A pastor was driving on a Texan interstate, when he saw something further up the road.  As he came closer, he saw it was an eagle.  In that split second, he thought to swerve his car, but didn't—he figured the big bird would fly away.  Instead, the eagle rose up, spread its wings in defiance, and let out an ear-shattering screech.  Thump—the majestic bird was dead.  If he had used his wings for the purpose God had intended, he would have been safe in the vast skies, soaring over the countryside.  In his defiance, he became just another road-kill. 

     So much of this past millennium has been spent in rearing up and flapping wings at God in blatant defiance.  Wings!  What is their true purpose?  Recently, I started to read the Book of Proverbs, a book of sayings mostly written by King Solomon, the son of King David.  Asked by God early on what he wanted the most, the new king requested wisdom.  Since he had not asked for riches and fame, as many would have, the Lord challenged his newly endowed wisdom by giving him all three.  Most, I think, are aware that Solomon really blew it by allowing selfish greed to rule and defied God at many of his crossroads.  At the end of his life, he realized his sin and stupidity, and said, "Let us hear the conclusion of the matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Eccl. 12:13) 

     Actually, this is about where he started.  In Proverbs 1:7, he wrote, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."  He would spend most of his life proving that to be true—the hard way!  In that first chapter, he made clear that the world is going to do its best to entice you to sin.  Your "friends" will come to you and promise you, "We shall get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot with us and we will share a common purse." (vss. 13,14 NIV)  How often had the media in the last millennium tried to convince you of the benefits of a materialistic world-view and your need for more and more?  And yet, when it comes to your spiritual life, family, friends, and, yes, even the false churches, try to tell you that you have more than enough of God.  Interesting—never enough of the world, but more than enough of the Lord of All!  There is no doubt that these perversions were in the last millennium, and they will be in this new one.  The real question is—"What will be your response?"

     Now, I would expect to find these things in the world, but in the church?  Many so-called “churches” use some of the right words, but have stooped to entertainment, sensationalism, and marketing to get their own version of the gospel out—and all the while saying, “After all, it's a modern world and we need to use modern methods."  Baloney!  The Bible makes clear that, "Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)  He hasn't changed and neither has his Word or the people He wants to reach with it.  Yet, many churchgoers just sit and yawn over the truths for which their forefathers shed blood.  Vance Havner once said, “The living faith of the dead has become the dead faith of the living.”  After all, Jesus didn't get the kids aside and do a mime act or a skit.  He didn't ask his disciples to dress up like demons and put on a Halloween Hellhouse in order to "reach" the people.  He simply preached the true Word in the power of the Spirit—recognize you are a sinner, confess and repent of it, turn from it, and allow Him to change your heart—not because you will go to Hell if you don't, but because He died to have you with Him forever—it is as simple as that.

     I could go on for pages about the very many ways that Satan, in this past millennium, has lured people to think that compromise is a good thing and is the wave of the future.  Solomon even saw it close to a millennium before Christ was born—in verse 17, he describes it as a net that is set as a snare for the birds.  Satan intends pride, selfishness, greed,  and self-worth to be traps with which to catch his victims.  But look very carefully at that verse.  It reads, "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird."  So what does that mean?  Simply this—if the bird sees, i.e. understands, the trap being set, he will stay out of it, and thereby, not be caught.  Likewise, if you will allow His Holy Spirit to be poured into you, stay in His Word and prayer in this New Year, and heed the myriad of God's warnings against worldly ways and false doctrines, you will see Satan's tactics and not even get close.  We see the Lord’s call in Proverbs 1: "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: … Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.  If you will allow yourself to be filled with Him and His Word, you will see the nets being laid out in this new millennium, and take flight.  You see, in the original Hebrew, the net is laid in vain before the eyes of everything “that has a wing.”  Having wings is symbolic of the presence of the Holy Spirit within you.  Not everyone has this Spirit—only those who have repented of their sin and allowed Jesus to be their Lord and Savior.  For millenniums now, the life-giving Spirit of God has been depicted in Scripture as a bird.  At the end of the Great Flood, it was a dove that returned to Noah with an olive branch, a symbol of life.  When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove as a sign of the Son's approval by the Father.   If you have the Holy Spirit through being born-again, you have wings. 

     But it can’t stop there—John the Baptist also declared, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."  Jesus, in this new millennium, is looking for people who want to be that filled with Him—a people who are not content to just be saved and stay a “baby bird,” just learning to fly—a people who want to flee from Satan, his temptations, and, yes, even the works of their own strength.  Will that be you?  Keep your eyes open and see Satan’s snares—precious time that could be spent in intimacy with the Lord through prayer and the Word, is wasted away mindlessly before the “boob-tube” or flitting around with little or no spiritual discernment, seeking after less than God’s best.  If you have the wings of the Spirit and exercise them, you will fly away from this defiance to be in His presence.  The Prophet Isaiah, referring to eagles who know the true purpose of their wings, unlike the Texan bird, put it this way: "...they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."  In the Hebrew, “renew” means “to slide by, to hasten away, to pass on, spring up, pierce through, and change—that is to cut the past off and go on forward,” so, as A.W. Tozer put it, "What has happened is that the true growing Christian is renewed in that he has switched from his little human battery to the infinite power of God.  He has quite literally exchanged weakness for strength, but the strength is not his—it flows from God as long as he abides in Christ."

     Though the new millennium doesn’t technically begin until the year 2001, it is never too early to consider this—How much do you want to be able to fly from everything contrary to the Lord, and seek after only Him and His Holy Spirit?  Do you really want true wisdom and discernment, which will lead you away from defiance and becoming nothing but road-kill?  King Solomon, by the Spirit, once said, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting, get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7)  King David, his father, said in Psalm 91, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty … Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.”  Remember—in vain are the traps set before those who really, through the power and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, see them, and then use their wings for the very purpose for which God intended them—to soar with Him in the heavenlies, right now!

 

Throughout the year 2000, we will be providing you with Bible readings from Genesis to Revelation to help you grow closer to the Lord and to stay away from Satan’s traps.

January 1        Gen. 1-4                                  16                    Ex. 11-14

2                      Gen. 5-8                                  17                    Ex. 15-18

3                      Gen. 9-12                                18                    Ex. 19-22

4                      Gen. 13-16                              19                    Ex. 23-26

5                      Gen. 17-20                              20                    Ex. 27-30

6                      Gen. 21-24                              21                    Ex. 31-34

7                      Gen. 25-28                              22                    Ex. 35-38

8                      Gen. 29-32                              23                    Ex. 39-Lev. 2

9                      Gen. 33-36                              24                    Lev. 3-6

10                    Gen. 37-40                              25                    Lev. 7-10

11                    Gen. 41-44                              26                    Lev. 11-14

12                    Gen. 45-48                              27                    Lev. 15-18

13                    Gen. 49-Ex. 2                         28                    Lev. 19-22

14                    Ex. 3-6                                    29                    Lev. 23-26

15                    Ex. 7-10                                  30                    Lev. 27-Num. 3

                                                                        31                    Num. 4-7

 

February 1      Num. 8-11                              3                      Num. 16-19

2                      Num. 12-15                            4                      Num. 20-23