Fixed point of Reference

  It's amazing to me that, as Christians, we serve a current God. One who is present in our lives day to day. 

  As this blog has shown, God speaks to me in the everyday things, highlighting truth through my activities and through my past-times. There have been movies, nature, things my wife has said to me, sermons that have struck me and books. All have contributed to the privilege that I have experience in learning who god is and what He is about. It;s called relationship and I highly recommend it.

  So, we have had a slight departure from what God has been showing me though Chuck Holton's book, but I hope that I have been able to communicate something of how the still small voice is something we need to sit up and pay attention to in our lives.
Like the story in the Old testament when Elijah looks for God in all the wrong places, a story you can find in 1 Kings 19:11-13 

This is the same story that influenced the Third Day song 'Still Listening' 

' I looked for you in, The fire and the wind, But you weren't there as far as I could see, I thought I'd hear you shout
But then I figured it out ,That all along you're whispering to me
And I'm still listening'

  OK so I'd like to take you back to the lessons I have been learning in my reading - Remembering as we do

This is your Army, This is your Unit, Christ is your Cause

I have been reading through 'A More Elite Soldier' by Chuck Holton, seeking God for what He wants me to understand next and something once again jumped off the page at me.

  Chuck Holton, in Chapter 7 of the book, tells a story of a training mission, in which He talks long and in depth about the patrols, that his unit had to undertake and how a simple piece of kit is of the utmost importance to a infantry soldier. 

That piece of Kit???

  His M4 rifle? The million dollar Black Hawk helicopter that Rangers rely on for transportation???
No actually - though these things and many others that I have not named here are vital in the lives of soldiers, the piece of kit I am talking about here is a compass.

   A compass, for those of you that are not aware, is an instrument that measures direction in a frame of reference that is stationary, a magnetic devise used for navigation. For an infantry soldier, it is a vital aid when moving from place to place, when on patrol '...you couldn't win an argument with a compass' Chuck Holton says. its something for soldiers to rely on.

  However, it is not just the infantry soldier that relies on this fixed point of reference.

  'Just recently I had leaned that the need for a fixed point of reference wasn't exclusive to infantrymen. About a week earlier, we'd undertaken a mission at Fort Benning's Urban Training Site...we rode MH-6 "Little Bord" helicopters, flown by highly trained Night Stalker Pilots...when it came time for the mission, the opposing forces set burning tyres at various points around the building...The helicopters were stirring up large amounts thick of black smoke as we stepped off the Little Bird, and I was confused to see one of the Black Hawks break procedure by turning suddenly and flying away...seconds later, my confusion tuned to horror as I noticed one of our guys still hanging from the rope!' A More Elite Soldier page 101
 
  This is a scary scenario for the Ranger involved, but the background that brought this circumstance is far more serious

'it was during the debrief that I also found out why the pilot had left prematurely. The billowing smoke had obscured his vision momentarily, and without a point of reference by which to gauge his position relative to the nearby buildings, he had no choice but to pull out. Attempting to maintain a hover, without a fixed point of reference was a quick way to lose a helicopter and its crew' A More Elite Soldier page 102

  How dangerous is it to continue onwards when you have no clue as to where you are? Pushing blindly on regardless???

   Yet sadly, this is what most of us are doing day to day. And although this is true of people who do not know Christ as their Lord and Saviour, it's predominantly Christians I am talking about here. And then we are surprised when the lives of Christians fall by the wayside!!!


  What is our fixed point of reference?


  It should be, without hesitation for us, the Bible. It our compass, our fixed point of reference.


  Ask yourself, honestly - when was the last time you opened your bible? Sunday in church right? During the sermon, when the preacher said something along the lines of - 'turn with me in your bibles to (insert scripture reference here)'. Yep me too, I had my bible on Sunday, both services.
  But lets get a little more specific here shall we - When did you past open your bible outside of a church service to read it? Be honest now!

  I'm not pointing any fingers of condemnation here, I have been personally convicted of this very thing just recently, we had a men's breakfast with a guest speaker, whose very first words were that he was concerned for us Christians that had not read their bibles yet that very morning, and that was at 8:30am. I had barely gotten out of bed. And if I am honest, though I was convicted at the time, my response has been an overwhelming fail.I've not been very good at opening my bible for personal reading, so please do not think I am throwing condemnation out at anyone.
  However, the combination of that men's breakfast and Chuck Holton's book, I am understanding that God is clearly speaking and we need to get listening.


