Amanda Jones

I’ve read Amanda’s blog for more than two years. She was the first blogger I ever asked to go on a blogging trip. Way back then she said No. She had some lame excuse: Something about being pregnant or some such nonsense. Anyway, she finally came to her senses and said Yes to me this time around. I feel like I “know” her the best of all the bloggers and, unfortunately for her, I think we’re a lot alike. Which simply means I’ll have someone to share meds and a justice complex with.

Lindsey Nobles

I started following Lindsey on Twitter more than a year ago because I wanted to learn more about corporate communications. Seriously. I’m that nerdy. Lindsey is the big wig heading up corporate communications for Thomas Nelson. I started reading thinking she’d talk about that work a little. No such luck. I’ve learned jack squat about corporate communications from her blog. But I’ve smiled a lot. My guess is that’ll continue in person.

Lisa-Jo Baker

Don’t tell her I said this, but Lisa-Jo intimidates me. She’s an expert on this travel and poverty stuff. She has a law degree, has traveled and lived all over the world, has worked for the United Nations in the arena of human rights and for Habitat for Humanity in an initiative to further develop the developing world. And she has a split DC and South African accent that is beautiful to listen to. She’s Wonder Woman but so far she’s acted like nothing but the girl next door. She doesn’t seem to take herself as seriously as I do. I’m looking forward to her seasoned perspective on poverty and development – she won’t be shocked or surprised by anything we see together in Guatemala but brings years of experience to this trip. I’m most looking forward to her insights on Compassion’s ministry model and how it compares to the many “programs” she’s seen elsewhere.

Ann Voskamp

I love all the bloggers the same…blah, blah, blah. But Ann’s my favorite. I don’t know her in the real world but on the internet I know her as its only poet/prophet. She lives simply, cares deeply and writes beautifully. Her site is an oasis in a very blinky angsty internet. My wife even likes it. She doesn’t read blogs – she doesn’t get them at all. But when a friend asked her to read Ann’s, she clicked over and found a blog she wanted to come back to: it’s profound simplicity, serenity and inspiration in words and pictures. I’m hooked too. I’m curious to see what this Compassion advocate from Canada is like in the real world: I mean, does she always talk like Thoreau? Does she float or walk like the rest of us? Or just float when no one’s looking? I’ll capture any floating with my video camera, I promise.

Soon I’ll leave the sounds of Nashville behind and with these new friends I’ll fly to Guatemala City. I love my “job.”

Follow our journey here: CompassionBloggers.com/guatemala

———————————————-

Over the weekend a tropical depression caused a foot of rain to fall in parts of Guatemala. Then there were landslides. A bus was buried. People died. Thousands have been evacuated from their “homes.” And the president of Guatemala has declared a state of emergency.

I’m supposed to fly to Guatemala tomorrow afternoon with my blogging friends, to experience and write about Compassion International‘s ministry to children living there. Compassion’s trip department, and Patricia and I, have spent this morning collecting information on the conditions there to determine whether the trip will happen at all and, if it does, whether our plans have to be changed in any way. More on that later.

For now, what I can’t get over is one word I’ve both heard and read this morning: typical.

As in, this kind of damage from rain is typical in Guatemala this time of year.

According to Google it sure is. I found news stories on flooding and mud slides in Guatemala spanning every year for the last five. I’m sure I could go back even farther. Typical.

Homelessness. Evacuations. Funerals. All typical?

Pray for the people of Guatemala today and please pray for us as we leaders make final determinations about our trip there this week.

The party started the way most afternoons start for us – with some lawn chairs.

The party is for the kids but there are perks for the adults – mostly the moms who get to sit and eat and talk while Becky entertains their children. For free! (I know, she’s a saint.)

There was one small “interruption” to mom time.

Her name is Mahi.

She’s a little friend of ours from church who, I learned, likes to tell big people what to do. Or at least the ones she knows will obey.

And, really, who’s not gonna obey that face?

The Guessing Game is the big hit at these parties. Becky fills containers with junk of which conscientious parents would never give their kids an entire container full.

And she has them guess how much of that particular junk is in the container. This year I think she filled jars and whatnot with…let’s see…Hot Tomales, Gummy Worms….Crack, Crystal Meth…Oh, I don’t remember exactly, but the kids loved it.

Any game that involves whispering a secret is a hit with tween girls for some reason. Just sayin’.

I don’t even know who these kids are. I just pulled them off the street and stuck them in a hammock and said, “Look cute or you don’t get your shoes back.”

“I mean it.”

