Where Faith and Love Collide, Part 2

How is Faith and Love understood and expressed in the military? I believe that military persons have a deep experiential understanding of faith and love because of their military experiences. They have a deep understanding that they can apply to faith and love in Christ.

So, let’s take a look at Faith and Love in the military and see what we can learn.

Faith is believing someone has your best interest at heart. It believes that others have your back. This value is rooted in military training.  In the Army Leadership Field Manual, it states:

Soldiers fight for each other; they would rather die than let their buddies down. That loyalty runs front to rear as well as left to right: mutual support marks Army culture regardless of who you are, where you are, or what you are doing.  P. 43

The most important lesson/value I remember from my cadet days is that loving buddies was the most important thing. I was not to ever act on my own without thinking of them. I had 11 guys who had my back whether I was succeeding or failing. I developed a faith in them because I knew they loved me. That faith in them continues 20 years later. I experienced life, having faith in others who had my best interest at their hearts.

Think of all the phrases you live by that reflects a life of faith in the military. “Never leave a man behind”, “Accomplish the mission and take care of your men”, “Camaraderie”, and “Band of Brothers.” Think of what goes through your mind to comfort yourself in a firefight. My buddies have my back, my God will protect me, my weapons and armor will protect me. You exercise your faith in a deep way. You experience faith in life and death situations, and that deepens your faith.

Love is having another’s best interest at heart. That same military culture that teaches you to have faith, teaches you to take care of each other. You are constantly thinking of others. When you are in a firefight, what motivates you to act is a love for your buddies. You want to protect them. You joined the military to serve, to look out for and protect the interests of others. And you love them with your very life. You would die for them. That is a deep experiential love.

Integrating Military Life with Faith

The faith you experience in the military deepens your ability to have faith in God. If you have faith that your buddies have your back, that they are competent enough to look out for your interest on the battlefield, how much more can you have faith that God has your back? That He is competent and powerful enough to look out for your best interests.

The love for others you experience in the military deepens your ability to love everyone. If you can love and serve others in the military because of your training, just imagine how much you can love others when you allow God to train you how to love and serve.

Father in heaven, deepen my faith in you and teach me to more deeply love others.

Where Faith and Love Collide, Part 1

Recently, I thought about a statement in Galatians that said that maturity does not come through the law, but faith working through love. So I thought about the definitions of faith and love and was surprised by how simple and connected the Christian life is. It just makes sense. With the complexities of life, I seek simplicity so I can make sense of it all and focus my heart and mind. So, here are my thoughts that are in process, I hope they help you.

The bookends of the 7 Character Qualities are “Love God” and “Love others”, the Greatest Commandment. They go together. You cannot have one without the other. “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John 4:21).

The reason we are able to love others is because God first loved us. And we are able to love others because we have received God’s love, we understand it and experience it, and therefore we can share it with others. How do we receive God’s love? Through faith.

Paul says in Galatians that the law does not lead to spiritual maturity, but only faith working through love. Well, if that is the key, then it seems like we should know what faith and love are and how they work together. Here is a simple definition of each…

Faith – Believing someone has your best interest in mind.
Love – Having someone else’s best interest in mind.

I heard a friend of mine explain love as having someone else’s best interest in mind. He said he read it from Dallas Willard. I think this sums it up. If I love you, then I will think and act on your behalf, wanting the best for you. I love my wife and kids, so I live for their behalf. God loves me. He has my best interest at heart. Not “best interest” as I define it. You know how we define interests… money, success, and nice stuff. He has our best interested as he defines it. That we may know him and experience that relationship and grow into godly maturity.

Faith, by itself, is a pretty neutral word. To have faith in something. I can have faith that a chair will hold me when I sit in it. I act on it, but it is not really life changing. But when we apply faith to something significant, it changes our lives. What does it mean to have faith in God in its simplest form? It means to believe that God has our best interest at heart. There is a lot packed into that. First of all, it is God. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. So He not only has our best interest at heart, but he can do anything about it. Therefore, we know that all things happen for good, because he has our best interest at heart and He is controlling all things as He acts on that attitude toward us. The most powerful sentence in the human language is… God Loves Me.

