The Journey of 2014 is About to Begin

During this week, there are many people reflecting about 2013, about their lives as we are about to turn the page to a new year. God has been doing amazing things in my life lately and despite all he had done, I have that feeling that he hasn't even warmed up yet. 2013 highlights were good but not many per say. The most stand-out ones was when OakTara confirmed at the beginning of this year that they would accept my books, then at the end of the year, they offered me a contract, not just for two books as I initially expected to have, but three. In the mean time I have continued to substitute for the Socorro ISD here in El Paso as I continue to search for a full-time teaching job. However, I have known that in the last few years, God has been putting together some big plans for me. I've had glimpses of it and what it could be with all I have been involved with and it looks like God is starting to put it all together and the ride is about to start.

  So, I'll start with my books. I am writing a trilogy that depicts the battles we face spiritually through a fantasy setting. My first book is a re-release of the book I had out three years ago but did not have the final editing job I was hoping for, neither did it have the final cover art I was hoping for. But that is one of the dangers of going self-publishing relatively blind. Since then I have attended the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference twice and while there the first time, I met Ramona Tucker of OakTara Publishing. She expressed a very strong interest in my books when I met her there and as a result, I now have a contract for a trilogy. My first two books are in OakTara's hands. They are working on the type-setting (transferring it from Microsoft Word to the book format) and the cover art. I will be posting the back of the book summary when we get close to setting a release date and/or when the cover design is finalized. The second book will wait until we have a realistic time frame for finishing the third so that we can pace the releasing of the three books evenly. We don't want to release books 1 and 2 too close to each other if book 3 is a ways out. But I am working on it. Slower than preferred, but slower with fewer re-writes is better than faster and more re-writes. I will be announcing the release and info on where you can find it as soon as that information comes in.

  There is more. I have been invited to the Creation Truth Foundation in Oklahoma City for their "Cadre" program. This is a rare invitation-only program that is designed to teach Biblical Foundations and Biblical Worldviews to students who will then take it back home and teach it in their home churches and beyond. It is a four-part program of five days each over two years. I will be going up in mid-January for the first leg, then return again in September/October, then back in January 2015 and against in September/Oct 2015. When it is all said and done, I will be in position to teach Biblical Foundations in a small group setting or more. I got the invitation through working Charles Jackson, the director of college ministries at the Creation Truth Foundation when I brought him to UTEP in 2011. Charles Jackson has read my first book and wants to promote my trilogy through the CTF bookstore.

  There is more. At the end of the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference last year, another author and I have gotten to know each other quite well and we decided to check with the director to see about teaching a workshop on Spiritual Warfare at the 2014 conference. She liked the idea and while we did not get the 5-hr Continuing Session we would have preferred, we have been asked to teach a 1-hr workshop. I have not officially confirmed this yet as I need to check my finances. Being faculty would pay me $30 and give me half-my registration costs off, but I would still need to cover housing and transportation, which alone would be about $300, not including the $150 discounted registration costs. Once I get back from OKC and the first round of the Cadre, I'll be able to assess my finances and make a decision. I seek to go, but I just need to be sure I can with summer months of no pay due to no school.

  There is more. A project I have taken up showed itself in the last couple weeks. In my variety of Facebook debates, primarily on the Creation/Evolution debate, I posted once about how with the new "longer" half-life of DNA (not for dating purposes but for how long it could last) does not match the numbers they give. To make a long story short without doing the math, a "Nature" article talked about how DNA will break down by about half after around 521 years, much longer than previously thought. The same article thought that DNA could be read if it was 1.5 million years old but would completely break down after 6.8 million years old. To put it simply, using this 521-year half-life, DNA will have completely broken down after a mere 15,000 years. And that got me thinking, if evolution-based data is this far off from reality, how much is their primary dating methods? So I've been looking into radiometric dating, using the data that is well-published and well-publicized and seeing if their own numbers actually work. For the longest time, I thought these guys were smart enough to make their numbers remotely work within the bounds of their theory, but I was wrong. And the deeper I am digging, the worse the numbers are looking. I am mathematically disproving radiometric dating with their own numbers and basic Algebra. I am not done yet, but when I go to the Cadre program, I plan to present my up-to-date results with the intention of getting this in the hands of the major Young-Earth Creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, Creation Ministries International, etc. I have yet to see something like this done. I've always heard about the assumptions that go into radiometric dating, but I've never seen anyone actually check out their numbers for realism under their worldview. I am and it's not looking good for Evolution's side.

  There is still more. Just this morning, I have been formally invited to join a ministry called Worldview Warriors based out of Ohio. Their vision and goal is to train this next generation not just with a Biblical Worldview but also practical skills on how to live the Christian life. I met the director on-line via Facebook and he's seen some of the stuff I post often on the Creation/Evolution debate. So I have been asked to come on board, not as a paid position, which is fine, as a regular blogger to post things about the science and math that back up the Biblical account. I will also be blogging about how Christian doctrine traces back its roots to the book of Genesis. This may open the door for public speaking events as well. Worldview Warriors has more than just their blog. They have a two-hour weekly radio show called "Do Not Be Silent" and they offer opportunities for public speaking events, conferences, and seminars. I will be gradually weened into a regular blogging post so the audience can get to know me with suddenly being exposed to a lot of me at once. My posts will show up Wednesday mornings either weekly or bi-weekly, we have not decided yet. Not only can I provide this ministry with the loads of stuff God has give me both scientifically and theologically to help them strengthen youth in their faith in Christ, but they can provide me a platform that I have not yet had to expand the ministries God has given me through fencing, my books, and the rest of this. What is more is that this invitation comes right at the same time as I will be going to the Cadre Program. Here is the link to their website. http://www.worldviewwarriors.org/

  I'm not even sure I have covered everything yet. I may have an opportunity to do my fencing presentation at another church here in El Paso that I am exploring. The only thing I know for sure is that God has called me to full time ministry working with youth and that he has BIG plans for me. And seeing ALL this coming together at once, I cannot help but think that this is just about to start. I am so excited to see what God is going to do. And all this is WITHOUT getting a full-time teaching position...yet. God has not told me to stop pursing one, so I will still be seeking one. I'm still trying to fathom putting all this together, and I know BIG stuff is about to go down. And all I can think of to say about it is "Bring it on!" Going to be such an awesome year.

The Terrain of Greed vs Management

  This is Part 7 of the 7-Part Series on the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. In the previous six posts, I have discussed Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Wrath, Envy, and Gluttony. Now is the last of the Seven: Greed. As with all the others, everything I describe is meant to be a metaphor of the actual Greed and stuff we deal with.

  Greed has another name that likes to show itself more frequently and that is Control. Greed is not looking at something and wanting it "greedily". Greed is having possession of it and wanting control of how it is used. It is wanting more and more, not merely because you want it or need it, but because you want to control it. Greed and Control are essentially one and the same. The opposite of Greed however is Good Management. Because Greed is about control, geared towards self, Management is about directing the resources God has given us to an outward-focus.

  A good example of where we see this distinction is in administration of a school classroom. There are two types of administrations that I will discuss. One type will tell the teachers what they need to teach, how they need to teach it, what techniques they need to employ, and what kind of grades need to be expected. This type of behavior is well-known as micromanaging. When the manager of a project must determine every little step of how everything must be done. While this may not be intentional, the root of this issue is Greed. But the other type of administration in a school classroom is the autonomous classroom. Here the administration tells the teacher what is expected, but how the classroom is run, how the subject is taught, etc is up to the teacher. A classroom can be autonomous while still working together with other teachers on a common topic. A good manager will delegate the tasks to those that need to do it and let those people do their job.

  So now we get to the terrain of Catharsis Hall. What type of land formations would we see that is a metaphor of how Greed would rule it or how good Management would rule it? My friend and I, as we were discussing this, came up with two things: open, unexplored land, and the ocean. So why not put them together. I have 22 years of experience in missions, working primarily in Juarez, Mexico, and one thing I have learned about the mission field is the need for structure. If everyone was allowed to just do their own thing, it would quickly lead to chaos. But if everyone did their task within an organized, structured system, it works perfectly. There is a greater freedom in a structure than you could ever do without said structure. If you have a bunch of kids and a playground, you will see two types of behaviors. If you have a fence, the kids will play all over the place, even going as far as hanging out right against the fence. But without a fence, the kids will hardly move about because they have no sense of boundary of where they can or cannot go. A few would venture out but without knowing where they are or what defines them, they cannot do much or go far. The ocean is a great example. If left to our own, we cannot swim very far, nor can we handle many waves, let alone storms. Yet, if we confine ourselves to the bounds of a boat or a ship, the entire ocean is explorable for us. It is the structure of a ship that enables us to sail the ocean blue.

  But what Greed does is place extra barriers where there should be no barriers. It is like subdividing the 100-Acre Wood and even going as far as regulating how one can have fun. The 100-Acre Wood is itself a boundary that while you are inside it, you have freedom to enjoy yourself. But if you zone-restrict a free territory, it loses its appeal. Good management will allow you to maximize your options. Sports has rules for safety but also so everyone can be on the same playing field. The rules are not meant to micromanage what can be done or not, but to give a structure for how the game can be played so all can enjoy it. But it can be micromanaged by referees, owners, coaches, or even some players. Greed will direct everything so the person can benefit from it. Management will direct so that the organization will benefit without concern about self.

