Category: We Are At War

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Red Teaming Humanity (Part 1 of 4: Intro)

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Followup

In the United States military there’s a tremendous amount of information that can be lost if our side isn’t careful about protecting it. We want information on our weaknesses or vulnerabilities, be they physical, cyber, medical, whatever they are…to be kept from adversaries. There’s a practice in the Department of Defense that encourages designated individuals or teams to look at themselves through the eyes of an adversary, with the intent to identify where information is leaking. The goal, of course, is to find and plug those leaks. This practice, that of looking at your own unit’s operation through the eyes of your adversary, is called “Red Teaming.”

Over the next several entries I’m going to Red Team Humanity from the perspective of our enemy, Satan.

Before we get into that, let’s take a step back to set the stage. It’s not a truth that people like to hear, but upon their death, humans by default are not on the path to Heaven. God made a way for us to reach Heaven along with an eternity in His presence, but there are some obstacles we need to overcome in this life. Although many people might think of him as a silly little red cartoon character, Satan is very real, and his tactics are simple but effective. His bitterness toward Christ at having already beaten him is beyond description, and he seethes with jealousy. I’m sure there has been some lashing out in rage, but he’s also not a mindless fool. He’s cunning, sophisticated, and intelligent. He was created as the greatest of all angels. Knowing that he cannot actually harm God or stop His plan, Satan’s best chance of hurting God now is to do everything in his power to rob God of the thing He loves the most…a loving relationship with us, the crown of God’s creation.

God gave us an amazing gift, and this time I’m not talking about salvation. Imagine creating us, giving us a free path to rescue us from our default path of destruction, but still leaving the door open for us to have the freedom to choose to accept it or reject it. This is a God that loves us so much that He won’t force us to love Him back because that would force us to be someone we’re not; the only souls in Heaven will be the people that chose willingly and genuinely to embrace Him as their savior.

So now put yourself in Satan’s place. You hate God, but you can’t beat him. The worst you can do to Him is to make Him sad. You recognize that God doesn’t mandate that people love Him, so if they have free will, there’s an opening for you to exploit. You can do anything within your power to prevent people from embracing Christ or sharing Him with others. Some things are off limits for Satan (he asked permission to sift Peter and the disciples “like wheat” in Luke 22:31-32 and had to seek permission to bring certain circumstances against Job). He may not be allowed to bring physical harm to some, but our minds are always fair game and are always open to attack. If you can consistently attack someone’s mind in an effective manner, you’ve got a great chance of getting the result you’re looking for.

How, then, do you attack someone’s mind?

I’m not going to give you an exhaustive list (I’d have to be pretty arrogant to claim to know all the tricks Satan uses), but using variations of only a handful of concepts has worked well for millennia against us humans. Even if we each live to be 100 years old, that’s still pretty short compared to the amount of time Satan’s had to hone his skills of trickery and deception. Hopefully it will help give you a better understanding of why the different pieces of the Armor of God referenced in Ephesians 6:10-18 are so vital to a Christian, and at the same time help give new urgency to why it’s so important to reach non-Christians.

In all things remember that God will be with us and He won’t desert us, but it’s up to us to believe it and not give up, even when our persistent prayers are met with silence. We are the ones that are most likely to come up short when it comes to the lifelong struggle we each face. Hanging in there and knowing God takes the long term over the short term is the way we’ll get through it.

There’s more going on out there than what we can see, and my prayer is that this series helps you think more in those terms so that you can recognize when you’re being influenced and can make good choices in times of high stress. God works through people to implement His will, and Satan will use any means to water down your effectiveness at glorifying God. Protect your mind. Take comfort in knowing that your helmet of salvation provides a great deal of protection, but don’t allow yourself to let your guard down.

Stick with me over the next few weeks, because these are going to be important. If you’re not a subscriber, check back every Thursday for a new entry in this four-part series, or sign up to receive new posts in your email.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. –Ephesians 6:11

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Followup

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I Used to Skinny Dip. Now I Chunky Dunk.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts and suspected that I’m crazy, you’ll be sure of it after this one. Stick with me though, it’s going somewhere.

For a few summers in high school and college, I worked at a Christian conference center. The summer staff, made up mostly of teenagers, lived on the campus and did a variety of jobs during the summer. “Summer staff” made for lots of fun memories. The days were long, but the weeks (and summers) were short.

I don’t know if this still happens today, but back then the girls had a tradition where, once a summer, they’d sneak out after curfew and hit the pool for some late-night skinny dipping. Every summer, the morning after the annual excursion happened, the guys would be disappointed because it had gone on right under our noses, while we were sleeping, and we hadn’t even been aware that it was happening. (We caught them in the act the previous summer, but I was on crutches, so I couldn’t play much of a role in it.) It was a huge morale boost for the ladies to get away with something so dangerous, and it would temporarily suck the morale right out of the guys’ side of the dorm.

