Who Are We Fighting?

Whenever you get into some kind of altercation there has to be an opposition, otherwise it isn’t much of an altercation. Even when there is war within a country there is always two sides engaged. When civil war broke out in our country, it was the Union North, against the Confederate South. In a boxing match there is always two guys in the ring standing toe-to-toe, exchanging blows to determine who is going to be standing at the end. Whether it be friendly competition or a war, in order for the conflict to be a conflict there has to be two opposing parties.
As long as you know who you are fighting against and can identify the difference between your opponent and your friend things will be alright. The last thing that anyone needs in any form of conflict, is for even one person to be confused. One person on your side that is confused as to what they are doing, or who is on whose “team” can ruin the whole effort. I can remember when I was in high school playing on the school basketball team. One of our key players got injured and coach called one of the kids who never got any playing time.(No not me, I didn’t even get in that time.) Well, when you don’t get to play much, eventually you stop paying attention to the games all together, because you don’t expect to go in anyway. That night, this was the case. Poor guy was so excited to get in the game that he stole the ball and shot it into our goal. Yes, he scored for the other team! At that moment he was the most popular guy on both teams. Boy was I glad I wasn’t in at that point, and when coach put me in, I knew that there was nothing I could do to look worse than he did. Amazing how relaxed I was playing after that. From that point forward the game had changed. They had the momentum, and getting back on track from that upsetting moment of the game, was just something that we were unable to do. We were the better team, but we just didn’t have enough time to gain our composure again and come back. Had it been in the first half we would have for sure. Had it been the first half though, and it happened again the second half…well, you get the picture. Having to deal with someone on our team continually shooting at the basket we were trying to defend would have made our job even that much harder. Sometimes I feel that way as a Christian. Especially here in New Orleans, because you can go to the French Quarter and see people posted up with signs and big six foot PVC crosses telling people that they are going to hell. Or you can see groups of people during the gay pride festival chanting out “God hates queers!” It is like having to watch out for fire not only from your front, but from behind you as well. Getting shot in the heat of battle is hard enough to deal with, but for the right causes we are proud to. On the other hand getting shot in the back by one of your own, is pretty much just plain crappy.
Who are we fighting against? What is it that we are doing here? Are we here to “scare the hell” out of people? Or are we here to love them into Heaven? It makes it really difficult to talk to people, and show them the love of Christ when you have a bunch of people CLAIMING to be on the same team as you are; wearing the same colors, and sporting the same “logo”, displaying nothing but hate, arrogance, and down right ignorance. I have listened to people talk about going into battle for Jesus, and putting on the full armor of God, but then they use it to “protect” themselves against the wrong thing. They put on this armor and use it to create distance between them and the world. When they do this they put distance between them and the people in the world. The same people that on Sunday morning they claim to have compassion for. Then they come into contact with those same people out in the world and ignore them, or look down on them. Grabbing their children and bringing them closer telling them “don’t look at him” while all he is doing is smiling and waving at the children. The compassion for those people that they speak of in church, is the same compassion that drives them to lie about whether they have change or not. This kind of “Christian” has taken “not of the world” and used it as an excuse to not serve the world. They shake their head in disgust at the homosexual people in the community, or out right show a lack of respect for the person wearing baggy pants and a big shirt with his hat cocked to the side.
It seems to me that we have forgotten who the enemy is. We were right to put on the Armor of God, but wrong in the way we used it. Even better, we were claiming to put on the Armor of God, but it belonged to someone else. The Armor of God will protect you form evil, and the attacks of Satan, and at the same time allow you to embrace the people around you with the Love of Christ. We spend so much time fighting against the wrong enemy, the real one is running free causing turmoil throughout the world, and to make it worse inside our camps. When are we going to figure out that we are fighting the wrong enemy? Why can’t we realize that what we are doing is not hindering the enemy, but helping him? Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that our battle is not against man, but “the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”(Ephesians 6:12b NIV) Our efforts are aimed in the wrong direction, and all that we are doing in killing the people that are caught in the bondage. If your trying to abolish slavery, you don’t go and kill all of the slaves. You go after the one selling them, and taking them to be slaves. This isn’t rocket science. Where did we go wrong? How do we get the slaves to trust us when we try to set them free, when their slave master has hired people to dress like us, talk like us, and look like us, to go in and kill them? The only thing you can do then, is change your look. Put on a new uniform, and bring out the one thing that sets you apart from the other guys. LOVE, true compassion, and an outright attack against the real enemy.
“10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:10-12, NIV

A Leader Into Battle

Some might notice a pattern of thought in my latest “notes” or “blogs”. My focus lately has been the focus of the Church. Having found my self convicted of my desire to “plant a church”, God has brought me to a place where I am really looking deep into the root of where that desire comes from, and also what that really means. One of the things that I have said lately is that I am not called to be a “church planter”, I am called to make disciples. I am not claiming that planting a church is not one of the ways that this might happen, all I am claiming is that God has revealed to me the way that He wants me to do it. Part of this is the fact that God has caused me to rethink some of the things that I believe about His Church, my purpose, and the mission. Also, this new journey has given me the ability to sit back and take a different perspective on the way the church functions here in the United States. (In my circles anyway)
While sitting back and looking at the church I have noticed a few things about the way we do things, and the things that we teach. I hear a lot about going out and being “doers of the word and not just hearers.” Pastors and teachers calling the charge to go out and work in the mission field that you are in everyday. These things are great, and true. I love the fact that they are being taught, but the problem I have seen is that though the battle cry has been sounded, there is no one to lead the charge. I can’t pretend to believe that no one in the world is “leading the charge”, but I can tell you that in the majority of the “churches” I have visited, or been a regular attendee, the cry is sounded every week, yet no one leads it. There are always a few in the congregation that want to, or talk about it, but are soon discouraged because of the resistance from the leaders.( I know right!!!) So the teaching is good, the battle cry has been sung, but the person making the cry is stuck in the pulpit, and pleading for the people to go and live dangerously. Jason Dukes, in his new book “Live Sent” writes “ It’s not what you teach, it’s what you emphasize. Being a missionary, loving your neighbor, and getting involved in discipling are all great things to teach and push people toward. But they are more importantly great things to emphasize over and over again in more than just words.” His emphasis is on emphasis (you see what I did there?) and we should all be emphasizing that. We preach and teach what we should do, but then don’t actually do it. We sound the battle cry and then just sit there and wonder why nobody is charging. Robert E. Coleman writes in his book The Master Plan of Evangelism, “One living sermon is worth more than 100 spoken ones.”
Jesus not only sounded the battle cry, but he lead the charge. He not only invited His men to become fishers of men, He showed them how to fish. He not only told them to love the world, but showed them what it looks like. Jesus not only taught what to do, but He emphasized it every day. A real leader rallies his troops and then leads them to the fight. A real leader sounds the battle cry, and then is the first one to charge. A real leader says he is willing to die, and then doesn’t shy away from the opportunity to do so.
We can teach all day what it means to be a disciple, but only when we show them what it looks like to be one will they ever learn how to.
“Something is not being emphasized when it is just talked about. It is emphasized when its message influences both what is said as well as what is done. Something is emphasized when the practical day-to-day strategic purpose of a specific group reflects that emphasis in everything they do.” Jason C. Dukes. Live Sent