“Come and get me next!”
This is what every pastor in Canada, and the USA, should say this coming Lord’s day as they unlock their church house, and every born-again believer should say while exchanging their pajamas for their Sunday best as they prepare to gather in person on the Lord’s Day.
I’m convinced we need to stop saying we are living in unprecedented times and should rather call the day unpredictable. I don’t know of many people who could have predicted this would be happening in North America. However, this would be more accurate and in accord with the normal Christian life around the world. The problem is that the God-hating world doesn’t understand that Romans 13 is not theirs to interpret according to their philosophy.
This past Lord’s day, James Coates, pastor of GraceLife Church in Alberta, Canada, spent his day behind bars (and still is) because he, and his church, refused to comply with government mandates that unnecessarily restrict the gathered people of God. Seen by some as an act of civil disobedience, I call it humble obedience to the Almighty God who holds sovereign authority of the church.
The western church needs to be reminded of the days when the church was on the vanguard or at the tip of the spear of the great gospel advancing days of the last missionary expanse to the ends of the earth.
Think about it… when have you heard or seen a faithful shepherd say anything like C.T. Studd in his missionary article “the Chocolate Soldier”.
“In peace true soldiers are captive lions, fretting in their cages. War gives them their liberty and sends them, like boys bounding out of school, to obtain their heart’s desire or perish in the attempt. Battle is the soldier’s vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigor of a hero.”
C.T. Studd
Battle cures the asthmatic church from her gasping for life. When the church forgets her duty and takes off her gospel shoes she will soon be a melted goo of chocolate because she set her shield down while getting too close to the flame and can no longer hold the shape of her former condition.
Are your gospel shoes in the back corner of the closet? Maybe you donated your gospel shoes to the Salvation Army? This much is most likely true, your gospel shoes have likely never been worn on the battlefield.
Finally, I want to lovingly say to my brother pastors who are not holding in-person gatherings. It’s time to relocate the keys to the church house and open the doors. There is a brother who has been found obeying God and charged by men as being a danger to society. I refuse to let this kind of brother stand alone on that field.
I’m praying for you. I’ve got you covered. You are not on the battlefield alone.
No Comments