Everyone goes through some type of battle; there is no exempt status for anyone. Most of the battles involve good and evil. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” We face all kinds of battles, most of which can be traced back to our sin. If you claim to be a Christian, you are involved in spiritual warfare. Perhaps you are in a battle of sorts now. If you are listening to God’s voice, he will show us the reason for battle. The devil is more aware of who we are than we are aware of ourselves, while God sees in us the beginning and the end. God knows the out come of the battle.

            Sometimes we hide when the going gets rough. Gideon was hiding grain from the enemy when God called him a mighty warrior. Jonah tried to hide from God by running in the opposite direction when God sent him to Nineveh. Sin forces us to hide because we have allowed it to take us so far that we can’t afford to pay the price. Sin had taken the Israelites for far that the enemy was stealing all their food. (Judges 6:3&4) They could not pay the price for their sin because they were starving.

            Each one faces battles of some sort, no they are not the “shoot ‘em up, bang, bang” kind. Disappointment, hurt, sickness, financial problems, is all types of battle. The battle comes when God gives us a vision, first we say we can, think about and say we3 can’t. God will take you far beyond anything that you can imagine if you are willing to listen. Gideon told God that he didn’t have what it takes to be a great warrior. In Judges 6:16, “…the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one Man.”  Ask God who you are, he knows you better than anyone else.

            Feel backed into a corner. Here is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4: 8-10, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; (9) Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed; (10) Always bearing about in the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” Fact is, we are placed under an amount of pressure to release our faith. Gideon won his battle over the Midianites when he listened to God.

            To win your battle you must admit that you have exhaust your own resources, be tired of Satan stealing what God has said is yours, and understand that the opinions of others do not control us. Listening to God and doing his will, won’t keep you from battles; however it will keep you on the winning side.

            That probably sounds a little strong. Hell in churches has been around a lot longer than we care to admit. There is story in 2 Chronicles 36: 16-23 that will let us see at least one example of how this came to be. Israel had not followed God’s law that required the land to have a Sabbath every seven years. God allowed the king of the Chal’dees to conquer Jerusalem. They burnt down the house of God, homes of all the princes, tore down the wall around the city, collected all the treasures, and captured anyone who was not killed, and returned to Babylon, leaving Jerusalem in total ruin.

            To fulfill the word of the Lord, which was delivered by the prophet Jeremiah, the land would have to enjoy the Sabbath for seventy years. Whoa, Israel had not rested the land for 490 years. Okay check the math: every 7 years the land was to celebrate the

Sabbath, take a year off, so 70 times 7, that’s 490 years. No wonder God was upset at them being that far behind.

            The first year that Cyrus ruled Persia, God encouraged him to rebuild Jerusalem. Now the children of Israel were free to return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple. Okay, Babylon has always been considered to be the devil’s city and Jerusalem to be the city of God. This is where I see a lot of hell getting into the church. There were a lot of bad habits that were carried out of Babylon. If you read the book of Ezra and continue into the book of Nehemiah, you’ll see that they may have left Babylon but there was a lot of Babylon still in them. The Israelites returned to a burned out city, the walls were torn down, and there temple was destroyed. Jerusalem had lain in ruins for 70 years. Most only knew Babylon, as that is where they were born.

            Let us now fast forward to today’s church, the one that loses nearly a million people a year; the church described in the book of Revelation as the one Jesus is dissatisfied with. Jesus said in Revelation 3: 15&16, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. (16) So then because thou are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” There is too much hell in the churches. The churches are stuck in tradition. Like the children of Israel, the churches have accumulated so much that is not of the word of God, that they do not produce good fruit. I cut an old apple tree down in the back yard. It, like some churches was just there. The fruit that it produced, was small, oddly shaped, and of poor quality. It too, like some churches required a lot of picking up after. I cut that tree down just like Jesus wants to spue out the church of Laodice.

            Christians get caught up in a religious spirit where they must be seen in church, they do works for reward, and they think they have salvation because they have gone through all the motions. We need to get Babylon out of church, out of our lives, and walk with the Holy Spirit. Christians walking with the spirit of God know why they have salvation and are producing good fruit.

            Yes, get the HELL out of church, the building with the steeple on top, where the religious spirit abounds. Step out of tradition, out of non-Biblical habits, and into a walk with the Holy Spirit. A walk with God, that will lead you though the straight gate, and on the narrow way to eternal life.

            Each one has lost something that they love or dearly cherish. We will all lose loved ones, some will lose their homes, some lose a pet or some other cherished possession, while others lose their health.  No matter what lose, that lose will take you through five stages: the first being, denial, there is a lack of acceptance that it really has happened. Anger normally comes second, blame someone for what has happened, in most cases God gets the blame. Bargaining is next; somehow it has to go away. Depression takes a very big forth spot, a dangerous spot, and an easy place to get stuck. Finally we move Acceptance where we move on with our lives.

