CARLTON BYRD
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Back to Basics<br />
A Partnership With Jesus<br />
While walking along 42nd street in New York City, a preacher saw a<br />
well-dressed man sitting on the sidewalk, face buried in his hands. He thought the poor fellow had slipped,<br />
fallen, and hurt himself, so he quickly walked over to help him.<br />
As the preacher came closer, he thought he recognized the man. When he got to where the man sat, he<br />
realized he did know him. It was the devil himself.<br />
The preacher said, “Devil, what are you doing, sitting here like this? You’re always busy breaking up marriages,<br />
corrupting governments, committing random acts of evil.”<br />
To this the devil replied with a sigh, “Hardly anyone is resisting me these days. They’ve left me nothing<br />
to do; everything’s going my way.”<br />
Everything seems to be going the devil’s way when we consider the news of the past 12 months here<br />
in the United States. During the hurricane season—June to November—tornadoes and hurricanes<br />
took more than 330 lives, leveled towns, and cost billions of dollars in property damage. Fifty percent<br />
of marriages, both in the church and the world, ended in divorce, while 34 percent of unwed<br />
teens had at least one pregnancy before turning 20. Untold numbers of abortions were performed,<br />
as our nation ranked second behind Russia in this killing field. Horrific mass murders occurred<br />
in a Colorado theater (July), at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin (August), at a manufacturing plant in<br />
Minnesota (September), and in the unthinkable nightmare in Newtown, Connecticut (December);<br />
not to mention more than 500 killed in Chicago, mostly teens, in this diabolical culture of violence. *<br />
Everything is going Satan’s way, or so it seems.<br />
Are we going to sit in our comfortable congregations this year and sing, “The Lord is in His holy<br />
temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him”? Or are we going to stand up for Jesus as soldiers of<br />
the cross and cry out against the consuming evil and change the world? We have the authority of God<br />
embodied in the divine commission of Matthew 28:19, 20.<br />
This commission is also a co-mission, a partnership with Jesus in His mission to relentlessly seek<br />
and save the lost (Luke 19:10). It is a co-mission that calls us to depend on Jesus to overcome evil with<br />
good as we make disciples of all people in our spheres of influence.<br />
If we accept this co-mission, we must be willing to serve God regardless of the circumstances in which<br />
we find ourselves. We must determine to finish what we start as ambassadors of Christ through whom<br />
He makes His appeal to the world (2 Cor. 5:20). If others try to persuade us that this co-mission is impossible,<br />
we must trust God, knowing that with Him all things are possible. If we feel as though our sacrifice<br />
isn’t producing the promised results and we’re getting bogged down in a blizzard of despair, we must dig<br />
deeper into the Word, such as Revelation 12:10-17.<br />
There we discover that we can and will overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb, by the testimony of<br />
Scripture, by keeping the commandments of God, and by holding to the testimony of Jesus.<br />
Remember, sometimes God allows His anointed ambassadors to share in Christ’s suffering (2 Cor. 12:7-9).<br />
Further, what Jesus said to Peter, He says to those of us who are devoted to Him: “Satan has asked to sift all<br />
of you as wheat,” but I am praying for you, “that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31, 32).<br />
For a time Satan appears to win. That sifting rid Peter of his least-attractive qualities, such as a blustery<br />
self-confidence, a chip on his shoulder, and a propensity to violence.<br />
Our time has come to be world-changers. If we encounter opposition, ridicule, or rejection, we shouldn’t<br />
let them draw us off course. We must testify, knowing that as Jesus prayed for Peter, He is now at the right<br />
hand of God interceding for us. Let’s testify, not under duress, but joyfully, according to the will of God; not<br />
for sordid gain, but with eagerness, for it is written: “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive<br />
the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Peter 5:4).<br />
Hyveth<br />
Williams<br />
* Statistics have been taken from a variety of Internet sites.<br />
Hyveth Williams teaches homiletics at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.<br />
www.AdventistReview.org | February 21, 2013 | (155) 27