Advertisement
Published: September 21st 2007
One Saved, Three Baptized A couple of weeks ago, a good friend and Christian brother, Hugo, came up to tell me some good news. He had a twelve hour guard shift with another soldier named Justin. Justin was blatantly searching for the "faith" that he had "lost" several years earlier. Hugo has was with me in scouts and sat in on many of the bible studies that I led while there. He told me that he had pointed Justin in my direction and that Justin would probably be looking for me. A few days later, Shawn, another Christian friend and ex-scout who works for me, had guard with Justin. He answered some of Justin's questions and again pointed Justin in my direction. Finally, Justin and I were able to sit down for dinner at the chow hall. He told me about growing up in a religious family that tried to force feed him Jesus. Disillusioned, Justin rejected his childhood notions of Christianity and sought happiness on his own terms. Now, the past seemed to be haunting him, and he had this nagging feeling that he need to get right with God. After listening for a while, I shared my story with
him - a story of apparent success but elusive happiness and significance. I shared with him how God had gotten my attention and brought me back into relationship with him. Then I gave Justin the best news ever. God loved him and wanted to know him. God was pursuing him as a suitor pursues his bride-to-be. And best of all, God has big plans for his life. I explained the costs of accepting Jesus as Lord of your life - dieing to self, submission, and sacrifice; and I explained the rewards - joy, significance, contentment, fellowship, etc. I'm sure we talked about so much more, but eventually I told him that the decision was his to make now that he was informed. I left him with some final advice about how and where to read the bible, and left him to his decision.
A few days later, Justin and I had some down time on a multi-day mission. He said he wanted to talk about some recent events. The only quiet place we could find was on a bench in the showers/bathroom; and there in the bathroom, Justin told me that he had accepted the Jesus as him Lord
and Savior. One of my soldiers, Julio, came in while we were talking and listened to me teach Justin more about Jesus, baptism, the church, etc. Justin was excited to be baptized and told Hugo and Shawn about it. Hugo came from a Catholic background before being saved and Shawn background was Lutheran. Both had been baptized as infants, but not since they accepted Christ personally. Both decided to get baptized with Justin; so last Wednesday, we all we to the Chaplin who gave them a quick class on baptism and took the out back to be baptized. What a great day.
Joy Comes in the Morning Although life over here (and in the Army in general) can be very frustrating, the joy of helping another man enter the family of Christ makes it all worthwhile.
Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning (Psalm 30:5). Likewise, frustration and anger last for a time, but salvation is for eternity. Long, long after all evil things pass away taking my anger and frustration with them, Justin will still live eternally in Christ; and I will be there to see it. Isn’t God great? And then
there are all of you, knowing that there are people out there that are reading this helps, too. It's just good to get all this out and to know that there are people out there sharing my joys and burdens. That is how God designed the body of Christ, which I guess makes this the eBody of Christ. 😊 Ok, I admit that was cheesy.
Three Dimensional War Many people have told me in letters and emails that they admire my strength and could never do what I do, but what these people don't realize is that many of them already do. We are all fighting the same war in our own ways. Let me explain:
I recently got a letter from an AnySoldier supporter. She told me a story about her church’s pastors who helped an upset stranger in a restaurant. This woman had an emotionally distant husband who never went anywhere with her. At restaurants she always ate alone, so she always brought a sweater or jacket to leave on the seat if she had to leave the table for a moment. On this day, however, she had forgotten her sweater; and when she went to the counter for a moment, a restaurant employee came by and bussed her table. She was very upset because this made her feel even more isolated and invisible. Now, the pastor used this story as an illustration of how the body of Christ works because each pastor at the lunch that day fulfilled a different biblical role. One prayed for her, one confronted her, one comforted her, etc. What really struck me, however, was the intense sadness and loneliness that this woman must have felt. It really gave me some perspective. While I get frustrated and angry about things over here, I am really very blessed. I am physically separated from a very loving and attentive wife who spares no expense or effort to make sure that I feel that love half a world away. However, this poor woman was physically present but emotionally separated from her husband who apparently made little effort to show his wife love even though she was right there. It was struck with the realization that I wouldn’t trade places with that woman for one minute; I would rather stay in this physical war zone than enter her emotional war zone.
My point is this: The War on Terror is really just a new battle in a war that has been raging since the Garden of Eden. Satan attacks on many fronts. Sometimes he uses an Islamic extremist with a bomb, and sometimes he uses an inattentive husband. It is, however, the same war; and that war is fought in three dimensions: physical, emotional, and spiritual. To fight physically, you may be called to fire an automatic weapon at evil men; or you may be called to hug your daughter. Emotionally, you might need to encourage a soldier in battle, or you may need to encourage a friend to repent. Spiritually, you may need to pray for safety from bullets, or you may need to pray for safety from the fiery darts of the Evil One.
