You Can Shake the Gates!

"I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!"- Mt. 16:18

Tag: transformation (Page 1 of 3)

graphic with the words "Praying Through July 2026"

Unexpected Twists in Our Journey

July 3, 2026 / / 0 Comments

A journey spanning decades

Papua New Guinea has long been know as The Land of the Unexpected. It earned this moniker by being home to more than 800 distinct languages and the people groups who speak them. These people live in a variety of settings. Some live amidst vast flood plains, like the Sepik basin or Gulf Province. Others occupy the rugged Highlands region, which runs the spine of the country between the north and south coasts. Mt. Wilhelm reaches a height of 14,793 feet (4,509 meters). Known for its alpine lakes and bare rock faces, is PNG’s tallest mountain. Others live on Papua New Guinea’s more than 600 outlying islands scattered along the coast of the mainland—which itself is the second largest island in the world.

But these things are merely the backdrop of our journey lived with one of those peoples: the Somau Garia. Angela and I have been associated with the Somau Garia for almost 30 years. We have learned the rhythms of their lives; learned their remarkable language. Its cadence is rapid and staccato, punctuated with a soundless feature (called a glottal stop) which is merely stopping the flow of air through the vocal cords. Though silent, it changes the meanings of words, so needs a letter in the alphabet (we used ‘x’).

Unexpected turns

In those 30 years, we’ve rarely made a plan that actually occurred as planned. Just as rarely have we ever missed a major goal. Since establishing a plan that would allow us complete translation of the Somau Garia New Testament, we have experienced incident after incident that threatened to derail our plans. In 2020, two back surgeries. The pandemic. We returned to Papua New Guinea in 2021 when much of the world remained “closed” to travelers. In 2022 my wife had major surgery which took us out of Papua New Guinea for about 4 months that year. In 2023 she had a retinal tear that forced us to return to the U.S. for emergency surgery. Since that year, I have traveled back and forth between the U.S. and Papua New Guinea every 8 to 12 weeks to conduct checking, work with the translation team, etc. And in those years God has allowed us to hit every single goal that He put on our hearts to accomplish.

This year …

The unexpected. After completing a major set of checks in Papua New Guinea in February and March, I returned to the U.S. The work permit and visa I depend upon to work legally as volunteer in Papua New Guinea was up for renewal. Due to unforeseen circumstances, approval of my permit and visa have been delayed. I was to have traveled to Papua New Guinea at the end of May to perform scheduled checks of 5 of the final 6 books of the New Testament that need to be checked. If you read the last post, you’ll see that we pivoted to plan ‘Z’ for the check: Zoom.

As you prayed with us during the checks which took place in June, we experienced some unexpected reversals. For example, one weekend, the area of the U.S. where Angela and I live part of our year had severe storms that produced hurricane-force winds. Our electric was off for 34 hours. Our internet was knocked out even longer than that. I was unable to meet with the team during our outage. (Normally this would be more expected to happen on the Papua New Guinea side of things.) Also, while I was in good health, one of our Somau Garia-speaking teammates experienced profound pain and suffering throughout the month, needing frequent medical attention.

Nonetheless, we successfully completed checks of all 884 verses of 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude. We had good connections (aside from the mentioned instance) throughout the month. We experienced relatively good mental clarity, resourcefulness, insight, and stamina.

As You Pray

As you pray during July, keep the following in mind and on your prayer list:

  • Ask the Lord to give me (Todd) clarity, insight, and discernment as I perform an exegetical check of the book of Revelation. It is the final book that needs to be checked by a consultant before we can begin the tasks associated with typesetting.
    • Ask for the same as I process through the Gospel According to Mark. It was published in 2007 and needs revision to make it more consistent with the work done in this later years.
  • Ask the Lord to open the doors for approval of my work permit and visas. I need to travel to Papua New Guinea later this year to participate in checks on the Somau Garia Revelation consultant check.
  • Thank the Lord for providing all that was needed to successfully check all 884 verses of 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude.
  • Ask the Lord to give good health, clear minds, and courageous spirits to the Somau Garia team as they serve in their communities, churches, and families.
  • Ask the Lord to bring fruit from the seeds planted in June in each heart and mind.

Thank You

Thank you for taking time to pray with us through these things. The Lord has been hearing your prayer and answering in surprising ways. May God bless you as you continue to intercede on behalf of the Somau Garia team and for us. Blessings!

