It is Veterans Day which always causes me to wax nostalgic.

I was raised to be patriotic. I watched John Wayne movies with my dad. I read history books for fun. I love reading about weapons. I always look for military museums to visit when I travel. I blog on intercession. I teach on intercession. I preach on intercession. I have never figured out if I was called to be an intercessor because of my love for the military or if I loved the military because I was called to be an intercessor. You know like the chicken and the egg…..

I guess it really doesn’t matter but it does make me wonder. I mean, really, I LOOK normal.

As I have considered (and prayed over) every person I know that has served (including the families who serve in a different way but no less relevant) I have thought so much about intercession.

In the Military people know who the enemy is…..

In the church sometimes we fight the enemy, but that may also include the church, the unsaved—anyone who disagrees with us.

In the Military people who are wounded know the medics are coming……..

In the church people who are wounded withdraw so they are not wounded again by the ones who love them.

In the Military people who hear the call to war grab their prepared gear and take off…….

In the church people who hear the call to war try to figure out what their gear is, try to ignore it, justify it, explain it, or hide from it.

In the Military people are disciplined, they show up for work no matter what………

In the church most people are not—when was the last time you heard your pastor say, “We are cancelling the Bible Study because there are so many people coming we cannot handle it?”

I am not being critical—I am observing. These are things I see. People seem tired just “living” so being a Christian is just too much sometimes. I hear a lot of people talk about how hard it is to be a Christian—I completely disagree. It is hard to look for your next fix, your next drink, the money for your next cigarette. I could go on—but you get the point.

Galatians 6:9 KJV
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

He told us not to be weary in well doing for a reason—because he was letting us know we would become weary. We need to be on guard. He was also promising a reward if we do pay attention and do not let it happen.

The Military says……..

“I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.” George S. Patton

The word says……

 “ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10 

We are so similar—the military and the church. My heart’s cry for the military on Veteran’s Day was not all that different from my heart’s cry for the church each day.

We enlisted. We need to get our gear prepared. We need to get disciplined--in the word, in prayer, in our relationship with him. There is no AWOL in the Army of God.

The Ranger Creed 5th Stanza:

Energetically will I meet the enmies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field od battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever emabrrrass my country. 

Do you feel that way about Christ? Is that how you feel about the church?

My heart is breaking for the church.

  

 What breaks your heart?