“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed…”  (2 Corinthians 4)

“…I will not be brought under the power of any.”  (1 Corintians 6)

“…so fight i, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into submission….”  (1 Corinthians 9)

“We wrestle not…”  (Ephesians 6)

“O thou that are named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened?”                                                                                                                                                 (Micah 2)

 

 

Reader, It is no secret that I am an observer of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.  I have been for more than thirty (30) years.years and I am in no way embarrassed by it.  I went, as a teen-ager into my early twenties (20’s) every month to Rosemont to see Wrestling. I met many of the wrestlers and spoke to them each month. Boy, do I have stories. For a good “stretch” (wrestling term) I did not sit any farther than the forth (4th) row. I made friends with two (2) guys and each month during intermission, we would take turns  going and buying next months tickets for each other, it also depended on who was to be wrestling after the intermission. It was neat, three (3) strangers made friends around a common interest. I have no idea who or where they are now and that was a mistake. I was a teen and I would get into arguements with the wrestlers at ring side.  I actually spit in a wrestler’s face because he had “turned on America” during the first Bush Sn.’s years as president. I was a kid.

Having grown up, I began training in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu. I have always had a warriors spirit in me. Like David, like Samson, Like Paul.  The quoted Scriptures above are all wrestling or grappling or pancration terms, Paul used in his ministry. He said he was cast down but not destroyed. That is wrestling talk. Paul said he would not be brought under the control of anything, thats wrestling talk for being pinned or submitted. Paul even uses the word, submission when speaking about his internal and carnal or old man wrestling matches.

Jacob wrestled with the Pre-incarnate Christ. David spoke about God teaching his fingers to fight and his hands to war. I could make an argument for a young Jesus ben Joseph learning wrestling as His nation was under the Roman occupation. Romans were big on wrestling in their days. I would even argue that Christ and His disciples had sparring matches…it was the thing in that time. Also Paul speaks of Christ making an open show of those He had put down, during the three days in Paradise.  David is a picture and type of Christ…his fingers fought and his hands warred.  What do you think Christ was doing during His three (3) days in Paradise. Paradise was His war room. Think about it. Look at what older writers say about those three (3) days.

So what does all this wrestling talk have to do with anything? I will tell you as God allows. I am preparing to start a Jiu jitse training regiment and if God allows, I would like to compete on a jiu jitsu team. My trainers are my brothers in Christ and my friends. Their name is Hill. Ron and James Hill. There father is a minister of our Lord Jesus. These men trained me before and I would not want anyone else to train me now. Why would I try to compete at my age? The LORD is my strength…literally, I mean, He enlarges me and He has given me a new and better mindset.  Also, I would like my daughter to see their father compete now that they are of age to know what’s going on. They were toddlers when i was training before. Humanly speaking Jiu Jitsu has been a great part in making me the man that I am. God used that. God does that. God is a Man of War…He said that.

Enough about me. What does any of what I have written have to do with theology or spirituality?

The quoted passages above all speak to grappling. God said in Micah, the Spirit would not be straightened. Straightened or stretched or racked are terms of bending and twisting the body into a point of submission. When Paul says, he was troubled on all sides but were not cast down, Paul is speaking about his adversaries surrounding him and think they have the upper hand because of the numbers game. Paul said, cast down but not destroyed, Paul speaks of being thrown to the ground but not being pinned or submitted. Arguments can be made for Paul being a grappler as well.

So what does wrestling or grappling have to do with our spiritual state or the divine nature we have been made partakers of? We are sainted grapplers in our thoughts and actions. We struggle in our mind over thoughts or ideas. Paul tells us we must bring our imagination and thought-life under the obedience of Christ or one could say, that the unconverted sinner to be a converted saint must submit to Christ.  Peter said he was, apprehended by Christ. that is a grappling term, apprehend your opponent and straighten him into submission. When Christ says in John six (6) that the sinner is drawn to salvation, He uses the Word for Dragging as in dragging an opponent.

We all wrestle with our old man or old nature.  We wrestle with doctrines. We wrestle in our understandings of Scripture. We wrestle with demonically influenced persons all the time, the lost or reprobate…those God has past over and chose you, instead of them, to be His elect in Christ.  Reader, Wrestle with these great doctrines. Reader, wrestle with God in negotiative prayer. It’s okay to negotiate with God….Moses did it all the time.

Reader, wrestle with the doctrines you dislike, but understand God had a great “hold” over His truth. When I first learned by the Spirit about the doctrines of grace or calvinism or sound doctrine as it should be called, I had to wrestle with many of my family and fellow believers into submitting to the truth of Scripture and not “what we have been taught for years.” But this wrestling and this submitting to Truth is Christ-ian liberty by definition, Reader.

Christ is called the “Word” in Scripture. That word, Word can be translated, Logos or logic. Logic is the rigouous training of one’s mind.  Peter said the enemies, “wrested” the Scriptures of Paul. Jacob, son of Isaac…his name means heel holder or heel hook, a submission hold, very painful.

Reader, the saints of God are wrestlers in many meanings of the word.

Godspeed.