"I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb"

Friday night, I heard a song on TV called "I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb" by Ray Boltz. I found the song very touching and meaningful as it spoke of honoring the Lord's commands and why we should. It certainly was very refreshing to hear such thoughts expressed in today's "contemporary religious music." As soon as we can get permission, I would like to publish the lyrics in this bulletin.

One of the particularly touching parts of the song is about a time when Christians stood before tyrants, who gave them the choice to spare their lives by renouncing Jesus, and one by one the Christians chose to die. The images conjured up should overwhelm our minds.

From the earliest days of Christianity, the saints have had to suffer so much persecution. From the time that Stephen became the first to die for his faith (Acts 7) to Antipas the faithful martyr (Revelation 2:13,) Christians have suffered horribly.

In A.D. 64, Nero fixed blame on Christians for the burning of Rome. Many Christians were impaled on stakes and set on fire to light Nero's gardens. Later under the Emperor Domition, Christians were often beheaded or crucified. As time went by, Christians could expect mobs to gather around and throw rocks at them. Sometimes whole church buildings would be surrounded by soldiers and set on fire while Christians were assembled to worship. Even today, there are many saints that live in fear of governments wanting to do them harm. Yet, one by one, they choose to die for their faith.

Most Christians in our neck of the woods don't think about having to make REAL life choices to serve the Lord. The most we can expect is an occasional name calling outbust of some sort and even then, we think we have it tough. For most of us, the urgency of being a Christian is not felt. The demand for relief is not there. The blood of thousands of martyrs cries out from the ground but it is not heard today.

We have three services per week but not everyone attends all of them. At least it seems to me that if I knew the church was meeting at certain times that I would plan my other activities around those times. When did hobbies and personal desires become more important than assembling with the saints? Too tired to make it on Wednesday night? Ask that guy twitching on a stake and burning to death if he is too tired. Got other places to be? Ask those saints that chose to die if they wanted to be somewhere else. The question is-have we really pledged our allegiance to the Lamb? Jesus is our first martyr and shows us the straight way - not an easy street.