Rise and Rise Again Until Lambs Become Lions Original Source

March 18, 2022 Post a Comment

Rise and rise again until lambs become lions1
There is a line in the motion-picture show, "Robin Hood" (2010), starring Russell Crowe (as Robin Longstride a.k.a. Robin Hood) and Cate Blanchett (every bit Lady Marion) that is etched in Robin's retention from childhood. Thinking that his father had deserted him as a very young child, he learns as the movie unfolds that the line was said past his male parent, who also carved it into a stone. Eventually Robin learns from 1 of his male parent'southward now elderly friends, Sir Walter Loxley (father-in-law to Lady Marion) that his begetter was actually beheaded when Robin was a child of about half dozen years onetime. This scene is bachelor on YouTube at the post-obit link. In the clip, Robin learns that his father was non only a stonemason, merely a visionary, who believed that "kings have a demand of their subjects, no less than subjects have a demand of kings" (quote from YouTube clip). He believed in the rights of all ranks from businesswoman to serf, and thousands took upward his cause. A charter was created by his begetter with the signatures of many barons who believed in his cause; however, the king did not. When the king'south men showed up to go the charter with the names of the barons from him, he refused to requite it to them, and he was beheaded. The following line stated past his father became the rally cry of the move and was carved in stone:

Rising and rise again until lambs become lions.

When later asked by his comrades what it meant, Robin said that it meant "Never give up."

Every bit groundwork information, a plot of the movie follows (Source: Wikipedia):

In 1199 A.D., Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is a common archer in the ground forces of King Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston). A veteran of Richard'south cause, he now takes part in the siege of Chalus Castle. Disillusioned and war-weary, he believes the King when invited to give an honest view of the war; later on Robin gives a frank but unflattering appraisal of the Rex'south carry, Robin and his comrades – archers Allan A'Dayle (Alan Doyle) and Will Scarlett (Scott Grimes) and soldier Little John (Kevin Durand) – find themselves in the stocks.

When the Male monarch is slain during an set on on the castle, Robin and his men decide to costless themselves and desert. They come up across an deadfall of the English language royal guard by Godfrey (Mark Strong), an English knight who has conspired with King Philip of France to electrocute Richard. After chasing off Godfrey, Robin decides to accept reward of the state of affairs by having his men impersonate the expressionless English knights to return to England. Every bit they depart, Robin promises one of the dying knights, Sir Robert Loxley (Douglas Hodge), to render his sword to his begetter (Sir Walter Loxley) in Nottingham.

Upon arriving in London, Robin assumes the identity of the slain Loxley to inform the royal family unit of the Male monarch's death. He witnesses the coronation of King John (Oscar Isaac), who orders harsh new taxes to be collected, dispatching Sir Godfrey to the North to practise so – unaware that Godfrey will instead use French troops to stir up unrest and create an opening for Philip to invade England.

Robin and his companions caput to Nottingham, where Loxley's elderly and blind male parent, Sir Walter (Max von Sydow), asks him to proceed impersonating his son, to prevent the family lands being taken by the Crown. Loxley'southward widow, Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett), is initially cold toward Robin, but warms to him, when he and his men merrily recover tithed grain for the townsfolk to plant.

Godfrey's deportment have incited the northern barons, who march to meet Male monarch John. Speaking now for Sir Walter, Robin proposes the King agree to a charter of rights to ensure the rights of every Englishman and unite his land. Having realized Godfrey's deception, and knowing he must meet the French invasion with an army, the King agrees. Meanwhile, the French marauders plunder Nottingham. Robin and the northern barons arrive and stop Godfrey'due south men, but not before Godfrey has slain the blind Sir Walter.

As the French begin their invasion on the beach below the Cliffs of Dover, Robin leads the united English army confronting them. In the midst of the boxing, Robin duels with Godfrey, who attempts to kill Marion and flees earlier Robin finally pierces him with an arrow from afar. Philip realizes his plan to divide England has failed and calls off his invasion. When Male monarch John sees the French surrender to Robin instead of himself, he senses a threat to his power. In London John reneges on his hope to sign the charter, instead declaring Robin an outlaw to be hunted throughout the kingdom. The Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen) announces the prescript every bit Robin and his men abscond to Sherwood Forestwith the orphans of Nottingham. Marion narrates their new life in the greenwood, noting that they alive in equality every bit they right the many wrongs in the kingdom of King John. (Quote source hither.)

