“Surprised” or “Relieved” to find yourself FINALLY in the battle?

“For we do not battle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

 - Ephesians 6:12 -

You proclaim to be Christian. Then, like it or not, you are in a battle - a war. "THE" War.

You may try to ride out the war in isolation but God will eventually have you out on the field. You are going to draw fire. Trials and tribulations will assail you.

Job was  a good man who trusted and honored God. All he had - family, wealth, legacy - was taken away from Job in a very breath-taking way. Job was rocked and broken by the experience, yet Job leaned into God in the trial to understand. His trust did not waver in the trial. You and I experience Job "moments" all the time. Perhaps you didn't recognize them for what they were, but they were trials and setbacks that were opportunities to exercise your faith and trust in God. Your sphere of influence, however small you may think it is, was watching your behavior through your trial. Did it honor God? Did you rejoice in HIS faithfulness on the other end of the trial? Or did you simply lament and feel sorry for yourself and shake your puny fists at God? Keep reading - it gets better.

Take courage from scripture which is full of encouragement in trials, against fear, against doubt, against trepidation.

Try: James 1:2-5, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Or try this corollary portion from Romans 5:2-8, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

And what is "hope"? Hope is to cherish a desire with expectation of fulfillment.

My desire is to be used by God in the battle. I cherish that desire with expectation of its fulfillment. Warriors are familiar with hardship and struggle risk and pain. They know fear. They experience the spirit of fear but they practice courage. They prepare and they await orders. They exercise restraint. Their actions are deliberate. They are familiar with pain and trial and tribulation and waiting. Such are familiar companions in their life of overcoming.

Victorious warriors also know preparation. They visualize their battles. They anticipate enemy moves and prepare. They practice. They know their doctrines and they know what they are fighting for. They know the heart of their commander and they know the goal. They also ask themselves this question often and in the heat of battles, “What would my commander do and want me to do in this situation?” Victorious warriors carry their commander with them into battle. Their commander is on their mind, in their heart. They are in constant communication with their commander.

The truth is, if you are drawing fire from the enemy, you are on the right side. Drawing fire is proof of relevance. If you are not a threat to your adversary you will be passed by. If you are under attack you have the power of Almighty God, the Creator of the universe – WITH YOU!

I want to share some extraordinary statements made by military men that epitomize the heart of a winning warrior.

Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller, United States Marine Corps. Born in 1898, General Puller served in may wars and military campaigns around the world. He is considered the ultimate "Marine’s Marine". Perhaps most notable are his exploits during the Korean War (1950-1953).

On being surrounded by an overwhelming enemy assault Puller was reported to have communicated this: “All right. They’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re right in front of us, they’re behind us … they can’t get away this time. Now we can shoot at those b@%&!!s from every direction."

During the gruesome Korean War battle of Chosin Reservoir, Puller led a historic breakout from an overwhelming invasion of Chinese forces with remarks like this one, “Retreat hell! We’re attacking in a different direction.”

At a recent military conference held in California a seasoned veteran addressed the topic of Warfighting Readiness and "How to win in a gun fight" and reported on information from interviews with both "winners" and "surviving losers" of military combat scenarios.

Surviving losers, apparently, recalled having been overcome by this common thought in the midst of the fight, "they couldn't believe they were in this situation ..."

Winners, on the other hand, had the common recollection of being overcome by this thought, “a sense that they were 'FINALLY' in this situation ..."

Maybe you played sports and you recall contests in which you felt each of those sentiments. Maybe you have been in a real military battle and you know what that is all about. Maybe you are a soldier of God and you have experienced this.

The point is this; The relevance of your walk will be marked by your encounters with conflict.

In the midst of the hardship, in the midst of the encounter with conflict, in the midst of adversity; As for me and my house, I want to be overcome by the feeling that we are 'FINALLY' in this situation ..."

Guidance on preparation for battle is everywhere in the Bible. Here are but a few examples:

·         2 Chronicles 20:17

·         Psalm 27:3

·         Deuteronomy 31:6

·         Joshua 1:9

·         1 John 4:4

·         1 Peter 5:8-9

·         Zechariah 4:6

·         Isaiah 54:17

·         Romans 8:31

·         Isaiah 42:13

·         2 Thessalonians 3:3

·         Ephesians 6:10-18

·         Proverbs 27:17

·         Psalm 66:10-12

Forward – march!

Blessings,

Bill

Five Disturbing Questions

Take a moment and pause to consider these five questions;

1)      What have you been doing or are you doing for God?
2)      What have you been or are you doing with God?
3)      Which of the two has power and is bearing fruit?
4)      In which do you sense GOD’s pleasure or YOUR pleasure?
5)      In which do you experience the greatest frustration?

As you ponder, do you ever wonder if God is not even noticing what you have been doing FOR Him? Yes – that GOD MAY NOT BE NOTICING?

How many times have you heard it preached that God is the God of ALL resources? He does not need your offering. He does not need anything. He is in the business of providing for need. Matthew 6:8, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

What God wants is our hearts!

We can never forget what it is to have been lost and to have been found! God pursued US! Not the other way around. His Holy Spirit hounded us and God orchestrated the circumstances of our lives which brought us to the end of ourselves until we resorted to Him who was there all along loving us. All we ever had to bring to Him was our hearts.

Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is GOD which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (KJV)

All we can do is yield to Him, His will and His doing. This is a hard thing to hear. We want control, sense of accomplishment – a measure of credit. We have our pride.

Several recent conversations and moments of personal reflection on Christian leadership had me coining the following phrase; “Leaders often confuse the intersection of personal ambition and the coincidence of an opportunity with inspired vision or a prompt from God."

Truly divine inspired vision only comes from outside; not from one’s own self-interest or notions of progress or success.

The older I get the more I experience the same frustrating outcomes for many of my efforts. I also see this in others around me of less experience. Less experienced does not necessarily imply younger. There are many older than I who have not learned from their experiences and so they get to experience the same outcomes again and again. And even at my age I am destined to experience again and again what I refuse to learn. This is the beginning of wisdom.

There is a form of obstinance in proud people that reveals the true condition of their heart. I think it was Thomas Edison who said that insanity is doing things that same way and expecting a different outcome. Some of our brethren never gain from their experiences. Experience is only good if one learns from it. That requires humility and the selflessness of a truly receptive and submitted student. Live long, bend not enough to the will of God and you will certainly experience things over and over again. Ecclesiastes strikes again! “Ground Hog Day” – the movie ….

Coincidental to my musing on this topic, Peter Scazzero (see: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and Emotionally Healthy Leadership) recently wrote the following in one of his email broadcasts promoting a podcast: “As people who lead in the name of Jesus, we are not to enter every open door or seize every new opportunity. Why? Doing so prematurely, i.e. outside of God’s timetable, damages both ourselves and his long-term kingdom mission in the world. We see this in biblical examples such as Jesus’ limits on the authority of the Twelve as he discipled them as well and the seven sons of Sceva’s premature attempt to drive out evil spirits for Jesus without a life with Jesus.”  Scazzero goes on to note that “exercising a role of leadership for Jesus is weighty”. It should be troubling to us.

And that brings me to the subject of this piece: What are you doing “for” God and what are you doing “with” God? How many times has the world mocked your efforts “for” God with words of rebuke similar to the words spoken by that evil spirit in Acts 19:15, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are YOU!” before beating you up and sending you fleeing away naked.

What we do FOR God may come from a place of pride within us that revels in self-accomplishment or a sense of competition with others whom we observe around us. Such is apart from God. We are to run our own race that God has set before us. Like every other counterfeit god or altar we set up for ourselves, no peace is ever derived from such a competitive spirit. We look around at others. We compare. We observe an individual in their calling and witness their joy and we compare. Then we strive. It has been said that comparison is the killer of peace. There is a fine line between “doing for” and “doing with”. It has to do with the condition of one’s heart.

As this year comes to a close and I consider the year ahead I am going to be more deliberate to incorporate a more submissive spirit to my goal setting and ambitions for what lies ahead. It is beginning to occur to me that I will sense God’s pleasure more in the things that I undertake that HE prompts, that HE guides and that HE provisions. This is going to be hard to do because I was raised and my life has always been predicated upon action, accomplishment and doing. Faith without works is surely dead as James so urgently professes in his epistle. But there is an order or sequence to works that involves God’s instigation and God’s power that my heart needs to more fully embrace with greater expectation of a joy and contentment in the "doing" part that I have only occasionally experienced.

And to Jesus Christ be all the credit and all the power and all the glory.

Blessings,

Bill  

The Bridge of Compromise called Syncretism

So what is “syncretism”?

In terms of faith, Wikipedia defines the word thus, “Syncretism is the combining (amalgamation) of different beliefs, while blending practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths.”

In essence, syncretism involves the watering down, adding to and/or deleting from in order to merge with popular or traditional norms.

Point: Christianity is inclusive in that God the Father, who created all of mankind, loves all of His creation, desires and invites ALL into fellowship with Him and expressed that love through His Son Jesus Christ. Those who declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead enter into exclusive relationship with the exclusive True and Living God.

In a sense, syncretism of any faith effectively defeats it for what it is or any absolute truths inherent.

To the extent that they find themselves around non-believers, Christians experience pressure to syncretize at work, in social settings and at home. When the truth of the Bible encounters the world there is an immediate enmity and a struggle to maintain the purity of that truth against pressure to dilute, neutralize and eventually dissipate that truth to nothing. The world seeks to compromise the truths of Christian faith.