  And a lot of what it boils down to is this question: Do you want to write your own rules to the system? Or do you want to work with the system to bring out its maximal usefulness? Greed wants to write its own rules. It wasn't to dictate the pace, the production, the work, the everything. It was to dictate the who, what, where, when, and how. Management will see an end goal, set up the system that will most effectively reach that goal, and allow the powers that need it to be properly delegated to do so. A man cannot grab a bunch of feathers and jump off a cliff, hoping to fly. Greed will try to write the rules that say he could eventually do that. But no matter how much Greed wants to write the rules, it will never be able to. God's rules will never be revoked or removed. And those rules include the laws of science we have discovered. However, Management will design a lightweight aircraft that will use the laws of physics which God ordained, and use them to overcome gravity.

  So now it comes to us. Who is ruling our terrain? Greed or God. If Greed is ruling, you will notice that you are trying to control and direct everything. If God is ruling, he will lead you in how to manage your resources. And God will often allow us autonomy to act as we will, especially when we work within the boundaries he has set up. God is not a micro-manager. He will not tell you what pair of socks to wear when you wake up. He will direct you and lead you as you need to be lead for the tasks God has in store for you but God does not want a "Yes Man". He wants people who will have a relationship with him, not people who will just say "yes" to everything he says just because. He gave Adam dominion over the creation. He let Adam choose the names of the animals. He tells us the list of what not to do because that list is far shorter than the list of what we can do. He sets the boundaries but allows us the freedom to live within those boundaries. And those boundaries are not chains. But Greed's boundaries are chain. Which one is ruling your terrain?

  That concludes my 7-part series on the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. I will have a couple more posts on this topic that will show how some of these terrains will overlap but this is the end of the primary set of posts. If you see yourself struggling in any one of these areas, place yourself in this terrain. Look around you. What do you see? It may vary from person to person. Each object you see in this terrain is a metaphor of something in your life that you may or may not know about. What you see something, ask what it is and why it is there. God will play this 'game' with you, and he will change your life when you play with him. And some issues you are dealing with have roots coming from two or more of the terrains I have described. I'll describe a few of those issues in my next couple posts.

The Terrain of Gluttony vs Internal Satisfaction

  Here is Part 6 of my series "The Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins". My previous posts dealt with Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Wrath, and Envy. This one will deal with Gluttony and my last one of the series will deal with Greed. As with everything in this series, what I describe here is meant to be a metaphor of what we actually deal with and by dealing with the metaphor that is a tangible thing we can address, we effectively also deal with the issues we face. So now once again we delve into the world of "Catharsis Hall" and as Gluttony deals with internal issues, we will go deep underground.

  The land is a metaphor for our soul, or our "flesh". The terrain is the land where the battle between Sin and God takes place and the how the terrain will look depends on who rules it. Gluttony is most known to reference food. But it also deals with anything we take in to feed and fuel our bodies. And it can be good things or bad things. Food is just the most common area where we see gluttony. But drinking or doing drugs also counts for this. Alcoholism is a drinking form of gluttony. So is addiction to drugs. If it goes into your body, it is subject to this terrain. The opposite of this is Internal Satisfaction. It is knowing what is good for your body, feeding it what it needs, but in proper moderation. It knows when to stop and it feeds the body with the right stuff.

  Because Gluttony deals with internal issues, once again we go underground. Lust and Gluttony are actually related in how they deal with these issues. In this terrain, we are not just in a mere cave, we are going deep underground. We have large caverns where it is easy to get into but hard to get out. As with any addiction, the way is easy. Sometimes it is a soft decent for a while but other times it is a steep decent. In this deep underground cavern there is everything you would want to live off. Water flows in from above ground into a fresh water pool. From the pool, all sorts of drinks are made. There is a wine refinery as well as a beer refinery.

  Light is provided for the cave by a series of mirrors. This light can be provided by natural sunlight or by a beacon. In a large room around a corner, the light is concentrated to provide for crops. What is grown depends on who rules the land. The ground here is very fertile and with the ambient temperature of a cave always at a constant 58 degrees no matter what is going with the weather outside, there is always a growing season, so all the crops are always producing. If you were to pluck all the ears of corn from the stalks, the next day, there would be more, fresh and ready to go. If Gluttony is ruling, you will grow what you want, not what you need. You could end up growing drugs or foods that merely taste good rather than help you out. If God is ruling, you will be satisfied internally. You will grow what you need, including the right foods. You won't grow the bad stuff and when you have excess, you will store it for when you need it later or you will provide it for who needs it.

  Where Gluttony has great danger is that it can provide all you want to live. It is easy to go down to this cavern and never come out. You can live in this cavern and indulge yourself. As if you indulge beyond proper moderation, it will not take long for the other Sins to join hands. Slothfulness and Gluttony can go hand-in-hand pretty well. When you are underground, it is very easy to lose track of time, having no clue what time or season it is. And if you stay and indulge too long, you will not be able to physically get out of the cave, even if you know how without having to work it out the excess. And we know from the testimonies of those who have tried to lose weight or get off addictions, it does not happen overnight without divine intervention.

  The way to get rid of Gluttony is to drive it out of the terrain. As long as Gluttony has permission to dwell in just one area, it will rule it. And Gluttony does not want you to leave the cavern...EVER. And with cavern systems, you must be careful about the trails you leave. Many caves have circuitous tunnels that will only lead you back to where you came from. And Gluttony will sabotage the routes out so you cannot take them. It will knock down boulders from the ceiling to destroy paths or natural bridges over chasms. But when God is the ruler, he will restore the cavern to its natural state. He will repair the paths. He will remove the crops that damage us and replace them with crops that will feed us. God's crops don't just feed the body. They feed the soul. When God rules our terrain, he will plant love, joy, peace, patience, as well as the physical internal needs we have as well. When Gluttony rules, it will plant the crops of its brothers including Pride, Envy, Wrath, and Lust. It will rip out the crops of God and not let them grow. And what is in the cavern is determined by who rules it.

  So that is what is off the top of my head on Gluttony. I cannot think of much else to say right now without merely rambling. As I've been saying in this series, nothing here is a finished product but just a foundation of what should be there. It will need many more details and descriptions including maps and locations for everything. My last post of this Seven Part Series will come shortly and it will cover the terrain that could be ruled by Greed. After that one, I will have a few posts on how the terrains can overlap and how something like Depression is a joint ruling of Pride (or more realistically, Shame) and Slothfulness. There are many other issues we deal with that is some combination of these Seven Deadly Sins. In fact, I cannot think of any sin or area we deal with that does not have some root or combination of one of these Seven Deadly Sins. And if we know how to deal with each of the Seven, we can learn how to deal with all their children. 

The Terrain of Envy vs External Provision

  This is Part 5 of my series "The Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins". I've already discussed Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, and Wrath. Here I will address Envy and it's counterpart, "External Provision". Then in Part 6 and 7 I will address Gluttony and Greed. After that, I will start to put some of the pieces together because it all forms one big terrain and map. And as a reminded, everything in this description is metaphorical. It is a picture, a concrete object that represents the issues we deal with in regards to the Seven Deadly Sins and what they corrupt of God's original creation.

  Envy is closely associated with coveting. It is seeing something that someone else has and desiring that something as though it is your right to have it. The common cliche that is well associated to this behavior is "the grass is always greener on the other side". Envy is not being satisfied with what God has provided you and it is effectively saying "You aren't giving me enough." What this attitude actually says is "God, you aren't giving me what I want." There is a big difference between our wants and our needs. God promises to provide what we need, and that often is less than what we want. What we need goes beyond just food, clothing, and shelter. It includes everything we need to do the job God wants us to do. For some that includes some wealth and means of transportation. For others it may mean getting by on what we have. Now before I go further, I want to clarify that the poorest of the poor, the homeless, etc, are not necessarily that was because God wants them that way. God providing and our means of using what he provides are not always the same thing too. If God gives us a job, it is our responsibility to work that job. And if we don't have a job, it is our responsibility to go do something to be productive with our time. So there is one issue of God's provision and our responsibility to manage them. But there is the other issue of seeing God provide for someone else or seeing someone else manage their resources for pleasure rather than God's intention that will get us into trouble. Envy is not being satisfied with what God has provided for us externally and wanted something more. Envy does not deal with internal issues. That is reserved for Gluttony.

  So what type of terrain would display this scenario where we must be content with what we have or be envious of what others have, or envious of what we don't have? The issues brought up here are well illustrated in the Parable of the Talents where one servant was given five talents, another two, and another one, each in accordance to their ability. That is an important phrase that is often forgotten: "in accordance to their ability". Someone who is given five talents is expected to be able to manage and use five talents. Someone who only has one talent, is only responsible for that one talent. But we often think "if only we had more talents, we could do more with it", failing to understand that if we had more talents we would be responsible for those extra talents. We are not called to get extra talents just to use one. The servant who had five talents would be questioned differently if he only used four of those five talents. He is expected to use all five, not just two, three, or four of them. And likewise, the servant who only has one was only expected to use that one. And all in accordance to their abilities. God gave us each skills and abilities for a particular set of tasks and some tasks requires only a certain set of talents. And too often, instead of trying to use the talents we have, we look at other's talents and we become envious of them.

  The terrain that best describes this type of setting is a arid farmland. It is not a lush, overabundant farmland where hardly any work needs to be done for it to produce. It produces precisely what you need. The land is rich enough to provide sod to build a sod house, it is watered enough to grow the crops, but not in overabundance where you can go several seasons without planting. It is just enough to get you by day to day so you can plant and harvest in the next season. You have sufficient cattle and herds to provide you with clothes, meat, milk, etc. This terrain teaches you to depend on the provision God has for you. It is a lesson I have learned growing up. I recall a six-month period when I was between 12-15 (ish) when all my family had to eat was day-old bagels, yogurt, and eggs. It wasn't much. But it got us by. We had bagels served in more way that we would like to imagine and it was still 'better' than what the Israelites had with Manna. The difference? We had different flavors. It was enough, but God provided. And though we had the opportunity, we did not envy those who had full fridges and pantries next door to us. We could have, but we didn't, because we chose to rely on the Lord providing for us.

