Faith Under Fire

The Watchman discusses how his faith has come under fire recently and how he and his wife stood firm in their faith through the battles.

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Transcript

026 Faith Under Fire

Welcome to the Watchman Speaks. I’m your host, Lonnie Richardson. 

Last week I shared with you about the month of Tammuz and the attacks brought about by the enemy and his minions during this time. Remember? I warned you to hold tightly to God in your worship and praise, or you might find yourself polishing a golden calf. Well, here’s the rest of the truth or the truth in whole. Even when you hold tight to God in your worship and praise, the attacks will come. Notice that I said worship and praise, in that order. There is order. A lot of praise leaders will get the two mixed up and place praise before worship. It’s no wonder, their job is to lead the body of Christ into praise. Worship, on the other hand, is a responsibility that is yours alone. While I’m thinking about it initiating praise on your own during the days that you’re not sitting in a church service would probably be a good idea too. 

If you fail to do that, particularly during this season, you may find yourself bowing to the storm or polishing a golden calf. 

What am I talking about?

On Friday, June 16 of this year my lovely wife underwent retinal surgery to correct a “fold” in her retina. That fold was smoothed out and a bubble of gaseous material was injected into her eye to hold the retina in its proper place. She underwent this surgical process prayerfully and trusting in God’s providence. That’s when the attack came. That’s when things went south, quickly.

The intraocular pressure, the pressure within the eye itself, began to rise sharply in the affected eye on Saturday. Saturday night the pressure caused headaches in migraine proportions which caused vomiting. This continued throughout the night.

On Sunday, Fathers Day, I contacted her surgeon who agreed to meet us in his office within the hour. There, she received two injections into the eye and another needle to withdraw some of the gas from the bubble that had been injected during surgery two days earlier on Friday. We returned home but we saw only minimal improvement.

We returned to the Doctor’s office on Tuesday. The intraocular pressure was still two and a half times greater than normal and the pain and nausea that she was suffering was still ever present. 

Three new perscriptions were added to the four already in the regimen. She returned to the Surgeon’s office on Thursday for follow up and possibly an additional surgical procedure. For a fact, the ocular pressure was now three times the normal range and the surgeon sent her immediately into surgery again. When she came out of surgery she was no longer feeling the pain of increased intra-ocular pressure. There was some soreness and bruising but no pain, no headaches, no nausea. By Friday morning when we went for post op screening number 2 her appetite had begun to return. Thankfully.

Over the past eight days she had lost 8 pounds. She is a little woman. Unlike me, she doesn’t have 8 pounds to spare. But she is eating. She was beginning to get some of her strength back. Now, the vision part is what we’re waiting on. I believe that it will return to complete restoration. We’ll have to wait still longer to find out.

Now. Do I enjoy seeing my wife in excruciating pain that causes nausea and vomiting? During the course of 7 days she had lost  8 pounds. Do you think that I, in any way, enjoy seeing that? No, I do not. I recognize it for what it is. It is an attack by Satan to steal my joy, kill my resolve, and destroy my faith. He knows that I hate seeing my wife or my family in pain. It breaks my heart. Their anguish is my anguish. His purpose is to convince me that God is powerless to help me or them. IF he can destroy my faith and my hope, he has won the battle. So, why is God punishing my wife with this cruel and painful malady?

God is not punishing my wife. She has been attacked by an enemy to weaken or destroy the resolve that we have in our faith. 

I am reminded of Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Did you catch that? ALL things work together FOR GOOD to those WHO LOVE GOD, to those who are CALLED according to HIS purpose. Remember that, for His purpose, not ours.

What does that mean?

Well, what if you are called to do something that is exceedingly difficult if not impossible? IF the faith required to do that difficult something, or the impossible, is not strong, then the mission a person was called to for His purpose is likely to fail. Such is the case that we see in Job when God set Job as an example to prove the devil wrong. Remember? The devil said, basically, of course Job loved and obeyed God because God had given him much. God said that Job would love HIM and obey HIM even if Job had nothing. And, such was the case.

