But the war was being decided.
In the middle of the Atlantic, huge convoys of ships – 40, 50 ships at a time – were bringing over thousands of American jeeps, tanks, and trucks. Gasoline was being stockpiled. Ammunition was brought over to Britain. And troops – hundreds of thousands of young American troops were getting on ships in New York and getting off those ships in England. Thousands of airplanes were flying across the Atlantic.
It had not always been that way.
In June, 1940, just four years earlier, the British Army had left almost all their heavy equipment on the beach at Dunkirk, as they core of the British Army was loaded up on small boats and rescued from the Germany Army. The American Secretary of the Army George Marshall loaded a ship with 8 million rounds of ammunition and a hundred thousand rifles and sent it from New York to England because the British equivalent of the National Guard were practicing with broom handles because they didn’t have enough rifles. If a German invasion had come and made it to the beaches of Britain there would be little more than bird shot, sickles, and spears to stop the Germans.
In France, in Poland, in the Netherlands and Belgium, even in Germany itself, there were underground units, groups of 10 or 12 people who had learned how to spy, how to make small bombs that would destroy bridges and railroad tracks, how to cut telephone wires. They had trained and they waited, slowly growing in numbers, waiting for the coded messages that would come one night on the BBC Radio broadcast from London. They had first formed when the army was in retreat, and they had despaired many times as many countries were overrun by the Nazi’s, but they had survived. They had survived, practiced, and waited. And they waited.
Acts 10:44-48, Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6, John 15:9-17
But now, there was an army, a huge army backed by tanks, self-propelled artillery, and airplanes. There were a dozen battleships in the Atlantic, dozens of destroyers, and multiple aircraft carriers. The combined armies of America, Britain, and even the Free French, the Free Poles, and many other countries were building up and training in towns all over southwestern England. They were tired of playing defense – they were ready to go on the offensive, an offensive that would start one night in early June as the ships loaded up and sailed 20 or 30 miles to a place called Normandy. And that night, the coded messages would go out from London to the underground.
In ancient Israel, the people of God had played defense for an even longer time. A thousand years earlier, King David and then King Solomon had led the strongest kingdom in the Middle East by staying close to God. But the kingdom had divided, many of the people had turned from God, first the Northern kingdom of Israel was overrun, then the Southern Kingdom of Judah had been occupied, with the people being taken away into captivity to Babylon, 80 miles from what today is Bagdad.
Around 250 BC, things had improved for a while, the Jews had their own, independent kingdom under the Maccabees, but soon, the Romans had occupied the country, playing one local ruler off against another, as the agenda of different factions led them to fight each other more than they fought the Romans.
And then, Jesus came along. God had decided to start an underground.
For three years, Jesus trained His disciples. He taught them why He had come. He taught them how to treat each other. He taught them about their mission. And then, He was captured, tortured, and killed on the Cross. But then, He came back from death, talked to His disciples again, and it was like the underground had been unleashed.
Like the Nazi defenders of the Normandy beaches, like the train masters who couldn’t move troops because the tracks were blown up, like the Nazi generals who couldn’t get telephone messages, the evil that controlled the world of the Roman Empire didn’t know what was going on. God had decided to bring a full-scale underground into the world, and God was doing it through the hunger and thirst of ordinary people for freedom from sin.
The Christians took Jerusalem, then Samaria, then the coast of Palestine and began to spread their movement down into Egypt and Ethiopia. Groups of Christians moved north to Antioch, to the Island of Cyprus, throughout Greek-speaking Turkey and into Greece proper. A massive group of underground organizers, led by a man named Paul converged on Rome in the heart of the Empire, while other Apostle leaders moved East and even further West into Spain and France.
It took about 300 years, but the Roman Empire surrendered to Christianity when a general named Constantine became Emperor and declared Christianity to be the preferred religion of Rome.
Christ conquered the Roman Empire and then the rest of Europe. Christian missionaries conquered North and South America, and Africa south of the Sahara. They conquered Russia, the Philippines, South Korea, and parts of India. And today, after setbacks in Russia and China, they are coming forth in strength again in those lands.
Here in America, in West Virginia, in Harrison County – the enemy has recently strengthened. We Christians let down our guard for a generation.
We forgot that our training manual is this Bible and that we actually have to read to survive.
We forgot that two-way prayer is our communications and if we leave it set only to transmit we can never hear from Headquarters and God, our Central Commander.