  Envy rears its ugly head with neighbors who produce more lush fields. The problem is that we want that excess for ourselves and don't understand that God intended that excess to be given away. Any excess we get is not meant to be spent on ourselves, but to provide for those who do not have means of getting their needs met. But envy does not come just in the form of a better crop or more cattle and stock. It can come in the form of a better house. If you are living in a sod house, and you see someone in a mansion, it may be hard to avoid being envious. But what if that person also had a sod house, just in a different size or shape, or layout? I have heard stories of people being envious of a simple think like a porch roof over their front door. The grass is always greener on the other side.

  But Envy has a reverse effect as well. I was describing the not-so-wealthy being envious of the wealthy. But the reverse also has the same effect. What if the wealthy person did not like having the over abundant provision to aid the poor and would rather bury his talents instead of using them? Is it not possible for the rich to be envious of the poor because they would prefer a simpler lifestyle? One could answer, "Yes, but they could simply downsize and give away their resources." If one has a mind-set of God's provision and being generous, yes. But envy is self-focused. Envy won't release the resources it has because it is thinking of that rainy day occasion. Envy may want to live simpler but can't. This can quickly overlap with Pride/Shame.

  We may live in a not so comfortable region with the not so best co-workers or neighbors, and we may not have all the resources or toys we would like to have. If we trust in God's provision, he will give us all we need and as along as we align our desires to his desires, he will give us the desires of our heart. But Envy will always seek what we think is the better situation instead of taking advantage of the resources we already have. Envy focuses on the resources we don't have and as a result, we will miss what we do have. Envy has a partner in crime as well: the Devourer. If we serve money (for example) far greater riches will only go half the distance they should than smaller riches. And I can attest to this myself. In my family, I know we have way more money going out on expenditures, bills, and giving, than we have coming in. It's a significant more going out than coming in. Yet the bills are always paid for on time. I'm a math person and I know this is numerically impossible. So we call it God math because he is providing for us where in the natural we would not have it. But Envy's partner is a Devourer and twice the resources will only go half the distance if we let Envy rule our terrain.

  Next post will be on the Deadly Sin: Gluttony and its contrast to Internal Satisfaction.

The Terrain of Wrath vs Severe Mercy

  This is Part 4 of the "Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins", continuing the theme of describing the terrain that will be used for Catharsis Hall, an interactive Bible-study/game that helps us to address our problems before our problems deal with us. Everything in Catharsis Hall is a metaphor for what we deal with in our lives. And depending on the player, different things may reveal themselves. But I am helping lay out the foundation of what kind of terrain we may face depending on whether God is ruler of our lives or if sin is ruling our lives. Part 1 of this series dealt with Pride vs Humility. Part 2 dealt with Lust vs Intimacy. Part 3 dealt with Slothfulness vs Rest. And here in Part 4, I will deal with Wrath vs Severe Mercy.

  My friend who is the one doing the primary development of Catharsis Hall asked me a very interesting question last week when I was visiting with him. "What drives God's mercy? His love or his wrath?" We too often think about God's mercy and God's love being part of the same coin. But this question got me thinking and I could not find a reason against it. We have all heard the phrase "all bark, and no bite". But another quote my friend gave me that is truly appropriate here. He could see God saying "I bark because I fear my bite. And you should too." As much as we fear and dread hell, we don't nearly as much as God dreads us having to endure it. He knows what separation from him is going to entail and he knows his purity, his character, and his justice MUST punish the sin. He knows he has to throw the switch and I see now that God's mercy is not just driven by his love for us, but by his knowledge of what his wrath would do to us without it.

  Now Wrath is a tricky topic because it is the only one of the Seven Deadly Sins that actually has a Godly form. Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Envy, Gluttony, and Greed don't have a Godly form. They have a Godly opposite, but not a Godly form. Godly wrath is directed at sin and that which is associated with it. But because of our sin, our wrath is often misdirected. When I was thinking about what kind of terrain we would see wrath in, the first picture that came to mind is a volcano. My friend had a picture of steam which is also appropriate. Steam is a powerful metaphor. Water is a very powerful force. Fire is also a very powerful force. But when combined, you get steam. Steam is more powerful than the two forces of water and fire combined. Water is love. Fire is hate, preferably geared in the right direction. Steam is passion. And when someone messes with something we love, that passion can turn up the heat VERY quickly. But an interesting observation of steam is that with all steam based technology, when ever there is a disaster or a malfunction, it is always due to mishandling the machinery, as opposed to the steam itself that will cause it. Wrath has the same function.

  So keeping with the metaphor that the land is a metaphor of our body, our mind, our emotions, etc, when we deal with Wrath, we are dealing with a volcanic terrain. Mountainous but like any volcano, it could explode. Volcanoes remain dormant or have mild eruptions when they have appropriate vents for the heat and pressure. When we see or experience and injustice, wrath builds up like the pressure of a volcano. And if the vents are not open as they should be, it can turn a volcano from a life-bringing mountain to a terrifying bomb. Lava has a very interesting property in that when it covers land, it destroys the old stuff with fire. But the plants and forests that are burned down from a lava flow tend to grow back VERY quickly and will be much healthier than it was beforehand. There is a secret to Resurrection that many of us forget and don't want to face. There is nothing that if it is not dead, it cannot be brought back to life.However, if the appropriate vents are plugged up, the volcano cannot release its pressure and heat for a good, healthy eruption that will grow new life. There is no Resurrection if it first does not die. But if those vents and releasing of pressure are not set and open, our volcano becomes another Mt. St. Helens.

  When Mt. St. Helens erupted, it destroyed the landscape. The mountain itself dropped in height by about 1300 feet. The whole top of the mountain totally blew off and it will never return to what it was beforehand. There is more to the eruption than just the top blowing off. Two major things followed. A pyroclastic flow, which is the cloud of super-hot ash that incinerates everything upon contact. And a la-hare. A la-hare is the deadliest form of mudflow. Mt. St. Helens had a glacier on top of the mountain and when it erupted, all that ice and water melted quickly and flowed downhill. This water mixed with the dirt, rocks, mud, trees, and any other form of debris it picked up to form what was like fast moving concrete, carving a new canyon on a 1/20th scale of the Grand Canyon literally overnight. It was permanent damage, despite the fact that the forests have regrown since.

  Mt. St. Helens gives a perfect picture of what wrath can do to us. If we harbor it, it will erupt violently when we least expect it. And though we may calm down and not explode for a long time, when we erupt, it will permanently scar us AND those around us. We may heal from that, but those scars will remain. But if God rules our land, he will use the same volcano to burn away what should not be there to plant new growth and new life.

  Two other things I've mentioned that goes with volcanic terrain: glaciers and geysers. Glaciers have a two-way effect. They are cold as ice (pun intended) and our anger, our wrath, and our bitterness can easily be just as cold. It cuts off life, it ever changes, and it is easy to get lost in. A glacier often has numerous brutal crevasses, some that we see, and some that we don't. And those crevasses may not be possible to get out. You do not want to enter tunnels in a glacier unless you have no other choice. The reason why is because of the ever changing nature of the glacier. You may enter a tunnel even if you have a line all the way back, you may not be able to get out because it could change on you. Anger is like this. It is easy to get lost in it and to get trapped in it. And wrath entangles us so well and it is very difficult to see how to escape from it. And Wrath is called one of the Seven Deadly Sins for a reason: because it is often deadly. And this terrain describes how deadly it can be. But a glacier does more than kill. It is a provider of fresh water. Glacier water is some of the purest water we can find on the planet. It is cold, but it is pure. This is an example of Wrath leading to Severe Mercy. It is using a very dangerous thing that can only be used rightly when God is in control of it to provide life.

  The other thing is a geyser. Hot water, or a hot springs. Water naturally heated by geothermal activity underneath. Steam power transformed the US in the 1800's, launching us into the Industrial Revolution. The Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs, Colorado were often a place to go for healing. The hot waters would sooth the body and help to fight illnesses we could not fight otherwise. In this terrain, there would be hot springs that we could turn to for healing. That is God's severe mercy which is fed by his wrath.

  There is more to all this, but that is all I can wrap my head around right now, even with the notes I have. Wrath is destructive, but Severe Mercy can use destruction to wipe out that which is destructive and create new life. It is the same material. The same terrain. But the results depend on who rules it. Is our passion going to be a life-giving action that will destroy the sin that eats at us and gives new life, or will it turn us into a Mt. St. Helens that is ready to explode when the right triggers shows up? That is Wrath vs Severe Mercy. Next is Part 5: Envy vs External Provision. That one is going to hit a few people rather hard once we realize what we do with it.

The Terrain of Slothfulness vs Rest

  This is Part 3 of the series of the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. To reiterate for those who missed the earlier posts (do read), this series is developing the land of a metaphorical "game" known as "Catharsis Hall". Catharsis Hall is an interactive study that helps us deal with the problems gripping us before those problems wreck havoc on us. The key concept is to take the abstract concept and provide a metaphor for it. And by addressing the issues in the metaphor, we are actually dealing with the real problem at the same time. Catharsis Hall is just a skeleton right now and as you engage the setting of the terrain, you learn more about yourself and what you are dealing with. And the way this interactive study works is simple. Plant yourself in the setting. It could be with a "role-playing" character that describes you. Take a look around you. What is there? Why is it there? Every object is a metaphor. And if a villain is there (which there are) how will you deal with it? In this series, I describe a setting and what happens to that setting when one of the Deadly Sins rules it, or what happens when God is the ruler over it. In Part 1, I addressed Pride vs Humility. In Part 2, I addressed Lust vs Intimacy. And here I will address Slothfulness vs Rest. First, I must address where this takes place. Because you can have two fight against each other without a battlefield for them to fight on.

