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Onward
Some of you are familiar with the hymn: Onward Christian Soldiers.
"Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the Royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!"
(Sabine Baring-Gould)
I don't know about you, but viewing you and I, the body of Christ, as Christian soldiers seems foreign. People sitting in a church pew, some dressed to the 9's, does not evoke the image of soldiers to me. How many of us are truly ready to fight for our beliefs, for freedom of religious rights?
Why do we stand idly by and allow Jesus, or Christianity as a whole, to be made fun of, drug through the mud; allow artists to depict things such as Christ, on the cross, floating in an artist's urine known as "Immersion (Piss Christ)"? (And, of course, that's only one example of a multitude). Why is there not more outcry from the body of Christ? Why does our faith not embolden us to stand up against darkness and depravity? What holds us back from making our voices heard?
Part of why extremists, in the Muslim faith, are taking over vast swaths of territory is because they are extremists.
I am not advocating we act as they do. Jesus Christ is love. Love would not behead another human being, ending life in such a crude and horrific manner, love would not kill for shock-value or without discretion; love would not kill simply because ideologies differed.
However, even while being bearer's of Jesus' love we can still be intolerant of evil. Evil of all kinds, big or small, must be given opposition. If one voice can have prayer removed from schools, Christian holidays erased from school calendars, schools modified to mollify one; certainly, a multitude of voices can turn the tides to reverse the damage that the lone voice of opposition took away.
The battle belongs to the Lord; sometimes, this means we need only be still. However, other times, we will be called to put on the armor of God, to stand with Him when the battle lines are drawn. Either way, we must be ready.
A nation divided against itself cannot stand; one nation, under God, is the only way for victory to be won over the evil that seeks to destroy. And evil, is at our doorstep; evil is already here.
I leave you with words from Ronald Reagan; the Cold War is returning, ISIS has arrived, and we must be ready to do what needs to be done in order to survive.
We cannot afford to be a country, nor a people, of appeasement; Onward Christian Soldiers!