“I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
Shoot the artillery
I may never fly over the enemy
But I’m in the Lord’s army-yes sir!”

The above are verses from a song titled I’m in the Lord’s Army. I remember singing this song in Sunday school while growing up. It seems like only yesterday I was galloping on that big imaginary horse and saluting the Sunday school teacher-uh, I mean God. Boy that song was fun to sing; and my-oh-my was it catchy too.

Now, a few decades later, I’m in the Lord’s Army has crept back into my head. It all started last weekend while attending the Mars Hill Men’s Advance-a follow-up to the Men’s Basic Training (otherwise known as mengineering) event back in March. As an avid mengineer, I figured some further discussion on the topic of living life as a Christ-filled man of God would do some good.

The Men’s Advance was titled Reborn on the Battlefield. Mars Hill pastors such as Mike Wilkerson and James Harleman reinforced that folks on earth seeking to love, follow, and glorify Jesus are in a constant battle with Satan (the Enemy), whose best weapon is to tempt Christians with Biblical and relational apathy, laziness, comfort, selfishness, and isolation while on earth.

Not long after my arrival, I began to realize how frequently I’ve fallen into the aforementioned traps of the enemy by wrongly believing that I may never have to fight, march, or ride in a spiritual or unspiritual war (shooting artillery has always sounded fun though). Moreover, when it comes to sharing the gospel and my personal sin, I have often valued my pride and comfort over humility and sacrifice-all the time resting in the fact that by default, “I’m in the Lord’s Army.” The only problem is that I’ve equated the “Lord’s Army” to an uber lazy version of the Peace Corps, while not taking the devil seriously.

These attitudes are sinful, selfish, and dangerous. They can lull a person to sleep and render them useless for the sake of Christ, hence giving Satan a foothold. Thankfully, the following three verses heavily convicted me and hopefully others at the event. These verses will hopefully help others avoid the snares that so easily entangle and inhibit Christians from fighting the battle to proclaim the Glory of God.

Ephesians 6:10-18 reminds those who follow Christ that our battle is against Satan and to defend themselves with spiritual armor “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might…for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day…..”

Matthew 5:13-16 urges those who love Jesus to not merely “polish” their spiritual armor, but to put it into action in the fight (against Satan) to advance the gospel of Jesus “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light on a hill…..let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

1 Corinthians 10:31 implies that Christians cannot take cat naps or leisurely bubble baths from proclaiming and demonstrating the glory of God-in thought or in deed. Instead, Christians should seek to glorify God in EVERYTHING they do (e.g. while watching movies, listening to music, watching the news) “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

And finally, that brings us back to the song, I’m in the Lord’s Army. For the sake of brevity, I won’t discuss the theological (or lack thereof) underpinnings of this song. However, my proclivity to sing this song as a child and an adult, without giving much thought to the meaning of the words or congruency with the Bible, is scary and reminds me not to be an empty vessel for Christ or an easy target for Satan. I hope this wakes up other Jesus lovers reading this blog as well.

Selected audio from the 2007 Men’s Advance should be released in the “media library” section on marshillchurch.org in the next few months, so stay tuned.