SPIRITUAL FOOD CRISIS (part 3: The Conclusion)

Now let us see the conclusion of the matter.

When spiritual starvation is allowed to run its full course you see the same effects that physical starvation produces.
1. A starving body starts breaking down its own tissues. Basically, a starving body begins to consume itself.
2. Hunger causes starving people to eat anything they are offered and anything they can find.
3. In extreme cases, starving people may even consume one another.

Proverbs 1: 18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

A physical body that receives no nourishment from without will take it from within. A starving body breaks down muscle, then fat, then the tissue of vital organs. It literally eats itself up from the inside. If you have a spiritually body – whether an individual or a congregational body—that does not have the living water of Jesus, that is not drinking the milk of the Word, that is does not feed on the bread of life, that does not digest the meat of the Father’s will; then you have a spiritually starving body that will slowly self-destruct.

Look at the young girl giving her body away again and again, destroying her virtue because she feels so empty, so hungry inside.
See the contentious congregation withering away as it tears consumes itself in backstabbing and undermining.
Consider the self-hating man, woman, boy, or girl who’s every interaction and relationship is filled with gossip and manipulation, who’s behavior is self-destructive because the soul are so hungry.

2 Timothy 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

2 Peter 2: 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

Like newborn babies, starving people will eat whatever you give them, even if all you put before them is a baked cake of … dirt. We encounter these starving spiritual babies and sometimes we feed them dirt.

We talk to those who are less spiritually mature than us telling them things like:

“You know you’re supposed to be nice to people, but if they come at you wrong, you better cuss them out!” That’s spiritual dirt.
“Oooh ooh, he got a bunch of money. I know he didn’t get it legally, but he sure is blessed.” That’s spiritual dirt.
“I know what the Bible says, but God’s not really going to send anybody to Hell.” That’s spiritual dirt.
“The Lord know you’re only human. He’ll bless you even if you live in sin.” Spiritual dirt.
“Man, an episode of Oprah’s as good as a morning at church.” Spiritual dirt.
“Lie to the boss for me.”
“Lie to the bill collector for me.”
“Lie to your daddy for me.”
“Lie to your mama for me.”
Dirt. Dirt. Dirt. Dirt!

We season this grime, bake it up, and set it before people who are desperate for something, anything to feed their souls; and they eat it up because they have nothing else. They look to us because we seem well-fed, or at least, better fed than they, but if all we offer them is dirt, we will fill their bellies, but “dem still hungry.”

But even, if we don’t actively misfeed and deceive them, we must be careful not to simply neglect them.

There are many well-documented stories of explorers who became lost or stranded and, desperate for food, boiled their belts, chewed their saddles, even ate sawdust. If we do not feed people spiritually, if we do not tell others about the living water, the milk of the Word, the bread of life, the meat of the Father’s will; then they will look around and consume whatever is at hand. They will swallow the lies of astrology. They will sate their bodies with addictions. They will gorge themselves on crime. They will accept and imbibe any destructive heresy, lying fable, and false prophesy lying around the culture because we who have access to spiritual nourishment have failed to share with them.

And if malnourished or misnourished long enough, starving people may begin to consume one another.

2 Kings 6: 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged …
26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
27 And he said, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?” 28 Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?”
And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
30 Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes…

The evidence of spiritual cannibalism is all around us.

See the young man who is so spiritually hungry, that he thinks, “I’ll kill my brother because maybe if I take his life, it’ll fill this hole inside me.”

Consider the Wall Street executive who has gutted the company, drained the employees’ pensions, consumed the savings and the livelihoods of thousands of people, to make another million and try to feed a hunger that no amount of money can satisfy.

These are examples of people who are so spiritually hungry that they attack each other.

The solution?

In my hometown of Bassfield, Mississippi, when an older lady saw a young mother with a hungry, or hungry-looking, child, she would tell the girl, “You need to feed that baby!” Then, without hesitation or permission, she would reach into her purse , pull out a candy bar, a pack of crackers, or some other snack, and hand it to the child.

The solution to the spiritual food crisis is for us -- the church, children of God, saints, believers in Jesus, Saved, Elect, Chrisitians-- to feed the babies. If you have received the living water of the Holy Spirit,
if you have any knowledge of the milk of the Word,
if you have given your life to Jesus, the bread of life,
if you seek to be filled with the meat that is the Father’s will,
then you must reach down, take out what you have and share it with whomever looks hungry around you.


