Apr
17
2010

Living out the Gospel

In seek­ing to do min­istry to mil­i­tary over the past sev­eral years (par­tic­u­larly to young men and women) I’m reminded of a quote I heard some time ago.  “Peo­ple want proof more than they want truth!” 

Peo­ple want proof more than they want truth
Now before you get your­self in an uproar and start echo­ing your the­o­log­i­cal and philo­soph­i­cal per­spec­tive it’s impor­tant to note that I strug­gle with this as well.

In a world filled with shades of gray, many of us would pre­fer to get back to the black and white way of deal­ing with things.  I would pre­fer to focus on right and wrong in order to deal with what needs to be addressed.  Don’t give me shades of gray because then I’ll give you shades of gray and we’ll never get the the heart of the issue.  Yet God is remind­ing me of the time before I sub­mit­ted to Him where I was aware of the black and white — the truth of His sac­ri­fice — and yet I stayed in the shades of gray.

So what’s my point?  Before com­ing to an under­stand­ing of what God did in send­ing Jesus I had heard the gospel many times over.  I didn’t argue with it but didn’t see the value of it.  In those who called them­selves Chris­tians I saw as much vari­ety of lifestyle as I did vari­eties of veg­eta­bles in the gro­cery store.  They (both the veg­gies and the Chris­tians) were good and bad in my opin­ion.  Yet I didn’t see the value in eat­ing right or liv­ing right because in my view I couldn’t con­nect the phys­i­cal and spir­i­tual health to what I needed.  Try to tell a teenager that they need to eat veg­eta­bles because of how it will impact them later and you’re likely to get the same look that you’d get if you told them they need to start think­ing about pick­ing out a geri­atric doctor.

Peo­ple who don’t know the “value of the gospel” don’t want truth;  they want proof. 

“We need water for our bod­ies and water for our soul…Jesus offers both through His followers.”
How does a life of Christ change my world? What’s the value of a Christ-centered life if I per­ceive it to be rid­dled with more do’s and don’ts?  So what if Jesus died for me, what dif­fer­ence does that make in my strug­gles?  I don’t need truth, I need proof that Christ will give me a hope and a future!

When I sub­mit­ted my life to Christ I did so because I saw the gospel lived out.  I saw peo­ple who came along­side me while in need and helped me see that I’m not alone phys­i­cally and spir­i­tu­ally.  I expe­ri­enced God through the lives of many who didn’t even real­ize they were shar­ing the gospel. And most of all, I see dozens of oth­ers around me who desire the bread of the body but also the bread of life.  Mak­ing dis­ci­ples as I see it is giv­ing peo­ple phys­i­cal bread and also this bread of life.  To leave one out is the same as leav­ing out the truth or proof of our Lord and Sav­ior Jesus Christ.  Let’s not let let the devil steal either.

The thief’s pur­pose is to steal and kill and destroy. My pur­pose (Jesus) is to give them a rich and sat­is­fy­ing life.  John 10:10 (NLT)

Apr
12
2010

The Mandate of Shepherd-Leadership

The Lord God took the man and put him in the gar­den of Eden to work it and keep it. (Gen 2:15)

In Richard Phillips’ new book, The Mas­cu­line Man­date, he says this about shepherd-leadership:

Not sur­pris­ingly, the model of the leader as shep­herd fits per­fectly the work-and-keep Mas­cu­line Man­date of Gen­e­sis 2:15. God placed Adam in the gar­den to work it—to make it grow—and shep­herds are lead­ers who nur­ture and inspire the hearts of those who fol­low. God also called Adam to keep the garden—to stand guard over it—and it is the shepherd-leader who pro­tects those under his charge, keep­ing one eye always on the flock and the other alert for preda­tors. Good shepherd-leadership, then, will always resem­ble Adam’s servant-lordship as the flock, like a gar­den, grows and bears fruit of all kinds under the watch­ful pro­tec­tion of the shep­herd. (47)

Phillip’s con­tin­ues to deal with the issue of shepherd-leadership in look­ing what David says in Psalm 23 and sug­gests that the psalmist is speak­ing of three main tasks for shepherd-leaders: guid­ing, pro­tect­ing, and car­ing.  These three tasks are echos from Adams chal­lenge in the Gar­den found in the excerpt above.

