What if the armies of the Lord
Picked up and dusted off their swords
Vowed to set the captive free
And not let Satan have one more
What if the Church, for Heaven's sake
Finally stepped up to the plate
Took a stand upon God's promise
And stormed Hell's rusty gates
-Casting Crowns, What If His People Prayed?
The Fellowship of the Believers
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
-Acts 2: 42-47
Is the reason we're not seeing God working in miraculous ways because we're living in our own little world and (even worse) we're perfectly content with our small dreams that do not ever escape our own control? This section of Scripture continues to kick me squarely in the teeth. I can't even fathom what it would look like to see the Lord adding daily to those who were being saved. My vision of God and His people is too small, to a frightening degree.
I have this crazy vision in my head right now of walking down the street in some of the poorest areas of (insert big city here, most likely Houston) and going door-to-door asking the residents of these areas what it is that they need most. I feel like one of the biggest problems with helping people is that we don't ever know what they truly need. Is it something basic like food and shelter? Is it something more complex like job training or educational opportunity? More likely, it is a little bit of both. Yes, the idea of walking, in near complete defenselessness, down a rough and tumble neighborhood strikes my white, suburban, upper middle class sensibilities as a bit odd. And dangerous. But is that what it takes to find the needs of my city and meet them exactly where they are? If it is, then let me be dangerous, in the words of the late, great Jim Elliot:
“We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are “harmless,” and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are “sideliners” — coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!”
-Jim Elliot
What an epic 2 days it has been in my thought life. So encouraging. Looking forward to the week in Houston and my next weekend in Denver. It's time to move. It's not time to just sit there.
Who's with me?
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