!que dios te bendiga! i greeted a few brothers with this my first official spanish, God bless you!, greeting this am. when the Lord first led me away from leidy church the spanish-speaking church on railroad ave. in town was one of the 'names' that came to me. i have visited a number of churches, mostly very local, and been led to stay home several weeks before being led to cast a lot on whether or not to go to las iglesias mision evangelica early in august. the lot came up 'yes' three weeks in a row and approaching this sunday i sensed that i should cast a lot on whether to attend this church for an indefinite time rather than keep casting lots weekly and the lot confirmed this leading. first two weeks attended the 10 am service which turned out to be 'sunday school' for want of a better term. we start out singing a few songs. when people come they usually kneel, at the place in the pews where they will sit, for a time of prayer. every sunday there are different people who are up front leading in prayer, reading scripture, a portion from the current sunday school curriculum and leading singing. the singing is accompanied by a number of tamborines, clapping, drums, guitar, 'hallelujahs' of all different types of verbal expressions of praise to God. during prayer sometimes the one leading is totally drowned out by the congregation praying or even one person in the congregation who evidently has a spirit of prayer. it always could be described as 'making a joyful noise to the Lord' although this am's leader was both out of tune and off tempo making it difficult at times for the others, including the intruments to follow. but everyone participates joyfully and seem focus, as should be, on the Lord Himself. all those who lead are given public encouragement and thanks for their ministry.
i understand very little spanish as far as comprehension. but having taken the language have been interested to see how i am slowly developing an ear for distinguishing individual words and the ability to start getting word meanings here and there. i enjoy going to the men's sunday school class. ben, the teacher, is excellent and sprinkles in just enough english words for me to get a blessing. it is thoroughly biblical. there is no talking just about things in general but everything seems deeply rooted in scripture. often we are asked to read verses (i get to practice reading). there is a lot of interaction with everyone seeming to feel very at ease to contribute so there is quite a bit of dialogue (my long term impression is that this is a more effective teaching method even though i don't practice it enough because i'm too verbose). all seem on an equal footing just as during the prayer time but ben asks a lot of questions and really good and blessed-to-my-soul teaching seems to be going on if what little i am able to get at this point is any indication.
ben, julio and juan especially have reached out to me. in fact the whole congregation has sends an, if not verbal, none verbal welcome message my way. i immediately felt and in a continually growing way feel much closer to these people, many of whom i cannot talk with, than i believe i have ever felt in a congregational setting. today i was even asked to pray, in english, before sunday school. franky, the son of the pastor, gave a very moving testimony of God's working in his heart (i believe today) during sunday school. just met him but am sensing he may be a friend too. it was interesting how God prepared for today because they wondered if i might be coming on a regular basis to know whether or not to give me a sunday school journal for the coming quarter and i was able to say that God had led me to come on a regular basis at least for the immediate future. i feel and sense God's love thru these brothers and sisters. what started out as extremely threatening and fearful seems to be metamophizing into something possibly beautiful. God knows.
last sunday i went to the evening (6 pm) service. a visiting speaker was there but i look forward to going again to hear and possibly get to know the pastor (he also pastors a congregation in norristown so is not there in the am). both services are two hours long so i am a bit unsure but am currently being drawn, possibly, to both. at this point, if i had a choice, i would choose the am because of the sense that closer fellowship is to be at that service.
out-of-the-blue ed called and it looks like he will be renting the other second floor bedroom starting tomorrow. we shall see.
learned recently that whole foods, the only non-farm place i do food shopping supports planned parenthood. i asked friday and the people at the counter could not confirm that so i hope to call the store manager this week to see if this is true. if so it will be a real bummer and really krimp my life style in this area but on friday i was planning to buy a few items there for a birthday party and found my conscience would not let me do it. help me Lord not to violate my conscience just for things i want.
for a long time i have deeply sensed the pathological nature of news reporting in the united states but after listening to a song called '6 o'clock news' written by larry norman this thot process has developed further. one of the repeated (over and over and over again) lyrics coming out of the mouth of a reporter, on location in vietnam during the vietnam war, is ' i'm just the 6 o'clock news, what can i do , all those kids without shoes, what can i do, napalm tatoos, what can i do. WHAT CAN I DO was one of the primary consideration for my leaving both the verbal and visual news behind years ago and norman is the only other one who seems to have sensed, been frustrated by and finally hated what i now see as not merely a pathological but also a deeply satanic methodology. . that is to flood a moral conscience with wickedness in a form where nothing can be done about it, to a degree where the conscience at first fights, then falters, fails and finally gives up completely in its response to WHAT CAN I DO. once this beachhead is established in one area then it becomes easier to generalize it out to other areas of conscience. we, as a result, are now much more passive/inactive/spectator type beings. we may think, dream, feel possibly..but WE DO NOT DO ANYTHING AGAINST EVIL..not really..
as i was pouring over my spanish new testament/psalms during the evening service last week i came across the words ahora mismo meaning right now and made a note on my poop sheet (the sheet i write anything/everything on that comes to mind as i am in the steam of life) but unfortunately did not note the verse it came in. but i did note beside it 'satan's method'. he does love to get us to do things impetuously before we can a. think about them and b. understand their effects, results etc. this is evident in the strategy now being taken to a new level by government to do everything QUICKLY. God says in proverbs something to the effect that the PLANS of the diligent cause him to prosper but everyone who is hasty comes surely to ruin.
the picture of our sin came vividly as i considered again the beheading of john the baptist. imagine the beauty and sensuality of a young woman dancing seductively. great if it happens in the bedroom between solomon and his wife (if she were one of one not one of one thousand wives) but an evil, stupifying haze in any other scenario. the druglike effect on herod was that he was trapped in an ill-advised statement most likely caused by pride and lust.. and it led to a bloody head being brought into the public banquet hall. the question comes DID ALL THAT MESMERIZING BEAUTY CAUSE ALL THIS BLOODY GORE? so with us. we all are so good at rationalizing the nature and effects of our sin away but WE ALL, apart from the covering righteousness of Jesus Christ, ARE FREAKIN' BLOODY UGLY WRETCHED MESSES. may God help us see ourselves with spiritual bifocals as, at the same time, the above AND PURE, HOLY, RIGHTEOUS in God's sight...only because of Jesus.
this week (by the way in spite of not making one 40 hr week in august God now has me up to an 18.3 hr weekly average. thank You Lord.) while working on a picket fence in franconia i had an extremely hard time painting the first section. everything seemed to happen against me and it took so loooong to do it. i was racing against time to paint the entire final coat on the fence that day so as to keep the job price under a certain level. i was nearly beside myself with angst. the whole time i was praying against satan and was fighting the spiritual battle but my spirit seemed flat. i remembered nee saying to always keep the spirit calm, not too excited and not to pressed down, so i calmed down and decided to start a different strategy on the next section. as time passed it became increasingly apparent that God, not satan, was fighting me. why? i saw that i was in willful assertion rather than humble dependence mode. i repented further and started painting in a deliberate way and much less frenetic than at the start. i totally gave up my insistence that i be done by a certain time and just left the whole thing with God...i'm not sure how He did it but amazingly, somehow, all the lost time was made up and i was able to finish right on the money. praise His wonderful Name.
in the face of tremendous need i tend to come to Jesus in my heart and say, in effect, 'YOU give them something to eat', but in the Bible, in the face of tremendous need, Jesus said to his followers, you give them something to eat'! hope you have a good week. love, dad
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment