It's Tuesday!!!

"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another." -Eph 4:25

That verse is PACKED with what the LORD sent us out to do today!  What a blessing today was on so very many levels.  We had our regular Sudanese breakfast of Mundri bread and scrambled (or fried, whichever you want to label them) eggs and then we packed up in the truck and headed out for the village of Buagyi (pronounced /bua gi/).  This trip was just a bit shorter than yesterday's, so today it only took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there.  What a relief, a total of about 30 minutes knocked off the journey.  Although, some of the guys got a little creative and John and Eric were able to use some diapers (made by ladies in John's church) as cushions until it was time to get out of the car.  I think that today was a 10-15 diaper day.  VERY INVENTIVE!

Now, to get to why this is the verse that I felt most appropriate for today....this is exactly what we did today!  We proclaimed truth, God's truth about Him to the people of the village of Buagyi.  And, what a privilege that was.  

"Isaac drives the vehicle," "the white man brings the fire" (meaning that the white man brings good, Biblical teaching), and the one that we made up, "Archbishop of the world sings many, many songs" were the most sang songs of the day.  I'm not sure that Archbishop liked our song saying that he sings many songs, but we tried anyway.  On the ride, I received another name...."Dancing Lois,"  but someone tried to call me Louis....I draw the line with my new names right there!  I'm a girl, so let's just stick with the girl names, k?  

Bethany and I continued our regular schedule of teaching the gospel and oral hydration solution in the morning.  However, since Archbishop of the world was our interpreter, we started with a song that repeated "Jesus is #1, Jesus is #1" with various hand motions.  This was great to liven the ladies up to be ready to engage in our presentation.  They loved the pictures and stories that we shared with them and because over 1/2 of these ladies had Bibles, we were able to look up the individual scriptures of the salvation story and read them in English and then have a lady from the church read the same verse from the Moru Bible.  WHAT A TREAT!!  This really seemed to bring the message more to life for these ladies.

These are the ladies that came out for our teaching today

We wanted the ladies to see what the solution tasted like (and wanted to make sure not to waste any), so Archbishop tried it first, then the other ladies tried it too!

After Bethany and I finished our work with the ladies, we were able to sit around and talk with Archbishop of the whole world.  At one point, I asked, "what's that noise" and he replies (in true Vijay fashion - for those of you who know Vijay) "fire.  It's time for fire."  OH, OK, I didn't realize that there was "time" for fire, but apparently it was around 3:00 in the afternoon.  We also learned that Archbishop was 1 of 6 children, the only to survive.  His mom passed away when he was around 8 and he was sent to live with an uncle who only wanted him to watch the sorghum.  However, Archbishop wanted to attend primary school, so he snuck away to go to classes, but his uncle found out.  Shortly after his uncle found out, the war started and they then had to live in the bush for about the next 10 years.

Always time for a photo-op!  I will say one thing, I'm glad I didn't have a full-length mirror there because I probably wouldn't have work THAT!  Um....stylin' is all I have to say......simply stylin'

I snuck in the bag to snag a picture of everyone after the men's teaching was finished 

After we returned to the compound, we could hear the sound of the children playing at/near the compound and I couldn't help but think.......a child's sweet laughter sounds the same in South Sudan as it does in Alabama and in India.  It's one of the sweetest sounds on earth to hear!!  Regardless of the circumstances, a lot of other temporal concerns seem to just melt away when you hear such a sweet sound.

At our nightly debriefing and devotional time, Daniel shared some with us regarding unity in the body of Christ.  This simply propelled our conversation to "how can we best be unified with our South Sudanese brothers and sisters?"  We discussed the information that we obtained from our assessments and realized that what is most needed for these people is Biblical training.  Pastors are included in this need, by the way.  They need a hunger for the Word of God and they need to be able to understand it.  They are aware that the Spirit interprets the scriptures for them, however they did not show us any evidence of where to find a story in the Bible about sin/corruption, redemption, changing after the new birth, etc....  Jeffries was very open and honest with us about his needs and he expressed a desire to provide training to the pastors specifically of each village and  to help them implement "Sunday School"  so that they will have an organized fashion where they can learn more of God and His relationship with man.  He also asked that we pray for him and we ask that everyone reading this message will pray for Jeffries and his team and the work that they are doing to diligently work to make the gospel known amongst the people of South Sudan.

