Becoming a Christian is like joining the army.

Becoming a Christian is much like joining an army. It costs nothing to join but the
good soldier is willing to obey and even lay down his life for the general. You
declare your allegiance to Jesus Christ and your willingness to serve him. When
somebody does join the army, their life is no longer their own. Then you begin a
lifetime of spiritual training and combat. Your survival and growth depend on your
willingness to learn the basic disciplines of spiritual warfare. You must know the
superb "tactics and weaponry" God has put at your disposal. You must know your
enemy, choose your weapons, confront your doubts, face your temptations,
overcome your struggles against sin, and plan for victory. When somebody joins
the army, they surrender their rights to their leader. That's what God expects of
us.
1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life
for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Isaiah 25:1 O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for
thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Why do people join the military?

1. The military provides pay
2. Money for college
3. Benefits
4. Occupational training
5. A job
6. The military provides a method for citizens to live out dreams of heroism:

Many people realize that they object to bearing arms, or using them to kill people, only
after they've enlisted. Also, many young people join the military believing that they will
never see combat—after all, that's what their recruiter told them.

The more than 40,000 soldiers whose retirements have been indefinitely postponed
without their consent, under the Army's current stop-loss policy, are no longer volunteers.

Those who never join are:

1. An enemy of God -- our will is against His will (Rom. 5:10)

10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

2. Dead in sins (unable to anything that pleases God -- Eph. 2:1)

3. Held captive by a foreign power greater than ourselves (Eph. 2:2)

4. A child of wrath (someone destined for eternal judgment -- Eph. 2:3)

A Christian Soldier is...

The LIGHT in a dark world...
1. You must be told that to be a Christian at all you must be a Christian
Soldier. There is no Christian "civilians". To be a Christian at all you must
join God's army. To become a Christian you must completely commit
yourself to do battle. After all, there is a war going on! The welfare of your
soul, and the souls of others, for now and for all eternity is at stake!
2. You must be told that in order to become a Christian Soldier you must
give up yourself entirely. Whatever ambitions, causes, crusades, ideals,
convictions, opinions, desires, etc. that you have personally, for yourself
or others, must be sacrificed for God.

Why?
If you want to be His soldier do not harden your heart!

At first we lose the war because we are not able to fight against Satan! But we
can become Christian Soldiers!
God can train and enable us to Fight for ourselves, and for others!
And so our glorious Adventure begins! There is nothing so glorious because the
battle is real, good against evil, the good fighting against evil for the sake of love,
rescuing the needy!

A Christian is not by default someone who is not Jewish or atheist. Christian should be
taken in the sense of someone who professes to believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour
(Luke 2:11) and that the Bible is some kind of an authority (Acts 17:11).

1 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour,
and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

Philippians 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the
word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things
were so.