On Monday,  we traditionally remember those who served in the Armed Forces, who served and defended our country.

Concord, Tripoli, Cantigny, Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima, Khyber Pass… all battles fought and eventually won….for our security.

I would recommend something…

take this “Memorial” and before remembering American soldiers… remember the Soldier who gave His Life for you physically and spiritually.

 

Those men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country deserve honor and acclaim and remembrance. They trained, prepared, traveled, fought and hopefully realized the victories and freedoms we have enjoyed.

The Spiritual Soldier Who won freedom for all people of all nations deserves HONOR, ACCLAIM and REMEMBRANCE. Unlike the trained soldiers who did not know what was out there before them…He knew what was to come. He knew there would be victory, but a great price was to be paid.

 

Those American soldiers physically defended our country and won wars against aggressor nations who attacked us or our allies.

Christ battled physically and spiritually the common enemy of every nation, every tribe, every person who has walked on the ground He created.

 

He, Himself, won our freedom.

Our Eternal Freedom.

 

Those who have served America won wars and battles which sometimes have had to be repeated.

Generals and Admirals have strategized and led troops into battles ….achieved victory … and then gone home.

And in the twentieth century, sometimes had to go back and fight on the same ground their soldiers’  blood was spilled on earlier.

Wars fought and won between nations have many times not been permanent. Ground has been taken, only to be vacated and fought over again.

My father called me in 1972, after I had been involved in the last Draft…
and told me never to consider signing up to go fight in Southeast Asia because the war was not being fought to win…. he said it was not worth the lives being lost.
And he was a MARINE.

The ground taken by Our Single Soldier was won forever and always, and that War will never need to be fought again. The blood spilled was His, the Price paid was and is permanent.

Only one life was lost…
or voluntarily sacrificed…
and that was temporary.

As in the battles between nations…
ideas and philosophies are debated afterwards…and other wars may later arise.

Ideas and philosophies may be and are debated in regard to what Christ achieved…by people who hold those varying thoughts.

However…

that spiritual struggle for the souls of every created being …

was decisively and convincingly
won when the Single Soldier rose
out of Joseph’s tomb.

If Douglas McArthur intended to humiliate the defeated foe at the signing ceremony of surrender…on the USS Missouri

how much more did The Greatest Warrior humiliate His and our enemy only three days after the most important battle began.

While not discounting the honor and esteem due so many
American Soldiers…

remember
commemorate
never discount
pronounce and acclaim

the Single Soldier Who won the War for our souls.

 

May, 2017

 

I have been thinking about how we,
as a nation, have become so
permissive.

So permissive of so many things.

And my train of thought betrays that very topic.

I have time and comfort to THINK about something like this.

That must mean I am not threatened with harm or hunger, and that I am not worried enough about shelter for tonight or income for next week.

Going back into history, when a nation is on the edge of survival,
when a threatening strongman hovers over them or food lines are the daily normal … there are more immediate necessities that must be dealt with.

These immediate necessities lead to a more strict adherence to rules and measures that help meet what is needed that day.

When a nation is in a conflict for survival, when a military is in the midst of war….there is no time for social experiments or rationalizing about existence.

It’s all about simply preserving that existence.

Since the cessation of hostilities in 1945, our nation has been progressing toward the comfort we enjoy today.

It was interrupted in September, 2001. The sense of fear, threat and harm became real… for a period of time.

Church attendance spiked for a short time.

Prayer was no longer taboo in public and political forums.

Fear was present…therefore the presence of God was sought and His Name was invoked often.

But even then…our personal dwellings and daily provisions were not threatened.

We are a comfortable nation.

When one grows more and more comfortable there is a tendency toward an increasing level of permissiveness.

The thought that ” it will be okay”
or ” what’s so bad about that”….
becomes common thought.

In those times, we have seen that stretching the accepted norm toward an extreme fails to interrupt our level of comfort.

We fail to see the long term effect of a short term decision.

An example……
when Harry Blackmun,
made up the discovery of a clause in the Constitution that gave him the backbone to push his agenda …
we arrived at the approved decision that taking a unborn life for the convenience of the mother was Law. Yet there was a failure to see that there would eventually be about 59 million young lives never realized since that time.

For those who say we need more workers and revenue….
that number is roughly equivalent to the current populations of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Arizona.

Reread that.

For a child born in 1973 would today be a voting taxpayer of 46 years of age. Probably with at least one or two children. Add that up.

Might there have been one more Steve Jobs or another Martin Luther King in that number…who could positively impact society…?

 

Comfort does bring good things.
Comfort is what we seek.
We should not negate the comforts we enjoy.

However, comfort can also bring a relaxing of both the adherence to and the acceptance of rules and guidelines that worked in the past, therefore are time-tested.

It’s a cycle which brought down the strongest civilizations.

