This is a re-post of a blog I did for last year. I felt it was a fitting topic leading into Memorial Day Weekend. Keep our soldiers and their families in your prayers and remember those who have fallen and those who were left behind as well. 

Recently, my family and I made a trip to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to see my brother return from a seven month tour in Afghanistan and to spend time with his wife and kids. It is always a great time for us when we can get the entire family back together. We do not get a chance to see them much and when we do it seems as if by the time we start to catch up, it’s time to say good-bye and make our trek back up to frigid Wisconsin.

The week before our trip down south – North Carolina was basking in 80 degree, sunny weather. By the time we got there, the temps were down in the high 40’s low 50’s and raining nearly every day. If the people of the state had known that we had brought the cold weather down from Wisconsin, I believe there is a good chance we would have been deported from the state and banned for a lifetime. As it was, we kept a low profile. If it were not illegal, I probably would have removed our Wisconsin license plate just to be on the safe side.

On the day my brother came home, that miserable cold and wet weather was in full force. The family and friends of the returning hero’s, however, were not to be discouraged. We all stood out in the cold for four to five hours as we awaited their return.

My wife cuddled up to me as we waited among the throngs of people in great anticipation of the buses that were due to arrive at anytime. She noticed immediately that I was shivering at a non-stop pace. Her first comment to me as the rain drizzled down on us and the cold wind blew through our clothing was, “You need to go to the car and warm up.”

Me, being a former soldier myself, chose to man-up. I refused to go and instead I waited… and waited… and waited some more – as the buses continued to be delayed. It was the least I could do to show support for my brother and his fellow soldiers who had just finished a tour of duty. Those same comments began to rumble through the waiting people.

One of the comments that I heard from a nearby group was one that I quickly had to agree with. “If this doesn’t show them how much we love them, nothing will.”

“Amen, Lady! I couldn’t agree with you more. Look at all this suffering we are going through. We are freezing to death and waiting in the cold rain for these soldiers to return. If this doesn’t show how much we care for them, than I don’t know what will.”

The Lord has a clever way of challenging me when my thoughts are not right or my heart is in the wrong place. As soon as I had that response to the lady’s comment, I felt that gentle correction flood over me and this new group of thoughts rushed in. Let me share the words that Christ fed into me at that moment;

“Really? These four hours of suffering in the cold shows a great love and devotion to your loved one? Does that really qualify in comparison to what they have gone through? What about the soldier who takes point during a patrol?

“He knows a fate that may be waiting for him, yet he takes the lead without second thought. All is calm and quiet when suddenly a crack rings out. A bullet pierces his chest or head and severely wounds him or kills him. He took that risk knowing the cost. He took that risk for you!

“What about the soldier who is out on patrol and has no idea if the next step that he takes will be his last because some mad man has buried an I.E.D. deep into the sand? What type of stress and suffering does that take to endure that type of pressure?

“What about the soldier who sees his friend wounded and out in the middle of the battlefield? He weighs his options, ‘Should I rush out and get him? Take the risk of dying out there?’ and than he charges out and drags his comrade to safety. What suffering has he endured?

“What about the soldier who gets a letter from family back home. Someone has cancer or another incurable disease? How does he deal with the fact that from the battlefield there is nothing he can do to help that loved one in their time of need? How does a soldier correct his mindset in a moment like that?

“What about the soldier who receives a letter from a spouse telling him that they are over. She can no longer go on in life with him? What type of suffering is that?”

A soldier gives his life for the protection of our freedoms. He gives his life for the protection of our way of life. He gives his life for the freedoms that we often take for granted. He gives his life for the stranger in the country in which he fights. Whether you agree or disagree with the wars that our country is involved in, the simple fact remains: women in Afghanistan and Iraq, now experience more freedoms than they once did. The doors to evangelism have been opened wider than they once were. There are flashes of progress that at one time were not seen. Some good can and has come out of these two wars. The sacrifice of our soldiers has brought that about.

After weighing all these thoughts I realized that my suffering in the cold does not compare with the sacrifice that a soldier makes for his country. We can never repay the debt that we owe to the men and women of our armed forces. We can never repay the debt that we owe the families of these men and women who serve. What is endured by the sacrifice that a soldier makes – is priceless. We can never measure up to that. The closest we can come is to give them all our love, all our support and all our respect.

It is the same with Jesus Christ – the ultimate soldier, who paid the ultimate price on the cross. Like the world of today – in need of soldiers who are willing to die to save the oppressed and protect freedoms – the world over two thousand years ago was under attack by the evils of sin. To this day, the attacks continue.

