CAPTURE-THE-FLAG

About 7 years ago in college, I was involved in one of the best games of Capture-the-flag ever! It was pitch black with the exception of a couple of street lights, the moon and a handful of flashlights. We had huge teams with different-color light up necklaces to distinguish our enemy from our teamate. We played for about a solid hour and long story short - we got beat soundly!

Afterwards, we sat around complaning and making excuses for why we lost - but the reason we lost came down to how poorly we defended our flag! See, our offensive strategy to get the other team's flag was fine, but we only had defenders closest to our flag instead of the mid-field and up-field as well! Basically, we didn't pay attention to the threat until it was too late! And we paid for it.

In Matthew 5 verses 21 thru 32, Jesus warns us of the very same thing with how we live. Too often we only pay attention to and defend our bad behavior and not have defenders for our bad thoughts or beliefs - which is where our bad behaviors come from! He is telling us that our first line of defense must be our thoughts!

In 2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul encourges us to take every thought captive and make them line up with how we are supposed to live (or make them "obedient to Christ"). If we dont consider a wrong thought a threat, it will turn into a wrong belief. And if we do not consider a wrong belief a threat, it will turn into a wrong bahavior. And before you know it, its too late. And you will pay for it!

Jesus is so concerned with what is in our hearts because who we are always affects how we behave - everytime!