2441AFC101124 – The Wise Warrior ← 😊 PODCAST LINK
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Wisdom 7:7 – 7 Therefore I prayed, and understanding was given me; I called on God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
Psalm 90:12 – 2 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.
Hebrews 4:12-13 – 12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
Mark 10:23, 26-27 – 23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! May the Lord of hosts preserve us in these perilous days! Please continue (and intensify) your prayers for the people being affected by hurricane Milton and other natural phenomena these days. There is much talk about “weaponizing” the weather. It’s hard to believe, harder still to discern the motivations. I invite you to look at some information about that here (↔ Click Link) because it may – or may not – be part of the war into which we have been launched – multiple millennia before now. I’m not talking about Ukraine, or Gaza, or Afghanistan. I’m talking about inside our hearts, and minds, and especially in our spirits. In this war, some see that there is little to gain and much to lose.
That is true if we have a great heap of stuff that we have acquired to comfort us, or collected just because we could, even if it was not much comfort at all. The Key Verse from the Gospel of Mark is part of the story often called “The Rich Young Ruler.” Let’s recall the scene: a wealthy young man wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus lectures him about calling him Good, and then asks if he’s been obedient to the Law. The young man affirms that he has been faithful to the entire Law. At that point, we have a very unusual statement in the Gospels. It reads, in verse 21 – 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” This is the only passage in the Bible that states Jesus looked with love on someone. Why did he do that? There are many guesses as to why. Mine is that Jesus saw how earnestly the man wanted to do the right thing, but Jesus knew in advance that he could not give up his rich lifestyle. Many of us are in the same situation. That’s part of the warfare – even the newly-coined Lawfare – that the Accuser uses against us. It’s like what Yoda told Luke Skywalker – “Luke, empty your mind.” Luke, be stupid. “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Be blind and stupid. Not necessary if you know the Word instead of the Force!
Poor Luke Skywalker! He had much to lose and much to gain – according to the story. If he could not master geoengineering by manipulation of the laws of physics, then the battle could be lost. He had to assume a new identity to do that. Belovéd, I submit we face somewhat of the same challenge. We must be willing to unlearn the ways of the World and submit to the ways of God. This, however, is the loss of knowledge that leads to being stupid. This is that One Way Only that leads to Wisdom. We can see that what Luke was attempting as a Jedi was to turn on something inside himself to make it possible to control a portion of the universe within his sphere of influence.
What God asks us to do is to turn OFF something inside us that makes it possible for us to be controlled by things inside our sphere of influence – in other words, we learn to resist the World and depend on God. That is Wisdom. Looking inside ourselves to find ourselves can be pretty disappointing because it might just turn out that all we find there is “just me.”
Introspection is good, but for those who advocate for intense introspection as the way to know and understand God, I suggest we have more to do. I concur that we do well to look inside our lives to find what God is doing, but also believe that we need to look beyond our inner-beings so we can see our connections with the God who is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (See Ephesians 6:4-6) We have seen previously that reverencing and loving God is the beginning of Wisdom. We’ve said repeatedly that God is Love, so one who is wise will be the one who loves God. “You, O Lord, are my God, and I am your humble servant which is my reasonable service of worship.” That is wisdom. Now, Servants of God, where and how must we serve?
In the War, of course, and our Service will require us to Witness. We do that by getting into our Armor (↔ Click Link) and following our leader (↔ Click Link) and taking along our sharpened Sword (↔ Click Link). Sword? YES! The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
What? Don’t we know the word of God? Look what God himself says: Jeremiah 23:29 – “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?” And if we refuse to fight, refuse to believe God is with us? Jeremiah 17:10 – I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Please think back to our discussions about prophesying – speaking the Word of God. That is how we use this Sword of the Spirit: We speak it and – better still – we live it. Moses opined that he wished all of God’s children would be Prophets. What would that be like? Check this out: 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 – 24 But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. 25 After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, “God is really among you.” (↔ Music Link) Try to imagine how that would feel to the Accuser! OUCH is an understatement!
