As many of you know, I have the privilege of serving at Answers in Genesis—an apologetics ministry that seeks to proclaim and defend God’s Word. We also make it our ambition to help equip people with answers to tough questions.
Before I started working for AIG, I had a growing desire to get resources to people who had questions. If you think about it: we have more Christian resources today than ever before. For anyone looking for answers, there just isn’t an excuse. It’s like Jesus said, “Seek and you will find” (emphasis mine).
The longer I have served here at the ministry, the more I have seen the importance of equipping people. To put it simply, we are in a war. And maybe you’re already well-aware of that. There is a spiritual war happening in this planet, where spiritual forces of evil are seeking to ruin God’s creation, including human beings (Eph. 6). The amount of lies in our culture today is astronomical. To most people now, up is down and down is up. People believe they can change their gender, abortion is not murder, and we have a right to do anything we want. Essentially, we are gods of our own destiny.
Wow. And to think that people actually have to live with themselves and the consequences of their life decisions. Scripture makes clear, “A man reaps what he sows”. So, here is something that I hope everyone understands: left to ourselves, we destroy ourselves. Our thinking is full of errors and many people are now of a debased mind, which literally means that their thinking is ‘off course’. Man despises the very One who offers forgiveness and salvation. So, as a consequence, God gives them over to themselves to do what ought not to be done (Rom. 1-2). Left to ourselves, we destroy ourselves.
Not long ago, a certain role opened up in my workplace that I decided to apply for. I saw a need in the warehouse, so I decided to see what I could do about it. To this day, I am still serving in this role and it has been a privilege. God has geared me to be a person who helps other people to keep going. Whether it is getting resources into people’s hands, giving them a word of encouragement, or simply stocking the shelves again and again and again, the Lord has blessed me with opportunity to make a difference.
If you’re any student of history, you know that wars are usually long, ugly, and difficult. The barrage of shells exchanged over battlefields and the impending results are almost unbelievable. War requires doing much of the same thing over and over and over again. The canons fire and need reloaded. They fire again and need reloaded again. And so, it continues. Hours turn into days. Days turn into weeks.
My role at the ministry is to be a reloader. When the ‘canons’ are empty, they need restocked. Instead of firing actual shells, what we launch into enemy territory is content. We send God’s truth into the world to combat what the enemy has advanced. There can be no mistake: Satan is out to ruin mankind. It only takes five minutes of watching the news to see his influence on the world. Lies are extremely potent.
But so is the truth.
In a world that believes in things like relativism and postmodernism, people will ask, “Who’s truth are you talking about?” But I’m here to say that there is only one truth—God’s truth! The Lord has the final say on all matters of life and eternity. As it says in Isaiah, “I the LORD declare what is right”. And also in the New Testament, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. We are certainly fighting a knowledge war and a content war. But most of all, we are fighting in a spiritual war. And so, we need to fight spiritually.
Before writing this blog post, I actually had to wait for the official announcement that our VBS materials were shipping. And let me tell you: it was hard to be patient. I couldn’t wait to share about God’s faithfulness in the process of receiving in all the ‘shells’ into the warehouse and finding locations for them.
If I could state the obvious: a process is a process. God taught me much about pacing myself when it comes to overwhelming loads. In total, I was put in charge of fourteen cargo ship containers from China. (Thanks goodness they didn’t all come at once). Honestly, with all the work that goes into processing, I had some days where I felt like throwing in the towel. “But the Lord was my support.” He gave me the grace that I needed to do this job and do it well. In the days that were difficult, I kept thinking about the lives this material could impact. Kids and adults would be hearing the Gospel message—perhaps for the first time.
I knew that I had my role to play in the shelling game. And with the Lord’s help, I could do it.
I remember the week that we finished receiving. We started shipping stuff out on that same day. I couldn’t help but think of a scene from War Horse, where the horses are utilized for pulling heavy canons to the crest of a hill. After incredible labor, the horses manage to bring these war machines to the top. Within seconds, soldiers begin loading mortar shells into the barrels and initiate a devastating barrage.
No one knows this, but I cried the week that we finished. Tears came down my face, knowing that we were finally getting this stuff to people. It was a ton of labor. But in every facet—even if some days were crazy stressful—the Lord provided. With the shelves full, it was now time for our barrage to begin.
You watch the news these days and it seems like all we suffer—especially as Christians—is defeat after defeat. The world plunges headlong toward wickedness and darkness while we are trying to be bright lights in this world. Knowing that we were sending truth out into the world encouraged me. It was a victory. All of my time and efforts were worth it.
Right now, we are full steam ahead with a barrage of truth. God is getting this material to churches worldwide and into the homes of families.
This whole thing has made me appreciate those guys in the wars who had to keep loading the canons. It was laborious and continuous. You didn’t always see the effect of your work (and at that time you didn’t want to). All you knew was that every shell was doing something out there and you needed to keep doing your duty.
God's call is for every Christian to do their duty in whatever role that is. To Him be the glory with what He does.
Keep soldiering on.
-CH
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