Preparing For War
I was going to title this “Going to War”, but I didn’t, for a reason that will be forthcoming.
Going to war precludes that you have prepared. Only those who have “signed up” will go through the proper training that will prepare them for war. Today, in 2011, many wars are going on around the world, more than at any other time in the history of the world. These fighters or warriors, have all had some kind of training, some very technical while others will just point and shoot. I will be the first to admit that war is ugly and a disgusting thing, but there are right and wrongs in this world. But some people just don’t like other people, because of race, religion, or a dozen other ridiculous reasons. It is wrong to commit murder, the taking of another person’s life for no reason; and then there is war, which is defending one’s own life and property. Your “rights” stop at the end of my nose.
Back to the training part: Proper training will, in most cases, assure victory. Plans, equipment, strategy, personnel and execution will produce success. The main problem with victory and success is that casualties will occur. The main point of “Basic Training” is to create a unit, defined as “many parts working as one”. That process is done by stripping away “self” from the individual and rebuilding a bond with other members. Some of you may have seen the movie, “Band of Brothers”, that’s what it’s all about. Something happens when people share things in common and have a common goal and purpose. Not everyone will be doing the same job or task, but all will do his part to accomplish the mission. The mission is bigger than the “sum-total-of-it’s-parts”. Some army’s will look disheveled or rag-tag, while others will be decked out in the finest of uniforms. Think of the movie “Braveheart”, here you had a bunch of farmers, going up against the King’s finest, in full “battle array”. A modern saying is, “It’s not the dog in the fight, but it’s the fight in the dog, that makes the difference”. Preparation starts in the heart and in the mind. Do I believe in what I’m fighting for? What am I willing to give up something (self), to defend what is right and true? What will it cost me to prepare for my mission?
The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, that the “body (one) is made up of many parts (hundreds or thousands; millions or billions if you break it down to the cellular level). Each part has its own thing to do, but when done properly, functions with other parts, doing something different, functioning with other parts, that makes the whole thing “work”. Oh! Did I mention… God caused it to be. I could get off on just talking about how complex and complicated the body is, but that is not my point. The bonding agent in the human body is called laminin. Under the microscope it looks like an x with one leg longer than the other three, thus the shape of a cross, interesting.
Back to the war and the battle: That’s almost like, “back to the future”, where the war and the battle will take us. Remember “Doc” saying when the picture or writing was erased from the paper, “Of course, your future isn’t written yet, nobody’s is”, another reason to prepare now. We may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.
So… how are you preparing for your future? Are you preparing spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically? And then… what does each look like?
Spiritually: Do you have a good handle on the word of God? Do you continue to read and dig and study to know God? Or, do you read just to have more knowledge? Steven Hawking has been considered one of the most brilliant men over the past decade, yet he knows nothing about God, at least I have never heard him or his narrator say anything about the great God and creator of the universe. The Bible tells us over and over, that we are to be like Him, and those who seek Me diligently will find Me, do you want more and more of God’s kindness, learn to know Him better and better. If you don’t know Him better than you did last year or last month, you are not seeking Him. Romans 12:1,2 “Therefore, I urge you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world: but be transformed, by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”.
Mentally: Does anyone lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives abundantly. That is from the book of James in the New Testament. The entire book of Proverbs is full of the wisdom of Solomon, on about every topic you can imagine. This wisdom is about life and how to live it, and in some cases, how not to live it. It won’t tell you if you should buy a new car, but it will give you strong guidelines as to how to make such decisions.
Emotionally: I’m sure you have heard the phrase, “He really doesn’t have his heart in it”. That’s your emotions. Do you go around in a “hap-hazard” or “willy-nilly” way, with no real purpose or direction? I know that from time-to-time we all have those days when we think, “I really don’t care what I do today, or what happens today”. But a lifetime of this kind of thinking is not good for one’s mental or emotional being. What’s your heart telling you? Do you need to get it engaged? In The Gospel of John Chapter 21 verse 15 - 17, Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me more than these? Peter answered, Yes Lord You know I love You? Jesus answered, Feed My lambs.” Then Jesus said to him again, “Peter, do you love Me? He answered, Yes Lord You know I love You. And Jesus said, Tend My sheep”. And then a third time Jesus asked him, “Peter, do you love Me? And Peter was grieved because He asked him the third time, Do you love Me? And Peter said to the Lord, Lord You know all things and You know that I love You. Jesus said, Feed My sheep”. So my question is, “Do you love the Lord? Is your heart in it, all of it”?
Physically: I am trying to get my body, what there is left of it, back into better working condition. I know I will never be able to do what I did when I was in my
20’s or even 30’s, but I can be better than I am now. The physical has a lot to do with the other three areas mentioned above. Stuff goes on in the body, chemical reactions, that create and cause the mind and the emotions to function better. The last thing you want to do is withdraw or sit idle and do nothing, which is what happens if we get depressed. We just want to sit and click the clicker. “I want someone else to fix me, but I don’t want to do anything about it”. A verse that is coming back to me more frequently, these days is found in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, Chapter 12 verse 5, “If you have run with men and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do, in the thicket of Jordan”? I believe this verse speaks to more than the physical, but if you walk around the block and get tired, what are your chances of running a marathon? Come on… get busy!
