Christians in Pakistan

This recent post by Kevin Turner, Strategic World Impact, gives us an up close and personal look at the persecution of Christians in Pakistan.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=131467931360&h=7Y7hl&u=AChye&ref=nf

Attacks happen. It is life. Satan attacks children of God most viciously and enthusiastically in three situations.

I. When there is unconfessed sin in our life

II. When we are in the middle of crisis – hurt, pain, discomfort, wounded, whatever label you want to apply for the time you are thinking about – this can be a crisis of faith.

III. When we have had great spiritual victory.

In these attacks his primary goal is to convince us that we are either not a child of God or we are so soiled and worthless that we are unforgiveable and forever of no use or value to God and His kingdom.

Why is it that satan seems to so easily gain victory over us or our lives when we are promised the strength of the King of Kings? What happens to our faith and peace? Why? Where? How?

I. If you are a child of God – a Christian – a believer – you have been given eternal life – it begins at the moment you accept Christ. It is difficult - our temporary here and now life is lived in enemy territory. Becoming a Christian does not make us super human or give us the power to immediately be immune to the sin around us or our inborn sin nature. Don’t you wish that becoming a Christian meant we had a big ‘C’ on our forehead and rendered us immediately and totally able to withstand any attack of satan? Would that not be excellent! But it isn’t so. The Apostle Paul, a great warrior of Christ, said it best I think when he wrote, the very things I don’t want to do – I do. The things I want so badly to do – I don’t do. Wretched man that I am!!!!! (Romans 7: 17-24) When we stray into enemy territory we are wretched indeed. We are miserable! Low and dirty, tired and weak. Sometimes defiant and rebellious but miserable nevertheless. The Word tells us that when we are children of God, He will discipline us like an earthly Father disciplines his child (Hebrews 12: 5-6; Rev 3:19).

Is there unconfessed sin in your life? Are you miserable, knowing that you are not in agreement with your heavenly Father about the choices you have made? You can take comfort in knowing that you are indeed His child. He chastens or disciplines His child. He is also faithful and just (always there and always fair) to forgive us our sin and pick us up and clean us up from the mess our willfulness has created (I John 1:9). If you are under attack because of sin in your life – run to Jesus! He is waiting as a patient, loving Father to forgive, comfort, and restore you.

II. I was reminded this morning that we must be careful how we define blessing. We often consider ourselves privileged children of God who should walk in sunshine and lollipops if we obey and serve. That is not what the Bible promises. Jesus Himself said that we will have trials and troubles just like He did. In this world we will have troubles but He also said for us not to be afraid. He has overcome the world! (John 16:33, I Peter 4:12-19). Life as a Christian is not a matter of whether we will face trials or hardships. They will come. It is a matter of what we do with those trials and hardships. Do we put on the whole armor of God and having done all else, STAND? (Eph 6: 10-20) or do we cave and cower at the first sign of difficulty. What are you made of? Are you a wimpy rubber legged rag doll Christian or do you know that in Him you are complete, able to face life because you know who you believe in and you know that He is able to take that which you have committed to Him and keep you against any attack of the enemy? (Romans 4:20-25; Romans 8:31-39) These are hard things to say. It is not easy to stand when life deal you blows that make you want to crawl in a hole and pull the dirt over your head? When loved ones desert you, when a friend betrays, when your children are hurting, when illness strikes and seems insurmountable, when life deals out blow after blow after blow. When you are persecuted all day long for your faith, can you stand? Not without the strength that comes from a daily- day in and day out – walk with your best friend, the lover of your soul, the one who died bearing your sin, rose again and lives now – LIVES NOW at the right hand of the Father interceding for you and me. He is sitting there saying, “Hey, Abba, see my son (or daughter)…………, they are mine, they are ours – they are under attack, watch how he used the Word there, they missed that one but look he (she) picked right back up after the time we spent in worship this morning, bring them through this, they will be found faithful………”

III. In times of victory – try out this visual with me – great victory in Christ – you have withstood attack and are rejoicing, you have lead a friend to Christ or taken a stand when it was really hard, helped a friend who was suffering, sat with a sick loved one who was less than loveable – you have been obedient and are worshipping and it feels so great. You are mountain top loving it and praising His name and you look up and the roof falls – why does He let that happen. Go back and read #1 and 2 again. We live in enemy territory. Write it down – victory will always result in attack. The real issue is will you be ready. Go back to the Ephesians 6 passage. Having done all – having put on the whole armor of God and walking in obedience – you are prayed up, walking in His ways, spending time every day with Him in the Word - are you standing in His strength or trying to go it in your own strength. The first is our battle plan, the second leads to our disaster.

