Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Ready to pick a fight?

In Matthew 11:12, Christ Jesus states that the Kingdom of Heaven is established by both faith and force:
"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."
We are to contend for the faith. This warning is addressed very specifically in the book of Jude:
"Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."
This Greek word epagonizomai, translated contend, occurs only once in the New Testament here in Jude. It is a term used by Greek historians to describe physical battles. The Lord is exhorting us to contend earnestly for the faith as if we were fighting a war.
From Elijah List, June 14, 2011 written by Bobby Connor

It is rare that I feel contentious.  Confrontation is unnatural for me and most of my family members.  Maybe it's the drought and triple digit record-breaking temperatures.  Maybe the time has just come. But I feel like standing my ground, and like David's men, defend my bean patch, however humble it is.  I have been looking at the sky and declaring that it WILL rain until we just don't need any more of it.  I have been looking at my personal life and declaring victory, even though I don't see it. I have been declaring that my joints, muscles, sinuses, especially my left knee and my hands, are healed, because I pray "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven" and there is NO injury and illness in heaven.  There is no plantar fasciatis,  no migraine headache, no Asperger's, no ADHD, no sensory deficit of any kind, no cancer, no big or little disease in heaven.  And Jesus didn't leave anything unfinished when He left the cross!  

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