City ChangersSample

City Changers

DAY 4 OF 4

Plant a Garden  

In order to go from fearing Babylon to affecting and ultimately transforming it, we need to make a series of changes and adopt new strategies.

We have to change our mentality, our theology, our philosophy, and our understanding of the world in order to go beyond simply caring about the condition of our world and begin having active compassion for it. It all begins with understanding who we—you and I—are in God’s eyes.

We need a strategy for how to go about affecting the prevailing culture. We need to understand the effect, the presence, the church brings to a community: a fathering presence, a faithful presence, and a fruitful presence.

The immense principle of generosity and what it has to do with the global unity movement we’re seeing across the church universal is key to our engagement.

All this leads us to discover the keys to reaching the unreached spaces of our communities for Christ.

We’ve been so conditioned to think of this earth as Satan’s that we’ve surrendered ground that should’ve been ours the whole time.

If the culture around you is hateful toward your faith, then of course you’re going to want to leave it. Good riddance! If you see the world as wholly evil and closing in around you like a dark tide rising, you’re certainly going to want to retreat.

But if you see yourself as a purveyor of a miracle medicine, of salvation itself for everyone you meet, suddenly you’re not a hunted and surrounded refugee but a powerful rescuer and bringer of light.

Christ didn’t send you here to this land to leave it early or simply hide your light behind dark curtains. He sent you here to stay and be His force of transformation in a dark and dying world.

So, unpack your bags, build a house here, and plant a garden. New life is about to spring forth from you for the healing of the nations. Even for those in Babylon.

Did you enjoy this reading plan? You can learn more about City Changers by Alan Platt, and sign up to get more free resources from David C Cook here  .

Day 3