Tag Archives: The Devil

Bobbing and Weaving

By Ordinary Servant | Published January 17, 2014

After taking a few boxing classes for fun at NYSC from an instructor named Santana. One day I looked him in the eye and said, “I’m going to become a professional boxer now, goodbye.” He stood there dumbfounded.

Courtesy of Creative Commons

I remember the day I walked into Gleason’s Boxing gym for the first time. It was in 1998 and at the time, the majority of boxers were male.

They all gawked at me as I strode in wearing my leopard print tights which matched my wild and untamed hair. I was quite a sight.

I walked holding my head high and ready to conquer the boxing world.

Back then Gleason’s was different than it is today. The air was musky and hung with sweat, the windows were foggy, everything seemed old and worn.

It was an environment I was neither familiar with or exposed to in my life.

So there I was, Ms. Middle Class amongst those who were rough and lived in underprivileged neighborhoods.

However, nothing was going to stop me. I was determined to prove myself as a female boxer.

I remember the day my trainer decided to have me spar with some dude. There were no female boxers around.

I got in the ring, started moving around and practicing my jab. My trainer yelling for me to bob and weave. So I started bobbing and weaving. Then I tried doing an uppercut. I loved those upper cuts, but I wasn’t able to get in close enough to do it.

I began feeling winded. Thankfully, the bell rang because I was dying of thirst. I opened my mouth, for my trainer to give me water. He squirts a little water and tells me to spit it out. I looked at him as if he was out of his mind. There was no way I was going to spit it out. I swallowed it.

The bell rang again. I hesitated. I was exhausted and wanted to stop. The next thing I know, I was keeling over.

I didn’t have my guard up and the guy landed a punch to my liver. There are no words to describe the level of pain.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. One I will never forget. Defense is everything. In the ring and in life. When my guard was down, there was an opening for him to hit me.

I was out of breath, thirsty and my movements were sluggish. My opponent took complete advantage of the situation.

While reflecting back on this incident, I realized the enemy of our souls does the same. He waits for an opening to lodge his onslaughts and attacks on us. If we’re are open, tired or unguarded, he will catch us by surprise which will leave us reeling.

In 1 Peter 5:8 it says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” and Luke 21:34 says, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”

We can’t let him catch us off guard. We have to keep our defenses up by reading the Word and praying. We need to practice bobbing and weaving daily.

Thankfully, we have the best trainer, the Holy Spirit and the best corner man, Jesus Christ.

We are guaranteed to win and promised the victory!

Have you been bobbing and weaving lately?

 

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Just Don’t Do Porn

By Ordinary Servant | Published September 20, 2013

This is what I wrote on my Facebook status yesterday after posting this article.

When I posted it, I wasn’t intending to spark a debate. I was only trying to bring light to the spiritual climate.

I decided to amplify and address my views here as there was an implication about my being judgmental.

Courtesy of Creative Commons.

For the record, I am judging the entire porn industry. I refuse to sugar coat what is.

Pornography is wrong and the entire industry is evil. There is nothing good or wholesome about it. I personally think it’s repulsive and shouldn’t exist at all.

God tells us to discern and judge. Ultimately, God knows man’s hearts and what motivates them.

I can’t imagine God is just sitting back, watching and thinking how great the sex industry is. It must grieve His heart terribly.

The entire industry is motivated by the flesh, carnal desires, sinful lusts and greed.

In 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

It says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Who is the god of this world? Satan.

Who created and controls the sex industry? Satan.

When people say those in the porn industry are victims and don’t know any better. I would have to point them to Romans 2:14-15:

Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.

I could have been a statistic, I had every excuse to do so, but I chose not to.

We all have choices. Every single one of us walking the face of this earth has choices. God has blessed us with the gift of free will and choice.

Those pursuing a career in pornography are aware of the dangers involved in that life. They are not ignorant to what they are doing, which is why a huge majority do drugs.

They sell their bodies as a commodity.

To say, they don’t know anything else, is to lessen them to sub human with no sense of rationale.

They do have choices, but they choose to sell themselves because that’s where they make the most money and that’s something they are not willing to give up. The majority in that industry are not victims as they are choosing to do what they do for the love of money which is the root of all evil. (1 Timothy 6:10)

If they live in America, they also can’t say they’ve never heard the Gospel. This country is inundated with the Gospel all over the place.

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Personally, I find the Christian community wanting to sugar coat everything.

They talk a lot about love, but love is a verb, not just a word. Loving someone is telling them the truth.

But no one wants to hear or speak the truth anymore. Christians don’t want to hear about sin, judgment or repentance.

Christian’s only want to listen to the Joel Osteen’s of the world. They want their ears tickled. (2 Timothy 4:3)

All these ‘feel good’ messages. This is the kind of gospel they want to listen to. It’s a man made gospel, not the Bible.

They pick and choose, they only focus on the verses they like and spit out what they don’t like.

Everything to them is wonderful, beautiful and grand, when quite frankly, it’s not. But, they are either not paying attention or sleeping.

Christians don’t want to speak up anymore, they are afraid of offending or coming across as judgmental. Judging has become a crime now and discernment has gone out the window.

However, by not discerning or judging the time and by turning away from truth, Christians have made a god of their own understanding and thus, the Church has become powerless.

The Church needs to rise up and speak the truth again, so that people can repent, turn away from their sins and be saved.

Time is running out.

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