New believers to be taught

11/23/10 Tuesday
It was an interesting day, yesterday. I don’t get “words from the Lord” like some people seem to get on a regular basis, but on occasion things come to me while I’m in prayer. I am always real careful with that, due in part to the many abuses of this I’ve seen in my life. There have been some who always said “God told me” this and that and in the final analysis it would be clear that what they heard wasn’t from God, it was from their imagination. I have no desire to fall into that trap, where I accept my imagination as words from God, so walk very carefully. However I did have a burden for a friend come over me, and with it a revelation of things that were happening in her life immediately, as well as things that were to come. So I prayed. I prayed for her regularly from that time on and waited for the correct time to tell her what was on my mind. I wanted to be sure and do this with others around who are spiritually mature but it seemed that suddenly this friend avoided me or was unavailable. The opportunity did come in a kind of strange way.

I don’t guess it was too strange, just not how I would have thought. She told me “I have a job for you” and when I asked what it was she told me she wanted me to “baby sit” a young woman who would be getting out of prison soon. All kinds of red flags came up on that one. “We need to talk” was my response as we were in the midst of church and she was heading out the door. There’s no way I’m going to put myself in such a compromising position, where I’m alone and responsible for a single woman who has been locked up for an unknown period of time. This revealed a surprising lack of judgment on her part, something she knows better than to ask of anyone. In the course of conversation, that included our pastor, it came out she had been sick and fighting off some form of scarlet fever, so we prayed for her, that she would be healed. It was then I told her that it had been shown to me that Satan was at the door waiting to pounce, and that she had been making compromises in her life, and those compromises were giving the enemy opportunity. She didn’t like or accept that at all, announcing that she was doing exactly what God wanted her to do. From that moment on there was a definite wall up, and this friend we had helped so much now actively avoided contact. Come to find out there has been a personality change with her at work and great friction as a result. In addition to this friend being a brain injury survivor, she has also just entered that change of life all women must endure as they age, and there are a host of other things going on in her life that add up to a lot of pressure. So pray for her if you could. I can’t say more than this about it.

Meantime, on the farm, I’ll continue working on the bathroom. I never got around to installing a cut off valve for the water and still need to cap the lines coming in to the bathtub and sink. But first things first. Tuesday is my jail day, when I visit the guys in the Stanton jail. I got an easier to read and understand bible to the one prisoner yesterday, left it at the front desk. Today I start teaching a bible study designed for new believers to them, covering the basics of our faith. Being born again means that they are both babies and need to be taught how to walk, and how not to.

Later on today Ricardo will come over with the plumber he knows. Then we’ll have a better idea of what needs to be done. No time to waste so that’s it for this morning.

Rascal, inspecting the changes