A Revival of Love for One Another

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Chaplain Dan

Our love for One Another lets the world know that we are Jesus’ disciples.

John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (cf. John 15:12, 17; 1 Thess. 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thess. 1:3; 1 John 3:11; 3:23; 4:7, 11-12; 2 John 1:5)

Romans 12:10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited.

Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Romans 15:5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Romans 15:14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

Romans 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. (cf. 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Pet. 5:14)

1 Corinthians 6:7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

1 Corinthians 12:25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Galatians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Ephesians 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 5:19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,

Ephesians 5:21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices

Colossians 3:13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (cf. 1 Thess. 4:18)

1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-10 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, 4 so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, 5 which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; 6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

James 4:11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

1 Peter 4:8-10 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

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How Do You Define Success?

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Chaplain Dan

God made us unique, so that we are motivated by different things in life. As a result, Christians define success differently. My encouragement is to reflect on the examples below and choose a verse that motivates you.

Wealth Accumulator – Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Truth Seeker – Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Loyal Friend – James 2:23
And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.

Network Builder – Titus 1:5
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you–

Affirmation – Luke 19:17
And he said to him, “Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’

Manifestations of God’s Power– 2 Kings 1:10
So Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

Peace – Philippians 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The Rejected Wanderer – John 14:2
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

The Warrior – Joshua 1:8-9
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

The Investor – Isaiah 48:17
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.

The Evangelist – II Corinthians 5:20
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

The list goes on, because God made us unique and gives us different circumstances. What are the verses that you use to define success?

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CLOSING DOORS TO DEMONS, RALPH PORTER’S TESTIMONY

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Chaplain Dan

INTRODUCTION

Our long time friends, the redeemed family, Renda, wife of Troy, Marine officer, with daughters, are serving on Okinawa in these months.  Renda asked the following question on how can the redeemed  be tormented by demons?  She read the testimony of our daughter Rebecca’s battle with the demon whose name is “destruction”.   The demon sought to take credit for killing Rebecca in a car accident in February 1988 in Ontario, CA.  Our Lord Jesus and Faithful Father delivered her by taking her home to glory with Him.

“If you cast the demon out of Rebecca, how was it able to keep tormenting her? Did she have the Holy Spirit? “He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.”  (The demon was delivered from Rebecca through prayer and the power of our Lord Jesus and His blood testimony in December 1979.)

Dear Renda and Troy,

How can a redeemed be tormented by demons if they have the Holy Spirit indwelling in them?

The redeemed cannot be possessed by demons, but they can be attacked, demonized, by demons throughout their lifetime.  You are in the battle of our Lord Jesus, near the frontlines of Satan’s warfare; you will know demons and fight them regularly!

Let me first share my own testimony of my battle for years with demons that had access to my life.

I was a missionary in 1975, and we had just returned from a four year tour on Okinawa at the Hansen Center and the Kadena Center.  I was saved in 1959, graduate of Moody Bible Institute 1965,  began with Cadence International mission, 1965, and I had been ministering to the Army, Marines, Sailors, Air Force on Okinawa and the Philippines since 1968.  Our family was on furlough in Denver, Colorado, and I shared with Bob Bingham, a missionary with Cadence, served many years in the Philippines at the Clark Air Base Servicemen Center, and he has worked for years in demoniac deliverances.  I shared with him that the deliverances we experienced in others were also affecting me, as I had disturbances also?

