Text Box: Do not make style a point of contention; it is the content that is important! We, as Christians, sometimes fight amongst ourselves over stylistic or artistic differences, things that really will not matter when we stand before the Lord. These contentions only serve to weaken the fellowship and give a foothold for the Enemy to defame our Christ and His Bride, the Church. Choose your battles. Are you rushing to go into a “fight” with someone because you want to win their soul for the Lord or because you want to win an argument? Sometimes if we allow the Holy Spirit to “fight” for the hearts of people, we can avoid making a mess of relationships. Allow Him to prepare a heart to receive Truth. When we bullishly push ahead in a contentious manner, we may win the argument, but we risk losing the heart of the person we offend. Know how to rightly divide the Word of God in context. Let’s not use the precious Word of God to merely win an argument. Be careful that you do not misrepresent a verse by taking it out of context to simply score debate points. We may single out a verse to support our view, but overlook the verse preceding or following it that may actually be speaking to us! Even the Enemy used scripture out of context against Christ during His temptation in the wilderness, but the Lord rightly answered Satan by using the correct context and therefore, the power of the Word of God was evident. Learn to fight like Christ. We can best learn from the Master if we are well-informed with His methods. Pray before Bible study and ask the Lord to teach you. Then, study how Christ answered His critics, how He answered those that were truly curious and how He ministered to those that were desperate for His touch. When we have prayed, studied His Word, and rely on the Holy Spirit’s leading, then we will know when we should have compassion, when our hearts should break, when to answer or contend firmly and when to shake the dust from our feet. Text Box: When the Lord Jesus walked here on this earth, He never walked into the same situation. It was always a different set of circumstances, group of people or need that He was being asked to fill. He was feeding folks here, healing others of this or that, dealing with obstinate Pharisees that were constantly looking for an excuse to ridicule. He dealt with twelve guys who were constantly thinking of themselves, “Save me a spot next to You in Your Kingdom!” When I look at Jesus’ life, I can see that He knew how to roll with the punches. He simply adjusted to the difficult events that came His way, but always with the same goal, to obey His Father. Oh that we, His people, might learn this! As we look around our world and the culture in which we live, we are ever-increasingly being reminded that we do not live in a “post-Christian era,” as the late Francis Schafer stated, but that we in fact, are already living in what Josh McDowell calls an “anti-Christian era.” What this shift in thinking has done to our culture is requiring the Church to learn to roll with the punches. And the punches just keep on coming! We can stand immovable, defiant and refuse to adapt and in doing so, will give the opposition more fuel for their fire; or we can choose our battles, learn to be shrewd tacticians in our strategies to reach the lost for Christ. The Lord Himself told us in Matthew 10:16-18: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” Of course, we’re not talking about compromising the message of the gospel or the orthodox, theological tenants of the faith, we’re talking about strategy here. It seems like on every front Christianity is being challenged! We need to become wise in how we take a stand, know on which hills we should fight and die. And learn to LOVE as we go, making disciples. I don’t believe it to be entirely possible in our human wisdom. We need wisdom from on high, but to the right are some practical tips to help us as we learn to “bob and weave” our way toward Kingdom building. Because of Him, Brother Dennis

Rolling With The Punches continued...

Tips For Fellow Boxers