Standing Firm

6/4/06

 

 

1 Cor. 16:13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

 

Deut. 31:7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. ⁸The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

 

Deut. 31:23 The LORD gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.”

 

Josh. 1:1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ²“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. ⁵No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

 

⁶“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. ⁷Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

 

 

Heb. 10:32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. ³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

 

³⁵So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. ³⁶You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷For in just a very little while,

 

    “He who is coming will come and will not delay.

³⁸ But my righteous one will live by faith.

And if he shrinks back,

I will not be pleased with him.”

³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

 

Where are the politicians who will stand firm for what is ethically and morally right?

 

Pray for our Chief Justice John Roberts and our newly appointed Justice Samuel Alito and the rest of the Supreme Court Justices for upcoming abortion cases that will come before the high court.

 

How many times have you heard our leaders say “well, personally I don’t believe in abortion, but we cannot take away the right of the mother to end her pregnancy if she so desires.”

 

“Well, personally I don’t believe in homosexuality but we cannot take away the rights of those who prefer that sexual preference.”

 

I continue to thank God for President Bush.  I thank God that he stands on his convictions and doesn’t check the polls each day to see what he needs to say!

 

Ps. 18:31 For who is God besides the LORD?

And who is the Rock except our God?

³² It is God who arms me with strength

and makes my way perfect.

³³ He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

he enables me to stand on the heights.

 

We have TV ministries that want to be politically correct.

 

Hal Lindsey left TCT at Christmas because he was told not to mention anything negative about Islam.

 

Next week Philip DelRe who will be speaking, has a great understanding about Islam and how it should be refuted.

 

 

 

Ps. 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

⁸ They are brought to their knees and fall,

but we rise up and stand firm.

 

We have compromised, compromised, compromised and compromised!

 

Ÿ        We have compromised in our schools.

Ÿ        We have compromised in our government--local, state and federal.

Ÿ        We have compromised in our churches.

 

The church is to blame for abortion being legal in this country!

 

What’s so hard for churches to come together for a prayer march to attack the spiritual strongholds and peacefully protest at the Hope Clinic?

 

But we can have a few thousand come to the TWA dome for a weekend seminar.  What’s wrong with this picture?

 

If we wake up some morning and read the headlines which say “Same Sex Marriage Is Now Legal In Every State”  the church needs to hide in shame!

 

Show the Charisma Magazine.

 

Why did Charisma allow Ford to advertise in their magazine knowing that over 20 other Christian organizations are promoting the Ford boycott?

 

Apparently even here at Community of Faith, same sex marriage is not that big of deal.  Ask Grover how many letters Ford received.

 

Pr. 10:24 What the wicked dreads will overtake him;

what the righteous desire will be granted.

²⁵  When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone,

but the righteous stand firm forever.

 

Christians have such an easy out!  “Well, I’ll pray about it.”

 

Josh. 7:2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

 

³When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.” ⁴So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, ⁵who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

 

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the LORD, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. ⁷And Joshua said, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! ⁸O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? ⁹The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”

 

¹⁰The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? ¹¹Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. ¹²That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

 

In other words, it’s time to take action!

 

Senator Wayne Allard from Colorado did take action!

 

Marriage Protection Amendment

 

“As the core social institution of our society, marriage in the United States should be defined as it has been in every civilization around the world for thousands of years: marriage is the union between a man and a woman. The definition of marriage is far too important to leave open to interpretation by unelected activist courts. In response to recent efforts by activist judges to experiment with this vital social institution I have sponsored an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and leaving all other questions of partnership, civil unions or contractual relationships to state legislatures.”

 

This comes up for vote Tuesday, June 6.

 

Richard Durbin

Washington, DC (202) 224-2152

Chicago (312) 353-4952

Springfield (217 ) 492-4062
Marion (618) 998-8812

Barack Obama

Washington D.C. Office  (202) 224-2854

Chicago Office  (312) 886-3506  Toll free: (866) 445-2520

Springfield Office  (217) 492-5089

Marion Office  (618) 997-2402

Moline Office  (309)736-1217

 

But who am I?  What difference can I make?

 

Rosa Parks

Her simple act of protest galvanized America's civil rights revolution.  We know the story. One December evening, a woman left work and boarded a bus for home. She was tired; her feet ached. But this was Montgomery, Ala., in 1955, and as the bus became crowded, the woman, a black woman, was ordered to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she remained seated, that simple decision eventually led to the collapse of institutionalized segregation in the South, ushering in a new era of the civil rights movement.

 

Ps. 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD;

he turned to me and heard my cry.

² He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand.

³ He put a new song in my mouth,

a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear

and put their trust in the LORD.

 

You don’t have to be polished and perfect to stand firm!

 

2 Cor. 10:7 You are looking only on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as he. ⁸For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it. ⁹I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. ¹⁰For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” ¹¹Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.

 

1 Cor. 15:1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

 

⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

⁵⁸Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.