Taking Chance

My husband and I spent the day feeding the cows.  It was a lovely day, I really enjoy spending time with him on the ranch.  We came home late in the afternoon, I fixed supper and we settled in for a movie.  He had heard of this movie on HBO and he had the channel paused so that I would not miss any of it.  It turned out to be "Taking Chance".  It is the story of a young marine killed in battle in Iraq.  

Majorly moving, I cried through the whole thing.  My eyes are totally swollen, I will not be looking to good for church tomorrow.  But they are worth it, you know, they are worth it.      My God, they are worth it!  

I was born in 1959, and the Vietnam war was very real to me.  I remember seeing the evening news and my Mom suddenly sending me to bed.  I remember praying for the soldiers during those times, I felt like they were my brothers over there.  

After 9/11, I realized that if someone was going to kill me for my religion then I better know what I believed in and why I believed it.  I sat in stunned silence that day.  I never took my eyes off the TV news and for that matter still haven't.  After that I began my study.  

I came to experience Jesus in a personal way, through many avenues.  Two of the biggest things to impact me was a bible study called "Breaking Free" written by Beth Moore and the Walk to Emmaus.  After these two events I became aware of how just dry I had been and just how free I can be.  Prior to this I just claimed Jesus and that I was a Christian, but I did not know Him.  I am serious about it now.  I do not want to be lukewarm.  I ask God for the fire of His Holy Spirit to burn inside of me everyday.  I do not want to go before the judgement seat and hear, "Depart from me, I never knew you."   

Now, it gets personal, now it is our sons and daughters fighting for our freedoms.  I have said before that I did not deserve the children God gave me, but He gave them to me anyway.  My son, Jeremy, joined the army reserves at 19 and at 22 he joined the active army.  He is now on his first tour of duty in Iraq, stationed at Camp Liberty, in Baghdad.  He is a gunner with a convoy security detachment.  To you who understand military verbiage, forgive me, I know that is not the proper way to say that, but it is what stuck in my head.  

When he joined the reserves, I called my preacher and talking real fast I asked him, "When it is your time to die, God knows that, right, but when you make decisions, can that affect when you die,  I mean, I know God knows when you will be born and when  you will die, and..... "  That is not a quote, but it is the best I can do right now.  I hope you get the picture of a fast talking mother who is scared to death of what her son is going to face.  His answer was, well first he asked me what I was talking about!  Then he reminded me that God has a plan for our lives and that this just may be a part of God's plan for Jeremy's life.  Yes, oh course, that's right.

Beth Moore wrote a bible study called Believing God.  In it she asked, do you believe in God, or do you believe God?  

I have learned through my own walk with God that His Word is Truth, that He is Truth and 

Truth never changes.  No matter what the world says, no matter what the circumstances are, God's promises are true as are His warnings.  

I know; I believe with every fiber of my being, deep down in my bones, that God is who He says He is and I am, you are, and Jeremy is who God says we are.  He will see Jeremy through this and through all the times to come.  Before he left for Iraq he signed up for six more years of service. He called and said, "Mom I have good news!  First, I got a raise!  I said, Oh that's great son, then he said and I joined up for six more years!" . . . "I said congratulations on your raise."

I am proud of him, though, I did not have the nerve at his age to stand up for anything.  He has much more metal in him, than I ever did.  This must be "the greatest generation".

I pray for Jeremy's safe return home, physically, spiritually and emotionally.  And for his buddies too.  They mean everything to him.  I am rambling, I can tell.  Please forgive me.

He called me about a week ago and he was barely able to get the words out, "Mom, I don't think I am walking with Christ anymore!"  I asked him why he felt that way.  He was just so empty, nothing around him holds up.  He said he tries real hard to be apart of the prayers before they go out on a mission, but they mean nothing to him.  The spiritual warfare there must be overwhelming.  I know that coming into this thing he was scared, probably scared to die, scared of what he was going to see and maybe even scared of what he might become.  He is desperately trying to hold onto who God says he is.  I guess right now it doesn't seem so apparent.  The thing that I understood from this conversation is that they need the word of God, more than ever while they are there.  Not just soap and magazines but soap with scripture attached to it that tells of the cleansing power of Jesus.        

My sweet sister in Christ, Dawn Jenkins, she blogs as Daughter of the King of Kings, started a troop project last year in her church.  She involved everyone at her church and sent packages to the soldiers.  These packages have scripture all over them, the plan of salvation is in there, it is truly an idea from heaven above.  

This year she is welcoming me to walk along beside her to learn what she is doing and to expand the outreach.  Along with her home church of First Baptist Church in Levelland, Tx, my church, FBC Childress and Church of Christ in Childress, we are joining forces as the body of Christ, to show our sons and daughters the love of Christ, while they are so far away.  It gets dry over there and I don't mean the weather.  They are hungry for the word of God, they are thirsty for the Living Water.  They need to know these things, that they are not alone and just being told "thank you" is not going to carry them through the dark times.   And for me there are no words of my own that can fully express this, but God's Word never returns void, it always finds it mark. 

If you have a minute, please lift our soldiers up in prayer and if you feel so lead send a soldier that you know a piece of home wrapped in the Word of God.  Or send me your soldier's name and we will get him on our mailing list.  Also, we need financial help, $5.00 per soldier just to send the box.  

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen Jeremy (your soldier or loved one's name here) with power through His Spirit in Jeremy's inner being, so that Christ may dwell in Jeremy's heart through faith.  And I pray that Jeremy, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that Jeremy may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more that all Jeremy can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in Jeremy, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:14 - 21      

Thank you.  I love you guys.