Thanksgiving Day at LOPC was a “giving” day.  Christy Gauger led the effort to provide a nice dinner in the Fellowship Hall for homeless and needy.  A banner in front of the church and flyers distributed on the streets advertised the offer.  Many people contributed, prepared, and prayed.  For those who were not there, this report from Debbye Tate will provide a stirring picture of the event. Truly “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”  Here’s how Debbye described it.

We had an interesting time feeding the homeless yesterday.  Every single one of them was so grateful for the food.  Most of them were men who obviously had very hard lives.  I could tell they had been living on the streets for some time.  I was really touched by Buddy's kindness to them.  He sat by several of them while they ate and just chatted with them.  We only had 25 people show up (our church is not close enough to Dixie Highway which is where most of them live).  But Buddy made sure to speak to every one of them.  He fetched dessert for them, refilled their iced tea, and just basically laughed with them.  His gentleness and compassion for them pierced my heart.  Buddy is usually shy of strangers, but he was magnanimous yesterday and my heart was filled with love and admiration for him. 

It was my privilege to pile food high on their plates and to thank them for coming. 

Some of them would not make eye contact, but the ones who did had such a look of sadness and pain that I won't soon forget it.  One man, who probably earlier in life could have been an investment banker, was the saddest human being I have ever observed in my life.  He was articulate and very intelligent but just looked utterly beaten down by life.  I was brokenhearted for him and choked down sobs as he stood in front of me with his plate. 

All of the church volunteers were marvelous.  It was an incredible visible display of the grace
and mercy of God.  One woman (Lisa Lennon) waited outside the church doors to speak to the guests as they came and went.  Several of them sat down for lengthy talks with her.  Our senior pastor, Lynn Downing, spoke to several of the men and seemed to be all over the place talking and laughing. 

Caroline and two other teens (Chris Lennon and Mikala Grimmig) played with two little homeless kids.  I was very touched by the mother of the children.  She was Haitian.  Her children were dressed in very shabby clothes.  The three-year-old daughter was clad only in an adult-sized T-shirt and barefoot.  The mother had obviously gone to lengths to make herself presentable.  She was wearing a dress, heels and a necklace.  She seemed very nervous, so Carolyn Kullmar and Betsy Dixon helped her with the children's plates and then sat with them while they ate. 

The kitchen workers functioned as a well-oiled machine -- John & Donna Farley, Vicki Backus, Ellen Pearl, Scott & Dorothy Wilson, Terry & Betty Kennedy (Terry was marvelous with the homeless men, talking and sitting with them), and Deena McCombs. 

Christy Gauger was everywhere and overseeing everything.  She had the vision to do all this and it was a joy to watch her work.  Many church members donated money and food to make this possible. 

Last Sunday’s sermons have created quite a stir here at Lake Osborne.  Lynn’s sermon in the morning was almost shocking to many who listened.  He was clearly very passionate about this, and very earnest in his call for people to sit up straight and listen carefully. 

Not by our design (but by God’s), my Sunday evening sermon had the same title and dealt with the same subject: “spiritual warfare.”  That just “happened” to be the theme of the next chapter in our studies in the book of Daniel.  No coincidence here!

Many have wondered what triggered this “alert.”  Let me give you a little more information here that will help you understand, and also inform the focus of your prayers.  Before doing that, let me point out three very healthy dimensions to this current “alert.”  These will remind us that we need not fear.  God is at work in this and will use this to His advantage.  It’s a time for prayer, not panic.

First, it is a sign of spiritual health that we perceive Satan to be unleashing a strategic attack at the present time.  If we were not making good advances in spiritual health here at LOPC, especially through the “Fan the Flame” revitalization efforts, Satan would direct his troops elsewhere.  He would not feel threatened unless things were going well.  The fact that he’s on the offensive encourages us that we must be doing something right!

Second, it is a sign of spiritual health that this congregation is ready to follow Lynn’s pastoral leadership in this, even though hardly anyone knows the full extent or the specifics of what has caused the alarm bells in his soul to go off.  It’s wonderful to see a congregation that trusts its Pastor, even when they don’t have all the facts.  “Where he leads us, we will follow!”

Third, it’s a sign of spiritual health that so many were willing and able to respond to Lynn’s invitation to meet downstairs after the service to pledge themselves to participating in a series of gatherings with prayer and fasting, to seek God’s power in overcoming and defeating Satan’s recently launched offensive.  We’ll soon have details about how those gatherings will occur.

But now to the issue itself.  What caused Lynn to believe that we are under spiritual attack here at LOPC?  There are several things.  None of these, by themselves, would cause the hair on the back of our neck to stand up.  These sorts of things happen all the time in churches.  It’s part of life in a fallen world, when the church still has fallen people.  But when so many of these suddenly pop up without warning, and all within a space of just a few weeks, Satan’s cover has been “blown.”  There’s more to this than meets the eye! 

As I identify these, listen to this “up-front” warning.  Don’t take these general descriptions as a launching pad from which to initiate your personal investigation to try to figure out what names are involved.  You may know a couple of these situations.  If you do, pray for the people by name.  But be content to focus on the issues, not the personalities.  Here are the situations.

