So you think you've got the point?

A thought on the parables. I once read a few chapters of a book that asked some difficult questions of me theologically, knowing it would be unpalatable. I don't want to tell you the authors name or (for those of you who share a theological position with me) it may give you the same prejudice towards what I am about to share. There is a reason, however, that I only read a few chapters. My own prejudices were confirmed, it was indeed unpalatable and I saw no sense in continuing with it. But it gave me one little gem that has stuck with me ever since. He retold the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. In the original, for those of you not familiar, Jesus shows a picture of two men at their prayers, in the temple. The first man was a pharisee (religious teachers of the day famed for their zealous adherence to keeping every one of the laws of Moses, some 600 or so) and the second a tax collector (a social outcast of the times reviled by the Jews at large, akin to collaborators in WW2). I'll let Jesus tell you the rest in his own words.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” ~Luke 18: 9-14

The shock of this parable would have had real resonance, especially when you see who he is telling it too. "Some who were confident in their own righteousness".

In the retelling, the author switches the Pharisee for an evangelical pastor (My hackles were up immediately) and the the tax collector for a liberal theologian. The Evangelical says something like "God I thank you that I am not like that man over there- that man who doesn't even believe your word, the bible, is inerrant, who  has no real faith in you. I thank you that I believe the whole of the bible and never swerve from it"
And the liberal theologian says something like "God, I don't even know if there is a God in any literal sense and I am not sure but I want to know you and serve you"

I haven't done the retelling good service here but you see the point. The parable is about attitude and humility. What really hit me was that the parable had caught me off guard, as it would have the Pharisees he was telling it to, that I had automatically ruled myself out of being in the firing line. If we're honest (and there are good reasons we believe what we believe) we Evangelicals are prone to more than a little complacency at times. That's what hit me in the retelling.

And then I look at the other parables and I see the pattern emerging. The sulky older brother who resents the fathers easy forgiveness of the wayward younger son was the true point of the parable of the prodigal son. The foolish builders are the ones who hear what Jesus says but do not put it into practise (ouch). The farmer, who is constantly building bigger barns to store his wealth in, unaware of his impending death and the ensuing inability to enjoy all that he is working for, could be any of us seeking to build our life in this world with no attention to either the quality of this life nor its consequence on the next. In short, if you've ruled yourself out of being the target, you've probably missed the point. Adrian Plass says, in Bacon sandwiches and salvation, a dictionary of christian terms, that the definition of a parable is "a story that entertains you at the front door while the truth slips in through a side window and sandbags you from behind" This is true, for those who get it. The truth hits you from an unexpected quarter. That is surely why Jesus told parables. Truth is there for those who seek it. Those who assume they have it already do not look and go away scratching their heads. Ask and you will receive. Don't ask and you are left with what you already have.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

We will remember them

A couple of years ago my grandfather passed away. He was the most peaceable, sweetest man I have ever known. I remember, at some young age, finally making a connection between the old WW2 films I grew up watching and the old man sitting in his armchair, pipe in hand.
"Grandad were you in the war?", I asked with enthusiasm. "Oh yes," he said, tugged gently on his pipe and smiled sadly. There were few seconds of silence as he seemed to go to another place, a place filled with loss and adventure. I went to another place too, a place of square jawed movie heroes and comic idols dispatching evil Nazis with lines like "take that, fritz!". The sense of righteous justice and and judgement. And vengeance.

Our conversation resumed around what he did in the war. Grandad was happy to chat about flying (he was a navigator) and we talked for a moment or two and then I realised that this was real. That he was really there, in the land of comics and films. Rather too excitedly I blurted out,

"Oh grandad did you ever kill anybody?!"

My grandfathers sweet face clouded over instantly. The sunshine gone, the look was thunder. He said nothing. If my young eyes had been attuned I am sure now that I would have noticed the eyes that I never saw crying, not even when his wife passed away, fill a little. The conversation was over.

