Marching orders......

I would like to wish all veterans past, present, and future a blessed Veteran's Day, we love you and we appreciate your sacrifices to preserve our freedom and protect us all.....We thank you, our prayers are with you!

Really, we are all fighting in a war of some kind or other. No one has to tell you that, we all feel it. The Bible compares the Christian life to a war, and a race. Nobody goes to fight a battle without a battle plan, or a directive, some marching orders. Jesus said right before He went to the cross in His agonizing prayer in the garden, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." He knew that the war was almost won....

He gave us our marching orders too. How many times I have struggled and asked God for that one definitive thing in my life that He wants me to do, and yet all I have to do is open the Bible and it is laid out plain and simple. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

And then there is this......

"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Matthew 25:34-36

Sometimes I remind myself of my little cat. If he sees a bird outside or hears a strange noise, he won't go directly to the source right away. He will walk all around the perimeter of the room until he gets right underneath it then he slowly raises up and sets his sights on it. He really thinks he is sneaking up on it, and it's kind of comical to watch. But really it's quite smart. This approach works when you are entering into battle, but not when you are skirting what God is telling you to do.

I go round and round, trying to figure out a less painless way to do what God tells me plainly to do in Scripture.....Asking God for His will for my life when He has already given me my marching orders! I look for a way involving less sacrifice or even no sacrifice, going for that other angle instead of the direct route of going head first into the battle.

Jesus last words before He ascended into Heaven gives us no doubt what we are to do:
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19

 "Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Matthew 25:34-36