WOW – so you ask –what you are saying is that most of the time we are either under attack or ‘fixin’ to be? In the vernacular of OKie land, the answer is ‘Yep’ that’s how it works. Ask any soldier – in battle there are no vacations, no R&R, no time outs or rests. When the enemy’s guard is down that is the best time to attack. And our enemy is like a roaring lion prancing, pacing to see who he can devour (I Peter 5:8).

This all sounds so discouraging you say. Not really. We live in a war zone but our day will come. We have been given a mission by the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, The One who sits upon the throne of all creation. He allows us to serve Him for a few short years on this planet called Earth. Our mission is to serve Him, to be obedient and by doing so we bring others out of the enemy territory into eternal victory in Christ. There is coming a day, not so very far away, when we will stand before the throne. All of this life will have passed away and only what we have done for Him will stand.

This is a wonderful life despite the struggles. We have been entrusted as children of God with a very short time of service here – to love our families, serve each other and reach out to others – all in our love and devotion to Him.

Are you being disciplined? Take heart – you are His child and He is calling you back to Him?

Are you in a valley of some kind? Take heart – you are His child and He is able to carry you in His strength.

Are you enjoying victory and walking the mountain top? Take heart – you are His child and He will rejoice in these days as you worship and carry you in His strength in the days ahead.

Take heart – as His child you are an overcomer. On that final day, when we stand (fall on our faces) before the throne – no matter how much we have loved this life and our family and friends – it will all be past. We stand before Him in His righteousness, not our own and we lay at His feet our gratitude and love as we worship for ever and ever with our Lord.

Victory here and now, victory forever! Run to the battle as our friend at SWI reminds us. RUN to the battle – the enemy is a coward and cannot think about standing in the face of our King!

Cracker Jacks

Sorry for long gap in writing. Life has been a bit wild and unpredictable. Recently had the privilege of spending a week with family. Three year old, Noah, loves to sing. We learned a few songs at bedtime including 'I've Been Working On The Railroad', "Purple People Eater', and "Take Me Out To The Ballgame'. Noah had never heard of cracker jacks but knows that he likes crackers. So instead of 'buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks' he decided the line should be 'buy me some peanuts and crackers'. Looses something in the rhyme of the song but OK, I can rock with that. Then I found a bag of cracker jacks at the store. I am proud to report that the words of the song are back to the original version but I never found the prize in the bag - do they not do that anymore?
Enjoy the simple things - remember singing your little ones to sleep? Perhaps its time to start singing.
He was a one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater..........

Have you noticed........

The weather is beautiful ..........on the day I have to work.
Skinny girls seem to be able to eat all they want, I eat one piece of chocolate and it goes straight to my - well, backside!
When the last of the lawn is mowed the first part has grown a foot.
Your children cant hear their cell phone to answer when you call, but they respond to a text.
The vehicle that goes ten miles under the speed limit with no possible passing zones only gets in front of you when you are late.
A good hair day usually occurs on stay home days.
That stuff in the miracle little bottle that promises to fill in all your wrinkles IMMEDIATELY with pictures of real women on the box - doesn't!
Ice cream tastes best at 9pm.
Grandchildren run faster the older I get.
The hours in each day are shorter and my desire to accomplish things cant keep up.

The drive to work gives you lots of time to pray and reflect on the beautiful weather.
Skinny girls will never know the sheer elation of secret chocolate.
I praise God for a riding lawn mower and a husband who says he likes to do the riding of the thing.
My child, though deaf to my ring tone, is healthy and answers my text with a note that says he loves me.
I can learn to pray for the person driving the vehicle but not half as hard as I pray for a chance to pass (sorry)!
Good hair days are a reminder that I have great hair even when it has a mind of its own.
My face has earned every wrinkle and crevice but would gladly offer to allow a plastic surgeon to camouflage some of my experience.
Ice cream is its own food group and should be consumed daily. But it still taste best at 9pm.
If I cant run as fast as the grandchildren, I can either send the dog to fetch them back or pray they run out of steam before I do. Not likely but I will continue my delusions, thank you very much.
The shorter hours in each day and my list of things to try remind me to treasure each day and make wiser choices in how I spend them - I still want to sky dive but will save that for Heaven cause these knees - well, I better save them for chasing grandchildren, opphs, there she goes....see you later...............racing on........................

