No Greater Love
Since he was armed with a handgun, I decided that I had better listen to what he was telling me! The Lord did an amazing thing when He created a platoon sergeant. Sgt. Shipp is a perfect example.
During my time in Iraq recently, we were crawling through the jungle beside the Euphrates River looking for the enemy and caches of weapons. I decided this was a great time for me to step out and film these brave young Americans doing an incredible job. I moved ahead of the platoon just a bit, raised my camera to film the moment and that is when I heard Sgt. Shipp. He came up to me and said, “Sir, don’t walk out in front of me. There might be trip wires and booby traps out there and I better go first.”
I immediately stepped back in place with the platoon. It took me awhile though to realize exactly what Sgt. Shipp had said. His comment to me perfectly describes John 15:13 (NKJV):
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
Our military men and women are trained to defend one another. Sgt. Shipp was not only willing to sacrifice his life for a friend or a fellow solider, he was also willing to lay down his life for a journalist such as me. For that, I am grateful.
Are you willing to die for your spouse, children or friends? If Christ was willing to die for us before we even accepted Him as our Savior, than should we not at the very least be willing to die for Him? For many of us, this will only mean dying to our selfish desires each day, but, for some, it may mean actually giving up our lives for Jesus.
