3. Revolutionized from Within
chapter three
Revolutionized from Within
As I write this chapter, the small island nation of Sri Lanka, located off the southeastern tip of India, has been in the throes of civil war for decades. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been butchered as two separate races fight for what they both believe is rightfully theirs. These groups are involved in terrorist, guerrilla-type warfare, ruthless in their attacks and committed to their cause.
Countless Sri Lankans have fled the island and the violence, seeking refuge in India. Many national missionaries minister to these refugees, who have lost literally everything in order to escape with their lives. On one of my visits to a refugee camp in the early 1990s, my eyes were opened to the horrible reality of what war could do. I saw 10-by-12-foot rooms with bare concrete walls, no cooling or heating, no running water, no windows and only a door for ventilation and light. I saw 30 or more people crammed into each room. I honestly do not know how a person can survive in those conditions.
As we went from room to room, the missionary pointed out certain people to me: “That man is a medical doctor. His wife and children were killed. See him? He’s a lawyer. That one over there is a teacher. ...”
I looked around and saw men and women who had lived in the upper class of their society, now brought to ruin by the war. The doctor sat in a corner wearing the only piece of clothing he owned; he was dirty, unshaven and looked depressed. I am sure he was dreaming of his wife and children, lamenting that they were no longer with him.
Who killed the people? Who drove them out? Terrorists so bent on achieving their goal that they would stop at nothing, ready even to die for their cause. I am told that many of them carried a cyanide pill for use if they were captured by their enemies. I read in an Indian newspaper that 30 to 40 of these terrorists died in one month’s time. They were caught and arrested but committed suicide before anyone could gather any information.
Recently I read about the recruiting practices of one of the groups. Four or five members would drive a jeep into a remote but populous part of the country and set up loudspeakers in the public market that blared out their message to the people. Finally, when a large crowd had gathered, the group would make an announcement like the following:
“We challenge you young people to come forward and give your lives for this cause. We challenge you parents to give up your sons. We challenge you mothers to offer your children for our people, and you will remember forever a people who laid down their lives for the future of our nation.”
I can scarcely believe this, but I read in the article that young people would step forward, and mothers pushed their 13- and 14-year-old sons forward, saying, “Go, go!” Then the group would load the recruits into the jeep and drive off, never to be seen again.
These terrorists were fully and completely committed to a kingdom here on earth—a kingdom that will eventually totter and perish. As Christians, we live for a heavenly kingdom that will last forever. The radical commitment of these terrorists should inspire and challenge us, and it helps us answer the question we asked in the last chapter: How do we live as world revolutionaries?
Living Out the Embarrassing Implications
Though their focus was earthly and their methods often cruel, the guerrillas from Sri Lanka demonstrate an important principle for us to learn from. It is the first of three principles I offer to help us become spiritual revolutionaries, men and women like those from the book of Acts who have heard the call of God: We must live according to what we know from Scripture, committed to a heavenly kingdom, so that our lives affect not only our home and community, and perhaps our state and country—but also the entire earth.
My son, Daniel, has always been fascinated with how things work. One of his favorite things to do is to take something apart and tinker with it. He is always inventing, or reinventing, some little gadget. One of his attempts as a young boy was to reinvent firecrackers. He would break the heads off some matches, roll them up in paper and light it, hoping for an explosion.
I never did see one of those “firecrackers” actually explode. On the outside each one looked like a firecracker, but it did not act like one. Why not? Because what Daniel rolled up lacked the explosive charge of a true firecracker.
We said in the last chapter that we know too much. We know about the Gospel but we do not give ourselves to its life-changing implications. Knowledge brings responsibility. Implementing our knowledge of the Gospel is not easy, but it does no good for us to look right on the outside but lack true power within. Just like Daniel’s firecrackers, we will be duds.
The Bible is full of illustrations of two groups of people—those who know the truth and say, “Lord, Lord,” but who demonstrate by their very lives that they do not really mean it; and those who say, “Lord, Lord,” and follow His footsteps. The second group are the people who have counted the cost, who look straight at the cross and gladly accept the inconveniences, pain and price they must pay to follow the Lord.
We read about these people of faith in Hebrews 11. Their faith cost them everything but they changed the course of their generation. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters, “Active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often [a man] feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”
How true this is! God’s Word says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).
A.W. Tozer wrote in his book The Root of the Righteous:
We can prove our faith by our committal to it, and in no other way. Any faith that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief; it is a pseudo belief only. And it might shock some of us profoundly if we were brought suddenly face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living.
Many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications.
