“Charge!”

 

Years ago when I was in Basic Training in Ft. Jackson we had a little fellow in our platoon whose last name was Debrito. He was a nice enough guy; quite, shy, sort of geeky but a nice guy. During the war games and drills he was ALWAYS the guy who survived while the rest of the platoon was taking causalities, some wounded but also getting dirty and sweaty as well.

The Drill Sergeant used to give us a hard time and tell us that it would be Debrito who would go home, get the medals and the girls – because he (Debrito) could always be found hiding in the foxhole while the battle carried on and the rest of us were in the thick of it.   Now – while that may sound like a safe and inviting place to be, you can ask any military member and they will tell you:

“I didn’t join the service to hide in foxhole (trench).”

SO that got me thinking– that as Believers, as Disciples – the trenches ARE NOT the place God wants us to live. No, God wants us to live a full, active and participatory life.  Scriptures like –  Luke 10:1-3

     “Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. And He was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.  "Go your ways; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”

Also - John 10:10b  “…I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”

Abundant life doesn’t happen from foxhole living or at the bottom of the trench.

It is time for Christians (Believers, Disciples, Followers of Christ) to “GET REAL!”

So the bottom line is that it is time for us to move out of the trenches and into real life.

It is time for us to go out, to move from the trenches on to the front line of living as real Christians.   Look around you, our community needs us, our country needs you. It needs you to be real, to be real in every aspect of your life, to live out loud. People need to see real Christians on the front lines of life, not hiding in the trenches. Our churches need Believers to be real. Our communities need to see real Disciples. God is calling you to be a real light on the hill.

In the Kingdom of God it isn’t the one who hides that will hear – “Well done good and faithful servant.” It is the one who will enter the gates of heaven with battle scars…

So we are moving from “In The Trenches” to -

“GETTING REAL”