And they still weren’t being blog-worthy cute so I bribed them.

“OK, I’l let you put as much frosting as you want on a cookie. With sprinkles. And eat it. And do it again. And again.”

That worked.

Once the kids were sugared up and full of pizza, Becky made them run.

And run.

And there was more running.

Then pictures.

Just like prom…but without the cumber-buns and Richard Marx tunes. And also cardboard was involved.

I know this is a shock – I was as surprised as you soon will be – but some of my friends don’t know how to rock. At all. They listen to Clay Aiken and drive mini vans…and like it.

My wife rocks, however.

As do my friends Doug (a professional songwriter guy) and Brian (looks like that guy in Selah, which I realize is soft soft rock, but still.)

And that was our fifth back to school party.

You should move here before next August.

That was weeks ago. Weeks before I really understood what the song was about. Ever since, I’ve struggled to add the chorus – the part I usually start with.

The seed of this chorus was planted in July. I had my second bout with depression. I was ready this time. I knew what to do – I knew to douse my brain in truth for starters.

I read the bible constantly and also a book about God’s presence by A.W. Tozer. These words stayed with me:

The presence of God is the central fact of Christianity. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push into conscious awareness of His presence. That type of Christianity which happens now to be in vogue knows this Presence only in theory. …We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions and, for the most part, we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience.

Tozer wrote that God is universally present. We all accept that fact as Christians. But he went further to show that God also manifests His presence in healing, converting, comforting, etc. In scripture, God says again and again that he is “near” to the broken hearted, the poor, outcast, widowed, orphaned, persecuted, etc. I don’t fully understand what “near” means – and Tozer didn’t claim to either – but it has something to do with God letting us “see” Him at work, engaged, involved.

Tozer said our sin and struggle creates opportunities to “push into conscious awareness of His presence.” It’s in those darkest moments of life when we often, like the bible’s poor, outcast, widowed, orphaned, persecuted, etc, experience God in ways we’ve been unable to before. And are stripped of every hope but Him. And are given a greater measure of faith.

All these thoughts, and my own needs, and Amy’s cancer, and my upcoming trip to Guatemala bounced around in my head for a while until last night: The chorus to this song finally dropped out of me. Or at least this first version of it here. It’s still too wordy, in my opinion, so I’ll keep praying and whittling away, but I felt like I should share it with you today as is. Somebody needs these words.

Listen here.

COME BY HERE

Words & Music by Shaun Groves

VERSE:
The orphans shout for a loving father
And the whores reach out for a faithful lover
We’re all singing now
God, will you come by here?

The widows need life to raise their dead and
All the beggars plead for their daily bread – Oh
We’re all singing please
God, will you come by here?

Come, we have nothing else God
And having You we want for nothing

CHORUS
Come, come and meet us here
Come and touch our tears
And we will weep no more
Come, come and meet our pain
Come and lift our lame
And we will limp no more
Come and we will want no more

VERSE 2:
The doubters pray for your signs and wonders
All the cynics say You’ll let us go under
We’re all singing now
God, will you come by here?

Come, we have nothing else God
And having You we want for nothing

CHORUS

BRIDGE:
No death, life
No angels or demons
No depth, height
Can come in between us
And Your love
Your love
Your love, Love

CHORUS

Come by, come by here!

• Listen here.
• Chord chart here, in case you wanna play along at home.

Just As I Am

Arr. Shaun Groves

VERSE 1:
Just as I am without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that thou bidst me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

VERSE 2:
Just as I am though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt
Fightings and fears within, without
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

CHORUS:
O I come to the Son, who can heal with His wounds
O I come to the Thief, who has robbed every tomb
O I come to the Victor, my Life and my Love
O Lamb of God I come

VERSE 3:
Just as I am poor wretched blind
Sight, riches, healing of the mind
Yes, all I need in Thee to find
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

CHORUS

VERSE 4:
Just as I am Thou will receive
Will welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve
Because Thy promise I believe
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

CHORUS
O I come to the Son, who can heal with His wounds
O I come to the Thief, who has robbed every tomb
O I come to the Victor, my Life and my Love
O Lamb of God
O I come to the Son, who can heal with His wounds
O I come to the Thief, who has robbed every tomb
O I come to the Victor, my Life and my Love
O Lamb of God I come
O Lamb of God I come

“Why is it that when we talk to God, it’s called prayer, but when God talks to us, it’s called schizophrenia?” – Lily Tomlin

I’ve been praying for a mentor for a couple months now – someone much older and wiser who can spend some time with me every now and then and teach me – specifically how to pray. God’s answered that prayer.

