A Servant, A Soldier, A Son

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

“For Thine is the kingdom.”

That’s what it says near the end of The Lord’s Prayer.

I pray through The Lord’s Prayer most days and when I come to this part I expound on it.

“Lord, the kingdom is Yours.  Everything belongs to You, and I belong to You in your kingdom.”

A kingdom implies a king, and Revelation 19:16 says that Jesus is the King of Kings.

Psalm 47 says God is the King of all the earth.  He reigns over the nations and sits on His holy throne.

Isaiah said, “My eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.”

And what was Isaiah’s response when He saw the King?  It was great humility and repentance.  He said, “Woe is me, for I am undone!”

Isaiah also responded with a great desire to serve the King.  In Isaiah 6:8 he said, “Here am I!  Send me.”

This is a proper response to a king, an offer to serve.  So that’s what I do when I come to “for Thine is the kingdom.”  I say, “Lord, You are the king.  I am your servant.  I am here to serve as You wish.  I’m at your beck and call.  I want to do what is my duty to do.”

So I am a servant of the King, but I am also a soldier of the King.

Second Timothy 2:3-4 says, “endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with civilian affairs, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”

I am a soldier of the King.  When I roll out of bed each morning I take a knee, point to heaven and say, “Reporting for duty, Sir.”

One of the things I like about being a soldier is that I don’t have to come up with my own commands.  A soldier doesn’t wake up and say, “What should I do for the army today?”  No.  He is a soldier under command.  He does what he is told.  A soldier also doesn’t have to worry about his provisions, his gear, his lodging, his health care, his training.  That’s all provided as long as he is a soldier under command.

So when I pray, “for Thine is the kingdom,” I’m praying, “Lord, I am Your servant and I am Your soldier.”

But there’s more.  I’m not just a servant and I’m not just a soldier.  As a Christian I am also a son!  I am a CHILD of the King!

Galatians 4 says that Jesus came to redeem us so that we can be adopted as sons.  We become sons and daughters of the King!  It says we become heirs of the King through Christ.

First John 3:1 says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

God is the King, and as believers we are the King’s Kids!

So when I pray, “for Thine is the kingdom” at the end of the Lord’s prayer, I’m saying, “Lord, You are the King.  It’s Your kingdom, and I am Your servant.  I want to do all that is my duty to do.  And I am a soldier under command.  And I am a son, so happy to be a child of the King, and that You love me and provide for me and lead me, not just as a servant and not just as a soldier, but also as a son.  Thank You, Father.”

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.

 

Making Crooked Places Straight and Rough Ways Smooth

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

I finally fixed our shower doors.

I don’t know why I waited so long.

At first they just started closing a little roughly.

It finally got to where one of the doors wouldn’t move at all without making the loudest screech and feeling like it was going to fall off and shatter.

But hey, you really only need one of the doors to work, so I still didn’t do anything.

Finally one morning I woke up and thought, “I really need to fix those shower doors.”

I bought new wheels that the doors hang on for basically pennies and within just a few minutes both doors were working like they were brand new.  It was so satisfying to feel how smooth they operated.  Why had I waited so long?

I don’t know the answer to that, but I do think this is our calling in the world, to make things run more smoothly.

I love this imagery in the book of Luke, chapter 3 verse 5, “…the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth.”

I think this is what God does through His Holy Spirit inside of us.  He begins His good work in us, straightening the crooked things and smoothing the rough things.

A big word for this is sanctification.  I just finished memorizing the book of First Thessalonians, and sanctification shows up repeatedly.  It says, “for this is the will of God, your sanctification.”  It says, “…may…God…sanctify you completely,” and then it says, “He will surely do it.”

God sanctifies His people from the inside out.  He takes our crooked places and makes them straight, and our rough ways and makes them smooth.

And then we, in turn, have a sanctifying effect on everything around us.  We go out into the world and we take crooked places and make them straight and we make rough ways smooth.

Have you ever heard someone say this, “He’s so heavenly minded he’s no earthly good”?  I think that’s the opposite of the truth.  The more heavenly minded someone is, the more earthly good they will be because of this sanctifying effect.  

A Christian who is truly connected to God is going to be improving the world all around him.  Everyone should be happier when a godly person comes in and begins taking crooked places and making them straight and rough ways and making them smooth…because people like straight and smooth!

My mom was a master seamstress.  She could work wonders with needle and thread.  Now we take it for granted today because of our store-bought, factory-made clothing, but have you ever tried to take two pieces of cloth and sew them together and make a nice, smooth seam?  It’s much easier to make it bunchy than smooth and nice.  

And it’s easier in life to make things bunchy.  We make our relationships bunchy.  Our budget gets bunchy.  Things get bunchy at work, at home, in the community, but there is good news.  God wants to take bunchy things and make them straight!

First, He does that inside of us as we submit to His leadership.  And then, through us, He does this work in the world around us, using us to fulfill His plan to take crooked things and make them straight, and rough ways and make them smooth.

And yes, I believe that includes fixing those shower doors.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.