There has been so much to be grateful for this year at Newark Christian School. For one, we are grateful for God’s continued protection as we live and serve in a dangerous neighborhood. In a recent span of several weeks, there have been four shootings in various directions within a half-mile of our home. Three of these shootings occurred along my usual jogging or bicycle commuting routes. Coupling local violence, with national trends of people with assault rifles attacking neighbors and people at Christmas parties, it sometimes seems like our world is going crazy.
Even as we worship the Prince of Peace, it is probably natural to be daunted by the evil that confronts us. And yet we shouldn’t be. I John 5:18 reminds us that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one,” and I John 3:8 emphasizes that, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Jesus did not become a human being just to make a cute scene in a manger; he came to wage war against the devil.
The Kingdom of God arrived with Jesus, and He left us with his Holy Spirit to work in and through us as we build His Kingdom in the meantime. We wish that He would fix all that is not right, but we need reminding that some of the Kingdom is not yet built. Things will change when Jesus returns again. Then everything will be as it should be.
In the meantime, we each labor in the ministry and with the gifts we have been given. We thank God for all of our prayer partners and supporters as we work to further build up the Kingdom of God in Newark. Often this is seen in little victories: Such as hearing a former gang member testify during the prayer time at World Impact Community Church that he finally got rid of his gun after shooting at someone the previous week. Such as watching in wonderment the middle school students speaking well publicly in front of the entire school (especially one who still speaks with a slight impediment after multiple surgeries on her mouth; and another who used to be too shy to speak aloud and is now our school president). Such as observing a fifth grade student break into a lasting smile as her science experiment worked, recalling that I had not seen her smile like that in the two years I have known her.
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