On meditating what duties I have as a citizen of heaven I thought of the military duties for some reason: as citizens of the US, if we are invaded, then we are called to fight for and defend our country and protect each other.
I guess this can apply to our citizenship in heaven as well; life on earth will always be a spiritual battle, and we are called to fight these spiritual battles in order to protect our brothers and sisters who are also citizens of heaven. I have recently discovered that the spiritual battles our brothers and sisters in Christ go through are not often outright attacks by the evil spirit, but rather they are subtle tugs at their heart, tugging them away from God; or even distractions that seem innocuous from an earthly perspective. I also learned that these spiritual struggles can only be made known to each other when we take time out of our day to sit and listen to one another. And we would listen out of genuine concern, and not out of selfish ambition to be the one that has the “inside scoop”, or the one who is the “great advice giver”.
Good thoughts here. I totally agree with your assessment of the subtle things can draw people away from Christ and how we should respond.
Posted by durandal7777777 | April 14, 2008, 5:58 pmI concur as well.
When we know our enemy we are better able to fight him. Our enemy is cunning and does employ more subtle tactics than we might think, twisting our intentions. Yes, many times our falling away has nothing to do with outright rebellion but rather comes from (or at least stems from) subtle (but important) changes in attitude.
I like how you point out that a big thing about spending time together is to help each other identify things like that, not just making mindless chatter. You’ve hit upon at least some aspect of fellowship.
Posted by zoebios121 | April 15, 2008, 3:06 pm