My mate...

I have a mate I would like to tell you of.
My desire to share about my mate comes from something that happened to me very recently.
Another mate of mine has felt the call of God to start a home church. No, that's wrong, it's not a home church because we are the church so it isn't a church but a gathering which my mate refers to as 'Open Circle' but it is a call to restore 'church' as God saw it rather than what it has become...but that's another story...if you would like to know more you can contact me via the comment opportunity below and I will put you in touch with my mate.
Anyway I was at 'Open Circle' and as an ice-breaker all gathered were asked to share about any book we had read recently. I chose 'Somme Mud' by E.P.F. Lynch, mainly as it was the only book, other than the Bible, that I had read recently.

This book made me think of my mate, who I want to share with you here.

Now, I cannot really do the book, Somme Mud, justice. I do not have the words, or experience, to adequately describe all these men experienced and endured as they fought and died in a war they didn't choose, in a place far from home and family. It touched me incredibly, especially as my own uncle, Clifton, who I never knew, died far from home at Messine Ridge.

Cpl. Clifton Shephard

Professor Bill Gamage who wrote the forward for the book writes this:

'Somme Mud puts you in the trenches, enduring the mud and the cold, smelling the stink of whale oil, following the dogfight overhead, suffering death's randomness. You watch Snow snipe a German half a mile away, then the next day risk his life to save another German and be reprimanded for it. You are brought close up into the war's world, wondering how such men could ever be civilians again, if they got the chance."

 Now I was impacted immensely by this book and I would thoroughly recommend it.
But none of it impacted me more than the final chapter.
Edward Lynch, 'Nulla', survived and  is on the ship returning home to Australia and the conversation turns to 'why?' Why did they volunteer to go? Why did they go to see their friends and comrades cut down in battle? Why did they expose themselves to the incredible deprivation that was 'the war to end all wars'? Why?

Edward Lynch writes:

"The argument turns to why we enlisted. We hear the old one about enlisting while drunk, but know that is all lies and rot, just so much camoflage to hide the real reason.

No one ever seems to admit that he enlisted out of love of country, or because he thought his loved ones were in danger. Somehow its seems that most of us enlisted because our mates did. That men were driven to enlist by that urging spirit of pulling together that is really mateship undefined. A man enlists because his mates do, not because he wants to bayonet and bomb other men."

He goes on...

"Of course we vow we'll never enlist again, yet we know that if ever the boys are on the job again, many vows will be swept aside by the thunder of marching feet, the marching feet of old mates. Mateship transcends reason. That has been proved on the battlefield time after time. Mateship is born or renewed when the country calls and that is how it should be and how it ever must be. Mateship."

As he closes his book he writes...

"The war is over. The trial was long and severe. The prize was worth it, though, when measured in the mateship of men. My mates! Memories of men! Memories of mates! Men who were mates and mates who were men. C'est la guerre!"

Now it is interesting and sad that within a few short years the world was plunged into another war. Edward Lynch, who became a teacher when he returned home and wrote this book, enlisted again for a second 'stunt'. Mates.

Now I read this with tears in my eyes. Tears of pride, and regret. Tears. And then I thought of my mate.

You know the Bible says this, and it is true.

"For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. [Romans 5: 7 - 8]

Jesus is viewed by the world as something of a wimp. If you choose to believe in Jesus then you lack in some way. But I want you to think of this. I can't begin to describe what Jesus endured. I have no idea, just as I can't describe what Edward Lynch endured. But one thing I know Edward Lynch, and Jesus Christ, are MEN!
Jesus was a man of the highest calibre, a man that men admire. And He is my mate!
I could write much but words fail me.
The point is this, there is hardly anyone who will die for a righteous man, some might for a good man, but Jesus, even when we were alien to Him by our own choice He died for me.
He died the most savage and vicious of deaths in the world's view but more than that He endured the wrath of the fire of a holy God against sin, my sin, so He could make me His mate.
Jesus died not because we were mates, but to make me His mate.
Edward Lynch said that mateship transcends reason.
The mateship of Jesus transcends EVERYTHING!
I am a mate of Jesus.

Listen here...

Jesus said..."...I have called you friends..." [John 15: 15]

My mate.
Jesus Christ. Son of God. Holy One. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Eternal Father. Prince of Peace. Friend of sinners. Healer. Restorer. Provider. Everything.
JESUS.
My mate.
Is He your mate?