Sin is the driving force that oppresses and strips us of liberty and freedoms everyday. Without sin our government would be fair and just. We would have no oppressors who saddle us with debt. We would live together in harmony with no racial discrimination, no sexual discrimination, no sexual abuse or exploitation of children, no sex slavery, no poverty, no starvation, no homelessness, and most of all, no death.

The punishment for sin is death, as God declared in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible. Many times we say to ourselves that we live good lives. We are good people trying to make a living by working hard and being honest. Yet by God’s standards, the standards he put forth in his original design of the world, the laws he put down on stone and gave to the Israelites in the form of the Ten Commandments – we fall so short.

Our foolish pride tells us that we do not deserve death because deep down we seek to do good. We try and be good people. God would never send us to hell if we make a good attempt at living a good life – right?

Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments with just two laws. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second commandment is to Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:37-40

Have we loved the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind? At some point, before becoming a Christian, it is safe to say that we did not love the Lord at all. And even now, as a Christian, we still fall short of that mark. Anytime we break the second commandment that Jesus laid down in regards to how we treat our neighbors, we break the first commandment. How so?

Who hasn’t at one point or another looked on another woman or man in lust? Jesus says that while we have done nothing physically, we have just now committed adultery in our minds and heart. To God it is the same thing because he judges us not just on our actions, but on what goes on inside our hearts and mind.

In that one single act, look at how many of the ten commandments we have just violated. Number 7 says that we shall not commit adultery – we broke that one already. Number 10 says that we shall not covet other things – we broke that one as well. If your wife or girl friend caught you in the act of lusting over another woman and she calls you out on it and you lie – you just broke the 9^th commandment that says you shall not lie. Three commandments with one act. Not good odds if you are looking to go to heaven.

Not to mention, anytime and every time you break a commandment, you are violating God. How so? Think of it this way. Let’s say you create a painting and you hang it up for everyone to enjoy. Low and behold, a punk comes along and takes a big marker and puts mustaches on the people in your painting. That person has violated your work of art.

God is the same way. This world and all that belong in it are His works of art. He has given us this world to share the beauty of it’s creation. Yet when we violate the laws He has given us to live by, we desecrate His great work. We put mustaches on His painting. When we violate each other through lies, theft, adultery, war, slander, murder, greed, idolatry, atheism, and the list could go on an on, we are not only violating each other – we are desecrating God’s work of art. You and I, are his creation. He desires us to treat it with respect.

Even a white lie or a little itty bitty lie – is a lie in God’s book. Hating someone is like murdering someone in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22). I know that nobody, including myself, can say that we have never done one of these things that I have mentioned. We are all guilty of God’s wrath. We all deserve God’s judgment.

Under God’s judgment, there can be no peace. No rest. No freedoms. We are doomed to death and there is nothing pretty about the death that Jesus describes. He describes hell as a place where the guilty will be cast into when they are found guilty of any sin. The guilty will be “thrown into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42). It will be an unquenchable thirst and fires that burn the body forever.

How than can we be saved from this disaster? You already know the answer.

God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. He came without sin, lived a perfect life and than gave up His life to restore our freedoms. He took our punishment as He was beaten with rods, had the flesh torn off of His back by whips that contained jagged pieces of metal at the end. He was spit upon, smacked around and than forced to carry a heavy, wooden cross on His back to the very place where He would be crucified. Nails were driven into the palms of His hands as He was tacked down to the wooden cross. Another nail was driven into His feet. He was lifted up into the air and hung on that cross until our freedom from sin was granted. His blood was spilled so we could be free. The only requirement is that we believe on Him and the freedom becomes ours.

How can we ever repay a devotion such as that? How can we ever repay the sacrifice that Jesus made so that we could be free? We can never repay that debt. We can never repay the debt that the blood of Jesus has paid for our transgressions.

The best we can ever do is to live the life that Jesus has died for. He has told us throughout the New Testament how we should live. Love the Lord your God with all your hearts, soul and mind. We should love and honor all that he represents. Weave that love for the Lord into the fabric of our lives. Live as if we are Jesus Christ and do the things that He did during His time on earth – because we are the Body of Christ as professing believers. Live like He’s right by you, watching your every move – because He is. He’s always right there. If we do those things, than loving our neighbors as ourselves will happen naturally and it will never have to be a forced action.

Everyday we read articles of soldiers who die in their fight to protect our freedoms. They sacrifice their lives for the lives of the many. Jesus Christ did the same thing on Calvary. He was a soldier on a mission to save the lives of the entire world. Like our soldiers who come home as heroes, so too did Jesus become a hero for all to revere.

There are two lessons I have taken from this, and I hope you will too. They are the following; First, freedom is never free – there is always a price to be paid. Last and most importantly, it always takes a soldiers sacrifice to bring freedom to the world.