Consider the temporary problem
Nebuchadnezzar had and the shortened life of Belshazzar….in the Old Testament.

My point is made….if you are thinking  that reference to be out-dated, or not applicable today.

Comfort causes human nature to rationalize that everyone should be allowed to engage in or practice whatever leads them to be “happy”….and that old ways no longer apply because we have “evolved”.

The pursuit of happiness.
It’s in the Constitution.

May we be in pursuit of comfort and happiness, though, without forsaking those behaviors  and practices which brought us to the level of comfort we enjoy today.

If one forgets what led to the success of a business….the success will eventually disappear.

Absolutes,
of which there are many,
do not fail to exist and matter,
merely because they have brought about success.

May we not permit the comfort we now enjoy to draw us away from those things we did to get here.

That brings to mind Paul’s  words …
in Hebrews 2……
“Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip”.

A Supreme Court justice nominee once called it….
” slouching toward Gomorrah”.

Slouching is not attractive or allowed in your child and
Gomorrah is universally accepted as a place where comfortable decadence brought destruction.

It’s a place to stay away from.

Had to spend a week in the hospital in March.
Felt fatigued, thought it to be the flu.
Was checked, no flu.
Flu-like symptoms.

After three days of more fatigue and
being mostly in the bed, and upon a 100’+ temperature and an infected spot on my left foot… my wife insisted I go back to the hospital.

She was wise.

Staph infection in my blood.
Not knowing if its was MRSA or
simple staphylococcus…
I was admitted to the hospital.

Immediate infusion of antibiotics and blood tests were done on a consistent basis for the next several days.

A trans-esophageal echogram was performed on me to determine if the staph had gone to my heart.

After the blood work and cultures
had been done for a few days a particular approach was developed by the infectious disease doctor.

He visited me and outlined the infection in the blood, what that meant and the method of treatment he was considering.

Two days later he visited again with his determination and the results of the echogram done inside the esophagus.

The staph had not attached to the heart and he outlined the next round of antibiotics.

I had a chance to ask him questions about the infection.

He told me I was the cause of it.

He said I was my own worst enemy.

Having varying levels of atopic dermatitis since I was 23 years old,
the Doctor relayed to me that this infection came upon me because I had scratched open a place on my skin. Staph… which exists in so many places… entered the bloodstream through the open wound in my skin.

He said I had probably had this before but it had not risen to this level.

My skin, which is supposed to be a shield against germs and bacteria, protecting all of the inner elements of the body, had been compromised….
and the intended protection it is created to provide,
failed.

It failed …. not of its own accord…
but because I compromised it myself.

I was sick….
and I had brought it upon myself.

We talked about diseases and their origins and then I asked the Doctor a question I have had in my mind for about a year.

“If I had lived in earlier or ancient times ….with the condition I have currently…how would I have survived without steroids or modern skin treatments???

He answered….and it’s what I thought might have been the case.

“You would have been a leper”.

“You would have damaged your skin and without modern medicine, you would have contracted Leprosy.”

I thought about that conversation during the next few days of the hospital stay… once again the Grace of God led me to another realization of Thankfulness.

As I have resumed normal life, with a renewed appreciation for modern medicine ….the events of March and April have led me to another thought.

As the skin is created with the intention of being a shield and a protection against the harm of bacteria and infection…
so the Armor of God is intended to be covering us and shielding us against the approach of the germ and destructive infection of evil.

And just as I broke my own shield of protection by opening the skin, I caused it to fail.

It did not fail on its own accord.

The Armor of God does not fail if it is allowed to do its work as it is intended to do.

We can fail to put it all on….

We can fail to ALLOW it to do its powerful work…

It….in and of Itself
does not
and will not fail.

For it is forged spiritually,

We are, however,
spiritual beings in physical bodies.

I brought and caused weakness in the protective shield of my skin.

I can break my body….
I cannot break Armor forged by God.

The only breakage possible in the
functioning of God’s Armor is in our
role allowing It to do Its work.

Initially, we fail the potentiality of It if we refuse SALVATION.

Or by failing to use the SWORD of the SPIRIT….and not knowing or using SCRIPTURE.

Or by not appropriating the SHIELD of FAITH….
by not operating in TRUTH…
by not walking in PEACE.
by not living in the given gift of
RIGHTEOUSNESS.

As I might have in earlier times
suffered physically from leprosy…
I have an Advocate Who will not allow a leprosy of my spirit.

As I recall the Doctor telling me that I am my own worst enemy in maintaining the protection my skin allows…

I realized I don’t need a second enemy…for I have a spiritual enemy seeking the theft, death and destruction of all God has gifted and given me.

Therefore,
may I be further committed to
hear everyday and
consistently obey
the urging of Gods Voice
to put on His Armor
to stay in my place
to allow His Armor It’s Work.