This is a short synopsis I wrote for the benefit of a couple of my friends after participating in OSA Leadership Conference at Louisville, Kentucky in 2017.
I ran across this today and thought it would be worthwhile to add to a blog format in the chance it might be beneficial to others.
I spent this past weekend at the leadership conference of Operation Save America. It was an awesome time of refreshing and re-invigoration. There were great sermons on strengthening family and honoring God, as well as training on being prepared to face the challenges of prophet minded servants. We bore witness against a child sacrifice center and called out a safe harbor for a child killer. As I reflect and process everything today I wanted to write down a few things I noticed at a deeper level after observing and taking part in this conference.
So, here’s a couple things that I took away from my short sprint with OSA:
#1 Division is foolish.
Unless we are talking about things that scripture has specifically told us to mark and avoid one another over or to not have fellowship with another over (like someone claiming to be a Christian and persisting in unrepentant sin) then we shouldn’t be divided. Even if we don’t like each other very much we should get over it and be charitable to our brother with exceeding mercy for the glory of our God. There are SO few laborers working towards establishing justice and promoting righteousness that we cannot afford to be lackadaisical in our approach to remain unified for the furtherance of the good work the LORD has set before us.
#2 Fellowship with your brethren outside the context of mission work is essential.
The ability to talk to other Christians about whats going on with you and relate to another person who has similar passion and drive who is experiencing trials as well, is a balm to a weary soul. We are more energized and prepared to go and do the work when we come together and worship the LORD together, building each other up to go out and do this work.
#3 Labor together in the trenches is essential.
Charging the gates of Hell with your brethren in arms is not only a good battle strategy, it unifies people in their common experiences and scars received for the furtherance of the Kingdom. We should actively seek to find ways to serve together. It is okay for us to have certain things that we do while others are active in other areas, but long periods of time working apart doesn’t help to foster unity. It turns into “you do your thing, and I do mine” when what we ought to be focused on is doing Christ’s thing. Common labor breeds common experiences, common experiences breed fond memories and further the bonds of unity. As I listened to some the elders talk about their past experiences it struck me, they can talk about these things because they DID things together. And a LOT of things!
#4 We should stop focusing so much on where others have offended us.
When our eyes are focused on where we have been wronged we don’t have our eyes on Jesus. If our eyes are not on Him, since He is THE light, we are going to stumble around like blind men and follow our own path’s as opposed to His.
Originally written on February 5th, 2017
Fruits of Repentance 