Since many of you do not have “gar­dens” to tend per se, you cur­rently or in the future, will have men and women under you where, you too, are charged with the  same chal­lenges God gave Adam in the Garden.

a shepherd-leader…must be able to point his fol­low­ers in the right direc­tion and guide them to safety.

Guid­ing — Shepherd-leaders “must be able to point his fol­low­ers in the right direc­tion and guide them to safety (48).”  How do we fill this task?  By being com­pe­tent in what we are called too.  If you are in charge of a desk, squad, pla­toon, or reg­i­ment, you need to be com­pe­tent with the knowl­edge that is required to be effec­tive in your duties.  You must mas­ter the skills you need, using as many resources avail­able to you.  It is essen­tial that among them, is the study of God’s Word.  What will it take for you to be com­pe­tent in what you are called to on your cam­puses and/or units?

Shepherd-leaders must pro­tect their peo­ple from threats or adver­sity that would seek them harm.

Pro­tect­ing — Shepherd-leaders must pro­tect their peo­ple from threats or adver­sity that would seek them harm.  Take the ini­tia­tive to be ready to pro­tect your peo­ple when the time comes.  It surely will come.  David used the sym­bol­ism of the author­ity and pro­tec­tion of the shepherd’s sheep in Psalm 23:4 when he describes the rod and staff as a com­fort to them.  The shepherd’s staff has a long hook on it to grab the necks of way­ward sheep and put strays back on the right path.  “Fol­low­ers rightly expect lead­ers to enforce proper rules and shape godly behav­iors (49).”  The rod is to pro­tect the sheep from preda­tors and the like.  Like the sheep, your peo­ple will look to you, their faith­ful leader who sits in posi­tion of author­ity, for pro­tec­tion.  What are the ways you can pro­tect your peo­ple in your ROTC units?

be fully accept­ing of those sheep God has called us to lead and make sure they are aware of that fact.

Car­ing — Shepherd-leaders must care for their peo­ple and meet their needs.  As David sums Ps. 23 up, he con­cludes in last few verses empha­siz­ing pro­vi­sion, accep­tance, bless­ing, and belong­ing.  As lead­ers, we must pro­vide our peo­ple with the tools nec­es­sary to com­plete the mis­sion, and com­plete the mis­sion well.  We must “be fully accept­ing of those sheep God has called us to lead and make sure they are aware of that fact (49).”  With all the imper­fec­tions, weak­ness, strengths, abil­i­ties, and skills, accept your peo­ple as they are and care for them.  Be a bless­ing to your peo­ple.  Do not lord over them in an “I’m the boss.  Do what I say.” men­tal­ity, but care for them by bless­ing them and serv­ing them.  In all this, your peo­ple will feel a sense of belong­ing to the unit and mis­sion.  In what ways can you care for the peo­ple on your cam­pus and in your units?  How can you com­mu­ni­cate to them that they are valuable?

As a shepherd-leader, guide, pro­tect, and care for your peo­ple.  This is your bib­li­cal man­date as a leader.

