Vigilance was the price of life.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Rider of Lost Creek)

    “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
              –Luke 21:28 (NASB)
——————————
We have lost our vigilance!  We are in the process of being duped!  Lies, lies, lies, who can be trusted?  Friend, you better know and continue steadfastly in the Word of God for the days are coming where you are going to be forced to make a choice.  Choices are made every day, but we are not often vigilant in our choices; we go traipsing off singing some kind of song and what may be will be.  
    Look around you!  You are in a wilderness, or will be.  The wilderness will force you to make choices.  The choices you make could mean life or death:  physical or spiritual.  The choices will determine whether you live or die, surrender or survive.  It may be of a physical nature if you are truly in the wilderness environment, or it may be of a spiritual nature in which case your eternal soul is at stake.  Seek, search, be vigilant, find solitude, stay alert and if the midst of the wilderness, you will find God–if you make the right choice.

         “So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.  And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.”
                   –Exodus 13:18 (NKJV)

    Notice that they went “by way of the wilderness”!  This is not some aimless wandering.  Oh, some of the people might have thought so, especially with all of the murmuring and complaining we see, but when God leads, it is never aimless.  He has a particular purpose in mind.  Also notice, not only are they in the wilderness, but they are now stopped by a great obstacle in their path.  In your wanderings you may think, “What in the world is going on?” and if anything could get worse–it does.  You are trying to find yourself; trying to find God.  Then smack dab in the face of your travels and searching there is an overwhelming barrier to cross.
    Often we wander in the wilderness, not realizing that it is God who is doing the guiding.  This presents a couple of the greatest dangers of the wilderness–making our choices and not listening to Him, and not recognizing His guidance.  The obstacle looms–make a choice–go back, quit, swim, fight, surrender, turn to the left or the right, or listen to God.  We want to strike out on our own, do something on our own, or murmur that it was better back from whence we came.

         “Then they said to Moses, ‘Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?  Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?'”
                   –Exodus 14:11 (NKJV)

    This is a great danger–forgetting the guiding hand of the Lord, and being deceived by falsehoods.  First, the people bought into a lie.  No graves in Egypt?  The bones were drying up in the sand of Gaza.  This was a direct slap in the face of Moses, God’s chosen leader, and therefore, a slap in the very face of God.  Oh, how many times have people rebelled against their guide after they are in the wilderness and then who will they turn to?  False, pseudo-leaders, who say they know the way, but would actually guide them out into the wasteland to their death.
    There are two interesting facts that are brought to light and are very true of people who are wandering through a spiritual wasteland.  Where they find themselves after making the choice in these two facts will determine their destiny.
         1)  People often turn against the leadership when they find themselves in the wilderness.
         2)  People often prefer slavery to the world rather than the struggle they will find in the wilderness with God.
How will you choose?

Why was it, he wondered ruefully, that when a man got of an age where he ought to be able to stand back and breathe good, enjoy what he had built for himself and take the pleasure of turning responsibilities over to his sons, he had to start putting up with things like rheumatism?  If it wasn’t in his hands, it was in his hips.  If it wasn’t in his hips, it was in his legs.”
              –Elmer Kelton  (Shotgun)

    “I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and save you.”     
              –Isaiah 46:4 (HCSB)
————————
I have the little stove on, just to cut the chill of the morning and am looking outside the window by the rocking chair where I often sit and read.  We have definitely entered the season of spring.  The trees are green, the grass is growing; there are new signs of life everywhere.  There have been poems and songs written about the coming of spring and the other seasons.
    There are so many analogies regarding life and the seasons.  Springtime–new life.  Life begins in the spring; there is hope, there are dreams, there is activity.  Then comes summer–the time to work, to put realization into the dreams of the spring.  Summer can bring heat and often cause things to wither if there is not enough rain to go with the sunshine.  Then we move into autumn, fall–the time of fulfillment.  The leaves begin to drop knowing that winter is approaching.  Winter–the time of death.  Winter can bring with it frost, freezing temperatures, and snow.
    Where are you in the analogy?  I read just last week the following:  “They bear no fruit until they have stood the storms of winter.” (Theodora – an early church sage).  That is true in nature.  Winter must come and there must be a dying before the trees can again bud in the springtime.  However, this does not relate of the life of man.  Man only has this “one year”–spring, summer, fall, then winter.  He is not regenerated along with the calendar.  What he does, must be in this one lifetime.  A tree may not produce well one year, then the next year there might be a bumper crop.  Man does not have this opportunity.
    However, no matter what season you are in, the Lord is there with you.  He is guiding, teaching, and giving you wisdom and strength to make it through the day and the season.  In the springtime you may not have the experience to make wise decisions and are too zealous and always in a hurry to reach the next stage of life.  When autumn shows up you wonder and say, I didn’t think 50 (or 60) would come quite so soon, but in this season of life there are things to be done for the Lord.  In my youth I used to run around the basepaths; I would play with reckless abandon.  Now, as I move from autumn into winter I find myself contemplating much more the things of the Lord.  I see Him in the seasons, and look back and can find Him in each season of my life–His grace is evident.

