A Crazy Kind-Of-Love

“I am the peer pressure,” said a young man in high school. He was being interviewed by a reporter who asked him how he lived the Christian life in front of his peers. He pointed out that it was not the culture that swayed him but he the culture. He would not back down or stand down. Who taught him this mode of affront?

We hear of all kinds of horror stories about the local “goings on” in the public schools. There seems to be a certain death knell that is pervading and depressing many Christian parents about our local schools, even our youth groups in our churches.  There is a modern, degenerate America,  we all know that is before us. And the reasoning given to us today is that we can shelter our children in our “mission schools.”

The “woe-mongers” are all around us. Their forecast is intimidating. Their language is severe. We who are children of God live by faith, and we are to stand up with conviction with courage and declare with a great emphasis, “I refuse to be intimidated. I believe that our children will be the positive peers!” Parents train, pray, and send them out as arrows that leave their hands.

It is better to allow tough things for our children to encounter than to take every obstacle away from them. Let’s train our kids to win their peers to Christ and rejoice in that. Let’s train our children to be a catalyst which stops the other sheep dead in their tracks, letting them know everybody’s not doing it.

The faithfulness of God is to be depended upon and not the faithfulness of a dad and mom who “outthinks” God. Students swimming against the stream, students strengthening the spiritual sinew of their own bodies, who lean hard upon God is the joy of doing life God’s way.

J.D. Grear in his book, “Jesus Continued”, said, “In an awakening, the Spirit of God does not typically do a “new” thing; he simply pours greater power upon the “normal” things faithful Christians are already doing. Prayers become more intense; worship becomes more joyous; repentance becomes more sorrowful; and the preached Word yields greater effect. The Spirit of God multiplies the effectiveness of our “normal” work of seed-planting, bringing a bountiful harvest. And he does more in a moment than we can accomplish in a lifetime.”

This is what I dream of everyday that I awaken from my sleep. Looking, longing for this is a great desire that many have for their churches and for their land. This passion should drive each of us to our faces before a holy and righteous God. Yet the passion runs deep and the need arises paramount.

Don’t you want to serve as a spiritual pyromaniac in igniting the heart of the church for Christ’s glory? Are you dreaming of this too? Could God do it here in Alamance County? Could you and I be used of God to help lead the way in a movement of unprecedented proportions to see the Gospel of God spread like wildfire and countless lives transformed?

Where are the young pastors and young people or old people who are captured and carried by God? Where are those in the church today who are set down right in the midst of dry bones? Where are the people of God that are not nodding in the pew but noticed by God and used by God?

The blessing of dry bones has to begin with us being a blessing. We are to be captured by God, carried and set in the middle of the dry bones, and we are commanded to preach to the bones. Ezekiel was told to do the same. We are to “tell forth plainly.” Instead of being tossed on a dry dead bone heap, we are told to preach plainly to “them there bones.”

When we listen and we tell plainly, then a miracle will happen. The dry bones began to find moisture, life, and begin to stand up. Instead of being famished, they become fat. They march around speaking of the resurrected Lord. Oh the sound of awakening will be heard in your village if you will listen and then tell. God specializes in graveyards. It is just a affirmation of allowing Him to capture us, then carry us, and command us to preach to the bones. Watch for the breath of God to blow!

There have been many that have made it big with their money. They have worked hard and spoke loudly of the way they live by the money they make. Maybe the words aren’t loud, but the spending is.

After a certain amount of time the money flows and the items are bought and the road continues…until. It looks as if all is going well. Then it happens. Darkness falls. The children grow up. The dad and mom have done so much together, but the grave calls.

Now the children are seated in a funeral home, alongside their dad. The mom is gone. The aged father is not thinking of their gain. The hurt is very real. Time is gone and nothing seems the same. The things accrued, the times spent, are a distant memory. What are we to do to ensure we feel fulfilled and contented when the time comes and death beckons?

Wealth is given by God so that we can give it to others. Children and others need to understand that dad and mom love God more than they love money. Who gives the money anyway? Who gives the ability to earn? Who owns it all? Is it not the God that gave His only Son?

We need to own the needs around us and toward distant lands, and distribute that wealth to help others into the kingdom of God. There is “A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away” (Ecclesiastes 3:6). God in his sovereignty has allowed us the choice. Through our disobedience we bring forth sin into the world, and death by sin (Romans 5:12).

There are way too many memorial services which are empty and void. Why? Because most lived for gain and not for giving.  It is an emptiness that does betray the soul. Why? Because money and stuff can never fill the soul. But that which is given does. Whether rich or poor may we give away that which is not ours to keep.  Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. And he has his reward.

Discouragement is the temporary loss of perspective. So many men for the sake of getting a living forget to live. Each day is to be significant as we seek those things which are deeper and not so much as wider.

Each day must be seized with a renewal that maintains our perspective and minimizes the distractions that afflict us. When we lack direction and are bombarded by distractions we become discouraged.

Shallow living leads to distractions that causes decay. Without proper care of the body we become ill. A marriage can become troubled after just a few episodes of unresolved anger and misunderstanding. An automobile can break down without proper maintenance. Without daily guidance and renewal in God’s presence we live in distracted modes.

Don’t allow the busyness to the daily demands and orders of a noisy world, cause you to forget that God has a plan for you and for me. We are to win the battle which is so daily. Allow your roots to sink deep into the soil of God’s promises and allow His truth to be absorbed into the core of our soul.