There is also one other character not noted in the plot higher up past the proper noun of William Marshall (William Hurt). "When Male monarch Richard died childless in 1189, William (function of the regency appointed by King Richard to govern in his absence) supported the succession of John, and once again was welcomed to the court of a ane-fourth dimension adversary and new king. William soon had a falling out with the new king, merely in spite of this he would abet on the side of John against the other barons in the issuance of Magna Carta in 1215." (Quote source here.) He was as well a friend of Robin'due south father and was witness to his male parent's beheading.

When Robin told his comrades that the proverb, "Rise and ascension again until lambs become lions," meant that they should "never surrender," it immediately brought to mind what Jesus told his disciples in the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-viii, specifically in verse 1 which is a lead-in to the parable:

So Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should e'er pray and non give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

"For some time he refused. Only finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will come across that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come up and attack me!'"

And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust estimate says. And will not God bring nigh justice for his chosen ones, who weep out to him day and night? Will he go on putting them off? I tell you lot, he will see that they get justice, and apace. All the same, when the Son of Human being comes, will he notice faith on the earth?"

I found the following comment that was posted on "Bibleornot.org," from a guy ("stevec828") who watched the picture and stated the following:

I but saw the Russell Crowe, Ridley Scott movie Robin Hood, and this quote was a transforming maxim that Robin Longstride, a.k.a. Robin of the Hood, learned every bit a boy and remembered as a man.

"Rise and ascension again until lambs become lions." – Robin Hood the Picture show, 2010

When asked past Fiddling John and Will Cherry-red what this saying meant, Robin Hood explained something akin to Winston Churchhill, and to our American founding fathers. Information technology means never give upwards for the cause of freedom, never, ever give up. Rise, and rise once more, until the docile lambs go acquisition lions.

While this is not a quote from the Bible, there are some spiritual overtones most perseverance, and fighting the good fight. Get a lilliputian deeper and you could think about the cause of liberty and how it is worthy for one to lay down his life for it. In the movie, Robin Hood's father died in defense of it. In the Bible, Jesus Christ lays downwardly his life and so that all mankind could be gear up costless, i.e., set at liberty (Isaiah 61:1).

Go fifty-fifty deeper, and we can connect this to the conservancy procedure of existence born again, and how God remolds us and reshapes us over and over once again until we become what he has intended us to be. This is especially truthful for those He has called into the ministry and positions of leadership within the Church. Consider the Apostles, starting out as fishermen, tax collectors, etc., little lambs following Christ for three years but afterwards the infusion of the Holy Ghost, they become lions for the Gospel.

Go fifty-fifty deeper, yes nosotros could proceed and on, and consider Jesus Christ Himself. He was a Lamb led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7), who laid downwards His life, only to rising on the third 24-hour interval. I solar day he volition come once more, in essence, rising again out of Heaven to bring judgment upon the earth. And in this second coming He is coming as the Lion of Judah. Rise, and rise once again until the Lamb becomes the Lion (Revelation 5:5, Revelation nineteen:11-16).

OK. Reality check. It'southward just a quote from a movie. And so what's the point? The point is that inside many inspirational quotes we can discover, or be inspired to find, truth from the Word of God. Fifty-fifty in the simplest of things, like a bract of grass, or ant walking across a sidewalk, or a line from a movie, we can find lessons out of the Discussion of God.

The Word of God is all around us, if we simply open our eyes to see it. (Quote source here.)

sacredseculardivide This statement is something that I, too, accept discovered especially in these past six and a one-half years since I lost my job in Houston. We often tend to put what we think of God inside a box of our ain making. We accept a peachy tendency to divide the "sacred" from the "secular" and while there is definitely a sacred sphere to our worship of God, He is, indeed, non limited by our ain thinking and can be found, as the writer of the comment above stated, "even in the simplest of things." And in the almost profound of things, as well.

