Holy Huddles

I emailed this out today as an encouragement for people to get involved in the SB2 and HB2007 petition processes. I decided to post it here as well.

Holy Huddles

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Dr. Stratos had a great message this morning. One comment he made that stuck with me throughout the entire day was the concept of "Holy Huddles." When was the last time you went to a football game? Consider the following:

It's McNary vs. Sprague (or fill in the name of your favorite teams). You've got great seats. You show up before the game and get all your "gear" set up on the 50-yd line ready for the game to begin. The National Anthem is sung, the teams take the field, the coin is tossed, and your favorite team wins the toss! Your team goes over to huddle, to prepare for the first play. The team captain yells "BREAK!" and as the team breaks from the huddle, everyone in the stands gets up to go get a drink refill, or to get a hot-dog, or get some peanuts. You look around, stunned. What kind of twilight zone world is this? Where people come to a game to watch the "huddle" and leave during the "play?"

The reality is, people don't go to a football game to watch the huddles; they go to watch what takes place between the huddles. Our church services, our small groups, our Bible studies; those are the "huddles" in our game. "But what about prayer? That takes place during our huddles." you might say. I understand, and much can be accomplished through the power of prayer. But if Jesus Christ could have "prayed" His way out of dying on the cross, He would have done so (in fact, in some ways, He tried), but He couldn't. Even He had to leave His huddle, go to the cross, crawl up on it, and die; for me and for you. Please do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with huddles, but there is something very wrong with a game full of only huddles.

Even worse, the world is not impressed with our "huddles." The world is not impacted by our "huddles." The world is impacted by what takes place between our huddles.

The petition process soon to begin is not a "huddle;" it is the "play." Just as Christ had to leave His huddle for you, I am asking you to leave your huddle for Him. Is it more comfortable to stay in the "huddle?" Yes, it is, we would all like to stay in the huddle and let someone else "work the play." I think that is why Paul wrote in Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrificy, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." But he did not stop there, he continues: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." "Conforming to the world" is doing what the world wants: The world would like nothing more than for you to stay in your "huddle" while it runs "plays" around you out on the field.

The question for you is a simple one: will you leave your huddle???

Further on in Romans 13, Paul provides some inspired and heartfelt advice to assist in answering that question (all emphasis mine):

"(11) And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. (12) The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (13) Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. (14) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."

Leave your huddle and get involved!