Last Tuesday night I had the unfortunate opportunity to sit in front of a new building with three of my closest friends, brothers and co-laborers; the building, when finished, would be the largest of it's kind on the entire east coast . . . It was a strip club, with it's construction nearly finished. Worst of all--it's in our neighborhood, roughly a mile from the church and when it's complete, our neighborhood will be sandwiched by two strip clubs.And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.Acts 4:3-4
In the midst of our silent disgust, one of the men our caravan said, "This is going to ruin a lot of families . . ." My initial reaction was anger. I wanted to burn it down. I hate the array of sinful, wicked possibilities that an establishment like this presents--hate them. My feelings moved from anger to sorrow and a lump crept up in my throat, "God. Sin is killing people. It's killing them. This is going to kill people God." (Rom 6:23) I was grieved. All of those feelings happened in about a minute or two. Then, another thought came to mind; it was a verse. It was several verses actually, one of them being the verse I quoted from Acts 4. Have you ever had several verses from Scripture flash before your mind all at the same time; kind of like clicking through slides super-fast so that you only get a glimpse of each, then those glimpses produce a single thought? It was like that. The thought that this "slide show" brought forth was an optimistic one--The Spirit of God, particularly the Gospel, tends to thrive in situations like this, doesn't it? Satan means things for bad, for ruin and for misery and God uses them for good.
Isn't this the constant picture in Scripture and even today in places like China and Africa? As I've done my best to keep up with and pray for the growth of the church in China and Africa (and other places as well) it seems that the general report is that people are doing anything and everything to stop it (the Gospel and the growth of the Church) and the more they kill and arrest, and maim, the more the Church grows stronger, and bigger, and bolder, and fervent!
So, I sat in the mini-van thinking, "Why can't that be the case here? Aren't these the kinds of things, with fervent and laboring prayer and Gospel proclamation, that precede revival?"
Picture it: men and women, coming to Jesus as a result of the biggest strip club in the east coast dropping down on the edge of Northeast Philadelphia. People saying, "That place was destroying my marriage, my sexuality, my family, my health, but praise God! I once was blind and now I see! I hate my sin and I love God and His righteousness and His grace that was bought for me with the blood of His Son Jesus!" Isn't that the way the Gospel works? Doesn't thrive and flourish in the face of what seems like real opposition? The truth is, nothing stops the Gospel because it is indeed, the power of God (Rom 1:16,17).
I have been made a minister of the Gospel. In the jar of clay that is my body, I carry the greatest treasure in the entire world. A treasure that outshines money, success, fame, family, vane glory and good looks and every strip club and porn shop on the face of the planet.
God, please give me the courage and love to be a light, with the rest of your saints, shining in the darkness of this wicked city. Give us a sense of urgency and obligation as ones who carry the Truth in our hearts and minds. Help us to see, increasingly that our lives are not our own and that we're free to give and give away because we will (and do) own everything when everything is made new. We've been born again, for the purpose of making you look beautiful in a world where people think wicked things are beautiful. Give us grace Father, so that we can make you look beautiful with our lives and proclaim your Gospel with our mouths so that people who think that strip clubs are beautiful will be given eyes to see that You are the most glorious, most infinitely precious treasure in all the world. For from you, through you and to you are all things. To you be glory forever.
Amen