One man’s name kept coming up a few weeks ago: George Müller. I saw a quote from him in a book I was reading and I instantly had this urge to read more about his life – an urgent urge like you get when you realize you’ve left the coffee pot on back at home. I was busy that day and couldn’t make time to do anything about it but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to.

When I woke up the next day I spent some time asking God how I should pray and then I sat listening in silence. All I could think about was learning more about George Müller. OK, I said, I’ll buy a book! I wound up getting a biography written in the 1890s by a close friend of Müller’s.

It’s been tough to wade through – I’m still not through it after a few weeks. The English is old and the book reads like it was written by an accountant or engineer – impersonal and stoic – not at all what I was expecting. But what it does very well is prove, with story after story, that God hears our prayers…or at least George Müller’s.

And I needed to believe that while asking God many times every day to heal Amy. I needed to learn all over again how to pray. I needed to believe it mattered.

I underline stuff in my books. And if underlining the good stuff means underlining an entire page, then I dog ear it instead. Well, this biography is heavily dog-eared. Every other page sometimes.

There’s so much wisdom in it that I want to be able to come back to again and again. For instance, Müller believed in arguing with God. He cited example after example in scripture where a man would lay out a case to God, spelling out – to the One who knows everything! – exactly why He should act. Müller believed this was mostly to build our own confidence and faith and to help us pray “in accordance with God’s will” but he couldn’t say for sure that it didn’t move God in some mysterious way too.

He crafted his arguments out of scripture, and he knew a lot of it. As he read the Bible every day he absorbed the names of God, the promises of God and the will of God. They went into a sort of prayer arsenal in his head. Then, when the time came to pray, God would help George recall the right information and form a solid argument from it.

So, for instance, he felt that God wanted him to start an orphanage but he didn’t have the funds or personnel to get it off the ground. One day George read that God calls Himself the “Father Of The Fatherless.” He knew that title said something not only about who God is but what God wills and does. So he brought that scripture to God and “reminded” God that He is the Father Of The Fatherless, that He cares for them. George asked God to care for them through his orphanage. He reminded God that if the orphanage is for His glory then God should also sustain the orphanage financially because if He didn’t then His glory “would be dimmed.” This, George Müller believed, was what it meant to pray the will of God. Impossible without knowing the word of God.

Müller never asked anyone for money, and often lived in tremendous hardship and poverty, but everything he needed showed up in the right amount at the right time.

This has forever changed the way I think about prayer. And by following George’s example I’m already seeing my faith grow and my desire to pray increase too. So much anxiety that I didn’t even know I was carrying is gone now. My conscience is more sensitive, my focus is sharper, my awareness of God is heightened, my desire to read the Bible is up too and I’m certain prayer is meaningful.

George Müller learned to pray by reading the biography of another man long dead. He read that man’s story because his mentor recommended it to him. George Müller’s mentor was his father-in-law, a man who gave up his wealth to live more simply so that he could be more generous and others could simply live. Interestingly, his father-in-law’s name was “Mr. Groves.”

Now, call me crazy, but maybe God’s talking to me. And maybe while I wait for my flesh and blood mentor to arrive, George Müller is mentoring me the way Mr. Groves mentored him, teaching me how to ask God for what I know I need.

I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. -Glenn Beck

When people of faith get to the public square they shouldn’t say “my religious view is this.” They should speak in moral language that is inclusive of everybody. -Jim Wallis

Wherever God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven, in that place God’s rule is manifest, He is King and the kingdom comes. The kingdom is the domain of the King’s rule, the territory where His authority is acknowledged, His orders are heeded and His ideal will is carried out (Matthew 6:10).

Jesus said His kingdom had at least two territories: “within” and “the world.” The religious left largely ignores the necessity of the first in the accomplishment of the second while the religious right largely ignores the necessity of the second for the validation of the first.

Kingdom In Us

Jesus said His kingdom is within us (Luke 17:21). When we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9) we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13). We are no longer ruled by our “nature” (Romans 7:5), no longer slaves to sin, but we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20), slaves of Christ our King (Romans 6:22).

Christ now rules over us from within us. He rules over our sin with forgiveness and forgetfulness (Psalm 103:12). He rules over our shame with His purity (Ezekiel 36:25). He rules over our old pattern of thinking with His renewal of our mind (Romans 12:2). He rules over our weakness with His strength (Acts 1:8). He rules over our pain with His Comforter (John 15:26). He rules over our rebellious “nature” by giving us a new disposition or desire to obey Him (Ezekiel 36:27). He rules over every inch of our inner terrain.

