Woe is me”, is not the talk of the believer in Jesus Christ.  Part of our problem is the fight against self.  Even after we are redeemed there is still the selfish attitudes that continue to come our way.  We need the fire of the Holy Spirit to get rid of all the sin and selfishness, and then turn around and burn brightly inside so that we shine for Christ.

          “O fire of God begin in me,
           Burn out the dross of self and sin,
           Burn off my fetters, set me free,
           And make my heart a heav’n within.”
                 –A.B. Simpson

Preachers use to preach hellfire and brimstone messages, but they also preached about a baptism of fire from above.  The Holy Spirit came upon believers and they were changed completely.  Old things passed away.  Is there then something wrong with the church today?  Hmmm, not many changes from the old life are seen.

          “Baptize with fire this soul of mine,
           Endue me with Thy Spirit’s might,
           And make me by Thy pow’r divine
           A burning and a shining light.”

We must seek to be rid of the old self, and have the image of Christ burned deep within.  I read an article the other day about 10 things that should be gotten rid of in the church.  I could only partly agree with one.  Almost everything they called for had to do with community, fellowship, harmony, and feeling good.  Number ten was to get rid of the sermon; sit around tables and talk out your problems and the pastor would be a monitor.  What ever happened to letting the Holy Spirit set His flame working in our souls?

          “Burn in, O fire of God, burn in,
           Till all my soul Christ’s image bears,
           And ev’ry pow’r and pulse within
           His holy, heav’nly nature wears.”

There is coming a day when the judgment of God will burn away all those things we did for self.  They will be but ashes.  However, today is the day of salvation and the believer should begin to allow the fire of God to burn away the things now.  Where is the cry in the church of “burn on, burn on!”?

          “Burn on, O fire of God, burn on,
           Till all my dross is burn’d away,
           Till earth and sin and self are gone,
           And I can stand the testing day.

                    Burn on! O fire of God, burn on,
                    Till all my dross is burned away,
                    Burn on!  burn on!
                    Prepare me for the testing day.”

For he was a Western man, and only a Western man…nor did he wish to be anything else.”
–Louis L’Amour (Shalako)

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
–Matthew 6:24 (NKJV)
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I heard a sermon on Sunday in which the question was asked, “What is the soundtrack of your life?”  Perhaps yours is the “Sound of Music,” and someone else’s is “Thunder Road.”  My wife poked me and said mine was the “Theme of the Magnificent Seven.”  Now I think there is some truth in what was being said.  The music you listen to definitely tells much about who you are as a person, what you like to do, where your thoughts are.  The same is true of the books you have in your library and what you read (if you read at all).
I came across this little writing and I want to share it.  I used it once before last spring.  It was written by Clarence W. Cranford.

“If your mind was an art gallery in which your thoughts would become visible like pictures hanging on a wall, would you be willing for your mother to see the exhibit?
This question was asked in a college chapel service.  Some of the students treated it lightly.  They joked about it afterward.  But some of the students knew it was no laughing matter.  The pictures we carry in the mind color the rest of our lives and affect our relationships to God, the greatest art critic of all.
During the exile some of the Jewish people fell into bad habits.  They adorned the walls of a room in their houses with ugly idols.  This they did in the dark, not permitting their friends to enter and see what they had in that room.  That room became a wall between themselves and God.
The mind is our art gallery.  We adorn it with many pictures, some good and some bad.  Let us pray for God’s help in the selection of the pictures we imagine.”

“Have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his room of pictures?”
–Ezekiel 8:12
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Praise the Lord!  The book is at the publishers.  Hopefully, it will be ready soon so keep a lookout for, “Mal de Ojo.”

He realized the chances; he knew the cost of success on that frontier.  All could be met and vanquished, but only through an eternal vigilance, a lion heart and iron hand.”
–Zane Grey (West of the Pecos)

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
–Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)
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“I hear the voice of one crying,
Prepare ye, the way of the Lord…”
–Robin Mark

The above words are Scripture, but I heard them on my walk the other morning and began to ponder a bit.  John the Baptist came and proclaimed that the Messiah was coming.  He was that voice in the wilderness crying to prepare the way of the Lord.
Things changed slightly (dramatically) with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  Today, all believers are to be involved in preparing the way.  In fact, we do that by walking in the Way.  There is no other way to heaven, except through Jesus Christ, and believers are expected to proclaim that.
One of the reasons for that is that the next time Jesus comes He will come as a “thief in the night.”  He will steal away His Bride to be with Him forever.  There will be no John the Baptist crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord.  Sure, there will be signs, “as in the day of Noah,” for example, but the characteristic of the Rapture will be one of stealth.
I might add, however, when He comes to reign on the earth, there will be the blast of the trumpet.  There will be the sound of war and the defeat of the Antichrist at Armageddon.  
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“The sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command.”
–1 Chronicles 12:32 (NKJV)

Ponder that verse for a moment, especially the first part.  We live in turbulent times.  Agitation, anger, terror and hatred all seem to mark the way of life today.  What in the world is happening?  
The question is:  Do you have understanding of the times?  Do you know what to do?  It is hard to tell, in this hour, who the Christians really are.  They seem to have blended in with the world.  They look like the world, do the things of the world, talk like the world, act like the world; hmmmm, are they Christians or of the world? David Jeremiah wrote, “We have allowed the world to conform us to its image instead of allowing the Holy Spirit and the Word to transform us to the image of Christ.” 
You’d better understand the Word of God, and it better be applied to all facets of your life.  I have said it many times that life is serious.  This is not the time for gaiety and frivolity.  This is the time to “understand the times.”

No system of philosophy or ethics, no growth of government, no improvement in living came without trial and struggle. Struggle…was the law of growth.”
–Louis L’Amour (Crossfire Trail)

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
–Ephesians 6:12 (NLT)
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“Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.’ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.'”
–John 11:38-44 (NKJV)

How many sermons have you heard concerning Lazarus? Dozens? Hundreds? And they come from many angles, but the reality of the matter was simply that Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, was dead. For the glory of God Jesus called him from the place of the dead, to live again. Lazarus was not the only person that Jesus raised from the dead, but this guy was already beginning to decay–to stink.
Think about Lazarus. When he came forth he bore within him the secrets of the grave. There is no record whether he spoke about them to anyone. One thing to remember, he was not recalled from Heaven. He had not entered those heavenly portals for this was before the resurrection. He simply was in the place of the dead–Sheol. There is an indication in Scripture that there was a portion in Sheol for the righteous who had died and for those who were wicked. (see Abraham and the death of the poor man, also known as Lazarus). This was, sort of a “holding chamber” until the resurrection of Christ.
Lazarus, one of the few to see death twice, would die again. This time, however, there was no physical resurrection. Scripture declares that after death comes the judgment. Now, for sure, this is a mystery. In death, time ceases to be, and that person is immediately thrust into eternity, into the presence of the Lord. The righteous await the glorious reunion of all God’s children in Christ.
When Lazarus died the first time he would not have known of the glories of heaven. He would not have seen all the glories of God and the sights around the throne. He would be in Sheol, and maybe sitting next to Job; Job might say to him, “I know my Redeemer liveth.” Which gives me another thought, if he was sitting next to Job when the Lord called Lazarus back from the dead, what would Job have thought? Poof, Lazarus is gone.
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“I’ll tell you this, Lord. There isn’t a man among us who can look at the two hands You gave him with the two eyes You gave him, and really feel sorry for Singer [a cowboy who had died]. You did a great thing for Singer, just like You’ve done a great thing for all of us. You gave him, and us, life. You gave us hands to work with and eyes to see. And we’re in no position to complain about it if You see fit to take back what You gave us. We have to allow that You know what You’re doing…. He was a good man with cattle and horses, and he always did the best he knew how. I hope somebody can say as much for me when my time is up.”
–Clair Huffaker (Cowboy)