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I didn’t know when I wrote last week’s e-letter that I would find myself trapped in the UK this week because of the Volcano in Iceland and my inability to fly out of the UK. I have written a little of this in my blog which you can see at this link if you are interested. It was here in England, through our medical work and church planting experiences, that Felicity and I began to learn about the reality of Spiritual Warfare. And the starting place to understand this area is understanding that the victory is already won!
Paul put this very clearly in Ephesians 6 when he says that having put on our spiritual armor, then what we do is stand firm. This reminds one of the oft repeated words in the OT narrative when the Lord would tell the children of Israel that all they needed to do was to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” But maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves. Where does this spiritual warfare take place, and what is our part?
I would suggest that our basic understanding of spiritual warfare comes from 2 Corinthians 10: 3-6. Here it is clearly explained that the realm of the warfare is in our minds. We are using spiritual weapons to bring our thoughts, arguments and proud knowledge to a place where Jesus reigns supreme in every thought and we live in obedience to His will. So what are some of these weapons?
- Psalm 22:3. The Lord dwells in the praises of His people. Worship and praise is not just a fun thing to do with other in some of our gatherings, but rather it is the backdrop to living daily, continuously in the Lord’s presence.
- Psalm 149:6 tells us “let the praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands.” That sword, we learn in Ephesians 6, is the word of God, the same word that Jesus used with such skill in Matthew 4 in his confrontation from the devil.
- Revelation 12:11 tells us that the devil was defeated by the saints using
- The blood of the lamb
- The word of their testimony
- And by not loving their lives, even if it meant death (martyrdom). If you read my blog you will know that just this past week, one of the young Indian leaders, the Nephew of a friend of ours, was martyred while preaching.
- James 4:7 tells us that if we resist the devil, then he will flee.
If you want to explore this area further, then I am happy to point you again this week to a book that I wrote back in the early ‘80’s that came out of my medical experience. You can download this online at this link. You will also want to see the updated and completely re-written edition of An Army of Ordinary People which is being release by Tyndale Publishing on May 3rd, and can be purchased from the House2House bookstore in advance at this link. The testimonies in this book of 19 “Ordinary People” are powerful, and are weapons as enumerated above to help us in our personal fight against the enemy.
There is such a growing body of quality materials available on the Internet, that it is sometimes hard to know where to point you! Rad Zdero, a leader within the emerging house church movements in Canada, has done us all a service with the articles and resources that he has pulled together at this link. Enjoy! Similarly, there is a great new resource for those involved in student church planting movements that you can download at this link. Further resources for the student world can be found on the www.campusrenewal.org site, with their student church planting guide, SPARK, available at this link.
Finally, let me encourage you to consider joining many of us as we gather in Dallas over the Labor Day weekend in September (information and registration here). This year Wayne Jacobson, author of So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore is going to be joining us and challenging our thinking. After all, the Bible teaches us that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” This is part of the battle that we have been talking about in the first part of this e-letter, i.e. how do we get our thinking straight as to how we relate to the Lord and each other. For those of you in Florida, anywhere near Orlando, it will be great to also meet with you at the one day conference on June 11th that immediately precedes the Organic Greenhouse Story 1 weekend, also based at Northland – A Church Distributed.
Well, maybe we can explore all of this further next week. By then I hope to know how much longer I am going to be trapped here in the UK!
Tony and Felicity and the H2H team.
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Recent Stories:
Each week H2H publishes a story/article about simple church and/or living out our life in the Kingdom. Recent stories include:
- Green Church (part 2)
- Green Church (part 1)
- The Great Commission and Great Leadership by Dmitriy Demidov
- Simplifying Discipleship By Roger Thoman, with comments from Ken Eastburn
House2House is a donation supported ministry.
An Army of Ordinary People We match Amazon’s Price!
by Felicity Dale
An Army of Ordinary People contains the key to explosive, transformational, 21st century evangelism. Renowned church planter Felicity Dale shares stories of how God has always used—and is still using—ordinary believers to carry out his work in simple ways throughout the world. Some of these stories are dramatic—people being led to the Lord by the friends who counseled them through drug addictions and criminal pasts. Some are everyday—a dad spending his Sunday teaching Bible lessons to his kids, or a couple inviting their neighbors over to dinner and a spiritual discussion. But in each of them, there is a light bulb moment, when someone just like you thinks I can do that! And as a result, the gospel is spreading . . . and lives are being changed.
The Rabbit and The Elephant We match Amazon’s Price!
By Tony & Felicity Dale and George Barna
Today’s Western culture is indifferent to church and Christians. Yet the early church existed in far harsher conditions—and it thrived. Much like a new litter of rabbits, the infant faith quickly grew and spread. And the result was a world transformed.
In The Rabbit and the Elephant, Tony and Felicity Dale (Simply Church) and George Barna (Revolution) say that the same thing is happening today. As Christians, we are the church – whether we meet in office buildings, college dorm rooms, coffee shops, factories, or homes – and the Holy Spirit uses us to expand that church to the far reaches of the globe. By practicing “simple church,” we’ll find that a small gathering of friends loving Jesus together and reaching out to the community around them can help us to be the church, the way God intended.
The rabbit and the elephant. Something small and something big. Find out what lessons they hold for you, for the body of Christ, and for the future of church as we know it.
Organic Leadership
by Neil Cole
What are the weeds that hinder the natural growth of godly leadership? Are programs, people, and money truly the signs of a successful church? Where can you find an unlimited source of leaders? How do you mentor others so that they multiply? In Organic Leadership, Neil Cole asks these questions and more, boldly challenging many of the ideas about leadership and church life that we all take for granted.
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Clayton, WA 99110-0229
