Where Do You Run To?

We lived for a while near Brechin, Scotland. An English friend explained to me that it’s what the British folks call a "cathedral city." That is, if you have a cathedral then you're a city; otherwise, you're just a town! Brechin is small enough that if it weren't for their cathedral you'd debate whether they had crossed from village to town let alone reached city. What makes their cathedral unique is that it incorporates an 11th century round tower into its construction. Standing there looking at it really brought home to me the meaning of Proverbs 18:10, which says:

The name of the Lord is a strong fortress;
      the godly run to Him and are safe.

While this particular tower came rather late in the game we were told that the original idea behind a castle was simply as a place of refuge to flee to when a threat presented itself. You went inside and locked the door behind you and hopefully you had stored enough supplies to hold you until the threat got bored and went away.

But a "strong tower" has another side to it... In 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Paul writes:

We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons,
to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning
and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every
proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.
We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ

Stonghold is another name for one of these towers of refuge. Paul is highlighting our tendency to find places to go to avoid turning to God. Old habits die hard and when there's trouble it's so easy to turn to old (and inadequate) solutions—those places that we're were used to turning before we turned to God. Paul's point is that those things (arguments and pretensions, some translators say Paul calls them) stand between us and realizing who God really is and just what He's able to do.

What would happen if instead of reacting—doing that first thing that comes to mind—we'd pause long enough to capture every thought and teach it to obey Christ? That is, what if we'd go to a real place of safety and peace?

Posted via email from Ferndale Tonight