A gun is a most powerful weapon. It is a tool for doing good in the hand of a righteous person, protection and rescue. It is a powerful expression of evil in the hands of an unrighteous person, murder, maim, injury, and intimidation. We are on a planet consumed in war, physical and spiritual, with the gun as a real weapon and as a metaphoric weapon of spiritual warfare.

There is always violence where the corruption of humanity meets the holiness of Jesus. Sin can not bear to be in the Lord’s presence. What happens to us who sometimes find ourselves on one side, then on the other, and sometimes both seemingly at once? St. Paul discussed this very issue in Chapters 7 and 8 of Romans.

The scripture is full of patterns of God and life that we can recognize and understand. Adam and Eve faced that moment where sin meets God and responded in ways we all know:  hiding, cover-up, misinformation, and blame. The first level of blame is against any other persons involved, immediately or remotely. The second level of blame is against God who must be at fault if we won’t accept accountability. The violence is sin toward heaven or heaven toward sin with humans caught in the middle. We choose sides.

The truth is that God aims the gun at sin, and the Holy Spirit is the bullet. We feel the pain of the shot when we are too attached to our sin, which was the target. Sin is the source of all destruction. The Lord must liberate us from sin to free and heal. Sin puts the gun in the Lord’s hand and demands that He shoot. Jesus warns us of danger through the pressures and pains in our lives when we are at spiritual crossroads, just like sickness has symptoms.

Moses sent twelve men into the promised land at the crossroads of breakthrough. They had only been in the wilderness a few days when they got to the edge of their destiny. Two returned with the truth of faith and promise in God. Ten returned with the fear and reality of this world. The two knew they could trust God no matter what. The ten were louder and knew they couldn’t do it themselves. This is often where we find ourselves at the point of breakthrough. Do we listen to the ten or the two. Our suffering can be intense, the pressure heavy, our limitations clear at the point of decision, making the ten sound like the obvious choice; besides, there are more of them. 

The Hebrews chose with the ten. They suffered far more and far longer, forty years doing laps around the wilderness. They got shot and felt the pain. Faithless choices always increase the length of time we spend in suffering because it takes a while to gain the strength and desire to change into the direction the Lord planned in the beginning. So, how do we respond to discomfort?

We could always grumble, complain, and want to turn back into what only our own strength can accomplish, or we could choose to let God deal with our bad nature to move us through the discomfort to a better place He has planned for us. Joshua and Caleb showed us that we can make the right choice no matter how temptation may yell at us.

God has given us three powerful tools to help us make the right choice. Scripture teaches us who God is, what He wants, and how He operates. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God who continually reveals Jesus to us through scripture and in real time, surround sound. The church is the bank of testimonies that we can continually draw upon. God has verified Himself and proven Himself in His people. He is alive and working. You can see the testimony of people who acted like the worst in the Hebrew nation, were turned around by grace, and empowered to enter the promised land in their lives. Jesus really does love us and is constantly working to free us. We can chose Him. We are loved, and the proof is all around us. 

I am a volunteer with the local museum and perform a Civil War surgery tent at their annual festival. These were not the “good old days.” Surgeons often learned their trade on the job. They knew nothing about germs and only learned the value of cleanliness by trial and error. A camp of men polluted any area where they camped, and dysentery was a primary issue. For every casualty on the battlefield, there were two to disease. The pollution they created was so bad that a military camp outside Washington inspired the creation of the Sanitation Commission because of the stench.

Camp had a “sink,” which was a shallow trench that was the camp open-air bathroom. Shy men found other places around the camp to do their business, turning the entire camp into a sewage dump. As you can imagine, flys and bugs covered the sink and the entire camp.

The injured from battle were placed all over the open area around the surgery tent. Surgery tents were wide open so the surgeons could have the light. Everyone around saw and heard everything as the surgeon went from amputation to amputation, wiping off his knife with the same bloody rag used on the previous surgeries. Stacks of body parts waited to be gathered and buried. The same bugs that crawled on the sewage covered the open wounds of the injured. Terrible isn’t it? I’d call that graphic until I began to see it as a metaphor for today, making it even more graphic. 

Our sewage runs freely though the streets and airways nowadays through public media and news media. All the filth of our society is published openly, often times under the guise of entertainment. Sexual unfaithfulness and perversity, immorality of all types, greed, selfishness in every dimension, cruelty of every description, and so much more are the pollutions of our world camp. Sad and sin covered bugs, covered in pollution, freely travel and park on our spirits through all the media of our world: radio, TV, movies, news, advertising. You get it literally from every direction, every day. 