Peace, Paperwork, and the Call to Prayer

May 2, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Praying through May 2026

Perhaps you wonder what it takes to be a Bible translator. For those of us working on New Testament translation in Papua New Guinea, the ability to plod  would be towards the top of the list of qualifications. On must patiently work month after month, year after year, methodically moving from verse to verse, studying each and every one of the 7,956 verses of the New Testament, clarifying its meaning, finding ways of expressing that meaning in a language that has perhaps never had a writing system, a dictionary, or a grammar. This process often takes decades.

But there is more to translation than being tucked away in an office, studying. Vitally important is the development of deep, inter-dependent relationships. In the mission world we call this incarnational ministry. We do life together, cry together, rejoice together, sing together, work together, dream together. This kind of relationship is very compatible with Melanesian cultures.

As we close in on finishing the translation checking of the final books (1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation), it seems that the enemy of our souls has intensified his opposition to our work. He has attempted to disrupt our work at every level. You will have read last month that he, along with the fallen nature of a bunch of people, incited a great deal of violence in the Somau Garia speaking area. Pray that God will bring peace and restore civility to the peoples and villages adjacent to the Ramu Highway, that they might cooperate with one another for everyone’s good. Pray that the fallout from the previous violence will subside and order will return to these societies.

Parallel to his attacks, my work permit and the attendant visas expired between scheduled checking sessions. These are necessary for us to enter and work in Papua New Guinea. Our applications are in process and we are waiting for approval. Pray that our paperwork will be approved sooner than later and that we will be able to travel to Papua New Guinea later this month, as scheduled. The enemy can certainly use delay to disrupt the work God has laid before us–and God can certainly use delay to build the faith, hope, and love of those who give all things into his hands.

So, as we kick off the month of May, we find ourselves plodding along, hoping that the Prince of Peace will intervene in the mayhem of this world, that the Holy Spirit will raise the awareness of government employees who also plod along day by day, making it possible for people like us to enter and work in Papua New Guinea.

Thank the Lord that he has provided for our deepest needs—through Jesus Christ His Son. Thank Him also that He has provided us the resources to continue working—even when things are not proceeding according to our plans.

Perhaps this is your first visit to our website. To learn more about who we are and what we do, explore the various pages listed at the top of this page. You’ll find our story, latest news, prayer needs, photos, resources, how to donate, etc.

Thanks for stopping by! We appreciate your time!

Pray for the Somau Garia people during April 2026!

April 1, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Unexpected

Papua New Guinea is famously known as the Land of the Unexpected. Surely some clever marketing writer came up with that phrase to sell tours to a country positioned just off the equator, far from North America or Europe. Having lived and worked in Papua New Guinea off an on over the last 29 years, I can confirm that the title is well deserved. The spine of Papua New Guinea geography is a range of impossibly rugged mountains, cut by deep ravines and raging rivers. It is geologically active, earthquakes as regular as its torrential rains. Move away the central cordillera toward the coast and you encounter vast plains containing meandering rivers, oxbow lakes, and swamps. Most of the country is ringed by world-class reefs.

The people are as rugged as the environment which they inhabit. Tough and resourceful, they overcome conditions that would break most other people. Their languages and cultures are among the most diverse in the world—over 840 living languages and many more that have begun to fall out of use. Each language constitutes a distinct culture. Each people group, with its language, struggles to maintain a sense of ethnic identity and cultural heritage in a world that grows “smaller” every day. The advent of cellular communications and alternative power sources has given younger people challenges that their fathers never needed to grapple with. They are being drawn away from ethnic identity toward national identity.

Context

It is in this context that Bible translators minister. Each of the peoples that speak those 840 + languages represents a people called by God to be represented at the Throne of the Lamb that was slain, casting their crowns at his feet in worship. Many of those peoples see the value of having God’s Word in their heart language. Others see Bible translation as a means of preserving their language and culture. Bible translators, by and large, have training in linguistics and anthropology, in addition to Biblical languages and expertise used to amplify the resources, skills, and abilities of local speakers.

Yet this very context is that which introduces the unexpected into every interaction, every plan, and every relationship. It is this unexpectedness that moves us far deeper into prayer and intercession than we might choose to in any other context.

