While recently reading War As I Knew It, the battle memoirs of that swashbuckling World War II General, George S. Patton, Jr., I was struck by some compelling spiritual parallels in his unique battlefield tactics. Perhaps we may profit spiritually as General Patton's Third Army and the Allied Forces did militarily.
Though somewhat controversial for his flamboyance, outspokenness and uncompromising standards, Patton was fundamentally a profoundly religious man who read the Bible daily. Using an aggressive combat strategy, he slammed the tanks and men of the Third Army across Europe at a breakneck pace. (From "Onward Christian Soldiers").
Upon whose boughs the Lamb was pressed
By love from His sweet flowing breast.
Upon whose bosom, Precious Stain Of crimson blush, the Lamb was slain! The Tree of death, the prophet said, Thereby did bruise the serpent’s head. Transformed, it stood, revealed to be The Tree of life for you and me!
(From "The Tree").
The court is now in session. The indictments returned on four Old Testament Gentile women may describe in some detail the height of their folly. But this is necessary to illustrate the depth of the grace of God. This ill-fated foursome, as we shall see, has a date with destiny. They ultimately will appear in the record, woven together in a tapestry far more beautiful than they could ever have imagined. The jury is now seated. Let the trial begin. (From "The Rest of the Story"). Victims were beaten until a Roman tribune, watching closely, saw they were unconscious and near death. He then stopped the scourging and bathed them in cold water, reviving them to suffer. Since Christ's skin was still tender from sweating blood in Gethsemane, this beating was exceedingly painful; the additional loss of much blood possibly, indeed probably, sent Him into shock. If Jesus could have received proper medical attention after the scourging, He would have been diagnosed in serious condition, probably critical, and placed in intensive care!
No care for Christ was forthcoming. But He was assisted to a coronation - His own! (From "Remember Calvary").
With sawdust-sprinkled hands and arms and woodchip-frosted hair, And a fragrant smell of rough-hewn cedar wafting through the air, The Carpenter from Nazareth in backwoods Galilee, Dreamed of how His greatest work of art was soon to be. He’d formed the worlds and framed them with the hammer of His Word;
Now tabernacled in the flesh, He was the Carpenter. The One who measured out the seas and heavens with the span, Now knew the plan to save mankind lay in His chiseled hands. (From "The Carpenter").
A Flaw in the Armor?
It has been duly noted that the whole armor of God, as detailed in Ephesians 6:13-18, affords no protection for the back. Not needed. We are going forward, facing the enemy, and God’s got our back! God is our rereward, our rear guard. We need not fear the enemy behind us. Even when we say, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” he will not camp there because of our awesome Rear Guard! (From "I've Got Your Back").
I immediately found myself in a graveyard where a young lad, Pip, trembled in the clutches of a desperate escaped convict. As I continued reading this absorbing novel, I had to agree with Irving's lofty assessment of the plot. It truly was spellbinding as it unwound like a mountain road with all its twists and turns, switchbacks and sweeping vistas.
But as I read, my thoughts somehow kept wandering to another story - a story with a plot and great expectations that make Dickens' novel pale into insignificance in comparison. (From "Great Expectations").
This crystal-clear example of the perspicuity of Scripture should settle, once and for all, the ancient question of the age of the earth: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:9-11). This divine assertion, part of the fourth commandment, was not just inspired by God - it was actually inscribed by Him on “tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18). (From "The Perspicuity of the Word").
First, a simple test. When Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32), did “lifted up” mean that He would be: (a) conceited, haughty; (b) praised, worshiped; or (c) elevated on a cross, crucified? The answer is obviously not (a) conceited. The most popular choice, (b) praised, is also wrong. Congratulations to careful Bible readers and lovers of the Cross who correctly chose (c) crucified! (From "Lifting Up Jesus").
I do recall the minister was rather unkempt and slovenly in appearance, and the huge flashlight bulging out of his back pocket was rather distracting. He never once acknowledged our presence. Why, he didn't even shake our hands!
But he did arrest our attention in the middle of his sermon when he looked right at us and yelled, "Tend to your readin’! The Bible says, Tend to your readin'!" Now, I had been saved for three years and I had read the entire Bible, but I did not recall that verse. I turned to the elder - the question mark stitched across his brow mirrored my own. (From "Tend to Your Readin'").
This started Ralph Moody on a fascinating lifelong search for the origin and history of the ancient character lines that once seamed the face of the American West. His study culminated in his 1963 book, The Old Trails West.
I was hooked. With Jeremiah's "old paths" prophecy ringing in my ears, I “hit the trail” myself, following trappers on the Old Spanish trail, traders and merchandisers on the Santa Fe Trail and explorers Lewis and Clark on the Big Medicine Trail to the Columbia and Pacific.
It seemed as I journeyed, certain principles with spiritual applications leapt from the pages. They applied equally to mountain men and buffalo hunters on the Oregon Trail and settlers, gold rush parties and Pony Express riders on the California Trail.
The best advice that could always be given was: stay on the established trails. (From "Old Trails").
The sky is getting darker now, black clouds rollin’ in;
Surely it can’t be - does nature sympathize with Him?
There’s something goin’ on here, somehow I don’t quite see; What is this God-man doin’ hangin’ on this cursed tree? (From "The Ballad of The First Believer").