Each of us, one way or another, is wounded through the battle against sin and for salvation on this planet we call home. None of us are exempt from the battle. None of us are without injury. We, like the soldiers, are in the open in the camp with all the other wounded and the pollution of our society. 

Are we even aware of the pollution within which we live or the sin carrying bugs to which we are exposed every day of our lives, or are we, like those soldiers, not aware that there is anything better? God shows us that there is more and better.

The world has seen the more and better God offers. They have to have seen it. The world cries out for justice, fairness, love, compassion, purity, and other qualities of God that are more and better than humanity can produce or duplicate. God has spoken loud enough for all of us to hear. Even nature testifies to His greatness above all that we see or know. There is life without pollution. There is life without the sin carrying bugs that are so common in this life. Jesus is the living proof and image of that truth.

The great joy is that we can be separated from the camp of this world, as the Israelites were separated from the Egyptians during the time of the plagues. Jesus is willing to set up His camp within our souls and provide the healing and freedom we so greatly desire. In Him we have the freedom that we can’t gain through anything we do ourselves or anything provided by this world.  

We have a doctor who treats all our wounds and diseases. We have a counselor who treats our PTSD from living in a war zone. We have a general who leads the battle and guarantees a winning war, no matter how many setbacks seem to be in our path or the testimony of the world around us. The Holy Spirit is that doctor, counselor, truth, and life of Jesus within us.

Our salvation makes us children of heaven and beneficiaries of all the beauty and wholeness of Jesus, continually poured into our lives throughout our time on earth. We have hope, love, joy, and the qualities of God continually being revealed to us and in us through the steadfast work of the Holy Spirit. We are able to learn and enjoy the kingdom of Heaven, even as we are freed from this world on the way home to heaven.

I’m guessing that people are entirely fractious beings. We can seem to argue about anything. The Bible tells us that the Lord hates division, which means that the enemy must love it. I was put in motion to think about this as I overheard a discussion about the gifts of the Spirit. I am shocked that the enemy uses the move of the Holy Spirit for the healing of mankind to create division within the church proper. 

I think the most frustrating gift that gets the most attention is the gift of tongues. All churches seem to be good with praying for healing, revelation, and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but tongues creates debate. Guess what — I’m not in that debate, or even remotely interested in it. I am concerned with Christians who feel superior to other Christians as the Lord always shut that down in the New Testament: first will be last, leader servant of all, etc. Sorting each other into categories according to our understanding seems to be dangerous because it can so easily involve competition, ego, and pride — dangerous companions.

I do have a personal opinion, which I offer to you. Please feel free to disagree. I’m willing to be wrong. I’m ready for you to be right. I tend to think that salvation and transformation as the ongoing move of a person into the presence and life God intended as being the most important (if there even has to be a most important. Could there be something God does that is “less” important — see the issue. Can man judge God or what or how He does?) This is my favorite because it is personal.

Jesus made Himself known to me. I thought that was pretty powerful because I was a practicing athiest who was totally opposed to God and anything related to Him. Each day, in small to great ways, Jesus continues to make Himself known to me. I can read a Bible verse so many times that I can’t know the count and suddenly come to see it as I never saw it before. I don’t know any Christians who haven’t experienced that. That light bulb insight can only happen through the presence and revelation of the Holy Spirit, and it always leads to personal growth and development.

Greg, a friend who preached recently, said that if you haven’t changed since you’ve been saved, you need to take a deeper look. Salvation changes people. That change is powerful evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. People are like the laws of motion and entropy. It takes more energy to put something in motion than to keep it in motion.  The Holy Spirit must use a lot of heavenly energy to get some people in motion, like me, who was determined in the opposite direction. Change in a person’s life is evidence of the power of God to intervene on this earth to love, to free, to heal, to redeem, and to show who He is to us. 

We, the saved, are where the rubber hits the road, where heaven touches earth in a physical and tangible way. We are the ones being transformed by the Holy Spirit, the proof of heaven, the proof of the truth of Jesus. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the residence of Jesus, and the proof that God is personal, intimate, powerful, and, most of all, completely real according to all He taught the world to understand through scripture. 

Salvation and transformation bring us, through the generous love of God, into a place of awe and worship for the Jesus who did it all for us when we were unwilling and unworthy. I know the gifts of the spirit are important because they are the power of God moving forward in ministry to others. However, I am most grateful that Jesus saved me and works to make me a better person. He has freed me from addictions, given me family and friends, taught me how to keep them, and so much more. I have hope in my darkest days because He is in my life and holds on to me when I can’t hold on to Him. Jesus is Lord, and my, or anyone’s, personal priorities and understandings must bend their knee to Him.

