You Must Fight For Your Life …

Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days we will not understand life.

We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it.

Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God. That four-year-old girl being molested by her daddy – that is “God’s will“? That ugly divorce that tore your family apart – God wanted that to happen too? And that plane crash that took the lives of so many – that was desired by God?

Most people get stuck at some point because God appears to have abandoned them. He is not coming through.

Speaking about her life with a mixture of disappointment and cynicism, a young woman recently said, “God is rather silent right now.” Yes, it’s been awful. I don’t discount that for a moment. She is unloved; she is unemployed; she is under a lot. But her attitude strikes me as deeply naive, on the level of someone caught in a cross fire who asks, rather shocked and with a sense of betrayal, “God, why won’t you make them stop firing at me?”

I’m sorry, but that’s not where we are right now. It’s not where we are in the Story. That day is coming, later, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and we’ll beat the swords into plowshares.

For now, it’s bloody battle. It sure explains a whole heckuva lot.

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 17)

War in the New Testament …

Many people think the theme of war ends with the Old Testament.

Not at all. Jesus says,

“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34).

The birth of Christ was an act of war, an invasion. The Enemy knew it and tried to kill him as a baby (Matt 2:13). No pale-faced altar boy, the whole life of Christ is marked by battle and confrontation.

He kicks out demons with a stern command. He rebukes a fever, and it leaves Peter’s mother-in-law. He rebukes a storm and it subsides. He confronts the Pharisees time and again to set God’s people free from legalism. In a loud voice he wakes Lazarus from the dead. He descends to hell, wrestles the keys of hell and death from Satan, and leads a train of captives free (Ephesians 4:8-9; Revelation 1:18).

And when he returns, I might point out, Jesus will come mounted on a steed of war, with his robe dipped in blood, armed for battle (Revelation 19:11-15).

War is not just one among many themes in the Bible. It is the backdrop for the whole Story, the context for everything else.

God is at war.

He is trampling out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored. And what is he fighting for? Our freedom and restoration. The glory of God is man fully. In the meantime, Paul says, arm yourselves, and the first piece of equipment he urges us to don is the belt of truth (Ephesians 6:10-18).

We arm ourselves by getting a good, solid grip on our situation, by getting some clarity on the battle over our lives. God’s intentions toward us are life. Those intensions are opposed. Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes.

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p.15 )

War in the Old Testament…

I think even a quick read of the Old Testament would be enough to convince you that war is a central theme of God’s activity.

There is the Exodus. We see God go to war to set his captive people free. Blood. Hail. Locusts. Darkness. Death. Plague after plague descends on Egypt like a boxer’s one-two punch, like the blows of some great ax. Pharaoh releases his grip, but only for a moment. The fleeing slaves are pinned against the Red Sea when Egypt makes a last charge, hurtling down on them in chariots. God drowns those soldiers in the sea, every last one of them. Standing in shock and joy on the opposite shore, the Hebrews proclaim, “The LORD is a warrior!” (Ex. 15:3). Yahweh is a warrior.

Then it’s war to get to the Promised Land. Moses and company have to do battle against the Amalekites; again God comes through, and Moses shouts, “The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation” (Ex.17:16). Yahweh will be at war. Indeed. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Then it’s war to get into the Promised Land. Joshua had to fight the battle of Jericho, and all that. You remember the story, right? Marching and blowing trumpets day after day. Then, finally, those walls begin to crumble and collapse. Victory for Israel, again. Check out Joshua 5-6.

It’s ongoing war after war to keep the Promised Land. Once the Jews get into the Promised Land, Israel battles the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Midianites, the Egyptians again, the Babylonians—and on and on it goes. Deborah goes to war; Gideon goes to war; King David goes to war. Elijah wars against the prophets of Baal; Jehoshaphat battles the Edomites.

Are you getting the picture?

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 14–15)

Original Sin or Original Glory?

Most of us have heard a bit about original sin, but not nearly enough about original glory, which comes before sin and is deeper to our nature. We were crowned with glory and honor.

Why does a woman long to be beautiful? Why does a man hope to be found brave? Because we remember, if only faintly, that we were once more than we are now.

The reason you doubt there could be a glory to your life is because that glory has been the object of a long and brutal war.

Lurking in that Garden was an Enemy. This mighty angel has once been glorious as well, the captain of the Lord’s hosts, beautiful and powerful beyond compare.

But he rebelled against his Creator, led a great battle against the forces of heaven, and was cast down. Banished from his heavenly home, but not destroyed, he waited for an opportunity to take his revenge.

Unable to overthrow the Mighty One, he turned his sights on those who bore his image. He lied to us about where true life was to be found, and we believed him. We fell, and “our glory faded,” as Milton said, “faded so soon.”

Or as David lamented, “You turn my glory into shame” (Psalms 4:2).

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p 14 )

A Great Glory Was Given to Us …

Earlier in the Story, back in the beginning of our time on Earth, a great glory was bestowed upon us. We all – men and women – were created in the image of God. Fearfully and wonderfully made, fashioned as living icons of the bravest, wisest, most stunning Person who ever lived.

Those who have ever seen him fell to their knees without even thinking about it, as you find yourself breathless before the Grand Canyon or the Alps or the sea at dawn.

That glory was shared with us; we were, in Chesterton’s phrase, “statues of God walking about in a Garden,” endowed with a strength and beauty all our own. All that we ever wished we could be, we were – and more.

