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Is the future set in stone? We get a snapshot of how all of this ends, but what happens between now and then? Jesus says there will be earthquakes, wars, famines, cyclones etc. and we see that. But does the impending darkness to come excuse us from being lights? No, "God has put us here for such as time as this!" Johnson Bowie, at http://www.fusionatl.org/p/12081/Default.aspx, passionately (as always) calls our attention again to Matthew 6:10 to summarize the first message of his series, "Take Back the Future". Thy kingdom come, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. In the second part of the series, we as a church are called to preach the gospel in the darkest places, as Peter did in Cesari Phillipi. He reminds us that all Satan can present against God is his "gates". Gates can't attack, they can only be a barrier. Moving further, Johnson goes over some popular bumper stickers, such as "Live it Up, Sinner", "In Case of Rapture, This Vehicle Will Be Unmanned" etc. It's a funny stretch, but Johnson surprisingly focuses on one of the stickers that, at first glance, doesn't sound like it gives a bad message, but as he elaborates, it certainly does. The sticker is, "Christians Aren't Perfect, They're Just Forgiven" The implication here is that, aside from being forgiven, we're just like everybody else! Johnson takes issue with this because he shows us in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 that we are not of this world; that we have a heritage of following an awesome God. To be the greatest on earth, we have to become the least. We are called to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We are NOT JUST FORGIVEN, WE ARE RESTORED. We have to be different. Walk as Jesus walked. What hope does the world have if we can't take the light to a broken world? It's like we have a drawbridge in our spirituality and only every once in a while we let it down and say the name of Christ. When God was giving his instructions to Moses, he knew that the priesthood would fall, but he foretold there would always be a remnant. In fact, he instructed Moses to allow for volunteers to take a vow of the Nazarites. It was a symbol of a dedication to God. It basically said a Nazarite would abstain from fermented drink, would eat no grapes or raisins. No razor would be taken to his/her head. They could not go near dead bodies. These things sanctified the Nazarites. Would we say that these people weren't different? The tribe of Dan was a nomadic people of God who had been given, and commissioned to protect land given to them by God. The Phillistines, however, set up camp on the coast and, over time, the Danites grew comfortable with their inhabiting the land. It was at this point that, in Judges 13:2, an angel appeared before Manoah and his barren wife, saying that God was going to give them a child, but that this child was commissioned (normally it is voluntary) to be a Nazarite. This child was Sampson. Sampson's purpose for God was to drive out the darkness- the Phillistines! In the book of Judges, it then talks about how Sampson, in a very short period of time, compromised all that he was supposed to stand for. He crossed through a vineyard, killed a lion with his hands and was going to take a wife of the Phillistines. On his way back from their camp, he even touches the body of the dead lion again to get some honey, gives the honey to his parents and never tells them of the compromises. Sampson thinks he can handle sin. He begins to abuse the powers given to him by an Almighty God!! But the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away? Sampson continued in his sin until it destroyed him. He did not think that he needed the cloak of God. He gave up his calling to be different in the world and threw it away to be like the world. We are different! We get our pleasure from God. There's a book called "The Vision and the Vow" where the author writes about a series of spiritual conversations. A guy comes to the author and says, "What's the vision?" What comes to the author, which he writes on the wall of a prayer room is an amazing summary of an army of warriors obsessively in love with the Living Christ. It is eloquent and convicting. It's a call for us to lead, to follow and to fight. Where is the army? The world is hungering for righteousness! Where are these people who would walk into a city and people would see the power of Christ? We are different or at least we are CALLED to be different. If we are of the culture, we can never change the culture. Is this the life we want? Just forgiven?