  Over the years I have heard the bible referred to as our instruction manual, our how to guide,as the acronym Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Its all true. It is what it is. And as soldiers in the Army of the Lord, it must be our field manual, our compass and our fixed point of reference.


  Between the covers of the bible there are 66 books containing the message that God wants us to know.Yes it is full of rules and regulations, commandments and Law, though out Deuteronomy and Leviticus - is that a bad thing? Not when their is purpose to those rules. Its shows us our need for a Saviour. our inability to reach God in our own strength. its designed to be a humbling experience for each of us. So we can accept that its something we can not do for ourselves.
  An the Old Testament is followed by the Good News. There is another way to live. The example of Jesus as the way to live, His instructions and teachings our guide (and the promise of the Holy Spirit who continues that instruction today)


  Paul says in Philippians 3:4-10 - 'Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith'


  Faith is the basis for righteousness - the bible needs to be our point of reference.


  Like the helicopter, you are unable to maintain a life fulfilled in Christ alone, without a fixed point of reference.
Like a soldier walking a patrol follows a compass azimuth, and relies on the compass to ensure he keeps to the correct direction. We too need to have something to refer back to in order to ensure our path.


  Whats the danger of not checking back???

 A plane leaving Toronto, Canada on its way to London England, misjudges its course by just 15 degrees, instead of reaching London, will find itself on the coast of Spain, some 600 plus miles off course.

   'An intentioned person will check in with their trajectory along the way to ensure they are on the right path' unknown author

  The way forward for us has got to be an everyday check in with our fixed point of reference, checking our trajectory to ensure our path is in line with the teachings of Jesus, and the will of God as laid out in the Bible, our field manual.


   It means we need to open it, well first get it off the bookshelf, dust it off, and then open it. Read it, and not just on a Sunday. Read it regularly - I am not saying get religious about it, see how that worked out for Saul of Tarsus in Acts.


The bible says in Ephesians 6:17 that the Bible is the sword of the spirit - I once heard it asked: - 

'What kind of warrior can you be without your sword?'

This is your Army, This is your unit, Christ is your Cause.
  

ATM God

Just a quick blog tonight before I get back to what God is talking to me about through Chuck Holton's book.

I heard something today in church that really struck me.

Right now churches treat God like the hole in the wall. We go up, put our card in, Key in our pin number. Punch in what we want and then we walk away.

How many of us can relate to this? I know in the past I have been just as guilty as anyone else in doing this. Walking into church on a Sunday,  responding to the worship when the songs suited me, hearing a stirring sermon and having a response to that and walking out the door and forgetting the message almost as I get out of the door. 

This is the point behind the famous quote from Brennan Manning - more commonly associated with the DC Talk song - 'What if I stumble' from the Jesus Freak album

' The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him with their lifestyle, that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.'

Its time for a change, its time that we get beyond our instantaneous society, the attitude of fast cars, fast food, instant messages etc etc. 

We need to stop the view point of what can I get out of church and change that into what can I give God, and not just on that Sunday, our relationship with Christ has to be based on open and honest dealings - Integrity was the way it was described during this evenings sermon.

And we need to start spending time in His presence, without the pretext of getting something from Him, our prayer times need to be about more than just our list of needs and demands.

We need to learn again the meaning of Psalm 46:10 

“Be still, and know that I am God;

Invasion

In cell group this evening, I heard a message today from a Good friend, Jim Eby, and I wanted to share it here as it ties in so well with the content of my last blog.

Jim wanted to convey an idea of the bigger picture of what we are as followers of Christ. - What follows is what I have pieced together from my notes ask Jim spoke this evening.

Matthew 3:1-2 - Here we have John the baptist - A fore runner of sorts to Jesus, announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand, telling the people that were listening to him that something new was beginning and was right there. 

The way in which the translation puts it - 'is at Hand' simply meant it was right there within reach.

Just one chapter later in Matthew 4:17 tell us From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Jesus preaching the exact same message that John the baptist was teaching the people.

Now for the Jews, the message was clear, they had been taught their whole lives that a Messiah was to come, and with Him would come the new Kingdom that He would bring with him.

The peace, joy, restoration of the relationship with God. Everything that the Jews had been looking for, both John and Jesus were teaching that it was now available to take hold of.