One must remember that the regenerated Christian is a sojourner in this world. No longer of this world he/she brings the Good News of the Gospel to the unregenerate. But he/she will always be met with pressure to dissipate the power and authenticity of that faith. It’s the essence of the angelic conflict through history and the reason why it is necessary that there be “Revivals” from time to time.

Throughout history Jewish and then Christian faith has fallen to the assault of worldly vs. Godly wisdom and influence - syncretism. The battle is about influence over our hearts and minds for the eternal destiny of our soul and the souls of others we might expose to the Truth.

In the battle our heart is at stake and we need to fortify ourselves to protect our heart.

Because of our Adam nature, we are all born as "world-pleasers". We tend to go passive.

Oh, if only Adam had rejected passivity in the Garden of Eden and spoken up when Eve was tempted with the deceit of the serpent. We are people pleasers. And so the battle for influence is easily lost once we begin to give in to the influence of the world and its systems of belief.

Question: Do you influence others for your faith or do they influence you?

Question: Do you go along to get along or are you willing to take a stand from time to time about some Biblical absolute and take some blow-back for it?

It is not easy and it is not for the faint of heart. That is why we band together and encourage one another, take in the Word of God and submit to the power and help of the Holy Spirit to walk our walk.    

Bridges span gaps. We build bridges to connect physically, emotionally, experientally and figuratively. But bridges are two-way thoroughfares – unless we make them carefully guarded drawbridges that check the dark influence of undermining dilution but allow the truth to sally forth into the darkness that surrounds. That dpen't mean we are always right in our own minds and that we walk around pointing fingers of judgement. That is God's domain. However, we can be listeners, sympathetic and servants of our fellow man without agreeing with their theology. Call it Clear-minded vs. Closed-minded. 

I’ve been reading R.C. Sproul’s book titled Willing To Believe (© 1997, Baker Books, Grand Rapids , MI). In his introduction (page 18) Sproul warns of what Robert Godfrey (the then President of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California) called “the myth of influence”. That myth is this; we believe/assume that as we interact with others that the only influencing force is us and that we can control the influence of others on us. This is hard if not impossible. The narrow walk is not popular. Wide is the way that leads to destruction and everyone is on that river of current. It’s so easy to get swept up and off into it. Our firm stand in the midst of that torrent takes deep roots of faith to hold.

Must we then isolate ourselves? Of course not. Such a statement is an accusation and an echo of our former unregenerate man calling us back. The world will certainly accuse us of asceticism and isolationism and even cult practice to lure us back. But a certain amount of isolation is in order.

Fellowship and separation in preparation and emersion in the Word are necessary. What army trains for battle in actively hostile enemy territory? We should surely guard our hearts with discernment and the slyness of a fox (Proverbs 4:23) for out of our hearts spring all the issues of life.

When we lower the drawbridge and sortie out to interact we should be suited up in our spiritual armor and also be mindful that it is us who are supposed to be doing the influencing (by our actions and by our words) and not the other way around. The fiery darts will abound every time we step out of the light into the present darkness of the earth.

The existential world system wants to count Jesus Christ as simply a good man, a rabbi perhaps, a deep thinker or a philosopher. They will compare Jesus, the Son of God to ordinary (albeit exceptional) men like Buddha. We may nod our head and smile so as not to offend – which is a mistake, a compromise of our faith.

Such is subtle and seemingly in-offensive on the surface. Such is syncretism. Be not mistaken -such offends the true and living God.

Like so many other mortal men who have gone to their graves never to return, Buddha had last words that are very telling about his true philosophy. Depending on the interpretation, Buddha is reported (by his own disciples) to have said the following just before his death;

"Behold, O monks, this is my advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

OR

“I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness.”

OR

“Think not for me. I am gone. Work out diligently your own salvation. Each one of you is just what I am. I am nothing but one of you. What I am today is what I made myself. Do your struggle and make yourselves what I am.”

I boil it down to this: “Strive without ceasing for your salvation.”

On the other hand … The last words spoken by Jesus Christ before He died on the cross are found in John 19:30  “It is finished.”

No mention of striving for one’s salvation anywhere to be found. Is that not GOOD NEWS? Is that not the BEST NEWS we could hope for?

Buddha was a deep thinker, a well-meaning, simple, humble man. Buddha is dead and remains dead.

Jesus Christ was (and is) God among us.

And we know that Jesus “did” speak again – because He rose from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then He ascended up to heaven where He now resides (alive) and prepares a place for those who are His and He will one day return to earth to claim what is His.

And when He returns, all knees “will” bow under the weight of His undeniable glory and all bridges of syncretism will be smashed.

Blessings,

Bill