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Every now and then there has to be a post like this, and so here it is. When I was 13 I worked in a warehouse and hurt my back. Since then I get back pain every now and then paralysing me and rendering me unable to move for a few days. When I train right and move as I should I get less pain (or I should say less often) and if i neglect my training I get more.

Due to busy schedules and stupidity (thinking I am invincible, and carrying children) I can now feel my back subtly giving up on me. I need prayer, I do not have the luxury of just stopping for a few days at this stage in college.

So this is a request for prayer, please pray for my healing and pray that as I try to train my back more responsibly that I can get back to normal again quickly.

Sincere thanks

Patrik

How do we even begin to describe this event?! It has been a journey, it has been a battle but it has also been a glorious victory.

We had some setbacks like the fact that the translator got really ill halfway through the first meeting, our car breaking down, lots of irritation and distorted communication. It was a battle every step of the way.

Nevertheless, Hearts where set free and people where blessed, faith and hope rekindled. There are two moments that stick out in my mind. The first is praying with several people who felt that their hearts had been broken and they needed healing…. or who felt that the Christian life is hard. Our response, yes it is hard but it is worth it!

The other moment was the testimony of one of the middle aged women in the corps we had invaded who testified at the Sunday meeting (a very interesting meeting with five generations present) how blessed she was by the presence, devotion and vibrancy of all the young people.

It has been a great camp and a good week, even if we missed the snow in England. Now we are just trying to work out how to get home again (our flights got canceled due to the snowstorm in London).

Many don’t even know it, even fewer will acknowledge it. But it is true. Not only is Christian life in itself warfare, but as you give your vows on your wedding day, you are immediately propelled right up to the front line in this war.

Both John Eldredge, Rob Bell and many other Christian writers with them claim that marriage is a living metaphor, the living image of the kingdom of God. An incarnation if you will of God’s unity and fellowship born into our society.

No Wonder the enemy will throw everything he has got at you once you enter into the sacred union of marriage. At first though he will try to sneak in unnoticed, making you think that it is you, your thoughts, your ideas and as long as you accept the lie that you are evil, wicked, bad and that there is nothing you can do about it, he will leave you in your ignorance.

If you ever blow his cover, he will switch to tactic number two “Dog pile”¹ It goes from a low key cold war, to a full on, no holds barred attack. No more pretence, no more disguising as your own thoughts.

The good news is that once we acknowledge that there is an enemy opposing you, that there is a battle to fight, then we can finally let our hearts come fully alive, no longer acknowledging the lies of the devil.

Marriage IS war, not man against the woman; But it is the battle of what should be: glorious, vibrant couples against the powers and principalities that rule this world.

It is time to wake up, step up, and gear up, we are at war!

1. John Eldredge, Wild at heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul. (Nashville: Thomas nelson, 2001) [↩]

Some people have reacted and commented on last nights post.

Here is the follow up from today’s journal entry….

so my prayer this morning was:

Either I am blind or everyone else is, I pray that it is me!
I do not challenge you to prove that I am right,
I long to be proven wrong!

This morning I was, Thank You!