Dear
Salvation Army: 4 Sins No One Is Talking About
by Captain Scott
Strissel
We must be very diligent in our
understanding of sin. Sin is not to be trifled with.
At the same time
judgment is certainly not ours either. Although we are not
ultimate judges over sin, we are called to live a life worthy
of our calling. (Eph. 4:1)
I do not wish to sound ‘holier than thou’ in
this article.
Please don’t take it that way.
These are struggles that I face and I know others do
too.
In the army we wage a daily battle on the
front lines and we seek to help pull people up out of the
raging waters of sin and death. As soldiers for God we must be
alert and careful that while we pull souls from these depths
that we do not get pulled back into those dangerous riptides
ourselves. Sin and the temptation of sin still makes us
vulnerable to falling away from the fellowship of God! This
should make us more aware of the trappings of sin in our lives
both as an individual soldier as well as a collective army.
That being said, I would like to explore 4
sins no one seems to be talking about much these days. I am
sure someone out there will be eager to point out that
they have been
talking about these, but by and large these specific sins seem
to go unspoken, unnoticed, or perhaps ignored…we can’t ignore
these anymore.
Please also note that I am not pointing fingers here either,
for to do so would also indite me and I would merely seek to
cast light on these four topics as we prayerful and even
personally address them in our own lives.
4
Sins No One Is Talking About:
1.
Complacency -
“We shall have no
better conditions in the future if we are satisfied with all
those which we have at present.” – Thomas Edison
Perhaps we’ve never looked at it this way
before, but complacency can be a sin if it impedes us in the
present and the future!
Is the mission of our army, not just internationally
but most importantly locally, frustrated by complacency as we
hang our laurels on what we have already accomplished?
Complacency has a way of producing tunnel vision that
blinds us from present needs of souls at our doors and in our
communities.
Forgive me for sounding calloused but we cannot expect the
lost, poor, hurting and spiritually in need to simply come to
our doors. No!
We must go to them.
We must go to them with love, compassion, care and
support. We must
go to them and employ present evangelical, relevant/relational
tools.
Complacency can render us impotent in
mission.
Complacency can, if we are not careful, lead to apathy in
relation to others.
Complacency is a sin when it prevents us from
fulfilling our calling to the Lord because we cannot train our
eyes on the present when they are fixed on the past.
2.
Exclusivity -
This is a very real sin that can enter our corps and
offices in seemingly innocuous ways.
We find commonality with friends, family and others
that we share common interests, but what happens when someone
does not look like us?
What happens when someone has different viewpoints or
hobbies or even biblical understandings?
Do we ostracize them or do we include them regardless
of many differences?
Being “exclusive” is the opposite of
“inclusive”, it takes the form in our corps that separates
“Us” from “Them” just because people do not look like us, or
because they don’t talk like us, or even live like “we” think
they should.
As an Army, we began as “the Christian
Mission” in order to reach those who were not welcome in the
church of the day.
In part, we began because exclusivity was a real issue
in Victorian England…has exclusivity entered our Army today?
How do we combat this sin?
Yes, I believe it to be a sin because it can prevent
others from joining our fellowship of believers on the basis
of appearance, present lifestyle, or other things which are
not like “us”.
We must be ever aware of the temptation of
separation from “those” people.
Jesus died for the whosoever, not just the select few,
the “holy” few, those that look like “us”…be careful dear
soldier for this sin has a very slippery slope.
3.
Coveting
We understand what “coveting” is, but do we know that it
can exist in our Army?
Soldiers can covet what other corps have that they do
not. Officers can
covet appointments that seem better than where they are now.
We run the risk of spending so much time peering over
the fence at what others have that we lose our way and our
effectiveness in our present mission field.
Coveting can deprive us from appreciating
what we do have in our corps and in our ministries. We can
lose our gratefulness and appreciation to a Mighty God who
provides for the faithful.
Coveting is a sin in our hearts and in our ministries
if we allow it to take root and fester.
Be very aware so as to not fall into begrudging what we
do not have and what others might possess.
Faithfulness to God and to His ministry here and now
requires us to look away from what others have and are doing
and refocus on what He has appointed us to do right here and
right now!
4.
Gluttony
“Gluttony is an
emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.” - Peter
De Vries
I might be scratching a personal itch that
might hurt…sorry.
This is personal to me as well.
Why do so many Army events (at least in the Western
world) focus on food, even to the point of fixation?
Another component to this is that the life of a soldier
and officer can be stressful and can consume many hours of the
day. So following
a long day we rush out to the closest fast-food establishment
and pig out on the comfort foods that help us to drown our
sorrows. I am
sorry if that hit a little too close to home…it did for me.
Many lives have been shortened because of
this issue. Dare
I call it an often sub consciousness sin issue.
We eat our troubles away.
We eat the unhealthy foods because they are the
quickest and most affordable to us.
We consume foods to make us happy when things are
anything but happy.
I recognize that there are those who
struggle with depression, eating disorders and other
physical/psychological struggles that can lead to
over-consumption.
We must be gracious and careful not to judge those who endure
trials unknown to us.
Personally, I have struggled with this sin issue in my
life (yes I call it a sin issue).
I don’t have some of the above physical/psychological
issues but I have, at times, been a glutton.
Two reasons gluttony is a sin in our army
and should be address:
1) it can shorten the lifespan of soldiers
and officers who over-indulge, and cause multiple health
problems and issues which can be avoidable.
2) Our testimony and witness to others:
I am not saying that being overweight or indulging in
some comfort food now and then can hurt your testimony, but
long term evidence of gluttony can.
If we cannot abstain through controlled self-denial now
and then how can we preach and teach about self-control and
discipline to others?
Wrapping up these sins…
I understand some of these might be hot
button topics, or perhaps a scab was just picked…sorry.
Again, it is not my place or anyone else’s place to
judge. I simply
write this out of my own personal convictions and certain
struggles I have faced while a soldier and officer in this
army. Dare I even
add Gossip is another huge sin that we often talk about (pun
intended) but seldom truly confront and uproot the problem.
There are other such struggles that we face as a body
of believers and as individual soldiers.
We should be prudent, prayer and diligent in listening
to the Lord and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us one
person at a time.
“For everyone who has been born of God
overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome
the world—our faith.” 1 John 5:4
Something more for our army world to ponder
today, to God be the glory!
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