The Reluctant Warrior~

Linus in Kenya - 2017

I have been struggling with how to start this incredible story of a Modern Day Apostle. First I want to clarify a few things.

At the Indian Ocean - water temperature 86 degrees!  Air temperature 102!

1.  The statement has always come to me:  "There are no Apostles any longer. They all died when the 12 Apostles died".  Just not true. We have many "Modern Day" Apostles just as in the day of the book of Acts.  They are called Missionaries and they deserve medals with all the honor we can bestow up on them. They are the sent ones. They do their jobs, starting projects, moving to far off places because they have received a call from God. 

2.  Most Modern Day Apostles are Reluctant Warriors. They are called by God to do the work of the ministry and fulfill the Great Co Mission (which can be found in the last chapter of the books of Matthew and Mark).  It was Jesus' last words to us, and the disciples, of His work. It is God's work in which we are privileged to co-labor.

3.  I can think of a few Reluctant Warriors in the Bible. Moses was a Reluctant Warrior. He couldn't talk, just like many of us. We get tongue tied if we get up in front of a crowd.  Gideon was another. He went and hid in a barn, just like many of us today are hiding behind whatever excuse we have, but God still found him. My favorite is Paul. He was a Christian-killer and God still chose him to write 2/3 of the New Testament. Many of us are in the category of being Reluctant Warriors. There are many Reluctant Warriors and I was one of them.  

The Beginning

It all started in a small town in Iowa for this Reluctant Warrior. At the time I was a professional can stacker (a.k.a. stocker) at Super Value. I was minding my own business one night when my Mom called and said, "Linus we are having a meeting at the Methodist Church tonight and they are having a pot luck dinner. Would you like to come?"

Of course I couldn't turn down fried chicken made by the Methodist women. After all, we are in Iowa and every lady at the church can cook, they even write those wonderful church cook books.  I told her "sure", though I'm not a church goer. Mom and Dad were church goers, I wouldn't say disciples, but good people who knew they needed God. I did not want to be just a church goer. I wanted someone or something who was real but didn't know what those things looked like. 

After the supper, we broke up into small groups. They asked questions like: "What did my spiritual life line look like?" Mine was a straight line on the bottom of the page. I was pretty much a bugger head. I didn't know and didn't care. They kept asking similar questions and something on the inside of me started to stir. I needed God in my life.