Chapter 7, The Enemy Within (Pt 1)

The flesh's assault of the mind is so critical to fighting the battle against sin that Lundgaard devotes a second chapter to it.

Here, he summarizes that chapter by saying "The job is killing the flesh. The strength we have is the Spirit in us. And God has given us tools to finish the job" (70).

These tools are what he outlines throughout the chapter. However, before getting to them, let me say first that this is another in the long line of tragedies regarding the shallow, image and hype driven, edu-tainment church movement.

A church that does not solidly ground people in the Bible not only robs people of God, the One for whom they were made to be satisfied in, but also keeps them from having the tools to fight sin in order to enjoy Him. No Bible means no sword to fight with, and no armor to be protected by. You cannot hope to survive, let alone thrive as a Christian if you are one of those Christians who "are ignorant of the power of these tools [to fight sin] and how to use them" (70).

Enough of that soapbox. The tools to fight sin are rather simple to say, and hard to implement in our fast-paced, noisy culture. I guess that's why they're called spiritual disciplines.

These are meditation and prayer, namely, meditating on God with God, speaking to Him "as you contemplate him, humbling your soul before him, adoring and admiring him, delighting in him and giving him glory" (71-2).

Second, meditate on the Living Word (Jesus) in the Written Word (the Bible), or, study with the goal of having experiential knowledge of your Savior. Search your heart to make sure that you "never let [this] be your goal to search the Scripture to find a new insight to tickle your hunger for learning or to have something neat to share wieth your small group" (72). As a grad school student in apologetics and Bible, I often fell--and still fall--into this, and need to guard my heart against it diligently.

Finally, meditate on your self in the Word and with God, or meditate with the goal of exposing the secret desires, motivations, and schemes of your heart, "what advantages the flesh has gotten over you, what temptations it has used with success, what harm it has already caused, and what harm it still plans" (72). Ask God to "dredge up the schemes and plots of the law of sin, and drag them into the light of God's presence" (73).