Monday, January 2, 2012
A Soldier's life Let me tell you about a soldier friend of mine. This friend has been in a battle ever since I€™ve known him. He€™s one of those soldiers who goes in to rescue people in need. His first major rescue didn€™t look very successful in his eye. I was not an eyewitness to this first story, I only heard about it from his family. I think his first rescue attempt shaped his life until the end. I may have some of the story wrong but this is the way it was told to me. He worked with his mom, a woman who loved he and his brothers and his father very much. She and Fred had three sons who were not all fully grown when she died. Mark physically drove her to the hospital when she had her heart attack, the heart attack that she would not come home from. Ever since then he has been trying to rescue people, mostly women, and mostly not so successfully. In the Word of God there are several descriptions of a believer€™s life. Two of them come to mind this morning. Paul talks about one, the runner in 1 Corinthians 9:24: Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. In this believer I see the runner in his shorts and running shoes. This one has been training all his life and he is determined to win the race. There may be hurtles, pitfall and other obstacles that he has to endure, but he has trained to look out for those things. For these believers the obstacles seems like just another day at the office. This was not Mark. Then there is the soldier. II Timothy 2:3-4 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Mark didn€™t always stay free of the affairs of life, but picture this: A soldier ready for battle, he is fully clothed from head to toe in his battle gear, he had never been any more than a private and it seems like every battle is always in the middle of a storm. A storm which causes the field to be so muddy that it€™s like another layer of armor that he is wearing. Not only is he coated with all this mud, but he has blood all over him. He is bloody from the wounds of his past, from the wounds of those he is trying to rescue and his own self inflicted wounds. His wounds are from the enemy fire and even from friendly fire. This soldier has not had a lot of training, he just has a huge heart for those who need to be rescued. He€™s not even sure what to do with them once he has them, but he pulls them from the hands of their captors so they at least have a chance. This was Mark€™s life. His fight was from within and from €œwithout.€ Within because of all the self condemnation of not being able to be €œSuccessful€ at much of anything that he could see. Within himself to believe that he was enough to be loved. Within his own mind where he battled the attacks from the enemy. €œWithout,€ without a mother who he loved, but who he could not keep alive no matter how quickly he drove to the hospital. Many years without a spouse who believed in him. Without family because of condemnation from himself and from some of them. But there is another part of this soldier€™s story. A few years back he had a different kind of wound. His physical heart was failing him. He had the scare of his life. His heart attack helped him get things in better perspective. It was at this point that he was ready to look at his life and saw that he needed a Savior, and that savior was not himself. Mark still felt less than he was, less than the way God saw him. Mark sometimes still stubbled in the mud that surrounded his life. From most people€™s perspective you might think by glancing at him or seeing him from your old memories that he had not changed. But all you had to do was begin to talk to him about the Lord, and when he spoke about Him you knew that Mark had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I guess there are many reasons for others to not ask Mark if he knew the Lord as his Savior. Maybe they thought that he was a lost cause. Maybe they didn€™t think Mark was redeemable because they don€™t understand the Love of Jesus. I think maybe some didn€™t really care if he knew Christ. Then there were those who would have if he would have made himself available. I know for years that there have been many family members who have been praying for Mark. His cousins Margie, Carol and Kathy dearly love the Lord and loved Mark and prayed for him. They had a great desire to have relationship with him, but he didn€™t feel worthy. My family loved Mark and have been praying for him all along the way. Many times Mark would specifically ask for the family to pray for a particular need, and we would. I want to assure anyone who is reading this that Mark truly knew Jesus as his Savior and that he would want the same for you. No matter what your past or present situation Jesus is there waiting for you to come to Him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to enter into a personal relationship with Him. This soldier€™s life here is over, but the love that Mark shared and gave from his heart will continue on through eternity because of the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Hebrews 12:1€¨Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