Answers & Challenges

If you were involved in praying through March, you know that I (Todd) departed Papua New Guinea mid-month and that the Somau Garia team returned to their villages. Each of us have been working separately in the mean time. God has been gracious to us in the working. Prior to leaving, the team and I successfully completed the consultant checks of the books of Hebrews and James. In the weeks following those checks, we worked on editing 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., I was able to generate and send the files of several New Testament books to Papua New Guinea for the team to use in a literacy course that was scheduled for late March, to take place in Somau Garia villages.

That was Plan A, anyway. Then the unexpected happened. The New Testament books were printed. Arrangements were made for the literacy course. People were appointed to travel to the provincial capital to pick up the materials and to accompany the literacy specialist to the village. A few days prior to the course, however, a group of people from another language group came to one of the Somau
Garia markets situated along the Ramu Highway to confront a man who was married to one of their women. The confrontation resulted in the death of the husband. Somau Garia people responded to that death in a very traditional way—reciprocity. Though they didn’t kill anyone, they did burn a 12-passenger van belonging to the people who killed the husband.

Now it is unsafe for Somau Garia people to travel to and from the area. Somau Garia representatives are unable to travel to the city to pick up the printed Scripture portions, the literacy specialist is unable to travel to the area to conduct the literacy course. People are on edge.

Pray!

As you pray during April, please pray:

  • that cooler heads will prevail and reconciliation can be made between Somau Garia speakers and those who killed one of their men.;
  • that the way will open for the scripture portions to be delivered to the Somau Garia translation and literacy teammates for use in local churches and during the literacy course
  • that God will use this series of unfortunate events to bring people to a recognition of their need to be in relationship with the Prince of Peace
  • that the current work I (Todd) am doing in checking the meaning of 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude will get into the hands of the translation team for their input and corrections—and that in a timely fashion, that we will be ready for checks which are scheduled for June
  • that I (Todd), as the exegete, will be energetic, focused, and attentive as I examine the drafts of these books—and that I will be wise, discerning, and insightful in my suggestions for necessary changes to the drafts.

Thank You!

Thank you for praying through these requests. I know that God will allow our prayers to bear good fruit for the Kingdom.

Blessings!!

Crossing the Finish Line: Transformation

February 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Final Stages of a Bible Translation Project

Because Bible translation is a decades-long endeavor, it is divided into multiple stages. Stage one involves learning the language and culture of the intended language group. Stage two is initial training of the local team, translating the first book, and producing a print run of that book (in our case, Xoiteupo Asinaku Kuna Makie Xayawoki, i.e. God’s Good Talk that Mark Wrote or the Gospel According to Mark)—celebrated and distributed to the people. Stage three is the full production phase, when the bulk of the New Testament is translated and checked. Stage four, combines final checking with preparations for typesetting and publication. We are in this stage of the project.

While each stage serves its purpose, the current stage aims at consistency across all of the New Testament. The ideas vital to gaining clear understanding and insight from the Scriptures are often phrases rather than single words (as they are in Koine Greek). These need to be consistently translated book to book. That is this stage’s purpose.

For example, consider the word “church”. In Koine Greek this word is ἐκκλησία, which is based upon the root καλέω “to call”. Its New Testament usage refers to a congregation or assembly, or in modern parlance, “church”. However, its constituent parts add up to “called out”. This word is more than the sum of its parts. A whole sub-discipline of theology (ecclesiology) is devoted to its study. There is no one word in the Somau Garia language that encapsulates its meaning. We, therefore, derived a phrase that, for Somau Garia speakers, best describes what the church is: “the (group of) men and women who believe in and follow Jesus.” So, as we review the New Testament in its entirety, we are examining how ἐκκλησία is rendered in each instance and making adjustments where necessary to make its usage consistent. This is one but scores of such key terms.

The aim is that the translation be received and used by the local churches, pastors, teachers, and families in their homes. When the Scriptures are learned, memorized, studied, and used in the language of the heart, transformation in lives, communities, and people groups is far more likely. Transformation of men and women into the likeness of Jesus Christ is our primary desire.

2026 and Beyond

By God’s grace, in 2025 we successfully achieved the translation goals the Lord put before us. In 2026, we are scheduled to check the final books:

  • Hebrews
  • James
  • 1 & 2 Corinthians
  • 1 & 2 Peter
  • Jude
  • Revelation

You Can Get Involved

The enemy of our souls is heavily invested in keeping people ignorant, enslaved, and downtrodden. His native language is deception, his operational attitude is hatred and division. His fingerprints are all over the division and irrational hatred so prevalent today. As a Bible translation project nears completion, the enemy becomes more and more stirred to oppose anyone and anything involved in completing that project. He knows all too well that the Word changes people, correcting his lies with Truth, breaking open the gates of death and hatred that hold so many captive, setting people free from fear.

