Wednesday Wander

Today I am so pleased to have a guest post from a dear friend, Tom Davis.  You will be blessed as you read what God has laid on his heart.

Tom Davis served in the US Army for just under six years. During that time he deployed twice to Iraq. During the second deployment, his Humvee hit a roadside bomb that almost took his life and eventually took his leg.  However horrible and tragic this event was, it eventually led to him finding Christ Jesus.  Tom currently lives in Fremont, IN with his beautiful wife and four wonderful kids.  Tom is striving to live every day of his life for God

I see many similarities in people who work out in a gym and Christians. Some push themselves every single day to be the best they can be. Others seem to just float through their “workout.” I see the same things in followers of Christ. There are some that are consumed by their passion for God and others seem to just float through their relationship with Christ.

This letter was written one day, on my trusty iPhone, while I was lifting weights at my local YMCA. I watch people and I see the way they act. I see the way they workout. I read the clever slogans on their shirts. They say things like dedication, team, inspiration, hard work etc. When most likely they have no idea what any of that means.

Most of them have never been someplace where people want to kill you because of who you are and what you represent - a place where the only thing you've got to rely on is your training and the guys to your left and right. I served almost 6 years in the Army. During that time, I did two deployments to Iraq, the latter taking my left leg and almost taking my life.

They don't know what it means to train. They do it to look pretty. We did it because you better be able to run when you’re getting shot at, better be able to carry your wounded buddy out of a kill zone, better be able to keep going when your body and everything in you wants to quit. They don't write books about people that look pretty. They write books about people who get shot several times and keep fighting because his friend’s life is more important than his.

Why do Soldiers and Marines do it? When it all comes down to it, when the bullets are flying, when you’re half dead and still are instructing your men how to fight, when you are so scared that you are going to die, the only thing that matters is the men next to you. That's dedication. Training for endless hours in 110 degree heat wearing 65 pounds of gear is hard work. Taking down a building full of radical insurgents is team work. Doing whatever you have to do to get home to see your wife and kids is inspiration. What do these people know of this? Only what they see on CNN or read in the newspaper. This censored, watered down, public version is nothing compared to what really happens.

Religion is the exact same way. It has been so watered down and censored that it's a shell of what it used to be. In the Gospels and throughout the Bible, Christianity meant suffering, pain, and often times death. Now it is a path to a better life - one of riches and treasures of beautiful people that are prostituting the Gospel for their own benefit.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

The cross is pain, suffering, horror, anguish, and despair. It was meant for humiliation and designed for it’s bearer to die a slow death. But that all failed because the cross is the most beautiful symbol of all the ages. It's hope when there is no hope, is freedom when you're enslaved and chained, it's beauty, it's marvelous, it's absolutely the only thing that should be the focus of our lives.

James 2:17 says that faith is shown by deeds, not deeds determine your faith. It's not about how much money you have, where you live, or the clothes on your back. It's not about what you post on your Facebook or Twitter, what you wear on your wrist, or the magnet on your bumper. It's about what you do with it.

Your deeds are not about trying to get “saved” as some would have us believe. Your deeds are about finding every way possible to say, “Thank you” to Jesus for dying on that cross for me. Thank you for doing something so unbelievingly unthinkable for me, a person that doesn't even deserve to be His slave, not even worthy to tie His shoe. How could I ever deserve what Jesus did?

What are you doing with your life? Where is your loyalty? To the King or to you the king? It's time to decide and jump in with both feet, with complete and total abandon. It’s time to give up this life, pick up your cross and follow Him!

So why did Jesus do it? When the false accusations were flying, when He was half dead and still showing His followers how to fight, when He was so scared that He was going to die, the only thing that mattered to Him was YOU!

Tom, thank you so very much for your service to our country for me and my family.  I greatly appreciate your sacrifice.  And thank you for your message today.  You have touched my heart.

Sweet Blessings~