Scroll up a paragraph or two and reread Jeremiah’s prophecy. Here’s how Jesus followed up on that: John 12:48-49 – 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. We can’t just phone it in. We have to be out there on the field of battle (↔ Music Link), fully armed, and we sure better sharpen our Sword because that’s how we resist the Devil – with a good sharp poke in the keister I’d say. This is WAR! JEHOVAH SABAOTH – the Lord God of Hosts – is our commanding General. We must be prepared to follow his orders as given to us through his Son and the Son’s Brigade Commanders, our Church leaders: James 4:7 – 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That happens because The Word is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. That’s what the Accuser wants to destroy so that he can have us forever body, soul, and spirit. Let’s be sure to sharpen our Swords! Study, practice, learn, memorize, drill, train in the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God! Onward to Victory!
Uh, oh. Wait. We’re going to fight? Like really be at War? Where, when, … how?!? Could we, like, um … DIE? If it comes to that, yes. We can expect at least persecutions. (See Mark 10:28-30) It is wise to be prepared for that eventuality. That’s why, with the Psalmist, we pray Teach us how short our life is, so that we may become wise. Therefore, Soldiers of El Elyon – God Most High – stand up, suit up, and wise up. One of the greatest Soldiers in God’s army is (not was) The Apostle Paul; and what wise thing did he tell us?
Let me quote it for us again: Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. Roman legionaries in the Apostle Paul’s day carried a short two-edged sword called a gladius. That’s the Latin word for it.
The Greek word is machaira. This means a short, sharply pointed sword which was “two edged” – dístomos in Greek – having “two mouths.” The nickname for that blade was “drinker of blood.” It was a very effective weapon because not only could it slash and cut like a single-edge blade, but also it could stab and slice thereby inflicting greater harm. It was indeed a superlative weapon – AND SO IS THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, THE WORD OF GOD! Check it out adelphos! It’s in the armor God issued to you when you were sworn in at your Baptism.
The Rich Young Ruler was unwise to walk away. How many of us know a family member, a friend, or even a houseless stranger that has walked away from THE Heavenly YOLO-F that is in God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan? What would – should – we say if our “reasonable service of worship” included fighting off the Accuser so that person could take a victory lap with us at the End of Days? We hear it all the time: “Life is short.” True. But, it’s just long enough that we can use that life to make a difference, long enough to carry our own cross and help an adelphos with hers/his. After all, isn’t that a Christian’s Prime Directive – “Take up your Cross and Follow Me?” Are we going to obey orders or not? He’s gone to War. Have we?
When we want to follow him, we want to go as he went: We must always be prepared to accept whatever is on our Way of the Cross – pain and suffering, shame and sorrow, even death – and to be eager to endure it, to meet it with an earnest Joy, even to rejoice we are counted worthy for this. Remember, Jesus did this of his own will, so are you, am I, are we willingly shouldering our cross without complaint, histrionics, or thoughts of some saving intervention? There is only one path to Golgotha, only one Way to go; it is the way HE went. It is the Way of Love. Only Love can conquer sin and death – the same sin and death that came upon all of us when first we deemed equality with God something to be grasped at. How often do we do that in our daily lives as we curse our neighbors, threaten our enemies, or cherish our little (or large) vices in the depths of our hearts, suppressing our conscience so that we fail to see our intentional sin?
We are commanded to love our neighbors, bless our enemies, and disdain our sins. That is our cross to bear; to always be faithful to the mission of giving up our lives to God in order to save them because of his Love. “Life is our greatest treasure because it is given to us expressly for the purpose of losing it, and how well we do that makes all the difference.” It’s our life to lose, our cross to bear. It’s not a cross to wear. That’s why we must be Wise Warriors, fully armed in body, mind, and spirit to follow Jehovah Sabaoth, El Shaddai-Olam, Jehovah Gibbor Milchamah. Look, the other guys are on the losing side, but we still don’t cut them any slack. We are in it to win it! Some will believe it is an impossible battle, but as Gabriel and Jesus said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” We are Wise Warriors. The Lord God is our King who leads us in battle. Blesséd be the name of the Lord who makes our Victory possible because – by serving him – we are wise.!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