One of the areas that seems to rankle a number of Christians is when supposedly "secular" things are equated, or brought alongside, with things that they consider to be "sacred." The "secular" things just don't seem to fit in with their world of "sacred." In other words, they carve up their lives into "sacred" and "secular," and "never the twain shall meet." A.W. Tozer(1897-1963) wrote about this very dilemma in his classic book, "The Pursuit of God," Affiliate ten:

One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the mutual habit of dividing our lives into two areas, the sacred and the secular. As these areas are conceived to be apart from each other and to be morally and spiritually incompatible, and equally we are compelled by the necessities of living to be always crossing back and forth from the one to the other, our inner lives tend to break up so that we live a divided instead of a unified life.

Our trouble springs from the fact that we who follow Christ inhabit at once 2 worlds, the spiritual and the natural. As children of Adam we live our lives on globe subject to the limitations of the mankind and the weaknesses and ills to which human nature is heir.

Merely to live among men requires of u.s. years of hard toil and much intendance and attention to the things of this globe. In sharp contrast to this is our life in the Spirit. In that location we enjoy another and higher kind of life; we are children of God; we possess heavenly status and enjoy intimate fellowship with Christ.

This tends to divide our total life into two departments. We come unconsciously to recognize 2 sets of actions. The first are performed with a feeling of satisfaction and a house assurance that they are pleasing to God. These are the sacred acts and they are unremarkably thought to be prayer, Bible reading, hymn singing, church building attendance and such other acts equally spring directly from organized religion. They may be known by the fact that they take no direct relation to this world, and would have no meaning whatever except every bit faith shows us some other earth, "a house non made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

Over against these sacred acts are the secular ones. They include all of the ordinary activities of life which nosotros share with the sons and daughters of Adam: eating, sleeping, working, looking after the needs of the trunk and performing our dull and prosaic duties hither on earth. These we oftentimes practice reluctantly and with many misgivings, often apologizing to God for what we consider a waste of time and strength. The upshot of this is that we are uneasy near of the time. We go about our common tasks with a feeling of deep frustration, telling ourselves pensively that there'southward a better day coming when we shall slough off this earthly shell and be bothered no more than with the affairs of this world.

This is the old sacred-secular antithesis. Almost Christians are caught in its trap. They cannot get a satisfactory adjustment between the claims of the two worlds. They try to walk the tight rope between ii kingdoms and they notice no peace in either. Their strength is reduced, their outlook confused and their joy taken from them.

I believe this situation to be wholly unnecessary. We have gotten ourselves on the horns of a dilemma, true plenty, but the dilemma is not real. It is a creature of misunderstanding. The sacred-secular antithesis has no foundation in the New Attestation. Without doubt a more perfect agreement of Christian truth will evangelize usa from information technology.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our perfect example, and He knew no divided life. In the Presence of His Father He lived on earth without strain from babyhood to His expiry on the cross. God accepted the offer of His full life, and made no distinction between i human activity and another act. "I do always the things that please him," was His cursory summary of His own life as it related to the Male parent. Every bit He moved amongst men He was poised and restful. What pressure and suffering He endured grew out of His position every bit the world'due south sin bearer; they were never the result of moral incertitude or spiritual maladjustment.

Paul'due south exhortation to "do all to the glory of God" (I Cor. ten:31) is more than pious idealism. It is an integral part of the sacred revelation and is to be accepted as the very Discussion of Truth. It opens earlier us the possibility of making every deed of our lives contribute to the glory of God. Lest we should exist besides timid to include everything, Paul mentions specifically eating and drinking. This humble privilege nosotros share with the beasts that perish. If these lowly animal acts can be and so performed as to honor God, and then it becomes difficult to excogitate of one that cannot. . . . (Quote source and complete chapter are available at this link.)

