Mission in Mexico...

Last nite we had dinner with wife's friends again... and it's kinda sad to hear stories of breakups... such as Jacob's band breaking up... and then Jerry's ministry in Mexico kind of on the rocks... The story of Juan was also heart-breaking... a drug dealer turned preacher and then back to be a drug dealer again...

Do these things happen because of spiritual attacks or because we just plain suck?

I suppose it's probably a combination of both. Eve screwed up because serpent tempted her and she made a decision to give in to serpent. Serpant is the attacking agent and Eve made a sucky decision. And Eve then becomes the attacking agent by offering it to Adam... and then Adam made a sucky decision to eat it too! Of course both Adam and Eve only blamed it on the attacking agent... Adam even blamed God for creating that attacking agent... Accusations of Adam and Eve were correct. Serpent deserved the blame... Eve also deserve the blame, it's always always easier to see the blames for others, but it's just not quite so easy for us to see our own suckiness very often. All of mankind, believers and unbelievers, suck and fall short of the glory of God. But can blaming others help? Can blaming it on spiritual attacks help?

Of course not. All we can do is to repent first and then pray for God to interven our lives with sufficient mercy and grace... if Adam and Eve first repented instead of playing the blame game, things for sure would've turned out quite different. And may God continue to intervene into Juan's life so that this prodigal son who's incredibly gifted at preaching can return home once more...

Today's scripture reading is about Ruth... it's funny that I just found out last nite that my wife was suppose to be named Ruth by her dad, but she just plain doesn't like that name because "Ruth" just doesn't fit her! Ruth, unlike her other sis-in-law Orpah, simply stubbornly clung on to Naomi for no good reason... other than love for this hopeless old woman... Actually both wanted to stay and take care of her, but Orpah was able to 'think' more properly and decide to do the right thing with her brain... hey, Naomi insisted that she go... so she went. But Ruth tend to think more with her heart. Her heart is telling her that only death will do them apart. I guess her stupid vow compared to Jephthah's stupid vow was that at least Ruth offered up to sacrifice her OWN life out of love... where as Jephthah offered up somebody else's for... personal victory?

I don't know, personally, I think the moral of the story is that as long as two people love each other to the point of willing to sacrifice self for the other, things will work out in the end. For this kind of love is the love of God... and God is love... and if people really truly love each other like that, for sure God will be there to help them too..., but the problem is most people simply don't know what is love...

Why should 'I', sacrifice myself for 'you'? What, you think I'm stupid or something?

Satan's attack strategy is basically to inflate the size of 'I' bigger and bigger... Eve didn't want to 'I' to be stupid... so she ate to make her and her husband smarter! Anyway, for sure God is not against people being smart or wise, but God simply want us to ask Him for those things instead of trying to be smart and wise on our own... whenever we try to do that, things get screwed up. Whenever we think of 'self' to be more important, bands, churches, ministries, marriages, or whatever, tend to break up.

Lord, please grant us wisdom and intelligence so that when we make decisions, they will be good decisions. Show us Your way... and please continue to guide and guard us... and protect us from these spiritual attacks... and transform and renew us so that we won't stay so sucky all the time. Help us Lord God! We trust in You and cling to you as Ruth clings to Naomi. In Jesus' name...

(Ruth 1-4)