Here's a picture of some of the people in our little Bible Study. It's been going great.
We've often called Los Angeles the frontlines of the mission field in the world. I think that's true for the most part. Yet living in Los Angeles isn't exactly like living in Darfur, or even like living in India or China. We're free to do what we want whenever we want. We have enough money to eat, pay our bills, even go to a movie every once and awhile at the Grove.
We don't have a lot of money, but we do have a lot when you consider how most of the world lives.
But the issue with living in Los Angeles is that in all this abundance, there is a very deep and serious spiritual blindness that has enslaved so many people living here. What you see on TV being packaged as the real world is nine times out of ten, a product coming out of Los Angeles (did you know even shows like CSI: Miami and The Office are filmed here).
In some of the places like Sudan, where the poverty is rampant, the government is doing nothing about it, and Christians are actually being physically killed and persecuted, it's easy to see the need for missionaries, and the need to bring light to those dark places. The veil is thick, it's obvious, and you can see it a mile away.
But in places like Los Angeles, where the abundance is evident everywhere, the government is working for the people, and Christians are only persecuted socially and I guess sometimes professionally, it's much harder to see the need. It's much harder to see the need for light in a city where the billboards illuminate the way down streets with affluent names like Sunset Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. The veil here is still thick, but it's not as obvious, hidden by all the stuff of the world that this city provides so abundantly. If you aren't careful, you'll fixate on the glam and glitter, the fame and the fortune, and never realize that a powerful and well disguised veil is being pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
It's a battle we are fighting on a daily basis, and honestly, we've taken a beating. You don't attack a stronghold of the Enemy without expecting a fight. That's what we're in the middle of as we come to the end of 2006.
That's why we can't wait to recuperate for a few weeks in Texas.
In some of the places like Sudan, where the poverty is rampant, the government is doing nothing about it, and Christians are actually being physically killed and persecuted, it's easy to see the need for missionaries, and the need to bring light to those dark places. The veil is thick, it's obvious, and you can see it a mile away.
But in places like Los Angeles, where the abundance is evident everywhere, the government is working for the people, and Christians are only persecuted socially and I guess sometimes professionally, it's much harder to see the need. It's much harder to see the need for light in a city where the billboards illuminate the way down streets with affluent names like Sunset Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. The veil here is still thick, but it's not as obvious, hidden by all the stuff of the world that this city provides so abundantly. If you aren't careful, you'll fixate on the glam and glitter, the fame and the fortune, and never realize that a powerful and well disguised veil is being pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
It's a battle we are fighting on a daily basis, and honestly, we've taken a beating. You don't attack a stronghold of the Enemy without expecting a fight. That's what we're in the middle of as we come to the end of 2006.
That's why we can't wait to recuperate for a few weeks in Texas.
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