Sword of JoshuaSword of JoshuaSword of Joshua

Mission

“Your kingdom come” are words we say when we pray to Our Father in heaven. But, the understanding of the significance of what we are routinely asking for is missing. To actually live this prayer in the fullest way is the mission of the Sword of Joshua website. For, this plea must have a valid connection to our daily lives–our work and our leisure–and be deeply reflected in our relationships. Today, it is urgent that Christians turn from a life that has all the traits of a ‘stroll in the park.’

Christianity is losing. However, its failure is not seen so much in the numbers, but rather in its incremental ineffectiveness. While not vanquished, the religion of Jesus is increasingly irrelevant. The cause is simply that Christianity is soft. Once the narrow and difficult path, the Christian way is now the broad and easy freeway, ideal for cruising along without a care. The life-and-death battles are a relic of the past. When there is nothing to fight for, people soon become predisposed to a comfortable, retiring lifestyle. The will to fight becomes a casualty of complacency.

We need to learn from our Old Testament forebearers what is required of us when we are promised something as awesome as a KINGDOM. When Joshua was commissioned by Moses to lead a people from the wilderness into the Promised Land, he knew that it would not be gifted to Israel. Already occupied, the land could be entered only through tremendous struggle. The effort would require overcoming physical enemies and conquering fortified cities with the sword.

As we seek to forge ahead to the promised Kingdom of God, we must undertake a similar struggle on the path through the wilderness and into an occupied “land.” The “occupants” and “weapons” in our battle may be different. But our fight as servants to bring about God’s Kingdom is no less urgent or demanding. As it was for Israel, it should be today for true Christians that the Kingdom is not an inheritance to wait for but an installment to be paid for in “blood, toil, tears and sweat” here and now. Thus, committed Christians must not be weak at heart but must have the zeal to fight and overcome all opposition.

My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight…but now is my kingdom not from here. (John 18:36)

As Jesus informed Pilate, the state authority of his world, then was not the time for Jesus’ servants to fight. He had taught his followers to pray for his kingdom to come. Now, two thousand years later, we who still pray these words, “Your kingdom come,” must do the work of establishing a throne if we truly seek the return of Jesus as King. Being zealous distinguished the early disciples. Zeal can never be out-of-date. So, Christians must fervently live for nothing less than the Kingdom. That promise was not to be fulfilled in the time of Christ, so…

WHY NOT NOW?

March 7, 2008