Pastor Powell's Column

March 2008

Conquest

Israel, camped on the banks of the Jordan, contemplated a task so big that even today it still staggers the imagination. They were going to establish a new kind of civilization, the likes of which the world had never seen. They were not merely immigrants, moving from one place to another, to be absorbed into the new locale. No, they were going to establish a civilization from top-to-bottom – families, business, diet, ecology, worship, arts, whatever – a civilization that would be ordered by God’s revealed will. And their shining hope was the promise that somehow, in a way not yet clear to them, this civilization would one day bring blessing to every nation on earth.

God chose them for this. He chose them out of all the nations to be His treasured possession, to build something new. The raw material was not promising: a slave race, not chosen because they were strong or numerous or righteous. Israel was weak and small and hard headed. God spent several months getting the slaves out of Egypt, then forty years to get Egypt (its idolatry, unbelief, and corruption) out of the slaves.

Now they were prepared to start building something new that would be neither Egyptian nor Canaanite. It would be a nation ruled by the Creator God, where gradually His glory would shine more and more brightly.

It’s no wonder that the first time Israel faced this task at Kadesh Barnea, they backed down, overwhelmed by the obstacles and opposition, and the sheer immensity of what God called them to. “It can’t be done. We are nobodies. We were better off as slaves. This is insane.” All the voices agreed. Except two.

Joshua and Caleb saw God as bigger than the challenge. Their own generation scorned their vision. Now, a generation later, they are the only ones left to lead a new generation into the Land of Promise. Only those eyes that are fixed on the Promise can lead God’s people into God’s will.

Fast forward about 34 centuries.

We may now stand at the last chapters of this tale. Some of it has become clearer now. This month of March is a time when both Passover and Easter are observed. God called His nation out of slavery and His Son out of a tomb to bless the whole world. It hasn’t all been tidy. A glance at Biblical history and at church history shows that both Israel and the church have often been far from faithful to God’s plan.

Yet God’s plan moves ahead. Despite our hard-headed pride and self-serving rationalizations, God is calling out a people for Himself from every nation.

Now it’s our turn to stand on the shores of a vast, immeasurable challenge. This challenge is far bigger than any business enterprise or political ideology or scientific quest. God calls us to bring His Good News to every creature and to make disciples of all nations. Neither Coca Cola nor Operation Enduring Freedom can match that challenge! It is nothing less than the conquest of human hearts.

Start with your own heart: deep inside there’s an ongoing campaign of conquest when pride, lust, idolatry, materialism, bitterness and self-centered brokenness is to be displaced, and replaced by humility, love, healing, peacemaking, sacrifice, consecration, and faith. The challenge is to extricate us from the culture that saturates us, and to build a new inner civilization.

We call this enterprise the Kingdom of God.

Are we tempted to back down from this all-encompassing rule by God? The obstacles and opposition seem overwhelming at times. We can only move ahead by a faith that sees God as bigger than the challenge. This will be the vision before us as a church during our March weeks of Global Outreach Festival. Pray for GO-Fest.