Are you “chomping at the bit” to get into the game? Are you getting ready to get ready? If the “Coach” were to call you for that “last second shot”, are you ready? If not, what are you waiting for? Get engaged, head, heart and gut. Some of you need to “suck it up” and get busy. Not just for busyness sake, but get to know Him and let Him direct you where He wants to use you.
War is hell… but someone needs to stand up and fight for what is right! By the way, I wrote a peace entitled, Head, Heart, Gut, if you haven’t read it, let me know and I will send it to you, reskew@aol.com, or check out my blog, reskewsquad.blogspot.com, for other writings that may inspire you.
Following the Shepherd,
Ron
Monday, April 11, 2011
Procrastination – Preparation – Perseverance
Let’s get some basic definitions down before we start.
Procrastination: to put off doing or to postpone habitually
Preparation: the act or process of preparing
Perseverance: the act of persevering, continued, patient, effort
Several questions come to mind: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Some witty but stupid answers also come to mind: Who am I? I am me, I always have been for as long as I can remember. Why am I here? I am here, because, I am not there. Where am I going? Crazy, do you want to come.
Procrastinate… now! Don’t put it off another minute. Never do today, what you can put off until tomorrow. Some people just don’t want to deal with making tough decisions. So, they just put it off, and put it off, and put it off. What if I’m wrong? What if it doesn’t work out? What if they don’t like me? Sometimes, life is just hard. We get to a point where we say, “I’m between a rock and a hard place”. By continually putting off making decisions, we get to the point of learning “the hard way”. Sometimes others will not have the time to wait, because they need a decision, they will no longer wait on us to make that decision, and they will make the decision for us. Then we have to deal with their decision and we may like that even less.
Preparation: Then you have those who… are always preparing! They have list after list, after list. They can tell you what you need for every event or occasion. But, they themselves, could not “put on” said event or party. I often think of the husband and wife who are going on a two week vacation. I ask the question, “Can a wife fill a suitcase so full that the husband cannot lift it”? The answer is yes and no. Yes she can, but even though the husband cannot lift it, he will find a way to get it to the car, out of the car, to the airplane, out of the carrousel into the rental car, out of the rental car and into the hotel. All without saying a word about how his wife over packed.
And that brings me to perseverance, what a segway. The husband has had to persevere with continuing, patient, effort.
By now, you are probably asking, “When is he going to get to the spiritual stuff”? Right now!
From day one, in the Bible, men and women have put things off, things that didn’t seem important at the time. When Noah was building the ark, the entire world was mocking him. “It’s going to what”? “What’s rain”? “Man, you’ve been at this for a loooong time, and we haven’t had on drop of water from the sky”. When Moses went up on the mountain, the people “went to hell in a hand-basket”. They didn’t wait and pray as they should have. They continually wanted what they had left in Egypt. They kept telling themselves, “Things were soooo much better back there”. Like living in slavery for 400 years, making bricks with no straw, wandering in the desert for 40 years because of unbelief and disobedience. And then, after living in the land of milk and honey they said, “Give us a King”! OOPS! About which I wrote another paper on that very topic. If you did not receive it let me know and I will forward it.
But now that we live in the 21st century, things are different. We are much more sophisticated, much more educated, much more aware of things going on around the world.
What types of things do we procrastinate about? How about Bible study, prayer, worship, tithing, caring, sharing you faith, and you fill in the blank, surely you have thought of something.
How are you preparing spiritually? You never know what type of adventure is around the next corner. Do you know enough or do you know enough to know you need to know more? Read it slowly, it will come to you.
When you get to a tough time in life, will you bail? Or will you stand firm? Ephesians 6: 10 – 20. This passage talks about putting on the “full armor of God”, in order to pray and stand firm; so that… you will be able to stand up against rulers, and powers and authorities, and world forces, and spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places, and yes, the devil himself. I guess this is a follow-up to my last writing, Preparing for War. This current writing’s title has been in a list of writing topics for at least a year. That list has over fifty titles, and most has been written on.
So, where do you find yourself? Are you procrastinating? Are you preparing? Are you persevering? How would you convince me of your position? Procrastinators in Noah’s day found themselves scratching at the door of the ark… after the door was shut. Some of the people who worshiped the “golden calf” died when the desert opened up and thousands were swallowed up. The people who wanted a king, got what they were asking for, and lived in fear.
