The 1993 Mississippi river floods brought a Colonel with boys from a prison work camp to bolster levees in danger of collapsing. He marched them in. They went to work. They worked hard. Their work failed in the end because the levee wouldn't hold and began leaking and threatened to break and drown them all.
Nevertheless, he refused to let them run away. He instead ordered them into formation and marched them out, unafraid. He marched them in to work. And when their work failed he marched them out prepared to work elsewhere. A sobering truth faces Christians: we sometimes lose, fail, experience a sound beating. As we have in America, with its galloping immorality presently demanding freedom of anti-Biblical behavior. It's enough to make us question our role in society. Nevertheless, TAKE COURAGE Christians, to save what remains Revelation 3:2. And what remains is God's day of salvation in Christ; God's offer of grace to all who accept his Son; thus our opportunity to witness to those without hope Isaiah 55:6-7. Therefore, if we witness, with opposition, or without result, WE have succeeded. For our role is to witness, God's is to WIN the unsaved. We can trust him to faithfully mature his Word in human minds Isaiah 55:10-13. Can he trust us to seize opportunities to tell the unsaved Jesus loves them, Jesus died for them, Jesus will forgive their sins if they accept him? Whatever happens, particularly when we fail to see results when sharing the Gospel—and it will occasionally or often happen...Jesus orders us to march out, leaving as defiantly and confidently as we arrived. He won't have us slinking away dispirited. For the spiritual war between God and Satan has been decided John 16:33: God in Christ has Overcome! Maybe we think we can't serve Jesus because we haven't served him yet. Then we have the exciting experience of learning we can by trying. Maybe we've tired but failed. Then we have the delightful experience of trying again, knowing success or failure isn't the point. The point is making the effort for Jesus, who decides each contest we wage for him. And if our effort fails, we have discharged our responsibility and can trust Jesus to finalize it to his glory.
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