Raise Your Banners!

There is an amusing little story about a man who bought a used jacket at a vintage clothing store. In one of the pockets, he found a fifteen-year-old ticket for a shoe repair job. The nearby shop was still in business, so, as a joke, the man decided to try to pick up the shoes. When he presented the ticket, the owner looked at it for a moment and then disappeared into the back room. A few moments later he reappeared, saying matter-of-factly, “They’ll be ready next Tuesday.”

That sounds like many of us who have been working in this community we call “Church.” Some of us have been toiling away on the job far more than fifteen years and yet the job has hardly begun. How much time do we need to get right with God and to repair our broken relationships? The clock is ticking for all of us to live in the resurrection promise of our Lord. Let Him release within…