March 11, 2011
Moving Target
Libyan rebels fire their guns indiscriminately in the air at the first sound Col Gaddafi's jets flying overhead. One rebel leader/organizer stated, “We need to train our fighters to fire only at things they can see.” At first blush it sounds so obvious; however in spiritual battles I can see where I too miss my target because I start firing before I see the enemy. Paul reminds us, “…do not fight like a man beating the air.” (1 Cor 9:26 NIV)
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----What are spiritual battles? We can suppose they are the times and places where fiery arrows split the air and the lion stands ready to sink teeth into another claw pierced victim. But that kind of answer only offers one vagary for another. What are these fiery arrows, and what is it to be pinned to the ground by this prowling, drooling lion? Sumatra, Katrina, Haiti, and Japan last night? Many finger natural disasters as being such, and also plagues, and horrible accidents (which need only one victim to be horrible when that victim is the one you love dearly.) If we figure life should be perfect then anything gone awry is an arrow, or at least a lion’s bad breath. And everything is a spiritual battle, in a way. Life should be perfect; it will not continue for ever imperfectly. The full armor Paul suggests we don protects our hearts, minds, and spiritual natures from the effects of all imperfection in a life gone awry. But there is not much battling it away.
-----Although we armor up for defense, and need that protection to avoid breaking down mentally, what is our offensive part in the battle, if we have one? Knowing that would help us to know a target so we don’t just shoot into the air. Actually, how could one not hit a target just shooting into the air, as full of evil as this world is? That rhetoric would make a good point if it were not for the fact that evil uses human shields. The Westboro Baptists demonstrate how much damage can be wreaked by just blasting at a target. There are hurting people at those funerals who may entirely agree with the Westboro Baptists about gays in the military. But they don’t act like those hecklers, because they know a human has been placed in front of a target.
-----Besides, the normal issues targeted - encroaching immorality, abortion, a lying mainstream press, the scrubbing of God from any public view, and numerous such others - are evils seeming to devour any remaining godliness humanity has left. And if there does seem to be some descent advance made on any one or more fronts, another bulge in the line just forms at one flank or the other. So if we think we are going to fight an offensive battle for the big win, we may as well harpoon a whale with needles and thread.
-----Maybe that is not a bad idea. Returning good for evil, helping someone who hates you get out of the dirt, being kind in the face of anger, joyful in the face of misery, and peaceful amidst mayhem might not secure the whale to the whaler, but those needles get the attention of the skin cells where they enter. Our point is the attention of the individuals around us being drawn to the matters of godliness shown us in Christ. Our weapons fired are those matters lived. Our offensive objective is at least to be true to our new nature, at most to convince another soul to become eternal in Christ, and between these, to just hold the line till the Lord gets here.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
But as we draw closer to Christ in thoughts and actions, we become less visible to the adversary, and more able to laser him when he comes near.
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