Prepare for War!

“Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.”– Joel 3:9

If you are a Marine this passage should raise the hairs on the back of your neck! You ought to be immediately nostalgic to the 12 weeks that you spent at Boot Camp. You ought to remember the times that your unit went ‘on alert’ while you were serving in ‘the fleet’. If you had the opportunity to deploy overseas you remember what it was like to know that you were on watch. That at any moment you could be in the midst of a firefight. You knew that if our country needed the military, you would be the first one on the scene. “The World’s 911 force, The US Marines”

We had a joke about the speed that we could be deployed, “We are always the first to go and last to know.” That is the life of a Marine. The truth is there hasn’t been very many years in the history of the country that there hasn’t been some small uprising or major campaign that has put young Marines into the middle of explosive and dangerous situations. I served along side of men with purple hearts and bronze stars from the 1st Persian Gulf War and Somalia. During my 4 year enlistment (1993-1997; a time of ‘peace’), there were armed conflicts in Bosnia, Somalia and Haiti. A barracks in Saudi Arabia was bombed (just one day after we pulled out of port there). The United States launched tens of tomahawk missles into Iraq one week after we had been training in the desert just 3 miles from the Iraq border in Kuwait. We did not live with only the threat of war but the reality of combat.

There are two things that a person can do when they know that they are so close to fighting in battle: turn in fear or stand and fight. Only one of these responses is acceptable and beneficial. What does it take to overcome fear? Is it genetic? I believe that it is a matter of training. The better trained you are the better prepared you are for the fight. An old Marine saying goes, “The more you sweat in training; the less you bleed in war.” I believe this is true spiritually as well. We will never escape suffering in war, nor will we walk through life without hardship as a result of our sins or the sins of others. Training will never make us perfect but spiritually it will put us in step with God’s love. At those times of hardship only God’s love and our knowledge of his love provide us with hope.

It is likely that you have seen video of Marines running and chanting cadence. One of the chants that we would sing while running went, “One…. Two…. Three…. Four……Everyday I pray for war…” Of course I don’t think spiritually, that God is calling us to pray for war, certainly not in the context that we meant in the Marines. However, this chant served to keep the reason for our physical training fresh in our minds. Like the comfortable American Christian, we were easily distracted from preparing for war. Our home base was on a beach in California. We surfed after hours. There were no IEDs, no hostility, no immediate need for us to prepare for a war. In order to remain alert we had to think like those planning, preparing and as we put it ‘praying for war’! Consider Paul’s words, “I beat my body and make it my slave… (1 Corn 9:27)”. God is calling us to put in the time to train, beating our sinful nature into submission so that we are ready to fight.

If the analogy of the Marines doesn’t sit well with you, I don’t blame you it is pretty gruesome. But realize that we are in a spiritual battle. Everyday we fight off temptation and sin. Everyday we wrestle with the hearts of lost souls around us. We take on demons and the forces of evil (Eph 6:12). There is a battle to fight and we should prepare for war.

Preparing for war is all about training. Spiritual training is not US Marine Corps training. We are not planning to kill men but the forces of evil and the demons of Satan. 2 Corinthians tells us, “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. 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 Corn 10:3-5)

Every action, every conversation and in fact every thought is to be made obedient to Christ. Our discipline and training should focus on self-control of action and thought. We must be able to train our hearts to love in spite of what others say. Whether at the office or at school the calling of 2 Corinthians is the same. We must train ourselves to respond in humility when we are in the wrong. Train to admit when we have lost control and repent of every wrong with the godly sorrow that God commands (2 Corn 7:9-11).

How do I spiritually train? Our relationship with God is the key to training for spiritual war. This may seem trivial but consider that we forget all the time. We think that there is no way that reading our Bible or praying could give us the kind of self-control that starting a workout program could provide. We may not believe that kindness to those less fortunate pays a better dividend than the wisest financial investment. The building of relationships in God is a house that will last longer than our appliance warrantee, new roof shingles, exterior paint and plasma television combined. There are certainly great things to learn and hard physical work to do but Paul argues in his first letter to Timothy, “For physical training is of some value but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come (1Timothy 4:8).”

How does a person train in godliness? I can’t go to Home Depot for a class on applying godliness to my guest bathroom in 4 easy steps. I can’t go to the gym and benchpress bibles instead of iron to grow closer to God. How can I make a training regimen for godliness?
Peter recommends the following:
“…make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7).

Let’s examine each quality in more detail and determine a means for training in it.

