The Way of a Warrior is based on humanity, love, and sincerity; the heart of martial valor is true bravery, wisdom, love, and friendship. Emphasis on the physical aspects of warriorship is futile, for the power of the body is always limited. My dear warrior,
A warrior’s life is one that is given in service to others. It is not self-serving. A warrior lives to protect and defend others—not the self. That would simply be called self-defense. I have learned from the one who has gone before me that warriors take in a way that gives back to others, not a way that robs them or leaves them feeling empty or broken. A warrior protects, not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. A warrior is a protector of the entire person: body, heart and mind (or body, spirit and soul. Same thing, different languaging). How can a warrior take in a way that gives much?
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“What you need in life will be brought to you, but what you desire, you’ll have to go get. Much of what you cry for will not be brought to you.” My dear warrior,
Welcome to Part 2. Yesterday, I left you with a question to think about. I ask you again: Is God so cruel that He would dangle your hearts desire in front of your face and taunt you with it, only to deprive you of it? Ask that out loud. Just like I wrote in There is Always a Solution, I want you to laugh at how ridiculous that thought is. Go ahead: laugh! Why would God dangle the answer to your prayers—your heart’s desire—right in front of your face? When the Bible says that God is good, it means that He is good. He is not some cruel, sadistic God with a penchant for schadenfreude—that is, deriving pleasure from your pain and suffering, or gaining joy from taunting you with what you desire. It is not in His nature to taunt us. It is not like Him to take the very things from us that we’ve desired all along for the sake of seeing us suffer.  Your name is Life, Your name is Hope inside me, Hope inside me. My dear warrior,
Just like the lyrics above say, His name is Hope, His name is Life inside of us! He is our hope. Beloved, if there is any place in your life for which you have no hope, it is under the influence of a lie. I will say that again. Any circumstance or situation for which you have no hope is under the influence of a lie. So if you have found yourself having thoughts that are hopeless, thoughts that leave you without hope, or thinking about things for which you have no hope, have another thought! Have a better thought. “Stand true to your calling to be a man. Real women will always be relieved and grateful when men are willing to be men”  My dear warrior,
I have become increasingly more aware of men struggling with what it means to be a man; struggling to understand what true masculinity is in a culture that is increasingly antagonistic towards what God designed men to be. Culture defines manliness as being tough as nails, showing no emotion; or demands men to be emasculated, submissive and sensitive; or downgrades/ debases/ demotes them to purely sexual beings, driven by their libido and knowing little more than animal instinct. None of these is correct, and each of them is a distortion of the reality set forth by our Creator. "Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible." My dear warrior,
A man is made by the small decisions he makes every day. The decision to do right or wrong; to indulge his fancy or be disciplined; to work hard toward his future or to lay back and enjoy folly; to dream big or resign himself to ‘que sera sera’. It is the small choices that shape our paths and therefore our lives. The choice to resist or give in to sin is always there. And no matter how large or small the instance may be, God is moved by our hearts when we choose to resist sin and (in our passion for Him) to live a life pleasing to Him. Likewise, even the smallest decision to give into sin (thinking ‘just this once can’t hurt’) causes us to be separated from God and leads us down the path of destruction.  My dear warrior,
Over the last year, my understanding about grace and the law have been intensely challenged. As the questions came flying, I found myself unable to answer and I realized that though I knew God’s heart for me, I did not understand His grace as fully or deeply as I ought. The challenge caused me to become hungry for answers, and I became all the more ravenous after God’s heart and mind. I wanted more than just to know His heart for me; I wanted to know His thoughts! Being challenged this way caused me to delve constantly deeper into His Word, and constantly ask for wisdom and spiritual understanding and seek to understand the reality of His Kingdom. Those questions lit a fire in my heart that launched me onto the greatest adventure of my life—and also inspired me to start this blog, because I cannot stand to keep what I have been learning to myself.  “Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.” My dear warrior,
So many are offended by the doctrines of God, by Scripture itself; even people who call themselves believers. We're living in a time in which it is counter-cultural to be a lover of God, to be a man or woman after His own heart and mind. In a society where men create God in their own image and exchange truth for a lie so they can comfortably live in their own sin, I challenge you to wrestle with these topics and not be offended by the Word of God. Do not be put off by this seemingly difficult topic, but rather allow your heart to become ravenously hungry after God’s heart, and challenge yourself to delve deeper into God’s nature.  “A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.” My dear warrior,
If you find that your wings are easily clipped, and your flight is quickly taken from you by discouragements (whether big or small), this letter is for you. You are so good at letting yourself become heavy-laden, so good at taking on the burdens of the world, and becoming wounded by the circumstances of life, but you are not so good at laying your burdens down. Since you are likely very good at negative self-talk, at reprimanding yourself, at flogging yourself with disparaging running commentary in your mind, it seems I have been given the unique opportunity to encourage you back to life.  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. - 1 John 5:3 Dear Warriors,
What if when God said, “be holy, even as I AM holy,” it wasn’t just a command. What if it was an invitation? What if God is inviting us to be like Him? When I read that verse and I hear His voice, I don’t hear an angry, wrathful taskmaster saying “Be holy, or else!” I hear a gentle, loving God whisper to me like He's sharing the greatest secret in the world with me. He nudges me in the ribs and says, “Hey, be holy. Even as I AM holy. Wouldn’t that be awesome?” What if when He said, “You shall be holy unto me, because I the Lord am holy and I have separated you from other people, that you should be mine,” it was a beautiful promise? A promise that says because He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to save us, that we are being transformed in His image. A promise that says He has purposefully set us apart to be made like Him. In those moments, I find my heart is absolutely exhilarated. My heart is set alight as I am filled with a desire to be more and more like my Creator. I want nothing less than to be like Him!  “Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants—what is good, pleasing and perfect.” Dear Warriors,
You have a life inside of you that is completely unstoppable. Nothing can stand in your way - unless you choose to be stopped. It is a matter of choosing to be unstoppable (realizing that Christ is the source of your strength), or choosing to give into despair and giving up all hope. For this purpose, God instructs us to renew our minds each day. What does it mean to renew your mind? It means you must go to Him daily and let Him transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Spend time in the Word. Let Him influence your thoughts for the better, push out negativity, and remove thoughts that would counter what He wants to do in your life. When you renew your mind, you are getting rid of any festering bitterness that is eating you up from the inside out. You say no to anger, no to grudges and unforgiveness. You choose to forgive. You choose love. You choose to make God your focus, and to see from His point of view, to think like Christ.  Dear Warriors,
Have you ever noticed that some people (or characters) just seem to change the atmosphere when they enter a room? It seems that everyone drops what they are doing as their attention is instantly drawn to this one person. I'm thinking of the Clint Eastwood’s, Han Solo’s and James Bonds. I'm sure a few people come to mind. They just seem to command a presence. Perhaps you don’t know any warriors in real life, but think of the samurai, or military commanders; think of William Wallace, Spartacus or Aragorn, who in their rousing battle speeches changed the mood of an entire army!  "Colossians 3:2 says to set your mind on things above, not on things on the Earth. Whatever we focus on, we give power to." - Graham Cooke My dear warriors,
Take a moment to read through the apostolic prayers in the New Testament. What do they all share in common? All of the apostles prayers were positive prayers. You will not find a negative prayer—and you most certainly won’t find any venting prayers! What do I mean by a positive or negative prayer? I mean that you will never see them ask God to remove a negative. Instead, they ask God for an impartation of a positive. |
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Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World 
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