The Daily Blade Mission

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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Enter The Crusade Era

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Alright, guys, back again. This week on the Daily Blade, we're stepping into one of history's most consequential conflicts. It's the Crusade era, and we're meeting five men the modern world has largely forgotten about. And I'm drawing from the work of Raymond Ibrahim, who's a scholar who has spent his career recovering what others have buried, and specifically from his book, Defenders of the West. So yesterday we looked at my favorite figure from this time period, King Richard the Lionheart. And today we're looking at someone that has really got the nickname the Albanian Braveheart.

Stolen Child Turned Janissary

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So this is a man named Skanderbeg. So the beginning of his story is actually a very interesting one because this is a story of a man who was stolen as a baby. So his name was George Castriadi. And when he was 10 years old, the Ottoman Sultan Murad II took him from his father in Albania as a hostage. And this was part of a payment for peace. And three of his brothers were killed by Turkish Muslims, and George was the last son of his house. So the Turks forcibly took him from his home, they circumcised him, they forced him to convert to Islam, and they gave him a new name. And they turned him into a Janissary, which was one of the fearsome Christian-born shock troops that the Ottoman Empire converted, indoctrinated, and weaponized against their own people. But what the Turks did not expect is that George would be an extraordinary warrior and a fast riser. So he actually elevated through the Ottoman ranks faster than anyone else. He was eventually given command of a 5,000 cavalry, a 5,000 man cavalry troop and an entire army of Janissaries. And during his tenure, he never lost a single battle. So the Ottomans then changed his name again to Skanderbeg or Lord Alexander after the greatest conqueror of the ancient world. And they thought they had created the perfect weapon for their side. But what they actually did is they created somebody that would eventually orchestrate their undoing.

The Breakaway And Return Home

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So on November the 28th of 1443, after spending 25 years inside of the Ottoman system, Skanderbeg walked away. He seized the letter by force and then he forged orders from the Sultan, and he took 300 loyal Albanians, again, he was from Albania himself, and rode for his father's fortress in Kroya. So when he arrived, he tore off his Ottoman uniform, he returned to the Christian faith of his childhood, and he raised the banner of the double-headed eagle over Albania. So historians record that he said the following statement to his warriors before one of the battles, quote, I will judge your merits when I see your sword smoking with the blood of the Turks. Let Muhammad, as long as he will, seek peace. As for us, we will purchase our peace with the sword, unquote. For the next twenty-four years, until his death in 1468, Skanderbeg fought the full force of the Ottoman Empire to a complete standstill. Actually, in one particular battle, the Ottomans came at Skanderbeg with forces that were just immense at the time, an army of 80,000 men to Skanderbeg's 10,000. And over his tenure, he won 25 major battles, including that one. He defeated 80,000 men with just 10,000 men. And on three separate occasions, three different popes called him the champion of Christ. And the Ven the Venetians actually called him the only man standing between Islam and the rest of Christian Europe. I mean,

Outnumbered Victories And Reputation

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the man was an absolute wall.

Prodigal Son And Coming Home

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And the amazing story of Skanderbeg reminded me of what my pastor Jay Reisner talked about a couple of weeks ago on The Daily Blade. He gave us tremendous detail on one of Jesus' most famous stories, which was the parable, uh the parable of the prodigal son. And after the younger son had dishonored his father, he had left his home and disgraced himself, he finally came to this point as recorded in Luke 15, verses 17 and 18. This is Jesus describing it. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger? I will arise and go to my father. And just like with the prodigal son, there was something inside of Skanderbeg that drove him back to the house of his father. There was this soul-level duty that he felt to return home and do what needed to be done.

Gideon And The Favor Of God

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And then when we look at Skanderbeg's defiant stand against the overwhelming odds presented to him by the warring Muslims in his home country, it mirrors what we see with Gideon in Judges 7. God told Gideon his army was too large. He wanted the army to be small enough that no man could claim the victory. He got all the way down to just 300 men. In those circumstances, the odds were not in his favor, right? And for 24 years fighting against the Muslims, Skanderbag was always outnumbered. But he had something that the Muslims did not have the favor of Yahweh. And again, Skanderbag was stolen as a child and forced against his will to be a part of an enemy system for a quarter of a century, but that time was not spent in vain. God used what the Muslims did to him to forge what they could eventually not contain. That is the redemptive sovereignty of God at work.

God’s Redemptive Sovereignty

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What would have been inexplicable at the time becomes clear by the time you get to the end of his story. God can and does take what the enemy means for destruction and turns it into a weapon for

Your Pain Can Become A Weapon

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good. So I want you men to think about this today. What attacks or circumstances has Satan used in your life to bring about your destruction that God can use to bring about his glory? Maybe you experience a tremendous amount of abuse in your life and you don't see how God can use it. Maybe you were formed by a system, maybe it's with your career or with your own identity or you know, some particular philosophical way of thinking that God has never designed for you, but ultimately will use for his good. Maybe Satan thought he was building his perfect tool out of your pain in your years. And remember what Skanderbeg did. At God's appointed time, he walked away. Maybe that's what God is telling you to do right now. To walk away from the circumstances meant from your destruction, meant for your destruction. Maybe he's telling you to come back home. Maybe he's telling you your years in the grip of the enemy are about to be turned into your greatest weapon. The same hands that were trained against God's people can't be turned into God's service. Here's the thing you have to walk away from your dark circumstances, and you have to ride to Kroya. You have to make the trek and raise a new banner. Which banner will you fly?

Share And Leave A Review

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Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.