Standing In The Gap By Karen Ruhl
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Ezekiel 22:30 (NKJV)
“Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 22:31 NKJV)
In the NLT version, it reads God will pour out His Do you remember playing Red Rover when you fury on the people, consuming them with fire. were younger? Groups of kids would choose teams; everyone would line up—both teams facing each Studying this verse, I learned that what we really other. There must have been 25-30 feet separating need is a total spiritual reconstruction. Many are the teams. The game would start with one team currently giving the appearance of loving God, but calling a player, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send Karen living in a way that is not His will. We, as Christians, over.” The goal was to break through the challeng- need to take a good hard look at what we are seeing er’s line. The penalty for not breaking through was in our world. We need to stand in the gap. to join the opposing team. Of course, they would call the smaller people over first because it was I remember reading of a revival in Ireland. People hard to break through the line. The game would go started gathering and would pray specifically for a on until one team won everyone over. We all got a person—using their name. The entire group prayed and were so faithful to meet often. One by one, the good workout and a lot of laughs. people they prayed for started coming to church. Ezekiel 22:30 reminds me of Red Rover in that God was trying to find someone who might rebuild the The 1859 Ulster revival was a Christian revival that wall of righteousness. The wall was in bad shape be- spread to the rest of the United Kingdom. It has cause there was no one who could lead the people been reported that the revival produced 100,000 back to God. The next verse is what we need to think converts. about today:
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