Drill Sergeant Preachers

You never got religion when you got saved; or did you? None of us were “made” Christians when we came to Jesus any more than I was made a soldier when I was sworn in at the U.S. Army processing center. It would take some orientation, some basic training, and further specialized training before my superiors would say that I was a soldier.

The old saying, “He or she got religion” was used to describe someone that had accepted Christ as their Savior. Religion was an honorable thing at one time but it came to be more important to people than salvation did, not intentionally I do not believe, but subconsciously. A person who was saved had to become perfect in the eyes of the unsaved or they were labeled a hypocrite. This type of social stigma motivated the believer to conform to society’s idea of a Christian and thereby caused the person to become religious in their talk, their behavior, their dress, and their social associations. As hard as they tried they found that it was impossible to be happy in their faith as they tried religiously to live a life of perfection. There was no basic training or a learning curve for them, they had to “hit the ground running” and be a good soldier for Jesus Christ or be considered a liar and a failure.

This explains why so many people today are not as enthused to accept Christ. To many Christians today are still living in the religiosity of the past. Today, people who have no discipline yet boast as being Christians are on one end of the spectrum and those who are fanatically religious are at the other end! One guy summed up his opinion with a bumper sticker I saw on the interstate the other day. It read: “God, save me from your followers!”

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT).

If we were made Christians upon coming to Christ, why would He Himself say, “Let Me teach you?” He never intended for us to “hit the ground running” on our own.

Maybe we need some good drill sergeant preachers in the church who will do like the one I had in Basic Training who pushed the brim of his Smokey Bear hat hard into the bridge of my nose and shouted in my face: “YOU WILL LEARN TO BE A SOLIDER (Christian) OR YOU WILL DIE TRYING, HAVE YOU GOT THAT?” Well, maybe not, but we do need to let new converts know they have a lot to learn about being a Christian and we know it will take some training.