The third day
When Christians hear “the third day,” we think about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which happened on the third day. Today we’ll explore things that happened last year on the third day of the month. Get ready to read about tacos, a movie and the NAR.
Taco Casa day
Apparently, the third day of the month is Taco Casa Day at the Smythe house. On the third day of February, I was working late and Brandon asked me what I wanted for dinner. I asked for a taco salad from Taco Casa. On the third day of April, we went to Taco Casa and I got a chilada. On the third day of June? Yep. Another taco salad. And—last but not least—on the third day of November, Brandon and Logan were running errands and brought Taco Casa home for dinner.
Who knew we were such Taco Casa fans? Four times out of 12 months. Taco Casa fed us a third of the year on the third day. Now I’m chuckling. And, I must say, Taco Casa makes a great taco salad. They do not skimp on the meat.
Maybe our Taco Casa Day has something to do with the letter T. According to Dictionary.com, the word taco originated in the 1930s. T is for taco. T is for thirties. T is for third day. Hmmm. I’m typing this at 3:40 in the morning and apparently I have The Sillies going on.
What else happened on the third day last year?
Three prayers
Here are three of my favorite Third Day Prayer Ditties from last year.
May, August and November
On May 3, I texted: “Logan, my dear, you’re on my heart and mind today. When are your finals and any other things I can pray for specifically?” He called me. I wrote down the list and commenced to praying.
Three months later…
Thursday, August 3
Journal entry
Paula and Gail brought lunch [to St. Matt’s] for Kathleen and me, including homemade chicken salad. It was very good. Kathleen weighs less than 100 pounds. I talked with her about high fat/starchy foods that will help her. Lord, please strengthen my new mom! Amen.
And three months after that, on November 3, my new dog Marvin had a near-accident while I was driving us home from work. I journaled, Lord, I pray for your protection and favor! (Yes, I pray for my dog.)
The line
I opened this section with the expression “prayer ditties.” Make no mistake. Praying to God Almighty is vital—a communication line, a means of sweet communion, and a privilege purchased for God’s children by the blood of Jesus. Prayer changes things, builds our faith and activates the power of God.
Are you ready to experience the power of God through prayer? Read all six parts of The Prayer—and pray throughout your days.
Inspiration
At the end of The Prayer, part 1, I wrote about Psalm 91 and God’s protection. Psalm 91:3a will be the inspiration for much of today’s post.
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler….
Psalm 91:3a, World English Bible
“The fowler” is someone who hunts birds. Psalm 91:3a tells us that God will deliver us from the hunter’s traps. Who is the fowler—the hunter? Our adversary, the devil. He is the expert trapper who knows our individual habits, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. He knows how to frighten us, knock us down, hurt us, rob us, confuse us, seduce us, destroy us, kill us.
We’re at war. A spiritual war. Psalm 91:3a tells us that God is our deliverer.
When I read my journal entries for the third day of each month last year, did I notice anything about spiritual warfare? I sure did.
Spiritual warfare
The first example, from the third day of April, may not seem like spiritual warfare, but I’m hoping we can expand our perception in that area.
The wedding
Monday, April 3 (part 1)
Journal entry
Charlene and I had a good talk about Scott and Gracie’s wedding. It was beautiful and relaxed. Praise the Lord! She texted me some photos. Glorious.
Attacks
What in the world does a wedding have to do with spiritual warfare? Remember my Verse of Inspiration: “For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler…” (Psalm 91:3a, WEB).
Think about it this way. Does the devil like it when a man and a woman get married? No, he doesn’t. Is he happy when a man and a woman enter God’s covenant and embrace God’s design for marriage and family? Most definitely not. Will Satan and/or his minions attempt to attack this marriage? Absolutely. That’s what they do—steal, kill and destroy.
Preemptive strikes and counter-attacks
What we can do is pray for them—and for every marriage—that their marriage will honor and bring glory to God, that their lives will be filled with The Fruit of The Spirit, and that husband and wife will be sanctified—growing more and more like Christ. We can also pray for God to protect them and their marriage. For couples where one or both spouses aren’t yet Christians, we can pray fervently for their salvation.
Pray for marriages. Satan hates traditional marriage—one man and one woman—because God designed marriage for our good. Stable families come from stable marriages.
The devil tears down the nuclear family and our society by attacking marriages.
(At times, divorce is necessary, but it’s a destructive, traumatic experience. See the 8-part Grieving Divorce post for more.)
Believing the lies and bypassing the blessings
In addition to attacking marriages, the devil works tirelessly to keep people from marrying and having families in the first place. The same day Charlene and I talked about her son’s wedding, Brandon told me about some videos he saw.
Monday, April 3 (part 2)
Journal entry
He talked about how many career women in their 50s realize they made the wrong choices—no husband, no children, no family. Just their jobs—and no end in sight.
