A couple of
nights ago a lady drove down our dirt road to have a long talk with Sharon
about her spiritual need. Yesterday morning we had breakfast with a Muslim
couple. He began energetically trying to show me the superiority of Islam over
other religions. When I shared with him from the story of the Green Prince, who
became a Christian after reading what Jesus said about loving our enemies he
said that this man could also have learned about loving enemies from reading
the Quran (???). I regularly have conversations with another man who did
doctoral studies in religion, and eventually turned from Catholicism to
Buddhism. This afternoon Sharon and I will be meeting with a couple who follow
a religion from Brazil which uses hallucinogenic plants to develop their
spiritual insight.
Why do I say
these things to you over and over again? Because we do not want you to forget
to bring us to God in prayer over and over again claiming that we will speak with the power of the Holy Spirit in these
situations.
All these
people whom I have mentioned are not foreigners but Spaniards who have given up on Christianity because of what they
have seen in Catholicism but they are still searching for spiritual reality.
If I’ve
said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, that if searching people could see real Christianity lived out by
Christians who love one another they would turn to Christ.
Are there
some here in formerly Catholic Spain who still hope to find answers in Christ? Here’s
an example: yesterday evening I attended a prayer meeting of Catholic
charismatics. It didn’t seem all that “charismatic”, just an old-fashioned
prayer meeting, gospel choruses interspersed with praise and prayer.
These people
are closer to gospel truth than our new age friends. One thing that the Lord is
using is the Alpha courses. Just as God used the monk Martin Luther and the
priest Menno Simons centuries ago he could use people from within the Roman
Catholic church to bring their own people into a new relationship with Christ. We
feel increasingly called to search for these people and help them understand
what God is offering them. At the same time we will stick with our old friends. Launch us by your prayers into over 100 towns around us in search of seekers.