  This part talks about energy. How do you use it? Where is it directed to? What is using it? Newton's First Law comes into play here. An object in motion will tend to keep in motion, and an object at rest will tend to keep at rest until an outside force acts upon it. And when you look at it, we are like this as well. If we have an active lifestyle (I am not merely referencing physically. I am referencing simply being out there and doing something.), we prefer to stay in action. But if we get lazy and don't want to do anything, it takes a lot of effort to get going. But the comparison here is not just being lazy vs working, it is being lazy verses getting proper rest. When we live an active lifestyle, we make an active choice to go to bed so that we can restore our batteries to be active again tomorrow. When we take our Sabbath Day off work, we make an active choice to take a break so we can charge up for the next activity. But laziness is not "getting rest". Being a sloth, being lazy, is being unwilling to get up to get something done. Rest is intentional to be able to work later. Laziness has no intention to work anyway, or do the absolute minimal job possible.

  So how would these two square off? Energy is well described with the water of a river. Water is the source of life of the land and moving water acts as a purifier. But stagnant water gets nasty very quickly. Water can be still in a lake but it will need to have some form of circulation underneath to stay fresh. So in this terrain, we have a river splitting up into a delta to feed a lush wetland. But in this delta are a series of sluice gates that store up water resources and can turn a small creek upriver into a mighty river downstream. And downstream, the delta joins back together to form a river that feeds many others. Before this happens, the water is diverted to small channels that will slow it down, turn water wheels, but keep the river refreshed. These channels will help purify the water and sift out the hard minerals or other things that have been thrown into the river so when it goes down stream, it is fresh and more pure. The sluice gates also play a role in this process.

  However, all this would be if God is the ruler of the land (which a metaphor for your body). What happens to this land if slothfulness takes over? If our enemy takes over our land, the enemy will take control of the channels and sluice gates. They will break and smash some of the gates, and plants boulders or dams to block up the river's flow. If the flow of the river is impeded, it will cease flowing and become stagnant. And that will turn the lush wetland into a nasty, stinky, dead, bog. The water in a bog easily carries parasites, algae, and the dreaded mosquito. It rots the plant life and animals caught in the muck will die. But it gets worse. When the enemy takes over, and slothfulness rules, what little energies are left will be diverted to feed any other area controlled by said enemy. Slothfulness will easily feed gluttony, envy, wrath, and others. And with our river diverted to feed those dark tendencies, any water that makes it to the river's original course is little more than a trickle.

  So how do we deal with this? First, it will take time and energy, something that slothfulness will seek to retain control over. We must first drive out the inhabitants of slothfulness, but driving out the mindset of slothfulness only does part of the job. If we don't transform the land back into a wet-land, we won't get out the bog. Remember what turned the wetland into a bog? Dams and broken down/abused sluice gates. To get energy flowing again, we may need to break some dams in our life. What is impeding our energy flows? What keeps us on the couch? Paint that idea, that concept, that mindset, as a metaphor in the shape of a dam or a boulder blocking the river's flow. Then blow it up. The only way to remove stagnant water from this bog is to replace it with fresh water and keep the river flowing. Fix the sluice gates. Remove any objects from impeding water flow.

  This picture is not complete yet. I have ideas on what these sluice gates actually are supposed to represent but I'm not settled on them yet. And there may be many other things this wetland or bog may carry that are related to the issue of whether we are being rules by Slothfulness or by Godly Work and Rest. I expect to do Part 4 in the next few days. Part 4 will cover the issues of Wrath vs Severe Mercy. I will be addressing revenge, bitterness, and ungodly anger, vs doing something harsh knowing that the action will save the person in the end. It's going to be a good one.

The Terrain of Lust vs Intimacy

This is Part 2 of my series on the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. My last post covered the terrain on which the battle between Pride and Humility take place. This post will cover the terrain on which the battle between Lust and Intimacy will take place. To remind you, everything I describe is meant to be a metaphor of how it actually takes place and what I describe in this post is far from being complete. This is just to get some creative juices flowing so either someone could run with it or I could return later and run with it.

  The first thing to remember is that the land is a metaphor of the body. The land is us and how we act, how we live our lives, is determined by who rules it. So like the region where Pride or Humility would fight, so it is with Lust vs Intimacy and who rules it will determine how the land appears. Lust and Intimacy is a very unique situation because of the nature of the two. It is well known that when we sin, we sin against God, but when we sin sexually, we sin against ourselves. And nothing illustrates this better than a cave-like system. If you have a forest and it burns down, it will regrow. However, if you mine into the earth, it leaves a permanent scar. Even if you fill it back in, it will not be the same again, ever. So this gives us the best metaphorical picture of how Lust and Intimacy fight in our lives.

  Lust is rather easy to picture. It is often a strong desire for sexual pleasure and rarely is it in an appropriate manner. Intimacy is a little harder to picture. So let me describe it this way. You have a natural cave in the land, and the further you go into the cave, the safer you feel. Think of being in a public place, verses being in your home, verses being in your bedroom. In public, you tend to have a higher guard and you are watchful of people that you do not know or trust. In your home, you don't bring people in that you do not already trust. But the deepest place of that intimacy is the bedroom. You could be stark naked in your bedroom and you won't care. And the only ones you would allow to see you in that position are the ones you share the deepest intimacy with. There should only be two people who hold this position: God himself and your married spouse (emphasis on waiting until the marriage is consummated rather than before the alter). Intimacy is being in a safe place where you can share your deepest secrets, your deepest desires. It is where you can vent and you don't have to fear about it being made public. Everyone has a place of intimacy, the deepest part of your cave where you feel the most secure.

  As you go further into your cave, you have a security system that sets off bells and whistles if someone goes too far in with you. A wise person will have such a system set up and will know when someone is treading on ground without permission. But a foolish person will either ignore this system or disable it. Some friends can only go part way into the cave. The closer friends can get deeper into the cave but not into the inner most chambers. Your family can get to certain layers depending on the relationship. But your spouse should be the only one into the deepest part of the cave where you are able to experience the deepest level of intimacy. Here, is where your deepest part of the cave joins with your spouse's deepest part of the cave. And this is the metaphor of "two becoming one flesh".

  However, that is Intimacy. Lust is a corruption of this. It is easily confused with love. Lust has two ways in. One is by forcing or seeking to obtain the deepest part of the cave of another. It also allows others into that deepest part of the cave when said person(s) should not be there. Men tend to do the former and women tend to do the latter, but it is not uncommon to see it reversed today. Typically, what happens is when we seek the intimacy of those we should not be intimate with, we will dig ourselves a new part of the cave to make space for that person.

  And here is the killer. Proverbs warns of the prostitute who lures in the young man to rob him of his innocence. This is the Lust that seeks to rule over us. Lust will use another person's innermost cave to join with yours. However, the King designed your caves to be only joined by the spouse he had in mind for you. Lust cannot have access to that part of the cave. So what Lust will do is dig a new tunnel to connect to you. But you have the choice of whether to allow such tunneling to take place in your cave. When such digging takes place, you get warnings and you have the ability to stop it right then and there. But if you allow the digging to continue, your cave will be joined with another's cave that should not be joined. And this will leave a permanent scar in your land. But it gets worse, Lust doesn't stop there. Lust seeks to pull you into it's inner most cave and chain you to it. It will give you a leash and it will allow you to return to your inner most chambers with your spouse (if you are married) but it will pull at that chain at will and drag you back. And while you are chained to Lust's chambers, Lust will go into your cave and make its home there. It will strive to violate your inner most chamber so that your spouse will one day never return. It will invite its buddies of Pride, Envy, Gluttony, and Wrath to also rule over you. Lust will dig deeper and deeper, never being satisfied like Gluttony and it will hit the fires of Wrath until your intimate cave is demolished. Those terrains will be described in more detail later. And while your cave is being destroyed, you remain bound to Lust's control as it seeks to dig deeper and deeper until the weight of the earth above can no longer support itself and sends it crashing down.

  But when Intimacy rules your caves, you can force Lust out. However, even if Lust did rule your life and now Intimacy does now, the damage that Lust did will not revert back to its original state. It will always be scared. Even if you drive Lust back into its own cave and fill the tunnel Lust carved in with dirt, it will not be as solid as it was before Lust started digging. And once Lust gets in the first time, it will strive to keep coming back. But our King is ever grateful and he can restore what Lust has stolen from us. The metaphor to describe Lust is actually describing another metaphor of a bigger picture. This cave describes how Lust or Intimacy will rule our lives. But Lust/Intimacy with others/our spouse, is itself another picture or a metaphor of the relationship we have with Jesus Christ. Sin is the Lust that imprisons us and seek to destroy our cave that was meant to only be occupied by ourselves and Christ. But Christ came to restore us. And we will carry the scars that Lust delivers to us until the day we die and Christ resurrects us anew. But his patches that will carry us through until that time will suffice and as long as we rely on his security system and only open ourselves to HIM and his desires, we will never answer the door when Lust comes knocking.

  Next post, I will cover the Terrain on which Slothfulness vs Rest will take place.

The Terrain of Pride Verses Humility

  In my last blog post, I talked about the Seven Deadly Sins and how a friend of mine and I (among a few others) are developing a game that helps us deal with our problems before our problems deal with us. As I mentioned here "Catharsis Hall" is a game (because it is interactive) that addresses our problems and gives us a tool to face them through the art of metaphor. How do you combat against things like pride, anger, jealousy lust, laziness, etc, when you can't see it, or engage it. One way to do that is to use a metaphor to personify that issue, use techniques to defeat that metaphor, and you will find in the process you will find you deal with your real problem as a result. So what I have worked on is to lay out the battlefield, the setting, of where these battles can take place. And my friend and I discussed a variety of terrains that would reflect not only the issue of what we want to face, but also what that terrain would look like when occupied by the right issue.

