Military Preparedness

Psalm 18:30-36

          Militaries around the world and throughout history have trained for conflict. Because evil resides in the heart of each and every one of us, conflicts will happen. And despite our best human efforts they get out of control. In our day and age there are those who want to start conflicts, create chaos, stir up rivalries, and stoke hatred. Their goal is the breakdown of society. They want the power structures demolished so that they can come in and take over.

          No matter how much we want peace here on earth it won’t happen until the Prince of Peace returns. We might be able to negotiate a temporary halt to conflict, but because the source of conflicts lay within us, peace won’t be permanent until we all are at peace with the LORD.

          David, the writer of our psalm, has been on the receiving end of unwanted conflict. The type of conflict ranged from a very personal vendetta held by the current King of Israel, Saul, to military conflicts with neighboring peoples who were displaced when the Jews were delivered from Egypt and given the Promised Land. For some strange reason they didn’t want to give up their land without a fight. And because the processes wasn’t completed as the LORD commanded, there were episodic battles with those remnants.

          This psalm is written after the battle with Saul had ended and David was again free from mortal threat. David didn’t take credit for his own deliverance. In fact, he bends over backwards giving the LORD credit for what happened. He had been empty, used up, worn out and the LORD intervened. David gives all the glory to the LORD.

          In today’s section of this psalm we see many references to military connected things. David was, after all, a might military leader and fighter in his own right. During those years he was in hiding from Saul’s murderous threats, David gathered around him the strongest and fiercest warriors. He, with the leading of the LORD, was able to defeat many an enemy. Military leaders, even in today’s military, study these battles to learn the application of battle techniques and strategies.

          David gives credit to the LORD for protection. The LORD is his shield and protection. The LORD is the only God who can do these kinds of interventions. He provides strength as a weapon and security along the way. If we have learned anything in our current conflicts it is that getting from place to place can be the most dangerous part of the mission. With the proliferation of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) travel became very dangerous and deadly. Ambushes have happened all down through time. David was both the object of ambush and the operating force in ambushing his enemies.

          One of the greatest concerns of any military is the condition of the soldier’s feet. If their feet fail, the army fails. So having feet like a deer, that never seem to fail and can take them securely to any height, would be a great advantage. David is of course not speaking of literal feet of a deer, but of the stability, endurance and reliability of the LORD’s strength.

          Most military tasks require the use of hands and arms. So having strength in these areas is crucial to military effectiveness. But strength alone is not enough. The strength must be trained for the specific battle tasks that will be undertaken. Pushups only build general strength in the upper body. Someone who loads ammunition must develop specific strengths and agilities to accomplish their task quickly and efficiently. That takes specific training, repetition under stress. David says that the LORD trained his hands for battle. Starting as a young boy, David had been presented with a series of challenges that required specific skills. These trained him for battle. A lion and a bear come to mind.

          And in the end David was saved and sustained by the LORD’s strength. He was provided a safe place to walk and the strength to walk it. And David gives the credit to the LORD. Many other rules of this world have taken credit for their rise to power and tight grip on it. But David recognized his rise as nothing other than the LORD’s favor on his life.

          To whom do you give credit for the achievements you have in your life? Does your heart yield?

Distractions

Mark 6:45-56

      How many times do you get pulled away from something you are working on to do something else? It might be someone at work who thinks you have nothing better to do than do their work. It might be the ‘emergency’ that arises that really is the result of someone else’s poor planning. And of course children bring with them the unexpected and the interruptions. There are so many things that can get us off track from what is really important in life. Mine is Netflix in the evenings! They say confession is good for the soul.

      Sometimes these distractions are actually good things, worthwhile endeavors, things with lasting value. Sometimes they are a complete waste of our time and energies. The real question I want to ask is this. What do we do after the distraction? Do we get back on track with what is important?

      We all get distracted. Even Jesus in His training plan for His disciples seems to have gotten off track. He wanted to pull them aside and give them some one on one time, some time to rest. But with every move to accomplish this plan the crowds show up and change the training plan for the day. I am sure Jesus has the ability to make the most of it, but it was still different from His original stated plan.

      They have fed the crowd and gathered up the leftovers. Jesus knows His disciples need some time away from the crowds, so He puts them in a boat even before the crowds have dispersed. He wants to give them a break, and He takes the burden of all the loose ends.

      Our text doesn’t say this, but I bet there were a lot of needs met as the crowd dispersed. I am sure people came and asked for prayer, for healing, and for deliverance, people who couldn’t get close because of the size of the crowd. We see it in church, after the final prayer, people come forward to talk to the pastor. Jesus didn’t need His disciples around to have compassion. He was compassion embodied.

