the time i pierced my nose for Jesus

So,
for what is now rating as top 10 for best surprises of my life, Bob told us
Monday night that we were going to South Padre Island
to debrief the semester.

So we packed up, left at 9
Tuesday morning, crossed the Texas
border, went to Wal-Mart to buy sunscreen, and are currently in the paradise
that is South Padre.

Our
rental house has comfy beds, a flat screen tv, and we can flush toilet paper
down. We hardly know what to do with ourselves! Okay, so by this point, Dad
wants to know why I titled my blog what I did. Let me explain: I’m still
reading this book

(Spiritual Warfare For Every
Christian, by Dean Sherman)- it is just so full of awesome wisdom, so I’m going
kind of slow- and the chapter I was reading yesterday was about Satan’s
hierarchy and battle plans within specific geographical locations. As in, how
cities and countries can collectively fall into specific sins, such as lust or
gambling or division. Satan has “power assignments” where he sees
that particular sins are established, sometimes being traced back for hundreds
of years. The book says that if we ask Him, God can and will show us what the
entrenched powers are in certain homes, cities, and nations- but He will not do
it simply to satisfy our curiosity.

We must take action by avoiding
the influences, praying specifically against bondages, and by living in the
opposite spirit. While praying about Matamoros, God brought to my mind several
conversations with people who had been hurt by the church in the past- people
who had been reprimanded and asked to leave churches because they weren’t
wearing long skirts or long sleeves, or because they had mud on their shoes
when they came in.

The
people of Matamoros-
not just those influenced mainly by the Catholic Church, but also those in the
Protestant body of believers- are under a widespread bondage of legalism. Many
people want nothing to do with the church because a religion that only mandates
rules, that doesn’t talk about the hope and life Christ gives us, is not
appealing. I agree with them. But that is not the God I know. And so to live in
the opposite spirit (not in a spirit of rebellion, but rather in a spirit of
walking in the freedom we have in Christ), I pierced my nose.

I can’t wait for the
conversations it will lead me into, for the opportunities it will give me to
share with people what sanctification actually does look like, and how God
actually cares a lot more about our heart attitudes than whether we do or don’t
have holes in our noses.

Praise the Lord!

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