“Aim towards the Enemy.”    –Instructions printed on U.S. Rocket Launcher

“We have met the enemy and they are ours.”         –Oliver Hazard Perry

One of the problems since the Vietnam War has been trying to identify the enemy.  Is it the person in black pajamas wearing a pair of Uncle Ho’s sandals?  Perhaps it is a boy strapped with grenades.  Who is the suicide bomber?  That was an issue with the kamikaze pilots of World War II.  There would be flight of planes coming at the ship, which one was the kamikaze?  Until recent times it was not hard to detect the enemy.  Now he is more subtle and often pretends to be your friend until too late.
That is one of the cultural issues we are facing as well.  Who are the belligerents?  A few years ago a missionary who served in the Middle East was talking to me.  His family had a servant, a Muslim boy.  They became very fond of the boy and he became almost as part of the family.  One day there came a warning that there was going to be an attack against Americans, especially Christians.  It came to naught, but at the time there was fear.  The missionary went to their “adopted” boy and asked.  “Would you have killed us?”  His reply.  “Oh no, I was going to kill the neighbors and their servant would kill you.”
I see a very severe problem in the church.  We should be fighting the enemy, yet it seems that we are becoming more and more like the enemy.  There was slight change made to Perry’s quotation of victory in the old comic strip “Pogo Pog.”  He made the statement, “We have met the enemy and we are the enemy.”  At the time it was a spoof, but full of truth.  We become our worst enemy when we become cohorts with the ones we are to be fighting.  Look at some of the words from the Apostle John.
“Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you.  For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions.  These are not from the Father.  They are from this evil world.”
–1 John 2:15-16 (NLT)
Yet we sit at the world’s table.  Drink, sup, eat, dance and cavort with the world all the time.  I guarantee if you stand up against the things of the world, they will bristle and snarl, baring their teeth ready to devour you.  Thing is that many in the church will do the same.  How can we become so compromising and so complacent in the face of the enemy?  John further writes, and get this for it is the key verse of 1 John.
“We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the power and control of the evil one.”  (5:19, NLT)
Cavort with the world and you are actually dancing in the arms of the devil.  We are to shun him and the evil world.

“Our forefathers left us a free government which is a miracle of faith–strong, durable, marvelously workable. Yet it can remain so only as long as we understand it, believe in it, devote ourselves to it, and when necessary, fight for it.”      –J. Edgar Hoover

“No free government or blessing of liberty can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent reference to fundamental principles.”      –Patrick Henry

I read a person remark that we deserve to be born with complete freedom. Several little questions came to my mind. First, says whom? Second, why should all people be born in freedom? Third, did someone have to pay the cost? I get tired of people making almost mundane statements without considering what they are saying.
Take this idea of entitlement. What in the world does that really mean? Entitled to what? Education, jobs, a free lunch? Those who make such statements have not figured out that nothing is ever free. I had a student several years back from Helsinki. He said we have clean streets, we have medical, we have free college–then he added, but it is not really free. We also have some of the highest taxes in the world. I wonder what will happen if today’s college students get free education and then go to work. What will they be paying in taxes twenty years after graduation?
Another thing not remembered is the price that has been paid for freedom. Sacrifice in blood, sweat, and tears. Years given by men and women to serve this country to give us what we have. Maybe we should say there is an entitlement for them to sacrifice before they can enjoy the benefits.
There is a cost–look at the words of Henry. There are requirements if freedom is to be maintained. Where does this country now stand in regard to the character he mentioned? And the Christian; the only reason he has an entitlement to eternal salvation is because of the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Freedom, spiritual and physical depends upon sacrifice.

“Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive.”      –Isaiah 24:6 (NLT)