Cheryl and I have faced a good many difficult battles. I’ve given a summary and review of some of those battles in the past three episodes of The Watchman Speaks. If you missed the summation of those battles, go back and listen to them. I see no need to recount them here.

So what does all this mean?

Through the pain, discomfort, and uncertainty I have never ceased worshipping and praising God. I continue being faithful knowing that He too, will remain faithful. Things look dismal at this particular time, but I know that God has never left us. We will sail through these stormy seas in faith that God is still with us. Period. No other option considered. 

I have not diminished my time in prayer, worship, and praise. I have increased it! I WILL NOT BOW TO THE STORM OR THE BATTLE! My God is greater than the battle and He is certainly greater than the storm. As I said last week, when Jesus spoke to the storm and calmed the wind he asked the question, “Are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

No, my faith has substance, substance in the hope that is as yet unseen. This situation with Cheryl and her eye will pass. It may pass when I want it to or the way that I want it to. But it will pass. It will pass and we will be stronger to achieve His purpose according His calling. 

Sometimes waiting is hard. We get frustrated. We become afraid. We get impatient. We decide that God is powerless or isn’t listening and we try to fix things ourselves. I understand the predicament. But to stand firm in place with your feet planted takes discipline and resolve. Really, when I think about it, it’s easy. But at the same time, it’s hard. At some point in time you have to let go and let God be God.

Another case in point. Take this podcast for instance. If you had told me three years ago that I’d be doing a weekly podcast sharing God’s Word and how I study His Word I’d laughed in your face. First, I didn’t have the hardware. I didn’t have a computer that would serve the necessary needs to produce a podcast. I didn’t have the sound board or microphones or the software for that matter. On top of all that, I simply did not have the knowledge to achieve such a thing. Ahhhh, but God. God miraculously provided for all those things to be obtained for His purpose.

I admit, I didn’t see it at first. Initially, I saw those purchases as a means to accomplish other projects that I wanted to accomplish. And, those projects, some of them, have been accomplished. But the idea of a podcast kept lingering and growing in urgency. I argued with God over the matter. “No one will listen to it! No one, even a lot of preachers are going to want to dig into Your Word for understanding, knowledge, and wisdom!” 

Looking back I see that I was, to some extent, correct. It was something that I was initially ill prepared to do. And I’m not peddling the idea that I have more understanding, knowledge, and wisdom than most people. I can say that the study I have partaken in has greatly enriched my life in that forgotten understanding, knowledge, and wisdom have been brought to light that I have never heard coming out of any pulpit.

“I’ll never be able to sustain such an undertaking.” I argued. Well, this is the 26th episode and there is no indication that things are going to slow down any time soon. Many has been the time, thus far, that the next episode was due the next day and I had nothing to share. Then, in the final hours, The Holy Spirit of the Living God would awaken me and direct me in what was to be shared.

Doing research, I can see that many podcasts die within the first thirty episodes. Looking further still, a great many succumb within the first fifty episodes. So, I still have a way to go it seems. However I have made it further than many others. Why? Because they did not get the recognition that they thought they should get, or they simply ran out of steam. I, personally, do not worry about recognition or fame. No, Cheryl and I are spending the money out of our pocket to get this done. But we remind ourselves constantly that it is God who put that money in our pockets. God did not call us to be famous. He called us to be faithful.

The Watchman Speaks is not breaking any records in its growth. Not yet anyway. It is our contention that if what is conveyed here helps one person, just one, then the expense in time, effort, and financial expenditure is worth it. Just one more.

