John Chicoine published a note.
July 14, 2009 ·

Ready, Ready for anything. (River trip lesson 2009)
Ephesians 6: 13 – 17 “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground… Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”_

We’ve been hearing so many messages these days about individual Christians standing up and taking personal responsibility for doing the work of God. We are being called into action; One by one, to form God’s mighty army. But this action is not going to happen without a fight.
• Sometimes the fight will be an obvious attack from the enemy of God …
(Removing prayer from schools, Symbols of Christianity from public, the ten commandments from courthouses, and even God from our money. Accepting Abortion, & Gay marriage)
• Sometimes the fight will come disguised as well meaning intentions of friends and even family …
(Pear pressure, Bad council from friends, people with self-serving motives, Imbalance in ministry.)
• And all too often, it will come from the internal struggles of our human nature …
(Doubt, immaturity, selfishness, lust, quilt, lack of confidence, loss of faith, apathy, laziness.)

– Today it’s my job to help each of us, (At our own station!) to respond to the call to action. To prepare every one of us to stand our ground.

I’m calling this message; I’m Ready! Ready for Anything!

As we prepare for today’s specific battle, (Running the River), we need to understand that the River is a raging torrent that does have the potential to destroy you. When we first arrive on the riverside it will look like a meek and easy enemy. But you can never get too comfortable and careless with it. As we prepare ourselves for the run, things on the river will begin to change; The banks will swell, the water will get deeper, tension will build as the current gets faster and stronger! Even the sound of the flowing water will change.

Lets take a look at the equipment we need today.

* The safety belts on your life vest, buckled tightly around your waist, are like the belt of truth buckled around your waist. You can have the best life jacket money can buy, but if you haven’t bothered to strap it onto yourself it won’t help you in turbulent waters. And so it is with God’s truth… No matter how great our actions may seem to the outside world, they are nothing but filthy rags to God if they are not founded in God’s Truth. Our motivation must be pure. God says we are not saved by works alone, but by Grace & by the Truth of God. Jesus Says, I am the Way the Truth & the Light.

* Our life jacket… is like the breastplate of righteousness: If we attempt to go down this river without Life jackets we are taking foolish risks with our lives that sooner or later are going to end up in tragedy. And so it is with The Righteousness of God. God calls us to live Righteous and Sanctified lives. If we fool ourselves into believing our own “Goodness” / Righteousness is good enough for God, when the turbulent times come we will eventually drown. The Bible says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But it also says, In Jesus, I am Justified through His Righteousness. God Knows we can never be Holy and sinless, but God searches our heart, and His mercy endures forever.

* Our sneakers/Water socks, are our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace: Of all the very real dangers we face today, none will be more likely to happen than to slip on a slippery rock and get seriously hurt. Later on we will be teaching you what to do if you fall out of your boat, You need to listen to and apply these instructions from your commanders on how to react in case of a problem… And so it is with the Gospel of peace. If we attempt to live our lives without knowing God’s Gospel, (Bible) without knowing God’s Character (Forgiveness, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control) we will slip and fall away from God, and we won’t know what to do.

* The raft itself… Is like the shield of faith: If we attempt to run this river without a raft or a tube, we would surely be beaten, bruised, cut up and bloody, if we even survived the run. When we step into these rafts we are literally putting our safety and our lives in the hands of these rafts and we have faith that they will carry us down the river. And so it is with Faith in God. When you have true Faith in Jesus, you have more than just hope that everything will turn out good. I want you to KNOW that you have someone special on your side. You have someone real helping you in times of trouble. You have a friend that is “The Son Of God”. You have a Healer, A Comforter, A Savior. You have Everlasting Life! You can trust your life to Him. You put your self and your family in His hands, and let Him carry you through the good times as well as the bad times.

* The Captain of your boat… Is like the helmet of salvation: No sensible man one would put a little child in a boat on a river all alone. You need experience, you need guidance, and you need someone that can see farther down the river than you can. You need someone that will know what needs to be done even before a problem arises. You need someone that can rescue you when you fall out of the raft. And so it is with Jesus. Jesus is our Salvation. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like today without Jesus, guiding me, comforting me, and helping me everyday of my life. I also know what it’s like to “Loose my faith” (fall out of my boat.) and be flailing about in the raging torrent of the river ready to swallow me up, Helpless, Hopeless, Alone, and LOST! But I can tell you that the captain of my boat reached down into the storm, grabbed me by my life vest and pulled me back into the boat.

* Your paddle… Is like the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Have your ever heard the phrase “Up the creek without a paddle” It’s not a good thing. You need your paddle! You steer the raft away from danger with it. Without it you’re helpless; the river is in control! Remember what I said about the river; It has the potential to destroy you! If you’ve got a paddle, and you know how to use it, you can guide your boat away from danger. And so it is with the Word of God. God’s Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my life. It’s a funny thing how the World call’s people that go through life without God “Enlightened”. I’ve never met an “Enlightened person that wasn’t Totally stumbling in the darkness. It all boils down to this; Either we believe the Bible is God’s Word or not. We have to make a choice. If you choose yes, then we have the only sure foundation from which to live your life.

This was a fun little analogy, but it has lots of very serious spiritual truth’s that I want to review.

First… We have to start here………
• Have we invited Jesus into our life? In a minute, I’m going to give us all an opportunity to think about our personal commitment to Jesus. Do we know Him the way we should? Does our life show it? Do we need to get serious about our personal relationship with Him?
• Are we trying to use our own Righteousness to cover for ourselves? That’s a loosing battle, we can never be good enough to stand Face to Face with Jesus and call him brother, Friend, Savior. We can never earn, through our own good work, even one drop of Jesus’s Shed blood.
• Do we really understand how much God Loves us? Are we too busy to hear His voice calling us? Do we know His voice as we go about our daily lives. Do we know what His word says, Do we take the time to let Him speak to us through His written Word (The Bible).
• Where is our Faith? What do we truly believe? Do we have the Faith to walk on water when life is good, and when are we spiritually deaf, dumb and blind, (Can’t hear Him, Can’t feel Him, Can’t see Him) when we go through trials? When trouble comes, do we spring into action…. (No time for Prayer, No time for God) Gotta fix the problem; Then cry out… Where the heck is God, why doesn’t He see I need Him now?
• Is Jesus, LORD & SAVIOR in our lives? It’s easy to sign him on as Savior; Say a simple prayer, put a bumper sticker for the car and we’re good! But it’s quite another thing to call Him LORD. Now that get’s a bit more complicated; That must just be for Pastors, and people that don’t have “normal” lives like the rest of us. If we make Him Savior and never make Him LORD, did we ever really know Him?
• And Last but not the least, Are we walking out our life by the Word of God? Is Jesus alive today through His living written word proclaimed to a dying world in the witness of our lives? Are we drinking from the river of living water, Quickened by the Holy Spirit, Inspired by the Holy Bible?

Lesson for Royal Ranger River trip 2004
February 28, 2009 at 9:14pm

Lesson for Royal Ranger River trip 2004

A short while ago a young boy and his mother were out for their daily morning walk. This was a special time that the two of them has set aside so they could spend time together and just talk about anything they wanted to, (no thoughts about the pressures of life that creeps into every relationship, home & family.) it was a gentle time, A time to let the sun warm you skin and the cool morning air refresh their spirits. This particular morning was already getting hot, as the day was promising to be one of those hot southern summer days; the boy asked his mother if it might be all right to take a swim in the pond. They walked out onto the dock and the boy kicked off his shoes and shirt, climbed through the railings and dove into the cooling water. He was a good swimmer so began to swim the length of the small pond.

After a few pleasant moments of enjoying the serene morning peacefulness, through the corner of her eye the boy’s mother caught a movement in the bushes. A chill ran through her body and she instinctively hollered to her son to turn back. She was not the only one watching her son swimming in the pond. An alligator had been watching the boy from the shore, and now had slipped through the reeds and into the water.

