War

from Laura

"Life is war.  That’s not all it is.  But it is always that." 

-John Piper in Let The Nations Be Glad!

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been feeling attacked.  Always in a fight with myself- my temper or my lack of discipline; ambushed by paperwork or management issues or the politics of school; stalked by discouragement or negativity or gossip.

At breakfast, I’ve been working my way through John Piper’s book, quoted above, and last week I got to a chapter on WAR and prayer.  God is very timely...  John Piper’s message is that we do not live in a peacetime world.  God’s kingdom is at war with Satan’s.  We are caught up in this war, all of us.

There are LOTS of implications of this.  But what I needed this weekend was to remember Ephesians 6:10-20.  This is Paul’s "armor of God" passage- very familiar to many who were raised going to Sunday School.  The first key in it for me was this: I’m right!  I am being attacked.  It’s not just my imagination.  I’m in a war against evil spiritual forces; and they would love to destroy my effectiveness for God.

Key #2: I can fight back!  I know the Truth, I am God’s child, I rest in His peace and trust in His power, I have formed habits of righteousness, and I have the Word of God- both in my hand and in my heart.  I have all the armor and weapons that Paul discusses.  By myself, there are problems with all of those tools.  There are habits I haven’t formed, truths I don’t know, and much that I forget.  However, there is one weapon that mends all the holes, and that is prayer.  My takeaway for this week has been verse 18: "Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.  Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere."  This is how God’s power arrives so that the armor stays on and the weapons work.

So this week I’ve been trying  to take a more active role in this fight.  Staying alert, being persistent, rather than walking along in a cloud and then finding myself flailing around in desperate self-defense.  This week, I have not felt any less attacked.  Quite the opposite, if anything.  But being aware of the fight and being ready with my armor and with prayer- this has made an enormous difference in the outcome of the attacks!  I definitely need to keep this up!

Learning to Trust God More

From Seth

As most of our readers are aware, Laura and I are in the process of raising our financial support for this adventure of going to Faith Academy to teach missionary kids.  We have seen God's hand at work at every turn as we continue to talk to groups of people about our vision for teaching at Faith, what we hope to accomplish there, and the steps of faith that have led us to this point.  We are constantly amazed to see how God works in the hearts of our friends and family as we share with them our call to serve as missionary teachers.

But even as we see God work so powerfully in our lives, and in the lives of the people around us, we have to face the fact that we are only halfway to our monthly support goal.  Our generous supporters have already pledged close to $2,000 per month, but we still need to raise the same amount more before we can leave.  On the one hand, we know that God is FAR greater than $2,000 per month to allow Laura and I to follow His call to the Philippines.  But on the other hand, my own human nature constantly whispers in my ear, trying to get me to worry.  

God has interesting ways of working in our lives.  Even as He demonstrates His power, and confirms His call on our lives, He also makes sure that we cannot pretend that we were able to serve Him through our own power or our own efforts.   He makes it crystal clear that we must depend on Him for everything.  In my case, He is simply telling me to do my part (talking to people about what God has called me and Laura to do) and to let Him worry about the rest.  It requires and incredible amount of trust in God, His goodness, His call on our lives, and His ability to provide the funding that will allow us to fulfill His call.  It is a daily struggle to put my trust in Him, to believe in His ability to take care of everything.  But then, I suppose that is no different from what He has called every Christian to do, every day.

Some Thoughts About Passion

from Seth

I recently re-watched a movie called Gattaca.  In addition to its insightful look into a frighteningly possible future, the movie provides a fascinating perspective of what it looks like for a person to have genuine, single-minded passion.  Vincent, the main character, has just one dream, a dream that he has had since he was a little boy.  His dream is to become an astronaut, to visit other planets, to see what the universe looks like from somewhere other than the surface of Earth. Unfortunately, he finds himself in the disadvantaged situation of having a poor genetic prognosis.  He is expected to die by age 30.  Who would invest massive amounts of time and money into training an astronaut who would be dead that early?  Despite this setback, however, Vincent never gives up on his dream.  He pours all of his heart and soul and life into pursuing this dream, and eventually he succeeds. (If you want more details, rent the movie.) :)  He gave this one dream everything he had.  From the time he got up in the morning, until the time he went to bed at night, everything he did was aimed at realizing his dream. 

After I finished watching this movie, I got to thinking about that kind of passion.  How often do we see Christians who live their lives with this kind of passion?  How often do we see followers of Christ who believe so strongly in the value of obeying Him that they live every minute of every day in pursuit of His will?  And how much more important, how much more lasting, are God’s purposes for each of His children, as compared with Vincent’s dream of being an astronaut?   

Even so, when I find myself waking up in the morning, only rarely is Jesus the first thing on mind.  Only rarely is opening my Bible at the top of my list of things to do during the day.  And even as I engage in matters directly related to my desire to follow His will, I find that I am not always focused on Him and what He wants me to be learning from any given situation.  Shame on me!  I have a thousand times more reasons to pursue God with all my heart and mind and soul than Vincent had to pursue his dreams!  So what holds me back?  Why do I not give him everything I have and more? 

I’m afraid I do not yet have an answer.  But what I can say is this: the past is over and gone.  It cannot be changed.  The future, however, is yet to be seen; it most certainly CAN be changed, by the decisions I choose to make.  I pray that God will give me the strength and passion to follow Him as best I can in everything I do, everyday.  Who knows?  Perhaps one day I will get a glimpse of what it is like to live with the kind of passion that Vincent showed in Gattaca.