MARK

Aug 4, 2016:​
​There is no draft for spiritual warfare. Yo don't get saved and then wait for a notice of draft from God. He doesn't selectively draft people who can be deemed capable for battle. There are no people labeled as "4-F" in God's army.

You were inducted the very moment you entered into salvation via relationship with Jesus Christ. (The key being the word "relationship")

The devil declared war against you before you were even born and takes special notice of you the day you become born again. So there is no draft.

The good news is that God immediately makes  available to you the equipment you need as weapons of warfare in the battles you will face. He has already won it for you. So you just need to follow Him through. You also have angels watching over you. So if you are feeling the "burn," --then rejoice. The devil doesn't want to hurt you..he wants to kill you. If you weren't important to God and God's army..the devil would leave you alone.

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Mark 4:13-20:   And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?  The sower sows the word.  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.  These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;  and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.  Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,  and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ​ But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

"Why did Jesus call money deceitful? It's not what it seems. It's like a fish line that looks attractive to a fish until he gets it in his mouth. When he finds out, by then it's too late. He's been tricked."  --Ralph Doudera ("Wealth Conundrum" p37)

Mark 10:45: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life to liberate many people.”

Coming, as it does, at the climax of a series of statements leading up to it and actually demanding it, this verse is secure against all efforts to make a gloss out of it, malignant skepticism having assailed it repeatedly, its authenticity having "been denied on various grounds." See Cranfield for a thorough and most convincing refutation of skeptical fulminations against this text. We need not concern ourselves with denials regarding this verse, since they are not founded upon logical premises nor supported by any true scholarship, being in lack but the natural reflexes of the unbeliever's inherent bias against truth.

And what a truth is here! This is truly one of the most magnificent declarations in holy Scripture. Its teachings include the following:
(1) This verse gives the ground of the principle uttered in Mark 10:43, "Whosoever would become great among you, shall be your minister." Secular notions of rank and privilege are forbidden in God's new Israel on the grounds that such rankings are out of harmony with the Saviour's own mission to humanity.

(2) "And to give his life ..." The words thus translated were understood by the Jews as applicable to martyrs, and they indicate the voluntary nature of Christ's atoning death. People did not take his life, except in a limited sense, for Jesus gave his life as a ransom for men (John 10:17,18).

(3) "A ransom ..." The Greek word thus rendered denoted the ransom of a prisoner of war, or of a slave. The Old Testament use of the word in the Septuagint (LXX) meant the money a man paid to redeem his life which was forfeit because his ox had killed someone (Exodus 21:30), the price paid for the redemption of the firstborn (Numbers 18:15), or the money by which the next of kin ransomed an enslaved relative (Leviticus 25:51) Thus, the vicarious nature of our Lord's death is eloquently proclaimed by the use of "ransom" by the Saviour in this verse.

"For many ..." This is the same word Paul used in Romans 5:15, and it refers not to any restricted number but to all the millions of every generation who will receive salvation through Jesus Christ. Cranfield said the word carries the meaning of "all."


(5) In this verse, as McMillan noted, "Jesus established himself as the greatest, not because he was the mastermind of some organization, but because he, in his self-sacrifice, gave the greatest gift."


(6) Cranfield, Sanner, and many others have seen in this verse from the words of Jesus the presentation of himself as the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, Jesus' words having a clear connection with Isaiah 53:10,11. Sanner said, "This great passage shows clearly that Jesus knew himself called to fuse in his own destiny the two roles of the Son of man (Daniel 7) and the Servant of the Lord (Isaiah 53)." --Coffman's Commentary