“When Jesus finished telling these parables, he left that place and went back to his hometown. He taught in the synagogue, and those who heard him were amazed. "Where did he get such wisdom?" they asked. "And what about his miracles? Isn't he the carpenter's son? Isn't Mary his mother, and aren't James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers? Aren't all his sisters living here? Where did he get all this?" And so they rejected him. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is respected everywhere except in his hometown and by his own family." Because they did not have faith, he did not perform many miracles there.” (Matthew 13:53-58 GNB)
A brother in arms…… one of the warriors out in the world who is fighting in the hand-to-hand dirtiness as we continue towards that moment in time when Christ lights up the sky and reclaims what is His by righteousness and original craftsmanship……replied to my blog about moving into that unrealistic, unforeseen realm of God’s possibilities and reminded me of a few things that I had forgotten and reassured me to follow God in where He calls, provides and entices.
“It seems to me that God is definitely leading you in a direction that the world may never understand……………no-one can know the will of God for his life like the man himself, who is truly seeking after God. You are doing that my friend, and I stand beside you in battle supporting you and praying for you. If you feel you are where God wants you to be, then press on my brother. God will show you the way - every step of the way! I am reminded of the journey Abraham took when God first called him……………….. Be faithful to your calling. Let me know if I can pray for you specifically in any way. And may God richly bless you (as it appears is already happening) as you continue to follow in Christ's footsteps.”
When I mentioned the struggle against the ‘fellowship’ of believers regarding the call to a few teammates of mine, they quipped “You should be on TV, there’s a lot like you out there on TV.” I think they meant well, but it was another example, to me, of the unbelieving responses I have been getting for the last four and a half years since that moment at Willow Creek. I’m not seminary trained, not endorsed by a church body and don’t have the financial ease in which to pursue such a wild vision. My life isn’t neatly wrapped up under the illusionary umbrella of ‘spiritual awakening and renewal’ and the story I have to tell makes others quake and quiver………
And, in the westernized culturized Christian movement, such things are the ‘approval’ markings that are too often looked for as a ‘god-approved’ adventure. No consideration is given to the story of the declarer, to vett out the human-response of ‘agenda’ and see the visionary and unrealistic (in the world’s eyes) goals of God’s in the calling. We, in this culture, like our pastoral leaders trained under the same apologetic, denominational or emergent veins…….having connectable points to the larger picture. When the rogue comes and disrupts that preference, we get upset. When God doesn’t send us someone who doesn’t fit into our preconception of what ‘annointed’ of God should look like, we move away from God’s story and become self-serving in our own stories.
As my friend reminded me, Abram must’ve been a bit fearful and nervous about the calling to depart from his family, his friends and his countrymen and go where…no specific location given….the Lord would lead him. Yet, he packed up and went. God isn’t in the business of comfort and easy living….to have such an existence in this world would mean that you are so aligned, so covered in the world that the illusionary things that you feel are comfortable, easy and unstressful appear real to you……until God provides the impus to show you that such things built upon the world’s standards are anything but long-lasting and eternal. They are as fragile as dreams and as deadly as temporary fixes. And, if I’ve learned nothing more about God than this; when He purposes you, He calls you into the biggest of your fears, discomforts and weakest ‘struggles.’
I think that’s not because God has a desire to break you down into your most simplistic of molecules but rather that it is because that is where the enemy has concentrated most of his energy because he knows how powerful and effective you would be with your life, calling and faith aligned with God’s larger story. How much more quickly his time would end because of the multitude of the faithful spread out all over the globe who were aligned with God and working with Him in the pursuit of the kingdom plans. With intimate knowledge of what your purpose is, why wouldn’t he build the protection against you ever fulfilling it? Fear, doubt and even intimidation are merely his tools.
Henry Blackaby and Claude King, in their study Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, say that when you receive an invitation to join God’s work in the world around you, there is a crisis of belief….that point where you focus on yourself…in the selfish human manner that we all recognize as the genesis of sin…instead of God. As they write, “God wants to intercept those lives. Suppose He wants to do it through you. He comes to you and talks to you. But you are so self-centered, you respond, ‘I don’t think I am trained. I don’t think I am able to do it. And I…..’…..the focus is on self. The moment you sense God is moving in your life, you give Him a whole list of reasons why He has got the wrong person or why the time is not right.” Like Moses, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Exodus 3:11 GNB) and "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?" (Exodus 4:1 GNB).
