Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Unsung Hero (12/07/06)
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TITLE: The Unsung Heroes Of The Church Age | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
12/09/06 -
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During the Old Testament dispensation, it was overt blessings that distinguished the people of God and the individual hero. The absence of blessings on the global, national, or individual scale was a clear sign that the curse or wrath of God was being experienced and exhibited.
During the Church Age, however, most battles are take place in the privacy of each believer’s soul. While overt, Godly behavior will be the inevitable result of a true conversion, moral behavior and goods deeds are never the means to either obtain or retain salvation.
A believer’s overt behavior, expressed in his speech and lifestyle, will attract the attention of others in the devil’s world. This will afford the believer opportunities to “give an account…(1Pet.3: 15 NASB” when asked to do so.
Since the end of Apostolic Period and the completion of the Canon of Scripture, there have been very few celebrities in the Christian Community. The genuine one’s would be the first to give all of the glory to the Lord they have served.
Behind many of these public “celebrities” are the countless thousands of persons who risked, and in some cases gave, their lives in the cause of preserving the faith as it was intended to be.
Of course each generation has its share of its popular evangelists, preachers, teachers and writers, but message of the true spokesmen of God has never changed.
The battlefield of the faith during the Church Age is not to be found in the military conflicts, the legal systems, the political arenas, the educational systems, the media, or any other institution of Man, but in the mind and soul of every person that God creates.
Spiritual issues cannot be resolved via secular means. Collaboration between Church and State always ends up in oppression.
There are two major battles that take place in the course of one’s lifetime, once the individual has reached the age of moral accountability.
The first battle involves the decision to either believe or to reject the Gospel Message regarding salvation.
EVERY day that follows the day when the individual reaches the age of moral accountability to the day he/she is saved, the battle goes on in the mind between Satan and his forces and God and His forces for the possession of the soul.
During that period, God is either setting the stage or presenting the Gospel Message, as this is the pre-salvation mission of God the Holy Spirit.
Satan is simultaneously doing all that he can to distract the individual from responding to call of God. Satan knows that once a person is saved, the battle for possession of that soul is lost.
Once saved, the battlefield remains the same, but the objective changes.
Once saved, the believer then has to choose to live a life that is self-centered and focused on the here and now or one that is Christ-centered and is focused on the eternal things that glorifies God.
Under the filling of God the Holy Spirit, the believer is invited, prepared, trained, and executes the post-salvation spiritual life that glorifies God. Satan’s objective is to deny God that glory by impeding or discouraging the believer from doing so.
This conflict is a DAILY battle. This is what gives purpose, meaning, and definition to EVERY day of our lives, but only those who have spiritual discernment can perceive this.
It matters not what we are doing or where we are doing it in the natural realm, we are involved in this conflict. God makes His word available to us as well as giving us all that we need to apply it to the daily situations that He engineers.
As we grow in His grace and knowledge, we will be able to handle greater and greater adversity for His glory. This explains, in part, why it is that “bad” things often happen to “good” people.
Most of these unsung heroes will pass through this world unnoticed, except for the public persecution that comes their way.
Never assume by outward appearance or overt production who are and who are not the true heroes of the Church Age. Consider Matthew 7: 22, 23.
Seek not the praise of men here on earth if it’s going to cost you the praise of God for all of Eternity.
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