The World, The Cross, & The Battle

In yesterday’s blog, I shared a message that I believe the Lord laid on my heart to share.  Today I’d like to talk about that message.  Here is the message again: 

Just when you think the world is at peace, I will call you to rise up, take up your cross and enter a battle.  Bring nothing with you, for I have prepared a might army that will fight on your behalf.  You are now living in the world’s darkest hour and just before I raise My hand in judgement.  I will smite the nations that do not honor Me.  But you will be spared if you embrace My Truth as your most sacred armament.  Avoid the entanglements of the world, for it will soon pass away.  Watch, and be ready, for then I will come for you. 

Just when you think the world is at peace, I will call you to rise up, take up your cross and enter a battle. 

When we watch the news we see the world go from one unrest to the next.  We were still watching the disasters of Japan wanting to keep abreast of latest developments when the news channel switched to the civil war in Libya.  I have seen many disasters on the news throughout my lifetime and lived through them all, especially the ones that were closer to home.  But we always seemed to get over it and then life went back to normal and we could enjoy peace and prosperity once again.  But the recent Japan disaster was really a global one largely due to the nuclear disaster and how it affects not only lives and quality of life, but also commercial exports such as vehicles and high-tech technology.  And now with the civil war in Libya, our gas prices have risen.  What will be the next thing that happens?  Is the world ever going to go back to normal? 

So amidst the incredible turmoil in the world today, the Church, a mighty force on its own with Almighty God as her KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS is called to RISE UP, TAKE UP OUR CROSS, and ENTER A BATTLE.  What does this look like?  What does this mean?  I believe that to rise up means that we can no longer sit back in church and just soak up the sermon.  We must take action.  How do we do this?  Before we enter any battle, we must take up our cross.  I’d like to reference this with the following: 

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"  Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  Matthew 16:21 -26 NIV 

Notice how the passage begins with Jesus prophetic message of His own suffering, death and resurrection.  Then it follows with Jesus rebuking Peter for being a stumbling block to the things of God.  Here Jesus is saying we must consider the “things of God” and not the things of men.  In Matthew 4:8-10 Satan had tempted Jesus with the splendour of the world’s kingdoms and said that if He would bow down and worship him, Satan would give it all to Him.  Later in I John2:15-17, we are instructed, “Do not love the world or anything in the world …” So to take up our cross is to focus not on the world or things of the world, but on the eternal and revealed purposes of God according to His Word.  You cannot enter a battle carrying all the baggage of the world, only carry the cross, a great symbol of all that we stand for in Christ (some references to the cross are I Cor. 1:17-18, Gal. 2:20, Gal. 6:4,6:14, Col 2:14-15).  

Now, about the battle we are entering.  Many times in Scripture it mentions the battle we are in.  The moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and personal Savior, we are in a great spiritual battle.  Who are we fighting against?

 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Cor. 10:4-5  

We are fighting against Satan and his minions, demons.  Satan does battle in the area of our THOUGHT LIFE.  This is where he whispered to Peter in the above passage regarding Jesus death and resurrection:  "Never, Lord! …This shall never happen to you!"  Peter did not have “in mind” the things of God.  And this brings me to what I believe the current battle is that was in the message from yesterday’s blog. 

Yesterday, these verses kept coming to my mind: 

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.  2 Timothy 4:3 -4 NIV 

I’ve been following a popular blog of someone who denies the existence of hell as a place of eternal punishment.  What I find most disconcerting is that many of the people responding to this blog appear to be Christians and yet they are agreeing with him.  Does no one read and study the Bible anymore?  Why aren’t more Bible-believing churches and Christian universities teaching directly from the Scriptures?  No wonder people are confused and can hardly take the “salad” of the Bible let alone the “meat and potatoes.”  Yes, there are many doctrines that take years, even a lifetime to try and understand and some things, like God’s unconditional love for us and yet there is hell for all unbelievers, we may never understand.   I think it all goes back to what we’ve been talking about – the mind and the things of this world.   Eve was first tempted with what?  KNOWLEDGE – she wanted more knowledge.  When we want knowledge more than to simply take God at His Word and obey it, we have made knowledge into a personal idol.  And the result of idolatry is always confusion and eventually judgement.  Remember that after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God cursed us all and every human and living thing would die as a result of it (and then promised a Redeemer, Jesus, to deliver us from dying in our sins).  The Children of Israel were judged in the wilderness journey for building a golden idol while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from God (read Exodus 32).  I have devoted almost a lifetime of researching these things and I can promise you I have never found anything positive resulting from idolatry.  So we need to focus our thoughts on the Word of God which is our ultimate weapon.  Are we filled up on the Word of God in preparation for battle?  Or can we be easily turned away like Peter and rely on our own idea of the way we think things should be? 

Watch for more blogs to come about the opening message. Thanks for reading and may God Bless You abundantly and lead you into all His Truth.