Zero to Hero

” In every age, it has been the tyrant, the oppressor, and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.“

Eugene Victor Debs

One day long ago there was a rock on the ground. This rock was just like all the other rocks around it, for the most part. It was working hard on fitting in, being normal, non-obtrusive, and as useful as a rock could possibly be. It heard the angry yelling of the voices above it nearly every day as they taunted and threatened each other with some pretty vile words. It was moderately happy to be on the ground, away from all the shouting in a faux peaceful place that it regularly convinced itself of. It easily justified its safe place in the dirt. Who wanted all the drama of engaging in that crazy world above it…

Then, out of nowhere, there was a hand from above that snatched it up from the comfortable, self-made indentation it was accustomed to. The imprint of a life of being pulled by gravity in an attempt to leave some type of visible mark on the world. It was kind of a lame and unimportant mark, but hey, it’s a mark right? In a whirlwind of unfamiliar actions, this unlikely rock found itself accelerating in a wide circle, faster and faster with every revolution. “Why am I here… What’s going on… Who is doing this to me?” The questions rattled around in our rock’s hard head. Its world was completely discombobulated and out of sorts! “Surly this is the end!” the rock mentally screamed from the assumed trauma while the world buzzed around it uncontrollably. An undeniable victim to circumstances not of its asking. Wrong place, wrong time.

“Just stay hard!” the rock told itself upon entering survival mode. Being pressed harder and harder up against the rough and worn leather covering that was sure to be its new grave, it finally reached terminal velocity. The breaking point. Then, without notice, suddenly the air was rushing past it in glorious freedom and flight. In a moment of intense exhilaration and clarity, the world seemed so very different from this new perspective. What an experience! What a sight… what a flight!

Then, just as suddenly, it was aware that there was a very, very large and ugly man directly in its speeding path. This man was covered from head-to-toe of his gigantic frame in armor and chain mail. His deep raspy voice spewing out curses was familiar because it was the same voice the rock had heard for many weeks now as it tried to hide in the dirt. “This is how it all ends…” the rock bemoaning its trajectory in sad self-centeredness. It closes its eyes for impact expecting to be turned to explosive dust, upon the unfortunate meeting with a piece of hardened-iron shielding. Then another not-so-familiar voice…

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
1 Samuel 17:45-47 ESV

Then, the unexpected… it sinks deep into the surprisingly soft, barely exposed temple, of the cursing soldier’s forehead. Impact… and still intact! Seconds later, the rock recognizes a familiar-looking hand gripping a very large sword that is swinging down with supernatural force to decapitate the head of where it has made a new, much deeper indentation than in its former life. The same hand that snatched it out of its preceding grave was the courageous hand that just facilitated the impact point in precision and power. It can hear the victorious battle cry of a multi-thousand-man army that is now shaking the ground with its offensive and newly inspired charge toward the now fearfully fleeing oppressors.

This formerly unknown, unnoticed, and seemingly worthless rock is thrust into the new realm of becoming a famed weapon in a divine story. Thirty-five hundred years later, we are talking about it. An exceptionally famous story of a teenager named David who flung a single stone under the anointing of the Most High God. Our little rock is now, and forever known, as that single stone that killed Goliath the giant who was the oppressor of Israel. From zero to hero… from nobody to somebody… from unknown to famous… from nothing to something.

All of this is because of the shepherd’s skilled hand holding a sling.

You may find yourself in one of the above positions that could make you wrongly think you are just an old rock. Yet, in the right hand, you can become a renowned stone that liberated an entire nation.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 ESV

When we are held by and cultivated by Jesus, we become much more than we could ever be without Him. Without Him, even the things we accomplish in our own strength, the indentations in the dirt, are just fool’s folly and vanity in comparison.

“Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
Jeremiah 18:2-4 ESV

Same clay, same hands, new vessel.

The Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ is reworking the clay… is doing something new with the stones, and has a giant to deal with today. That giant is culture and the Ekklesia is the smooth stone formed by the potter’s hand. I am honored to be chosen by that divine Hand to help in the shaping of the remnant church in America and beyond. This message is to inspire you and to call you into service for the Master to make a mark on our vile world. Here is what you can do:

* Start a fight against the dark, immoral, woke, and satanic forces trying to conform hearts and minds to the way of the world.
* Support a person fighting… in case you were wondering, SCM is fighting with everything we got.
* Join a fight in progress, which hopefully is happening from a local church you are passionately connected to.

I wrote about this in my book, Liberating the Bride, and I pray you take the opportunity to read the story.

If you would like additional ways to be a stone in the forehead of a tyrannical society, please respond to this email and we will send you a PDF with actionable items and steps you can take to impact your world.

Thank you for partnering with us… your finances and partnership are the stone in my sling that is slaying giants on multiple continents.

For the Holy Cause of Liberty!
Steve and the SCM team