This is the 'Good News' that we hear about, the good news that the Jews had been waiting for (and still are in their eyes). And its this message that John and Jesus were announcing was here now ready to be grasped and taken hold of.

Now if we move on to almost the other end of the bible we have an interesting scripture that may confuse somewhat to begin with until we explore the message further.

1 John 5:19  tells us that the world is under the control of the evil one - The bible in other places refers to the enemy as the God of this world. Earth is controlled and lies under the control of the Enemy - Satan.

Its not all that difficult to see really when you look at the world we live in today - the suffering, killing, etc, just turn on the news, pick up a news paper and its not difficult to see that the world is controlled by Satan.

But wait a second isn't the world owned by God???

Lets look at an interesting scripture in Matthew 4:8-10 

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’^[a]”
Notice that Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world, and yet we don't see Jesus correct Satan, doesn't challenge the statement, Jesus doesn't tell the enemy that they are not his to give.  

1 john 3:8 - The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work 

When Jesus came to earth, He began to invade the territory of the enemy.

Picture it this way, the invasion Jesus began is similar in many ways to the Allied forces landings in Normandy - The aim of the Allies was not just to occupy the beaches at Normandy. But to drive all the way to Berlin and remove Hitler from Europe.
 
Similarly Jesus began an invasion in Israel, the aim to drive Satan from the earth.
 
Its started with Jesus in Jerusalem, it spread to Judea, Samaria, Paul took the message and the invasion in to Europe, it moved into North Africa, and Thomas (remember doubting Thomas) even took it into India.

The invasion spreads, and today we are part of that Army. 

Every single person is called by God in some way to participate in this invasion - this Kingdom

Ephesians 4:1 - I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called  

You have been called by God. You have been called to be a part of this invasion force, the army of God. And your job is to use the gifts and talents and abilities to take back from the enemy the things that are rightfully God's.

Every ones job is important, whatever your role its important. The bible tells us we are a body, that one may be an eye, the other a foot.

you might view yourself as simply the big toe of the body of Christ, or something small like the thumb however:-
 
In Old Testament times, the victorious commander would cut the thumbs and big toes off of the defeated leader, this would leave that commander practically crippled.

You see without the thumb your hand has no strength to it at all. So stability. And without the big toe your balance is gone. You have to re learn how to walk.

So even the small things play a big role in the bigger picture.

As you see then every persons job is important, whatever role yo play  - its important, even if you done see it right now. There is something that you can do in the army of God.

(Jim's role is to travel conducting conferences that train pastors and leaders to bring about he great commission, and impart the skills to help these new converts into an impacting life for Christ - Jim's Bio from his website Mission Catalyst International
Part of the teaching that Jim gives is that He feels every Christian should have what he calls and evangelical prayer list. Basically a list of 10 unsaved friends, people that you know locally that do not know Christ and that every time you pick up your bible, you pray for those 10 people until they receive Christ. A simple prayer for two things, that 1) they receive a revelation of who Jesus is and 2)that the Holy Spirit draw them - the basic idea is that everyone can do this, its not expensive, and statistically something like 70% of people that receive Christ do so because someone was praying for them, its the most effect form of evangelism, pray for people and invite them to an event where they can hear the gospel - simple stuff)

With this in mind then, something as simple as praying for you evangelical prayer list is part of working in the army

Armies need more than just soldiers, if you look at the structure of any military, its more than just the soldiers in the infantry, armies need logistics people, supplies, leaders, planners, intelligence people, cooks, you name it.

And in praying for your list you are working for the army, and aiding the invasion. you see every time someone on your prayer list receives Christ, that is furthering the invasion, because God invades that life, that family and that persons sphere of influence.

As your pray - and God answers your prayers and invades the life of a person. It brings them out of bondage, out of control of the enemy.

A side benefit of our salvation is that you find peace, joy, righteousness, and the forgiveness of sins never to be remembered by God. All the things that the Jews were and are looking for that both John and Jesus were teaching was at hand. 

We pray for others because we want them to to experience these things from God also.

When we pray, we need to remember 3 major things

1) Be Specific - Ask God for certain things, don't generalise, you ask for general things you will get general answers, ask and you will receive the bible tells us,  in another place it teaches you have not because you ask not. Be specific with your prayer

2)Be Passionate - We have to be serious with our prayers. The bible tells us the Jesus prayed with crying out and through tears at times, should we not be the same

3)Be Persistent - DO NOT stop praying - every parable that Jesus told that was about prayer was significantly about never giving up, about persistence.  

