Money will buy a man anything but his own destiny.”
–Luke Short  (The Branded Man)

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be…  You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”
 –Matthew 6:21, 24 (NLT)
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“Preoccupation with self is the greatest barrier to seeing, and the hardest one to break.”
–Freeman Patterson

This has been some kind of year.  All kinds of storms from the hurricanes, to fires, to shootings, and add to that riots.  Going through them is tough, but what comes afterward can be just as hard.  Rebuilding, relocating, restoring is not necessarily easy.  In other words, life can get rough at times.  Life, without the pressures from the devil, can grind down a man’s spirit.  One thing important to remember is some men have achieved their greatest successes under life’s most unpleasant pressures.
There was a fisherman, several centuries ago in England, who stood on a bluff overlooking his flooded homestead.  What would he do?  Where would he rebuild?  But that same storm that destroyed his property was the same one which sank the Spanish Armada.  Even Philip II of Spain said that it was the “winds and waves of God” that destroyed his fleet.  What would have happened if England has been conquered by Spain in 1588?  More than likely Protestantism would have been wiped out through the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition.  England surely would have face torture and death.
Sometimes it takes sickness or a flying brick to bring us to the place where God can use us.  Colonel S.L. Brengle of the Salvation Army was hit by a flying brick while in a London slum.  While he was in the hospital recuperating, he wrote “Helps to Holiness.”  Or take Catherine Marshall, lying in her sick bed from a disease from which she might not recover.  She used the phone to minister and began to write.  Have you read “Christy”?
John Bunyan wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress” in jail.  Glenn Cunningham was so badly burned at the age of eight that doctors said he would never walk, but recovered to become a great track star.  Other stories could be told.  Success because of the “storms of life.”
I like what Robert W. McIntyre said, “When life’s pressures are most intense, peace cannot be far away, for the eye of the storm is the most peaceful place for miles around.”  Then following the storm peace returns, and within a matter of time things are back to normal.  

“God is able to pour out on you richly every possible grace, so that you will always and under all circumstances have plenty for your own need, and to spare for every good enterprise.”
–2 Corinthians 9:8 (Berkeley)
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“What is largely missing in American life today is a sense of context, of saying or doing anything that is intended or even expected to live beyond the movement…  We have become so obsessed with facts that we have lost all touch with truth…  Consider this paradox:  Almost everything that is publicly said these days is recorded.  Almost nothing of what is said is worth remembering.”
–Ted Koppel

“He began to sense an intimacy in these canyon walls, far removed from the vast emptiness and homelessness of the desert.  They gave him a feeling of protection.”
–Zane Grey  (Stranger From the Tonto)

“I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense.  I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down.”
–Proverbs 24:30-31 (NLT)
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You may have read or heard of the woman in Fredericksburg, VA who walked into a Longhorn Steakhouse and was struck in the foot by a copperhead.  A person never knows.  There are snakes waiting out there just to strike and sink their fangs into the unsuspecting.  Imagine that though, a public place, a restaurant.  That’s why when going anywhere, you have to be aware.  It is one thing to enter their habitat and get struck, but another for something like this to happen.
I remember reading years ago, I think from “Pennsylvania Game and News,” of a couple of guys getting ready to walk through some tall grass.  One fellow had stovepipes on the bottom of his legs.  As they were walking, the man in the lead would hear a “ping” every now and then.  When they crossed the field he turned and asked what that sound was.  The other man with the stovepipes said, “Those were rattlesnakes hitting my legs.”  The first man almost swallowed his teeth.
But they were traveling in the home of the snake.  How about Maddie Ross?  You remember her from “True Grit.”  She fell backward into a pit that had snakes in it and was struck by one.  Rooster Cogburn had to go into the pit to retrieve her and from the ordeal she lost her arm. 
If a person purposely goes into the dens of iniquity there is a good chance they could be struck, and the fangs of sin will sink deep leaving its poison and painful mark.  Sometimes they lay there and die.  Once in a while there will be a man with “true grit” who will come and pull them out and rescue them.
That is the person who walks in the “snake’s territory.”  But we are hearing of people being struck in “civilized” areas.  Places where snakes are not normally found.  That is a reminder, that when we walk through this world, we need to be mindful of the surroundings.  Watch your step.  Be careful where you put your hands.  Makes sure your eyes go where they should.
Satan will attack, shooting his arrows, from anywhere.  He is subtle, yet at times he is bold.  As the end draws nearer he will become more and more bold.  If he attacks more and becomes more blatant how in the world will you make it?  How can you survive?  The same as always, through faith.  Ah, but there is the clincher–do you have the faith?  Faith comes from hearing (and reading) the Word of God.  It is through faith that you can withstand the attack of the devil.

“In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
–Ephesians 6:16 (HCSB)

In every situation, every circumstance, we need to have faith.  However, you are the key; what choices do you make?  Are you in the Word enough?
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Have you made your home secure?  Training children is tough work, and it takes perseverance.  Diligence to the Word of God is needed, and daily steadfastness.  Build the proper walls around your home.  Make sure that the enemy cannot break through them.  Make them high enough, and strong enough, that your home is secure.
Do not allow your home to teach the ideas of entitlement.  That lazy attitude will lead to the ruin of your children.  Guard the walls of truth and present it to home constantly.  Life is not a game.  Life is preparation for eternity.

