Battles fought By Jesus ~

When Jesus left the splendors of heaven to become flesh (John 1:14), He would eventually encounter many battles. Even though Jesus came to bring peace, He also came to fight the devil and sin. In fact, this was the way His ministry began. For immediately after His baptism where He received the approval of His Father, Jesus was led into the wilderness to face the devil in a battle (Matthew 3:16,17; 4:1-4). Let us consider some of the battles Jesus fought during His earthly mission.
The Battle of Darkness
How disturbing it must have been for Jesus to see all the evil and sin that existed on the earth. Certainly, He had known about this problem while with His Father in heaven, but now, for the first time, He sees it through physical eyes.
As He began teaching, He saw the opposition of evil and darkness on every hand. Jesus was the light of the world, but this was disturbing to sinners. Jesus summed up the situation with the following words: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19-20).
Therefore, just as God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5), Jesus likewise saw a world of sin and darkness. Jesus saw what John later described, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).
The Battle With Enemies
It is true that Jesus experienced some popularity, but as a general rule, He was never free of enemies. There were those who followed Him with the same persistence of buzzards seeking a carcass. Therefore, they made every possible effort to destroy the influence of His words and actions. For example, they made their attacks against who He was, His heavenly messages, and His undeniable miracles.
However, Jesus fought back with wisdom and truth. Just as He had used the sword, the word of God, against Satan during His temptations in the wilderness, He did the same with all His enemies. Thus, He spoke with power and authority (Mk. 1:22).
Finally the time came when His enemies thought that their only option for winning over Jesus was to put Him to death. However, when they crucified Jesus, He won His greatest victory of all. He won the victory over death!
The apostle Paul asked, “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).


“COLLECTIVE WISDOM”
Jerry W. Carmichael

A wise man once wrote: “The collective wisdom of a group is far better than the narrow opinion of a single person.” We recognize this principle in almost every walk of life.
We have all either seen, heard of ,or maybe have even been part of meetings where several in the company met to “brainstorm” for the solution to a problem. As children we have a circle of friends to whom we go for advice. The help of our parents is often enlisted to solve problems that cannot be solved by us alone.
God knows the wisdom of collective wisdom. He tells us things like, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1). In the government of the church He makes it plain that a plurality of elders is necessary to make proper decisions. Paul went about appointing “elders” in every church (Acts 14:23). No one man was allowed to “run the church” and what the eldership decided was final, as long as it violated no other law of God.
The church is like a family. In families, problems are discussed and solutions are the results of everyone having input. The Lord’s church would have fewer problems if we would listen to and seriously weigh suggestions from all the members. In an article in the April 2005 issue of , “The Way of Truth” magazine, Brother Denton Ramsey poses the following two questions to potential elders: “Do you feel threatened or irritable by suggested changes during a business meeting?” and “Do you become annoyed with deacons or the preacher for suggesting revisions and improvements in the system, equipment or procedures?” (Page 20 Questions1 and 2). Brother Ramsey goes on to explain that both of these questions should be answered “no” by ideal candidates for the eldership. The reason being, that it shows them to be team players and not always having to have their own way.
If the church is to survive, grow and most importantly be pleasing to God, we must rely upon the collective wisdom of the group instead of the narrow opinion of one person.