Jesus black belts

I was listening to a guy in his 50s talking about mixed martial arts. He had studied fighting for 40 years. He was a martial arts enthusiast and held a black belt. Everyday he put himself through a grueling routine of stretching and punching bag work. His body was conditioned to be as hard as a rock and his mind contained untold numbers of strikes and submission holds. Wherever he went he wore stretch jeans so he could kick someone in the head. Another fighter was with him, and they both started laughing that, outside the ring, they had never been in a fight. They had trained their entire lives for something they never used.

Many Christians are like this. They attend Church and pray to God daily. They study His Word and read devotionals. They are Jesus black belts. Yet they never use it. There comes a point when you stop studying to go to the mission field and you actually go. Many should be teachers yet they act like students. They are feeding themselves instead of feeding others.

When you join the army you go through basic training. You are trained to be a soldier and how to shoot a gun. When your training is complete you are sent to combat. Many people join a Church and are given a sword (the Bible). They are trained on sword play and are formidable. Yet that’s all they do: train with their sword and polish it inside the Church. The enemies of God are devouring people outside their Church walls, yet they are inside, training and training but never engaging the enemy. Such soldiers are useless to their General.

There is a bloody battle raging the streets all around us. And given the direction society is going, it appears we are giving up sacred ground. Given this fact, allow me to ask you 2 questions:

1. Do you read your Bible everyday?

You better! Your bible is your weapon. Can you defend yourself and defend those weaker than you? When Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan, He refuted Satan with Scripture. A Christian without a sword is useless. Step towards maturity. If you've done this, you're the one I wrote this for, proceed to question number 2.

2 How many people did you bring to the Lord this year?

Doesn’t that question make you feel naked? Many of us spend more time doing our hair and makeup than spreading the gospel.

The grey chest hair - an eternal reminder

The other day as I was shaving, I noticed I had a single wiley grey hair on my chest that shone like a beacon amongst its darker brethren. The song, “one of these things is not like the other” played for a moment in the back of my head, until I noticed the tune and smote it violently. These children songs from my kid's DVDs will haunt me till the end of my days

Yet this hair deviled into the germane. Despite a fleeting thought to fetch a black giffy marker to color it, I could not help but see that that hair represented time.Or more specifically, an approaching end to my time.

“Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.The wind blows, and we are gone— as though we had never been here”. (Psalm 103: 15-16 NLT)

This Scripture when plucked out of the Bible and portrayed individually doesn't give us the most cheerful disposition. Yet that is how it gives us such a profound perspective: on how we should be living in the here-and-now. Our first phase of existence is fleeting, but in the following verse we see a foreshadowing of our second phase. We see an introduction of eternal life, and this is what gives us hope.

“But the love of the LORD remains forever with those who fear him”. (v17)

We only have a small allotted amount of time here on this big blue sphere. And that grey hair proclaimed that over half of my time was up. And I could not help but wonder, “What have I accomplished for my LORD”? He has given me talents and abilities. He has entrusted me with resources and friends. He has touched me with health and situated me in a first world nation. He has blest me in so many ways. I was once darkness but was born again into light. He plucked me up out of the mud, and cleaned me up, and loved me at a great expense to Himself. I know my purpose in creation is to glorify Him: To please Him. Yet so much of my time is spent on myself:  Which eternally, is spent on nothing.

The so called hypocrite

The so called hypocrite

Ad hominem

I am going to say several things here that fly in the face of main stream Christianity’s new found tentative character. What we’ll see is that it’s been hoodwinked. Thesis statement: The predominant charge of hypocrisy against Christians is a bludgeon to silence evangelism or moral correction. 

We live in a politically correct world. People are terrified of misspeaking and being called a homophobe or a racist or a misogynist. The label and culture was purposely created to silence you from speaking light into darkness. I am going to make a strong corollary from the political world that illustrates one in the spiritual. When a person doesn’t have an argument they resort to ad hominem attacks (personal name calling). It is a tactic used to silence those that think differently than you. This is a common stratagem of the political left. But what many Christians have failed to realize is that this is also used to silence spiritual correction/direction as well. I’d say that 99% of the time when someone calls a Christian a hypocrite it is an ad hominem attack. This article is not dealing with the other 1%. 

When someone calls you a hypocrite, what really shows that something is amiss is when the validity or falsity of the charge that prompted the name calling isn’t being discussed. From this, it can be seen to be a deflection away from the topic of their sinful activity or proclivity. In essence the name callers are saying:

 “Shut up because you’re a sinner too”.