Apr
8
2010

Making Disciples

One of the best plan­ning strate­gies that I know of is to start with the end in mind then decide what needs done to reach that desired goal.  As min­istry lead­ers among your ROTC peers, have you thought through what the end should be?  Jesus tells us in His Great Com­mis­sion that the goal is to “go and make dis­ci­ples.”  So how should we define a dis­ci­ple, what exactly does a dis­ci­ple look like?  There’s a clue in the pas­sage that helps us know what He has in mind.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All author­ity in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go there­fore and make dis­ci­ples of all nations, bap­tiz­ing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teach­ing them to observe all that I have com­manded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)

A dis­ci­ple is some­one who observes all that He has com­manded us.  If we summed up all His teach­ings, we find that the com­mands of a dis­ci­ple really break down into a few sim­ple categories:

  • Walk by faith. This is some­one who actively takes steps to see that his or her life is con­formed in thought, word, and deed to what God as shown us in His word.  This per­son pur­sues God, loves by the power of Christ, avoids and repents of sin, and believes and obeys the Bible just to name a few.
  • Com­mu­ni­cate your faith. Jesus never wanted just a few peo­ple to expe­ri­ence a trans­formed life in Him, but for all to know Him.  A dis­ci­ple of His will be inten­tional to share what He has done in their lives with oth­ers and invite them to come to Him just as they have.
  • Mul­ti­ply your faith. Jesus’ instruc­tion to “[teach] them to observe all that I have com­manded,” includes the imper­a­tive, from the very same sen­tence, to make dis­ci­ples.  Jesus’ dis­ci­ples are to teach oth­ers, to teach oth­ers, to teach oth­ers, to teach other… all these things.

It is our ten­dency to miss that last part.  We might think through all that some­one needs to learn and expe­ri­ence to walk inti­mately with Jesus and share Him with oth­ers, but often for­get to include delib­er­ately teach­ing them how to mul­ti­ply their faith into still others.

As the semes­ter winds down, you as the leader need to ask your­self, “Have I/we taught those I/we lead how to pass their faith on to oth­ers?” If not, it isn’t too late yet.  Spend the last few weeks of this semes­ter show­ing them how you pre­pare a Bible study then have them lead one.  Show them how to teach oth­ers how to share their faiths, then have them train some of the younger cadets/mids in the group.

Jesus left His whole King­dom plan in the hands of his dis­ci­ples and equipped them with His Spirit.  Just look at all that has been done…

Mar
23
2010

Easter, a Season of Renewal

Momen­tum can be a ten­u­ous bal­ance.  Too much and you risk sput­ter­ing out too early, and too lit­tle could pre­vent you from get­ting off the ground.  As col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties move past spring break and gear up for finals it could be easy to see momen­tum fade in spir­i­tual move­ments.  As Easter (4 April) nears I encour­age you to take time to con­sider the mag­ni­tude of the day, what it rep­re­sents, and the man whose ulti­mate act of obe­di­ence allows us an inti­mate rela­tion­ship with God.  Allow this sea­son of repen­tance, for­give­ness, and res­ur­rec­tion to renew your momen­tum and focus to fin­ish the semes­ter strong.

Jesus Christ’s life and pur­pose of redemp­tion is woven through­out the entire Bible, from Gen­e­sis to Rev­e­la­tion.  Imme­di­ately fol­low­ing the Fall, God announced his plan for a Mes­siah, a Sav­ior to return cre­ation to right rela­tion­ship with him, and con­tin­ued to affirm his plan through­out scripture.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your off­spring and her off­spring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Gen 3:15

“When your days are ful­filled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your off­spring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will estab­lish his king­dom.” 2 Sam 7:12

“But he was wounded for our trans­gres­sions; he was crushed for our iniq­ui­ties; upon him was the chas­tise­ment that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Isa­iah 53: 5

“You ascended on high lead­ing a host of cap­tives in your train and receiv­ing gifts among men, even among the rebel­lious, that the Lord God may dwell there.” Psalm 68:18

Jesus Christ is God, and yet he sub­mit­ted to the Father and suf­fered humil­i­at­ing and pub­lic exco­ri­a­tion.  His own agony over the com­pelling need to sub­mit is vividly dis­played in Luke 22:44, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”  With­out Jesus’ sub­mis­sion to the Father where could we find our hope?  In what could we find pur­pose?  What would we value?