The things I'm so overwhelmed by today are the love that Jeffries has for his people and how that overflows in all that he says and does and is his motivation.  He was so open and honest with us about this heavy burden on his heart that anyone could see how deep and great his desire is for his people to know the Word of the one, true God.  He is not distracted at all by the fact that they are seemingly very works-based right now, but knows that they need proper Biblical training in order to see the right view of God.  He told us that we are probably the first people to visit these villages with teaching as most previous trips have focused on basic life-sustaining efforts like providing clean water and basic triage and medical care......how can that not overwhelm someone?  The gospel, with scripture, is probably being heard for the first time in each of these villages.  WOW!!!!!  So, at the end of yesterday, we were so hard on our South Sudanese brothers and sisters who believe in a works-based salvation (or really, God PLUS <anything else>); today , we walk away very burdened knowing the amount of training that is needed.

My struggles today are that of westerners being westerners - thinking that we have all of the right answers to make things more efficient, cheaper, "better" than the way that the natives do it.  This was evident today when we asked one of the ladies to take a picture of us with Archbishop and a couple other ladies and she simply couldn't do it.  I had to get everyone together, show her exactly where to hold the camera and when to press the button to make sure that we were all in the picture.  You know what?  She had ever had to do it!  I wonder how often we go into places with great intentions of making fast changes and then are hit square in the face with the reality that this is going to be received well for just 1 moment.....while we are there, but is not sustainable.  And, it also serves to separate us from the people that we are trying so desperately to reach.  I think that this is something that we need to always consider before ever taking anything into another context to teach.

Monday - it's time to get started!!

What an amazing, long, wonderful day!!!  Let me first start off by saying that we serve a great God!!  He is worthy of all praise, glory, and honor!!

First, we started our "1.5-hour," or 40 mile journey (which rapidly turned into 2.5 hours because of the conditions of the roads here in South Sudan) to the village of Witto.  As we were driving down the road, we could see the excitement in the faces of the kids and hear them yelling "mondele, mondele" (white man, white man) and waving to us.  Pretty much everyone that we saw, we waved to and I would say about 98% waved back and smiled at us.  It's so great to have such a greeting committee on the side of the road.  We can see the school children walking down the road with bundles of elephant grass on their heads or in their hands.....tuition!  One image that I wish I couldn've gotten a picture of was a group of 4-5 kids walking carrying their elephant grass and this 1 little boy (couldn't have been more than 5-6 years old) running behind them trying to catch up and trying to hold onto 1 backpack that was about to fall off his arm while another was on his back.  It was such a cute picture!  

We were greeted in Witto there by the people who live there as well as those who live in a nearby village, Matta.  As was the plan, they greeted us and we introduced ourselves to the local church and told them our plan for the day.  For the most part, shockingly, everything went according to plan (except for following the time frame - since we had already gotten 1 hour behind because of the journey).  During our greeting, Bethany got stung by a wasp and thought she was going to die.  Thankfully....she didn't die (we don't even think that the stinger was in her arm....it was really an almost sting, but the place did swell, so we'll give it to her that she was stung by a wasp).

Bethany and I were ready to meet the ladies that we would spend the next few hours with sharing the gospel and teaching how to make an oral rehydration solution

Bethany and I were able to spend some valuable time with the ladies by telling them the gospel story (in true Sudanese fashion with pictures and stories that they can relate to) and then by telling them a story about "Emmanuel" who contracted diarrhea and how to keep him safe and hydrated while he was sick.  The ladies expressed understanding and were so prepared for the things that we had planned that we finished in a mere 3 hours - before lunch!  They already had the sugar, salt and clean water available, so this part of our plan worked far better than expected.  And, because the ladies were able to finish so quickly, they were able to loan their interpreter to some of the men to get an assessment of their knowledge of the gospel to teach them how to use the Sawyer Water Filtration System as a back-up to the well.

These are the ladies that were able to join us....more came in throughout, though.