  So in this post, I am going to be talking about the Deadly Sin of Pride. Now, all I have now is the terrain. Where the battles against Pride take place. Remember that everything in this description is metaphorical. It is meant to be a description, an allegory, of the real issues. The land itself represents our body. And how the land shows itself depends on who occupies the land. In this case, we are dealing with either Pride or Humility. Now Pride comes in two extremes. Boastful arrogance, like you are the king of the mountain. Or shame where instead of thinking you are on the highest mountain, you think you are in the lowest valley. Both Pride and Shame are self-focused. Humility however is different than Shame. Humility is knowing who and where you actually are, knowing what your skills and limitations are, and giving honor where it is due. Humility edifies and is not about giving glory to self. Humility recognizes the gifts God has given you, but also recognizes where those gifts came from. And humility seeks to use those gifts for building up and edifying others.

  So we need some sort of terrain that would display both these features if the land was rules by someone who ruled with Pride/Shame or Humility. And right now, we have a mountainous terrain with loads of resources. One of the things about this dichotomy is Pride has many ways in but very few ways out. Humility has few ways in, but many ways out. So how the terrain will operate is determined by who rules it. And a mountainous terrain can do this. An arrogant person will seek to own the mountaintop but due to the poor leadership and poor management of resources, the arrogant person will have a difficultly getting down, let alone wanting to. A shameful person will stumble into a deep ravine or a canyon and though they may want to get out, they often can't. But often times, someone who is entrapped by Shame won't want to leave. These ravines and canyons, though they provide few ways out, often have decent resources so one can actually survive in them.

  Pride be it in the form of arrogance or shame will build a city and seek to hoard any resource it can to feed itself. It will seek to block others from getting those resources as well. This is related to gluttony but that aspect will be for when I discuss gluttony. Pride will build a city and consume the resources where it stands. A forest can burn down and regrow, but it cannot regrow if a city is there. A humble person will build with minimal effect on the resources around them. A humble person will build so that the resources around him/her can be set up and used for the benefit of others. A proud person will set up all resources to serve self. A shameful person will just suck up the resources.

  One other thing that will be in the center of this terrain. It could be at mountain top or it could be in the center of the town. There will be an alter in the territory. This alter will offer and receive crowns or medals. The things we do, the tasks we accomplish. The desires we seek to be and think we are. This alter will give us those crowns. But the alter will also receive these crowns. A proud or shameful person will seek either a crown of glory or a crown of shame. A humble person will lay the crown down and offer it to where it rightfully belongs.

  There is so much more I can dig into for the territory of Pride vs Humility but this is just a 'on-the-surface' sketch. This territory will blend with the territories of the other six and that is for another post. But remember that everything in this terrain is a metaphor for something real in our lives. I have yet to identify what all of it is and what it represents but this is a solid starting point. With these posts I am just laying down the foundation and over time, I plan to dig a lot deeper into this stuff. I still need to determine who would inhabit this terrain on both the pride and humility occupation and how battles would be fought. But that must wait for another time. My next post will hit the question of Lust vs Intimacy. Much to do on that one and the others.

The Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins

  Fellowship with a friend can at times change the course of one's life. And I believe that this may have happened with me this week. I have been out of town for Thanksgiving week in Colorado to visit family and friends and I just finished spending 2 1/2 days with a fellow Christian writer friend. From the moment I met him, I knew there was something about him that would alter my life and my perspective on things. And that does not come close to describing it. We met 1 1/2 years ago at the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference and again at the conference this year and God has kindled a friendship that is taking me deeper to a new level of faith and a walk with Christ.

  One thing that my friend has been working on for the last few years is based on the answer to one question: "What if there was some sort of game that would help you take care of your problems before your problems dealt with you?" As he prayed about that, God answered the questions of "Oh, that is interesting. Can I play?" And this was the birth of the development of "Catharsis Hall". Catharsis Hall is based on a role playing theme similar to dungeons and dragons but very different. Every aspect of the game is an allegory to something that we deal with and face in our every day Christian walk. And those who have started to play it have found their lives completely transformed in a way never imaginable prior. My friend grew up in the church and he knows Christian doctrine and principles very well. But in the development of this game, he has learned more about Christianity in just one year's span than he has in his entire life prior. In what I have learned of the game, I can see how.

  In the two times at the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference I have been there, I have heard a lot about this game. I can say I understood what this type of game could do for a person struggling with issues like sin, lust, hatred, addictions, depression, etc. And today (Thanksgiving Day), I got a chance to meet someone who has experienced this game firsthand and he had to deal with an issue of anger against someone who had BADLY wronged him. And through this game, he has dealt with that problem. I could see this having a role. I also saw the magnitude of this game. It is like building Middle Earth. It is HUGE. And my friend at the conference this year asked for help. I wanted to help, but I had no idea how. I had no idea how to remotely approach trying to help figure this thing out. Until this week.

  My specialty is spiritual warfare and one major aspect about this game is going to battle against the issues in your life. Both my friend and I have discovered Sun-Tzu's "The Art of War". It is not just "we can use this in our spiritual lives". It is actually we must learn how it has been used on us. One thing Sun-Tzu teaches that is so important that he devotes 2 of his 13 chapters on it: the terrain. The physical layout and the political/military status of the terrain. And since my strength is the battle side of things, my friend and I started talking about how we can set up the terrain for this game. He had the armies, who is good, who is bad. But they had no battlefield to fight on. And that is where I come in. This is when I "got it". I started to understand how this game actually works and how I can play a role in developing it.

  In our discussions, we confirmed that every sin, every problem we have in our lives has a root in one of the seven deadly sins: pride, lust, wrath, envy, slothfulness, gluttony, and greed. Every issue we face as some root in one or more of these seven issues. And I cannot think of a counter example. We also discussed that the land itself is not evil. It is the occupants that make it evil. A pirate ship is evil because of the pirates in it. But clean it up, change the colors, and crew it with merchants, and while being the same ship, it is not to be feared. The same is true for terrain. And what we came up with in the two nights we had together was a battlefield, a terrain for where we would fight and engage against the Seven Deadly Sins.

  But since the terrain is actually neutral in itself, we needed terrain that when occupied with the good stuff, it would reflect it. We wanted land that would reveal good purposes but when corrupted by sin, it would transform into something ugly. So we have pride. Pride can come in the form of arrogance or shame. The opposite of that is Humility and Edifying. Lust is a corruption of Intimacy. Wrath is the opposite of Severe Mercy. Envy is the Corruption of External Provision. Slothfulness is a corruption of appropriate and intentional Rest. Gluttony is a corruption of Internal Satisfaction. And Greed is often a desire of Control. It is a corruption of proper Management and a Freedom to Live. I am going to start a series where I will delve into what the terrain of what the battlefield where we would face those Seven Deadly Sins would look like. Much of this is not fully developed but I pray these next seven posts will give a good picture of this could look like.

  This has blown my mind and though I will be using this to help develop my friend's game, I intend to use this exercise to develop myself AND new stories for down the road books. God is going to use Catharsis Hal in a way none of us can imagine. To play this game should scare you because it will make you face yourself, but the reward is beyond worth it. There are only two types of people who will address this game. The first will hear about it and they will run because they fear the process the game will force you to take. The other type are those that will see the end result and they will DARE to enter it. This is not a game you play. It is a game that plays you because you are playing with God. And at this time, I am ready to dive in and explore this game for the first time. I ask those willing and those brave enough to enter this journey with me. It is a real call to arms and there is SO much that is in common with Catharsis Hall and my own books that it is rather startling. And I pray that those reading this blog will catch on to the vision here and if nothing else, help me develop these terrains. Once I have the terrain, I need to develop armies for both sides that would be a reflection of the type of terrain we are dealing with. Then it is on to how the battles will be fought. And if we can do the battle through the metaphor of the game, we will in effect be battling the problems the elements of the game represent and our life will be transformed.

The Action of Faith

Very interesting this morning as I listened to a sermon from Eric Ludy he preached last week and as I sat in the sermon at my church this morning. Both sermons were on the same subject: The Action of Faith. First we need to define what faith is. Faith is frequently described as the well known phrase "blind faith", that is belief without reason or without evidence. But this is not faith at all. If you look at every other faith besides atheism, you will find faith is defined by a very different standard. And that standard is pretty clear in Hebrews 11:1.

"Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."

  Faith is not just some blind belief. It is KNOWING that something you don't not have manifest right now will take place. It is interesting how the atheist think faith is blind without evidence and claim that science has or will have all the answers. Yet very few fields demonstrate the carrying out of faith better than science. Every time a science experiment is carried faith is exercised. How? Every time an experiment is carried out, the scientists does not know that the laws of science are actually going to hold up. They expect they will because they have seen it take place over and over and over again. But when it comes to the moment of the experiment, they cannot know that they will. It a future event and they cannot know it. Expecting it to happen is not the same as knowing it will.

  But faith goes beyond just expecting something to happen. It means acting on it. If I want to sky dive, I have to know about the parachute. If I don't know about the parachute, I won't think about sky diving. But once I know about the parachute, I can study it. I can watch it in action. I can believe it will hold me if I were to jump out of the plane. But knowledge and belief that it will work doesn't save me when I jump from the plane. I have to actually take the parachute and put it on. I can't just have it in my possession, I have to wear it. And I have to get on the plane.