As you con­sider these ques­tions I hope this sea­son of Easter will grow in sig­nif­i­cance for you and that you’ll take time to med­i­tate on a cru­ci­fix­ion pas­sage in the Gospels: Matthew 26–28, Mark 14–16, Luke 22–24, or John 18–21.  Or, gather a group of friends to watch “The Pas­sion of the Christ” or “The Jesus Film”; invite a friend to attend an Easter ser­vice with you; or take extra time to encour­age a fel­low believer who is strug­gling with momen­tum.  May this be a time of growth, con­nec­tion, and renewal for you and the those you lead.  Father God, may your Holy Spirit keep the mean­ing and joy of Easter at the fore­front of our hearts and minds.

Mar
8
2010

The Fruit of Discipleship

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask what­ever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, show­ing your­self to be my dis­ci­ples” john 15:7–8; ital­ics added)

This pas­sage reveals the upward view of dis­ci­ple­ship.  A fruit­less dis­ci­ple­ship of Christ is not the way Christ laid out for His fol­low­ers.  If there is no real fruit in our lives, we can­not claim to be true disciples.

The fruit that the Lord spoke of results in a changed life and is pri­mar­ily man­i­fested in one of these two ways:

concord-grapesFruit in Char­ac­ter—in the inward life.  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kind­ness, good­ness, faith­ful­ness, gen­tle­ness and self-control” (Gala­tians 5:22–23)

The fruit of the Spirit’s work­ing in our lives is expressed through these nine qual­i­ties.  A tree is known by its fruit, as Jesus tells his dis­ci­ples.  The dis­ci­ple is rec­og­nized by his like­ness to Christ in inward char­ac­ter.  It was to this end that Paul toiled.  “I seek the fruit that increases to your credit” (Philip­pi­ans 4:17).

Fruit in Ser­vice—in out­ward min­istry.  “Open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for har­vest.  Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he har­vests the crop of eter­nal life, so that sower and reaper may be glad together” (John 4:35–36).  Fruit is seen when souls are won for Christ and through dis­ci­ple­ship lead on to spir­i­tual matu­rity and a life changed.

The fruit-bearing that is an authen­tic mark of dis­ci­ple­ship is not auto­matic but con­di­tional.  Jesus made this clear when He said, “I tell you the truth, unless a ker­nel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a sin­gle seed.  But if it dies, it pro­duces many seeds” (john 12:24).  He thus links fruit-bearing with the cross.  And did He not exem­plify this prin­ci­ple in His own death?  A sin­gle ker­nel of wheat fell into the ground at Cal­vary and died, but on the Day of Pen­te­cost it pro­duced three thou­sand ker­nels, and fruitage has resulted ever since.

The oper­a­tive words in the state­ment in John 12 are “unless” and “if.”  The glo­ri­ous pos­si­bil­ity of “much fruit” lies in our own hands.  “It is enough for the stu­dent to be like his teacher, and the ser­vant like his mas­ter” (Matthew 10:25).  As we apply the cross to our lives and die to our self-dominated life, the Spirit can make our lives fruit­ful and our lives are changed as a result of our per­sonal rela­tion­ship with the Lord.

Father work in our hearts to change what holds us back.  Renew a stead­fast spirit, ripe with fruits of the Spirit and out­wardly to reap a bounty of fruit for Your glory

Spir­i­tual Dis­ci­ple­ship — J.O.S

Feb
11
2010

Compelling Community

Lead­ing peo­ple toward a com­pelling cause and a com­mit­ted com­mu­nity are two facets of lead­er­ship that should be an inte­gral part of the way we lead.  Moses faced this chal­lenge as the Israelites grum­bled in the desert and rebelled against God and Moses’ lead­er­ship.  Moses con­tin­ued to draw them back toward both the cause (spir­i­tual trans­for­ma­tion of their own heart) and com­mu­nity (by fos­ter­ing unity and one­ness).  Moses lead both out and in and rec­og­nized that peo­ple need to be lead in both direc­tions.  Moses’ heart becomes appar­ent after God pun­ishes him for dis­obey­ing and tell him that he would not enter the promised land.  Moses speaks, in Num­bers 27: 16–17 :

O Lord, you are the God who gives breath to all crea­tures. Please appoint a new man as leader for the com­mu­nity.  Give them some­one who will guide them wher­ever they go and will lead them into bat­tle, so the com­mu­nity of the Lord will not be like sheep with­out a shepherd.”

