Tag Archives: training

Don’t give up (Luke 13:6-9) November 24, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ecclesiastes 9-10

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:6-9
Jesus: (following up with this parable) A man has a fig tree planted in his vineyard. One day he comes out looking for fruit on it, but there are no figs. He says to the vineyard keeper, “Look at this tree. For three years, I’ve come hoping to find some fresh figs, but what do I find? Nothing. So just go ahead and cut it down. Why waste the space with a fruitless tree?”
The vineyard keeper replies, “Give it another chance, sir. Give me one more year working with it. I’ll cultivate the soil and heap on some manure to fertilize it. If it surprises us and bears fruit next year, that will be great, but if not, then we’ll cut it down.”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I remember as a lieutenant, one soldier in my platoon that just couldn’t do anything right. I’m not sure how he made it out of basic training and certainly couldn’t understand how he got through his medical training to become a medic. But there he was in my platoon formation every morning filling one of the slots and as short as we were of personnel at the time, I had to figure out how to use him or get him better trained to do the missions we needed to cover to take care of the soldiers in the battalion my platoon served.

After he had been there for about three months and doing everything I knew to do to try and teach this kid how to do his job, I’d just about given up. Everything I tried backfired. None of the companies we supported wanted him as part of the team when it came to their medical support. He just couldn’t do anything right and was a lot more of a hindrance than a help when it came time to go to the field and train.

I was ready to do the paperwork to send him home before he hit that magic timeline to get him all the benefits as a veteran and just let him go when my platoon sergeant came to me. It was a lot like the story of the fig tree. He asked me to give him one more month to work with this soldier and see if he could turn him around. It would still fit within that probationary timeline before he received full VA benefits and I agreed.

I don’t know what my platoon sergeant said or did with that soldier, but a minor miracle occurred in that month. Something woke up in his brain and he suddenly started understanding his role and responsibilities as a soldier-medic in a deployable infantry battalion. He understood that the lives of those infantrymen he went to the field to support were in his hands as they trained and maneuvered in some fairly risky environments. And he became one of my best medics in the rest of my time as platoon leader in that organization.

I learned a lesson from that soldier and from that platoon sergeant that carried across in both my professional and spiritual life. I’ve tried not just write people off. I think we are often too quick to do that sometimes. We assume people are unsalvageable and quit on them. We give up trying and consequently lose out on an opportunity to gain a good employee, win a good friend, or bring another person to Jesus.

We forget that some people just aren’t ready to accept what we have to teach them or tell them and need time to think things through. Few parents today know that a hundred years ago, formal education, reading, writing, math, didn’t start until kids were 8 or 9 years old. The thought was their brains weren’t ready for them to sit in a class all day and absorb the information. A kid’s role in life was to play, learn to get along with other people, begin to form their basis for moral and ethical values through their interaction with other kids and adults. Their job was to play, not go to school. So maybe those kids that don’t get it in first and second grade today aren’t slow or behind or learning disabled. Maybe they are right on target and we just miss the boat in how we try to educate our kids. We need to give them another chance and remember that we are not all alike.

And maybe that son or daughter that you’ve been praying for or that neighbor that you know needs God or that co-worker that seems so abrasive just needs a little more nurturing in God’s love to have that eureka moment when it all comes together and suddenly the lights come on. In our instant gratification world, we want everything to happen right now. That’s not how things usually work in nature. Often it’s not how God works things out for us in our spiritual journey, either.

So when you have that urgent prayer need, that loved one that really needs God and you’ve been praying your heart out for them. Don’t give up. Remember the story of the fig tree and the caretaker. Give it a little longer with extra effort and extra care and see what happens. You never know what God will do in that time. You might be surprised at the results.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

The dog in the park (Matthew 17:17) April 19, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Exodus 9-12

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 17:17
Jesus: This generation is no better than the generation who wandered in the desert, who lost faith and bowed down to golden idols as soon as Moses disappeared upon Mount Sinai! How long will I have to shepherd these unbelieving sheep? (turning to the man) Bring the boy to Me.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

In the weekly church staff meeting I attend, we try hard to stay on task. We usually have a lot of ground to cover and need to keep on our agenda because all of us are busy and what we really want to get to is the prayer requests that have been given to the staff. If we spend too much time on business that can be done elsewhere or start down tangents, we can easily lose lots of time in the meeting. You’ve probably all been there if you’ve been in more than one meeting in your life.

Invariably, though, something will be thrown on the table that sparks a discussion and off we go. We act just like those young pups you see in the park the owners are trying to train. They are pretty obedient in the middle stages of their training until a squirrel darts across the playground. Then all bets are off. Whatever the trainer was trying to do just ended. That squirrel has become the center of attention and the dog is off to chase it.

No matter how good the treats the trainer offered. No matter how important the training benefitted the dog. No matter how much better off the dog would be with the obedience to the commands the trainer provided. That squirrel was all that was on that dog’s mind. You’ve seen it happen. It seems like just a little thing that distracts the animal and yet it’s whole purpose changed. But a well trained dog will keep its instincts under control. It will let that squirrel run by and leave it alone. It knows his master’s commands to sit and be still will keep it from running into the street and getting hit by a car or will result in a kind word or even his favorite treat from his master.

We’re a lot like that dog being trained. We so often let our fleshly desires chase after insignificant things that will cause us to run out in front of a car instead of keeping them under control so we can get the real rewards in life. We fail to listen to the commands of our master and instead run to and fro after some illusive target that we have little chance of capturing in the first place, but we run as fast as we can to get it only to have it disappear up a tree and we’re left with nothing.

We’ve risked everything. Lost the benefit of all the training we’ve had. Given up that prime spot next to the master. Lost the reward that was just in our reach. For a glimmer of something that stayed out of reach and then disappeared forever.

Jesus described the Israelites that wandered in the desert like that. Wandering sheep in the desert who lost faith and bowed down to idols. They chased after some illusive thing that they thought could do something it couldn’t. They thought they could capture God in a piece of gold and chased after it, but the dream escaped them and He couldn’t be found there. They lost their faith because they chased after a squirrel instead of remaining obedient to the commands of the Master. Consequently, they lost the land promised to them by God. The only adults who left Egypt to enter the promised land were Joshua and Caleb. All the rest died in the desert sands chasing squirrels.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that as a legacy. Jesus warned His disciples and those around Him about the problem. It’s easy to get off track and chase the things the world throws in front of us. It’s easy to see the glamor and the glitter and think those are important because the world keeps telling us they are important. But all those things will disappear. Those things are temporary. They cannot last. Just look around at the great civilizations and name those that have lasted. They belong in history books and they are covered with dust, buried under tons of sand. They lasted a few hundred years and then they were gone. But what is that in the span of eternity? It’s just the blink of an eye.

We must be steadfast in our faith if we want to see the promised land, heaven. We must listen and obey the commands of God if we expect to make it through the desert of this world to life everlasting with Him. We must stop our flitting around, chasing after every new fad that passes by that sounds good to our ears and pick up God’s word and meditate on it. We must make it part of our daily routine and let it permeate our life. We must become like that well trained dog in the park so that when the squirrels run by, we sit quietly at the Master’s feet knowing our reward is at hand. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.