IN OR OUT OF THE FORT?
One of the things I find really neat about this area is all of the forts. You have Fort Morgan, all the Forts over at Pensacola NAS. We have had forts all over this country since the day the Pilgrims first landed, up to right now. Some were made of wood, stone, brick and mortar. They were made a strong as possible to hold out the enemy and protect those on the inside from the enemy who only wanted to do them harm.
But the thing is, not many battles were actually won at the Forts. The battles were won by going out into the fields and taking the fight to the enemy. If you stay in the fort you may protect yourself but you will never gain any ground. All you are doing is holding down the Fort.
One of the most famous forts in American History would probably have to be the Alamo. This was where just a few brave men held an army of several thousand Mexican soldiers for 13 days. They were able to inflict many casualties upon the enemy and create precious time that was need for Gen. Sam Houston, who was building the army that would eventually defeat Santa Anna, and in turn make Texas part of the United States. As kids most of us remember great hero’s from this battle such as Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and Col Travis. But what we fail to remember is that they all died there holding down the Fort.
These forts remind me a lot of today’s Churches. Now don’t get me wrong, just like the early settlers needed these forts for their protection, we Christians need our Churches. But sometimes it seems that all we want to do is come in and hold down the (Fort) Church. The Church is there when we get outnumbered or discouraged, It gives us a place to regroup and re-supply ourselves so we can get back out there and re-join the battle on the battle field.
If all we do is stay in the Church then that is all the ground we will ever gain. We will end up like our heroes from the past. We will all die right here in the Fort.