Are Your Walls Fortified?

In ancient times it was customary to build walls around a city to protect it's inhabitants from marauding bands and enemies. The farmers and shepherds knew that they could enter the gates of the city for protection should attacks come.

Proverbs 25:28 says: "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.

Or, in other words: A person who lacks self control is defenseless and opens the door to things that can tear them down.

Where are your walls being torn down? And how can we keep our defenses built up?

Proverbs 30:5 tells us that Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. And;
2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

A recent survey was conducted concerning pastors who had fallen away for one reason or another. The most common cause that was given was that they had become too busy and had let their time reading God's Word lapse.

Daily study and meditation of God's word, along with other ways of "Putting on the Armor" will keep our walls standing strong.

Do You Want To Know A Secret?

We like secrets, especially when we stand to benefit from knowing a certain secret. Secrets are alluring and to possess a secret can make us feel powerful and in control. On most covers of any magazine you will discover that you too can possess the secret to happiness; tight rock-hard abs and buns of steel; how to retire by age 50; becoming a fabulous cook, losing 10 pounds is seven days, and many other secrets that will make us healthy, wealthy and wise.

Then there are those secrets that we carry within us that we never want to reveal. Perhaps the fear of guilt and shame and the risk of being rejected run too deep for many of us. So we hold on to our secrets for the perceived power we feel by maintaining control.


We all have secrets; everyone of us. We don't have to be ashamed of our secrets before God.

This morning I meditated on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18. This is the lesson about charitable deeds where Jesus instructs his hearers not to be concerned about outward appearances and being seen by others but to enter the secret places of our hearts where God sees in secret. Jesus said that God is in the secret place.

We don’t have to hide in secret from God.

All too often, it is much easier for me to focus on my outward appearance and actions than it is to enter my room and reveal to God the hidden and set apart places within. I can get caught-up with “performing” the ritual and never be inwardly transformed in the secret places in my soul. Cistercian monk Michael Casey says, “Outward observance, however holy, cannot take place of the personal encounter with the Living God.”

For Jesus, this personal encounter with the living God often takes place with in the hidden parts of me. Within my soul live my hopes, lust, dreams, guilt, shame, greed, joy, fear, and every other thing I can imagine. And according to Jesus, God is in our secret places. There is safety with God in those inner places where we often feel vulnerable and unsafe.

God doesn’t live outside the context of my secrets. “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" There’s me, my secret, and God. I am not alone with my secret, God is there. “God knows the secrets of the heart.” Psalm 44

God loves us and has not abandoned us to be left alone with our secrets. God is there. God is Love. Love is there in the hidden places that we often feel so unlovable.

So this morning as I prayed and meditated I let God in on the secrets of my heart for there is freedom to acknowledge what God already knows; there is freedom in knowing that God hasn’t rejected, denied or despised me as a result of my secrets. God doesn’t reject me or run away from me because my secrets but begins the inward transformation as I share my secrets; as I reveal who I am. God’s grace abounds in my secret place; God begins to free me to live with authenticity. It seems that my secrets have the ability to keep me locked-up or the ability to set me free, it all depends on what I do with my secrets. There’s the old saying in AA, “We’re only sick as our secrets.” I don’t have to pretend or act righteously in the eyes of people to be accepted or approved while harboring secrets in my soul.

Instead I go to my room and open the door of my heart and share my secrets with the God. I find comfort that God is there.

The Life We Live

Chaim Potok, author of The Chosen, captures what it means to live well: “Human beings do not live forever. . . . We live less than the time that it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. . . . A blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something.”

Second Timothy paints an incredible picture of the confidence we can have on the eve of our death when we have lived well. Paul had that kind of confidence. At the time that 2 Timothy was written, Paul was imprisoned for a second time in Rome (1:8) and was awaiting execution (4:6). Many of his closest friends and ministry partners had deserted him. His prison chamber was cold and dismal (4:13). Despite his bleak circumstances, Paul’s joy and hope in Christ were not dimmed as he considered the “promise of life that is in Christ Jesus” (v. 1). Death awaited him, but it was not the end. Life in Christ is a promise for eternity.