Moses, in the story of God, was not the ‘right’ man for the job when he was the son of the daughter of Pharaoh….with all the degrees and pedigrees that would’ve made a easy road to change from within the empire…..and where the power and movement of God would have been harder to see and easier to disown. But, in the desert as a simple shepherd, Moses had no degrees to fall upon, no elegance of mouth, nor the ‘pedigree’ of the empire to rely upon to open the doors where he needed to go. And, once God made it clearly apparent to him that he was the one to go….he had no choice but to either answer in the affirmative or deny God.
God has shown me that He can answer the three biggest fears I have that would be unavoidable if I became a missionary….to Australia or anywhere else….
Relationships, Confrontations and Provisions.
If I became a foreign missionary, I would need to be in relationship with the church leadership in the area I serve as well as the community…no missionary can be sustained without it. Confrontation? To go to a country where the topic of religion just isn’t that important would be a breeding ground for ‘confrontation.’ And provisions? I wouldn’t, as a foreign national, be able to do a ‘tent-making’ ministry like Paul but would have to rely on home support, and the support of the community which I serve.
Which makes this both repelling and enticing.
The new song out on the Christian airwaves just has captured my attention in this place of where I am;
Closer to Love by Mat Kearney
She got the call today, One out of the gray. And when the smoke cleared, It took her breath away. She said she didn't believe, It could happen to me
I guess we're all one phone call from our knees
We're gonna get there soon
If every building falls, And all the stars fade. We'll still be singing this song, The one they can't take away. I'm gonna get there soon, She's gonna be there too
Cryin' in her room, Prayin' oh, Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon
Oh, it's your light, Oh, it's your way. Pull me out of the dark, Just to shoulder the weight. Cryin' out now, From so far away. You pull me closer to love....Closer to love
Meet me once again, Down off Lake Michigan. Where we could feel the storm blowin', Down with the wind. And don't apologize, For all the tears you've cried. You've been way too strong now for all your life
I'm gonna get there soon, You're gonna be there too. Cryin' in your room, Prayin' Lord come through. We're gonna get there soon.
Oh, it's your light, Oh, it's your way. Pull me out of the dark, Just to shoulder the weight. Cryin' out now, From so far away. You pull me closer to love....Closer to love
Cause you are all that I've waited for all of my life. (We're gonna get there) You are all that I've waited all of my life
You pull me closer to love.......Closer to love. Pull me closer to love (You are all that I've waited for)
You pull me closer to love.......Closer to love. Closer to love (Cause you are all that I've waited for)
Closer to love…….Pull me closer to love
Pull me out of the dark, Mat sings, just to shoulder the weight……..we’re gonna get there soon….. these are the things that hit me out of the silence….God’s work pulls me closer to His love and brings me out of the comfort of my misery to the uncomfortableness that exists in walking with Him in relationship…burdened by the weight of the mission and kingdom building to be wounded and persecuted…to be peaceful in unpeaceful places and comfortable in uncomfortableness……for the sake of the Lord and the fulfillment of His plan as experienced in His story.
Then Carolyn Baker, of AllAboutGod.com, sends this as her devotional for today:
“He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be His God and he will be My son.” Revelation 21:7
“Lord, I soar on eagles wings this morning recognizing the great privilege You have given me of being called by You - for Your purposes. I soar above all the fears and doubts, and claim for myself and all who pray this prayer, a new freedom that comes from recognizing a new day is dawning.” Carolyn writes in her prayer, “ I am so grateful Lord that You allowed me to take a good, hard look at my own fears so I would recognize the counterfeit strategies Satan was using to cause me harm. The greatest message ever preached is going to be heard around the world. No matter what happens in the physical realm of our lives, all Christians were created to move in this great purpose. We all serve differently but not one of us is immune from the cry of the Savior’s heart.”
Carolyn concludes in her reflection part of the devotional some powerful, and all-too-familiar (to me in this enticement), statements from our Father:
“We all have a high and holy calling on our lives. Complacency, comfort, fear of man – all of these counterfeits need to be surrendered at the foot of the Cross. Your life is of so much value that Christ gave His own life for you. Do not waste the opportunities you are given. Every day in your path there is something to be done for His kingdom needs. If you are not recognizing this truth in your life, you are not seeing with the eyes of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him now to free you so you can see with His eyes, hear with His ears and think His thoughts with your mind. That is true freedom. When you walk in this truth God will use you – in spite of yourself to accomplish His purposes in and through you. You need the Holy Spirit to accomplish this goal. Pray to Him – submit to His ways – then be prepared for a manifestation of Christ’s glory to shine through you.”
