"While it is Day" (Are you in the Battle? - Part 2)

[Update: I rewrote this blog as an article and it got published with Assist News here.]

A friend recently signed an email to me "While it is day." Then, this morning, my dad sent me an email containing the following verse: "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day: The night cometh when no man can work." I had forgotten about that verse. It's John 9:4, and it is troubling and inspiring at the same time.

Earlier this week I got an email from George Verwer. In it he refers to the huge needs of the world, how much work needs to be done, and how many choose unreality when it comes to the finances needed. Here's an excerpt of his email: "what a huge frustration where there is such a lack of funds. People have simple, nice spiritual answers, but I don't buy them any more. I keep praying and dreaming and hoping."

Friends, we are in a battle; and we need to have a sense of urgency. People are getting slaughtered in Sudan and Congo. Over 20,000 people died in the cyclone in Myanmar this past weekend. Christians' homes are getting burned down at the hands of extremists in Orissa, India. Children are dying in gutters in 'Garbage City,' Cairo. And, most significantly, millions desperately need Jesus Christ--"the way, the truth, and the life." Many have never heard his name.

How can one be happy about doing little when such needs exist? Should we not have a war-effort mentality in such times?

Or perhaps we find it difficult to connect with the needs in the first place. Let's be honest if so and ask God to help us care more. I for one am guilty of forgetting, and of being tempted to give a "nice, simple spiritual answer," and of getting discouraged - on an hourly basis.

But we are in a battle. And how much God uses us depends on how much we surrender ourselves to Him.

Love is our weapon.