I asked Bob Bingham and Sid Henry, the missionary who led me to Christ Jesus at Subic Bay, Philippines, December 1959, to pray for me to see if I was demonized.  Their prayer manifested several demons in me, and they were all related to my season of life before I was saved.  I do not remember the whole incident, as the demons had me gagging, rolling on the floor, and in great agony.  I remember one demon had to do with my grandmother who was into reading tea leaves in the bottom of a coffee cup – demonism.  Another identified with the demoniac game, do not know how to spell it, that my parents and friends were playing in the other room of their friend’s home.  My friend and I were playing in the next room, and we were quite young in age.   They were raising the table by demons in answers to their questions.  I do not remember the number of demons that were delivered from me that day, but I knew afterwards the great peace, freedom, and joy in my heart from their leaving me.  I had been tormented by demons while at Moody Bible Institute, especially in the seeking of our Lord Jesus’ will on the question of the marrying of Wilma. I was greatly tormented in the Philippines where demons were very active in the City of Olongapo City, Subic Bay.  At the time, I just believed this was the “normal Christian life” to be under attack, and I did not know how to be delivered or overcome the demoniac attacks that came at different times and seasons.  After the demons left from Bob’s and Sid’s prayers in their claiming the Name of our Lord Jesus and His blood,  I then enjoyed daily my walk with our Lord Jesus.  My prayer life was  free from the demons troubling my communion with our Lord Jesus, and it was glorious to have daily the freedom from their unending attacks. From that day, the living in communion with our Lord Jesus was so much easier, and I wondered how anyone could backslide from Jesus if they had this peace and freedom daily as I was then enjoying?

Renda, I have since through the years closed the doors in other areas of my life which were used by the demons to seek to control me.  One does not only have the joy of deliverance from demons, but they also need to close the vows, oaths, commitments they have made to demons in their years before they were saved. They need to agree with our Lord Jesus and break their commitment and their entanglement in demonism in idolatrous Clubs, small groups who identify with Satan (Wicca etc), organizations (Masonic Lodge), especially their commitment to all areas of sexual immoral activity.  Those commitments, if not broken officially between you and our Lord Jesus, are still open doors for the demons to have a right to attack your redeemed life.  You made previous commitments to demons!

May this testimony begin to assist you in understanding how the redeemed are demonized, not possessed by demons.  Christ Jesus our Lord was attack by Satan, Matthew Chapter Four, and He certainly had the Holy Spirit, He is God, Three in One!  We are rejoicing with you in your deliverance of your daughter from a demon there on Okinawa, and I am praying for the Blood of Christ Jesus protection over your whole family.  I pray this prayer daily for my family as they are “in the battle of our Lord!”

I did not know, Renda, for years how to close the doors to demons.  Rebecca’s battle, our oldest daughter, with the demon, “Destruction” was never fully dealt with, and I believe the demon continued to control, invade, and persuade Rebecca to make several of her wrong choices in life till they took credit for killing her!  I did not either know how to close doors to demons till many years after Rebecca’s death? I then had to work years on my own life in understanding also generational sins, covenant commitments, various strongholds of sin in my life which permitted demons to demonized me, etc.  It took years to be where I am today in the true freedom in Christ Jesus.  This is why I learned too late in life how important it is too fully, being lead by the instructions of the Holy Spirit, to close officially in yourself those doors which the demons have the right to your life!

Keep abiding in the glorious, powerful, covenant keeping love and Blood testimony of our Lord Jesus,

Ralph & Wilma Porter

THE REDEEMED CLOSE THE DOORS IN THEIR LIVES TO DEMONS AND THEIR ATTACKS

BY OUR LORD JESUS AND THE TESTIMONY OF HIS BLOOD, PRAY AND PROTECT YOUR WHOLE FAMILY

Job 1: 10 Have You (Our Lord) not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side?  You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

Job 1: 5 So it was when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them (Family) and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.  For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”  Thus he did regularly. (The Blood of our Lord Jesus protects our family through prayer)

Revelation 12: 11 (Tribulation saints) “And they overcome him (Satan) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.”

WORHIP OUR LORD WHEN UNDER THE ATTACKS OF SATAN

Job 1: 20, 21, 22 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.  The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”  In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.  (For the sufferings and afflictions from Satan)

OUR LORD IS OUR DEFENDER AND ADVOCATE BEFORE SATAN

Job 2: 3 … And still he (Job) holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me (Our Lord) against him to destroy him without cause.

Job 2: 4 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”

STAND AGAINST THE ATTACKS OF OUR ADVERSARY.

Job 2: 10 “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”  In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

James 4: 7 Submit therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double – minded.

I John 4: 4 You are from God little children (Christians), and have overcome them; because greater is He (Jesus our Lord) who is in you than he (Satan) who is in the world.

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Public or Private School?

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Chaplain Dan

Dear Trisha,

Wow!  Thank you for wanting to contact me (Sharon, Daniel’s wife) and ask about the kids education.

