On Parade
9/6/16
Everyone likes a parade! Or it would seem like this would be the case, but in truth, a parade is the ultimate test of a person’s quality and definition and thus can be instrumental in their overall development and growth. Being on parade is a showcase and an event that allows someone or a group to decide if a passing quality is quickly noticed or not. The rules are defined for each parade and it is up to the participants to ensure that the rules are maintained in order to receive passing marks. Our individual lives are in constant motion in this way as well and whether we like it or not, God is the ultimate “pass and review” judge that we must answer to. He has made His rules and guidelines clear and it is through these holy guidelines that our lives shall be reviewed.
It has been almost thirty years since I have been in the military, and while the majority of my tenure there is now blurred some of the days and nights still stand out in my heart as defining moments in my life. Each daily step we took as a group formed us into a fighting instrument that could be called upon to engage the enemy at a moment's notice. Even though when I walked into the MEPS station and hearing a loud voice call each one of us by name and then bark out the words “sign here to go to war” as we approached his table, it really did not hit me what I was getting myself into until the bus doors opened late one night at Lackland, Air Force Base, Texas in November 1988.
Basic training was a snap and a blast NOT!! It was an entirely new process in my life and one that I had no idea how to cope with at first. I was not alone in this arena for approximately thirty other men in my flight were having the same thoughts but were too scared to mention them to anyone for fear of some sort of retaliation by the other flight members and / or our instructors. But all of us mumbled and bumbled our way through basic and we came out as one lean fighting machine after our time at Lackland was fulfilled.
About the fifth day of basic training, we were escorted into a small room and told to sit and wait for a briefing of scheduled events, which ended up to be a lecture about our “stay” at Lackland and what we could expect to go through until our final day at this particular base. After basic was completed each event that the presenter told about was completed and successfully accomplished before we left the training base. It seemed like an overwhelming task ahead of us but at that moment we had no idea that each one of the events mentioned would be a building block to the parade that marked the completion of our training. It also came as a surprise as to how the parade was going to be participated in as well, which ended up to be a specific amount of time and a short appearance before the commanding officer and his guests and then that was it, graduation done.
Right next to our dorm was a large black, asphalt covered square that all of us would come to know quite intimately because we spent many hours on that tarmac either running around it, doing sit-ups, pushups, jumping jacks, holding buckets of sand on each arm, or anything else that our instructors could think of on it while the Texas sun baked our skin. It did not matter what the weather would call for each day we spent time on that hot square. About two weeks into our training our instructors added another little feature to our schedule called marching. So, along with our running and calisthenics “program” we now began to spend time marching around this square over and over and over. At the time I found it quite humorous and frustrating at the same time for I had no concept of why our instructors marched us around in a circular motion inside this square blacktop.
As basic advanced, it became clear that the measures that our instructors had been drilling into our heads were all coming around the marching technique and every aspect of our training was being directed towards this marching complex. Some of my flight members understood this but others did not and a few did not get it until we laid eyes on the parade grounds for the first time. However, there was a number that refused to get it and it was they who did not get to participate in the final parade review and thus had to repeat such a stance in another flight. It was mentioned to us that we would eventually be on parade before the commanding general and his guests at the end of our training time and how important it was that we incorporated each lesson during our training in order to get things right for our final inspection.
Hour after hour we would spend marching around this hot square trying to keep in step and not bounce as the number of times around the tarmac increased. With each passing turn, something or someone would not perform adequately and the entire process would have to begin again. I remember saying to myself and wondering if our instructors ever got tired of saying “let's do it again!” because I know I got tired of hearing it being said to us. I could go on and on about this tedious and meticulous process but what is important here is that our instructors were preparing us to stand before the commanding general and represent our squadron as a testimony of what we had learned over our training period. It was important for our instructors and to us as well, for everyone on that parade grounds that day was under the eye of the commanding general of the base and if he did not approve of what he was watching consequences were in order.
Coming together and functioning as one unit is the goal of every team captain, manager, CEO, sergeant, commanding officer and nation. In every aspect of life working together in order to successfully complete a task is the main goal and where awards are then received for those who stayed the course. It was through the marching studies that we learned to function as a team and as one unit instead of the individuals that made up that unit. Each one of us had to take into consideration that the unit was not about individuals alone but individuals functioning as one unit for it was one functioning unit that would accomplish the tasks set about them, not the individuals acting individually. And yes, we can truly place God into this scenario because there is nothing more desirous from His heart for Him to see His Church functioning as one unit according to His Word. Up until a few years ago, if someone would have told me that my experiences in basic training for the USAF would be a subject of how God wants His Church to operate I would have laughed at them and told them they were crazy. Each I wake up I find it amazing of how God brings our past into light for someone’s future, which tells us once again that YOU DO HAVE A PURPOSE FOR BEING HERE!
