Ensign: Mission

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 17 January 2014

I would not have wanted Henry Gerecke's job. Yes, I can see that even the architects – or at least those chiefly held responsible who weren't already dead (Hitler and Goebbels had killed themselves) – of the Nazis' conquest of most of Europe would have some conscience left, something deeper than themselves that they'd want tapped in the face of the hangman, life in prison, or whatever sentence they were literally staring at.

Oh, you don't know who Henry Gerecke is? Interesting man; he was a Lutheran minister who enlisted in the United Stated Army as a chaplain just shy of his fiftieth birthday and he had several qualifications for the job he would come to do; among other things, he had ministered in prisons before and he spoke German, the lingua franca (if you'll pardon my borrowing from another tongue) of those he was called to minister to in Nuremberg as the Second World War in Europe ended.

In a time when World War II veterans and civilians are dying … faster and faster, it seems to me, there were several things about Tim Townsend's book Mission at Nuremberg (ISBN 9780062298614) that struck a chord in me. Not because I'm likely to ever minister to the spiritual needs of a war – or other – convicted criminal, but because in Gerecke's story, AND in Goering's and the others on the dock, we can see ourselves. Because to God we're all criminals.

I was about to say “war criminals”, for make no mistake, we are in a war between God and Satan for our eternal souls – and it's being fought out here. That super neat, über-polite exchange between God and Satan when he comes in the heavenly lineup in the first chapter of Job and requests permission – this is important, whatever happens in God's creation, in (to us) linear time where cause precedes effect – happens all too rarely. Dialogue between heaven and hell is hardly polite, nor should it be.

If you are touched by God, the devil has to ask His permission to do something to you. So this blows the notion of “the devil [making] me do it” right out of the water. You are I are, you could say “stuck” making a choice. Do we actively seek to draw closer to our Lord and Savior through reading the Word and doing what we read Him saying through its various authors, or is our Bible just a book. Does it and we collect dust, or are we the rolling stones that gather no moss because we are never still?

And what good does that do on our mission?

David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.