Did God know what he was doing when he created marriage and families? He sure did. Satan, The Deceiver, uses Hollywood, mainstream “news,” art, music, pornography, and every possible communication tool—plus indoctrination in public schools and liberal universities—to push his anti-marriage, anti-family agenda. And it works.
Until it doesn’t.
To dig into God’s plan for marriage and the devil’s destruction, read The Beauty of the Bible, part 5.
Thriving and single
What about adults who are single—by choice or not? How does the devil attack single adults? With discouragement, lies, distractions, accusations, fears, temptations, addictions, isolation/loneliness, sowing seeds of dissatisfaction—the same tricks and traps he and his minions use on married adults.
Are you single? Know this. Every Christian has been called, chosen and saved by Jesus Christ and has received the indwelt Holy Spirit. There are no second-class citizens or step-children in the family of God. Find a Bible-believing church and a life group where you can participate and experience the love of God. You are valued and needed in the family of God!
Listen to this excellent sermon called “Singleness” from October 2018. Consider exploring other sermons in the same series, called Making a Marriage.
Standing up to Satan
How can all Christians thwart attempted attacks by the devil and his minions? By putting on the armor of God daily and by living James 4:6-8—which is all about humbly submitting ourselves to God, drawing near to God, and resisting the devil. If you maintain a close relationship with God, you’re already humbly submitting and drawing near to him. To thwart the devil’s attacks, you must resist him.
How do we resist the devil? We say no! We call him out. We tell him to leave. We declare who we belong to—Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (If you forget to put on the armor of God, you can still very successfully resist the devil.)
Resisting the devil is actually an easy thing to do if we see and acknowledge what’s going on. And that, Peaceful Readers, is the tricky part. In part 2, I wrote about how I didn’t see or acknowledge the spiritual warfare going on with Pam, The Almighty until after she died. Read the section called Finally Seeing the Truth—Spiritual Warfare.
Was the subject of spiritual warfare evident on the third day of other months last year? Most definitely.
The movie
On the third day of May, Brandon and I went to see a highly-recommended movie called Nefarious. And it was all about spiritual warfare.
Wednesday, May 3
Journal entry
Brandon called me at work…. I asked him if we could go to see Nefarious tonight and he said yes. …Brandon had to fix something at work, so we left later than he’d hoped, but we made it just in time for the movie. It was incredible and extremely thought-provoking. We talked about it all the way home [—for 30 to 40 minutes]. The reality of spiritual warfare became much clearer for Brandon. He talked about Jesus and a video he saw with a priest explaining why the demons hated what Jesus did on the cross. They were totally duped/shocked. Thanks be to God!
To explore why Jesus was crucified and resurrected, drink in this post.
The DNFs and the NAR
The book
On the third day of September, I was enjoying my Writing Retreat. During one of my breaks, I read part of a book I received as a gift, even though I had serious misgivings about it. The previous month, I journaled, “I started reading The Awe of God by John Bevere. He misuses the Bible by using the Amplified Bible without clearly explaining it or showing with brackets what is and isn’t God’s holy word. I read the preface, intro and chapter 1. I’ve already written strong disagreements in the margins. This book will require very judicious, wise reading and sifting on my part. Lord, help me.”
One of the big red flags flew early in the book on page 6. Pastor Bevere claimed that we should embrace our fear of God as “our most prized treasure”—to which I vehemently disagreed and wrote in the margin: “Jesus is my most prized treasure.” When the schtick the allegedly-Christian author is pushing gets elevated above Jesus, there is something nefarious afoot. In fairly short order, the time came to stop reading it altogether. The Awe of God became my first of three DNFs for the year—books I tossed in the proverbial Did Not Finish pile. Peaceful Reader, do not read this book or anything written by the popular Beveres. Why not?
The NAR
The very next month, God answered my “Lord, help me” prayer when I learned about the NAR—the New Apostolic Reformation. Read this important GotQuestions.org article: “What is the New Apostolic Reformation?”
How did I find out about the NAR? John Bevere’s wife, Lisa, was booked to speak at a big local church—one that’s affectionately called Six Flags Over Jesus. A lady in our life group—I’ll call her Rachel—was exceedingly unhappy about it. She used to go to church there. My talk with Rachel as we walked from our life group to the worship center alerted me to important things I needed to study—namely, the NAR.
Self-proclaimed apostles and other heresies
Leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation call themselves apostles, which is heresy; they elevate their personal “revelations” over God’s word; and they push mysticism, including non-biblical teachings about demons. Basically, they use lies, false prophesies and scare tactics to control people and become rich. Their heresy goes like this: “The Bible is nice, but my personal, direct revelations from God are better. Listen to and obey me. What I’m offering you is a new thing from God. The Bible is old. Buy my books in the lobby.”
John and Lisa Bevere are popular peeps in the NAR circle. They talk a good game. Beware.
