This is a season that challenges everyone.

     For some it is a painful memory of loss.  For others it is an attempt at creating memories.  Atmosphere.  It is usually a time of zigging and zagging to get things done.   At a time when we are celebrating the remarkable Love of our God, it is easy to miss the immediate.

     It is a particularly difficult season for me.  I participate in almost twenty symphony concerts, am in charge of the Christmas program at church, and it is also a time of grading almost two hundred university final exams.  In addition to that, there is an open house here at the Isaac House for many, many people whose gifts will be wrapped and place under a tree that I have no time to decorate.   Christmas stockings, my responsibility, will also be forced on numerous family and guests. 

     In the middle of all of this, there are always emergency situations with my clients, and it is not possible to just put things off.  I always think I will barely live through Christmas.

     This year, in the middle of the heaviest schedule I have ever had, the Lord has given opportunity after opportunity to share His Life, and with folks for whom I have prayed for years and years.

     We never know what He will do.  We never know what is around the bend.  

     Soldier of The Cross, gear up and prepare for answered prayer.
     Resist the temptation to declare that you have no time for anything.  
     Resist the temptation to think that the most important thing is to get control of everything.
     Resist the temptation to think you have to please everyone.
     Resist sentimentality.
     Resist the need to out do or match any other year.

     Soldier, the season does not change the calling.

     Stand before Him as in any other season and declare your availability.  Do it aloud.  Tell Him that He can have you and that you relinquish habit, unhealthy tradition and concept.  Tell Him that He can have every day, hour and minute to honor and reveal Himself.

     Then, watch Him work!

     Soldier of The Cross, do not miss the thing that is right before you.

     Remember, there is an enemy who is roaming about and is seeking to devour.  He would love to cripple you in order to deflect your attention from any point of ministry.

     Speaking of which, you have a responsibility to be a minister of Life.  His Life. 

     I have yet to meet a real Christian who says he has never gone through any fiery trial.  The issue is, how is that trial met?

     I remember a dramatic story of a man in North Vietnam who was a Christian.  So was his wife.  The communists arrested them, imprisoned him and put the  wife naked in a wooden cage and dragged her around the village for a day.  We do not know her fate, but the husband was buried alive.

     As the last shovel of dirt was about to be thrown on his face,  the Christian Brother said to the man assigned to the task, "Jesus loves you and so do I.  When you are born again, please find my daughter and tell her that you have met Jesus."

     I heard this story from the daughter's own mouth.  Several years after her father had been buried alive, the man who shoveled the dirt  found her in America.  He told her that he had met the Lord Jesus Christ and had accepted Him as his Savior.  Her father's killer then led her to the Lord.

     She gave the account in humility and in tears.

     Soldier of The Cross, do not loose the moment.
     It is about eternity.

     Your purpose is far beyond those who have no Lord.

     There is much to be said for refusing to veer from the Path.

     When you pray, are you deliberately considering the One who is listening?

    Over the years, I have been privileged to pray with some tremendous saints.  The older ones kneel and I have been greatly humbled in hearing these prayers.  I have knelt with God's servants in the dirt, on cobblestones, on carpet, in mud,  in the sand and surrounded by thousands of camels,  in danger and in safety.

     One thing is sure - He hears.  He is the ultimate Listener, and it seems to me that Christians often forget that the One who holds the stars in place is listening intently.

    So often we pray as though He has to be convinced.  Yes, I often quote His own words to Him in prayer, but I have taken Him at His  Word, and so must you.

     He who is The Word is listening to your words.  Hallelujah that we have the Indwelling Holy Spirit to aid us in our prayer life.

     Soldier of The Cross, like all else, prayer is a frontier.  No one else has your relationship with the Lord - it is unique between the two of you.   And, there is no limit.

     Learn to stand or sit or kneel, and pray.  Aloud.  Learn to see Him as holding the scepter and listening.  Loving.  Understanding.  Wanting the best for you.  The God of all Power.

     Declare it all to Him.  Even your need to know He is listening. 

     Aloud.
     Today

     Why is it so painful?

     What does His Word say?  We have no right to know why.

