Christian Living

The Master Plan

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
12/07/20
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“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Today, I have found myself fit for pondering about this, that, and yes, some of the other. I was contemplating things that had no greatness of value other than for my mere amusement. Then in the background, an old Credence Clearwater Revival song came on the radio. I don’t know if I have the correct title of the song, but I call it the “Run through the Jungle” song for my purposes. The song came out in 1970 while I was vacationing in Southeast Asia in a land we called the Nam. When I came of age for the draft, I decided that I would not be made to go or become involved in an activity that was not my choice. Instead of waiting for my number to come up, I enlisted in the U. S. Army. A friend and I walked right into the recruitment office, and I told the Sargent that I wanted to sign up and be a General. He obliged me, and in two weeks, I was at Fort Jackson with some drill instructors boot banging up my bottom side.

Not only just Rock and Roll music but music, in general, brings back the memories of the time that you heard or identify the music with. The first time I heard “Run through the Jungle,” I was hunkered down in a bunker with several other mates listening to two howitzers firing above our head. Many people say that this CCR song is about the Viet Nam War, and as far as I was concerned, it should have been. But what John Fogerty was singing about was the love affair that everyone seemed to have with guns back here in the states. That is true, but for me, that song and some others of the day take me back to my tour of duty in the Nam. That first time I heard “Run through the Jungle,” the first two verses were forever stuck in my memory, and even today, over forty years later, it takes me back to that place in a world far away. “Whoa, thought it was a nightmare, low, it’s all so true. They told me, don’t go walking slow, the devil’s on the loose. Thought I heard a rumbling, calling to my name. Two hundred million guns are loaded, Satan cries, “Take aim”

I am no one to complain or even suggest that I could have been the General and ran the war, oh, excuse me, the police action, better than the higher-ups. But it never seemed to me that we were there to liberate anyone. We were not to promote the benefits of the American Way. It did not seem that we were trying to win the police action, so there was no thought of winning, only leaving alive. I had many problems with this kind of thinking, and the longer I was there going on senseless missions, the harder it was to understand what we were trying to do there. Then the night came when Lieutenant Jacobs, our Platoon Leader, came in to check our positions and tell us to get ready as the enemy was coming our way. Then I knew that the guns were loaded, and Satan was taking aim.  

Life becomes worth living when you have a possibility of losing it. Every moment slows and becomes more intense when it could be the last. Every second becomes important, every action must be right, and every heartbeat pounds away from the fear, as that is no longer the most important thing. They came, and we beat them back. They came again stronger, and the cobra’s flu in and beat them back. And again they came, and came, and came until they lost the will to sacrifice so much. I wondered why they kept coming so many times, only to lose so many. I looked at the man beside me and asked why they charge when there is little hope to overcome? “Because like we, they follow their orders,” was the reply. Why? Someone tell me why do we all do this? Then the last line of the song plays, “Let the people know my wisdom, fill the land with smoke.” It was on that day the answer.

The lesson I learned that day was not just a lesson of war, death, and destruction, but a lesson for a purposeful life. As a soldier or a member of society, I am an instrument of duty fulfilling my part in the larger scheme of things. In the Army, I was ordered to do many things that made no real sense or reason other than someone could tell me to do it, and I had to. I was just a person accomplishing a piece of a greater plan that depended on my accomplishment. Wars are won by everyone doing their little part and all the parts fitting together. Wars are lost when the individual parts are not accomplished, and there is no unity of the greater plan. I might just be taking a seemingly useless hill. But useless a hill together with others makes a nation taken over by the winning team. This concept is true in life, and we are all working to accomplish life’s master plan.

All this goes far beyond military campaigns, it even goes far beyond but involves humanity’s lives, and it goes far beyond the universe or box that we live in. It starts before the first four wards of the Scripture. “In the Beginning God.” (Genesis 1:1) In the beginning, God, nothing else, God. God is the beginning, and God is the end, and everything that there is came from God. Not a Big Bang, not an ameba, not evolution, and not some cosmic phenomenon or mystery, as there was no cosmos. It came from God, all that we can see and that we cannot see, all we know and that which is unknown. All came from God. If we accept that, we can accept that humanity was the last of His creation in His Creation’s order. All of creation was spoken into existence by His Word except humanity. Everything of His creation was designed for a purpose, and each purpose fits together according to His will. His will shall be achieved according to His perfect plan despite man’s rebellion against the Word of God, as He has made provision for that through His Son Jesus Christ. All will happen, as it has thus far, according to His Master Plan.

