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| All-The-Gear-All-The-Time |
Judging
by the title of this post one might think I have put it up on the wrong blog
and that it belongs on Iron Side Up
rather than here at Calvary’s Thread.
While I have posted about gear in my biker/travel blog, I have this post in its
correct space.
As
a motorcyclist, I subscribe to ATGATT – All-The-Gear-All-The-Time. For the
bridge from biker reference to my Christian faith I refer to Ephesians 6:10-18:
10 Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put
on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the
devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that
when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you
have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with
the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of
righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet
fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In
addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God.
18 And
pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and
requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for
all the Lord’s people.
My
church, La Crescenta Presbyterian Church, adopted the following as part of our
mission statement:
“We are a community of imperfect people, united by God’s Spirit,
discovering new life in Christ. Our mission is to love God with all our heart,
love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and grow as disciples of Jesus, as we
make new disciples.”
There
is an idiom that comes to mind, “Be careful what you wish for.”
One
of my favorite westerns is “Tombstone” staring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. In a
pivotal scene, Marshall Earp is standing over Ike Clanton with a
double-barreled shotgun as he says, “All right, Clanton…you called down the
thunder, well now you’ve got it!”
We
have put up our mission statement on our website for billions of people with
internet access to see and read. We have called down the thunder and we had
best gear up.
I
am a part of the Pastor Nominating Committee now searching for a new pastor for
our church. Almost without exception of the dozens of pastors we have
interviewed, they have pointed to our mission statement as something that
attracts them to us. There is more to the mission statement than I quoted here
but this is the piece they point out and tell us that this is what the church,
any church, should be all about.
Invariably,
the pastor God has called to us and for whom we search for will be passionate
about growing disciples who will make new disciples and they will “call down
the thunder” for us to rise to the challenge. Speaking for myself, I had better
gear up and put aside any qualms I have about sharing my faith or teaching
others and helping them grow in Christ. I cannot go out and buy this armor at
my local Christian Book Store – it is ‘the full armor of God’. It’s His, and by
grace, He offers it to me.
A
pastor so ardent for the Gospel, for the deepening of discipleship in their
church, and for making disciples in a broken world will want a community of
faith which knows this requires a total commitment on a 24X7 basis; nothing
half-hearted, half-lived, or half-baked. And because ‘we are a community of
imperfect people’ we will need the great blessing of His Grace ‘in good
measure, pressed down and overflowing’ (Luke 6:38, KJV).
Be
alert and gear up people!
In
His grip and in His armor,
jerry
