God - Man
Hello - it's been a while. You know, stuff has been happening. I just wanted to talk about God's work for a minute. Maybe you've heard of or been a part of spiritual warfare. Here's the way I see it:
Satan sits around watching the people. If someone gets rambunctious and starts to do something that goes against what he is doing, he gets a little upset. The stuff that he hates to see is God stuff being done - that motivates him to take action. His action can be something that seems cool (David checking out Bathsheba taking a bath) to something awful (Job loses family, home - everything). He is a smart dude (God is smarter). His actions to stop God's work are where the idea of the warfare comes in.
We are free to follow Christ or do nothing and be on Satan's team. That is why he does nothing if we are doing no God Stuff. Now, going to church doesn't necessarily count as God stuff. Many times it ends up just being a place where people can have their consciences soothed by the thought that they had been at the church once this week. Beyond that, at church sometimes lives are changed. Outside those building walls, the church is working in the community shining Christ. That is God fighting back.
Well, we are in a place where there is considerable warfare going on. Our church is small, our income is not quite what it should be to survive, over the past month the people in our church have had some really weird illnesses to some more common, but many in our family have spent time in the hospital. The devil is working hard against what we have going on - or life would be easy. I love that most of our family is committed to seeing God glorified through our meetings and community involvement. I love that as each person is healed or a problem is solved, we can see that it was God at work and not just some stroke of luck.
God rocks and He is rocking in our church family as I write this now. It is hard to see some of the casualties that come from committing completely to God, and it is nerve wracking to follow Isaiah 40:31 and wait on God to be awesome, but He will be - He always is. Our hearts feel nearly torn out because of the struggles, but that last string of nerves, tendons, and muscles that holds each heart in place we tend to see as our best attempt to hold on to God.
Of course there is no way we could hold on without Him--we would just slip and let go - He's the one holding on to us. He is the one that sees the beauty in our struggle. He is the one that loves our efforts. At this point we can begin to fall back on the names of God that have been said for many more moons than I've lived. He is the Comfort! He is the Healer! He is the Patience! He is the Power! He is the Glory! He is the Life! He is the Way! He is the Truth! He is the Hope! He is the Completion!
Satan sits around watching the people. If someone gets rambunctious and starts to do something that goes against what he is doing, he gets a little upset. The stuff that he hates to see is God stuff being done - that motivates him to take action. His action can be something that seems cool (David checking out Bathsheba taking a bath) to something awful (Job loses family, home - everything). He is a smart dude (God is smarter). His actions to stop God's work are where the idea of the warfare comes in.
We are free to follow Christ or do nothing and be on Satan's team. That is why he does nothing if we are doing no God Stuff. Now, going to church doesn't necessarily count as God stuff. Many times it ends up just being a place where people can have their consciences soothed by the thought that they had been at the church once this week. Beyond that, at church sometimes lives are changed. Outside those building walls, the church is working in the community shining Christ. That is God fighting back.
Well, we are in a place where there is considerable warfare going on. Our church is small, our income is not quite what it should be to survive, over the past month the people in our church have had some really weird illnesses to some more common, but many in our family have spent time in the hospital. The devil is working hard against what we have going on - or life would be easy. I love that most of our family is committed to seeing God glorified through our meetings and community involvement. I love that as each person is healed or a problem is solved, we can see that it was God at work and not just some stroke of luck.
God rocks and He is rocking in our church family as I write this now. It is hard to see some of the casualties that come from committing completely to God, and it is nerve wracking to follow Isaiah 40:31 and wait on God to be awesome, but He will be - He always is. Our hearts feel nearly torn out because of the struggles, but that last string of nerves, tendons, and muscles that holds each heart in place we tend to see as our best attempt to hold on to God.
Of course there is no way we could hold on without Him--we would just slip and let go - He's the one holding on to us. He is the one that sees the beauty in our struggle. He is the one that loves our efforts. At this point we can begin to fall back on the names of God that have been said for many more moons than I've lived. He is the Comfort! He is the Healer! He is the Patience! He is the Power! He is the Glory! He is the Life! He is the Way! He is the Truth! He is the Hope! He is the Completion!
