Joy in Action

Introduction

While we were on our Spring Campaign, we had the opportunity to spend time with the cadets of their territory. On Friday, we went to CFOT and participated in the equivalent of their salvationism. During the Principle or Director’s lesson, he said a few things about us as cadets. He said that cadets are the lifeblood and the heart of The Salvation Army. He said that in order to be the heart of The Salvation Army, we need to get back to the heart of being The Salvation Army: Holiness, salvation, serving—it sounds better because of the alliteration in Spanish—santo salvo siervo. Being with the people of Mexico provided an image of this as a mission, but also how to have joy while living out the mission. Our scripture today comes from Psalm 100 “A psalm. For giving grateful praise. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

In this scripture, we are told to worship the Lord with gladness and enter into his gates with thanksgiving. I will tell you now, that I saw this firsthand in the cadets and the officers and the people in Mexico.

Main Body

In this Psalm, we have a command to worship the Lord, we have a command to shout with joy to the Lord. This command, ‘worship’ means to work for the Lord, to serve for the Lord, to till the soil, toil over the land. All of us here have been called to serve in a specific manner of officership, and while we are here we get to live that out through classes and fellowship and community. For some of us, that means going to field training every wednesday or tuesday and do whatever the corps officer needs of us, for some of us, that means going to Norridge every wednesday and being involved in what we have been assigned to. Regardless of what we do, we are meant to do it as though we are doing it for the Lord. We see that in scripture in Colossians 3:23–24 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” When we are working or doing our homework here, we do so because we have a calling from God, in order to live out that calling to the fullest, we go through the process of training. Do you fulfill the work and classes here as if they are worship? I know that I have been at fault for complaining and grumbling often about being here. I have often had a struggle with complaining and worrying too much. This is something that I have been thinking about since being on spring campaigns and even before then.