War zone

As a follow up to my last post about "why bad things happen" I would like to make one last point. I could, in actuality, make three or four posts out of this, but I realize nobody would read it. So...I will try to make this quick. The world we live in is a war zone, it's not just "preparation for heaven." I will be giving some quotes from John Eldridge and A.W. Tozer. I would love to throw in some Gregory Boyd quotes too, but this would be way too long.

A.W. Tozer
“In the early days when Christianity exercised a dominant influence over American thinking, men conceived the world to be a battleground. Our fathers believed in sin and the devil and hell as constituting one force; and they believed in God and righteousness and heaven as the other. These were opposed to each other in the nature of them forever in deep, grave, irreconcilable hostility. Man, so our fathers held, had to choose sides; he could not be neutral. For him it must be life or death, heaven or hell, and if he chose to come out on God’s side he could expect open war with God’s enemies. The fight would be real and deadly and would last as long as life continued here below. Men looked forward to heaven as a return from wars, a laying down of the sword to enjoy in peace the home prepared for them.”

“Men think of the world, not as a battleground but as a playground. We are not here to fight, we are here to frolic. We are not in a foreign land, we are at home. We are not getting ready to live, we are already living, and the best we can do is to rid ourselves of our inhibitions and our frustrations and live this life to the full.”

“A little self examination will reveal that it (the church) and its members have become fallow. Its members now look to it for security rather than for guidance in the battle between good and evil. It has become a school instead of a barracks. Its members are student, not soldiers. They study the experiences of others instead of seeking new experiences of their own.”

John Eldridge
John 10:10 -- (I'm not typing it out, so you'll have to look it up) 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.

Daniel 10:1-3 -- (yes, you'll have to look up another verse...and this won't make sense unless you read it) After three weeks of prayer and fasting, what is he to conclude? If Daniel were like most people, by this point he'd probably be headed toward one of two conclusions: "I'm blowing it" or "God's holding out on me." He might try confessing every sin and petty offense in hopes of opening up the lines of communication with God. Or he might withdraw into a sort of disappointed resignation, drop the fast, and turn on the television. In an effort to hang on to his faith, he might embrace the difficulty as part of "God's will for his life." He might read a book on "the silence of God." That's the way most people I know handle this sort of thing. And he would be dead wrong. (Summary of the verse: Daniel prays and fasts for three weeks, and on the FIRST DAY when Daniel was praying to God, an angel was sent in answer to his prayer. Yet, it took the angel three weeks to get there. What is the explanation for this? He was locked down in hand-to-hand combat with a mighty fallen angel.)