World Cups, Wars, and Winning

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” – Galatians 5:16

The 2014 World Cup is almost over in Brazil.  There have been some really amazing matches played, with dazzling victories, and also rather mortifying losses (Germany vs. Brazil comes to mind).  In life, as in the World Cup, everyone can’t win all the time.  Every conflict since the beginning of time, whether it be a friendly game of soccer or a war between rival nations, has resulted in winners and losers.  In fact, the entire history of humanity is a history of conflict, a story of struggle.  And although the World Cup is a relatively peaceful example of battles between uniformed athletes with painted balls and referees, violent fighting has torn up the globe ever since Cain killed Abel so many thousands of years ago.  But clubs and boards, swords and shields, and guns and bombs have never really been the cause or solution to these wars.  Truth be told, even the “War to end all wars,” otherwise known as World War One, only served to introduce a much more brutal worldwide bloodbath hardly two decades later.  Why then do we as humans fight so much?  Why can’t we just get along?

The answer is simple.  External physical conflict is nothing more than a mirror of internal spiritual struggle.  We cannot seem to find peace with our fellow humans on planet Earth because we cannot seem to find peace between our flesh and our spirit.

Verse 17 of Galatians 5 explains this:  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”  There is a battle raging in every single person’s heart, and the outcome of that war is far more important than any physical fight we can engage in.  Indeed, the battle between the flesh and the spirit is the penultimate human struggle.

So how can we win this battle?  God makes it very simple.  “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”  If we walk in the Spirit, we WON’T be run by the flesh.  Quite literally, if we walk in the Spirit, we win.  So how do we walk in the Spirit?  Each of us who are born again Christians have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.  He will always be there, but we don’t have to let Him run our lives.  The Bible says we can grieve or even quench the Spirit of God (I Thess. 5:19, Eph. 4:30), and we do this by our life choices.  Does the Spirit of God approve of the movie I’m watching?  If not, I’m grieving the Spirit.  He’s not running my life, because I’ve essentially made it clear that a movie is more important to me than His Presence.  The same goes for music and conversation and the internet, anything basically that is in any way contrary to the Holy Spirit of God.

I’m convinced that the primary reason we often struggle to find victory in areas of our lives is because we want to keep living the way we want to live, entertaining ourselves the way we want to be entertained, and still somehow expect the Spirit of God to empower us and give us victory over the “bad stuff.”  According to the Bible, that’s just not the way it works.  God can give victory over alcoholism, for example, and He wants to, but only if we let Him by walking in the Spirit and keeping our lives free from things that would grieve or quench Him.

Your team might not have made it to the World Cup Final, and we’ll probably never see any substantial world-wide peace until God reigns directly during the Millennial Kingdom, but we CAN have victory and peace in our personal lives by intentionally walking in the Spirit.

“If the Holy Spirit can take over the subconscious with our consent and cooperation, then we have almighty Power working at the basis of our lives, then we can do anything we ought to do, go anywhere we ought to go, and be anything we ought to be.” – E. Stanley Jones

Worth Fighting For

Last week I wrote a piece on life, and how it’s measured by the relationships we have.  I stressed the importance of keeping differences from getting big enough to break friendships.  But I wanted to make sure my readers don’t come away with a one-sided view of issues and conflict.

This world is a harsh place, and there is no room for people who value peace at any price.

Winston Churchill is famous for many things, one of which was the alligator analogy.  He likened Neville Chamberlain’s response to Hitler as feeding a crocodile.  No matter how much you give it, it’s only to going to want more.  Appeasement is a delicate matter.  The trick is knowing when and how far to go.  Good news, though, because we have a guide to help us out with that.  The Bible shows us just how far we should stretch to be at peace with those around us.  In Romans it says, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”  And in Acts it says, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”  The line is drawn for us in the sand.  We must we be willing to do whatever it takes to be at peace with those around us, except when doing so will violate the law of God.

In such cases, it is our duty, our holy calling, to fight for what is right—no matter the cost.

The reality of history shows us that most major conflicts revolve around a struggle between opposing views of truth, and what it means in terms of practical application.  And when voices all around scream for peace in the midst of such a struggle, it is the sacred duty of all who know the Truth to ignore such pressures and stand strong, sword in hand, against the forces of evil.  Sometimes that evil is a dictator from a far-away land.  Sometimes that evil is someone we dearly love.  And sometimes that evil stands within our very own soul.  This is why fighting against someone can sometimes be synonymous with fighting FOR them.  When our boys landed at Omaha beach in Normandy, France, we were fighting against hundreds of thousands of German soldiers.  But while we were shooting at them and in many cases killing them, we were fighting FOR them as well, for their families, for their children and grandchildren to know a world without the tyranny of Nazism.  War is always ugly and brutal, but it all comes down to the penultimate question:  Would you rather live as a slave, or die free?  As hard as it is for some people to admit, freedom has always fetched a fatal price.  And it always will. 

