Angels

​

CURRENT RADIO SERIES Angels   CURRENT TV SERIES Angels

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. Psalm 27:10 Perhaps you remember the famous rock star, Janice Joplin, who was popular back in the late 1960s. She drew huge crowds wherever she played all over the country. Sadly, her talent was wasted when she died of a drug overdose in her hotel room. Joplin had made it to the top of the music industry. She was at the pinnacle of her career, ready to record another inevitably successful album. Yet when she wasn’t on stage, she was lonely. She was reported to have said, “When I’m not performing, I just stay around my hotel room, do drugs, and feel so lonely.” Isn’t it amazing how someone can be so successful, have so many admirers and people around, yet be so lonely? The enemy will lie to us and tell us the cure for loneliness is found in the pleasures of the world. But as Janice Joplin aptly illustrates, it isn’t at all. The only respite you and I will ever have for loneliness is through our relationship with Jesus Christ. When we are firmly placed in Him and have others who encourage us through Him, we can be sure that while we may have feelings of loneliness at times, we’ll never walk alone! Overcome loneliness by remaining firmly in Christ and surrounding yourself with others who will encourage you.

On Guard

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Luke 21:34–36
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, when Cyrus marched on the city of Babylon, he was unable to breach the walls or defeat the defenses of that great city. Unsure of how to proceed, he withdrew the main body of his force, leaving a token siege around Babylon. Finally he came up with a plan. The great Euphrates River flowed through Babylon, providing it with a source of fresh water that allowed them to stand off enemy armies.
Cyrus moved far enough away from the city so his workers could not be seen and then began digging great basins near the river. The work took months, but when everything was finally ready, they breached the river banks and diverted the flow of water away from the river bed. Under the cover of darkness when the drop in the water was not seen, the army was able to creep under the wall of the city in the nearly dry river bed and conquer the strong citadel.
We must never let down our guard. There is never a day that passes without the threat of an attack from Satan. Peter warned, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). I imagine that when the Holy Spirit inspired him to write those words, Peter remembered the night when his guard was down and he denied the Lord three times. Thank God for His grace that restores us when we do fall, but it is better to never let down our guard.

Today’s Growth Principle: 

The devil is seeking to destroy your life today, and he will succeed if you let down your guard.