Do you sense Moses’ con­cern for the Israelites?  He clearly states his con­cern for lead­ing toward the cause of Christ and also lead­ing inward by cre­at­ing an atmos­phere that fos­ters community?

We can look at few more exam­ples…  As William Wilber­force led the move­ment to end slav­ery he gath­ered a close team of men and women who relent­lessly fought for this cause.  Called the Clapham cir­cle, they started from mem­bers who were cap­ti­vated by the com­pelling cause of the abo­li­tion of slav­ery.  They undoubt­ingly face huge chal­lenged as they sought to change soci­ety view point of the moral­ity of slavery.

The Clapham Cir­cle embod­ied the Acts 2:42 lifestyle, meet­ing together for prayer, shar­ing meals together, liv­ing in com­mu­nity. Wilber­force and Henry Thor­ton began the Clapham Cir­cle with inten­tion­al­ity. Accord­ing to Wilber­force biog­ra­pher, Kevin Bel­monte, “Years later [Wilber­force] would insist that this net­work of sup­port had been indis­pens­able in enabling him to serve effec­tively in pol­i­tics. Oth­ers might dis­miss such a seem­ingly triv­ial notion, but Wilber­force knew that his friend­ships were one of the most impor­tant parts of his life.” — Charles Colson

UntitledA third exam­ple comes from one of the great­est move­ment lead­ers of all time, Mar­tin Luther King (MLK).  King speaks, “This hour in his­tory needs a ded­i­cated cir­cle (com­mu­nity) of trans­formed non­con­formists(the cause). The sav­ing of our world from pend­ing doom will come not from the actions of a con­form­ing major­ity but from the cre­ative mal­ad­just­ment of a trans­formed minority.”

Don’t miss it.  A com­mit­ted com­mu­nity is what pro­vides the per­se­ver­ance nec­es­sary for the cause to reach its full poten­tial.  Father help us to build rela­tion­ship among our peers and extend the reach Christ to bring glory and honor to your name.

Jan
25
2010

Authenticity

If we aspire to be spir­i­tual lead­ers in ROTC and even­tu­ally the mil­i­tary, than we must decide to live as dis­ci­ples of Jesus; live authen­tic and trans­par­ent lives.  A big lie we allow our­selves to believe is that we need to have most every aspect of our lives together or at least pre­tend that we do.  It is nat­ural for us to hide what doesn’t look good.  Untitled-1Vul­ner­a­bil­ity is not our enemy but it our great­est tool to con­nect to a bro­ken world.  If we desire to have an impact on oth­ers then we must share our lives with oth­ers by reveal­ing our bro­ken­ness to oth­ers, not cover it up.

1st Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 2:8 says, Having so fond an affec­tion for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

  • How are we able to impart our lives to oth­ers if we are hid­ing sig­nif­i­cant parts from them?

Often in evan­ge­lism, we ask oth­ers to take a chance and trust what we are telling them but what we are offer­ing maybe the appear­ance of Chris­tian­ity.  “Come fol­low me as I fol­low Christ” should com­mu­ni­cate that I too am learn­ing how to walk, not that I have arrived (which is pride­ful).  I used to think that if other really knew the truth then they would never lis­ten to me. Some­times I still default to this think­ing but when I share the truth of where I am at and not fab­ri­cate the appear­ance of hav­ing it all together,  I usu­ally find myself iden­ti­fy­ing and con­nect­ing at a greater level with others.