We can learn His Will for us by listening to His inspired thoughts, studying His Word, and following the example of His Son Jesus. We even learn in general, His purpose for humanity as a whole and each of us individually. The Apostle Paul gives us insight in his first letter to Timothy. “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4) God’s purpose is to reconcile man unto Himself through His Son Jesus that all will come to have a restored relationship with our Heavenly Father, the Lord God. “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

We have the problem that we are confined to be inside the box of God’s creation. Few of us have left earth, and none of us can see far into the universes. We all at our very best are short-sighted. Too many of us can only perceive through our five senses in our physical state. Too many of us will not believe anything that we cannot see. Yet, we share our physical world with spiritual beings, both righteous and unrighteous. We share a physical world with God’s ministering spirits, the angels, and the demons of the fallen angel Satan. We can’t see them, we can’t touch them, but they are there. We know there is a Heaven because we are always referring to Hell. If there is a Hell, then surely there is a Heaven. We have read scripture from Daniel, Paul, and John, who have seen Heaven, but it was so wondrous that they could not completely speak of it possibly because there are no human words to describe such a thing.

Humanity has been unable to live together, and if there are spiritual beings righteous and unrighteous living with us, it is understandable they do not get along either. The Bible teaches that here and in the heavenly places, they are at war with each other for our souls. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) As this spiritual war is being fought over, and for us, it most certainly affects us.

This leaves humanity at a disadvantage, as we are humans restricted to the human flesh’s fragility. Even if we could see them, we could not fight them with any hope of victory save the power of the Holy Spirit that the followers of Jesus Christ, His Church, have indwelled within. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (John 16:13)

This is why faith is so very important in our lives. Faith is acting on the Word and promises of God. If we do not act on His Word, if we do not walk in His Spirit, we do not have faith and cannot please Him. We will not receive the victory that He has for us if we do not have the faith to receive it. We cannot run the good race if we do not have the wisdom of Jesus within us to gain the understanding to overcome. We cannot think or reason as God, but He will give us the wisdom to win the day’s battles. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The Christian life is a life of faith. If we trust God’s Word, then we should have the faith to act upon His promises as if they have been completed. The Word of God is eternal, meaning that His promises have already come to pass. The problem for us is that we have faith in God’s Word, but we look for His answer on our terms. God answers our prayers, and sometimes that means the answer is “no.” God answers prayers, but they are answered according to His purpose to accomplish His Master Plan. In the book of Job, we see him as a man that had it all. Job had family, possession, and wealth, and he had a supporting wife. Job being unaware of a spiritual battle raging in the heavenly places between God and Satan, Job lost all that he had, including his health. Job’s wife was spared only to advise Job. “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) Job’s faith was not caught in the box of this world but had the vision of the world beyond and answered his wife. “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10)

As we go through life, we must lay our burdens down at the feet of our Lord and leave them there. By leaving them with Jesus, we have expressed our desires and shown that we trust Him in faith to resolve the burden. God is Almighty in power, and we should not try to limit His ability to answer according to our plan, but know that His plan is perfect, glorify His name, and further His purpose and Master Plan. For us, it is a victory in accomplishing our small part of His Master Plan. If we have faith with no doubt of God’s promises, then we know that all things will work towards our good in the economy of God’s creation. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

It was not my purpose to journey through the military to learn the secret of a successful life, but what I learned on senseless battlefields gave me a key to greater understanding. We do not need to know the end from the beginning; only God knows that. (Isaiah 46:10) As we journey through life, we cannot know what lies ahead in the next minute, but we need to trust and act on faith in the Word of the God who does know, He has a perfect divine purpose for our lives, and has the Master Plan to bring all to a just righteous end that we can live in His love and Peace. All we need is to seek His Kingdom and the righteousness of His Son and place our faith only in His Word. (Matthew 6:33) “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

The Apostle Paul gives us divine advice on how to walk in the power of the Spirit confident that we are in His will and coming into His courts with praise and thanksgiving for His grace that sustains us in His Master Plan. “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” (Ephesians 5:15-20)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, September 25, 2018