"I Think Of Them"

President Obama's speech last night noting the end of direct American combat operations in Iraq causes me to think of many of our people who sacrificed so much for the freedom of another people, and for the preservation and security of order in the world.


I think of all who served, including our son, Staff Sgt. Noah I. Davis (USMC), and the pains and challenges they endured to fulfill their difficult mission. I thank them, and I thank God for them.


I think of those who were wounded, and of those who will live the rest of their lives with the scars. Some lost limbs, eyesight, and hearing, and some will live the rest of their lives in excruciating pain or paralysis because of their injuries. I thank them, and I thank God for them.


I think of those who died, the many thousands of those who died, including our son's comrade and friend, Sgt. Foster Harrington (USMC). I think of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for liberty, and of the hallowed American heritage of the "the last full measure of devotion" paid by so many throughout our history. I cannot thank them. And so even more, I thank God for them.


I think of families who waited for the return of their loved ones from harm's way, and of those who still wait. I think of the many hours of pain and uncertainty faced by spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts. I think of family members who will be lifelong caregivers for severely wounded veterans, and of sacrifices that will continue long after the Iraq conflict fades from the memories of most. I think of families who lost loved ones in Iraq. I think of them often, especially because God so graciously brought our son home from his service. I thank them. With great sympathy and much sorrow for them, I thank them, and I thank God for them.


I think also of those who served, and still serve, in Afghanistan, and of their families. And I think of those Americans who defend liberty around the world, and of their families. I thank them, and I thank God for them.


I had a dream last night that I had been summoned by my country to leave my family in order to go to some faraway land to fight for our freedom. It was only a dream, and I've never had such an experience. I nevertheless woke up deeply disturbed, and immediately the thought occurred to me how how many of my fellow countrymen and their families have literally experienced the agony of such separation and loss (and of some who are experiencing it right now, in this very moment). I then thought of the Lord Jesus Christ leaving Heaven to come to earth in order to fight the war of the ages for our eternal salvation and liberty. He lived, died, and rose again to become "the Captain of our salvation," and He forever bears the wounds of His sacrifice and victory. I think of Him, and I think of all those throughout the history of our nation whose lives and sacrifices for others reflect the truth of God's redeeming love for us. I think of Him and them, and I thank God for them. It doesn't seem enough, and it is not enough. But I think of them. And I thank God for them.


"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
(John 15:13)
"God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
(Romans 5:8)

"The Line of Demarcation"

The dividing line between the Divine and the human is often violated in our generation by not only unbelievers, but by some who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.


Both directly and tacitly, the pagan notion is promoted that began in Eden when Satan told Eve that partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil would result in deification: "Ye shall become as gods" (Genesis 3:5). We must keep a sharp eye and ear for such spiritual error, and when detected, we should not walk away from it. We should run.


God has drawn us into vital union with the Holy Spirit. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6). The bond is dynamic, heart-filling, powerfully enabling, and blessedly graced with the affection and devotion of God's love. Metaphorically, the Bible likens the union of "one flesh" human marriage with the "one spirit" union of our hearts with our Lord's heart (I Corinthians 6:17). However, just as united husbands and wives do not become each other, neither do we become Christ, nor does He become us. Any notion that crosses the line of demarcation between God and ourselves conflicts with this clear Biblical analogy, and with the truth of Scripture definitively stated in the writing of Isaiah: "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and His redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6).


Again, we must flee any notion to the contrary. Satan originated the delusion that created beings can somehow share the substance and glory of the Creator. "I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14). Nothing could be further from the truth, and our enemy is always the instigator of such deception. "Thou art God alone" declared the Psalmist to the "one God" revealed in Scripture as existing in three distinct, but perfectly united persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Psalm 86:10; I Timothy 2:5). Our Lord does not, will not, and cannot share this substantive essence of His being with anyone, including those birthed into living relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus. Christ is Christ, we are ourselves, and "the hope of glory, which is Christ in you" does not violate the eternal line of demarcation between the Divine and the human (Colossians 1:27).


"I am the LORD: that is My name: and My glory will I not give to another."
(Isaiah 42:8)

"A New Heart"

In 1967, Dr. Christiaan Banard performed the first heart transplant on a man named Louis Washkansky. The operation was considered a success, although Washkansky died of pneumonia 20 days after surgery because of immunosuppressive drugs administered to prevent his body from rejecting the donor heart.


Since the first transplant, many people have received new hearts, and while the procedure is always the most major of surgeries, the rate of success has increased to the point that some people have survived for decades with the implanted heart of another. Improved knowledge, methodology, machinery, drugs, and the skill of doctors, nurses, and medical technicians have made heart transplants a fairly common and often successful marvel of modern science.


There is, however, one fact about the advancement of the procedure about which we can be certain: there will never be a "do it yourself heart transplant." We will never be able to go to drugstore to ask, "Which aisle are the heart transplant kits on?" Someone else will always have to perform the operation, and the transplant recipient will always require the knowledge, skill, and willingness of others on his behalf.


"A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26).


Salvation involves our very Creator acting on our behalf to not only forgive us and assure us of eternal life, but also to change the very core of our being. He does for us that which we could never do for ourselves. The new birth through the Lord Jesus Christ provides a "new heart," and "a new Spirit." We literally become "a new creature" in the innermost sanctuary of our being, and a "new man, created in righteousness and true holiness" (II Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24). The entrance of the Holy Spirit births a person who did not exist before we believed, a spiritual being inhabited by the Spirit of God Himself. Our earthly faculties and members remain, referred to in Scripture as "the flesh." Sin therefore remains possible if these natural components of our being control us. However, nothing changes the fact of the new heart and the new Spirit given by God, and united together and forever for His glory. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Corinthians 6:17).


If we have believed in the Lord Jesus, we must know and affirm that this transplant has taken place. While we could never perform the procedure, it is our privilege and responsibility to affirm the reality of newness that exists within us. "Reckon ye also yourselves to dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). We must believe that in the innermost part of our being, a literal death and resurrection has taken place that changed the very fact of who we are. Again, God did for us that which we can never do for ourselves, but He did it in such a manner that we must presently believe the Truth in order to consistently experience the fact of a new heart and a new Spirit. The Word of God and the Spirit of God unite to bear witness to this blessed gift of saving grace, and we must join in the holy union. To the degree we believe the truth of the holy transplant performed by our Great Physician, our lives will flow in the spiritual vitality and health it makes possible. Or, as the Apostle Paul counseled Philemon...


"I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus."
(Philemon 1:4-6)