Spiritual Warfare… with who?

Prayers like these tend to be common in the church today:  ”Lord please save my father.”  “God, please deliver me from lust.”  “Jesus, please take away my fear.”

I’ve prayed many prayers like those, just substituting names or sins/struggles.  But its only been recently that God has been speaking to me that my battle isn’t with God but with the enemy.  So often in spiritual warfare, rather than engaging the enemy I’ll find myself looking up behind me at God and pleading with Him for help or deliverance.  And my prayers turn into warfare with God… pleading with Him for help or deliverance or salvation for a loved one.  What I don’t realize is that God is already with me!  He wants my loved ones saved!  He wants me to walk in freedom!  He wants me to be strong in Him and to overcome the enemy!  To plead with Him over such things is basically to say that God is apathetic to such matters and that we must shake Him up with a ton of pleading to get His attention.  The truth is He has already given us authority.  He has already given us His promises.  He has already given us His Holy Spirit.  Rather than pleading with Him, we need to engage the enemy… praying prayers like these, “I command the enemy to get his hands off my father and I speak the light of God piercing through to my dad’s soul.”  “I reject every lustful thought and declare I have the mind of Christ.  I set my mind on things above and not on earthly things.”  “I reject all fear and declare that God has not given me a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind!” 

2Corinthians 4:4 – The god of this age (Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God

2Corinthians 10:4-5 – The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

God bless!

Field Day and Meek Room

Because of the swine flu scare, the children homes of Seoul decided against having their annual field day.  That was a big disappointment.  Our home decided to have our own field day for just our kids.  It was short, but the kids enjoyed it.  Here are a few picks…

Kids lined up

Jump rope

One dodgeball team

And the other… like rival gangs

Some of the older kids

Eun Suh with Kee Baek behind her

Dal Woo

Little Eun Ho receiving a prize for the kindergarten “MVP”

Dae Chul as the high school “MVP”

Afterwards we enjoyed some ja jja myun (black sauce noodles)… its a bit messy, as you can see by Jung Hyun here

Kyung Hwan

Jung Hyun again… I love it when the kids eat messy… especially when its not my responsibility to clean them up^^

Throwing Kyung Hwan around

New boy Young Bin

God bless!

Wrestling With the Enemy…

In perhaps one of the most clear passages about spiritual warfare (the armor of God), Paul describes our warfare as “wrestling:”

Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Wrestling is not a sport that is done at a distance.  It is close, personal, and requires both strength and technique.  In order to win, the opponent must be pinned or put into submission.  Force and perseverance are required, so wrestling is not for the weak-willed or the faint hearted.  It requires practice and discipline.  Wrestling also uses pressure tactics.  A wrestler will typically go after certain areas that will put the opponent at a disadvantage and make them lose balance. 

All of these are true of spiritual warfare.  When we fight with Satan, it is something close, personal, and requires both strength and technique.  The loser will be pinned into submission.  Our battle simply isn’t in the physical, its in the spiritual.  Satan knows our weaknesses and will often target them, over and over, hoping we will lose balance and fall.  But Satan also has his own weaknesses.  He can’t stand against the truth and the authority of God.  He can only endure so much of it before he has to flee.  Its as we stand in our identity in God, claiming His promises, and refuting Satan’s tactics, we are able to stand against him and eventually pin him or force him to run.

James 4:7 (ESV) – Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Pictures from Shalom Room

Recently I visited Shalom Room and played some chess with the older boys while I let the younger kids mess around with my camera.  Goofy little ones… enjoy the pics!

Han Bin

Kang

Ji Hoon

Trouble times 4… Hyun Bin is in the middle

Ye Rang taking over the camera… he is in one of the older boy’s sweatpants

With Jerusalem Ministry volunteer Atul (www.jerusalemministry.org)

Ye Rang

Ye Rang

Ye Rang

Swinging Ji Hoon around by his ankle

Posing with Hyun Bin

Atul tutoring his two boys, Han Bin and Dal Woo

Looking over Sang Yong’s homework with him

A Korean snack… squid… yum yum!

God bless!

Relationships and Freedom…

I’ve had the privilege to facilitate a Bible study on Song of Songs.  During a recent discussion time it was brought up how a lot of people experience their first relationships when they are young, such as in junior high or high school.  For many people, their past experiences continue to affect the way they approach relationships as they grow older.  Fear of rejection, insecurity, awkwardness, regret and sin can continue to haunt them.  So for the past week I had us memorize the following verse…

Psalm 119:32 – I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.

Its as we grow with God and know more of who we are in Him and what His commands are for us that we are able to walk in the way of love and security and be set free from the scars, burdens, and fears the world gives us.  We become secure in our identity in Christ.  We become secure in His love.  No longer are we easily devastated by the things that happen to us in this world.  No longer does the past continue to affect us.  No longer are we so easily tempted to sin, because we have found something so much better.  There is a peace in knowing that as we obey God’s commands, He will protect us and His perfect will for us will unfold.  No longer will we have to fear regret.  He has the best plans for us, so we run in the path of His commands. 

God bless!

Happy Chooseok!

A week ago Korea celebrated their Thanksgiving Day and I enjoyed a good lunch with my kids.  Here are some pics of the little ones…

Myung Soo on the left and Kyung Min on the right trying to look over the table

Myung Soo!

Hee Sung… I love those eyes…

Se Min trying his best to eat… don’t worry, someone came to help him (I just liked to watch^^)

Sun Ah… yes, that’s rice on her chin

Our newest addition, Ji Oon

Sung Joon

Hyun Woo, with rice all over the place

Seung Hwan… definitely not one of the babies… I think he ate more than all eight of the little ones combined

With Chae Yun

God bless!

Kids Being Kids…

I love playing games with my kids.  There is a lot of insecurity among most of them along with a lot of competitiveness, so they can easily get discouraged or into arguments when playing with each other.  But when I’m there I can serve as the adult (its true!) and stop the arguments and encourage, while also serving as a big kid (no trouble believing this one, right?) and lightening the mood.  I’m super competitive as well and my kids picked up on that long ago.  They absolutely love my facial reactions when they make a good move or when I lose.  While playing a game of cards with a couple young boys the other day, one of the boys finally won a game and he jumped up from his chair and then ran around the room with joy.  He was so happy!  Mad cute.  I played cards with one girl and we agreed that whoever won five games total first would be the champion of the world (I love titles).  I was beating her 4 to 0, but she was determined and wouldn’t give up.  She then proceeded to win 5 in a row and then danced and shouted with joy.  She proceeded to then tell her dorm mother and later that night tell other workers about how she beat me.  I loved it.  Everyday after dinner I’ll go outside with the kids to play a bit.  And nearly everyday most of the younger kids want me to chase them.  I will then chase them around and scoop them up and hug them when I catch them.  They love it.  Its hard chasing a ton of kids though, especially just after eating dinner.  Usually I will just make sure to catch each of them once before putting an end to it.  They usually understand and then look forward to the next time.  I need some helpers.   

God bless!

Picture Update…

This past week was exams week for the junior high kids so I went room to room the night before the English exam to tutor the kids.  While in Love Room, little Da Heen happily sat on my lap and then proceeded to scarf down a big bowl of popcorn… Da Heen style.  Enjoy…

Tutoring Sun Ran

Asking Yoo Mi dorm mom if this was okay… Min Seung enjoying the show

Min Seung trying to get some popcorn herself… dangerous

Happy Da Heen

On more pic… Yoo Mi dorm mom is on the left

Jung Ho

Jin Hwa

Soo Ah

Se Bin and Soo Ah

God bless!