Wow!

After reading verses this morning about Satan and about his lying. I went into Chapel today and this is one of the first verses that was read:


"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a MURDERERfrom the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he LIES, he speaks his native language, for he is a LIARand the father of LIES." (Jesus said this)
John 8:43-45

Death and Lies.

I just have to record that what got me started thinking about this is that a friend shared about how the mother of his child said that she'd rather see the child dead than with him and he is a basically good father trying to protect and help his child. She can't be bothered to bathe the child let alone protect him. I really think this mother has been deceived by Satan in many ways (like thinking it's OK for him to be at adult parties late at night hearing all kinds of language) and now he's taking her down that well worn path that includes nothing but death and destruction.

I don't dwell on Satan or this stuff usually, but it seems to be being brought to my attention.

It is good....to proclaim Your love in the morning....

thinking.....in love there is life and the opposite is death.

Because of some situations I'm aware of, I've been thinking about Satan, which I don't do that much. Two things stand out about Satan....death and deception. People are so deceived by fun, comfort, etc. and where does Satan always lead them? to death, sometimes toward killing or just wishing the death of someone else's and their own too.

Psalm 91

Here we go with "dwell" again. :)

I'm thinking about how a dwelling place means rest. "will rest in the shadow of the Almighty"
It also means protection "My fortress"
And so many don't have a physical dwelling place in Haiti....praying for them...
God be their dwelling place.

Tough to understand though....because just reading through this psalm, it sounds like if you love God he will protect you from all harm. But it seems that Job loved God and yet God did not keep him from all harm and disaster.

Maybe this is directly to David.
Something to think about today.

God's Punctuation

I'm always hesitant to claim "God gave me this verse" or that He's speaking through one because I suspect some people say stuf f like that too easily. But... After posting on Sunday morning about Psalm 90 v. 1 which I had been reading & praying back to God, I got up, got dressed, went to church, sat down and what was the very first thing read? You guessed it, Psalm 90! I think God was saying "yes, I did say that" and was putting the exclamation mark on that for me.

Dwelling...and...waiting

Here are some verses God has given me : 1. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations." Ps. 90:1 2. "Wait for the Lord, Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Ps. 27:14 Here's what it seems the significance of each of the verses is: 1. The first could be God talking to me about an office for AIS. The office we've shared has not worked out very well. It's where we had the cybercafe and we were sharing with another ministry. (and it was not very big). We're not renewing after this month, so that's ending. We don't have another place and there really isn't money at this time to rent one. Richard mainly uses Joy's room since she's at college, but it's not really adequate for many of the needs. Our house is pretty small, not accessible by public transportation (people have to walk about a 1/4 mile and part of it is up a big hill), etc. But yesterday we had two meetings out on our porch, where we've had most AIS meetings. Our colleagues in AIS never complain about the walk to our house. Sometimes we go drive out to the "main road" in our neighborhood to pick them up or drop them off, or even out to the main road of this area. The point is God is in control of this and all other needs of the ministry. 2. I know the one about wait for the Lord is ALWAYS applicable, but for me now it's very much applicable to having to wait and take things slowly with the soccer & business ministries. A few weeks ago we mentioned that our good friend Ronald lost his job as soccer coach at a high school. He has worked a lot for the soccer ministry, but aren't able to pay him for his work. We help him out as we can. But it makes me anxious for us to get a business or businessES started that can support the ministry, so that we can eventually have a couple people supported to focus on the ministry. We do want to promote the idea of volunteer work in ministry, but it's hard when people have such dire needs. In his case, here he is jobless, no income, but people see him busy with activity in AIS and they assume he gets money for it. He has to tell them 'No, I don't. This is volunteer work.' But those who know that it's run by an American probably have a hard time explaining that. Please pray for Ronald. His beautiful attitude and faith through frustrating the conditions of his termination for that job are a huge inspiration to us.

"The mark of a Christian is that he experiences deeper and greater joy in being dishonored with Christ than he does in being honored by men." John Piper 1984

I was reading John Piper's sermon given in 1984 that mentioned the killing of Chet Bitterman ( a linguist & missionary in Colombia) in 1981. I came across this online because Ricky was looking for a biography to read and I suggested that Ricky disregard the dorky picture on the front and read it anyway because he'd probably find it interesting (He did). Anyway, it got me thinking about the story of Chet Bitterman and I couldn't remember a whole lot of details, so I googled it.

It's good. And it brings up that theme again of being willing to die but not being willing to put up with normal problems in life. And that theme was brought up in a paper that Joy wrote for school that she sent me to look at...today! God is amazing--the way He brings things together like that. AND the same verses keep coming up everywhere (the retreat last weekend, this sermon, etc)
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15) But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; 16) yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but under that name let him glorify God. 17) For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18) And
"If the righteous man is scarcely saved,where will the impious and sinner appear?"
19) Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.

I've thought that I might as well adopt these as my life verse, because it's such a recurring theme for me--that I don't want to suffer for sinning, if I'm going to suffer (and I will) I want it to be as one 'reproached for the name of Christ.' this motivates me to resist sinning (often, I know...not always) and it helps me accept whatever suffering God allows in my life. And now I'm noticing the words at the end (not sure which version was used here) and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator." -- I like that.