{{2014_11_06_t1.jpg}} {{2014_11_06_t2.jpg}} {{2014_11_06_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2014_11_06|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_vi|| Topics Collection vi ]] ======The good fight ...====== Thursday, Nov 6, 2014. Life can be quite some fight. Humans today fight for many things, for ressources, for food, for land, for natural ressources, for power, for leadership, for wealth, for fame ... We are born as fighters. {{2014_11_06.jpg }} **A different fight ...** The bible uses the image of "fight" to talk about a life of faith. But it is a different fight. But before we discuss this, let us listen to 1 Timothy 6: 11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. (1 Tim 6, 11-16) While humans fight other humans, this fight is with ourselves. It is a fight with our own motives, with our actions, with our words, with our feelings, with our desires. The fight of faith is a fight for faith, a fight to open ourselves to the change which the Holy Spirit brings! It is a fight to be as gentle, as good, as loving, as truthful, as he is. {{ 2014_11_06_2.jpg}} **Ethics and Reality ...** > Some people think that Christian faith is mainly ethics. When we talk about this fight, that might be one of your impressions. It is about behaviour, about motives, about moral decisions as well - thus it is about ethics. But it is much more! This fight takes place in the presence of God. It takes place driven by the Holy Spirit. You cannot be good, without him guiding you. You cannot be full of his love and his peace, without him being a real power and force in your life. Without the spirit entering your heart, your mind and your feelings, there is no way to do what he wants. We are always drawn away. But he is pulling us towards him. The fight between light and darkness which we talk about here is a very real fight between forgiveness and revenge, between truth and deceit, between support and adversity. But it is not a purely human fight - the powers of heaven take place in it. God himself is there to be with us and in us and to support us with his mighty hand. (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_vi|... more texts]]