However, the power of our enemy to interrupt people gaining access to the Word of God in their own language is limited. One way in which God limits the enemy’s success is by calling his people to intercede for the translation team through prayer. God involves each of us in his great mission to make Jesus known in every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. He asks us to pray, to give, and to go.

Here are a few ways to participate:

  • You can pray. At the beginning of each month in 2026, I will be updating this website with current prayer needs.
    • If you are interested in receiving weekly prayer and ministry updates in your email inbox, click here and request to be added.
    • Each update has a list of five priority prayers for the week, three photos or graphics, and a brief article with news or a devotional thought.
  • You can donate. See our donate page for instructions and a link to our mission’s giving page.
  • You can invite others to join the prayer or provision team by directing them to this website or to our ministry page on Facebook. 

Thank you for giving your time and attention for the last few minutes. Thank you for the time and energy you can give toward praying purposefully for the successful completion of the Somau Garia New Testament translation. Your prayer and participation is leaving an indelible mark on the future history of an entire people.

Blessings!

Calendar and clock image with text: "Moving from 2021 into 2022"
December 14, 2021 / / 1 Comment

As the pandemic continued to interrupt international travel and the months dragged on, Angela and I had some weighty decisions to make. When should we attempt passage to Papua New Guinea? What risks were involved in returning to a developing nation amidst a global pandemic? How could we help when we did return?

James says this of weighty decisions:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

James 1:5, ESV

Ignore this exhortation at your own peril. We gave it due diligence. After prayer and discussion, we decided that our daughter should remain in the States and that Angela and I should return to Papua New Guinea.

We juggled translation responsibilities (including final exegetical checks of Acts via video-conferencing), preparation of the stacks of documents needed for travel during the pandemic, purchase of necessities for the move, and, of course, moving out of our house.

As our To-Do list dwindled, our excitement (and silent dread?) swelled. The silent dread was for all the good-byes, the inescapable change, adjustment, and the deep dive into the unknown. Our excitement? We were returning to friends, co-workers, and worthy work.

I will spare you the finer details of the trip. It was 50+ hours, involving five major airports and a few hours in a bush plane over jungles, oxbow lakes, and rugged mountains. Then there was the 14 days of quarantine at a mission base above 5,000 feet in the New Guinea Highlands.

View from the Kassam Pass into the Ramu Valley of Papua New Guinea
The view from the Kassam Pass into the Ramu Valley, at the junction of Eastern Highlands, Morobe, and Madang Provinces.

Crossing the Planet

Hopes and Plans for 2022

Proverbs 19:21 reads: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” The person seeking to follow in the footsteps of Jesus must pray, plan, and push on toward the upward call to which they’ve been called.

Henceforth, we’ve put some major way points on the calendar for 2022. We invite you to pray with us as we attempt to achieve these things in Jesus’ name.

  • Comprehension check of Luke’s Gospel
  • Comprehension check of Acts of the Apostles
  • Train translators and pastors on the translation of and pastoral application of Hebrews
  • Consultant check Luke and Acts
  • Train translators and pastors on the translation of and pastoral application of Revelation

Pray with Us

We invite you to pray with us regarding moving this proposed milestones ahead. As you pray, consider the reality that the completion of work on Luke and Acts constitutes 27% of the New Testament. By the end of 2022 it is possible that over a quarter (more) of the New Testament will be accessible to Somau Garia speakers!

Take the Risk!

February 22, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Considerations

Some of us are rather doubtful about our place in the world and even more so about our place with those that we care about. This is commonly referred to as insecurity and it stems from any number of things. Some say certain personality types are prone to it (like the folks who use the Enneagram to start meaningful conversations). Others consider formative experiences early in life to be a root cause, or to some particular trauma that looms heavy in the person’s consciousness. A lot has been written on the subject, both in the popular and professional press*.

Whatever the seed that planted insecurity in our souls, the truth is that if that seed germinates in a soil fertile with bitterness, anger, unresolved emotional need, or hunger for “significance”, it will sprout into a vicious, virulent, venomous plant that will bring painful misery to those stricken with its poison.