  But faith is still more than that. Faith cannot just be possessed. It MUST have action. If I have a parachute on my back, it does me absolutely no good if I do not use it. If I have a parachute and I jump, the parachute is useless if I don't pull the string. The ultimate test of faith in the parachute is in the jump. When you jump you are 100% undeniably committed. And that is where faith is carried out. It is when you can do nothing but rely on that which you have faith. Faith is exercised every time you sit on a chair and you put your weight on it. There is no going back when your weight is placed on the chair. When you skydive, the moment of truth is in the jump from the plane. You better have the certainty of things hoped for when you jump. And when you pull the string of the chute, you take life-saving action that is rooted in your faith in the parachute.

 And this is how the Christian walk is based. Because of sin, we are in a doomed plane. It is going to crash and we must jump before it does. But what are we placing our faith in? What action are we going to take to demonstrate it? Are we going to deny our sin and stay on the plane? Are we going to jump? And what is our parachute? Religion? That is like tying a weight to our neck and jumping. Jesus said he was the only way unto salvation. Jesus Christ is the only parachute that will hold. He is the only one whose strings cannot be broken. And we do not accept this blindly. We have tried to see if Jesus is good and if he is true to his word. And he has never failed to hold to his word. Jesus cannot lie. He will never back off his promises and when we put Jesus on and pull the string of the parachute he has provided, we will be saved.

Practice

  In sports, there is one thing an athlete does not like but knows it is absolutely critical to performance during the game or event: Practice. The best athletes in the world practice and train for hours on end. The work-out is brutal, often more intense than the game itself. Why is this? The knowledgeable athletes understand that in practice, if they can endure the workouts that expend them beyond what a game-time situation will call for, then during that game, they will be able to pull out what they need when the game's end approaches. In football, much is said about the 2-minute drill. It is a drive where you may only have one or two timeouts and 80 or more yards to travel in just two minutes of time. The teams have already played 58 minutes of football which every down is stop-full sprint, stop-full sprint. A standard offense will snap the ball 60-80 times in a game. Every player on both sides of the ball need to be in tip-top shape so that when the 2-minute drill is needed, the offense can drive to score or the defense can make that iron-wall goal-line stand. And they way they do this is to practice for hours every week.

  There is more to practice than just conditioning and endurance. The best basketball players will shoot thousands of free throws in preparation for a game. Some high school coaches don't allow a player to sign on until he makes 1,000 free throws. Why is this? The coach knows the player knows how to shoot. The coach wants the player's muscles to know precisely how to shoot, the angle for the shot, the strength needed to make that angle, etc. In drills, the coach knows it does not take long for the players to grasp and understand the play they are doing. But the coach has them do it over and over and over again, well past the point of "getting it". The coach wants the players to the point where all the players have to do is hear the name of the play and they know precisely what to do without thinking about it. They also practice is so they can execute it with little variations that come about due to the scenario or opposing teams set up. The coach wants his players to react to situation the right way without thinking about it.

  The same principle applies to our spiritual lives. God is not going to be satisfied with us just "learning the lesson". Why do we keep facing situations that we KNOW we have dealt with before? Sometimes it is because we "have a lesson to learn", but not always. There are times where God puts something in our path because we need to learn something. But there are also times where God puts us in situations where we have already learned the lesson long ago. It is that God thinks we forgot, but it is that God wants our spirits to be put in a situation in game-time so we will react as he wants us to without us having to think about it.

  The trials and temptations we face are often not because we have sinned. It is often because God is using those to PROVE our salvation and to prove our faith. Looking back to a very specific point in time when we said a prayer can be an indication of WHEN we got saved, but if we are depending on that moment to tell if we are saved, we are missing the point. A Christian life should bear the fruit of a Christian walk. If we have a significant difference between our Sunday morning in church and our Sunday afternoon-Saturday lifestyles, there is a very good reason to check out and see if you are saved. The trials and temptations we face, the spiritual practice and drills we face, they are there to show us that we are saved. I have been buffeted with intense spiritual warfare and I know I have more coming my way. But when those battles have come, I have stood strong, relied not on the prayer I said 22 1/2 years ago, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ to get through the battle. That one particular encounter was a test. That was a game-time situation. And if I did not have the practice I had in the years prior, I would not have been able to endure through the battle. As I look back, I can see how I could have handled the battle better. And that is what more practice is for. To learn from our mistakes in the game, to prepare new moves, techniques, and tactics, and to better carry out what we already know. Game time is coming. Will we be ready to face it? Will we be able to endure through to the end of the race? And will we be able to overcome all our enemy's tactics to slow us down, trip us up, or knock us down? If we don't practice, we won't make it. We will burn out before we really get started. We have the victory in Christ, but we must walk it out. And we can't walk it out if we don't practice for it.

The Face of the Franchise

  October is always a sport fan's favorite time of the year. Why? Because it is the only time that the four major US sports, Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Hockey are in season. Baseball is in it's playoff. Hockey and Basketball are just starting, and Football in part way through its season. Being a Colorado Native, I naturally root for the Colorado teams. Yes, even when they are bad. It's a great time to be a Denver Broncos fan. It hasn't been for being a Colorado Rockies or Colorado Avalanche fan (even though the Avs are off to a 3-0-0) start this year. Now why do I bring up sports to a Christian blog that often deals with spiritual warfare? Because sports have a perfect image that illustrates how we should live as a Christian. Let me explain.

  Every sports team has one player that stands out. The Los Angeles Lakers have Kobe Bryant. The Miami Heat have Lebron James. The Denver Broncos have John Elway. The New York Yankees have Derek Jeter. The Colorado Rockies had Todd Helton (he retired a couple weeks ago). These players are known as the "Face of the Franchise". When you see their face on the sports headlines, you think of the franchise they play for. When you see Kobe's face, you immediately get a picture of the LA Lakers basketball team and a team that is perpetually in the NBA title mix (last year being an oddity). And in everything that Kobe does, on the court or off the court, it paints a picture of what the LA Lakers as a professional basketball team are like.

  In Denver, after John Elway retired from football after winning back to back Superbowls, he started a car dealership and ran several throughout Denver. Even though he was no longer playing the sport, his face is forever cemented as the face of the Denver Broncos. Even though it was not a football related topic, what Elway has done has always pointed to the Denver Broncos organization. For good or bad. There have been some bad things that famous players have done. Kobe Bryant was caught in a scandal in a hotel in Colorado. Being the face of the franchise, everything he did was indicative of the LA Lakers organization, even though his actions had nothing to do with them.

  The list goes beyond just sports. We had Steve Jobs as the face of the franchise of Apple. We have Bill Gates as the face of Microsoft. Mark Zuckerberg is the face of Facebook. Ken Ham is the face of Answers in Genesis. George Lucas is the face of Star Wars. Barak Obama right now is the face of the US. The list goes on. But here is the heart of the issue. As Christians, we are the face of the Kingdom of God.

  Paul describes us as the body of Christ. We are ambassadors to this world. We represent Jesus Christ. Everything we say and do is indicative of who Jesus is and what Jesus does. We love to say that when God looks at us and our shortcomings, he sees Jesus instead of us because we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. But we need to understand that when the world looks at us, they see the same thing. They see our representation of Jesus and think "this is what your God is like". And most of us are doing a poor job. Romans 7 tells us that as a Christian when we sin, it is not us who sins, it is not Christ in us who sins, but it sin in us who sins. Some use that as an excuse to sin. But do you allow a robber to kidnap you every day and force you to do things you don't want to be doing? Sin is an ENEMY. And we need to treat it like one. Everything we say and do represents Jesus Christ.

  Jesus himself asks us "Why do you call me "Lord" if you do not do as I say?" Why do we associate our names with Jesus, why do we seek to be the "face of the franchise" if we have no interest in doing what the franchise is all about? There are many out there that seek to be the "face the franchise" for the purpose of destroying that image. That is because they are spies sent in from a rival franchise. A Denver Broncos fan loves it when the Oakland Raiders lose. Likewise, an agent from the Kingdom of Darkness loves it when a Christian does a poor job. Are we going to sit back at let spies from the Kingdom of Darkness come in, claim to be part of us, and let them represent what we are, when the whole time their agenda is to sabotage what we are trying to do? If we are looking at this from a military perspective, we would think that would be foolish to let an enemy do that. But we do this too often with so-called Christians who are only with us by name, but are actually allies with our enemy.

   Who is the "Face of the Franchise" for God's Kingdom? Who will stand up and be such a person? I can think of several examples. William Carey, Charles Finney, William Booth, Amy Carmichael. Do we have such faces of the franchise today? I can't think of many who where if we were to say their name, we would think of all that Jesus Christ is. Are we known in hell? In Acts 19, we see the Seven Sons of Sceva try to be the face of Christianity. The demons replied "Jesus we know. Paul we know. But who you are?" Paul was a "Face of the Franchise". He wasn't just one of the average players in the game. He was the stand-out one. The one everyone looked for. The one everyone rooted for. And the one the opposing side wanted to stop more than anyone else. Any team opposing Lebron James and the Miami Heat are focused on stopping him. They don't care about the other players so much. They care about stopping him. Lebron is the Face of the Miami Heat. Paul was the Face of Christianity. The enemy was out to stop him more than anyone else. Are we going to rise up and be a Paul? Are we going to be a William Carey? A Charles Finney? An Amy Carmichael? I don't want to be a "Face of the Franchise" for my own glory. Because every Bible-believing Christian who lives it, knows everything we can do is only because of Christ who is in us. It is Christ who does it through it. When we really get it, we understand that it is Jesus who is the Face of the Franchise and we need to live our lives such that it is Christ living THROUGH us. It should not be Charlie Wolcott representing Jesus Christ. It should be Jesus Christ representing himself THOUGH Charlie Wolcott. I've got a long way to go. But I do believe I am heading the right direction. And if I draw the enemy's attention, bring it on. Because I serve a God who loves to specialize in the impossible. I want him to be himself through me and when that happens, I become the "Face of the Franchise" and all things are possible through HIM who gives me strength.

