How to avoid a landmine!

In more than 70 countries around the world, just walking along a road or across a field can result in death!

 

More than 26,000 men, women and mostly children are maimed or killed every year by landmines, which typically cost less than $30.00 to manufacture, but more than $1000.00 each to remove. 26,000 people maimed or killed annually equates to 3 people per hour….

An anti-personnel landmine is an explosive device designed to maim or kill the person who triggers it. Mines are indiscriminate in terms of target and time. They go on killing and maiming-soldiers and civilians, adults and children alike-decades after the fighting has ended.

As any soldier who has faced a minefield knows, there is only one way to approach such a defensive weapon…. Very very carefully.  If it’s absolutely essential to traverse the area, it is necessary for one person to clear the way. This is usually done by the soldier gently probing the ground to expose the mine or its trigger, and then the other soldiers follow in his exact footsteps. Any deviation from the cleared path will result in injury or death. 

There are many civilian agencies at work around the world today clearing old battlefields of this horrible legacy of conflict. The work of these weapons experts is skilled and demanding, and the people involved are sadly guaranteed that their employment is unlikely to end in their being made redundant. 

Even more devastating to humans are the “spiritual” landmines that our enemy has scattered abroad for countless generations. Un-numbered victims of his heinous weapons are maimed or killed every day, often as the result of events that had their genesis long ago.

But we have not been left defenseless…. Our “weapons expert” has gone before us, clearing the path, illuminating it with His very life blood. Our security is guaranteed if we follow His footsteps.    

Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105

If we but trust God’s Word, the danger of falling is greatly reduced, and our way in the darkness that surrounds us is pierced.

What is the lamp that lights the way of Christians? The lamp of the Word is not the sun, nor is it an energizer battery… It’s the oil, or presence of the Holy Spirit. 

This is the same oil that 5 of the 10 virgins allowed to burn low. Those of us who make the Word of God our guide will see the pathway, and know the way to walk, and more importantly, avoid the pitfalls.

The steps of a good man (or woman) are ordered by Jehovah; and He delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be cast down; for Jehovah upholds his hand. Psalm 37:23-24

The believer who walks thus illuminated will clearly see the path. They will be able to mark the road on which they ought to go, and to avoid all those by-paths which would lead them astray. They will see where those by-roads turn off from the main path - often at such a very small angle, and so that there seems to be no divergence, yet such divergence is the way to destruction.

There is only one way to navigate the spiritual minefield called “the world” and that is to walk in the steps of the One who has gone before us.  

For you were not called to this? For Christ also suffered on our behalf, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps. 1 Peter 2:21