I spent two days at Islands of Adventure in Orlando. I easily confess that I am a people watcher. I am fascinated by the stories they tell without speaking. Going to a theme park like that and watching the people is like reading book covers in a book store and seeing if you can guess some of what the contents might be.

Tattoos are worth mentioning. Tattoos were an indication of trashiness when I was young (I’m old now). It seems that the tattoo rage has connected with a large number and broad spectrum of our society. They are ubiquitous. (Cool word.)

Each tattoo is a story in itself. Then the story is added to by its location and size. Some have sleeves or cover large areas with story-panel type displays. Some have clusters of tattoos in the same area, and some have them randomly arrayed around their body. I had one person tell me they were going to add to their collection with a tattoo representing the theme park, or some part of it, as a remembrance of the vacation, stories on top of stories on top of life experience.

Clothing is another area of story telling. Dress goes from extremely modest to pornographic and everything in between. T-shirts are great because they all have a design or story, like a changeable tattoo, which expresses something the person found interesting, fun, or indicative of their mood. Tona and I wore minions — wonder what that says. I complimented a young man about his “Member of the anti-social, social club,” and he responded very socially warm and humorous. That complicated the story.

This blog could go on forever with the different images people show about themselves, and we haven’t even covered groups. I saw couples with the same colored hair and families with each person wearing a different color of glowing hair color. We humans broadcast, one way or another, who and what we are. Consciously or unconsciously we show others things about ourselves we want them to know.

You know where this leads. The question becomes, “What am I telling the world?” Here is the bigger question. Can people see Jesus in my life by the way I dress, the way I act, the things I say? I’m spending some time in prayer, asking the Lord about that. Maybe it is good to consider if you are sending a good clear message about yourself or if you could learn something about your inner feelings from the way you dress to the way you decorate yourself and the things you say.

There are many ways to learn. Reading books is great. Learning from others is great. Reading scripture should be number one. Praying and allowing Jesus to show you things should be an easy number two, tied powerfully to number one. 

All the things we see can teach us about Jesus. All the stories I saw in two days at the park were about people that Jesus genuinely loves and is working to rescue.  (Include Tona and me because we were part of that crowd.) None of them were rejects from His help and desire. 

Reading their stories, even just the hints, reminds that we worship a loving God who knows the intimate details of each of our stories. He is there and everywhere, paying attention to us. Today is a great day to learn more about His story.

I find that depression and sorrow are about me and available to me all the time. It is so easy to focus on failure and the inability to be great or even good (or, to be honest, at least not to be bad). Envy is a common struggle with the inability to be as we perceive others are, or might be. Comparison can be a tool for learning or a weapon for destruction.

Each of us has the ability to thank Jesus that He will use failings, real or perceived, to benefit us as individuals and others, no matter how terrible those failures might seem. He redeems the worst and turns it into something useful. He is the hero that is greater than anything the comic books can imagine.. He is the hero who is working to rescue and redeem each of us during our lowest points of failure, and every other point of our lives. I can always praise Jesus because while I am failing, I am His, and He is succeeding.

Failure is just fertilizer for the next garden Jesus plans to grow in our lives. Those gardens are places of healing for us and others. Failure is not a deterrent to God’s victory. It may even be a spur. My favorite stories are things the Lord has overcome in my life. Distressed students would pull me aside to talk. They wanted to hear about a time that something painful in my life was transformed because it gave them hope and built faith.

Testimonies abound throughout the Christian brotherhood. Where do those testimonies begin? They begin in someone’s failure. All the encouragement we receive in the faith typically come from Jesus’s success in, over, or through someone’s failure. We are fallen humans in a fallen world, but Jesus is not. He told his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”” John 16:33 ESV

We don’t need to be preoccupied with making ourselves look good for others. That is really only a pretense at best. We can be preoccupied with thanksgiving and praise for the victor who has chosen to give us a victory we can not achieve ourselves. 

Our testimony, God’s victory in the midst of our failure, is proof of His love, power, and commitment to us as individuals and corporately. It is proof that He is reaching out to everyone with the lifeboat of His salvation. It is proof that there is nothing God can’t overcome, and no one God is unwilling to save. 

