Legend has it that as Lord Cornwallis’ forces surrendered to Washington at Yorktown and stacked their arms, their incredulous band played a popular tune of the day entitled, “The World Turned Upside Down.”   No one quite expected that the world’s greatest military power would be brought to defeat by American colonists in what George III, himself, described as a “Presbyterian war.”   As Christians, we are involved in a war for independence, to proclaim liberty to the captives.  We are called to turn the world upside down, not to leave it to be ravaged by the enemy.

It is a curiously modern Christian response to paganism – this tendency of the church in our day to disengage from the culture as the culture in which we live is increasingly at variance with a Christian worldview.  Such disengagement is deadly to the world in which we live and leaves our neighbors, our families, our cities and towns abandoned to the enemy as we retreat for some imagined utopian enclave.

Historian Henry Van Til once wrote that “culture is religion externalized.”   The only hope for any culture is to engage it with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The apostles in Acts had a reputation as “those men who turned the world upside down.”  What is our reputation?    What are we turning upside down?

When Paul got to Athens, the scripture records his response.  He was not apathetic.  In fact, he was indignant, but he did not pull away or leave the city.  He rolled up his sleeves and got to work to find a way to engage.

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.  Acts 17:16-17.

Pray with us in the following ways as we seek to plant River City Reformed in Little Rock and turn our corner of the world upside down.

• Thanksgiving to the Lord for the addition of several new attenders to our Lord’s Day Bible study who share our vision of planting a Reformed Church committed to ordinary means evangelism, confessionally Reformed worship and family-integrated ministry, worship and discipleship.
• Thanksgiving for the growth and development of strategic partnerships with other church planting pastors and groups in Little Rock.
• Continued prayer for Pastor Wheeler’s family, and especially his mother-in-law, Marium Oates, who was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in June.
• For the effective planning and establishment of a men’s weekday morning Bible Study in July for the purposes of discipleship and outreach.
• For dramatic revival in the city of Little Rock which has been gripped this year by a surge of gang-related violence.  Pray for The Body of Christ in this city that we will boldly proclaim liberty to the captives of this cycle of oppression and hopelessness.