     Soldier of The Cross, the issue is His Will.  His Plan. His Life.  His Kingdom. His Body. His Love.

     Is it up to Him, or not?
     Has He affirmed His attentions or not?
     Does He love you or not?
     Is He sovereign or not?

    There is absolutely no one else who will answer you.

     What makes a believer secure?

     Learning to live by faith.

     Living by the hand of God is the only way to taste His Provision.   I believe God's people should be industrious and should love to work.  But there is a danger in thinking we are providing for ourselves.  The Soldier of The Cross must learn to pray "Give us this day our daily bread. . ."

     If we have much, it is not more of blessing than if we have little. The blessing is in the will of God.  The issue is living by prayer and not by independence.  The same principle applies to relationships, the spending of time, reputation, family and health.

     Have you told Him He can do anything with your life?  If so, He will begin to reveal to you the "hidden things."  They are revealed through prayer and when there is an exercising of the faith muscle.

     There is no anxiety greater than self-sufficiency.
     There is no peace deeper than resting in Him and trusting that He will provide or show the way.

     You are the object of intense divine attention.

     The One who holds the stars in place by His Mighty Word of Power has made it possible for you to know Him intimately.  Not only that, but He longs for your attention and wooed you to get you this far.

     It is easy to loose sight of the fact that you are so loved. 

     Taking hold of this fact by faith and talking to the Lord about it in prayer brings about a tenderness of heart that is not available any other way.

     Talk to the Lord about his Love for you.
     Aloud. 

     Soldier of The Cross, He is a healer.

     He has not promised us that He would heal all physical illness.  He has promised that we could find refuge, live a life without a damaged personality and minister His own Life.  He has told us we can know peace and be content.

     The soul is the place where decisions are made.  The spirit comes alive when inhabited by the spirit of God, but the soul will either reflect Him, or in the alternative, it will reflect the consequences of decisions that do not line up with His mind.

     Those who are determined to take up The Cross and follow Him have a certain family resemblance.  They are calm.  They do not return unkindness when it is hurled at them.  They are far more interested in eternal matters than the temporal, and they always, always consider the other person before themselves. 

     They are interested in living by faith and they have decided to stand on God's Word.

     These decisions create room for the Holy Spirit to fill.  To move.  To counsel.  To heal, and to reveal Jesus.

     The Soldier of The Cross is not a neurotic wreck.  His eyes are on the Lord and he is moving.

     Soldier, remember:  you are keenly and deeply loved by the One who called you to Himself.  The well-adjusted Christian is the one who has told the Lord that He can do absolutely anything with his life.    He is willing to tackle the impossible and he refuses to take only safe posts.

     Underneath are the Everlasting Arms.       

      When asked if you are willing to lean on the Lord completely, will you give a ready answer?

      When I am examining a witness in court, it is often difficult to get a direct answer.   If I ask him where he was at a particular time, he is likely to start by telling me what he was thinking about doing, what the circumstances were that compelled a decision, or where he was not.  Rarely does the question get answered head on.

     I have found it to be the same among believers.  If I am speaking to a group and pose the question as to whether or not the Lord has been told He can do absolutely anything, there is always gathering of complainants afterward.   It is a collection of people who want to explain their circumstances, and justify getting by without fully committing to the Lord.

     It seems to me that the thing that is the only guarantee of eternal success should be easy.  Of course, that is not the case.  The flesh kicks and screams at the thought of agreeing with God.

     The list is endless:
       Are you in a difficult marriage?
       Is your job unpleasant? 
       Are you being falsely accused? Rejected?
       Tough financial times?
       A problem child?
       Sick?   Lonely? 

     The bottom line is always the same.    Will you agree with Him?  Is His Word true?

       For years, I tried to live according to the letter of His Word, having never met Him.  When He came to live in my heart, I found the Indwelling Holy Spirit was always instant in giving the power to choose God's way. (Not to imply that it was never a struggle.)

     So, the answer has to be, yes, I will lean.   He is the Potter and I am the Clay.  I will tell Him so.
     I must make sure I am not trying to live as though it were the other way around.

     There is simply nothing else.