When I was in high school I saw a big kid knock the books out of the hands of a little skinny kid for no other reason other than just being a bully. Although it was none of my business and I didn’t even know the little skinny kid, I walked over to the bully and knocked him to the ground with a well placed left hook.
The little kid was grateful and from that day on began following me around like a puppy and we became friends. As time went on this little guy went from being a 98 lb weakling who kept to himself to deliberately starting fights and then expecting me to finish them for him. One day we were sitting at the bar of our local hangout having a Coke and for no apparent reason he cursed someone who was passing by. The guy stopped in his tracks and angrily asked, “What did you just call me?”
My little buddy repeated it with a sneer and then looked expectantly at me to take over, but this time I just nonchalantly smiled and took a sip of my Coke and watched with amusement as the guy he had cussed smacked him hard in the mouth knocking him off his bar stool and sent him sprawling. The guy who had been cursed then casually turned away and went back to minding his own business with his friends.
My little friend learned a big lesson that day in that I wasn’t going to fight all of his battles for him. I didn’t mind protecting him from bullies, but if he wanted to go around cursing people and trying to start fights, then he was going to have to back that big mouth up himself. For as long as I knew him this little kid never did deliberately try to start a fight again.
I’ve found that in life the hardest lessons are the ones that have stuck with me the most. We often question why we are going through trials and tribulations, only to discover that God allowed them to happen for a perfectly legitimate reason.
I watched Bill O’reilly on Fox News the other night as he derisively mocked Rick Santorum for expressing his belief that the United States is under satanic attack. Ordinarily he seems to side with Christian viewpoints, but on this issue he seemed to portray Santorum as some kind of religious nut and was smirking away at his belief system concerning satanic attack as being a ridiculous notion.
One of the basic tenants of the Bible is that we are engaged in spiritual warfare and that we are under constant satanic attack. Satan is attacking the United States in our schools and universities with liberal unbelieving teachers, in society at large through God hating “kingmakers” in Hollywood and the media, in our government by spineless politicians who endorse abortion and homosexuality and dump the constitution in exchange for votes and power, and even in our churches where new age dogma and radical false prophets pervert the Bible with progressive interpretation.
I wonder if God will stand aside and watch as He allows our country to get smacked in the mouth and fall from His grace and watch as it slides right into the pig sty. Will that be the day that arrogant smirk is going to be removed from the faces of those who choose to mock the Lord and His warriors? The Bible states that God is not mocked and He will right every wrong.
The school of hard knocks will educate us quicker than all the lectures and sermons in the world; let’s just pray though that it doesn’t come to that and that God will not stand aside and watch, but will show patience with us and revival will come alive in this great country.
About 600 of us will gather tonight at Honey Lake Plantation to glorify our Savior at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ event. Please pray for us as we remain loyal and steadfast in the midst of a war raging all around us by satan and his minions, even as those who think they are “in the know” smirk away at our belief system.
And for any “smirkers” out there, if your position is that it is far-fetched to think we are at war with satan, then you call the Bible a lie. I stand with the Bible and I suppose you stand on your own.
Ah but you won’t be standing and/or smirking forever… It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'”
Eph. 6:12
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.