"The Knight is a man of blood and iron, a man familiar with the sight of smashed faces and the ragged stumps of lopped-off limbs; he is also a demure, almost a maidenlike, a guest in hall, a gentle, modest, unobtrusive man. He is not a compromise or happy mean between ferocity and meekness; he is fierce to the nth and meek to the nth."
-C.S. Lewis (The Necessity of Chivalry)
[disclaimer - this is a male focused blog. nothing against you women though]
David and Goliath might be the most famous, and oft paralleled story there is, with the one exception being the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. War movies use this story line with out fail, and for good reason. Our lives can be viewed from this same story line. We like to be able to put ourselves in the roles of our favorite heroes; Maximus Decimus Meridius, Aragorn, William Wallace, Balian of Ibelin, Robin Hood, King Arthur, etc. We want to be the brave hero, the one leading the charge, the one fighting the battle, winning the heart of the beauty, and embarking on an epic adventure, where we discover who we are and what we are made of. We want to be the one who gives the speech that compels our fellow men at arms to victory. We want to be the ones to stand defiant in the face of our enemy or oppressor. Rightfully so i believe. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a hero, a knight, a conquerer. In fact we are called by Christ to be this person, this man. For God's Kingdom, and for the other people in our lives.
Romans 8:37 tells us that we are more than conquerers in Christ. What empowering words. Ephesians 6 gives us the armor we need, and Romans 8 tells us we are more than conquerers. What this means is that we can be that hero that we see in popular culture movies, and we can be the hero's we see in the Bible. David, Jonathan, Samson, etc. War epics run rampant through out the Bible. How can we be this hero though? How can we be more than a conquerer? In each of these accounts the hero, is at some point empowered, anointed, or knighted. Looking at the original story line we can see this very clearly; 1 Samuel 16 tells us the story of David's anointing "So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power." (1 Samuel 16:13) as we know David then goes on, through the power of the Spirt of the Lord to defeat Goliath. It must be stated that David was the youngest son, of one of the weakest families of the weakest tribe of Israel, in other words he was one of the very last people most would have expected to do this, and be anointed king. David was knighted for service in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus does this exact same thing with the 12 apostles he gave them power and authority (Luke 9) Jesus then anoints all who call themselves Christian's with the "great commission" in Matthew 28 when he gives all authority in heaven and on earth, to fulfill his commandments and make disciples as we are going of all nations.
Ephesians 6 tells us to take up the "Sword of Spirit, which is the word of God.". When a man is knighted his is given a sword, to signify the event, and the change that has taken place. When you are knighted, you become much more than you were before, you have power, and authority, you are respected and feared. In Acts, the people are baptized by the Holy Spirit, David is anointed and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. We are compelled by Paul to take up the Sword of Spirit. When you become a Christian, you are baptized by the spirit (not making any statement about when this officially happens). You are in other words knighted by Christ for service in the Kingdom of Heaven. This means you have within you the ability to be the hero you wish you could be in the movies, or in the Bible. God has anointed you as his gladiator, his warrior, his knight, we are made more than conquerers. We are called to live indestructibly. We must, as Marianne Williamson said, liberate others from their fears by being as powerful as we are capable of. God has a plan for us, a purpose he has placed us here to fulfill, and until that is achieved we are indestructible. This is the way those great heroes lived, with an understanding that they were indestructible and that they liberated, empowered, and often knighted others to live up to their potential. And we live Kingdom centered lives. We constantly fight the intense battle that we are intrenched in, we are storming the Castle and taking ground for the Kingdom.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you have been anointed, and Knighted. You have been given the Sword of Spirit, your name now has a "sir" in front of it, denoting you are a Knight in God's army. You have been given that authority. We must remember that we cannot do it alone. There are many others in the battle as well. They are our allies and will stand shoulder to shoulder with us, fighting until the end. But we must deliver the motivational speech, that God delivered to us through our actions daily. We must liberate others, by living indestructibly, through faith not fear.
"[True knights] are both gentler than lambs and fiercer than lions, in such a wonderful and peculiar way that I am very nearly incapable of deciding what I think they should rather be called, monks or knights, unless I should perhaps more appropriately name them both, since they apparently lack neither, neither the monk's gentle disposition nor the knight's fierce strength. What can be said, but that this is the Lord's work and a miracle in our eyes."
