Worship as warfare

This morning in my Bible reading, I was reflecting on the topic of worship as warfare. I remember, I think it was back in the 1980s, the first time I discovered the story of Jehoshaphat's army in 2nd Chronicles 20 and began to realise the power of praise and worship in spiritual warfare. Around the same time, however, a number of books were published that promoted praising God for bad stuff (disaster, sickness, crisis, etc) in order to see the situation turned around. I remember feeling kind of uncomfortable about that, as it seemed to me that God deserved to be worshipped for who He is, rather than our seeing worship as a "magic bullet" to solve our own problems or defeat the enemy.

And therein lies the key, I guess. It makes no sense to "praise" God because my child has cancer, or because I was raped, or because my house burned down…. but if I can honestly praise God for who He is, for His unchanging character, despite the horrible or tragic circumstances I find myself in, that authentic worship is a powerful weapon that pushes back the enemy, as well as giving us strength and grace to face our difficult situation. And yes, sometimes it does bring about a complete turnaround, especially when our circumstances were largely caused by enemy oppression.

I remember back at the end of 2011 (recorded in this blog) when my Dad was critically ill in the intensive care unit, and doctors couldn't tell us from day to day whether he was going to live or die. All I could do amidst the stress and uncertainty, was to proclaim in faith that God is good, and my Dad's life was ultimately in His hands.  Some months down the road, God's goodness was proved to us, and my Dad is still with us nearly four years later.

Whatever your circumstances today, don't give up trusting and praising the character of God.

Teddi in the spotlight

In an unexpected turn of events, my YouTube cat, Teddi, has extended his fame this week by appearing in at least six Scottish newspapers - two of whom laid claim to the talented boy by calling him a "Scottish cat" and even alleging that he "spent his formative years" in Falkirk.

He appeared first in the Falkirk Herald, and you can read the article here: 
click here to read.
And then I was contacted by another newspaper, the Daily Record, who also wanted to feature him in a funny news spot on their website: click here to read.

The Daily Mail was next (click here to read) and, before we knew it, the "cat who thinks he's a dog" angle went viral: the story was featured in half a dozen more newspapers, some of them making outrageous claims that I was going to enter Teddi in talent competitions or take him to see if he could make a name for himself in Hollywood! I began to get emails saying that people had spotted Teddi on news websites as far afield as Australia and India. A friend in the USA was reading a cat lovers' website and stumbled across an article featuring one of Teddi's videos and referring to me as Tobi and Teddi's "momma." One of Teddi's YouTube videos took a thousand new hits in just a couple of days, and got a couple of new subscriptions from people in China and Canada!! Meanwhile, my handsome boy is quite oblivious to his new found fame and is working hard on his piano practice for his upcoming music video.

Time and expectation

In Psalm 5 vs 3, the author comes to the Lord in the morning, lays out requests or questions before Him, and waits in expectation. I see two implications in that simple phrase:

Waits means that he takes time; waiting isn’t quick and efficient. It involves settling and waiting for the other party to speak or act.

Expectation means that there’s a basic level of faith; the psalmist is actually expecting to hear something from the Lord

If we really want to develop intimacy with God, waiting and expectation both need to be part of what we call our quiet time.

Maybe morning isn’t the best time for some. For me, it’s the perfect time, because I’ve developed the habit of waking early and having time in the Word before the day’s activities begin. I read my Bible while drinking my morning cup of coffee. But for some people, that time of day is more like “morning rush hour,”  trying to squeeze in quiet time between making breakfast and getting the kids off to school, or getting things ready for going to work.

We need to find the time and the ways to incorporate waiting on the Lord - like my friend who prays and listens to God while he is walking the dog every morning, or people who listen to an audio Bible while commuting to work, or those who worship and wait on God while doing the ironing or taking a bath... or simply planning in time to sit in God’s presence, with no other agenda.

And we need to find ways to incorporate expectation. Some years back, I began to develop the habit of beginning my quiet time by writing the date in my notebook, even before praying or reading the Bible. It was a way of expressing my expectation that there would be something from God to write down that day. Another example would be the more classic way of beginning by praying for God to speak to you.
There are some precious promises in this psalm for those who do take refuge in the Lord. 

Why not take time to read the whole psalm and write down some of the blessings God promises for those who make time to spend alone with Him?

Treasures of darkness...

I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. 
Isaiah 45: 3

In its context, this was spoken to an unbeliever, the Persian Emperor Cyrus, whom God was planning to use for a special task. That’s why it says, vs 4, “You do not acknowledge me,” and vs 3, “... so that you will know I am the Lord.”

However, the phrase, “treasures of darkness,” can hold deep significance for us as believers, because it is often in the dark times of life that we can have our most meaningful experiences of who God is. When I look back at the hardest, darkest seasons of my life (there have been three of them: in 1989, in 2000 and in 2007), I notice that those were some of the times where I was most aware of God’s presence and of His speaking clearly and personally to me.