I didnt ask him about the war again until he was lying in the bed that he would die in, a few weeks after our last conversation on this subject. That was the impact of his reaction to my childish bloodlust. 30 yrs of silence. I daren't ever produce that reaction in him again.

My grandfather did not directly kill anyone, to my knowledge. The "walrus" sea plane he flew in was primarily there in an anti submarine capacity. I suspect that his sightings of periscopes led directly to the deaths of every man in some of those U boats. There were German children and grandchildren who would never be having conversations with their fathers and Grandfathers directly because of what he did. My grandad, a life long Methodist, and a deeply caring man, a man who in his 70's was out delivering meals on wheels to the "elderly", could never, ever make light of that. His own brother was killed in an incident which would these days be termed "blue on blue" as the American forces bombed, what turned out to be, a Japanese POW ship.

War it seems is sometimes necessary but it is an odious task that peaceable men like my grandad would never take relish in.

I am reminded today that my freedom comes with a price. That men, ordinary men like my grandad fought, bled and died for us. That every day we enjoy in freedom is a tribute to them, whether we acknowledge it or not. This is their reward, like a parent who has done their job by doing themselves out of a job. My grandad was ever grateful to stay in the background, with out any credit. A humble, decent man who did his duty without flinching, without asking for accolade. I often forget his sizable contribution to my life, both in a national and personal sense. I am happy and carefree and he would see that as a reward in itself.

I am loathe to turn this into anything spiritual, I have no agenda other than honouring the fallen today but I cant help but draw the Christ comparisons of a man of peace, who laid down his life for me so I may live in the benefit of his sacrifice with comparatively little acknowledgement. I honor him too . And my grandad, a brother in my faith, I feel would believe it is fitting to do so. To all those who sacrificed innocence and freedom and, for some their very lives, today "we will remember them".

A sword and sandals epic

"And with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace"~ Ephesians 6:15

Sandals were always tricky. The big fat crayola crayons in my 6 yr old hand, or the remaining broken stumps of the smaller ones that I could hardly grip, as I tried to trace the lines of the straps that wound half way up the calves of the Soldiers we'd been given to colour in. And then there was the labels. Sword of the spirit (sometimes labelled "the Word"), shield of faith, breastplate of righteousness etc. But what did they put on the shoes? Where could they write anything? And, of course, what did they write. Some opted for "peace" some for "readiness". I don't remember ever reading the full label "the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace".

When we think of spiritual warfare, I think that our minds almost crave super natural knowledge of the workings of demonic hierarchies and angelic hosts; guardian angels, arch angels, avenging angels etc. Spiritual warfare seems to me to draw the attention of the type of Christians who, if they were not card carrying Christians, would be seen reading their horoscope and attending psychic readings. I am mindful of Paul's warnings about fascinations with angels. What do we need to know? They do Gods bidding. Simple.
 So it sometimes comes as a bit of a disappointment to us that most of the hints we get about spiritual warfare are actually not overly focused on the enemy and more concerned with our character. That is as it should be, dull as it may initially seem. We as an army are primarily to be familiar with our equipment, with our tactics, with our chain of command and identifying and fulfilling our own role. An army is more than soldiers. It is mechanics and cooks and radio operators and officers and ground staff etc, etc. These roles are all part of the warfare. These are all, in a sense, warriors, wherever they fulfil their duties. Where would the men in the line of fire be without communications operatives, or when their vehicle broke down on the battle field, where would they be without direction from the officers, where would they be without food? You get my drift.

And so we come to this rather baffling phrase, which is hard to pin down and seems to address the least glamorous part of the armour (perhaps along with the belt). Are our feet to be shod with peace, or with readiness (that comes from the gospel of peace). I have thought long and hard about the significance of this, about how readiness and peace are linked via the feet. To be honest it left me scratching my head. But as I prayed and chewed it over I believe God gave me a couple of insights.

