God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
The way we understand the Gospel will inform the way we do evangelism. The way we do evangelism will inform the way our hearers understand the Gospel. The way our hearers understand the Gospel will inform the way they live the Gospel. The way our hearers live the Gospel will have a direct bearing on the corporate witness of our churches in our communities. The corporate witness of our churches will in turn make our evangelism either easier or harder, depending on whether that witness is a help or a hindrance. And difficulty, or lack thereof, in evangelism will come to bear on our church planting efforts, which brings us back to laying foundations (Mark Dever and Paul Alexander).
Our hopelessness and our helplessness are no barrier to (God’s) work. Indeed our utter incapacity is often the prop He delights to use for His next act… We are facing one of the principles of Yahweh's modus operandi. When His people are without strength, without resources, without hope, without human gimmicks – then He loves to stretch forth His hand from heaven. Once we see where God often begins we will understand how we may be encouraged.
