He had lived too long in the wilderness not to know that the human body can survive all manner of hardship and torture.”
                         –Louis L’Amour  (How the West Was Won)

       “You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you.” 
                         –Deuteronomy 7:21(NKJV)
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Psalm 97 is such a spectacular, victorious Psalm.  In finishing this Psalm I want to relay a story I read.  In the third century the bishop of Antioch was martyred and buried on the site of a shrine formerly dedicated to Apollo. For nearly a century persecution had died away, but then Julian became emperor and was determined to restore the old gods. (This is humorous, why couldn’t the “gods” restore themselves?)  He ordered the shrine to Apollo to be restored and the body of the bishop moved.  The Christians instead of moaning and groaning, griping or complaining, made a celebration of worship out of it.  They carried the bishop’s body in a sacred procession to another burial site.  As they proceeded, they sang Psalm 97.  “You can have your Apollo,” they seemed to be saying.  “We have a God who rules over all the earth.  You can make us move our bishop’s body, but we know where his soul is.  You can make life difficult for us, but we have a source of light and joy you know nothing about.  The Lord protects us, and so we are happy in him.”  (William J. Petersen)

          7 — Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of idols.
          8 — Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of Your judgments, O LORD.
          9 — For You, LORD, are most high above all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.
        10 — You who love the LORD, hate evil!  He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
        11 — Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
        12 — Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.  (NKJV)

       I saw where the Air Force had a special “gay pride” day, and so did Cracker Barrel.  One day, all shameful deeds will indeed be put to shame.  “Gay” an idol?  Yes, and every other thing that lifts itself in the guise of worship, or worldview if you prefer.  The NLT is verse 7, says “all who brag about their worthless gods” will be disgraced.  We should have righteous anger, yes, but we should also “rejoice because of the Lord’s judgments.  God’s judgments in the last days will reveal that He alone is the solitary God.”  (Steven Lawson)
       Verses 10 and 11, are important for us to consider and contemplate.  We are often told that we are not to hate, but here we are emphatically told to “hate evil!”  No matter what, we must understand that we are citizens of heaven.  Far too many compromise with evil, the idea is to be tolerant.  No!  “Whenever a person compromises with evil, it is only because he or she has become lukewarm toward God.” (Lawson)  Realize that as we grow in Christ, our views of evil might change.  Evil that we once thought was alright has had the “Light” shone upon it and we now see it as it is.  Light means that we have grown in our understanding of the truth in God’s Word.  Lawson writes, “The knowledge of God and the pursuit of holiness produce joy.”
       When pain and suffering come your way–rejoice in recognizing who God is.  When sorrow comes–rejoice in the knowledge of God, that He is sovereign.  When evil abounds, when there seems to be no way to escape it, when its long tendrils reach out to touch all that is around you–rejoice knowing that God is the supreme Judge and will bring justice.  In all of this–rejoice knowing that God is causing all things to work together for our good and for his glory (Romans 8:28).

               “My God, how wonderful that art,
               Thy majesty how bright,
               How beautiful thy mercy seat
               In depths of burning light!”
                       –Frederick W. Faber

You shape up to a man’s size or I’ll hunt you up an’ tear the gizzard out of you!”
                    –Charles A. Seltzer  (The Range Boss)

       “And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, because of the great confidence which we have in you.”
                   –2 Corinthians 8:22 (NKJV)
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Passion:  1) A powerful emotion.
                2) Strong, sexual desire.
                3) Boundless enthusiasm
                4) An abandoned display of emotion.

So is the definition for passion from the American Heritage College dictionary.  With that, let me ask, are you a person of passion?  Most of the time, we think of passion in regard to the second definition.  But that type of passion is only one part.  Passion, in itself, is a powerful emotion, so powerful that it affects our will, and can affect our physical bodies as well.  In the Bible, this is the type of passion that is most commonly mentioned; one that we are to guard against.
       Passion is also used of Christ, His sufferings and agony, and death upon the cross.  Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion, details this very well.  But think of the reason.  How could Christ endure the cross?  The writer of Hebrews states, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” (12:2, NKJV)  The mission, the duty, and the fulfilling joy was also the passion of Christ as He went through the crucifixion.
       Fervor is a common synonym and can mean “to boil” used in spirit.  We read Acts 18:25, “This man [Apollos] has been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord…”.  Paul also uses it this way in Romans 12:11 in dealing with how we are to live this life, “not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”  When studying this it caused me to stop and ponder.  Is my spirit boiling within me to serve the Lord?  Am I fervent?  I know as a teacher, I worked, studied, prepared, studied some more then presented the lessons to the class.  You could say that the lesson was boiling over within me.
       We are to labor fervently or to strive.  1 Corinthians 4:12 tells us that Paul labored, he strove fervently…he endured.  When I was a youth one thing I was passionate for was baseball.  I lived for baseball.  I watched it on television, I made up my own game, both on a board, and when I threw the ball against the stone foundation of our house.  I collected baseball cards.  In other words, I lived and breathed baseball.  After practice was over at school, I would go home or to the sandlot and practice some more.  Practice–striving fervently, for perfection.  The passion for baseball flooded from me.
       Perhaps a word closely related is “intensity.”  I loved the intensity of the game, the intensity of practice.  It followed into my life as a coach, teacher, and Royal Ranger commander.   I learned the lesson of passion–I was to do everything as unto the Lord.   “Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily (from the soul), as [something done] for the Lord and not for men,” (Colossians 3:23, Amplified) became the slogan of my life.  If you do something, do it right–do it to the best of your ability–and then get it done.  It would “drive me crazy” to see lackadaisical attitudes, lazy performance, and those who would just get by.  Mediocrity is a word I hate; it shows no passion.  The mediocre person is a sluggard, a sloth, one who is a dreg on society, and truthfully on themselves.  Work, labor–for the Master is waiting.  Be diligent in your labor for Him.      
      This is one reason we are not to be complacent in our walk with the Lord.  We cannot do our duty, live righteously before Him without passion.  We must be fervent in our walk, guarding the truth, staying alert.  Complacency is the way to perdition.  Neither are we to compromise.  How can we compromise something that we passionately believe and practice?  So I encourage you to check where your passions lie.  Take inventory, and if you are not passionate in your walk in the Lord–do so!  “I don’t have another level. I give it all I have every time I’m out there. That’s all I know. If I had to take it to another level to win, I’d be out of luck, because this is the only level I’ve got.” (Ty Murray)  This exemplifies the type of passion, fervency that we are to have in our life with the Lord.