WMD or RLW?

How do you defuse Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)? One at a time, carefully.

In 2003 the most powerful military force in the history of the world invaded Iraq looking for WMDs. None were found. The embarrassment for the USA lingers to this day. Even so, WMDs do exist and we would be wise to carefully find them, defuse them and disarm them if they are pointed toward us and those we love.

Where should we look first for the WMDs that most threaten us? We need look no further than the human soul—especially our own. The landscape of destruction across our planet’s history can be traced to individual human souls bent on independence from God’s original plan. The most destructive things that have every happened on this planet happened first as an explosion in a human soul. (see the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4)

The human soul was a gift from God to mankind. As His greatest gift, the soul was originally designed to be a River of Living Water--an RLW. A rebellion turned Rivers of Living Water (RLWs) into Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Humans became explosive and began destroying love on earth. Now each human soul needs to be found, defused and disarmed by Jesus, carefully.

C.S. Lewis describes humanity’s situation in these shocking terms.

“Now what was the sort of ‘hole’ man got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor---that is the only way out of our ‘hole’. This process of surrender—this movement full speed astern—is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self will that we have been training ourselves with for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.” Mere Christianity - The Perfect Penitent.

God in Christ has invaded our world to disarm once and for all the WMDs in the souls of men. Jesus set this finding, defusing and disarming process in motion by giving his own perfect and loving soul on the cross to gain legal, spiritual entrance into all human souls. At Calvary Jesus gained the authority to find, defuse and disarm our destructive souls. Our souls which so easily destroy love are pointed straight at the heart of God because God is love.

God through Christ is willing to disarm my personal WMD, my soul, when I personally repent, surrender and invite Him into my inner life to defuse and disarm me. Through His church and by His Spirit Jesus right now is finding, defusing and disarming human souls one by one, carefully.

When Jesus disarms my WMD He abides in my inner life to keep me disarmed and carefully transforms my soul into a RLW—a River of Living Water. He restores the gift of my soul back to what it was originally intended to be-the delivery system of love. Christians call this regeneration or a re-genesis. A bomb becomes a blessing.

Perhaps we think that our souls are not all that dangerous. Certainly human history tells another story and our own inner thoughts tell a story of what we are capable of if the right buttons were pushed. Given the right circumstances any human soul can wreck havoc where it should deliver love. We may never do all the damage we could do and we may do less damage than most, but we are still just as dangerous as all other WMDs when it comes to destroying love.

Christians believe that this process of disarming WMDs hidden in human souls is the most important thing going on in the world. Even in heaven there is a celebration every time a sinner repents and a WMD becomes a RLW.

That gentle knock on the door of your heart is the invading Jesus. He doesn’t invade you with force. He knocks. Let Him in and He will defuse and disarm you. You really don’t want to see what your soul could do if it really went off, do you? That would be hell.

John 7:37-38
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.