{"id":2184,"date":"2015-07-16T18:20:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T00:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=2184"},"modified":"2015-07-16T18:20:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T00:20:25","slug":"god-fighting-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=2184","title":{"rendered":"God Fighting for Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-07-15<\/a>I was up early this morning for some appointments. I had the stitches removed from my last mole surgery and then my Chiropractor appointment. I was glad that I was able to ride my bike to the fitness center and get in a workout. It has been a while since that has happened and I’m ready to get back into some consistency.<\/p>\n

Yesterday on the way home, I met with Melanie, who is going to be involved in campus ministry at the University of Colorado through Resurrection Church in Boulder. Melanie is a CU graduate and has a tremendous personal testimony. She is an outgoing young lady, who radiates her commitment to Christ and the change the Lord has brought to her life. I encourage you to keep Melanie and others in prayer who are are reaching our university campuses with Christ’s love and hope.<\/p>\n

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… <\/strong>“Lord<\/span>, battle with those who battle with me.<\/span><\/span> Fight against those who fight against me.<\/span><\/span> Pick up the shield and armor.<\/span> Rise up and help me.”<\/span><\/span> <\/em>Psalm 35:1,2<\/p>\n

Facing enemies was real for David. Facing enemies was real for early believers. While we see believers lives at risk in various parts of the world today, however, physical harm is not the greatest concern for Christ-followers in our country. However, we realize that there are “enemies”<\/em> of the faith. We do see, what one author referred to as, a spirit of “anit-christism <\/em>in our culture today.<\/p>\n

My Bible reading this morning found me reading Psalm 35 as well as Acts 12 which begins, “During that same time King Herod began to mistreat some who belonged to the church.<\/span> He ordered James, the brother of John, to be killed by the sword.”<\/span><\/em> (Acts 12:1,2) Herod then had Peter arrested and an angel came and miraculously delivered Peter from prison. The early church realized that there were those in power that were fighting against them.<\/p>\n

Did they call to mind Psalm 35 and pray this prayer of David from long ago? We don’t know, but we find out that what had happened was not outside of the Lord’s concern and involvement. The Lord rescued Peter and then we read of Herod,<\/p>\n

“On a chosen day Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to the people.<\/span> They shouted, \u201cThis is the voice of a god, not a human!\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Because Herod did not give the glory to God, an angel of the Lord immediately caused him to become sick, and he was eaten by worms and died.”<\/span><\/em> (Acts 21:21-23)<\/p>\n

We see the Lord was “fighting for”<\/em> His people and while Herod killed James and tried to kill Peter; he was ultimately stricken the by Lord, and died. We read the result: “God\u2019s message continued to spread and reach people.”<\/span> <\/em>(Acts 12:24)<\/p>\n

The Psalmist’s cry to the Lord is, “rise up and help.” <\/em>I believe that is a good prayer today. We don’t know how or when the Lord may “rise up and help” <\/em>but we can rest assured of His response. What we see in the Book of Acts is the commitment of the early church to sharing the gospel. The Lord will always be faithful to “rise up and help”<\/em> us accomplish that task. He may not “strike down”<\/em> enemies, but He will strengthen us and help us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our resolve to be faithful to Him.<\/p>\n

Some in our world today may give their lives for Christ. Some may be miraculously delivered. The Lord may divinely intervene to rescue and fight for His people. There may be times of favor and their may be times of persecution and hardship. But in all circumstance and at all times, we can continue to see God’s message spread and reach people.<\/p>\n

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I was up early this morning for some appointments. I had the stitches removed from my last mole surgery and then my Chiropractor appointment. I was glad that I was able to ride my bike to the fitness center and get in a workout. It has been a while since that has happened and I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184\/revisions\/2186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}