World War

2 Corinthians 10:3-11

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. You are looking only on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as he. For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it. I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present."

The war between good and evil is real and the battleground, this world and this lifetime. We continue to strive and influence our friends and family to come to the side of Truth, the great purpose for humanity of knowing God, embraced in a loving relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. It is for this purpose that we strive within ourselves and in persuading and convincing our communities that the best way to live our lives is to surrender it to God. And so we fight in the public market of ideas for the truth, to clear away all the hindrances, all the mess that blinds, the encrusted fragments that hardens hearts and pollution that clouds minds. "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God" — all falsehoods and shrouds that we and our friends cling to, and hide away from God's searchlight. Pretensions they absolutely are, since "the basic reality of God is plain enough...By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see...so nobody has a good excuse. People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life." But let us never forget that this world war is ultimately a spiritual one. We claim the lives of our friends and family through prayer, fasting and the ministry of the Holy Spirit foremost then we use all other means communicating the Good News of salvation. In the battlefield of ideas, our mission is to "take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ" — everything from culture, lifestyle and worldviews be subject to 'the Way, the Truth and the Life' as the ultimate standard. It is interesting that the apostle Paul's next notes is on words and deeds. The consistency of all our actions to Christian ideals — all that we speak about and communicate, the power of God that is life-changing, ideas that have transformed the world, that intimate relationship in obedience to Christ and the fashioning of ourselves into His image; all this, is to be demonstrated in our acts as forcefully as in our words. By God's amazing grace through Jesus's sacrifice and resurrection, we are able. Merry Christmas!

Mark 12:28-34

"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions."

~20.12.2013