During lunch, the men in the village presented us with a gift of honey.  In this culture, honey is a very sacrificial gift to give/receive.  They have to wait until it's dark at night, then go to the tree where the bee hives are.  They take a torch to basically smoke the bees out of the hive as much as they can.  Then, they harvest the honey and the comb.  It was A LOT of pure honey!!  It's such a sweet blessing to be here with these people.

We were able to get 3 different assessments of the people's understanding of the gospel and as we discussed tonight, this was very burdensome to us because most of them expressed a belief in faith in God PLUS works.  This also gave us fuel for items to focus on throughout the remainder of the week and helped serve as a reason for rearranging our days a little.  Now, our plans are no longer to complete the assessments with the in the afternoon everyday (after the teaching), but rather in the morning (to lead into the teaching).  It also served to help us evaluate how we can come home and best share the story of the Moru tribes in South Sudan, specifically the tribes with which we are working.

We decided to get 1 last picture with as many of the ladies as we could.  :0)

While we were in this village, Bethany and I had an opportunity to use the latrine.  Ummmmm.....interesting is about the only word to describe this experience.  VERY INTERESTING!

As we were getting ready to leave, a lady named Wilima came up to me and gave me a gala (it's a small gourd filled with something to make noise that's used in African worship services) and it has her name etched into it!  I'm pretty sure that she made it after we completed the assessment with the ladies and before we left.  Such a sweet, special gift!  Wilima actually spoke good English, but she kept this a secret until about an hour before the team left the village.

Probably my favorite picture of a sunset that I took today!  Isn't it beautiful??

While, yes, it was a long and stressful day, but it was wonderful!  I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

It's time to worship with the church in South Sudan!

       A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.  I woke up with first 2 lines of this song in my head and it's a great reminder that God is our fortress and he will never fail us (but I do wish I remembered the rest of the song).  Today started with breakfast of champions, Mundri bread and eggs cooked by our sweet hostesses, and I think that we all chose the option of taking in a little hot tea so that we could have some help from the caffeine to get us going.  We split into 3 different groups today to worship with the church in South Sudan.  John and I worshipped with the church at Okarri where John delivered the message and I extended a greeting from Philippians 1

After services this morning, we joined back together at the compound for lunch and the men went out under the mango tree to teach whomever would come.

A picture from the worship service on Sunday morning

Archbishop interpreted the message that John taught at the service on Sunday

Later in the afternoon, we got word that the commissioner was on his way.  Because of this, we all went out to meet him and spend some time with him.  He and his friends spoke to us about things that were changing within South Sudan and mentioned several things that simply broke the hearts of some of us (including that they want to build bigger buildings and no longer have big trees, the women should teach their wives to be good housewives, God is very rich and doesn't want us to just minister to the poor, He wants to make us very rich too, and he said that all world religions are basically the same).  WELL......if they wanted Bethany and me to teach their wives how to be "good housewives," I think that the WRONG people are here!!  I am over 30 and have never been married.....I can tell them what I've seen, but I have no references (even in scripture) for how to be a housewife - I'm pretty sure that the Proverbs 31 woman wasn't a housewife, since she worked with her hands, invested in land, and made sure that her family was nurtured.  But, back the commissioners comments, I mention them mainly to ask that you please pray for both the leadership and the people in the County of Mundri that they would be infected with the true Gospel of salvation through Christ Jesus alone.  And that they would see the purpose of glorifying God's great name among the nations!  Pray that they would see in scripture that it's not about gaining worldly wealth, building taller buildings, and bringing more wealth to South Sudan.  Pray that God would open their eyes that there is only 1 way to salvation and that all world religions are not alike.  Pray also that they will realize that God will give them a new love for ministering to the poor, not simply taking them out of their circumstances for the sake of giving them more material possessions.  There was also some talk of American politics and what is going wrong in America.....why some don't support Obama.  Jeffries later told us that most people in Africa see Obama as a hero, but can't state any heroic qualifications when they are asked.  They don't understand why a lot of people in the states don't like him as the president and they only site racial bias as the reason.  What an unfortunate line of thinking.

