November 2017 Monthly Letter
Dear Reconciler Family,
My wife, Jannice and I have a flower garden in our back yard and one on the side of our house. They produce beautiful red, pink, yellow and white roses. I love cultivating, watering and watching them grow. This time of the year they are still growing but will soon be dormant and ready to be trimmed and set for winter. We also have a peach tree and a nectarine tree.
They all are very beautiful, but they have enemies such as birds, worms, weeds and other creatures like crows and buzzards. And unless I set up measures to comeback these “enemies,” they will strip the blossoms and fruit from the trees. So, I try to be a good steward and watch over the crop in order to preserve them. I learned this tactic as a boy in my family home in Greensboro, Alabama.
Recently, I even bought some weed killer to try to take care of my “burden.” But the “opposition” paid it no mind! I thought, this sounds familiar, like the way Satan works on us as children of God. We are warned by the scriptures to be careful and very aware of Satan. He uses many clever tricks in seeking to overthrow us and damage our relationship with God.
Let’s take a look at some passages in the Bible that warn us to always be on our guard so we will not be misled by the world and Satan. We have all the necessary tools to combat him and anything he throws our way! These passages tell us how to recognize the Spirit of God and Satan’s tactics.
In the Biblical passage of I John 4:1-3 we read: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have come out of the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
Scripture tells us in 1 John 4:4-6: “You dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”
Dear friends, isn’t it wonderful to know the real Christ and to realize that He loved us so dearly that He went to the cross for us? And we know he has overcome the power of the Devil and his “spiritual weeds.”
Thank you for your kind support over so many years. As we get closer to the end of the year would you please remember us as we are continually seeking to fulfill our financial obligations?
May God continue to bless and keep us! And may we always bask in His love and shun Satan and his evil tactics.
Love and peace,
