Stolen valor.
Everyone would like to become a representative of God, but do you have the credentials?
What’s that have to do with stolen valor?
You know exactly what I mean when, for example, someone is trying to pass themselves off as a U.S. Navy Seal.
(image source: YouTube.com)
Retired U.S. Navy Seal Don Shipley brings to justice people who have stolen the valor of the SEALs. He usually does this by convicting and embarrasing the hell out of the endless list of fakers who mascarade as a Navy Seal for personal gain. Some of them just desire the social notoriety while others have secured professional positions, in part, because of their fabricated SEAL credentials.
Shipley is fair also very clever. He always gives the faker a chance to come clean in the beginning of his confrontation, often by telephone. The faker usually embarks on a verbal Hari-Kari by confirming themselves in their mascaraded-self first and then, caught in the act of deception by claiming they are a Navy Seal, Shipley confronts them with the fact that no where is there any proof that they were ever a Navy Seal. Usually the perpetrator is so entangled in their fake life, they cannot come to admit their guilt. Then the confrontation usually gets awfully colorful and entertaining.
Navy Seals are not the only ones who get their valor stolen by people who can only dream about wearing the coveted Trident. All special services, including submariners, are all subject to the fantasies of fabricators. It can be a symbiotic relationship: the posers and the victims both can be guilty of perpetuating a state of their own idolatrous fantasies. What do I mean?
POSER 1 (perpetrator): “Hey, look here, I am a Navy Seal.”
POSER 2: (victim): “Hey, I know a Navy Seal.”
We’ve all fallen to this kind of attitude to some degree. We all have a tendency to either play it big, or play our association to someone big. I should point out, however, it is not wrong to admire and respect the accomplishments of others, it’s when we begin to lose ourselves in the image of someone else and it pulls on our innate desire to worship and causes us to misdirect our spiritual direction. Only God is worthy of worship.
If you think Don Shipley is a force to contend with, we really need to awaken to a Godly perspective of both God and His holiness and our sinfulness.
The Bible warns to not idolatize people or things, and that even goes for masters of their craft, whether it is in business, the military, the government or your own community, Even your church or religious practices…
…or may I say, especially, your church or religious practices.
Not many people I know think to steal the valor of a priest or a pastor, or someone who speaks for God in some anointed way.
If I fall into a bullshit trap because of someone pretending to be a Navy Seal, at worst I’d be a deceived fool.
If I fall into the bullshit trap of someone who carries the title of a minister, at worst I’d be a deceived fool that is on the path to eternal judgment and wrath of a holy and righteous God.
If as a minister of God, I am delivering the wrong message, basing it on my feelings, worldly morality (which is no morality at all) or dramatic sentiment rather than the wisdom and knowledge of God obtained through the process of Sanctification, supported by Word of God, then I’m just adding to the corruption of the truth as I throw gasoline on the heretical firestorm.
The following teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, you probably did not hear at the local church of moral relativism, but what could be more loving that to save your friends from the fury of God’s eternal wrath.
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Matthew 10:28
WANNA-BE BELIEVERS
Believers who, with contrite heart, have been convicted of the law of God look back at their lives, see a sea of ignorance and are convicted of their sins. When you become cognizant of the fact that sin is exceedingly wrong from the view point of a holy God, looking back at ones life will begin to shine the light on ones ignorance, producing a shame inducting conviction, an awakening of a Godly moral conscience. Not only can one be guilty of ignorance but even stolen valor. What do I mean?
We all have a propensity to want to take credit without doing the work or given credit where credit is due. With the wrong perspective, it is so easy and we do not see any harm. Call it coveting, call it lying, call it idolatry, self-righteousness, call it stealing the valor of one who is called by the grace of God’s gospel.
The Book of Proverbs begins with this admonition:
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—
6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
In short, it states, if you are seeking wisdom, righteousness, justice, fairness without “fear” or due reverence of the Lord, then you are walking or running down the path of a fool.
I spent many years in and around the church I grew up in and spent many years involved with its young adult group and served on a variety of church ministries. I also attended a very good Bible Study, the one I currently attend, while I also balanced the teachings of the denomination.
I thought it was a virture to be fair and balanced, pragmatic even.
It is with this background, it’s almost shocking that I could ignorant of being a “Wanna-be Christian.”
I served in some capacities as a chaplain and in some cases, high profile and very public events, even one attended by military personnel in Washington D.C. I offered words that were expected to be those of a spiritual leader. Mine were all volunteer opportunities, some I was sought out to provide my service. I thought I was sincere enough, but I look back and see how wrong I was and how parting from God’s Word is deeply detrimental.
There are two events in particular (for the sake of brevity I will omit others) that when I look back, I am convicted of being not genuinely serving on behalf of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
One event was the funeral of the wife of one of my father’s airborne comrades. In 2008, I had delivered Invocations, prayers, and benedictions at her husband’s funeral, but I could not get myself to volunteer for his wife’s funeral two years later. These people, my father’s good friends, had always be kind to me and were wonderful people. But I was confused and guilty without really understanding why, I simply could not honor their family’s request to act as their chaplain for their mother’s funeral.
Part of the problem was I was working in a startup company, under harsh conditions, compared to 2008, but this was circumstantial, not an excuse. It is a symptom of being weak in my servanthood to Christ. I had already sacrificed my plans to become an ordained minister, I had returned to the engineering profession and I was drawing further and further from studying Scripture.
I lived like a Christian in Name Only. I was a wanna-be Christian, having stolen the valor of real servants of Christ offering empty and emotional words without delivering the gospel message and glorifiying God.
The second event that marks me as spiritually lost was when I spoke at my mother’s memorial service. Long story short, though people might have considered me a spiritual person, my focus during my mother’s memorial was nothing less than self-centered and without any reverence Christ as Lord and Savior and of the Gospel message of the salvation offered to all be God’s grace.
The point is, we can think of ourselves and spiritual, offering comfort and prayers, and be both ignorant and even heretical without even knowing how sadly we stack up to a person who takes seriously their servanthood to Christ, the message of the Gospel, and God’s glory.
If you think you can call on the Name of God without due reverence to His name, you are dancing dangerously with blasphemy, meaning you are using God’s name without due respect. In all likelihood, you are not respecting God’s holy name and blinded to your own sin of self-righteousness and submission not to Jesus Christ but to idolatry in glorifiying yourself.
It makes passages like those found in Matthew 7, easier to comprehend.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ – Matthew 7:21-23
Prayer is one thing that almost everyone is willing to pitch in their 2 cents in and, a least on social media, their most spirit-filled emoticon. If you are going to pray, one presumes you are calling upon God in supplication. We are, nevertheless, requesting from God something supernarural in nature.
The question is, are you praying to the God of your own choosing (which is idolatry), praying to God without an sense of humble deference (which is blasphemy), or are you ignorantly or consciously appropriating (stolen valor) the role that ought to be held by someone, ordained or not, who understands and serves God?
Without any understanding of scripture we just accept prayer from anyone about anything as long as it sounds right…. what is it really based on? By whose power to we pray?
We are reminded by Christ in his general guideline for how to pray, that we remain aware of the Holiness and Sovereign power of God as well as seek to understand God’s will so we can participate in the fulfillment of God’s will,
“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
-Matthew 6:9-10
Know first what it means to be saved from your wretched sins by the Grace of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, then everything will begin to fall into place.
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel from the late Pastor John MacArthur, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
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