We were fully alive.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; make and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon, and the stars you have set in place – what are mortals that you should think of us, mere humans that you should care for us? For you made us only a little lower than God, and you crowned us with glory and honor.” (Pslams 8:3-5 NLT).

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p 14 )

We Are At War…

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus married those two statements? Did you even know he spoke them at the same time? I mean, he says them in one breath.

And he has his reasons.

By all means, God intends life for you. But right now that life is opposed. It doesn’t just roll in on a tray. There is a thief. He comes to steal and kill and destroy.

Why won’t we face this? I know so few people who will face this.

Yes, the offer is life, but you’re going to have to fight for it, because there’s an Enemy in your life with a different agenda.

There is something set against us.

We are at war.

I don’t like that fact any more than you do, but the sooner we come to terms with it, the better hope we have of making it through to the life we do want.

This is not Eden. You probably figured that out. This is not Mayberry, this is not Seinfeld’s world, this is not Survivor. The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle unto the death.

I am sorry if I’m the one to break this news to you: you were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell and played out here on earth.

Where did you think all this opposition was coming from?

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 12–13)

Part 3 – The Offer is Life…

The glory of God is man fully alive? Now?

Hope unbidden rose at the thought that God’s intention toward me might be better than I’d thought. His happiness and my happiness are tied together?

My coming fully alive is what he’s committed to? That’s the offer of Christianity?

Wow! I mean, it would make no small difference if we knew – and I mean really knew – that down-deep-in-your-toes kind of knowing that no one and nothing can talk you out of – if we knew that our lives and God’s glory were bound together.

Things would start looking up. It would feel promising, like making friends on the first day of school with the biggest kid in class.

The offer is life. Make no mistake about that.

So then … where is that life? Why is it so rare?

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p 12 )

Part 2 – The Offer is Life…

I began to get the feeling of a man who’s been robbed.

I’m well aware that it is life I need, and it’s life I’m looking for. But the offer has gotten “interpreted” by well-meaning people to say, ” Oh, well. Yes, of course … God intends life for you. But that is eternal life, meaning, because of the death of Jesus Christ you can go to heaven when you die.”

And that’s true … in a way.

But it’s like saying getting married means, “Because I’ve given you this ring, you will be taken care of in your retirement.”

And in the meantime? Isn’t there a whole lot more to the relationship in the meantime? (It’s in the meantime that we’re living out our days, by the way).

What did Jesus mean when he promised us life?

I go back to the source, and what I find is just astounding.

“I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Pslams 27:13).

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30).

Jesus doesn’t locate his offer to us only in some distant future after we’ve slogged our way through our days here on earth. He talks about a life available to us in this age.

So does Paul,

“Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (I Timothy 4:8).

Our present life and the next. When we hear the words eternal life, most of us tend to interpret that as “a life that waits for us in eternity.” But eternal means “unending,” not “later.” The Scriptures use the term to mean we can never lose it. It’s a life that can’t be taken from us. The offer is life, and that life starts now.

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p 11-12 )

The Offer is Life…

The glory of God is man fully alive. (Saint Irenaeus)

You’re kidding me. Really?

Is that what you’ve been told? That the purpose of God is for you to be fully alive? Well, that is a different take on things!

So it makes me wonder, “What are God’s intentions toward me? What is it I’ve come to believe about that?”

Yes, we’ve been told any number of times that God does care, and there are some pretty glowing promises given to us in Scripture along those lines. But on the other hand, we have the days of our lives, and they have a way of casting a rather long shadow over our hearts when it comes to God’s intentions toward us in particular.

I read that quote again, “The glory of God is man fully alive,” and something began to stir in me. Could it be?

Turn to the New Testament and read for yourself what Jesus said He offers,

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

Wow. That’s different from saying, “I have come to forgive you. Period.” Forgiveness is awesome, but Jesus says here he came to give us life.

Hmmm. Sounds like ol’ Irenaeus might be on to something.

“I am the bread of life” (John 6:48).

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38).

The more I looked, the more this whole theme of life jumps off the pages. It’s everywhere.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 4:23).

“You have made known to me the path of life” (Psalms 16:11).

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

“Come to me to have life” (John 5:40).

“Tell the people the full message of this new life” (Acts 5:20).

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 11-12)

Eyes to See …

This is the Big Question, by the way, the one every philosophy and religion and denominational take on Christianity has been trying to nail down since the dawn of time.

What is really going on here?

Good grief – life is brutal. Day after day it hammers us, till we lose sight of what God intends toward us, and we haven’t the foggiest ideas why the things that are happening to us are happening to us.

Then you watch lives going down with the Twin Towers, read about children starving in Ethiopia, and wham! If a good God is really in charge … all that.

I felt so bad that Paris wasn’t what my friends hoped it would be, but I wasn’t sure what to say. Like most Christians in that situation, I simply asked Lori how I could pray for them.

“That we would have eyes to see what is going on.”

My heart leaped. Brilliant! Perfect! That is exactly what we need. Eyes to see. Isn’t that what Jesus offered us – clarity? Recovery of sight for the blind (Luke 4:18)?

We need clarity and we need it badly. A simple prayer rises from my heart: Jesus, take away the fog and the clouds and the veil, and help me to see … give me eyes to really see.

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 11 )