God has shown me a glimpse of what He wants to do, and has shown me the provisional strength He has to make it happen. Now is the time I face, as all those who are called in specific and unique ways, to make my declaration:
To Join Him in the work He is doing completely or to decline and thereby show the depth of my faith and belief……..
My faith is too strong, even if it is the size of a mustard seed, to deny and my belief has been fortified by faith and experiencing God in the other immediate areas of my life…..
I must accept the challenge to join Him where He is at and draw closer to love………
Wednesday, June 24
Tuesday, June 23
"In a pit with a Lion on a snow day"...lessons garnered from another
“Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, a fighting-man of Kabzeel, had done great acts; he put to death two young lions going into their secret place; and he went down into a hole and put a lion to death in time of snow. And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a very tall man about five cubits high, armed with a spear like a cloth-worker's rod; he went down to him with a stick, and pulling his spear out of the hand of the Egyptian, put him to death with that same spear. These were the acts of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who had a great name among the thirty men of war. He was honoured over the thirty, but he was not equal to the first three: and David put him over his servants.” (1 Chronicles 11:22-25 BBE)
A co-worker with whom I have some theological debates from time to time hurried over to me Monday morning as we prepared to work and said, “Who was in charge of David’s bodyguards?” I couldn’t come up with a name, although I knew the exploits of the Mighty Men of David and their existence….men who came to him as ‘men in distress, in debt and embittered in spirit,’ (1 Samuel 22:1-2) numbering 30 among about 400 men of similar dispositions and did great deeds under David, their Captain and future King. We tried to find the reference that my friend had heard, but couldn’t so I asked him for the church’s website to see if I could pull the sermon or audio off the site to study this suddenly perplexing question and see where God was leading me in this. I sent the pastor a message requesting sermon paper or audio.
Pastor John Lane, shepherd of the Bedford Free Methodist Church in Bedford, Indiana, was quick and gracious in his response…..apologizing for the technical difficulties with the audio that caused no recording to be available but who was nice enough to send me a copy of his rough notes for the sermon, prepared for Father’s day and entitled “In A Pit With A Lion On A Snow Day.”
The name that escaped me was Benaiah, which means “Built up by Jehovah.” He was son of Jehoiada, the chief priest, who was set by David over his personal bodyguards of Cherethites and Pelethites (2Sa_8:18; 1Ki_1:32; 1Ch_18:17). The Cherethites, as a people, were the inhabitants of Southern Philistia (Philistines) and many believe they were the ‘executioners’ of David’s decrees. The Pelethites, as a people, were believed to be another group of Philistines and are only mentioned in conjunction with the Cherethites. The word is believed to mean “couriers or runners” and it is that function that many theologians attribute to them. Both groups were standing with the enemy of their countrymen, protecting the very source of that army’s strength and power……in human terms. And Benaiah was the captain of them…in charge of this powerful young man named David. This service would extend to David’s son, Solomon where he would appointed as ‘commander-in-chief’ of the Israelite Army. From a ‘broken’ refugee to the most powerful warrior in the entire nation’s army…..all under the leadership of a man ‘after God’s own heart, built up through the work of the Holy Spirit…..
As I read Pastor Lane’s notes, a powerful sermon for the fathers of the modern age, the image came to my mind of the movie 300, in the opening moments of the tale where the one-eyed solider speaks of the Spartan practice of growing warriors….mighty and powerful warriors….by throwing them out into the wilderness. A young leonius, future King of Sparta who would stand against Xerxes of the Esther tale, is armed with only a spear and is set upon by a mountain lion….he is hungry and cold…..and afraid, to a degree. He uses his terrain against the beast and triumphs, skinning the animal and returning to his people victorious. Much like Lane speaks in his sermon, the focus of which is the defeat of the lion in a pit on a snowy day…..fear is felt but not allowed to control the actions and desire of the young warrior (Benaiah as well as Leonius). The spirit within the young Spartan demands and empowers him to stand in the face of overwhelming odds….The lion is mightier in mass and strength, speed and agility….to overcome this certainty of death. He becomes the King who can command three hundred warriors to stand against a sea of thousands upon thousands of enemy combatants in the assurance of death’s embrace.
