Warfare is Right Here

The concept of Christians being in a constant battle is either disregarded or misunderstood as an exaggeration of the Church. Either life is life and we must live through it while maintaining some moral uprightness; or life is a struggle to live uprightly and we give a nod to being in “The Lord's Army” and battling against the Devil who wants us to sin.

But the Christian life is more than both of those ideas. Yes there is an Enemy to our God and Saviour. Yes there are daily struggles to remain pure and spotless children of God. Yes we know there are human enemies trying to stop us from doing what is right. But how often do we look beyond the physical and peer into the spiritual? How often do we consider the seemingly random and outrageous thoughts which pop into our minds (to lust or to doubt or to hate) as more than mere temptations but as specific, targeted attacks against us to get us to destroy our view of God or our love for God or our devotion to God? How often do we see the conflicts or misunderstandings between the people we are ministering with as the same targeted attacks? How often do we see the roadblocks or delays or dead-ends as attacks on our mind in Christ?

We are in a daily fight for our lives. Satan and his demons desire to erase God from the world. The Bible records that Satan has lost the battle at the end of it all, but he is still active now. Therefore, Satan knows he will not conquer God in the end, but he still works to conquer the hearts and lives of the people of earth before the final destruction of himself. He wishes to keep mankind in darkness and to turn Christians from the light into the darkness.

According to that goal, Satan and his devils daily work against God. They whisper words of fear, hatred, pride, or deceit. They flash images of lust, anger, animosity or inadequacy. They encourage ideas of loneliness, inability, ignorance, or turning back. They fight with full barracks, full quivers, loaded guns, ongoing ferocity. They taunt with thoughts you are inadequate to serve God. They haunt with regret and fears of the past. They flirt with selfishness and self-indulgence.

Whenever you decide to follow God and to live for Him, then you will be assaulted in the spiritual world, sometimes with attacks entering the physical world. There is no exception. Christ understood that and told his disciples that He would give them power to do His commands. He also explained He was sending other Gospel Bearers as lambs among wolves. Paul explains that we need to be clear-minded and focused and mentally aroused to the world around us both spiritually and physically because Satan—our foe, our nemesis, our stumbler, our tempter, our accuser, our adversary—is out there. Satan is a lion—fierce, angry, dangerous, hungry—and wants to devour us. He doesn't simply want to kill our hopes or our ministry. He doesn't want to just stop us from following God. He wants to destroy us. He wants to get us to the point where we decide to turn away from God indefinitely and he will use whatever method can get us to that point.

Satan is not a a whimsical, abstract idea. He is powerful and has many tools at his advantage. He uses people to progress his agenda, he uses demons, and he uses our flesh. He will send people to hurt us emotionally or physically. He will oppress us with doubts and fears and anxieties. He will tempt us with lust and pride and greed. He doesn't really care what he destroys you with—he just wants to render you useless. ((Side note: While sin has its consequences, you are never useless to God. He is active in the business of restoring people and healing their hearts and repairing lives. The only way you are useless to God is if you believe you are and thus hold back your heart and life from Him. But if you surrender yourself to Him He will use you.))

So be thoughtful as you go through your day. When you interact with people or do your ministry or drive to work, how is Satan attacking you? Easy things are the following: Thoughts of bitterness or anger. Thoughts of lust or worry. Thoughts of pride. But sometimes they come unexpectedly and you assume it is just life or just the facts. You walk into work to find out a rumor has been spread about your character. A guy nearly drives you off the road. A misunderstanding between your colleague prevents progress in your ministry. You realize there are way too many people for you to share the Light of Christ with. You realize you are too dependent to fully dive into following God and you doubt you can do it by yourself or that Christ would be with you. You get a tangle in your official paperwork that blind-sides you. Your spouse or kids drive you up the wall with tiny, consecutive moments of chaos or drama.

The thing you need to do is to identify them as they come. Realize that if the thoughts suggests that you doubt God's word or to stop following Him, then it isn't from God. If the thought is to further the kingdom, spread the love of God, share the Light of Christ, then it is from God. You can pretty easily determine most of the voices and their speakers. Therefore, when you hear the voice of Darkness whisper for you to take steps away from God, then identify it as a personal attack against you. And when you identify it, abide by the following: Submit yourself to God. Know His say in the matter and give yourself over to His leading. Then resist the urge to turn from God. Resist the attack. Don't let the demons oppress you. You have authority granted by Jesus Christ to dispel demons. The Cross and Resurrection of Christ grants you to live free from sin. Therefore, under the power of King Jesus, resist the devils. When you submit to God and resist the attacks, Satan will flee. He will run away.

