WATCHMANN

A while back one of my young relatives reading my FaceBook page posted, “Who are you?” I initially he was asking about how we were related. That was not what he wondered...
“Who are you” reminded me of a friend who once said to me, “You are a Crusader”. When I told two Pastor friends about it, they said, “Yea, a bulldog Crusader”. This is a result of my propensity to pick a issue and ride it for a long time.
I took both descriptions as negatives given the reputations of the Crusaders and Kirschmann stubbornness. I have since learned about the other side of the Crusader's excesses and the redeemed side of stubbornness. I pray God gives me the grace to stay away from the dark side of both those identities.
However, more important than who others think we are, is who God says we are. My name Gregory literally means 'watchman'. Hence my 'handle' many times is 'Watchmann', a play on my first and last name.
Here are the two key passages in Scripture about watchman;
Jeremiah 6:16-19 (NASB) Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'
17 "And I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not listen.'
18 "Therefore hear, O nations, And know, O congregation, what is among them.
19 "Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, The fruit of their plans, Because they have not listened to My words, And as for My law, they have rejected it also.

Ezekiel 33:1-11 (NASB) And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 "Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, 'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman,
3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people,
4 then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.
5 ~'He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.
6 ~'But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.'
7 "Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me.
8 "When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand.
9 "But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.
10 "Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus you have spoken, saying, "Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?"'
11 "Say to them, 'As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'

How does this identity of watchman show up in my life? The main areas are;
-Gender authority, the first issue affecting marriage and family where we have abdicated truth.
-Sexual morality, a binding darkness that sucks life and light out of the souls of men.
-Political morality, a top down destruction of Christian influence.
-And more recently, Islam, a designer religion from the pits of Hell.
I see these as major issues the our society and the American Church.

I don't consider my role as prophetic. It is simply observing the world in the light of the Word. However, like the prophet, the message is generally negative and the response is often rejection.

Nor do I consider myself above the fray. I have found too many personal 'thorns in the flesh', some of which I still depend on God's sufficient grace for. That amazing grip of grace and the faithful presence of the Holy Spirit personally give me hope to reach out to others. To 'kick at the darkness until it bleeds light'.