Givin’ them a Show!

I was recently pulling out some old cd’s. I came across one of my favorites. Passion Revolution, songs from ONEDAY 03. There are only 2 songs on there that I can do without. All the others are awesome. Chris Tomlin’s “Take My Life” brings me to tears and a deeper urgency of commitment.

Staying on that same vein, I just finished reading “John’s Story, The Last Eyewitness” by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins. Wow, wow, I just have to say. . . WOW! What a great book. I totally felt convicted while I was reading it. Nah, not convicted, maybe driven to a greater commitment . . . that’s not really capturing my thoughts either. I never really comprehended what it would have been like for John on the isle of Patmos till I read this book. When ever I think of islands I think of the Caribbean, maybe because I’ve been there a few times. I would like to suffer for God in the Caribbean. Patmos is in the Mediterranean. I hung out in the Med for a few years when I was stationed in Italy. I’ve been to the Isle of Capri but that’s really an unredeemed story from the past so I won’t finish telling it. Back in John’s day Patmos was not a vacation haven, he wasn’t sent there to relax. Being raised in the “Word of Faith” movement I am so use to talking about going from glory to glory. In that I lose touch of the suffering that took place just to get the gospel out, the persecution that was dealt to those who penned phrases like ‘We are more than conquerors” or “resist the devil and he will flee”. I’m not volunteering to suffer or be persecuted, but I’m not backing down either. Heb 12:1 talks about the Great Cloud of Witnesses. The 1st generation church is now in that cloud. Let’s look at that scripture. Hebrews 12:1. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Whenever I read that I instantly think of Peter, Paul, John, & others sitting on big puffy marshmallow clouds playing harps and looking down every once in awhile. That’s not really what Heb 12:1 is talking about. The Greek word for cloud is nephos. It does carry the meaning of cloud but it also has another meaning. In ol’Greek times the word “cloud” was used to describe what we now call “the nose bleed” section of a stadium. Heb 12:1 says we’re surrounded all the way up in the “nose bleed section” by of those who went on before us. The word surrounded is taken from the Greek word “peikeimenai”. This word means something is piled high and on all sides of us. The best of what I can compare this to is the student section of Kinnick Stadium at the University o f Iowa. In ’02 my dad came up to Iowa to visit some family. Kesha and I took him to the Iowa/Michigan game. I waited too long to buy tickets and the only seats left were in the student section. The student section is crazy!! It is packed in there tighter than tight. Plus the only way to actually see the game is to stand on the bleachers because no one in that section sits, ever! I remember a fight broke out right behind us. I instantly jumped in the middle of these 2 knuckle heads to stop it because if they continued then the whole section would have fell. You would have heard about it on the news. That’s right, I stopped a potential tragedy; I’m something of a super hero! The next year when Mom & Dad came up they made sure that I bought tickets earlier and that it was as far a possible from the student section. Ever since then, when I read Heb 12:1 I think of the student section at Kinnick Stadium, heavenly saints stacked tighter than tight, standing on the bleacher s just to see me win. I’m gonna give them a show, not for the glory of me, but for the glory of God. This next statement might sound super prideful but really give it some thought. We are better equipped and better prepared than the saints before us. We have no reason to lose. We are better equipped because of their sacrifice to get the Gospel out. We are better prepared because of the life lessons that they taught both by word and action. We have no reason to lose. We have no reason to quit. Let’s give them a show, let’s give them something to cheer for. Let’s show them that the persecution they endured was not in vain. Most of all let’s do it for the same reason they did, all for the Glory of God.
Stay Blessed y’all, it’s your choice.