For your city to live in shalom, it needs you to have as much staked in it as God does.  The burning desire of God (Emmanuel) to be with us is much greater than any of us can fathom.  “For unto us a Son is given, unto us a Child is born,” communicates the cosmic shift of God choosing to dwell in our midst because of the inability of humanity to reach His.

The word “city” is used over 700 times in the Bible. That’s more than “love”, “faith”, “hope”, “disciple”, “Holy Spirit” and almost as much as “Jesus!”.  When words are repeatedly used, it usually emphasizes a theme of divine intention.  Such an intention is visible in the use of the word “city” in describing the picture of humanity’s dwelling.  The “city” is the place where humanity dwells and is the place that God loves deeply.

Do you think you could begin to look at your city with the same love that God has for it?  It might break your heart and cause you to weep, not because of the lost-ness of it all but because of the great love that God has for your city.  Love is the exclamation point of selfless action.  It is the why behind the what.

For those who live in a rural area, God loves you just as much as the inhabitants of the city. The love of God is no different from Jew to Gentile as it is to Urban to Rural.  Individually, His love is certainly the same for all of creation.  For repeated illustration of the intention of Emmanuel, the city is the word picture that describes the overwhelming desire for God to BE with us.  Perhaps your perspective will be adjusted to match that of God’s towards your city by realizing God’s intentions must also be my own.

Reducing the Stress

A city is like a body, when one part is sick the whole body suffers.  A city that suffers may conceal the illness through the veneer of affluence or power.  That veneer is not enough to muffle the cries of the downtrodden and poor who live in the suffering neighborhoods.  Many times, cities build self-preservation zones or “tracks” to separate the sorrowful from the at-ease.  That is not the intention of God when describing a city that rejoices in Proverbs 11:10.  “When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices….” A rejoicing city is not compartmentalized so that part of the city rejoices.  A city rejoices when the entire city is included.

Your city will not fully rejoice until the stressed areas are met with care and consideration for their well being through compassion and justice.  When the righteous (tsaddiyq) acts with justice and mercy, it will be well with the city.  When the righteous (tsaddiyq) acts with self-preservation in mind, the city dies.  In reality, the righteous (tsaddiyq) cannot be the righteous unless they actually do act with compassion and justice. 

Where can you make the most difference with the Light of the world that is inside of you?  Light shines brightest in abject darkness.  That darkness represents many inner cities; the forgotten and neglected areas.  Do you think that if the entire city focused on rehabilitating and restoring the stressed parts of itself that something good would come out of it?  If a body had a sickness or an injury, wouldn’t the common sense approach be to care for the injury or sickness so that full health could be restored to the body?  If your city is to be truly healthy, those forgotten and neglected areas must be served with attention, compassion and focused transformation.  A city is only as strong as its weakest area.

The Hezekiah Syndrome

 Generations are served or cursed by the ones who precede them.  In a city, those who work for the peace of the city with no guarantee of seeing it happen within their lifetime are those who are worthy of the Hall of Faith as described in Hebrews 11.  People who work for the benefit of future generations are commonly in the minority.  Most people, including proclaiming Christians have the Hezekiah Syndrome that threatens the work of God on this earth.

King Hezekiah was a leader of the nation of Judah and was for all accounts considered one of the better ones that had cycled through the highest office of power.  At the end of his life however, he failed to lead and administer justice properly when he did nothing to further the generation coming behind him.  His attitude was one of “whatever the future holds, bleak or not, as long as I have peace in my days, it matters not.”  How can one expect the purposes of God that work through His people to continue when the chain is so flippantly broken?

His son Manasseh was king after Hezekiah and ruled for fifty-five horrific years in the history of Judah.  The account of 2 Kings says that he did more evil than the nations who were displaced indicates that King Hezekiah may have ushered in tremendous damage upon his death for his nonchalant attitude towards the future during his lifetime.  While there is no specific record of what happened in Hezekiah’s household, we can see that Manasseh’s reign brought about damage that was caused by someone who 1) didn’t know the way of justice or 2) rebelled against the way of justice.  If King Hezekiah would have cared about the condition of generations beyond his day, it is quite possible that Manasseh’s reign would not have been as evil as it was.

Nonetheless, each leader who has a position of influence within a city needs to care about the upcoming generations of that city.  They need to be aware that leadership development for other people begins with their platform of influence.  Leaders who fail to equip the next generation of leaders fail to maximize their own influence potential during their lifetime.  A city thrives when generations of leadership proclaim the love of God through compassion and justice.