If you are starving yourself, get to some food. Take advantage of the promise Jesus made to the woman at the well in John chapter 4. Recognize Jesus as Messiah and Lord of your life, and he will rehydrate you with living water. He will help you how to grow on the milk of the Word. He will be your bread of life. He will give you the meat of the will of the Father.

Confess your sins to God. Ask forgiveness in Jesus name. Accept Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life. Repent and be saved.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

President Obama's Oath of Office & Inaugural Address

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barackobama/barackobamainauguraladdress.htm

Spiritual Food Crisis (part 2): The Causes

What causes starvation? In physical terms, we see climate change, pesticide- resistant disease, invasive pests, war, government corruption, inequities and predatory practices in globalization as the causes for food shortages around the world. In the most general sense; however, starvation is basically a function of 3 conditions:
1. Insufficient food,
2. Insufficient calories, or
3. Insufficient nutrients.

Insufficient food occurs usually in cases of drought or famine. A drought dries up the water. Disease and/or war wipe out crops and livestock. There’s nothing to eat, nothing from which to grow something to eat, nothing on which to raise animals to become or produce something to eat, and nothing to sell in order to buy something to eat. The people starve.

Only Jesus can give us living water. The living water is the Holy Spirit which we receive as the seal of our salvation. 2 Corinthians 1: 22 tells us that Jesus…has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Without a relationship with Jesus, you’re in a spiritual drought.

2 Corinthians 9: 10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;

Without a relationship with Jesus, you have no food, no means of raising food and no means of producing food. Without a relationship with Jesus you will find yourself spiritually starving because you have insufficient food for your soul. Your life may be full of activity, affiliations, associates, and accolades; but without Jesus you have no real food to nourish your spirit.

On the other hand, you may be saved. You may actually have a personal relationship with Jesus, and yet you may still be starving because you've failed to ingest enough spiritual calories for the life you are called to live.

Calories are energy and if you live an active life you need a lot of energy. If you are actively pursuing the command to live a holy life, if you are actively participating in ministry, if you are actively engaged in fighting of the temptations to sin and the enticements to compromise that bombard you, then you need a lot of spiritual calories.

These calories come from drinking deeply of the living water of the Holy Spirit by spending time in prayer and meditation. These calories come from feeding on the bread of life that is Jesus, the Word made flesh, by developing your relationship with Him. Spiritual calories come from feasting on the meat that is the will of the Father by witnessing, loving, forgiving, and being obedient to all that you know of God’s will.

So if you find yourself struggling in spiritual and moral areas that you thought you had mastered, it may be because you have been weakened by not taking in enough spiritual calories. When your witness begins to lag in power and boldness, you need to take in more spiritual calories. When your ministry begins to drag, take in more spiritual calories. When the devil’s attacks increase in intensity and you must respond with increased spiritual strength, make sure that you have bulked up on prayer, Bible study, private time with the Lord, and obedience to the Father. Otherwise, the demands of your spiritually active lifestyle will deplete your energy and you will find yourself suffering from the ravages of spiritual starvation.

The third general condition that leads to spiritual starvation is insufficient nutrition. This occurs when there is plenty of food, but the type or variety of the offerings does not provide all of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that the spiritual body needs.

One of the most essential nutrients is calcium, the main nutrient in milk. Along with many other problems, calcium deficiency causes weak bones. A weakened skeleton cannot sustain muscles that may be otherwise strong. A weakened skeleton cannot protect and support organs that might themselves be functional.

A deficiency in the spiritual milk of the Word, a lack of corporate and personal Bible study will weaken the very foundation of a spiritual body. When a person or a church neglects the Word or fails to explore and hold to its truths, even if everything else is in place, the work of the spiritual body will suffer and nothing else will perform as it should. Although surrounded by other spiritual food, a Bible-lacking life will begin to show the signs of spiritual starvation.

If you are saved, if you do love the Lord, if you do try to live a holy life, and yet you still suffer the symptoms of spiritual starvation, when's the last time you read your Bible?

Not just at Sunday School, not just during the scripture reading at church.

When and how often have you given dedicated time to searching the scriptures, wrestling with the words of the Word, and studying to show yourself approved. There is a reason you feel spiritually undernourished.