Today, live in constant awareness that you are in a battle against your Enemy. Live knowing you are being attacked at every turn. Begin identifying those attacks and commit yourself to following God and resisting the urges to doubt or fear or be angry. Actively pursue God and dwell in His presence and power and love so that you can embrace the love of Christ that restores you and empowers you to love Him.

Finally, an Update!

So, a month in and I have yet to actually post an update of living in Ethiopia. I unfortunately am on a public computer, so I will not be able to post any photos, but I should "soon" enough. Yet, unfortunately for you, this isn't much of an update. As I am on a public computer and don't have full mind to update adequately.

I haven't updated anything mainly because I am still in the transition phase--which I should be out of come next week. I begin language school next week, though I attempted to begin it early this week (didn't happen). So, now I wait. I am excited to learn the language and be able to communicate a little better. I obviously won't be close to fluent, but I will be able to get around a little better.

During my month transition, I have been doing a lot of reading and a lot of thinking. Hence the two prior (and one eventual) posts dealing more with thought than Ethiopian updates. However, these were important things I have learned, and the following post might be the most important of the three. (But you have to wait in suspense until I can get on WiFi to post it--I didn't bring a flash drive.)

I begin my work with BCI after language school and am anxious to see all my kiddoes that I left last time. I look forward to learning what I will from the experience and to see what God has in store for me after those 6 months. I don't know the future unknown, but I trust in the God who is Eternal.


As for my travels to Addis--crazy and a lot of people.

As for my interaction with my new family-- randomly teaching Spanish and learning Amharic.

As for my help in Sunday School-- we have begun a lesson series on the Life of Christ.

I hope to update more thoroughly when events come.

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your thoughts.

The Unknown

The unknown bears with it multiple emotions. Then again, it would have to. For who rejoices at the first moment of death; or who trembles in fear at the first thought of new friendships. But rather, you fear at breaking friendships and you mourn at deaths. But your mind cannot process the unknown efficiently. You may decide in yourself to fear the unknown, but what if when the unknown becomes known and it is a source of joy and excitement and happiness? What if it is a new job or a new significant other or a new family member? If you prepared your heart and mind for the unknown with fear, then when the joy is revealed, you will fear it instinctively. What if the boss is irrational and angry? What if this significant doesn't understand the same type of humor or mind processes? What if the new family member doesn't like you or doesn't connect with you or is scared of you, too?

If you prepared your mind for the unknown with pure exhilaration and enthusiasm, then you will be clutched to stillness when your new job forces you to move across the country. Your heart with implode when you realize this significant other only wanted your status or your money or your influence for personal benefit. Your emotions will go haywire when you find out this new family member has a hard background, scary life-view, and reserved speech.

Therefore, since the unknown is precisely that, we must prepare with a constant. What can be present in both the happy and sad, the mundane and the exciting, the serious and the jovial? What can be present in the deepest of sorrows and the highest of joys? What can be focused on now before the unknown comes that will be adequate when the unknown reveals itself?

Trusting God in the unknown prepares us for trusting God in the known. When we don't know the future, we need to trust God. When we find out the job is the perfect one, we need to trust God. When that job moves us across the country, we need to trust God. When our significant other reveals zero flaws, we need to trust God. When our significant other reveals a significant flaw, we need to trust God. When a new family member becomes a closest friend, we need to trust God. When a new family member has a wall because too many people in his past has bombarded his heart, we need to trust God.

For when we trust God in the unknown, despite what we may hope for, we already have a foundation of trust for when the unexpected comes. God is not a Deity who glories in pain and relishes in discouragement. Rather, He is One who desires the best for us. While the road that leads us to the best may not be pleasant or anticipated, God is with us through it all and with us in our best.

Trust comes with knowledge. God doesn't desire blind faith—the kind of faith where you throw a dime in the air and hope it lands on its edge. But rather, God desires the trust that comes from observation of facts. God doesn't desire us to trust Him to do as we imagine, but rather to do as He deems best. We can look at the stories of the lives of people in the Bible to see how God interacted with His people and preformed mighty deeds and kept His word and upheld the righteous. And we can look into the lives of recent figures in history through their biographies and autobiographies and observe the same God taking care of His people through His faithfulness. We can observe through our own lives how God keeps His word and how He remained faithful. Therefore, when we trust God to be King and El Shaddai in our unknown, we are depending on His trustworthiness that has been displayed ever since Creation. When we trust God to bring about our best in times of joy and sorrow and in times of excitement and mundane, we can depend more firmly in His unchanging faithfulness to His people.