Well, the following summer I was a counselor, so the curfew wasn’t an issue for me. It would have been fun to catch the girls in the act, but it would’ve been impossible to keep watch every night of the summer. Rather than have the guys stay up late trying to catch the girls (and making it tougher to stay healthy in the process), I decided I would instead try to deter the girls from sneaking out for their annual tradition. A few complete coincidences worked in my favor, and I probably went a little overboard further developing my “unhinged” persona. One time, by complete luck, while I was locking up the kitchen at night, I looked out the window and saw three of the summer staff girls running out of the dorm toward the kitchen, for what I can only guess was the need to raid the fridge. I couldn’t resist the opportunity. That night when I had entered the kitchen, I didn’t turn on any of the lights, so I was walking around in the dark. I hid and waited silently. Sure enough, the three came sneaking in without turning on the lights. As they drew near, I jumped out from wherever I was hiding and yelled “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE!” They screamed in absolute terror and ran out with their hair standing straight up. Hopefully they got a snack somewhere else.

Now, you have to understand that back then, I had more enthusiasm and energy than direction. I got a little crazier and, in my exuberance, I dug up a camouflage military uniform that I would put on as it drew near the time for lights out. Sometimes the camo makeup went on, too. I’d let everyone see me in it, and the impression everyone got was that even as everyone was going to bed, I was heading outside into the dark to do Heaven-only-knows what. I wouldn’t do this every night, but I did it often enough to keep would-be curfew breakers guessing whether or not I was out there waiting for them. It was a page from Bruce Wayne’s book.

In full summer camo one night…

Another complete coincidence worked in my favor. Sometimes I really would head outside, all dressed in camo. My main purpose was merely to be seen heading out into the darkness, but since I didn’t want to be seen coming right back in again, I had to stay out for awhile. Most of the time I just found a comfy place to lay down in the grass, and in truth I enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the normally busy place while I was out there. Sometimes I fell asleep. One time, though, as I turned the corner of a building, I came across four of the staff girls, just sitting on the grass overlooking the pool, breaking curfew. At least one of them was someone that I had earlier caught sneaking into the kitchen. They weren’t doing anything wrong (other than being out after curfew), but to them it seemed like I just…knew when they were out there doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

This is the winter version; blowing my nose wiped off part of the makeup, but when I painted up it looked like this

The end result of all this was that I cultivated an impression that just wasn’t true, and it ended up influencing others’ behavior in a way that I wanted. There were countless nights where they could’ve made it to the pool without any problem at all, but it was the fear of some weirdo in camouflage hiding in the bushes that kept them from taking part in the adventure they wanted to be a part of. More often than not, I was actually asleep in my bed way before lights out, but without knowing that truth, late-night pool adventures got postponed.

Here’s where we “land the plane” on this entry. As Christians, we have an enemy that cultivates the same kind of image. If you’re a Jesus-follower, you have the unimaginable power of the Holy Spirit residing in you, but if your enemy can intimidate you into entertaining or giving in to your doubts, he’s effectively countered the power you have inside you. In military terms, he’s negated your will or capacity to fight, even though you’re equipped to dominate.

It’s all just clever tricks and deception. Remember the truth: as a Christian, you are more than a conqueror! Don’t be held captive by lies! Not only do you have defensive armor available to you, but you have the greatest offensive weapon there is…the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-18). Properly prepared, you can walk boldly and confidently into a spiritual battle and emerge victorious. Think of it this way: if you don’t have the will to fight, the enemy can use the resources he would have used on you…somewhere else. Make no mistake: he’s going to use them, if not on you, then on someone else. If you and the Holy Spirit combat those forces, you are fighting back against the darkness and tying up enemy forces, enabling relief elsewhere. (See Daniel 10:1-14 for an example where this happened to an angel.)

The Prince of Darkness excels in lying and deception. Do you believe the lies he wants you to believe, or are you willing to trust God’s truth? Don’t believe the lies. Get up and get in the fight.

In a couple of weeks I hope to start a series on some more of the tactics Satan uses against you. Subscribe today to be sure you don’t miss it!

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Luck O’ The Ducks

When I was a kid I used to love watching cartoons. I don’t know what happened since then, but I guess somewhere along the line they decided they were going to stop making good cartoons.

One of my favorite cartoons to watch was “Duck Tales.” It featured Scrooge McDuck (of “Christmas Carol” fame), the three young duckling triplets Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and the lovable (but terrible) pilot, Launchpad McQuack.