As you walk through the various relationships of your life, remember God’s admonitions.  When your co-worker manipulates their way past you into a promotion, do everything you can to be at peace with them.  God is in ultimately in control, and justice will always be served sooner or later.  But when that same co-worker asks why you don’t go to the nightclubs with the guys, it’s time to stand up and give them the real reason instead of slushing your way through some lame excuse.

Don’t take it from me, take it from the Almighty Creator of the Universe (kind of an important-sounding title, am I right?):  “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” – I Timothy 6:12

“If You’ve Got Nothing Worth Dying For, You’ve Got Nothing Worth Living For.” – Martin Luther

(K)no(w) Respect = (K)no(w) Peace

“U.S. Ambassador to Libya Is Killed” – Wall Street Journal

“Protesters Burn US Flags Outside Tunisian Embassy” – Fox News

“U.S. ambassador killed in city he tried to save” – CNN

“Obama ‘unable to meet’ Israel PM Netanyahu” – BBC

“Egypt protesters pull down U.S. flag at embassy in Cairo” – LA Times

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims” – US Embassy, Cairo, Egypt

Do any of the above statements bother you?  Do feelings of anger rise within you as these headlines fall across your eyes?  Does it hurt to think about all of these things happening on the 11^th anniversary of the September 11^th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers?  Do you think the timing was an accident?  Maybe you can’t hear me; let me say it a little louder:  Does this inflame you?  Do you feel anything at all?  Does America even have feelings left to be hurt?  I hope so, but if you listen to the Obama Administration, you wouldn’t think so.  Every single man, woman, and child in this country should be absolutely outraged at these attacks.  It should infuriate us.  The honor of our country, our flag, and our God is being trampled and assaulted on a grand scale.  Let me ask you this.  If killing the US ambassador and three of his staff members isn’t an act of war, what is?  What is it going to take for the once-again “sleeping giant” to wake up?

I don’t have all the strategic options laid out before my eyes at the moment, so I can’t give specific advice regarding retaliation.  BUT DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.  RETALIATE!  Let me be very clear:  This can’t be allowed to happen again.  They have quite literally asked for war.  They should quite literally get one.  You can’t tell me our expansive intelligence net doesn’t have some locations of terror cells where these guys are coming from.  Oh, but they’re in Egypt, and that’s an ally of ours.  Guess what?  I don’t care.  What ally of ours would allow the American Flag to be pulled down in front of our Embassy?  Find the terrorist camps; bomb the living daylights out of them.  Yep, I’m talking F/A-18 Hornets; I’m talking the big boys, B-1’s; and how about letting a couple B-2 Stealth Bombers out of their cage in Missouri?  I’m not saying civilian bombings (although with some Muslim countries, the line between civilian and insurgent is very blurry—even non-existent—sometimes).  I’m saying laser-guided annihilation of anyone and everyone connected in even a faint way with any of what happened to our Ambassador to Libya, his staffers, and our Embassy.

A foreign Embassy is set up in a given country for the express purpose of conducting diplomacy with that nation.  When that Embassy is ransacked, and the Ambassador is murdered, diplomacy has officially ended in all forms.  It’s time to drop the hammer.  America has been the laughingstock of the world for three and a half years now; it’s time we call an end to the madness.  If we show the “audacity” of bombing a terror cell in Egypt, where will the terrorist run to hide?  Pakistan?  We know—with 100% surety—of terror cells in Pakistan: why haven’t they been bombed?

Folks, we’re at war with terrorist groups who have committed thousands of acts of open warfare upon American interests, and American citizens.  If any of our “allies” decide to knowingly harbor one of these groups in any way, shape, or form, they have chosen to no longer be our ally.  Can you be allies with a country while harboring the enemies of that same country?  Are you in third grade yet?  Perhaps I’m not being fair to the thousands of preschoolers who understand that concept better than our President.  Oh, but Pakistan has nukes!!!  Yep, and we happen to know exactly where they are.  They couldn’t even get one off the ground before we destroyed the entire operation.  Remember, a nuke can’t launch like a web browser.  There are several stages in deploying a nuclear warhead into the outer atmosphere (where it could actually reach our shores, if they in fact have reliable intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead—doubtful).  In fact, the USS Los Angeles—a ballistic missile submarine equipped with more nuclear warheads than the entire country of Pakistan—or one of its cousins is currently sitting quite tidily near the coast of Pakistan, waiting for the very possibility.

We’ve been “speaking softly” for far too long.  Now it’s time to use the “big stick.”  The world may never love us in its entirety, but they must inevitably respect us.  And only respect can ensure peace.