Les & Diana Morris

Ephesians 6:12 says:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

I woke up the other morning with this verse running through my mind.  It occurred to me later that I should look up the verse, dig a little deeper and review the Greek behind this verse and I was glad I did!  You see, there is a lot of darkness here in Los Anonos and sometimes, the enemy brings the battle to our doorstep and we can each be subject to a whole array of emotions that we know can not possibly be what Jesus has in mind. They feel like our own emotions, but stronger and insistent.  For instance, depression, home sickness, or just plain old sickness – and not your garden variety of these.  When this happens, along with random strange viruses, it can make a week very challenging.  I (Diana) have had stomach issues every week since we arrived.  They’ve intensified lately making me feel pretty miserable. So, all these things combined feel strong and you really have to fight hard against them.  Thankfully, we also know what God is saying, and this helps up stand firm against the onslaught the enemy sends our way and encourage one another when the going gets rough. Les is especially good at being everyone’s encourager, although as we continue to battle speaking Spanish better or various people issues, he too needs encouragement.

Anyway, those of us in our community household have noticed that these battles often occur just before or just after spiritual breakthroughs occur in the community or in Vina Anonos.  So they are often just an indication or sort of a marker letting us know that the enemy is pressing in hard, because he doesn’t like what is happening.  Sometimes we find ourselves dealing with these things right in the midst of all kinds of struggles in the church, between people, government officials, or an array of circumstances.  Of course, these struggles are common to everyone wherever they are, not just in Los Anonos.  They just seem to feel a bit more blatant, a bit stronger here.  Evil is not quite so hidden or subtle, addictions are not behind hidden doors, they’re in your streets and you see the addicts daily; alcoholics live and sleep on the street and stumble towards you whenever you pass them, sometimes friendly and sometimes not.  The children just play around them as if they are simply part of the landscape. And so this is why I say everything is just a bit messier, a bit more in your face. Let me give you an example.

The much wealthier town / municipality next door to us seems to have no problem with using a witch on a broomstick flying over a church as its official government municipal seal. This is not ancient history, a relic that hasn’t yet gone away.  This is today.  Just to give you an idea, here’s an excerpt from an article in the Tico Times that was posted just this January, 2012:

Escazú means “resting place,” but there’s a restless and often spooky quality to this suburb southwest of San José. In recent years, the area has burgeoned into a thriving commercial hub that plenty of well-heeled Ticos, Gringos and foreign ambassadors call home, but ancient burial grounds still lie beneath their modern abodes. Old Escazú remains steeped in its pre-Columbian history, and its legends have tended to take on lives of their own. 

Bizarre creatures, enchantments and particularly witches are said to roam the land, and escazuceños seem generally accepting of this. Known informally as the “city of witches,” Escazú spawned a soccer teamed dubbed “Brujas F.C.,” and witch figurines are displayed prominently on residential chimneys. The municipal seal also depicts a witch on a broom. 

So, having said all the above, I was especially interested that the Greek word Pale, often translated  “struggle” is a bit more accurately (or so it seems to me) translated:  wrestle.  The New Testament Greek Lexicon  describes it like this:

wrestling (a contest between two in which each endeavours to throw the other, and which is decided when the victor is able to hold his opponent down with his hand upon his neck

And THIS makes sense.  We all can relate to this!  Hand to hand combat.  So, we recognize who we are wrestling with/against and we recognize that this is part of our journey.  We also know that while our victory is assured and the battle truly does belong to the Lord, we ARE called to wrestle:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

And wrestling with the enemy is hard. We lost internet all yesterday afternoon. No why’s, it just happens and it comes back when it comes back. You just wait.  It means no contact with the outside world, as we also have no Vonage phone when that happens. A minor inconvenience, but frustrating. But it turns into a bigger battle when it’s a day you would like to hear some encouraging voices at home or, as in the case of yesterday, you have a scheduled Skype call to resolve some issues with one of the people in the church.  You can’t Skype OR tell anyone why you are not available at the scheduled time.

So, we continue day by day. One of the young men in our community had a front tooth broken off when a group of young adults were fooling around, causing pain and discouragement.  One of our interns, Shannon, made a short trip home to the states for her “visa run,” and the other intern, Jessie, went to Nicaragua with David, where she stayed with a US missionary living there for her “visa run.”  This has to be done every 90 days for them.  Shannon returned on Monday and Jessie will return tonight, making our “family” whole once again. Tito is sick with Grippe, an all purpose word down here for cold/flu/and other things as well, but he has continued going to work. Dago, meanwhile, has been working crazy hours this week at the Peri-Mercado, pulling a 17 hour shift to do inventory, followed by closing the store a few hours later and opening first thing today.  Needless to say, he’s exhausted.  Les has been using more Spanish lately and both of us are looking to work with a tutor. We’re preparing for 1 more intern, Lindsay, in a matter of weeks, so change continues to be the norm for us all. And in the midst of it all, we wrestle against powers and principalities and aggresively choose to fix our eyes on our savior.

