Friday, July 31, 2009

Update from life

As you have probably noticed, I have not written anything in quite some time. Obviously, this is not because nothing has been happening in our lives. I have been up to my eyeballs in work for the past few weeks and, of course, the boys keep me hopping when I am at home.
Anyhow, I wanted to share a bit of some of the things that God has been lately. As I shared some time ago, we have decided not to return to the church that we had been attending previously. Not really relishing the prospect of looking for a new church home, we had been putting it off. Finally, this past Sunday my wonderful wife encouraged me that we should stop making excuses and go to the morning service of a church down the street. I had to admit to myself that all of the "good" reasons that I had for not going were really just excuses. So we went, and wow did it feel good to be back in a gathering of fellow believers to worship together and hear the Word. We (actually Colleen) noticed that, contrary to the norm in the churches here, there were quite a few couples and men in the church. Additionally, we enjoyed the message about the importance of being purposeful about the spiritual instruction of our children. Overall, we enjoyed the experience and will definitely return to the church.
I would like to share a bit more about the theme of marriages and families. We can see that the enemy loves to attack marriages and families. In our own lives he has been hard at work as well. I would like to say that he is never successful in his schemes, but that would not be true. However, I am happy to say that in the past weeks Our Loving Father has been at work revealing the lies of the enemy and restoring brokenness.
Our devotional for this morning was based on Psalm 50:21 "These things you have done and I kept silence; you thought I was just like you." The writer of the devotional challenges the readers to speak up in the face of sin because if we do not everyone will think that we approve of the behavior. At the end he asks if there is something that we could do to influence our sphere for Christ. Our answer was that we should support marriages and families. It is apparent that the church (universal) is not doing a good job of encouraging, admonishing, and supporting couples. Why else is divorce just as prevalent within the church as it is outside?
As I was working with a few fellows this week we were talking and in conversation the one Christian brother asked me a question that underscored the magnitude of the battle in this particular culture. "So, honestly, how many years have you been faithful to your wife?" Thankfully, by the grace of God I am able to answer that I have been faithful for the entire 9+ years that we have been married. How sad, that this seemed to surprise them. The enemy is hard at work here in that area and the strongholds are monumental. I believe that this is an area that the church needs to attack through prayer, more prayer, and more prayer.

Sorry for the rambling. I did not have my thoughts together very well.
One closing thought: If we really believe that God hears our prayers why do we not spend more time praying?