Matthew Chapters 5, 6, 7 are called the Sermon on the Mount. Ask, seek and knock are the keys to this passage. You are to ask Him. You are to seek Him. You are to knock at the door of His throne. And then be amazed at His leading and guiding words, back to you. But you have to slow down long enough and be quiet enough to hear “His still small voice”. Isaiah 30: 15 says this, “For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you shall be saved. In repentance and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and trust (confidence) is your strength is you strength.” Are you ready for the ending, you had better sit down… “But you were not willing”. When I was a kid, one hundred miles per hour was fast. Today, with “bullet trains and Concord jets and space shuttles”, one hundred miles per hour, is slow. What does it take to be willing? Maybe my next writing, who knows?
Following the Shepherd,
Ron
Let’s get some basic definitions down before we start.
Procrastination: to put off doing or to postpone habitually
Preparation: the act or process of preparing
Perseverance: the act of persevering, continued, patient, effort
Several questions come to mind: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Some witty but stupid answers also come to mind: Who am I? I am me, I always have been for as long as I can remember. Why am I here? I am here, because, I am not there. Where am I going? Crazy, do you want to come.
Procrastinate… now! Don’t put it off another minute. Never do today, what you can put off until tomorrow. Some people just don’t want to deal with making tough decisions. So, they just put it off, and put it off, and put it off. What if I’m wrong? What if it doesn’t work out? What if they don’t like me? Sometimes, life is just hard. We get to a point where we say, “I’m between a rock and a hard place”. By continually putting off making decisions, we get to the point of learning “the hard way”. Sometimes others will not have the time to wait, because they need a decision, they will no longer wait on us to make that decision, and they will make the decision for us. Then we have to deal with their decision and we may like that even less.
Preparation: Then you have those who… are always preparing! They have list after list, after list. They can tell you what you need for every event or occasion. But, they themselves, could not “put on” said event or party. I often think of the husband and wife who are going on a two week vacation. I ask the question, “Can a wife fill a suitcase so full that the husband cannot lift it”? The answer is yes and no. Yes she can, but even though the husband cannot lift it, he will find a way to get it to the car, out of the car, to the airplane, out of the carrousel into the rental car, out of the rental car and into the hotel. All without saying a word about how his wife over packed.
And that brings me to perseverance, what a segway. The husband has had to persevere with continuing, patient, effort.
By now, you are probably asking, “When is he going to get to the spiritual stuff”? Right now!
From day one, in the Bible, men and women have put things off, things that didn’t seem important at the time. When Noah was building the ark, the entire world was mocking him. “It’s going to what”? “What’s rain”? “Man, you’ve been at this for a loooong time, and we haven’t had on drop of water from the sky”. When Moses went up on the mountain, the people “went to hell in a hand-basket”. They didn’t wait and pray as they should have. They continually wanted what they had left in Egypt. They kept telling themselves, “Things were soooo much better back there”. Like living in slavery for 400 years, making bricks with no straw, wandering in the desert for 40 years because of unbelief and disobedience. And then, after living in the land of milk and honey they said, “Give us a King”! OOPS! About which I wrote another paper on that very topic. If you did not receive it let me know and I will forward it.
But now that we live in the 21st century, things are different. We are much more sophisticated, much more educated, much more aware of things going on around the world.
What types of things do we procrastinate about? How about Bible study, prayer, worship, tithing, caring, sharing you faith, and you fill in the blank, surely you have thought of something.
How are you preparing spiritually? You never know what type of adventure is around the next corner. Do you know enough or do you know enough to know you need to know more? Read it slowly, it will come to you.
When you get to a tough time in life, will you bail? Or will you stand firm? Ephesians 6: 10 – 20. This passage talks about putting on the “full armor of God”, in order to pray and stand firm; so that… you will be able to stand up against rulers, and powers and authorities, and world forces, and spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places, and yes, the devil himself. I guess this is a follow-up to my last writing, Preparing for War. This current writing’s title has been in a list of writing topics for at least a year. That list has over fifty titles, and most has been written on.
So, where do you find yourself? Are you procrastinating? Are you preparing? Are you persevering? How would you convince me of your position? Procrastinators in Noah’s day found themselves scratching at the door of the ark… after the door was shut. Some of the people who worshiped the “golden calf” died when the desert opened up and thousands were swallowed up. The people who wanted a king, got what they were asking for, and lived in fear.
Matthew Chapters 5, 6, 7 are called the Sermon on the Mount. Ask, seek and knock are the keys to this passage. You are to ask Him. You are to seek Him. You are to knock at the door of His throne. And then be amazed at His leading and guiding words, back to you. But you have to slow down long enough and be quiet enough to hear “His still small voice”. Isaiah 30: 15 says this, “For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you shall be saved. In repentance and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and trust (confidence) is your strength is you strength.” Are you ready for the ending, you had better sit down… “But you were not willing”. When I was a kid, one hundred miles per hour was fast. Today, with “bullet trains and Concord jets and space shuttles”, one hundred miles per hour, is slow. What does it take to be willing? Maybe my next writing, who knows?
Following the Shepherd,
Ron
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