Remember Peleliu

I've been watching "The War," a WWII documentary that aired on PBS some time ago.  I recognize the names of many of the places battles were fought from the ships I worked on in the shipyard like the Belleau Wood (WWI) Tarawa, and Peleliu.  The focus of a good part of the fourth DVD was concerning the battle of Peleliu.  An airstrip on Peleliu was heavily defended by the Japanese and the Major General of the 1st Marine Division believed the battle would be over in four days.  Though there was an intense offshore bombardment from battleships, cruisers, and carriers for days before landing on the beach, the Japanese positions remained virtually unharmed.  Of all the battles in the Pacific, it had the highest casualty rate for the U.S. armed forces.  What some thought would be quick and easy took over two months and with 1,794 Americans killed and 8,010 wounded.

As I watched the tragic history of the battle unfold, I thought of the spiritual warfare involved in foreign missions.  The Japanese were heavily armed, well-fortified and supplied, knew the topography of the island and the placement of traps, and were ready for any attack.  When a missionary goes into an area where God's Word has little or no foothold, one can be certain Satan will have many strongholds in that nation.  Some run with the "if God is for us who can be against us" cavalier mentality, and believe we can rush into battle, repeat some phrases or consult a book to obtain instant victory.  I mean, we've gone through Bible school and training!  This is God's will, that all would come to the knowledge of the truth, some flippantly say.  Why take this spiritual thing so seriously?  This expectation of easy victory has been the cause of neglect of prayer, disillusionment, the retreat, and even casualties.  Those who think they stand should take heed lest they fall.

Many of the Marines who landed on Peleliu were battle-seasoned, trial-tested men.  Yet Peleliu was a meat grinder for both sides.  Every American was at war, yet it was the men in the field that had a firsthand view of the horror of war.  It is the one in the field who will be on the front lines, and the one in the prayer closet that faces strongest attacks.  Satan will never relinquish his strongholds without a fight.  When I think of Australia and the pervasive spiritual climate of darkness, there is part of me that shudders because I know what lies ahead.  I don't know exactly, but I know it will be brutally tough.  It will be an absolute dogfight.  There is no romantic hue I can attach to physical or spiritual battle.  I know the battle is beyond me, but I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ.

If a man can give all and sacrifice his comfort for country, a Christian must be willing to give all for His LORD and Savior.  Jesus Christ provides not only comfort through the Holy Spirit, but the ultimate victory over sin and death.  It does us well to remember how our servicemen and women gave and give for the sake of country, and let us never forget the price Jesus paid with His own blood.  In light of what Jesus has given, could I ever give too much to Him?

Fullness of Joy

Today as I was insulating pipes at the UCSD northern housing development, a smile spread across my face.  When we work as unto the LORD, there is no drudgery in it.  I realized working in the trade for me is a labor of love.  It is not that I love fiberglass clogging my pores, hitting my hardhat on pipes, or cutting the dickens out of my knuckle with a sharp hanger strap:  I love the job my God has given me to perform.  I want to please Him and be about the business He has granted to me as steward.

I thought to myself, I don't have to do this.  There's a lot of easier things I could be doing, things that are more comfortable and less strenuous.  Have you ever had to wear a hardhat, a respirator (dust mask), and safety glasses at the same time, climbing up and down a ten foot ladder hundreds of times a day carrying knives and cutting fiberglass?  It's a strange life, but one I wouldn't change because it's what God has given me to do.  It feels good to work hard, and serving God is hard work.  Paul made tents not as a hobby, but to support his ministry towards the Gentiles.

Jesus did not have to do the good things He did.  He did not have to heal people, perform miracles, teach the multitudes, hold little children, or go where the diseased and lepers were.  He was never forced to do anything.  But He lived to please His Father in heaven, and His Father was well-pleased with Him!  Jesus told His disciples, "These things I say to you that your joy may be full."  Jesus had this fullness of joy and was therefore able to give it to others.  Our joy is full when we walk in obedience to the Father, fully pleasing Him.  Paul wrote in Colossians 1:9-12:  "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; [10] that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; [11] strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; [12] giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light."

The joy Jesus brings does not depend on circumstances.  Joy is not obtained through a girlfriend, a new car, a dream job, or your team winning the Super Bowl.  Jesus is the source of true joy, and it is received when we walk in the Spirit and abide in Him.  Like Paul, we can be in prison and sing heartfelt songs of praise.  We can be thankful and filled with joy when we are coated with a thick layer of itchy fiberglass.  We can rejoice without knowing all the answers, resting in the fact God is our Father and we are His precious children.  He gives us eternal life, and no one can snatch us from His hand.  Praise Him!

Mining is Work!

Last school year I had the privilege of attending a class trip to Sacramento with my oldest son, Zed.  The focus of the trip was the California Gold Rush and we visited Sutter's Mill where gold was seen lying on the surface of the ground.  I don't know if you've ever been chaperon to a group of six fourth grade boys with gold fever, but I spent a lot of my time trying to subdue their enthusiasm.  We'd be driving on a bridge over water and some would shout, "I see huge gold nuggets in the river!"  No, I'd tell them.  If there were gold nuggets the size of basketballs lying in plain sight in the stream, the Forty-Niners would never have left.  At least there would be a huge active gold mine, not a quaint little settlement living off the tourist trade.  Undeterred, these kids continued to shout about the fortunes they would walk away with after a couple of easy minutes picking up nuggets off the ground.