The message I came away with today is that we have things so messed up in America and the image that we portray to the rest of the world of our so-called "Christian nation" is a bunch of falsehoods that only serve to make us feel better for a short time.  Some other key things to note from today include:

-Archbishop has renamed me again - I'm now Lohassa!!  What in the world?  But, John seems to want to call me Louise.....I wonder how many names I'll have before we leave.  I'll probably just start answering to anything that I hear and say "sorry" when I realize that it's not really me that they want....hahaha.

-Archbishop has also told me to get ready because there will be much practice in learning African dancing by driving up and down the roads on the way from Mundri to the villages.  I just wish that my friends that I spent time in India with last September were here to re-live this with me.  Leslie, David, and Jessica would love it.....and Corey and Brian have already lived it here in South Sudan.

LOOKS LIKE WE MADE IT!!!!

Saturday has been a bit of an eventful day.....in a very good way!!  We woke up earlier than we had anticipated in order to make it to the airfield on time.  This meant that we only got about 4 hours of sleep.  AND, this 4 hours was cut short by a horrible thunderstorm in the middle of the night that woke everyone up thinking, "what was that?"......especially in light of the previous days' news.  It was by no means a peaceful storm that someone could just sleep through (except for Daniel.....he knew nothing about it when we talked at breakfast this morning).  We made the drive to the MAF air field and so many things remind me of northern India in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.  The roads, the houses, the people, the poverty.  It just overwhelms me.  We were able to get our bags checked in (somewhat half-heartedly) and weighed (we were good with the weight, so nothing had to stay in Uganda).

Our plane that will take us into South Sudan!

     We found out this morning (or maybe late yesterday) that now all people entering the country of South Sudan have to go first to Juba in order to receive the passport stamps and visa, then we are directed onward to our destination.  We boarded our plane with Simon Elliott (one is his real name and other is not, but I can't remember which) to take us to Mundri.  The flight was very smooth and just such a wonderful time with the LORD.  Some things that God always teaches me when I fly, but even more so in the charter plane, is how big He is.  He is absolutely incomprehensible!!  He created this whole earth by simply speaking it into being, so why do I ever question His ability to provide for my needs?  I know that He is sovereign and loving and caring and compassionate, but also just and righteous and full of wrath and anger due sinners.  I don't pretend to know how these work together, but when flying over southern Uganda and into southern South Sudan, I simply can't fathom it.  The land is so green and lush - much more than I was expecting (probably not as much as some may think, but much more than I had expected).  We flew over the Nile River and on my side of the plane seemed like a simple stream, but on the left side of the plane was an overwhelming body of water.  Again, God did that.  He gave us a beautiful day with little turbulence to fly in and blessed us with views of such a wonderful country that not so very long ago was torn by civil war where all of the people that we will meet were affected.

We stopped in Arua to register with Uganda that we were no longer going to be in their country, then we headed to Juba.  When we landed, there were many UN planes and helicopters at the airport as well as a paved runway!!  NOT what we were expecting, but a blessed surprise.  One of the memorable moments for all of us was that this is the first stamp any of us have in our passports from the "Republic of South Sudan" - now it's own independent country.  What a blessing to be in such a new country and to be able to take part in what the LORD is doing here.  While in line to get our entry stamp in our passports, I overheard 1 lady ask her pilot if she was in Africa.  He replied, "yes, we are in South Sudan."  Ummmm, it's a pretty difficult place to get to, so I can't imagine someone just coming by accident!  How could you not know where you are?  Or, at least that you're on the continent of Africa??  But, I digress......we were able to obtain our stamps in our passports and we were freed to fly to Mundri.

       After 1 somewhat interesting attempt to land on the airstrip (there were cows on the runway), we were able to land safely and we were greeted by Jeffries, Coffee and Repent.  Such beautiful brothers in the faith in South Sudan and it was such a blessing for them to come and greet us and make sure that we were taken care of.  We traveled from the air strip to the "BrookHills Compound" in Mundri, South Sudan which is where we'll be staying for the week.  It's much hotter here than it was in Uganda, but I know that the LORD will provide for us while He is allowing us to do His work here.  What a blessing and an honor to be part of building the kingdom of God.  We visited under the Mango tree and had our orientation with Jeffries and Repent and discussed the events of the coming week.

