OLD AGE RAMBLINGS #3
Chels and I were house-sitting at a friends place a couple of months ago. I was out taking a walk, praying, (I seem to connect with God when I’m out walking for some reason!). I was nearly home and was walking through a park near our house! This dude dressed in a white karate or judo outfit is in the middle of the park with this massive thick stick (I don’t know what to call it - the word whomping stick seems right to me!). Anyway it was a serious weapon that’d do a lot of damage if it connected at high speed with your head! This dude is in his outfit with his “whomping stick” and is doing all these slow motion martial arts moves with it! He’d do this series of moves over and over again in slow motion. I don’t get martial arts so I’m just thinking this guy is kinda loopy and has nothing better to do with his life! I’m thinking maybe if he’s walking down the street one day and ten ninjas spring out of nowhere and attack him and he just happens to have this six foot long whomping stick in his back pocket, his training in the park might come into good use!
But I got to thinking on it as I watched him, (I tried not to stare in case he came after me with the stick!) and sensed God saying something along the lines of, ‘You need to train yourself to use my word as a weapon like that guy is training himself with his whomping stick! If you’re going to win the battles that are going to come in your life, you need to learn and discipline yourself to understand your weapon, to know it and to know when and how to use it! You can’t wait until you’re in the midst of a full on battle to then start learning how to use your weapon. Start training now, train in slow motion so that in the heat of battle, you’re so familiar with your weapon and how to use it that when temptation comes, you can knock it to the ground in an instant because you know how, because you’re trained and have disciplined yourself!
For me, as a young Christian growing up I never understood that the word of God was an offensive weapon to use in the heat of battle. I just thought it was one of those things that a Christian was meant to do. You know… a Christian prays, goes to church, reads the bible, etc, etc. But at aged 21, when God began to bring me into a time of healing and renewal of my thinking, the bible came alive to me and I started to see it as a sword instead of a crusty old book that I didn’t really understand! As I began to reflect on and memorise passages, my life literally began to change as I exposed myself to and feed on the truth instead of simply absorbing and being conformed to the media-crazy culture of my generation.
Winning the war comes from reading the instruction manual, submitting to the discipline of training for the battles to come and becoming one with the weapons that you’ve been given to fight with! The word of God is not some book that a Christian should read because that’s what Christians do - the word of God is your battle plan, you’re weapon of offence, your “whomping stick”!
Alternatively, it can sit on the shelf and collect dust. Sometimes it’s easier and much more comfortable to remain oblivious to the spiritual battle that’s being fought. Only trouble is if you’re not aware of and engaged in the fight, you’re probably already a prisoner of war…
Check out Eph 6: 10-18
Hey that was really good adrian. I think we forget how important and powerful the word of God is (heb 4:12). Anyway i hope u had a fun time overseas and ur concerts are going great. Ur a very awesome and humlbe guy-its great.
Mitch — 6/26/2006