So with this joy for the future, Paul began his letter with expressions of thanks, specifically thanking God for Timothy. Paul was obviously comforted by the friendship that he enjoyed with Timothy. He was thankful to know that while others had deserted him, Timothy remained faithful both to Paul and to the ministry. The tears Timothy had shed at their last parting assured Paul of the warmth and loyalty he felt for the apostle.

Yet Paul was not only comforted by Timothy’s loyalty but also by his sincere faith (v. 5). When so many around him had shipwrecked their faith, Paul might easily have begun questioning his efforts as an apostle. But Timothy was a “success story,” a reminder that sincere faith could indeed survive, and that Paul’s ministry efforts had taken root, been blessed by God, and had in fact borne fruit.

God's Unconditional Love

New believers may find it difficult to accept the fact that God loves us just as we are. Much of the world operates by conditional love, which offers approval and acceptance on the basis of performance. So when we first come to Christ, there is often a natural tendency to assume we must strive to "deserve" our blessings, such as wealth, happy families, or good careers.

Divine love, however, can never be earned by human effort. There is absolutely nothing we can do to make God love us more or to influence Him to stop loving us. (Romans 5:8; 1John 4:8) Many believers understand this intellectually but have trouble believing it deep down in their hearts.

No matter what has occurred in your past or what you feel right now, the Father's love has always been freely given to you.

God pours His love upon us without exception- no ifs, ands, or buts.

He did'nt begin to love you the moment you asked Him into your life. Nor did He begin loving you because you went to church or rose out of the baptismal waters.

In truth, God never "began" to love you at all; He simply always has. From the creation of the world, God knew you and loved you. (1John 4:19, Psalm 139:13)

Are you rejoicing in the Father's love, or are you withdrawn and depressed? Do you exude peace, or do you always seem anxious? Is your life characterized by power and purpose or by fear? Recognizing the amazing truth of God's unconditional love is life changing. Prayerfully open your arms to His love today!

Broken Windows

When Rudy Giuliani was Mayor of NYC he requested that when a building was discovered to have a broken window that the broken window be replaced immediately because if it wasn’t, within a couple of months most of the other windows in the building would be busted-out as well, leaving the building looking abandoned.

Apparently folks are more apt to destroy what appears to be already on a path of being uncared for and valueless.

People are a lot like buildings.

It seems that many people who have had a window or two broken out of their lives are often the ones who are pelted with stones leaving the remainder of their windows to be shattered. I guess in ways all of us have a cracked window or two.

Think of the people you know with shattered windows. I am reminded of a boy in my elementary who was picked-on by another kid. For whatever reason he hated this boy and everyone knew it. He demonized him and publicly shattered a window in his life. It wasn’t long afterwards that other students began to throw stones at his windows. Throughout our elementary years this particular boy, for no reason other than having a window cracked through the senseless and unkind words and actions of another person, was pelted with stones on a daily basis. If the eyes are truly the window of the soul, it was easy to look in his eyes and see the brokenness.

It only takes one person to start the cycle of destruction, and before long the entire building is in shambles. We take something beautiful and in our inner-ugliness attempt to break it so that it will also be ugly, just like we feel. And once we perceive it to be ugly we justify destroying it. Some feel justified throwing rocks at whatever they find valueless and ugly.

God doesn’t throw rocks.

Jesus knew what the damage of one stone could do to a person. Before long the entire crowd joins in. There’s the old saying, “Hurt people, hurt people.” Perhaps you could say, “Broken people break people.”

Adults are equally as guilty of breaking windows in the lives of others—especially those who already have a window or two busted-out. We don’t like ugly, dilapidated-looking “buildings” so we avoid those with broken windows like we do the run-down parts of town or we help break-out the remaining windows.

Jesus asks us to follow him to the discarded, forgotten, neglected and forsaken parts of town where the "buildings’" windows are broken; the "buildings" are abandoned and left to rot by society. When we dare to look into the windows of another’s soul-- we’ll find God waiting for us to bring about restoration and renewal.