In our wilderness, thrust out (unfairly it may seem) by God and similarly apparently alone, we face our lions in the barren harshness of the worldly landscape armed with only a spear…..hungry, cold, tired and our limbs laced with fear…..with only the hope to keep us warm and the spirit’s prompting to move our feet as we stumble backwards against the oncoming assault of the massive beast of our sinfulness……seeking a way out, a salvation that seems will never come…..and, as the beast snarls in unholy rage at the mountain sides that prevent it from reaching us, its prey, striking with a true and desperation-driven thrust……and returning home victorious, our testimony speaking of God’s provision, strength and hope given to us in our need. Too few have only one or two wilderness experiences that drive us into a more dependent and intimate relationship with God….others, like me, require more……much more….coming out at the end something greater than we could ever be without the repetition, servant-warriors of the One, True King.
Benaiah faces his wilderness ‘shaping’ in, as Pastor Lane points out in the biblical text, the form of two Moabite warriors (their best, no some run-of-the-mill conscripted warriors), an Egyptian 7 and ½ feet tall armed with only a ‘stick’ while that giant carried a ‘spear like a weaver’s rod,’ (Lane offers a visual comparison…..Shaquille O’Neal is 7 feet 1 inch tall with a wingspan of 7 inches and a reach of 9 and ½ feet standing) and a lion (Lane gives us some stats; common foe of shepherds in that day, 8-10 feet long, 416 average pounds, capable of 50 miles an hour in short distances and a roar that can be heard 5 miles away) in a pit on a snowy day. From the man represented in 1 Samuel to the warrior declared mighty and his feats proclaimed in 1 Chronicles and then Commander-in-chief of the whole of Israel’s armies in 1 Kings.
As Pastor Lane points out, Benaiah teaches us that we are not called to safety, avoidance of fear or even a 'comfortable' retirement in this life, as men. Our attempts at establishing a boring life of safety, avoiding our 'wilderness experiences' wrought with fear and seeking a life of simple comfort in the elder days of our lives are foolish to attempt and absent of God's enticement to join Him in the work He would have us do. The goal of masculinity, of all of God's children, is to be faithfulness Lane points out….encountering our lions (those situations that we'd like to avoid but need to be confronted). In a life pleasing to God, we must face the best of the Moabites (modern day representation….lusts of the flesh…), our giants (the worldliness of Egypt) and the lions (Lane quotes 1 Peter 5:8 "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion"). How do we, as broken men who haven't had an example per se of godly masculinity, be a Benaiah?
We each have our Davids in our lives. We each have our 'three mightier men' that even our best cannot match. Men who have heard the yearning of their David's and sought out the simple desires in the face of overwhelming odds, showing a faithfulness to David and ultimately to the God he serves. Men who fight their battles with lions, giants and the fallenness of the world with the throbbing passion of faith…..Israel's God, David's God, their God….the True God…..is alive and victorious yesterday, today and tomorrow. Men who move in the face of overwhelming fear, certain defeat and looming death to walk in the purpose of God and perform the work to which He calls us all.
Though my exploits aren't even close to the mighty deeds performed by my 'three' and my spiritual leadership cannot even come to measure against my 'David', I stand counted by these men as one among them…..…the few who girth themselves in the armor of the Lord and step into the world to bring the truth and light to all who are stained in the darkness of their sins and the blindness of the enemy's grasp. Men, who recognize that the battle isn't of a physical nature but a spiritual one, and who move despite the fear to face the enemy. A band of brothers, who fight alongside each other, living a life unsafe, robbed of comfort's laziness and struggle fully in the light of day in faithfulness to be examples for themselves, each other and those they know in the darkness of night. For the wives to which they must live, the sons to which they must teach, and the daughters to which they must represent godly manhood in the ordained, created and designed model that God sets forth in the Word.
Men who don't claim superiority, but humility, in these efforts to live a godly design. Men who, like the mighty men of David's time, speak not of their exploits nor boast in their victories but simply move as God has called them to, without claiming the glory that is God's alone but with the intentionality of providing Him with the testimony of that Glory. Men who live what they believe, represent what they have faith in and empower the generations to come with the truth.
I know who my David is, who the 'three mightier than the mighty men' are, and even the second tier of heroes that walk in the landscape of this world…..and there are my brothers in arms who stand with me in the spiritual battles that men were built to fight; to bless those around them.
I will not fear, I will not run and I will not turn from the struggle to be an example to my children of the man God made me to be. Will you?
