A DAILY BATTLE FOR THE SOULS OF MEN & WOMEN

One of the life principles that has been on my mind lately is to always leave wherever I am a better place, and whomever I interact with in a better spirit, because I demonstrated the love and grace and joy of the presence of God in my life. I have been working on smiling more, being in less of a hurry, taking time to listen to and speak with people. So it was today when I stopped at Chipotle for dinner. The young girls behind the counter were tired, tattooed and pierced. Their young lives were already hard and dreary. I wanted to get them to smile and tried to be kind and encouraging (my wife would approve - she has a real heart for being kind to waitresses). They perked up.

I looked at the nasty tattoo on one of the arms, peeking out from under the shirtsleeve a girl who looked like she was still in high school. I realized that Satan and his deceitful henchmen are out there seeking to indelibly brand people with life issues that keep them away from Jesus. Jesus wants to indelibly brand us with His Holy Spirit, the seal of our salvation, the downpayment on our eternal inheritance in His kingdom.

Everything in life: media, friends, family, school, work, recreation, health issues, government, politics, advertising, propaganda, emotions, desires, media, and more media; will either push us in one direction or the other. We will either move closer to Jesus Christ, coming to know Him and love Him and live for Him, or we will move away from Christ and closer to the enemy of our souls. We never know how long anyone has in this battle. Who will be the victor of the soul? We never know how many opportunities anyone has to trust Jesus or to get locked into trusting anything but Jesus.

I left Chipotle determined to stay in the battle, pursuing and loving Jesus, and seeking to attract others to Jesus, to the truth, to hope, to purpose, to peace despite circumstances, to eternal assurance that is based on what Jesus Christ has done for us. May we fight fiercely and joyfully in the battle, knowing that we do not fight alone. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.