Rally here

Then I said to the nobles, the rulers, and the rest of the people, "The work is great and extensive, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us." – Nehemiah 4v19-20

The people continued to build the wall while they armed themselves and kept an eye out for the enemy. Sometimes as they did so they got further and further apart. They needed a rallying point. They needed a place to come together and be unified in their fight. They needed each other.

Nehemiah’s plan was simple – when you hear this trumpet use it as a rallying point and everyone come together.

Every group of people need a rallying point. We all need a place where we can come together, encourage one another, and be strengthened to continue our work. One of the original purposes of banners and flags was to give troops a rallying point in the midst of a battle. For some nations the national flag is more than just a piece of cloth. It is a reminder of their nation, its history, those who have sacrificed for their nation, and all their country stands for.

I contend that Christians have such a rallying point. I think that we have a place where we can come apart from the world, from our everyday battles, from the influences of the ungodly, and rally together.

That place is the local church. As we spend the week apart and dealing with all the stuff that is out there we have a place where we can unite to jointly worship our God. That alone will bring about a sense of unity of purpose and remind us that we really do have a purpose for going on and doing what we do for Him.

There is another purpose however. We rally together at church to encourage and support each other. We come apart from our service in the world and unite together. We come apart from the defilement of daily life for a cleansing and refreshing. We come together to pick each other up, dust each other off, and send each other back into the fight.

Each of us should have a clear priority to rally together and church where we can be reminded that ‘Our God fights for us.’ Note the word ‘us.’ It lets us know that we are not fighting along.

Tomorrow is Sunday. Let’s be sure that we use this as an opportunity to rally together. We really do need that rallying point.