Kingdom Thru Us

When God rules in us He always desires to rule through us.

As we go into the world God rules over it through us, preaching good news to the poor: freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, release for the oppressed (Luke 4:18). We announce that God, here and now, reigns over the world. And then through our collective action (1 John 3:18), sacrifice (Isaiah 58) and self-denial (Acts 2:44-45) God’s reign becomes practical, physical, visible and present tense, not merely theoretical, spiritual, unseen and future tense.

Jesus calls the arrival of his kingdom Good News – eugelion in Greek, also translated “gospel.” It was a secular word, not a sacred one in Jesus’ day: a pronouncement or official message made by a king.

Jesus’ message or announcement was that He reigns! He reigns within us and thru us, over the past, present and future. To espouse one dimension of Christ’s gospel and ignore the other is to preach half the gospel.

The Left Omission

Some on “the left” of the gospel are preaching God’s rule through us without first demanding God’s rule within us. It is correct to say that God wants to overthrow injustice and poverty and corruption. It is incorrect and naive, however, to believe that people who have not submitted to God’s rule within can even define words like “peace” and “justice” and “enough”, let alone bring them about here and now by their own godless power.

Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, he said. If it were then men and women could advance it with their own might, weapons, strategy and intellect. Jesus Himself said that first the Spirit must be in us (Acts 1:8) and then we are to go into the world, as Jesus did, by the power of God to heal and teach (Matthew 4:23).

A political or social movement or government initiative bent on “reform” that does not have the person and power of Christ at the heart of it – at the heart of the people in it – is an impotent faux kingdom build on the sands of “morality” or “spirituality” or “civic duty.” And those “powers” are no match for the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18).

The Right Omission

Some on “the right” of the gospel are preaching God’s rule within us without teaching the sort of biblical faith that is God’s rule thru us.

In Matthew 25 Jesus says that when we arrive in heaven He will sort those who claimed to be His loyal subjects from those who truly were using one measure: What did you do for the least?

In this passage, I don’t believe Jesus was commanding us to care for “the least” so that He will accept us and allow us into heaven. We are accepted by God because of what Christ did on the cross and by his resurrection. Period.

I also don’t believe Jesus was saying “works” like feeding the hungry and visiting the imprisoned were merely possible results of faith in Christ either. Compassion, love, peace making, generosity, justice, evangelism – these are not electives. We don’t choose, as people with faith in Jesus, to take or leave the poor or oppressed or lost. These works are our faith.

Faith without “works” is not faith (James 2:14-26). It is not faith just like fire without heat and light is not fire. Heat and light are not just the possible result of fire, something fire sometimes does. They are fire. Inseparable from flame itself.

It is impossible for Christ to be King of my inner life and yet leave me cold toward those in every kind of need. I cannot have His mind, His disposition, His forgiveness, love and His power and not desire to exercise it on behalf of those in spiritual and physical need (1 John 3:16-17). I cannot believe in the authority of scripture on the subjects of sin, forgiveness, heaven and hell but put no stock in its teachings about the poor.

Repent

Jesus’ central message was that God’s rule has arrived on earth now (Mark 1): In the hearts of those who deny themselves and place their full trust in Him as absolute King. And through them over everything busted and broken in the world. Jesus came to redeem or reconcile all things – inside and out – by His power alone and for His glory always (Colossians 1:19-24).

Jesus said our response to His gospel is to be repentance. Repentance is a military term for shifting allegiance from the former ruler (John 12:31) to the new conquering king (Hebrews 2:9).  It was a choice given to defeated enemy soldiers by their new ruler after they’d been overthrown: “Repent. Stop fighting against me. Switch sides. Join me. Follow me and live.”

The command was not for a change of allegiance without a change of action or for a new course without a new compulsion. Christ demands a full surrender of our inner and outer lives to His loving rule (Luke 10:27).

Any gospel that denies the necessity of either the inner or outer dimensions of God’s rule is not the gospel of Jesus. Right or left, it’s wrong.

A notary pulled up a chair at our kitchen table and walked us through the stack of paperwork, handing us page after page to sign and date. He explained the purpose of every document; the meaning of every acronym, legal and financial term. To Becky. While I just sat there apparently looking like someone who wouldn’t care about or comprehend such things.

Which is true.

I’m a singer guy who knows only enough to marry a woman who has a graduate degree in finance. I recommend this course of action to all singer guys reading this right now. Marry someone more attractive, responsible, organized and smart than you. This will be easier than you might imagine. You do have a guitar after all.

