Step out of your box into the battle

After a long drive from Harrisburg to Williamsport on Saturday night - I had a cool opportunity to talk to the First Church Youth Group about stepping up to the challenge in life. Over the past few months they have been talking about different characters in the bible that have taken a step of faith and stepped up to the challenge of the battle of life. Life is a spiritual battle...the great news is that in the end we win!!! Because of Christ on the cross - he has conquered death and we have the victory in the end...but what about right now...there is a battle each day here on earth. As Christians we can sit inside our little box that is nice and Christiany, where everything is safe, where no one gets hurt (or saved for that matter!) or...we can take a step of faith and say I will step out of my box where I am safe and I will rely on the strength and the spiritual armor that God provides for me and make a commitment to join in the battle along with Christ.

To demonstate this point I think of the famous part of the movie Braveheart - where William Wallace gives his speech to the men - they had all the excuses in the book to not fight but he talks about freedom and if they really want to be free they must be willing to fight for that...the same is true from a spiritual perspective. The other thing that I love about that clip is that William Wallace leads his men into the battle and then fights right along side of them. The same is true with Christ - he leads us in the battle but then doesn't watch from the sidelines, he fights with us!!!

How about you - are you willing to fight in the battle are you willing to step up to the spiritual battles of life, even if it does cost you something? There is a song by Sara Groves called When the Saints and I think it ties this image all together...it is about this idea of taking a step of faith for the kingdom and about all these people who made a difference in the lives of others because they were willing to step out in faith - are you willing to step out in faith - even if it means you life is at stake?