The Throws of Battle (Part 1)...

"Face front, bow!" Peace and serenity.

"Face each other, bow!" The body bends at the waste, rigid and strait. The eyes never leave their opponent. They tell him nothing. No fear, no worry, no pain, no doubt, nothing is in them. There is no emotion, not even fatigue in them. They are as empty as the sea.

"Fighting stance!" Left foot steps back, right foot forward. Your hands lift to guard, fists clinched tight enough to hold a rod, but gentil enough to cradle a grape. Your body is loosed from ceremnoial rigidness and is light.

The mind is calm. No thought runs through it. You don't think any longer. You anticipate his movements, and predict his attack, but there is no thinking, merely reacting. The belt you wear is dark and tattered. It has seen many days. You no longer deliberate you course of action. You simply dance to the rhythm of battle. You do not fear it because you have met it before. And now, you shall meet it head on once again.

Your eyes work from the floor, up the body of your opponent, and find their target in his. But now there is a message that flashes across them like red lightning in the midnight sky: "I'm ready." It is the calm before the storm.

"FIGHT!"

He lunges forward. You shfit sideways. He is overzealous. He punches, and his fists are blinding. Pain rushes through your body like ice water through your veins, but you are not shaken. He comes again, but you parry and counter with your own. He spins and his foot rushes towards your head, but you are not concerned. You slide your head back just far enough to let it pass; but not too much. No, you want him close. You allow only the smallest margin possible. His foot passes you and the breath of wind kisses your face. Momentum squares his chest to yours. Still, your mind is quiet. Your side kick finds its mark in his chest. Not anywhere, but in a precise location as if it were a surgeons scalpel. Your heel fits nicely below his sternum and above his stomache. It is the chink in his armor. A crevice ever so small where the muscles meet, and his weakness is exposed.

The breath rushes from him, cast out by the force of your heel. Your opponent is stunned for a most breif eternity. STILL, you do not think. You react. Your hips twist and your shoulders turn. Your head is the first around and you see your target. Your foot follows the path given to it by your eyes and accomplishes its task. The back of your heel strikes his helmet. He faulters to the ground. You lord over him, one foot on each side, and grasp the jacket of his uniform. Your right hand is fixed into postion, cocked and ready to thrust downward to his temple. Fear grips him as he looks up at you. Your eyes are no longer yours, but instead the lioness' before she takes her prey....

And then, you stop.

Your enviornment floods around you as if you were pulled by the collar back into time and a realm not of violence, but of learniong and sanctuary.

Things that were no longer acknowledged, the smell of sweat, the sounds of hands and feet rustling and pads popping, and even a stinging sensation in your nose rush back to you. Your hand moves swiftly downwards, but not as a fist, and not towards an opponent. It is open and offers help to a friend.

You help dust him off and a small smile creaks across your face. You return to your spot on the floor, and you prepare to begin again...

An American Reformation...

There is a great speech at the end of the LOTR: Return of the King where Viggo Mortenson delivers a rousing monologue that many of the readers of this blog are familiar with. It goes something like this:

Hold your ground! Hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!!!

Aragorn's battle cry reached out from beyond the movie screen into the hearts of the audience. I hope too that this blog will reach into the hearts of its readers.

Just as Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door on that infamous October day in Wittenberg, Germany, I pray that the Lord God of Hosts will so impress on our hearts the need for the reformation of the lives of Christians in America. However, as Luther's Theses divided the church, I pray that the reformation birthed within us would unify our hearts together for the cause of Jesus Christ. That it would go beyond denominational walls and minor doctrinal issues, and it would fuse together our hearts under the banner of the Glory of Christ Jesus.

It could be said that only in America can a person go to church, tithe, sing about the mercy and grace of God, be stirred by a sermon; and then continue on to a restaurant and be absolutely uncouth to their server and not think twice.

That here, in America, Christians find ways around accepting verses like Romans 8:17. That where it costs so little to follow Christ, we find ourselves asking God to lift the burden of suffering off of our backs. And yet, all over the rest of the world where dire persecution reigns, believers are only asking for stronger backs until the day of their glorification with Jesus.

Many times our weekly worship turns out to be nothing more than fulfilling an expected ritual. The same rituals whose concepts of religion are completely opposite of the original intent of Christianity, by replacing the newest praise and worship songs and lights and the best sophistic preaching instead of the disciplined effort of cultivating a relationship with Christ. Of which I am to be condemned first, (if it were in deed right to condemn an heir to the throne of Heaven in such a way).

It is in the only nation established Under God, and conceived in Liberty, that Christians will ignore the open attacks against the Creator of the Universe and the Savior of our Souls because of our careful attention not to impede on anyone's right of free speech. All the while we forfeit our right to stand up and defend the one who purchased us with His blood, in the name of political correctness. Ignoring that the one slandered in the status quo of pop culture is the very one whom destroyed sin and the grave at the price of His own life. And yet, we stand aside and allow the world to curse Him and call Him a fool. May God forgive us of our indifference.

What I propose is the reformation of the hearts of American Christians. May we begin to stand in the promise of the freedom of Christ our Lord. When will we begin to listen to James when he says,

"Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does."