Scrooge McDuck was a greedy guy, there’s no doubt about it. Part of the draw for a younger me was that he was always mounting expeditions to go in search of lost treasures. Off to faraway jungles, canyons, deserts, mountains, the ocean floor…no matter the danger, Scrooge McDuck’s greed drove him to adventure.

One such adventure involved catching a leprechaun. The main characters caught a leprechaun and demanded that he show them to the massive underground treasure caverns (because a pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow just ain’t enough sometimes). The leprechaun showed them to the hidden entrance, which was under a young tree. I don’t remember why they couldn’t go exploring down the tunnel right then and there, but for some reason they had to temporarily abandon their quest. Knowing that it would be extremely difficult to identify this one tree in the middle of the forest, McDuck took out a handkerchief and tied it to one of the branches of the tree. After binding the leprechaun by making him promise not to mess with the hanky or the tree, the adventurers departed.

I think it was the next day when the treasure hunters returned. The hanky and the tree were indeed untouched, but now the forest was littered with hundreds of white hankies. The leprechaun had kept his promise, but still managed to obscure the value of the makeshift marker.

Let’s switch gears for a minute. Take the perspective of Satan and the other fallen angels. You’ve had definite limits imposed on you, but you’re free to meddle with humanity in other ways. How can you divert people from the true way to God and eternal life, which is a relationship with Jesus Christ? You can’t touch that one true hanky, but you can sure hang up a lot of other ones that look enough like the original to make the real one hard to spot.

Aside from Christianity, there are a handful of major world religions on the scene, but there are an untold number of minor ones, splinter groups, minor sects, and other less popular religions. All of them are fake hankies.

In addition to using other religions, the adversary attempts to muddy the waters for actual Bible-based events. The focus of Christmas and Easter used to be Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ triumph over sin, respectively. Now it’s Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Being a Santa fan doesn’t make you a bad person, but consider this: this Christmas, are you and yours giving at least as much emphasis on the story of Jesus’ birth as you are to Santa?

There’s a lot of distraction out there, but remember the true reason for the season and the fact that the adversary has to ask permission to launch certain attacks on Christ-followers.

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat…” Luke 22:31

8Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil.”

9Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

12“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.”

Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. Job 1:8-12

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What Am I?

Photo courtesy of https://medium.com/@joseph.r.pack/the-bourne-transformation-cb507485415c

Last week I posted about how we’re in a war. It can be difficult to see the best way to gird up and fight back, though. How can we be part of God’s plan to overcome the world? Well, I’ll tell you.

When it first came out, I really enjoyed the movie “The Bourne Identity.” For those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s about an American that gets recovered while floating unconscious off the coast of France; he has no memory of who he is, how he ended up in the water, or why he has a pair of gunshot wounds in his back.

As the story unfolds we try to solve the mystery alongside him, but what’s very interesting is that even though he can’t remember who he is, certain skills come very naturally to him. He speaks at least three different languages, he ties complicated knots without knowing why he knows how to do it. He excels at hand-to-hand fighting, combat driving, and use of various weapons. He’s got serious skills, but doesn’t have a clue about the purpose behind applying them.

Obviously he fits into a larger story, but when we meet him, he’s just a guy with skills trying to figure out his place in the world. He’s a highly skilled, but uncertain fellow without a purpose.

Does that sound like you?

We all come pre-loaded with different talents, skills, and gifts. Some have obvious application (leadership or teaching, for example), while others seem like little more than amusing party tricks. We can use them for our own benefit in some cases, but it’s important to remember that we were given specific skills for a specific reason.

What’s the definition of a gift? An excerpt from the video below says that it’s “the thing you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort.” It’s something that comes naturally to you; something you can do without even trying. It doesn’t have to be something spiritual or church-y. Running focus groups; skateboarding; comforting hurting people; competing in triathlons; interior decorating; creating various forms of art; plumbing. It doesn’t have to make sense to you, but by pursuing your gift or using your talent right now, God will position you in a place He wants you to be at just the right time in the future. Many people turn or run from their gift because it’s something they don’t want to be gifted in, and they pursue something that “makes more sense” but doesn’t fit who they are. If that’s you, I urge you to stop chasing something you’re not meant to be and embrace the tools you already possess. You have them for a reason.

Our mystery American from the movie eventually discovers what he is, and having that context makes him more comfortable in his own skin; learning more about the background of his skills gives him purpose and structure to help him apply his skills. Christians have the same thing. After you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior, your purpose is no longer to find God, it is to glorify Him. You want to know how to be a part of that? Do what you were made to do: use your God-given talents to live your life in honor of Him.

