The Flying Church

After Napoleon's invasion of Russia and subsequent destruction of Moscow in 1812, the tides quickly turned against him. His retreat, immortalized in Tolstoy's War and Peace, was a time of terrible suffering and devastation for his army. However, some of the Russian tactics (which were fairly revolutionary at the time) speak beautifully to what the Body of Christ could be. Here's a description of how the Russians "escorted" the French from their country:

News of the defeat of the French forces on the Chernishne River hastened Napoleon's decision to withdraw from Moscow. The withdrawal began on the evening of October 6, 1812. Napoleon's attempt to break through to the southern regions of the country ended in failure. Russian forces blocked the enemy's path at Maloiaroslavets on October 12 and forced the enemy to return along the devastated Smolensk road. Recognizing the collapse of his aggressive plans, Napoleon now used every means to avoid the decisive battle which the Russian command was trying to force on him. The retreating Napoleonic forces were continuously attacked by Cossack and partisan flying detachments...

These "flying detachments" were tasked with constant movement and in-and-out guerrilla tactics that were overwhelming for the French army's traditionalist training. They had never seen bands of troops so nimble and terrifyingly omnipresent.

Brothers and sisters, we must be a Flying Church. The evil one has no fear of sitting-in-pew churches. He knows those ones will remain inert forever, but a church that senses its outward calling and constantly flies is one in which the Spirit of Jesus overwhelms his evil resources.

After all, inertia does go both ways. Stagnancy begets ongoing stagnation. But Christly day-to-day movement is the door through which the Holy Spirit walks; it is the never-ending dispersion that began at Stephen's death (Acts 7) and has never stopped as the Church has flown at the daily whims of Jesus.

Let's be that way with every moment of our day today!