Men will give up anything rather than what they want to believe.  And hate you for telling them there’s nothing to believe.  And even if you prove it to them, they’ll continue to believe, and hate you for proving them foolish.”
–Louis L’Amour (Over on the Dry Side)

“But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.”
–2 Timothy 1:12 (NLT)
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“Part of our citizenship is…doing our best to understand the tribulations our predecessors confronted in building this nation.”
–John M. Vermillion

“He was a Christian man, and in his mind it was impossible to be a worthy Christian if you tried to center the universe on yourself.  He didn’t, after all, set out to be not a man of importance, but of value.”
–John M. Vermillion

I don’t understand!  It is totally perplexing to me all of this kneeling in protest when the National Anthem is played.  The people of this country are so underprivileged.  My mercy!  Go to some other countries and be sure and get away from the tourist areas.  See how underprivileged America is.  A person in the poverty level in our country would be one of the privileged in other countries.  Tell me, also, how many people do you know that are not making it?  If there are any, then look again and see if there is a reason why.
I don’t understand!  I know I have been out of the military for many years.  But I can still remember filling out a form that had hundreds of organizations on it.  I had to check any that I might have been involved in for they were all subversive to the United States.  Most of them at that time were communist.  An avowed communist cannot serve in the military of the United States.  For one thing, an oath to defend the Constitution is taken and a communist seeks the revolutionary overthrow of government.  So, to my point, how in the world did someone graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point and upon graduation break several guidelines and also proclaimed himself a communist?  How in the world is he now serving at Ranger school?  He is an outright mockery and a scam to the uniform.
I don’t understand!  Protesting the National Anthem by kneeling at a sports game is one thing.  I personally do not think it is protesting for they have yet to prove their issue, but to go to an area that is “sacred” if that word can be applied to a national shrine and kneeling is another.  How dare someone go to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and protest by kneeling!  First of all it had to be on purpose; a person just doesn’t happen to be there.  Secondly, that is not protesting, that is sheer mockery!  That is definitely asking for violence; I am surprised that nothing happened when the incident took place.
Enough is enough!
I was reading my devotions yesterday in Amos, the 5th chapter.  These verses jumped out at me.
    
          “They hate him who reproves in the gate,
           And they abhor him who speaks with integrity.”  (Amos 5:10, NASB)

Those in the gate speak of those in leadership.  We will never totally agree with those in leadership, but to go so far as to “hate” is another thing.  Why do they hate?  Because the leadership is reproving them.  The second part is that they abhor the person who speaks with integrity, or the person who speaks the truth.  Look at the liberal lies; look at what they believe.

          “Hate evil, love good,
           And establish justice in the gate!
           Perhaps the Lord God of hosts
           May be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” (Amos 5:15, NASB)

We are to seek good and not evil that we may live (vs 14).  Yet there is a group of loud-mouths out there, some in places at the gates and formerly at the gates that say good is evil and evil is good.  Friends, that is dangerous to them, to us, and to the nation.  As I mentioned yesterday from the writings of Paul, “We are in perilous times.”  Oh, and I might mention, the phrase “Lord God of hosts,” means the Commander of the Armies of Heaven.  Hmmm, ponder that!
Therefore, be ready for evil is all around you.  Be ready for the return of the Lord is at hand.  Be ready to admonish your children and teach them in the ways of the Lord.  Be ready to guard the truth.  Be ready to be righteous, for righteousness exalts a nation.

In this country, more than any other, you have to make your mark. You’re not going to be treated like something special until you are.”
–Louis L’Amour (Over on the Dry Side)

“Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.”
–Deuteronomy 8:2 (NLT)
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Once upon a time there was something known as the “American Dream.” It was a goal that many, if not all people, strived for to one extent or another. There was a time when people believed in a theory of “inevitable progress.” “Onward and upward”, was the slogan. Mistakes might be made along the way, but people, and nations would strive to go forward.
Richard Kern wrote the following: “Today we are not so sure. In spite of all good intentions on the part of man, ours remains a world of war, poverty, hunger, and uncertainty. To an uncounted multitude the words of Paul still sum up their own daily experiences: ‘For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.'” (Romans 7:19)
In fact, today there is more of a downward spiral. Agendas have become more important than principle and truth. Protesting seems to be the norm to the day. And to protest it must be against some established value, policy, or institution. I will say it is true that all of this is not really new, but simply new twists to old means and ways. However, now the country’s values have eroded more than ever, so there is no real foundation to stand upon. People misconstrue the Constitution and how it operates. They want more and more given to them, no matter that socialism has proven to be a poor means of government.
We honor traitors and those who commit treason and disregard the heroes who sacrifice. We honor those who bow in protest, but scorn those who bow in prayer. Read the words of Paul and see if they fit today.

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
–2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NKJV)

If this does not sound like the newscast I don’t know what does. The days are evil, make no mistake about it.
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We must be determined in this hour to live for Christ. Failure to make this determination will weaken us and we will not be able to stand against the conforming powers. Remember, we are not to be conformed to this world; in other words, do not take on the shape of the world. The Phillips’ translations puts it this way, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould.” (Romans 12:2)
Maybe another way to put it–who are you? Do you talk like a Christian, do you walk like a Christian; do you act like a Christian? Many people have been baptized and all they do is come up as a wet sinner. When we are converted things change.
I’m not a real fan of the Message, but I do like the way it puts Romans 12:2, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” This world is not our home, we’re just passing through.