No pain, No Strain… and No Gain!!!
A look at our Navy Seal Training Program, as an interesting perspective into the extensive and very hard training required by our military, in this very dangerous world of today, verses the preparation which God puts His covenant children through, in order to train us for spiritual warfare for His service, and for life!
| Let us start by taking our lesson today from the pages of our operations manual for life, the Holy Bible: 1 Corinthians 10 (Message Bible) 1-5Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased. 6-10The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—”First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them. 11-12These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. 13No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.
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We had a men’s retreat once at my church that I used to attend, CMC in Laguna Niquel, that I shall never forget.
As it happened our Pastor’s son-in-law was and still is a Navy Seal; and the subject of the retreat was to compare the very severe testing that is necessary in order to qualify as a Navy Seal; and what we, as members of God’s army, go through in our training in order to be trained for His service.
There are many scriptures in the Bible that I can think of that address this topic, but one of my favorites is the following:
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” —1st Peter 1:6-7
As it happens for many of us, and as also it happened for Job as well (whose story we can read about in the Bible), there are many things in life that appear the exact opposite of what most people think or expect.
Actually I think for many of us, if truly we had understood ahead of time how hard this Christian life would be, prior to signing up, there would have been many of us who possibly would have had second thoughts.
I can remember hearing once a comment that Corrie Ten Boom made, who was a Dutch lady and servant of Christ, who together with her family had been involved with the Dutch Underground Movement, that was smuggling Jewish families out of Holland during the second World War, in order to escape the Nazi Concentration camps.
As it happened she lost her entire family inside a Nazi Concentration camp, and her life was spared only through a clerical error, that had her released prior to everyone else in her unit being murdered; and all this was owed to her family having been betrayed by a fellow countryman who was also a Nazi collaborator.
I also remember the story of another woman, a missionary bride by the name of Darlene Rose, an American lady who was going to Indonesia to join her new husband, who had gone on ahead of her, just as the war broke out.
Her husband was murdered, and she spent the duration of the war as a Japanese prisoner of war, inside of Indonesia; and both of these very brave women, after having experienced the worse of the worse, in all kinds of abuse and cruelty, in something that can only be described as hell on earth, in spite of all this, each of them had the same comment, when they said: “I wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything in the world, and even though I wouldn’t want to do it again, I have gained through these experiences knowledge about the faithfulness and love of God that I could not have learned any other way“… and therein is my point!
There is also a rhyme and reason for our hardships and stresses too, and for information on why, all we need do is look to the Bible.
I truly believe that our strongest asset in America today, and also our strongest hope for tomorrow, as a nation, is first owed to our long established Judaic/Christian heritage and history, together with our once strong and established faith in God; all of which is a legacy that was left to us by our founding fathers, howbeit today it has gotten rather tarnished and weak.
In addition, I also believe our next strongest asset, in our country, can be found in the brave men and women in uniform, who are serving in our nation’s armed forces, without whose sacrifice, both today and in the past, our nation wouldn’t even exist!!!
With that said, I believe truly it is ultimately our faith in God, first of all and foremost, among those who still believe, and also our prayers, that represents our nation’s strongest defense today against the tyranny and subversive agenda that would seek to undermine and subvert our liberty as a nation; much of which, I’m sad to say, comes from within our own government, in the halls of congress and in the White House!
It is too bad that the same loyalty that is common place in our nation’s military is not also mirrored among our nation’s leadership, among those who have been elected to preserve, protect and defend our freedom and our nation’s constitution; but who have instead betrayed both… and I’m talking here about presidents and congressmen, made up of both Republicans and Democrats.
It is these compromised, bought and paid for individuals, who are traitors to both our Constitution and our country, who are today our weakest link; whose agenda it is to subvert our way of life and our Constitutional form of government, that was designed by our founding fathers to operate as a Republic, into what they have called a “New World Order,” which is the name these same Globalist Banksters have given to the system they are trying to erect, that will ultimately be the Antichrist kingdom that is talked about and described in the Book of Revelation.
So consequently, God is about raising up His army today, in order to counter the traitors among those who have sold our country out; and who knows, maybe some of them will even get saved and join us… I hope so!
In any case we need to understand that whatever you may be facing today, if you are a covenant child of God, it is to make you strong and prepare you for battle.
If you are not yet a covenant child of God, then possibly your problems are to bring you to your place of need, as a way to introduce you to your Creator, who loves you and died for you.
Either way, the message is the same, God loves ALL of humanity, and His offer of reconciliation applies to all equally, regardless of where you are, or what you have done.
As long as you are not yet pushing up daisies, then the Bible says that you still qualify to receive God’s offer of forgiveness and reconciliation; but once you have passed on from this life it is too late!
What a strange concept… to think that the very frustrations, sorrows and tribulations which we face on a daily basis are worth more than billions of dollars in the eyes of God.
People often think the opposite is truth.
Whereas most believers sulk in their problems — wondering “why” God won’t answer their prayers — and again, the answer is found in 1st Peter 1:7.
God’s desire and intent for our struggles is in order to test our faith; and though we may not like it, it is certainly Biblical.
Hebrews 11:6 states: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Faith pleases God, and without faith we are destitute.
The trial of our faith pleases God, because it makes our faith stronger if we hang in there, and we don’t quit.
There are many believers who think God is ignoring them, or has abandoned them, when bad things happen in their life.
Again, God says in 1st Peter 1:7 that the “trial of your faith “is” much more precious than gold that perishes.”
Just ask the average Christian today whether they would prefer a pile of gold, or trials and tribulations?
Who wouldn’t take the gold… myself included; but that’s not God’s way!
Could it be that God is testing our loyalty and our perseverance, in order to determine whether or not He can even trust us?
I believe that the Bible is very clear on this point.
The fact is, we have been given more than most, here in America, especially when you consider the rest of the world; and the Bible also says, “To whom much is given, much is expected!”
Times in our country today are rough, and there’s no getting around that fact; and I dare say it will get even worse, before it gets better; but we who are Believers, who call ourselves after His name—”Christians,” we need to understand, as the Bible says, that every time the enemy comes in like a flood, and overwhelms so many, it is at those very times that the Lord always raises a standard up against him!
So if you and I want to be a part of God’s army, and resists the enemy’s efforts, then we have to get on board with God’s training program, and not quit, or be discouraged in the heat of battle!
These problems and travails that are hassling so many today, and wearing so many down, are not to destroy us; but the Bible says they are to make us strong.
So just as with the Navy Seal Training, God is about training his Covenant Children for spiritual warfare; and though the training often times is grueling and hard, the trade off will come after the training is complete, and we are put into service, with the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit, winning this lost world to Christ. Selah
Shalom,
Skip Barland
SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 