The year is 1415 and young King Henry V has landed a well-equipped English army in Normandy. On their march inland they encounter stiff opposition as they lay siege to the strategic city of Harfleur. However, their greatest enemy is dysentery which kills or incapacitates about one third of the army or 3000 men. After Harfleur surrenders, Henry marches on covering 200 miles in just 16 days. The English army now exhausted, filthy, and starving reaches Agincourt only to find themselves facing a much larger French army of 15,000. Not only were they the visiting team but the home team had much more than home field advantage.

As you read the below paragraphs, about the investiture of a knight and the expectations of him, see if you can find any principles that would translate to your life as a Christian man, a Christ Follower, in 2025. Make a note of your recent observations of fear and/or anxiety associated with the post-pandemic. culture, global economic uncertainty, threats to faith/family/liberty and civil unrest.

"There comes the baffling call of God in our lives. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because his call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after." Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Over the years I have been involved in building, participating, and leading teams in a variety of challenging operational environments. These have included: leading helicopter gunship fire teams in Vietnam (607 missions); Officer-In-Charge Navy East Coast Search and Rescue Swimmers School; Officer-IN-Charge, Helicopter Combat Support Detachment One, Commander Middle East Force; Operations Officer, HS-7 a carrier-based anti-submarine aviation squadron; Head, Navy Corrections Washington, DC, 21 facilities worldwide; designing, building and then serving as the first Commanding Officer of a new generation naval prison; the first Commanding Officer of newly formed 5th Battalion, South Carolina State Guard; and serving as Chief of Staff of a South Carolina Sheriff's Office.

"When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do safe things, that faithfulness is holding the fort, that playing it safe is safe, that there is any greater privilege than sacrifice, that radical is anything but normal? Jesus didn't die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous. Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It's storming the gates of hell. The will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan. The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn't radical, it's normal. It's time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It's time to go all in and all out for the All in All."
All In --- Mark Batterson, Pastor National Community Church, Wash DC.

TO BE: Means to exist: the essence of existence; just consider for a moment that we are called... human beings. In Shakespeare's Hamlet you may recall the famous line "to be or not to be? That is the question" - which was spoken when Hamlet was very seriously considering suicide. We all need to have a sacred appreciation for life itself. Many things in our world today degrade the value and the sanctity of life. How we treat the elderly, the poor, the unlovely, each other, the unborn, and the increasing incidence of criminal domestic violence - all of these factors can erode the value of life itself. So, just the most basic concept of being, of being a being created in God's image, is vital to understanding the essence and purpose for one's very existence. A favorite verse of mine, Ephesians2:10 declares that "you are God's artistic masterpiece". When I consider whose five words about all I can say is "wow!" (And give God a high five)

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Ephesians 6:11 (NIV)

"What we do in life - echoes in eternity" ... a great quote of the warrior Maximus from the movie Gladiator, a name that few men would not recognize. However, I have yet to meet a man who knows the real definition of gladiator. The usual answer approximates this, "a man who fought in the Roman arena", and that is true. To end this suspense, "gladiator" comes from the word gladius that means 'sword'. Ergo, gladiator simply means a swordsman.