Horse 391 - Dib Dib Dib

A couple of quotes to start today:

"Would you rather have butter or guns? Preparedness makes us powerful. Butter merely makes us fat." - Hermann Goering

I first read this on the inside cover of The Fat of the Land by The Prodigy; thought it was pretty cool and left it at that. I later found out by accident that Goering had said it at a rather big rally before the German war machine swung into action.

"They will attack every defence we have, and to last and not conceed we must above all be prepared" - Jimmy Hogan

Aston Villa had never had a manager or a coach before the 1936/7 season, after a punishing defeat in in the league at the hands of Arsenal when they lost 1-7, Jimmy Hogan was appointed as overseer. It was his principles of sound defence which saw Villa slowly become one of the blue-chips of English football.

"Be Prepared" - The Scout Motto.

We live in a world of uncertainty, moreover we live in a world that is more than ready to tear down everything that it doesn't like. I have never been a Scout but their motto is quite sound: be ready for anything.

Think about it, the world we live in is dying (this is pretty well much self-evident) yet somehow Christians are able to be more grounded, happier and even dare I say joyous in the storms of life. We have something valuable, something which the world doesn't like.
As Christians we're very much open to attack, our lifestyle may very well elicit the why, what and how questions from our Non-Christian friends. Why are we different? What is the source of our strength and hope? How can they experience what we experience?

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect"
- 1 Peter 3:15

The answer to all three types of questions of How, Why, and What, is (get ready for the two most important words in the bible) Jesus and the Gospel. Duh, even 6 year olds learn this in Sunday School.Hear me out here. Jesus is the difference maker; he's our Savior, Guide and Leader. And his message, the gospel, has the power to save us and keep us close to God. That being the case, we need to have a solid and increasingly greater grasp of the Good News. We need to review the basics every day and claim its power. We never outgrow our need for the gospel. More importantly, the world that doesn't like the gospel needs to be told the how, why and what. They demand the answers (sometimes not very nicely) so we should be prepared to give them.