SQJ Taipei

I’m not sure how many of these I’ll post… as many as it takes I guess. I’ll probably post them once a week… although each one is short… we all need time to LEARN and IMPLEMENT these prayer items… they aren’t a list… they are weapons in a war. During our time in Taiwan… and as we fight these spiritual battles… I think of 2 verses of scripture far more than any others… here they are:

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

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For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

The first several are taken word-for-word from an email I received on December 20th from Mike Bowers who is the Associate/Youth Minister at the Clarence Church of Christ in Clarence, New York. And he doesn’t know this or remember me at all… but he spoke to the Christ in Youth staff at a retreat when I was working there back in about 1998 or so… and for once in my life I took good notes and I still have them and review then at least once a year to help me stay on track in my ministry. Currently, Mike is teaching me how to better pray and fast for some missionaries in Costa Rica… the Kings and the Twitchells.

I think Mike’s title should be Minister to the Nations/SQJ’s personal pastor. But I’m sure he’s busy… I did ask his permission to post from his email and he graciously allowed me to use his words. Thank you Pastor Mike.

As for “demolishing strrongholds”…. we’ve seen some success… we’ve got a lot of work to do. I know that many of you pray for us… regularly… faithfully… some constantly. We are so grateful. And yet the battle rages… even when we “win”… we “lose” and sometimes we think we have lost ground… only to have God give it to us.

There is this one temple by my house… actually there are like 57 temples near my house… but this one is on a route I take almost every day. Anyway… I prayed for about 5 years for that temple to burn down. It did. Prayer is effective you know? But… now that temple has been rebuilt with new materials and is more popular than ever. Did we win or lose? I don’t know… it is a SPIRITUAL battle and the territory is not always so easily marked. After that temple burned, on 2 occasions when I walked by the site I had the chance to talk with someone cleaning up…

ME: Did the “gods” get out OK?
THEM: What?
Me: Did your “gods” get out OK or were they burned up.
THEM: Burned up.
Me: Interesting. Why didn’t they leave?
THEM: They can’t walk.
Me: Interesting. Maybe you should worship a more powerful God?

I realize I probably didn’t make the most of those opportunities… but… in a spiritual battle… we can’t always be sure the results of our frail attempts to change our world. But I do know that God is righteously faithful and powerful.

The battle rages… and we are attacked in so many ways… spiritual ways…
Our bodies have been sick for a while… we’re behind on some things and we already have too much to do…..
I’m lonely today… and it doesn’t make sense while living in a city with one of the highest population densities in the world… and in one of the most densly populated houses in that city. We have 4 kids you know…… But the fact is… I feel left out right now. I’m trying to put this out of my mind… but our enemy is so persistent. We must be equally persistent… and sacrifice many things for this cause we believe in…..
The battle rages friends…

NOTE: As I typed this… I changed it from “How to Pray for a Missionary #1″ to “How to Pray for a Missionary - INTRO”. I really wanted you to know about Mike and get a sense of the nature of the battle we are in… I’ll post #1 later… or tomorrow. Thanks for praying.