Firstly, the feet are linked to the concept of messengers. Isaiah 52:7 says "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those that bring good news". what is the link here? It's quite obvious. The gospel of peace, as it is here referred to, is other wise known as "the good news". I would argue that the "word of God", as Paul describes the sword of the spirit to be, is also the gospel. Paul refers to the gospel as the body of the whole teachings of the christian message. They are inseparable, the teaching and the term. When he speaks of church leaders being appointed, when he speaks of use of the spiritual gifts, when he speaks of being empowered before leaders of this world, to speak with great boldness, it is ALL the gospel. And Gods word, in its charismatic sense, in its eternal sense, in the now word of the spirit, be it rhema or logos, is the gospel, is good news. We warriors are message bearers, this is our sword against the enemy, this is the fight we are taking to Satan and his minions, the news of his defeat; that the head has been cut off and, though the body of the snake lies thrashing around in its death throws, its dominion of terror is at an end.

So our readiness is to be that which comes from the gospel of peace. I played with the idea, no I held the view, that the readiness was to come out of a sense of peace, that because we have made peace with God, we are somehow ready for anything. There may be a seed of truth in this. Peace means contentment and we are now content in him, we have need of nothing outside of God. If we have need of nothing it follows that we have nothing to lose and therefore we are in readiness for whatever comes our way. Nice theory. I am pretty sure now that the readiness comes from our commission as messengers, our readiness to bring good news. If the messenger was to be given urgent military papers, vital to the battle on the front line, and was still found reading his bible in his tent 2 days later, I think that the army may conclude that he was neither ready nor a suitable messenger.

What an odd image Paul chooses! In talking about spiritual warfare he employs an image of a soldier with sword, shield, helmet and armour and he throws in an allusion to a warrior entrusted, in the battle to carry a message of peace. I have a sense that if this message reaches its CO's at the front and they are verified and acted on, the message that these papers contain may just end the war, news of the enemies surrender, of his defeat. The rest of our warfare is just a mop up operation.

I have a confession. I hate being a "witness". Its not that I don't like talking about Jesus, its more that I don't want to engage in fruitless talk about Jesus. My attempts at witnessing, over the years, have been, at times, counter productive. I like to pick my battles these days, choose when to unleash it, at the time (and on the person) that I perceive it will be most effective. At work a few years ago I experimented with being a bit bolder and even ended up praying for colleagues to be healed. I saw a couple of amazing results and I had a bit of rapport with some of these people. There were times I held back when I should have spoken but there were a good few times where I spoke when I wouldn't have had before. It was getting to be quite good and then, a year ago, they moved me. To my shame I was reluctant to start all over again.
The very first of the new colleagues I met, on the very first occasion I met him said to the person with me, who was known to him, about how some customer had given him a bible as a way of saying thanks for his service, and he was joking about how it (the bible) was going straight in the bin and he would never believe any of that rubbish. I kind of knew, right away, that he was someone I was supposed to get close to and share the good news with. I could have done it then and there, on that very first occasion, but I didn't. I would be strategic, I thought. Wait for the right moment.

I have to tell you that over the last 12 months many moments came and went and I passed on them all, even the ones where I was bordering on denying Jesus by not taking them. In short I was not ready, not prepared to go. Like a much needed cleaning chore, my inactivity had allowed an unpleasant task to become almost unthinkable but so much more necessary.
And then this week, at my house group, we were studying 2 Tim 1 where Paul says That 'God did not give us a spirit of timidity but one of love, power and self discipline'. Familiar verses for us all but I had always neglected to see the conclusion of this argument was (v8) "So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord". This is the reason that he has given us a spirit of power and love and self discipline, so that we would not be ashamed. I knew after house group that night, that I would have to change. I am not ashamed of Jesus. In truth, I never have been. I am ashamed of me.

The very next day, the man in question gave me another of those opportunities and this time I took it. I was right, it has made me a little more uncomfortable but a damn sight less uncomfortable than keeping my mouth shut had been doing.