We forgot how to use Holy Scripture as a sword to defeat evil, how to use faith as a shield against the attacks of evil, how to wear righteousness as a breastplate to defend our hearts. We became barracks soldiers, looking nice in our uniforms of suits and dresses, but utterly unable to fight the enemy.
And so we have almost lost our community to evil, particularly the evil of addiction.
Yet, over the last few years, some of you have learned again to read your Scripture. Some of you have learned how to use the radio of two-way prayer, listening to headquarters as well as simply sending requests to God.
Some of you are finding the power in Holy Scripture. Some of you are training your children well in those same scriptures, some of you have chosen to walk a more holy path, and many of you have developed your faith.
The night before His sacrifice, Jesus walked to the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples, a place filled with olive trees. As they walked, Jesus spoke to them and gave them His command:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other."
Perhaps this is our culture’s greatest deception that harms us more than anything else. We believe that we choose to follow Jesus. Jesus says that this is not true.
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you… "
Jesus chose each of us. We just thought we were choosing Him.
We were chosen for a mission. As Jesus put it, “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”
Consider whether you have followed Jesus' commands.
But now, there was an army, a huge army backed by tanks, self-propelled artillery, and airplanes. There were a dozen battleships in the Atlantic, dozens of destroyers, and multiple aircraft carriers. The combined armies of America, Britain, and even the Free French, the Free Poles, and many other countries were building up and training in towns all over southwestern England. They were tired of playing defense – they were ready to go on the offensive, an offensive that would start one night in early June as the ships loaded up and sailed 20 or 30 miles to a place called Normandy. And that night, the coded messages would go out from London to the underground.
In ancient Israel, the people of God had played defense for an even longer time. A thousand years earlier, King David and then King Solomon had led the strongest kingdom in the Middle East by staying close to God. But the kingdom had divided, many of the people had turned from God, first the Northern kingdom of Israel was overrun, then the Southern Kingdom of Judah had been occupied, with the people being taken away into captivity to Babylon, 80 miles from what today is Bagdad.
Around 250 BC, things had improved for a while, the Jews had their own, independent kingdom under the Maccabees, but soon, the Romans had occupied the country, playing one local ruler off against another, as the agenda of different factions led them to fight each other more than they fought the Romans.
And then, Jesus came along. God had decided to start an underground.
For three years, Jesus trained His disciples. He taught them why He had come. He taught them how to treat each other. He taught them about their mission. And then, He was captured, tortured, and killed on the Cross. But then, He came back from death, talked to His disciples again, and it was like the underground had been unleashed.
Like the Nazi defenders of the Normandy beaches, like the train masters who couldn’t move troops because the tracks were blown up, like the Nazi generals who couldn’t get telephone messages, the evil that controlled the world of the Roman Empire didn’t know what was going on. God had decided to bring a full-scale underground into the world, and God was doing it through the hunger and thirst of ordinary people for freedom from sin.
The Christians took Jerusalem, then Samaria, then the coast of Palestine and began to spread their movement down into Egypt and Ethiopia. Groups of Christians moved north to Antioch, to the Island of Cyprus, throughout Greek-speaking Turkey and into Greece proper. A massive group of underground organizers, led by a man named Paul converged on Rome in the heart of the Empire, while other Apostle leaders moved East and even further West into Spain and France.
It took about 300 years, but the Roman Empire surrendered to Christianity when a general named Constantine became Emperor and declared Christianity to be the preferred religion of Rome.
Christ conquered the Roman Empire and then the rest of Europe. Christian missionaries conquered North and South America, and Africa south of the Sahara. They conquered Russia, the Philippines, South Korea, and parts of India. And today, after setbacks in Russia and China, they are coming forth in strength again in those lands.
Here in America, in West Virginia, in Harrison County – the enemy has recently strengthened. We Christians let down our guard for a generation.
We forgot that our training manual is this Bible and that we actually have to read to survive.
We forgot that two-way prayer is our communications and if we leave it set only to transmit we can never hear from Headquarters and God, our Central Commander.
We forgot how to use Holy Scripture as a sword to defeat evil, how to use faith as a shield against the attacks of evil, how to wear righteousness as a breastplate to defend our hearts. We became barracks soldiers, looking nice in our uniforms of suits and dresses, but utterly unable to fight the enemy.
And so we have almost lost our community to evil, particularly the evil of addiction.
Yet, over the last few years, some of you have learned again to read your Scripture. Some of you have learned how to use the radio of two-way prayer, listening to headquarters as well as simply sending requests to God.