Watch this important video by Doreen Virtue, with special guest Dave Jenkins, about the Beveres, The Passion “translation” of the Bible, the impossibility of a Christian being demon-possessed, and more. Watch the whole video. You will learn a lot.
Purging the house
Are you wondering if your favorite “Christian” author, preacher or conference speaker belongs to this group and is actually a false prophet who leads people astray? See NAR Connections to find out who belongs to this group. Some of the names may surprise you. I used to listen to a couple preachers on this list.
I ended last year, on December 31, throwing away books by popular, supposedly-Christian authors who are on this list. I purged our house. Is it time for you to do the same? I challenge you today. Reference the list on NAR Connections. Purge. Your. House. False prophets are liars who lead people away from Jesus.
What does the Bible say about false gospels? See Galatians 1:6-10. What does the Bible say about false prophets? See 2 Peter 2:1-3.
The big dog and the cancellation
Speaking of false prophets, let’s take a short trip to California. One of the biggest players in the NAR is Bill Johnson at Bethel Church in Redding, California. Bethel pumps out a lot of today’s popular Christian music. What’s the problem—other than this NAR stuff? They’re satanic.
Sit down and watch this video in its entirety. Be prepared to be shocked and to make some serious edits to your Christian music playlist. I sent the video to the Someone Cares leadership team, recommending that all Bethel music be cut from our retreats and small groups, and the team agreed. Bye-bye, Bethel.
The other DNFs
The key number in today’s post is the number three. How many books did I toss last year without finishing them? You got it—three. The first one was The Awe of God. ’Nuff said. The second one was highly recommended by Molly in our life group: Pigs in the Parlor. It was written by a Pentecostal preacher who declared definitively that every person is demon-possessed and needs deliverance—including babies. Excuse me? That’s a Triple-H: Horrible Heretical Hogwash. To understand these disturbing teachings a little more, click here and scroll down to the 2004 review by Robert M. Bowman, Jr.—very well written, with helpful details. Also, the Doreen Virtue/Dave Jenkins podcast referenced above addresses demon possession very well.
Last but not least on my DNF list—Did Not Finish? The Midnight Library, a popular New York Times Bestseller recommended and loaned to me by a friend. This book glamorizes suicide and is categorically depressing. Talk about pushing the fatalistic, post-modern narrative: Depression, alcoholism, suicide, homosexuality, infidelity, divorce. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I stopped reading at 80-something pages and regretted reading that much. Trash. I returned the book to my friend at St. Matt’s and told her how much I hated it.
Heavy sigh.
God’s protection
I give all glory and gratitude to the Lord for protecting me from the heresies and lies in these books and the NAR movement—through the still, small voice; through the truth of his word; through the power of his presence and guidance.
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler….
Psalm 91:3a, World English Bible
The baby’s charm
On the third day of October, I ate dinner with Summer. Her daughter-in-law put a piece of jewelry—a charm—on their baby to protect him. Uh-oh. That’s a no-no. Read this GotQuestions.org article about charms. Summer asked her daughter-in-law about it and we discussed her plans to follow up on it with her son and daughter-in-law.
False teachings, occult practices—like amulets and charms—and idols abound. Be vigilant. Purge. Your. House. (And your jewelry box, if needed.)
St. Patrick’s breastplate prayer
Let’s close out today’s post with a powerful prayer. I think you’ll be sincerely blessed.
New priest and new understanding
On the third day of February, I found out that my boss, Father Ben, was retiring in the summer. The new St. Matt’s priest, Father Daniel—a devoted man of God—asked me to prepare a booklet of St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer. I didn’t really know anything about St. Patrick other than the childhood tradition: “We wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.” I read this enlightening online biography while I was writing this post. I highly recommend it.
The devil’s replacements
Modern-day parades and partying do not honor St. Patrick rightly, and are—frankly—a disgrace. A brave man of God who impacted a nation for Jesus Christ has been reduced to green beer and raucous drinking. I’ll refrain from going off on bunnies, eggs and chocolate taking over Easter, and Santa Claus taking over Christmas, but you know what I mean. These holiday hijackings are the devil’s replacements.
A new way on St. Patrick’s day
We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this Sunday, on March 17. Will you read St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer out loud that day? Consider making St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer your new St. Patrick’s Day family tradition. Replace the world’s sinful celebrations with the privilege of prayer and the virtues of honor and humility.
St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer reveals the dangers he faced and his utter reliance on the Lord. When you read St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer in combination with his biography, which includes being kidnapped as a teenager and placed in extreme isolation as a slave shepherd, you’ll appreciate the prayer in a new and deep way.
I can’t think of a better way to end this post on spiritual warfare. Thank you, Father Daniel.
Coming next: Today’s post surprised me. The next one will be a surprise too. Translation: “I don’t have the foggiest idea what I’ll be writing about next.” Come back soon.
Thanks for reading and for Choosing Peace.
Truth from The Word: John 3:33-36
Song: “Blessed Assurance” by CAIN, with David Leonard
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