Impacting your Environment

BIBLICAL MOTIVATION

Salt and Light:

Approved worker:

Love one another:

Jesus used salt and light to tell us how we should live in the world.  It is interesting to note that salt is used to flavor, preserve, and to heal.  As salt we can be used for any of these or for all three.

Daniel was a seasoning for the exiles in Babylon.  He could have succumbed to the culture, but he chose to be true to his Jehovah God in the middle of a pagan land.  In Chapter 1 of Daniel you can read how he chose not to defile himself and was rewarded.

Ezekiel looked for one man to preserve the nation in Ezekiel 22:30.  He looked for one man to stand in the gap.  By standing in the gap, we can preserve our Christian heritage in a hostile environment.

There are many examples of healing in the Old Testament and the New Testament.  We need to be able to heal the emotional as well as physical wounds of those with whom we come into contact.

We will discuss these in more detail later on in the study.

Paul told Timothy that approved workers were not ashamed.  Do we do everything as unto the Lord as Colossians 3:17 tells us to do?  This may be the most important area of our witness.

Finally, a song tells us that they will know we are Christians by our love.  Do people know we are Christians by the way we love one another?
 

 GETTING LAUNCHED I

 GETTING LAUNCHED II

What is your environment?  According to Acts 1:8, we have different mission fields and we must disciple people in our mission field.  In an infantry unit, our mission field may be a squad (Jerusalem), a battalion (Judea), the division (Samaria), and the whole garrison (the uttermost parts of the world).  If you are on a ship, you can find the same every expanding areas of influence.  Your Jerusalem may be your family, your Judea the neighbors in your housing complex, your Samaria is the housing community, and the uttermost parts of the world can be the post.  You are definitely an ambassador for Christ no matter where you go.

You may impact your environment through a fervent prayer life.  You may start with the president and work your way down through the chain-of-command as you pray for wisdom, courage, and for the Christians to maintain a walk of faith.  CMF has a monthly prayer calendar that allows you to specifically pray for individuals and installations on a daily basis.  This prayer covering is so important because the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5:16).

This prayer life may be individually or in a group.  The next item is definitely a group event, but can be done individually if necessary.  That is to prayer walk around a specific area.  You may want to pray for the teachers, students, and family members before the first day of school as you walk around the school building.  You may want to go to the parade field and pray for the incoming commander prior to a change of command.  You may want to prayer walk around the chapel prior to a new chaplain coming or right after a major construction effort.  These are some examples of where a prayer walk will be effective.

One big area of influence is in the local chapel? Consider asking the chaplain how you may serve.  In a smaller setting on a ship or in Korea, the lay leadership carries the program.  In a larger chapel, the chaplain will still need lay people to make the program even larger.  Consider Sunday School teachers, singing in the choir, usher, men’s leaders, women’s leaders, helping set up for communion, et al.

Finally, you may start or join a local CMF group and that will be the point where you will pray and plan for specific events.  Many plan and then ask God to bless their events.  It is so much better when we pray and God lets us know how He is working in our area.

 GETTING LAUNCHED III

Your time in local fellowship groups will be important ways to reach out, but everything covered previously is so important.  You must be light and salt to the community and develop a relationship for being a Christian who loves in order to really impact the community for Jesus Christ.

Understand that you cannot do it alone.  Each one of us needs to rely upon the strength of God and upon a network of prayer partners.  Philippians 4:13 is a good reminder that we can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength and John 15:5 reminds us that apart from Christ we can do nothing.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 tells us that two are better than one and that a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

(The third strand is God in the middle of the relationship)

Step 1 – Know what you are to do before you leave the house.  This way you will not have to make decisions as to what to do – only to follow what is correct.

The Situation: There are many situations that will try your faith and you need to know beforehand what you will do.  I knew of one air man in Korea who was determined to remain faithful to his wife in the States and he resolved not to go to any club while in Korea.  His peers knew of that commitment and did not lead him into temptation.

Psalm 119 is a good psalm for understanding how important it is to follow God’s precepts.  Psalm 119:11 tells us that Thy Word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.

Job 31 gives us a lot of practical decisions that we must make: not to look lustfully at a girl (1), not to walk in falsehoods or deceit (5), not to be enticed by a woman (9), not to deny justice (13), not to deny the desires of the poor or the widow (16), not to trust in gold (24), not to rejoice over the misfortunes of an enemy (29), and not to conceal sins (33).  There are other lists, but this is a good one to commit to be holy as God is holy.

Step 2 – Have a prayer partner or an accountability partner our both.