First, there are too many marriages here that are suddenly in danger of falling apart.  And there may be others where the cracks in the foundations haven’t yet appeared in the walls.  When Tara Barthel was here for the women’s retreat, she was shocked at the high percentage of feed-back cards in which women indicated they were very unhappy in their marriages.  When marriages fall apart, not only are hearts broken.  The church is shaken.  And Christ’s honor before the watching world is tarnished.  As Steve Brown would say, “this attack smells like smoke; it comes from the pit of hell.”

Second, there have been a few cases of a negative, critical spirit about little things in the church. Remember that Lynn preached about this on November 4.  The point is that this is not the point!  These are so insignificant compared to the REAL issues that ought to be occupying our attention.  Issues like the salvation of the lost, the defense of doctrines under attack, the protection of the unborn, the moral purity of our teenagers.  There will always be opinions about various things in the life of the church.  But when these opinions become complaints, and when complaints become destructive to the health of the soul, we smell more smoke.

Third, within the youth group there have been some personality issues that could jeopardize the unity and harmony of the group, as well as the welcoming spirit we want to have for unchurched kids who are attracted.  Some of this is easily attributable to what goes on in the emotional development of young people in the teen years.  But Satan can use this to his advantage, if we’re not careful.  And when this is added to the list of other factors, we smell smoke again.

Fourth, since Satan is a liar and the father of lies, it should not be surprising to discover that he sometimes spawns slanderous lies that threaten the reputations, and even careers, of those he has targeted.  He’s tried that here recently.  This is mean and malicious, and does harm not only to those falsely accused, but also to the Gospel and the Savior whose name they bear.  When those are spread anonymously, they are even more vicious.  These cases absolutely reek of smoke!

Fifth, there is a dynamic in which Satan has not yet attacked, but where he could do so, if we’re not careful.  That’s the matter of Lynn’s departure, the interim between pastors, and the acceptance and integration of a new pastor in the future.  Satan has tipped his hand here, too, since we can see that this has been an opportunity for spiritual attack in other churches that have gone through such a transition.  While he’s not done anything here yet in this regard, it’s time for us to make “pre-emptive strikes” and to “shore up our defenses” at this spot in the wall.  It’s a place where he will certainly make an attempt to breach the fortress of the church at some time in the future.  We don’t smell smoke here yet, but we need to keep sniffing the air!

Once again, don’t worry about trying to find names for these cases.  We hope and pray that God will be victorious promptly and permanently, so that the names need never be known.  But focus your prayers in these areas, praying that God would unleash squadrons of angels from the air force of heaven to carry out His will in defeating Satan on the front lines of every battle.

What can you do?  Join with all of us in using the armor God has provided in Ephesians six … the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit … and most importantly prayer.  Be a part of the team of prayer warriors recruited to stand fast over the next few weeks, joining together in the times of prayer and fasting that will be announced within the next few days.

I look forward to reading the comments you post about this.

Larry

Betty and I traded a Tennessee timeshare week for a week in the mountains of Utah this October.  We had enough frequent flyer miles for airline tickets.  After arriving in Salt Lake City, we rented a car and drove five hours north to Yellowstone National Park.  Heaven will have mountains; I’m certain of that!  They were spectacular.

Our three nights at Yellowstone dawned on fresh snow-covered hills, about four inches each night.  It was a wet snow that stuck to all the evergreens.  Driving through the park was breathtaking!  The steam from geysers was even more dramatic in snow.  The buffalo were that much more visible on the white plains.  (And even more so when a herd of forty of these behemoths sauntered along the road within arms’ reach of our car!)

Fall colors were indescribably spectacular.  Bright yellow cottonwoods (similar to aspens), combined with reds, pinks, and greens among other foliage, all made more impressive against the fresh white snow and royal blue sky (after the morning snow clouds passed).

Betty and I have always loved the sights in the mountains … whether it’s Alaska’s towering Denali Range, the Colorado Rockies, California’s Sierra Nevada, Tennessee’s Great Smokies, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, or New York’s Adirondacks.  Who would want to sit around on dirty sand and sweat at the beach while gnats chew at your skin, when you could be enjoying the cool air and breathtaking scenery of mountain vistas?

But something special dawned on me on this trip.  God made all of these mountains primarily for His own pleasure.  He graciously allows us to enjoy them as well, especially when we enjoy them from the perspective of children awestruck at what a Heavenly Father has created.  But we can only enjoy them one-at-a-time.  While in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, we enjoyed them fully … but only those particular mountains at that moment.  We could recall having seen the others in the past, but we could only admire the ones immediately before us.  But God enjoys them all at the same time, for He is fully present at all those locales at the same moment in time.  At this very moment He is gazing on the Smokies and the Adirondacks and the Rockies!

And not only those.  At the same time He is enjoying all of those, He is also enjoying mountain ranges at the bottom of the sea, on the far side of the moon, on Jupiter’s distant planets, and on planetary bodies beyond the range of our most powerful telescopes.  He is right now delighting in the sight of mountains you and I will never see.  He is enjoying all of them at the same time.  And he is enjoying them with a delight that exceeds any pleasure we will ever be capable of experiencing.

But guess what?  He tells me in His word that what He enjoys most of all is pouring His love into my heart, and using me to exalt His name.  Wow!

That’s one of the things I learned about God on our vacation in Utah.  Did you learn something about Him on yours?  I'd love to hear about it.