Adrenaline surged through my body at the thought. It had never crossed my mind before and I didn’t know how to respond. I had never spent much time thinking about suicide, but in this moment one passing thought of it gave me a rush. Continue reading
Young People
The Battle Rages
Have you ever noticed how many “guy” movies include many intense action scenes? Most guys can relate to this, and many guys get a thrill out of it. The battle, the sweat, the uphill climb—is all very realistic to us. We identify because that is who we are. We are fighters. We are made to fight—to struggle [not with flesh and blood, but against principalities (spiritually)].
But when it comes to real life, very few guys actually like to fight. Who would? It is so easy to quit and give it all up: to say it is impossible. Who wants to keep fighting while struggling against lie after lie that the enemy throws at you? Giving up looks so easy when “blood” is spilt and God seems farther away than ever.
So what do we do? We give up. We surrender to the enemy and withdraw. We turn our attention to things which are not real. Trucks and movies, sports and girls, jobs and perfecting personal doctrines suddenly become really important to us. We disengage our forces and turn into wet-noodle knights. We forget reality and begin to think that trucks, sports, and girls are what life is really all about.
But we were made to fight and protect, yet we are doing neither; inside we are longing to fulfill our nature, but we have forsaken it. So we turn to other fulfillments. We begin to indulge into personal pleasures at unnatural proportions. Numerous guys become consumed by video games that give them a vague sense of feeling like a winner. Many men devote their lives to jobs, deceiving themselves into thinking they are providing and protecting. Countless others turn to sex, feeling like they have conquered. And many just give up trying, all together, and dive into drugs and alcohol to escape the pain.
The battle is real, and it does not go away. Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He never rests, he never stops for a breather, but is constantly fighting. Satan cannot defeat God, but every soul he drags down to hell is a victory for him.
I write this because it describes who I once was—and could easily become again. I write this because it seems like so many of us guys, or young people in general, just sit down and quit as soon as the internal warfare begins. Are we as young people truly content with being the wet noodles we often appear to be? Spiritual battles are not the quaint occurrences we often imagine them to be where Satan discourages us with a headache and we say “Go away, boo!” Spiritual battles are genuine battles! They are bloody and gory and messy. Satan attacks the very foundation of our faith and belief in God. He throws at us pitiful lies that he was wanted us to believe for years. And he does not stop. He does it again, and again. Like a battering ram at a castle gate, just waiting for us to crumble.
This is when we need to cry out to God. We need someone more powerful than the enemy to come in and defeat him. So we fall flat on our faces desperate for help. And the Almighty steps in, picks us up, and fights our battles with us.
This is reality. This is warfare. This is Christianity. Let’s keep fighting, because there is a Savior and there is an end—and it’s not too far away. Hallelujah!
C.D.
What Makes Me Angry Infuriates Me
I am angry. I am angry at the fact that thousands of people die every day and enter into an eternal state of complete separation from God. From God who is the source of all that is good. I am angry at the fact that slavery is still very much alive in our country and that my city is in the center of it all. I am angry that sin and immorality are rampant in the world. That people—even children!—all over the world are without clean water and humane living conditions.
That makes me angry, but what really infuriates me is that so many Christians are doing nothing about it. It infuriates me that the only thing many Christians think about is themselves. It infuriates me that many guys cannot reach beyond their own weaknesses. It infuriates me that many Christians are so self-conscious that they are not willing to abandon all to follow and obey Jesus. It infuriates me that Christian men tear families and churches apart because of their pitiful beliefs. It infuriates me that personal convictions have become a bigger issue than the Gospel. It infuriates me that godly people throw themselves into useless head-butting discussions on social networks knowing that their arguments will not change anybody. It infuriates me that Christians care more about their rights then they do about the souls of their fellow humans. It infuriates me that people are content with their shallow lives. It infuriates me that many people think rightly, but actually do very little.
It infuriates me that I see much of this attitude in myself.
So many Christians are chasing the wind. So many men think their only job on earth is to provide for their families and be comfortable, and so many young people are obsessed with their next date or party: all they think about is themselves. I wish I could ask them if they are really content with the shallowness of their lives? Don’t they want to make a difference in the world? To utterly spend their lives for Christ? Or is their selfish flesh and peer pressure so great that it keeps them from having any meaningful life at all?
It is easy to look at shallow people and judge them, but what about those who are religiously shallow? Do young people simply walk away from God? Or could it be that personal convictions and doctrines become too important and regulated that they strangle any life out of church? Are the particular beliefs people hold dear so important that they are willing to sacrifice the souls of young people, and the souls of those who have never even heard the Gospel?
I hope not.
The only thing that matters in life is that we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Any conviction, any social work, any significant choice should be born out of that relationship. Jesus is the holy, perfect, just, loving King of the Universe. We are sinners completely lead astray and deserving of Hell. If we want a relationship with the perfect King, we, the very imperfect humans, must play by His rules. Let’s read the Bible and obey it! Let’s not try to reason it all out, legislate it, add to or subtract from it, just obey it. Let’s remember that Jesus is holy and perfect, but vehemently loves you and continually forgives you when you repent. Let’s remember that our purpose as Christians is to proclaim the Gospel. To do anything “Biblically” yet forsake the Gospel is worthless, but to proclaim the Gospel and forsake the Bible is like trying to run a business without money.
Let’s focus on Jesus. Just love and obey Him.
C.D.
This Is What I Call–Fail
Is this really what we have come to? As I scroll down Facebook lane, the only meaning I see, now, is that it is the weekend…and weekend means party. The only thing I see during the week is longing for the weekend. Then we party, and then on Monday the course starts all over again. Are we this shallow? Are people really satisfied with this, this fakeness?
Am I really that weird to long for something deeper?
ALL WE HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IS THE LATEST TOP, BOX OFFICE MOVIE!
I think I finally get it…I finally begin to see the devil’s trick.
Are we really going to accept defeat? Are we going to let Satan laugh and claim victory over our lame lives? WHY IS THERE NO MORE PASSION?
It breaks my heart that this is what we call, great. Success.
You wanna know what I call great? I call people like Bruce Olson (Aka, Bruchko), who went to South America to be a missionary when he was NINETEEN! I call the five heroes of 1956–who were speared to death for their passion–great.
I call people being saved by Jesus, success!
The devil would love to see us, especially young people, just partying our way through life. Satan’s whole scheme is to suck the very life out of us. And you can see it. He wants us to spend time on Facebook, rather than reading the Bible; he’d rather have us watch the latest, violence filled, immorality endorsing, time-wasting movie, over spending time with people.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t affect us!
We are the product, I am the product.
If our lives are this shallow, we must be doing SOMETHING wrong.
So what do you say, shall we accept this defeat? Shall I sleep in until lunchtime tomorrow? Shall I eat pop-corn and drink soda, and just say “Such is life”?! Please tell me this is not the way it must be. Please tell me there is something deeper. If all my security, my life, my all, depends upon the next party, then there is truly no meaning in life.
It DOESN’T have to be this way!
But it starts with us, with me, with YOU! Pull yourself out of the muck, and call yourself a man! Life doesn’t need to consist of such shallow wandering.
When I get through life, what will I look back on? Will I look back on a life of trying to desperately grasp what I could have easily held on to while growing up? Satan would love to see us go through life and accomplish nothing.
So, is the weekend all I have to look forward to? I think not.
C.D.
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” The cross is where true purpose lies.
Satan would love to see us go through life and accomplish nothing.