It would not do to dream—at least not until he had settled things with himself.  Rock always went to the loneliness and silence of desert or forest when in any kind of trouble.”
              –Zane Grey  (Sunset Pass)

    “Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks:  ‘Behold, it is I.'”
              –Isaiah 52:6 (NKJV)
———————
Today we will finish looking at Psalm 18 (HCSB).  I would suggest after you meditate on today’s portion of Psalm 18 that you go back and look at the Psalm in one large picture.  Give careful consideration to the thoughts and situation of David.  We do not have to worry–God is in control!  Though the world rages against you, and more and more this is becoming evident, we can go to the Rock of our salvation!  Don’t hurry, linger and listen to the Holy Spirit.

    37 – I pursue my enemies and overtake them; I do not turn back until they are wiped out.
    38 – I crush them, and they cannot get up; they fall beneath my feet.
    39 – You have clothed me with strength for battle; You subdue my adversaries beneath me.
    40 – You have made my enemies retreat before me; I annihilate those who hate me.
    41 – They cry for help, but there is no one to save them—they cry to the Lord, but He does not answer them.
    42 – I pulverize them like dust before the wind; I trample them like mud in the streets.
    43 – You have freed me from the feuds among the people; You have appointed me the head of nations; a people I had not known serve me.
    44 – Foreigners submit to me grudgingly; as soon as they hear, they obey me.
    45 – Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their fortifications.
    46 – The Lord lives—may my rock be praised! The God of my salvation is exalted.
    47 – God—He gives me vengeance and subdues peoples under me.
    48 – He frees me from my enemies.  You exalt me above my adversaries; You rescue me from violent men.
    49 – Therefore I will praise You, Yahweh, among the nations; I will sing about Your name.
    50 – He gives great victories to His king; He shows loyalty to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever.

I see three things in these verses.  I see the warrior-king David, fighting as he had never fought before.  Then I see what we are to do in our spiritual battles.  Look carefully.  We are to chase our “spiritual enemies” until they are conquered.  Usually we think that they try to conquer us and are chasing us.  We need to be on the offensive against spiritual foes.  Third, I see it as a prophecy when Jesus returns to rule as King during the Millennium.
    How does your uniform fit?  I don’t care how many churches and people preach about peace and harmony; it’s not going to happen.  The world system is against you!  Read and study 1 John.  This world wants to destroy you for you are part of the kingdom of God.  That’s why the Lord gave us a uniform to wear.  He also gave us weapons to use.  A person doesn’t need weapons nor to be trained in their use, if it is all about peace and harmony.  We are to be trained and equipped to fight the foe (cf, Ephesians 6).
    One thing a soldier learns is persistence.  Drill, drill, drill–train, more training, then more training…  Why?  Because you never know when the attack will come.  Do not fear the battle though it may rage.  The Lord is a living Rock that will withstand any attack the enemy may throw you way.  Remember, the Holy Spirit lives within you.

              “O safe to the Rock that is higher than I,
               My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly;
               So sinful, so weary, thine, thine would I be;
               Thou blest ‘Rock of Ages,’ I’m hiding in thee.”
                        –William O. Cushing

    I came across a wonderful prayer by George O. Wood.  Read this portion of Psalm 18 again, then add these words to your prayer.  “Lord, with David I realize the outcome is in Your hands.  Teach me when, where, and how to hide; but, also when to emerge from refuge to engage the enemies whose strength is greater than my own.  In You, I am more than a conqueror.”
—————————-
Today in the Texas Revolution:  Santa Anna joins the forces of Ramirez y Sesma at Beason’s Crossing.