The Battle and It's Wounded Soldiers

Sometimes people are so convinced that if you're not in a church that you are somehow in retreat, but that's not what I am finding among the believers that I know (those who don't belong to an Institutional Church).

Yes, there are many wounded soldiers and sadly most of them have been wounded by those we thought were on the same team. Is there any other religion that shoots it's own soldiers when they're down, than Christianity?

There's a battle raging within Christianity today and it is crippling the momentum that should be advancing on the field. Christianity has become Churchianity in many places all over the world and their focus left Christ a long time ago. Now our wounded soldiers are having to deal with how to be strategically wise in order to protect themselves and their loved ones from the very 'brethren' we fought alongside for so many years.

I've never served in the military, but I've read and studied enough to know that not every branch serves in the same capacity. Each one specializes in a specific area and if each branch could work together in supporting one another we can become quite powerful..."to the pulling down of strongholds" once again. But somewhere along the way they forgot about pulling down strongholds and they are more concerned with recruiting people into their branches to just increase numbers. 

I remember meeting with a recruiter for the Air Force when I was 18 years old. I wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force. The recruiter gave me all the information, but asked me to be sure this was the branch I really wanted to be a part of. There are other branches I could have chosen and I still would have been on the same team, The United States of America. 

Now that I think about it, you don't have to be in any military branch in order to be on this team, even the civilians are still on the same team and our taxes pay for those soldiers. We all need one another.

I try to think about this in terms of my faith and the fellowships we all form in our own towns. We each have a function and God will place us where He wants us. There are also wounded soldiers who have been inflicted great harm at the hands of other soldiers and some abusive leaders have misused their positions to punish unjustly. There is corruption all around us and it has been said many times that an outside enemy doesn't have the power to destroy us, the power to destroy comes from within it's own department.

We each have a function and we need to discover what that is through God's Spirit guiding us. Maybe you feel like you are a wounded soldier never able to get back in the battle...but may I remind you of something the apostle Paul said? He said,

 "Love never ends". {1 Corinthians 13} 

The command to love remains steadfast which is where we can be of use in this multifaceted ministry of reconciliation. Even the military hospitals have doctors, nurses, and staff to help the wounded to heal...they're still all a part of the progress of defending freedom.

If God reveals to you that you have wounded one of our own, could you seek Him in depth on how you can reconcile? Even if you agree to disagree, can it be done in love and through peace? Let's remain linked arm in arm, advancing on the field in the victory that has already been given to us through Christ.

The freedom in Him to love one another and help spread the Gospel.. Christ came to set us free.

~Lisa

The Heart Strings of Prayer

Can prayer be different somehow than just reciting scripture to God to tell Him what we need? Is there a different manner in which to pray than just quoting Psalms or man written prayers? Does it ever seem like your prayers float against the ceiling of your room, never penetrating the Kingdom of God?

Some prayers don't seem to make it past the mighty doors of His throne room. Moments like these seem to yoke me to a ball and chain, sometimes it feels like I've been tossed into the sea and my prayers weigh me down and drowning in sadness seem inevitable.

He tells me that His yoke is light, which makes my imagination soar like a helium balloon dancing on the puffy white clouds in the brilliant blue sky. I close my eyes and listen as He sings His joy into my soul. What's that music I hear? His melody is glorious. His notes give me a breath of fresh air. But my heart feels a sadness and a weight that is difficult to bear.

Then He asks me to make my own melody. I sigh long and slow, not meaning to complain, but my heart is so heavy, how can I make a melody in my heart? He lifts my fingers to the strings and simply says, "Strum".  I strum. I strum the strings of my heart with a sad chord. I stop and sigh a long slow breath with heaviness and a tear streams down my cheek. He whispers gently, "Strum again and follow your heart."

I begin to pluck at the strings as my emotions pour into the song, the song from my heart, and the tears flow faster, gliding down my nose, and dropping to my knees. He encourages me, "Keep playing the melody of your heart." My pain and my sorrow pulls at those strings, then strum again, back and forth, the melody takes shape and the notes crescendo. My heart throbs with the hard fast music of my pain. Then I decrescendo to a stillness, a calm, a peace in my soul.

The unspoken words of my painful heart find tranquility in the forgiveness of a broken heart and then the miracle comes. As a royal princess descending from the palace staircase, in all her glorious beauty, Grace enters the ballroom of my heart and soul. Compassion walks across the ballroom floor and reaches out to Grace. Grace and Compassion take hold of each other's hands and begin their dance. My music begins again. My fingertips reach out to the heart strings of those I love, those that had broken my heart and I strum. They begin their dance steps across my heart and I sigh that long deep breath into the chords.

Slowly I strum and glide my fingertips across the strings as my heart cries out to my loves. My dear ones who are broken as well. These hearts that have misunderstood, who cry out in anguish over deceptions that plague us and cause rifts in the fellowship. He silences me and says, "Feel their hearts, sense the reverberations of their pain." The tears roll down again. 

{Pat, pat, pat, splash.}

The puddles of tears are overflowing. He catches them in His bottle. My tears, their tears, these tears are precious to Him. He lifts my fingers to the strings again and says, "Play our melody."

Grace and Compassion consummate their relationship and conception begins. The majestic beauty of Agape begins to form again, a new heart beats within my soul. My heart crescendos, I feel the reverberation of Agape on the strings of our hearts as the gentle nudge of a baby's foot in the womb does. I strum. I strum their heart strings in prayer. 

He lives in them as well as in me. His Spirit within me speaks to His Spirit within them. The heart beats of Agape nudges their heart's womb. They feel something. He says, "Don't stop..keep playing" Agape is nearer than I can imagine, nearer than any of us realize. The pains of birth are coming, they cry...their breathing is heavy..their tears flow. 

{It hurts so}

Deep down inside, it hurts...He whispers to them, "Rest, breathe, trust." He embraces them, He holds them closer. My plucking of the strings plays harder with each measure, louder the notes cry out! Their hearts burst, their tears flow, and they drop to their knees before our King. 

The music played deep into my prayers has brought them back to life, as Life is birthed in them. Agape appears in all His glory. They weep. They hold that new born life and embrace the miracle. The miracle of reconciliation, the life that was needed by all of us. 

Can prayer be like this? Can it make a difference? I cry. The sobs pour out of me and I hear a knock at the door. I rise to my knees and pat my tears from my eyes. I open the door and there they are. We embrace over long tight hugs and streams of tears. The Heart Strings of Prayer. 

{Yes, prayer can be different}

~Lisa