Gtcotr/ws010610
There is no road so long that you cannot walk it.
Hebrews 5
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
I am very grateful for the Basic Training I received immediately after enlisting in the US Armed Forces. It was there I learned the value of several basic elements of success. They taught me discipline, respect for authority and how to work as a member of a team with a goal which was more important than my personal safety, comfort, and ambition.
I thrived knowing what to do each day.
Get up on time
Prepare for the day
Eat on time
Engage the duties of the day
Evaluate the accomplishments and failures of the day
Prepare for a better tomorrow
Go to bed on time
The experience I had in Basic Training was nothing less than a discipleship experience. It was my opportunity to learn how to live and succeed in the military, much like the disciples underwent with Jesus as He taught them how to live and succeed in the Kingdom of God.
Some people I went through Basic Training with just didn’t make it for various reasons. Most failures occurred when an individual refused to get with the program. You see, many people feel that life is all about them. These types of people range from the selfish to the immature.
Immaturity is thinking that everything which affects you is all about you.
Selfishness however, is a product of human nature and has to be dealt with at the cross. The flesh must be crucified daily. There is no human cure for selfishness. People do what they do because they want to.
Galatians 5:24 Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
1 Corinthians 15:31 I affirm … I die daily.
At times some people just refuse to get with the program and discipline themselves. They want to be but don’t want to do what it takes to be.
There are other people however, who were once with the program, once were disciples of Christ, once walked a steady, productive walk with the Lord and somehow got detoured along the way. Many of these people to whom I am referring did not go out and start living in sin, rather they just sort of gradually withdrew from the front lines of Christian life and service.
These are those whose relationship with the Lord was not maintained properly and they grew cold to the spiritual regimens of life. They still love God and know so much about Him; they have testimonies as to what the Lord has done in their life; they can still sing the songs and say the blessing at the dinner table but … they have lost the fire, the passion, the vital connection which comes with a daily walk with the Lord. They, “used to be!” (There are ‘wanna bees’, and ‘used to bees’.)
Perhaps the ‘used to bees’ are not fully backslidden but they are nonetheless living in the faded glory of a better, happier, more blessed day gone by. Jesus spoke to the Apostle John who wrote an admonition to these people in:
Revelation 2:5 "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
What does this mean? Simply put:
Bad things left to themselves don’t get better, they get worse.
There is a principle that says: What you did to get the fire, what you did to get the passion, what you did to get that close relationship with the Lord, is what you have to do to keep it. Basically … Dance with the one that brung ya!
Either way: if you have never been a disciplined Believer and gotten with God’s program for Kingdom living, died to self and matured in Christ – or – if perhaps you once were closer to Him than you are today but now have fallen back some, withdrew, grown cold or become less disciplined to walk in the ways of the Lord … no matter which, the road to God for wanna bees and used to bees is the same – it is basic – it is a road of first works.
How can you begin to mature in Christ … how can you return to the road you once knew? Begin with prayer … a prayer of repentance … a prayer of turning. Then, you must develop a daily discipline of spiritual life.
Get up on time
Prepare for the day
Eat on time
Engage the duties of the day
Evaluate the accomplishments and failures of the day
Prepare for a better tomorrow
Go to bed on time
Decide that you are going to:
Respect authority
Serve on a team without consideration of personal ambition
Crucify your flesh daily
Learn how to live and be a success in the Kingdom of God
The instructions are in the manual! B I B L E: Basic …
Hosea 6:3 Then you will know, if you follow on to know the Lord …
