"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."Recently, I encountered the term "Sunday soldiers." Curious, I did an Internet search and discovered the term was quite popular during “the war between the states,” our own Civil War.2 Timothy 2:15
“Sunday soldiers” were understood by veterans of battle to be those who saw little or no action; they were also known as “kid glove boys” or “parlor soldiers.” The terms were used as insults or signs of contempt. To be publicly referred to by one of them placed you in the camp of the coward or labeled you as unpatriotic.
In an interview for The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in about 1918, Lot D. Young, a Rebel veteran of the Civil War, gave this testimony before his death:“On the 22d of January following I was twenty years old - quite a youth you are ready to say. But I had been a soldier almost two years, being a charter member of that little band of ‘Sunday’ soldiers - the ‘Flat Rock Grays’ - and which constituted an integral part of what was known at that time as the Kentucky ‘State Guard.’ This little company of citizen soldiers were in their conceit and imagination very important and consequential fellows. Invited to all the noted gatherings and public affairs of the day, dressed in gaudy and flashy uniforms and flying plumes, filled with pride and conceit, they did not know they were nursing their pride against the day of wrath.” [“Documenting the American South: Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade: Electronic Edition. Young, Lot D., b. 1842 © Copyright 1998 by the Academic Affairs Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]In other words, they were all show and no go!
The church is an army, the army of God; and we are considered soldiers of the Cross. We are admonished to wear all the armor of God at all times; to be ready in season and out.
But today the visible church is pregnant with Sunday soldiers – the “Flat Bottom Grays” –which constitute an integral part of what is known as “Christian church.”
This little company of lay soldiers are, in their own conceit and imagination, very important and consequential Christians. Invited to all the committee meetings and socials of the day. Filled with pride and conceit, they don’t know they’re nursing their pride against the day of wrath. They are, when the bottom-line is reached, all show and no go! They are armorless and powerless.
Someone should tell them that those of the losing side in our war were also known as rebels.
Showing posts with label Nominal Christians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nominal Christians. Show all posts
Friday, January 18, 2008
SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Sunday soldiers - reproach to Christ!
Sunday, August 07, 2005
LIGHT - Let the be no darkness at all!
BETTER TO BE BLIND! [John 8:12; Illumination, Jesus, Life] (Added 3 June 2006)CONSUMED BY HIS POWER! [2 Corinthians 4:4; gospel, power (God's)]Imagine no red rose, no blue sky, rolling but grey hills, and a several shades of grey Monarch Butterfly. Without light, there is no color. Color is just bands of light reflected off an object; which bands are reflected depends on the nature of the object. Without light, things would be very plain … AND VERY DARK.
So too without Christ … imagine no hope, no love, no future, and no present purpose for living.
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life."
Without the light of Christ, there would be no spiritual blessings, no sustaining grace, and no “daily bread” worth eating. Just as it is impossible to receive mail without a delivery address, it is impossible to receive a true blessing outside the person and authority of Christ but it is the individuals nature that brings His ultimate blessing.
COME INTO THE LIGHT! [1 Peter 1:19; Revelation, Sin, Truth]One of our church janitors was in my office the other day and told me a fascinating but sad story.
A hardworking man finally had time to go to a night baseball game with his family. They were doing the usual things: eating hot-dogs and peanuts, drinking cokes, and complaining about the prices.
His wife, a registered nurse and mother of his three kids, said something and he turned in such a way that the park lights were directly in his eyes. She gasped and took his face in her hands to have a closer look. Her suspicion was correct, his eyes were jaundiced, a sign of several serious diseases. Within a few weeks her childhood sweetheart and the father of her three children was dead.
Man must come into the light of God to see the ravaging affects of his sins. He is little more than the walking dead without the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb. The Light reveals the truth for all to see. Many will come into the light too late. [1 Corinthians 4:5]LAVA LAMP BELIEVERS! [1 John 1:6,7; apostasy, believers, nominalism, testimony, witness]My associate pastor, Dan, used to work for Orkin (the pesty people); he was pulpit supply for me this morning and I was blessed to hear an illustration he used on the whole armor of God [Epesian 6:10-17].
Orkin evidently had special Maglites with custom commercial grade batteries in them ... make that battery. Instead of four D-cells it had a single, long battery. I gather They're like those used by law enforcement. At any rate he said it was a blessing when he was crawling around in attics and under houses; it would light up the area from one end to the other.
He used this tool to illustrate the power of the Light of God, Jesus our Lord. When an ordinary flashlight was shined directly into the beam of light coming from his Maglite the beam from the common flashlight was consumed by the power of the more powerful light.
So too the power of Satan, when it is exposed to the Light of God.Lava Lamps have made a comeback in recent years (2002). Many of today’s versions are more creative than when they were first introduced some forty years ago.
All lava lamps have one thing in common, none of them are adequate as a source of light. They're called a lamp, but they're not a lamp.
The age of their introduction was an age of darkness and half-light. People in that day didn’t want a lot of light. You might say they wanted just enough of the real thing so they could call the facsimile by name of the real thing.
Unfortunately, many Christians aren’t much better than lava lamps; they don’t really want the whole Light of God, just enough so they can go by the name of the Genuine Light yet remain in the shadows.
TURNING TOWARD THE LIGHT! [Ephesians 5:7-10; other topics - Holiness, Righteousness] (Added 3 June 2006)Our adopted daughter, Naomi, was admiring one of her mom’s houseplants. Her older sister, Jennifer, asked her if she noticed how the plant leaned toward the light coming through the front window. She said, “Yeah!” He sister then told her, “If you turn the plant around halfway, the plant will lean back toward the light inside of a week.” Naomi said, “Wow!”Likewise genuine Christians; separate them from the Light, or turn them away from the Light, and inside a short period of time they will have leaned back toward Him.
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