the Lord's Army

Many, many years ago in Sunday school I learned a fun song with motions. As I sang the song I was declaring that I was in the Lord's army - even though I will not be serving in our armed forces I am enlisted in fighting in a war on the side of the King of kings.

What does it mean to be in a war? To be part of an army?

An army is made up of a very diverse group of people - and each person has a specific job. No job is better that another as all jobs are needed in order for the army to be successful. It is also important that each member of the army be trained. But not only does a person enlisted in an army need to be trained, have a specific job and perform that job, the person must have access to resources such as weapons. (It is not enough to know how to use a weapon, one must have access to it.) And, most importantly, a person must be willing to fight - to engage the enemy - to die for the cause.

God has given each member of His army a special job and He has equipped us with armor and weapons - it is up to us to get the training needed to use them properly. In Ephesians 6 we read about the armor and are reminded about the importance of putting on the FULL armor of God. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 Paul tells us, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." So, you see, we have the job and the resources but the question is - are we willing to fight??

Sometimes I think we forget that if we are followers of Christ then we are in His army. We tent to play church - it is safe and doesn't really cost us anything. But as Ron Luce wrote in his book Battle Cry for a Generation, "Jesus didn't give His life to start a social club; His church was meant to be an army."

The battle cry has been heard - the war is raging. May we not only embrace our position, get trained, put on the full armor and wield our weapons... May we fight!