- (Bernard of Clairvaux, De Laude Novae Militiae)
[disclaimer - this is a male focused blog. nothing against you women though]
David and Goliath might be the most famous, and oft paralleled story there is, with the one exception being the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. War movies use this story line with out fail, and for good reason. Our lives can be viewed from this same story line. We like to be able to put ourselves in the roles of our favorite heroes; Maximus Decimus Meridius, Aragorn, William Wallace, Balian of Ibelin, Robin Hood, King Arthur, etc. We want to be the brave hero, the one leading the charge, the one fighting the battle, winning the heart of the beauty, and embarking on an epic adventure, where we discover who we are and what we are made of. We want to be the one who gives the speech that compels our fellow men at arms to victory. We want to be the ones to stand defiant in the face of our enemy or oppressor. Rightfully so i believe. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a hero, a knight, a conquerer. In fact we are called by Christ to be this person, this man. For God's Kingdom, and for the other people in our lives.
Romans 8:37 tells us that we are more than conquerers in Christ. What empowering words. Ephesians 6 gives us the armor we need, and Romans 8 tells us we are more than conquerers. What this means is that we can be that hero that we see in popular culture movies, and we can be the hero's we see in the Bible. David, Jonathan, Samson, etc. War epics run rampant through out the Bible. How can we be this hero though? How can we be more than a conquerer? In each of these accounts the hero, is at some point empowered, anointed, or knighted. Looking at the original story line we can see this very clearly; 1 Samuel 16 tells us the story of David's anointing "So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power." (1 Samuel 16:13) as we know David then goes on, through the power of the Spirt of the Lord to defeat Goliath. It must be stated that David was the youngest son, of one of the weakest families of the weakest tribe of Israel, in other words he was one of the very last people most would have expected to do this, and be anointed king. David was knighted for service in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus does this exact same thing with the 12 apostles he gave them power and authority (Luke 9) Jesus then anoints all who call themselves Christian's with the "great commission" in Matthew 28 when he gives all authority in heaven and on earth, to fulfill his commandments and make disciples as we are going of all nations.
Ephesians 6 tells us to take up the "Sword of Spirit, which is the word of God.". When a man is knighted his is given a sword, to signify the event, and the change that has taken place. When you are knighted, you become much more than you were before, you have power, and authority, you are respected and feared. In Acts, the people are baptized by the Holy Spirit, David is anointed and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. We are compelled by Paul to take up the Sword of Spirit. When you become a Christian, you are baptized by the spirit (not making any statement about when this officially happens). You are in other words knighted by Christ for service in the Kingdom of Heaven. This means you have within you the ability to be the hero you wish you could be in the movies, or in the Bible. God has anointed you as his gladiator, his warrior, his knight, we are made more than conquerers. We are called to live indestructibly. We must, as Marianne Williamson said, liberate others from their fears by being as powerful as we are capable of. God has a plan for us, a purpose he has placed us here to fulfill, and until that is achieved we are indestructible. This is the way those great heroes lived, with an understanding that they were indestructible and that they liberated, empowered, and often knighted others to live up to their potential. And we live Kingdom centered lives. We constantly fight the intense battle that we are intrenched in, we are storming the Castle and taking ground for the Kingdom.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you have been anointed, and Knighted. You have been given the Sword of Spirit, your name now has a "sir" in front of it, denoting you are a Knight in God's army. You have been given that authority. We must remember that we cannot do it alone. There are many others in the battle as well. They are our allies and will stand shoulder to shoulder with us, fighting until the end. But we must deliver the motivational speech, that God delivered to us through our actions daily. We must liberate others, by living indestructibly, through faith not fear.
"[True knights] are both gentler than lambs and fiercer than lions, in such a wonderful and peculiar way that I am very nearly incapable of deciding what I think they should rather be called, monks or knights, unless I should perhaps more appropriately name them both, since they apparently lack neither, neither the monk's gentle disposition nor the knight's fierce strength. What can be said, but that this is the Lord's work and a miracle in our eyes."
- (Bernard of Clairvaux, De Laude Novae Militiae)