Examine yourself. Examine your ministry. Do you see in your live any of the elements that might cause spiritual starvation? If so, make the necessary adjustments now. There is no need for any of us to die inside from spiritual starvation.

2 Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

John 3: 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

SPIRITUAL FOOD CRISIS (part 1)

SPIRITUAL FOOD CRISIS (part 1)
In 1974, Bob Marley released a song called “Dem Belly Full But We Hungry.” A paraphrase of the first verse goes
Them belly full but we hungry
A hungry mob is an angry mob
The rain it falls but the dirt is tough
A pot to cook but the food not enough

During our “Go Prepared” Training for the upcoming missions trip, Rev. Mary McKinney referenced this song as she talked about the food crisis in Haiti.

In parts of Haiti the food shortage is so severe that the people make dirt cakes. Now these are not the mudpies we made as children, back in the days before Nintendo and Playstations. Dirt cakes in Haiti are a mixture of salt, cooking oil, and dirt. Desperate parents with no food to offer their families bake these ingredients and feed the cakes to their children. The dirt cake fills the child’s stomach and dulls the pangs of hunger so the child can sleep. Of course, the dirt cakes have no nutritional value. Their bellies are full, but they are still starving to death.

This has a spiritual application.

In Isaiah 55: [God, through the prophet, asks] 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? In John 6: 27 [Jesus warns us] Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life…”

You see, it is possible to be spiritually full and spiritually starving all at the same time.

Granted, there is a such thing as good spiritual hunger. A degree of spiritual hunger motivates us to pray more, study the Word deeper, seek a more intimate relationship with the Lord.
Matthew 5: 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

But we’re not talking about a healthy spiritual hunger. We’re talking about spiritual starvation. And, like physical starvation, spiritual starvation has (1) symptoms, (2) causes, (3) effects, and, fortunately, (4) treatments.

Over the next few blog entries, we will consider all four aspects. Today, we will look at the symptoms of spiritual starvation.

In John 4, Jesus’ disciples leave Him to rest at a well in Samaria while they go into town to buy lunch. A Samaritan woman comes to the well and Jesus asks her for a drink of water. She is surprised, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” (verse 4)
.
John 4: 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. … 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

When the disciples return they offer Jesus something to eat. Jesus turns them down.

John 4: 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

The Apostle Peter advises new Christians that if they want to grow spiritually, they must desire the pure milk of the word (1 Peter 2: 2)

In John 6: 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

This is the spiritual food for which we hunger: living water, the pure milk of the Word, the bread of life, the meat that is the will of the Father.

Something in us desires, hungers after these spiritual staples, but whether that desire is a healthy hunger or starvation is determined by considering the symptoms.
The iconic images of starving African babies with flies around their eyes and distended bellies are easy to recall from televsion, but there are other, less photogenic indicators of physical starvation. They include
1. stunted growth.
2. tongue, mouth irritation.
3. diarrhea
4. brain dysfunction, delusions
5. sexual dysfunction
6. heart failure and/or nerve disease.
7. anemia- low blood count
8. diminished ability to healing wounds
9. loss of night vision or blindness
10. loss of balance.
11. compromised immune system, high susceptibility to disease

Rom 1: 20 says For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. In other words, we can see the spiritual reflected in the physical. So it is that the indicators of spiritual starvation correspond to the symptoms of physical starvation.

1. Stunted growth: When your faith does not grow, it indicates that your spiritual diet is insufficient. When, sermons still go in one ear and out the other, when you feel no more moved to pray than when you first joined the church, when you have no more boldness to witness for Christ, then you are in a state of stunted spiritual growth.

2. Tongue, mouth irritation: Or rather, irritating tongue and mouth. When you continually back-bite, slander, curse and attack with your words, it is a symptom of spiritual malnutrition.

3. Verbal diarrhea: When gossip rolls off the tongue more easily than prayer and you tell everyone about “mess” and no one about Christ…..

4. Brain dysfunction, delusions: When you seem to be growing less wise with age, when it is more and more difficult to discern the will of God or to understand the Word of God, when you are attracted to unbiblical doctrine; you’re not losing your mind, you're losing the mind-of-Christ.

