We all know the moving image of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima. The tremendous sacrifice it required. What it was for. But do we recognize that right now we are on a much more epic battlefield? With much graver consequences? Do we recognize that how we respond today is a story that will be told by future generations?
IT CAN'T BE PROCLAIMED LOUDLY ENOUGH: "The future of humanity passes by way of the family." (S.JP2)
Humanity will not be transformed if we reduce this humanity-defining truth to a nice, theological sentiment. If we are not profoundly challenged. If we do not honestly and humbly consider the light it casts on us.
A SIMPLE QUESTION: If we do not regularly devote substantial time in our homes to talking and praying, to creating a culture of Encounter, what hope do we have that our children will? And if not there, what hope have we for humanity?
In the past weeks where else have you devoted 45 minutes? What business, or sports, or entertainment, or even religious activity did you find important enough to commit? When's the last time you devoted the same to your spouse and children in your home? Which is more important?
WE GET IT! There's a TON of inertia. Devices. Schedules. Entertainment. Attitudes. Long seasons of disconnect. And in all this the enemy is smiling. The last thing he wants is for you to know and live in the superabundant power of family. The only answer to Evil, the absence of Good, is to “become what [we] are” (S.JP2): icons and instruments of Him Who is Good. This is God's defining purpose for marriage and family. Your family is God's "USIE"-- meant to reveal Him who IS LOVE to the world.
The Enemy does not want you to know that for the great poverty in the world, the living witness of your family is the Provision.
AND REALLY, in spite of our deepest resistance, fears, doubts, inadequacies, awkwardness, busyness... can we wait any longer?
Humanity's soul is now punctuated by an "adulthood" that sacrifices marriage and family in the name of comfort and selfish pursuit, legitimizes porn at early ages, elevates confusion and inclination to the status of gender, legitimizes using of others... and even condemns unborn children to death up to the very moment of birth. Celebrates it in fact.
GOD ALIVE IN OUR FAMILIES is a nuclear power, formidable enough to transform the world and bring about the Kingdom. So why are we allowing Satan to win with a pea shooter?
WHAT EXCUSE HAVE WE TO WAIT ANY LONGER in putting the flag in the sand of our homes?
Don't wait to feel it. Don't wait for it to be easy. Don't wait for it to be popular. Like every saint throughout history your call is precisely found in your reservation. Your resistance. Without which it wouldn't be faith. Connect with and draw upon your deepest heart that KNOWS you and your family were made for more. That KNOWS both the appointing and anointing you've been given. That KNOWS there is nothing more important.
That KNOWS you can no longer wait.
THE GREATEST PROOF OF GOD'S FAITH IN YOU: HE MADE YOU A PARENT. God has entrusted you with your spouse. With your children. With your world. And He's given you the Flag. He's asking you to put it in the sand of your home. To slay digital beasts. To slay doubt and discomfort in authentic faith-filled relationships. To slay the lying whispers that reinforce a jaundiced vision of who you are and what you're about.
God has given you the Flag to recover territory.
To claim more territory.
READ ABOUT MISSION ONE HERE. View the 37 second video. Read the one-pager. Then sign up HERE.
