Tag Archives: foolishness

Conduct a Campaign of Sabotage: We are Living Behind Enemy Lines

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In election years we are inundated with campaign messaging. However, in many places today “campaign” means something different than a plethora of political ads. If you look around the world, there are a BUNCH of campaigns going on. Russia is conducting one against Ukraine, Houthi rebels are conducting one against Saudi Arabia, and the list goes on… In FACT, there are 35 armed conflicts taking place in our world at this moment (Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Myanmar to name a few, more than 2/3 of which involve Islam, “the religion of peace”.) So, yes, there are campaigns happening apart from elections, and that’s what we are going to talk about today. You see, there’s ANOTHER type of campaign going on all around you. It’s a real campaign in a real war, even if you haven’t noticed the sound of gunfire.

A Different Kind of Campaign

It is a war where we cannot see the enemy. The rich and powerful marginalize the poor and the weak. Misinformation is portrayed as truth, and the enemy has led followers into falsehood presented as fact. A selfish lust for power and money drive the leaders to disregard values and respect. In this campaign, fractious opinions and offenses disseminate division, separating even friends and family. It is, however, a war unlike military conflict. Foolishness reigns while wisdom wanes. Strength and weakness are upside down. From where I sit, the enemy has made huge gains, and many of us are trapped now behind enemy lands… Paul talks about it like this:

“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” (1 Corinthians 1:25-27 KJV)

The whole story of the gospel sounds improbable. God created heaven and earth. He made earth perfect and full of love, a place where He could walk with man and interact with his creation. He offered a place where man could live in peace and harmony as long as he chose to be obedient. Having fallen, the great deceiver launched a campaign of misinformation to counter God’s offer. Falling in step with the Father of lies, mankind rebelled and set up his own system based on power, greed, and lust.

Status Quo

Instead of a world free from pain and suffering, man lives in a fallen world whose selfish inhabitants bully, hate, and kill each other. (If you don’t believe that, check your history books, listen to the news, or heck, just offer an opinion on social media.) Those inhabitants have used corruption, money, and brute strength to build their various kingdoms apart from God’s values and authority.

By His very nature God is loving and kind, and stands apart from the campaign of death and destruction that the world pursues… God has offered people opportunities to set themselves apart and return to him– but Man, with his logic and pride, figured he could earn his way back to heaven by works, and force God to take him back on his own merits.

The Logical Solution that Defies Logic

The Creator (knowing what was truly required to satisfy Righteous Judgment) had a different plan. Instead of retaking the world by force, He opted to take it back by using mere love. God entered the world in the form of a tiny, helpless infant who alone could pay the price for man’s rebellion and offer peace and salvation.

God did not force rebels to receive Him, but allowed (and still allows) man to find and accept Him by faith. The catch is that man must relinquish his independence by faith in order to allow God to empower his spiritual self in the midst of a carnal world. Man’s very nature tries to sabotage that spiritual self, using that same carnal world to lure him into lesser things.

So, God sent His Son into a rebellious, deadly kingdom ruled by selfishness, pride, and power and offered instead love, humility, and service. He chose to confound men’s wisdom with seeming foolishness, and men’s power with what seemed like weakness. Depravity exercised its muscle in this earthly kingdom in the form of despots and dictators who rule by using violence and intimidation. Jesus came to earth and taught that men should serve to lead and humble themselves in order to be exalted.

Time for Sabotage

C. S. Lewis said, “Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage.” Saboteurs resist the status quo, refusing to buy in to the world’s power structures, the things that men celebrate, and the short-sighted goals of the carnal mentality.

If there is indeed a God, then there is a different set of values and an eternal timetable. There is a spiritual world available to men in the midst of the world of carnal power. If Jesus is who he said he is, then all Christians are living as part of the resistance behind enemy lines. The question is this: Which side are you on? You are either living behind enemy lines, offering alternatives to force, hatred, power, and pride, or you ARE the enemy. Read that last statement again.
Beware, and choose wisely.

Behind Enemy Lines

God has chosen foolish things to contradict the wise,
Confounding both the mighty and the strong.
God has used invisible power right before our eyes,
And asked the world of men to come along.
But things that men have celebrated are not really consecrated:
Things the world will seek go to the strong, and not the meek!
The weakness is, the wise won’t speak of spirit which it deems as weak;
The outlook here is getting bleak, with escalating danger…
The world of men’s conceit will hold that there is nothing stranger
Than God investing mankind’s hope into a rustic manger,
And somehow turning that into a history re-arranger.