God’s perfect timing allowed me to be impacted, yet again, by a phrase in our Blackaby study this week:

The previous level of your walk with God will not be adequate for the new work God wants to do through you.  Each new command of Jesus will require a fresh knowledge and understanding of Him.

We wrestle, putting on the full armor of God and Jesus stretches us.  We are forced to not rely on our previous walk but to press on… and we assured that Jesus does indeed win the battle and the Father gets the glory!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlA5IDnpGhc[/youtube]It struck me this week while doing Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby (for something like the 5th time) with young adults and teens down here in Los Anonos that breaking the cultural cycles is a God-sized task that ONLY God can do.  The ONLY way we can see the cycles of poverty, brokenness, hurt, pregnancy in very young girls, broken homes, high school dropouts and every imaginable addiction ended are by His hand, as we join Him in Our work.

What our world often witnesses today is a devoted, committed Christian or church serving God.  But they are not  seeing God.  They don’t see anything happening that can be explained only in terms of God’s activity.  Why? Because we are not attempting anything that only God can do.  Our world is not being attracted to the Christ we serve because they are not seeing Him at work in our lives.  They see us doing good things for God and comment, “Tat’s nice, but it’s not my thing.”  The world is passing us by because they do not way to get involved in what they see in our lives.  We are not giving them opportunities to encounter God.  They are seeing only us.  Let the world watch God at work, and He will attract people to Himself. Let Christ be lifted up, not in words but in life.  Let people see the difference the living Christ makes in a life, a family, or a church; that will affect how they respond to the gospel.  When the world sees things happening through God’s people that cannot be explained except that God Himself has done them, the world will be drawn to such a God. ~ Henry Blackaby

Amen and Amen.  It reminds me that people here HAVE seen healing, deliverance, changed lives and hope.  That is why earlier this year, before we arrived, a woman called the church for an appointment for pray so she could get healed.  They met with her, prayed, and she was healed!  We NEED God-sized tasks – the ones with God-sized dimensions.  It’s not comfortable and it’s not easy, but God IS good, all the time.  There’s no one like Him!

Lord, please let us never be satisfied with what the world says life is all about.  Please let us lift our eyes to You and DARE to believe tat you still turn water to wine and open the eyes of the blind.  And You Lord, have overcome the world!

We had an earthquake this morning … a 7.9 Earthquake at its epicenter, 7.6 here in San Jose.  Our house moved back and forth and we

Temblor! / Earthquake!

stood with arms outstretched and feet spread apart to balance.  Crazy!  Earthquakes are so powerful and have the potential for so much destruction. You can try to get to a slightly safer place, but other than that, there’s not much you can do.

Spiritually, the mountains are trembling too!  And THIS is a huge positive, unlike the physical earthquakes.  This morning, as we were looking out over Los Anonos and the mountains behind during our regular morning prayer time, I kept hearing the song, “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble” running through my head, even singing a few bars.  The truth is, God is moving in this community and we are seeing changes and breakthrough!

There was a youth retreat where a number of the community were deeply touched.  More recently, the men had a retreat and it was powerful.  It deeply affected a number of lives – challenging them to go deeper with God. And then, just this last Saturday night, during the bi-weekly worship night, hosted in our house, the Holy Spirit was dynamically present, ministering to each of us.  Young people were falling to their knees and on their faces, prophetic words were shared, folks were ministered to in prayer and at least one person was filled with the Spirit.  It was awesome!  Interestingly enough, several of us here in our household had a really rough week leading up to this.  It seems that often the enemy presses in hard, just before we see breakthroughs!  God is good …. all the time, even during the rough week beforehand!

This week brought even more changes.  We added a new resident to our house and are blessed by having him. His name is Dago.  Please remember to hold Dago and Tito (our other resident) up in prayer, that they would continue to press even harder into God and make the tough changes to become all that God has called them to be and do all that He has called them to do.

We are preparing to receive our new intern October 9, Lindsay Jones.  We are all excited about her coming and know that she will be adding so much to our discipleship house and this family that God is building here, as well as the Los Anonos community.  In preparation to coming, she posted a video yesterday and gave us permission to share it.  It so communicates what God is about down here! Please watch it. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojhmO0sMHEw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]