THEATER ACRONYMS
MEF Marine Expeditionary Force
TF Task Force
BCT Brigade Combat Team
BTT Border Transition Team
CF Coalition Forces
ECP Entry Control Point
LOAC Law of Armed conflict
RDF Regional Detention Facility
IP Iraqi Police
ISF Iraqi Security Forces
AIF Anti Iraqi Forces
MSR Main Supply Route
RCT Regimental Combat Team
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
MTT Military Transition Team
PTT Police Transition Team
CMO Civil Military Operations
TCP Traffic Control Point
EOF Escalation of Force
SA Situational Awareness
IA Iraqi Anny
AQIZ Al Qaeda in Iraq
BIAP Baghdad International Airport
ASR Alternate Supply Route
PRINTED FROM "FOLLOW ME" SECOND MARINE DIVISION PUBLICATION

May 21, 2007

On Purpose

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READ: 2 Corinthians 3:11-18

We . . . are being transformed into [Christ’s] image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. —2 Corinthians 3:18 Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life has had an unbelievable run on the best-seller lists. Its phenomenal appeal reminds us that believers and nonbelievers alike have a deep longing for a clear sense of purpose. We all want to know that our lives are involved in something worthwhile. Without a strong sense of calling and purpose, life is nothing more than routine busyness.

Being a follower of Jesus gives us a distinct advantage when it comes to having a sense of purpose. The Westminster Catechism sums it up well when it says the “chief end of man” is to “glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

Glorifying God means putting His character, His will, and His ways into action in all that we do. The apostle Paul reminded us that we “are being transformed into [Christ’s] image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). The purpose of our lives is to let others see what God is like as they watch and experience His love through us.

What a profound privilege it is to mirror God’s love, mercy, grace, justice, and righteousness to a world whose heart is “veiled” to God’s truth! (4:3-4). Our purpose is to show others less of us and more of Him. That’s living on purpose with a purpose!

So let our lips and lives express
The holy gospel we profess,
So let our words and virtues shine
To prove the doctrine all divine. —Watts

The Christian’s purpose is to promote God’s plan.

Bible in One Year: 1 Chronicles 13-15; John 7:1-27

Fresh losses fill Arlington’s Secton 60

In a cemetery dignified by age and order, one section resonates with youth and immediacy

WASHINGTON — In Section 60, death remains too fresh to be separated from life.

You see it in the 17 cigars pushed into the grass near one headstone, signs that a combat unit stopped by.

And in the mother who spent winter afternoons wrapped in a sleeping bag, stretched across her son’s grave.

And in the older man who reads Robert Frost to the dead, knowing that their families live thousands of miles away.

Here in Section 60 are the graves of 336 men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan — almost one in 10 of the dead. Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have produced the highest percentage of burials at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery from any war.

Section 60 is the one place to get a sense of the immensity of the nation’s loss.

The great expanse of the cemetery is known for its orderliness, its precision. Each Memorial Day, the government places an American flag exactly one foot in front of every headstone. Only flowers are allowed on graves.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4820795.html