We carry within us, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the proof of Jesus’s love and salvation. Every day, in every way, the transformative love of Jesus is working in our lives for our freedom, even when we struggle against Him. I am not ashamed of the gospel can mean that I’m not ashamed about how much I need Jesus as much as it is being totally awed by what Jesus has done and is doing. We are tied to His grace through the unbreakable power of His gift to us. He is worthy of all praise and thanksgiving.

A pastor once told me about reading a book in which the author extolled the virtues of self sufficiency. The author and his wife lived for a year in the isolated wilderness of the arctic. The pastor bought the story for a while. Understanding creeped in on him. The couple had all the clothing, weapons, tools, technology, and knowledge gained through many generations of men to supply their ability to survive. They had communications with the outside world so they could call in rescue if needed. Several countries were involved in their travel plans, and many different transportation links were required to get them there and get them home. They had to apply to governments to get permission to go live “self sufficiently” for a year. Basically it took all the knowledge accumulated by the human race and its governments to give them the illusion that they were self sufficient. The pastor began to see the irony and humor in their delusion.

All of us live in some level of the illusion of self sufficiency because it is a favorite Americanism in our culture. The pioneers, the cowboys, pick the group of “individuals” you prefer for your favorite self sufficient image. “I can make it on my own. I don’t need anybody. One hero saves the world.”

Men seem to take the most hits for this lone-dog syndrome. I’m sure you’ve met some of those who idolize the myth of John Wayne characters. It doesn’t need to be said if it takes more than five words to say it. It doesn’t need to be done if it takes someone to help you. Dependence on others is only proof that you are a failure. It is amazing that this form of stupidity can sound beautiful in the ears, even if only for the short time it exists before it breaks down. Consider that this might just be the lie the enemy wants people to buy so he can isolate them and take them down.

The entire Bible is about relationship. God wants relationship with us and has proven it. He started with Adam and Eve, creating relationship with Him and between each other. God built a family through Abraham and tribes through his children, which turned into a nation of interdependent souls whose fortunes rose and fell with their community. We are influenced and influencers. We are blessed together and suffer together. We are not alone. We are not without the Lord or without each other, no matter how isolated we may feel or think we are.

Consider what happens when the power grid goes down. You can see what happens in other countries who have been hit by horrible weather or earthquake disasters. People die from the disaster and continue to die from the loss of all the abilities and services gained through the power. Survival begins to be the top priority, and it takes everyone to achieve it. Other countries are drawn in and become the rescue community as the disaster lengthens over time. So how many people does it take to keep you alive? It takes all of us. We need each other. We were created that way.

Rejection and isolation are weapons of the enemy. Look at the sorrow the enemy creates through division. Pride separates people and permits one person to be hurtful to another. One’s superiority means someone needs to be the inferior.

Scripture tells us that the first will be last, and the leader is the servant of all. The king of life sacrificed Himself for us when we didn’t deserve it. There is a better way to live. Love requires humility. It is impossible to love without lifting up the one you love and allowing yourself to be less. Humility sees that each person was a unique creation of God and provided with gifts and talents meant to benefit the community. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are through and to, through the believer and to the person with the need.

The Old Testament is full of the torments the Israelites caused themselves through separation from God and division among each other. Much of Exodus and Numbers involves God teaching the Israelites how to live and respect one another in relationship.Jesus broke many cultural barriers, using the outcasts as examples for good. Each of us has God given talents and abilities.

Jesus is a relationship builder, a community builder. He puts us in right relationship with God and right relationship with each other. Learning to see things God’s way is a life-long educational process because it is counter to our humanity and the world around us. It is the most satisfying of all learning because it has the healing of Jesus in every step forward. Loving others is more than worth the sacrifice it may feel like on the surface. Jesus did it for us. We can learn to do it for others.

I watch The Dodo on the internet. It is always encouraging to watch the rescues. A dog, found in a dump, covered in mange, bones showing through cut and damaged skin with other possible injuries and complications. The rescuer moves in to help. The dog growls, bares his teeth and cowers with all the visual signs of terror, anger, and defensiveness. Bit by bit, with food, soft tones, and various indicators of kindness, the rescuer moves in and lures the dog into capture, putting it in a cage.

The next step is heading to the vet. The vet examines all the injuries, malnutrition, and other issues. Now, prescriptions in hand, the rescuer takes the dog home to begin the treatments and therapies. Soon, the video begins to show the progress.

The dog now has a name, is eating regularly, and beginning to look like a dog instead of a four legged disease. Fur begins to sprout to a point where you can identify the dog’s coloring. Two primary changes have taken place. The dog is regaining trust and no longer fights the rescuer but has identified him as friend, or better, as the most favorite friend. The dog is put in the company of other pets and begins the restoration of relationships. His identity has changed with his health, and his world has changed with his rescue.

