You Do Not Have To Be Defenseless
7/5/19
There are times in our physical lives that we are caught
off guard when certain situations arise, this is a normal pattern of life
itself and we must face these contingencies as they unfold. The same
types of situations occur in the spiritual realm as well, but the conditions of
being caught off guard are different for in these cases we do not have to be
defenseless. God has given us the perfect blueprint of how to deal with
and the defeat these attacks that come out of nowhere and this plan comes from
His Word. Humanity loves to strike deals with others in order to get
things accomplished but in reality, all that process does is delay future
tactics against each other, real solutions need to be handled correctly in the appropriate manner and over and over it has been proven that the only way for
this to be achieved is if we follow the examples of the Bible. Putting
God first in our hearts guarantees us a defensive plan against any attack the
world provides and while these attacks may scratch us at times, our spiritual
core alignment will be intact and we can live the prime example of how Jesus
wants us to be.
How many of you know in detail what the entire status of
the Major League Baseball players is? I mean, what are their playing
positions, batting orders, on-base percentages, and for those of you who follow
the pitching side of things, what is each starting pitcher’s ERA? Now, I
understand that only the avid and enthusiastic follower will know all or even a
majority of these statistics and that the ones who do know these numbers follow
quite closely this sport. The point of these questions centers on knowing
the entire realm of the game of baseball and how to out-think the opponent and
in order for this to be done all areas of offense and defense must be
considered. How in-depth can one really understand what is going on if
they do not know details of both sides of the game operating at the same
time? One cannot foresee or predict what is ahead of them unless their
entire heart is in motion when it comes to such activities and we surely cannot
enjoy the game if we are continually being taught lessons as each pitch, hit,
home run, error, and out are committed.
When I was a kid I loved the sport of baseball, and to be
honest almost every sport I was a huge fan, but while I liked these sports my
main interests sided within one aspect of the game and that was the offensive
side. When we ask you won the game last night, we really mean who scored
the most runs, points, or goals. The team with the highest numbers won
and we could only hope that the winning team was the team you and I were
rooting for to win. Baseball has been around far longer than my 51 years
of life and has produced some great players throughout its history, Babe Ruth,
Jackie Robinson, Ty Cobb just to name a few. Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey,
Pete Rose, Steve Garvey, Rod Carew were in their prime when I was at a young
stage in my life with Andrea Dawson, Mike Schmidt, Dale Murphy, Kirby Puckett
come to mind in my teenage and 20s decades of life. All of which were
powerful and feared offensive players that could change the current game around
or even end one just as quickly.
For the most part, all of these players made their names
famous by their offensive prowess and excitement filled the air as their names
would be announced and they stepped up to home plate. But how many
actually know what position these people played when they are on the defensive
side of the game? I must admit that even though I followed teams quite
regularly I had not much of a clue about these players when it came to the
field positions. It does not matter how well a person knows one aspect of
the game but not the other half for if this setting occurs, the game cannot be
known and played to its full potential simply because not every detail has been
covered in order to win the game. Understanding one part or even half of
the game cannot present itself as a winning attribute and it sure cannot
produce a winning record if one is actually playing the game. It is for
this reason that all aspects and all sides of the game need to be understood as
much as possible in order to provide a good result. So, why do we still
play around with God’s Word on this spiritual half knowledge level and then
come crying when things do not go the way that we believe they should? I
see this time and time again throughout the Christian world yet we still miss
what is occurring because we only allow ourselves to know about one side of
Kingdom Warfare and refuse to understand the other side of spiritual warfare;
it’s our own death actually, so let’s change course.
Having a strong defense is just
as important as a strong offense and is key to winning any competition for when
one has an equally strong defense the team does not always have to rely on the
offense to win the game or in our case pushing forward the Kingdom of
God. We cannot totally rely on the excitement when heavy hitters come to
bat and swing for the fences in order to make ourselves popular and well-known,
for it is this concept that we have allowed overgrowing the Truth about our
mission to those who need God and not a memorial souvenir from attending.
