Dan’s Ramblings

Being in the Lord’s Army is a serious matter.  We are in a real battle against a real enemy.  We must always be on the lookout for an ambush, and even keep a watchful eye for those flaming darts.  We are privileged to be a part of the Lord’s Army, and we fight alongside some of the choicest of God’s servants.

I have recently returned from a trip to the foxholes and trenches.  I have watched some of the strongest warriors fight the good fight, and have seen some of the newest recruits in the trenches beside the veteran troops.  For a good while, I watched as the two fought side by side against the enemy.  It was a blessing to see such camaraderie.

However, I am saddened to report some of the other atrocities that I saw.  I heard some proudly boasting of how good of soldiers they are, but no one was impressed.  They have been fighting the enemy for many years, but their attitude toward the newer recruits was pathetic.

What horrified me was when they walked through the trenches – our OWN trenches – pointing out those that were not exactly the same as them.  There were some that have only been in the Lord’s Army for a short time, and thus were not well-trained in the finer aspects of the soldier’s life and responsibilities.  One soldier did not have his haircut to the liking of the proud soldiers, and he was immediately shot.  As they continued on, they saw another whose uniform was not perfectly pressed, and his boots were unpolished.  He, too, was shot.  As the proud soldiers went on examining every young, immature recruit, they found some that still had earrings, wore necklaces, listened to the wrong music, and were unskilled in their use of the Sword.  They did not encourage the young, willing soldiers, nor did they try and help them.  They were all shot on-the-spot.  The boastful soldiers walked on, bragging about what they had done, thinking that they were doing a service to the Lord’s Army.  In reality, the forces were being dwindled down to a meager handful of troops.

One awful aspect I noticed was that these arrogant soldiers had stopped firing at the enemy, and had been killing our own.  Their ammunition was used on our own soldiers.  The casualty rate of our own troops was sickening.  While the proud, murderous soldiers talked about “cleansing the Army of scumbags,” they failed to see the filth on their own uniforms, and the leeches that had attached themselves to the proud troops.

They talked about recruiting new soldiers, but their reputation had gone on ahead of them, and not many were willing to join the Army for fear of being killed by “friendly-fire.”

After a short while, I began to feel nauseous, numb, and light-headed.  How could this be happening?  How could they do this?

I confronted these proud, arrogant soldiers to try and reason with them, explaining that we need to be fighting the enemy, and not be killing our own troops.  I thought that they would listen to reason, repent of their actions, and return again to fight the real enemy.

They looked at me with disdain, and began to call me a compromiser, a backslider, a moderate, a neo-evangelical, and other words I dare not repeat.  They informed me that they had been in the Lord’s Army for a lot longer than I have been, and that I should mind my own business, or that I would be the next in their cross-hairs!

Sadly, I had to turn from the ones that I had looked up to for so long, to try and go back and help those that had been shot.  Many were injured and had no desire to return to the fight.  Some were trying to get back up and go after the ones who did this to them.  A few, although hurting, kept their attention on the real fight against the real enemy, and tried to forget about the damage that was done by our own troops.

I was kept busy as I tried to fight the good fight on one hand, and take the time to heal the broken-hearted on the other hand.  We must not neglect to fight in the raging battle, but we cannot neglect the injured, either.

Christian soldier, we don’t need to be shooting our own, nor should we have to stop fighting because we are too busy attending to those injured by “friendly-fire.”  Keep your sights on the enemy, and your ammunition to be used in the good fight against our foe.  Let’s not shoot our comrades, our colleagues, our family, and our friends, but let us fight the good fight together, and not forget who the REAL enemy is.

As we have been traveling quite a bit these past two months, it has been interersting to meet people that have told me that they could never do what we do, and then proceed to tell me why they would be inadequate. I have been recently studying of Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”, in Second Corinthians 12:7-10.

