The other evening, I found myself alone with the three\nkids (7b,11b,13g) and “nothing to do.” Ana Sophia said (half\njokingly) “Let’s enjoy some quality family television.” Yes, I\nlaughed – that never happens, but, I thought, maybe there’s a soccer game\non… :^) Well, we ended up flipping around and, among a couple of\nother interesting things, we found a UFC match. Do you know what UFC\nstands for? Ultimate Fighting Championship. I learn something new\nevery day. No, I don’t live under a rock, but I do tend to shelter myself\nfrom these things. So, I was intrigued to see that this was not\nboxing… These men were something to behold – fit like I wanna be. \nFit like some special g-sauce thing. Phit with phat pipes. Anyway, we\nwatched a 4 minute fight and through the din of my daughter pleading to change\nback to “Project Runway,” my boys were cheering and mimicking the\nmoves of the fighters. They loved it and talked about it afterward, and\neven their goodnight hug to each other somewhat resembled a headlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day while driving, I was reflecting on this and\nthe many, many scriptures that talk of “the mighty men of valor, able to\nwield a sword,” and “the valiant men who went out to battle,”\netc. In “those” days, the enemy was evident and physical. \nThe weapons were evident and physical. The risks were evident and\nphysical. These days, things SEEM to be different – and they are in some\nrespects. We are generally soft in our living and certainly not capable\nof wielding a (physical) sword. We are called to “If possible, so\nfar as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” Rom12 – and it tells\nus that also in Heb 12 and many other places. But we’re not instructed to\nbeat our swords into plowshares – yet. We are still at battle and need to\nbe valiant men wielding a sword. We need to be trained and lean and adept\nand deft and shrewd and skillful and strong and healthy and\ncourageous…etc. And both our sword and our enemy look different, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To those of us (myself included) who choose this cushy\nlife of physical leisure and luxury and laziness, we need to commit to\nconstant, hardcore spiritual training. Are you adept wielding the sword\nof the Lord? Are you arrayed for battle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God put in us men this liking for violence. Ana\nSophia wanted nothing of watching sweaty men trying to hurt each other, while\nthe (3) generally peaceful and loving boys in the room were fully\nengaged. There is some sort of primal attraction to strength and power\nand skill and the ability to defend our loved ones against an enemy that I\nthink drew us in to enjoying that fight the other night. I think that\ninherent tendency has not gone away with the new covenant for a reason. Sorry,\nI am being facetious here – by “the new covenant,” I am sort of\nmocking the viewpoint of some that I have heard that says God used to be a god\nof anger and now He’s a god of love… We know He doesn’t change. \nWe NEED this tendency toward aggression and the desire to fight and defend –\nnot toward some angry dude in a chain link cage – nor toward some Muslim couple\narmed with the notion to kill innocent people. We need to correctly\nidentify the enemy and direct our aggression toward the enemy and exercise our\ncourage and valor and skill toward victory. Our enemy is the\nadversary. The adversary is Satan and, I think, also our fleshly desires,\nour old man… that old captain of the ship whom we have decided through our\nbaptism, repentance and acceptance of Jesus as our savior, to bind up in\nchains. We are told to crucify him, to consider him dead. But, in\nmy life, and likely yours, he seems to only be bound and not killed. \nBeing bound, he still yells out orders that we sometimes continue to follow,\nbut he is our enemy. Identify him and attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God, Himself, the creator of the universe said: “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My love and blessings and a wish for a terrific day of rest to all of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n www.paraklesis.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The other evening, I found myself alone with the three kids (7b,11b,13g) and “nothing to do.” Ana Sophia said (half jokingly) “Let’s enjoy some quality family television.” Yes, I laughed – that never happens, but, I thought, maybe there’s a soccer game on… :^) Well, we ended up flipping around and, among a couple of … Continue reading “Fight”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paraklesis.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}