It has been a whirlwind of a January already. With MHQ, then Istanbul with my luggage being lost for 3 days, then Amish Country Clash and the coming blizzard and me bugging out a day in advance, my body is worn out. And I was feeling a bit exhausted and a little under the weather for the last couple days. I got some good rest last night, and my oldest daughter Ashley made me up some good tea and other stuff, and I do feel better today. But my plan is to take it as easy as possible.
Istanbul was fantastic. I didn’t get around the city too much, but I did make it to the big bazaar for a few hours. The reason for this being such a great trip was that my teams really showed what they were made of. And I’m not talking about how they all broke to Octo-Finals, which they did, but I’m talking about how they interacted with the other teams. I have pictures of our teams praying with other teams from other nations before the rounds and sometimes after the rounds. I watched as one of our teams prayed with and for the Russian team, and afterwards, one of the young ladies from Russia just stood there and then said, “Wow, that was really cool.”
I believe most, if not all, of the teams stayed at the same hotel, and our American Logos teams were staying up until 3am or 4am sharing the love of Jesus with youth from Turkey and Austria, and others. I am so proud of our group. This is why we are going to these tournaments.
Another thing that amazed me was that I saw some folks from 8 or 9 years ago that I met through World Schools when my daughter Abbie was competing in 2017. One was a student from Africa who is now a team manager. He is still keeping up with some of the students from that time and knew that my daughter was married and in Florida now. Another was a student that was now helping on staff at this tournament who competed against my daughter in Germany, and I also met up with the Chinese coach I met in Germany. There was another young man there who was judging who is also a Christian, and he was impressed with what we were doing there. I also met up with a coach from Rwanda who wanted to learn more about homeschooling. I gave him my contact information, and hope to hear from him again in the near future. In all, this trip was a huge success. please pray that we will maintain our contacts, and that we will see the fruit of what God was doing in and through us.
Our teams will be going to Houston in April, and then to Vietnam in June. Please keep us in your prayers. Also, if this all sounds like something you would like to get your students involved in, I will be putting out information next month on the application process etc. If you would like to support us in others ways, we always need prayer. And if you are wanting to support us financially, you can go to our website (https://americanlogos.weebly.com/) and click on the Support Us link.
I am in the Book of Numbers, or the book of groaning and complaining as I like to call it. It shows how the people can get so unsatisfied with what they have so quickly. Miriam and Aaron complain that Moses shouldn’t be the main leader, Korah and others wanted to be able to offer incense, others wanted the leadership positions as well, and each time, God showed them who He had chosen, sometimes through the death of the rebels. This might seem a bit harsh, but the stakes were high, and still are. Who you worship as your God is the most important thing about you as it will affect every decision you make. Even if you worship Yahweh, but have some wrong ideas about Him, this too will affect every decision you make.
I was reading an article about how our nation is so divided, and that he people who SAY they promote peace are now bringing guns to the protests. We have legislators who want to make abortion legal at all stages, saying that it is, “for my children and yours.” You have people who seemingly are protesting the deportation of violent criminals, who seem to be okay with massive fraud, etc. And then you have a good number of Christians wondering how it could ever be this way. The answer is, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY. There is nothing new under the sun. Baal worship is still here, we just call it by another name. And the intensity of it will wax and wane over time.
The Children of Israel who were set free from Egypt by the power of God were quick to fashion a golden calf and worship it. They even get caught up in the worship of Molech and Chemosh and were sacrificing their own children to those gods. the temple for this is now Planned Parenthood, but it’s the same demon god behind it all. I am even reminded of Saul of Tarsus before his salvation how he breathed out murder for the people of the Way, because they were stealing his way of how he approached God. He murdered and oversaw the murder of Christians. You see, this is now and has always been a spiritual issue, a spiritual battle. And the sooner we wake up and realize this the better.
And the sooner we can put on the full armor of God the better. And with the sword being the Word of God, getting good practice with that is essential. Otherwise you are stuck only on the defense, when we are called to storm the gates of Hell. I know I may be sounding a bit intense, but having come from a trip to Istanbul, and seeing all of those Mosques there, and seeing how our American Logos students were able to break down some of the barriers and share Jesus, life is just too short to be vague.
We are called to be not only an kingdom of priests and a Holy Nation, we are also called to be soldiers. But our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against ideas and philosophies and principalities of this age. We MUST be ready to fight these battles in and out of season. And to speak the truth in agape, wanting what is best for those who oppose us, which is their salvation. But you can’t fight is you don’t know how to use a sword. So again, I challenge you to read through God’s Word at least once a year, every year. You don’t have to go through twice, like I am doing, but if you can, it just keeps getting more and more amazing each time.
No wonder the Bible says that the grass will wither and the flowers fade, but the Word of God stands forever. I am starting my seventh time through in the last 3 years plus, and I can tell you by experience, God’s Word does not grow old, it only gets better each time through.
Amen
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