"Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith." Galatians 6:7-10 (NLT)
Last night, I was honored to be in fellowship with some (well, okay….two to be exact) men that are on the journey of spiritual manhood, to put it simply. Taking up the sword and shield of the Army of God and standing to the battle line in this war for the souls of all mankind (PC-human kind). As is the case in physical warfare, as any solider will tell you, there is the illusion that you are fighting alone in the midst of the clamor of war. But you aren't.
Nor are we in the spiritual warfare that men were designed to fight, nor in the spiritual support that comes from women of faith. We were made for community, relationship, and better things than this world can give us in its current state.
Once again, God impressed upon me that I am not alone. Though the clamor of war barely reaches my ears as I struggle the foes that surround me, there are other warriors standing the line….fighting the only fight that has any meaning in this world. For souls, for faith, and for God.
I was given the opportunity to hold a real Scottish broadsword, like the one that Mel Gibson carries in the movie Braveheart. As the group leader pointed out, the sword doesn't have to be sharp to cause damage, the sheer weight of its blade can do harm and mayhem upon a human body. Just like our words, those immaterial things that we can say that will destroy a human heart in a few beats of breath….not sharp to a point of sheer sharpness maybe, but brutally heavy. I couldn't imagine fighting a prolonged battle with such a weapon in my hands…..but I can remember several times the weapon of my words, and how easily it swung on target with savage perfection.
Submission is a word that carries a weight all its own, and is as misused as the word love or the concept of manly headship in the homes of America today. Mention being submissive to most women and they will respond with anger, frustration, and disconnection. Mention the concept of headship to most men and they run in terror or laugh sarcastically in your face. And yet, mention service and all of us will nod our heads with understanding. But both designed purpose for men and women are couched in service. Men with service in protection, prophecy, priesthood, and promise; women with service in the form of willingly and voluntarily placing themselves under the leadership of another.
Like that Scottish sword that I held for a brief (very brief) moment last night, our ability to harm each other takes effort and deliberate motion (consciously or unconsciously) to do so. And it doesn't have to be sharp to cause damage to the fragility of the human spirit. We plot our revenge against those who have harmed us, cause us pain and sorrow, and see justice from the God we as Christians serve. When it doesn't come, we feel that anger redirected against a God that doesn't seem to have our best in mind. So we justify to ourselves.
And just as sheathing that heavy broadsword took deliberate motion and thought, so does our unnatural (humanistically speaking) ability to not swing it in intentional purpose even when our hearts cry out for the justice of the offended, the misaligned, and the wounded. It takes a deliberate and intentional action to stand amid the battle raging and lower the sword to the ground.
Yet, in that moment of what would seem intentional suicide, we show the strength of our Lord and Savior in the movement towards that which we most fear….the loss of our very lives. God tells us, as Jesus spoke, there is no greater love than someone to lay down their life for another. To give opportunity for wounding and possibly a deadly blow upon our very life.
We have become a society that is honors those who isolate and rip at the very fabric of our design. We proclaim that "it's all good" so long as it promotes the individual over the majority, the crowd over the single person, or the minority over the national heritage. We have redefined God to be someone who is just along for the ride, who doesn't really care how we get there (spiritual freedom) but that we realize that we are the agents in our own destinal desires. We aren't about to lay down that sword and shield, but we will turn as the Scottish Army did when the English brought out their mighty body of warriors. "We didn't come to fight," is one Scottish warrior's cry…….
And William Wallace rode before the Army standing there and talked about how they might not live the day, but they would stand for freedom…….and then went to pick a fight with the English negotiators. History proves what that stand did…and the rewards of the inflamed spirit that Wallace fueled to fighting on that ground that day for a purpose beyond what they could've settled for but lesser than what they were called for; as men, as countrymen, and as a nation.
We can stand with our swords in our hand and the shield riding strapped to our arm. And claim we didn't come to fight. And we might survive the battle that day, going home to our loved ones surrounded by friends and family, to live another day. Negotiating a peace that is as fragile as our human bodies. And as illusional as our control over our lives.
Or, we can do what William Wallace did that day and go pick a fight with the enemy. And instead of swinging our swords against those who stand in that mighty darkness, we can drop them or sheath them and embrace those wounded souls.
There is a season in which we have to raise sword and shield, as one of Wallace's lieutenants said "Well, at least we're not dressed for nothing." There will be times in our battle where the wounding of souls will be necessary and justified. How will we know? Where is the ability that tells us to embrace or pierce?
