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| Photo Credit: Sky Sports |
" We won the tie in Barcelona, but everyone talks about Barcelona winning and says we parked the bus in front of the goal. We didn't park the bus, we parked the airplane and we did it for two reasons. One, because we only had 10 men and two, because we beat them 3-1 at the San Siro, not by parking the bus, or the boat, or the airplane, but by smashing them at the San Siro."
That was typical Jose Mourinho, on the back of a dogged, resilient defensive performance by Inter Milan to eliminate Barcelona at the semi-final stages of the 2009/10 Champions League season. Critics came out in full force to condemn Mourinho and Inter's defensive approach to the game and the current united manager, in bullish fashion, delivered a fitting riposte to them. In truth, who could blame him? 3-1 up, playing with only 10 men, away, against Barcelona with more than a hour of normal time to play, playing any other way would spell doom.
Instead, He made Inter park the bus, which is to play with a lot of men behind the ball, limit spaces at the back and defend like your lives depended on it. His tactic worked like a charm. Despite relentless pressure, Barca labored to break Inter down, the normally effervescent Messi was kept quiet, and although Pique managed to score in the last ten minutes, Inter would lose only one-nil on the night but win 3-2 on aggregate. Organized defense triumphed over phenomenal offense.
Not for the first time has this worked and neither will it be for the last time as Mourinho proved again against Liverpool, this time as manager of Manutd. The 0-0 draw at Anfield was largely in part to United parking the bus against Liverpool, with the hosts struggling to carve out clear chances. The plan was basically the same against Chelsea, although after only 30 seconds, the plan blew up in Mourinho's face and failed even more spectacularly over the course of game as Chelsea cruised to a 4-0 drubbing of United. Perhaps parking the bus against a team also known to park the bus has a cancelling effect of the strategy; this could explain why Smalling and co's defending was so shambolic. Generally though, it is an effective strategy, and one Christians would also be wise to deploy when coming against the devil, principalities or people keen to attack their faith.
It is no secret that as Christ seeks to establish his heavenly kingdom, the forces of evil are working around the clock to counter it. They will stop at nothing to disrupt the advancement of his kingdom and this spells imminent danger for the evangelical, disciple-making, righteous, God-loving christian.
The christian must be prepared to erect a strong line of defense, he/she must be willing to park the bus at all cost, because the enemy is on the prowl, ready to attack and he doesn't play fair. Matter of fact, he has a broad arsenal of weaponry to chose from, a diverse range of strategies to deploy and if we aren't on our guard, we will be on the losing end pure and simple.
All it takes is a momentary lapse in concentration, negligence in one single moment and you're defense line is breached(just ask Chris Smalling). The late Jim Rohn astutely stated that everything affects everything else, just the smallest neglect of a discipline, and you have started an infection, insidiously it becomes a disease ravaging your soul where you have lost the said discipline with it a crucial part of your identity.
It applies to the christian this way, on one Sunday you decide to skip church on a whim, suddenly you're skipping it for a couple of Sundays, soon you're not going to church at all. Decide to skip having a devotional in the morning in favor of reaching the office on time, soon your quite time becomes thrice every week, instead of the whole week, in the end, it becomes difficult to read your bible more than once a month in the morning.
Just a small lapse, just a small compromise and your consistency goes. One stare at her body, one look at the raunchy video, one night of passion, one drink too many and you give the Devil a foothold to enslave you to lust, porn, sexual promiscuity, drunkenness. It always starts small. It always starts simple and then he has you hook, line and sinker.
Parking the bus, on a football pitch requires that you curb your natural attacking instincts and line up in defensive tactics. Same thing with the Christian faith. Parking the bus will sometimes require you to repress your natural tendency to focus on your self and your body's desire. Repressing your desire to ogle, to drink, to have sex. This may mean suppressing your desire to live for yourself, to focus just on advancing your career. Parking the bus, to defend your relationship with Jesus may mean saying no to a host of opportunities if those opportunities amount to you being unavailable to serve God, or to fellowship with other believers.
