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Yesterday I wrote about learning lessons from locusts as they are described in Joel 2.7, 8:
- Like warriors they charge. Are we on offense, actively trying to make a difference?
- Like
soldiers they scale the wall. Are we undeterred by obstacles? - They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. Does each of us know our job and do it? Can each of us operate within our own calling?
- They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path. Are we content to let others pursue their calling?
- They burst through the weapons and are not halted. Do we expect to be effective?
Today, let’s look at the first one: “like warriors they charge,” which I applied as: are we on offense, trying to make a difference?
I believe that the picture painted in Matthew 16.18 is one of the most misunderstood in scripture
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this
Once when leading a Bible study, I asked the men, “What do you see when you read that verse?” One man said, “I see the church as a strong fortress being assaulted by hell, but hell is not successful in destroying the church.” This is a typical understanding, but it’s not what the verse says. It doesn’t say that hell will not prevail against the gates of the church. It says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church! Who is on offense? The church is! God’s people are to be storming the gates of hell!
When Nehemiah heard that Jerusalem was in bad shape, he wept and mourned in chapter 1, but in chapters 2 through 6, he led the effort to rebuild the wall.
When Millard and Linda Fuller observed a lack of decent and affordable housing, they founded Habitat for Humanity, which, since its founding in 1976, has, according to their website, “…helped more than 22 million people build or improve the place they call home.”
When David Wilkerson, a white guy pastoring a small church in western Pennsylvania saw a news article about New York City gang members, he moved to New York and started a ministry to NYC street kids, resulting in the conversion of Nicky Cruz, a Puerto Rican gang member who went on to become a Christian evangelist. Their stories are told in the book and movie The Cross and the Switchblade.
What projects would God have us take on or join? Where would God have us make a difference?
Then the LORD turned to [Gideon] and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6.14, NKJV)
…I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26.18, ESV)