The devil loves us when we do it. When we as Christians come up with ways to not work together like a body would need. When we stick to our denominational lines, when we stick to our political parties, our culture, our doctrine, our dogma and the devil laughs and says “It’s all too easy to get them to falter.” Not only are we faltering, no that was the 80’s, now we are floundering and some Churches are failing, closing, dying! This last week I served at a camp, I was to be the speaker. My message and my goal were to train these young people to go home and fight off the evil, but first I had to face the enemy at the gate. Before I could speak even one word there was a problem, I had gone to the wrong school. My school taught the Bible and taught and grew ministers but did not grow them the right way, I guess. My School is called “Liberal” not just called it but condemned to it as if there is no hope. “Can anything good come out of….” my school another staff member asked as I prepared to speak. My flesh and my old bad habits wanted me to attack back but my message meant too much to me. I live in a community where I have seen the evil destroy homes and families to the right and to the left. It comes as substances that start small then consume and devour or it comes as the trust of money until a Dad says in his mind that it is cheaper to die than to fall ill. Where the damage is so great that children are carried off screaming from their parents and parents mourn the loss of their kids and those living hungry and in the cold perceive they are happy because they have no restrictions until they are found alone with no name, no one to mourn for them. The full measure of the weight that sins can carry is seen in the tears of my adopted children at night. All of that weight was enough for me to bear until, until the evil came too close to home. The devil wanted me to cave, lower my guard, cater to this world but anger is what I felt. No I wasn’t caving; I was taking the battle to him. So when I was asked to speak to a group of kids for a week I knew exactly what I was going to talk about. There was no more hiding, no more retreating in fear of disapproval; I was sending home some spiritual warriors to regain some lost ground. I was raised in the Church; I know what it looks like. We see our tiny differences and we belittle the other group to make ourselves feel better about our own faults. We nail down the Bible and put God into a box that makes sense to us alone and if anyone else has a different point of view or stance they are looked down upon, dismissed and judged. If we are the body, made of separate parts and we begin to reject an organ how functional do we expect to be? If someone is rejecting an organ in their body they are not out fighting the good fight, providing for their family? No they are on their backs hooked up to life support. The devil smiles as he makes us turn on each other like a cancer ravaging the body to the point that when those on outside look upon us all they have is pity for a weak and frail Christ stuck in a dysfunctional body. I know that this time I was on the receiving end of the attack but for how long was I the attacker? Spreading my venom to any part of the body that would listen? That night though out of desperation I did not fall on my flesh I fell on my sword. I went to the book I loved; James. There is something about him being brothers with Christ, that family connection that makes his slaps bearable. The book of the Bible we are too fearful to preach because we may lose members may be the one we all need to hear, the slap back to consciousness. In His Word it said What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? And with that last sentence I saw James point to his older brother the caregiver of his mother the apple of his father’s eye being carefully removed from the cross. His mangled body limp and lifeless brought down to be buried. James had no time or patience for my squabbles or doctrinal issues it was just too personal for him. The evil that we know all too well had to be finally struck down and with dried tears stuck to James’ cheeks he asks us to get up pick up our “sword” and fight. So I got up, I had never spoken to a large group of kids this age but I had a fire inside of me that could only be quenched by me sharing that I needed them to fight with me. I taught on David all week and that night befitting my welcome I spoke on how David was deemed not fit to serve, not fit to have good come from him. He did not have the manmade markings of what is good, but God saw fire within him, a fire to fight for His Kingdom. I shared that over time we will fail and that evil will tell us to give in, cave, that there is no hope for us. David shows that we have to get back up dust ourselves off and fight harder, that we need believing friends like Jonathon to strengthen us as we battle for the Kingdom. David also teaches us that the price for sin is the loss of a son and an evil entering our house and destroying what we hold dear. By the time I was done that night I was no longer dismissible, I was family because I was just like them hurt by sin and tired of it. Tired of it in our communities, in our schools, and we all wanted it gone. You see if our Bibles are our swords then they are meant for hand to hand combat with the enemy. Instead we have them mounted on the walls in our homes and are told what they say. Our doctrine is a security system so we can hide in our buildings with a false sense of security while the enemy destroys on either side of it waiting for an opportunity in. When will evil come in? When we sit and wait for it, boarding up the windows when it’s coming in the back door! Fighting with each other instead of keeping watch! When the enemy outnumbers us and we are surrounded. Unless By the end of the week we were a family united and adopted under the name we serve. We had been trained with our sword and practiced in the safety of family. At the end of the week we had 35 kids there, 9 of them decided to accept the Lord as their Savior and take the battle home. This was great news but even more was that we discovered that they were the only ones who had not made that commitment. All that came to that camp seeking found the Lord and all those who came to become stronger reaped a harvest. Their strengthening that week was what spoke to those who were seeking to see what it meant to be a Christian. Think of it 1 out of 4 found the Lord after a week of human disjointed planning but Lord driven outreach. If you live on planet earth and are a believer, a believer to the point you fear the cost of sin, how do you like those odds? We all have at least one person we love that we wish to reunite to the Lord. Here is how it works though; you are one of the 3 who helps the 4, no one else is. If your loved one is the 4 then you have got to be one of the 3. So when you have the evil one saying sleep in, the Lord will understand how tired you are. If it helps think about or read James, he doesn’t understand your American full two days off and how worshipping God can’t be one of the two. Get up and go so that if there is someone there that is a 4 then they will see your strength and say I want to be strong like you. When you see someone organizing a men’s/women’s retreat, school/homeless outreach, service day, children’s ministry and needs a Jonathon you say I am willing to be one of the 3 because though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. And where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." I will be one of the 3 so that the 4 can be saved. If that isn’t appealing to you than maybe this will help you. How close do you want evil to come before you do something about it? I’ll ask again. How close do you want evil to come before you do something about it? Maybe a neighbor devoured, an old friend, maybe one of your kid’s friends. Does it have to be one of your closest kin before you care enough to fight? Does it have to be one of your own kids or your marriage? Your sword is full of warnings of those who let it go too far, who let evil get too close, who had to clean up too late. Leave your hiding places; turn off your doctrinal security systems. They weren’t protecting you in the first place. Stop waiting for an earthly leader to save you from the safety of a voting booth. Accept that you need that person down the street with the sword in their hand, stand back to back and fight off the evil increase in strength and in numbers. After the young counselors celebrated their first of many baptisms and we welcomed the newest members to our family of God I shared another part of David. After David had defeated the giant of fear he took his trophy and ran to the capitol to rally the troops. The enemy thought they had the people of God, and the people of God thought that they had been had. David showed them that no we can defeat them; if I can then you can so join me. I do not share my victories to boast, I know that without God that week I would have been a sad speaker. Nothing was going right according what “should” have been going on but God had the ability to keep on telling me I’m here beside you stay brave and keep going. No I share this to rally the troops. The evil may have you feeling beat but that’s not the way it’s going to turn out, all you have to do is decide is how many casualties you want to see?
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 03:18:16 +0000
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