In order to live a life loving others at every moment, we have to have faith. The biggest thing that keeps me from loving others is that I am trying to take care of myself. There is part of me that is not satisfied with who I am or what I have, so I am seeking my interest, not others. There is a disconnect between my faith in God and my loving others. If I truly live in the reality that God loves me, that He has my interest at His heart and He is acting on it, then I am free to love others. Nothing left for me to worry about for me, because God is acting on my behalf. Now I am free to act on other’s behalf.

Now, imagine a community of people who live in this reality. In this community, not only do I experience the fact that God has my best interest at heart, but others do also. I now experience the biggie, having faith in God, but I also experience having faith in people. I believe that people have my best interest at their hearts. And as I act on behalf of others, putting their best interest at my heart, how do you think they will feel?

Lord, help me live in the reality that You have my best interest at Your heart (FAITH) and help me have others best’s interests at my heart (LOVE).

Disciple like a Soldier

The scriptures often use the military as a metaphor for the Christian life. Therefore, if you understand the military, you will better understand the principle being taught about the Christian life. That is the whole purpose of this blog: to help integrate faith and military life. In 2 Timothy 2:3-4, Paul tells Timothy to behave just as a soldier, “as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Paul gives the command to Timothy, then explains the metaphor of a soldier’ life.

Command:
Suffer hardship with me,
Metaphor:
as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life,
so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

A soldier knows hardship. Yet this hardship is not without companions. Paul calls Timothy to join him in the common sufferings that go with being a Christian of that day. If you think of Paul’s life (see 2 Cor. 11:23-28), you would hesitate to join him in his sufferings. Yet the cause by which he lived drew many to join him. A soldier joins others in the common sufferings of military life because of the cause. A soldier knows what Paul is talking about here. They do not take lightly the call to join in the everyday life of suffering as a soldier because they know what that means. Many people make commitments without fully understanding the implications. When they are in the middle of the suffering, they quit. A good soldier commits without the option of quitting.

Cadets, midshipmen, and military men and women know that they live a lifestyle that is different than the worlds. They are often misunderstood or avoided because civilians realize they live by a different system. A good soldier does not get entangled in the affairs of civilian life. The life of a disciple of Christ is also different than the life of the world. The purpose and goals are different; therefore the system of life in which they live is different. If a disciples’ purpose is to advance the kingdom of God, then they cannot live a life focused on advancing their own kingdom.

What motivates soldiers to suffer hardship and avoid things that will distract them from being good soldiers? They desire to please the one that enlisted them as a soldier. I still remember times when I was a cadet I would hear phrases like, “great job freshmen”, “you motivate me fish” (name from freshmen), and other phrases of motivation I cannot repeat here. I remember the day we got our “fish brass.” This was the day we were recognized as being pleasing in the sight of the upperclassmen for finally doing all things well as a cadet. That was the best day of my entire four years as a cadet. My eleven “fish buddies” and I suffered many hardships together to get to this point. We did not live the life of civilian students. We suffered together in order to please the upperclassmen and take care of each other.

When a cadet, midshipman, or soldier reads this passage, they not only have a mental understanding of what it means to suffer with others and avoiding the distractions of the world in order to please their commanders, but they have an experiential understanding that includes both their hearts and their hands.

How will you respond to this invitation from your heavenly commander who is enlisting you into His army? I imagine that if you know the love and power of the commander Jesus Christ, you will enlist and ask…

Father in heaven, “What is my mission?” and “Who are my fellow soldiers?”

Controlled By Love

Are there things in life so important that we are captivated by it? Not only are we captivated, but we find pleasure in serving it?