This is simply what the video shows, where you look. But what do you see? I see the story of salvation. I see a creature, crushed by sin and devastation, trying to survive on the refuse of a broken world. I see Jesus come on the scene. I see how the sinner responds to the rescuer, how I responded to Jesus when I first sensed his approach. I cowered, was antagonistic, and struggled every way I could against the help I was to receive and desperately needed. The first stages of walking with Jesus were similar to the dog’s. I felt I was caged, poked, prodded, and put through all kinds of therapy that I found unfamiliar and frustrating.

My relationship with my rescuer changed. I went from total avoidance to desire for presence. I entered the church and began building friendships. My friendships were now with those who also trusted the rescuer. I passed the initial stages of the rescue and have established enough of the basics of Jesus and Godly relationships to strengthen me and equip me for the rest of the journey.

The Holy Spirit teaches us to see Jesus. We can see Him in anything our eyes behold. All creation testifies of His presence and Lordship. Our eyes determine where we look, but our souls interpret into seeing. I lived and survived in the devastation of this world which was everywhere I looked. Jesus taught me to see the rescue, hope, life, and joy that He intended and would bring into my life. I may be living in the same world, but I’m not living in the same dump and in the same way.

My vision has become much clearer. Is it humbling or inappropriate to see myself as a dog in the story? No less or more than being compared to a sheep in the Lord’s parables. If pride needs to take a hit, I encourage it. Humility is like prescription lenses. It helps the eyes work right to see clearly in the direction you are looking. Look and see because the Lord is working all things in all directions to accomplish His plan and bring us safely home in His salvation.

Disaster can become an intimidation of exaggerated proportions. It is only the first step in a devastating process of life injury. Good things can be disasters in disguise, like winning the lottery. Check out some of those stories if you are into the horror genre.

Withdrawal and hesitation can follow the disaster as the second stage of intimidation. Conditioning to expect pain, like from a disaster, can cause all the survival strategies learned to surface and go into full operation. For many, these strategies are types of withdrawal and avoidance. For others, hyper-aggressiveness which intensifies the disaster. For others – who knows, except if it doesn’t include getting close with the Lord, you can guarantee it is contributing to the problems of the disaster.

Humiliation, the shame, degradation, and dread following withdrawal and/or experienced during the disaster can be the scarring which creates a lifetime of negative behavior begun with the disaster. Healing is required to overcome and get out of the recurring negative consequences.

The outcomes of these three can damage the way we view ourselves and self relationship, damage the way we relate to others and damage the way we interact with the world around us. All layers of this connect with, and can shape (for good or bad) our connection or relationship with God. I’ve seen many in this process turn to God and receive healing, and I’ve seen others use this as a reason to run from God and continue their suffering.

The three layers of intimidation (for the purpose of this blog, not as a way of defining all intimidation or its impacts) can become self-fulfilling prophecy as the damaging effects can be caused by anticipation, which no longer has to be real. It can be imagined or felt to be real enough to create the patterned negative behavior.

So – what? The two most common mistakes of humanity (in my opinion – and I’m not an authority) is the tendency to trust in self/other humans and/or to trust in things. This is the road to failure if those trusts are not Jesus centered. The only true road out is with Christ. 

Solomon was the wealthiest, most famous, and most powerful of his day. He tried everything. He validated that wealth, fame, and power don’t satisfy or bring life and healing, like many of the rich and famous have proved today. Read Ecclesiasties so you don’t have to try it all yourself.  Life, hope, health, and healing come through the hands of God in Christ and may include, completely according to God’s preferences in each situation, people and things. He and His values must come first for people and things to work. Stay in touch with the Bible, the guideline for finding and realizing Christ.

The entire point of the gospel is not that we won’t have suffering/disaster, but that God cares and heals. He is present and available. The greatest stories in our world are stories of devastation that God redeemed. God’s ability to transform the worst into something of value continues to verify the gospel’s life giving power on planet today. Jesus is alive.

Education takes a lot of hits because it has been an assembly-line, factory process for a long time. Much content is taught in fractured pieces and left unassembled which is one of the unintentional hardships or failings of the process. For example, we learn history by areas, like American history, without ever putting the experience together with the other history timelines except for the times they intersect. These are fractured connections without giving enough context to the other timelines to create a feel or understanding for the people involved. Fractured teaching, fractured timelines, fractured lives,  are true signs of the enemy at work.