Previously I had not been ready. I was not ready for ridicule, I was not ready to make myself vulnerable, I was not ready to give an answer for the hope that is in me, I was not ready to live under the inevitable scrutiny that would follow such a revelation. Now I am ready, more ready than I have been for ages. Ready to inflict some damage, ready to speak about Jesus, ready to face the shame of how I do not live up to the message, ready for the scandal of grace, ready to share the good news that God comes to us (we don't come to him), and there is only one saviour, the man who won peace when he lost his life. The man who is God, Jesus.

Let the mop up operation continue. Let the devils unguarded concentration camps be liberated. Count me in.

The breastplate

Stand firm then... with the breastplate of righteousness in place~ Eph 6:14

I confess, that at the point I was to tackle this blog I hit a brick wall. Many distractions have come to divert me from ever taking up some tools and knocking it down but primarily I got stuck and didn't fancy having to put any work into it. I am no theologian, I was a poor student of the bible when I went to college and I am certainly no experienced warrior. In truth when I write these things I am often mainly engaging my imagination. Here's the truth; I don't expect to ever be a warrior in the sense that I would like to be, but all of us pilgrims who have set our foot on this path, put our hand to the plough and resolved to not look back are in a battle, all be it the battle against the weariness of worn out limbs or the resistance of the soil as the plough drags. I feel that acutely right now. what do I have to offer?

When a soldier is to face a battle its common practise for them to be given kit. That kit will include both weaponry and armour. Recently in Britain there has been a lot said about the provision of  Snatch Land Rovers to the military. They were essentially equipment left over from the days of the troubles in Northern Ireland but due to many factors (some of which, I gather, were financial) they ended up being used in Afghanistan, a terrain and theatre of war that they were not entirely suited for. Many of these vehicles have been hit by IED's and because their armour was not designed for this kind of impact, many of its passengers have been needlessly (it is argued) maimed and killed. The argument over the provision of these vehicles has recently taken a turn in the courts. Previously the Army argued that as the soldiers knew the risks when entering the military, they did not have a duty of care to them. The courts have recently ruled that this is not so. The families of those killed and injured, I believe, will now be able to pursue the Army for damages.

When we join the army of God the whole armour comes as standard. Truth, righteousness, faith, salvation, the readiness of peace and the word of God are all given to us. This righteousness (the breastplate) comes as a gift from God. I cant think of a worse scenario than for me to be fighting the devil with a breastplate I have made. Our righteous deeds are like filthy (menstrual) rags in terms of our salvation. Trust me, when I am fighting the devil I need a bit of kit that is spiritually built and impermeable, impregnable and indestructible. Any kind of righteousness that I could concoct I feel would be about as much use as a Little tykes car in an IED blast, let alone a Land Rover.

Christ did not argue, like the Army, that as we knew what we were letting ourselves in for (I'm not sure we did)  he had no duty of care. We were not like cattle to the slaughter, not mere cannon fodder.  Though he owes us nothing (but gives it to us freely) his duty of care to us as individuals, as people is second to none. In an attack on our integrity, our worthiness, our standing before God, only one thing would do the job...his own righteousness. We can add nothing to it and take nothing away from it. Satan can throw all he likes at us and nothing will ever breakthrough the righteousness purchased by the blood of Gods only son. When Satan says to me "You are a liar!" or "You are a backstabber!" or "You are lustful!" I can say "yes I am!" If I tried to stand against these accusations on my own merit I could not stand up. But I can point to the cross and I can say to him, "by the blood of the Lamb my debt is paid in full, by the blood of the Lamb....NOT GUILTY". And he is silenced.
The breast plate covers all the main vital organs and so it is with us spiritually; Jesus' righteousness covers all our vulnerability, protects all our weakness.

Righteousness is 1st imputed. That means it is counted to us by God, because of Jesus. Secondly it is imparted. That means it comes from God. Not just as state before him. It comes into our lives by the Spirit of God, transforming our character and practises. We should grow into the righteousness obtained for us, from glory to glory. I say this to focus our attention on the fact that although the righteousness given to us is our primary defence, living a righteous life does afford some protection too. We are told else where to not give the devil a foothold. Our unrighteousness does allow him to cause havoc. It is mainly because we are so ready to fall back on our own "goodness" as a security, that it really rocks us sometimes to be faced with our own fallibility. It shouldn't but it does.

Lastly, Righteousness, the breastplate, should be in its place. It covering us, and we shielded behind it. It must be worn. It will protect you only if you do not leave it back at the camp. It is no good having the most expensive, highest tech, armour plated vehicle in the world if you are on foot in a mine field, you must use it every day.

So what do I have to offer. In a sense; nothing. It was never my own merit that sent me out on this journey, it was Christ, my captain, calling me and clothing me with his goodness. It was grace that led me safe thus far and 'tis grace that leads me home.

nothing can separate us

What can separate us from the love of God?

Can unbelief?
Can difficulties at work?
Can injustice?
Can low self esteem?
Can habitual sin and addiction?
Can the betrayal of friends?
Can the death of loved ones?
Can the end of marriage?

Can issues with mental health?
Can disease?
Can loss of focus?
Can my sexual orientation?
Can serious errors of Judgement?
Can sins of the past?
Can guilt of the past?
Can sins of the future?
Can fear of the future?

Can imprisonment?
Can wrong theology?
Can spiritual oppression?
Can my politics?
Can recession or poverty?
Can lack of ability?
Can war?
Can hunger?
Can a lack of praise and recognition from your peers?
Can a lack of ambition?
Can an excess of ambition?
Can the abandonment of parents?

No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the the future, nor ANY powers, Neither Hight nor depth, nor ANYTHING ELSE in ALL creation,

Can separate us,
Can separate me,
Can separate.....you,
From the love of God,
That is in Christ Jesus,
OUR Lord.

The Belt Of Truth

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist~ Ephesians 6:14


I have a problem with my belt. It may not be the place to share this but the analogy fits, unlike my belt. Being a man of a certain age, with a taste for sugary and fatty foods and an aversion to enforced exercise, the optimum of my girth just about exceeds the measurement of the largest notch on my belt. The solution I have found is to fasten my belt slightly lower than I would have done in my early twenties (in truth I did not use a belt in my early twenties). The nature of my paunch is such that it tapers in and so my belt slowly works its way down from the wider point until it finally has nothing much to grip onto. At this point its descent becomes fairly rapid. If I have my hands full at the time this can present somewhat of a  problem, and has done! Having ones trousers around ones ankles as one walks along can somewhat restrict ones movement. Short of wearing maternity trousers there is little I can do about it as without a belt I would be incapacitated.

The belt in Paul's picture of a (Roman?) soldier wearing armour, visually, is probably the least striking component. The glint of the armour, the menace of the sword,  the size of a shield would more than likely dominate our initial impressions of said soldier.  But the belt is integral. Without it there would not be a whole lot of fighting going on. I don't have much historical knowledge but I heard a sermon on the armour of God a long time ago where the speaker said that the belt holds everything in place. My belt only holds (or rather, doesn't hold) my trousers up but the Soldier of this era relied on his belt for his life. If the belt came away it could be all over.

The belt is the smallest part of the armour and it is the last thing to go on. Paul gives it the greatest importance by addressing it first!

Why is that? Well I can only conclude that truth, like the belt, holds everything together. It is the very basis on which we are fighting in the first place. The Devil, our adversary, as Jesus himself asserts, is a liar. He has been lying from the beginning and is himself the father of lies. Genesis 3 records the first lie in human history. The purpose of the lie was to undermine God and his authority and to wage war on his most beloved creation, you and me. How can we wage war on the liar if we are subject to lies and lying? Believing a lie preceded all the sin that has plagued Adams race since, with one exception. Just as Adam fell in the garden Jesus was tempted in the same way when Satan spoke to him in the wilderness. Jesus overcame him with an unswerving testimony to Gods truth.