I am reading Becoming a Leader the Annapolis Way, by W. Brad Johnson and Gregory P. Harper. There is a chapter about commitment where the authors discuss how the Navy instills commitment into the character of midshipmen. They write, “Midshipmen harbor a sense of meaning and purpose about their work that most businesses seldom seem to conjure up from employees. Midshipmen understand that they are part of something important, something larger than themselves. This understanding allows them to make considerable sacrifice en route to becoming Navy and Marine Corps officers” (p. 41).

What causes a man or woman to undergo hardship, yet stay true to the mission? What causes a POW to be tortured everyday, yet remain loyal to country and fellow soldiers? What causes a cadet or midshipman to remain in the tough conditions of training during their college years? They are captured by a mission that is greater than themselves.

To be a disciple of Jesus requires commitment. We have seen that Jesus requires us to have a supreme and incomparable love and commitment to Him if we are to continue as disciples. Paul, in the book of 2 Corinthians, states that the love of Christ demonstrated to him has captivated him and controls him.

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” – 2 Cor 5:14-15

This word “controls” has the idea of being pressed in on both sides so that we cannot move. The pressure on both sides controls us. Like a vice grip holds an object in place and controls it,  so Paul is pressed in on both sides by the love of Christ. He cannot help but be controlled by such a love.

How do we develop the character trait of commitment in our own lives? Get to know Christ more! The more we understand the love of Christ for us, the more it will control us. The more we understand the will of Christ for our lives, the more we will be committed to pleasing him.

“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” – 2 Timothy 2:3-4

Father, today I commit my heart, mind, and hands to you. You are my greatest desire.

Mission, People

“Accomplish the mission and take care of your soldiers.” That is the ultimate task of an Army soldier as stated in the Army, Field Manual 22-100. Everything in the Army strives to accomplish these two tasks.

In a previous post, I wrote about the two tasks of a leader; to courageously lead people out in the cause and to bring people in to take care of them. I would like to reflect on this in more detail. In all my years in campus ministry, I have observed two elements that must be present on a campus to see real progress in advancing the kingdom of God.

1. Students must be clear on their mission.
2. Students must bond together in a small group of deep friendships that are committed to the same mission.

If one of these elements were missing, there would be no significant change in the ROTC, Academy, or campus. There may be individual growth in the Lord, but no cultural changes on a campus.

Mission – The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The imperative verb in this passage is make disciples. Go, baptize, and teach are participles that modify the main verb, make disciples. They tell how to make disciples. So, we are to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching. For now, let’s focus on what it means to make disciples. Later, I will expand on what it means to go, baptize, and teach.

In the military, you are a learner. You learn how to behave and act as a military person. Even in peacetime, you are learning to make war. You are also a teacher. You are teaching others how to behave and act as a military person. This is a great picture of what discipleship looks like.

The word disciple simply means learner. A disciple learns how to behave and act. Jesus calls us to be His disciples. We are to learn from Him. We are to act like Him. We are to become Christ-like. As disciples, we are to make disciples. We are to make learners of Jesus.
The military is full of volunteers. They volunteer to enter the military and be trained to become a military man or woman. We are to make disciples of those who desire to follow Jesus. And we are to recruit more volunteers in order to make more disciples.

This mission begins where you are. It begins in your company, in your dorm, in your circle of influence. But that is just the starting point. It goes to all nations. We are to make disciple of all nations. If you make disciple where you are, and they in turn make disciples of others wherever they go for the rest of their lives, think of the impact all over the world as we all fulfill the mission to make disciples throughout our entire lives.

Are you a learner of Jesus? Are you a disciple? Begin by reading the stories of the life of Christ, the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke , John).
Are you making disciples? Begin by talking to others about Christ. Teach them what you are learning. Challenge them to learn about Jesus and follow Him.

People – Love one Another (John 13:34).

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Just before Jesus gave this command to His disciples, He washed their feet and told them to go and do the same for each other. If this group of disciples were going to accomplish the mission, they would need each other and would have to take care of each other.