Our Future City

 If being in a city wasn’t such a big deal, I suppose God would not have described our future dwelling place in the last chapter of Revelation.  Living in that city is the ultimate display of God’s continuing intention of dwelling with His creation.  The city is so important to God that it actually outlives the temple.  In other words, the city is God’s desire.  The church (temple) is our method of reaching the city.  Efforts to build a church within a city are not entirely aligned to the purposes of God within the earth.  Jesus builds His Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against her.  Hebrews chapter 13 indicates that we have no lasting city here on this earth but we look for a city that will last for eternity.  The city we look for in an eternal sense can be experienced in our focus on the city as a place to exhibit the presence of God through His Church (people).  When the righteous prosper and see the city as God sees it, the whole city truly will rejoice and Jesus’ Church is built.

The Stewardship of our Cities

 Because cities represent the dwelling places of men, a rule of thumb to live by in stewarding the dwellers can be found in Micah:

• Micah 6:8 (The Message) –  “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women.  It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.”

Concerning the dwelling places, giving attention to the broken city systems is the call for the disciple to transform.

Broken systems of education, inadequate housing, food shortages, rampant crime and financial illiteracy need to be traced back to the root causes of each unfavorable circumstance.  Are we to care for the city simply by focusing on the dwellers with no regard to the dwelling?  That would be like saying to the person who is hungry to “go in peace and be blessed without providing anything for them to eat.  If we do not address the broken systems of city failure, we will fail to bring about the type of transformation needed for sustained success.  The quickest way to begin addressing city system transformation is to focus intently on the transformation of the individual through acts of service and compassion.  While doing that, attention should be focused on the seed of the problem so that the fruit of a given problem will stop producing.

Everything has a small beginning, even mountainous problems.  Take care to think of the possibilities of where a problem in your city might originate.  Could it be traced back to a lack of nutrition for school aged children?  Perhaps a source of problematic issues could be followed back to a lack of mentors within a community.  Maybe, a “flight of resources” of sorts has taken place within a community leaving many jobless and hopeless.  Solving city problems will not be an overnight solution but carefully considering the sources of these issues will help us begin to focus on the stewardship of our cities.

Remember, as redeemed saints of the most High God, we don’t work for temporary gain or earthly rewards as much as we work through our love for God in anticipation of partnership with His purposes on earth.  His purposes include us being the resemblance of His Kingdom on this earth while we wait for His Kingdom to come.  It’s the life of living between Kingdom now and Kingdom not yet.

They Turned our City Upside Down!

 In Acts chapter 17, the work of the Holy Spirit in the city of Thessalonica demonstrated the potential when human need meets Divine solutions.  Amidst the scenes of chaos and turmoil, a theme of hope and peace was developing within each city that the apostle Paul visited to proclaim the message of Christ.  While Paul was very eager to assist the needs of the poor, he was also desperate to usher transformational movements of the Holy Spirit into each city he traveled to.  Every move of the Holy Spirit that will happen within your city will probably be opposed by the jealous influences of hell.  To turn a city upside down according to the way the Holy Spirit desires, each disciple-leader of a city should be intently focused on the work of the Spirit in their lives.  Freedom from fear of loss, protection of position, and boldness to powerfully proclaim is possible through the filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit.

We don’t aim just to appease the demonic forces that grip our city systems; our aim is to establish the Kingdom rule of Isaiah 61 within each of our metro/regional dwelling places.  Establishing the influence of Jesus’ life on earth will not look like more church (synagogue) services or sideshow circus performances of religion.  Turning a city upside down (or right-side up depending on your perspective) will look more like compassion towards the destitute, increased “followership” of Jesus and an ability for the every-man to be used by God for great Kingdom influence.  This movement will demand force not towards our fellow human brother or sister, it mandates resoluteness of character in the midst of accusers, haters and defiant individuals who are temporary enemies of the Cross.

This movement of having a stake in your city will be the most rewarding yet emptying process you may undergo.  Being able to influence the dwelling places of man for the glory of God is a high honor and a great challenge.  The honor is not for the ones who partner with God though; it is for the Name of God to be raised as the one and only banner within the city.  The challenge is for the people who partner with God to give their lives as a reflection of His glory and not of their abilities or intellectual prowess.  City transformation needs more than human intervention. It needs humans filled with the Spirit of God to transform a dwelling of man into a habitation of God.

Having a stake in your city is worth it.