During the Civil War a Union soldier from Ohio was shot in the arm. His captain saw he was wounded and shouted, "Gimme your gun, Private, and get to the rear!"

The private handed over his rifle and ran toward the north, seeking safety. But after gong only about two or three hundred yards, he came upon another fire-fight. So he ran to the east, and found himself in another part of the battle. Then he ran west, but encountered more fighting there. Finally, he ran back to the front lines shouting, "Gimme back my rifle back, Capt'n. We're in this fight to the end...there ain’t no rear to this battle nowhere!"

I recently visited an inner-city church in North Philly with my boys. The pastor's sermon was taken from Isaiah 52:2, 3  Pastor Smith pointed out the fact that many people in attendance that morning were, perhaps, in wrong relationships out of convenience, or in wrong relationships out of need; but in every wrong relationship, the vulnerable one was being "sold for nothing!" women were giving up their bodies, or being used out of marriage, for a place to live, or some extra money.  Men were connected to women to fulfill desires that were meant to be satisfied in marriage alone.  A woman in that meeting had returned that morning because she received a healing from prayer for her feet when she came to the church for a loaf of bread.  

Hearing the sermon and the testimonies that morning reminded me that there are people all around us, perhaps near us, and maybe it is "us," who are fighting for their lives every day.  Whether it is because of decisions they've made in the past, or because of circumstances, or economics,  they're in desperate daily need, both physical and spiritual.  They're hungry in body and starving in their spirit.  They are living the reality that we are in a spiritual fight for our lives.  There is no safe place from the enemy of our soul.  There is no "front line" and no "rear line," it's just all a battle.  

Those of us who have been in the habit of 'taking it easy;" those of us who have been on R & R (rest and recuperation) in our spiritual lives, have found it easier to stay in the back and ignore the realities and horrors and hardship of battle.  But thank God that there are some who are still fighting it every day, in the trenches, ...no retreat, no running to find the rear, no laying down.   ... But they're in it to the end, "fighting the good fight of faith," and with the help of the Holy Spirit ....pushing the enemy back!

Isaiah 52:10,  "The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God."
 


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