We were taught by the camp staff how to pan for gold.  Troughs were set up filled with sand which had been "salted" with tiny gold flakes.  The kids and adults alike were given pans to "pan" for gold with instructions on how to efficiently use them.  Within minutes, the most exuberant prospector in my group began whining like a spoiled three year old with entitlement issues.  "I can't find any goooold."  If you have ever prospected or taken up metal detecting as a hobby, you understand that it is a slow process that requires much patience.  Because detecting or panning doesn't guarantee "finding, much fun derived from the activity can be from the companionship of friends rather than what is actually found.  Within a few minutes many from the group chimed in.  "There aren't any nuggets here...we want to go to the river.  We saw the gold!  We saw it from the bus!"  I reasoned with the boys:  the troughs have real gold salted in them.  We know for a fact there is gold in the troughs.  We don't know where the gold is in the river.  And besides, I reasoned, if gold was just laying around the professional prospectors wouldn't have moved on!  "There's gold in the river," said the whiny one.  "I saaawww it!"

After much discussion and vain attempts to logically convince the kids real gold flakes are better than no gold, they would not be denied.  I took my crew down to the river and we joined the hordes of energetic youngsters who were seemingly more interested in getting wet than finding gold.  Me and a few of the industrious ones began panning.  In the troughs I was finding gold in every pan.  Using the same techniques in the sand of the river, after half an hour I found nothing.  I needed a shovel to go deeper, but I kept at it.  True to form, five minutes had not passed before the chorus of whines came up from those who had seen nuggets from the bridge:  "We haven't found anything...I know I saw it from the bus."  The kids promptly gave up search and played with a dead crayfish.  Of all the kids, the one who was so sure he knew where the gold was had the least.  When he realized it was work to find gold, the lure of fulfilling the dream was not as strong a draw as whining, complaining, and giving up.

This is an object lesson in finding the golden wisdom and truth contained in the pages of the Bible.  So many professing Christians have never tapped into the truths of scripture.  They do not know the Bible because they have not studied the Bible.  When I took an inductive Bible study class we were told, "Surface study only yields surface results."  No one becomes a successful miner without some training, even if the gold is in salted troughs!  No one can study the Bible effectively and efficiently by themselves:  we must be taught and led by the Holy Spirit.  Even the best leadership is inadequate if we are unwilling to pay the price in sweat and toil.  Bible study can be laborious, but there is nothing more rewarding.  Effective study of God's word does not only increase a man's knowledge, but results in changes in perspective and daily living.  Psalm 119:11 says, "Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You!"  Psalm 119:105 states, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  Jesus was not a proponent of rote memorization as much as life transformation.  He does the inner work and enables us to walk in that light.

Jesus says in John 9:4:  "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work."  Our work is to believe on Christ Jesus and become masters not of the facts and figures of scriptures, but living out the truths and exhortations contained within.  We must not keep this wisdom to ourselves, but share it with all who will listen!  Why spend most of our reading moments prodding the equivalent of dead shellfish with fiction books when we have the living, invaluable Word which brings life to the dead?  May God bless you as you dig deep in His Word which is food indeed!

Good News from a Far Land

"As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country."

Proverbs 25:25

 

I've been watching "The War," a 15-hour World War II documentary which aired on PBS some years ago.  I bought my dad the DVD box set and my mom and I have been catching a little here and there when time permits.  One thing infantrymen and soldiers of the cross have in common is the great value they place on news from loved ones.  Almost more valuable are the letters written by the soldiers and sent back home!  Periodically throughout the film, letters are read with a voice-over written by a soldier named "Babe."  Every letter was dated and treasured by the family members who received them.

 

Most every day I check my e-mail.  Often I'm like Ralphie in "The Christmas Story," who looks into the mailbox every day for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring only to find an empty mailbox.  But some days I open my e-mail inbox and read a message which refreshes me with encouragement.  Today was one of those days.  It was like cold water to a weary soul.  The American infantrymen interviewed after World War II said they learned how to sleep while marching, like walking in a coma.  That's how a lot of us go through each day at times, churning through day after day, grinding on and on.  Sometimes a little good news from friends or the Word of God snaps us from our slumber.

In my devotions this morning, I came across Genesis 4:26:  "And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord."  Before church, worship music, Sunday School, Communion services, baptisms, church traditions, home fellowships, missionaries, apostles, prophets, or gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned in the Bible, there was prayer.  Man fell and then men prayed.  I wonder:  when we are in the midst of the desert spiritually, do our prayers to God bring as much refreshment to Him as good news from a far country does to us?  Whether we have rebelled or drifted far from God, He is pleased to hear us direct our hearts toward Him in prayer.  He is the God who leaves the 99 to pursue the one who is lost.  God's love never sits still.   God speaks as the beloved in Song of Solomon 2:10:  "My beloved spoke, and said to me:  "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away."  How important is it for you to come away and spend time with God - not for you, but for Him?

 

As I saw the horror and catastrophic loss of life through the documentary, it is evident heaven is not to be found on this sin-soaked blood-stained earth.  But we have a risen Savior who stands at the right hand of the Father, living to interceede on our behalf.  He has granted us the Holy Spirit who indwells us and teaches us according to God's perfect will.  We can hear from heaven, my friends.  It is not the rustling of angel's wings or the chorus of cherubim:  it is the Good News from a distant land that refreshes the soul with Living Water.  The Gospel truth rings lound and clear and resonates in the heart of all who trust in Jesus as Savior and LORD.  There is a God in the heavens who has come down to earth to save sinful flesh.  There is hope for the hopeless, restoration and redemption for the damned.  John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [17] For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."