Some of you are finding the power in Holy Scripture. Some of you are training your children well in those same scriptures, some of you have chosen to walk a more holy path, and many of you have developed your faith.
The night before His sacrifice, Jesus walked to the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples, a place filled with olive trees. As they walked, Jesus spoke to them and gave them His command:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other."
Perhaps this is our culture’s greatest deception that harms us more than anything else. We believe that we choose to follow Jesus. Jesus says that this is not true.
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you… "
Jesus chose each of us. We just thought we were choosing Him.
We were chosen for a mission. As Jesus put it, “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”
Consider whether you have followed Jesus' commands.
Have you borne fruit?
Have you led others to know Christ? Children, adults, old people. Who have you led to Christ?
Jesus could have conquered this world with angelic power. He has told us in the Book of Revelation that this will happen someday. But until that day, we are the underground, the leading edge of the army of God that is conquering the world.
We are to conquer, not by weapons of steel, of gunpowder, and of atomic power, but by weapons of love, of peace, of kindness, of grace, of a better way of living, a way of trust, not force, of life, not death, of calmness, not violence.
Following Jesus’ Way, Christianity has conquered the hearts of a third of the world.
Our task, the fruit we are to bear, is really quite simple:
Do you know the story of Jesus Christ? Do you know that He loved you so much that – if everyone else in the entire world was okay, He would have died just to save you? Do you know that He did die to pay the penalties that you should have paid, that you couldn’t pay, the death sentence for your crime of rebellion against God the Father?
Do you know that He claimed to be God Himself and the people around Him understood this? Do you know that Jesus was executed for the crime of claiming to be equal to God, God Himself, the Son of God?
Do you know that He came back alive, that this was witnessed in over eleven separate occasions by over 500 witnesses, that a half dozen men put pen to paper to tell the story, that eleven of His twelve closest followers died violent deaths while holding to the story that He claimed to be God, that He died, and that He rose from the dead? The other one died of old age.
Do you read your Bible regularly? Do you practice two-way prayer, being sure to listen for the response of the Holy Spirit?
Have you learned to love all people, doing acts of kindness for absolutely all types of people, the worthy and the unworthy, the clean and the dirty, the ones like us and the ones who are different from us?
Have you learned to love all people by controlling your tongue, by speaking words that raise up instead of tear down, by speaking kindly instead of harshly, by telling stories of what Christ has done for you and your friends and what He could do for the person to whom you are talking?
This, my friends, is the path of holiness. This is the path that bears fruit. This is what Christ has asked us to do because this is what is holy and good for our souls. It is what is good for the world.
Have you led others to know Christ? Children, adults, old people. Who have you led to Christ?
Jesus could have conquered this world with angelic power. He has told us in the Book of Revelation that this will happen someday. But until that day, we are the underground, the leading edge of the army of God that is conquering the world.
We are to conquer, not by weapons of steel, of gunpowder, and of atomic power, but by weapons of love, of peace, of kindness, of grace, of a better way of living, a way of trust, not force, of life, not death, of calmness, not violence.
Following Jesus’ Way, Christianity has conquered the hearts of a third of the world.
Our task, the fruit we are to bear, is really quite simple:
- We are to connect people to the underground, to the Love of God through Jesus Christ. In this way, we Love God.
- We are to train the people of the underground to read the Word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit so they will receive their full instructions from God.
- And we are to Love each Other.
Consider what you have learned:
Do you know that He claimed to be God Himself and the people around Him understood this? Do you know that Jesus was executed for the crime of claiming to be equal to God, God Himself, the Son of God?
Do you know that He came back alive, that this was witnessed in over eleven separate occasions by over 500 witnesses, that a half dozen men put pen to paper to tell the story, that eleven of His twelve closest followers died violent deaths while holding to the story that He claimed to be God, that He died, and that He rose from the dead? The other one died of old age.
Do you read your Bible regularly? Do you practice two-way prayer, being sure to listen for the response of the Holy Spirit?
Have you learned to love all people, doing acts of kindness for absolutely all types of people, the worthy and the unworthy, the clean and the dirty, the ones like us and the ones who are different from us?
Have you learned to love all people by controlling your tongue, by speaking words that raise up instead of tear down, by speaking kindly instead of harshly, by telling stories of what Christ has done for you and your friends and what He could do for the person to whom you are talking?
This, my friends, is the path of holiness. This is the path that bears fruit. This is what Christ has asked us to do because this is what is holy and good for our souls. It is what is good for the world.
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