Saturday, October 22, 2011

Bullies, and How to Deal with Them

The new rage in social justice on school campuses is all about bullying.

Yet rather than dealing with specific offenders in a precise manner, schools given over to hyper-equality want to treat everybody the same and act as if the problem of student intimidation is an abstract aberration, one that can be dealt with collectively.

In truth, students who are bullied need to learn only one thing: self-respect, or rather God-respect, which has nothing to do with earning it or demanding it.

Too many activists, students, parents, and teachers, are trying to control the other person. They want other people to stop being disrespectful and start being respectful. This approach betrays one fatal flaw: trying to get something from someone else to everyone of us has already.

The respect each of us is entitled to enjoy comes from God, by the power of the Holy Spirit through Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. When He died, reconciling sinful man to His righteous Father, he cried out, "It is Finished!" By His death, every person who believes on Him becomes not just right, not just righteous, but "The Righteousness of God" in Christ Jesus (cf 2 Corinthians 5:21).

Righteousness implies one thing -- there is nothing more that I must do in my own power. I do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. I walk in the Spirit, therefore I do not satisfy the lusts of the flesh. When I know that I am a child of Abraham, heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, then nothing need ever shake or scare me ever again. I do not worry about preventing abuse, for I know that the Spirit who lives in me gives me the words to counterattack all the wiles of the Enemy. I do not war with flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities, all defeated foes rendered powerless by the Blood of the Cross. Because I am the Apple of God's eye, I do not care what people say.

As long as students and adults insist on trying to get their power and authority from other people, they are destined to fail, living as victims, when Christ Himself became the Victim once and for all that we may reign with Him as Victors for eternity.

When you know that God is with you, that He loves you more than anything that you could do or say or even think, then even the fiercest Giant becomes like a grasshopper in your eyes. David the Shepherd-King slew Goliath because he faced offagainst him in the power and the name of the Most High God. Before that, Rahab the harlot of Jericho assisted the Israelites in taking the city, having already learned with great fear that the Lord had already given the land to His chosen people.

When you know who you are in Christ, and you know that your enemy has no power, then you can never lose!

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