FORGETTING WHAT LIES BEHIND...
(From the Amplified Bible)
Philippians
own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind
and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which
God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
The Apostle Paul
is saying that he chooses to forget (to
lose out of mind;
meaning superimposition
of his will to have charge of his thinking and
thoughts; to hide
and deny the affectations that would hinder him and by
choice be ignorant
of them) and to pursue and press forward (putting all
possible effort
into the endeavor) to his destiny in the high calling of God...
One of my favorite books is "GOD'S WARRIOR" by Frank G. Slaughter. It is a novel
in a historical setting of the time of Paul's traveling ministry of preaching and
spreading the teachings of Jesus who had been crucified by the Romans at the
request of the Jews. Paul was a Roman Citizen and a Hebrew of the tribe of
Benjamin. He worked with and for the High Priest in
continuance of Judaism and put a stop to the new religion derisively called
"the Way."
Saul, which was his Hebrew name, had been educated and trained in the ways of
Judaism by Gamaliel, one of the most learned men of his day. He was being
groomed for special things and had received special training for those purposes.
He stood by the garments of the stone throwers when Stephen, the first martyred
believer in Christ, was being stoned to death for heresy (false doctrine). Paul had
given his approval to that action and immediately began to persecute, arrest and
cause the deaths of the followers of the Way who believed in Jesus Christ.
After he caused
much death and destruction in
he obtained authorization to pursue the believers who had fled from his actions into
other
cities. On his way to
changing
experience on the road outside
destiny and his calling. He had been trying to destroy the Way and its followers...
then he had a face to face experience that changed his life... it changed him from
Saul, the zealous servant of the High Priest... to Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles for
the Way (of Jesus Christ).
For three days he was blind and was being directed by God to know what his calling
and service to God and people would be... then he was prayed for. Immediately he
began to learn all that he could about the teachings of the Way and the One that they
followed. He became so effective for the Way and against what he had stood for
before
the
plotting
to kill him. He escaped
One of the powerful things that he learned was to not allow any experience to hinder
his pursuit of his destiny in the calling and service of God. He penned that principle in
the references that are quoted in the beginning of this article. He had been in the
service of Jesus Christ for twenty nine years when he penned those words. History
tells us he had only two more years to go until he kept an appointment with a sword
blade
outside of
Paul traveled extensively on foot and sometimes by ship. He suffered great
persecutions, shipwreck, robbers, stoning, flogging, imprisonment in dungeons and
in stocks, deprivation and ridicule. He established churches wherever he taught,,,
appointed others that he trained to be in charge of those churches and traveled on to
other places where he had not been before or back to where he had been to
strengthen and lift the churches previously established. He made tents and sails as
a way to support himself as he did this work.
Not only did he have many difficult experiences to not dwell upon... He also had
many glorious experiences that would give most men a swelled, inflated attitude of
his own importance. He saw miracles... he participated in miracles... and once was
the recipient of miraculously being restored to life after he had been stoned and
thrown on the garbage dump as dead.
He wrote over half of the New Testament in the process of his traveling and teaching.
By faith and his experiences he found and taught many very practical principles that
are available for us to learn and apply in daily life. He was a most disciplined
warrior for what he stood for and what he believed in both before and after his
most useful one in my mind today.
Paul had his tough road... I have had mine. How he handled his, taught me how to
handle mine. The book by Slaughter was one of the most important books ever to
come into my possession besides the Bible itself. From it I learned about the man
who was the most influential man who ever lived besides Jesus Christ as far as I
was concerned. I learned... I applied what I learned... and it worked... I also
devoured the New Testament and Paul's writings there. As I did that I learned still
more about what he learned, did and experienced that worked for him where he
was. When I applied his teachings they worked for me wherever I was. It became
an invigorating, life building experience in both good times and difficult times... in
enjoyable times and in the most painful of times...
It worked through thirty eight years of being a Christian... through thirty years of
being a chaplain/police officer... a pastor... a husband to my precious wife, Sue,
who became an invalid and subsequently died.
It worked as Sue and I were foster parents to seventeen children, parents to three
natural born children and one adopted son. It worked through deaths of many loved
ones including my precious wife, Sue, and our adopted son, killed in a truck crash
two years after his mother's death and he was shipped home in a box.
It has worked as I have trodden the streets of our resort area on walking beat patrol.
It has worked as I was on auto patrol both with officers and alone. It has worked
whenever I have been called to do a death notification to citizens or police families...
or to a death scene... some covered with blood and carnage... some with bodies
washed up in the surf after being missing for several days...
It has worked when I have been asked to kneel beside the dead body of a beautiful
little child and pray... and then do the Celebration of Life for the child... It has worked
as I have had to pry mothers off the casket of their dead child so that the body could
be buried and forcefully hold them as I walked, carried, drug them away from the
graveside...
It has worked as I have been with families of Peace Keepers during the deaths of
their loved ones. It has worked as I have stood in formation to honor and salute the
life of a Peace Keeper who has graduated from this life and is no longer among us...
It has worked when I have been called upon to do the Celebrations of Life... for
children... for Peace Keepers... for my precious wife... for my precious son... and for
many other family members...
It has worked when I could not understand the reasoning of those to whom I must
respond with obedience and dedication... It has worked when my disappointment
was so great as to feel like it would cause my death... It has worked in situations of
physical and dangerous life threatening confrontations... It has worked when I was in
situations where I should have been severely injured or killed...
I am here today to write these words because I found principles like the theme of this
article and put them to use. When I meet strangers; they do not believe that I am as
old as I am; they have a hard time correlating that I am a Christian, a chaplain and a
Peace Keeper - all in one package; they cannot comprehend that I am a volunteer
in all of these positions and like Paul, I do other things to bring in funds to support
life.
Life is arbitrary... we must live in spite of it... we must master it as best we can by
learning all we can that applies and making the applications of what we learn.
During Basic Motorcycle Training last week I was assigned to ride the very type of
bike that I always hated. The bike and I finally came to the place where I could ride
it well enough to perform the necessary actions and pass the course. I learned
much that I did not know in spite of the fact that many years ago I was a very good
rider. I approached that course the same way I have learned to approach life... I
set my mind to learn all that I could and do all I could with all that I learned. After a
while I even enjoyed riding that beast of a bike.
I pray for you daily because I have learned these things and had them work in my life.
I pray for you because you must learn and apply many things in your life where you
are... some of what you learn is of the utmost importance and life as you desire it will
not go on without that knowledge and your application of it. I pray for you because
without you there would be no life as we know it... and no life for some very precious
individuals that depend upon you for assistance, support and guidance. I pray for
you because my Commander-in-Chief and I love you and appreciate you and we
want you to learn, absorb, apply and succeed. We are eternally grateful for your life
and your service in the cause of others.
"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!" There are enemies and circumstances aplenty out
there that will try and stop your life and your success. See to the care and well being
of all facets of your life... and do not neglect the spiritual facet of it... that facet, also,
must be strong for the best of life and success for you.
As it has always been... So it still is...
"VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST...
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST...
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN." Sun tzu
ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!
WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics... it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]
I represent, write for... and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live... with Him and for you I serve...
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
RETIRED Police Officer, Certified Police Instructor,
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
=================================================
Copyright: CHAPLAIN CORNER (DRS) 2006. All rights reserved.
May not be duplicated without permission, except to be forwarded
with copyright and all source information for any quotation intact.
To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers,
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at
If you are a Peace Keeper you may subscribe to
the BLACKWATER TACTICAL NEWSLETTER by going to the
website
at BLACKWATER