Have you ever risked standing in that point of impact? Oh, the fascination of what might be churning at your feet and the feeling of being suspended between forces that are wrestling for your will and attention. Attention? You best pay attention, and maintain your footing or you could soon find yourself swept into the fury of the point of impact or caught in an undertow that could separate you from the safety of the shallows of the shore.
This point of impact of forces, this place where the arms of the sea reach into the sands of men, is a graphic description of what it is like to preach the Gospel of Christ. Standing in the churning, Paul used this term translated “necessity” to describe his passion of heart as an Apostle in I Corinthians 9:16 - “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” For the churning arms of the sea is laid upon me.
The word translated “necessity” here has also been translated other places in scripture as “needs, distress, must needs, necessary, compulsion, constraint, hardships, inevitable, obliged” – literally it means “within the bend of the arm”. This is the place of the joining of two strengths … it is a place of vulnerability. It is neither the lower arm nor the upper arm. It is neither the sand of the beach nor the waves of the ocean. It is a place that must move, and therefore it can be a source of both work being done and pain in the process.
Can you see the heart of the issue? If you decide that you will not only hear the call to “Go and preach the gospel” but you actually surrender to the call, and preach. Once preaching, you will find yourself in the place of “necessity”, the arms of the sea. It has the strength and rewards of both Earth and Heaven colliding there. The reward of preaching the Gospel (that fastens itself to the soul) is hard to describe to the one who just stands fascinated by the sights and sounds and never puts a foot into the surge. Step into the churning, step into the surge!
Every time I have the gift of the moment, to walk a beach after the arms of the sea have had its tidal dance, it is hard to take my eyes off of the beach strewn with new found treasures and relics that the churning has left behind. With the break of dawn, my heart wants to leave its nighttime safety to be the first on the site to search the treasure trove of surprises laid out for me. Though I am able to pick up the remains of the dance, there is an ache in me to stand in the churning and capture the treasures that will remain hidden in the churning. I know the best stuff is there, I can can just sense the missed moment and the treasure that could have been mine had I been there at just the right moment.
I know this picture will have some of us shaking your heads at the awe, the beauty, and the wonder that is found in standing in the place where Heaven churns the earth. Standing where God's spirit brings back to life the deadened heart of man is a reward in itself. This is the place where death is banished forever by the song of the Savior's story. This is a place that we have the necessity laid on us. Woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel!
Listen to the churning as a tattered clad child with bended knee and folded hands, lifts its fragile little voice to the God of all creation, and prays ...“Please, Come into my heart Lord Jesus and save me!” Here is where the collision of Earth and Heaven define for eternity the character of this soul set free. This is the treasure, this is the reward that keeps the heart of a preacher aching to stand in that place where the churning unfolds. Stand in the churning!
“Deep calleth unto to deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.” Psalm 42:7
HLFA
Jeff