This morning, when I went to the website of the church, I was impressed with the ‘motto’ if you will of this distant part of the family of God (in physical distance that is)…..”Empowered through Christ, we will Serve, Save, Strengthen and Send” Serving the community, introducing saving faith to others, strengthen believers and sending loving people into the world to ‘repeat’….it is seldom that you see such an impactful statement in the churches of this western culture today and it would be interesting to see how effective they are being in faithful execution to their god-purposed mission. There are so few churches that are empowering the body with the good fruit of the Gospel that the masses are surrendering to the bondage of the enemy just to be able to eat unclean food. The Bedford FM church’s website is www.bedfordfmc.org . I’d recommend a look and a visit if you are in the area.
A co-worker with whom I have some theological debates from time to time hurried over to me Monday morning as we prepared to work and said, “Who was in charge of David’s bodyguards?” I couldn’t come up with a name, although I knew the exploits of the Mighty Men of David and their existence….men who came to him as ‘men in distress, in debt and embittered in spirit,’ (1 Samuel 22:1-2) numbering 30 among about 400 men of similar dispositions and did great deeds under David, their Captain and future King. We tried to find the reference that my friend had heard, but couldn’t so I asked him for the church’s website to see if I could pull the sermon or audio off the site to study this suddenly perplexing question and see where God was leading me in this. I sent the pastor a message requesting sermon paper or audio.
Pastor John Lane, shepherd of the Bedford Free Methodist Church in Bedford, Indiana, was quick and gracious in his response…..apologizing for the technical difficulties with the audio that caused no recording to be available but who was nice enough to send me a copy of his rough notes for the sermon, prepared for Father’s day and entitled “In A Pit With A Lion On A Snow Day.”
The name that escaped me was Benaiah, which means “Built up by Jehovah.” He was son of Jehoiada, the chief priest, who was set by David over his personal bodyguards of Cherethites and Pelethites (2Sa_8:18; 1Ki_1:32; 1Ch_18:17). The Cherethites, as a people, were the inhabitants of Southern Philistia (Philistines) and many believe they were the ‘executioners’ of David’s decrees. The Pelethites, as a people, were believed to be another group of Philistines and are only mentioned in conjunction with the Cherethites. The word is believed to mean “couriers or runners” and it is that function that many theologians attribute to them. Both groups were standing with the enemy of their countrymen, protecting the very source of that army’s strength and power……in human terms. And Benaiah was the captain of them…in charge of this powerful young man named David. This service would extend to David’s son, Solomon where he would appointed as ‘commander-in-chief’ of the Israelite Army. From a ‘broken’ refugee to the most powerful warrior in the entire nation’s army…..all under the leadership of a man ‘after God’s own heart, built up through the work of the Holy Spirit…..
As I read Pastor Lane’s notes, a powerful sermon for the fathers of the modern age, the image came to my mind of the movie 300, in the opening moments of the tale where the one-eyed solider speaks of the Spartan practice of growing warriors….mighty and powerful warriors….by throwing them out into the wilderness. A young leonius, future King of Sparta who would stand against Xerxes of the Esther tale, is armed with only a spear and is set upon by a mountain lion….he is hungry and cold…..and afraid, to a degree. He uses his terrain against the beast and triumphs, skinning the animal and returning to his people victorious. Much like Lane speaks in his sermon, the focus of which is the defeat of the lion in a pit on a snowy day…..fear is felt but not allowed to control the actions and desire of the young warrior (Benaiah as well as Leonius). The spirit within the young Spartan demands and empowers him to stand in the face of overwhelming odds….The lion is mightier in mass and strength, speed and agility….to overcome this certainty of death. He becomes the King who can command three hundred warriors to stand against a sea of thousands upon thousands of enemy combatants in the assurance of death’s embrace.
In our wilderness, thrust out (unfairly it may seem) by God and similarly apparently alone, we face our lions in the barren harshness of the worldly landscape armed with only a spear…..hungry, cold, tired and our limbs laced with fear…..with only the hope to keep us warm and the spirit’s prompting to move our feet as we stumble backwards against the oncoming assault of the massive beast of our sinfulness……seeking a way out, a salvation that seems will never come…..and, as the beast snarls in unholy rage at the mountain sides that prevent it from reaching us, its prey, striking with a true and desperation-driven thrust……and returning home victorious, our testimony speaking of God’s provision, strength and hope given to us in our need. Too few have only one or two wilderness experiences that drive us into a more dependent and intimate relationship with God….others, like me, require more……much more….coming out at the end something greater than we could ever be without the repetition, servant-warriors of the One, True King.