Think of a tool that goes unused: a hammer that doesn’t strike; scissors that don’t cut. These are tools with unmet potential. It’s not up to the tools to be used in the right way or envision the details of what they’re used for; that’s the craftsman’s job. As “Christian tools,” we don’t need to be overwhelmed by trying to discover what the plan is; we only need to place ourselves in the hands of the Master and be used the way He sees best.

I’m including a link to a motivational YouTube video. It’s a little lengthy (about half an hour), but since it’s audio only, you don’t need to watch it as it plays. It’s a good listen while folding laundry, working in the garage, cooking dinner, working out, or driving. It can give you a better idea about how to honor God by employing your gift(s).

Know someone that would like to read this? Pass it along to them! New content posted every Thursday.

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Stifle the Outcry

China in green, Taiwan in red

This post will likely be censored or unavailable for readers in east Asia.

At the end of World War II, many nations across the globe were exhausted, in physical and financial shambles, and/or struggling to define their identity. One of those nations was China.

The quick version is that in the late 1940s the two most powerful groups in China that had worked with the United States to combat Japanese forces struggled against each other for control of the nation. The Nationalist group, losing strength and support, began to flee toward the ocean in order to escape the Communist group. Upon reaching the Pacific, with the adversary not far behind, the Nationalist leadership escaped to an island off the coast of China, an island now known as Taiwan. The Communists went on to establish firm control over mainland China, and vowed to someday reclaim Taiwan, which they view as a rogue Chinese territory.

That was 70 years ago. China still intends to reclaim and annex Taiwan, by force if necessary. The Chinese Government knows, however, that if it suddenly grabs Taiwan all at once, the international outcry would be detrimental to its long-term goals, so it came up with a different plan. It’s been slowly exerting pressure on those within its sphere of influence to either support the idea that Taiwan belongs to China, or at least avoid supporting Taiwan in any way. The Chinese populace is not nearly as distracted and forgetful as we are in America, and the idea is that over time there will be so little international resistance that eventually China will reach out and pluck Taiwan for itself and the outcry will be manageable. Unfortunately for Taiwan, there’s evidence that the plan is working.

Don’t believe me? Let me show you an example.

Not long ago Tom Cruise introduced a trailer for his upcoming movie, Top Gun: Maverick. This is a sequel to the original Top Gun movie that came out 34 years before the sequel. I’ll admit, I’ve watched the trailer a few times and I’m definitely excited to see the movie some day.

It wasn’t long after the trailer went public that an eagle-eyed fan noticed something very peculiar. There’s a brief shot in the trailer where Maverick (Tom Cruise’s character) puts on an old bomber jacket that he wore in the first movie. The jacket is full of unit patches that signify some of the assignments Maverick completed. The fan did a side-by-side comparison of the jacket from the 1986 film and the jacket from the sequel. He noticed that where the 1986 jacket had a large patch containing flags from Japan and Taiwan, the 2020 movie replaced those two portions of that patch with similarly colored ambiguous shapes.

This was not an accident; it was quite intentional. China doesn’t get along with Japan or Taiwan. Rather than simply write in a minor plot change that uses a different, newer jacket, (or even avoid camera angles showing that particular patch) the people that made this movie decided it would be best to rewrite history in order to appease China. It would be different if China made the change itself before allowing it to play in Chinese theaters, but here the actual patch from the world’s first major summer blockbuster was deemed unpalatable and updated before it was even released in America. Now the movie posters act like it never even happened, history is erased, and the people that never saw the original won’t even know anything happened.

Imagine…this level of sinister manipulation by “soft power” methods is engineered by earthly minds. If mere humans can orchestrate this type of behavior, imagine the level of sneakiness and underhandedness that the most powerful of all angels is capable of.

Now, before you get any crazy ideas, no, I’m not saying that China is run by the devil. I think this instance is an excellent illustration of one of his tactics, though. He knows he’s headed for an epic clash that he’ll eventually lose. In the meantime though, he hates God and us so much that his main motivation is to rob God from receiving glory. He does it through discouraging/distracting Christians from doing the work God calls them to do and by doing everything in his power to prevent humans from becoming Christians. That’s it. At the end of the day, that’s all it is.

Satan knows that a sudden power grab is too overt and people would too easily recognize it for what it is. With that in mind, he works a little slower, in smaller steps but always pushing toward making the world a place where anything goes and Christianity is labeled as too intolerant and restrictive. Think about how much Christian influence the United States has lost over the last hundred years, or even the last 20 years.