When I joined the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M, one of the first things they taught us as freshmen was to love and take care of each other. We were no longer individuals looking out for our own interests, we were a group looking out for each other. We did everything together, even cleaning the bathroom floors with our toothbrushes (yes, I got another for my teeth). Only when we were acting as one could we accomplish all the missions that were required of us.

The Great Commission cannot be accomplished on our own. The mission of making disciples on your base or campus cannot be done alone. Who do you know that you can bond together with to pursue our Lord’s mission? Simply start by asking your friends to join together once a week to pray that God would use you to make disciples of others. Pray for people, your base or campus, and nations. Begin a study of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

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.

Two Tasks of a Leader

As a leader, it seams that there are so many responsibilities. Can we take all of those responsibilities and summarize them so that we can have focus and clarity in the main things we are to accomplish? Joshua had the incredible task of leading millions of people into the land promised to them by God. Let’s take a look at what God said was the primary tasks that Joshua was to accomplish.

When God told Moses he would not lead the people of Israel into the promise land, Moses asked the Lord to appoint another leader. God chose Joshua and spoke of two tasks that Joshua would do with the people of Israel. In Num 27:15-21 we find two tasks appointed to Joshua.

Then Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, “May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep which have no shepherd.”

So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him… At his command they shall go out and at his command they shall come in, both he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation.”

God gives Joshua two primary tasks as a leader:

1. Lead them out
2. Lead them in

What does that mean? If he does not perform these two tasks, the people of Israel will be like “like sheep which have no shepherd.” Think of what a shepherd does for sheep. He leads them out into the pasture for the purpose of feeding them. He needs to lead them to different pastures and different streams in order find food and water. Then the shepherd leads them back into a pin of safety and protection.

Joshua was to lead the people out into the promise land in battle in order to fulfill their purpose of occupying the promise land. He was to lead them out in the cause. He was to display physical courage by leading them into battle.

Joshua was then to lead them back into a place of care, safety, and rest. Into a place of community in order to heal their wounds, feed them, give them rest.

The two primary tasks of Joshua and leaders is:

1. Lead our people out to enter the Cause.
2. Lead our people in for Caring and Community.

As you read the Scriptures, notice how often these two tasks are central to what we should be doing. Here are just a couple.

Philippians 1:3-8

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Notice the balance between living for the cause of Christ and the fellowship of the believers. I love the phrase, “Partnership in the gospel.” It speaks to both cause and community.

Mark 12:28-31

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

The two greatest commandments are love God and love neighbor. We are to follow God in the cause with all that we are and inter into loving community with others.

1. Courage in the Cause
2. Care in Community

How are you doing in balancing your leadership? Are you leading people in courage out into the cause? Are you leading people into a place of care and community? Think about how you can accomplish these two tasks in your life and leadership.

Dear Father in heaven, strengthen me to lead others out into the cause of Christ and deepen my loving ability to create a community of love and care for one another.

Commander’s Intent

In the military, there is a phrase, “commander’s intent.” If you do not have clear orders for a particular decision, you ask yourself, “What is the commander’s intent.” Then you make your decision through his eyes. This is a freeing phrase. It gives the military man or woman the ability to make a decision with authority. It also gives them the proper focus that allows them to make the right decision. The key to correct decision-making is to actually know the commander’s intent.

The most important character quality of a disciple is a supreme and incomparable love for Jesus. In Matthew 10:37, Jesus says, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” To love Jesus supremely is to know Him. To know how much He loves you, to know what He wants to do in and through your life. When we know Jesus intimately, we can make decisions that will please Him. He is our supreme commander. To follow the will of Christ is know the Supreme Commander’s intent.

What can you do to know the Lord’s intent? What can you do to love Jesus supremely?

1. Abide in His Word. Character Quality #2 is to abide in the word of God. It trains you to know God intimately and His intent.
2. Make a habit of regularly asking what the Lord’s intent and desires are with your life as you make decisions in life.