My wife’s a freakin CPA. (Freakin CPAs are a whole ‘nother advanced class of CPAs, by the way. It goes regular CPA, danged ol’ CPA, dadgum CPA, freakin CPA. In that order.)

She must exude competence in all things financial. This means I’m left out of the simplest financial transactions by others who intuitively discern my lack of financial aptitude. Everyday transactions. Like signing a receipt at a restaurant.

It’s my name on the credit card. I’m the one who hands the credit card to the server. But it never fails, the server returns to the table and hands the receipt to her – the only one at the table who looks capable of calculating a tip and signing her name.

At the end of the closing today, the notary says to me, “So, are you a musician?”

Gotcha. Loud and clear, sir. Was it that obvious? I tried to look like I understood every word. I really did. What gave me away? It was the great haircut wasn’t it?

“Yes,” Becky said, “that was it.”

“I wanna look smart too,” I said.

“Just sit there and look pretty,” she said. And with that she gave my backside a pat and walked away.

Works for me.

“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.”

-Isaiah 58:6-12

In The Beginning:

In the Garden of Eden God gave authority to mankind. God created us, He said, in part to exercise His authority over the earth and its creatures.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (GENESIS 1:26-28)

The Serpent:

After the Fall of creation, God cursed the earth, mankind and womankind and the serpent. God said…

And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.” (GENESIS 3:15)

It’s been theorized that the “head” of the serpent is his authority and it has long been accepted that Jesus is the “offspring” that later comes to crush it.

The Temptation:

Satan certainly has some type of authority over the earth and everything on it after Adam and Eve leave the garden. He is called the “prince of the air,” the “prince of the earth” and the “ruler of of the world” throughout scripture. The apostle Paul goes the farthest with this concept by calling Satan the “god of this world.”

Satan rubs this fact in Jesus’ face when tempting Christ in the desert. Satan shows Jesus the kingdoms of this world and says to Him…

⁶…”I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” (LUKE 4:6-7)

There is some debate about how much we should trust the “liar” in this passage but Satan often speaks in half truths. The half about him being in some sort of ruling position on earth seems to be backed up thoroughly by his many titles of authority in scripture.

Jesus’ Ministry:

Jesus exercised God’s authority over Satan’s minions of sin, injustice, sickness, and seclusion. He cared for the poor, gave sight to the blind and in the process reunited outcasts (due to illness) with the religious community. Jesus said His kingdom, His rule, had begun to arrive on earth. And that, He said, was bad news for the “prince” and “ruler” of this world.

“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. And I , if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (JOHN 12:31-32)

Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. (JOHN 12:43)

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here” (JOHN 14:30-31)

⁸He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 JOHN 3:8)

Jesus’ Death And Resurrection:

When Christ died and was resurrected He exercised God’s authority over sin, death (hell) and over those who confess that He is Lord. (Which is a statement about His authority!) The bible says…

¹³For [The Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (COLOSSIANS 1:13)

¹⁴Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (HEBREWS 2:14-15)

¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (COLOSSIANS 2:15)

The Church:

Believers are now able to carry out the original orders given to God’s children in the Garden: rule over creation. The serpent has been condemned but not driven out completely. The battle continues over the hearts, minds, bodies and environment of humankind. But now God’s Spirit provides power to God’s people who, as servants of God, are exercising God’s authority over the “dominion of darkness.” Not by their might or authority but by God’s. And if God is for us who can be against us? Not even the gates of hell can keep us out!

So go…with Christ’s presence and authority…

¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (MATTHEW 28:18-20)

Life:

So if God through Jesus could exercise authority over sin, sickness, poverty, and seclusion, then you and I can boldly ask God to exercise His authority through Christ in us and through us. We can, with great confidence, go on the offensive against the former prince of this world, knowing that he has been wounded by the resurrection and will ultimately be defeated in the end by the very Power that is in us today – power that is greater than “he who is in the world.”

So lately, to worship God for who He is and to increase my own courage, I’ve been praying these verses back to God. I’ll sit for a while and tell Him why I believe He has authority over this situation or that. And then, once I’m convinced myself (!), I ask Him to exercise His authority – to overthrow cancer with healing, defeat conflict between people with peace, to stomp doubt with belief, to crush shame with forgiveness. And I ask Him what role He wants me to play in overthrowing darkness in each situation.

And I promise not to act like I’m in charge.

Studying God’s authority lately has changed my perspective. How about yours?