kindred spirit

November 21, 2006 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Kelly called me last night … from Crystal Lake! Hooray. I left immediately for Starbucks.

Some friends you need to see several times a week or the friendship would quickly become an acquaintance. Some friends it seems the Lord saves for just the right moments, and there doesn’t need to be anything else – like the relationship has been divinly established and time is not necessary to maintain it.

We both unloaded some burdens – because sometimes you need someone who understands, but is not involved in a situation to really listen (or really get you to hear what the Lord would say about it). We encouraged, exorted, theologized (I just made that up), and rebuked each other in and by the Lord. We prayed for a while in my car. She never once asked when Timothy and I are going to have kids. I want all of my “hang out” time to look like that: Bible open on the table, conversation centered around the eternal, and some good prayer.

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November 20, 2006 in Discipleship, Student Ministry with 0 Comments

I really wanted to log on today and be uplifting and encouraging, but I’m burdened and I’m dying and I can’t pretend.

Of course it’s good to be burdened and dying, but there’s really nothing inspirational I can think to write about it.

I’m absolutely burdened for the teenagers in my life. I thought I’d been burdened for something before because there was this violent desperation in my spirit for a couple of days. That’s not a burden; that’s a backpack. I can’t stop thinking about the youth leader meeting we had last Friday night, or the kids and the circumstances that came up, or the ones I’m directly involved with/responsible for to some extent … What can I do? What can I absolutely NOT do? How do I pray about this? I don’t know that I have ever prayed so fervently for anything – even things and people that, in the natural, seem like they should be much closer to my heart.

I’m reading Rees Howells’ story and dying in the process. I was reading before service Sunday morning about the amazing financial sacrifice the Lord asked of him (Rees was told not to ask for a need he could fulfill himself. All that Rees had became God’s, so if someone needed finances and Rees had enough, he was to give before he asked for the Lord’s help.) It felt as though my spirit stretched absolutely outside of me to try to get at something like that, but I didn’t say anything – not even a silent prayer. At the end of the service the Holy Spirit asked for an extravagent offering. He practically laughed off the first argument that rose up in my heart (“How will we pay bills this month?”), and silenced the second (“We’re trying to save something for a house someday.”) with a poignant question: “If I asked you to live out the rest of your days in that little apartment and give all of your surplus, would you do it?” Ouch. Fine.

So that’s how I’m doing. I’m burdened in one arena and dying in another. Hallelujah.

this means war

November 19, 2006 in Student Ministry with 0 Comments

So we went to ATF and they talked and talked and talked about the spiritual war going on. I knew that. It is a frequent reference of mine in my time with the Lord. I’m on board with the “war” mentality. Or so I thought.

I started Rees Howells’ biography (Intercessor – still highly recommending it). The Lord used this guy to pray out His plan, and actually shape the course of World War II. Rees’ entire life story is pretty riviting, but if someone asks who Rees Howells was, the common short answer is, “This amazing intercessor who was used by God to determine the events/outcome of WWII.”

Friday night I started reading Battle Cry for a Generation, by Ron Luce (the guy who heads up Teen Mania … the ministry that brings you ATF and Battle Cry events). They really promoted the book at ATF, but I wasn’t really going to read it because … well I’ve got a bunch to read right now. Then, after our youth ministry meeting Friday night, Tim just handed them out and said, “Please read this.” Luce’s initial reference – and throughout at least the first five chapters, his most frequent – is World War II. Hmm.

It’s not going to take me two weeks to get it this time. I get it. I’m in. It’s going to be huge – are we ready? I’m convinced the next two years are crucial. Luce would tell you the next five (because in five years the largest generation this country has ever seen will be out of their impressionable teenage years, and will have become the force governing the most powerful nation in the world), but I’m planning on two. If it’s five, fine; plan for two just in case.

2 Kings 13:14-20//Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!” And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows” So he took himself a bow and some arrows… And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground;” so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.” Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year.

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