Basic Training
I awake to birds singing cheerily in the trees above my head. I open my eyes and stretch. A yawn nearly splits my skull open. Sitting up, I see that my woolen blanket is covered with pine needles. The wind must have risen in the night. I stand up and shake it out.
After rolling up the blanket and stowing it with my pack, I climb out of my hole to take a look at my surroundings. Craters mark the terrain from the artillery shells that deluged this area last night. The burned shell of the tank still squats across the clearing and shattered trees litter the landscape. I shake my head. Devastation.
"Jensen! Good to see you're still alive!" I turn at the familiar voice.
"Barely," I smile wanly. "That was one of the fiercest bombardments yet."
He grunts. "It was a lot worse on other parts of the line. The brunt of the attack landed to the north. Nevertheless, we lost three dead and nine wounded. Cursed artillery. Of course Denney..."
We both fall silent. Denney lost it the first night, screaming and clawing at the floor of his foxhole midway through a bombardment. He was evacuated to the rear, but the shock of his breakdown still sends a tremor through the company.
Denney excelled in basic training. He took to the military atmosphere like a duck to water. He was everyone's pick for a real hero. Yet all his training did him no good. Training is useless when the solder can't fight. The first sign of combat shattered his nerve and sent him to the hospital. Nervous breakdown. Combat fatigue. Whatever you call it, the facts remain the same. Denney is gone.
* * * * * *
In the battle that rages around us, parents are anxious for their children's safety. They should be. The enemy loves to attack young souls. They are inexperienced and fall easily to his assaults. Thus, it is quite understandable for parents to thorougly indoctrinate their children into the service of the Captain. They hope that a solid foundation will assure their young ones' salvation and bring them up to be solid soldiers of the King.
So they bring their children to the King's house whenever the doors are open. They carefully monitor their children's friends and entertainment habits. They bring their children up in the King's Way, reading His Book to them even before they are born.
Their efforts appear to bear fruit. The children walk and talk the King's Way effortlessly. They can recite portions of the King's Book in their sleep. They speak of the Captain as if He was their best friend. Their parents look on and smile. This one is surely safe from the enemy.
Perhaps not.
In all their preparation, in all their fervent efforts to keep their children in the King's Way, they have missed one vital thing. This one thing, like a chink in a suit of armor, gives the enemy all the room that he needs. They neglected to ensure that the child has a relationship with the King. If he does not, any efforts to train him for the King should be abandoned. Their whole energy should be focused upon helping him see his need for the Captain. If he has no relationship with the Captain, any efforts to reform his behavior or bring him up in the King's Way will ultimately fail.
Training is useless if the soldier can't fight. The soldier can't fight if he doesn't realize there is a battle. The soldier can't realize there is a battle unless his eyes are opened by the Captain. If his eyes are not opened by the Captain, all training he has received is useless.
Indeed, it does more harm than good.
Any training poured into a blinded one does nothing but teach him how to behave to satisfy the real soldiers around him. He puts on the outward appearance of a soldier, but his heart is not in it. The only thing his trainers accomplish is to create an actor of the worst sort. Because his trainers do not know that he is blinded, they cannot help him see.
Parents, before you bring your children to the King's house again or ask them to memorize more of the King's book, have a heart-to-heart talk with them. Make sure that your efforts are not being wasted. Ensure that they have a relationship with the Captain.
My comrades, do not alienate your brothers who have not yet seen the light. Your greatest testimony is when you accept the blinded ones and love them the same.
Blinded ones, stop your pretending and be honest. There is no shame in the truth. A relationship with the Captain is the most rewarding experience you can imagine. Can you feel it pulling at your soul?
My heart cries out for my blinded friends. Come to the Light. Leave your chains and be free.
Dear King, open the eyes of the blinded ones.
O my Captain, save our children.
After rolling up the blanket and stowing it with my pack, I climb out of my hole to take a look at my surroundings. Craters mark the terrain from the artillery shells that deluged this area last night. The burned shell of the tank still squats across the clearing and shattered trees litter the landscape. I shake my head. Devastation.
"Jensen! Good to see you're still alive!" I turn at the familiar voice.
"Barely," I smile wanly. "That was one of the fiercest bombardments yet."
He grunts. "It was a lot worse on other parts of the line. The brunt of the attack landed to the north. Nevertheless, we lost three dead and nine wounded. Cursed artillery. Of course Denney..."
We both fall silent. Denney lost it the first night, screaming and clawing at the floor of his foxhole midway through a bombardment. He was evacuated to the rear, but the shock of his breakdown still sends a tremor through the company.
Denney excelled in basic training. He took to the military atmosphere like a duck to water. He was everyone's pick for a real hero. Yet all his training did him no good. Training is useless when the solder can't fight. The first sign of combat shattered his nerve and sent him to the hospital. Nervous breakdown. Combat fatigue. Whatever you call it, the facts remain the same. Denney is gone.