How the Kingdom of God Expands

"...and you shall reap 10-fold, 30-fold, 100-fold."

  I love how on occasion God will show us some of the things he has been doing behind the scenes where we cannot see it. During church today, we had a guest speaker, Tom Henderson. Tom is a motivation speaker who started a ministry called "Restoration Generations" a few years ago. His ministry focuses on restoring relationships both horizontally and vertically. This weekend he spoke at numerous schools, coordinated by our youth pastor. Our youth pastor knew Tom from Sioux Falls, South Dakota where they did ministry together. What did they do? Sioux Falls is home to the LifeLight Festival, which is a very well known music festival that has been going on for the last 15 years or so with many Christian bands and events taking place. Tom Henderson started out working as one of the speakers during the early years of the LifeLight Festival and during his time there he saw the troubles many of the youth are facing: broken relationships. With parents, with family, with siblings, with friends, and even with self-identity issues. And Tom Henderson used his window of opportunity with LifeLight to launch Restoration Generations. So without being a direct offshoot, God used LifeLight to start Restoration Generations.

  But how did LifeLight get started? The couple who started the LifeLight Festival were regulars with another mission organization: International Family Missions. International Family Missions, started in 1990, by being the only organization in the world that had a specific focus: teaching families how to do ministry as a family unit. IFM would take groups of 30-40 people for one week at a time to Juarez, Mexico. Juarez was chosen because it provide a 3rd-world culture, but was readily accessible to the US, being right on the border. The teams would stay overnight in El Paso and cross the border every day. The teams would do a "visit in Jesus' name". They would visit children's homes, rehab centers, elderly men's homes, colonia churches, etc. They would put on VBS Bible clubs, Bible studies, sport camps, carnivals, and simply spend time with them and visit with them. The couple that started LifeLight were frequent members of IFM outreaches. After a few years with IFM, the director of IFM told them they did not need IFM to direct them anymore. They said this couple could lead it on their own. So they did and after a few years of coming to Juarez on their own they started doing their own ministry in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. That is what launched LifeLight. LifeLight is not a direct launch of IFM, but it was a fruit of what IFM did.

  Now here is the kicker. My parents worked for IFM for 20 years. We know the couple that started LifeLight very well. And today, we got to see the fruit of IFM, which we were a part of, come full circle with our youth pastor and Tom Henderson at our church as a fruit of LifeLight. IFM also has another fruit: my fencing ministry and this blog. It was through IFM, that I got the opportunity to use the sport of fencing as a tool for ministry While I have not had as many opportunities to do my presentation in the last few years, it was IFM that gave me that first chance to try it out and it has been a smashing hit every time I do it.

  Many times we do not get to see the fruit of what we do. But God's Kingdom works exponentially. We rarely get to see how far God takes a work we do. And one reason of that is to keep us humble. We get the privilege of working with God by being available, but we must understand that it is God's work, not ours. When God gets all the glory, he can work far beyond what we can see. But every now and then, he gives us a small glimpse like I saw today of how he has worked beyond our reach. The principle of reaping and sowing is a concept every farmer knows. And when it comes time for reaping, we reap what we sow, we reap more than we sow, and we reap it later than when we sow it. IFM has sown many seeds in the 18-20 years they were most active in Juarez and today we got to see some of the harvest of that which was sown. And the harvest has been 30-fold, 100-fold or more. Keep doing what God tells you to do. You may not be directly winning souls for God's Kingdom. You might be. But as long as you are in the center of God's will, things will take place that you might not see that will have far-wider reaching effects than you can imagine.

The Gospel

I am going to take a short break from my spiritual warfare series of posts and talk about the most important aspect of living life as a Christian: The Gospel. This past Thursday evening, I gave a talk to the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship Chapter at my Alma Matter about the Gospel. Inspired by Eric Ludy's presentation "The Gospel", which I have displayed below, I spoke about how the Gospel means so much more than just salvation from sin and hell. It helped me realize that every aspect of Christian living is what the Gospel is. I knew I could not cover everything in 30 minutes, just like Ludy states that his 11 minute video only scratches the surface. But here is a glimpse of what the Gospel is.

  In one paragraph, the Gospel is thus: God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it. He made mankind to have a relationship with him. Man sinned and rebelled against God. Because God is pure, holy, and just, he has to punish sin. And he found a way to punish the sin without destroying the sinner. He sent Jesus Christ to pay the price so that we might live and have eternal life. Jesus died to pay the Penalty of Sin.

  There is a problem however. It's not with the Gospel itself but with what we do with it. Most people stop right there at the dealing with the Penalty of Sin. Jesus died for more than just forgiveness. Jesus also dealt with the Problem of Sin. We are no longer bound by sin. We no longer have to do it. I have heard this phrase many times. "I'm still a sinner. I'm just forgiven." NO! That is not the Gospel. That is not Bible. We are removed from sin as a Christian. We no longer have a sin nature. How does this happen? The Gospel is not just about the Penalty of Sin. It's not just about the Problem of Sin. It is about a new Identity.

  When we become a Christian we have a new identity. We have a Change in Nature. Our old nature is bound to sin and to self. Our new nature is focused on Christ. We are created to eat, sleep, breath, live, Jesus Christ. Our every inclination is designed to point towards Christ. We don't do a very good job at maintaining it. But that is our nature. I believe it is possible to live a sinless life from this point on. And I say this fully understanding what James said "If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves." And at the end of this, that idea on living sinless will be made clear. We have a new Nature.

  There is more. We are Adopted into the God's Family. This is not based on the American adoption system. It is based off the Roman system. In Rome, a father could expel a rebellious blood son from his house and from his will. But he could not do that with an adopted son. Because an adopted son was chosen. God adopts us into his family. We are joint heirs to the Throne of Heaven and we are made Citizens of his Kingdom. The Gospel is not just about the Penalty of Sin, the Problem of Sin, the New Creation, the New Identity, the Adoption. It is also about a Job, a Task we are called to do.

  God calls us on a Commission. A Job to do. We are to Represent Jesus Christ. Everything we say and do, every action we do, every word we speak, tells the world "this is what Jesus is like." If we are to associate ourselves with the name of Jesus, everything of who we are represents his name, his power, his authority. And we don't do a very good job at it. Jesus tells us, "Why do you call me 'Lord' if you do not do as I say?" We have a Job and that is to represent Jesus Christ. But there is more.

  A good manager always equips his employees to do a task that needs to be done. He equips them with all the tools they need, the personnel they need, and the authority they need to get the job done. Same here. God gives us all we need to get the job done we need to get done. And authority is a big part of that. Aside from Jesus, no one understood this more than the Roman Centurion. He understood Jesus was a man under authority by how he exercised it. The Centurion was under the authority of Rome and in doing so, when he spoke, it was as though the Caesar himself spoke. And the men under him obeyed. The same is true for us. In order to carry the authority of the Name of Jesus Christ, we must submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. And if we do not do that, we will not be able to get the job done we need to get done.

  But there is a challenge to our Commission. We are called to be Ambassadors from God to this world and this world we live in is enemy territory. God is not the only one who cares about the souls of men. So does Satan. God wants to save them and to dwell with them. Satan wants to destroy them and show them off as trophies. And we are called to Rescue the Lost and deliver them from sin by the power and authority of Jesus Christ. Satan will wage war on us for this and he does not fight fair. We must be ready for battle and this battle comes at a cost.

  We must be willing to count the cost if we are to claim to be associated with Christ. Your job, your name, your money, your reputation, your friends, your family, your life. You can lose it all for following Christ. But God has shown me that there is NOTHING that we can lose for following Christ that we are not going to lose by the time we die anyway. Your job and money? You can't keep it. You will quit, retire, get laid off, at some point. Your friends? Your Reputation? If they aren't willing to stand by you, are they really your friends? You need to be concerned about what God thinks of you, not what man thinks of you. If your family doesn't know Christ, they are going to hell. You will lose them. But what you gain for following Christ is something you can never lose. If you lose your life for the sake of Christ, you will find it. Your friends and family? If they know Christ, you will find them again. There is a Cost.

  But The Gospel is not just about getting hit. God sends us out as sheep amongst wolves but he did not send us out to get run over. The Gospel works completely against how this world thinks and turns it upside down. How? The weak are the strong. The poor are the rich. The foolish things of the world will shame the wise. And though God sends us as sheep amongst wolves, it is the lambs of God that will rise up and BEAT the wolf pack. We are not called to lose the battle. We are sent out to win.

  Everything that I just described is absolutely impossible. We can't do it. We don't have the strength, the intellect, the endurance, the skills. We cannot do it. But Jesus can. And this is how it all works. Let Jesus be your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet, your mouth, your tongue, your mind, and your everything. When God looks at me, I don't want him to see Charlie Wolcott. I want him to see Jesus Christ. We are being conformed to the image of Christ and when we let Jesus live his life through us, that is when it all works. Many of us will fail and stumble, but that is what the Gospel is all about. It is about Christian living and being who God made us to be: the Image of God himself. We are heading that way as we grow in our faith and in our relationship to Christ, but this is just the short roughly 30 minute version of the Gospel.

For reference on where this came from and what inspired it, see the video below.

Who are our Allies in Spiritual Warfare?

In my last blog post, I talked about how spiritual warfare should not be fought individually but in unity with other warriors in the Kingdom of Heaven. And amazingly enough, my pastor's sermon last week tied in perfectly to the next stage in this series I am working on. While we do need to fight together in unity, we need to know who our allies are, and just as importantly who are not allies.

