A Soldiers Life

As most of you know my middle son is in the Army Reserves, and I work with the Family Readiness Group with his unit. The FRG does a lot of different things, for instance when a soldier is deployed we will help their family with things like getting the resources needed to meet a financial emergency, or if say a spouse or child needs counseling due to the soldier being deployed in harms way. We also have different fund raisers during the year so that we can have a "Family Day", where we bring all the soldiers, and all their families together for a day of fun and fellowship, so that we can become one big family, so we can support each other if our loved ones have to go overseas. This weekend was our Family Day, while getting ready for it, I started thinking about how the life of a soldier is so much like the life of a Christian.

1. We make the choice to be a soldier/Christian
Rm 10:9, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth...thou shalt be saved" (13) "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved".
Joshua 24:15 "Choose you this day whom ye will serve;...but as for me and my house we will serve the LORD".
2Tim. 2:3 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ".
God uses other Christians to recruit us, but it is by His power we are convicted of our sin, and through that conviction we decided to join His family/army. Remember the old song "I'm in the LORD's army".

2. Church/Bible study is our training
Rm 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God".
John 14:26 "But the comforter...shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you".
1Cor 4:17 "...as I teach every where in every church"
We learn the things we need to know to be a good soldier, going to boot camp (church), and through our personal study of the word of God. There is no substitute for either, there are things we learn in one place that can not be learned in the other.

3. We receive our orders through prayer
1Kg 9:3, Mt ch. 6, Mk 11:24
Lk 10:2 "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the LORD of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into his harvest".
Lk 18:1 "And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint"
When we talk to God, He talks to us. We may not always hear an audible voice, but He speaks to us in other ways. If we listen to His voice He will direct our paths.

4. Once we have received enough training--We go into combat
Eph. 6:11 "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may beable to stand against the wiles of the devil".
2Tim 2:4 "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier"
1Tim 1:18 "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare"
From the moment we accept Christ into our hearts, Satan and his henchmen are looking for any opportunity to tear us down. But, through the grace of God we will have the victory, if we fight for it.

5.When we finish the job we are sent to do, we get to go home.
Eph 1:10, 2:6, 3:15
Heb 11:16 "But now they desire a better country, that is an heavenly...for He hath prepared for them a city"
John 14:2-3 "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I woul have told you. I go to prepare a place for you..."
Just as the soldier in combat looks forward to the day his tour is over, and he gets to go to the safety of home and to loved one's. We should be looking forward to the day we go to our home in heaven.