Battle Ready: Devotional Discipleship: Spiritual Training for the Soldier of the Cross

By Chaplain Lance Dixon

Battle Ready is a unique devotion designed to train and empower the follower of Christ through devotional discipleship. Battle Ready will enhance a believers knowledge of scripture and bring to life the powerful truths of Gods Word. My intent is to challenge a believer to grow stronger in his or her understanding of Jesus Christ while preparing them to advance forward in the confidence of the gospel. Battle Ready will provide intense daily discipleship while developing an ineffective believer into a soldier of the cross. The gospel is the power of God and Battle Ready highlights this power during forty days of intense training and testing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503594104

Chaplain Lance Dixon

Rev. (Chaplain) Lance W. Dixon serves as a chaplain in the US Army Reserve and lives in Monroe, NC with his wife Ashley and their two children, Taylor and Garrett. Originally from Lewisburg, West Virginia, Lance holds an undergraduate degree from Marshall University, a masters degree from Tarleton State University, and two masters degrees from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, to include a Master of Divinity.

Book preview

BATTLE READY:

DEVOTIONAL DISCIPLESHIP

Spiritual Training for the Soldier of the Cross

CHAPLAIN LANCE DIXON

Copyright © 2015 by Chaplain Lance Dixon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

KJV

All scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Military Bible, Copyright 2007 by Holman Bible Publishers.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/09/2015

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Day 1 - Living to Die

Day 2 - Suffering for Righteousness

Day 3 - Soldier of the Cross

Day 4 - Foolishness for Christ

Day 5 - Death or Dishonor

Day 6 - Gospel Vision, Part 1

Day 7 - Gospel Vision, Part 2

Day 8 - Into the Darkness

Day 9 - Foolish and Weak

Day 10 - Uncompromising Obedience

Day 11 - By His Blood

Day 12 - God’s Great Love for Humanity

Day 13 - A Losing Profit

Day 14 - Final Payment

Day 15 - Every Eye Will See

Day 16 - When Scripture Speaks, God Speaks

Day 17 - Set Free By Grace

Day 18 - Active Duty for Christ

Day 19 - Wisdom of God

Day 20 - The Great Mediator

Day 21 - The Indwelling of Sin

Day 22 - Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Day 23 - Put On Jesus

Day 24 - Unimaginable Love and Mystery

Day 25 - Inescapable Judgment

Day 26 - Want to Be First, Then Seek to Be Last

Day 27 - Do Not Doubt, Only Believe

Day 28 - Rice Christians

Day 29 - Willing to Suffer Shame

Day 30 - The Need for Spiritual Preparation

Day 31 - Salvation: Time Will Tell

Day 32 - The Heart

Day 33 - Do Not Judge: What Did Jesus Mean?

Day 34 - Do You Have Faith?

Day 35 - Awake Out of Your Sleep

Day 36 - Your Way Versus God’s Way

Day 37 - Infallible Proofs

Day 38 - Being Filled by God

Day 39 - On Alert

Day 40 - Eternal Promises

What Is the Gospel?

Dedication

T his devotional book is dedicated to my entire family, especially my children, Taylor and Garrett. I don’t know what the future holds for you, where you will live as adults, what your jobs will be, who your spouses will be, how long you will live, or what God will call you to do. Nevertheless, I have been blessed with the responsibility and privilege of discipling and instructing you in the teachings of Jesus. I originally began writing these devotions as a way of providing devotional discipleship to those I serve as chaplain, but it has also become a way of leaving behind a heritage of my faith in Jesus Christ and my love for God’s Word to you and potentially my future grandchildren.

This world seems to get darker by the day, and it is an honor to leave behind these devotions to equip and prepare you for the spiritual battles that await. Life will not be fair, and it will not be easy. You should expect opposition, you should expect to be tempted, and you should expect deception. But do not fear, you have everything you will ever need in Christ. I love you both, and Jesus loves you more, and absolutely nothing can defeat you when you walk in the victory secured by Jesus Christ.

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I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them for dung, that I may win Christ.

Philippians 3:8

Introduction

I pray that when I die, all of hell will rejoice that I am no longer in the fight—this prayer by missionary Charles Thomas (C. T.) Studd epitomizes the theme of this devotion. Studd was militant about following Christ and saw himself as a Soldier of the cross. He once wrote difficulties, dangers, disease, death or divisions don’t deter … from executing God’s will." The purpose of Battle Ready is to train and empower the follower of Christ through devotional discipleship. Battle Ready will enhance a believer’s knowledge of scripture and bring to life the powerful truths of God’s Word. It’s designed to challenge a believer to grow stronger in his or her understanding of Jesus Christ while preparing himself or herself to advance forward in the confidence of the gospel. Battle Ready will provide intense daily discipleship while developing an ineffective believer into a Soldier of the cross. A Soldier is to train their body and their mind for warfare, and only through dedicated daily study can a Soldier be approved for the battles of life. In the Bible, God used forty-day and forty-year periods to test, teach, and grow His people spiritually. Through forty-day periods, Battle Ready will do the same for the modern-day follower of Christ. Ultimately, Battle Ready is designed to train a believer in godliness with an intentional focus on the gospel."

Soldiers of Christ, Arise

Soldiers of Christ, arise

And put your armor on,

Strong in the strength which God supplies

Thro’ His eternal Son …

Source: Baptist Hymnal 2008 #658

Day 1 - Living to Die

Jesus said unto to her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live

John 11:25

I challenge you to find believers who are looking forward to death. You won’t find many because unfortunately, most are concerned with holding on to this life or living their best life now, which begs the question, why do we live? The answer is Christians live for Christ and to be on mission for God. Our purpose is to draw near to Jesus while becoming more and more like Him. In fact, the only reason God is keeping Christians on this earth is for the purpose of the Great Commission, the commission of making disciples and teaching them to obey everything God has commanded. However, what we see is a very small percentage of believers being on a mission for God, but instead living for themselves while pursuing worldly wealth and fame.

When Jesus heard of the death of Lazarus, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby (John 11:4). Jesus’s purpose was that through the resuscitation of Lazarus, God would be glorified and many would come to believe that