Morning by Morning

"The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward." Isaiah 50:4-5

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Overt and Covert Danger















We have been in some dangerous places, North Ireland during the troubles in the early 1970s, crossing from Jordan to Israel on the Allenby bridge as a rifle shot echoed off the rocks, and in the dark side of several American cities. Some of the members of our Body of Christ are suffering severe overt danger today, perhaps even martyrdom, but what is the danger that you and I face? St. Paul tells us that, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” [Ephesians 6:12]. 

There is overt and covert danger. Facing overt danger you may lose your life. If that happens, as a Christian, you will be with Him forever. But in facing covert danger you may lose your soul; that danger is eternal. Morality is a matter of life and death. That is why God gave us commandments, and why Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. God wants to keep us out of the greater danger.

Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
      who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer,
      my shield and he in whom I take refuge,
      who subdues peoples under me” [Psalm 144:1-2].


O Lord, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us Thy humble servants, that by Thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by Thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. [BCP 1662].

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