Benaiah faces his wilderness ‘shaping’ in, as Pastor Lane points out in the biblical text, the form of two Moabite warriors (their best, no some run-of-the-mill conscripted warriors), an Egyptian 7 and ½ feet tall armed with only a ‘stick’ while that giant carried a ‘spear like a weaver’s rod,’ (Lane offers a visual comparison…..Shaquille O’Neal is 7 feet 1 inch tall with a wingspan of 7 inches and a reach of 9 and ½ feet standing) and a lion (Lane gives us some stats; common foe of shepherds in that day, 8-10 feet long, 416 average pounds, capable of 50 miles an hour in short distances and a roar that can be heard 5 miles away) in a pit on a snowy day. From the man represented in 1 Samuel to the warrior declared mighty and his feats proclaimed in 1 Chronicles and then Commander-in-chief of the whole of Israel’s armies in 1 Kings.
As Pastor Lane points out, Benaiah teaches us that we are not called to safety, avoidance of fear or even a 'comfortable' retirement in this life, as men. Our attempts at establishing a boring life of safety, avoiding our 'wilderness experiences' wrought with fear and seeking a life of simple comfort in the elder days of our lives are foolish to attempt and absent of God's enticement to join Him in the work He would have us do. The goal of masculinity, of all of God's children, is to be faithfulness Lane points out….encountering our lions (those situations that we'd like to avoid but need to be confronted). In a life pleasing to God, we must face the best of the Moabites (modern day representation….lusts of the flesh…), our giants (the worldliness of Egypt) and the lions (Lane quotes 1 Peter 5:8 "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion"). How do we, as broken men who haven't had an example per se of godly masculinity, be a Benaiah?
We each have our Davids in our lives. We each have our 'three mightier men' that even our best cannot match. Men who have heard the yearning of their David's and sought out the simple desires in the face of overwhelming odds, showing a faithfulness to David and ultimately to the God he serves. Men who fight their battles with lions, giants and the fallenness of the world with the throbbing passion of faith…..Israel's God, David's God, their God….the True God…..is alive and victorious yesterday, today and tomorrow. Men who move in the face of overwhelming fear, certain defeat and looming death to walk in the purpose of God and perform the work to which He calls us all.
Though my exploits aren't even close to the mighty deeds performed by my 'three' and my spiritual leadership cannot even come to measure against my 'David', I stand counted by these men as one among them…..…the few who girth themselves in the armor of the Lord and step into the world to bring the truth and light to all who are stained in the darkness of their sins and the blindness of the enemy's grasp. Men, who recognize that the battle isn't of a physical nature but a spiritual one, and who move despite the fear to face the enemy. A band of brothers, who fight alongside each other, living a life unsafe, robbed of comfort's laziness and struggle fully in the light of day in faithfulness to be examples for themselves, each other and those they know in the darkness of night. For the wives to which they must live, the sons to which they must teach, and the daughters to which they must represent godly manhood in the ordained, created and designed model that God sets forth in the Word.
Men who don't claim superiority, but humility, in these efforts to live a godly design. Men who, like the mighty men of David's time, speak not of their exploits nor boast in their victories but simply move as God has called them to, without claiming the glory that is God's alone but with the intentionality of providing Him with the testimony of that Glory. Men who live what they believe, represent what they have faith in and empower the generations to come with the truth.
I know who my David is, who the 'three mightier than the mighty men' are, and even the second tier of heroes that walk in the landscape of this world…..and there are my brothers in arms who stand with me in the spiritual battles that men were built to fight; to bless those around them.
I will not fear, I will not run and I will not turn from the struggle to be an example to my children of the man God made me to be. Will you?
This morning, when I went to the website of the church, I was impressed with the ‘motto’ if you will of this distant part of the family of God (in physical distance that is)…..”Empowered through Christ, we will Serve, Save, Strengthen and Send” Serving the community, introducing saving faith to others, strengthen believers and sending loving people into the world to ‘repeat’….it is seldom that you see such an impactful statement in the churches of this western culture today and it would be interesting to see how effective they are being in faithful execution to their god-purposed mission. There are so few churches that are empowering the body with the good fruit of the Gospel that the masses are surrendering to the bondage of the enemy just to be able to eat unclean food. The Bedford FM church’s website is www.bedfordfmc.org . I’d recommend a look and a visit if you are in the area.
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