He set his feet in the dust and grit
his teeth. This was the moment it all
came to. All the pain, all the training,
all the sacrifice came down to this day.
To his left and right stood men of courage and steadfast will like his
own. These were men he loved and aspired
to be like. He had never told them, but
he wanted to make them proud today. He
wanted to stand tall with them and show them he was worthy to stand with them
in this battle.
The horn blows, and the training kicks
in. It feels like instinct as every
shield locks into place with the shields on either side. They form a shield wall, a barrier of steel
against the oncoming horde.
“Spears!” Immediately seven foot
poles fitted with steel spearheads emerge from the shield wall.
He grips the shaft of his spear
tightly as he levels the weapon toward the enemy. This is the instrument that will do the
damage. This is the tool by which the
enemy will fall. By this spear the
mission will be accomplished!
It is the weapon that has had the most
impact in war since the beginning of time.
It has even been used as recently as the 19th Century. It is
a simple weapon made of two parts: the
shaft and the blade. Both can be
somewhat effective by themselves. The
blade can do damage. The shaft can
strike at range, but when you put them together, you have a weapon of
substantial power.
The spear is the mission! The mission that God has put us on in this
world is to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations!” (Matthew 28:19a). When it comes to people, there are two parts
of the mission, just like there are two parts of the spear. You must have a team of people that feel the
call of God to go. This is the
blade. They will bring the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus to where it needs to hit and make the impact. There it will pierce hearts and change
lives. The other part is the shaft. These are the people that pray for and
provide financially for those who go.
They make it possible for the team to reach across continents and help
them to be effective. The shaft gets the
blade where it needs to be to do damage to the kingdom of darkness. “For the weapons
of our warfare are not of the
flesh but have divine power to
destroy strongholds” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
You
are called to be part of the spear as God has called you to go forth and make
disciples. You are to be the blade
wherever you are while others are praying for you to be effective where you
are. Maybe you are called to be the
blade in a distant place where the rest of the church will be the shaft that
gets you there. Maybe you are called to
be part of that shaft, in prayer or in both prayer and financial support, which
will send the blade further than it could have gone without you.
We
have multiple mission opportunities on the horizon at Eastlake. We will be starting some mission work in our
local communities before the end of the year, and the United Kingdom mission
will continue next summer. Pray and ask
God what part He would have you play in the mission to reach this world with the
light of Jesus Christ.
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