Naturally, we want to be secure, we want to lead a comfortable life but if attempting to secure a comfortable life means saying no to the calling Jesus has for you, no to serving the body of Christ, no to fellowship with other believers, no to using your talents, spiritual gifts and your unique personality to build up the body of Christ; then your defense line is highly vulnerable to an attack that will prevent you from experiencing a deeper intimacy with God. Evil will just use his strategy of distraction, keep you busy on your interests and divert your attention from focusing on God's interests, in the end making you a luke-warm believer or causing you to gradually drift completely away from the faith.
In the book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes how Satan can allow you to experience victory over a temptation if doing so allows you to fall into a subtle but greater temptation or bondage. Busyness, the corporate world does just that. You may not be involved in drunkenness or sexual promiscuity or a double life as you were before but it's even better for the devil, if you're now not serving God, if you're now not witnessing, if you're now never available for fellowship, if you now never have quiet time with God. Why? Because slowly your fellowship and closeness to God through these activities dwindles, and soon, he has you isolated, and weak to submit to him in any way of his choosing.
Isolation leaves you open, therefore parking the bus will demand the opposite and require you to be involved in community. God, made man a social being, it is not good for man to be alone was not just the context for a wife, but the need for a friend, the need for community, the need to do life with somebody,which is especially true for the Christian life. This life of faith requires community, accepting Christ as one's Lord and savior inculcates one into a body of other believers and it is imperative to stay in that body.
Parking the bus, means having a strong emphasis towards fellowship. Fellowship not just being about going to church but also being active in a small group of Christians whom you study God's word with and encourage one other in your walks of faith. The defensive line formed by a group of Christians against evil is much stronger than one put up against a solitary Christian. Therefore, seek fellowship, go to church regularly and enjoy the fellowship of other believers. Be in a small group and share burdens and encouragement, aside from God's word. Have an accountability partner, to whom you should share your progress with Christ and also your stumbling so that you can muster strength to pick yourself up and start again when you fall. Alone, you will just crumble into shame and self-condemnation and the devil will have a field day accusing you primarily by magnifying your deficiencies. Park the bus by being in community and he will have a hard time breaking you down.
Parking the bus is not an option, it's a necessity. Working out your faith with fear and trembling demands it. Scripture's guide to parking the bus comes in the form of Ephesians 6:13-18 which gives us our weaponry to park the bus and stand our ground when evil comes knocking. Starting from the top is the helmet of salvation.
Evil will try to attack your head or mind, and accuse you the moment you slip back to that dreaded old habit, the moment you fall into temptation, he will be filling your mind with doubt, accusing your status as God's child. The helmet of salvation is your defense, salvation is putting your faith and trust in Jesus as the only one capable of saving you from sin, forgiving you for it, reconciling you to God as a result. A genuine confession and acceptance of this from the heart, declared by mouth and action through willful submission to the Lordship of Christ is your helmet and it is a robust foundation even if you fall from time to time. As the parable of the prodigal son exemplified, distancing yourself from God by indulging in sin doesn't change your status as his child, it doesn't take away your salvation as evil tries to convince you it has. Therefore, park the bus with the helmet of salvation and be confident in God completing the work he started in you regardless of the Devil saying otherwise.
Naturally, we want to be secure, we want to lead a comfortable life but if attempting to secure a comfortable life means saying no to the calling Jesus has for you, no to serving the body of Christ, no to fellowship with other believers, no to using your talents, spiritual gifts and your unique personality to build up the body of Christ; then your defense line is highly vulnerable to an attack that will prevent you from experiencing a deeper intimacy with God. Evil will just use his strategy of distraction, keep you busy on your interests and divert your attention from focusing on God's interests, in the end making you a luke-warm believer or causing you to gradually drift completely away from the faith.
In the book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes how Satan can allow you to experience victory over a temptation if doing so allows you to fall into a subtle but greater temptation or bondage. Busyness, the corporate world does just that. You may not be involved in drunkenness or sexual promiscuity or a double life as you were before but it's even better for the devil, if you're now not serving God, if you're now not witnessing, if you're now never available for fellowship, if you now never have quiet time with God. Why? Because slowly your fellowship and closeness to God through these activities dwindles, and soon, he has you isolated, and weak to submit to him in any way of his choosing.