It helps me to real­ize that it takes God a life­time to change my heart.  In a moment, I gave my life to Christ, but every day I am pre­sented with oppor­tu­ni­ties to allow God to save me from my sin­ful nature.

God give me a new heart.  Renew my spirit and trans­form my mind so that I  can live for more of you and less of myself.  Help me to gen­uinely put on love.  A love that brings about per­fect unity and authenticity.

Jan
8
2010

Our Passion and Purpose

I recently had the priv­i­lege of hear­ing Eric Swan­son speak.  What really stood out to me were some remarks on pas­sion and how they relate to evan­ge­lism and relationships:

  1. Evan­gel­i­cally, if we can con­nect peo­ple to the pas­sions God cre­ated in them, then we have an entry point into the Gospel.
  2. Rela­tion­ally, if we can con­nect the pas­sions of peo­ple to the big­ger story of the world’s bro­ken­ness, we can help   peo­ple “change the world”.

Have you ever askeworldd your­self or oth­ers if it is pos­si­ble to help change the world?

Ask your­self, what are you pas­sion­ate about?  How has God uniquely gifted you to change the world?  Many of you are head­ing for mil­i­tary ser­vice.  Is the mil­i­tary your pas­sion?  It may or may not be.  Our pro­fes­sion doesn’t have to have the sole own­er­ship of our pas­sion.  But the greater ques­tion is how you can serve the Lord in what you are pas­sion­ate about.  It will take pas­sion to change the world!

We are all very famil­iar with Eph 2:8–9:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of your­selves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast”.

But also with it should be read verse 10:

“For we are His work­man­ship, cre­ated in Christ Jesus for good works, which God pre­pared before­hand so that we would walk in them.”

This should tell us that our sal­va­tion is not just for our secu­rity, but it is what will allow us to ful­fill the pur­poses God cre­ated us for .

Now con­sider 2 Cor 5:10:

“For we must all appear before the judg­ment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

God not only calls us to ful­fill the good works He pre­pares for us, but He also equips and  pre­pares us to do it.  God has uniquely cre­ated each of us with dif­fer­ent pas­sion and He has pre­pared dif­fer­ent works for us to accom­plish.  We each have a unique assign­ment from the Lord. Pas­sion is an emo­tion that can be repressed through doubt or fear; or it can be embraced and used might­ily to accom­plish the tasks that He has assigned us.

Pas­sion is an indis­pens­able qual­ity for any leader.  Authen­tic pas­sion cap­ti­vates and inspires those around us.  By lead­ing spir­i­tu­ally, truly lead­ing, our pas­sion for fol­low­ing Christ should moti­vate oth­ers to catch fire.

Father help us under­stand how you cre­ated us for a pur­pose to help change the world. Help us to access the pas­sion that you have put inside our hearts.  Allow us to live unhin­dered from the thorns of this world and to live freely, pas­sion­ately for Christ.  Amen.

Nov
30
2009

Inspiring Others

I read John Maxwell’s blog post this morn­ing and it made me think about the effect of our lives on oth­ers.   Do we inspire them?  Maxwell pro­poses this Inspi­ra­tion Equa­tion to reveal how we inspire others:

What They Know(about us) + What They See(about us) + What They Feel (about us)=(are they) Inspired

I think how we inspire oth­ers is a good mea­sur­ing line for effec­tive­ness con­cern­ing Spir­i­tual Lead­er­ship.  Break­ing down this equa­tion makes us think from oth­ers’ van­tage point and should cause us to ask ques­tions of ourselves.

“If your actions inspire oth­ers to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams

  • Do peo­ple know that we care or just know our agenda?
  • Have we sought to under­stand oth­ers where they are at?
  • Are we trust­wor­thy enough to con­fide in and be vul­ner­a­ble with?
  • Do we live out what we talk about?

