The Poor Are Counting on It

Last week the president of Spain participated in the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. This was a very big deal here in Spain to hear their national leader read words from Scripture and offer a prayer in acknowledgement of God in a public event.

Zapatero chose to read Deuteronomy 24: 14 – 15:

Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

It is an interesting passage to have been chosen, seeing as 465,452 people are receiving unemployment in Madrid. The fear of “paro” (the unemployment program) is a real issue for the majority of the people attending our church, as it is the fear of most people in Madrid. It is a real challenge as Christians to find a way to minister to the 465,452 people in our community who are passing through financial crisis. One can only pray that we can remember the words of Deuteronomy and that President Zapatero remembers them as well.

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Luke 4:17 – 19

3...2...1...Ready or not, here I come!

This is a holiness table. There is one, in some shape or form, at the front of each Salvation Army chapel. It is a place we can pray. A place where we can aknowledge our sin, our need of holiness. It is a physical representation that reminds us that the Holy God is in our midst and that the whole of our life and service is lived to honor his holiness.

It is NOT a hiding place. Each Sunday my boys wait for me to make my way to the platform above this very table, my husband to be holding his guitar...and they make their break away to run up to the front and play under the table. It's as if they wait for the very moment in each service when they know we will cannot do anything about their misbehavior. They know we will not make a scene from the pulpit, or cause a distraction by correcting them loudly.

Thankfully I know that the Holiness is not the table itself....

For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 2 Corinthians 6:16

The No Name Prophet

So, I've been reading through 1 Kings lately. And last night I read chapter 13 about the Man of God from Judah. (Read the story by clicking on the link)

A quick summary: Jeroboam (the King) has created a false religion and a no name prophet shows up to show him the error of his ways. As the man heads home he is tricked into disobeying God by eating in town, then he is mauled by a lion on the road home and the lion guards his corpse by the roadside. Then the guy that tricked him gives the no-name a proper burial, and Jeroboam never changes his ways.

One of those uplifting stories....


At first read, it seems totally unfair that God gets so angry with the no name prophet that he has to die in such a dishonorable manner all because he was tricked. The old prophet that tricked him outright lied to him, how was he supposed to know??

The whole story made me think about 2 things: why doesn't he have a name? and why did he have to be punished for believing a lie?

I think as humans our natural inclination is to be given our due, so to speak. The no name prophet is the medium for a great miracle that God performs. The king's hand freezes and an altar cracks in half, that's incredible. But we have no name to attribute these great events to. I think sometimes we assume that we'll be remembered for all the great things that God is doing or going to do through us, but sometimes we are just the no name guy that God used. A nice Biblical reminder that the ministry, the miracles, the message is not about the medium.

A commentary I read about the passage suggested that no name was punished so severly in order to prove that God means what He says about not tolerating sin. God had just proven that He would not allow sin to continue among His people without discipline. No name knew that God had told him not to eat while in Bethel. He repeated it to the older prophet who offered him something to eat. (which raises a lot of unanswered questions: why'd the older prophet lie??) But he accepted the lie instead of truth anyway. But don't we all do that? Don't we all know exactly what God has required of us, but we'd rather accept the easier route at times? "I know I'm not supposed to, but the "bread" just smells so good." It's easier to accept a lie than hold on to the truth.

I guess, I find the lesson of the story is that God's message is not about me. Just because God causes great things to happen all around me, I shouldn't for a second think that I have anything to do with it. And I shouldn't for a second think that I can accept a lie in place of God's truth. I don't have the power to overrule God's decisions.

So, is there an upside to this story? I think that knowing God's message is not about me is the upside. It's not my responsibility to do the miracle, to transform the situation, to be 'entertaining'. My responsibility to remain faithful to the Truth, the rest is up to Him.

What a relief.

No Such Thing

I don't believe in coincidences. I believe that God works all things together for the good of those who love him...even the little things. Even the things that one would initially think God is too busy to really deal with.

Example:

Saturday I arrived at the church to set up for our Spanish service. Only to find that the gate covering the door would not go up, which is the only way to get in the building. Needless to say, I prayed with the regular attenders before sending them home.

My husband and I, on Sunday morning, were able to manually shove the gate up enough to let people in for our English service. After the service we pressed the remote opener and the gate slammed shut. There was nothing more we could do about, being Sunday. So the boys and I spent the afternoon on the beach....suffering for Jesus.

Sorry, back to the story.....

Monday morning, Jeff and I once again shoved the gate up so we could open the thrift store for the day. We were decided to find a "repair" shop to give us an estimate about what needed to be done.

