James 4:13-15 (NLT)
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”
No other word is needed more or used less: urgency. Webster defines urgency as “a need for action, haste, necessity, insistence, immediate action.” Urgency is needed in our relationship with Jesus and our sharing that relationship with others. Urgency is needed badly in the various ministerial arms branching out from Refuge. We must look no further than our very own flock to find our example of urgency.
As John continued to hammer out the Refuge story in week one of the “Back to the Basics” series, he mentioned an episode involving Chris Helms. Hungry in his walk with God, Chris sought Him through numerous avenues, including listening and watching Francis Chan, a noted Christ follower, author, and church planter. As Chris absorbed a DVD about the planting of a church and the subsequent move of God as a result, he was convicted to do something. An urgency spawned by the Holy Spirit ignited in his heart. He had to share what the Lord shared with him. He calls John. And called again. And called again. To the point where John was a little concerned for Chris. With his mind fixed, Chris showed up at John’s house, waiting for him in the driveway. As they watched the video together, the urgency arose anew. And that principle of urgency became another chapter in the Refuge story.
We at Refuge claim to be a book of Acts church. The church in the book of Acts was a body driven by urgency, an urgency to love Jesus with everything, an urgency to share their story, an urgency to reach the lost, broken, and hurting.
Truth time: Are we urgent with our message? With the Gospel of Jesus? Pray that God will light the fire of urgent love in our hearts!