My bed at the MAF guest house

The afternoon was filled with activities too, after we arrived in Mundri, but Bethany and I were TIRED!  We laid down to take a 30-minute nap.  Well, 1.5 hours later, we woke up and realized that we were missing out on some time with the children who are sponsored through 4 Corners.  What a disappointment to have missed the first part of this, but we caught up quickly by playing with and taking pictures of the kids who had already finished with the afternoon's activities.

BrookHills Compound

Also, this afternoon, we met Paul, the "Archbishop of the world" (I will refer to him as Archbishop mostly from now on).  He is such a delightful man who longs to teach other God's grace and salvation in Christ alone.  He leads Sunday School classes and also serves in his church whenever he is needed.  Such an amazing blessing to meet him.  I asked him how he got his name and his reply was, "I call myself that because I want to be a bishop, but there are already so many.  I want to be the bishop of other denominations, but there are so many....there are no vacancies.  So, the vacancy is Archbishop of the world, so I will take that one."  ALRIGHTY!  You got it was my thought and I will call him Archbishop from now on.  He has thought that "Louanne" is too hard to pronounce, so he has renamed me "Lois."  I can handle that....

In the evening, after we all got cleaned up, we were served a delicious dinner and had our evening devotion where Jeffries shared a history of the church in South Sudan and also shared a lot of the struggles that they currently face.  One of the main ones that he mentioned was that the people struggle with trusting in the faith of God to produce works, but have gone to more of a "works based" type of thinking overall as justification for their sins.  He mentioned that this type of thinking is much more reminiscent of the Roman Catholic Church than that of the evangelical church.

Overall, it's been a FANTASTIC day where God has shown each of us so many different attributes of His character.  Just as a reminder of the ones that are so evident today: He is sovereign, loving, caring, righteous, full of anger, forgiving, limitless, independent of space and matter and He created this world and these people.  He has a great plan to make His name known among them and we are all grateful that He has chosen to allow us to participate in bringing His great name great glory which we rejoice in!

The journey there.....

Pretty much all we have done today is fly.  We flew into Amsterdam to start the day, now we are on the flight to Entebbe - stopping at Kigali, though.  They made me check my carry-on bag with 1/2 of the materials and all of my food and clothes.  I trust the LORD that He will get the bag to Entebbe so that I can have the use of the teaching materials that we need and also so that I can have (and ultimately give away) the clothes that I brought.  I still feel like there are so many things that I don't know and I know that I'll be overwhelmed when we land.  I look forward, though, to what all God will teach me about Himself and that He will open my eyes to pray and to praise Him with a renewed fervor as a result of this trip.  I'm excited about being disconnected from e-mail, text and facebook for a little while; but I'm also scared of being so disconnected.  I know that God has this all under His great control too.  I took this time in the plane to spend some concentrated time in prayer and journaling, something that I need to do more often.

"LORD of all the earth, we shout your name, filling up the skies with endless praise, Yahweh, Yahweh, we love to shout your name, oh Lord!!"  I just lift up endless praises to the Father for who He is and also that He allows me to join in His ultimate desire that His Name be known amongst all nations.  As I work to get to a place far away from home, I labor for 1 thing and 1 thing alone - to make His Name great!  That's my ultimate goal and that's what I know that He'll bless.  I get overwhelmed sometimes, though, when I consider how limited I am.  I am 1 person.....I am a single female and I completely know what this means in a lot of cultures.  Above the age of 30 and still not married, people wonder what's wrong.  And, they ask, which brings a flood of other emotions to the surface!  Especially people in other cultures ask....they are very curious and I respect them for asking.  But, the reality is, I have no clue!  One thing that I do know, though, is that I don't want to squander my singleness.  I want my life to count to make God's glory known.....which is why I'm on this plane to South Sudan.  People ask me what drew me to South Sudan, and all I can say is that God led me there and paved the way.  I can't explain it, but here I am.  I am inadequate, unfamiliar with the culture and land, and flawed in so many ways.  I know that I have nothing to stand on apart from Scripture and for that, I'm grateful because God will bless the proclamation of His Word.  So, this is the plan for the next week (and for life).....to stand on the promises of God and to point others to Him.

IT'S TIME.....we are on our way!!

