THE APOSTLE PAUL was a radical pit bull.  Satan took a few weeks? vacation after this bulldog was finally killed.  Paul was called a ?fool? and ?crazy? because of his unstoppable pit bull zeal.  A top-notch theologian, Paul didn?t live in seminary.  He took his revelation out of the Church and into the pit, and came out converting whole cities.  This game rascal took incredible abuse, yet never lost his joy.  He was a disaster to Satan?s kingdom. He finally caused so much trouble that Satan had no recourse but to cut off his head. May God help us to be one-fourth the pit bull that Paul was.

Then you have the poodle ?believers,? false, spurious, eternal rejects from God?s kingdom, donning pink hair and carrying a wheelbarrow load of excuses.

REUBEN, Jacob?s eldest, was a poodle.  He had great intentions and serious heart resolves.  But at the end of the day, he preferred to sit and listen to the shepherds play songs rather than get into the fray.  He chose to squat on the sidelines of life rather than be on the playing field.

DEMAS used to hang out with the old warrior Paul, but he left when things got tough.  He decided he would prefer to settle for the poodle?s lot?boring mediocrity?rather than pursue the pit bull?s pleasure: the fight!

MARK had to deal with being a poodle, too, even though he went out with the bulldog Paul. 
When the stones started flying and the bones started cracking, Mark was out of there like a bootlegger out of Alabama on a Saturday night.  After that display of Poodle-ness, Paul would have nothing to do with him.  Pit bulls just don?t hang around with poodles.  Only later, after Mark experienced a radical transformation, did Paul regard him as profitable to Christ?s calling.

My ClashPoint is this: The Church would be helped immensely if more pastors were to spiritually breed for ecclesiastical and cultural courage instead of the Sunday morning poodle show.  Hey, pastor: charge your people with joining the fight for our society, and discourage them from being dependent, spiritless little Fi-Fi?s.

May God give us an unworldly love for spiritual conflict.  May God give us deep persistence and commitment so that no matter what demons we face, we will not be deterred from His high and lofty call.  Oh, that there would be a people who embrace the struggle for that which is grand instead of looking for a place of ease inside the Christian Disneyland.

Check out Doug?s latestt interview with  best-selling author Frank Schaeffer  at www.clashradio.com .