The relationship is one of encouraging and confidentiality.  The relationship is one that is salt and light in a dark and dreary world.  The eventual outcome is the kind of relationship described in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.  This person will help you do what you need to do as you stand for Christ because he or she will cover you with prayer and will be available to hear your report. When you are accountable to a person with skin that will help you to impact the world.

Step 3 – Be intentional about living for Christ

Several years ago, the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?” swept through the churches of the United States and made us all think of how Jesus would act before we acted.

Are you willing to pray for those in your spheres of influence?

Are you willing to support your chaplain and his or her programs?

Are you willing to join a local Bible study and support the leader when necessary in leading, in prayer and planning, in outreach, and in all that you are asked/led to do?

SUGGESTION

What would Jesus do:

In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon

What would Jesus do? (Jesus is Lord website)

What would Jesus do? (All About Following Jesus website)

How did Jesus live:

Jesus, Teach Me How To Live (Westark Chruch website)

True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment by Francis Shaeffer can also give insights. 

 Step 4 – Constantly pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the discernment that is needed.

CAUTION

You must live a holy life in times of ease to live a holy life in times of stress.  In Jeremiah 12:5 God answered Jeremiah’s complaint with “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?” and in 12:6 “If you stumble in the safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”

This means that we must do what is right in our everyday lives so that when we are stressed, we will be able to make the right decision.

CONTINUING FURTHER

The bottom line is that you will either impact your world and culture or the culture will impact you.

The prop blast ceremony was an important rite in my first unit because all officers in airborne infantry units participated in them from the early days of the paratroops.  Part of the ceremony was drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and I had to make a decision early on, to participate in the ceremony but with non-alcoholic drinks.  This then set the tone for the rest of the time in the unit as I became the designated driver as I participated in the social events of the unit without the drinking and being able to teach Sunday School on Sunday.  These kinds of stories are all around us and should be an encouragement when it looks like you cannot walk the Christian walk that you want to walk.

REMEMBER

We never have to do this in our own strength:

We can walk the Christian walk through Christ who gives us the strength.

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Besides loving God by following His commandments, there are several benefits of living a Christian life.  Josh McDowell’s book Right from Wrong lists the ways that God provides for us and protects us as well follow His guidelines.  For Example:

Sexual Purity protects us from guilt, unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual insecurity, and emotional distress.  Sexual Purity provides for peace of mind, trust, spiritual rewards, optimum atmosphere for child rearing, and true intimacy.

Honesty protects us from guilt, shame, a cycle of deceit, and ruined relationships.  Honesty provides for a clear conscience, sense of accomplishment, a reputation for integrity, and trust.

If we love one another we will be protected from strife, self-centeredness, and spiritual barrenness.  This love will provide us with peace, fulfillment, and spiritual blessing.

You can look at many other areas of our life such as drinking, gossiping, envy, fits of rage, disobedience to our civil authorities, witchcraft, and idolatry to find out how they damage our spirit, soul, and body and then see how living a life of obedience will provide protection against the bad effects.

FURTHER STUDY

There are so many books and plans to help you in your study.  These 3 books are examples of what can be used as a starting point:

Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler – Right from Wrong

Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For?

John C. Maxell – There is no such thing as business ethics

I hesitate to offer these suggestions because I am obviously leaving out many. But the point is that there are many study guides that can be used in a discipleship setting.

God will help us in our quest for impacting our environment:

FINAL THOUGHT

This study may have been a little different than what you thought looking at the title.  We do have a responsibility to impact our environment where ever we are placed.  I do believe that we have the responsibility to preach at all times and to use words when necessary as Saint Francis stated.

We are looking for one man (or woman) to stand in the gap on the many issues that we face as a nation. Standing in the gap will impact our environment more than any set of words can do.

We reach people one at a time and each person is open to our witness as he or she observes us living the Gospel or walking the Walk.  However, we cannot impact the culture if we become a part of it.  Read the book of Daniel to see how he went from a exiled youth to the person in charge of the whole kingdom (Daniel 6:3) because he maintained his faith.

FINAL CAUTION

There are times that you will not impact on the culture and will be good not to be defiled by the environment you are living in.  In 2 Kings 5 we find that Naaman a commander of the army of Aram was healed of leprosy.  In verse 18 he understood that he would have to participate in pagan worship to keep his position and he prayed for forgiveness if he ever had to do that.  Many Christians today have to be a Christian in secret and, if that is the case in your situation, let you light shine as much as you can so that others may see your good works to glorify your Father in heaven (from Matt 5:16).

We also saw that Queen Esther was not permitted to reveal her nationality nor family background, (Esther 2:10) but was ready to spring to action at the right time because she had attained royalty for such a time as was needed (Esther 4:14)

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