Echoes From the Campfire

All his life there had been a battle, and all his life he had worked.  He would go down working, go down fighting, go out trying as he had always done.  Had he known how, he would have quit, but life had taught him everything but that.”
              –Louis L”Amour  (Comstock Lode)

    “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
              –Romans 12:21 (NASB)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”   –1 John 5:19 (NASB)


To make it through this crazy, mixed-up world, we must walk with God.  Our every footstep must be guided by Him.  Too many people think that these few short years are for their pleasure and entertainment, and while we can have these things to an extent we must realize that life is a serious journey for it is what takes us on into eternity.  Choose heaven or hell, and that is done in this life.
    We must therefore, be certain about life, its meaning and purpose.  We cannot be superficial about the values and principles of life.  Our foundation is to be on Jesus Christ.  Far too many people, Christians included, tend to become victims of circumstances.  Worries about today, frets about tomorrow, anxieties and the wringing of hands depict most of those who walk this earth, and too often man seeks to escape through a myriad of means.
    “Oh no, another day is before me,” is the cry.  Then they go on their way, day by day, feeling uneasy or feeling concerned about what might happen.  Oh, just get me through this day, but at the end of the day, things have not changed and people find themselves living the same life, nothing really vital has changed.  We let life and/or the things of life control us.  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones stated, “One of the real difficulties in life is not to be mastered by it.”  Focus for a minute on the following verses:

         “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
                   –1 John n2:1-2 (NASB)

    The Bible is a book of great principles and the foremost of these is our relationship to God.  Our troubles are due to a wrong relationship with God.  “If we are centrally wrong, finally we shall be altogether wrong.” (Lloyd-Jones)  We cannot solve problems without a right relationship with God.  To have a right relationship with the Father we must be people of the Word.  Our problems become secondary and our relationship with God primary.  That is real faith–being in the right relationship with God, really knowing Him.  
    Here is a fundamental question:  Come what may will all be well with your soul?  Relationship with God does not try to improve particular problems.  However, it puts us as masters of our circumstances; our circumstances are not masters of us.  Think of Paul and Silas singing in prison, of Daniel in the lions’ den, of the three Hebrews walking in the fiery furnace, and so many others.

         My heart can sing when I pause to remember
         A heartache here is but a stepping stone
         Along a path that’s winding always upward
         This troubled world is not my final home.

              But until then my heart will go on singing
              Until then with joy I’ll carry on
              Until the day my eyes behold my Savior
              Until the day God calls me home.
                       –Stuart Hamblen

When we are right with God; when we are walking by His side we do not have to be anxious about life.  There should be no fear of tomorrow and there is the recognition that the Lord is in control of my life.  “We may be called to do things which come to the natural man in an utterly devastating manner, and yet to us, because we are right with God, we will have an understanding and we will not be afraid.” (Lloyd-Jones)