Thursday morning, we met and drove to ATL to be driven to the airport by my cousin's sister-in-law, Joy, who I am so grateful for.  On the way to ATL, I got the bright idea to open facebook, where I saw a status update about a bombing of a refugee camp in South Sudan.  They reported that 4-5 bombs were dropped, but they suspected no injuries at that point.  What an overwhelming bit of information to get as we are now on our way to this country.....although, it will be a couple of days before we actually make it there.  Of course, this just increased my anxiety a little more about the journey on which we are embarking.  But, Daniel reminded Bethany and me that God is sovereign over this and everything on the planet.  He also reminded us that if God can keep us safe at home, He can keep us safe in South Sudan; but if He can't keep us safe at home, He can't keep us safe anywhere.  What a truth I needed to hear.

The things we know now - 25 are suspected dead and the Sudanese government is suspected to have orchestrated and carried out the attack on South Sudan.  We know that the people at refugee camp had fled Sudan for freedom that they could find in South Sudan.  And, the bombings took place in an oil rich area called the Unity State which is where fighting is still occurring near the borders of Sudan and South Sudan.  We know that we are traveling into an area where spiritual warfare is very present and where satan is living and working to distract from the glory that is due and will be paid to God alone.   WOW......God has trusted us to take His gospel to the nations and that's what we'll do.  Apart from Him we have no life anyway, so in His will, although dangerous and scary often times, is the safest place to be.  I used my judgement not to tell my family about these bombings, hoping that they won't hear from another source because they were also more anxious about this trip than any other that I've been on.  But, I did send an e-mail to some friends asking them to pray for the people that were affected and also for us with our increased anxieties after the events of the day.  We now know that this area is far north of where we were going to be working, which was very comforting to find out (just being completely honest).

We all met in Atlanta at the airport, checked our bags and walked through security.  We got our last few phone calls in before leaving the convenience of being able to talk to people anytime you want.  At the time called, we boarded our plane heading for Amsterdam where we were able to get some rest before the stressful week that we are heading into.

My bags altogether weigh around 60 pounds......we are only supposed to take 50 pounds with us on the MAF flight.  I wonder what I'll have to leave in Uganda???

One last picture at the ATL airport before leaving.

Deception.......

Being a leader (both at work and at my church) that I hope ignites passions within other people and stirs them onward to growth, this word has been on my mind and heart a lot over the past month.  Lately I have heard things like, “he doesn’t do anything near what I do back at my place” or “I know that we haven’t reached our expected levels yet, but we just had X, Y, and Z to take care of before that happened.”  The reality behind both of these statements is staring me in the face more and more that none of us sees the whole picture.  I could quickly point out to the first person the plethora of things that are done behind the scenes that proves that statement wrong.  And, the second, I could show that the priorities were misplaced and thus we spent a lot of time focusing on something that wasn’t as important.  But we tell ourselves these things, don’t we?  Every day!!  Most of (I know I do) MANY, MANY times throughout the day. 

Since this word/practice that has been on my mind for the past few days and weeks, I decided to look up the root word, deceit and here’s what I found:

1. The act or practice of deceiving; deception - Oh, OK, well that clears it all up, right!!!
2. A stratagem; a trick - that’s a little better
3. The quality of being deceitful; falseness - that’s probably the most clear!

And, since you can’t define one word by using another form of the same word, that led me to look up the word deception.  Here you go with this one:

1. The use of deceit - seriously?!?!  What’s with defining 1 word with another form of the same word?
2. The fact or state of being deceived - OK.....but we’re still using a form of the word to define it
3. A ruse; a trick - HA!  Now you’ve got it!

Now, I will start off by saying that I don’t think that any one of us sets out saying, “I’m going to see how much I can deceive myself today” or “I’m going to see who all I can trick into seeing things my way.”  I think that it’s something that we simply do without ever even realizing it.  But, I think that this word has been on my mind so much as I’ve watched people lately who have a false sense of who they truly are.  They see themselves one way, but in reality do and act in ways that are totally uncharacteristic of what they claim.  So, my concern is that they are deceiving themselves.  Then I look at my own life and I think, “well, if so-and-so thinks this about themselves, how much do I think things about myself that aren’t true?”  Some will say, “you shouldn’t ask that question” or “why waist your time with that when there other things that are more useful you should be doing.”  But, isn’t this the battle we fight against satan in our own mind everyday?  He tells us one thing, then we start to believe it despite the fact that scripture claims something entirely different.

