It's possible that you receive our weekly "prayergram," which we've been sending out every Monday for four years. To my knowledge, we've only missed two Mondays. The prayers taken before the Father's throne every week in response to that e-mail have sustained us as has the encouragement we've received when the Holy Spirit leads someone to contact us as a result of something they've read.
A couple of weeks ago, Melanie wrote a prayergram about spiritual warfare. In that note, she mentioned that the battle is sometimes difficult and that it seems the fight grows stronger as we get closer and closer to seeing a new church in our context. Several people responded to that prayergram, some by asking if we needed counseling or medical help. That surprised me. It was almost like "struggling with spiritual battles" was "code" for "doing something that could get you in trouble." I have to confess that I've often struggled with the concept of spiritual warfare. I sometimes think that we give our enemy more credit than he deserves or that we often shift the blame for our own weaknesses to Satan's connivances. Without a doubt, though, his attacks are real and are aimed to discourage, distract, and destroy all that the Father wants to accomplish in our lives, our family, and our work in Paris.
Reality is that we work in a dark place and that, while I don't worry about malaria for my kids or persecution for my brothers and sisters in the church, there are some serious dangers in our country. Loneliness can convince us that we really are alone. Frustration with our organization or the culture where we work can convince as that there is no hope for either. The unresponsiveness of our neighbors and the slowness of our work can lead us to believe that God is neither hearing nor answering our prayers. Just as cold and dreary skies are the norm for Parisian winters, clouds of doubt and failure can darken even those most confident of their calling.
The only answer is in the Scripture and in the church. For years, Melanie has read from "Daily Light," a book of daily readings compiled by Anne Graham Lotz and based on a much earlier work. Today, those readings spoke directly to both of us.
From Micah 7:8-9 -- "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness."
From Job (14:7): "There is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease."
And from Romans 8: "The Spirit...helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for teh saints according to the will of God."
The only answer to the spiritual struggles we have is recognition that God is for us. He has brought us to this place to bring Him glory and to show that glory to those who do not know Him. His presence will sustain us.
As for the second part of that answer, the church, that will come next...
As for the formality of religious service, however, the hypocrite often outdoes the sincere Christian. Of all people he may be called a "master of ceremonies" because he tries to entertain God with his tongue and knee, with only words and outward ceremony. Yet God looks on the heart. If the wine is good a man can drink it from a plain wooden cup. But if a goblet is wonderfully gilded, but has no wine in it, the host mocks his guest by offering it to him.
