cursing the darkness.
The Apostle Paul counseled us to keep our mind fixed on that which is lovely. The events of our day are anything but lovely. They are wicked and ugly beyond anything we can imagine. It is the work of demons!
What are we to do? We are to remember that if we truly have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are seated with Him in the heavenlies at the right hand of the Father, having fellowship with the Father and the Son no matter what takes place on the earth.
The Muslim soldiers are cutting the heads off children if the little boys and girls will not renounce Christ. What the soldiers do not know is that the moment they kill the child, the little one is playing with other children in the Presence of Jesus.
When the true Christian dies, he or she goes to a place of peace and joy with our Lord.
When a Muslim or a Christian soldier or anyone else dies, who has cut off the head of an innocent child, he or she is judged as a murderer and is taken to be with other murderers that he may suffer the same sentence of Divine judgment.
"Oh, but he murdered the child in the name of Allah." This makes no difference. He or she is a murderer, and that is that! A crime is a crime no matter whose name it is committed in.
As Jesus said, it would be better for anyone who harms a child that trusts in Him to have a millstone chained to his neck and be thrown into the sea.
If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)
All of us, Muslims and Christians alike, ought to understand this.
But religion has a way of perverting common sense.
So we sing in the midst of the demons because God has become our Salvation. We eat from the table prepared for us in the midst of our enemies. We sing and dance on Mount Zion when the world is in flames, when the people who have rejected Christ are screaming in their fear and agony.