Have we forgotten that Christ has called us to "take up our cross" and follow Him? That it was St. Paul that said that he had crucified himself with Christ, that he disciplined his body and set his mind not on the things that are carnal, but that are spiritual so that he would not gratify the things of his sinful nature? Has the open freedom to worship and discuss, with uninhibited passion (or lack there of) about the glory of God made us forget the time when the Church had to hide for risk of death? Have we forgotten the death of the martyrs who would rather face the sting of mortality than the shame of denying the cross?...

May it not be so!

I say to my brothers and sisters that today is the day for our stand. Now is the time that we begin to live what is preached from the pulpit. Not that we would become masochistic or violent, but that we would live the life that Paul described as, "worthy of the Lord." That it would begin with us, the simple few. That we would begin to "SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS". That we would begin to seek the gift GIVER and not the gifts.

Will today mark the end of our confident boasting of Christ and Him crucified?...

By no means!

I tell you that the day of our sterilization has not come! There may be a day when our children will hide in fear of reproach because of their faith, but it is not this day. My fellow Christians, I would call you into action along side of me. Stand with me now without quiver or reservation. May today be the day that is reckoned as the awakening of the American Christian!

-Jeff

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

The Reepicheep in Me...

I have never fancied myself as much of a reader. However, over the last 6 days, I have been completely entrenched in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. And in the seven books, the one character that has struck the chord that resounds most in my own soul was none other than Reepicheep, the Captain of the Talking Mice of Narnia.
There were very few characters in all of Lewis’ works that were worthy of a comparison to the chivalry or bravery of this mouse. And there were none the better in regards to his sense of adventure in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Indeed it was Reepicheep who, upon the hearing of King Miraz’s imminent attack on the Narnians under the leadership of Prince Caspian, was the first to say,

“Hurray! Let them come! All I ask is that the King will put me and my people in the front.”

And in the flight of courage from Edmund, Lucy, and even King Caspian himself, it was Reepicheep that stayed the course and charged,

“If I were addressing peasants or slaves, I might suppose that this suggestion proceeded from cowardice. But I hope it will never be told in Narnia that a company of noble and royal persons in the flower of their age turned tail because they were afraid of the dark… And here is as great as an adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honours.”

And I think that somewhere deep down inside of all men, there is a little Reepicheep in us all. And if it be that such is not the case, I would believe it with all of my being that at some point in every man’s life, there has been a longing for that very spirit.
So how do we men, especially men of God, embrace this feeling of longing for the adventures of old in a world of fast paced living being driven more and more by our ever-incessant cell phones? Have the nights spent under a heavenly blanket of stars in the backyard of our youth been replaced by the taming of our souls to no longer seek out a greater quest than the one we're on? I feel that we are in some great and terrible danger to succumbing to a life of melodramatic office meetings and deadlines.
But there is most assuredly an illustrious venture set before us. As J.I. Packer said,

"What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; what higher, more exalting and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?"

Reepicheep doesn’t inspire because of the fact that I was always the smallest kid in my grade and he seemed to be constantly reminded of his stature as a mouse (even by his friends). Or because as any good son of Ireland (no matter how far removed), I'm not afraid of a confrontation coming to blows regardless of the assurance of victory or the heavy handed foresight of an impending defeat.
Reepicheep inspires me because I should hope that within me, there is a man who would ask to be in the front of a battle for the souls of humanity and the cause of Truth. That there is one within me who has completely sold out to the cause of his Lord and that by all costs would find himself in the unreserved service of his Master.
They say that young men are made for war and old men for peace. And whilst peace is on all accounts more desirable than war, may it be far from me that I should look back on the days of my youth and find myself unwilling to contend for my Savior. All those who have tasted of battle long for the stillness of amity, but those who have found themselves in the service of the great King of Glory find that there is nothing sweeter than to be spent in the service of such a high and noble calling.
1 Corinthians 16:13Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

New posts...

So for the next few days, I'll be posting some of my previous blogs that I have written on my other sites. I'll go ahead and start off with my latest one that I posted just a few days ago on my facebook... The Reepicheep in Me.

-Jeff

Well here we are...

Aloha and welcome to the Urban Squirrels Blog here at blogger.com. I had a friend of mine tell me that I should start blogging, and I figured, what the heck. Why not, right?

So here's the deal... I'm going to start off by posting various blogs that I've already written that I have on my Facebook, Myspace, etc. That way, there'll be one concise place to find all of my randomness. I was gonna call my blog organized chaos, but that's too cliche (and it was already taken). So Urban Squirrels it is.

If you're wondering about the name, I've got to send a big shout out to my buddy Adam who I'm pretty sure came up with it about 4 or 5 years ago in our freshman year of college. We had thought about naming a band The Urban Squirrels or The Narcoleptic Weiner Dogs (way too long for a blog name), but seeing as how we both are too lazy to get stuff done, our band never even had a conception. But no fear, the Urban Squirrels will live on!!!!!!!!!

As far as what I write or the subject matter there of..... only the good Lord knows. Everything in life is under the scope of observation. Whether it be from poetry, to love & relationships (ugh...), to a movie that I saw recently, or a book I read three years ago (slim pickins on the reading deal), or anything in between, have a look for it all.

I'm excited about getting started, and I hope that everyone enjoys. I thrive on feedback, so let me know what you think. Mahalo.

In Christ,
Jeff