If we consider ourselves Christ followers, it is important to recognize this reality, because our relationship with God is not immune to insecurity’s poison, but may indeed be most vulnerable. Why?

Questions

It all has to do with how we see ourselves in relation to God; how we relate to Him. A few questions may enlighten those unaware of insecurity’s grip on their own life:

  • How do I think that I acquire the approval of God?
  • Do I try win God’s affections through doing stuff?
  • What happens when I fail?
  • How do I try to make my failure alright in God’s eyes?
  • How do I know when enough is enough? Will it ever be enough?
  • If I think I can never do enough for Him:
    • Does it anger me?
    • Do I love Him? Hate him? Hide from Him? Rage at Him?
    • Do I feel helpless?
    • Do I hope against all hope that He might love and accept me anyway?

It takes courage to answer these questions honestly, even to ourselves. It can be costly. We act. We don’t always know why.  Insecurity with God stems from our need to be the actor rather than the acted upon, i.e., we try to earn His love and affection rather than receiving them as the gift that they are.

Inner Workings

We do well to remember that emotion and intellect do not react to stimuli in the same way. Intellect can understand and accept a theologically correct answer to all this, while the emotions may feel left out in the cold, as it were, waiting for . . . something. Healing, perhaps. (If you’re a Trekkie, it’s like Mr. Spock vs. Dr. McCoy.)

We need both intellectual and emotional stability to be healthy. One depends upon the integrity of the other. Both impact our spiritual maturity and our ability to accept God’s loving discipline as discipline and not rejection. The truth is that our Father disciplines us as his children. Though discipline isn’t enjoyable, it flows from love, not indiscriminate anger or abuse. It is meant to be corrective, so that we will be mature and complete.

Hence, it is crucial that we fertilize the soil of our hearts with Truth. We must take the Gardener’s tools and uproot bitterness, unrestrained anger, and hunger for so-called significance if we are to be fruitful in God’s Kingdom. What does it look like to weed the garden?

Truth becomes real to both the emotions and intellect in the interplay between our spirit and the Holy Spirit. This connection is most effective when we pray. We take our minds, souls, bodies, and spirits into God’s presence to forge a relationship that depends not upon a great mountain of our good deeds, but the simple, straightforward reality of His One Good Deed.

Let’s Face our fear

Let us consider the following as we face our fear and walk into the prayer closet:

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory for ever and ever! Amen”

—Revelation 1:5-6, NIV

The more our sin, hurt, inadequacy, and anger is laid open before the eyes of a loving God, the more healing  and rest we will find in Him. Truth burns away the deceit of our sin and the misunderstanding of our pain.

Because it can be a painful process, some of us will, no doubt, resist the challenge to be vulnerable. We are afraid of the possibility of pain and rejection and suffering. Take the risk. Here’s a bit of Truth to bolster your courage:

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?”

—Romans 8:31,35, NLT

Take the risk!

 

*A good starting point for understanding insecurity and co-dependency is a book published by the Minirth-Meier Clinic in the early 1990’s: Love is a Choice: The Definitive Book on Letting Go of Unhealthy Relationships. It was originally published in 1991 and has been revised and reprinted several times since then and made available in electronic formats such as Kindle. Click on the title above to link to the Amazon Kindle store.

Fear’s Funeral Dirge

February 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments

“Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.”

Revelation 1:17-18, NLT

What is your experience like when you sit down with a hot drink and an open Bible? Why do you go there? What do you hope to draw out of the word?

Sometimes I come to the Scriptures hungry and needy and melancholy and desperate. I have waited too long and now I come, realizing that I am not enough. Ever. I come wondering if my lingering delay has damaged intimacy with Him. I come realizing that the depth of my own dysfunction clouds my thinking and incites fears that need not persist.

Pushing my fears aside and choosing to believe the Truth, I open my Bible, and then . . .

There is a tremor in my spirit. All my longings are concentrated into a single moment and I am confronted with holiness. I am in the presence of the Ancient of Days, the One Now Living, and the One Who Is to Come. There is no other like Him.

In His presence, I am completely exposed for who I really am. There can be no pretense. It is risky to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the God Who Sees Me. I must come to Him honestly, candidly—nothing to hide—ready to admit all, confess all, release all. He is the Lord. I am His servant. It must be so, for I am a missionary who lives from day to day in a country not my own, living and working in someone else’s culture and language, trying desperately to make it possible for them to come to the Scriptures and experience God through the word in their heart language.

