Can you hear the battle cry?

It’s an all out war! The sounds of battle fill the air. The big guns are out and the heat is on.
It’s an invasion! We are under attack. We are pounded on every side by heavy artillery. To scamper or to fight? We ask. This battle is one of old, but again, it seems all new. For the enemy has employed new skill, new tact, and is relentless as ever!

It’s the battle for youthful righteousness! It is a contest against those who would be young soldiers of Christ and young heralds of righteousness. It’s an attempt to trash young, budding lives. Is anyone winning? We ask. The enemy seems to triumph right and left. Both strong and weak continue to succumb to grievous injuries. Falling away, conceding defeat. Even those who have walked many a mile commendably seem to fall into sudden manholes.
It’s the battle for our souls. The enemy seems convinced that he has us against the wall. He is poised to deal a fatal blow. Perhaps we must duck, like one young harpist did when a spear was suddenly hurled at him.
Who is he who thinks he stands? Is he not the same that is sternly warned in the Book of books, to “take heed lest he fall?”
The predator of our souls is out hunting.

Have you not seen how he tricks even the wisest, and how he trips even the strongest? Have you not felt his malicious powers tugging at your heart, pulling you towards what the Master has so profoundly forbidden?
Can you argue that this cunning, slithering serpent of old has not preyed upon you in one instance, or another?
True, he picks his choice weapon and employs it with devilish zeal.
In our wake, he seems to have picked the arrows of sexual sin. He bends the bow of deception and launches them abroad. And look, how many he has skewered through with this lethal darts.
Inarguably, sexual sin has evolved. Lust presents itself, in versions previously unknown. The quicksand pits of lust are all around us, like live land mines infesting the ground on which we tread. It is a treacherous walk everyday. Woe to him who would walk without caution, for a single misguided step may well be his detour to doom.
And yet even more astounding, is the fact that many a young man and woman continue to trudge on unsuspectingly. Oblivious of the lurking danger. Alone, exposed and easy prey! Not knowing that the predator stealthily stalks, ready to pounce and to devour.
We must flee lust and sexual sin. We must dodge and duck under divine cover. Like young chicks we must seek cover beneath our Masters wings. We must find divine direction through the maze of young life everyday!
However enticing, however luscious, however sumptuous, however alluring sexual sin may be, we must remember that it is the bait that would lead to the capture of our very souls.
We must not only avoid sexual sin, but give it a wide berth on our path. Whether in fantasy or reality, we must decidedly steer well off it.
How much easier this would all be, if this battle was merely against an enemy without. Far from that, we struggle, also, against one who indwells. This is the desire that so dwells within, that it is characteristic of human life. It is then terribly unfortunate that such inherent and legitimate desire is often the ground for heart breaking sin. We must hold our desires in check. We must harness the flesh. For the flesh makes a terrible master!
Undeniably, we have grown more tolerant to occasions of indulgence. Usefulness has resulted in the lowering of our guards. What we considered detestable yesterday no longer seems as terrible today. What we peek at today, we will stare at tomorrow. The dial of morality in society continues to dip unbelievably.
And yet, we are called to stand out. We are called to live by standards unknown and inconceivable to a dying world. We are called to follow the footsteps of the Master, who was “in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”. Are we not those of whom it is required to “mortify the deeds” of the flesh and to “crucify the flesh daily?” Didn’t the Master say “we must take up [our] cross and follow [Him]”?
Young man…young woman, do you hear the battle cry? Will you take up arms and fight? Will you fight for morality? Will you choose today to reform your ways and to be transformed by the renewing of your mind? Do you indeed “reckon yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ?” Do you believe him that said, “our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin?”
I hear voices all around. There is a deafening roar as the monstrous enemy charges forward. I hear the muffled groaning of young men and women crying for deliverance. But there is one voice whose ambience fills young hopeful hearts. This voice says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.When you hear the battle cry today, choose to fight the good fight. Choose to say a resounding no, to all manner of sexual immorality.
1 Cor 10:12
Heb 4:15
Rom 8:13
Mrk 8:34
Rom 6:6
Rom 6:11
Rom 12:2
Eph 5:3
Heb 13:5
The flesh makes a terrible master!