The Good Fight

The year 2007 was a year of great ministry opportunities. Many projects were accomplished and many lives were touched in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you so very much for being our partners in this great endeavor.

As we look into the next year, we see so much work that needs to be accomplished. We also see on the horizon the evil forces gathering strength trying to re-conquer the lives and territories they lost. We are in a spiritual war, and we must continue our fight. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV).

This passage reminds me of the events just before the battle of Marathon when the ten Athenian generals met on the hills above the battlefield. They saw before them the invading forces of a mighty empire, which had in the previous fifty years shattered and enslaved nearly all the kingdoms and principalities of the then known world. They knew that all the resources of their own country were comprised in the little army entrusted to their guidance. They saw before them a chosen host of the Great King Darius sent to wreak his special wrath on that country, which had dared to aid his rebels and burn the capital of one of his provinces. It was here on these hills that the ten generals decided to go to war and not surrender even though before their own eyes was a mighty army of more than one hundred thousand strong against the small Athenian army of ten thousand soldiers. What an unequal display of forces! Without knowing the full extent of their decision, in their hands rested the fate of Athens, of Greece, and of the Western civilization. Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, Callimachus, and the rest of the generals later led the Athenian army to win one of the greatest victories in history.

In a similar way today, as the warriors on the plains of Marathon eons ago, we are in a spiritual war as soldiers in the army of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have important battles ahead of us in 2008; we are not fighting man, we are fighting “principalities, powers, and the rulers of darkness against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We do all this on behalf of our King and to accomplish His purposes here on earth.

In Romania, Cornel and Karen, together with all our volunteers and workers, are called to this endeavor. We are called to preach the Gospel to those that have no access to it, to care for the orphans, those that were abandoned by their parents because of sin, poverty, or lack of spiritual insight. We are planting churches that act as strongholds of faith, love, and charity, and we disciple the young and the adults to become soldiers in our Lord’s Army. Our purpose is to defeat the enemy. The Lord called us to a “total war,” and we want to be faithful to the end.

Just like our forefathers as “they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul” (2 Chronicles 15:12, KJV), we at PTJM make a similar covenant for 2008. We want to seek God with all our hearts and follow His leading faithfully. In this adventure of faith we invite you, our prayer partners and supporters, to continue to be part. Let us commit ourselves to honor the calling He has placed on our lives and claim the victories He has in store for us this year.

Are you ready for battle? Then bend your knees... and begin to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven...”

In His service,

Cornel & Karen Bucur

“τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα ἠγώνισμαι τὸν δρόμον τετέλεκα, τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκα·” (2 Timothy 4:7)

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:” (2 Timothy 4:7)