The Valley of Decision# ~ B
The year of living dangerously is upon each disciple. He whose side was pierced, brow was tortured and body broken is 'calling faith in'. Is it there or not?
The Valley of Decision provides an exit route for Christians that leads to death. The path is discovered by casting the eyes rearwards.
I am not one of those saints who will shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. (Hebrews 10:39)
The Valley of Decision is the home of both self-death and eternal life. It commands a moral courage that forges a disciple strong in adversity. There the disciple is blasted by the chilling sleet of rejection and abuse. (But his Master wore this first.) A deceived and misunderstanding world frozen in evil thinking multiplies aggression towards all Christ believers.
For those who stay the course, for the serious minded disciple who plows forward through the Valley of Decision, it can well become the Valley of the Shadow of Death as their life is threatened. But the Lord is there too.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
Today small arrows are fired against the disciple to dismiss the wind of evil now blowing, to weaken its nature and deny its magnitude. Do not be deceived, the storm gathers force and increases in rage.
As British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1937- 40) was blind to Adolf Hitler's rise let us as Christian's not be so fooled today.
On September 30, 1938 Chamberlain returned from meeting Hitler and assured Britain:
My good friends, this is the second time there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Now I recommend you go home, and sleep quietly in your beds. (Neville Chamberlain naively quoting Benjamin Disraeli.)
It remains our Lord's purpose for each disciple to read the times and to seek no treaty with evil.
Is not a Christian a life still crucified with Him?
Today's Soul Snippet:
"I can't be trained out of sin, I must choose to turn from it." ~ Michael Cartwright
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