Influence

If you haven't seen the series from Focus on the Family called "So That the World May Know," I would highly recommend you get it and watch it. Ray VanderLaan (I think that's how you spell his name??) narrates and leads a series through the Holy Land. He takes people to the places out of the way and makes wonderful lessons out of them.
One we watched Sunday, he talked about a place in Canaan called Tel Gezer. It's on the main north/south road out of Egypt called the Via Maris and the main west/east road to Jericho that links the region to Mesopotamia. It was literally the crossroads of the world at the time. Whoever controlled that crossroads could control the world. God gave the Israelites that area, but they chose to live in the mountains and let the Canaanites to live there at Gezer. God wanted His people to influence the world, but they chose not to. Instead, they ceded that responsiblity to the Canaanites.
Here we live in a land of plenty. We could yield a lot of influence with our communities, with our governments, with our country, but we have chosen to sit back and allow others to have their say. Consequently, God is being written out. Now more than ever, we must work to influence our culture by being salt and light. We cannot cede that responsiblity to anyone. Let's not move into the mountains, but instead be in the marketplace with the good news of Jesus. Have a great day! JW