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Key Bible Verse: The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion (Proverbs 28:1). Bonus Reading: Nehemiah 2:19-20; 4:1-9; 6:1-14

One of the young brothers from St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn was cleaning up around the outside of the building. A drug dealer told him he had to get off the dealer's territory. The youngster went in and told Pastor Johnny Youngblood. Youngblood gathered every man he could find—about 25—and went out and confronted the drug dealer. They told him that he, not the young brother would have to go. The drug dealer left.

The next morning, after service had begun, Youngblood told the women to remain at the church and pray. He gathered all of the men in the service and took them outside. Other men from the street joined them when they witnessed this force of black, Christian men. Youngblood led them into each local store suspected of dealing drugs and confronted the proprietors; with this huge force of men behind him, he told them that they would have to immediately stop dealing drugs. The brothers were amazed at the power they possessed. When they walked back to church, every man felt bigger, more powerful. This was something they had to do themselves to feel the force of what they could do as a collective unit.

—Tom Neven in Building Up Zion's Walls

• Look around you—what needs doing in your neighborhood?

Thought to Apply: When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.

—PEARL BUCK (novelist)

Credits: Adapted from—Wednesday: Building Up Zion's Walls (Judson, 1999)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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