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Topic: ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS (don't write about the song) (05/14/15)
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TITLE: Onward Christian Soldiers (ii) | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kathy Keeler
05/19/15 -
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Willie was a faithful man. Faithful to his fashion choice of overalls. Faithful to show up at church no matter the service or function or time of day. Faith to attend revivals and camp meetings. Faithful to his Jesus.
As a boy, his mischievous older brothers held him under water threatening to drown him. That left a scar. As an adult, he was in tears when it came time for the water immersion baptism. But the Christian soldier in him pressed onward passed the fear. If his Jesus said this needed to be done, Willie would go through with it even if it meant drowning. Willie's obedience to his Jesus had now brought him into his Savior's loving arms.
This simple man embodied the faith of a child and was everybody's favorite uncle. He had become a part of so many family homes. There would be no formal receiving line later in the day as we the church family and the community of Bethlehem collectively were the household of mourners. We would celebrate Willie's Homecoming spiritually. But we would weep over the physical reality; his pew seat would be cavernously empty.
But for now, we are to set aside our pain in order to absorb the Sunday School teaching of the morning. Yet who is really listening. "Help me, Lord, leave my carcass of grief on the battlefield so I can concentrate. Help the others around me to do the same."
The irony is that the teaching is on 1 Corinthians 12 and of the members of the body. As I fade in and out, I hear verse 26: "...and if one member suffers, we all suffer." (teacher's paraphrase)
I wonder. Would Jesus have set aside the religion of the Sabbath morning to help heal His church? Did we miss something important because we need to press on like good soldiers according to schedule? Just keep marching, just keep tromping. How often do we just press on, leaving the grieving carcasses of our church family members along side the road? Then as we march out of sight, we wonder why they disappear from our church pews.
If we treat ourselves like this, how can we reach out to a hurting world? How can we empathize with their pain when we are forced to deny our own collective pain to be good little soldiers?
Christian Soldier Willie pressed onward and reached his goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He did so in such a way that he left behind no enemies, no bitterness, no regret. He left behind Jesus' love and it touched us all. Willie taught us that good Christian soldiers press onward with heart. A faithful heart.
non-fiction
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You had several incomplete sentences that distracted me slightly. I realize some were for effect, but you may want to have someone proof for you to help catch that and other little things like past instead of passed.
I also liked how you showed the ways we react to grief and posed some questions that made me stop and think, which is always a good thing. The ending was sweet and left me smiling.