It is interesting too that Paul does not limit truth only to the bible. The bible is true but the truth is greater than the bible. We live in an age where truth is seen, to the greatest degree, as subjective and relative. I can tell you with absolute certainty that curry is the greatest form of cuisine known to man. That is true. Millions of people, I suspect, will attest to it. There was a time when the greatest food known to man was lasagna. But then I discovered curry and everything changed. It is conceivable that there will be a time when another food supercedes  it (though I seriously have my doubts). Now this is MY truth. But it may not be true for you. Some truths ARE relative and subjective. However there is truth that is absolute.

The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth, everyone on the side of truth listens to me~ John 18:37 (words of Jesus before Pilate)

 Pontius Pilate was a man of great responsibility. In the face of a huge moral dilemma, to wriggle out of an issue of conscience, he decides to apply the rule of relative truth to a situation that requires the rule of absolute truth. In the face of Jesus' staggering statement he throws up a question that is at the heart of most who have fallen to evil. "what is truth?" With disastrous personal and national consequence.

I want to argue that the truth that we must stand in goes a lot deeper than an allegiance to certain doctrines or world views. It is far more than crossing every t and dotting every i. Truth is a way of life.

1. We must live in truth.

This means that we have as much responsibility to be honest and "walk in the light" in all our dealings as we have to believe the "right things". Our integrity is a great weapon against the accuser. As a young teen I wove a web of fabrication to cover my sins. If I had not sinned I would not have needed to lie to cover it. It got so confusing that I often found that I could not remember who I said what to about certain events. To put it succinctly, it soon snowballed. Later, when coming to Christ, I realised that if I refrained from the sin in the first place (showing integrity to the truth I believe in) that the lies were no longer necessary. As a result Satan has less to pin on me.

2. We must be true to ourselves.

A statement that has become a cliche, and a cliche that many evangelicals have shied away from as it seems to smack of relativism. I would argue that "towing the line"can be as dishonest as believing an untruth. The "truth" can mask  many lies. If we are to live in the truth then we must be as honest about our doubts and faults as we are adamant about asserting the truth of the bible. If we arrive at a truth having been on the journey and wrestled with the issues then that truth is more powerful to us, more able to sustain us.

3. We must align ourselves with the truth.

This seems to contradict my previous statement but I am sure that when we come across a plain truth in the bible, no matter how uncomfortable, once we are convinced and have wrestled with it we must accept that Gods truth is greater than ours. God does not lie and he isn't a man that he should lie. As stated previously, everyone on the side of truth listens to Jesus.


4. Jesus is the truth. (John 14:6)




5. There is a greater truth.


And thank God for this. When we have fallen out of the truth, there is another weapon that is still the truth, the deepest truth of all. We are told in Revelations that we overcome our enemy by the word of our testimony. This is our affirmation of the truth, our honesty and integrity, our allegiance and commitment to walk in the truth, to proclaim the truth. But we are human and we are weak. When we fall, the enemy, the accuser, will exploit it to the maximum. This is when we need the greater truth. We do not only overcome the enemy with the word of our testimony but also by the blood of the lamb. Jesus has paid the full price for our sins. Our Father was satisfied to look at him and pardon us. Satan has nothing to say in the face of this, all his accusations are silenced by Jesus' blood.


Who will bring any charge against those who God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ~ Rom 8:33

This is the truth in which all things hold together. The armour will not fall apart because it is held by this belt of truth. We hold to the truth but, in reality, the truth holds us.

A footnote, if you will, is that Paul seems to state the obvious. Yes, the belt is the truth that holds it all together, that underpins all our warfare but Paul (seemingly unnecessarily) says it must be buckled around your waist. Its fine having a belt, looking at it and saying "yes, that IS a belt, and it seems like a great belt, and will do a decent job!"  but if we do not actually have it "buckled around our waist" it will not do much good. It seems to me that if do not actively wear it and fasten it...it will be about as practically effective to us as my rather inadequate belt is at holding up my trousers.

