Psalm 115:11

"You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield" Psalm 115:11

Some time ago I read an article about some mission organization directing their workers to refrain from using certain terminology. They were asked to refer to a group of meetings as something other than a "campaign." unfortunately my memory fails me on other details of the article, but the effect was to remove all militaristic terms from the Christian vernacular in Midwestern and third world nations.

On the outside this looks to be a simple enough and maybe even reasonable request. Instead of an evangelistic campaign, it is possible to hold a "crusade." Oops! That one is not allowed either. Well let's see. We could call it a series of evangelistic meetings. On the other hand, "evangelistic" might be taken wrong by some. We certainly don't want to offend non-believers by letting them think that we want to change them. So "evangelistic" is out. "Crusade" is out. "Campaign" is out.

Come to think about it, this dictate rather "gutted out" the whole drift of the great commission. It even takes a lot of the Old Testament out of play too. Look at today's verse. God is our "shield." That is a military term. Today we might refer to Him as our "armored personnel carrier" or our "bullet proof vest." Of course this is all defensive - and that is not too offensive to those who wish to keep Christians on the defense! The problem is that a shield was used to get a man into position to go on the offense. It's purpose was to make him impregnable to the blows of an enemy while getting him close enough to strike a knockout punch himself.

So God is our shield? I like that. He is our protection, our help. He is also getting us into the battle! And that is offensive to many people who are antagonistic toward our Lord.

I say, if the shoe fits, wear it. Christians are supposed to be offensive. We are to "BOLDLY go into all the world." That's aggressive. We are to "PREACH the Gospel." That is striking the enemy with decisive blows with the "SWORD of the Spirit." Then we are to "make disciples." That means we take captives. We DEFEAT the enemy, take their people captive, and - horror of horrors - TRAIN them to be slaves of Jesus Christ!

So, I guess I am on a "CAMPAIGN" to get people to "CRUSADE" for righteousness in order that we might "WIN the war" that God has set us to "FIGHT." If that OFFENDS the rest of the world, so be it. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.