Oh I’ve had offers of financial assistance from outside sources. However, they required that I submit a plan of monetization and marketing to them first. Well, as I’ve said, this is not what I’d planned, and I have no intention of monetizing and marketing. Holy Spirit is fully capable of bringing whom He deems appropriate to bring. That, in my opinion, is where a lot of churches fail. The Gospel is the gospel. The gospel doesn’t change. Yet churches think that they can present the gospel in a way that is…..more….palatable and draw more people. In doing so they develop programs and presentations that draw people to the program and style of presentation instead of drawing people to the gospel. Oh, yeah, they sometimes twist the gospel within the program, the series, or the presentation. Not good. 

To maintain resolve and perseverance requires faith in the source of initiation. The source of initiation for this podcast is a personal calling. It takes time, prayer, work, equipment, and faithfulness. In reality it’s really quite easy, but it’s hard.

I get a lot of flak and criticism at times. Even from the beginning, I’ve been referred to as an “Old Testament geek”. I study languages. I study words, cultures, customs and traditions. I sound the shofar. I occasionally wear a tallit or prayer shawl. Just today, a couple hours before I began writing this podcast, I received a new tallit that Cheryl had ordered for me prior to her surgery for Fathers Day. It is beautiful, handwoven by a tallit maker in Jerusalem. I’ve been called everything from “Sir Lawrence Olivier” to “a jew boy wannabe” for sounding the shofar and wearing a shawl. It requires a thick skin in this society to do so. Yet that is part of my calling and I will be faithful to the calling. I pray for those who dismiss what I’m doing or ridicule me in their ignorance and lack of understanding. John the Baptist was dismissed by religious leaders because he was different.

Why do I say that? Because it’s true! Listen, the more I understand what transpired in the Old Testament, the better I understand the New Testament. Usually, what I find playing out in the Old Testament, I still see playing out in the New Testament however, I should add that in many cases it is manifesting in a reverse order than it did so in the Old Testament. Understanding what God said in context with the people that His word was delivered to is vastly different, in most instances than the way “what God said” is portrayed or conveyed today. Vastly different. Very few want to hear that.

Which brings me to my next point. Outright rejection. 

Occasionally, I’ll post something on a social media platform or add to a conversation. Many times, I get blasted for my blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy. Am I continuously wrong? I don’t believe that I am. Mostly I get comments from students correcting me on how I “interpret” Scripture. I am certain that I am quite correct on that point. First of all, I do not believe that Scripture needs to be “interpreted”.  I believe that Scripture is truth. Truth is truth and has no need to be interpreted. When you “interpret truth” you twist the truth making it subjective instead of objective. In doing so, one can make the “truth” anything that they want it to be. Such is the danger of interpretation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, “Well, we just interpret the Scriptures differently.” I can certainly agree with that. 

I even had one young man simply reply, “You are merely delving into semantics.”

Semantics? Really? Let’s look at the definition of semantics according to Oxford’s Language Dictionary.

Semantics is a branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. 

There is formal semantics which is the study of logical aspects of meaning such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form. 

There is lexical semantics which is the study of word meanings  and word relations.

There is Conceptual semantics which is the study of the cognitive structure of meaning.

Simply put, semantics has to do with the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text. 

So, when I’m referencing a word, phrase, sentence, or text, you’d better believe I want to know what each word means whether it’s from Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Not only do I want to know what those words mean I want to know what they meant in the context in which they were given.  I’m talking about Scripture. 

That requires understanding of the culture, the history, and circumstances of the time and the people to whom those words were delivered. Without that, one can assign an English interpretation however they choose. Which leads into another problem that I’ve run into within our current society. 

New words, phrases, and meanings of those words and phrases have taken a new life within certain groups and organizations of the time. New definitions and meanings are being applied to and are over lapping old definitions and meanings of old words and phrases, greatly watering down the meanings of words and phrases to mean anything anyone wants to apply to their narrative. Dangerous stuff that. 

Why is it dangerous? Well, how about the fact that no one knows, with any certainty, what anyone else is talking about. When words have a diversity of meaning or an ill-conceived structure of application, one can defy truth with their own subjective views because what is being said is not what is being conveyed. It is a source of deception.

