Private Property

I took this photo myself back in Virginia, yes me and no, not my husband (although he takes a lot of the lovely photos you get to enjoy on this blog). Some friends of ours last summer took us on a nice outing venturing up a mountain and back. It was really fun, exhausting, but fun. I found this sign, Private Property, used to keep folks out of the gated area where the mean bull stood. Not that the bull was intimidating enough already, but they had to go ahead and let us all know that the gated area was off limits with their small sign. I often find places here that hold up their intimidating signs of "Private Property" in this country as well. And when their sign is too small there is always a mean bull standing nearby to enforce their point that they do not want intruders on their premises. I do not see these signs with my physical eyes of course, I am talking about those signs put up spiritually. Everytime I walk into a new territory, a territory where by faith I am claiming as Father's, I repeatedly see these signs go up. They come from either the locals who refuse to hear the Gospel and politely reject my message, a guard on the premises that keeps staring my way as I share Truth with those interested, or something else that you know comes staight from the enemy. But strangely somehow, God can take that intimidating bull and use it for His Glory. You have read before how I made relationships within a local restaurant with some young girls, well I am now a part of their restaurant family and the guard to the street that ventures into the restaurant often, the bull in this situation, is now becoming my friend and trusting me as well. She bought me lunch last week, to my surprise, and gave her daughter my phone number so that I could be friends with her. Not only that, but Father opened my eyes to this person, whom I thought was an intimidating bull, to a hurting individual that needs His love as well. That same day her elderly father came into the restaurant and asked her some pretty forceful questions. I can’t tell you what he was so upset about, but the look in her eyes in response to his embarrassing charade broke my heart. She too needs to know of God’s love and He was showing me that. Another worker there flat out refused to hear me share any Truth with her, but after finding out that she had a fond for our cartoon Sponge Bob..of all cartoons (one I like too!), I found at a nearby gift shop a small notepad with his goofy face on there and gave it to her, deciding to myself that I will then have to show her this love of God that she is rejecting. We have guards to our apartment complex, who are told to keep guard and probably to keep tabs on us, the foreigners, as well. What do you do? You love them to the Lord and in doing so by acknowledging them. So both my husband and I greet everyone of them each time we enter and leave our complex. They love it! Now they sometimes greet us before we get a chance to greet them. I shared recently with a co-worker here that there is a lot of red tape in this country that we have to go through to get things done, another “private property” sign, but I also told her that Father can do the impossible and allow us to walk right through all that political tape to accomplish His task. I think God likes the red tape and “private property” signs and big bulls.. He likes to defeat them through us in order for Him to receive the Glory. On the other hand.. we need to learn to like those things too and not allow them to intimidate us. “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Romans 9:17