For instance, satan will say, “you are a good person” when scripture tells us clearly that “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10b-12).  Then, the lie comes that “you have done X, Y, and Z, so that means you have earned the right to take a break from that other stuff for a little while.”  But, later in that same chapter of Romans (3:21-26), Paul writes the following:

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get control of another lie that the adversary puts in front of our face.  It’s the one that says, “you should never question whether or not you are saved.....you know 25 years ago you made a decision, right?”  Well, again, Paul tells us in Philippians 2: 12-13, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-CONTINUE to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (emphasis added).  While salvation is a one-time deal, sanctification is a life-long process.  That’s what Paul’s talking about here.....the sanctification (just wanted to make that clear).  But, according to this, we’re forced to look at the following question through these eyes:

What does your (and my) life have to say about these things?

Do your actions agree with scripture and has God changed your heart so that people see Him in you, not just you since that time?

Or, do you just talk about a time when you once believed and there is no change in you since then

OR, let’s take it one step further, do you just go to God when you “need” something (I’ll have to write again about the distorted “needs” of our culture - but that’s for another day and time)

To answer these, Let’s pull a little bit from Paul in Romans 10:9-10, where he writes “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”  But, we can’t ignore what James, the brother of Jesus, writes in James 2:18-19, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.  You believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that - and shudder.”  So, scripture tells us, yes, we do have to believe. But, we are told that we don’t simply stop right there!!

The rest of our entire life, God works in us to show Himself to us and to those around us that He is calling on a regular basis to come and to worship Him.  I don’t pretend to know how He does this or what His basis is for calling some and not others.  But, scripture tells us that it is so.

I guess the one scripture that has haunted me most during this process of trying to figure out why people believe one thing about themselves and that they don’t try any harder to see beyond their limited belief is that in Matthew 7:21-23 we have a shocking caution from Christ himself.  He says, “‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!’”   WHAT?!?!  People who thought that they were doing something for the Lord were so deceived by what they had been doing.  If you read a little before this passage, Christ warns against following false prophets and he specifically says that you will know a person by their actions.

Which brings me to the other thing that makes me fall on my face both in worship and in desperation for the Spirit of God.  That is, how do we know that we are following God’s will.  Just so you know, I am that person who is not afraid to pose a question that I don’t have an answer for.  And, this is it!  I find myself so often thinking, “God, if you would give me such-and-such blessing, this is how I would use it for your glory” or “God, if you would take this struggle away from me, the praise that others would bring you because of it will be wonderful.”  But, the reality is, God is sovereign.  He’s sovereign over all human nature because He created it!  He’s sovereign over all nature - yep, let’s not forget that He created that too!  He’s sovereign over everything in the entire world (and far beyond the world in ways that our little minds can’t even fathom).  So, in the end, I know that the place that He has put my life is exactly where He can get the most glory from it today.  That may all change tomorrow.....and this remains to be seen because tomorrow hasn’t come yet (for me.....the timelessness of God is also another topic that I don’t have time to get into right now).  But I do have comfort that if He wanted my life in a different place, He would get it there.  He has certainly given me more than I can handle alone over the past 10 years!  I know that He won’t fail me now!

But, as I wrap this up, I want to get back to the original theme, which is deception.  How do we guard against it?  How do we know that we are who we say we are?  My only advice for this is to surround yourself with Bible-believing Christ-followers who aren’t afraid to who you where your life falls short of scripture.  This is what it means to be the Church.  It’s not simply sitting back and saying, “whew.....if that person only really knew what they were acting like.”  It’s our responsibility to one another and to the Lord that we claim to worship!  We have to be one man sharpening another just as iron sharpens iron.  If we can’t go to the Church for honesty like this, do we really think that we’ll be effective in the world of people who don’t care about following after Christ or only pay lip-service to Him?  Just one more scripture to ponder over as you test your heart and work out your salvation, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?  ‘I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.’” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

Now, let’s get rid of the deception in our lives both toward ourselves and toward others and get into the Word and let the LORD search and test our hearts!