Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Way of the Warrior (p. 27). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) There are so many things in our life that have the potential for us to be afraid.   I know for many it is the fear of war. Erwin says, “Jesus said there would always be wars and rumors of war. (Matthew 24:6; Mark 13:7.)   History has sadly proven him right. All around us wars wage—nation against nation, tribe against tribe, people against people, brother against brother. Human history is like a fire out of control. It seems that violence will always rage and that peace will always elude us. Yet Jesus was equally convinced that he knew the way to peace and that peace would in the end stand as victory. “For wars to end, there would have to be the end of violence. “For violence to cease, there would have to be the end of hatred and greed. “For hatred and greed to breathe their

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Way of the Warrior (p. 17). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) No, peace is not powerless. Erwin says, “The way of peace is not a call to passivism. The way of peace is not a call to powerlessness. The way of peace is a call to know one’s power. Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple. The Bible tells us he made a whip out of cords, overturned their tables, and drove them out. He would not allow them to leave with the money that they had gained. (See Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:15) “We rarely think of Jesus as physically imposing. He is most often depicted as a passive idealist rather than a warrior of peace. Yet in the cleansing of the temple, we are reminded that Jesus knew that peace would not come without a battle and it would not come without a cost. The way of peace is not for the weak or the weak of heart. The warrior kno

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Way of the Warrior (p. 14). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Have you found that to be the case in some situation in your life? Erwin says, “This is exactly the dilemma for God, who in the Old Testament is constantly depicted as a God of war and violence. The way it is told, he is both the Creator of war and an instigator of violence. The reality is that we are the ones who introduced violence to the human story. We are the ones who carry war in our hearts. God has literally tainted his reputation by determining to bring peace in the midst of our violence. If the world were at peace, God would not disrupt it with war. It is because the world is at war that God disrupts it to bring peace. The only reason God is at war is that he is fighting for us. Yes, God is a warrior—he is a warrior of peace. God will always fight for the good and the beautiful

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Way of the Warrior (p. 11). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And we don’t want that, do we? Erwin says, “We’re filled with not only fear and doubt but also greed and envy, anger and bitterness, loneliness and disconnection, despair and hopelessness. Each of these are external forces that war against our inner worlds. “We struggle with envy because we want the life that isn’t ours. “We struggle with greed because we want to possess what is not ours to have. “We struggle with feelings of insignificance because we have made our worth dependent on the opinions of others. “We struggle with identity because we don’t know who we are outside of what we do. “We struggle with loneliness because we are searching for love rather than giving it.” He goes on, “We will never know peace as long as we are slaves to external forces of