Spiritually rich or barren?

Are you spiritually rich or barren?

Are your eyes focused on heavenly or earthly things?

Who or what satisfies your hunger?

Are you well taken care of in the physical but spiritually malnourished?

This week we had summer staff training.  It is always a little more intense than most weeks at camp, as we are trying to build foundations in new staff and build on foundations with returning or older staff.  We spend a lot of the day in sessions and have a speaker come in to teach from God's Word.  It is good and tiring all at once.

The staff theme verse is from Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied".  We established that everyone hungers/thirsts.  That hunger was built into us by God and we are to look to Him to satisfy.  However, most of the time, we look to earthly things to satisfy and spend our lives seeking what is empty and only distracts us for a moment.

Dave Enns, the speaker, asked us if we had ever yearned or longed for something that took some time to get.  Like a new computer, an iPod, a house, a car, that boyfriend/girlfriend, better health, more knowledge, etc?  How did we feel when we got it?  Were we satisfied and never longed for anything again?  If we were honest, we admitted that those things only distract us from our hunger for a moment but soon after we get them, they tarnish and we lose interest because they were never meant to satisfy that hunger inside of us.

Why do we go to God only after trying other things first?  I do this.  I try to distract myself, to escape from whatever I have trouble dealing with, to fulfill that hunger with things that are temporal.  Only when I am desperate and have found these other things to be empty do I go to the Lord.

We are so materially rich in Canada but our society is so spiritually barren.  Even in our churches, people are putting material things, family/friends and activities before the Lord.  They trust in themselves instead of God to provide and feed on entertainment instead of God's Word.  I am guilty of this too and this week have been convicted in session and in reading George Muller's thoughts that I am not seeking the right avenue to satisfy my hunger.  This needs to change and it will not be easy to walk out.

George Muller writes "Truly, it is worth being poor and greatly tried in faith for the sake of having such precious, daily proof of the loving interest which our kind Father takes in everything that concerns us...If the hearts of the children of God are comforted and their faith strengthened, it is worth being poor and greatly tried in faith.  Those who do not know God may read or hear of His dealings with us and see that faith in God is more than a mere notion.  There is indeed reality in Christianity...Our trials of faith during these seventeen months lasted longer and were sharper than during any previous period.  Yet, the orphans had everything they needed in the way of nourishing food and clothing.  We look back at the trials of our faith with perfect joy and peace, knowing that our God did not fail us even once.  In our dependence on Him for every need, we have come to know in a fuller way that we are truly partners with Him in this work."

George's ministry had never been monetarily rich, however, in the last 17 months, they were daily asking for provision and seeing it come in the very hour they needed it.  Previously, there seemed to be larger sums of money coming more regularly, so that they had a few days or even weeks provided for.  Lately, George would wake up, ask God to send money or food for the day and then go to the orphanages to see if something had come.  Each time, God provided, sometimes not even an hour before the next meal.    This was a trial of faith for all involved as they had to trust that God would provide their most basic needs (food, clothing, coal) each and every day.

I am thankful that I do not live in that kind of need.  But what would their faith look like and what kinds of things would those children do for God in their adult years, as they stepped out in faith knowing that God would go before them and provide for them?

A little more George....but mostly thoughts on how God loves to be in the details of our lives

Since we last checked in with George and Mary, their ministry has grown again and George's health has been an issue.  Currently in my reading he has be granted some time off in Trowbridge to rest and hopefully gain some measure of health before returning to work.  I thought I would post one of his entries so you would see how God takes care of him.  Even the most minor details of George's life, God cares about those and sees to George's needs.  

"September 7.  I arrived in Trowbridge .  This has been a very good day.  I had much communion with the Lord.  How kind He is to take me from the work in Bristol for a season and give me more communion with Himself.  I remembered the Lord's special blessing on me in this place at the beginning of last year.  How kind He has been since!  I prayed much for myself, for the Church at large, for the saints here and in Bristol, for my unconverted relatives, for my dear wife, and that the Lord would supply my own temporal necessities and those of the orphans" 

[FYI...in Bristol they have 3 orphan houses with about 250 children living in them and they pray daily for their needs as they live only by what the Lord sends them].  