It is this memorial gift idea that has infiltrated the Church and has
mesmerized countless people on superficial feelings instead of telling them
that their eternity is at stake and that God should be number one in their
lives not the novelties of offensive excitement. Completing the knowledge
of the Word of God and living it on a daily basis puts us in a position to do
great things when it comes to advancing the Kingdom of God. There
is no stronger word in any language than the word love, but when this word is
not spoken and lived through according to God’s definition it becomes a
perversion and a lifestyle that does not promote God’s Kingdom at all.
It is this lie of greatness
that Satan loves to tell us we have, but when he does he leaves out the fact
that we need both sides of the Word of God in order for us to understand the
potential that we have. See, for as long as I can remember the common
belief has been that if you are saved and consider yourself to be a Christian
that your ticket has been punched and that your life is already complete
through Jesus. This belief is not wrong but it is NOT entirely the truth
either, for if one understands that the entire Bible has been written for us to
use as a guidebook and a life book then we would know that it needs to be
shared with those who do not know God. In this passage of Scripture for
this article, we see that people believed that John the Baptist was a great man
and preacher through the words he taught them. This was the case with
John, but Jesus knew that His life and Testament was going to be written for those
who lived in the future and that God’s Word could not be complete without
Him. For this reason, Jesus makes the statement that where there is no
greater prophet than John but whoever is in the Kingdom of God is greater than
John. If a person is in the Kingdom of God they are doing their best to
advance God’s Kingdom at all times and on all levels through the knowledge and
understanding of the complete Word of God and without compromise.
Jesus knew that many people had
missed the Truth about what the Old Testament meant and taught, He also knew
what His life was to represent and that if we were to understand the importance
of eternity and why God Created each one of us it is without question the
importance that we know and live the entire Word of God. You may proclaim
to be a Christian but do you walk it every day? How many more people can
we reach for God through the mannerisms that we present by just walking on our
town’s streets? It is this presentation and verbiage of our daily lives
that Jesus was referring to when He said we could become greater in the Kingdom
of God than even the prophet John. The
point here is that when we have the entire Word of God with Jesus as our center
we can do so much more than what John the Baptist did for the Kingdom of God.
Recently I heard a sermon on
how important it is that we know that our fight is in the spiritual realm and
not in the physical and while there are many aspects to the physical realm and
the antics people demonstrate there can be no higher in representation than
eternity and as we have learned in the past it is vital that we fight with the
same weapons that our enemy has because when we do not it shall be a spiritual
slaughter with him winning and us lying spiritually bleeding somewhere asking
where God is. John understood the entire
defensive plan and with it had a beautiful and effective offensive plan to
spread the Truth about God and how the Pharisees and other religious and secular
leaders were not getting it. Yet, Jesus
states that we will be greater in the Kingdom of God through the Truth of not
only the Word of God but in Him as well.
Placing up a defense has always been, is today, and always will be
easier when you know the defensive plan, you have confidence in its meaning,
its goal, and what it can provide for you along the way but if you only know a
portion of it, it shall be no good to your life and thus a weakness instead of
a strength.
John had a total love for and knowledge
of God and His Word, and to be honest, if one has such a total plan in their
life they shall not be liked too much by those who operate through worldly
standards, This is why John ran into such controversy during his ministry. It is also through this overall principle
setting that church denominations are either accepted by the world or they are
not. For those who understand and accept
the Word of God in its entirety see such patterns rising and call them out when
they are near and while I wish I could say we are winning the world over for
Christ it is also easy to see that the world is winning due to the Swiss cheese
configuration of our hearts and congregational doors. A person’s defense can only be presented
according to what they understand and it is for this reason why many people who
call themselves Christians are attacked effectively because we do not truly do
not know our defensive playbook. When
our defenses have weaknesses, you can be sure that our enemy will quickly recognize
them and then use his tactics against us.