A lot of times, the reason that we don't see answers to our prayers is because we give up asking

1 kings 18:41-45 - the Old Testament story of Elijah praying fro rain, and sending his servant up to look for the rain clouds. And we see he gets on his knees to pray and it takes seven times before a cloud is seen.

Persistence is a key, we are taught to never stop praying.
1 Thessalonians 5:17  - pray without ceasing


 

Interested or Surrendered

 I have neglected this blog for some time now, Like most of us, life has gotten in the way, some silly, some serious, but the result is the same, that although things have been going on, and God has been involved a lot in my life, I've just not got round to this blog.

 In the interim period though, a good friend of mine has started up his own blog, which you can find Here and also on the top left of my blog page, called Faith in Heresy. Its a very good read, and I highly recommend checking it out, PGC, the blogs author, looks at things from the bible very differently to many people I have encountered and theology discussions with him over the years have been somewhat eye opening.

 I get slightly sidetracked, but only slightly as PGC is actually the reason for this next blog really. Well indirectly. A number of years ago PGC gave me a book called 'A More Elite Soldier' by Chuck Holton.(you can buy it here).

 I have read the book many, many times over the 8 years that I have owned it, and just recently, for no perticular reason, I grabbed it off of the book shelf at random (at least for me it was random) and started reading it again.

 I say random, because I hadn't thought about rading the book again, but god obviously had a reason for me to read it, that I was unaware of, as I approached the book case. But it is this book that is the subject of this next blog, as i feel God is telling me something as I read and I plan on putting that in this blog as I learn what He is telling me.
As I opened the book, there is a personal inscription inside the front cover, that is relevent today as much as it was the day that it was written to me. But it struck me that although it was personal to me, taht it has relevence to us all as Christians. Its reads: - 

   'I pray this book plays a part in your training. I pray it speaks to you warrior, and that you learn the lessons God has to teach you through it. This is your army. This is your unit. Christ is your cause'

 In chapter 2 of Chuck Holtons book, He talks about Airborne school and jump training - basically, parachute training military style, explaining how having an interest in becoming an airborne trooper, might get you into the harness, might even get you on the plane, however in the air, inside the aircraft there is a line befroe the door. Mr Holton notes that having an interest might even have prompted him to 'peer out of the door' but would never have gotten him Airborne qualified.
 
 The books says 'There's a line where the floor of the aircraft meets the open jump door. That line is where curiosity stops and commitment begins'.

 Now I have the utmost respect for the forces, the people that choose to train as elite warriors to keep the freedoms taht we enjoy. But even with my major interesr in most things military, personally I could never get my head around the idea of jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane which has ever intention of going to land not long after I jump.
But its the next statement in the book that really struck me as I was reading: - 

'I had known people who were ''interested'' Christians as well/ They attend church every week, and some even sang in the choir or held prominent positions...being a christian was really more of an academic pursuit that a relationship with God built on trust'
A More Eltie Soldier - Page 42

 Many Christians I have met over the years are this exact way. We can very likely, all think of people we know just like this, even thought its not our place to judge, I imagine every person just thought of someone they know.Many of us have been here ourselves. Myself and by his own admission Chuck Holton have 'shown up in that category...from time to time'.

 All too often our lives are so busy with the things we do, the everyday, mundane and exciting stuff that we call life, that we get so bogged down and our 'christianity', our walks with god suffers. We become weekend worshippers, even those of us taht are better disciplined can get bogged down in the ideal of having a regular 'quiet time' or 'prayer closets'. Our devotion becomes habit, ritual. in essence religion - Dogma, as a good friend of mine recently put it.

 And in light of all this, we wonder why people are turned off to the Good News. Why our society shuns Christianity, why we readily hears accounts such as this: - 


' "it's been a long time since I talked to the big Ranger in the sky. I guess I don't see the point sometimes"...Lear's tone was dry, almost bitter, as he spoke through mouthfuls of sausage and hashbrowns. "I grew up Catholic. Went through confirmation class, the whole shebang. but as I got older, I started noticing how people in the church acted during the week. I started to get a bad taste in my mouth after seeing these 'Christians' treating others badly, spreading gossip and not helping people who needed it" He put his fork down "It just didnt make sense to me how they could go around believing that they were going to heaven just because they prayed and went to church. Finially I got to the point where I couldn't stand to believe anymore'
A More Elite Soldier

 This is the account of a ranger buddy of the books author, its an account echoed countless times, not restricted to the catholic church by any means, but one that can and is found in every denomiation that has ever existed. Similar stories of people abused by churches, not just physical like we read about in the papers, but spiritually and mentally also. People hurt by people they trusted. the list goes on and on.

