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)
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