Repairing Our Ruined Cities
By Bunni Pounds
We are living in a time that is unprecedented in our cities and nation. I know we are all concerned.
We are seeing riots in the streets, our police officers being scorned and spit on, and vandals destroying private property.
We are still dealing with the effects of COVID-19 on our families, businesses, and communities – and now this…
When will it all stop?
I know we have heightened concerns about the mentally ill in our communities, the young people running our streets with no fathers or adults giving them direction, and the hatred, anger, and confusion that we are seeing splashed across the news each day.
It is scary. We are all being affected whether you live in Dallas, Houston, Denton, Athens, Victoria, or Gonzales.
There is only one answer to the pain that we are seeing in America right now.
There is one thing that America needs in this hour.
It is YOU.
I know we don’t want to hear this truth when our first reaction can oftentimes be to run and hide, but it is you and me – the CHURCH of Jesus Christ that is NEEDED RIGHT NOW.
The Body of Christ must be the hands and feet of Jesus. Now more than ever before. We must be the intercessors who show love in the middle of chaos. It is up to us to save America.
Here is the message for us today - Isaiah 61:1-4
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.”
Jesus read this in the Temple over Himself in the Gospels as He proclaimed that He was the one to bring freedom and then commissioned His people to be “trees of righteousness” and to “repair the ruined cities – the desolations of many generations.”
In Matthew 28 – Jesus proclaimed as He was leaving for heaven that “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” – and then said to us – “Go, THEREFORE…”
Our authority is because of Him, but He is commanding us to GO, THEREFORE and make disciples of all nations. He is the power for change, but we are the vessels.
Who is called to repair the ruined cities? We are.
Who is to repair the desolations of many generations? We are.
I throw the responsibility of our nation at the feet of the Body of Christ for good reason.
We are the ones who should be discipling the nation.
For me – that means feeding the Word of God to our elected leaders as I help them fulfill the call of God on their lives.
For me – it means having a young person interested in politics ride around with me in my car to an event and back and talking to them about everything I do.
For me – discipling the nation means investing in the 60-70 students in our new class for 2 hours each week.
We all have our small part to play – but we must play it.
It is not easy. It is not a time to be lazy and sit back.
This is not a condemning message, my friends – this is actually a message of empowerment.
Do you know that Jesus has all the authority and power and He gives it to us?
Do you know we can walk in boldness and know where our identity is found because of HIM?
Let’s read this scripture again from Isaiah 61 – but savor each line and let’s mediate on how we should live our lives here in America as we walk in the “Spirit of the Lord.”
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me….
Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God
To comfort all who mourn
To console those who mourn in Zion
To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
That they may be called trees of righteousness
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
And they shall rebuild the old ruins
They shall raise up the former desolation
And they shall repair the ruined cities
The desolations of many generations.”
As we walk in the Spirit of God and operate in who we are – we empower others.
We teach and train them how to walk in freedom and create change in their environments.
Church – now is our time to shine! This is not a time to run and hide.
We have a TON of repairing to do.
The coming generations will be thankful that we stepped up to the plate and walked with God.
It is our time! “The Spirit of the Lord is upon ME….” (and YOU!)
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