WITNESSES...DEFENDERS...STRUGGLERS & WRESTLERS
Greetings and Salutations O Ye Witnesses and Defenders of the Faith...
Well...have you proved your point yet? Have you justified your actions? Have you fully clarified your feelings about the matter? Have you been a witness after you received the Holy Ghost? Have you straightened out the crooked or crooked out the straight? Is your passion manifested in anger, rage, bitterness, vitriol as you put them in their place? Do you seethe as you ...
love to correct? Have you sacrificed you own peace as the one not at peace will not succumb to your wisdom and insights? Does the sin of others cause you to sin? Welcome to my world. In a world filled with those who deny the very existence of the one who I love...and those who say they love Him but appears to lean to the left and right of the political spectrum...causing my blood pressure to rise like a gaseous ball rising out of the darkness into the light of day...my choices are clear...for me.
"And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, Lord is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or epochs (seasons) which the Father has fixed by His own authority (power...exousia...delegated authority); BUT YOU shall receive power (dunamis...dynamic ability) when the Holy Ghost has come upon you; and you shall BE MY WITNESSES (not witness...but BE)...both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:6-8)
"But God demonstrates (shows us how it is done)...His own LOVE toward (His love is directional) us, in that while we were YET sinners Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
"Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are SPIRITUAL... restore such a one (the trespasser) in a SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS...looking to yourselves, lest you to be tempted (in what you are correcting)." (Galatians 5:1)
"And who is there to harm you if you prove ZEALOUS FOR WHAT IS GOOD? But even if you should suffer for the SAKE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, you are BLESSED. And do not FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION...and do not BE TROUBLED...but SANCTIFY CHRIST IN YOUR HEARTS...always BE READY TO MAKE A DEFENSE to every one who asks you to GIVE AN ACCOUNT FOR THE HOPE that is in you...YET...with GENTLENESS and REVERENCE and keep a good conscience so that in the thing which you are SLANDERED...those who REVILE YOUR GOOD BEHAVIOR IN CHRIST...may not be PUT TO SHAME."
(I Peter 3:13-16)
Well...have you proved your point yet? Have you justified your actions? Have you fully clarified your feelings about the matter? Have you been a witness after you received the Holy Ghost? Have you straightened out the crooked or crooked out the straight? Is your passion manifested in anger, rage, bitterness, vitriol as you put them in their place? Do you seethe as you ...
love to correct? Have you sacrificed you own peace as the one not at peace will not succumb to your wisdom and insights? Does the sin of others cause you to sin? Welcome to my world. In a world filled with those who deny the very existence of the one who I love...and those who say they love Him but appears to lean to the left and right of the political spectrum...causing my blood pressure to rise like a gaseous ball rising out of the darkness into the light of day...my choices are clear...for me.
"And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, Lord is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or epochs (seasons) which the Father has fixed by His own authority (power...exousia...delegated authority); BUT YOU shall receive power (dunamis...dynamic ability) when the Holy Ghost has come upon you; and you shall BE MY WITNESSES (not witness...but BE)...both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:6-8)
"But God demonstrates (shows us how it is done)...His own LOVE toward (His love is directional) us, in that while we were YET sinners Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
"Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are SPIRITUAL... restore such a one (the trespasser) in a SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS...looking to yourselves, lest you to be tempted (in what you are correcting)." (Galatians 5:1)
"And who is there to harm you if you prove ZEALOUS FOR WHAT IS GOOD? But even if you should suffer for the SAKE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, you are BLESSED. And do not FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION...and do not BE TROUBLED...but SANCTIFY CHRIST IN YOUR HEARTS...always BE READY TO MAKE A DEFENSE to every one who asks you to GIVE AN ACCOUNT FOR THE HOPE that is in you...YET...with GENTLENESS and REVERENCE and keep a good conscience so that in the thing which you are SLANDERED...those who REVILE YOUR GOOD BEHAVIOR IN CHRIST...may not be PUT TO SHAME."
(I Peter 3:13-16)
THE STRUGGLE
Are you weary, struggling, worn down, haggard, discouraged, weak, have done everything, disgusted with people (non-Christians and Christians alike)? Do you just keep on punching...but the knock out punch just won't come? Do you feel as if people are pulling the old Mohammad Ali ROPE-A-DOPE (a tactic that Mohammad Ali used to lean back on the ropes...and cover up and allow his opponent to wear himself out with his punching) on you....and you end up looking like the dope? Are you punching at the wind or shadows...getting a good cardio workout but not connecting with the enemy. Maybe you are wrestling or punching the wrong human beings.
Are you weary, struggling, worn down, haggard, discouraged, weak, have done everything, disgusted with people (non-Christians and Christians alike)? Do you just keep on punching...but the knock out punch just won't come? Do you feel as if people are pulling the old Mohammad Ali ROPE-A-DOPE (a tactic that Mohammad Ali used to lean back on the ropes...and cover up and allow his opponent to wear himself out with his punching) on you....and you end up looking like the dope? Are you punching at the wind or shadows...getting a good cardio workout but not connecting with the enemy. Maybe you are wrestling or punching the wrong human beings.
"For our struggle (we wrestle not) is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)
NOTE: Read Ephesians 6:10-20 for how to be a witness of the D.B.R. in a dark and dying world.
Many times we share our faith to others...and they either just look at us as if we were crazy...or they just cannot comprehend how we could believe in such a fairy tale contrived of human beings to appease our feelings of guilt.
"And even if our gospel is VEILED, it is VEILED to those who are perishing...in whose case the god of this world (aka the d-evil) has BLINDED THE MINDS of the UNBELIEVING...that they might not see THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST...who is the IMAGE OF GOD." (II Corinthians 4:3-4)
As you prepare for the fight...the first steps of your training...are like the Petra song...."Get on your knees...and fight like a man." Get prayed up, get filled up (with the Holy Ghost), get confessed up and forgiven up, forgive others, empty out all of your Pharisee attitude and fill up with the attitude (the beatitude...the attitude that we should be having) that Jesus had...as he humbled Himself.
Now get out there and fight the real enemy before you ever lash out at another human being.
FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY
Cue the Rocky Music
Love and Less Struggling Kisses
Rodney "Fighting The Real Enemy" Boyd
NOTE: Read Ephesians 6:10-20 for how to be a witness of the D.B.R. in a dark and dying world.
Many times we share our faith to others...and they either just look at us as if we were crazy...or they just cannot comprehend how we could believe in such a fairy tale contrived of human beings to appease our feelings of guilt.
"And even if our gospel is VEILED, it is VEILED to those who are perishing...in whose case the god of this world (aka the d-evil) has BLINDED THE MINDS of the UNBELIEVING...that they might not see THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST...who is the IMAGE OF GOD." (II Corinthians 4:3-4)
As you prepare for the fight...the first steps of your training...are like the Petra song...."Get on your knees...and fight like a man." Get prayed up, get filled up (with the Holy Ghost), get confessed up and forgiven up, forgive others, empty out all of your Pharisee attitude and fill up with the attitude (the beatitude...the attitude that we should be having) that Jesus had...as he humbled Himself.
Now get out there and fight the real enemy before you ever lash out at another human being.
FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY
Cue the Rocky Music
Love and Less Struggling Kisses
Rodney "Fighting The Real Enemy" Boyd
posted by Ruminatin' Rod at 5:38 AM
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