1. It was to keep him humble.

2. He prayed for God to remove it.

3. In our weakness, God’s grace is sufficient, and His power is evident.

4. Paul was able to glory in his weakness (feebleness, frailty), that the power of Christ may be upon him.

Because of God’s grace and strength being made perfect in Paul’s weakness, he was able to say in verse 10, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

Do you take pleasure in your infirmities (feebleness), reproaches (insult), necessities, persecutions, and distresses? You should, for in your weakness, Christ’s strength will rest upon you, and you can, and will, become strong.

We need to remember that we must take our eyes off of our own selves, and keep our eyes upon God. He knows that we are inadequate indeed, and we must rely solely on Him in all that we do. If we do that, His power will be evident in our lives, and He alone will receive the glory due unto His name.

Don’t allow your thorn in the flesh to be a reminder of what you CAN’T do, but rather let it be a reminder of what God CAN do in you, and through you.

 

I found it humorous that, while walking through the Philadelphia airport yesterday, I was alerted by a loud “beeping” sound as a golfcart-type airport terminal vehicle approached from behind. I stepped to the side to get out of the way, thinking that an airport employee was shuttling a handicapped passenger to his/her departure gate. As it slowly passed me, I noticed that it was an airport police vehicle. There was a female police officer driving the extended airport patrol golfcart, and a male police officer was on the passenger side. Shortly after they passed me, the vehicle slowed down, then stopped, as the male police officer got out of the cart, only to stand in the line at Dunkin Donuts.

Then…

After a 3 & 1/2 hour delay in Philadelphia while waiting for the windshield to be replaced on the airplane I was to fly on, the passengers were finally able to board the plane. Due to other minor things, we waited another half-hour as the plane was refueled, and for the air traffic control tower to give us clearance to takeoff. On board was a “balloon lady” that went up and down the aisle making animal balloons for the children. One tall young black man said that he wanted one, too. She asked him if he wanted something special, and when he said that he did, she blew up a brown balloon, and then made a few twists and turns of the balloon. It was not evident as to what she made until she reached up and placed the balloon up and over his head, and then lowered it to cover his mouth. She then said, “You asked for something special, so here it is,” just as she reached up and gave him a great big kiss on his balloon lips.

Soon after I moved out of my parents’ house, I secured a job with a small, carpet-cleaing company in north Georgia. I enjoyed working there, learning to professionally clean, tint, and dye carpet. One day when I went to work, my boss told me that we had a large job to do. When we pulled up to this house, it looked like one of the large, brick mansions that you would see on TV. The owner and his wife were both of the snobby sort, but they gave us the job of cleaning, tinting, and dyeing the carpets throughout their entire house. This job took us two days to complete, and we even cleaned the wool carpet in his Rolls-Royce.
Besides the snobbish couple, there was also a Great Dane that resided in their house. It appeared that the large canine did not go outdoors at all, for everywhere we looked, there were large “doggie deposits” on the expensive carpets. Before we could clean the carpets, we were required to clean up the disgusting doggie doo. However, with a Great Dane loose in the house, we knew that it was just a matter of time before another ‘land mine” would be found.
I have been doing a good deal of thinking lately about the 21st-century Christian, and how they remind me of that wealthy, snobby couple. Christians want to be saved from Hell, but they don’t want to give up their sinful life-style — they are not willing to get rid of the Great Dane. They are wanting to live the life of a child of the King, but allow the Great Dane to continue living with them, and dirtying up their lives. When someone tries to help them by saying, “Get rid of the dog,” they get offended, and say that it’s “part of the family.” When you were saved, you were also sanctified, or rather, set-apart from that mess. If one is saved and cleansed from the filth and condemnation that was caused by sin, why would a Christian want to continue to have something in their lives that stinks and is disgusting? That old life-style WAS a part of you, but you were cleansed, and the Great Dane was put out. He will try to sneak back in. Don’t let him back in, and by all means, don’t invite him back in!
One more word of caution: Don’t replace the Great Dane with an elephant.