Some people have told me the opposite: they say that their dark times in life were seasons where it felt as if God was far away and it seemed like heaven was silent. Whichever way we experience it, however, our response in those dark times, dry times or hard times is critical. Will we back away from God in those seasons, or will we push in and seek His presence even more?

When we remain faithful in our “quiet times” (times alone with God) during seasons of darkness or silence, we are powerfully demonstrating our unconditional commitment to seeking God and being in relationship with Him. We will emerge from those times having discovered riches stored in secret places.  God has a rich storehouse of treasures for us, but some of those treasures, just like the diamond or the pearl, are formed in the dark places. 

Psalm 139 vs 11- 12 tell us that even the darkness is a place of light for God. It’s our choice whether we move into the light or hide alone in the place of darkness.

Dealing with distractions

When reading my Bible this morning, I was struck by Psalm 10 verse 4, which says, “In his pride, the wicked does not seek the Lord. In his thoughts there is no room for God.” This one short verse describes two things that prevent us from connecting with God:

• pride
• no room in our thoughts

Pride shows itself in the fact that the godless person thinks he or she has no need of God, and therefore doesn’t even bother to seek Him. Even as believers, though, not making time in our day for God is an expression of pride, suggesting that we don’t need Him either.

Sometimes we do plan in time for God, but we end up disappointed an discouraged because our minds wandered all over the place and we were distracted by thoughts about our plans for the day or about our problems. That’s why the Bible tells us to take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10 verse 5) and make them obedient to Christ. We can do that by simply speaking it out in prayer (“In Jesus’ name, I take my thoughts captive, silencing all distractions and choosing to focus now on the Lord.”) Or we could do it in another way, such as singing some worship songs to settle our hearts and focus our thoughts on God.

However we do it, let’s deal with distractions and make room for God this year.

Women in transition

After kind of a "lazy" week in Scotland, where I saw doctors about various medical situations, I flew back to Spain at the beginning of this week and immediately got involved in our retreat for "women in transition." About 22 women from several different churches or mission agencies were part of the retreat, and they were facing many different kinds of transition - from cross-cultural transitions to changing family situations and unexpected health challenges. Amy did a great job as our guest speaker every morning, and the rest of us served with coaching, debriefing and prayer ministry during the afternoons. I enjoyed being able to do one-off coaching sessions with five of the ladies during those afternoon slots.

After a cold and rainy start to the week, the weather improved mid-week and on the last day we were able to hold one of our final teaching times outside in the sunshine. We also enjoyed good times of worship and Bible meditation during the week, as well as delicious healthy food and times of sharing communion together. During the final meal last night, the ladies shared many encouraging testimonies of what God had done in their lives and what their next transition steps would be.

After very full days during the women's retreat, today is much more relaxed. Not being needed for any of the airport trips, I'm able to catch up on computer work, cleaning the house and washing several loads of laundry to take advantage of the dry sunny weather. I'm thrilled that the ayuntamiento (town council) has built what I call a "geriatric gym" in the little park in my street. It has ten different pieces of equipment - including the "total crunch all body workout" that is constantly advertised on TV and, better still, my favourite "leg swinging" apparatus that gives your leg muscles a good stretch without putting strain on geriatric knee joints. I've always said that I would exercise more often if I had a "geri-gym" closer to my home, and this one is only a stone's throw from my front door, so I immediately put my goal into action and did five minutes each at three of the stations this morning. That was fun. The bottom row of photos, by the way, were taken in other locations during the summer. It's sunny today, but the weather's not that warm and summery in Alhaurin yet.

The past three weeks….

What an eventful three weeks I've had since my last blog post at the end of January. First I headed to the Netherlands for a week of leadership meetings. It was a cold, snowy week on the outside, but on the inside there was a warm sense of God's presence and many of the leaders (who had come from every corner of Europe) said that they had been encouraged and envisioned by our times together. Towards the end of March, a smaller group of us, with kind of an "eldership" function, will gather in Malaga to consider the practical implications of things God has been saying to us about reaching the continent of Europe with the gospel. 

I spent only a short and rainy weekend back in Alhaurin between returning from Holland and leaving again to travel to Scotland, where I had been called back for further tests at the breast screening clinic, after a recent scan showed something that raised concern. However, after some hours of tests (mammograms, ultrasounds, etc) I was finally given the good news that I was cancer free. I'd had a sense from the Lord that this would be the result, but it was nice to hear it officially from the doctors too.

The post-bronchitis cough had continued to plague me all through the weeks in Holland and Scotland, so I finally went to see my GP to try to find out what was going on with my lungs. The doctor confirmed that, after two weeks of antibiotics, I was well and truly bronchitis-free, but that - due to my underlying lung condition - my small airways were inflamed and struggling to recover from the infection. She prescribed me two different kinds of inhalers (like the kind used by asthmatics), with instructions to use them for two or three weeks until the coughing subsides. After using them for ten days now, I'm certainly coughing a bit less, but the cough hasn't disappeared yet and I'm getting a bit tired of it. It's been more than a month now, and I'm praying that it will stop very soon. Thanks for standing with me in prayer.