We do not have enough confidence in what we believe to stand against
these attacks and to share the Truth with those who believe a truth and not The
Truth. In short, if we do not know how
stand and fight against our enemy then we do not believe in The Truth as it is
for our lives thus proving to the world that we are liars and have no Living
Faith to prove God.
The question cannot help to be
raised if we, the Church, wish to spread the Gospel, to live abundantly through
Christ, and gain spiritual Truth or not.
From what is currently being displayed we would rather seek time showing
off our sitting around and watching skills instead of telling people about God
and how they really need to know what is coming if we do not repent and turn
from our wicked ways. This nation did
not come to this point by a one-sided pattern, for it is all of us who have
established such a cesspool of lies and selfish behavior and we need to have a
heartfelt realization of this before it is too late. It is difficult for many to see this truth
about our condition because we have voluntarily accepted that equality can come
from a fleshly establishment. But look
at where we are headed, each day another grip or complaint is added to our list
and to be honest our arms should have an untreatable amount of lactic acid
buildup due to all of the finger pointing we consistently do. A worldly defense shall crumble after a short
while, guaranteed yet we keep turning to its message as being one of truth and
getting disappointed with each turn.
Church, this is where we should
be stepping in and showing these hurting people the way that God wants us to
be. But we are stuck within ourselves
and rather than showing the eternal Truth we show them another worldly option
to get lost in. Can’t we see that this
is such sin?!? We ourselves have become
famous for clouding the truth when it comes to knowing and living right from
wrong, did we not read the story about that tree and what occurs when we
partition our minds from the Truth of God?
A wealth of information is not a good defense if its words cannot form a
perfect outcome on The God Level. Listen,
when we use an offensive tactic to gain a worldly advantage of acceptance we
cannot truthfully witness to anyone for everything that we say is out of
disobedience and thus a lie against God and His Kingdom. If we use the Bible as a defense mechanism
for the world, it is sin and an abomination to God and I would classify it as
an unforgivable sin against God because THAT is the definition of taking the
Lord’s name in vain.
Where does this leave us as a
defender of the faith? I was talking
with one of my good friends the other day about the church in North Korea. Yes, North Korea has a Church and a strong
one in faith, much stronger than the Church in the United States and Western
Civilized countries. During our
conversation, we talked about how weak our faith is and just we do not know how
to defend the Faith. It broke my heart
to that the people in the Church in North Korea are praying for us daily but
not in a manner in which should be taken lightly. We would like to believe that they are
praying for our patience, virtues in Christ, strength in God and confidence in
our daily walks with God but they are not.
They are praying for our salvation and repentance and the understanding
how to defend the Faith through the Word of God, its message and most importantly
our return to sending out missionaries to the world to spread the gospel. Wow!!
In other words, they do not have any desire to become like us, but are
praying that we become like them in understanding how to defend God, His Word,
and our salvation. From a nation that
does not have a television in every house, cell phones to see what is constantly
occurring around their villages and cities, they sure know what to pray for and
it should bring us to our knees knowing this about people who have nothing.
“My only hope of salvation is
in the infinite transcendent love of God manifested to the world by the death
of His Son upon the cross. Nothing but
His blood will wash away my sins. I rely exclusively upon it. Come Lord Jesus! Come quickly!” This quote is from one of those atheist and
deist Founding Fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independence of this
nation that we hear so much about today, Benjamin Rush. “God commands all men everywhere to
repent. He also commands them to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and has assured us that all who do repent and believe
shall be saved.” This comes from another
atheist and deist of our Founding Fathers Roger Sherman. Do these statements from just two of our
great fathers sound anything like what the Church is teaching and showing the
dying world today? No way at all, and
not even close to being close if you think about those statements. How do we correct such a misguidance? By doing and living these words of wisdom
from just two of our Founding Fathers for they understood about how to live in
True freedom and what it means to have freedom indeed. Repent, Church and allow God to show us how
He wants to direct our lives and our future through defending the Faith through
the Bible and all of its defining contents of Jesus Christ.
DLB
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