So, I say again, “You are fighting this war with me.” Every person that prays fights. If you don’t think that your prayers for us matter, go back are read my blog from January. God miraculously saved my life from an enemy sniper. If God is for us, who can ever be against us (Rom, 8:31). Speaking of that, here’s the best news of all: I read ahead; and in the end, GOD WINS! 😊
Gary Reads the Bible One of our new soldiers, Gary, was out on patrol with me the other day; and we ended up securing the entrance to a building for about an hour together. We started talking to pass the time, and the conversation gradually turned “religious.” Gary asked me if I had always been religious. I told him that I was saved at the age of nine, and that was as far as I got. “What do you mean ‘got saved.’” Gary was raised Catholic but became disillusioned and didn’t understand the biblical concept of salvation. Wow, what an opportunity! Allow me to summarize my answer to him here before I continue the story.
The Good News: God originally created us to be in a loving relationship with him, very (though not exactly) similar to a parent-child relationship. In this way God could spend eternity with us in heaven…
The Bad News: …but Adam and Eve messed that up by sinning. By sinning they incurred a debt that they could not pay and contracted a disease they could not cure. The debt is the penalty for sinning, much like the fine for speeding; but the penalty for sinning is too great for any human to pay off. The disease they contracted was the “sin nature,” which made them want to sin more. Unfortunately, both the debt and the disease exclude us from having a relationship with God who is perfect. In fact, God is also just, which means he hates sin and always punishes it. For this reason, we are enemies of a just and powerful God who hates our sin and wants to punish us; and that is exactly what we deserve. Unfortunately, this also mean that evil runs rampant in the world ruining what God created.
The Worst News: There is no hope for us. Perfection is impossible. Even a newborn baby, inherits his biological fathers “sin nature.” This is evident by the fact that we never have to teach a kid how to do wrong. Precisely the opposite, we must teach children to do right; but it’s too late. No one is good - no not one (Romans 3:10-18). We are condemned from the moment we know right from wrong, and every one of us chooses wrong at least sometimes. Finally, if we die in this state, we will suffer eternal punishment for our sins in hell; but…
The Great News: …God still loves us, and doesn’t want
anyone to go to hell (2 Peter 3:9). Even though we are diseased and indebted to God, even while were we God’s enemies, He sent Jesus to die for us (John 3:16; Romans 3:23-25). Jesus is God’s only Son and is, in fact, one with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. They form the three parts of God (the explanation of this would take much more space than I have here). In any event, Jesus paid the fine for our sins by accepting the punishment for us all when He died on the cross and came back to life three days later. Finally, the Holy Spirit can come into our life and “cure” us of our sin nature - gradually. It doesn’t happen all at once, but it does happen. He changes us on the inside - changing our attitudes and desires - making us more like Jesus. In this way we can go to heaven when we die.
The Deal: This is where getting saved comes in. We make a deal with God. He offers us forgiveness and an eventual cure for the sin that ruins our lives, and we offer Him control of our lives. It’s like agreeing to be adopted by God. He is “in charge” just like our human farther. In the end it’s a win-win deal. We get forgiven and we hand over control of our lives to someone who can run our lives better than ourselves.
The Downside: This hurts our pride. I don’t like the idea that someone else knows what’s best for me - even if that “person” is the all knowing Creator of the universe. I want to be in control, and indeed I am. God doesn’t turn us into robots (though sometimes I wish he would 😊). We still make the decisions, but the God is there telling us what is best for us. Just like our human parents, things are much happier for everyone in the house when the kids obey. In the end, we tend to sin less because we don’t enjoy as much and obey more because we find real joy in harmony with God our Father.
Back to Gary I explained all this to Gary; and when we got back I gave him a tract by Billy Graham
(Tract Text) who can explain the good news of Jesus way better than me. I saw him reading it later, then he came in while I was watching a documentary on the Bible (yeah I’m boring 😊) and asked what I was watching. I told him and he watched with me. Then asked where he could get a bible. Boy, did he ask the right guy. I had this nice NLT Note-Takers Bible that someone sent me and that I had been trying to hang onto till I got home because I like writing in my bible. He said that he wanted to read it from cover to cover. I said, “Oh, NO! Don’t do that. You won’t make it past Leviticus. 😊” I said that everyone should read all of the bible, but not at first. I open to the table of contents and explained every book to him. Then I told him to read one or two of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Then read Act, Romans. Usually I tell people to start at the beginning of John then just keep reading since Acts and Romans come next. My biggest advice, to all bible readers is that it is much better to skip ahead of a difficult or boring passage than to stop reading. You can always come back later when you know more, when you can appreciate it better, or when you’ve got someone to help explain it to you. It’s the best book ever written, so don’t miss out on it because you don’t understand or enjoy a certain part.
Later that night, I walked into Gary’s room to talk with his roommate; and there was Gary reading his new bible. Please pray for Gary to keep reading and asking questions and, most importantly, to come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.342s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0935s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Eric
non-member comment
Tony, reading about the wonderful work you're doing over there. Its pretty powerful stuff. I'm terrible with words, but I can't imagine a greater gift to give someone than what you are doing over there with your fellow soldiers. Reading your blog today reminded me of my *deal* with god. Thanks for bringing me to him. Please take care, and may god be with you.