Trust God in the unknown so that you may trust God in the known. He will not leave you. He will not detest you. He will not end His love for you. He will not be blind to the future. He will continue to produce growth in your spirit and continue to shine forth His faithfulness.

Workers of the Light

Imagine there is this ancient town where in the innermost square of the city is a well of fire. This will geysers fire into the sky with unfathomable heights. The flames are strong and jubilant, dancing and swirling with freedom. As the pillar of fire reaches skyward, it also sends out arms of fire in all directions away from the well. These arms of fire crawl outward, never singing the landscape and never slaying a living creature. When the arms of fire have spread out enough, they burrow into the ground, creating a web of roots. These roots, too, are of fire and they branch out throughout the underbelly of the city. Tree begin to sprout via the roots of fire and tower above the inhabitants. As the trees continue to grow, fruit blossoms speckle the branches and eventually enough fruits of fire fill the branches of the trees all throughout the landscape of the city.

The inhabitants of the city live in this light with appreciation. For in all directions leading away from the City of Light, darkness reigns and enshrouds other cities of the world. The inhabitants of the City of Light eventually formed themselves into two sects of people. The one sect began to become engulfed by the fire and wore the flames intently. The other sect only lived in the Light and remained unaffected by the fire raging through the town. These ones, who call themselves the Inhabitants of the Light, place themselves throughout the city without any real concern for the people who live on the other side of the walls. Some Inhabitants of the Light live on the walls themselves, but soon become unstable. For as they live on the Boundary of the Darkness and Light, they find themselves entranced by the darkness and wonder the lifestyles of living in the darkness. They envision life without the constant array of fire that dances about them. They wonder at the life that could be lived under the guise of darkness, never to be seen by friends or family. Some remain in the City of Light merely because they fear the darkness more than they are awed by it. They fear death and fear what dwells in the darkness.

Then there is the sect who call themselves the Workers of the Light. These people view life in the light and in the darkness differently. They understand that life in darkness is lived in fear of death and fear of light. They realize that the people in the darkness are not sources to be feared, but rather to be loved as much as people in the light are loved. The Workers of the Light consistently put on cloaks of fire and bear a torch lit with the direct flames of the well, venturing out into the darkness to establish light in the darkness. They claim the safety that the light gives them to ward of the fears that the darkness attempts to enchant them with. They enter cities of darkness and find people to share the light with. They realize the torch they bear cannot erupt the entire world in light, but they know that it is enough to engulf one or two Inhabitants of the Darkness.

As the Workers of the Light continue their journey back and forth between the Well of Fire and the budding cities of light, they work to build a fountain of fire in the liberated new cities of light. As the fountain is built, more Inhabitants of the Darkness embrace the light given by the Workers of the Light and burn away their cloaks of darkness and put on cloaks of fire, burning with the same embers of the Workers of Light. They live no longer in fear of what the darkness may hold for their light shines in the darkness and they see the world as it is meant to be seen and may live free from fear.

That is not to say the task of the traveling Workers of Light nor the duty of the newfound Workers of Light is unchallenged. For there are Workers of Darkness just as fervent, if not more, as their counterparts of Light. They gather in all their power to put out the light they bear, whether it is by murder or by influences of fear. The Workers of Darkness never stand idle as their cities are defeated by the light and they have begun to set up sentries at the untouched cities of darkness. As the Workers of Light venture out into new lands, the Sentries of Darkness pounce and stifle the light to the best of their powers. Some succeed while others despair in their defeat to the light.

The thought that compels the Workers of Light to never quit is that one day the planted fountains of fire will eventually spring out and connect the Cities of Light around the world with bands of fire, leading back to the Well of Fire in the grand City of Light. While there is danger from the Sentries of Darkness and while there is fear by the Workers of Darkness, there is power in the light that is unmatched if dear is dispelled. They journey out with their cloaks and torches, meeting the Inhabitants of Darkness to bring to them the light that can burn away their darkness and end their fears.

