Spoils

Mat 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.

Luk 11:21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:

Luk 11:22 But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

you have forty-six chromosomes. Twenty-three are from your father, and twenty-three are from your mother. And it’s that unique combination of chromosomes that

determines everything from the color of your eyes to the number of hairs on your head. Your identity is part heredity. And so it is with the image of God. The image of God is both your heredity and your destiny. The mathematical probability that you would get the exact twenty-three chromosomes you got from your mother is1 in 10 million. But the same is true for the twenty-three chromosomes you got from your father. So if you multiply those two together, the probability that you would be you is 1 in 100 trillion.

You are incalculably unique. All of us start out as one-of-a-kind originals, but too many of us end up as carbon copies of someone else. Instead of celebrating our uniqueness, and the uniqueness of others, we’re too often threatened by it. We forfeit our uniqueness because we want to fit in. Instead of daring to be different, we sacrifice our soulprints on the altar of conformity. In one of his best-known essays, “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that … imitation is suicide. He must take himself for better, for worse.”

We have too many times taken on a weakened vanilla mundane existence like everyone else

It’s no secret of what the world really thinks about those who live for Christ (TV, newspaper, etc)… It’s no secret that the world thinks that we are nothing more than second-class citizens… That we’re nothing more than freaks, fanatics, and frauds… The world thinks that we’re nothing more than extremists, trying to get some attention… They believe that we are bible-toting, tongue-speaking renegades, who only want to put on a spectacle for others to see…They believe that the church is nothing more than a social club, were we gather from week to week to compare clothes, hairstyles, and trends… The church is nothing more than a place for those who are in everybody else’s business to gather to share notes and swap stories…! They feel that the only difference between them and us is that they’re meeting in the clubs, and bars, but we’re meeting in the church!

Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Heb 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

You cannot fight a giant on the giant’s terms. You have to change the rules of engagement. The best way to fight a giant is with a slingshot and not with a shield and a sword. When the enemy confronts us with intimidation and fear we go on the offense with joy.

John 10:10 “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance.”

Most of us have this idea in our head that Christianity is a bunch of rules and don’t do this, and don’t do that’s. But true followers of Christ know that this could not be further from the truth! Jesus said I came that they might ENJOY life, he is saying, “God, my Father has sent me to this earth to show you how to have a good time in life.” Not only does he say that he came so that we might enjoy life, but he came so that we could have it in abundance.

The NIV version of the Bible says so that they might have life, and have it to the full.

Isa 49:23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

Isa 49:24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?