This Ain't Mamby Pamby Land

169 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 1Ti 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Tim 6:12) I remember my attitude about Christians in my pre-conversion days. For one thing I felt Christianity was a life lived in “mamby pamby” land. Lovey dovey choruses of Kumbayah were not for me. Real men quaffed beers, used coarse language, and participated in “tree knockin' down “ contests. Wow, was I in for a surprise when Jesus laid hold of me! I found out soon enough that you don't know what a real fight is until you lock horns with the devil, the world, and your flesh! Let me tell you, real men follow Jesus, and when you start to follow Jesus, the fight begins in earnest! The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul calls this the noble fight. The noble contest of life. Surrender your life to Jesus and enter the most noble fight on earth! Can there be anything more manly than that? Pursue! Contend! Here is Christian manhood, red-blooded, strenuous! Here too is the highest cause in all the world: THE FAITH! To give one's life for that is noble! Where is the nobility in a drunken stupor? Where is the nobility in gathering goods, and good times? What do you do when the good times come to an end? No! The fight of faith has eternal consequences! Everlasting effects for you, for your family, your neighbor, your world! And you fight a powerful enemy that you cannot see and you fight him to the end! This fight is not fought with fists, it is fought on our knees! It is fought in yielding to the Holy Spirit who uses you in powerful ways as you lean on Him to learn to love others by putting them first. Where is the manliness in living the selfish lifestyle of your past? Real manhood comes when you start to practice laying down your lives for others. This laying down does not require the actual act of martyrdom, although that may happen, rather it's a simple matter of laying down time that could have been spent on selfish pursuits, and laying them down to spend time and love on others.