* * * * * *
In the battle that rages around us, parents are anxious for their children's safety. They should be. The enemy loves to attack young souls. They are inexperienced and fall easily to his assaults. Thus, it is quite understandable for parents to thorougly indoctrinate their children into the service of the Captain. They hope that a solid foundation will assure their young ones' salvation and bring them up to be solid soldiers of the King.
So they bring their children to the King's house whenever the doors are open. They carefully monitor their children's friends and entertainment habits. They bring their children up in the King's Way, reading His Book to them even before they are born.
Their efforts appear to bear fruit. The children walk and talk the King's Way effortlessly. They can recite portions of the King's Book in their sleep. They speak of the Captain as if He was their best friend. Their parents look on and smile. This one is surely safe from the enemy.
Perhaps not.
In all their preparation, in all their fervent efforts to keep their children in the King's Way, they have missed one vital thing. This one thing, like a chink in a suit of armor, gives the enemy all the room that he needs. They neglected to ensure that the child has a relationship with the King. If he does not, any efforts to train him for the King should be abandoned. Their whole energy should be focused upon helping him see his need for the Captain. If he has no relationship with the Captain, any efforts to reform his behavior or bring him up in the King's Way will ultimately fail.
Training is useless if the soldier can't fight. The soldier can't fight if he doesn't realize there is a battle. The soldier can't realize there is a battle unless his eyes are opened by the Captain. If his eyes are not opened by the Captain, all training he has received is useless.
Indeed, it does more harm than good.
Any training poured into a blinded one does nothing but teach him how to behave to satisfy the real soldiers around him. He puts on the outward appearance of a soldier, but his heart is not in it. The only thing his trainers accomplish is to create an actor of the worst sort. Because his trainers do not know that he is blinded, they cannot help him see.
Parents, before you bring your children to the King's house again or ask them to memorize more of the King's book, have a heart-to-heart talk with them. Make sure that your efforts are not being wasted. Ensure that they have a relationship with the Captain.
My comrades, do not alienate your brothers who have not yet seen the light. Your greatest testimony is when you accept the blinded ones and love them the same.
Blinded ones, stop your pretending and be honest. There is no shame in the truth. A relationship with the Captain is the most rewarding experience you can imagine. Can you feel it pulling at your soul?
My heart cries out for my blinded friends. Come to the Light. Leave your chains and be free.
Dear King, open the eyes of the blinded ones.
O my Captain, save our children.
posted by Thomas at 10:01 PM
21 Comments:
Thanks guys, but I really can't take the credit for it. God's the one who gave me the talent; it's only right that I use it for His glory! :)
awesome post, man! almost a poetic kind of style. very good.
Well done. :)
Hey, Thomas... An excellent post. Keep up the great work!
Hello, Soldier of One (or is it Thomas?)! Let me introduce myself. I am 'A fellow soldier', fighting in the same cause as you. I really like the theme you've got going here, and I'll be checking back regularly.
Nice...good job...ditto to the others basically. :-)
“In all their preparation, in all their fervent efforts to keep their children in the King's Way, they have missed one vital thing. This one thing, like a chink in a suit of armor, gives the enemy all the room that he needs. They neglected to ensure that the child has a relationship with the King. If he does not, any efforts to train him for the King should be abandoned.”
Not so. Deut. 6:3-7 “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Parents must teach their children the Word of the Lord because the Lord commands that they do so. And why? So that it will be well with them, and with their children.
Nothing in the Bible indicates that we are to drop our discipleship of our children if they do not have a relationship with Christ. Only the Holy Spirit can open the eyes of a blind one. And whose eyes He will open He predestined before the foundation of the world. We cannot ensure that the children God gives us have a relationship with Christ, but parents are responsible for training their children in the Lord.
There is a Jewish tradition that on the first day of school the rabbi puts a little honey on the slate on which is written “Moses commanded us the Torah” (Deut. 33:4), among other things. The child licks the honey (symbolizing the sweetness of God’s commandments) from the slate. Psa. 19:9-11 “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.” Not only are the words of the Lord sweeter than honey, but God is a just God. We will be called to account by the Lord for how we raise our children.
Which brings me to my last point: The Holy Spirit will alert parents to the spiritual condition of their children, unless they are unwilling (or willingly blind) to see it. Luke 12:2-3 “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” One way that what is hidden shall be made known is through spiritual warfare. To use your analogy, what if Denny had suddenly decided that he wanted to stand and fight instead of running away, but had no armor, no weapons, and no training to do that? If we teach our children about the Lord, in faith that someday they WILL make that 18-inch conversion, we will train them, equip them, and arm them for the fight that they will inevitably face.
Please don’t misunderstand me as saying parents should just force-feed the Bible and not be concerned about the relationship their children have with Christ. What I am saying is that the Word of God not only teaches and equips, but excites a desire within our hearts for more and more of Him. Any parent that does not occasionally go face-to-face with a child in whom he does not discern an active and growing relationship with Christ is abdicating his responsibilities as a parent.
Hey, bro, the advocate here has a point (but will he reveal who he is? Stay tuned...).
