SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #156 ---- 1/8/01
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We Fight The Good Fight in A New Millenium
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #156 ---- 1/8/01
TITLE: "REACHING MY CITY" (#2 ---- "Fundamental Principles About City
Searchers" A)
My Dear Co-Laborer and Friend In Ministry:
Well, here are two other "firsts" for me ---- writing to you from the
great Ukrainian city of Kiev in the former Soviet Union, and writing on
an old Mac Powerbook, unable to configure my own laptop to work with the
local ISP. (I wonder if Paul ran into communications problems?)
Before I get right to the point, let me say that if you've written to me
in the past week, I'm not avoiding you ---- I just have been unable to
access my e-mail since a week ago on December 31st; we've been
constantly traveling from Monday through Friday, unable to get to any
computer, and since arriving in Kiev on Friday afternoon, too busy to
get to the school's computers and unable to configure mine.
So, I promise that just as soon as possible I'll get to what I know will
be probably 100 or more messages and spend some time catching up. In
the meantime, be assured I haven't forgotten you.
A VIEW OF A CITY:
Sunday was a profound day for me. I got a picture of a city like none
I've ever had before. I had expected to write today about Kiev, but I
will not. Let me tell you about Brusliova (I hope my spelling is
correct).
It used to be a sleeply little village of just a thousand or so. But,
that was before Chernobyl, some 130 miles north. Today it is a town of
some 16,000 people ---- many of them seriously ill, most of them
unemployed.
When the tragic nuclear accident at Chernobyl took place, the officials
tried to keep it quiet. Finland, because they were concerned about
Denmark's nuclear testing, had the equipment to monitor radiation
increases, and they caught the situation immediately but, not wanting to
upset Moscow, kept it quiet. I'm not certain, but I think it was either
Sweden or Denmark who finally broke the news that there was a problem.
By that time the contaminated clouds had covered much of eastern,
central, and northern Europe. Radiation contamination was proportional
to its proximity to Chernobyl. The toxic metals such as lead, mercury,
chromium, etc., blanketed hundreds of thousands of square miles of
populace and land.
The people in and around Chernobyl had their destiny sealed.
The government divided that region into three major zones. Zone One was
ground zero where just about everyone would be forever changed. Those
people were evacuated. Zone Two was an area where people were not told
the full truth, but were encouraged to move. Zone Three, which includes
Kiev, was classified as having radiation, but not seriously life
threatening.
However, in both Zones Two and Three people began to get sick. Those in
Zone Two began to migrate out, going either to other countries, or at
least as far as Zone Three. It was a migration of massive proportion
that communities could not absorb.
That's what changed Brusliova.
The government began building housing for the people of Chernobyl,
inviting them to live in Brusliova.
And they came by the hundreds, even the thousands, until the population
swelled to over 16,000. However, the nuclear catastrophe had done more
than just contaminate the area ---- it had caused the closing of the
textile mill and most other local industries.
With the loss of industry and jobs and the swell of population, the
outcome was inevitable ---- 90% today, in fact.
Now, what would you do in a situation like that? Many of us would try
to head to some sunny opportunity of ministry.
Not so, however, for four young single men who were students at St.
James Bible College in Kiev. Soon to graduate, they decided to move to
Brusliova and start a church.
Not just any church, but a church that would be built on the principle
of taking a territory through prevailing prayer and strategic ministry.
And, not just "a" church, but several churches. In fact, their strategy
was to establish a church in Brusliova that would be known as "the house
of prayer" for the entire region and would serve as the mother church
giving eventual birth to a new church in every one of the more than
thirty towns and villages in the surrounding areas.
Radiation and contamination were not a problem. Instead, they became
the reason for going, and even created the opportunity for ministry.
Yesterday I drove the streets of Brusliova ---- muddy, some paved and
some not, bordering acre upon acre of "cookie cutter" houses, some
vacant and some occupied, and empty building sites. Scraps of building
materials, worn out machinery, and incompleted projects dotted the
landscape.
I visited in the homes of Brusliova ---- and found loving, caring,
hurting, desperate, but thoroughly hospitable and serving people willing
to give of their meager possessions. The average household income,
mainly from government pensions, is a paltry $18 US per month.
I attended church in Brusliova yesterday ---- and found those four young
men, three now married, courageously ministering not only in this town,
but in six others where they have started new churches.
It would be easy to tell you something of the three hour services that
morning, the sumptous meal prepared for the eleven of us on our team
along with our translator and two drivers, or the unbelievable sound of
that small twenty voice choir that out sang many college chorales.
What I'd rather do, though, is share my thoughts about what makes these
four guys tick ---- what has motivated them to reach their city.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES ABOUT CITY SEARCHERS:
I will not even consider trying to cover all the principles I have
learned when it comes to taking a city for Christ. Today I'll write
about just one or two.
