Welcome To The Daily Blade

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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.

Week Theme And Final Warrior

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Alright, guys, let's wrap up the week. This week on The Daily Blade, we're talking about the men the culture doesn't want you to know about, five warriors from the Crusade era who took the fight to Islam and refused to apologize for it. And I'm actually pulling from Raymond Ibrahim's great work, Defenders of the West, as a scaffolding for our content this week. And so far, we've looked at Duke Godfrey, the Cid, King Richard the Lionheart, and Skanderbeg, and we're wrapping up the week by talking about St. Louis.

Jerusalem Falls And A Vow

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The year is 1244, and the city of Jerusalem was just sacked again. The Khourazmians, which was a Muslim Turkoman force, ambushed thousands of Christian pilgrims who had been lured back into the city under false pretenses. The Muslims slaughtered Christians, opened up the tombs of the Christian dead, and burned the bodies. They sent the

Preparing The Seventh Crusade

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marble columns of the Holy Sepulchre to the tomb of Muhammad as trophies of their victory. When word of this catastrophe reached France, King Louis IX fell into a fever. His family gathered around his bedside and at one point assumed that he had died. They pulled the sheet over him, and that was supposed to be that. That was until Louis sat up. To everyone's shock, he wasn't dead, he was very much alive, and he declared that he would go to Jerusalem. He was thirty years old at the time, and he had been king since he was twelve. He was a very devout Christian, and witnesses of his life said he looked more like a monk than a soldier. One Muslim historian would later call him the most powerful of the Frankish kings. So Louis spent three years in meticulous preparation for what would become the Seventh Crusade. So he funded the crusade personally, and it ended up being the best equipped crusade for the Christian side in

Plague Defeat And Captivity

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history up to that point. When he began the crusade, he did so by descending into the sea at Demita, Egypt. He and his men fought their way onto an enemy beach, and they took the city in a single day. But the campaign took a turn for the worse. A great plague struck the crusader army, their advance was stalled almost immediately, the Nile River even flooded, and in February of 1250, Louis IX, King of France, was captured by the Muslim Mamluk forces of Egypt. He was forced to sit there in chains while his soldiers were executed around him. Now, given the circumstances, you would assume that Louis would have been distraught, but Muslim negotiators described him in captivity as serene. He was seen praying almost incessantly. The man was simply unbroken.

Ransom Honor And Fortifying

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He eventually ransomed his army before he was able to ransom himself. He even had the wherewithal to only pay half of the initial ransom because he argued that the ransom had been demanded under false pretenses. The Egyptians were stunned by this, but overwhelmed by his dedication to honor and stunned by his audacity, they ended up forgiving the other half of the ransom debt. And Louis was released and spent the next four years in the Holy Land where he built fortifications and cared for the Christian

The Eighth Crusade And Death

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communities there. Twenty years later, he tried to liberate Jerusalem again in what became known as the Eighth Crusade. He actually died of dysentery on the beach at Tunis while still on the campaign. Witnesses record that his last word was simply Jerusalem. The Catholic Church canonized him and he became known as Saint Louis. He is the only French king ever to be declared a saint.

Psalm 84 And Valleys

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And Louis's life is the life of what we see in Psalm 84, verses 5 through 7. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength, each one appears before God in Zion. So just think about this. Saint Louis went through every kind of valley of the shadow of death that you can imagine. He had been defeated, he had been taken captive, he had been suffering the plague, and he had to witness the gruesome deaths of men that he loved. Given every opportunity to fold, he refused. He set his face and his attention towards Jerusalem. He stayed focused on the pathway regardless

Pressing On With Philippians 3

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of his circumstances. I mean, just think about what Paul says in Philippians 3 verses 13 and 14. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Saint Louis kept his focus and moved forward. He kept the focus until his final word and his final breath, continually pressing.

Heroes Of Faith Without Happy Endings

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Guys, this week we spent some time with some of the greatest men in the history of Christendom, Duke Godfrey, the Cid, Richard, the Lionheart, Skanderbeg, and now St. Louis. Five men that were very acquainted with war and violence, but also peace and prayer. Men of all-encompassing conviction, like absolutely relentless, unconquerable men. And look, none of their stories ended very nicely. Godfrey died young. The Cid's beloved Valencia eventually fell. Richard the Lionheart endeavor conquered Jerusalem. Skanderbeg's beloved Albania fell just one year after his death, and St. Louis died on the beach. Yet for us as Christian men, we do and should call these men heroes of the faith because here's the reality God does not measure faithfulness based on

What Is Your Jerusalem

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earthly outcomes. He measured it by the direction of your course and the consistency of your actions. So, men, what is your Jerusalem? Hopefully you understand that I'm not just talking about a literal city. I'm talking about the thing that God has called you to that feels completely out of reach. It feels impossible. It feels like a task that you have already failed at before. It feels like something the world would tell you is worthless and that you should give up on. I'll just leave you with this. Press on.

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St.

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Louis pressed until his final word. Make sure you are prepared to do the same. Not for your glory, but for the glory of

Final Charge And Stay Sharp

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God. Thank you for your attention this week. Stay sharp.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode.

Share And Leave A Review

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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.