Does anyone remember who Karl Marx was? How about a foundational figure in communism and fascism. Karl Marx once said, “He who controls definitions has the power.” Anyone from the baby boomer generation should have clarity of understanding in that statement. The rest of you who do not know Karl Marx, go study your history. 

So, do I delve into semantics? Better believe it. Understand also that I delve into many other aspects such as culture, heritage, customs, tradition, and the Scripture itself. Few care to put that much effort into finding out, “What did God say?” Most times I hear, “I don’t believe that. I believe this.” However, when asked to convey why they do not believe “that” or why they believe “this”, they are incapable of defending what they believe or they unable to define with any clarity what they believe. 

It is discouraging. Frustrating. Heartbreaking. Anguishing. Kinda like watching your wife suffer in pain. Still, I continue to worship and praise God for He has been faithful to us. 

Storms in life are coming. Trials are coming. Your faith will be tested again and again. Not necessarily by God, but by the adversary leading you to think that God is testing you. The devil will lead you to believe that God is powerless in your current situation. The devil will lead you to wonder if God is hearing your prayers, receiving your worship and praise. The devil will attempt to convince you that there is no God. If that happens, you lose and the devil wins. 

To overcome requires faith that God is God. Not faith in yourself. Not faith in a president or potential president. Not faith in some preacher preaching prosperity and life on easy street. Faith in God, our Savior Jesus, and Holy Spirit. You are called to fulfill His purpose not yours. Do you have the faith and perseverance to fulfill that purpose? Do you truly love God and His purpose for your life?

Recently, in regard to Cheryl’s dilemma with her eye surgery, our faith is being tested. It is not the first time it has been tested, nor do I suspect that it will be the last. My faith is being tested in producing this podcast. I am tested and challenged almost at every turn. I hear people say that it’ll never amount to anything. I hear people say that I’m wasting my time and effort. I hear people say that I’m not who or what I think I am. 

For all those naysayers let me say, “I do not believe what I think or what your think. I believe what I KNOW.”

I know that faith will be challenged. How do I know? Because greater men than I ever will be, have had their faith challenged throughout the entirety of the Bible. Yet, they stood by their faith. They stood firm in what they knew. That’s not to say that they fully understood what they knew or fully understood the promises that were to come. But they stood firm and could not be swayed from their faith.

Listen. My faith and Cheryl’s faith have come under fire recently. We recall how three Hebrew young men stood in the fire with a fourth that walked in the fire with them. Alone, that fire gets hot. But we are not alone for the fourth person is with us yesterday, today, and forever.

If you think or believe that your life as a Christian or even as a non-believer is going to be easy. Think again. It seems that it’s easy for others and others may have it easier than you do.

Jesus said unto Peter when Peter asked him about John, “what is that to you?” Peter had his road to walk just as John did. Just as I do. Just as you do. 

As I am writing my notes I am unable to tell you how things will pan out for Cheryl and me during the next several days or weeks. I can tell you that our faith is unshakable in spite of what we are experiencing, seeing, and hearing in the physical realm. Our mettle, our character, is being forged, tempered, strengthened, and sharpened. But for what?

To see the manifesting of God’s power in fulfilling our purpose for His plan. Without that kind of faith, we cannot fulfill that purpose. Without that kind of faith, we cannot please Him.

I expected the attack that I’m seeing manifest against my wife. Why? It’s the fourth month of Tammuz. It is a month in which attacks come regularly in God’s word. I cling to our faith worshipping God and giving Him praise even through this battle that she is facing, that we are facing together. I don’t have enough faith to polish a golden calf.

So I ask you in closing, “What kind of faith do you have? Do you have the faith to face the strongest storms or the fiercest battles? Or, Is your faith untempered, soft, and weakened so that you’ll turn from that faith and seek your own golden calf? 

It’s just a question.

I am The Old Watchman, Ezekiel. Again, concerning faith, you have been warned. 

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