In the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. We have to be tuned to the will of the Father, implanted with the commandments of His Law, and living in constant communication with the battle leader, Jesus Christ, as we engage in this battle for the souls of all humanity. When we have placed ourselves into submission to the Savior and the Father, our actions become directed by the true King. We become greater than we ourselves ever could be.
Maybe the verse I was directed to today doesn't fit the rest of what I've written. Or maybe it is indeed the stirring speech not unlike what William Wallace was portrayed to have given in that decisive battle on that dreadful day in the history of Scotland.
Maybe.
Or maybe it is the very stirring of our struggle…..to not give up hope that spring eternal and to remember that sometimes it will be our brothers and sisters that fall in the battle of this war. Or it might be our time to sheath our swords and embrace those who are lost at the cost of our own.
We can chose to turn around and go home; doing nothing more than accepting the salvation given. Or we can stand for something greater; as men, as countrymen, and as the family of God for something greater than we ourselves could ever achieve.
Through love and with the goodness of the Spirit as our guide, we should always remember to………………
Struggle well. And never accept a negotiated settlement that supercedes the promise of our freedom, inspired and promised from the Creator Himself.
FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, March 7
Wednesday, March 5
We're lying to ourselves....
"Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie." Jeremiah 9:5 (NIV)
"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator ---who is forever praised. Amen." Romans 1:25 (NIV)
Genesis 2:7 tells us that man was created from the dust of the earth. In all of the created world, this is the first thing that God finds in conflict with His plan. He gives to Adam the right to chose a suitable companion to offset the unbalance, but nothing was found suitable enough. So, He didn't scoop up some more dirt to make a suitable companion (helper). He causes Adam to sleep deeply and woman was fashioned from the rib of man. Fashioned, not made.....shaped in deliberate fashion from the first human, Adam, instead of all of the created world and things within it. The Potter shaped with deliberate care, woman, to give balance to man.
We have become worshippers of ourselves; it is all an individual path to God's glory, there is no absolute truth. We have ceased to look at what we do, but rather simply ask "Is it possible to do it and how?" We look at what we can get out of our understanding of God instead of realizing that we cannot understand God completely outside of Heaven. We define God according to human standards and then argue when those incomplete standards come into conflict with the Bible.
We seek to clarify within denominational walls what the 'true' meaning of the text instead of understanding that the text clarifies itself to us. It is too easy to trace the contextual and root words of the Biblical narrative in today's society, but too often...we just don't want to take the time. We'll let someone else do the work for us and hence, we become Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant, or Emergent.
Or we create a totally separate and false religion designed to answer those questions that burn within our hearts and we don't like the biblical answer to. We worship our cars, our homes, our TVs, and our bank accounts. Created things that belong not to us, but to the Creator Himself. And, as the Church has retreated from that truth as it has come against the wall of the society that it is supposed to serve.
The Church has become a friend that deceives a friend; the congregation it harbors. It has taught itself that it can modify and reduce the harsh truth of the Gospel into a more societally accepting version "just to get them in the door." The Church is more concerned about being a 'friend' to everyone and every thing, from the seekers to the unbiblically living 'Christians' that file in and out of their doors (funding their salvation with hefty tithing) and the 'global warming' cries of human supremancy led science to God is 'love and only love' mentality of proclaiming homosexuality is a environmental or genetical error that must be accepted because God wants all of humanity saved.
We lie and tell ourselves that we know God, and since we do...we can name what we want and He has promised to deliver...or else we'll just get it ourselves. We define the standards that we live by....that aren't too difficult for us to follow.
We seek the answers to our existence and seek the balance that was upset by the sin in the Garden. We've become a society that has devalued life to the point where we ignore the murder of unborn children because they are inconvenient. Even to the point where we justify the murder in cases of rape and incest. After all, 'it' was born from sin. Problem with that is that we all were born from sin. Should we, as a moralistic society, commit genocide?
We proclaim that God makes mistakes; after all, it's not the homosexuals fault they feel attraction towards another of the same sex. They were born that way, science PROVES it. Or the hidden homosexuality of gender error....where a man was born a woman or visa versa. We are imminently qualified to make that decision of what sexual identity we should have been born with....those chromosomes were mixed up during the formation process.