5. Sexual dysfunction: Growing comfort with a dysfunctional sexual lifestyle. When sinful lusts and fantasies creep in where you thought they’d been banished, there is a spiritual famine.

6. Heart failure, nerve disease: This is evidenced by the failure to have a heart for hurting people, sort of everyone-just-gets-on-my-nerves disease.

7. Spiritual anemia: Simply not having the blood of Jesus in your life.

8. Poor wound healing: Inability to forgive the wounds you have received, holding to grudges, having a vengeful spirit, and peeling the scab of old emotional scars so that you walk around psychologically raw all the time.

9. Loss of night vision and blindness: When you constantly feel lost in the darkness of this world you are experiencing spiritual blindness .

10. Loss of balance: When you bounce between two or more opinions --Somedays you are an ultra-legalist and no one can do anything right; no one is holy enough. Other days you are ultra-liberal and no one is really wrong because everything’s relative anyway, right? You waver between two opinions because you’ve lost your spiritual balance.

11. Increased susceptibility to spiritual infection: Is sin getting deeper into your life? Are your spiritual defenses weakening? Do things hurt you that would have rolled off your back before? Do things entice you that would not have tempted you before? Are you doing wrong in things you always did right about before? Sin, destructive behaviors, even heresy is getting easier because your spiritual immune system has been compromised by spiritual starvation.

Examine yourself for these symptoms. If you see them evident, consider carefully your spiritual diet. It is possible to look full and be hungry. You may lead a busy lifestyle. You may be involved in a lot of economically or socially impressive enterprises. You may be a member of all the right associations. Your life may be full but your soul still starving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpy52Maw32w&feature=related

Next time, we will look at the causes of spiritual starvation.

WHY WE OBSERVE WATCH NIGHT

(The following article is a compilation of research from several sources,and includes heavily the exact words and paraphrases from articles written by Charyn D. Sutton.)

The Watch Night has an ancient lineage. The roots run deep in the traditional nights of prayer in the early church and the watching and praying associated with our Lord’s passion in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Around 1742, in Kingswood, England, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, instituted Watch Night as a specific act of worship within the United Societies. These early Methodist Watch Nights were held either quarterly or monthly at the new moon. The first services were introduced as an alternative to what Wesley called the "wild carousals of the Kingswood miners" on Saturday nights.

In 1755, Wesley published "An Order of Worship for Such as Would Enter into or Renew Their Covenant with God--For Use in a Watch Night Service, on the First Sunday of the Year, or Other Occasion."

In the 1800’s Watch Nights fell out of favor among most predominantly white congregation; but the tradition persisted in the African-American church. There are two essential reasons for the continued and revived importance of Watch Night services in African American congregations.

Before 1862 African people on the plantations of the American South regularly gathered on New Year's Eve. The week of Christmas was the only “holiday” slaves were given. During this time slaveowners tallied up their business accounts for the year so that they could settle debts at the beginning of the new year. Human property was sold along with land and furnishings to satisfy debts. Black families and friends were separated. Often they never saw each other again in this earthly world. For many of our ancestors, enslaved and free, New Year’s Eve was the last time they would be together.

Also, Watch Night Services in Black communities can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1862, also known as "Freedom's Eve." On that night, Americans of African descent came together in churches, gathering places, and private homes throughout the nation, anxiously awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had become law.

Then, at the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1863, and according to Lincoln's promise, all slaves in the Confederate States were legally free. There were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as people fell to their knees and thanked God, praising him in the Year of Jubilee. As Jesus promised in Luke 4: 18, 19 [proclaiming] liberty to the captives … [setting] at liberty those who are oppressed; [proclaiming] the acceptable year of the LORD.”

This year we look forward to our own historic January. As our ancestors awaited the Proclamation of January 1863, we look to the inauguration in January 2009. As they, so we gather to pray and to praise the Lord for how He has brought us over into the promised Year of Jubilee.

HERALDS OF THE KING-- PREPARERS OF THE WAY

Hark! the herald angels sing

Christ, by highest heaven adored;

Christ, the everlasting Lord;

late in time behold him come,

offspring of a virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

hail th' incarnate Deity,

pleased as man with man to dwell,J

esus, our Emmanuel.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

"Glory to the new born King!"



In the old days, before the king and his entourage marched into town, one of the king’s servants--- a herald---would ride ahead of the king, trumpeting and crying out, “Make way for the king! Make way for the king!”