The challenge for the Workers of Light is ever fierce. Never is there a day in which they can pass on their burning fires with little oppression of the darkness. Even when there are no Workers of Darkness present, the darkness itself is thick and haunting. Though there be fire dancing within their spirits and leaping from their shoulders on the ground around, the darkness lies in hideous wait, watching for moments to drown out the light. For the darkness is not an idle conception, flowing through the world on a breeze; it is on an endeavor to reign. Darkness finds richness in the unseen and in the frightfulness of the unknown. The glory of its riches is to pursue deeper, madder darkness. The pinnacle of fulfillment is the decline in humanity into uncontrollable chaos and panic. It is in respect to this nature the darkness has to magnify itself that the Workers of Light battle ferociously against.

With intent to enrich the soils with the fountains of fire which are blossomed by the torch burning with the flames of the Well of Fire, the Workers of Light travel the highlands and lowlands. Yet despite such resolve, the level of their fervor diminishes with each seedling of fire planted within the minds of the Inhabitants of Darkness. For they are not simply providing an enlightenment of the light in which they produce a kindling of fire; but rather the Workers of Light give away a portion of their fire to burn away the darkness and give birth to an Inhabitant of Light. When the Workers of Light give away their light, they must return to the Well of Fire to be rekindled with the ever-flowing flames which radiate into the entirety of the City of Light.

As the newly birthed Inhabitants of Light find their flames and burn away the darkness, they are presented with an assortment of paths to travel. One is to stay where they are and remain an Inhabitant of Light, though much distant from the City of Light. However, with that is the risk of being overpowered by the darkness of their city and lose their light, resulting in a low-burning ember. Another option is to make a pilgrimage to the City of Light and embrace the warming flames of the Well of Fire and remain affixed to the city, never choosing to leave again. Such a choice keeps them in the sect of the Inhabitants of Light. Yet a third choice remains for them. They may choose to become a Worker of Light and make continuous pilgrimages to the Well of Fire all the while birthing the light which burns away darkness into Inhabitants of Darkness. As they continue to choose this path, they will soon be a part of a blossoming of a fountain of fire which would radiate the fires throughout the city, becoming a city of light, burning away the darkness within and shining against the darkness without.

Diligence must always be named among the Workers of Light. They must carry their torches with pure determination to see humanity banish fear and dispel darkness. They must walk with their minds on the Well of Fire. When they notice themselves dimming and darkness tries to persuade them to remain in the darkness which surrounds them, they must ever resolve to return to the Well of Fire and once again reignite the flames that radiate through their bodies and dance off of their clothes. They must also dip their torch into the Spire of Fire to redeem the embers which grew soft during the journey. If they refuse to live with such devotion to the maintaining of their fire, they will eventually find themselves lost in the darkness, torn between embracing the darkness and returning to the light. For in the twilight there is much deception to what the deep darkness holds. It promises freedom from the burden of light-bearing; it promises joys and rewards for embracing the darkness; it promises to some kingdoms of darkness to reign over. The twilight distorts the line between dark and light and questions rise to the importance of light. For if one can see fine in such dim light, certainly they can see well enough to navigate the darkness and remain fearless. Or so they imagine.

But the light beckons. It reaches high into the heavens rooted at the Well of Fire: a beacon of truth and of life without fear. It spirals far above the City of Light to remind the Workers of Light that the darkness is nothing to desire. If only those who find themselves in the twilight look to the beacon and take a couple steps toward the City of Light, the deceptions of the darkness will fade into the depths from which they come.

The hope of all Workers of Light is to see the entire world in light and unite together with fellow Workers and Inhabitants of Light to burn away the final traces of darkness one day. They hope for that final day when the Well of Fire interconnects with the Fountains of Fire and course light like veins through the world. And when that happens, the world will welcome a new age to its citizens. An age of final fearlessness. An age of pure light filling every edge of the world. An age of communion in the light, never to be assaulted by the darkness or the Workers of Darkness again.

And for such a new age, the Workers of Light bear a saying in their minds and hearts when they rise from sleep, when they walk their course, and when they lie down to sleep: “May I fill my being with the fire which burns away fear and darkness and may I give it away to those who walk in darkness. May they, too, fill themselves with that fire and give it away freely. So that we may work together to burn away darkness and remind each other of the Well of Fire which clothes them with fearlessness and light.”

~ ~ ~

So I am here, to be a worker of the Light of God. As I give my portion of light of God which burns away the darkness of sin, I must purpose my heart to return to the source consistently to be rejuvenated in His power and love and Light.

May I continue to saturate my heart in the wisdom of God, and consecrate my passions to the will of Christ, and devote my ideas and imaginations to the mind of Christ.