Deadly Vipers

I am listening to the audio version of the book "Deadly Vipers: Character Assassins" by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite right now. I've listened to the first three chapters so far. It's really great. The premise is that as a Christian leader, I ought to be living out a life of radical grace, and radical integrity. And there are assassins who try to sneak in and destroy me in the process - such as the assassin of Zi Qi Qi Ren, the assassin of essentially lying to yourself, or presenting a false reality so that everything looks good. This book is written for anyone, but it really catches the ear/eye of guys who, like me, really enjoy martial arts movies. The one statement that has already been committed to memory is from Master Po - "The greatest warrior is the one who has conquered himself."

This reminds me of something I read in an Oz Guinness book on doubting - we need to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves. Essentially these two concepts mean the same thing. When we listen to ourselves, or let our minds run wild, we think of all kinds of doubts, fears, lusts, fantasies, and many other things that ruin our integrity, composure, and grace. This is to allow the assassins to come in and kill. But when we begin to talk to ourselves, speaking out loud the things we know - the words of God, our knowledge from past experiences, our determination, our inner spirit begins to roar and drown out the many whisperings of doubt and enticement that lead us astray. We have eyes to see the enemy sneaking in and we turn on him and defeat him before he has a chance to attack.

But, as everyone who has watched a martial arts movie knows, it is a very difficult thing to master yourself, but it is absolutely essential in defeating your enemy. We must first conquer ourselves.