Recognise the quote?
Popeye.
He took 'stuff' in his stride. He had a long fuse. On most occasions he was the epitome of calm, cool and collected. But if it looked like something would happen to his believed Olive Oyl, then his blood pressure would skyrocket, and his anger would begin to boil. He'd take it as long as he could, but once his long fuse burned up, Popeye would blurt out the words
"That's all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!"
What happens when we reach the point where we "can't stands no more"?
The above is basically a paraphrase of an article in this month's Christianity magazine. The headline on the front cover "Sparking Holy Discontent", announcing this very article.
I'd already had the phrase 'holy discontent' rolling around my head for days. And now this.
It may sound out of context (I've read the article so I know where it's coming from), but this is the summing up section:
"What puts the "holy" in holy discontent?...
(Bill Hybels as part of the article looks at the 'gory Egyptian murder scene' in Exodus)...
I think the reason I was so fired up was because
I finally had some supernatural substance to feed the vexing question I'd
wrestled with for two years. Based on the Moses account, my 'firestorm of
frustration' theory was starting to hold water. I mean, here
you have a massive, history altering turn of events that gets the people freed
from hundreds of years of spiritsquelching, slavery and yet the whole deal can be
traced back to a simple alliance between God and one normal everyday, earthbound
human being who happened to find himself stirred up by the exact same thing
that stirred up the heart of his Creator.I've come to refer to the powerful, spiritual
congruence that connected Moses to the priorities of God, as his "holy
discontent", and it's a concept that works in our modern world as well.
Still today, what wrecks the heart of someone who loves God is often the very
thing God wants to use to fire them up to do something that, under normal
circumstances, they would never attempt to do. Whoever you are, you can
join God in making what is wrong in this world right! And it all starts
with you finding your holy discontent; it begins with you determining what it is
that you just can't stand."There are too many people at Romford who 'can't stands it no more' . And we've run out of tissues at the mercy seat!It's time to fight
4 comments:
Yes, Dawn, I am with you.
This blog has just shown me that God may be already answering some of my prayers, (even before I pray them). I will explain later, but suffice it to say that I am glad your reaction is one of being determined to fight.
It is time to fight. I am fed up with satan and his attempts to stop Romford corps from being as effective in the Kingdom as it could be with the power of God at its core. I can't' stands no more.
Popeye also used to say, "I yam what I yam, and that's all I yam"!
Well, nor Romford. We are what we are, but we can be much more if we let (and ask) the spirit of God take over.
I'm ready to fight.
As Richard would say....what does this fight look like for You then ? You know, well I would hope you all know, that Richard and I are totally committed to the corps both in Love and in Prayer we are here. We don't have all the answers, we can't do it alone - but we all have each other and most importantly we have God on our side...blessing, waiting to bless and waiting to bless some more !
I guess the 30th will answer a lot of questions like that for us.
At the risk of being a voice of caution, which I'm not normally, I am convinced that God has given us a vision and I am glad that we are being mobilised, but I also think we need to be aware that our fight must be against satan and his evil tricks and that's who the enemy is - it's not who he might be using at the moment, and some people's 'issues' are more than issues to them - they are an intrinsic part of who they are. Let those who have been stirred, past and present, fight with integrity and humility, and never loose sight of all of the 'others' including those inside of our fellowship. There are those who will be called to miniter directly to those people and those who have been called to reach out. 'The battle belongs to the Lord' - that's out of the bible somewhere (!)
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