I was telling Tim and Simon of Darrin Patricks message on Jacob, and of the possible reasons he sets forth for Jesus having physically wrestled and fought with Jacob (download here).But this conversation moved on to talk about the many times in our younger days that we wrestled with each other for fun, and some laughs about certain occasions. One of which I find absolutely hilarious;
Gary Bolton, Tim and I decided to take Simon on, who quickly had Tim under one arm and me under the other in headlocks and when Bolty decided to charge head first Simon sidestepped pulling both myself and Tim out of the way to leave Bolty running head first into a wall!
There are many other occasions that I could tell of, like when I decided to wrestle one of the top kick boxers in Ireland, I still remember the pain, or the time when Tim threw me to the floor hitting my tail bone and leaving me without movement in my legs for a minute or two (that was pretty scary), but it wasn't lasting and we continued on!
But in talking of all this mock wrestling we began to burn for a good ol' fight, so we decided a tag team mock wrestle would be good fun. The only problem is, when we decide on a time to suit and meet up for it its myself and Tim against Simon and Junior both of whom are doing martial arts. I think I'm going to get beat and probably feel some pain! But above all, it'll be FUN, and a fun activity that I haven't done for a while!
Isn't it strange how, when a group of guys talk about such things as this something of it tends to get under their skin and cause a desire for it, whatever the sport or activity, a chat about it can cause a longing for participation. And I guess that there's a huge aspect of this in being in Christian community and fellowship talking about Jesus, His glory, His redeeming work, His call and His challenges to us that gets under our skin and can cause a fire in our bellies to be active participants with Him in His ways.
Perhaps we feel some of what the two on the road to Emmaus felt when they said "Did not our hearts burn within us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"
Perhaps we could even draw alongside someone today and talk of the Scriptures and the glories of God in excitement over Christ encouraging them on in the Christian life and in hope that the Spirit will set their hearts on fire over Him?
