Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Confident (07/05/07)
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TITLE: The Call | Previous Challenge Entry
By Joann McDonald
07/12/07 -
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I found myself fighting back tears as I walked down the middle of the street in this unfamiliar city. Although we were instructed to keep silent, the sound of footsteps from the thousands walking was something you could not ignore. The noise echoed against the buildings on either side sounding like an army going to battle. As far as I could see ahead of me and behind were rows and rows of people in this army. Men, women and children, both young and old, walk in silence.
The streets on the left and right had been closed and there were police officers standing by to make sure that no one interrupted our pilgrimage. No traffic was allowed, not even the guy on a bicycle who just needed to cross the street. The walk was almost 3 miles to the football stadium in the heart of Nashville Tennessee. We walked down Church Street and crossed over 40Th Street as a symbol of the past 40 years of perversion and rebellion in the United States. We repented for our sins, the sins of the church and the nation.
Coming over the last hill I could hear the music and then even the singing coming from the stadium. What a beautiful sound; people had already gathered, standing together in one accord in one place on one very specific day to worship and pray. People from all over the country, sacrificing what ever it took to be there. They had already begun to worship and that would not stop for fifteen hours.
As I approached the gates, excitement flooded my mind and I felt it in my body like a rush of wind. Although tired, and wringing from perspiration, anticipation thrust me forward and I could not wait to join my fellow journeymen. The huge billboard overhead flashed the theme for the day, "It's not a feast, it's a fast." As I read these words, chills crawled up and down my body and mixed with the sweat already present. I shivered as I looked upon the tens of thousands of people who had come to fast. The call was to humble ourselves and pray, to stand and confess our sins and renounce the sin of a mighty nation before man and God.
I looked out over the rails into the crowds as I stood on the second tier and thanked God for this glorious and awesome time. History was being made, but also, history was being exposed. We were invited to come and repent, to stand in the gap for many who could not, and those who would not. We stood for the injustice that had been done and for the deaths of millions of innocent babies. Many, publicly confessed their sin while others fell on their faces and wept as they cried out to a merciful and forgiving God. Sometimes faint whimpers could be heard or deep sobs and wails of extreme remorse. The cry for purity and justice, for the fear of God to again arise in the church and in our nation had begun.
The number seven was ever present throughout this day as it is God's number of covenant. This is proven over and over throughout the Bible. On the date 07/07/07 people gathered in a city representing the very buckle of the Bible belt and asked God Almighty to again make covenant with us. Declaring our love to the God of the universe, we asked that He once again marry His people and take us as His bride. Praying for an awakening in this country and a revival in the church we stood confident that our God has heard. I do know my God and I know that He is true to His word and His word is true. Before I even awoke that morning to travel to Nashville I knew that God would meet us there. I knew that He would hear our hearts and that He is our only hope. My hearts cry: that everyone would answer "the call."
"Now, therefore," says the Lord, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from His chamber, and the bride from her dressing room.
Then the Lord will be zealous for His land...And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."
Joel 2, verses 12-13, 15-16, 18 & 28
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Again, THANK YOU!
You captured the moment for all of us who could not be there and communicated it with passion and clarity.
Well done!