I wrote this story today, inspired by a story related by Ed Wallace on KLIF 570 on Saturday morning, on his backside of American history. I am dedicating it first to the glory of God, and also to a young lady severely injured in the line of combat duty while on mission to save life in the field of combat medicine.
No Longer Left To Die
For millennia one of the sad results of the tragedy of war was that when the wounded fell on the battlefield, they were left there to die what was often a slow and painful death, alone and uncared for.
Who knows that this would not still be the case, save for an unsung hero of the American civil war by the name of Major Jonathan Letterman. Major Letterman was given orders by General George McClellan as well as authorization to do whatever it took to improve the horrendous post battle situation that was causing thousands to die slowly and painfully, exacerbated by relatively modern innovations such as rifled firearms and the Minie ball, which produced wounds of an unprecedented scope and severity. Using innovations such as an ambulance corps, mobile field hospitals (in later decades to become MASH units), and intake systems that applied such principles as triage, to make sure that limited resources would be put to the most effective use, limiting the loss of life and limiting the number and severity of life long debilitating after effects. We have Major Letterman largely to thank for laying the systemic foundation for the battlefield medical techniques used not only by the United States military, but in militaries around the world.
This story brought to mind something that tragically I encounter on a daily basis. I hate to even bring this up, not only because the Bible says not to blow your own trumpet as it were, and not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, but for other very practical reasons. One of the ministries that God has me involved in (His choice), is encouraging people who have, as it were, been left on the battlefield to die. What do I mean by this? I by the grace of God have been given the mission of encouraging as much as possible people who God is using around the world. People who are truly being cared for by God on a day by day, moment by moment basis. These are people who have worked hard all their lives, have done all the “right” things, and yet when they were called out by God ( Jesus said in John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”), they were abandoned, despised, and judged, even by nominally Christian family members. Many of these people, some from the United States, some from other parts of the western world, are doing missionary work, independent of any church support, and it is clear to me that God does it that way so they are able to follow Him, and not some denominational edict.
Why did I write this today? There are several reasons. One of the reasons is this. To those of us who name the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, are we abandoning those who are actually following the call of Jesus because they do not fit our paradigm? Rather than helping them, are we condemning them, even as the Pharisees condemned Jesus when He healed on the Sabbath?
Remember the story Jesus told of the Samaritan who was willing to tend the wounds of one who had fallen, even when the religious ones past him by? By the grace of God I ask today that our Father in Heaven would remove our blinders, and plow the hard fallow ground that there may be in our hearts, that we would not only help those in our families and our circles of friends and church members, but also those who we may see as “the least”, the ones Jesus spoke of in Matthew 25:40.
Finally, for those of you who are reading this today, and life seems to hold for you no hope, and you have never met, as it were, the One who came two thousand years ago to rescue you from this battlefield that we call “life”, that may have left you wounded and dying, let me tell you about the eternal battlefield physician. His Name is Jesus Christ, and He actually came to earth, becoming a man to conquer this battlefield of death, and actually as it were “take the bullet for us”. He came to die for us so that we could live with Him eternally. You today can exchange the death you may be trapped in by giving it to Him, and in turn He has promised to give you eternal life. As it is written in Romans 10:9,
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Please do not wait. Please do it today. You only have death to lose, and you have eternal life to gain. God bless you.
No Longer Left To Die
For millennia one of the sad results of the tragedy of war was that when the wounded fell on the battlefield, they were left there to die what was often a slow and painful death, alone and uncared for.
Who knows that this would not still be the case, save for an unsung hero of the American civil war by the name of Major Jonathan Letterman. Major Letterman was given orders by General George McClellan as well as authorization to do whatever it took to improve the horrendous post battle situation that was causing thousands to die slowly and painfully, exacerbated by relatively modern innovations such as rifled firearms and the Minie ball, which produced wounds of an unprecedented scope and severity. Using innovations such as an ambulance corps, mobile field hospitals (in later decades to become MASH units), and intake systems that applied such principles as triage, to make sure that limited resources would be put to the most effective use, limiting the loss of life and limiting the number and severity of life long debilitating after effects. We have Major Letterman largely to thank for laying the systemic foundation for the battlefield medical techniques used not only by the United States military, but in militaries around the world.
This story brought to mind something that tragically I encounter on a daily basis. I hate to even bring this up, not only because the Bible says not to blow your own trumpet as it were, and not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, but for other very practical reasons. One of the ministries that God has me involved in (His choice), is encouraging people who have, as it were, been left on the battlefield to die. What do I mean by this? I by the grace of God have been given the mission of encouraging as much as possible people who God is using around the world. People who are truly being cared for by God on a day by day, moment by moment basis. These are people who have worked hard all their lives, have done all the “right” things, and yet when they were called out by God ( Jesus said in John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”), they were abandoned, despised, and judged, even by nominally Christian family members. Many of these people, some from the United States, some from other parts of the western world, are doing missionary work, independent of any church support, and it is clear to me that God does it that way so they are able to follow Him, and not some denominational edict.
Why did I write this today? There are several reasons. One of the reasons is this. To those of us who name the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, are we abandoning those who are actually following the call of Jesus because they do not fit our paradigm? Rather than helping them, are we condemning them, even as the Pharisees condemned Jesus when He healed on the Sabbath?
Remember the story Jesus told of the Samaritan who was willing to tend the wounds of one who had fallen, even when the religious ones past him by? By the grace of God I ask today that our Father in Heaven would remove our blinders, and plow the hard fallow ground that there may be in our hearts, that we would not only help those in our families and our circles of friends and church members, but also those who we may see as “the least”, the ones Jesus spoke of in Matthew 25:40.
Finally, for those of you who are reading this today, and life seems to hold for you no hope, and you have never met, as it were, the One who came two thousand years ago to rescue you from this battlefield that we call “life”, that may have left you wounded and dying, let me tell you about the eternal battlefield physician. His Name is Jesus Christ, and He actually came to earth, becoming a man to conquer this battlefield of death, and actually as it were “take the bullet for us”. He came to die for us so that we could live with Him eternally. You today can exchange the death you may be trapped in by giving it to Him, and in turn He has promised to give you eternal life. As it is written in Romans 10:9,
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Please do not wait. Please do it today. You only have death to lose, and you have eternal life to gain. God bless you.