THERE ARE NO EX-SOLDIERS OF CHRIST ON THIS EARTH

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Hebrews 12:1-4 (AMPC) 

1 THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,

 

2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. [Ps. 110:1.]

 

3 Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.

 

4 You have not yet struggled and fought agonizingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood.

 

 

Dear people of God, it is strange to hear that someone has retired from active service as a minister of the Gospel. When it comes to doing the work God has appointed a preacher to do, there is no retirement until the person leaves this world.

 

This is because the work of the Gospel is about preaching to lost souls the Good News or Gospel Message of Repentance and Salvation found only in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

How can one retire from such work when even in today’s world, we still have more lost souls in dire need of repentance and salvation?

 

The level of moral and spiritual decadence has reached an alarming level that requires great Divine Intervention from God Almighty and Father of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ and our urgent cooperation with God in the work of saving lost souls.

 

There are times you even hear some elderly people boast about how much they served the Lord in various capacities in their younger days. Unfortunately, the person(s) making such claim may currently be living in sin and may have backslidden.

 

What such individuals fail to realise is that what God considers at any point in time is not your past relationship with Him and your spiritual status but the current one.

 

This is because if your current spiritual status is not according to God’s commandments, then your name has been taken out of the Book of Life and unless you repent sincerely, and return to God in righteous obedience to His commandments, then you are in danger of an eternal damnation in HELL.

 

There is therefore no use in boasting about your past spiritual exploits for the Lord if you are not living right before God presently.

 

As for the individual who says he has retired as a minister of the Gospel, he should realize that none of the Lord Jesus’ Apostles retired from serving the Lord in taking the Gospel to all nations as the Lord Jesus commanded.

 

In fact, except for Judas who committed suicide and John the Evangelist who died a natural death while on exile on the island of Patmos, all the other apostles died as martyrs in active service for the Lord whose command to preach the Gospel is an everlasting one in the New Covenant or New Testament.

 

So if you retire and still remain alive on this earth till you depart, what would you tell God you were doing during the period between your retirement and departure from this world?

 

Unlike how human beings believe and think, God is no respecter of any person. No matter how long your service to God has been, it is your spiritual status with God at the end of your life on earth or at Rapture when the Lord Jesus Christ returns shortly that would determine where you would spend eternity.

 

Dear friend, we should reverently fear God and obey His commandments all the days of our life. We should ensure to always share the Gospel at every opportunity we have with those around us, beginning with members of our nuclear and extended families.

 

Remember also that we would all give an account of our stewardship in God’s vineyard here on earth.

 

Let us never forget the Holy Spirit-inspired Word of Paul the apostle in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, “Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary.

 

27 But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].”

 

May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Righteous Name, Amen.


Gabriel Ama

 

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