Goodness – This is that quality of a person’s character that is completely based on their actions. Goodness is really not worth anything until there is someone or something that is benefiting from your goodness. Although the Bible is not explicit on this definition, I submit to you that goodness encompasses a multitude of positive and Godly acts: Compassion, fairness, mercy, empathy, humility, politeness, cordiality, nobility, generosity and many others. This is the list of traits that every parent hopes to instill in their children. Parables like the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) and the Sheep and Goats (Matt 25:31-46) demonstrate the qualities a ‘good’ person in the eyes of God. Take a moment to read over those parables and consider the goodness that is displayed in them. Now ask yourself how can you train in goodness?

Certainly there are those in your community that are less fortunate than you. An entire host of other needs exist in this world as well and it would be good to help any that we are capable of helping with any need that they have. Volunteer at the food bank or coach a little league team. However consider all of the needs that exist.

Consider that even reading this means that you are in touch with your faith and working on your relationship with God; you are rich spiritually. There are those in spiritual need all around you all day long. You are likely surrounded by many people who are not working to strengthen their bond with God or have given up on God altogether. There is no greater need than that of a full and right relationship with God. There is no greater prize than heaven and no better life to be lived than an eternity spent in the presence of God. A great many people with the best of intentions have lost the focus of the spiritual needs in place of meeting the temporary physical and emotional needs around us.

Training in goodness is conditioning yourself to have a heartfelt reaction to every single person you come across. Consider the life of Jesus, he knew that every person that he came across was, “harassed and helpless” (Matt 9:35). No matter what they said or did he knew that they needed him and the relationship that he would allow them to have with God. The church is the living body of Jesus and therefore we too must approach the world around us as a place in need. We may stumble across a homeless person on the street and generously offer them money or a meal, however it would not be goodness in the eyes of God until we have felt in our heart the need for this person to have a right relationship with God.

Now maybe you are tempted to argue with me that who am I to judge who has a “right relationship with God.” How about if we, like Jesus begin with the assumption that no one has a completely right relationship with God? Then we aren’t judging we are simply looking at everyone as equal, equally deprived, equally in need. From Bill Gates to the penniless street waif everyone needs acts of goodness to build them up emotionally, physically and most importantly spiritually.

Training in goodness is simply a matter of perspective. You must try your acts of goodness. It is not mutually exclusive to meet the physical and spiritual needs. Stay and talk for 5 min with the person begging for money or food outside of the grocery store, get to know them and have an emotional bond. Listen wholeheartedly to a co-worker or roommate without thinking about the ‘waste of time’ that their story is to you, and resist the temptation to divide your attention. Write cards with words from your heart, share your emotions with those close to you… The list is endless and the opportunities for goodness are boundless. These acts of goodness must be followed by moments of prayer and hope that the act of meeting physical and emotional needs will blossom into meeting the spiritual needs. Your training in goodness is complete when you are performing acts of goodness wherever you go without thinking twice about it.

Knowledge – Goodness is supported by knowledge. Just as a person with knowledge of medicine or psychology is better equipped to provide physical or emotional support, a person with knowledge of God is better equipped to meet the spiritual needs (Matt9:12).
Training in knowledge is very straightforward for us. We spend most of our formative years training in knowledge (school). Our school years are full of several types of learning that are just as critical to our training in knowledge of God. In school we learn from books, examples and interactions. With God our knowledge comes from the reading the Bible, sermons and fellowship.
Knowledge of the Bible is fundamental in the Christian walk. No other resource supersedes it and no other source is more definitive. Training in biblical knowledge should be a daily occurrence.

Knowledge is also gained through example. We don’t have to participate in the SuperBowl to appreciate the level of commitment it takes from the players. We don’t have to perform in the movie to gain insight from the experience of the characters. In our education we diligently study history as a means of providing example of past situations. We attempt to draw knowledge from the experience of others. So too may we see the spiritual impact from the examples of the lives, characters and situations around us.

Knowledge is also gained from our interactions. We learn from our mistakes and successes. We learn how to effectively share God’s message with our friends and co-workers by trying different approaches. We learn how to teach a non-believer to believe by leading individual bible studies. All sorts of Godly interactions are learned from experience: counseling, bible study leadership, songleading and preaching. This is why Paul instructs the Corinthians to seek the greater gifts of the spirit. We must strive to grow in our capacity for knowing God’s character.

Self-control –As I mentioned above, Paul describes this in 1 Cor 9:24 as “beating his body and making it his slave so that he will not be disqualified for the prize (heaven, eternity with God…)” Of course he doesn’t mean a physical beating but rather this spiritual connection between the desires in him and control of himself.