I think this is a tough question, at this point in time.  For our family personally, our kids are going to public school, except for Caleb who is a freshman at Biola University – an AWESOME Christian Bible Teaching University.

Nathan is a Jr. in HS, Bethany is in 7th grade in middle school, and Lilly is in 2nd grade in elementary school.  My husband, Dan, has said that we need to have Christians in the public school and as long as our kids are being the “light” and not getting pulled into darkness, they will go to public school. I fought this idea when our oldest, Caleb, went into 7th grade jr. high.  I was scared for the influences and exposure that he would come across.  Caleb definitely got exposed to more than what I would have wanted him to know but I realized it was a good slow realization of what “the world” is like. It has been an opportunity, as situations arise at their level, for me to train them in what scripture says is right and wrong.  With the kids being in public school, I know that I must be home when they get home, watch their demeanor and attitudes when they walk in the door, be available for when they have questions or need to share something that happened at school, and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!  (I am involved with Moms In Touch at the schools they go to. I am confident that the consistent prayers have kept them from many opportunities that we knew about or did not know about that they could have stumbled from.  So, prayer is a MUST!)

 

Communicating with the kids is so important to guiding them, sharing TRUTH about how to handle situations or what God would want, and disciplining immediately when necessary.  I think it is harder as a parent to have my Christian kids, who are strong in the Lord, go to public school.  I must trust the Lord for their safety and their personal walk with Him.  I am not able to shelter them as I would like – keeping them in our home, controlling who their friends are, what they hear, what they see, etc.  I must also say that Dan and I both agree that if there was even a hint that one of our kids was being drawn to the darkness, that we would pull them out of public school immediately.  And, we take each child one year at a time with the decision to keep them in public school.  Fortunately, so far, our kids have been a bright light and are influencing others, teachers and peers, for the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, that is what our family does, for now.  But, I don’t know how much longer we will be able to keep them in public school.  Our state passed a law that states teachers must teach about homosexuality as part of the curriculum starting 1/1/12.  And, there is so much other negative, sinful, darkness that is becoming more and more apparent in the public school.  (Granted, this darkness is becoming more and more prevalent where ever you go in society with the media, music, lack of parental discipline and convictions, school administrators liberalism, government, etc.)

So, whether to home school or private school… I think that needs to be an individual parents/family decision based on prayer, what God is leading the family to do, and what is available in their city.  This decision depends on what the father says is going to happen for his kids, what the mother is able to accomplish, what private school is available, what home school networking group is available.  There are plenty of pros and cons for any  aspect of these choices.  I know you will do your research.  Private Christian schools have plenty of negative/worldly influences along with the chapel and Bible teaching throughout the day.  Home school children need to have a network of friends and classes to attend outside the home when a parent is not able to teach “up to par.”  (For example, I cannot teach passed Geometry, as that is the highest level I had in High School .  Our local home school group has classes taught by a network of home school parents that can teach classes such as Trigonometry).

This is a VERY difficult decision.  I look up to Dr. James Dobson.  He has influenced me and encouraged me tremendously with my walk with the Lord and how involved I am with our community and country concerning government, media, and education.  Dr. Dobson is a strong advocate for Homeschooling your kids or sending them to a solid Christian School.  He believes all Christians need to be homeschooled or go to a Christian school because of how much indoctrination the public schools are pushing contrary to what we believe scripture says and that parents are the ones who need to be teaching their children.  This has been a difficult aspect for me but as I stated before, my kids are being the light at school.  I have a huge amount of examples to “prove” this point.  (It is sad that so many Christians have pulled their kids out of public schools because now what is left? Darkness.)

You can get a ton of information if you go to www.familytalk.org or www.focusonthefamily.org

I know this was a long answer to your question.  I pray all the time for my kids and husband.  The world is becoming more and more “dark.”  I long for our Lord’s second coming so we can be in Heaven with Him!

Thank you for thinking of me to wonder what my opinion is.  I hope my answer helps.

All for Him!

Sharon

(God commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Therefore, we are to be as concerned about our neighbor’s children as though they were our own. Our neighbor’s children need a light next to them to expose darkness.  I pray our children are that loving light. _Dan)

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