CITIZEN ARRESTS

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Every time I read this scripture, I eagerly jump on my horse. But the problem after I get up here is that I’m tempted to ride off in all directions at once.

 This is one of those scriptures that says so much that, as a teacher and a writer ( and a hyperactive one, at that), about twelve hundred words gather on the tip of my tongue and do fierce battle with one another over who is to break down the gates of my sealed lips first.  We might be stuck on this one for days.

Paul has just finished talking about how we are to live in this world in a manner contrary to the world’s standards.  He asserts that we are equipped with supernatural weapons to wage this unconventional war.  These weapons are strong enough to demolish our enemies… and the enemies he is focused on here are our thoughts.  He labels what our thinking can do to us “strongholds.”

You and I both know this is the truth.  We know, once we take it out and purposely look at it, that what Ralph Waldo Emerson said is the plain and simple, undeniable truth:  “Sow a thought, reap an action.  Sow an action, reap a habit.  Sow a habit, reap a character.  Sow a character; reap a destiny.”  Everything we have ever done, will ever do or become will start, or has already started, with a mere, seemingly innocuous thought. (Please stop reading for just a minute and think about that.)

Almost every day, and some days more than once, arguments come parading across my mind.  They are devilish little creatures carrying big placards that display lies in vivid colors.  Sometimes they shout in red-faced ardor what they want me to buy or believe. They came to Jesus, too, in the wilderness right after he was baptized.  Their message was “Be a miracle-working savior!”  “Be a powerful savior!”  Now, undoubtedly Jesus was both of these things, but what the devil wanted was for Him to give up the long, winding road we needed Him to take and snatch hold of something less arduous, to cash in the greater purpose for the lesser.  Had He accepted the devil’s offer, we would have still been without hope.  He could not have been the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God had He made the deal with Satan.

 Satan wanted Jesus to bank on His ability to heal disease, bring back the dead, and provide food for thousands miraculously. Satan’s placards were all about promoting an agenda of instant gratification.  God’s plan for Jesus had nothing to do with anything instant or easy; God’s plan for Jesus was that He would grow up honoring His Father by resisting such urges toward shortcuts and self-gratification.

God’s vision for His Son was to show us dull earthlings, at great expense to Himself, how to live humbly, to serve others at our own expense, take up crosses that would feed the world more than temporary food, and heal them eternally, not just slap on some kind of flashy band aid.

 Our Savior used His weapons valiantly that day and all the others of His thirty- three years down here.  His weapons were God’s Word.

We are heirs to the same weapons Jesus used so well.  We, as His followers and bearers of His name, are challenged and commissioned to fight bravely against the same Enemy using this same mighty and unconquerable weaponry.

Satan is diligent to send out his placard-bearers.  When they march across our brains shouting their lies and trying to make their sinister deals; when they cavort maniacally with their shenanigans to get us to sell our Treasures for a mess of pottage, we need to do whatever it takes to snatch out our Weapons, God’s Truth, and fight.  He has armed us to the teeth.