Scripture

Our verse for today comes from 2 Samuel 11:11, “Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!'”

Background

I have never seen the entire movie Saving Private Ryan. More accurately, I have never allowed myself to watch the opening scene of that World War II film. I have heard too much about the brutal reality in those opening twenty-seven minutes depicting the landing on Normandy Beach to allow those images to invade my mind. From what I understand, row after row of men are mowed down by the German soldiers above the beach, some of them shown being blown to shreds before the men charging directly behind them. Just imagining a scene resembling that type of carnage is more than I care to do. But as we consider our veterans, imagining what they might have gone through is all that most of us can offer. We have not carried everything we own on our backs and put our lives on the line and in the hands of a rifle and the man on either side of us. We have not had to kill or be killed and live with the nightmare of creating a widow and robbing a child of his father. But we have also not tasted the pure essence of freedom and the reality that it is anything but free. We simply have not known what it means to sacrifice everything we have for what we believe is everything that matters.

Application

Most of us have made it to now without very much being asked of us. And what has been requested borders much more on the inconvenient than the sacrificial. Some annoying tax dollars or extra paperwork or crimps of our schedules hardly compare to missing the first eighteen months of your child’s life or coming back from overseas with part of your body missing. Or not coming back at all. Sacrifice is a gravely serious word. And we don’t do very well with the gravely serious. We say “whatever” and use emoticons and avoid uncomfortable silence. But our faith, our eternity, is based on sacrifice. Everything was given up by Christ for us to have everything that matters. Is there any sacrifice in you? For the veterans among us, their sacrifice has walked their talk. When you see one, thank him, and ask yourself what you’ve given up for the Commander of the Lord’s army.

Charge

As we seek Him today, examine your heart’s price list of what you are and aren’t willing to pay for your Savior. Ask God for a heart completely sacrificed to Him and for Him.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words