Peter listed these qualities in an increasing order for a reason. We must remain self-controlled to grow in goodness and knowledge. Self-control allows us to stay disciplined in our training. Self-control puts the goodness and knowledge in action (especially when these activities are no longer new or

How do we work out the self-control muscles? Should I go and put myself in situations that require my complete self control. Of course many eager young people have fallen into the deepest of sin because of a curious desire to see just how much they could handle before they caved in to their desires. I stipulate that we shall not learn our lessons in this way. We don’t need to go on sinning so that grace may increase and we don’t need to go looking for sin to test our resolve against it. Temptation has no problem finding us. What we often lack is the ability to see the temptation. Do not be deceived, the devil is prowling lion but his methods are deception and lies. One of the greatest deceptions is for us to think that we can handle temptation with no problem, “Oh don’t worry about the rated R movies, the nudity just doesn’t make me struggle.” Or “I know that I am in real debt but I will open this credit card account just for emergencies.” So the same goes it would be silly to think that in order to grow in controlling your lustful desires that you should go a strip club and not look, or to control your eating habits you should go to an all-you-can-eat buffet and “just get salad.” NO! “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch! (Col 2:21). Although Paul penned those words in reference to the worldly traditions and religions of the Gentiles in Colosse, it also applies to us today. We are a new creation in Christ. Obviously we are not perfect and the waters of baptism washes our sins away but not our sinful desires. There is a need for self-control since there is still a sinful person who lives inside of us trying to take control. Don’t feed the temptations that are already there.

We are faced every day with something that God has given us to train us. Will we step up to the challenge or will be run and hide like Jonah? A later chapter is dedicated entirely to discipline. For now let’s trust that self-control requires us to apply our knowledge and goodness to guide our choices.

Pereseverance - like self-control, perseverance is a long-term quality. It is what helps us to fight the fight for our whole lives not just part of the time. Perseverance is toughness, patience and inner peace all at once.

Toughness is our resolve in the moments of testing. Tough men climb mountains and run marathons. Tough men also fight injustice, work hard, coach youth teams and spend quality time with their families. Tough men don’t cry out in pain or complain about disadvantages. Spiritual toughness is in the same vein. Spiritually tough men don’t turn from God when times are hard (Job), hold back on a pledge (David vs Saul) or give into temptation (Jesus). Toughness is a key part of perseverance. It takes a tough soul to remain faithful over a whole life.
Patience is easy to understand but hard to put in practice. Patience simply requires an absolution of self. When we are concerned about ourselves our ability to deal with the choices of others shrinks. When we are focused on ourselves we lack all pretenses of patience and become walking time-bombs. If you want to be convicted about this watch the line at the bank for a couple of minutes. People are so impatient when they are only concerned for themselves. Of course we make up incredible excuses to justify to ourselves why we are not really impatient but rather busy, too important to stand in line, tired or wasting precious time that could be spent solving the world’s problems. This may be redundant but the only way out of our impatient lives is a focus on the truth. The truth is found only through Jesus. He is “the way, the truth and the light.” When a person stands in line at the bank in the light of Jesus they are not aware of themselves at all. They are ‘self-unaware’. When a patient person stands in line at the bank they are no longer aware of their own life’s needs, instead they are ‘in humility considering others better than themselves (Phil 2:3).’

Too many men consider patience as a sign of weakness. I consider that instead we are gentlemen and ladies of the utmost nobility. We are walking and talking ambassadors of God, who as you remember is patient enough to save your sorry butt (and mine). This is the type of patience that the Holy Spirit, fed on the word of God, and brought forth by our willingness to submit to the will of God, will bring forth in our lives. Training in patience is a matter of consistently remembering God’s patience and giving that patience to others in our day to day interactions. The more that we remember God during our routine activities, the more we will exhibit patience.

The third component of perseverance, peace is linked explicitly to the cross of Christ. We are at peace when we realize that we have died to our old self and have been reborn to serve God. We have peace in this because we realize that there is no need for worry. When we are in touch with the cross we are in touch with this death to self and the worries of the world no longer matter. Our lives are consumed with doing the will of God. Your resurrection from the waters of baptism allows you to work at your job “with all your heart as though serving God and not men (Col 3:23 paraphrase).” Everything from traffic jams to teenage children can be peaceful when we understand that we are doing God’s will.

How do I train in peace? Actually training for peace is like getting a good night’s sleep, you have to be willing to stop doing everything else and concentrate. “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls (Matt 11:28-29).” You have to practice self-control. You have to stop doing all of the things in life and make room for Jesus. You have to remember that you are under his yoke and working for him. A scholar will tell you that this passage refers to Jesus offering to take from us the burden of the world, our worries and our troubles. In exchange we are to take his yoke, like and oxen, then work in his field for him. This is the meaning of peace, rest for your soul. Train yourself to turn off the voices in your head and listen to God. Train yourself to commit each moment of your work day, each moment standing on the sidelines of your daughter’s soccer game, each moment in physics class as a moment dedicated to God and in the fulfillment of his purpose. Often times we can fall into the fallacy that unless we are reading our bibles, sitting in church, singing, sharing our faith or studying the bible with a non-Christian that the time is not dedicated to God. This is very far off from the truth and will only cause you to become unsettled and lack the peace that Jesus promises to all who submit to his authority.

