Does Not Return Void

It's been a pretty wild week in SCF-land. Last week we had to deal with a prospective mentor who thinks that we are foolish for rejecting psychology and exalting God's Word. Then yesterday I had to deal with someone in the juice fasting email group who felt a strong prompting from the Holy Spirit to break the rules of the list. I ended up reading a note from her that was supposed to be private, but a dear supportive woman forwarded to me. This note showed that she had total disregard for rules where she feels like they are unnecessary. I guess she thinks of herself as kind of a Spirit-filled Jack Bauer. We had to unsubscribe her from the list. I ended up having a rather painful dialog with her today too.

Finally, I had to deal with a student who told me that he belongs to the Chruch of Christ, but his wife recently converted to Catholicism. He doesn't see a real problem with this since he thinks that Protestants and Catholics basically believe the same things. And as he put it, the differences are really just matters of interpretation. He got upset when I told him that they preach a different gospel and I told him I was sorry that he was turning his back on God's Word. That last part may have been too strong in retrospect. I have a tendency to jump hard when I feel like Jesus is getting attacked.

As I write this I see a theme in all three cases. The supremacy of God's Word was under attack. And the more I think about it the more I feel privileged to be put in this kind of a situation. It would have been easy to just "agree to disagree" and not make a stink. Of course, in the end we do just have to have that agreement. But given my roles in the various situations I believe I took the proper stand.

On a side note, I decided this morning to finish up May's reading in my one-year Bible plan. I'm in kind of a hurry to get through this reading of the Bible so I can start a chronological reading instead of just going from cover to cover, though I now do it with passages from 4 different sections each day. I came upon this in my reading:

Gal 6:7-9 ESV
(7) Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
(8) For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
(9) And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

I think this is one of those passages that everyone in ministry clings to from time to time. We all feel weary here and there. I sure do. I feel drained from all this battle.

But the really awesome part is that I feel myself drawn to do more reading as a way of compensation. Not playing an instrument. Not playing a video game. Not eating or looking at porn. But reading the Bible. I think maybe I'll get a head start on June now...