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rl69
12-04-2016, 07:49 AM
Avoid the Escape Mentality

“Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle” (Ps 144:1).

One of the best-selling American books of all time is a fiction series that focuses on the end times called Left Behind. It deals with the rapture of Christians from the earth before the final end-times crisis takes place and the anti-Christ rules.

If we are not careful we will fall into a mindset that we are simply buying time until Jesus calls us home. No matter what the end-times scripture teaches, it is clear that believers should model a behavior that is more like a soldier in battle desiring to take the land, than a person awaiting an airlift.

When God placed man on earth, He desired man to rule the earth. “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1:28). The intent was not dictatorship, but to express the love and care of God throughout all of creation in order to know and experience the creator in all things.

Today, we often have a cruise ship mentality in the Church of Jesus Christ instead of a battleship mentality designed to engage the enemy of our souls. Our army is often ill-equipped to know how to take the land that God has provided through His Son. This is why believers in the workplace must see their work and calling as an assignment from God to demonstrate His power in all of society in order to restore His rule upon the earth. That is the key reason Jesus died on the cross – to restore that which was lost (Lk 19:10).

Are you engaged in the battle?

Boaz
12-04-2016, 08:38 AM
Thank you .

Pine Baron
12-04-2016, 09:41 AM
Thanks rl, sometimes we need to fall back and regroup, resupply. It's a long hard battle that we are fighting.

USMC87
12-04-2016, 10:46 AM
Amen! We are constantly in battle with spiritual wickedness which is expected as they hated Christ for no reason and they hate us because we follow Him. Thank you RL for giving us your time God lead you to give!

square butte
12-04-2016, 11:49 AM
Well placed for me - Amen and thanks rl69

Blackwater
12-05-2016, 05:26 PM
What a great post! It's been said that all that's necessary for evil to overcome good, is for good men to sit and do nothing. One of the weakest and most pitiful aspects of some folks' faith is that "waiting a ride," and those who believe God will swoop down His mighty hand and make things right, without ANY effort on our part! We have to DO something for the Lord to HAVE something TO bless! This seems so simple and elemental, I cannot understand the mentality of those believers who have adopted the passive outlook.

When people become believers, we are STILL subject to the laws of causation, and of effort and effect. We're just supposed to DO our part, and give the Lord something TO bless, and enable Him to keep us in the condition we want to be kept in. All else is just wishful thinking, and I believe, the product of the devil, not our Lord. But too, we all have various ways to serve. Right and Wrong have always been with us, and without our efforts, wrong and evil prevail. It's always been that way, and it always will be. How could it be otherwise?

IF we've done all we can, and our efforts are insufficient, the Lord DOES sometimes reach down his Mighty Hand and fight our battle for us, so that we can win even against all odds. But only IF we've done what we can, and followed Him. To reach down his mighty hand and do things FOR us, and not expect us to do our part, would be to create the most "spoiled" people, people who will be pretty well guaranteed to become boastful and haughty and "stuck on themselves," and THAT is NOT His will for us. He wants us to be better, and more understanding and wiser and more judicious, so He grants us hardships and challenges and sometimes pain, so we'll know whence all our blessings come, and that's when we walk hand in hand WITH Him, and don't just stand by and expect Him to do everything FOR us.

Blessed be the name of the Lord for all he places in our paths, so we might learn to become the best we can be.