This afternoon I was traveling with a buddy of mine and happened to see one of those memorial spots on the roadside where a person lost their life. I am sure that you have seen them. Many places along the highway and interstate, there are crosses with pictures, flowers, sometimes even teddy bears and stuffed animals. It is so unfortunate that people do lose their lives so frequently in automobile accidents, but today this one spot made me question something.
Have you ever pondered why you don't ever see a Buddha, a mini- mosque, a totem pole, even some types of animals, or any other symbol that represents a world "religion"? Me neither! Today I really started thinking about this.
Perhaps everyone of these people that tragically lost their lives had family members who believed in and trusted Jesus, but I seriously doubt that. Could it be that the cross is just the universal sign of death? That is quite possible, but I think it goes much deeper. I strongly believe, and the Bible teaches, that everyone has an understanding at some level of who God is, because God has shown us all (see Romans 1:19-20).
Certainly, everyone, whether they admit it or not, has to at least want to believe in their hearts that there is a heaven and there is a God who desires something better for His creation. I would speculate that the crosses on the roadsides represent the fact that humanity has the truth before them and deep down inside, especially in light of a lost loved one, that there MUST be a hope that the cross represents. After all, IT IS a universal sign of death! But, it also represents to us that there is One who conquered death through the resurrection and that He lives to this very day, and will live throughout eternity!
Not everyone who places a cross on the roadside is a born-again believer! Yet deep within their souls, as they drive that cross into the ground, marking the spot of tragedy, their hearts cry out for a hope that there is in fact an afterlife and that Jesus is somehow involved in caring for the one who died.
I am not sure if I like the crosses on the roadside because it would be like having little gas chambers, or lethal injections all along the roads today. The cross was an instrument of death for the most heinous of criminals, but God himself became flesh so that we would not have to live eternally separated from Him! Though I may not really like it, I certainly understand it, because I would want to have a cross marking the site where my loved one passed on in tragedy.
Just think about it though; why the cross? Why not a little Buddha guy sitting there with his legs crossed so a passerby could stop and rub his belly? Why not some other marking that represents Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Baha'i faith, etc.? Because none of them have the promise of a peaceful afterlife! None of them can make the claim of a risen Savior! None of them can hope for an eternity spent without pain, or tear, or any heartache at all! None of them can for a moment consider what it could be like to worship a matchless King throughout the ages yet to come! None of them!
So the cross on the roadside offers the family peace in a terrible time! Those little crosses on the roadside offer a representation of hope that there really is a God! A God who humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross; out of the purest humility and love possible and now gives life everlasting to those who will believe in Him with all of their hearts and trust Him for life!
Those crosses represent the tragedy that the loved one experienced, that the family experienced, that God himself experienced, and what we experience if we turn away from the One who gave himself for us! Yet they also offer hope, peace and the fact that all of us, deep within the soul, yearn for a relationship with the One who created us and desires to love us through eternity!
Crosses on the Roadside, give it some thought!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
A Disciplined Soldier!!
Well, once again I find myself being less than faithful in my posting, and wishing that I was a much more disciplined person. I can remember being in Basic Training (Army) at Fort Knox, Kentucky back in 1987. Man I excelled like mad! I went from the nobody private, to squad leader. I remember my Drill Instructor saying "you have been here over week and we still don't know who you are, that is a good thing, you are now a squad leader." I guess it was because I just did what was expected of me and did it to the best of my ability. It happened that way when I was in the very structured environment of Basic Training.
My first day out of Basic, many of us were in the Louisville, KY airport, awaiting a flight to San Antonio, Texas. Back in 1987, if you were a soldier in the US military, they would serve you alcohol regardless of a person's age. Need I go into detail? We were through with Basic, we were soldiers now, and headed to San Antonio. We got so drunk in Louisville that we were almost arrested when we arrived in San Antonio. Then the parties In "San Antone" just kept getting wilder and crazier by the minute, and it became quite commonplace to drink every night and show up for a.m. formation with a terrible hangover.