Last weekend I went to the dedication of the Richardson Community Center as a historical site. It is necessary to understand Richardson and the timeline of African-American education to understand the lives of fellow Americans in Columbia County, or possibly, anywhere. I was stunned to realize how I had never realized that segregation had such a terrible impact on me. I saw much more clearly that my Black neighbors and I lived and experienced life in separated timelines, only connecting the dots at points of intersection without really having a context to understand, fully accept, and appreciate my neighbors. I had never assembled the timelines into one. We share the same community, the same desires for health and well being, the same faith. We are one people with two separate experiences caused by the division of Satan who continually pits us against each other instead of our living in the joy that God created us uniquely with gifts and talents to bless each other. 

Avoidance of the uncomfortable is a normal human trait. It is normal to avoid leaving your “comfort zone,” as they say in church, and venture out into the unknown. I have many African-American friends who are very important to me. However, Richardson was like taking a dive into their world experience instead of having them in mine. I experienced a mental shift that was more expansive than before. I watched the celebration of life and history in this part of my community. It was beautiful. Many of their heroes were persons who were models for me at the school where I taught. I took them for granted and didn’t realize what true trail blaizers they were for their community. They were giants. I went from intersection to context. My timeline was merging.

They were telling stories of life, hope, joy, and sorrow. I could completely relate to so much. Their sports, clubs, dances and more were like mine, so many things so much the same. Their hopes were like mine. So much the same, but so much was different. 

Charles, a man I met at the event, could not ride the Columbia County white school bus to attend classes in Columbia County where he lived. His parents had to buy him tickets on the Greyhound bus so he could attend school in Welborn, the only destination he could take. He graduated from school when I was thirteen. Segregation and its warfare-like transition began when I was nineteen/twenty. We shared a timeline, separately. They were experiencing the curse of oppression while I experienced the curse of separation from the beauty and life God had put in them. One of the differences was that they knew they were under attack, but I didn’t realize I was suffering until I began building friendships.

All men fail. It is Satan who has used these failings to divide us. We have allowed the evil one too much room to work in our relationships. It is evident not only in racial struggles but also in the terrible attacks on marriages and families. The enemy divides to conquer and oppress. The Lord does not. The fruit of the spirit does not include oppression, division, or cruelty. It is easy to find fault, but the Lord would have us find favor, to rejoice in His creation, to celebrate the gifts and talents He has placed in each person, to follow His goals and purpose, and to stand against the wiles and schemes of the enemy. We can join our timelines into one walk with God.

There is very famous martial arts actor who made some very popular and successful films. In addition to his fame, he has earned an infamous reputation as an egotistical bully who is difficult, if not impossible, to work with. He apparently has gained a long list of fellow successful actors who will not work with him or speak any kind words about him. They tell that this actor demands that all others on the set bow and give place to his egotistical demands. Failure to meet the egotistical demands are met with a variety of responses from physical to emotional, and all vicious. 

I began to realize that this professional warrior, a highly trained and skilled martial artist, has failed in his first true war. His first true war was with himself. He was conquered and made a slave to his own ego through his humanity and the enemy of humanity. The ego not only rules over him, his relationships, his career, but it also tries to force others to obey it. The ego had become a power in his life almost like a character in his movies. It had become so powerful that it (if it could be treated like a personality) moved to rule, not only him, but the people around him. 

Failure to conquer his own spirit has been having a horrendous effect. His movies have dropped out of the mainstream. The people willing to work with him have become far less. His career has entered a slide and appears to be continuing. His reputation, covered by his early successes, is now fully exposed as to its true quality. The destruction has arrived. The call to repentance could not be more clear. The most frightening part of this story – from the perspective of those of us who examine the health of our own souls – is that every one can see the condition of his life more easily than he can himself, even if the clues seem overwhelming.

Salvation is an individual experience. It only becomes an influence to others after it has taken effect inside the individual. The first territory salvation conquers is the self, and that conquering is to free us from the very kinds of destruction this actor is facing – pride. It is one thing to be enslaved by the failings of others, but I think it far worse to be enslaved by your own. Who can you blame? Where can you hide? Where can you go? How can you have an objective view of your condition when your perspective is corrupted within you? There is only one true source of rescue – Jesus.

Jesus sees the truth, reveals the truth, but with the compassion it takes to get us from brokenness to health. His goodness and love bring us to repentance, the kind of love that takes us from bondage to freedom. 

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” Proverbs 16:18, 25, 32 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/pro.16.18-32.ESV