Veteran’s Day – The War is Over, Will You Choose to Live in Peace? – Purity 1500
Purity 1500 11/11/2024 Purity 1500 Audio Podcast
Purity 1500 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Well, It’s Monday and Veteran’s Day in the United States and as we take the day off to recognize the service of the brave man and women who put their lives on the line to serve their country, we thank all veterans for their service and hope that they have found peace now that their time of service is over. And it is my prayer that they have found the peace that goes beyond understanding by placing their faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul actually used the analogy of being a soldier as something to imitate in our lives as Christians.
2 Timothy 2:1-4, 10 (NKJV) tells us
1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier…10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Paul made it clear that Christians would endure hardships and would have to make sacrifices in the cause of living out and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ but the eternal glory that we receive through Christ alone made it worth enduring all things.
Paul’s warning of not being entangled in the affairs of this life teach us that some of the things of this life must be dismissed as we seek to follow Jesus and just as a soldier who goes to war experiences a wide spectrum of honorable and dishonorable ways of living and surviving, when the war is over they have to decided how they will choose to live and who they will choose to follow.
Some of the honorable ways of living that the soldiers demonstrate are:
- Courage – Soldiers are trained to put their fears aside and to focus on accomplishing their objectives and defeating their enemies.
- Self-Sacrifice and Physical Discipline – Soldiers are trained to physical, mental, and emotional hardships and to discipline their bodies to be stronger.
- Obedience – Solider are trained to obey orders, submit to authority, and to do things according to the “book.”
- Cleanliness and Order – Soldiers are trained to keep themselves and their equipment clean and in order.
- Teamwork – Soldiers are trained to work together as a team and to look out for one another for their mutual benefit and to pool their resources for success.
However, soldiers are some of the less honorable things that soldiers in war time are known for are:
- Wrath and Hatred – Harnessing Unbridled anger and dehumanizing your enemy may be an effective means for helping our troops to defeat their enemies but could be a real problem if these emotions and attitudes are not left on the battlefield.
- Drunkenness – One of the means of blowing off the steam of war is the abuse of alcohol, while perhaps understandable and permissible in the context of war the bondage of addiction can not only afflict the soldier personally, but it can also cause collateral damage to their loved ones.
- Sexual Immorality – Soldiers are known to enlist the services of prostitutes, engage in illicit affairs, or to pleasure themselves to pornographic material while “over there” but these perversions of true sexuality can cause bondage of the flesh and destroy their ability to experience the intimacy and love of healthy sexual relations.
- Gambling, Stealing and High Risk Behaviors – the thrills of the battlefield, taking the spoils of war, and games of chance in the barracks may be acceptable in the context of war but indulgences in these areas can cause unhealthy habits that can lead to physical, mental, and financial disasters.
- Mission – While battlefield objectives and clearly defining anything other than your comrades in arms as enemies may provide their own meaning, narrative, and purpose, they can also leave one left in a hostile world with no clear objectives when the war is over, causing depression and disillusionment that can draw one to destruction and suicide. This war time worldview can separate us from others and the good things of life.
The honorable and the dishonorable ways of the battlefield show us that a choice must be made when the war is over about what one will take from their war experience and how they will live their lives going forward.
While it may seem understandable in our world system how all of these ways can be transitioned to civilian life, the Apostle Paul wasn’t directing us to emulate the dishonorable ways of the world, or of war time, that soldiers can get entangled in. On the contrary, Paul encouraged us to turn from the dishonorable thing of this world.
Philippians 4:8-9 (NKJV) tells us.
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
The war is over. The God of peace can be with us when we put our faith in Jesus and decide to follow the orders of our Lord and Savior.
Christ died for us so we could be accepted, not by adapting, overcoming or trying hard, Christ came to give us a peace we didn’t have to fight for. The war against the world, the flesh, and the devil has been won and we can experience peace when we put our trust in Jesus and take up His kingdom cause as our life’s mission.
Being a disciple of Jesus will cause us to turn from the world’s dishonorable ways and drive us to be a good soldier for God.
So as we take today to give honor and our thanks to those who heroically served our country in the armed forces be sure to offer them the peace, meaning, and purpose that only the Lord Jesus can give.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Giving.
Malachi 3:7-10 (NASB) 7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! 10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
Today’s verses fall under the fifth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Giving.
5. Do not rob God of his tithes and offerings
Today’s Bible verses encourage us to make a regular practice of giving tithes and offerings to our local “storehouses” – our local churches – to support the Lord’s good works on earth and to let the Lord use our faithfulness to pour out a blessing until it overflows.
While these verses can be misused to drive people to not cheerfully give or to think that their giving will be repaid to them in some way, the principle to give to God and his places of worship is clearly established in scripture and if we find ourselves hard hearted when it comes to giving we should receive the conviction that we are not only “robbing the Lord” of tithes and offerings, we are also robbing ourselves of a deeper relationship with the One true God who has given us everything.
So seek to meet the Lord’s call to be a cheerful giver and let the joys of obedience and greater intimacy with our heavenly Father be a blessing to you.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own private study and to support his work. This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.
MORNING READING: REVELATION 21
“The holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven
from God.” – Revelation 21:10
What a beautiful picture is presented here of the heavenly Jerusalem! O, the glory, majesty, and mystery of it!
As to size, the height, breadth, and width alike will be 1,400 miles! It will be made of pure gold. The foundations will be made of the most precious stones. The gates will be perpetually open, for there will be no night in which to close them. The glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb the Light thereof. There will be no temple in it because the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
Its subjects will only be those whose names will be found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Nothing that defiles will ever enter there.
O worship, my soul, that I have been made
an inheritor of such mysteries![1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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