"I know that He has heard me.  I am surrounded with kind friends and I feel quite at home.  My room is far better than I need, but an easy chair to kneel before in prayer would add to my comfort since my body is so weak.  

In the afternoon, without making a hint about it, I found that someone had placed and easy chair into my room.  I was amazed by the special kindness of my heavenly Father.  He is mindful of the smallest wants and comforts of his children."

As I read this portion of George's story, I was struck again at how the Father delights in His children and gives good gifts.  No, he doesn't always heal us, or take away struggle/sorrow/strife but He still delights in us.  God didn't heal George but saw a small detail and granted George some comfort in his ordeal.  Often I look to God to fix it all but forget that sometimes it's in the small comforts He gives us through the challenges that really show us His heart and character.

If I were a parent, I would delight in giving my children small things that would make them smile up at me, letting them know how much of my heart they have captured.  How much more does God the Father do that for us?  How much more does Jesus the Bridegroom delight in His bride?  How much more does Holy Spirit want to shower us with good gifts?

This week my friend AR came from Winnipeg to visit.  God gifted me with the ability to pick her up from the airport, time to spend with her during the next day while she got to participate in an afternoon at camp.  It was a gift to have her here just at the right time and to be able to share my space with her.  She so willingly opens her home to me when I go home to visit and I was excited to do the same for her.  God was even in the timing of me picking her up from the airport.  I was late due to torrential rains but she got to the luggage carousel just as I parked my car....how great is the God of details!  I am so thankful that He is working those details out for me!

There is nothing in our lives that God is too big and important to care about.  I find comfort in this, as it is the small details of life that add up to overwhelm us.  It is also the small details that if we steward well, God sees and will grant us larger tasks.  I am thankful that God works in the details because it is in these small things that I feel cherished and loved by him, not just the large requests that I make.  It's like having an earthly friend who knows your favourite meal and prepares that one when you come visit.  You know they care because they took note of something important to you and blessed you with it.  Or the friend who drops off your favourite cookies just because, or calls you just to catch up, or leaves a pile of wood by your doorstep because they heard you were out (I still haven't found out who did this, but I was so blessed by it, not because I would have been cold but because wood heat is so much nicer than the baseboard heat that is the other option)!

That is God!  He takes note of things in my/your life that you like, that you are good at, that would bless you and then works in those details to bring you delight.  Some people would say that is coincidence but I know my God, who is for me, loves to make me smile and works in the details....to His glory.

Another pillar of faith to learn from......George Muller.

Today I started reading George Muller's Autobiography.  It's an interesting mix of writing styles.  Often he will default to his journal entries, however, some of it is in narrative form.  He had a dramatic conversion during his 20's, which led him to heartily renounce the things of this world.  He spent hours in his prayer closet in order to "gird" himself for his day.  He reminds me of Bob Sorge who wrote, "Secrets of the Secret Place".  It also inspires me to spend more time with God to see how that changes my day and my ability to hear Holy Spirit in my daily life.

So right now George has just spent 4 years without a formal salary.  He asked the church to dispense with the traditional salary as the church members were purchasing pews in order to pay the pastor.  He wanted them to cheerfully give and to create egality for the rich and poor in his congregation, they could then sit where ever they chose.  So he set out a donation box, which the church brethren would open periodically and give to him.  He never went without and often had enough to share.

It is a great test of faith to trust God for your finances, we live in the age of the Kardashians and Joneses.  In the past 8 months of living in this little house I have leaned more on God for my provision again.  God has blessed me to be able to give even though I am on a tight budget, which brings me joy.  I love knowing that through my little bit of faithfulness, someone else gets to see God provide too!

In terms of hearing and obeying the voice of God and spending time with God in my prayer closet, I am working on that.  I have recently started just spending time with God in His Word, meditating and letting Holy Spirit really speak through it, rather than doing a study or reading a book on a topic.  It is amazing how challenging it is to make the time to spend with God, but how rich it is when we do.  It's not always direct fruit that comes and some days I read nothing that jumps out and causes me to ponder, however, it is good discipline and those are usually days when I am just doing it, but my heart is distracted by other things.  When I come to God and His Word with an open spirit and really want to meet Him in His Word, then He is faithful and meets me there.

I will keep you posted on George and Mary and their adventures in faith.  I will also try to keep you posted on mine as well.