OK, how does this apply? Well, I find that I lack discipline in my life. When I am in a situation where I am working daily in a church, have men of God around me daily, serving continuously in some capacity, etc., I do so well! When I have that Basic Training mindset because of structure, I do so well and thrive in my relationship with the Lord and with people. But let me drift out of that and into the freedom of "self-discipline", oh boy, it is like a spiritual San Antonio that is hanging on by a thread and lacking the intense and radical discipline I must have as a soldier!
2 Timothy 2:3 tells me to "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." A good soldier is disciplined in all that he does! When I was in Basic Training I was an expert marksman, squad leader, and actually given the "Mad Dog" achievement award (which was my company's highest award); I was a good soldier! Then verse 4 of that same passage goes on to say "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. "
Fort Sam Houston Texas was all about civilian pursuits and not pleasing those I was accountable to! I was living two lives! I was a soldier when I absolutely had to be and then a carnal beast when not on duty or off post. I was living a double life because I lacked that true self discipline that would have made me an even greater soldier and it ultimately led to me getting myself in trouble with the Military Police and almost getting kicked out several times!
Where are we today in our lives? What do the spiritual disciplines that make up a true RELATIONSHIP with God (the one who enlisted us).... what do these disciplines look like? Lack of spiritual discipline leads to lack of spiritual relationship. Lack of discipline only means a lack of obedience. Lack of obedience always leads to sinful behavior and that ALWAYS separates us from God. We do not worship the disciplines themselves, but the disciplines enable us to truly worship our Commander!
Please don't allow a lack of discipline and being "entangled in civilian pursuits" to cause you (or me) the type of struggles I had in the Army. I went from the most respected soldier in my company to the kid that was rendered almost useless as a soldier! There was nothing about me after a couple of years that would have distinguished me as even being a soldier; the exact same thing can happen in our spiritual lives! We are to be set apart as "Mad Dog" award winners! Am I truly distinguishable as "A good soldier?"
My first day out of Basic, many of us were in the Louisville, KY airport, awaiting a flight to San Antonio, Texas. Back in 1987, if you were a soldier in the US military, they would serve you alcohol regardless of a person's age. Need I go into detail? We were through with Basic, we were soldiers now, and headed to San Antonio. We got so drunk in Louisville that we were almost arrested when we arrived in San Antonio. Then the parties In "San Antone" just kept getting wilder and crazier by the minute, and it became quite commonplace to drink every night and show up for a.m. formation with a terrible hangover.
OK, how does this apply? Well, I find that I lack discipline in my life. When I am in a situation where I am working daily in a church, have men of God around me daily, serving continuously in some capacity, etc., I do so well! When I have that Basic Training mindset because of structure, I do so well and thrive in my relationship with the Lord and with people. But let me drift out of that and into the freedom of "self-discipline", oh boy, it is like a spiritual San Antonio that is hanging on by a thread and lacking the intense and radical discipline I must have as a soldier!
2 Timothy 2:3 tells me to "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." A good soldier is disciplined in all that he does! When I was in Basic Training I was an expert marksman, squad leader, and actually given the "Mad Dog" achievement award (which was my company's highest award); I was a good soldier! Then verse 4 of that same passage goes on to say "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. "
Fort Sam Houston Texas was all about civilian pursuits and not pleasing those I was accountable to! I was living two lives! I was a soldier when I absolutely had to be and then a carnal beast when not on duty or off post. I was living a double life because I lacked that true self discipline that would have made me an even greater soldier and it ultimately led to me getting myself in trouble with the Military Police and almost getting kicked out several times!
Where are we today in our lives? What do the spiritual disciplines that make up a true RELATIONSHIP with God (the one who enlisted us).... what do these disciplines look like? Lack of spiritual discipline leads to lack of spiritual relationship. Lack of discipline only means a lack of obedience. Lack of obedience always leads to sinful behavior and that ALWAYS separates us from God. We do not worship the disciplines themselves, but the disciplines enable us to truly worship our Commander!
Please don't allow a lack of discipline and being "entangled in civilian pursuits" to cause you (or me) the type of struggles I had in the Army. I went from the most respected soldier in my company to the kid that was rendered almost useless as a soldier! There was nothing about me after a couple of years that would have distinguished me as even being a soldier; the exact same thing can happen in our spiritual lives! We are to be set apart as "Mad Dog" award winners! Am I truly distinguishable as "A good soldier?"
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