Warning - Gruesome Content

The King is surrounded by servants and courtiers, but a stranger comes to him with a secret message. He sends all the entourage out of his chambers and sits alone, apart from the messenger. What could it be? Is he a spy? Has he come to bring secret information? The stranger says "I have a message for you from God."

"Which god?", the rather plump King asks himself as he stands ready to receive his message. In one swift movement, the stranger reaches into his trouser leg, pulls out a sword half a metre long and stabs the King right in his stomach. The sword is pushed so far that even the handle sank into the King's flesh and the blade came creeping out of his back. The King's slimy stomach fat covers the whole of the sword. The stranger leaves the King lying on the ground, covered in blood, fat and other bodily fluids, goes out of the chambers and locks the door behind him.

Whilst the servants all think the King has locked himself in his chambers because he is doing a poo, the stranger escapes far away and tells his people that the enemy is defeated. Eventually the servants realise that even the King does not take this long to poo, and they break into his chambers to find him lying on the floor, dead.

By this time it is too late and the war, which will kill 10,000 enemy men, has begun.

Is this the script for the next epic film? Is this from a violent x-rated video game? No. It's from the Bible. Every single detail is from the Bible. The King is a Moabite King, and the stranger is an Israelite Judge. The 10,000 enemy men defeated were from the Moabite army. This was real life. Real life that is so often dulled down because we don't want our children to know about these things.

So often church is 'nice'. We sing 'nice' songs about love and goodness. We sit in our nice rows and we learn about nice things. How are we going to capture the attention of a generation of boys who are used to playing video games and watching violent cartoons and films? By reading the Bible to them. We need to make it come alive for them. We need them to know that God made them the way they are for a purpose.

Of course, we need to do this within reason and I am not advocating a mass war with blood spilt. But let's let boys be boys in our churches. Let's give them opportunity to worship a God who goes to war; a God who is the champion; a God who is a King riding out in battle; a God who wants to let boys be boys. Let's give them chance to shout, and I mean really shout, their praises to him instead of singing which is sometimes thought of by boys as a girly thing to do. Let's teach them about a God who is tough and strong; a God who is strategic in battle; a God who gives them armour to put on; a God who is their protection. Let's make church meetings a place where men can be men, and boys can be boys.