Chris' Christian Blog

November 12, 2019

"November 12, 2019" 

Prompt: Veterans Day

I am a veteran who lives at the West Virginia Veterans Home, which is an assisted living facility/domiciliary for veterans. I love the guys I live with and would argue or fight for any of them. They are some of the best people I have ever had the pleasure and privilege of meeting. They show their metal all the time. I served briefly in the US Army and was injured in basic training so I did not get to serve long. Most people tell me that serving at all was a big step, even if I was injured and discharged. I just know that I appreciate the veterans who sacrificed and really did serve.

Today I serve in a different army. I am a soldier in the Salvation Army, an international evangelical organization. The idea for the Salvation Army is based on the fact that the Apostle Paul says that Christians are an army. The founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, was a Methodist minister in London England who began converting alcoholics on London's skid row. When he took the converts to his church, his church rejected them. General Booth then rented a hall and continued to preach to the alcoholics and continued to make converts. In time he asked his son what they were going to call their army of Salvationists. His son said "The Salvation Army" and the movement was born. To be a soldier in the Salvation Army one signs a covenant that you will behave a do certain things and abstain from others. For example you will value the sanctity of marriage and abstain from alcohol and intoxicating substances. I have been a soldier for nearly two years and it has changed my life.

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