Peach says: last week Batman and I were doing our thing of sitting in our lawn chairs and enjoying the evening light and summer sounds. We had certain birds coming ’round that were so fun to watch!
In watching the birds, Batman told me about mockingbirds and how they will fluff up their wings to make a shadow on the ground to scare up critters. It reminded me of a verse I had heard the previous day, with regards to how the enemy of our souls will work to put us off our game. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8.
A Bible teacher that has been a great blessing to me is Joseph Prince, and he will often remind us that the devil may sound like a lion…but Jesus has made him toothless!! It is good to remember to be strong in the Lord and to be CONFIDENT in Him as well! He has indeed crushed the enemy! “13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” – Colossians 2:13-15.
And while the enemy of our souls seeks to whisper condemnation in our ears, oh so subtly, and then when that doesn’t work, will roar fearful thoughts in the middle of the night or on the job, in traffic, or just about anytime, and then! Then the cares of life can come rushing in, squeezing our peace out. Crowding out our thoughts of gratitude and praise, suffocating our logic, our wisdom and even our joy.
I would say one of our enemy’s primary mantras would be “Distract, Divide, Destroy”. Tonight we are considering his efforts to distract, to BLUFF, if you will. 
It brings to mind a trite saying, but, trite sayings are often a ‘thing’ because there’s so much truth there, “FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real”. On several occasions I have talked with my friends in the faith, about how most things we dread NEVER happen, and nothing we dread is ever as bad or often, very often, not even bad at all. We waste essential time and emotional energy torturing ourselves for no reason. Not to say bad things don’t happen in this life. On the contrary, they will, and He will bring us all the way through, and better than we went in. In the meantime, as good soldiers in faith, in this thing called life and the here and now, we are to remember He is not the author of confusion, and also — “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.“ – 2 Timothy 1:7. In Him we live an move and have our being, He is never far from us, what have we to fear?
Trust me, I have these talks with myself often! It’s just recently He has been highlighting certain verses for me to point out that we unnecessarily fall for the bluff at times, and as Ephesians 5 reminds us, we are to ‘redeem the times, for the days are evil‘. I like to think of that as doing double time, making the most of our opportunities, and not falling for the toothless bluffer, or the cares of this world! Instead, I want to run this race of faith and life, side by side with my Batman!! –> “…And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.” –– Hebrews 12:1b-4.
How about it? Wanna come?
Says Peach: Nope! That’s not Common Core!! It’s the beautiful mystery of the mathematic principal of marriage!! One of the reasons we are doing this blog, is we have been extremely blessed to enjoy a whole lot of love, life and years together. Wouldn’t have been possible without Jesus. Plain and simple and no apologies for saying so. And in a world where marriage is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly put off until later, we hope to occasionally throw out some insight on the benefits of sticking together, being forgiving, being kind to each other, having each other’s backs, being creative at loving and serving one another, being each other’s advocate, cheer leader, comic support! Marriage will never not be a sacred gift from God, to help us and equip us to to do this thing called life!! “Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9
The Adventures and Musings of Peach and Batman 