Emergency Preparation Kits

Like most Christians today, Jesus began to boldly live out His beliefs of the Kingdom of God after being water baptized.  Most that is, except for me!  I have actually been baptized three times.  (Does that make me super-holy?)  After formally asking Jesus into my life at the age of 21 (after being in leadership with the youth and College-Career groups in my wife’s church!) I went for many months, perhaps up to a year before I was water baptized… again.  I had been baptized as a baby in the Catholic Church and at the time figured that one baptism was just as good as another! 

After my wife and I were married, I befriended a wise older gentleman in our congregation who talked to me about the reasoning and importance of being immersed in water baptism after your confession of faith is made.  His persistence paid off and the Youth Minister was baptized in front of the whole church on a Sunday morning.

About twenty years later my family and I (as well as a major portion of the church congregation) were baptized again after hearing our Pastor give such an anointed sermon on water baptism that it set my heart on fire with zeal, understanding and Christian purpose.

I recalled my three experiences with water baptism as I read about Jesus’ baptism at the hands of John the Baptist this morning.  It was especially interesting to see that Jesus encountered the same thing that many of us go through after a mountain top experience with God.  He quickly came under the radar of the enemy of our souls!  Luke 4:1 recounts how Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost when he left the Jordan River and was led by the Spirit as He went into the wilderness.  You could say that the Spirit led Jesus as He walked through a wilderness experience.

The devil immediately came “to steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10 God’s Word ©) what Jesus had received only a short time before, but He was ready for the attack!  As the devil laid out his various temptations to Jesus, the Lord quickly replied “It is written” and proceeded to share scriptures that pointed out God’s truth on the lie that was being presented to Him by the father of lies.

God’s Word on any subject is always the final word on it… no matter how you feel, what you see, or what others may be saying about you!  The key though, is that in order to successfully say “It is written” you have to know, understand, be in agreement with and stand in faith with what is written!  In other words, it takes more than just a casual look at God’s Word to skillfully swing it as a sword against the attacks of the enemy!

Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (KJV)  I have often heard this taught as “faith cometh by hearing AND hearing AND hearing the Word of God!  It takes a continual dosage of the Word to get it deep inside of you in order to be effective at the time of attack.

This has come vividly to my attention over the last four years in our stand for my wife’s health.  The attacks of the devil are not something that necessarily get easier to handle as you mature in your Christian faith.  If anything, the more mature one becomes, the more Word you need!  I had a recent experience in this regard a couple of days after Christmas as I stood in the X-Ray room at one of our local hospitals while the technician twisted and turned my wife on the table to get the various pictures of her hip and right knee after taking a spill on Christmas Eve.

My wife was not very responsive and not very receptive to being moved around as she had obviously hurt something in the fall and was limping rather noticeably.  This was the third medical appointment due to the incident and to be honest I was rather spent and it took all I had to keep my mind focused on God’s Word rather than on the barrage of disparaging thoughts that the devil was trying to convince me of at the time. 

The enemy of our souls is definitely not a dummy and knows that when we are tired and at the end of or ropes, that his chances of success are at an all-time high!  Well, it didn’t work this time!  I am so thankful for the bountiful portions of the Word that I have been feeding my wife and I on a daily basis.  At times like this when you really don’t want to fight anymore, the power and truth of God’s Word just seems to rise up from deep within!

That’s why Jesus could calmly reply “It is written” when He was weak and hungry in the desert.  Luke 2:47 & 52 tells us that He had an efficient understanding of the Word and was obviously well supplied when the attacks of the enemy came.  What about you?  How well supplied are you for the unexpected?  Here in California it is like being prepared for an earthquake.  Is the kit of your heart kept fully stocked with the life preserving Word of God?  Maybe it is time for you to get serious in your hearing and understanding of God’s Word!  Have a great weekend.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… What am I expecting today?”