So wide is the gulf that separates theory from practice in the church that an inquiring stranger who chances upon both would scarcely dream that there was any relation between them. An intelligent observer of our human scene who heard the Sunday morning sermon, and later watched the Sunday afternoon conduct of those who had heard it, would conclude that he had been examining two distinct and contrary religions.
Christians habitually weep and pray over beautiful truth, only to draw back from that same truth when it comes to the difficult job of putting it in practice.
When we hear the New Testament with willing, open hearts, the Gospel will penetrate our very lives and break them open, energizing our eyes, our ears, our hands, our legs—every part of us. And when we allow the Gospel to energize us, we become vessels in the Lord’s hands, pouring out our prayers, finances, reputation, lifestyle—and ultimately our very lives.
Superstars Need Not Apply
Do we have to be “somebody” to hear the call of God and make a difference? In my own life I have seen time and again how God uses “nobodies.” Sometimes I feel insecure. At other times I feel overwhelmed with all that I know needs to be done. Again and again I struggle and fail.
Where do I go when this happens? To the cross! How many times? Many times a day, if needed. The cross is the place where I can go and say, “Lord, I am Yours, along with all my weaknesses. But Your grace alone is what I need to serve You.”
Perhaps you feel you are useless to the Lord, that you are not good enough, or that you have already wasted your life. But you are still in His hand. Don’t you know that every day with Jesus is a new beginning? The Lord never condemns you or says, “Sorry, you didn’t make it.” His mercies, He tells us, are new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22–23). Whether you have lost 7 days or 70 years, the Lord says to you, “Return to me with all your heart. ... I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:12, 25).
The Lord does not ask you to be a success or a superstar. In fact, if you truly desire to be a world-changer, here is the second principle: Give your weaknesses to God so He can use you. All He requires is a weak, brokenhearted child who will surrender at the foot of the cross.
Look at Gideon’s life. The army of the Midianites had invaded Israel and were plundering everything in sight. We are told that “Midian ... impoverished the Israelites” (Judges 6:6). Gideon was threshing his wheat in a winepress to hide it from the army when an angel suddenly appeared to him. Did the angel say, “You scared rat, you good-for-nothing runaway”? No, he told Gideon, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior” (verse 12).
Gideon probably thought, Who’s he talking to? It couldn’t be me. Doesn’t he see I’m hiding from the Midianites? He must know I’m scared to death.
But even though that was the way Gideon saw himself, in God he was strong. How? “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6; see Joel 3:10).
No More Games
The other day I saw a painting that brought tears to my eyes. It was a nighttime scene with a little boy asleep in his bed. He was clutching his teddy bear as he slept peacefully. And there beside the bed was his father, kneeling and praying for him.
As I looked at that picture, I thought of the many times I have knelt beside my son’s bed and prayed, “O God, let him live for You.”
God is calling all of us to live for Him, to pour ourselves out for others. Become a spiritual revolutionary! Here is the third principle: Live your life with the same heartfelt urgency the father in the picture felt for his son.
Do you have a family member who does not know Jesus? Begin to pray for him or her. Commit yourself to fast. Pray for your children, your co-workers, your community, for the world. Half the world has never heard the name of Jesus. Eighty thousand people per day are plunging daily into hell! We must change the course of our generation. And we can do it.
How? A few more dollars?
Money will help, of course. But before you even think about giving more money, your heart must be broken for the lost. Are you tired of fooling with the world? Living just like everybody else? Do you want to hear the call and be a revolutionary for the Lord?
Come before the presence of the Lord and tell Him you are ready to stop playing games. No more pretend Christianity; you mean business. Commit yourself to living for, not just knowing about, another kingdom—God’s kingdom. Tell Him you are no longer satisfied with knowing all the answers. Now you want to make some serious decisions for your life, starting today, by His grace. This is a new day for you to begin making changes in those areas of your life that you have not yet surrendered to the Lord. And I can assure you, His grace is sufficient.
Stop being satisfied with your own little society. Take the time to learn to pray. Commit your life daily for the sake of His kingdom. Begin to invest your life in a lost and dying world. If you want to be a world revolutionary, if you want to live for another kingdom, then your service for the Lord can never be just a few hours of work every day. It must be your life.
Tens of thousands of workers must be sent to the harvest fields, and senders are needed to pray for and support them. Broadcasts need to be aired to the unreached nations. Millions of Bibles need to be distributed. What is missing? People willing to pray, to stand behind those who have gone to the mission field, even to go themselves.
God is not looking for strong, rich, confident people. He is looking for those willing to live according to what they know, committed to a heavenly kingdom, who come to Him with their inadequacies and weaknesses, ready to be filled with His power and live with heartfelt urgency to change the world. He is looking for you.
That leads us to the ultimate secret that enables us to hear and respond to the call of God.