Isolation leaves you open, therefore parking the bus will demand the opposite and require you to be involved in community. God, made man a social being, it is not good for man to be alone was not just the context for a wife, but the need for a friend, the need for community, the need to do life with somebody,which is especially true for the Christian life. This life of faith requires community, accepting Christ as one's Lord and savior inculcates one into a body of other believers and it is imperative to stay in that body.
Parking the bus, means having a strong emphasis towards fellowship. Fellowship not just being about going to church but also being active in a small group of Christians whom you study God's word with and encourage one other in your walks of faith. The defensive line formed by a group of Christians against evil is much stronger than one put up against a solitary Christian. Therefore, seek fellowship, go to church regularly and enjoy the fellowship of other believers. Be in a small group and share burdens and encouragement, aside from God's word. Have an accountability partner, to whom you should share your progress with Christ and also your stumbling so that you can muster strength to pick yourself up and start again when you fall. Alone, you will just crumble into shame and self-condemnation and the devil will have a field day accusing you primarily by magnifying your deficiencies. Park the bus by being in community and he will have a hard time breaking you down.
Parking the bus is not an option, it's a necessity. Working out your faith with fear and trembling demands it. Scripture's guide to parking the bus comes in the form of Ephesians 6:13-18 which gives us our weaponry to park the bus and stand our ground when evil comes knocking. Starting from the top is the helmet of salvation.
Evil will try to attack your head or mind, and accuse you the moment you slip back to that dreaded old habit, the moment you fall into temptation, he will be filling your mind with doubt, accusing your status as God's child. The helmet of salvation is your defense, salvation is putting your faith and trust in Jesus as the only one capable of saving you from sin, forgiving you for it, reconciling you to God as a result. A genuine confession and acceptance of this from the heart, declared by mouth and action through willful submission to the Lordship of Christ is your helmet and it is a robust foundation even if you fall from time to time. As the parable of the prodigal son exemplified, distancing yourself from God by indulging in sin doesn't change your status as his child, it doesn't take away your salvation as evil tries to convince you it has. Therefore, park the bus with the helmet of salvation and be confident in God completing the work he started in you regardless of the Devil saying otherwise.
The crux of our spirituality is our hearts, and so they need a lot of protection. Think of the heart as a computer, a reservoir of data. Think of media, books, people like friends, family being flash disks. It''s hard to think of someone as a flash disk but kindly, work with me here!!! Sometimes flash disks have viruses, sometimes books, media, people carry with them virus-like philosophies, themes, convictions, like bitterness, hatred, profanity, and the like, once they plug in into your heart, in with the bad stuff making your heart corrupt, bitter, perverse. A corrupt, bitter, perverse, unforgiving heart will spew out corruption, hatred, vengeance, bitterness and perversion in thoughts and actions. The breastplate of righteousness parks the bus by choosing to do right regularly and doing right with the help of the Holy Spirit. This may mean limiting contact or access with some people, TV programs, songs e.tc. It may also mean just doing righteous acts- offering help to someone, refusing a kick-back, or a one-night stand, giving to the poor, volunteering at a children's home. Since an action is immanent, meaning as much as you do it externally, it kind of stays with you, and remains internally as a memory. That memory of the action of good, of right is stored withing your heart, the more righteous things you do and choose, the more it is in your heart, the less space for evil and it also enhances your capacity to chose to do righteousness even amidst heavy opposition in the future.
The belt of truth, God's word, God's promises, give you the stability to stand firm amidst shaking principles, relativism and fluctuating emotions, or feelings, especially fluctuating feelings. Our feelings sometimes get the better of us, and out of hurt, anger, jealousy, envy, lust, we end up doing things we later regret. When we park the bus basing our confidence on truth, we are able to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself against the knowledge of God(2 Corinthians 10:5) We are able to prevent evil from swaying us with lies, because of the truth of God's assurances to us.
The shield of faith is our defense against his lies, and works with the belt of truth. An unwavering belief that God is able to do what he promised, a belief in the things he has promised for you, like a job opportunity, a spouse,a house will prevent you from falling to the evil arrows of lies thrown by the evil one, telling you that the only to get these blessings is by compromise.
