A Soldier’s Soul-check

A solider is never alone in the fight. When they enter into combat they trust their partner and team to cover their flank while pursuing the enemy. If one soldier is wounded, others come to their aid and they are still never alone.

In the Lord’s Army it should also be the same…yet sometimes it’s not.

It could be because of pride and for the fear of looking weak. Other times it could be because of trust issues or other kinds of troublesome elements in the relationship. These excuses ought not prevent us from standing together on the fields of spiritual combat. We wage a very real war with very serious eternal consequences, often times we may lose sight of how dire a toll this war can have on its fighting forces. Yet while we continue to fight this spiritual war, with the Holy Spirit as our guide, we must also find those moments of soul-repair and spiritual check-up. By this I mean we cannot fight forever, and we all need 3 crucial elements in order to continue on.

3 Elements: Friends, Lends & Mends

Friends:

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

Perhaps what we need isn’t only surfaced friendship with a “how ya doin’?” but more of a deeper kind. A kind that asks the hard questions of us. The kind of friendship that demands more of our time and commands us to consider our points of view while realigning us with God himself. Godly friendships are more than placating our conversations and our concerns, but should have a way of challenging our preconceptions and our value systems. Sometimes these Godly friendships are also called Accountability partners, but in a long and winding road of life this long-term mentor/mentee relationship can lead to a deeper friendship. We need Godly friends like these in our lives. Some may come and go while others may walk with us for years to come, each will leave a mark on us if we are vulnerable enough to let them. A good solider in God’s army needs other fighting friends within whom they can confide and find solace in. Do you have friendships like this?

2) Lends

The second thing a good Soldier in God’s army needs to do is lend support to other fighters out there. If you have made a commitment to Christ to proclaim His name to a lost world then you’ve made a long term commitment. This isn’t some short term mission trip or a weekend warrior drill, this is for life. Does that scare you? Consider what Christ has done for us…and what does He ask of us in return? He calls us to stand up, speak up and fight on. So what about other fighters out there? Don’t they require encouragement and accountability too? YES! A part of our calling as a Solider is to step up, step out and lend a hand to others. These fellow soldiers may just require a listening ear, others might require some solace and rest on your behalf while others might benefit from your guiding hand as a more “seasoned” solider of the Cross. You are also vital to their survival. Make no mistake about it! You a matter to their well-being and their success. So step up and know that your contributions to others can make a drastic difference in their continuance in this fight!

3) Mends

This is a play on words of sorts, because this last point is two-fold:

a) Make A-mends:

sometimes while in the fight we may inadvertently burn bridges that we need to re-cross. In the heat of the battle we might face off against other well-meaning soldiers and have to separate ourselves from them. Does that mean we should never speak again or never come face to face with that person again? Absolutely not! What it does mean is that we will find differences of opinions. Sometimes we will be in the right while other times we will be in the wrong. Yet we shouldn’t hold grudges against fellow children of God. Sometimes we can find ways to make amends and re-pave that bridge. Other times we might not necessarily ever see eye to eye with a fellow Christian, yet we can find our commonalities and get back out there into the thick of the fight! There are bigger, more important battles to wage for the Kingdom than wasting time on the needless bickering and disharmony amongst fellow soldiers. When we can make amends when then can face the second portion of this “Soldier’s Soul-check” –

b) Mend.

Our hearts can become so compartmentalized when we face disharmony and issues with other believers. When we seek peace within the body of Christ we also find a salve for our wounded souls as well. Mending one mends the other and in so doing we become healthier and better equipped to face the real enemy of this world.

Getting to the point:

Every soldier needs a break from the fight. Every battle worn fighter needs a friend, a comrade a support system. Every Christ-follower who wages war, through the power of the Holy Spirit, needs harmony within armor and body of Christ! How’s your soul doing today? Is it in need of a tune up? Are you desperately in need of an accountability partner or friend to confide in? Can you contribute and breath encouragement into other weary soldiers? Are there charred remains of bridges that you need to repair before you can move on? Don’t wait to make things better. Don’t wait until you’re all alone in battle fit for an army. God desires us to stand strong side by side, encouraging each other and healing the hearts of the wounded.

How’s your soul?

March 17, 2014 2

At War…(Poem)

I am at war…

Blood and bone

Skin and pain

Spirit and brokenness.

Can’t you hear the cries?

As men try to save

Try to be brave

Try to inflict pain

On the enemy?

I just want to be

Set free

To be whole again

To fight this sin

Within and

Come out clean.

Can’t you hear

these yearnings?

These longings

As these hands,

This heart

Beckons for something

More.

I am at war…

A war I cannot win

Something deep inside

More than this bloody tide

Unseen by human eyes

I’ve bought into all the lies

But my spirit is

Never satisfied.

War…pain

Can’t fight this refrain

Without salvation

And hand to pull me out

To set me up and

Let me stand on feeble

Feet of atrophy.

Set me free dear Lord

Set my feet upon your rock

Without your strength

Without your hope

All is lost.

May 24, 2013 0

“What Do I Stand For?” -Social Justice-

A child goes hungry, not because there isn’t food in the village, but because his family has been ostracized for being Christians. They are not privy to the market place and so they have to fend for themselves by begging, trying to cultivate some foods from a meager garden and by digging through other people’s discarded trash.