So. Here's your discussion.
Hey advocate - try arguing in context next time. He didn't say they should abandon the discipleship of their children. here's what he said:
They neglected to ensure that the child has a relationship with the King. If he does not, any efforts to train him for the King should be abandoned. Their whole energy should be focused upon helping him see his need for the Captain. If he has no relationship with the Captain, any efforts to reform his behavior or bring him up in the King's Way will ultimately fail.
So, as opposed to your comments seemingly accusing him of encouraging spiritual abandonment, he's actually advocating an addressing of the actual problem: the lack of a relationship with the king. Yes, the knowledge is important and will certainly be useful if the child comes to the king, AND in addressing the child's most pressing need those ideas of discipleship will certainly come through - but an unredeemed Bible scholar is as useless as salt water in a desert.
I don't think your comments were fair to the letter or spirit of Soldier's post
You do have a point, Advocate, but I think KingPhatCow really summed up the point I was trying to make. In no way was I meaning to discourage parental training of their children. Indeed, this continued perseverance by the parents may be the tool that God uses to bring the child to the light. I apologize if I didn't make that point clear enough.
The point I was making is this: If a parent assumes that their child is saved while he isn't, and operates from that assumption, yet has issues with his outward behavior or attitudes, no amount of training will ultimately change his behavior. Let me explain.
Man is powerless on his own to reform. This is such a basic point, it's a tenet of Calvinism (Total Depravity). He not only will not change his behavior on his own, he cannot. Until the Holy Spirit steps in and intervenes, there can be no reform.
If a child pretends to be saved, yet is not, he will not ultimately be able to change his behavior on his own. Yes, he may change his external behavior, but there can be no lasting heart change without the Savior. External behavior stems from what is in the heart, and as soon as the parental pressure is taken away, he will revert to his old behavior. If a parent attempts to bring about change while his child is still unsaved, he will ultimately fail.
The parent should continue with their efforts, but instead of focusing on deep theology or spiritual subjects which take Christian maturity to discuss, they should focus on their child's need for the Savior. All else is secondary.
The Holy Spirit will alert parents to the spiritual condition of their children, unless they are unwilling (or willingly blind) to see it.
True. I know from personal experience that teenagers can be very good actors when they want to be. Yet parents should have some sort of clue about their children's spiritual state unless they want to just believe they are saved and leave it at that.
Interesting!
Soldier of ONE, I appreciate your answer. You have articulated more clearly what you were trying to say. However, I must point out that what you have said is somewhat contradictory to your original post, sort of along the lines of “What you think you heard is not what I thought I said.”
KingPhatCow, I don’t see how you come to the conclusion that I am arguing out of context. You should go back and read Soldier of ONE’s original post and my comment more carefully.
“What you think you heard is not what I thought I said.”
Lol, something like that. :)
You are officially established, Thomas. You've already had a "discussion" in your comments section. May I congratulate you. :wink:
God bless!
I wouldn't have commented without reading both.
Your initial comment quoted soldier while LEAVING OUT A COMPLETE SENTENCE in the middle - a sentence that negated your arguments.
KingPhatCow, as I said, you should read the original post and my comment more carefully and thoroughly. If you were less concerned with being right, you would understand that you misread and misjudged my post.
Advocate,
Since I obviously can't read... what exactly did I miss in my quest for "rightness" that would change my understanding of this disagreement?
KingPhatCow,
"...If he does not, any efforts to train him for the King should be abandoned.” This sentence from the original post was my main concern. I did not say that Soldier of ONE advocated spiritual abandonment, as you say in your post. I wanted him (as he did) to realize that he was advocating the abandonment of discipleship of the child by its parents, if the child does not manifest a relationship with Christ. I suspected that he had not said what he really meant, and I wanted him to refine and clarify his post to reflect what he actually believes. Which he did. And, if he actually believed that parents should abandon the discipleship of a child with no relationship with Christ because it does more harm than good, well, I wanted to know that, too. Do you understand the motivation for my post now?
I understood all along. I just think you didn't read in context. Fighting to bring your child into relationship with the king involves those elements you were referring to.
So, he essentially and originally said what you accused him of misstating.
That's what I noticed when I noticed your quote of his enrty skipped an entire sentence dealing with that.
And quoting scripture from the Old Convenant - where the extent of God's revelation to that point included a mandate to ritual and recital and sacrifice - is also not necessarily applicable to this conversation. Moses did not have the foreknowledge of Jesus, thus his inspired writings could not speak to that relationship.
Besides, in your own words: "I did not say that Soldier of ONE advocated... abandonment... I wanted him (as he did) to realize that he was advocating... abandonment"
KingPhatCow, we will just have to agree to disagree. I find it shocking that you would say that Moses’ direction to disciple our children by teaching them what Christ Himself said was the first and greatest commandment is not apropos to the discussion. And since you have taken me out of context to try to prove your point, I consider this conversation closed.
And since you have taken me out of context to try to prove your point
Sucks, doesn't it.
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