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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 26, Issue 7
Healthy Homes & Families Natural, Biblical, Healthy Living The Lord Is My Banner By Chris McMahan Year-End 2025 On my way to church last Sunday, I hands.’ So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the a rallying point and a place to gather the troops for bat- tle. They identified the loca- tion of the commander and ‘banner’ over the battle on that historical day. This is why Moses gave our God this Name…The Lord is our
Under this banner, our King Jesus died to secure our freedom. Often we think that this freedom is only from the penalty of sin and death. While we, thankfully, are freed from this by Christ’s shed blood; we also are granted access to the freedom over the power of sin. Come under the Banner of the Lord today. It is there we rally with our Commander and King. It is there we find out direction. It is there we make plans to secure our victory. He is a Good King. He is a Good God. He will meet you under His Banner. He will deliver you from the Enemy. Will you come to the Banner with me? Will you rally under the loving care of Jehovah Nissi? The Lord is our Banner! Psalm 60: 4-5, “You have set up a banner for those who fear You that they may flee to it from the bow. That Your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by Your right hand and answer us!” Isaiah 11:10, “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.” Chris McMahan Email: Happy1970@icloud.com
top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under
Banner. He is our Banner, our Com- mander, our R a l l y i n g Place, our Di- rection Giver, our Re-router, our King, and our God. Je- hovah Nissi! My neigh- bor’s flags and the battle of the Israelites against the
passed my n e i g h b o r S t e v e ’ s
house. He’s a very patriotic guy and always has an American flag flying. Being thankful for my life, my country, my freedom, and the lives of those who bought that freedom…I al- ways love to see his flag a- flyin’. Well, on Sunday there was a new flag flying under Old Glory. A big white flag with one word written on it in decisive block letters… FREEDOM. As I drove past, the Holy Spirit spoke to me… “Jeho- vah Nissi…the Lord is your Banner.” This holy whisper prompted an image in my mind as I saw my spiritual freedom boldly declared as I came under the banner of my God. Jehovah Nissi is one of the names ascribed to God in the Old Testament. The Lord is our Banner. Exodus 17:8-15 The Amalekites Defeated, “The Amalekites came and at- tacked the Israelites at Re- phidim. Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my
him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up — one on one side, one on the other — so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this on a scroll as something to be remem- bered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.’ Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, ‘Because hands were lifted up against[a] the throne of the Lord,[b] the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to genera- tion.’” In past wartimes, a banner was a military flag that an army would raise as
where people should go for marching orders. In Exo- dus, Moses ascribes this Name to God after his su- pernatural victory over the Amalekites. Moses was up on a cliff, overlooking the battlefield where Joshua was fighting the enemy. When Moses, with the help of a couple of friends, had the staff of God raised up, the battle was being won by the Israelites. When Moses let his ‘banner’ down, the tables would turn in favor of the Amalekites. The staff of the Lord was Moses’ staff that the Lord used to perform miracles by in Egypt. It represents the work that is Divinely em- powered to break down strongholds in enemy terri- tory and bring a people to freedom. This was the
Amalekites both illustrate a supremely important truth in our lives as Christians. The Lord is our Banner. Under that Banner, we find freedom. We are not saved only to be kept from the flames of hell, but to be transferred into the King- dom of Heaven. Yes, there will be battles. Those battles will often be necessary for us to find true freedom in our walk. We have a Good Commander, Jehovah Nissi. Our victory is assured when we come under Him and His authority. We must choose to rally there and not try to find our own solutions to the things that hold us back from the fullness God de- sires us to live in. There was another banner on another hill in the Bible. It read, “King of the Jews.”
This is What I’ve Learned...
... From Little Things, Like Oranges!
By Layton Howerton Year-End 2025
things in life from my mother. My mother was raised on a farm in central Kentucky, and her her par- ents were poor, but like most depression era fam- ilies, they didn’t know it. For they had their land, their family, plenty of food to eat, and their devout trust and faith in God. Their family was woven to the earth and the earth was woven together by God. So season after season, crop after crop, what little they had, was prayed for, labored for, and thanked for, as part of God’s prov- idential provision.
She shook her head and said, “When I was a girl we only got them for Christmas. They were hard to come by in Woodford County, Ken- tucky. That’s what made them so special to your Aunt and I, each one was a precious gift.” You know, these days I never eat or even look at an orange, without think- ing and remembering, “Why, this is Mom’s Christmas present,” and I thank God that in the little things like an orange, I can most clearly see His handiwork: round like the
Oranges... I love oranges, any kind. Especially tangelos and tangerines. I love the way they smell. No matter where I am, or what time of year it is, they always smell like Christmas to me. It’s
the same way with pine trees, or any combi- nation of the colors red and green. They make me think of Christmas, and suddenly this warm feeling comes rushing back, along with those nostalgic Currier & Ives scenes of long ago…scenes of a simpler time, pictures that I used to look at when I was a child, that hung on the walls of my grandparents’ farmhouse…that now give me this intense longing for the way things used to be. Isn’t it odd how such common, little every- day things, like oranges can do that? How they possess the ability to touch something deep within us that calls us all, back home? So let me share with you, why oranges do that to me… As a boy, I learned to appreciate the little
I remember asking my mother once what she used to get for Christmas and I’ll never forget the smile on her face when she re- plied, “Oranges!!” “Oranges?” I said amazed…“Why that’s not a Christmas present, Mama! We have or- anges all the time!”
world, orange like a beautiful sunset, sweet like His love, and seeds that contain new life, all held in the palm of His hand. “For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” (Ephesians 5:9).
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