Happy in the Service of the King

When you have the Savior, you are saved, forgiven, redeemed, justified, propitiated, blood washed, born again, secure, regenerated, and Heavenbound. Even the casual contemplation of such wonderful considerations fills the soul with joy and sparks a flood tide of rejoicing. No vocabulary is sufficient to express fully the absolute thrill of such a great salvation.

Now add to that the daily walk with the Lord, living victoriously for Him, serving with His people and witnessing for Him. The fact that we get to be His servants and His ambassadors here on this earth is absolutely amazing. Whether we preach, teach, sing, go soul winning, or work in some other way in church, we are on His team working for Him. We are the foot soldiers and He is the Commander in Chief.

*We are called fundamentalists because we believe the Bible and take it very seriously.

*We identify as Baptists because the Baptist doctrinal positions have historically and typically been solidly scriptural.

*We have chosen to be independent because we believe that each local church ought to be its own national headquarters.

Some of us have paid and are paying a price for the privilege of being who we are and doing what we do. The fact seems to be that not everybody is thrilled that we are thrilled. Some people want us to cave in and go down the trail of compromise with them. When we don’t go with them, they react with generous helpings of ungracious epithets in an attempt to diminish us and disenfranchise us. Of course, we wish such reactions did not come; nonetheless, we press steadily forward.

Even when others take the low road, we believe the high road is the best road. We may be maligned, misrepresented and misunderstood; but we will still do our best to raise the flag of our faith to the top of the pole first thing every morning. On the pages of this newspaper and in pulpits across the land, we are heralding the issues of fundamentalism, separation and soul winning. We are crying aloud for revival, salvation and righteousness. We are taking a stand against the washed-out, watered-down religious elements of today. With convictions and with joy the Sword of the Lord goes out unapologetically “holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:16) and ‘earnestly contending for the Faith’ (Jude 3).

We are happy that we can stand up and be counted, because, yes, we are happy in the service of the King! We obviously want the friendship and the fellowship of like-minded fellow Christians. How ever, we must not be deterred if some of them turn away and turn on us.

I told somebody earlier today that I’m just happy to be on the boat and in the battle!

Happy, happy indeed!

I’m happy that somebody told me about Jesus and

I’m happy that I can tell others about Him.

I’m happy in the Lord and I’m happy in His service.

The scriptural standard requires that we “declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). With the Lord in our hearts and the Bible in our hands, we are very happy to do our very best to do exactly that.

Within a personal conversation, standing in a pulpit or writing in this newspaper, I’m very happy to follow that biblical mandate.

Let me say it again: I’m happy, very happy, in the service of the King!

Amen! Amen! Amen!