Anyone have something to share?
1 You, Lord, showed favor to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people
and covered all their sins.
3 You set aside all your wrath
and turned from your fierce anger.
4 Restore us again, God our Savior,
and put away your displeasure toward us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your unfailing love, Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
8 I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.
Wandering Views 
Spain is a country with a rich religious history. From the Catholic monarchs to the Opus Dei, from the Spanish Inquisition to the Jesuits – Spain has had it all. However, today the influence of traditional forms of faith in Spain has been declining rapidly with now less than 10% of Spaniards being active members of the Roman Catholic Church.
At the same time, Spain has almost no tradition of Protestant/Evangelical belief and the evangelical community is a tiny proportion of the population (0.8%). In fact, Evangelicals have previously been a marginalised and discriminated minority and are still considered a sect by many. Those who have responded to the Gospel have often tended to be from ‘outsider’ groups such as the Gypsy people, drug and alcohol addicts and immigrants.
Please pray…
Pray that teams across Spain will succeed in their work of esteeming local churches and helping them be vibrant; and, through them, planting new churches or communities in places where no Evangelical witness exists.
We believe that a harvest in Spain is going to take place. Pray for God’s mercy over Spain and for more workers to join teams.
From an in-country leader:
“We have seen open doors for our team, interesting conversations, and opportunities that have allowed us to pray for Spanish people who were sick, lonely, or in need of guidance.
We have a second-hand shop that we run with a local church. It is open Monday to Friday, and has given the team many opportunities to talk with local people. For example, an older woman in poor health has invited one of the team members to read a devotional with her. She comes every week and expects us to read the devotional, pray for her, and speak to her about God. Through a non-Christian lady, the Lord also opened a miraculous door for the English conversation club to be held in a classroom at the city hall. Classes are hosted for young people between the ages of 16 to 20. It has given us an opportunity to meet people and not hide what we believe. We meet with young people every week, speak English, and make connections. These are small stories, but for our small team it is the small victories that help us to keep moving. We are very encouraged. God is moving, and we are about to start a new church plant.”
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Amen
I Cor.5 is about church discipline. I get that and agree with Paul that we desperately need it today.
However, one of the confusing verses in the Bible is I Cor. 5:5. Is Paul saying that the church can deliver a body to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that the soul might be saved?
I can understand Paul’s outrage against the church condoning such evil, but the issue of delivering the flesh to save the soul is confusing and I can’t find it anywhere else in the Bible.
It supports by belief that once a person trusts Christ, he becomes a new creature and is eternally saved, but “delivering a body to Satan” is beyond my comprehension.
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I imagine that verse is connected to verse 2. Instead of protecting him within the fellowship he needs to be expelled and let the consequences, hopefully, bring him back to his senses. Parents face this difficult choice sometimes–letting a child experience some horrible things in hopes they will hit rock bottom and reach out for the help they need. Hopefully, so that it is a temporary hurt for eternal benefit. Just not praying for the alleviation of physical or emotional symptoms perhaps? It will also help limit the spread of the evil within the congregation. How much then, is there protection within the church body for each individual? Interesting discussion.
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Please pray for a little boy named Noah (around 10 or 11) who is in foster care and needs a forever family. He is a sweet, very social boy. He loves Awana and is anxious to do all the work he is asked to do.
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Chas, the KJV states I Corinthians 5:5 as “delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” In the Bible, the term ‘flesh’ refers less to the physical body, and more to the sinful impulses that still exist in the un-resurrected physical body (see Romans 6, 7, & 8). John in his first epistle (2:16) refers to the ‘lust of the flesh’ as being one of the three impulses that Christians must fight against. Satan is recorded in Scripture as being used as an agent of God’s discipline and judgement in both the Old and New Testament (II Chronicles 18; II Corinthians 12:7). From all that Paul wrote on the subject – the man in I Corinthians 5 is not the only person Paul delivered to Satan, as he delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme (I Timothy 1:20) – it is apparent that delivering someone unto Satan means putting them out of fellowship and leaving them to be buffeted by the world and the devil until they hate their fleshly lusts. Such a disciplinary method should have been used with all those church leaders who committed crimes like child abuse – they should have been both put out of the church and delivered to the secular authorities, but instead they were kept in the protection of the church.
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And the church is told to look on them as we do unbelievers — which doesn’t mean they are necessarily unbelievers, we aren’t privy to that kind of knowledge even as we excommunicate them. But by taking that step, it is hoped it will get their attention and, if they are of us, they will return — just as the prodigal son did.
“Tough love” is one way to look at that.
But allowing them to remain protected and affirmed within the fold is doing a disservice to them and the church, not to mention to God himself.
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One of our church members moved to Spain some years ago to marry — an African American man who was raised in east LA and spoke fluent Spanish, he worked in sound for films and TV and so was able to continue to find work in his field there. But he also was part of a Reformed radio program ministry in Spain. The first post made me wonder how that’s going.
He returns for visits off and on but I haven’t seen him in a few years.
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And what’s the only sin that can cause someone to be excommunicated?
Being unrepentant.
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prayer, prayer, and more prayer please. She is raging and in tears and it looks like withdrawal time. I don’t know from what. She quit or threw away her anti depressants and does not remember what they were. I told her about the bench warrant on her. And that she is not registered at either university. And that we will be verifying pregnancy. She pulled out some non prescription pre natal meds. Don’t know if that is how it is normally done now.
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They often take women off of antidepressants when they are pregnant.
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I don’t know if she was on them and if by a doc or if she is off them or by herself, or with a doc. Hoping to get her in for an initial visit this coming week. That idea set her off because her doc is mailing all her records to her. I thought they usually just sent by computer now. But she is willing to go and get started.
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So you have two in the house like this now? Oh, Mumsee.
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I don’t know if I should bring this up or not, but last week I read a horrifying book called “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.”
The former NYTimes reporter has written a compelling study of the link between marijuana, schizophrenia and violence–based on studies down outside the US.
The US powers that be, of course, can see no wrong coming from marijuana usage.
They’re wrong, of course.
And so many are now paying the real mental price. 😦
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No, just one. The older one is home with us, trying to figure things out.
The other is with her husband on Okinawa and her son and my husband. My husband and my grandson return on Friday. That daughter plans to be here in July. This daughter plans to live here for a while until she can get her self back.
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oh great,Michelle, thanks so much….
Actually, she has reported that she was a heavy marijuana user for a while. edibles.
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