The young boy immediately responded to his mother’s panicked call, he knew this was a serious frantic call for him to return to her and he turned and began to swim back to his mother as fast as he could. Closer and closer to the dock where his mother was calling to him to hurry, he swam. When he got to the dock he lifted his arms towards his mother and she bent over the rails and grabbed his arms to pull him to safety. Grabbing him firmly she began pulling her son up out of the water onto the Dock. Just then the gator lunged out of the water and caught the young boy legs in his powerful jaws.

The boy’s mother was no match for this ferocious creature fighting for survival as he and his kind had done for millions of years and he gave a mighty pull on the young boy’s legs to drag him back into the water. The boy heard his mother’s chest smash into the railings of the dock. She looked into her sons terrified eyes, “I’ve got you”, she cried, “hold on!” as she dug her grip in deeper into her son’s arms.
The Gator was no match for his mother’s love and dedication for her son, and what might have been an easy meal for the gator, now evolved into a thrashing struggle. Each time the gator would pull with all his strength the mother would hold on tighter, “I’ll never let you go” she told her son, “he’ll have to take us both”. The struggle continued on for what seemed like an eternity but it was only just a few seconds, when a passing farmer heard the commotion and ran to help the mother and her son. He reached over the rails with his pistol he carried in his truck, and with a single shot, shot the Gator dead.

They pulled the boy to safety and took him to the emergency room and though his legs were terribly torn and disfigured the doctors felt he would make a good recovery. The mother had suffered several broken ribs and a punctured lung during the struggle. They shared the hospital room while they recovered.

Some time after the incident, word had gotten out about the story of this struggle between a mother and her son, and the alligator. Pictures in the local news paper began to circulate of the dead gator and a local television news station sent a TV crew and reporter to bring back the story. They politely asked if they could conduct the interview and the young boy happily obliged. The reporter began to ask his many questions about that day; the ferocity of the gator, how scary it must have been; He asked about the pain and the Gators teeth. Just as he was finishing his interview he asked the boy if he minded if the cameraman could “get some footage of his legs.” “Re-living/Remembering the attack, the young boy’s demeanor had changed from happiness to shame and despair, but he reluctantly obliged and slowly he lifted his hospital Johnny and revealed his badly scarred and deformed legs. The damage was far worse than either of them had imagined and after just a few seconds the reporter concluded “Well thank you very much for taking your time to talk to us.” and he instructed the camera man to turn off the camera and begin packing up.

As they busied them-selves packing up they heard the young man say “Wait! What are you doing? You only have half the story. You can’t go now, turn everything back on”. And the boy slowly slipped out of his bed onto his feeble legs and began to roll up his sleeves. There on his arms was another set of scars, running down his elbows to his wrists where his mother had dug her fingernails into his arms holding on to him. “These are the scars I want the world to see! These are where my mother held on to me and wouldn’t let me go. As she looked into my eyes, telling me to hold on, but I wasn’t the one grabbing her, she was grabbing me. These are the scars she made, telling me how much she would never let me go, even if she had to be pulled in with me. These are the scars she made; looking into my eyes telling me how much she loved me. Bring that camera closer. These are the scars I want the world to see. These are the scars I’m not ashamed of. These are the scars of my mothers love.

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I want to talk about the story I just told you. I want to focus in on the young boy, on his attitude.

When bad things happen and sooner or later bad things will happen to everybody, many people, some Christians, get hung up on self-persecution.
Why me? They focus only on the bad things they can see! That’s because it’s easier to see those scars.

– When you’re sick, or when a loved one is sick or dies. That’s real. You can feel the pain. You can see the suffering. The person you love is in pain, or they can no longer be there in the way they were. Your life is filled with pain, (physical, and emotional) there is uncertainty about the future, and sometimes even Loss, & grief.

– When there are problems in the home, Anger, Fighting, Hurting each other with actions and words, Rebellion, Poverty, Hunger…. These things are easy to feel and touch. The effects / scars of these things can last through a person’s lifetime. You feel like you’re unwanted, unneeded, unloved.

– When life just seems to be unfair, you never get the breaks; you’re not an athletic, not as popular, not as cool, not as good, not as smart, not as lucky, as “everybody else.” People carry those scars around like a pass that allows them to fail,,, “I never win”, “I’m never first”, “Why bother to try…. I always loose.”

People ask the question, Why Me? It’s as if they’re the only ones to ever have to go through the trials. Instead of addressing the problem, they focus only on the impact on their lives. They become paralyzed, unable to make a decision on what to do, or how to change. Sometimes,,, People believe that being a Christian is like an immunity card that should keep them from ever experiencing hard times. They begin to question their faith, or the existence of God himself, or even fall into the trap that God is punishing them for something.

Often they even feel as if they failed in some aspect of their lives and God Himself is punishing them. As long as people keep their eyes on the bad, they will never see any good, and the devil wins.

– They will never learn from their trial;
They’ll be filled with bitterness, doubt, and anger.
– They will never grow through the trial;
They will be small, petty, spiteful, even hateful, returning hurt for hurt.
– They will never see Gods hand in it;
They will be consumed with Self-pity, and Self-loathing.
– They will never feel Gods love for them;
They’ll feel like the world is against them, They only see their own loss. They will do whatever it takes to take control of their lives for themselves. Even if it means committing suicide as one final act of control.
– They’ll never feel Gods suffering and mercy for them.
They end up having little or no compassion for others; They secretly despise when other do well, and take comfort when others face trials.
– They often turn from God, Hurt, Rejected, Lonely, and Confused.

Usually it’s harder to see the good in the midst of the bad, it’s not as obvious. It’s not what people look for. It’s not how people measure the success of a person. It may only come in such subtle forms as “inner strength”, “understanding and compassion for others”, “a need for closer dependence on God”, A growth in Godly character, or a stronger Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. It results in a heart felt calling, or an undying dedication to a ministry.
· This young boy learned something from his horrible experience. He grew. He had new understandings. He lived through a moment of the most intense love, and dedication any man could ever experience. A literal struggle of life and death over him. There he was literally being pulled between;
– Pain, Evil, Horrifying suffering and death.
He was ashamed of the scars that these things left on him.
And
– His mother’s Love, Compassion, Dedication and willingness to even suffer her own death before she would give up on him.
He was proud of the scars that these things created in his life.

I can tell you today, that there were trials and struggles in my life that I can put my finger on and tell you exactly what positive/Godly character in my life was “earned” through that trial. But as I was going through them I didn’t want to be and I could have sworn “nothing good could ever come out of it”. And as sure as I stand here before you today I can tell you that all of us will face our own set of trials, pains, struggles. Some of us are going through right now now, and some of us have yet to be pressed down, but God’s word says “the rain falls on all of us”, Jesus said, “you will have trials, and suffer persecution”. I say this not to bring you down, but to prepare you for real life. We’re all in this together, and we all need to support each other.

The only advice I can offer you are the same words the young boy’s mother cried to her son in the midst of the struggle:

Hold On! God’s love will pull you through. Even when you yourself have lost all faith. Even when you can no longer feel His love and even worse, have lost your love for him; when your spirit is so broken that there are no words to pray to God. Hold On! And He will pull you through. God our Father loved us so much that He sent His Son to suffer and die for us, that whosoever believes in Him, (whosoever Loves His Son) SHALL HAVE EVER LASTING LIFE.
The only way we will ever lose the battle is to intentionally reject God’s love for you. It’s no sin to give up the fight, to feel empty dry and lifeless. Rest your faith on God’s love for you.

Hold On! God’s compassion for you, His Mercy towards you will lift your spirit and give you the strength to go through the struggle, even when you feel you haven’t got the strength, or even the desire to take another breath, God’s mercy and compassion will comfort you if you’ll just look into His eye, and call on the name of Jesus. There IS power in the name of Jesus. The only way you will ever loose the battle is to out and out reject God’s Holy Spirit in your life.

Hold On! God’s dedication to you will never let you go, even unto his own death on the cross Jesus never let you go. He knows what you are going through, He knows how afraid you are, he knows your doubts, He shares your pain and Jesus has never let you go, and Jesus will never let you go, even unto your own death He is holding on to you. The only way you will ever loose the battle is to reject who Jesus is and what He has done.