On Our Faces at His Feet

 Good morning friends,

This last week has been a busy one and I think that will continue till we leave, as Tony has finals and evaluations, as well as a Writer's Conference and a Journeyman retreat with our friends form 50 years ago.

But in the midst of all this, we got a letter from a friend saying that he wasn't satisfied with the SBC Sunday school's material on Spiritual warfare that they were offering this week.

I don't know what proportion of you use that material, nor do I know what it said, but since both Tony and I have some opinions on this, we happily wrote up a few vignettes of what we'd experienced on the field, and sent them along.  He wrote that what we wrote was a little more personal and he’ll be using them today.

Ever the dovetailer of time, I thought "Oh, I can use that as my blog this week!", but the more I thought about you waking up to me and reading that, I could envision you sitting down to your cereal and reaching into the box to find a very harmless but startling snake.  Might be a little too 'raw', especially unannounced.

So this morning, I'd like to tell you about something leading up to some of our time in Japan when we felt we were living more in the New Testament, with some of the stories that came out.

So let's look at a time in our lives.  We must have been in about our 30th year with the mission, most of it in Japan.  Things were going fine.........we had a new house and car and a growing congregation in our church plant..

But somehow, we both felt an emptiness in our hearts, the kind of emptiness that makes you say, "Lord.  What are You doing?", because it seemed everything we did had either lost its joy or failed, or both.

I was talking with a friend/fellow retired missionary this morning as we are planning a session we're co-leading at the aforementioned Writers Workshop we're having next Saturday (prayers much appreciated).

Somehow we went from planning to talking about Prayer.

"Have you ever felt that all you can do is pray?" She asked me, and I remembered those days.

Not only did I remember, I could FEEL the desperation and dread, the hopelessness and loneliness.......Yes, I remembered.

"And what happened?"  She asked.

What happened indeed. Something I never expected. Something that changed us forever. It started with a visit from a missionary friend from another denomination. He dropped by, we talked in the driveway, then he said, “I just feel so down. I feel like something is about the break loose, but not sure what it is.”

That short meeting resulted in the formation of a little, almost secret group.  We were so down and embarrassed, I don't think we wanted anyone to know how weak we were.

For about 6 weeks, we met in the early morning and just ...........were.  There were no flowery words, no exalted attitudes.  I don't remember groaning, but we were more at that level.  I don't think we could pray out loud because we were so low.

Ever so gradually, we all began to feel better.  There was no mistake that we were at the feet of Jesus, on our faces........and He was there.

So now I've set the scene to tell you next week about some of the delights that came out of that little group.  

Have you ever felt so tired, discouraged, dismayed that you can't even pray?  Have you ever crawled to Jesus and just moaned? What has happened?

Do you remember the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane?  I don't think any of us have sweat drops of blood, but how many of us have been there?

I'd love to hear from you. Stay tuned till next week and we touch on some 'spiritual warfare' thoughts.

Marsha

“And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39)