The Battle

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. Phil 3:8


Life is a battle. Muffled between our tire tread lives an inconspicuous matter of battling blood. So many of us do not see the matter. So many of us don't look to gauge the depth of tread. We simply waste our time and effort on existing beyond the tread of life. A tread which has divided this world since the Garden.

What would happen if we picked teams? No team captains. No all stars. No "ghost runners." This is not a normal pick-up game. These teams are life teams.

Since the moment the devil stuck his head into the world, we were given a choice. A choice that deems to setup two teams: truth vs. lies. The battle between truth and falsehood. One stands for life, but the other mirrors the choice of death itself.

As Christians, do we think of life as a continuing battle between truth and lies? Are we fighting for the truth? Are we daily fighting a battle, not against people, but against the evil which continues to lurk in the falsehood of this world? We live in a Cosmic Battle (described by Dr. Del Tackett in "The Truth Project"). So many people chase after lies. Alcohol, Sex, Drugs, Entertainment, Night Clubs, Big Trucks, Fast Cars, "the image", Celebs, and several other amenities that amount to idols. In short, millions of people chase LIES: the enemy component to the battle. Do we cringe to see the enemy win soles over? Do we hate to see more people continually find themselves drafted, or swallowed, by the evil falsehood of this world?

For me, the worst is seeing a brother in christ (from the truth army) fold and become part of the falsehood.

Are we fighting? Do we stand for what we believe? Do we pray for God's word to be spread? Do we find enough faith in Jesus Christ to stand firm and be glad in KNOWING Christ Jesus our Lord? We know Him! Rejoice and be glad because we know Him!

So many people do not know Him. They live a world of lies and falsehood. They do not understand the Falsehood army leads to death. They do not understand how the evil in this world leads to division, miscommunication, and jealousy instead of unity, communication, and roles provided by the truth found in God. Falsehood leads to disorder and death in this life. I pray they will understand the beauty of truth which leads to peace in todays life.

I also pray we will fight. May we love people but hate evil. May we daily put on our Armor of God (Eph 6) so that we may take a stand against the devil's schemes. May we further understand how to consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of KNOWing Christ Jesus our Lord. Do people understand what to lose and what there is to gain?

Static Routine . . .

What happens when our pattern is stopped?

Please allow me to start by declaring our life is a routine. For those in the workforce, we wake up and go to sleep in a daily motion of wake-read-eat-work-sleep. For those in school, we wake up and go to sleep in a daily motion of wake-read-class-chill-(study)-sleep. Everything we follow has a pattern because we were raised in a society of pattern. As a baby we were rigid and forced into a pattern of sleeping and eating. Was this the first pattern? And does this sole beginning to pattern own our lives?

Please allow me to remove you from a pattern. But wait, how can we ever remove ourselves from a pattern when even an unmethodical, haphazard, lifestyle is a pattern itself? Yet by only removing yourself from a normal pattern, do you believe you will be disoriented? adrift? lost?

Please allow me to digress and depart for the remaining time. So many times in my life I devour a topic too deep beyond what my mind can perceive, but within the midst of my mystery my thoughts are absorbed into a christ-centered weight.

In terms of patterns, please help me understand the outcome of a child learning the pattern of Christ before food and sleep. Is this concept so foreign as to only occur in times previous to Adam & Eve? Today we sin. Today children are born into a world of sin, but could there every be a christian so in-tune with God that he/she could look before the Garden of Eden? Their thoughts and patterns would abstain from a human mind born into a world, lifestyle, of sin. I believe this Christian would have been found before Adam and Eve because, before eating of the apple, God did not strap them to a routine such as eat-sleep. But today we are unable to escape this sinful world strapped by a routine of eat-sleep.

We need food like crops need the rain. We depend on food and nutrition to step forward in life, and we also cling to sleep because our bodies depend on resting our nervous system. In the depth of our sinful ways, we need God.

This whole story concludes. Through our life today, and in our daily pattern, we need God. Please do not worry about your routine, yet know the necessity of having God in your life. Through God we can be born again. We can live a life in the world but not of the world. So strap onto Him. Dig deep to run closer to Him in your life. Never want food or sleep more than God.

Mud

Where has God brought me in the past year?

My current life cannot be more of a blessing. I praise God for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. There is no reason I deserve the friends who pick me up when I am lost, beaten, and buried.

As I sit here, less than seven days away from graduation, I still feel like a freshman about to walk in the door of an unknown college campus, but this time I do not know where I will be spending the next four years of my life. All I have on my back are some clothes, shoes, and a bible. Tonight my prayer goes out to faith in Jesus Christ my Lord.

The hardest decision in man's life has to be the act of becoming emptied for a higher gain. Do you ever feel like you are waiting on God to "shake you out and be empty" before you move into the next phase of your life? You trudge along in path of mud only waiting to become stripped clean and back on the sidewalk again.
In the midst of indecision and confusion we must know God. He made us for today. The past week of "rough" spiritual journey doesn't compare to a life full of grace and growth in Him. God has made us for a moment such as this. We are prepared. We are ready to attack the battle with our weapons held high. In the middle of our "mud" God has already prepared us for this moment, and we must remember our weapons are bigger than only a few days of preparation. God has sharpened our sword for a lifetime. We have our weapons in holster and ready to attack. Mark. Lean. Go fight the good fight.

Action

I fail so many times to go beyond.

Tonight a thought finally crossed my mind that sums up some of my most recent thoughts. I've attended a ministry recently that is good, but I feel like I'm missing something. Now I know that I've been missing action.

Action builds community. I love the community. So I want more action.

Action means more than the normal. Action includes going beyond the weekly study, meeting, lecture, and doing something different. Actions can be outward or inward. Action can involve specific abnormal events for the group to attend, or action can involve an outward focus to talk to people outside of the normal group.

My favorite action is outward. With any of my past experiences with a regular group of people, we have grown together the most when we reach out to others and meet knew people as a group. I love community and desire for it. Nothing is more dead than a group of people (calling themselves a community) that do not create action.

Reach. Grow. Gain.

Does it bug you when it seems as though a body of believers are acting out a story straight from the Old Testament about not following God's command. You can see in the eyes a mind that has been attracted to a path far away. Tears drip from their guitars and curses stir among the people.

God's people have been told what needs to happen, yet they continue to walk in the opposite direction. People are dying. Souls are hurting. Now I wonder what servant will attract the people back to the destination molded in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that how the story reads?