"The S.O.S." -2

"This is Solomon's song of songs, more wonderful than any other." (S.O.S. 1:1) NLT

   Because there is always going to be a war going on between the flesh and the Spirit, until we are given our new glorified bodies, we are called to be soldiers for Christ. This does not mean that we are called to fight this world, that battle belongs to the Lord; but it does mean that we are meant to fight worldliness within ourselves, our families, and our churches. This is not a battle of the flesh, but a spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of the church; and, least we forget, that battle starts at home, first and foremost within ourselves! Something I pray more and more to pay close attention to.
  Don't ask me why, but the older I get, the more clearly I see the battle within; it seems my most used prayer during the day, is actually a groaning within me, saying, "Help me Jesus!" Call it despair, or a longing that it will just soon all be over; but whatever it is, it is something that I know God is working on within me. Personally, I feel it is the Holy Spirit that is pricking my heart, letting me know the seriousness of what it means to be separate from this world; because it seems more and more easy to see, as Paul calls it, "see through the glass, darkly."
  The contrast between light and dark should be more than apparent; it should be bold and loud, with a great difference which is easy to determine; something that we don't need to pray about, because it is so apparently not in line with the Word of God. If you want to get right down to it, the "glass" that Paul is speaking about is somehow connected with love; love for God, which means loving all that God loves and forsaking those things which He hates.
  There is the number one problem we constantly come across, over and over, forsaking those things that God hates. Hate is such a big word, we seldom choose to associate it with God or anything to do with God, because God is all about love. Obviously such thinking does not consider the punishment that Jesus took on the cross; because God hated sin so much, He was willing to destroy it with such a great cost! If only we could see through that glass as clearly as He did, then we might better learn what it means to soldier up...

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." (2 Timothy 2:3-4)