I am talking about us Christians and our battles with the devil! Do I fight him or flee from him, from the temptation he is using at the moment?

Well, James 4:7 teaches me to … “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Here “resist” is the Greek verb “to stand against.”

But then again, in 2 Timothy 2:22 Scripture commands us to … “Flee also youthful lusts.” And instead “Follow (meaning ‘to chase after’) righteousness, faith, charity, peace.”

Hence the Lesson title … “Fight or flee?”

Normally I say put on the whole armour of God and “withstand” the devil, through the Power of Word and the Presence of the Holy Spirit.

BUT CLEARLY THER ARE SOME TIMES WHEN WE SHOUD RUN WITH ALL OUR MIGHT! FLEE CERTAIN ULTRA-DANGEROUS TEMPTATIONS ANYWAY!

Here’s an illustration …

Once godly Joseph was approached (lured, seduced) by his master’s wife (Potiphar’s wife) to commit adultery. Joseph said NO.

That’s resisting!

Then one day …

“And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.” Genesis 39:12

Joseph wisely did not try to argue with her. Or outsmart her. He just “got out of there!”

Again, Moses wrote: “And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.”

He fled.

He did not sin with her!

He obeyed Proverbs 6:5, before it was written … “Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.”

Dear friend, is there some especially deceptive sin hounding you?

Deceptively displaying the “pleasures” of the flesh or the world?

If so … run!

Run right now!

Change your location, as Joseph did.

Oh, what dire warnings the Bible delivers, even in its stories and narratives!

Somehow today … I feel enough has been said.

Somehow too, I sense somebody especially needs this Lesson. Do not cast it aside.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Today’s Bible Text is found in the little Book of Obadiah. His whole prophecy (the entire Book) consists of only 21 verses!

It is a jeremiad (a scathing denunciation) of the people of Edom. Verse 1 … “The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom …”

The Edomites were descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham. Just as the Israelites were descendants of Abraham through Isaac.

So … they are related. Blood brothers, well … half brothers. (Hagar birthed Ishmael and Sarah gave us Isaac. Abraham fathered both.)

BUT … the Edomites did not love (or even treat kindly) their brethren the Jews. As the Lord God would have expected, demanded them to do. In fact, they hated the sons of Promise, Isaac’s kin.

And on a day of infamy … the day Israel (Judah) fell to the Babylonians … the Edomites did not help their brethren. They cheered the vicious, heathen Babylonians as they destroyed Jerusalem and dismantled the Temple!

Obadiah verse 10, God’s indictment against the people of Edom … “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. “

There are no Edomites today! God has cut them off!

More specifically, the sin of Edom … “In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers (the Babylonian army) carried away captive his (Judah’s) forces, and foreigners (gentiles, heathen, Babylonians) entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, EVEN THOU WAST AS ONE OF THEM.” Verse 11, God must have been carefully watching!

They should have loved, defended Judah, Jerusalem.

Instead the Edomites stood by and watch and “rejoiced” over Judah’s demise, verse 12 tells more … “But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have REJOICED over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.”

The “point” of today’s Lesson?

“Even thou wast as one of them.” (Excerpted from Verse 11, King James Version.)

Edom wast as if “one of them,” one of Israel’s enemies!

Brethren robbing brethren!

Brethren encouraging the enemy!

“Even thou wast as one of them.”

In other words, you chose the wrong side!

Now … in America today it’s time to start asking, “On whose side are you?”

Are you with your brethren or against them?

Are you with the enemy or against them?

Joshua 24:15 … “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”

“For” or “against?”

Exodus 32:26 … “Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me.”

Jesus … Matthew 6:24 … “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Wow!

The battle lines are being drawn more clearly than ever!

I never want it said of me … “Thou wast as one of them.”

Yes, really I guess that today’s Meditation is poignantly about “brotherly kindness.”

Think about it …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I’m not sure how long Thanksgiving will even remain a Holiday in the United States. It has too much of a Biblical, Christian, even patriotic flavor to it.

But whatever day one might be reading this little Meditation, the Bible is clear for us who believe in Jesus as God’s Son, as our personal Lord and Saviour …

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Notice Paul did not command (the verb is an imperative) us to give thanks “for” everything. But “in” everything!

How can we thank God for the terrible shape America in which has placed herself?

