As a lad in days long time ago, we all had to go into the armed services and do our national service, and everybody, whatever you were destined to do, went through the same basic training. In those far-off days, one of the objectives of basic training was to terrify you, to humble you, to make you aware that you were now under the rule of the military. So you were paraded every morning, and if you had lived a relaxed civilian life, now you had to clean everything. You would have to prepare your belts and your webbing, and crease your trousers, have everything spotless, clean all buckles, the brasses and the buttons. You had to clean behind them – behind every button, into every crevice on every buckle: everything had to be spotless. A number of people would be pulled out of line and yelled at, and selected for punishments, and the punishments could be very harsh and would be in the form of arduous physical discomfort. Somebody would always be picked out and the drill sergeant, and an officer or a couple of other NCOs would come down the line. Then they would come to you. ‘Will it be me? Am I going to be picked out? Am I going to be humiliated, hauled out, and worse?’ You would feel the hot breath and the hostile stares and they would be turning over your buckles, and poking and looking for somebody to victimise, so that everybody would be terrified to cut corners on the next parade. Multiply that sense of apprehension, many, many times; if only we could renew our grasp of the holiness of God.
Have you found him? Do you know him? Think of the precious blood of Christ: the man who was God, the eternal Son. And think of what he did for lost sinners. If you turn away from him, you are lost, you have nothing. Come to him throw yourself at his feet, repent sincerely of your sin, acknowledge your need of him, and in him you have eternal life.