11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
There are evil forces that are aligned against the Church, and we have to be wise to recognize those and take the necessary steps in the Lord to stand against them. Hebrews 12 states:
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
This sounds like a scene out of an action-adventure movie: a man and his wife leave a restaurant, and a car flips - he goes over to the car, pops the airbag and removes the driver from the car. The hero in this story a man named Terry, wrote on X, according to The Christian Post: "The crazy part about the teenager that flipped her car was that without a knife to puncture the airbags to get her out, [an] Indian Rocks Christian ballpoint pen came in really handy to pot the bags, thank you God, all is well even now, Amen..." Indian Rocks Christian is apparently a Christian school in Florida. This incident took place in Tampa.
The article referred to the wife's Facebook post about the accident:
She expressed gratitude for her husband as well as his friend "for springing into action, puncturing the [girl's] airbag, and getting her quickly out of the car."
"By all appearances, she was unscathed, just really rattled, which is an absolute miracle!" she added.
The school is associated with Indian Rocks Baptist Church, where the couple was baptized a few weeks ago. The Christian Post article reported that Terry - Terry Bollea, a 70-year old man, "took to X on Dec. 20 to share pictures and videos from the baptism." But, Terry is better known as a professional wrestler named...Hulk Hogan. The article goes on to say:
One video shows Hogan fully submerged in the baptismal font, while the other shows the wrestler by his wife's side as she undergoes the same experience.
One picture shows Hogan embracing the pastor who performed the ceremony, while the second documents Hogan in a prayer circle with the pastor, his wife and two children.
"Total surrender and dedication to Jesus is the greatest day of my life," he wrote. "No worries, no hate, no judgment … only love!"
While Hogan is newly baptized, he has addressed his faith and Christianity publicly several times throughout his career.
Here is one example that was given:
In 2020, the wrestler reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the implementation of lockdowns worldwide by declaring, "In three short months, just like he did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship."
"God said: 'You want to worship athletes, I will shut down stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centres. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theatres," he added.
Hogan also quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14 in his 2020 social media post about the pandemic.
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
An earlier Christian Post article about the baptism related this:
According to a tweet posted by Hogan in April, the former World Wrestling Entertainment star had originally accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior when he was a teenager.
“I accepted Christ as my savior at 14yrs old, and the training, prayers and vitamins kept me in the game but now that I am one with God, the main event theme of surrender, service and love makes me the Real Main Event that can slam any giant of any size through the power of my Lord and Savior and so it is, even now brother, AMEN!” he posted.
We see public baptisms of public personalities, and certainly we can rejoice at these proclamations. Sometimes it might seem a bridge too far, but we can trust in God working in famous people's hearts. After all, it's been said that water baptism is an outward expression of the inward work of the Spirit in a person's heart. Fact is, no one is beyond being saved by Jesus.
Terry Bollea, er, Hulk Hogan, is a public figure, and by virtue of this declaration, has a responsibility to demonstrate the power of Christ within him. Our responsibility is no less - the Bible tells us that we are not our own, and we are called to humble ourselves before the Lord, so that the power and presence of Christ might be seen in and through us.
Hogan is a professional wrestler - but there is a personal sense of "wrestling" he should be engaging in, just like all of us. The Bible says that we are wrestling against spiritual forces, according to Ephesians 6, and identifies a struggle against sin in Hebrews 12. We can rely on God's strength to walk in the victory won by Christ through His resurrection from the dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment