Time Spent as a Prisoner of War 10/28/13

Good Morning,

I woke up this morning and I am not in hell. It is more than I deserve. Top that off with a hot cup of Door County Cherry Crème Coffee and I find myself most blessed.

I am a strong supporter of our Country's Veterans. I say thank you and pray for them. My heart goes out to them, especially the ones who have the title of POW. Prisoner of War. Their stories of survival amaze me. Their will to live astounds me. I am usually brought to tears when I read their accounts. I want to share a short story written by an American POW who was captured in Vietnam during the war. Howard Rutledge found peace and learned to appreciate what God was teaching him during the time of his captivity. Howard writes.

" During those long periods of enforced reflection, it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial, the worth-while from the waste...

My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak.  I wanted to know more about the part of me that will never die. I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God....

On August 31st, after twenty-eight days of torture, I could remember I had children but not how many. I said Phyllis's name over and over again so I would not forget. I prayed for strength. It was on that twenty-eighth night I made God a promise. If I survived this ordeal, the first Sunday back in freedom I would take Phyllis and my family to their church... confess my faith in Christ and join the church. This wasn't a deal with God to get me through that last miserable night. It was a promise made after months of thought. It took prison and hours of painful reflection to realize how much I needed God and the community of believers. After I made God that promise, again I prayed for strength to make it through the night.

When the morning dawned through the crack in the bottom of the solid prison door, I thanked God for His mercy." Rutledge and Rutledge In the Presence.

We all go though trials and major issues in life. We can view them as trials and struggles or we can view them as teaching and preparations for life. God never promised an easy road that would be trouble free or painless. But God can use these seasons for something good. Our trouble is not punishment, it is training for life as one trains a child, which is the normal experience of children.

Psalm 119:102 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰² I have not departed from your laws,
    for you yourself have taught me.

 

Sometimes a season of learning lasts a lifetime, Our faith in God brings Him to our side. As a student learns, they are always taught to apply the knowledge of that day to the next day even though the chapter is not finished.

We learn as we go and need to apply it daily.

Whatever we are going through. With God we can get through.He will carry us and give us strength to endure.

Deuteronomy 11:1-2

New International Version (NIV)

Remember what you learned.

11 Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. ² Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;

God bless,

Marty