(Other than simple fact that now I can understand why this Country is not mentioned in Bible Prophecy. Or why Israel will have few, if any, allies at Armageddon. Or why 2 Timothy 3:12 will more than likely become a stark reality in this place where most of us live!)

How can I give thanks that unrighteousness is “on the throne” and that “truth has fallen in the streets?” (Isaiah 59:14)

Maybe I can’t.

Maybe that’s not what Paul had in mind anyway!

This is what I’m saying …

IF we put the emphasis on the little preposition “IN” (again 1 Thessalonians 5:18) … “IN every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” … we could (for example) THANK GOD FOR SAVING US … “in” the middle of any condition life presents us!

Thank God for Grace “in” the middle of a crooked and perverse generation where we live, Philippians 2:15.

Thank God for Heaven, when “in” the intensive care unit at the hospital.

Thank God for Jesus … “in” any situation!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Just a thought this Thanksgiving Day, 2020, perhaps the saddest America has ever faced in my lifetime.

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According to Jeremiah 3:14 … God IS INDEED married! (Where do we think the very concept of marriage originated? In the Heart of God our Creator, certainly!)

“Thus saith the LORD; for I am MARRIED unto you.” Jehovah God speaking to the little nation of Israel!

Isaiah 54:5 attests to this fact as well: “For thy Maker is thine HUSBAND; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.”

I mean married with “vows” being exchanged and commitments made, in a ceremony of sorts! That Event occurred early in Israel’s history.

Jeremiah 31:32 mentions that special relationship, from God’s Viewpoint … “The covenant (involving vows) that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an HUSBAND unto them, saith the LORD.”

Yes, sadly Israel broke her marriage vows!

But … here’s some very good news … God is faithful, even when we are not! (2 Timothy 2:13 … “If we believe not, yet HE abideth FAITHFUL: he cannot deny himself.)

And indeed He will prove that faithfulness again and again in the coming ages. Israel, when finally “right” with God, faces a bright future!

Is God married?

Oh yes!

Now, is Jesus married?

Yes as well!

The Church is throughout Paul’s writings called the Bride of Christ, John’s material too.

Paul to the Corinthians for example … “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one HUSBAND, that I may present you as a chaste VIRGIN to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2, to Jesus of course.

Now Paul yet again … “Husbands, love your wives, even as CHRIST also loved the CHURCH, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27, an illustration of a divine Reality!

John now, from Patmos … “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the MARRIAGE of the Lamb (Jesus) is come, and his WIFE (the Church) hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” Revelation 19:7-9

Why this discussion today?

Two reasons …

First, to remind us of the great love (everlasting and unconditional) God has for His people.

Second, to remind us of our need to live faithfully unto our Husband, our Lord, our Saviour! Who loved us so much, He died on our behalf!

“Married!”

Praise the Lord!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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We are told that ancient Israel (in the wilderness those many years) was fed of God … every morning! (Call a “table in the wilderness” in Psalm 78:19.)

Via a miraculous substance called “manna.”

Jesus called it “Bread,” John 6:31 which agrees with Psalm 105:40.

God sent it every day except the Sabbath, but He gave them a double portion the previous day! No lack at all …

My verse today … “And they gathered it (that tasty manna) every morning.” Exodus 16:21

Food … in the morning!

Did your Mom ever tell you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day?

Mine did!

But I am not trying to be an advocate for healthy eating (though such a habit would be a good idea) … but rather, for eating spiritually each morning!

I guess this Exodus verse grabbed my attention due to the fact that I have written at least six Bible Study Lessons a week (in the mornings) … since 2003, I believe it is.

In fact, even now as I type here at my laptop it’s still dark outside. “Early in the morning,” actually.

And as I regularly share Bible truth with you dear reader … I am “eating” it (Scripture) myself as well.

Point being … get you some spiritual manna each morning as you arise (or shortly thereafter). It will give you strength for the day. God’s Word always does that, like milk or meat or bread or honey! (The Bible comparing itself to all these nourishments in fact!)

Jesus did this! Mark 1:35 … And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, Jesus went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

And Abraham! Genesis 19:27 … And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD.

Moses! Exodus 24:4 … And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill.

The great patriarch Job! Job 1:5 … And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings.

That group of godly ladies! Mark 16:2 … And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. (Where they found an empty tomb!

How about you?

Do you somehow, someway meet God in the morning?

He sure does you … Lamentations 3:22-23 … It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are NEW EVERY MORNING: great is thy faithfulness.

Amen!

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