This mornings prayer

The Bible study I am working in right now has a focal Scripture each day and a prayer. The one this morning was incredible.

Dear heavenly Father, instill Your Word deep in my being. Let Your truth permeate my being and become truth and life to me. Let the words of Scripture bubble up in my thinking all day long and become actions taken and words spoken. Let all I do, and I say, and all that I am emerge from the ground of Your powerful Word at all times. Amen.
from Preparing for Battle: A Spiritual Warfare Workbook by Mark Bubeck

As I read and prayed this am I thought, WOW, can I be like this? What a miracle of grace that would be. For me, warts and all, to literally have God's Word so deeply implanted and growing that it spills out in every situation - WOW! Only a miracle of God's grace can allow a woman like me to bow at His feet and be used as His willing servant. May it be so! WOW!

What we have been missing

The past week has been an absolute whirlwind. After three long years I completed graduate school. No small thing at my advancing age (ok, Im not THAT old). The days leading up to graduation were a blur. So many things to get done, my program was on line so attending and presenting my gradute project was about an eight hour drive each way. Practicing the presentation, making sure that my poster was right and that I had a way to make it stand up - thank God for foam board and those handy 3M removeable stick on strips. It all went very well and then the let down........
Why do we do that to ourselves? WOW - I was so tired that I could barely put one foot in front of the other Monday. That is no exaggeration. Amazing what 9 hours sleep will do and knowing that at least for three days I didnt have to study. Only go to work. Still have to prepare for a national certification exam so there is probably two more months until we can say the magic six words we have been savoring for what seems like forever: when Mom gets out of school.....
The list is endless. The house needs to be painted, outside work abounds, so much has been left undone for three years.
Did I hear someone say that I should take the time to relax? Uhhh let me think about that. I like to relax, its really fun. My favorite spot is anytime I can sit and look at the ocean. Hard to do when you are land locked though. And I have paint chips to decide on, classes I really want to teach for our staff and things I havent done these years that are calling my name. So when I get to heaven, I will rest, and if that isnt the plan, I will have a new body to work in. That works.
In the meantime, can you take a look at those paint chips for me, I have to get back to the books for at least a few weeks longer............ Have a wonderful Mother's Day!

The girls in our lives

For years I worked with children in our church. Changes in my life moved me to a new church and I haven't gotten that involved in work there yet. But God has this interesting sense of humor. I've never really liked working with women that much - sorry ladies - but face it a lot of the members of our sex are a wee bit difficult a big part of the time. I am just not into drama and hysteria and irrational moments or whining (much) or yelling (I really dislike yelling) and so when God started moving all these young women into various circles of my life - I really like them and for some really strange reason they like me. I mean face it - I've already told you I'm not funny. I'm not thin and cute or even perky. But they like me, arthritic knees and all. How weird is that and how wonderful!
That a lovely young woman would ask if I could be her Mom for a talk or would I disciple her or can we talk about............. - that is huge. God is laughing but He is also watching. Who am I? The queen of having messed it up - more than once thank you very much!
What if I do it wrong? Say the wrong thing? Offer the wrong words or get tired and grumpy - I do grumpy real well.
God reminds me that He has called me to be faithful. In each situation, it is so much fun just to be with the girl or communicate on line. It is good medicine for me, actually manna for the soul. The lovliness of their hearts and the desire to make right choices - wow, find me faithful, Father.
Perhaps someday I can tell you about them all but right now let me share three: for a number of years I have prayed for three young women who are married to awesome young men and they have been unable to have children. It's the craziest thing - what incredible parents they would be! They have done the infertility thing, months have turned into years now - within the past three months, two of these couples have their first child!!!!!!!!!!! Rejoicing? Oh yes we are.
But I'm still praying and waiting for #3 cause I know that I know that I know - there is a baby coming and that is going to be a WOW day beyond WOW days!
I really am learning to like women -guess who has changed?
Change our hearts, Father, find us faithful to Your call and Your ways.
Rushing ahead................................