What Do You Stand For?

With all the violent protest happening regarding the Supreme Court justice and various candidates running for office, it’s easy to feel like you just want to keep your head down and your mouth quiet lest someone notice you and take out their frustration or hatred on you.  But is that the right thing to do just because others are vocal and acting like fools?  What if this is the perfect time to be vocal about what you believe in and do it with respect?

The other day Susan and I stepped into an old habit of standing with other Christians in front of an abortion clinic. Back in the early days of our walk with Christ we walked in marches through my home town and proclaimed our love for babies who were being killed for the sake of convenience. In California, it wasn’t the safest thing to do but we felt compelled to try to awaken the mothers to be that inside their bodies were real babies and not just tissue.

When we moved to New York we found ourselves walking in front of our local hospital with other Christians doing the same thing. Standing and walking to show our sorrow over the loss of conscience in a culture that kills its children for profit. We would walk and pray and stand for the life of the unborn even as the hospital was killing babies. Here is an institution that is dedicated to saving lives and not taking life, yet they have bought into the lie of the culture that babies aren’t babies until after they are born, they are just “tissue” that can be cut away and discarded.  It is interesting that if you can show the expectant mother their child on an ultra sound most times they change their minds about having an abortion because they know “This Is A Baby” regardless of what the culture and the abortionists say.

Now Sue and I find ourselves in North Carolina, nearly 40 years after giving our lives to the Lordship of Christ and we are walking in front of an abortion clinic. I was told that Charlotte, North Carolina, is the largest abortion practice in the southeast. Charlotte is one of the cities in North Carolina that has nearly a church on every major corner. How are these two facts possible? It’s because Christians have forgotten what they got saved from and what they got saved for. When a Christian culture is so influenced by the world and it’s values it ceases to be the children of God that Christ died for.  Israel had the same experience when they would forget the Lord their God and become like the culture they lived with. Time and again God would send prophets to confront such behavior and if Israel refused to repent God would send Israel into captivity to live under harsh domination and cruelty until they cried out to God to deliver them. Look what God said through the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 3:17-18                                                                                                                                                       

“Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 

Ezekiel 22:30                                                                                                                                                     

 “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. 

God calls every believer to share the “Good News” of God’s love and compassion, but he also calls us to share what breaks His heart. The whole point of encouraging people to repent is by revealing what we have done in our lives that offends God and puts us in harm’s way.  If people never hear what they are doing wrong they will never repent. In the modern church there is so much preaching about the mercy and kindness of God and I, for one, love to hear and see that, but when it is lopsided and out of balance without God’s warning for our thoughts and actions we preach a partial gospel that even God will not back up.

In 1997, over 2,000,000 men went to Washington D. C. for “Stand In The Gap” so they could stand for what they believe in and say to our nation that we have failed being the men God has called us to be and we declare we are now standing for men to be what God created us to be…..to love our wives and family…….to defend those around us who can not defend themselves……to stand for righteousness in our nation and challenge the nation to repent and change. I was there with 80+ men from my church in New York. We rode a train for hours to get to Washington along with hundreds of other men from all kinds of churches. One of the most moving moments of the whole weekend was seeing my son, who was about 15 years old, face down in the dirt next to the Washington Monument. To see my own son seeking God along with hundreds of thousands of other men saying “I Will Not Be Silent” was life changing.

When does God’s word become a motivator for action? When are we going to get uncomfortable to reach people with the love of God?  When Jesus ministered grace and truth to people it cost him his very life. If we don’t act in some way to communicate the love of God for what moves the heart of God how can we confess we are followers of Christ? The apostle Paul said it well when he challenged his spiritual son Timothy to pray with intention and focus.

1 Timothy 2:1-4                                                                                                                                              

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, [2] for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. [3] This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, [4] who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

First, we are called to pray for people in authority…..not general prayers, but specific ones.

Secondly, we need to realize that we are not just battling people’s thoughts and actions but demonic forces.

Ephesians 6:10-13                                                                                                                                     

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. [11] Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. [12] For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. [13] Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 

Christians who want to have an effective strategy in reaching their city should allow the life of God to emanate from their lives in the city they live. We need to be doers of the word and not hearers only!

65,000,000 million babies have been killed in the last 45 years since “Roe vs. Wade”.

Since Christians have been standing at this abortion clinic for the last 2-3 years in Charlotte the number of abortions has gone down from 50 a day to 11. What would happen if all who call on the name of Christ would show up at least once a week or once a month until the abortion clinic closed? Make no mistake that abortion clinics are in blindness to make money, not to help poor women. The owners of the one in Charlotte owns others in Raleigh and Greensboro, which makes about 4-5 million dollars. The world cries for the poor women when we should be standing for the poor babies.

Never forget that the word of God stands that “IF” we act God will also and “IF” we don’t, he won’t.

2 Chronicles 7:14                                                                                                                                            

“IF”my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 

Questions:

What did you do in the past because of loving God & people? Should you do it again?

Have you allowed the culture to make you soft in acting out your faith? Confess it to God.

May God help us all to revisit moments in the past that defined our love of God.

Pastor Dale