He did it again...

Jesus makes the best comments when we watch the Lord of the Rings together. I've seen the movie like countless times, and I do it a lot when I want to spend 'hang out' time with God. He doesn't get bored... Isn't that awesome? : ) Have you ever done that? Hung out with God? I'm only asking because, it's still a relatively new experience for me... : ). Have you heard the song, "I am a friend of God, He calls me friend". Those words happen to be... entirely True!!! : ), and God will go with you, and do whatever you want to do and yeah...He will comment and chat through it all, just like any friend would. He never leaves you, that's bible truth : )... so yeah... He'll be there even if you're doing what you shouldn't be doing. : ) For example... He'll go with you when you sneak out to have a smoke, and yeah! he'll pass a few comments too... you just may not like what He says about it... but trust me it's the best way to get cleaned up : )

Anyway, I totally LOVE what He says when we watch the movie together. He is so insightful and so deep and He's a brilliant buddy to watch the movie with. And I know it's like 'unspiritual' in a way, to talk about God like it's a surprise He's so brilliant... but it's one thing to say it because it's the right thing to say, and another thing to experience the reality of it and then say it. I don't think He minds, I believe He wants me to be real. So many times, I read His word and I say to Him, 'God you are just soooooooooooo brilliant - no one I know can put it the way you do...there really is none like you' and He says, 'Thank you'. : )

So what He did this time was point out the team work that exists between the 'fellowship' as they battle together. They are constantly there for each other. There is this one scene, where Aragorn is in the front line and the Uruk-hai are charging towards him and from behind him, there is this volley of arrows that is shot by the elves to bring down the enemy. There is another time in the battle when Aragorn sees danger coming and he turns to Legolas and asks him to handle it. He does not try to do it himself, he knows who can do the job and he asks him to do it. Also there are hobbits who offer their services, these are little ones who clearly lack the experience to do the job but while in the battle, no one judges their performance, no one stops to blame them for wrong moves and no one stops to train and instruct in the middle of the battle.
Then God said, "How often does my army behave like this? "
When we see the enemy attack someone(which basically means - sin is revealed) what do we do?
We judge, we complain, we get upset, we get disappointed, we get depressed, we feel ashamed - any number of things which amounts to us putting down the weapons that we have and letting the enemy just walk all over us.
We are supposed to fight... the enemy...NOT the person. Our brother's enemy is our enemy. When sin is revealed, it is not a time for scandal, anger and gossip - whose weapons are those?

Getting into all that finger pointing, anger and judgement is as if Legolas saw the enemy attacking Aragorn and then took the spear from the Uruk-hai's hand and killed Aragorn himself.
I don't know about you... but my first thought was, 'that is an entirely ridiculous thing to do'... and yet, don't I do it? don't we do it? Oooooh!, God opened my eyes big time with that one.

I realize that the weapons we have is the fruit of the Spirit. Forgiveness, grace, mercy, the word of God and I realized that when sin is revealed either in myself or in a brother or sister, the weapons I must use are God's, and not the enemy's.

Now here's my preachy bit... : ) Satan is after God's chosen, and we need to be mindful of the weapons he uses. We also need to be mindful that we're not just watching our backs, but we're watching the backs of the whole team, and while we should not makes excuses and pretend things aren't wrong, we should not get into scandal and judgement either. Prayer, peace, trust, love, forgiveness, wise councel...there is much God has given us that is all powerful and are the weapons we must use...I don't know about you, but this makes total sense to me. We're not winning especially when it comes to unity within the body because we're using the wrong weapons - we don't know it, because it's so 'natural' to do that, but with this analogy, when I realize how ridiculous it would be for Legolas to take the enemy's weapon and slay Aragorn with it...I see how deceived we are as well, and have to stop acting 'natural' and act 'super-natural'.

So yeah...that's the cool stuff God shared.