Yet sometimes fear sings fortissimo. I need it to sing fortepiano. I need my spirit to not be overcome by the volume and painful pitch of fear in a situation, but to immediately quiet it to little more than a whisper in the background. Fear sings its loudest dirge when death is at hand, like in the days following my oldest brother’s death a few months ago. A mere fifty-six years old, he died in the night, sitting in his favorite chair, alone, of a heart attack. I am not much younger . . .

The Scriptures teach me much about life after death, but the experience of death remains a mystery. Before I moved to Papua New Guinea I had images of this beautiful land fixed in my mind. There was something magical about the imagined New Guinea. But the imaginary New Guinea lacked the intense heat and suffocating humidity, the pungent smells, the sounds of a thousand tongues and the complex relationships that must be cultivated in order for Jesus to be known here. It was but a dream. Even though I had talked often with others who had long lived here, the experience was still not my own.

Some of the images used in this composite are courtesy of www.lumoproject.com.

I talk with Jesus about death. I must. He’s been through it and this is what he says to me about it: “Don’t be afraid! I died, but I am alive—forevermore!” That tremor returns to my spirit. I am in the presence of Someone so holy and powerful that death itself has no hold on Him. I am overwhelmed with awe. But He’s not finished: “I hold the keys to death and the grave.”

Courage, dear friend. Courage! When the deceiver threatens your very life, take courage in the fact that death has no sting and the enemy of our souls is not in charge. Jesus alone holds the keys. You were made that you might shake the foundations of hell by shattering the deceptions and empty threats of a defeated enemy. Let the only tremor you feel in your spirit be in response to the holiness and overwhelming power of the Risen One.

Tested and Tried

October 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Plato attributes the famous saying, “Know thyself” (Γνώθι σεατόν) to fellow Greek philosopher and mentor, Socrates. Socrates’ notion seems to be the preoccupation of the privileged, an activity of leisure. Not so. Consider what Paul had to say to the church at Corinth when preparing to visit them:
“Examine yourselves; to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2 Corinthians 13:5, ESV)
While Plato was using Socrates’ teaching to make some philosophical point to other philosophers, Paul was writing to ordinary people, some of them really messed up and in need of transformation, in order to give them means to remain strong in the faith, to make a daily choice to stand.
To examine and test one’s soul is no easy task. Says commentator Simon J. Kistemaker: “True faith is active and constantly forces Christians to test themselves to see whether Jesus Christ through the Holy spirit lives in their hearts. True faith testifies to intimate fellowship with the Father and the Son (I John 1:3).” (Emphasis mine.)
Yet this intimate fellowship we have with the Father and the Son draws us into deeper, more challenging testing. This fellowship takes us beyond our own conscience, placing us in the domain of the Father’s testing us. Consider what is written in Deuteronomy 8:2-3: “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
When we examine or test ourselves, we find either affirmation that we are in Christ or not. When God the Father tests us, he humbles us, removes our mistaken ideas that we exist on the merit of our own strength and genius, to see whether or not we will still follow him when it doesn’t make us look good in the eyes of those around us. What pride can we possibly derive from being fed and watered and lead, helpless and needy?
We are prone toward pride and independence, are we not? Hence the warning in verses 17-18: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
It can be easy to become discouraged in times of testing, misinterpreting the purpose of the test. We can feel attacked, forgotten, isolated, devalued. We can fall into the Satanic trap of feeling less than zero. But, in this case, truth trumps emotion.
Deuteronomy 8:16 indicates that God humbles us to do us good. He can use broken, submitted, humble servants: those are qualities ascribed to Jesus’ time in the flesh, on the earth. Our pilgrimage is to become Christ-like is it not?
Should you choose to take up the mission to shake the gates of Hell in your generation, you must take up the habit of examining and testing yourself, to see whether or not you are in the faith. You must take up the habit of submitting to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that Jesus might be represented well in this generation, that those who have ears to hear might receive the gospel, that those who choose to reject Him will do so not on the basis of ignorance, but having been informed of what they choose to reject. Friend, “Know thy faith.”

[1] Kistemaker, Simon J. New Testament Commentary: 2 Corinthians. Pg. 450. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1997.

An Altar in the Wilderness

October 5, 2016 / / 0 Comments

There exists a deep sense of displacement in many of our hearts. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have a tent to live in, but we are looking for a city with foundations, built by God. While we walk in the shadows of the dark valley, the enemy sneaks along the hillsides above us, spying and sniping, trying to kill us before we reach the open country. We are easy targets. We carry the Light through this strange country we wander in.