 How then can we expect people to turn to Christianity, true Christianity, to hold belief and faith in the god of the bible, when the example that they see so often falls short?

 Although this is an understandable question to begin with, it is in fact the wrong question to be asking. Why the wrong question? Lets start by going back to Chuck Holtons book

 In response to the above statement by Lear, Chuck Holton replies: -
'Well by your line of reasoning, we should have quit the regiment along time ago. After all, if everyone isnt maintaining the standards, then they are a bunch of hypocrites. The Ranger Creed must be worthless. But that inst the case is it? The Ranger Creed doesnt lose one bt of its value because a Ranger fails to maintain its standards. Its still as worthy of our aspirations as ever'
A More Elite Soldier - Page 70

 This is just the same for the bible, as it is for the Ranger Creed of these highly trained warriors. The bible itself tell us in Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

 Do the actions of an individual, claiming to be a Christian and therefore a disciple of Christ (the word christian meaning christ like) deminish the restorative power of Jesus' work on the cross, when they do these things?

 How could it possibly take anything away? Especially when taken in light of Romans 5:8 - that while we were still God enemy, He sent Jesus His only begotten son into the world to take on the sin of those very enemies.John 15:13 tells us that greter love has no one but this, than he who lays down his life for his friend, but We were not yet saved, not yet redeemed, our status was still enemy of God not friend when Jesus came to earth. How much could we possibly deminish this glorious gift in our mistakes when the gift was offered while we were turned away from Him at the time of the offering?


 Of course this doesnt excuse Christians for porr behaviour or attitudes, far from it, Christians should hold their lives to a high account.


'You should be appalled when someone who claims to be a christian doesnt act like it. But what you cant do is throw out Christ with the hypocrites...The fact that some of His children haven't yet become like Him, doesnt leave a scratch on His integrity. it simply means they are students, not the master'
A More Elite Soldier  - Page 71

 So how then do we live better, doing our utmost to live up to the higher standard?

'Surrender'. Chuck Holton says ' thats what its really about isnt it? Airborne school taught me that whether it was jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at thirteen hundred feet or letting go of my need to be in control of my life, the act of surrendering was the same'
A More Elite Soldier - Page 42

 Jesus taught His disciples, throughout His short 3 year ministry on earth, that he only did what He saw the father doing. Our responcibility is to become more like Christ. Studying God's nature, seeking His face daily, all this will lend itself to our lives being lived the way that Jesus lived. Learning to do what the father tells us, Knowing that what we are doing matches His will becuase of the level of intimacy we have gained in our walks with the father through Jesus.

 The aim for our tie on earth is to get to a place where what john the Baptist stated in John 3:30 - He must increase, I must decrease, becomes our attitude in life, the very nature of the idea in the 24-7 prayer poem I posted previously where its says 'Their DNA chooses Jesus. He breathes out they breath in. Its an aim and a journey. So what happens when we get it wrong, mess it up or fail miserably? Do we beat ourselves up? dig our the burlap sack and ciliase, flogging outselves?


 Actually no, none of the above - rather remind ourselves of the work done on the cross on the day at Calvary, recall to mind 1 peter 4:8 Love covers a multitude of sins, and tht although we are 

'not the perfect Christian...that doesnt mean I'm going to give up and stop trying to get better. Fortunately I dont have to be good to go to heaven'
A More Elite Soldier - page 71

 That thankfully is the grace of God, that through the redemptive power of the cross and the risen Jesus and victory over death and sin, that we can now have the certainty of heaven and stand before the throne of God in jugdement spotless, pure and blameless as a result of the blood of the lamb.

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 

 So continually emerse yourself in the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 16:24-27 and the remember James 4:8 and 1 Corinthians 10:13

 I want to leave you with a quote I also found in huck Holtons book, by Phillips Brooks

'Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks'

 Until next time - This is your army, this is your unit, Christ is your cause.

(I would like to once again stress that the quoted sections of the book A More Elite Soldier are not owned by myself other than in the form of my personal copy of the book, they are owned by the publisher and the author, and appear in this blog simply as illistration of what god has been speaking to me)