Sunday, October 12, 2008

Marching Forward

The past few weeks have been a battle spiritually. I can sense that the Lord is about to do something in my life and the enemy is aroused. The Lord has been gracious by bringing Scripture to my mind (the Sword of the Spirit) and covering me with the prayers of my fellow warriors. I have been learning a lot about spiritual warfare in my Spiritual Warfare class, and now I feel the heat of the battle. It has been hard, but I pray by His strength I will stand firm.

Today, the Lord once again allowed me to talk to someone about Christ. While the last time was expected, this one totally was not. I was in the Wal-Mart parking lot, putting groceries in my car, when a young man approached me and told me that his vehicle had ran out of gas. I told him I didn't have any cash, but he said he had a gas container so I walked with him to the Wal-Mart gas station and we filled it up. During this time, I learned he was from L.A., is starting classes this week at a welding school, why he moved to Louisville, and that his girlfriend/wife is pregnant. I shared with him that I also moved here to go to school. Announcing that I go to seminary, of course, steers the conversation towards spiritual matters so we talked about God, Jesus, and Judgment Day. He has a Roman Catholic and Church of Christ background and his significant other (who I later discovered was waiting for him in the truck) has Baptist roots. I am not sure where they stand with the Lord, but they know some Truth. I recommended them to a church on the KY side of the river (where they live) and gave them one of the sermon series I had in my car. I will probably never see them again, but I hope and pray that the Lord would guide them towards Himself. Their names are Billy and Tiffany. Please pray for them. What is really interesting about this situation is that just yesterday I was asking the Lord how I was going to be able to be a witness for Him overseas if I am not a witness for Him here where I'm comfortable, and I asked him to give me opportunities to share His goodness. So He did. :) "Ask and you shall receive." Be assured that God does hear our prayers and He will answer them in His own way and time.

This past week was Fall Break, and, sadly, it is swiftly coming to an end. I did not accomplish all my goals (as usual, I set the standard too high), but I did have two lovely days of no work and no school. One was especially sweet because I got to spend the majority of it with the Lord. Those two days were such a blessing away from schoolwork because even though I didn't accomplish all my goals, I stayed plenty busy with a 10 page paper, reading, a Greek midterm, and a Spiritual Warfare midterm [not the one I am facing right now outside of the classroom, but the one for my actual class ;)]. Speaking of which, I listened to a sermon on spiritual warfare after taking my test which spoke about the armor of God. Besides it being what I needed to hear, I wished I had listened to it before my test so I could have written a better essay on the armor of God, hehe.

I am still praying about serving overseas in the coming year. The sixth month program is still heavy on my mind. I looked at the jobs and locations avaiable and, while I long to work with orphans, an ESL teaching position in South America struck a chord in me. I will keep you posted as the Lord directs me.

I have been considering sharing a struggle in my life (which few people know about) that the Lord delivered me from several years ago. My reasons for sharing: 1. to testify to the Lord's goodness, providence & power; 2. to be more vulnerable (which, if you know me, is something I fight against); and 3. to encourage anyone who might stumble across this blog who is going through a similar struggle. My reasons for not sharing: 1. I am not sure if I am ready to be that vulnerable; 2. I really can't think of another reason at the moment, but I am sure there is a really good one that would be inserted here ;).
There is more to share, but I am too tired to remember what...

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