            God expects us to go through stages. We can, through his grace; we cry, love, talk about, turn loose, and become stronger. When stages are by-passed we tend to shove lose aside, seal up our hurt, and never accomplish healing. We use up far too much energy trying to hide the pain. John 8:32 says, “…the truth will set you free.” You have to be willing to forgive in order to be set free.

            I think that when we have been “done wrong”, we also experience loses. We seal our inter- selves so tightly that we give the illusion of being ok. Truth is we only traded the lose for some other false sense of healing. Jesus said in John 16: 20, “You will weep and mourn…but your grief will turn to joy.”

            In the Old Testament, there is a story about a man that went through more lose than probably any other man known. Job is considered by many to be the most patient person in suffering. He lived in a land called Uz, and was considered to be very rich. We would say that hard times fell on Job. His wife and friends felt like Job was being punished for doing something wrong, Job insisted that he had not. Now it gets interesting; God steps in and tells Satan that Job is the best man on the earth. Satan says, “Take away everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 1:11) God lets Satan check out Job’s faith. Talk about a knock at the door; messengers started showing up at the door; robbers stole the oxen and donkeys and killed the workers, fire killed the sheep and shepherds, more robbers took the camels and killed those herders, and if that wasn’t enough, the house blew down and killed all ten of his children.

            By now most people would have given up, stuck in that state of depression. Job didn’t even let his friends lead him into a state of self-pity. Job stood his ground for God. Job was blessed by God for his faith with ten more children and larger herds than he had before. We, like Job, may feel like we are being tested to the very limit of what we can bear. God will be with us and in the end we will be set free.

            What would be the first thing that you think about the other side of the road? Probably going the opposite direction would come to mind. We think of a road as endless miles of blacktop and countless number of vehicles. We find good drivers, bad drivers, and some that are in their own little world.

            There is another road, the road of life. It also has two sides. The road of life also has two sides going in opposite directions, not north or south, east or west, but heaven or hell. This road of life can and is traveled much like the other roads around us. Some people serve God, some serve Satan, and some have no clue where they are heading.

            Let me tell you about another road, leading from Jerusalem to Jericho. This story comes from Luke 10:30-35:

            (30) ….A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. (31) And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. (32) And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. (33) But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, (34) And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. (35) And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave it to host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

            The priest didn’t even take time to pray, he went to the other side of the road, and he could not be bothered. We could call the next guy, the Levite, a rubber-necker; he at least looked at the injured man before crossing to the other side of the road. Not only did the Samaritan render aid but he provided for follow-up care. There is no indication that the man who was robbed had any means of repaying the Samaritan.

            Today we are each faced with which side of the road to travel. We go to the other side of the road to avoid facing disappointment, financial problems, hurt, and a host of others. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14; Enter ye in the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: (14) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. The narrow gate represents Jesus and the wide gate represents the false and misleading religions. The strait and narrow gate referred to in verse 14 is missed by many because they are not willing to meet the requirements. The Samaritan loved his neighbor as himself.

            As you face each day, and each situation before you, ask yourself, which side of the road am I on? It’s time to choose Jesus, the strait and narrow gate, and get on the right side of the road.

           Everyone knows what a building inspector does. He checks for violations in the construction of something being built. When the inspector finds a problem, it must be corrected, sometimes even completely rebuilt. This also is true with the building of God’s kingdom. We are consistent in both our lives and in our churches at violating God’s building code. The Bible is God’s word, a blueprint to build with. Building with God moves us into new and challenging areas. Our lives achieve the stability of building on the solid rock of our Lord and not the shifting sands of the world around us.

            To be structurally sound, we must build on Jesus as both Lord and Savior. The Bible says in Luke 6:46: “Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say?” Lord is defined as a king, of renowned power, or a person who has mastered a particular field. Jesus easily fits all of these, yet we fail to follow His lead. As we build on Jesus we need to recognize that not only is he our Savior, but our Lord. It is a lot easier to correct than to rebuild. Paul in his letter to the saints in Rome writes: Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Jesus is both Lord and Savior.

            God’s church must also be structurally sound. Colossians 3:15 tells us: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” Rick Warren in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, Day 18, says, “The body of Christ, like your own body, is really a collection of many small cells.” Simply put, each one is an equal part of God’s church, authentic in everything that we do. A church that fails to recognize Jesus as Lord will fail.

            Chip Brogden writes in his book, The Irresistible Kingdom: “The carnal pursuit of fleshy power and control is just as prevalent in Churchianity as it is anywhere else in the world. Jesus said, “It must not be so among you,” (Matt 20:26) but we are obligated to confess that it is so among many who claim to be his people. Apart from acute self-righteousness, there is little discernable difference between people in the world and people in the religious system. The church is merely an extension of their own carnal and fleshy desires for power, prestige, and privilege. Many people, unable to make a name for themselves in the world, find Religion an easy venue for self-promotion. They discover that most people are superstitious, easily manipulated, and easily deceived.”

            As Christians, we are a part of the materials needed to build God’s church. James 5:16 says: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Pick up your Bible, God’s word, use it as a building code, and build for our Lord and Savior.