      And then when the crowd is gone He goes aside for prayer. Prayer is what Jesus turns to when He needs refreshing. We see it repeatedly in His life and ministry. He pulls aside and spends time in prayer. Not a bad example to follow!

      But I think so many of us, myself included, have lost the essence of prayer. Or perhaps we only experience one aspect of prayer, say petition. For many of us we have not learned the power of being silent in God’s presence, of quieting our soul and allowing Him to speak with His presence in the core of our being. There may not be words in those times, but words fail when His presence is present. It is like the hug when bad news comes. The hug speaks more than any words could.

      Pull aside and spend time in prayer.

Impossible Math

Mark 6:30-44

      People need leaders. Whether it be through the challenges of childhood or in the political arena, we all need leaders to help guide us through life. People who don’t feel they need any leadership because there is no one qualified enough to lead them, those people are called narcissists. They are no fun to be around.

      The close followers of Jesus were in a leadership training program. This was not a unique experience during Jesus’ day. The practice of a teacher gathering a group of students and training them over a few years was common. We generally use schools, colleges and universities to do this for us. We still have some apprenticeships, but not as many as in the past.

      Spending time watching something being done, then being instructed on how to do it, followed by hands on training and finally independent work with supervision is a model of training that has lasted for millennia. This is exactly what Jesus has done with his disciples.

      The disciples have been sent out for some field training and have returned for a debriefing. But the crowds following Jesus seem to overwhelm this process. So Jesus wants to pull away and get some much needed time alone with his disciples. But even in trying to get away for that alone time, the crowds preempt His plans. They take a boat to get away, but the very people they are trying to leave behind are there when they land. And the crowd has grown.

      But Jesus doesn’t miss the opportunity to teach His disciples, and us, a valuable lesson. The LORD sees what we have, asks us to give it to Him, and then uses it to bless many. He doesn’t always create out of nothing. Sometimes, often in fact, God uses what we have to make a huge difference. He uses our time, talent and treasure.

      For the crowd that day they only had five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5000 people. No matter how you do the math, this was an impossible task. And yet when the LORD is involved, somehow, miraculously, all the people are fed and are satisfied. God’s math doesn’t always add up in human terms. That is because He is not limited to human terms, human measurements, or human limitations.

      And the disciples are watching this process. But they are doing more than sitting on the sidelines watching. They are breaking the bread and fish, and helping to distribute it. They are involved. They get to see the small resources be divided repeatedly, and yet seemingly not diminish. In fact, when it is all said and done, those five loaves and two fish ended up with twelve baskets full of leftovers.

      What do you have that the LORD has asked you to offer to Him? Why are you hesitating?

Discipline Is NOT A Dirty Word

Proverbs 3:11-12

Discipline has gotten a really bad rap lately. That is because discipline impedes my ability to be “free”, to do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want, to whomever I want. We admire the results of discipline in our sports teams, but then we revel in their undisciplined lifestyles off the field. Unless, of course they break one of the politically correct “sins of the month” like drinking and driving, and they happen to hurt someone.

Discipline has fallen the furthest when it comes to parenting, where discipline is the most important element in the job of a parent. Discipline is both positive and negative, it rewards and it punishes. But because our culture has so denigrated dads in particular and parents as a whole, we as parents feel we don’t have the right to train our children. We let the school do that.

If we love our children we will discipline them. Maybe we should call it training instead of discipline. Training is about present action that results in a future action. Athletes run through drills to get the bodies ready for their future action on the field. They run through plays with each other to get ready for the game with their opponents.

Training children is no different. We make our children do certain things now in order to get them ready to do the correct things in the future, in real life. We train them because we love them. If we didn’t love them, we wouldn’t train them. We would just let them do whatever they wanted to do. Unfortunately, there is an increasing number of households with only one parent in this country. That leaves the team with only half its coaching staff. It is hard enough to be successful with a full father and mother coaching team.

Of course discipline must start with us. We can’t expect our children to be disciplined individuals if we ourselves are not in training for life ourselves. One of the roles of government is to put restraints on bad behavior through punishment, and rewards on good behavior through other means. This is one of the reasons married people have gotten a better tax rate. Marriage of a man and a woman has positive social values, proven over thousands of years. Single parenting is extremely difficult.

The LORD disciplines those He loves, those who enter His Spring Training Camp. Have you signed up? Are you in active training for eternal life?