Godliness – Of this list I believe Godliness is the least common quality. We understand all of these others to one extent but Godliness has lost much of its meaning today as it has likely phased out of our increasingly secular society. I returned to the greek root for a more clear definition. The word ‘eusebeia’ is used in 2 Peter 1:6-7. Eusebia is respect directed toward God or for a child to a parent. I think that we commonly use the word reverence to describe this type of respect.

That is all fine and well but how do I act reverently and how do I grow or train in reverence? Not surprisingly the answer is similar to above. Reverence is something that is caught up in the minutia of life. Much like patience it isn’t the one big act of patience as it is the small daily acts that develop our characters. We grow more reverent to God when we consider God in each action.

In many ways this is part of our internal conscience. Although not necessarily supported in scripture, many believe that it is God’s Holy Spirit that speaks to us through our conscience. We chose whether we will listen to that ‘inner voice’ or not.
I think that the training takes several steps. First pray every morning for the ability to hear the spirit. Then try to remember each day to listen for your conscience. I feel that I am listening when I stop and think about a decision. I consider whether buying a coffee in the afternoon is a good use of my money and my conscience asks when was the last time I gave a meal or cup of coffee to a beggar? Respect for God doesn’t say that we should never buy cups of coffee in the afternoon until all homeless beggars have meals but rather it asks us to consider whether we are living in a respectful way toward God.

Brotherly Kindness – Nothing is more universally taught than kindness. No society on the planet trains its children in any other moral more than it does in training them to be kind. All you need to do is travel among the nations of the world to see acts of kindness performed by the poorest to the richest. The truth is that governments may disagree and people may quarrel but on an individual level kindness is the most common action performed by mankind. I hope that inspires you to realize that it is second nature to you. Even when you were living that empty life that you are now ashamed of, you were kind. Now that you are a disciple of Christ and a co-heir with him in the kingdom of God you have the full motivation for extending kindness to anyone you meet. I think that for us the kindness muscles of greeting people on the street are the best ones to exercise. Be the person who says hello to everyone that they come across. For those old enough to remember the movies Crocodile Dundee, an Australian winds up on the streets of New York City. He, simply out of his habits from Australia, makes a point to try to say hello to everyone passing him on the street. This is a rather ridiculous scene in the movie and makes the point that small town cordialness isn’t always practical in the big city setting. However the truth is that New York City and the urban areas of the world that I have visited are some of the most kind places I have ever been. So I guess there is an extreme end to greeting everyone that you come across but there is certainly room for to us to all grow in being more kind. Other steps in kindness training can be our sarcasm, cutting words, bad attitudes and evil thoughts (Eph 4:25-5:21). The training is the elimination of these things from our lives. The training is over when this counter-attitude has become second nature to us. In the Marines it is not enough to simply pass on the knowledge of gun maintenance or proper shooting technique. Instead these qualities and many more must become habit, instinct, second nature. The trained Marine doesn’t hesitate to do his duty. On the battlefield of war this is the difference between life and death. It is no different for us on the spiritual battlefield, we must train until it is instinctual to be kind in all situations.

Love - the most critical and essential part of our Christian life. God teaches us through Paul that without love we ‘are nothing’ (1 Corn 13:2). Depending on how you see yourself this statement can be encouraging or very discouraging. If you feel that you lack love how do you grow in it? Isn’t it just a God given trait and therefore God must have been running a little low on the day that it came to give me some. Not even this joke makes sense and is an insult to God. Could he possibly run low on love? No and neither can you. Your love muscles may have atrophy. You may have faced or are facing some serious challenges in your life. You may feel emptied and worn out, unable to give another ounce of yourself to another soul. How do you start training to love? Just like anything else you have to start slowly and stay consistent. When I need to remember how to love I go to the professionals, toddlers. Stand out side of a day-care or go to a park with a jungle-gym on a weekend. I guarantee if you spend 5 min in the presence of children you will remember what love looks like. Make a card, serve someone, call a friend, pray. Love training is associated with getting back space for love by removing burdens more than it is associated with defining love.

The war for the hearts of mankind has already begun. If you are reading this you have already chosen sides. How effectively are you achieving victory? How effective are you at helping others join God’s army? How effective are you at training the new recruits to fight?