The weapons of our warfare

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world~ 1 Cor 10:3-4

It seems to me (and I include myself in this) that Spiritual warfare seems only to appear in the life of the church (and of the Christian) at certain seasons and for a limited time. I can only comment with authenticity on this, in relation to my own experience of church here in the UK. What we seem to seek most of the time is peace; peace in our lives, equilibrium and happiness in the lives of our children and material comfort to buffer us against those unexpected events. Who wants to be at war? Thrill seekers and psychopaths, that's who! (this description could possibly apply to those who live for Spiritual warfare too). Many of us have come to this Christian life with the very notion of attaining peace at the heart of our faith. In our search for contentment we have come to find deep meaning and fulfilment in relation to the Father of creation through the love expressed to us in his Son, Jesus Christ. And of course, we discover that this God, who so loved us, is also WITH us; he speaks to us, encourages us, corrects and challenges us.

And so we settle down for this perfect life that will be so much more content now that it has this meaning and new depth, happy to discover new joys of faith and love as we journey on through life with open eyes.

And if we think for ONE moment that this is going to be a happy ever after story, and we are going to sail off into the horizon, all experienced Christians know that (if we get that far without a major storm) on that horizon is a waterfall!

 I am not saying that the Christian life is not full of many, many happiness's and that those happiness's are not deeper than anything we had previously thought possible. I am saying that it is a journey through this world....and Jesus, in and amongst all the lovely promises he gave us, gave us this promise "In this world you shall have troubles".  (John 16:33) Of course all human beings have troubles and most of our troubles are common to all, a part of living in an imperfect fallen world. But also we are selected out for specific troubles too. The day we spring to life spiritually we become a threat to the enemy of our souls. We are at war whether we like it or not, we changed sides....like Liverpool fans in the stands at Anfield suddenly taking off their tops and switching to Manchester Utd shirts. We are in danger. We can not simply stand there thinking everything can carry on as normal.

There's a good picture of this in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, whenever Frodo puts on the ring he can see an alternative world all around him and his enemies can see him. I feel this is a little of what it is like when we awaken spiritually. We have alerted their attention.

What use is a civilian in wartime? They are liabilities, commodities and hostages. As soon as we become alive in Christ we need to get ourselves to boot camp. To "train our hands to war", to get to grips with our weaponry, to learn all the intelligence we can on our enemy and their tactics, to toughen up and lose some flab, (I speak metaphorically) in short to become soldiers.

I wanted to depart from this idea that spiritual warfare is only for the elite, charismatic, chosen few. Strong, loud people who have special insights and gifts which you and I can never hope to attain to. These people exist. Their gifts exist. But the thing is sometimes their presence makes us feel like we have no part in this warfare, nothing to offer. Rubbish! We are all soldiers. We are not all special forces, we are not all pilots or gunners, but we are ALL in this battle.

I also wanted to demystify the idea that "the enemy" is  demons hiding behind lamp posts or in biscuit tins. Its quite simple really. We are here to bring the Kingdom of God. The enemy is anything that opposes Gods rule, be that institutions, laws, people, injustices, lies, hollow and deceptive philosophies. We are duty bound to come against these things were ever we can.

The battle is a spiritual one. Not a physical one. Sometimes it has physical manifestations but essentially it is fought and won in spiritual realms and out worked in the physical world. This is why it is perfectly possible to be content and at peace whilst in the middle of this holy war. To be at peace is actually an act of spiritual warfare! Jesus promised us troubles, sure, but he also promised in the same breath that he had overcome the world. How peaceful can we be, who know him who knows the beginning from the end and has promised to be with us until the end of the age.

In the next few blogs I am going to be looking at these weapons, what they are and how do we use them.