  To be able to function in the spiritual realm, on thing that must be understood is authority. The subject of authority is worthy of it's own post but for the purpose of this post, I'll simply say to be able to exercise authority, you must be under the authority you wish to exercise. This works in every arena from the spiritual side to business or even to family. And one group of people that are critical allies to spiritual warfare are spiritual mentors, the spiritual authorities in our life. It is important to have someone over you, someone you trust, someone you can rely upon to hold you accountable. Many people think they can get along fine without such a person. They have their pastor and they have friends but do they have that one person who is older, wiser, and will get to know them personally? The spiritual authorities in your life are among your strongest allies because they know you the best. They know your weaknesses and your strengths and they know how to build you up and how to cover your breaches.

  Another group of allies are your Christian peers. Your fellow soldiers in the battle. The ones that are even with you on an authority basis. This is the group most people turn to when in a battle. They will help you fight, but are they close enough to stick with you through it? You may have allies that will help you for a time, but not all will stick around to see the battle through. How do you know? Know who your peers are. Know who you can rely on to cover your back. One area where you can find your best peers from this group is in a small group. Get involved in a small group. Many times, the closest friendships are found in these groups.

  Another group of allies you have is your church leadership. Your pastor, your elders, your deacons. The key to understand here is that though these people will gladly fight at your side, they are often fighting at the side of many others in the congregation. They are human and have limited time, resources, and energy. I am not saying do not go to them and defer the resources they have to others, nor am I saying that they will not have time for you. I am simply pointing out to keep that fact in mind. But one of the jobs of the pastor, elders, and deacons is to aid you in your battles. Do not neglect them.

  A very surprising ally that you can have are those you are mentoring. Those under you. It is not enough to get mentored, to get someone over you. You need someone under you. A key purpose of a Christian is not get fed, but to get spent for the Kingdom. What we are learning is not meant to feed us for for us to pay it forward and feed the next generation. And while the mentors you have know you very well, those you are mentoring also know you very well. And in mentoring them, you know their strengths and weaknesses. And what greater chance to gain experience for one you are mentoring than to enlist him/her to aid you in the battles you are facing?

  Now, I don't want to forget the ultimate ally we have: Jesus Christ himself. Let's not forget that Christ is our Commander-in-Chief. He goes before us and he follows behind. He leads us in the battle, directs us in the battle, and he is the ultimate one fighting through us. One should never enter battle without first getting your orders. 

  Now, all that being said, there are people you need to be wary of. People that you think will aid you in battle but will actually harm you in battle. I don't need to cover those that are obviously opposed to you and to anything that resembles or represents God Almighty. We know they are not our allies. But we must remember that our battles are not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces behind them. So we must not just know who our allies are, we must also know who our enemy is.

  I said above that some of our peers are a valuable resource and ally that we have. But some of these peers are not actual allies. Some of our peers that we ask to aid us in battle actually don't. In this spiritual battle, there are two challenges the Christian faces in these battles. One challenge is dealing with allies that don't fight. The other challenge is those who claim to be our allies but actually fight against us. If you have a peer that won't fight along side you, don't depend upon that person to aid you. Don't stand next to a soldier that won't raise his shield along yours or another's. Stand next to one who will.

  One must be very careful about the proverbial "wolf in sheep's clothing". The tares planted amongst the wheat. God won't remove them until it is time for the harvest. We must be careful with who we trust to rely on in battle because some of them will reveal key intel to the enemy about you. Ever wonder how some people you know are your enemies know things about you that you never told them? It's because you told a wolf, a spy. Sometimes these wolves will fight along side you to gain your trust but in a critical battle, they will back off, exposing you to the enemy, or outright turn against you. These people are not to be trusted because they are puppets and plants of the enemy. And here is the most disturbing part of it. Some of these wolves do not hide in sheep's clothing but in shepherd's clothing. Some of these false allies are the pastors, the elders, the deacons, in our church. How can we tell them apart? Don't rely on their charisma. Don't rely on their personality. They may be very good and "moral" people. Do they know Christ? Do they preach Christ? Is he Lord of their lives? 1 Corinthians 12:3 tells us that no one who has the Holy Spirit (who is born-again) can curse the name of Jesus, but no one, except by the Holy Spirit, can call Jesus their personal Lord and Savior. Is Jesus their Lord? That is a big clue if they are to be someone you can trust in battle or someone you need to mark as untrustworthy.

  I could go on but that is a simple description of what we can expect from potential allies or enemies. Always keep your guard up. The enemy is like a roaring lion seeking whomever he can devour. Who can he devour? Those who let up their guard. Those who won't fight. And those who isolate themselves and fight alone. But do not fear, do not tremble. Jesus Christ is our Commander and he has overcome Satan and his schemes. He has overcome the world and its system. He has conquered sin and death. We are more than conquerors because of Christ who lives and fights in us. And you do not fight alone. If you are in a battle, get help. Seek allies who are taking their battle orders from Christ. Seek allies who need your skills in battle. It is not just about them helping you. It is also about you helping them. And there are people who will not get victory if you do not join them in battle. And there are battles you will not win if you do not get help. Rise up and fight. You have the victory in Christ. Go out and claim it.

Unity in Spiritual Warfare

  Those who have gotten to know me pretty well know I am writing a fiction series with a major theme of Spiritual Warfare. I self-published my first novel and in the meantime, I have met a publisher that wants to take it and the sequel I am working on. I'm going to end up with a trilogy but to make a long story short, one of the comments I have received from my early beta-readers on my sequel is that they were impressed with how I address the spiritual battle from a perspective of fighting together. I've read a few books on spiritual warfare both fiction and non-fiction and while the idea of fighting together with your allies is never shunned or denied, the general emphasis is on the individual battles, that is what our job and role is individually in the battle. But many of us do not consider what our role in the battle does in conjunction with others doing their roles.

  I want to make clear that the battles we face in the spiritual realms are not meant to be fought alone. We MUST be ready to be in position to fight alone, but we are not meant to fight alone. There are some epic battles that were one by an individual in the Old Testament. Look at 2 Samuel 23:11-12. Shammah, one of David's Mighty Men, defended a field when the rest of the army fled the Philistines. Shammah stood firm and would not relinquish the field. He stood his ground and defeated the Philistines alone. That's a great story, but why should Shammah have been put in that position? Should he have been alone? The answer is no.

  The Spartans are often deemed as among the greatest warriors who ever lived. The Spartans, unlike many other soldiers in other armies, grew up eating, sleeping, living, breathing battle. And they had a tactic that no army was ever able to match: the Phalanx. In the Phalanx position, a group of Spartans would gather together and interlock their shields to form a solid wall of shield. Volleys of volleys of arrows could not penetrate it. Thrown spears would bounce off the bronze plating. And swords were too close range which would easily put them in range of a Spartan spear. And advancing Phalanx could not be stopped and through it a select few could take on armies of thousands. The famous Battle of Thermopylae pitted a few hundred Spartans against the Persian Army of hundreds of thousands and the Spartans halted the invasion.

   This idea is what some of our spiritual battles are to look like. The key that made the Phalanx work so well was the unity of the Spartans. Each individual Spartan's survival depended on the location and position of his allies. And their survival depended upon that one Spartan. If one of them was out of place, the whole Phalanx could be defeated. As Christians, we are a body. Paul talks about this several places in the New Testament. If one part of the body is out of the place, the whole body suffers. The same is true in spiritual battle.

  One of the biggest problems we have as Christians is we still struggle with sin. We don't have it all together. If we had walls around our lives, every one of us would have some massive holes in those walls. And we cannot fight because we are so focused on fighting the forces of evil that have easy access to our lives because of those breaches in our lives' walls. If we are to repair those breaches, we need an intercessor, someone who will stand in the gap and take on the battle we face in our stead. We need someone who will fend off the enemy to allow up to recover and repair their walls. Once their walls are repaired, they can then go and cover the walls of someone else. But notice this: those that are standing in the gap, ALSO have their own breaches. It is perfectly fine to go get help and support from our pastors and elders in our church. That is one of their jobs. But because of their job to not just lead us as Christians, but to fight with us and beside us, they have a big target on their backs. And they are not perfect. They need us to stand in their gaps, to fight in their stead so they can get a breather. We need them and they need us.

  But the concept of the Phalanx works in the spiritual battle. Scripture tells us that a thousand will fall on our left and ten-thousand will fall on our right. We will get surrounded and we will be heavily outnumbered...or so we think. But one praying man is more dangerous than an army. Queen Elizabeth I of England, during the height of the Spanish Empire, said she feared the prayers of the preacher Edmund Burke than she did the whole of the Spanish Armada. And she was right to do so. The Spartans could drive out massive armies with just a few by working as unit. And that is just a picture of what we can do as Christians.

  I am delving into this concept deeply in my second and third books of my spiritual warfare series that is waiting on a pending contract with a publisher. My first book "Call to Arms" introduces the concept of spiritual warfare and the battle against Satan and his minions. My second book "War Cry" (current working title) will address issues we face with our own sinful self as well as unity in the spiritual battle. My third book "The Mighty Gibborim" (working title) will add to all that addressing the battles we face against the worldly system and will continue the message of unity. But it will also deal with compromise and false doctrine in the church and how unity at the expense of sound doctrine leads to failure. We must be unified, but we must be VERY careful in whom we are unified with. There are a lot of wolves dressing up in both sheep's and shepherd's clothing and we must mark them, identify them, and have no intimate relationship with such people. We need to be unified that are completely sold and committed to the Gospel, the word of God, and the mission God has called out to do. We cannot be wishy washy and we must stand only for the truth. And if that means standing alone, then do so. The field that Shammah defended is being attacked. I am going to take up my sword, my hand claiving to it, and will defend it. Who will join me?