Harm’s Way

We have made two moves in our lives in which we have moved away from family and familiarity. We have yanked our kids away from family and friends to follow where we believed God was leading us. When we arrived in our new location, there was longing to return to what was familiar. I remember during our first move, sleeping on the floor of a duplex with my kids on the floor next to me in which we had tracked the neighbor’s dog poop all over the rug thinking, “What have I done?”

My experiences do not even compare to a military men or women who find themselves lying on a desert floor far away from their families. Their kids lying in bed back home with no Mom or Dad to kiss them goodnight; a spouse back home sleeping alone for a year. One might question whether their decision to serve in the military is causing too much physical or emotional damage. Military men, women, and their families know what it means to put their families in harm’s way to serve in the military.

A Big Question: Can we trust God to take care of our families when He asks us to do things that seem like it will put our families in harm’s way?

Numbers, chapter 14 addresses this issue. God had given the promise land to the people of Israel. All they needed to do was to go in and take it. Moses sent out twelve men to spy out the land. When they returned, two said they could take it based on God’s promise, ten said they would perish because of the occupants of the land. When the people of Israel heard the reports, here was their response:

Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” – Numbers 14:3-3

Two spies, Joshua and Caleb, believed God would take care of their families as they carried out His good will. Ten spies and all the people did not. They put their families above the will of God. There is a danger as we put our families first in life to put them above God in priority. If God is going to accomplish His work to redeem the world from a hostile enemy, will it not be dangerous? If God is going to set captives free and bring salvation to all nations, will it not require sacrifice? But even in the midst of sacrifice, God promises to bless us for eternity. God put His only Son in harm’s way, even to death so that He could redeem us. And then He highly exalted His son for all eternity. We receive our example from His Son, Jesus, who trusted and obeyed God till death.

How did God respond to the response of the people of Israel? If the people would not keep God as their number one priority because they exalted their family above God, how would God respond? Notice what God says about their kids.

“Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you;  your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. – Numbers 14:28-31

God does take care of their kids. He intended to deliver the whole nation into the promise land, but because the people refused to trust Him, they forfeited the blessing. God would show His sovereignty and power to us all by fulfilling His promise through the children. History shows that they did enter the promise land and they did conquer it, just as God promised.

If God takes care of our kids even in the midst of parental unfaithfulness, how much more can He accomplish in them through our faithfulness. God does not promise to deliver our families from harm, but He does promise to love them, to be with them, to be a comfort and peace. He promises to make Himself known to them. He promises to demonstrate His faithfulness through all generations.

Lord, I desire to remain faithful and obedient to you and trust you to take care of my family.

The Will to Keep Going

The U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual defines Will as “the inner drive that compels soldiers and leaders to keep going when they are exhausted, hungry, afraid, cold, and wet – when it would be easier to quit.” It goes on to say, “The leader’s task is to develop a winning spirit by building their subordinates’ will as well as the skill.”

At the heart of a soldier is the Will to continue when it gets tough. A soldier will be pushed beyond his/her limits and it is only the will to decide to continue that keeps them going. When a soldier is looking down the barrel of a gun, he/she must make the decision of the will to keep moving forward in the face of death in order to continue the duties of a servant soldier.

At the heart of a disciple of Jesus is the Will to continue to the end: the will to persevere to the end. This will is not based on personal self-belief or abilities, but it is based on the person and purpose of Christ in our life. Jesus endured to the end, so can we. Jesus willed to do the will of the Father all the way to death, so can we because He is in us. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

Jesus says that disciples will love him supremely and will love others as He has loved us. That is what we are to be and do. But we must decide that that is what we WILL be and do. Peter faced this personal battle of the will in Mark 8. Jesus had just told the disciples that He must suffer and die at the hands of the Jewish leaders. Peter responded to this news by rebuking Jesus. This was not in His plans. He had followed Jesus this far, but this was too much. Jesus was requiring too much to be given up; the cost was too high. Jesus gathered the crowd around Him and spoke these words to teach what a disciple must do. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

If Peter was to continue in the path of a disciple, he must deny himself as the focus and authority of his own life, he must take up his cross of total submission and sacrifice to the will of God, and he must with allegiance follow Jesus. This is an internal decision of the will. This is a decision to put aside all personal interests in order to fulfill the interest of another.

Military men and women do this everyday for their country. They make a decision of the will to serve their country by setting aside the interests of their families, their friends, and even their own lives in order to serve the interests of all U.S. citizens. If military men and women can make this decision for their country, can we not make this decision for our Lord?

Will you make the daily decision of the will to put Jesus’ interests first? Will you decide to love Him supremely, to love others by serving them?

Father, thank you for deciding as an act of your will to send your Son to redeem me. Strengthen my will so that I may decide daily to serve you.

Be, Know, Do

Do all the things about being a disciple of Jesus or all of the teachings on being a good military man or woman overwhelm you? Is taking in all the information like drinking from a fire hydrant? It is important to summarize teaching s and training into broad categories in order to grasp the big picture. The Army has done it with their leadership framework; let’s apply the same discipleship. By doing so we may be able to get a grasp of the big picture.

The Army sums up it’s leadership philosophy in “Be, Know, Do.”  It makes up the Army’s Leadership Framework. “BE, KNOW, DO clearly and concisely state the characteristics of an Army leader” (The U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual, page 7). This framework can also describe the framework of a disciple. Let me summarize the 7 Character Qualities within this framework.

1. Supreme and Incomparable love for Jesus – BE

2. A Regular Study of God’s Word – KNOW

Middle 3 CQ’s are a key ingredient we will look at later.

6. Manage Yourself and Your Possessions as Owned by God – DO

7. Love Others – DO

BE – our identity is rooted in who you are in Christ. You are a child of God. Your relationship with Christ is the core of who you are. Everything else is defined by that relationship. Who you are and your character are centered and rooted in your relationship to Christ.

KNOW – As a disciple, the Word of God is training you for every good work. It trains your senses to know good and evil. The word of God let’s us know who God is, who we are, and what we are to do.

DO – As a disciple we are to manage ourselves and others as God would have it. He owns all we are and all our stuff, so we use it as good steward of God’s stuff. Our actions to others is defined by God’s desires. He loved us, therefore we love others. Our actions to others are centered in love, the desire for the best in the lives of others.

What about CQ’s 3,4,and 5? These three character qualities are where we make the daily decision to Be, Know, and Do. This is where we wrestle with our character; who we really are on the inside. This is an act of the will. Where we determine in our hearts what we are all about.

3. Deny Yourself as the Authority and Focus of One’s Own Life

4. Submit to the Will of God in My Life

5. In Allegiance, Follow Christ

These 3 CQ’s take us from BEING and KNOWING to DOING. Here is the progression:

1. We decide our identity will Be a child of God and place Him as our utmost priority.
2. We get to Know God and what He wants us to do.
3. We then make a decision of the will to deny our interests and follow what we know are His interests.
4. We Do what God wants us to do with ourselves and possessions and we serve others in love.

Lord, may my being a child of God and my knowing the Word of God translate into doing Your will.