How does this pertain to the Church and her life today? Well, in truth it explains a lot about the Church not just today’s Church but the Medieval Church and the Early Church as well for as God just shared with us over the past weekend we have totally missed it and from what God is seeing through His eyes and heart we have no intentions of changing this sinful path either. But there is good news! As of this moment, we have the opportunity to change this pattern and make things new in God’s eyes once again.
Can anyone guess what would have occurred if the majority of the men in my flight in basic training goofed off or had simply failed to perform adequately when it came time to pass and review in front of the commanding general? The entire flight would have had to repeat basic training over again and probably the ones who deliberately failed to conform would have been kicked out of the military altogether. Each person in our flight made up a special key ingredient for the success of our task and if we did not perfect our unit so that we looked and acted as one our mission would have failed. How can one unit rely upon thirty, sixty, a thousand others if we do not have the cohesiveness to be able to follow one commander’s rules and guidelines? How can we effectively complete a task of war if we randomly act on our own instead of acting as one unit? It is impossible and it is at this point where God wishes to speak about His Church and the status of His children who make up the Church.
God’s plan for our existence began in the Garden of Eden and His plan for humanity has not changed one single iota since that time. God is a consistent God and a complete God which means that everything that He says is immediately completed as a whole. Adam and Eve understood this concept as no others have been able to do so, for they were created in the perfect and holy state of life. This truth was further defined when God formed the woman from the rib of Adam and thus created and established the first cohesive unit, a unit that was designed to function together as one even though two individuals made up the unit. It was never God’s desire to watch this perfect union go down the drain and to allow sin to enter into its unity. So, what do we do afterward? We choose to follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve and go participating with God as they did and as we do this God is reminding us that the same consequences will occur to us as they did to Adam and Eve if we do not turn our lives back to God.
The connection lies within Jesus and the mission that He had while He walked the earth. He established His Church based upon the authority and laws of God, not mankind. Jesus did not establish the Catholic Church, the Baptist Church, the Assembly of God Church or ANY other denominational status. He created and established ONE church strictly based on the truth of God, not mankind’s finite truth. I will step on toes here but God does not care because He wants His children to understand a truth that needs to be reiterated. If Jesus would have placed His Church in the foundational hands of mankind (Peter) then the acts of mankind would prevail with the authority of God and not the choice of the people themselves.
If people act according to the physical first, they automatically act as individuals instead of a unit. Peter is famous for a couple of things (actions) of his and one of these actions involved him cutting off an ear of a priest’s servant – which I find highly ironic – and it is through this action that the Catholic Church has been defined over the millennia. Like I said, this individual act by a single person and the spiritual meaning behind it will not set well with some, but remember God gave us life for a reason and for a purpose. Think long and biblically hard on this for a while and while doing so keep in mind that God is a complete God.
It is through the examples of portions of biblical texts that define individual acts that represent a flight not performing well enough to graduate while it is on parade. For whatever reason, the individuals in the flight that is under review have decided not to obey the codes and conducts of their instructors. The exact same process is being represented in the Church that Jesus established when His ministry was in full bloom while He was on the earth. Jesus was fully under the laws of Covenant and He placed on Him the full armor of God and He operated as such at all times just as we are to operate. If we do not come together as one body, under God’s laws the Church shall continue to be cut to pieces due to her lack of understanding of what the world is trying to accomplish. A well-drilled Church in the Word of God cannot be defeated. A Church who is not prepared for the battles that it is up against shall be cut to pieces and allowed to bleed to death as our enemy steps on our torso. Satan does not care what condition we are in, he shall step on us and drive his weapons through our spiritual bodies without even thinking twice.
The rules and codes that we are to thrive under spiritually come strictly from the Word of God. In the military there were no options concerning the usage of their rules, or in this case the misusage. We had to know the guidelines well enough that we could improvise to get the job completed if necessary but NEVER were we allowed to change the rules in order to satisfy our whims. The Bible is our spiritual guideline for our lives for it provides us with every tool necessary to live an effective life on all sides of every issue. Just as in the physical, if we understand God’s Word thoroughly we shall have the wisdom to overcome all of the enemy’s attacks. Yes, bruises and bumps will occur but when the battle is over our spiritual being shall be intact and we can begin to prepare for the next battle by extending our study time in Word of God.
It is God that is our commanding general, not mankind or the physical world that our enemy demands we obey. It is God who shall have the final say about our training while we walk this earth. Our choices of training shall be easily noticed when we pass through the eyes of God and when this process occurs, there will be no turning back and trying to do things over again. We have one life and we have one eternity and it is through the training processes that we choose that will determine if we are covered or not. God urges His Church to repent and to allow Him to search her heart again. Our existence is not based upon works of the flesh but battles against the spiritual forces that rule over this world. God loves us so much and He has provided us with the holy and true training manual that we need to survive and to fight the forces that are enabled against us. Study God’s Word and take heed to each letter and word that it has for without it we shall never be able to pass the eternal review when we walk uprightly and cleanly past our Commanding General.
DLB
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