THE FATHER'S CHALLENGE

Zephaniah 1:1-3:20; Revelation 10:1-11; Psalm 138:1-8; Proverbs 30:11-14

“Gather together—yes, gather together, you shameless nation. Gather before judgment begins, before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible day of the Lord’s anger begins. Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you—protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.”

“Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven. He swore an oath in the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. He said, ‘There will be no more delay. When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.’”

“I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength.”

“Some people curse their father and do not thank their mother. They are pure in their own eyes, but they are proud beyond description and disdainful.”

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to join with a group of men from our church as we concluded thirty days of prayer for our church, including staff, finances, facilities and members. Those four-plus weeks began with a marathon, 24 hours a day, continuous oral reading of the entire Bible and included a weekly fast and daily Scripture readings. It was a real blessing to listen as the guys talked about the most impactful moments of the month. One fellow spoke of how the experience made him feel like a truly valued member of the Body – for the first time. Another guy told about his son taking the Bible from him to read aloud himself. A man even discussed, calmly and rationally, a vision he had of all the children who would pass through the door of a classroom as he prayed for them with his hand on the doorframe. It was a moving, though surprisingly unemotional, experience. These were guys talking about facts, not feelings. Granted, the facts discussed were not garden variety pragmatics. But there was not a soul in that room which did not accept the testimonies given at face value and as completely real. In one way or another, we discovered the Living God truly had made His Presence known to each of us at some point during the month. It actually happened. We’d all felt the touch of the Master’s Hand, and the shared experiences encouraged every man there. It was as if the Lord was reminding our little fellowship that the best is yet to come, and giving us new inspiration and power to disciple others.

Now, if the Spirit can still convince a group of crusty guys of the reality of His daily presence and workings in the world, there must be something to it. There were a lot of left-brained folks in the room, but not a single skeptic. We did not just believe the Son had visited; we knew it. We did not, however, just know it because others said so. We knew it because the Spirit held us together that night until one message became crystal clear: the Lord expected us to do something about the fact that we knew what we knew. He commanded that the time of anxiety, complaining and contention was at an end. He challenged us in no uncertain terms to get back to what made our church great in the first place. We are to turn our attention outward and return to the business of making disciples.

It’s an easy thing to forget, isn’t it? In a world that continuously attacks us from all sides, we have to intentionally fight against the very human tendency to just circle the wagons and focus on self-preservation. But let us never forget that down that road lies the way to dusty death. Life is only found to the extent it is shared with others.

So, the good news is that there is still time to get this discipleship thing right. We still have the chance to gather together in fellowship and prayer. There are others out there God is empowering to help build His Kingdom and pave the way for His Return. We can stand by and watch and wonder… and completely miss the joy. Or, we can ban together and throw ourselves into the Lord’s work with audacious abandon and see what happens.

Scripture is plain: those who would lose their lives for Christ’s sake are the only ones who will truly find the lives God has intended for them since the beginning of Creation. They are the ones who will be remade and share in the Glory of the Lord. They are the ones who will finally experience the wholeness of actually living out their divine purpose as a vessel of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate reason for their creation. Christ does not call us to necessarily physically die to find the life He intends for us. He calls us to die to self for the greater good. He asks us to give Him full control over our lives so He can most fully use us to draw others to Him. And He promises, PROMISES, that, in the end, He will have His way, and our reward is certain.

Thirty days or so ago, Jesus challenged a group of guys to gather in prayer, fasting and Scripture reading, just to see what would happen. He asked for our unquestioning obedience. We were not to concern ourselves with the end result; our call was simply to be more intentional about our focus on Him. We learned, however, that such things seldom end there, because as we focus on Christ, our vision improves dramatically in all areas of life. God has a job, a purpose, for each of us. There is still time to carry it out. But the door will not always remain open. It is best to walk through it now. Christ is counting on us to live His Message and to share it with the world by giving of ourselves, confident in the knowledge that we will never out give God.