We do not, however, wander aimlessly. There are waypoints in the wilderness. Consider Isaiah 19:19: “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.” In New Testament language, we might say, “Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” This prophecy provides hope for the future and spiritual principle for the present.

As you journey, look around you and you will see people with strange customs, alien affections, and selfish pursuits. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, who worship all sorts of things. In ancient Egypt it was the Nile River or frogs or fertility. Today the gods have different faces, but the affections of the worshipers are the same. Whether by ritual or sorcery or science, fallen mankind desperately tries to control all that threatens or promises to promote.

We, too, face fear, but God has not forgotten us in this wild country. He has allayed our fears by releasing us from the overwhelming need to control all. He has given us an altar outside the camp , where Jesus suffered in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. In so doing, He has changed our affections, transformed our customs, and made our pursuits transcendent instead of transient. We have lost our place in this world, becoming pilgrims, aliens, and strangers.

We have become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts. This is our mandate, our role, our place. To paraphrase (or personalize) 1 Peter 2:9: “But we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are living witnesses of Jesus’ sacrifice, his resurrection, his ongoing intercession, his call to draw all people to himself.

Do you, too, feel your displacement in this world? What altar to you sacrifice at? Are your affections, customs, and pursuits the same as or different than those around you? Are you pursuing eternity or time? Are you a sign to your generation? A witness?

Take these questions before God in prayer … then go out and shake the gates of Hell today!

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What Does It Mean to Shake the Gates of Hell? Part 1

August 14, 2015 / / 2 Comments

The early months of our missionary career left us with the indelible impression that we weren’t in Kansas anymore, that the water really does swirl in the opposite direction “down under”, and that the spirit world is not a state of mind, but a life-and-death reality. Our gates (and maybe our foundations too) were being shaken and we needed to learn how to live and—fight—in a whole new way. Rather than passively waiting to absorb attack, we needed to climb out of the trench and make the longest run across no man’s land to shake the gates of hell.

It is useful to have an operational definition of those gates if we are to wage a good warfare. In Biblical parlance, a gate is “a symbol of strength, power, and dominion,” (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 2, page 656.) As such, when referring to “the gates of hell” (as found in Matthew 16:18) it is understood that we are not referring to the place of eternal punishment, but to those spiritual entities in league with Satan for whom hell was created.

Courtesy of Lightstock.com

Courtesy of Lightstock.com

To confront this league of evil, we must wage war in the spiritual domain, using spiritual strategies, tactics, and assets.

Like a tent spread over all of the following thoughts is Romans 8:37–39:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The principles offered in the next several posts depend upon the truth that our Father loves us and that there is nothing that can separate us from that love. Some of these principles may, at times, make us feel vulnerable, exposed to the enemy, at risk. Yet, we must risk suffering in order that we might truly know Jesus, that we might gain a better resurrection, and have our faith purified and made strong. Jesus defined eternal life as “know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

Be Known By God

Shaking the gates of hell is a cooperative venture with the Lord that begins with being known (or acknowledged) by God. In a general sense, God knows everyone. This is not about being known in that way. I’m referring to the kind of intimate, relational knowledge that the Father has of the Son and for those who, by faith, have crossed from darkness to light. Turn your attention to these passages:

Mark 1:9–11, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ”You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””

Job 1:8, “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’”

Judges 6:11–12, “Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ”The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

Our authority to wage war in heavenly places is rooted in finished work of Jesus on the cross, the resurrection, and the mandate given us by Him. We are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), therefore we exercise delegated authority. Just as an ambassador serves as an extension of the government he or she represents, we represent the Savior according to His agenda, his power, his authority.

The difference in the Kingdom of God is that we are not just one of a host of bureaucrats carrying out the political agenda of a distant and unknown leader. We are sons and daughters, co-heirs with Christ, intimately known and loved by the One sending us to do his will. He has given us his Spirit to indwell and empower us, gifting us for the good of the body.

Christ’s finished work on the cross, his resurrection, even his mandate all exist under the great umbrella of God’s love for those whom He created. While these establish a foundation for shaking the gates of hell, they are merely the beginning. In the coming posts we will examine other elements of fighting the war in the heavenly places. Until then . . . may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you and give you rest.

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