{"id":67,"date":"2006-06-13T13:46:13","date_gmt":"2006-06-13T17:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=67"},"modified":"2009-09-11T10:03:18","modified_gmt":"2009-09-11T14:03:18","slug":"marking-time-or-making-the-most-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/13\/marking-time-or-making-the-most-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Marking Time, or Making the Most of It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Finding a <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=64\">church<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=65\">Bible study<\/a> to attend are the most important first steps a Christian fighter pilot can take when he arrives at a new base.\u00a0 Once he finds a church and study to call home he needs to do more than merely count time. \u00a0In the military it&#8217;s very easy to think, &#8220;If I can just survive this assignment, at my next base I&#8217;ll\u2026,&#8221; &#8220;Once I get back from this TDY I&#8217;ll\u2026,&#8221; &#8220;After this remote I&#8217;ll\u2026,&#8221; or, more famously, &#8220;When I retire and have a paycheck and free time I&#8217;ll\u2026&#8221;\u00a0 Instead of making the most of the opportunities the Christian has now, he treads water while waiting for the time he&#8217;ll really be able to do what is important.\u00a0 In short, he&#8217;s wasting time.\u00a0 He should be utilizing what he has to make the most of the time he is given.\u00a0 Once he has found a church and Bible study, merely attending is one way in which he can count time, content with the status quo.\u00a0 Instead, he should contribute to the body of Christ by participating in the congregation and study.\u00a0 Participation in the local church&#8217;s activities builds fellowship and relationships, which gives a Christian a network of friends on whom to depend.\u00a0 Interactive participation in a Bible study\u2014including leading when the opportunity presents itself\u2014builds knowledge, confidence, and abilities; one day when a Christian arrives at a base with no Bible study, those tools will give him the ability to start and lead his own Bible study.<\/p>\n<p><em>Return to<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/\">God and Country<\/a>.<br \/>\n<em>Go to<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/\">ChristianFighterPilot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finding a church and Bible study to attend are the most important first steps a Christian fighter pilot can take when he arrives at a new base.\u00a0 Once he finds a church and study to call home he needs to do more than merely count time. \u00a0In the military it&#8217;s very easy to think, &#8220;If I can just survive this [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}