56°F NW18mph SR0557(0457) SS2003(1903)
Morning Offering given
Village wet… good storm overnight
Coffee good
Today
Read Proverbs 12 and memorize the verse that speaks to you
RIAY Day 119 Till the End
Lazy day planned. Couple pick up and drop offs. Hope to go to Lax this afternoon.
Nice rain overnight, thunder and lightning always amaze me. The air this morning is fresh and clean. The grass is so green and the flowers are poking thru, some are blooming.
Earlier I made comment on the book FerVent by Priscilla Shirer. I need to reread her. There is so much packed into this book it is hard to remember it all
IF I WERE YOUR ENEMY:
I’d seek to dim your passion, dull your interest in spiritual things,, dampen your belief in God’s ability and his personal concern for you and convince you that the hope you’ve lost is never coming back – it was probably just a lie to begin with.
I’d disguise myself and manipulate your perspectives so that you’d focus on the wrong culprit – your husband, your friend, your hurt, your finances, anything or anyone except me. Because when you zero in on the most convenient, obvious places to strike back against your problems, you get the impression you’re fighting for something. Even though all you are really doing is just … fighting for nothing..I’d seek to disintegrate your family and destroy every member of it.
I’d want to tear away at your trust, unity, and turn everyone’s love inward on themselves. I would make sure your family didn’t look anything like it’s supposed to. Because then people would look at your Christian marriages, your Christian kids, and see you’re no different, no stronger than anyone else – that God, underneath it all, really doesn’t change anything.
I’d constantly remind you of your past mistakes and poor choices. I’d want to keep you burdened by shame and guilt, in hopes that you’ll feel incapacitated by your many failings and see no point in even trying again. I’d work to convince you that you’ve had your chance and blown it, that God may be able to forgive some people for something, but not you, not for this.
I’d magnify your fears, making them appear insurmountable, intimidating you with enough worries until avoiding them becomes your driving motivation. I would use anxiety to cripple you, to paralize you, leaving you indecisive, clinging to safety and sameness, always on the defensive because of what might happen. When you hear the word faith, all I’d want you to hear is “unnecessary risk.”
I’d tempt you toward certain sins, making you believe they are basically (even biologically) unavoidable. I’d study your tendencies and proclivities till I learned the precise conditions that make you the most likely to indulge them. And then I’d strike right there. Again and again. Wear you down. Because if I can’t separate you from God forever, I can at least set you at odds with Him for the time being.
I’d make everything seem urgent, as if it’s all yours to handle. I’d bog down your calendar with so many expectations you couldn’t tell the difference between what’s important and what’s not. Going and doing, guilty for ever saying no, trying to control it all, but just being controlled by it all instead…If I could keep you busy enough, you’d be too overwhelmed to even realize how much work you are actually saving me.
I’d use every opportunity to bring old wounds to mind, as well as the people, events, and circumstances that caused them. I’d try to ensure that your heart was hardened with anger and bitterness. Shackled through unforgiveness.
I’d work to create division between you and other Christians, between groups of Christians, anyone with the potential for uniting in battle against me and my plans. I’d keep you operating individually, not seeing your need for the church or tying yourself too closely to its mission. Strength in numbers and unity of purpose…I would not allow things like these to go unchecked.
Know you are prayed for.
In the "Wilds of Wisconsin & Cornfields of Iowa" 