War and Urgency

Patty and I are headed down to Bolivia a few days ahead of the rest of the team. We flew out of RDU and will have a layover overnight in Miami.

While we were waiting, we noticed a number of people standing around a window. We walked over and saw a group of Marines offloading the casket of one of their comrades from a flight that had just landed. Probably twenty to thirty people gathered around in silence as the Marines picked up the casket and escorted it off the tarmac. It was a poignant reminder that we are still at war and there are still lives being lost daily. Because the battles are taking place 7,000 miles away, it is easy to forget that there is still a war being fought. The national sacrifices and efforts that marked WWI and WWII are absent, and instead Americans go on living their lives.

This post is not a political commentary on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but a reminder that we as believers are engaged in war as well. Sometimes it is easy to forget that we are engaged in a battle against the forces of darkness because we in America do not experience the persecutions and attacks that other brothers and sisters face. Instead, we gather weekly in a building which we call a "church," we can offer two dozen bible studies, we have "family-friendly" activities for almost every night of the week. These things are not necessarily wrong but I fear that we, the church in America, can sometimes lose our sense of urgency.

We cannot forget that we are engaged in war - a war that requires preparation, action, and sacrifice. We utilize prayer, not as a domestic intercom, but as a war-time method of communication whereby we receive our orders and call in reinforcements. We sacrifice our time, talent, and finances so people can hear the gospel and that God might gather a host of worshipers from every tribe, tongue and nation. My prayer is that this trip will reflect this urgency and sacrifice as we wage war with the knowledge that we have a power that can "demolish strongholds."

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." - 2 Corinthians 10:2-5