Gifts and Talents

          The United States of America has five branches of Armed Forces. They are the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. All five branches of the Armed Forces require every new recruit to go through Boot Camp. Boot Camp only has one purpose: to break down the new recruit’s individuality and make him into a man who will take orders from their superiors without any argument or questions. The first thing that happens is all of their hair is cut off and the clothes are all the same as the other recruits to help reduce some of their individuality. They are also told about the chain of command. They must salute every officer they pass, even officers must salute another officer that has a higher rank. At the end of training when the recruits are given orders from their superiors they salute and say “yes sir.”

      It’s too bad that new Christians are not sent to a boot camp to learn who has the authority over them. They have that same individuality as new recruits in the US Armed Forces. When we come to the Lord we are not individual people anymore. We have given our bodies over to the Lord. We belong to Him. God has authority over every part of our bodies and our spirits. Jesus bought us with His blood.

      Yes, I went to Boot Camp while serving in the Navy. Boot Camp is the best thing that some men can do. It gives us a sense of what authority is all about. We learn to submit ourselves to those in authority over us. We have to humble ourselves to serve others and to serve God.

      The best thing about God is that He does not treat us as a group. We still need to humble ourselves and recognize that He is Lord and that He is worthy of our praise. We learn as we go and the more we study His word we learn to submit ourselves to Him. God also has a chain of command. We must submit ourselves to our Pastors, Teachers, our elders, and the Lord. We have to go through Jesus to get to the Father. Jesus is our Advocate. We do the things that we can do and let God do the things we cannot do. When we learn not to question Him or argue with Him, then we have come a long way. We submit our will to His will. Then when He asks us to do anything we salute and say “yes Sir.”

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      New King James Version
Matthew 8:5 ¶ Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him,
6 saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."
7 And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."
8 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 "For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, `Go,' and he goes; and to another, `Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, `Do this,' and he does it."
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
11 "And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.

      New King James Version
Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.