Another young boy watches helplessly as his father is executed right in front of him, then is hauled off, brainwashed, strung out on drugs and given an AK-47 as a child soldier. This method is repeated over and over again by more than just the now infamous Joseph Kony. Other places in Africa as well as East Asia this is how warfare and power is perpetrated. Many times it goes unnoticed or unreported in our Western news sources…but it doesn’t make it go away for those who are suffering under this oppression and senseless bloodshed.

A young woman is kidnapped in the middle of the night from her bed and becomes a slave to the sex industry, where girls like her are property and a money making business. She is shipped in windowless crates, transported on trains, and moved from one place to the next to fulfill her slavers lust for power, greed and sex. When she is all used up, her body will be thrown out like garbage and the evil owners move on to other victims. Some say it doesn’t happen where I live…think again!

These stories are just the tip of the ice berg that is our fight against social injustice in our world today! It is something that all of us, who claim to be followers of Christ, should be engaged in to some form or another. Whether it’s helping in a food shelf, a soup kitchen from time to time, or supporting a governmental bill that will further help those in need. As Christians we are to be the very hands and feet of Christ, and I’m pretty sure He didn’t solely reside within the walls of the church to help those in need! A part of showing Christ’s love to those around us requires us to extend ourselves and help bring Christ to other’s body, soul and mind.

“A father acts on behalf of his children by working, providing, intervening, struggling, and suffering for them. In so doing, he really stands in their place. He is not an isolated individual, but incorporates the selves of several people in his own self. Every attempt to live as if he were alone is a denial of the fact that he is actually responsible. He cannot escape the responsibility, which is his because he is a father. This reality refutes the fictitious notion that the isolated individual is the agent of all ethical behavior. It is not the isolated individual but the responsible person who is the proper agent to be considered in ethical reflection.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

We, as Christians, have a responsibility to intervene in causes for those who cannot defend themselves or are powerless to act. As protectors of our world we not only seek to keep our environment healthy and clean, but we should also, in our power, seek to bring freedom and hope to those who have none. Social justice isn’t just for the bureaucrat, the foreign ambassador and the law maker on Capitol Hill…social justice is for all of us who have a voice and the will power to actually change the world for the better.

“Denouncing evil is a far cry from doing good.”
― Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

The quote above is apropos…we can’t merely denounce something…watching a news story we just shake our head and say out loud, “What is our world coming to?” Yet we don’t do anything about it, we change the channel and move on in our own little worlds. This isn’t just an indictment on me this is an indictment on the entire Western world when we stand by and do nothing when whole cultures are being wiped out in semi-religious acts of genocide. When nothing is actively being done to stop the active violence in villages and the formation of child soldiers in third world countries. It is just plain wrong when nothing is being done to put a stop once and for all to the sex trafficking industry that enslaves men, women and children. I’m thankful for proactive political leaders and lobbyists who fight every day to change laws and make it an active war on these plights of our world! But it doesn’t just begin and end with these leaders and lobbyists…we too have a role to play as well! We too must roll up our sleeves and get involved! We too have a voice, and so we MUST use it!

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause”. –Isaiah 1:17

“Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.” –Jeremiah 22:3

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” -1John 3:17-18

To Stand with God and His justice, we as Christ followers, ought to be also stand for social justice and social reform so that everyone in our world might have opportunities for freedom. God, I believe asks us to stand for those who cannot make that stand themselves. To speak for those who have no voice, and to make a difference in our world through not only environmental activism but also social activism. We are called to BE THE CHANGE!

Additional Sources:

http://streetlightusa.org/2012/child-sex-trafficking-research-and-statistics/

http://www.charismamag.com/site-archives/639-charisma-channels/practical-christianity/8930-practical-ways-to-fight-for-social-justice

http://salvos.org.au/more/get-involved/social-justice/what-is-social-justice/

http://www.amazon.com/Social-Justice-Handbook-Better-Bridgeleader/dp/0830837159

ttp://www1.salvationarmy.org/IHQ/www_ihq_isjc.nsf

April 17, 2013 2

Saturday in the underworld.

It’s Saturday. The day after crucifixion, Jesus’ death. Can you just imagine all of heaven, holding their collective breath? The Angels’ anxiously awaiting, anticipating what is to come? Did they know what God had in store for Sunday? Were they party to the entire plan? The hosts of heaven gathering at the tomb, gathering unseen among the disciples, who are in hiding. Imagine what is unseen in the spirit world, as Jesus descends into the deep, setting the captives free and unleashing redemption through the veil.

This Saturday lull before the storm of victory makes us wonder what the metaphysical world looked like on such a day. What battles were fought. The might of God unleashed on the fallen ones. How awesome the power of Christ would have been to behold…it would have probably killed us, who are human, to have witnessed this might. For even Moses had to cover himself in the sight of God…so too Elijah.

It’s Saturday, probably the day within the Resurrection story that the unseen and the hosts of Hell were shaken to the core by the Son of God. This epic battle…Satan standing no chance against his very own Creator. Death, though the gate by which Christ entered, had no more power on Him than all of the demons of hell…He was not their equal, He was so much more than created…he was Creator vanquishing and unleashing those imprisoned.

There is very little within scripture to tell us of what took place on Saturday, but if Sunday is any indication of what took place, all of the demons along with the father of lies himself must tremble with fear when they consider what is to come when Christ returns again.

It’s might be Saturday on this holy week, but resurrection is just around the corner…resurrection and victory for all who would follow after the Christ. For all who would identify with the cross will find an eternal hope and a resurrection unlike any other known in the universe.