The Struggle is really Old

 Written by Scott Colburn
      At the Church In The Margins and at the Jail Bible Study in the past few months we've tried to go back to the beginning and find core principles that will help us and our friends to go forward in personal piety and corporate ministry.  At CITM we have shared Paul's letters to the Ephesians and to the Philippians as ways to see how our little dinner get-together can be church to those who need it.  We saw that God gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, calls us to walk in sacrificial love so that we are the Light in a world of Darkness, and prepares us to battle in the spiritual war between God and the enemy.  Look ma, we're discipling!  We have been the beneficiaries of a lot of good donated food, so we have plenty of food and room at our table.  Turk and Scott are ready for a continued ministry to a bunch of teens who were coming to the CITM but have not been in the past months.  Pray for them, whether they are part of CITM or not.

      At the jail, the men's side just finished a long study of Genesis.  We see how long mankind has struggled to be in the light of God's presence, against its own desire to be master.  Genesis is a rich book of repeating themes like brotherly conflict, the killing effects of a lack of hospitality, and the underdog winning out over the favored.  Pray for the men and the women as we go forward with a study of Luke on the men's side and as the women work to prepare the women inmates for the gospel in their lives.  The struggle is really old, and it helps to go back to the beginning sometimes and engage with the basic questions.