Bonhoeffer - what a guy!

I have been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's biography.  It is a large but very interesting work.  Before starting the book, I could tell you that I had heard quotes by Bonhoeffer but could not quote them back to you nor tell you the title of anything he had written.  As I have read almost half of his biography, I don't know that I could name his works yet, but have loved the snippets of his writings that are included in this tome.

Bonhoeffer was a theologian, a pastor (not all theologians are gifted pastors), a teacher, a prophet and ultimately became a spy and part of the assassination attempt on Hitler.  As a theologian, he was brilliant but he was accessible and was a people-person.  He was a good pastor (although he delivered severe sermons) and was leading small groups from his college days on.  I am intrigued by this combination of skills, as many professors are good at research and know their field of study well (are brilliant) but many can not communicate it back in a form that others can learn easily from.  Bonhoeffer seemed able to be both an academic and pastoral.  He almost always had a group of young people he would meet with to sing, pray and discuss Biblical ideas with and loved pastoring churches as much as he loved debating with other academics.  He was so concerned about doing the will of God and worshipping only God that almost immediately out of University, he was at odds with the German Lutheran church, especially once it became the Reich Church.

So here are two of my favorite quotes so far.  Bonhoeffer ultimately would be sent to a concentration camp and would be executed there for opposing Hitler and the Nazis.  He wrote this in the early 1930's when the German Lutheran Church was being taken over by the National Socialist government by placing people in authority within the church who supported Hitler and the Anti-Jewish ideals.

"Although I am working with all my might for the church opposition, it is perfectly clear to me that this opposition is only a very temporary transition to an opposition of a very different kind, and that very few of those engaged in this preliminary skirmish will be part of the next struggle.  And I believe that the whole of Christendom should pray with us that it will be a 'resistance unto death,' and that the people will be found to suffer it...Simply suffering - that is what will be needed then - not parries, blows or thrusts such as may still be possibly or admissible in the preliminary fight, the real struggle that perhaps lies ahead must simply be to suffer faithfully...for some time [the church struggle] hasn't even been about what it appears to be about; the lines have been drawn somewhere else entirely."
Bonhoeffer ended up suffering in a cell in a concentration camp, being faithful till the end.


My favourite short quote from Bonhoeffer right now is:
"If you board the wrong train it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction."

I see some interesting parallels between what happened in the German church of the early 1900's and what is happening in the Anglican Church of Canada today.  It is a slippery slope when we allow our teachers/preachers/authorities to morph theology with "politically correct" views and call it God's ideals; when we do not stand in opposition to those things we know are not of God, but profess them from a Christian pulpit.  It started in Germany with the profession of the Aryan Paragraph (negating Jews from practically everything) and ended with the Reich church throwing out the Old Testament and declaring Jesus the "Aryan Messiah".  How do we get from Jesus born a Jew to being the Aryan Messiah?

I can't contort my knowledge of God and His Word enough to get there but then again, I can't preach that Jesus was not the Son of God either, which is happening today in churches in Canada.  I think it starts with a small slide and gains momentum, after which, we just follow our own course down the slope, because it's easier than trying to scramble back up the muddy hill to get back to the Truth.  And because satan works hard at maintaining our sinful desire to be God.  

It is interesting that Bonhoeffer started out working to oppose those same things from within the church but quickly started to speak about having to break away from the German Church, starting the Confessing Church, in order to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not the Reich church ideals.

Where are we headed Canada?  Why do we not call each other to account when we hear preaching that is lukewarm or in opposition to what the Bible states?  I am thankful that God maintains a remnant and that there are faithful followers who know the Word of God and will stand in opposition.  Even if that means leaving an institution that was founded on God's Word/principles but now contorts/dismisses the Word of God to preach their own ideals and philosophies.

I do not want to 'suffer unto death' but it may come to that, as I am only willing to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour and will not deny the deity of Christ.  I only pray that He upholds me through whatever might come.

Oh that we would learn from history and not be condemned to repeat it over and over again.  Lord Jesus come soon!

My Reading Got a Little More Intense

Reading Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas and loving it!  Not light frivolous reading but definitely worth the time!  More thoughts and quotes will come, but for right now I am still working through it.