To buy my latest book, Real People, Real Christmas: Thirty-one Days Discovering the Hidden Treasures of the Christmas Story, go here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1729034918/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For Slaying Giants: Thirty Days with David, go here: https://www.amazon.com/Slaying-Giants-Thirty-Devotions-Ordinary/dp/172568327X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535814431&sr=8-1&keywords=Slaying+Giants%3A+Thirty+Days+With+David
To buy my book, Beggar’s B

The “Mighty” Works That Don’t Work; The “Foolishness” That DOES

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President Trump has been trying to broker a peace treaty between Ukraine and Russia. Wehn asked about it, he had this curious reply: ““I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.” Apparently he is not aware that God requires righteousness from us in order to allow us into heaven. Webster’s says that righteous is “acting in accordance with divine or moral law”. (Righteous Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster) Would you consider yourself a righteous person? I think most of us like to think we are pretty good (as opposed to being cruel or “bad”), but do we really strive to be righteous? Do we actually do more good works than selfish ones? That idea in itself conjures up some questions: how would one go about achieving such a thing? Do you attain righteousness by what you do?

We might have to check our definition of “righteous”. Are we righteous if we only have a little larceny in our souls? Is a person justified by what they do, or by how well they live? The Bible says this: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’.” (Romans 1:17, NIV)

A Christian Conundrum

One of the biggest conundrums about being a Christian is the idea of justification by faith. It kinda takes our own good works out of the salvation picture. Wait, what?! We can’t work our way into heaven? Sorry, President Trump, but you are certainly not alone in your assumption. It seems counter-intuitive to most people that salvation comes from faith and cannot be gained by doing good works. For legalistic and self-righteous man, it is an astounding thing, one of the hardest concepts to grasp, and one of the most difficult things to accept. We just can’t believe that righteousness can be given apart from the good works we do.

The major religions of the world are based upon effort and reward. “IF I’m good enough, God will accept me.” Religion depends upon people earning their way into God’s favor, (or perhaps achieving enlightenment), but those things are not consistent with the Biblical view of God. The Bible teaches that God requires righteousness (since He can’t abide sin), and since man is unable to earn it with works, God gives it to man for free. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The Burden of Works

The people who work for God’s favor will always resent those who accept it as a gift. Religion based on works instead of grace becomes a full-time job, a never-ending task in which men strive for a perfection they cannot attain. Pilgrims who are grinding their way to self-righteousness often become so bound to the grind that they cannot find Grace…

That’s why the Pharisees could not see who Jesus was (they didn’t believe in Him). Satan fell because of it (He believed in himself rather than God). It’s why the Roman Catholic Church condemned Martin Luther to death for nailing this statement to the door as one of his 95 Theses in Wittenberg. They couldn’t imagine that sin’s penalty had been paid apart from their system of penances and indulgences. Self-centered man cannot accept the fact that God would give him that which costs everything for nothing. It defies human logic.

The Counter-intuitive Gospel

That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The message of the Gospel is not works, or righteousness out of duty or even obligation; it is not about striving or attaining perfection. It is about God giving the perfect gift to us imperfect men; and it is about our pursuing righteousness out of gratitude rather than obligation.

Faith begets righteousness, not the other way around. You can’t work your way to grace, but grace can lead you to do good works. Accept God’s free gift. Astound yourself with the overflowing measure of grace. Stop trying to work for righteousness, and let righteousness work in you. Think about the cost of it all, and shed a grateful tear. Then remember the foolishness of it all, and smile. Embrace the foolish power of God…

Foolishness that Works

The Righteous Lord cannot abide our fallen, sinful state;
Our works don’t make us righteous, even if we’re good– or great!
Because we want to work our way to holiness–or near it–
The message of the cross is foolishness to most who hear it;
It proclaims that works don’t work, no matter how hard we chase:
The just shall live by faith, and sinners must be saved by grace.
Stop hoping, then, in mere good works to give your soul a lift;
Allow your legalistic mind to make a major shift,
And open the Father’s foolish, graceful, unbelievable gift.

To buy my latest book, Real People, Real Christmas: Thirty-one Days Discovering the Hidden Treasures of the Christmas Story, go here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1729034918/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For Slaying Giants: Thirty Days with David, go here: https://www.amazon.com/Slaying-Giants-Thirty-Devotions-Ordinary/dp/172568327X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535814431&sr=8-1&keywords=Slaying+Giants%3A+Thirty+Days+With+David
To buy my book, Beggar’s Bread, go here: https://www.amazon.com/Beggars-Bread-Devotions-Ordinary-Guy/dp/1535457392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473336800&sr=8-1&keywords=Beggar%27s+Bread