We are an army that is non-sacramental – I believe this, but we must actually embrace and preach/teach the necessity for real, authentic sacrificial living its soldiership. Without this crucial component of sacrificial living, we will have not only rejected ritual observations of the Church by way of communion and other such practices, we will have neglected the true essence of Christ himself (who was without sin, yet suffered and died for us). If we are to be Holy as He is Holy, we must become like Him in every way – which includes sacrificial living. The season of Lent is upon us, and although we do not practice much of the traditional Church practices within Lent, we would be remiss if we did not explore this extremely important topic of Sacrificial Living.
But First let us clarify what Sacrificial Living is not:
It is NOT:
-A great display and sanctimonious actions for others to see you and know your piousness and holiness.
-A ploy for promotion or power play for position or status.
-A means to compete with other soldiers and prove who is “holiest”
-A means to fool the world – but you can’t fool God.
If any of the above mentioned motives for Sacrificial living exist within us, we must eliminate them from our hearts and reconsecrate ourselves before God!
5 Truths About Sacrificial Living:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
- Sacrificial Living Requires Consistency
“But Samuel replied: ‘Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” 1 Samuel 15:22
We cannot simply declare that everything we do in the corps will be the place of my sacrificial living – NO! It is all or nothing. God doesn’t want our sacrifices in one area while other areas of our lives are still not surrendered. That’s like saying to your spouse, “I will be faithful to you in this city, but I can’t promise anything when I leave this city.” How can we love the Lord with all of our hearts when we compartmentalize our relationship to Him? If we are to be soldiers of the faith who are daily living sacrificial lives, we have to subject ALL of our lives under the sovereign, perfect rule of Christ. Consistency is not easy, and there will be constant struggles to bring these areas of our lives under control. But rest assured we have One who is with us – The Holy Spirit! - Sacrificial Living Takes Work
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” –Romans 12:1.If we are to be consistent in our declaration of sacrificial living – we have to mean
what we declare – and this takes work! We have to roll up our sleeves, so to speak, and intentionally, moment by moment surrender our wants and desires to God. We have to declare Thy Will be done, instead of my will. The work done on our knees in prayer before the Almighty will set the momentum going forward. If we neglect this spiritual discipline of prayer, we will jeopardize our entire sacrificial existence. This is a merging of our identities with that of Christ’s. When we do this, we are essentially saying “I want to be Imago Dei” I am not just imitating Him, I want to be Him in every way. There will be moments of stumbling. We will experience great stress in temptation, because surely the Father of Lies will begin to see how dangerous His people will become to his devious plans on earth. We will experience adversity, days of defeat, weakness – but these are only symptoms of us dying to our old-self. - Sacrificial Living Is An Outpouring of Holiness
“And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.” -Acts 2:44-45When we declare our desire to be
likeChrist in every way, our crosses will be carried, and our path will be set. It sounds paradoxical, but while we experience great sacrifice and discomfort, we will at the same time experience great peace too. Sacrificial living is not the end result, no this is the outpouring of our longing for holiness in all that we are as Children of God. This is more than just words uttered. This is something on a molecular level – changing us from the inside out. I believe something metaphysical happens when we make it our goal to be Christ in our
hearts, minds and soul. You know that when you have been married for a long time – you and your partner take on the mannerisms of each other…sometimes you even begin to resemble one another. Holiness lived-out with the greatest of intentions and devotion will produce men and women of God who deeply resemble Christ in every way. -This is what Sacrificial Living looks like and is the evidence of a commitment to Holiness on the deepest of levels. Dare I say, but we as an Army have yet to even scratch the surface of real, tangible Holiness amongst its ranks. We talk a good game, but I fear we are no where near it yet. - Sacrificial Living Has No Room For Ego
“And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.” -Acts 4:32There’s an old phrase that perhaps you know, it goes like this: “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”…even in the Army there is a hunger for power, whether it be in our corps and local officer positions or the Corps Officer, Divisional Officer, Territorial Officer…and so on. Power is a dangerous vice. Authority is necessary in any Church, Movement or Mission, but the hunger for power and man’s authority can corrupt all of the above. In fact, this is what Satan hopes will happen to any adversary of his: that they become bogged down by their own egos and blinded by their own ambitions and thirst for imagined power. You might say, “but we are The Salvation Army – we have no power.” – every organization, movement or Church has many places of authority and assumed places of power. What we do with those roles, how we conduct ourselves if we become stewards of such positions determines not only the course of our Army, but the depth of our sacrificial living. There is no room for ego in sacrificial living! “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” -Psalm 51:17.
- Sacrificial Living Must Be Evidenced In Our Soldiers & Officers!
“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ…” -Philippians 3:8
If we are truly a Holiness movement – then we must act like it! We must eliminate every element of back-biting, gossip, slander, ego, power-plays, Church politics that elevates one over another, personal vendettas and all other kinds of selfishness! Somewhere along the way we left the call for holiness in a pulpit sermon and lost our way. We will not move or correct any kind of mission drift that is egocentric if we are not really actively engaged in sacrificial living. Let’s stop talking a big game, and putting on a big show as we tout our Holiness Movement member’s cards (I’m being facetious)…let’s drop the pretenses. If we want to see an Army on the move and if we long to save souls, then we first have to start with our own. I am not questioning our salvation, I am questioning our depth of Holiness and Sacrificial Living. Let’s practice what we preach…and perhaps for some of us, we need to fall in love with God all over again in reconsecration. I love this army, but without soldiers, officers and adherents who are living sacrificially, and committed to the great commission of saving souls and making disciples, we could face extinction a generation from now.Something more for our Army world to Ponder today.
*Disclaimer: the thoughts and opinions expressed here are the writer’s thoughts and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of The Salvation Army. Reader discretion is advised.*
Did you catch that?
I cannot stress how important it is for leaders of all positions to listen to those who are actively engaged on the ground in the fight!
We cannot afford to have polarizing visions when we should all be seeking to remain mission minded and focused. There’s no time for that! Leaders who listen and then lead have a better chance at successfully navigating and accomplishing their objectives in mission! If leaders only dictate from their offices that are tucked away from mission we will fail because administration can only meet mission when it has its ear to the ground and a heart to serve in the capacity of servant-leader. Enough with the old guard of “my way or the highway” brass! Yes be strict on mission-mindedness but compassionate on leading and shepherding! Be a shepherd first and listen!
I think sometimes what keeps us in our bubbles is the fear of what leadership might do if we try new things that don’t necessarily “look Army”. Is there fear of reprisal and punishment for not maintaining the status quo? Perhaps it’s time to pop the bubble!
troubling is that holiness is not being lived out or made into something real and tangible for the world to see. The notion of being set-apart is both vital and necessary for the purpose of entire sanctification. Being set-apart means that we wash the feet of those who have only experienced religion with strings attached. For we are not a religion, we are a movement that preaches about this holy relationship we can have with the Almighty! We are a movement (or at least we used to be) that lived out holiness and preached it from our pulpits. If this is missing in our corps and in our witness then perhaps we have lost a step and are no longer a moving, passionate movement…but instead could it be that we are static and floundering about trying to define our identity apart from Holiness?
General Frederick Coutts once said: “To pray together is to be shielded from evil, not only from the perils which beset the body, but also the dangers that assail the soul”
I believe that if that we are to experience a revival again as a movement, it will only come when we begin to take our prayer lives more seriously. This spiritual discipline is vital to both the corporate worship setting as well as the personal one done in those private moments. Let me ask you this, how often to you pray for your fellow soldiers and officers? How often do we lift up our concerns before the Almighty and continue to wait on Him? In our fast paced lifestyles we have grown impatient and we lack attention to prayer. We need more prayer warriors in our Army and less prayer worriers. We need authentic, vulnerable moments in our pews as much as we need real, genuine times of solitude in our homes devoted to prayer.
Somewhere along the line did we get ahead of Christ?
is our mission still for souls?
Dear soldier, I will also caution you that if you come to this army seeking notoriety, position, power and to establish and build your empire, these efforts will severely damage our mission as a movement. This is not a platform for showboating or ego stroking. This army should never be about climbing the ladder of corporate success or vying for places of authority…and yet I fear it has happened and currently does happen. Some will contend that these are isolated incidents, but it boils down to matters of the heart and depth of our surrender to Christ himself. John the baptist even declared about Jesus – “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30) And when the disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest disciple – Jesus pointed to the little children and told them “…For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.” (Luke 9:48)
Dear Soldier, if you are currently building an empire – perhaps it’s time to seek repentance and reconciliation or depart this movement altogether. This may be strong words to read, but you are not helping to spur on this movement, you are attempting to subvert it with selfish ambitions and sinful pride. Either humble yourselves or you will be humbled by God. I say these words first to myself and then to anyone else this may apply to. Without the constant and compassionate correction of the Holy Spirit how can we ever expect to grow and mature into this faith? And what is this faith, but a transformation of our selfishness into selflessness and the image of Christ in and through everything that we are and do.
Lastly, let me encourage you.
Read the writings of Samuel Logan Brengle and General Frederick Coutts. Read Bonehoeffer, C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Thomas Cahill amongst others. Do not limit your literary choices to just the Salvation Army world, expand your reading. In so doing, you will find hope, joy and passion of serving the Lord! A little warning too: you will also see where we as an Army can do better and greater things, so reader beware!
I think there is more than two certainties of Death and Taxes, there is also Monkey work. I do not say this to be critical or disparaging, I say this because it is true. We can become so bogged down by monkey work that we never really leave our offices and we stop seeing the mission of why we do what we do. Stop the monkey work for a day…get out of your office or your cubical and serve others. Do so in small and large ways. Take the time to use your hands for others instead of pushing paper…that will still be there when you get back. When we serve, there is something cathartic about it. There is something heartwarming. We have made contact with someone other than on an email or social media thread – we have touched the heart of someone in need. We looked them in the eyes, and was able to help in some small way. This can be done by even talking to people. Many just need someone to talk to, someone to be there and just listen. If you want to ignite or re-ignite the passion, stop the monotony of monkey work and help serve!
I have said this before and I will repeat it again, because I feel convicted about this. Perhaps you will disagree with me, that is your prerogative (thanks for your opinion, now here’s mine). Sunday mornings, if you are the officer or local officers and you have an active role in leading ministry – you need more than just that service to be your Sabbath! Yes, worship is impactful. Yes, connection and fellowship is vital. But Sabbath is more than just a worship service. Sabbath is resting in the presence of God. I would venture a guess that many do not spend enough time in solitude with God. Jesus took time away from His disciples. He went apart from them and communed with the Father. We too must find this type of Sabbath – even if it is for an hour or half an hour. Take your Sabbath, rest, recharge and re-ignite your passion! If you don’t it’s like never charging your cellular phone, it will be dead soon enough and useless. Stay connected to the Father. Pray often, let those prayers become constant conversations and make a concerted effort to take your Sabbath.
Rest assured, we need you! We need your fellowship. Make it a vital intention and priority to spend time with friends and fellow soldiers. Do not take these moments for granted. Together in fellowship we can face many things head-on. We are stronger together and weaker apart. Find friends and peers that you can trust to hold you accountable too. This ought not become laborious or a class, if it becomes that then it can lose its special-ness, and feel more forced. But find the friendships that make you laugh, challenge you, and makes you want to keep going in this Army! Sometimes these friendships might not even have an Army connection, and this might provide a fresh set of eyes and broader perspective on things. Friendship cannot be over emphasized here, especially when you are on the front lines in this army! We need each other to reignite our passions and purpose! Hold fast and make this a priority!
As an officer I know how often I have climbed into bed bone tired and sore with many things yet to accomplish and left for the following day. It is exhausting work and I pray we never miss the point of it all. I pray that we never forget the real reason that we celebrate Christmas – because all of this busyness can certainly consume the Christ-mas if we allow it to. Have we begun to dread this holiday, this advent season? Have we become workaholics and have we placed this about our worship of the Almighty? Most likely not, but there is certainly the danger here. We want to succeed in our goals, we want to work hard and accomplish much…but is God present in all of these goals and in our striving for success?
A song recently pulled me up short, and caught my attention.
Pastor's Ponderings 