Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

February 18, 2011

This hymn has disappeared from many hymnals, and the idea behind it has fallen out of vogue amidst political correctness, and a cultural Christianity that demands fulfillment and blessings without a bloody cross.

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
- Revelation 1:8,9 TNIV

John writes to his family from the Roman prison island, Patmos, where he is sent due to his commitment to faith in Christ. He relates to his faith-family a call to courage, a call to arms, because they, too, have before them a noble struggle. In truth they are soldiers of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Soldiers need to be prepared for...
--companionship to survive, but also...
--suffering, its’s part of a kingdom commitment, and
--to slug it out--patient endurance.

This is a message that transcends well-intentioned political correctness, and it invites us to have a soldier's duty and commitment. The Revelation of John is about people bound together in the family of faith as soldiers of the cross, maybe even singing, "Onward, Christian, soldiers."

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson