Needless
Last night I finished reading John Paul Jackson's
"Needless Casualties of War" that I referred to in the 'Crocodiles and JPJ' post. It's a book on spiritual warfare. I got it because the back cover seemed to indicate that he would have something helpful to explain if you were suffering a lot of attacks and seeing as I know a lot of people with attacks going on, I thought it would be helpful. But it wasn't really.
Overall, I thought it wasa good book. The first bit made me uncomfortable. Not that I mind being uncomfortable. I don't mind being challenged by other people's ideas, but I was uncomfortable because at the start I thought he seemed to be saying not to do spiritual warfare at all, which to me was implying not to do anything for Christ.
His point seemed to be people who do spiritual warfare 'incorrectly' suffer needless attacks. Which I agree with. But doing anything for Christ (correctly or not!) I think sets you up for attacks. Of course you don't want needless ones. And then there are just the regular problems of living in a sin cursed world. Not sure that you can always tell the difference!
The book seemed to be directed at people who spend a lot of time praying to 'bind Satan' or so. In my prayer time, I rarely think about Satan, I pretty much focus on God, enjoying Him and looking to see what he wants me to pray for. Do I suffer attacks? Yes. But I don't think I'm doing his key point wrong (nor do most of the people I know who also have attacks in their lives. His point was focus on God in prayer, not Satan. Check.
He had some other point that is was good to be refreshed about
-that repentance is a key weapon
-that our prayers should be modeled after the prayers of Jesus and portray the nature of Jesus
He had one definition of sin that I thought was interesting. I'm not sure it covers all sins, but it's an interesting way of thinking about it: "
when we attempt to take by force what God would have given by grace"(82)
I can see how it applies in a lot of cases- if we are taking things into our own hands, we are blocking God out.
He does give some good ideas of things to pray for your community, which I hope to find useful.
Grandfather
My grandfather turned 92 today. I talked to him on the phone (He lives in Holland) and he sounds so old now. His words slur. He told me life was hard. When I hung up the phone I cried.
Crocodiles and JPJ
On June 3, I had a dream (
June archive) about a big crocodile.
The dreamI heard some sounds outside and went to look out the kitchen window. There were big rocks outside the window and I was trying to look out. I saw a racoon. People in the background were saying something like, so ancient, they were around with the dinosaur. An then I saw something else. The tail of an alligator. I went to the front window and the alligator was coming out of the rocks and going across the street. He was HUGE. He was bigger than the whole street! The tail was so wide.
In the dream I wasn't frightened of the alligator. Maybe awed.
The alligator may also be an ancient spirit. Al suggested the spirit of religion.
ETA:Thinking of it as a spirit, some notes:
-it is out in the open
-it has teeth
-it has armour plating
-Isaiah 27 says
1 In that day the LORD with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.
July 26So that was all around June 3. Last night I started reading John Paul Jackson's "
Needless casualties of War" and what was the first scripture that he uses? Isaiah 27:1. Now JPJ ties the Isaiah scripture to Job 41 and I haven't figured out what that means! Ideas?
Job 41
1 "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down his tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he keep begging you for mercy?
Will he speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will he make an agreement with you
for you to take him as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on him,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing him is false;
the mere sight of him is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
Giver or taker
Al spoke this morning on generosity. What I took away as an application was to look at my life in every aspect -am I giving or taking? I spend a lot of time giving (mainly because I have a little person to tend to). The time when I am a 'taker' the most is when I go to St. Catharines. I pretty much crash while I'm there. Let my parents cook and play with James. I try to help out where I can but I find I haven't much energy because I guess my body just needs some time to recharge. My parents don't mind at all. They love to see James and they understand that the trip itself tires me out, but I wish I could be more of who I normally am for them as they are very important people in my life. I think the giver or taker concept a good thing to think about often.
After church, I came home while the boys went to AJ's birthday party. I thought it would be very nice some time to myself. Ha! I switched on a CD and I also switched on the TV (with almost no volume) because I was to tape the soccer for James. I had been restless before this- with me if I get restless that probably means there's going to be something to pray for soon. I am only starting to clue in at the signs. And when I switched on the TV it 'hit' me as to what I was to pray for - for the young men in this age group - late teen - the age of the soccer players- the age of my students- of Jake, Keven, my co-workers son, etc. And I had an understanding of why I have not, despite all my attempts to quit my job, been released from it. It seems to be to pray for this group. Though I have always prayed for my students, it seemed I was praying on a different level today, if that makes sense.
...your young men will see visions... Joel 2:28
Parents
One of my coworkers has a son who became a Christian 2 years ago. My coworker and his wife are not Christians. The son is now 18. The parents are confused. They think it reflects badly on them that he needed to become a Christian. They are good people, they think. What's wrong with us? I think my parents probably went through the same with me. But it's not enough to be good. It's only enough to have Christ.
It's harder when you are older. There is a lot that gets ingrained that you don't want to give up. I can see they don't want to give up. They still want to control. If the son does something wrong, they ground him from Bible study.
The son is now going to university in the fall. He'll loose a lot of his support structure (excellent youth pastor and youth group). I hope he is well grounded. He'll need it. I'll be praying for him. I think young Christians are great.
Vision
My mom ended up going to a walk in clinic as her spot started to look more like lyme disease and she is now on antibiotics.
I read some of Andy Stanley's "Visioneering" and was struck by this quote by Karen Bennett
"If you decide that what God is asking you to do with your life is just too much on you and is just a little too inconvenient, then you will never see the miracles He has for you"
This Karen started a inner city childrens church in Atlanta and has paid a price in that their building has been broken into, their buses vandalized, their staff beaten up and numerous children who started attending were murdered (not because they were attending but because of the area). They didn't have money or support, so it involved a lot of sacrifice. I would think when you look at the negative outcomes it might be easy to give up. But the positives must have outweighed the negatives overall.
Andy gives the example of when Nehemiah was building the wall and the obstacles he faced- their families at risk, the enemies closing in around, there was fear and discouragement and the workers quit.
Andy says
"Who could blame them? Think about it. When you weigh the risk of what they were facing against the rewards of finishing the wall, why stick with it?"...But Nehemiah wasn't in this because he was convinced the people had the character, competency and commitment to pull it off. He wasn't in it because he was convinced the wall could be rebuilt to it's original specifications. He was participating in this project because this was what God had put in his heart to do. Of course it was impossible. Nehemiah's critics had some valid points. But the critics weren't factoring in God.
It reminded me of a recent dream of an unfinished hole. It looked like so much work. But, as Nehemiah did, we need to pray, remember the source of our vision and revise our plan as needed.
Guards
Yesterday I got up at 5am and headed out to pray and felt soo much lighter. Joy comes in the morning indeed. My worries had passed.
My mom doesn't think the rash is Lyme disease anymore. Which is good I guess.
I talked with Kim yesterday about having guards as I had seen her act in a guarded fashion when someone was offering to help her. When you guard yourself too much Christ can't get out. She said that that was exactly what she had been working on - getting the fear of man out of her- it had come in from her first marriage. It's nice that we accept what the other has to say even though we might not like it very much.
We need to be guarded in wisdom.
Worries
My mom emailed to say she was worried she had Lyme disease. She has a rash with a bullseye. And they are going on vacation tomorrow. Worries.
Other things I have been worrying and praying about today.
I can't seem to let go and give it over to God.
Maybe I'm worried about too many things. I need to try not to overload, but life doesn't stop, does it?
