"If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place."-II Chronicles 7:14

"He who defends everything defends nothing."-Frederick the Great.

      Think about it for a minute. Very few new Christians are picking fights. They're so excited about the joy of forgiveness and the fresh feel of grace they're (sometimes literally) dancing with joy. If they talk about it, it's in terms of release and freedom.

      No, it's those of us who've been around the block a time or two with Jesus who look for fights. Why is that?

      Sometimes, it's because we're tired of the way the world treads on truths we hold dear. Sometimes it's because we've grown arrogant and want to look down our noses at the ethical and spiritual state of the rest of humanity. Sometimes it's because we're cranky. Often it's because we're wrestling with our own inadequacies and we launch attacks at others to throw them off the scent of our weaknesses.

      Whatever the cause, most of the fights we Christians pick with the world resemble that moment in the garden of Gethsemane when the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus. Indignant and emboldened, Simon Peter drew his sword and lopped off an ear.

      Jesus said no.

      We must not seek to conquer the world and its ideas by pressing our standards on them involuntarily, or obnoxiously. Soon enough in eternal history there will be a time for armies, when God calls an end to the folly of sinful rebellion. But for now, we are to be ambassadors (II Corinthians 5:20), seeking to win others to our cause and our Leader through diplomacy and able advocacy.

      It is natural for us to want to fix the consequences of sinful choices, ours and others and our cultures as well. It is right for us to argue for the wisdom of Scripture as the anchor guiding life, liberty and even the pursuit of happiness. But we must remember that Scripture also always teaches that a life lived in surrender to the pursuit of personal holiness holds much more influence than angry words. (See II Chronicles 7:14 above)

      The battle to win the souls of men and women in our workplace and beyond is won or lost by how we comport ourselves. Alexander the Great, coming upon a soldier cowering in fear before a fight, asked the soldier his name. "Alexander", the soldier replied. "Then live worthy of the name," Alexander intoned.