I had considered calling the Baptist church pastor and asking him if there was anyone in his congregation that fixed these gates that he could recommend to me. I wanted to find someone relatively trustworthy, because honestly I have never dealt with gates prior to being in Spain. I also had recently noticed some large signs pointing out various businesses as the "best businesses in Denia" and a repair shop had one of those signs just around the corner from our church building. So we decided to start there.

We walked in, explained our problem, and explained where the broken gate was located. The shop owner said "Oh, we're Christians too. We go to the Baptist church." Which led us into a conversation about how nice it would be for the evangelical community to do more things together, and she mentioned that just yesterday her church had prayed for the other churches in our city including The Salvation Army.

Her husband came the same evening and has completely sorted our gate issue out, even demonstrating to me what to do in the case of problems in the future. I am convinced that God led me there. That the shop was our intended destination.

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Forgive me, it has been nearly 2 weeks since my last blog entry....

Quick update:

1. Saw Madrid / Segovia in a week. Boy am I tired!

2. Brought my in-laws back for sunny, slow paced Denia.

3. Due to a lack of internet in Madrid while on vacation, I have become disillusioned with use of the computer....I'm sure it will pass.

At Christmas time we handed out calendars that contained a Scripture verse in Spanish for each month of 2009. I was looking at it tonight as I was cooking some beef stew for the bunch, but all the while feeling rather defeated by various circumstances.

The verse for February is:

the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few 1 Samuel 14:6

I went back to read the whole story. Jonathan is given the victory because he watched for the signs from God....but more importantly he believed in God's power.

Trials are always...well....a trial. But there comes a moment right before we head over to the enemy's camp that we have to decide who's power we are going to have more confidence in. Am I more confident in the power of my God? Or do I put more stock into the power of my enemies?

Even if it's 2 against 20....I know that the Lord will act on our behalf.

A few more pics from our trip:

Dis-cour-age-ment (di-skur-ij-muhnt)

I've been developing a theory (we'll call it that for now) over the past few days/weeks. I am finding that the 'enemy' uses discouragement and doubt most often as weapons against children of the Most High God. (See my beginning thoughts on this here.)

My philosophy continues to be confirmed as I talk with various people going through personal and interpersonal struggles. Someone says or does something and thus begins the "discouragement tumble". The tumble into a pit where you feel like everything is hopeless, there's no possibilities, no where to turn, no one likes you, everyone hates you, might as well go eat worms...

It's not just the "big" things that can be used in the arsenal of D & D, little things work just as well. For example: potty training relapses (just when you think you're home free...), new school struggles, passing comments meant to negatively impact a fledgling ministry, sick children, not enough sleep, a blog post that you have to redo because the computer went on strike...I could keep going... But as long as there can be a small hit, a tiny strike, an intsy wintsy bitty bit of doubt and discouragement creep in...the whole tower of dominoes will come tumbling down...

As I was looking up some Scripture to share with someone struggling with discouragement, I came across this:

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord! Psalm 27: 13 - 14

D & D are mighty weapons UNLESS you know the Truth. D & D have no power on those who will choose to wait and see the goodness of the Lord. I want to be the person who believes that I will see the goodness of the Lord no matter what happens. My weapon is hope. I have hope that tomorrow will be better.

May I be the one who chooses to not lose heart in the face of D & D.......and I will have the victory.

Whirling Dervish :)

The past week has been fun filled and jam packed. Strategic planning sessions, Solidaria de Marina Alta, local theatre ticket sales, and 18 month vaccinations!

Saturday, we attended a conference in Valencia in order to network with other Evangelical social service entities in the Valencian community (our area in Spain). At first, I was worried that we had simply made the mistake to come to a day long sales pitch for this particular group. BUT we met a woman (An American missionaries daughter) who is on the town council in our town and works with Stop the Traffik. I have been praying for an opportunity to get involved in some ministry dealing with the numerous prostitutes in our surrounding area. There is a road that we pass that has a young girl "posted" outside an orange grove entrance about every 20 to 30 feet or so....it was definitely a divine opportunity to meet this woman! When I found out that she was working directly with this issue in our same community, I quickly asked how I could help! I am so excited that God has provided an opportunity to DO SOMETHING.... so we have a meeting with her next week!

A long while ago at a MOPS meeting I learned a valuable lesson of carrying Scripture in my pocket. I didn't necessarily start doing it right away, but I've tried....anyways, I typically type out the Scripture readings and hand them to the people reading on Sunday morning (because they don't always bring their Bibles...) Apparently I had tucked a verse away into my tunic (Salvation Army uniform jacket (explanation for non Salvationist readers)) pocket, which made its way to my purse pocket, which then made its way to my hand this morning as I wrote down cloth measurments for a banner I'm making (quite the traveling verse)...the verse was exactly what I needed to read after a crazy week, an upcoming week of a conference 6 hours away with my boys in someone else's care:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

God is so good.