Your In For Life, Like it or Not

Training

Training is all-encompassing and should be related to everything a unit does, or can have happen to it.

Arthur Collins American Army General

Heb 12:10-13
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. NASU

Paul is speaking to us this morning on the subject of short-timers. When I was in the Navy those men that were near to the end of enlisted service were called short-timers. Their contract with Uncle Sam was fulfilled and they were near the time where they could once again direct their own lives. This was a short time of discipline where each man was continually trained and kept “on alert” for the safety of our nation.

You know where I’m going with this, that’s right, you and me as Christians cannot be short timers. We know that the time is short, but at the same time it is for us a crucial time to maintain the disciplines that are given to us in God’s Word. Discipline is not something that will come to us in short time periods. There were some things that I learned as a child that were temporary periods of excruciating pain, but there were times when I wished someone would whip me and get it over with.

The discipline of the Christian life is not learned in a day, nor a week, or even in a lifetime. When we leave this earth there will still be things that we could have learned and done better. But for us as Christians it is important that we maintain our spirit of readiness to walk in straight paths, to strengthen our spiritual knees and feet so that we may be healed and changed into the image of Jesus Christ.

Discipline is not fun, discipline is aim and dedication. It produces temporary sorrow in us when we see our shortcomings, but when God is involved in it, He is going to use it to produce in us brighter and fuller days of joy. He is teaching us how to survive and not stray away down crooked paths on crooked legs. God is teaching His children how to be ready for His coming and how to survive the battles of this world.

So how about you soldier, what kind of shape are you in? There’s no shipping out of this service, you are enlisted for life. Will you survive the battles of this world, so as to meet your Savior and Commander? I hope so, but until then be God’s spiritual duck, be calm on the surface, but paddling like the dickens for Christ underneath…God Bless.

Pastor William