Seven Nation Army

Ah, my title; what do you think of when you see my title? Maybe you have some music culture behind it and you just burst out in song; something to the extents of, "a seven nation army couldn't hold me back". Well I can't say that I didn't get my inspiration for the choosing of my title from this song. It did play a part in choosing it, but what is my title relating to, what lays behind just the first layer of detail? I can tell you that it isn't from the original meaning of this song; seeing how Jack White, the lead singer of the band White Stripes, got the inspiration of this title because he used to call the Salvation Army, the seven nation army.

Now that you know this interesting little tid-bit that I picked from a little thing called Wikipedia, we shall move on to bigger and better thoughts. Aside from the meaning in the context that the song VH1 proclaimed as the 75th greatest hard rock song of all time did, also learned on Wikipedia, put the phrase "seven nation army" in, what does it mean to you? How do you picture a seven nation army? I personally see thousands after thousands of well-trained, well-disciplined, and well-equipped men that are marching across battlefields with one purpose, to mow over any contender that dares rise up to such a nightmare. You may see some image from personal experience, such as our friend Jack did. As everything else in the world seems to be, you can look at this simple phrase in countless ways.

However, say the world was perfect and everybody looked at everything with the same meaning and context; we are finally on the same page, maybe, depends upon how you look at it. TEHE. Moving on. So, say you do see a literal seven nation army coming towards you, many people would say "See ya" and then scram like a few cowardly muts, but say you are feeling brave and have a mind for inquiry on this particular day. Now your standing there examining the faces on them, you become scared because you see they all have straight faces, much too like robots; they approach and accomplish the goal, to mow you over. They had a conformed goal that they all wanted to accomplish it and went about the right way to do so. Let's do a REMIX to this same situation. As you look is their faces this time you see them laughing at the thought of them coming up against you; as they approach this time, somehow you grow a sword in your hands and you proceed to mow them all down. Somewhat of "300" thought, yes?

Well, most people in the world wouldn't stand up to a seven nation army. All to the thoughts of that well, there are thousands of them, and one of you. Well now do a 180 degree turn to this. *WICKA WICKA WHAT????* Actually, if I was in this situation, I'm not alone. I have my Almighty Creator. So therefore, that makes two of us. Even though I probably wouldn't make it through the battle, WE still win, anyway it turns out WE win. How do I figure? Well David was one person, and he might as well should have fought a seven nation army, because the dude he was fighting was BAD to the BONE. With such force, comparible to a seven nation army, if not, then six. But he stood up to him anyway and ended up winning in the end. Also say that Goalith wasn't an actual man, which he was, he was in fact a bump in the road.

Now we really are on the same page, I'm hoping at this point. So this seven nation army I've been babbling on about for a few paragraphs now is simply a rough patch. It doesn't seem so intimidating now, we've broken down something much more simple. However, as a Christian and well, someone who resides on this planet, I know that a small rough patch can get me out of my groove and onto thin ice. Where I can easily fall through and distort my values and make some mistakes that can ruin my life and my purpose.

We look at this battle and see the aspect as a whole, we don't see the little things in the middle that could make us break. If we look at a seven nation army and see the thing as a whole, it doesn't seem as intimidating; when you look at it close, you see what each man can do and the individual stregth that comes together as a whole and who could end up taking you down.

Today at church, a man, who's name I do not quite yet know, took the place of my dear friend Pete and delivered a devotional-type presentation on spiritual warfare. Yes, now you can clearly see the roots of my thoughts.* dun dun dunnnnn* He did a wonderful job of compiling and explaining numerous verses on what spiritual warfare encompasses, what Satans role is in it, and then how God helps you through such times. He was the contractor to my house of thoughts for the time-being, I move alot.

Well anyway, one of my favorite parts of the Bible came up in the midst of all these verses. Where the Bible stimulates more of mental image for those "suiting up" for "battle". This of course is the armor of God. I love the thought of putting on each individual peice and heading off to war, in the Army of God. It somehow pumps me up to go throughout my day building myself and others to Christ. I hope now you experience this same sensation because I don't know much better; it's as good as it gets.

I guess for someone my age that is in the same situation as I am, our war is about to start. School is rolling up to the events on the calendar. I love learning. It's one of my favorite things to do. I'm constantly in search of something for me to learn. However, school is my biggest source of Earthly troubles. There are kids everywhere, that just thrive on being disrespectful to teachers and rebbelling against all authority. This I find ironic because the definition of rebel is to go against something and be different basically. Well now that now that everyone if rebbelling, nobody is different anymore. So basically anyone who is respectful to this authority are the ones who are actually rebbelling. Congratulations, population of the World.

Anyway, the people that strive to acheive this, which is nothing, drive me to slip and do something out of character. This causes me to lose all grip on any chance of talking to people about Christ and what I believe because they want nothing of what I'm obviously doing because it's exactly what they do in this situation. This is not anywhere close to what I personally want to achieve. So I have to make sure that I am spiritually ready for such occurances. Which, with all the homework and trying to get sleep, while also trying to have somewhat of a life, I can easily just skip my regular time of day when I study and just ponder different aspects of Christ. Little by little, skipping this time will lead me to stray from my path. Ruining my base of my relationship with God. This being my defeat in my war.

Now to put some good to this. If I do remain in my time alone with God, receiving what he wants me to, my armor doesn't fall off. It recieves upgrades as I grow in my relationship. So I guess what this really leads down to is as you go on about your life, you run into these little bumps or seven nation armies cling to God, keep on praying, and trust in the Lord, your God. You will be awarded with a rewarding life and the joy of praising Him. and hopefully strong enough armor to make your way through a seven nation army.

Being a Mature Believer

I'm currently reading this book that has insight on how you should go about studying the Bible. In this book, one the first things that it explains is that sometimes you have to rely on more mature believers to understand passages of the Bible. At the time my brain registered this statement, it created a freeway of thoughts exploding through my mind at a million miles an hour; all creating the question of, what makes a believer mature?

Now that I have you on my freeway of thought, I shall explain what I believe to be a secure answer to this somewhat vast category.

There are many people out there that will tell you a mature believer is someone who has studied the Bible more than you; therefore, when it comes down to it, someone with more knowledge on the Bible than yourself is a mature believer. Other people will tell you a mature believer is someone who has experienced more than you; therefore, a mature believer has had more experience.

As I sat there and thought both of these viewpoints through I came to a conclusion that they were both wrong.

In defense of those who believe more in the Bible category, you must know the Word to fully know what you believe. However, a number of the stories in the Bible have more of an applied meaning to them, rather than listing rule after rule for the duration of the books within. Therefore, you must be able to apply something to that passage to fully utilize it; which helps if it's in the personal realm.

I realized this then, that to be a mature believer you must be able to reveal the glory of God through experience and apply it through your life with the Bible. AKA both of these categories I have explained. Wahlah.

P.S. If you have any other categories or insight to this, please leave me a comment explaining.