We declare that men aren't supposed to be the "head" of the household because men have once again surrendered it to society as a whole to define them. Of course, men will sweep the truth of what they are supposed to be under the carpet. Headship in the household isn't a dictatorship but performed with biblical love, rooted in the Word, and under the directorship of God characterized by selfless intimacy (opening themselves to another in areas that they let no one else into). Men don't want to claim the Biblical role of priest, prophet, protector, and provider because that might 'demean' women and force themselves to a higher standard.
Women don't want to follow the biblical standard of 'helpmate' because it is demeaning and not promotional of equality. After all, it was a cultural thing that defined the Biblical standard and not an equal and balanced design. Women aren't supposed to be submissive as we are told in Ephesians 5:22 ff. Of course, the word is taken totally out of its true origins….Woman are to be voluntarily submissive, placing themselves under the 'position' of another, and is only regarding the 'ranking' of the biblical order rather than establishing value. Men and Women are created equally…wonderfully and fearfully made.
You may think I'm speaking from a place of authority, I'm not. I am chief sinner amongst sinners in this regard; subjecting myself to my own authority too often and allowing God in only when things are pretty good. I am my worst enemy, the old man who is chief agent of the enemy camp. I have convinced myself that all that is 'wrong' with my world is mine to fix and control.
I don't have the gumpson to speak with the authority required to back the words I've written here. They are standards higher than myself and a struggle that I put effort into to achieve even a near miss in their truth. I may write what God puts on my heart to write, but often it is for my own growth and no one else's. I am first to claim imperfection and last to claim humility.
As I grow closer in the walk with God, I realize that I am totally and helplessly in a tail spin. I cannot even control the navigation of my vessel in the storm tossed seas of this life and the world that commands it. I am subject to the whims of things I cannot control and usually screw up the things I think I have control over.
And if I willingly submit to that realization, then I can gain some spiritual guidance from the Creator Himself. I can realize that there is control and it is in the best of hands, the One and True King. I can measure peace that withstands the broken reality of a world gone wrong and find joy in the realization of the designed perfection that lies waiting for the King's return.
And, no matter the tides or the sea state of my life, I will gain headway under the captaincy of the King to that destination.
Simply: In giving up my life, I gain it.
Not too terribly PC in today's world.
But then, humanity is under the delusion that they know what's best for the world and its inhabitants. They feel that they have the right, coming from primitive ooze, to proclaim what is best for everyone upon the globe surface. They have gained the right to be GODS.
A look back upon the history of the Jewish nation of Israel and the secular history of this entire world proves that we are still in a state of denial.
We can't do anything.
We aren't worthy of anything.
We aren't GODS.
We're just lost children in the woods, trying to follow our own breadcrumbs home.
Why don't we just follow the guy with the map?
It is there.....in the Bible.
I am nervous about posting this today. I've struggled to make it as unoffensive as possible and keep erasing what I corrected. Maybe I'm too intolerant, maybe I'm being too critical. Maybe.
You can take it or leave it. I speak what I feel God has laid upon my heart to write. For myself. And anyone else called to listen.
"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator ---who is forever praised. Amen." Romans 1:25 (NIV)
Genesis 2:7 tells us that man was created from the dust of the earth. In all of the created world, this is the first thing that God finds in conflict with His plan. He gives to Adam the right to chose a suitable companion to offset the unbalance, but nothing was found suitable enough. So, He didn't scoop up some more dirt to make a suitable companion (helper). He causes Adam to sleep deeply and woman was fashioned from the rib of man. Fashioned, not made.....shaped in deliberate fashion from the first human, Adam, instead of all of the created world and things within it. The Potter shaped with deliberate care, woman, to give balance to man.
We have become worshippers of ourselves; it is all an individual path to God's glory, there is no absolute truth. We have ceased to look at what we do, but rather simply ask "Is it possible to do it and how?" We look at what we can get out of our understanding of God instead of realizing that we cannot understand God completely outside of Heaven. We define God according to human standards and then argue when those incomplete standards come into conflict with the Bible.
We seek to clarify within denominational walls what the 'true' meaning of the text instead of understanding that the text clarifies itself to us. It is too easy to trace the contextual and root words of the Biblical narrative in today's society, but too often...we just don't want to take the time. We'll let someone else do the work for us and hence, we become Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant, or Emergent.
Or we create a totally separate and false religion designed to answer those questions that burn within our hearts and we don't like the biblical answer to. We worship our cars, our homes, our TVs, and our bank accounts. Created things that belong not to us, but to the Creator Himself. And, as the Church has retreated from that truth as it has come against the wall of the society that it is supposed to serve.
