Ezekiel 22
Kathie and I just returned from an incredible trip to Israel. One of the most common sights we observed were the ruins of city walls. Every city needed to have a wall because walls were the only security from enemy invaders. A city without a wall, or a wall that was partially broken down left a city that was vulnerable to attack. In Ezekiel's day, the whole nation was in captivity in Babylon because the walls of Jerusalem were breached.
The word picture used in Ezekiel 22:30 is of an individual standing in the gap of a broken-down wall to prevent the invaders from entering and destroying the city. This is a vivid way to describe how a person can be used to stand against the demagoguery of an advancing evil culture. If there was ever a need for courageous men and women of God to stand against the invading darkness, it is today. Who is going to tell our nation that they are going down the wrong path? Politicians, Hollywood actors, CNN news? Christ followers are the lone voice calling people to protect the nation against the encroaching darkness. Gap standers must be people who are fearless, bold and not afraid of standing for truth even though greatly outnumbered.
Over 150 years ago, God used an ordinary shoe salesman, a man with only a middle school education, without formal titles or degrees, without a command of English. In 1872 this man was speaking to an evangelist named Henry Varley. They were sitting on a park bench in Dublin. Varley remarked, "The world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to Him." The remark was made casually, but those words burned inside this person. A week later, that person, Dwight L. Moody, said, "By the Holy Spirit in me, I'll be that man!" In his lifetime Moody traveled over a million miles and preached the gospel to over 100 million people. In his last years he established the Moody Bible Institute which has trained 10,000's of Christian workers over the century. D.L. Moody was a gap stander.
God is still seeking ordinary gap-standing people today who are filled with His Spirit. Will you be a gap-stander in your home, at Grace Church, at work, at play and save your family, your community and your nation?
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