When the king prepared to go to the throne and sit in judgment receiving the reports and petitions of his subjects, this herald would enter the throne room ahead of the king and cry out, “Announcing his royal majesty....” listing all of the kings royal titles.



The herald’s job was to make sure the people knew that the king was coming so that they could clear the path of any obstructions, clean up themselves and their businesses, and stop doing anything that they didn’t want the king to catch them doing. The herald did not change the identity of the king or alter the time the king would arrive, but the herald spoke to the people so that they could prepare for the king’s imminent approach. So you could define a herald as a “Preparer of the way.”



During the ministry of John the Baptist some people thought that he might be the messiah they were looking for, but John explained who he was.



John 1: 20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

…23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias [Isaiah].



John’s job was to go ahead of the coming King Jesus and proclaim, “The King is coming! Make ready for the King!” John the Baptist was a preparer of the way, herald of the Messiah.



So are we.



In John 1: 23 and its prophetic authorization in Isaiah 40: 3 notice that the command to prepare the way is not just to the voice in the wilderness (John) but from the voice to others. Who then is commanded to be prepares of the way?



Isaiah 40 : 9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!



The command is to Zion and to Jerusalem, to the people of Israel who are the spiritual predecessors of the church. Who does John cry out to? To us---Christians. The church is to prepare the way of the Lord. We are the heralds of Jesus today.



Now, remember that John’s ministry of heralding the Messiah, of preparing the way for Jesus, happened 30 years after the virgin birth in Bethlehem.



Thirty years after the herald angels proclaimed the birth of Christ to the shepherds(Luke 2). Thirty years after the wise men followed a star that heralded the birth of the King of the Jews (Matthew 2). Hundreds of years after the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:



Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.



John the Baptist cried out for the people to “Prepare the way of the Lord,” centuries after Moses proclaimed to the people:



De 18:15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;



We might think that with all of these heralds who had come before, there would be nothing for John to do. What else was there to say?

The child had already been born. Here He was.

What need was there for another herald, especially in light of the more illustrious ones (wise men, angels, Isaiah, Moses) who had come before?



John’s ministry and the questions it evokes are relevant to each of us and all of us because we Christians are John the Baptists today. (Even if you worship as John the Methodist, or John the Church of Christ, or John the Lutheran, or John the COGIC, or John the whatever-whatever



What else is there to say about the coming of Jesus?

Acts 1: 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.



John did not herald the birth of Jesus, but he prepared the way for Jesus coming into the glory of His public ministry.

We do not have to prepare the way for Jesus’ first Coming into the world, but we are to prepare the way for His Second Coming. Because He will come again.



Considering the illustrious heralds of the past, why should you or I try to fill this role?

Matt 11: 7 ¶ And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?

8 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.



John was not impressive by human standards. He had no priestly robes (though he was the son of a priest). He had no great financial resources (like the wise men). He subsisted off grasshoppers and honey (Mark 1: 6). Yet, he recognized and obeyed his calling to be a herald; just as the poor, outcast, poorly educated shepherds did when they heard the herald angels.



Luke 2: 15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.



Each of us, whether wise in the world or uneducated, whether out of a pagan tradition or out of the traditional religious structure, whether rich or poor, whether an ordained minister in priestly robes or a regular “pew-sitter,” each of us has the divine charge of being a herald of the coming Lord. Each of us is responsible to God for preparing the way for His return.



How do we do that? How do we fulfill our charge to be prepares of the way, heralds of the King?



Mark 16: 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.



We go ahead of the King and proclaim the good news that He is coming.



Matt 24: 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.



The gospel will be taken to the world. The questions is whether or not we will be obedient to our charge to be part of taking the gospel to the world. Not one of us can shift that responsibility to someone else. True, if you don’t get out on the missions field and proclaim the gospel, God will send someone else.



But do you want God to have to replace you? Do you want God to take your place and give it to another (Acts 1: 16-20)?



The command is clear. Go!

Go to the nations.

Go where the gospel has not been heard.

Go into ALL the world, not just the neighborhoods around our churches.

Get up, Zion. Get up, Jerusalem.



Go and prepare the way of the Lord!

A NATIONAL MIRACLE

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2008/barackobamavictoryspeech.htm