So in my last post I talked about having a hope for brighter days. But what are we going to do when difficult people and situations come our way? Are we going to bow down and allow these people or situations to walk all over us and put us back in a situation that is now hopeless?
Hopefully by now you have come to the conclusion that hope and faith in God is the only way that we can get through any obstacle, but here’s my question: is there a way we can put God and his kingdom into action? What I mean by this is that all the time I look around and I see Christians say “Well, I can’t do that because I will be mean,” or “How am I supposed to do that without offending somebody?” Well here’s the answer…
If you’re going to be a true child of God and you’re going to fight for his kingdom, then you’re going to offend people. You’re going to go into this world and make enemies. But I have something to tell you about making enemies; it is a very good thing to be making enemies out there.
Do you want to know why?
Because, if we are making enemies out there, it means that we have Satan’s attention. And, if we have Satan’s attention, that means that we are doing something right in the name of God. But that tends to be the problem: we do not want to be strong soldiers for Christ.
That deeply upsets me, because God sent His only begotten Son into this world to die on the cross for our sins.
I would like to share something personal.
One of the greatest influences in my life was my grandpa. He died when I was 15 years old. But if there’s one thing I know about my grandpa it’s that he was a fighter. My grandpa lost his eye-sight when he was a young adult.
He was pushed out of his house by his family and my family took him in even though he was not blood. I grew up as him being my blood. If he were to look around today at Christians he would shed a tear.
Do you want to know why?
Because my grandpa is the type of man that would walk around on the side of the street by himself even though he’s blind. My grandpa was the kind of person that will go answer the front door when it rings and he’s home alone. And those are just a few of the things he would do, even though he was blind…but, do you want to know why he would do these things?
Because he put his faith and trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. He didn’t allow us to get walked on by other people.
The Bible commands us to be soldiers of Christ; it provides us with this armor for us to put on daily to defend God’s will (Ephesians 6:10-18).
Throughout time people calling themselves Christians have gone to war in the name of God they have conquered lands, gotten slaves, and murdered innocent people in the name of “God.” But, what are we going to do about that?
Are we going to sit there and allow our fellow Christians and our fellow citizens of this earth to go around and do wrong?
People take the verse Matthew 7:3, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” way out of context.
For the Bible does tell us that we need to hold our fellow believers accountable for the things that they are doing. We need to go and confront our brothers and sisters in Christ and tell them that what they are doing is against what the Bible commands us.
So my challenge for everybody from here on out, for the rest of your lives, is to be true soldiers for Christ! I want you to be able to go out every day with this faith and trust in Jesus and be able to say, I’m going to fight for my God.
Because when I die I need to be able to say to God that I have fought the good fight! I have kept the faith! And I have won the race(1 Timothy 6:12)!
And You Should Want That As Well!
Notes
This article was transcribed from a speech our very own Lee Eidem gave, and he very graciously gave it to us to publish on this site. His speech has been minimally edited.
TEAMzao 