Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
In our neck of the woods, there are many loggers who will head out into the forest to harvest timber, both for lumber and pulp making. After the trees are felled, loggers will use a cable skidder, which basically looks like a giant heavy duty tractor with huge tires and a winch on the back. It will crawl slowly through the woods until it finds the next pile of timber that it needs to pull up to the landing area. The main winch cable is run out through the fairlead and connected to chokers, which are basically noose like cables that wrap around all of the logs. When they are ready, the skidder will winch them up tightly and begin pulling them all through the woods. But it has been claimed that one of the most dangerous aspects of running a cable skidder is getting struck by a cable if it decides to break when it is under extreme tension. Sometimes the timber can get caught on a stump, or move around expectedly, and with all of the extra pressure that is created, the cable can snap and lead to severe injuries or even death if you are struck by it.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
The wages of sin is death, which is why a Christian must repent and depart from iniquity. But just like a skidder cable, this world can put each of us under extreme tension, testing the strength of our convictions.and the limits of our endurance. God requires us to overcome this world, and although there are temptations lurking around every corner, we can always know that if we abide in Christ Jesus, and continue to walk according to the Truth, the cable of our faith will never break.
1 John 5:4 (KJB) For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Overcome is defined as defeating challenges or obstacles, or to gain victory and win. Some common synonyms include to conquer, beat, subdue, and vanquish. It is our faith in Christ Jesus that overcomes this world, so you have to understand what genuine faith really is. To possess faith in Christ is to have unwavering trust in Him along with the teachings of Holy Scripture, because Jesus is the Word of God made flesh!
John 1:14 (KJB) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
A lot of people don’t understand that genuine faith is characterized by not only conviction, but unwavering loyalty to the will of Christ Jesus. Loyalty is to have steadfast allegiance and faithfulness to a certain cause or person. It is to be completely committed and devoted to someone or something, and never ceasing to stand by their side. Consider a wife who violates the commandment of the Lord and departs from her husband. In that state, she is not only disloyal to her husband, but to Christ Jesus. Genuine faith in Him is going to result in loyal and humble obedience to the teachings of our faith, because if that never really happens, then you are only deceiving yourselves.
James 1:21-25 (KJB) Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Genuine faith will also result in perfect obedience to the will of God. Everyone who follows Jesus must follow his perfect example of obedience towards the Heavenly Father. Numerous people claim that you cannot be perfect, but that is a shameful attitude to possess, because you are not striving towards becoming something better than what you once were, and in my own mind, that is complete laziness. Jesus taught to go and sin no more, so those who are genuinely walking according to the faith are going to eventually overcome sin, and become blameless in His sight.
Hebrews 6:1 (KJB) Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Philippians 2:15 (KJB) That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
In order to overcome this world we must become blameless in God’s sight, and those who tell you that you can never become perfect have no understanding of the Christian faith at all. There are many tremendous musicians who have a far better understanding of what perfection means because they will practice every single day until they finally overcome any faults in their performance piece. This is the same attitude that you must possess if you are truly going to walk in the high calling of God.
Genesis 17:1 (KJB) And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
2 Peter 3:13-14 (KJB) Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
Like I was saying, a choker cable on a skidder can slip off of the logs and can result in injury or even death, which is why we must hold on tightly to the things that we have learned from the teachings of our faith.
Hebrews 2:1-3 (KJB) Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
We have grace available in Christ in order to repent of sins, but those who want eternal life will have to overcome all the things of this world.
1 Revelation 21:7 (KJV) He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
James 1:12 (KJB) Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
In order to overcome, each of us will need to be very careful about how we live our lives before the Lord Jesus, watching carefully so that we don’t get snagged upon all of the stumps in this world. We always want to make sure that we abide in the teachings of our faith so that we can get all the way to the landing of eternal life, just like pulling up another pile of timber with,….
…….The Cable Skidder
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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