Buying the Lie
We've bought the lie. We have come to believe that "this is as good as it gets" - that to sit in the pew week after week, do good works, faking humility with "I'm just a lowly sinner saved by grace"...being dutiful...nice -- that is what this "saved" life is supposed to be. The lie tells us this is all we can do and that is what Christianity is all about. That is part of the lie.

The second part of the lie is telling us "there is no warfare" - that the battle is over and it ended on the Cross when Jesus died. In dying, Jesus won the war - it's over, finished. Not so.

The church tells us "You don't need to fight the enemy. Let Jesus do that." Eldredge says that is nonsense and it is unbiblical and he compares it to a private in the army saying "I don't have to fight, my general will do all the fighting."

Yet Jesus commands us "resist the devil, and he will flee from you." We are told, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him." Further in 1 Timothy He says, "Fight the good fight" and in Proverbs it is written, we are to "Rescue those being led away to death."

There is a battle my friend. Should we (as nice, dutiful, mild, compliant Christians) just roll over in our society and let evil and the pornographers and the child molestors and the rapists win? Does Jesus call us to be doormats? Or, does He call us to fight for what is good, for what is right, for what is noble and honorable? Does He call us to stand up for the oppressed and to defend the weak? Does He charge us with being men of integrity and of deep character? Yes, He does and folks, that means there will be a fight. Make no mistake, if you won't stand for it (the crap of this world) then there will be a fight.

There is an enemy that does not want you to be a man of integrity or deep character. He wants you possessed by that young women in your office that isn't your wife, he wants you possessed by greed or power or status. He wants you to cheat, to cut corners, to fudge, to lie. He wants to drive a wedge between you and your wife. He wants you cold and distant to your kids - "checked out" and uninvolved in their lives. I just can't say it enough - he will use any trick, any tactic, and strategy to "take you out".

Jesus calls us to fight the good fight. He calls us to resist. He calls us to constantly - not sometimes, not most of the times but to constantly - do the right thing. There will be a fight to oppose you.

Jesus came not as a meek, mild man to be nice and dutiful and to die on the Cross. He came as a warrior to set us free. He had to die to accomplish his mission but the real beauty wasn't so much in His death but his resurrection and ascention into Heaven. The church seems to forget this "freedom". It preaches compliance. It wants men to be meek and mild and nice and in so doing, makes Jesus a warden. That isn't what God designed. He designed us to be bold and creative and willing to fight for what is right. Jesus isn't a warden - He is the great Liberator. He came to set us free. Freedom.

Braveheart William Wallace said "You've come to fight as free men and free men you are. Fight and you may die and run and you may live - at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance - just one chance - to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom."

The lie is that we ignore there is a battle. We choose not to fight and we think that is the solution. It isn't. The liar wants us to roll over and give up without a fight. Wallace is a great Christ figure in Braveheart - Scotland's men had been beaten into submission by the British and were dead in spirit. Wallace comes to free them ... he liberates them. Christ is the great liberator. He came to break us out of the rut, out of the compliant behavior, out of the nice/dutiful lives we lead - He came to set us free!

Soar!