I have been struck by some thoughts about the incident at the Mount of Olives…when Jesus is with his disciples and a contingent of soldiers and, apparently, some others, comes for Jesus. Judas hands Jesus over. A number of Jesus’ followers are, apparently, carrying swords.

I have been thinking about Peter’s act–his intentions, his motivation, and his misguided notion that a sword was the answer to the problem…and the video below offers some of my thoughts on the subject.

I was reminded in my quick overview of chapter 8 in Thin Within this morning, that this is so like our situation…we have been given weapons with which to fight. But they aren’t the weapons that make “worldly sense.”

What makes sense…the quick fixes of focusing on the food, bathroom scales and so on…these things don’t really solve the deeper issue and can, in fact, make things so much worse. Just as they did for Peter:

For though we live in the world,
we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with
are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments
and every pretension
that sets itself up
against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

The weapons we are called to fight with are not the weapons of this world! They won’t be those of worldly wisdom and what “science” seems to offer! Our weapons have DIVINE power to DEMOLISH strongholds!

Which would you rather, my friend? Hack off an ear? Or DEMOLISH strongholds in your life? 🙂

I know my answer.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.
– 2 Corinthians 4:18