It’s officially November, and I’m officially dreaming about
Christmas time.
On the way home from our most recent contest at Kentucky Wesleyan,
I was jamming to the ipod on shuffle. Randomly (or not so randomly depending on
your personal beliefs), a teaching from John Eldredge’s book Wild at Heart came
on. The teaching was specifically on spiritual warfare and how there is a lot more
going on in our lives than we care to believe. He uses an example from Christmas,
and talks about nativity scenes.
“All nativity scenes are typically very similar. The same
characters tend to appear in each one. Shepherds, wisemen, a few barnyard
animals. Of course there is Mary and Joseph, adoring the new born baby Jesus.
And a few scenes will include an angel or two, but that is as far as the
spiritual realm is represented. The characters all have a very warm, sweet,
pastoral feel to them. And while this is very true, it is also very deceiving. Deceiving because this is not
a full representation of what is really going on. For that, you must turn to
Revelation 12.” (Wild at Heart Audio, The Enemy)
“A
great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the
sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as
she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the
sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front
of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the
nations with an iron scepter…..Then war
broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they
lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or
Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the
earth, and his angels with him.” (Revelation 12:1-5, 7-9)
Philip Yancey calls the birth of Christ, “The great invasion…a
daring raid by the ruler of the forces of good into the universe’s seat of
evil.” To grasp the other half of the picture of Christ’s birth, it would be appropriate
for you to watch the initial invasion scenes from Saving Private Ryan. The
parallels between Saving Private Ryan and the Gospel are stunning. A massive invasion
is launched, and a daring rescue mission for the safety of one lost man behind
enemy lines. God invades with his son Jesus, and personally sends both Jesus
and an intimate band of angels to rescue you. You are private Ryan in the
movie. And like Tom Hanks and his troops, Jesus will stop at nothing to bring
you home safely.
Now back to Revelation.
The
child is born, the woman escapes, and the story continues:
“Then the dragon was
enraged at the woman and
went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and
hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17)
“Behind the world, and the flesh is an even more deadly
enemy.. one we rarely speak of, and one we are even less ready to resist, the devil himself...this is where we live now...on the front lines
of a fierce spiritual war.” (Wild at Heart Audio, The Enemy)
And thus, I hate nativity scenes. They are soft, like most
of our sacred and holy ‘Christian’ culture.
Now I know, it all seems so dramatic, so ultra spiritual and
weird. But if you look at the scriptures, warnings about the Enemy are
everywhere. Even the old Saint Paul knew how serious spiritual warfare was, he
understood that if we are to walk with God in a genuine way and be the men and
women we were created to be, we must engage in the spiritual war raging around
us. We must fight. Period.
Bringing it a bit closer to home, God began to speak to me
about the game I had just finished playing. We beat Kentucky Wesleyan 35-27. We
should have scored a lot more points, and I imagine the defense feels that they
could have held our opponent to fewer points. The problem was, our team as a
whole, was lulled to sleep. We forgot that on Saturdays, it really makes no
difference who lines up across from us. We forgot that no matter who our
opponent is, no matter what venue and atmosphere we play in, the context for
our game is war. And if your mind is not ready for a fight, you will swiftly get
your ass kicked. We walked out onto the Kentucky Wesleyan field and it was dead
quiet. Saying there was no energy or buzz from the stands would be an understatement.
To make matters worse, we got up by quite a few points
early. This early ‘success’ further progressed the lulling to sleep of our
team. We had officially forgotten that we were in a fight.
Now to why I love Wes Allen. Now to those pieces of Jesus
pumping through Wesley’s veins that so often speak to my heart. Wes is a soldier, literally. He is going into
the Marines after school, and he will make one wild warrior. He is one of the few men in my life that remind me that I am at war, that there are some things in life worth fighting for, and I love that about him. We worked together
for a majority of this past summer, and we formed a strong bond as we shared
our common love of epic movies, (Gladiator Braveheart We Were Soldiers, to name
a few) and Eminem’s lyrics. Often times we would pass the time at work jamming to
Eminem, or quoting our favorite movie lines. But my favorite way to pass the
time at work with Wes, was looking up quotes from the Marines or other branches
of our military. So much wisdom and strength in the quotes of men who have led
our countries warriors into the most hostile spots in the world. Any quote concerning war would do for us. Here’s
a few of our favorites:
We thrive on adversity- Navy Seals
Every plans a good one until the first shots are fired – US Marines
A man once told me that death smiles at all of us, all a man
do is smile back – Marcus Aurelius, Gladiator
We are never out of the fight – Navy Seals
Only the dead have seen the end of war. – Plato
As Wes and I chatted in the locker room post game, after we
narrowly escaped with a victory, we revisited the quote about never being out
the fight. “We’re never out of the fight. But that’s the same for the other
guys. We forgot that they were never out of the fight either.”
Yes. We did forget Wesley. The Father brought this to my
attention on the bus ride home, began fathering me yet again through the game
of football. How often do I personally forget that I live in a world at war?
How often do I live as though everything is hunky dory in the land of butterflies
and rainbows? When in reality, I am in a fight. Satan is enraged at me, hates me. Wants to devour me, wants to steal
my joy, kill my heart, and destroy my life. (Click these cool things >>> John 10:10 and
1 Peter 5:8)
We can’t afford to forget that we are at war. We can’t turn
the other cheek to where we find ourselves. You can’t win a fight you don’t think
exists. Which is why this is Satan's greatest strategy-Lull us to sleep and make
us believe that he simply doesn't exist. It’s a subtle assault on humanity, and
it’s dreadfully effective. If we believe we are not in a fight, we will swiftly get our asses kicked in this war. I'd venture to say that a majority of the brokenness and pain in your own life is connected to you forgetting, or not knowing, that Satan is assaulting you every freaking day. As Plato said, only the dead have seen the end
of war. War is simply where we are in the story. We must accept it, believe it,
embrace it, and as men and women of God, fight with every fiber in our body.
Maybe you have turned down the fight for all your life, refused to
accept the fact that Satan is literally waging
war against your soul. Maybe you are more than slightly discouraged that
you have not jumped in, and fought the evil one. Maybe you feel like its too
late, that Satan has gained too much ground on your life for a turnaround.
I would be quick to remind you, that you my friend are never
out of the fight. It’s never too late.
We are never out of
the fight, and we thrive on adversity.
I dare the dudes reading this that call themselves
Christians to start praying this prayer once a day. It will take about 10 minutes, and it would be a good start in fighting the good fight. It will bring you near to Gods heart, and will teach you how to embrace your role in the war we find ourselves in.
Fight for your lives. Nothing good has ever come without a
fight. Life to the fullest, a life full of Joy and intimacy with God is worth
it. But you must fight for it.
And for the love of God someone add a machine gun or something
more violent to a nativity scene this year.