Our abil­ity to influ­ence, moti­vate and inspire oth­ers helps us lead.  No other man ever did this as well as Jesus when He poured His pas­sion out and inspired 12 men and ulti­mately the world.

As we build rela­tion­ships and live out our pas­sion for the Lord, we can cause a rip­ple effect that moti­vates and inspires oth­ers to live boldly for Him.

Nov
12
2009

Spiritual Training-Spiritual Weapons

One char­ac­ter qual­ity of a dis­ci­ple is a reg­u­lar study of God’s Word. John 8:31. We know that both a dis­ci­ple and a sol­dier must abide in train­ing. The mil­i­tary spends lots of time and money train­ing a sol­dier to act with instincts in the most dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions. The word of God trains a dis­ci­ple to be able to dis­cern good and evil and be equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17).

Think about the hours of train­ing you are enbibsworddur­ing to equip you to fully per­form your mil­i­tary duty. Think of the equip­ment and weapons you are being trained to oper­ate and exe­cute. What kind of mil­i­tary man or woman would you be with­out your equip­ment or your training?

God trains us and equips us to fully fol­low Jesus as His dis­ci­ple.. He equips us for bat­tle. The fol­low­ing pas­sage is cast in mil­i­tary terms.

Eph. 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our strug­gle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the pow­ers, against the world forces of this dark­ness, against the spir­i­tual forces of wicked­ness in the heav­enly places. 13 There­fore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and hav­ing done every­thing, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm there­fore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 15 and hav­ing shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 16 in addi­tion to all, tak­ing up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extin­guish all the flam­ing arrows of the evil one. 17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (NASB95)

There are many com­par­isons we can make with this pas­sage; how­ever, I would like to focus on one aspect. We know we should abide in the word because God uses it to train us. But notice that it is also our weapon. It is the “sword of the Spirit.

The word of God not only trains us, but it is the weapon we use when we are in the mid­dle of the bat­tle. This is an impor­tant con­cept to think about. It trains us, and it is our weapon.

When­ever I attend mil­i­tary brief­ings made to civil­ians, there is always one thing that the mil­i­tary attrib­utes our dom­i­nant world power to. It is not our supe­rior weapons, tech­nol­ogy, or num­bers of troops. It is the qual­ity of our mil­i­tary men and women. It is the fact that the U.S. mil­i­tary puts more time and money into train­ing than any other coun­try. Our pilots have more train­ing flight hours, our sailors have more time at sea, and our sol­diers have more time with their weapons. Not only are they trained to use their equip­ment, but also they are trained to make deci­sions that are right and just. Marines are con­sid­ered Teach­ers and Schol­ars. Always learn­ing, always teach­ing. Our U.S. mil­i­tary puts much time and money into the devel­op­ment of the indi­vid­ual mil­i­tary per­son so that they can be the best that they can be.

The great­est weapon against ter­ror­ism is a highly trained mil­i­tary per­son. So the train­ing becomes the great­est weapon. The abil­ity of a mil­i­tary per­son to be strong, to stand firm, and to apply the sword in bat­tle is a result of their training.

As a dis­ci­ple of Jesus, the Word of God not only trains us, but it makes us into the great­est weapon against the schemes of the devil. As you are bat­tling for the hearts and souls of those around you, and even your­self, what are the weapons that are unbeat­able? Love, humil­ity, for­give­ness, peace, trust, faith, hope, etc… God uses the Word to train us to have such unbeat­able weapons. We become the weapons. We become love, for­give­ness, peace, trust, faith, hope, etc…

The great­est weapon against the schemes of the devil is a fully devoted fol­lower of Jesus. So our spir­i­tual matu­rity becomes the great­est weapon. The abil­ity of a dis­ci­ple of Jesus to be strong, to stand firm, and to apply the Word of God in bat­tle is a result of their training.

If you abide in My word, then you are truly dis­ci­ples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31–32)