The past week or so has been pretty good. Sure, we’ve still had our fun moments of drama on a daily basis, but the general tone of the team has subdued. Caitlin went home last night. I believe I mentioned before that she was going through some health stuff that couldn’t be resolved out here, so she made the choice to head home. Please keep her in your prayers, as well as our team–we’ll miss her a lot!
While Driver took her and several team members to the air port to send her off, I stayed back to do our “weekly” teaching night. I put it in quotes because we haven’t always been able to do it because there’s been some other situation or another to handle on Mondays. At any rate, God placed it heavily on my heart to speak from Ephesians 5:8-21 where it talks about being “children of light.” I spent some time dissecting those verses to see what exactly Paul was getting at. A few things really stuck out to me:
-being a child of light not only grows you in your personal walk with the Lord, but as a result should grow the kingdom as well
-by our example (shining light) we bring forth truth in the midst of darkness–we “shed light” on sin
-we are called to expose sin, not just avoid it at all costs
-if we are living “in the Spirit,” we cannot be “under the influence” of other things; likewise, if we are “under the influence” of worldly things, we cannot also be living life in the Spirit–we have to make a choice
-singing songs of praise, hymns, and psalms is not purely an external thing–we need to be doing it in our hearts as well
-the same goes for thanksgiving to our Lord
-we are called to submit to one another because of our love for our Lord, not out of obligation or expectation placed on us as “Christians”
Not sure if any of it really sunk in with the team, but it gave me a lot to think about these past few days. It is really a challenge to live in the Spirit when everything around me seems to tell me to give in to frustration and irritation. I want to be a beacon of light, like a light-house, not just a dimly lit candle, though.
