the battle is the Lords. so am I.

I was sitting at my home-desk this afternoon after a quick visit from Matt before he returned to his office, wondering why life is so darn hard.

There are so many beautiful things...from the mountains and baby giggles to good conversations and glimpses of Jesus.


And yet all the same, somehow things just never stop feeling like a battle!


Something doesn't work the way that it should.  Someone doesn't do something they were supposed to.  "Everyone" is never satisfied.  Expectations are frequently unmet.  Things take longer than you thought they would.  Others aren't responding like you thought they should.


Micheline, the girls nanny on Tuesdays, called in sick thirty minutes before we had to go to work.  Matt had a great lesson prepared only to have a disgruntled student gripe through it...followed by a frustrating meeting...followed by a stack of expense reports that continue after a million reminders and tutorials and chances to lack all kinds of required information and receipts.


He came home at 12:55 hot and exhausted and frustrated.  He had a bi-weekly all-staff "voice your gladnesses and grievances" type meeting at 1 pm.


In just these few short minutes I felt overwhelmed by the burden to help him, or to "fix" things, though none of the pending issues were things I could do anything about.  He left, I got the girls down and pulled out a precious can of pumpkin and got a pie (Matt's very favorite) in the oven, and sat down at my desk to write a quiz for my second and third year students.

(if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie situation.  Pie, to Lily, means birthday.  Birthday means candles.  Candles mean singing.  the works.)

Created to test them on 15 new words of Biblical terminology and theological vocabulary, I quickly created a fill in the blank vocab test, using BibleGateway  to find verses using the vocab words for the sentences.   


Apostle...Luke 11:49.  Character...Hebrews 13:5.  Dark...1 Thessalonians 5:5.


Finally, number 12, Divine.   Quickly scanned the 22 results BibleGateway gave me, and landed a verse and was met by the Lord at the same time.


"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war the way the world does.  
The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world.  
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  
We demolish arguments and every claim that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, 
and take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ."  
2 Corinthians 10:3-5.  


Strong language!  Man alive...we don't wage war like the world does?  The weapons we fight with?  Our weapons have divine power to demolish?  Take every thought captive?

That strong language was exactly the reminder I needed.  


It IS a battle!  The Bible TELLS us that.  Light  vs. darkness, good vs. evil, self vs. God, God vs. Satan, holiness vs. sin, freedom vs. slavery, defeat vs. victory.  Why do I always relapse into thinking that things are "supposed" to be going well and easy?  


Nobody on the battle field gets irritated when there are battles.  That's why they are THERE.


John 15:19, 1 Timothy 1:18, 2 Timothy 4:7, Psalm 140:7, 1 Thessalonians 2:2


What's great to me today is not the news that we are in battle.  That's not "happy" news, though it is the reality.  


What's great news today is that the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  They are divine.  They have divine power.  In Christ, I have weapons of divine power to demolish strongholds of Satan, to demolish that which stands against God, and to take my thoughts captive and obedient to Christ.


Each day is frequently a battle.  Maybe even more so being here, in the middle of a Bible seminary in the middle of a voodoo saturated village...country.  Everyday we work with people who are free and alive in the Spirit.  Everyday we work with people who are enslaved and dark in mind and thought.  Maybe part of what will make heaven so heavenly is that our part in the battle, though already won, is over...peace not just in our hearts, but finally in our circumstance.

I don't know.  But today I'm asking myself, searching and claiming the answers to....


-What ARE those divine weapons?  
-How do I "wage war", not the way the world does, but His way?  
-What "strongholds" need demolishing...In my life, at Emmaus, in Haiti?  
-What thoughts do I need to be taking captive and disciplining into obedience of Christ?  
-What claims against God need demolishing in our daily lives and work and ministry?  
-What claims against God am I believing myself?  
-Has my Christianity become too safe?  
-Am I a wimp Christian, carrying none of the weapons available to me and doing nothing for Him in the battle because I am too concerned with being nice and causing no problems?
-Am I just seeking to be the happy parts of Jesus and not the hard parts? The "nice" parts without the truth parts?  
-Am I seeking to be a woman not at war? and if so, am I perhaps not a part of what He's doing?  


-Are there no Goliath's today?  Am I hiding in my tent, telling myself to "pray for him" and playing lovely music on my little harp for Jesus, ignoring the giant battle outside?  Am I...

ok, you get the picture :) Let's always be moving forward, questioning, examining, asking Him to examine, and acting upon what He shows us in His Word!  


Know that each night as I walk around this dark campus under the brilliant starlit skies, bouncing a precious and wailing baby and thinking upon these things, I am praying for these and those, you and yours.