When you shape the narrative, it’s much easier to control the outcome. As a Christian you can’t just hide your head in the sand and hope things will get better; you need to engage the culture. If someone tells you that “there are no absolutes,” you can politely remind them that their statement is self-contradicting. If someone tells you that “everything in life is meaningless!” you can ask whether or not they believe their assertion has meaning.

Engage the culture. It’s your culture, after all. Push back against ideas that run counter to what you know God would want. It’s not easy and you might be alone, but if you don’t do it, it won’t be long before Christians end up in a situation with the adversary posturing to reach out and pluck this isolated refugee enclave so it can do what it feels is best with this group of troublesome upstarts.

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Fatherhood Fun

I don’t know what it is about Dads, but we love to get our kids riled up. We know we shouldn’t  do it as much as we do, but we can’t help it sometimes. Daddies are the loud ones, the human jungle gyms, and the ones that tend to ratchet things up rather than down. Mommies are the soothers, the comforters, the ones the kids go to when something hurts (probably because of something Daddy did while roughhousing).

Since my kids were little, the basement has been the place where they could be loud. If they had too much sugar or they were just a little extra wound up, we’d banish them to the basement for awhile. When my two oldest kids were pretty young, one time I took them in the basement to work off some energy while Mommy got a little peace and quiet upstairs. My oldest daughter and my son loved when Daddy went a little crazy with them.

Around that time we came up with a game that was kind of like dodgeball. Back then our basement was set up so that as you came down the stairs, you pulled a U-turn and walked down a hallway to another room. Right across from the bottom of the stairs was another room. I’d go to the room at the far end of the hall and throw a ball at the wall near the bottom of the stairs while my kiddos ran back and forth between the two safe zones (the blind spot at the bottom of the stairs and the room across from it). It sounds kind of sadistic, but they loved it and they weren’t going to get hurt. I had a ball that was kind of scary because it was very loud when it hit the wall, so any time it “just missed” them, it was a big thrill for them because they had snuck past Daddy’s throw without getting hit. I pegged them plenty of times too, but it usually ended with lots of giggles. J

My kids weren’t very old at this point, probably about 5 and 3. They loved playing this game though, because this is where they learned to use teamwork to “distract” Daddy. One would feint, act like they were going to dash across the line of fire, but it was really just a trick to get Daddy to throw the ball while they were still safe, and then the other one would make a break for it before the ball bounced back to Daddy.

I’d try bouncing the ball off the hallway’s walls, or putting spin on the ball so that it still bounced after them even if they were in the safe zones. Naturally, the ball would get stuck on their side every now and then, but they’d peek out from behind their cover, pick it up, and throw it to me and dive back for cover before I could pick it up and throw it again.

Little dodgeball champions

One time my little guy picked it up and threw it to me, but then forgot to get back behind some cover. I gave him some warning and made a big show of winding up for a big throw, but he still wasn’t catching on that he was exposed. With all the gravity of a life-and-death situation, big sis dashed across the line of fire, knowing full well that Daddy was about to unleash a fastball. My little medal-of-honor-winner-in-training jumped behind him and grabbed him under his armpits, and then yanked him back to safety. He fell down on top of her in the process, with the ball narrowly missing both of them.

There are some things in the Bible that you just don’t fully appreciate unless you deal with young kids a lot. This story about my kids helps me better grasp one story in the book of Mark (10:17-31). A rich young ruler came up to Jesus and asked “what do I need to do to have eternal life?” This guy was probably a young ruler in the local synagogue, steeped in the legalism of the day. With his line of thinking he was essentially looking for some kind of religious deed he could perform that would guarantee his entry into Heaven. Although he was misguided, that didn’t make him insincere.

Jesus more or less told him “you know the deal…follow all the commandments…don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t defraud, and honor your father and mother.”

While most of us at that point probably would have remembered at least one time in our lives where we told a lie or let Mom or Dad down, this guy had a different reaction.

“Yep, I’m good with all that. What else do I need to do?”

If you’re Jesus, and this guy has the nerve to say that to you, even if he believed it was true, what are you gonna be thinking?

Here’s the part that my kids helped me understand. “Jesus looked at him and loved him.”

Some translations might say that Jesus felt great compassion for him. I was truly moved to see my daughter sacrifice her safety for the sake of her little brother. The guy in the story was earnestly seeking the truth from Christ, but he didn’t know he was now playing in a different league. Like seeing my little guy standing in the line of fire without knowing he was in danger, Christ probably looked at this young man and thought to himself “Bless your little heart. You’re so clueless and you don’t even know it.”

There are lots of other fatherhood experiences where those words came to mind: “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Christ had compassion both for people that were His followers and for people that were not. We’re called to do the same.

Who can you show compassion for today?

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You Probably Can’t Even Get Through the Front Doors of That Church

Photo courtesy of GOD TV.

In this blog I like to talk about coming up with new ways to employ the gifts God’s given you for the purpose of reaching people in ways that aren’t already been done. Here’s an example.

These days it’s becoming more common to open satellite churches. Usually what that means is that there’s a main campus where the preacher physically delivers a sermon, and it’s broadcast live (or on a delay) to other satellite churches in the network. Those remote churches normally have an on-site staff, including a pastor (who is not delivering a sermon, but is there to support the members of the congregation), worship leaders, and all the volunteers that are needed to pull off a functioning church service.

Gateway Church in Texas recently announced that it was opening a new satellite campus. On the surface, this isn’t anything unusual, but this particular venue is more difficult for average folks to get to.

Gateway Church’s new remote site is in the state’s largest maximum security prison.

They’ve hired someone to be the campus pastor for this particular location, and there are others who help every week, but just about everyone else who works to ensure the services function is an inmate. Ushers, greeters, guys setting up, guys tearing down, worship leaders, audio/video staff…all inmates.

Here’s a video for more info.

The ways people are currently reaching the lost are not the only ways to do it. There are tons of other ways to do it that haven’t been started, but either nobody’s thought of it yet, or nobody’s willing to do it. When it comes to reaching people for Christ, you might be the only person on this entire planet that has the ideas you do. Don’t let those ideas die on the vine.

You have talent; you have ideas; you have value. For the sake of Christ’s kingdom and the people who aren’t yet in it, please share those things with others.

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Power Versus Authority

Courtesy of tonyevans.org

Rumor has it there’s a pretty big football game coming up this weekend. With that in mind, I’m going to rely on a “guest contributor” for today’s post. (I’m really just stealing from his website.) Tony Evans writes: 

In a football game, the players tower over the referees. The players are bigger, stronger and more powerful than the older, smaller and, often, out-of- shape referees. In a game, the players can use their power to knock you down, but the referees can use their authority to put you out of the game.

Never confuse power with authority.

Satan may be able to knock you down. He has more power than you. But he has absolutely no authority over you if you’re a believer. Of course, Satan knows that, but he doesn’t want you to know it. So, Satan tries to intimidate with lies and pressure and to deceive you into believing he has authority over you.

On the cross, Jesus Christ deactivated, dismantled and disarmed Satan’s rule over sin and death (Colossians 2:13-15). God gave the ultimate authority to His Son. He has placed all things in subjection to Jesus.

One of the reasons we often don’t live in light of this truth is because we confuse the terms “power” and “authority.” Satan still has power. He still dominates the world in which we live and influences people’s lives in countless ways. His tactics are both real and destructive. But what he doesn’t have is final authority. Jesus has the authority. Jesus is exalted “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21).

Satan has no authority or power over the one who is aligned under the covering of the risen and exalted Christ. This is why Satan will try long and hard to hinder the one who has an abiding relationship with Jesus. He knows if he can get you to ignore the authority and rule of Christ in your day-to- day activities and decisions, he can deceive, trick and harm you however he chooses. Yet acknowledging and remaining under Christ’s lordship and authority will protect you from Satan’s onslaught.

God “made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-6).

When Christ died, you died with him. When Christ arose, you arose with Him. When Christ sat down at the right hand of the Father, you sat down with Him. In other words, you were made to function in concert and cadence with Christ. For you to gain access to the authority which comes through the perfect union of Jesus Christ—bringing heaven to bear on earth—you must abide in Him. To abide means to dwell, to align your thoughts, choices and perspective under God’s thoughts, choices and perspective. It means connecting with Him and honoring Him in everything you do. God doesn’t want weekend visits with His kids; He wants full custody.

This is such an important part of the victorious Christian life. You can go to all of the church services you want, read all the spiritual books you want, even do all the Bible studies that you want, but experiencing all God has planned for you comes only through aligning yourself under and abiding in the one who reigns over all, the exalted Lord Jesus Christ.

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That Was Almost Me!

In honor of the real reason behind the upcoming Christmas holiday, I’m going to share a story from my life that illustrates someone else’s sacrifice on my behalf. This particular experience drives home the point of Jesus taking my place like nothing else does.

Before I joined the Air Force I worked in construction, building houses. The Air Force was very particular and thorough about documenting the types of injuries, surgeries, and other aspects of recruits’ medical history. All of a potential recruit’s medical history paperwork needed to be in good order before they could even leave for basic training. I don’t remember how many times I had to fill out specific forms, but I remember that it was a pain to get it all completed.

Everyone at work knew that I was joining the Air Force, but the job I wanted wasn’t scheduled to have room for new Airmen for several months, so while I was waiting, all I had to do was not get hurt. I worked in construction. What could go wrong?

