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Exceptional?
Nearly three
quarters of Americans move every five years (wiki.answers).
What’s your
goal where you are today? Are you aiming to leave the front on
which you are fighting better than when you came? Are you
wanting to make sure that people will think kindly of you
after your departure?
Is that all?
You see, I’m
sick of the kind of epitaph like David got in 1 Kings 15:5;
“For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and
had not failed to keep any of the Lord’s commands all the days
of his life - except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.” A
wonderful bit of praise is followed by a sad exception. And
too many times the exception is the rule. ‘He is a
happy-go-lucky-guy but as shallow as a
puddle.’ ‘She
is good in public but she never visits.’ ‘She prays like
Jackie Pullinger but she couldn’t find Malachi in the Bible if
her life depended on it.’ Sad exceptions to a basically good
life appear to be the rule. This is not a new phenomenon.
You read
through 2 Kings and run into a bunch more exceptions. Joash
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. However, the high
places were not removed (see 12:3,4 NIV). Amaziah did what was
right in the eyes of the Lord... The high places, however,
were not removed (see 14:3,4). Azariah did what was right in
the eyes of the Lord... The high places, however, were not
removed (see 15:3,4 - yes, I copied and pasted). These guys
were all seen as good men of God. If they were officers today,
they would have left with the corps bigger than when they
came. If there were soldiers, they'd have left their Sunday
School class healthy and a financial gap from the departure of
their cartridge. They’d be popular, well thought of, and
missed. Yet, none of them dealt with the high places.
Are you willing
to settle for the reports on Joash, Amaziah, and Azariah?
Are willing to go into a place, do a ‘good’ job, leave the
place better than when you arrived, do your duty, but not deal
with the high places? That’s what is going on far too
frequently among the 3/4 of us who move every five years...
That is
definitely the temptation. Today, we don’t deal with the same
high places. Chemosh and Baal have been discarded along with
their asherahs and matstsebahs. Yet, high places remain. Our
battle remains, not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces
of evil, “in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV). We do our
fancy church growth shuffle, tap dance a bit to work up a
crowd, and all the time, the spiritual forces of evil in the
high places, sit by laughing at us, because we are no better
than Joash, Amaziah, and Azariah.
We must tear
down the high places. We must if we are ever going to fulfil
the mission of winning the world for Jesus. How can we allow
the high places to remain if we are trying to crown Jesus as
King?
There are
different high places in different regions. In one of the
cities we lived in - one of our 'five year' stints - spirits
of racial hate rule. In another the 'almighty buck' and its
pursuit was idolatrous. In The Salvation Army worship of
tradition is a high place we must tear down. I am told of a
congregation in which sexual promiscuity kept popping up in
each generation, because the spirit of promiscuity was not
kicked out. In our own lives their may be high places which
must be ruined through repentance. General Paul Rader says,
“The Salvation Army has been part of a great army of prayer
warriors... challenging the strongholds of Satan” (‘Call to
Prayer’). We need to engage in combat.
Exceptions need
not be the rule. And exceptional people and characteristics
need not be all negative.
Josiah did what
was right in the eyes of the Lord... not turning aside to the
right or the left (see 22:2). Josiah renewed the covenant in
the presence of the Lord - to follow the Lord and keep His
commands... with all his heart and all his soul... He removed
all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry
hosts. He burned them outside
Jerusalem... He did away with the pagan
priests... He took the Asherah pole... and burned it... He
ground it to powder... He pulled down the altars... He
desecrated the high places... (see 23:3-25). He had it
together spiritually, personally and in his area of authority.
He had no exceptions. God did have all his heart and all his
soul. That’s the remedy for negative exceptions. If Jesus
rules in our lives and corps, we won't be exceptional in a
negative way.
More than
likely there are high places, spiritual forces of evil, which
are wreaking spiritual havoc in your midst. Seek them out.
Pray them down. Desecrate them. Enthrone King Jesus in their
place. Let's be exceptional like Josiah.
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