In Judges 1:22-23 it says, "And the house of Joseph spied out Bethel.
And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him,
'Please show us the entrance to the city . . .'."
Now, friend, that may sound like an innocent or incidental request, but
at its very heart are several fundamental truths that we must not
overlook.
1. These men had a specific interest in Bethel. While it was not the
only city of their interest, it was a strategic one; and that fact
caused them to have particular interest in it.
If you don't have a specific interest in your city, friend, you'll never
reach it for Christ. Your work will be just another time slot in your
life and another ministry site on your resume'.
2. Their interest was there because they had a specific agenda which
they had received from God. He had given them both the vision and the
agenda. It was to be a city taken by force for the glory of God.
Their agenda was . . .
1) A focused agenda. They knew which city, and they knew why it
needed to fall under their conquest. And their plan was well thought
out, even to the point of their initial excursion into its inner parts
to scout out the conditions.
2) It was a forceful agenda. They knew that, in this particular
situation, enemy hands would not turn loose easily. If they did not
turn loose at all, then God's kingdom purposes would go unfulfilled. It
was going to take force beyond their own, and it would cost more than
they could sacrifice.
But they were willing to go.
I saw this yesterday in these four young men. In talking with them it
became clear that they know their cities will not be won easily. In
fact, they've already had some significant battles that resulted in key
athiestic and Orthodox men of influence being moved out of the way
because the opposed God's agenda. Their story reads like something out
of the book of Joshua.
3) It was a fine tuned agenda. How do I know that? By the way they
carried out the entire process. They took step one, then step two, and
so forth. They knew their victory lay to a large extent with good
tactical planning based on accurate information.
3. They took time to study out the situation carefully, even to the
point of trying to find the way into the city. If they were going to
take the city for God, they had to find the entrance ---- and the right
one, at that.
How many times have you and I tried to take our cities from afar or from
"outside" where we can bombard from a distance without actually having
to see the miserable conditions and hear the desperate cries of those in
bondage there.
We spend all our time outside the walls, tossing spitwads with pop guns,
trying to free people in bondage to the chains of sin and death held
captive by the second most powerful personage in the spirit world.
I think maybe it's time for some of us to ask someone on the inside to
show us the entrance to the city. Don't you think so?
FINALLY:
You may be wondering about the outcome of the church in Brusliova.
Well, soon after the chaos of Chernobyl allowed, and shortly following
their graduation, all four of these guys moved there. They began, first
of all, to pray over the city, asking God to break the spiritual bondage
that was there and release His power and mercy over the place.
They were rejected, ridiculed, threatened, and resisted by local
citizens and city leaders. They were classified as a cult sowing heresy
among the people by both former communists, athiests, and Orthodox.
Little by little, however, converts were made, and a small band of
believers began to develop. Working without pay, these young men
faithfully planted seed and cultivated soil.
It became apparent they needed a building. Not for themselves, but
simply to gain acceptance and recognition in a culture that expected an
external representation of the message they proclaimed.
The officials resisted ---- even refused. And were removed by the hand
of God, one by one, until a favorable forum gave them permission to
secure a plot of ground on which to build.
However, with no money, what do you do?
Pray and obey, of course.
Often you must take the first step ---- obedience ---- before God takes
over. So they began preparation to build the "House of Prayer".
God began to move in the hearts of fellow Christians and even local
unbelieving business men.
And, with no money of significance, and almost no help outside of their
own struggling congregation, a building is on site. Still incomplete
and surrounded by primitive scaffolding made of limbs and logs, a
testimony of God's faithfulness and power has begun to rise.
We met yesterday in the cramped basement room ---- some 100 of us or
more ---- and celebrated the birth of Jesus on Orthodox Christmas Day,
January 7. The House of Prayer is taking shape and the people of God
are taking action.
The congregation of less than nine years has some 100 members and a
building ---- and six other towns and villages have exiting churches
begun by these young men. They are well on their way to seeing their
vision realized ---- and are willing to stay for the duration.
Friend, I don't know if they verbalized it quite this way, but I can
tell you they surely did ask to find the entrance to their city.
And God showed them.
Do you love your city?
Do want to get in instead of trying to reach them from the outside? You
see, God doesn't want "them" to come out; He wants you to go in!
Are you willing to look for the key entrance?
If you find it, will you be willing to go in?
That's where you'll find what you need to know if you want a fruitful
ministry characterized by God's power and His miraculous activity where
you live.
Let's go to Brusliova. People there need healing, deliverance,
salvation, . . . . hope!
Let's find the entrance to the city.
In Christ's Bond,
Bob Tolliver, Exec. Dir
Life Unlimited Ministries
Copyright January, 2001. All rights reserved.
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Hang in there! I'm with you!
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