The Church has become a friend that deceives a friend; the congregation it harbors. It has taught itself that it can modify and reduce the harsh truth of the Gospel into a more societally accepting version "just to get them in the door." The Church is more concerned about being a 'friend' to everyone and every thing, from the seekers to the unbiblically living 'Christians' that file in and out of their doors (funding their salvation with hefty tithing) and the 'global warming' cries of human supremancy led science to God is 'love and only love' mentality of proclaiming homosexuality is a environmental or genetical error that must be accepted because God wants all of humanity saved.
We lie and tell ourselves that we know God, and since we do...we can name what we want and He has promised to deliver...or else we'll just get it ourselves. We define the standards that we live by....that aren't too difficult for us to follow.
We seek the answers to our existence and seek the balance that was upset by the sin in the Garden. We've become a society that has devalued life to the point where we ignore the murder of unborn children because they are inconvenient. Even to the point where we justify the murder in cases of rape and incest. After all, 'it' was born from sin. Problem with that is that we all were born from sin. Should we, as a moralistic society, commit genocide?
We proclaim that God makes mistakes; after all, it's not the homosexuals fault they feel attraction towards another of the same sex. They were born that way, science PROVES it. Or the hidden homosexuality of gender error....where a man was born a woman or visa versa. We are imminently qualified to make that decision of what sexual identity we should have been born with....those chromosomes were mixed up during the formation process.
We declare that men aren't supposed to be the "head" of the household because men have once again surrendered it to society as a whole to define them. Of course, men will sweep the truth of what they are supposed to be under the carpet. Headship in the household isn't a dictatorship but performed with biblical love, rooted in the Word, and under the directorship of God characterized by selfless intimacy (opening themselves to another in areas that they let no one else into). Men don't want to claim the Biblical role of priest, prophet, protector, and provider because that might 'demean' women and force themselves to a higher standard.
Women don't want to follow the biblical standard of 'helpmate' because it is demeaning and not promotional of equality. After all, it was a cultural thing that defined the Biblical standard and not an equal and balanced design. Women aren't supposed to be submissive as we are told in Ephesians 5:22 ff. Of course, the word is taken totally out of its true origins….Woman are to be voluntarily submissive, placing themselves under the 'position' of another, and is only regarding the 'ranking' of the biblical order rather than establishing value. Men and Women are created equally…wonderfully and fearfully made.
You may think I'm speaking from a place of authority, I'm not. I am chief sinner amongst sinners in this regard; subjecting myself to my own authority too often and allowing God in only when things are pretty good. I am my worst enemy, the old man who is chief agent of the enemy camp. I have convinced myself that all that is 'wrong' with my world is mine to fix and control.
I don't have the gumpson to speak with the authority required to back the words I've written here. They are standards higher than myself and a struggle that I put effort into to achieve even a near miss in their truth. I may write what God puts on my heart to write, but often it is for my own growth and no one else's. I am first to claim imperfection and last to claim humility.
As I grow closer in the walk with God, I realize that I am totally and helplessly in a tail spin. I cannot even control the navigation of my vessel in the storm tossed seas of this life and the world that commands it. I am subject to the whims of things I cannot control and usually screw up the things I think I have control over.
And if I willingly submit to that realization, then I can gain some spiritual guidance from the Creator Himself. I can realize that there is control and it is in the best of hands, the One and True King. I can measure peace that withstands the broken reality of a world gone wrong and find joy in the realization of the designed perfection that lies waiting for the King's return.
And, no matter the tides or the sea state of my life, I will gain headway under the captaincy of the King to that destination.
Simply: In giving up my life, I gain it.
Not too terribly PC in today's world.
But then, humanity is under the delusion that they know what's best for the world and its inhabitants. They feel that they have the right, coming from primitive ooze, to proclaim what is best for everyone upon the globe surface. They have gained the right to be GODS.
A look back upon the history of the Jewish nation of Israel and the secular history of this entire world proves that we are still in a state of denial.
We can't do anything.
We aren't worthy of anything.
We aren't GODS.
We're just lost children in the woods, trying to follow our own breadcrumbs home.
Why don't we just follow the guy with the map?
It is there.....in the Bible.
I am nervous about posting this today. I've struggled to make it as unoffensive as possible and keep erasing what I corrected. Maybe I'm too intolerant, maybe I'm being too critical. Maybe.
You can take it or leave it. I speak what I feel God has laid upon my heart to write. For myself. And anyone else called to listen.
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