Tell the World Lacrae Tozer, of course, died before Postmodernism (see blog post titled, "Say What? Every bit in Postmodernism") when it'south "truth is relative" message came into total swing, simply his words still ring true. In an article titled, "'Sacred-Secular Divide' Hinders Christians From Impacting Culture, Says Lecrae" (2012), published in CP Church and Ministry, Christian hip-hop vocalist Lecrae (Lecrae Moore) talks "about the subject area of engaging American civilization in a non-typical, yet Christian way in lodge to farther the Gospel." Hither is what he had to say:

"I remember we don't appoint culture because we're scared. Nosotros don't want it corrupting our kids. I think we're scared because ultimately we're nevertheless caught up in a sacred-secular divide," said Lecrae, who is also a ministry building leader, to a crowd of more 2,000 church leaders Th at the Resurgence Conference (in 2012) at Mariners Church in Irvine, Calif.

"We are withal caught upwards in the reality that everything is broken up in two and if yous go too far here you are going to go messed upwardly," he said. "There is a sacred-secular separate that hinders united states from impacting culture.". . . .

"We (Christians) are peachy at talking well-nigh salvation and sanctification. Nosotros are clueless when it comes to fine art, ethics, science, and culture. Christianity is the whole truth about everything. It'southward how we deal with politics. It's how nosotros bargain with science. Information technology'southward how we deal with Tv set and fine art. We tin't get out people to their own devices," Lecrae said during his talk at the conference.

"Nosotros merely demonize everything. If it doesn't fit in the category of sanctification or salvation it's merely evil."

Lecrae said that society in the U.S. is moving away from "this traditional, evangelical, conservative America."

"Relativism and secular humanism permeates the world that we live in." He asked, "How do nosotros engage this civilisation? How do nosotros raise upward people to appoint this civilization?"

Lecrae said that in the area he lives in there are a lot of people, who because of the activeness they are engaged in, many Christians would avert altogether.

"There'due south homosexuality rampant. At that place'south crime and all kinds of things going on around me. I take my kids to the park and at that place'due south two men kissing, people selling drugs, and I'm grateful," he said. "I'one thousand not trying to escape. I desire to be in the midst of that because I need to be. That'southward where I demand to be."

He added, "I believe that the reason why the church typically doesn't engage culture is considering we are scared of it. We're scared it's going to somehow jump on us and decadent us. We're scared information technology'southward going to somehow mess up our good matter. So we consistently move further and further away from the corruption, further and further abroad from the crime, further and further away from the post-modernity, further and farther abroad from the relativism and secular humanism and nosotros want to go to a safe place with people just like you. We want to exist comfortable."

Lecrae emphasized that God created many things in this earth that were intended for practiced, but have been misused.

"I'm talking almost using things that are typically used for evil and showing how they can be used for God's glory," he explained. "Things are non of themselves evil. It's [about] structure and direction. God has structured things for His glory and His goodness and humanity is directing it in evil or good ways.

"If you are going to engage culture it'due south almost taking the things, and the things you lot are skilled at, and asking 'How tin I direct them in a expert way?'

"I'm not saying let'southward redeem the world and create this utopian planet," Lecrae continued. "I'm saying let's demonstrate what Jesus had done in us so the world may encounter a new mode, God'due south way, Jesus' manner–the picture of redemption that Jesus has washed in us. And then Jesus redeems us and we desire to go to the world and demonstrate that and then that others can meet what redemption looks like." (Quote source here).

The bespeak, of course, is that we need to look beyond our own tendencies to be short-sighted when information technology comes to what God is doing in our globe and how He is going near accomplishing information technology. As stated in Isaiah 55:eight-nine:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my means,"
declares the Lord.
"As the heavens are college than the earth,
so are my ways college than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."

And Proverbs 16:iv reminds us that:

The Lord works out everything to its proper end—
even the wicked for a day of disaster.

And since God can even keep track of the wicked, He can certainly go on track of what we as Christians do in accomplishing His volition in this world of ours (if we will follow His lead and not our own). At that place really is no dividing the sacred from the secular. It all belongs to Him.

Getting dorsum to the original message of this mail service, I'll terminate it with these words from Jesus that should ever be embedded in our minds and hearts no thing what state of affairs or circumstances we find ourselves in, which are found in Luke xviii:1:

Always pray . . .

And . . .

Never give upward . . . .

YouTube Video: "Tell the Earth" past Lecrae: