Do you feel like you have been trained for anything significant in you life?
When I was quite young, probably 6 or 7 we went to Pacific Union College's church for a visit. We must have been visiting my great grand parents or something. I don't remember that far back very well. But I do have the image of the pipe organ in my mind. It's a massive pipe organ. It was the biggest instrument that I had ever seen. I told my mom that I wanted to play a pipe organ some day. She informed me that I would need to take piano lessons first. I didn't really want to play the piano, but if it would get me to the pipe organ then I was OK with that.
I started taking piano at the age of 7. My mom found a picture of the P.U.C. pipe organ and taped it to the piano so that I would have it there for inspiration. I was really pretty good at the piano. Mom would have to force me to sit down to practice sometimes but once I was there I could play for hours and enjoy it.
In high school when ever things weren't going well and I just needed some alone time I would wonder up to the practice rooms and play, just play. It soothed me and it was great with the ladies as well. No teenage girl could resist a guy playing "Right here waiting" by Richard Marx on the Piano.
When I got into College my piano interest lessened. I just wasn't that into it any more. And soon I stopped playing. I can still play some and I can pick up a piece of music and work through it. Some of the old stuff comes back pretty quick, but I'm not recital ready any more.
Gen 14 is about a battle. What does piano have to do with a battle, not a whole lot. But the training has a lot to do with it. Abram's nephew Lot is carried off in the spoils of battle. A pretty epic battle really. 5 kings against 4 kings is a pretty epic battle in my book. Abram gets the message that Lot has been carried off. So he gathers together his 318 trained men in his household. Now Abram doesn't have any sons yet, but with in his household, his herdsman and servants and such, he has 318 trained men. Trained well enough they could go on a rescue mission at the drop of a hat. Together with a couple of other allies Abram goes after these 5 kings. He over takes them and routes the whole army, rescuing not only Lot but all the other men, women, and children that have been taken as plunder.
Do you ever think of Abram as a warrior? I don't usually but here he is racing off to battle with 318 trained men from his household. To live in a day when training for battle is a necessary part of life is just not something that makes sense for many of us today. We are trained in business, computers, psychology, engineering, music. Very few of us are trained for battle. Which is OK I guess. I am glad I don't have to chase down bandits and armies on a regular basis. But the bible does say that we are at war.
It's not flesh and blood that we fight against, says Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, but the powers and authorities of darkness and evil in this fallen world. Are we trained to fight in this battle? Are we on a rescue mission for others in this world? I think about this and get inspired to join up with a cause like International Justice Mission saving kids from the sex trade or something. And these are good causes to be apart of. But then I look at this passage about Abram saving Lot and I realize that he is doing this to save his own family.
Do I, do we fight for our own families? Are we trained to fall on our knees in prayer and fight the powers of darkness for the hearts of our loved ones? I am just learning how to do this myself and I would like to encourage you too as well. Let's rescue our loved ones, let's be trained for battle so that at the drop of a hat we can not just play a recital or fix a computer error, but rescue someone from darkness.
If you would like to join me in this, I invite you to read John Eldredge's books "Walking with God" and "Love and War." You can also get a little more info on it by listening to one of my recent sermons on the Lords prayer where Jesus teaches us to pray against temptation and the evil one.
http://pleasantvalleychurch.adventistnw.org/podcasts/66/media_entries/7978
Let us be ready in and out of season to rescue the ones that we love.
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