Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Strength and Compassion:
Our Bible verse for today: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training …” 1 Corinthians 9:25 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Train yourself today to be strong and compassionate tomorrow.”
I was once a crewmember on a U.S. Navy ship that was on fire. I don’t mean a little fire either, it was big! A main engine room erupted in a huge fireball. The explosive gases and fire then spread upward and outward through the uptakes, to the smoke stacks, and set adjacent rooms on fire. At one point we had a raging out-of-control fire in the engine room and smaller fires in thirty-two other rooms as well. The aircraft carrier was actually in danger of sinking right there off the California coast.
As a junior officer in the Engineering department I was responsible for leading one of the firefighting teams. I can tell you that when you’re in a situation like that, dressed-out in heavy firefighting gear, your face covered with a large rubber oxygen mask, no lights, dark heavy smoke, the heat is intense and the danger is real, it’s tough to think clearly. You’re scared, the adrenaline is pumping, your heart is pounding, and your mind is racing.
That’s when your training kicks in. This is when all the hours of practice and drilling pay off. Your mind and body go into auto-pilot and you just automatically start working down the checklist and going through the right motions. Former Navy Seal Eric Greitens writes about this in his book “Resilience”, “People like to imagine that they will “rise to the occasion.” (But) … people rarely do. What happens, in fact, is that when things get really hard and people are really afraid, they sink to the level of their training.”
Yes. You sink to the level of your training. That’s why we train. We identify those actions which must be taken in difficult situations and we train them until they become second nature.
Yesterday I told you that I believe we Christians in the USA are headed for turbulent times. Culturally, things are changing rapidly, and Bible-believing Christians are going to have their faith, courage, and compassion tested. When those tests come it will require a strong faith to stand firm on Biblical truth, and it is going to require a deeply ingrained sense of compassion to do so in a Christ-honoring way.
We must train for that now. We must prepare ourselves now for what we are likely to face then. This is what Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. He was talking about spiritual training that will strengthen the believer to be strong, faithful, confident, and compassionate in all of the different situations life brings to us.
All this month we will explore the idea of how to be both strong and compassionate in the face of difficult times. I look forward to training with you.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 