Our crew was framing a house, which was one of my favorite parts of building it, even though it was also one of the most physically strenuous. We had finished the first floor, and we were just about to start work on the second. What we usually did at this point was have a guy start lifting the decking…a beefed-up version of plywood…up to someone on the second floor. Once we got most of the decking installed on the second floor, we could start moving other supplies up there.

This time we did something a little different. I don’t remember exactly why, but we had a backhoe on site. Rather than pass the sheets of decking up one at a time, we threw a chain around a bunch of the sheets and connected it to the backhoe’s arm. We were going to use the machine to lift a bunch of the decking up to the second floor all at once. If this worked out, it was going to save us a lot of work.

The backhoe operator drove around to the part of the house that was closest to being able to reach the second floor. He moved into place and began positioning the arm so that two of us up top could pull the sheets out of the stack. I was one of the guys, and I had gone to high school with the other guy, Jared. Jared was the kind of guy that had been working on job sites and picking up extra cash since he was a kid. He had worked on more roofs, houses, and barns than he could remember. He just had a sixth sense about how building supplies needed to fit together and how the process needed to go.

The two of us stood on top of the second floor, waiting to receive the first sheets. We had no floor to stand on yet; we had to balance on the rafters that were 16 inches apart. We watched as the backhoe operator extended the backhoe’s arm as high as it would go, only to come up a few inches short. We talked it over for a bit, and decided we’d try tipping the bundle just enough that we could pull a sheet up toward us. We didn’t like the idea of dealing with a tipped bundle, but it was better than lifting the sheets up one by one.

This idea might have worked if we used a magical chain that tightened around the bundle a little bit as each sheet came out. Think of a deck of cards that’s held in place not with a rubber band, but with a string that’s tied tightly around the outside. As we tried tipping the bundle just enough to pull a sheet up onto where we stood, the sheets in the middle of the bundle started sliding toward the cab of the backhoe. Out of self-preservation, the operator jerked the arm to stop the decking from smashing into him, but in the process it made the bucket smash into the wall holding up the rafters Jared and I stood on. It broke the wall loose and in about three seconds there would be nothing holding us up anymore.

Jared was quicker to understand everything that was happening, and he started tearing across the rafters with a quickness. He slowed down long enough to grab me and get me moving in the right direction, because I had to spin 180 degrees to be pointed toward safety. He pulled me onto my feet and gave me a big shove, providing the momentum I needed to reach a different section of the building that wasn’t in danger of collapsing. The big shove he gave me killed his momentum toward safety though. It all happened so fast that I don’t remember everything that occurred, but the wall gave way, and so did the rafters holding us up. As I was falling, I was just barely able to reach out and grab a beam that wasn’t affected by the wall’s collapse. I was running across rafters that were on their way down as I reached it. It was just in the nick of time, too; it was a last-ditch leap to grab something sturdy enough to save me from disaster.

Jared, however, did NOT make it to safety. He ended up tumbling from the second floor to the first in the middle of a mass of collapsing lumber. He suffered a fall he could have escaped because he stopped long enough to give me a chance I wouldn’t have had without him. He could have made it without a problem if he only looked after himself, but without even thinking he helped keep me from getting hurt. If I could go back in time and grab a picture of the scene, it would have been a powerful one to see Jared getting buried in an avalanche of two-by-sixes and two-by-eights as I safely swung from a cross beam just feet away, thanks to him.

This event made me understand the word “sacrifice” in a different light. I always knew the Bible stories about God sacrificing His son. After awhile, you forget to appreciate what an awesomely painful thing that was for Him to do. Then something like this happens and you see it in a whole new light.

How do you pay someone back after something like that?

You can’t.

If you haven’t invited Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life, that doesn’t change the fact that He paid a heavy price to offer you a tremendous gift. To be honest, He knew that many people wouldn’t take Him up on it, and He knew that some people would knowingly reject it. I can’t imagine not being thankful to Jared after what he did. It also helped remind me of how much more thankful I need to be for an even bigger act of selflessness.

This Christmas don’t forget to pause and give thanks to God for the significance of what we’re actually celebrating during this time of year. Christ’s birth marked the start of a plan that would result in a painful and tormenting sacrifice that opened the door for you and for me to gain entry into Heaven. The concept of painful separation from God after death is our default status as humans, but Christ’s sacrifice created the only way for us to avoid that future and instead spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

Just for the sake of closure, Jared was okay, but he was pretty mad and stayed on the floor for awhile. I dropped from the beam and ran toward him, throwing planks every which way to get him uncovered. He scared me when I found him in the fetal position…I kept asking him to say something, but he stayed quiet. I think he was pretty upset at seeing the problem coming and still having to deal with it. We later joked about how tough Jared was. He’s the only guy I know that you can drop a house on and he keeps on going. 🙂

This is my last post of 2018. Enjoy time together with loved ones this season; hold them tighter and don’t take them for granted. Talk about big, impossible ideas of how you can labor for God’s glory. Spur one another on. I’ll resume posting the first or second week of the new year.

