Ironworks

            It is ironic when individuals who claim to be in resistance maintain the very thing they say they are so ardently against. Can you imagine if you say you are resisting, yet your behavior reflects the opposite? This is evident in the world, and it is no less hypocritical when Christians display this behavior.  Resist the Source of Wars (James 4:1-3) The average person finds it difficult to resist the source of their detriment. The source of wars/fights among the brethren has the same source. James writes that pleasures are the source of these missiles of treachery. The Greek word hēdonōn, where we get the word hedonism, signifies that the origin of troubles is simply a desire that is of a sensual nature. When we sin against the Lord and one another the origin is our desire for our pleasures and our motivations over the will of God. We lust, kill, covet, fight, and war and yet we cannot obtain the very thing we say we want. How is it p...

We sing when we are happy. We sing the truth. Can we sing and be at peace? When we consider when we are happy, yes we can sing and be at peace with contentment in Christ. If we sing in truth, we certainly receive peace with God and enjoy His righteousness. It begins to be more difficult when we are melancholy. There will be times when we are sad. A lost loved one. A broken relationship. Sin and the lasting consequences of sin can break our hearts, and stifle our desire to sing. I am reminded of a Psalm written in Babylon when the children of the southern kingdom were taken into captivity because of their sin. “By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive required of us songs, And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing Jehovah’s song in a foreign land” (Psalm 137:1-3)?     ...