How's your swordplay?

Ever since I was a younger boy, I've always loved movies. Don't ask me for a top 10, too difficult. But I can remember watching action movies, and seeing people like ninjas handling swords. Now Luke Skywalker was, in my mind the coolest carrying the light saber. And of course you had Leonardo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But one of my all-time favorite movies is "The Sword in the Stone." I never owned it, and still don't for that matter (it's probably safely tucked away in the Disney Vault awaiting some anniversary attributed by some precious stone, or metal) but hope to in the future.

But I can remember the scene where people were trying to pull the sword out of the stone and no one could do it, and then along came some scrawny kid named Arthur and just pulled it out with ease. Then to his surprise came upon him great responsibility.

This visual has stuck with me and reminds me of a very important Biblical lesson with 3 points. (that should make some of you happy that I have 3 points.)

But let's dive right in:

1. The Word of God is our SWORD!
In Ephesians 6 we are told that we are given armor to withstand the wiles of the Devil, and our only offensive weapon is the word of God. We, Christians, have the responsibility to take the word and to take it in. I personally have around 20 Bibles. Some are antiques, some are keepsakes, some I have to use as examples. Some are paraphrases (which I don't recommend), some are closest translation from the original texts that we have, and I even have 1 Hebrew bible. And they all are important because each one of them holds the truth of God and His son Jesus Christ within the pages. And the awesome thing about the Bible is that it's not just pages that were translated and written down hundreds of years ago, each one is alive, because the words on that page tell of the power Christ has to change lives.
Our sword is a powerful weapon, and we need to look at it as such. We sometimes tend to think as the young Arthur did, "that's pretty cool, I think I can handle it." We take hold with both hands and start swinging, not really looking where we are aiming, but since we are Christian we "know" what we are doing.
The scary thing is when we read God's word and we act on our own ideas we are crossing the line of being in control. His word is our sword, and He gives it to us freely, but He also gives us the Holy Spirit which guides us in understanding (learning to use our sword) and without that we are still that scrawny Arthur that can barely pick it up, but we still don't mind trying to swing it so people see us "using" our SWORD.

2. We've got to study the SWORD
Fast-forwarding to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we see 4 turtles that have been changed by some chemical material into turtles that would stand about average height with you or me. But they've also been training to be ninjas since the time they began changing (I really don't know why I gave a rundown of TMNT because everyone should know this movie). But they've spent time mastering their weapons, and Leonardo, not only master 1 Sword but 2. He had studied his weapon so well that he could handle it with no problem and use it both offensively and defensively.

2 Timothy 2:15 reminds us that we are to study to show ourselves "worthy" or "approved" in the sight of God to accurately handle God's word. We must spend time everyday in the word. Whether it's listening to the Bible on CD, or podcast. Bible study with friends, but especially spending some quality time just you, your Bible, and God.

God has given us the Holy Spirit to be our helper, to be our guide through His word. When we don't know the word, and haven't spent time in the word, then how are we expected to know how to use the word.

This means a few things for those of us that find it important to study God's word in order to use God's word.

The first: Context
The second: Context
The third: Context

When we use God's word out of context we are not fulfilling 2 Timothy 2:15, we are not handling God's word accurately. We are in simpler words, grabbing the sword by the blade and swinging the handle at the Enemy. When we do this we hurt ourselves. Think a minute about if you went into your kitchen right now and took out a carving knife held it by the blade and began chopping up vegetables, or fruit or some dessert. Your hands would be brutally hurt, and until they healed you wouldn't be able to handle things properly.
That is the same way when we use scripture to make "our" point to people, or we use scripture to "make ourselves in the right" or we use scripture to make a cool T-shirt fit something we think is neat. (The last one i had to throw in there because you all know you have seen one.)

So we have to study the word! If we don't we are only going to hurt ourselves.

3. We MUST use the Sword!

If we recognize the Bible as our sword, and we learn how to use it, but we let it sit on the shelf then how have we honored God? How have we ministered to God? We are called to first minister to Him, then to others. It is possible to do both at the same time, but we must honor the Father before anyone, or anything else.

We don't need to minister to God, or to other solely based on "our live experiences". Now we do need to go and tell what the Lord has done for us, and what He is doing in our lives. If we look at the writings of the Apostle Paul we see that is what He did. The awesome thing about it though, is that Paul always pointed it back to Christ. He never pointed to himself.

So many times we think we are praising God, but we are truly praising ourselves. We MUST use the sword. If we can't reflect back to the word, as we are reflecting on what God has done in our lives then we find ourselves relying more on our words than HIS WORD.

There is nothing that we will go through that we can't find: comfort, solution, any kind of answer for it in His WORD.

So how is your swordplay?