{"id":6231,"date":"2018-03-03T15:01:42","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T21:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=6231"},"modified":"2018-03-03T15:01:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T21:01:42","slug":"the-unseen-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/03\/03\/the-unseen-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unseen Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Andrew Chavarrilla<\/strong><br \/>\nIt is no secret\u2026we are in a fight. Truth be told, it looks like we are losing. For the longest time,\u00a0I have read Ephesians 6:12,\u00a0taking it in\u00a0like\u00a0many other Christians,\u00a0understanding\u00a0we\u00a0simply fight against sin\u00a0every day.\u00a0Today,\u00a0though,\u00a0it\u00a0holds\u00a0new meaning for me because the battle\u00a0we\u00a0face\u00a0right now is cultural;\u00a0based on principles and ideals. It\u2019s the battle of faith against the world. It\u2019s a battle against true evil and darkness. It\u2019s a battle&#8230;that we can win.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nThese\u00a0past few weeks,\u00a0I have felt beaten, bloodied and defeated when I look\u00a0at the world around me. I have not really had\u00a0that whole, \u201cGod\u00a0has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power,\u201d\u00a0attitude\u00a0we read about in\u00a0II Timothy 1:7. To be honest, I have probably allowed the devil a couple of victories here and there because I felt like I\u00a0was\u00a0shouting to the wind. But\u00a0then\u00a0it clicked. I remembered\u00a0a key word in Ephesians 6:12&#8230;BATTLE. Just because we\u00a0are\u00a0promised a victory does\u00a0not mean\u00a0stop fighting. In fact, the Bible teaches the exact opposite.\u00a0For the\u00a0cause of Christ,\u00a0Christians\u00a0must\u00a0fight! If not us, who?<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nMaybe I felt this way because I was\u00a0distracted by a seemingly small victory in Texas for pro-life advocates when\u00a0Governor Rick Perry signed House Bill 1\u00a0banning late-term abortion and putting stricter requirements on abortion facilities. I worked hard lobbying, petitioning, rallying and meeting with elected officials to\u00a0pass that bill. It was a small but wonderful victory to save the\u00a0unborn. Nevertheless,\u00a0the fight was still on and I was too busy to notice. When I\u00a0started\u00a0paying attention again,\u00a0I realized a lot\u00a0is happening to drive\u00a0people further\u00a0and further\u00a0away from God. It seems my native Texas is a hot spot\u00a0(pun intended)\u00a0for immorality.\u00a0I\u00a0learned\u00a0San Antonio is trying to pass an ordinance\u00a0which\u00a0will\u00a0drastically affect preachers and churches not only in San Antonio but\u00a0potentially\u00a0the\u00a0whole\u00a0state.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nRecently,\u00a0I joined\u00a0with\u00a0Jonathan Saenz, president and CEO of Texas Values, and others\u00a0to\u00a0assess\u00a0this\u00a0ordinance and\u00a0extract the truth.\u00a0\u00a0Following the California and Colorado models, San Antonio\u00a0wants\u00a0to adopt pro-homosexual, gender-neutral,\u00a0antichristian legislation. The ordinance,\u00a0at a glance,\u00a0proposes\u00a0several\u00a0things.\u00a0First,\u00a0it would\u00a0require\u00a0gender-neutral facilities in public establishments.\u00a0Meaning\u00a0if a male or female identifies\u00a0with the opposite sex\u00a0he\/she\u00a0will be allowed\u00a0to use restrooms, locker-rooms, showers and changing areas with the opposite sex and,\u00a0as long as\u00a0he\/she is not\u00a0doing anything illegal,\u00a0there is nothing\u00a0we\u00a0can say or do about it. What does that mean for churches? Well,\u00a0if a church welcomes visitors or has any type of material or literature for sale, it\u00a0must follow this\u00a0law or suffer legal ramifications of non-compliance.\u00a0The\u00a0city\u00a0ordinance does\u00a0not\u00a0stop there.\u00a0It\u00a0also\u00a0seeks to\u00a0ban\u00a0any elected official from demonstrating by \u201cword or deed\u201d any disapproval to the LBGT community,\u00a0including\u00a0attending\u00a0a congregation\u00a0which\u00a0embraces\u00a0the\u00a0biblical\u00a0view that homosexuality is wrong\u00a0because\u00a0attendance would,\u00a0by \u201cdeed,\u201d\u00a0expose\u00a0his\u00a0feelings\u00a0on\u00a0the issue.\u00a0As if that were not enough, the draft\u00a0goes on to limit any civic employment, interaction or permit eligibility for\u00a0any Christian business or faith-based organization that by word or deed disagrees with homosexuality.\u00a0(For\u00a0the complete\u00a0ordinance visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.txvalues.org\/\">www.txvalues.org<\/a>)<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nIn light of this,\u00a0although\u00a0some victories are\u00a0noteworthy, we must not slumber. The battle is not over! In fact,\u00a0it seems\u00a0the devil is on full attack now\u00a0more than ever. What can we do to fix our problem and battle like good soldiers of Christ? Simply put, let your voice be heard.\u00a0Call,\u00a0e-mail and write your elected officials when things like this come up in your area and tell them to stand for truth. Tell them to stand for God. If Christians do not speak up now,\u00a0we allow the devil to win. Do not be complacent\u00a0in knowing we have the victory\u00a0because the Word is clear;\u00a0we must battle. We must rebuild the faith\u00a0of\u00a0our nation and be silent no more!\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Andrew Chavarrilla It is no secret\u2026we are in a fight. Truth be told, it looks like we are losing. For the longest time,\u00a0I have read Ephesians 6:12,\u00a0taking it in\u00a0like\u00a0many other Christians,\u00a0understanding\u00a0we\u00a0simply fight against sin\u00a0every day.\u00a0Today,\u00a0though,\u00a0it\u00a0holds\u00a0new meaning for me because the battle\u00a0we\u00a0face\u00a0right now is cultural;\u00a0based on principles and ideals. It\u2019s the battle of faith against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,66],"tags":[1431,1432,22,1413,1433],"class_list":["post-6231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-think-excerpts","tag-americas-faith","tag-andrew-chavarrilla","tag-homosexuality","tag-september-2013","tag-texas","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Unseen Battle - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/03\/03\/the-unseen-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Unseen Battle - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Andrew Chavarrilla It is no secret\u2026we are in a fight. 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