The sword of the spirit, may be used for attack, but it is also handy in defending when fending off thrusts from the evil. God's word is strong, living and active, (Hebrews 4:12) coming to life at the exact moment you're in need of it when facing doubt and is useful for every good work(2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is the sure and trusted weapon of defense so read, it, meditate on it, memorize it and the devil will just keep firing blanks because of the impenetrable wall of defense based on God's word.
At the bottom, we have feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. What better defense from being consumed by this world than by being eager and rushing to share this gospel of peace. One rushing to advance God's kingdom and usher in eternity will be able to withstand the devil's desire to preoccupy his mind with just living for the here and now.
Last but definitely not least of all, occasions. pray. Pray thanking him for the good. Pray when you need help, Pray for wisdom, pray for courage, pray for healing, pray for self-control.Pray when you're sick. pray when you're healed. Pray for a friends salvation. Pray for more people to know Christ. Pray for God's grace and mercy to bounce off you to others when you're struggling to love them as Christ loved you. Pray even when the cancer doesn't get healed. Pray even when the previous prayers aren't been answered to your liking. Pray for someone who hasn't forgiven you. Pray for those who ill-treat you Prayer is not just praying to get things, it is pouring your heart to God and when you speak to him, he speaks back, not always as you would like but he speaks back all the same, and that's important, because you need his word and you also need his peace which besides transcending understanding, makes it incredibly difficult for evil to shake your confidence in |God.
Barcelona. complained of anti-football tactics, pundits say Mourinho ruins the game as a spectacle with these negative football.the bottom line is that Inter won on aggregate, the bottom line is that we win our fight against the devil and the other principalities even if it means parking the bus at times and in doing it and looking boring to the outside world because our treasure is our faith, and it must be guarded at all costs from the thief.
The belt of truth, God's word, God's promises, give you the stability to stand firm amidst shaking principles, relativism and fluctuating emotions, or feelings, especially fluctuating feelings. Our feelings sometimes get the better of us, and out of hurt, anger, jealousy, envy, lust, we end up doing things we later regret. When we park the bus basing our confidence on truth, we are able to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself against the knowledge of God(2 Corinthians 10:5) We are able to prevent evil from swaying us with lies, because of the truth of God's assurances to us.
The shield of faith is our defense against his lies, and works with the belt of truth. An unwavering belief that God is able to do what he promised, a belief in the things he has promised for you, like a job opportunity, a spouse,a house will prevent you from falling to the evil arrows of lies thrown by the evil one, telling you that the only to get these blessings is by compromise.
The sword of the spirit, may be used for attack, but it is also handy in defending when fending off thrusts from the evil. God's word is strong, living and active, (Hebrews 4:12) coming to life at the exact moment you're in need of it when facing doubt and is useful for every good work(2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is the sure and trusted weapon of defense so read, it, meditate on it, memorize it and the devil will just keep firing blanks because of the impenetrable wall of defense based on God's word.
At the bottom, we have feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. What better defense from being consumed by this world than by being eager and rushing to share this gospel of peace. One rushing to advance God's kingdom and usher in eternity will be able to withstand the devil's desire to preoccupy his mind with just living for the here and now.
Last but definitely not least of all, occasions. pray. Pray thanking him for the good. Pray when you need help, Pray for wisdom, pray for courage, pray for healing, pray for self-control.Pray when you're sick. pray when you're healed. Pray for a friends salvation. Pray for more people to know Christ. Pray for God's grace and mercy to bounce off you to others when you're struggling to love them as Christ loved you. Pray even when the cancer doesn't get healed. Pray even when the previous prayers aren't been answered to your liking. Pray for someone who hasn't forgiven you. Pray for those who ill-treat you Prayer is not just praying to get things, it is pouring your heart to God and when you speak to him, he speaks back, not always as you would like but he speaks back all the same, and that's important, because you need his word and you also need his peace which besides transcending understanding, makes it incredibly difficult for evil to shake your confidence in |God.
Barcelona. complained of anti-football tactics, pundits say Mourinho ruins the game as a spectacle with these negative football.the bottom line is that Inter won on aggregate, the bottom line is that we win our fight against the devil and the other principalities even if it means parking the bus at times and in doing it and looking boring to the outside world because our treasure is our faith, and it must be guarded at all costs from the thief.
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