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Jun 04, 2023 06:00am

Without Compromise

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“Lord, you establish peace for us.” Isaiah 26:12

We live in wartime. Peaceful times have existed throughout history—this is not that time. Living in wartime means we have an opponent. The number one mission of our opponent is to cut us off from the Vine. He attempts this through quiet, unobtrusive, daily attacks.

Mission: destroy the living, tamper with what delights, and wrong desires will follow.

Destruction is not a one size fits all attack. It comes in various shapes and forms. No matter what form destruction takes, all forms share a common theme: a desire to kill the living. From the garden until today, every waking moment has borne witness to a war being waged on humanity. At this moment, you are under attack. Your attacker is seeking to destroy your delight and your desires, because he knows if he can take those from you, you wither. Game over. You die.

Compromising with culture is a gradual descent. The way of wickedness is not what the believer sets out to consume. Nobody gets lost on purpose. We get lost because we lose our way from the path. If you have ever been lost, you know the desperation that sets in as the sun begins its descent in the western sky. There is no thirst like the kind that happens when aching feet have kept you circling the same mountain all day. You did not plan on getting lost, so you have no canteen filled with water that could quench your parched lips. Your tennis shoes were not created to hold up under an all day hike, because you didn’t know you were going to veer from the one mile nature walk and get stuck on an intense hiking trail. Every painful step mocks your unknown whereabouts. What began as a beautiful walk by a stream turned into a desolate landscape filled with pain as the hours passed on.

Recovery is possible. Look around. Think back on yesterday. Notice the markers you see from the last twenty-four hours. Does the path look familiar? Are you where you intended to be? If you survey the landscape of the last hours and determine you are lost, I have life-giving news to share. Finding your way back to the path of holy living is in view. Within this very hour, your feet could be on the path walking in a brand new direction.

All the branch had to do was stay connected to the vine and it would have lived.

A retired preacher was asked the question, “What is the best advice you could give us?”
“Get to Jesus and let Him take you to the Father,” was his response.
It is that simple.
Get to Jesus.
Let Him take you to the Father.

If you need a place to start, try this: Spend the next 30 days reading the book of James. Consider this the YOU ARE HERE spot on the map. The fastest way to get to Jesus is through His Word, so today, get to Jesus, and let Him take you to the Father. We may live in wartime, but God promises to establish peace for us. He promises to sustain us on our journey home. He is the source of Living Water. He is our Daily Bread. Everything we need can be found in Him. So get to Jesus today, and let Him take you to the Father.