In the words of a different, more famous Tim, “God Bless us, every one!”

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Playing To Not Lose

Hopefully you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Some movies just go with certain holidays. I’m sure many of you either have a tradition of watching certain movies around Christmas or Thanksgiving. For me, the movie “Rocky” (and by extension, the rest of the Rocky movies) are Thanksgiving movies.

There’s a movie that just came out this past week. Although I haven’t seen it, “Creed 2” is the latest in a line of movies that involve the boxing character Rocky Balboa. I’m a fan of most of the franchise (they could’ve skipped “Rocky V”), so I’ll piggyback off of the latest release to make a spiritual point. 🙂

I didn’t ever really think that I’d have to include a spoiler alert for a movie that’s about 40 years old, but if you don’t want to know how “Rocky” or “Rocky II” end, you may want to watch them before finishing today’s post.

The Rocky movies are American classics. The early portion of the series is about how a down-on-his-luck amateur boxer, Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone), gets a dream shot: to take on the world champion, Apollo Creed, for the world heavyweight boxing championship.

Rocky’s not a great fighter, but he can sure take a beating and keep on going. At the end of the fight, Rocky loses, but he’s still standing after 15 rounds of being pummeled by the world champ, blowing away everyone’s expectations. Apollo won the fight according to the judges, but he didn’t actually defeat Rocky in the eyes of many spectators.

In the second movie, the champ receives hate mail from critics that think he’s a fraud. He’s upset at being accused of faking the fight, of carrying this “bum” through an entire bout. To prove to the world that the Balboa fight was just a fluke, he pursues a rematch with Rocky. He intends to destroy Balboa so he can show everyone that Apollo Creed is still worthy of being called a champion. Balboa eventually agrees to a rematch, and the two slug it out once again.

(I’m sorry, I’m a big fan of Rocky, so I’m including a fun clip just to show you what kind of guy he is. In this clip, he’s on his way to his rematch with Apollo Creed, but he wants to make a quick stop and link up with his priest, Father Carmine. He’s already running late, but being the great theologian and philosopher that he is, he has his priorities.)

Of course, the rematch with Creed goes to the fifteenth round again. By this point, Creed is way ahead on points; all he needs to do is stay away from Rocky and he’ll win the fight, but he’ll be no better off than he was after the first fight, so he continues trying to knock out Balboa. Both men are exhausted, have swollen faces, and lack any semblance of footwork at this point. At the end they’re just standing toe to toe, swinging with everything they’ve got left to try to land knockout punches on their opponent. In a true Hollywood moment, they simultaneously land punches on each other, leading to a double knockdown.

The referee began counting. If they both got to their feet before “10,” they’d return to the fight. If only Creed got to his feet, he’d win the fight and retain the title. If Balboa was the only one that made it to his feet, he’d win and be crowned the new heavyweight champ. In this situation, the rules stipulate that if nobody gets up by the time the referee counts to 10, the fight ends in a draw, and whoever holds the title will retain it by default. Dazed and drained, both Creed and Balboa struggle to get oriented and begin trying to stand up. I’ll embed a clip of the end of the fight at the bottom of the post.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make. There’s a difference between “playing to win” and “playing to not lose.” As Christians, we’re called to bring Jesus to all that don’t know about Him. Those that accept Christ as Savior cross over from spiritual death to new spiritual life. Our “default setting” when we’re born is a life of sin that we can’t escape on our own; we need to make a transition to escape a fate of eternal separation from God after we die.

If you believe the Bible, you believe that Satan is prowling, looking for souls to divert and devour. He doesn’t need to convert anyone, because they’re already his. All he needs to do is prevent conversions from happening. So in that sense, all he needs to do is play to not lose.

Here’s where we come in. It’s our job to work toward those conversions, offering people the truth and a way out of their default course. It’s not an easy thing. Every person reading this post has a different collection of talents, resources, social circles, and spiritual gifts at their disposal.

Even though they don’t know it, there are people counting on you to carry the truth to them. Some will be open to it, others won’t, but it’s going to take more than a half-hearted effort to make a difference.

For their sake, play to win.

(The part I mentioned starts around 1:30, but I’m including the whole final round.)