While studying for a message, I came across this comprehensive site from Americans for Divorce Reform. I liked the site because it dealt with world stats inlcuding Italy, family, health, economic, and military stats. From what I could see, it was pretty consistent that 1 in 2 people will be directly affected by divorce (personal, parent, or children). Divorce Statistics Collection
Over the last two weekends, we have done something very special with select groups of men and women in our church. We have taken them on Breakthrough Retreats. The Breakthroughs deal very specifically and intensively with the cleansing and discipling of the inner life. The focus is to prepare the inner man for faithfulness, fruitfulness, and a deeper, future discipleship. We had the opportunity to take a dozen men one weekend and twenty-five women on another weekend. The location of the retreat is in a mountain village about 2 hours north of where we live. By far, these have been the most powerful weekends we’ve had here in the ministry. I believe we’re going to see some great fruit coming out the lives of these folks in the near future. We’ll continue with 2-3 more of these specialized retreats next year.
A nearby farmer unwittingly fertilized his fields with chicken manure. I personally thought that one could tell the difference — chicken — cow, but I don’t work around the stuff enough to know. Apparently not, and now the entire region is infested with flies. Everywhere you go — flies. The news has carried ‘fly reports’ and some local restaurants have closed until cooler weather sets in. We’ve had an unusually warm October to this point.
So I did some research on the fly plague of Moses’ day. Did you know that the Egyptians believed that they were touched by their ‘fly-god’ when a type of fly would lay larvae on them to feed off their dead skin? There was also another kind of fly in Egypt called the “Dogfly”. This kind of fly bit people and animals.
Can you imagine? The dogflies would bite and leave an open flesh wound while the other flies would lay their larvae in the wounds. The Scriptures said it became “oppressive” like a yoke or heavy covering. Obviously, they couldn’t turn to the fly-god for help. Everything was desecrated.
I think one message God wanted to deliver was — I’ll make your own gods oppress you like you’ve done to my people. We know it was God’s will to break the will of Pharoah along with his people to let the Hebrews go. But I also think there’s another great faith lesson here. A truth that jumps at me is the thing or the god that you love the most is going to become your judge, your pain, your bondage, and your oppressor. The fly was one of the worshipped in their culture. They obviously didn’t have malls. Could shopping and ultimately debt & accumulation become our own painful bondage? In fact, the average American is bombarded every single day with advertisement after advertisement. And now the ads act like gods themselves. They promise that if you just purchase this product a kind of “redemption” or “restoration” or “wellness” will take place — if you only have this product. Each ad sidetracks the mind from the Spirit ever so slightly again and again as they come in swarms.
How about the unquenchable thirst for fun or recreation that may leave us value-less and empty? I deal with fathers all the time who “walk out” on their kids emotionally if not literally for the swarming gods of fun.
God could decide that if we want it so much, He may just send it – abundantly. Here’s a soul question – is more better? Pharoah took about 3 days to ponder that one.
I also think about the title “Beelzebub.” It was a term of derision. It called satan — the lord of the dung heap or the lord of the flies. These pesky dudes are reminding me of satan’s incessant activity - where he doesn’t belong and where we don’t want him to be.
Around the house, I’ve taken on the title “Fly-Slayer.” I’m proud of it. Now Reilly is asking if he can “spank the flies too daddy.”
We’re ready for cold weather now.
This last week we had to approach the municipality of a nearby town regarding zoning rules on the building we hope to acquire for a new worship center. The agent working on the sale approached the mayor on our behalf who seemed positive regarding our purchase possibility. However, the mayor deferred to his colleagues before giving approval.
On our part, we have accomplished everything legally over the last 22 months of work on this project. We have been instructed that we can only purchase commercial property and that we meet the requirements.
What mildly surprised us was two days later when we were informed that the mayor had said “No” to our purchase. His reasoning was, “We’ve had requests similar to this from the Muslims and if we say yes to you then we have to say yes to everybody else.” The answer to that is “yes you do if we’re legal!”
There are other major fallacies in his response. The first is that Italy is trying to pride itself on religious toleration and we obviously see this as religious discrimination. The second is that if this is the standard — “all or none” — then they have to kick the Catholic churches out of their own city.
Last Sunday we assembled a prayer task force of 7 people to take this special request up before the Lord for 30 days. We hope to see a breakthrough and we have a meeting on Tuesday, the 12th, with the municipality.
The “ROE” (rules of engagement) are different out here.
