30 Nov On Mission Warrior (1 of 12)
“Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
– C.T. Studd
November 29th, 2017
OMMA Family,
If your email Inbox was anything like mine, you know that yesterday was#GivingTuesday, which was established as a counter-movement to the consumer-driven#BlackFriday. I think it’s a perfect time to think about the temporal vs. the eternal. 🙂
As I have moved further down this journey we call “life,” I realize more and more how very fleeting and transient it is (James 4:14). At times, things that seemed so important before, fade toward insignificance as the day draws near that I stand alone before the Lord God Almighty and give account for how I spent my life here on earth (Romans 14:12). Other times, when the cares and pressures and worries of this life on earth threaten to entwine my thoughts, my actions and my faith, my eternal perspective dims in the distraction of the things of the world. I am grateful for those times when He is pleased to allow me a glimpse of an eternal perspective, yet other times disappointed with myself that I would ever stray from such a view. So, I press on, plodding forward in all my human weakness, contending through the power of the Holy Spirit against my flesh.
“Life is war. That’s not all it is, but it is always that.” – John Piper
Our enemies in the battle are not always what they seem (Eph. 6:12). The tangible things we sometimes think we are fighting are really representations of what is happening behind the scenes. As one of my old pastors used to say, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but rather, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Our daily fight is against the unseen powers that oppose our King (Eph. 6:10-20), but it is perhaps even more often against the old nature that still lives in us and seeks to rise up and challenge our Spirit-led nature for dominion (Gal. 5:17). We must never overlook this battle, never grow tired of fighting it, and must believe in faith that our Lord Jesus has already won this victory for us, through His shed blood on the Cross at Calvary! One day we will see the ultimate and complete consummation of His victory in us (Phil. 1:6)!
On the surface, On Mission Martial Arts teaches our students and those we interact with in our ongoing activities, how to be physically, mentally and emotionally equipped to defend ourselves from those kinds of possible threats. Our Mission goes way beyond that, though. Infinitely more important and much more challenging to do, is to develop each member in our OMMA Community (Leaders & Instructors included) into an increasingly effective ON MISSION WARRIOR!
There are TWELVE important distinctives that we desire to impart to all of our OMMA students from this document below:
This is our definition of the “On Mission Warrior.” I hope you get a chance to take a look at it today. Think of it as our 2017 OMMA Twelve Days of Christmas! 🙂
Between now and the end of the year, I am going to share a little bit about each one of these 12 distinctives of an ON MISSION WARRIOR. My objective is to share with our OMMA community what some of our deeper goals are and how they integrate with the martial arts training and community we provide. I pray that they will bless and encourage you as we all fight the battle of flesh vs. spirit and temporal perspective vs. eternal perspective.
ONE (1 of 12):
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
(2 Timothy 4:7, NIV)
This is the foundation for all the other aspects of the On Mission Warrior. If you call someone a “warrior,” it implies there is a “war” or a “fight.” The Apostle Paul clearly tells us there is a fight and it’s a good fight. It’s a long fight, likened to a race and it is connected with our faith in Christ Jesus.
Paul knows he will stand before the Lord on that day and he will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master.” (Matt.25:23) Oh, how I long to hear those words from my Jesus, more than anything else I can imagine! Perhaps you feel the same.
To be victorious in this “good fight,” we must search the Scriptures to find out HOW we are to fight this war. In the eleven points to follow, we will break this down and explain how we seek to increasingly build these truths into the fabric of every life in and around our OMMA community.
Thank you for being a part of OMMA. It’s my joy to train in the Dojo with you and also to “take it out of the Dojo” to serve and love others!
Keep Fighting the Good Fight!
Blessings,
Marco
OMMA Founder/Senior Instructor
Yondan – 4th Degree Black Belt
P.S. -Here’s a really helpful article I enjoyed reading on the battle between our flesh and our spirit – “The War Within” –https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-41-war-within-romans-721-25