Poured Out

In chapter five of Romans, the Apostle Paul tells us that 'the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us'.

That phrase 'poured out' means overflowing, super abundance, gushing out, profusion, lavish outpouring. John MacArthur makes the comment that "our Heavenly Father does not proffer his love in measured drops, but in immeasurable torrents". This gives us unwavering assurance and comfort that the God who saves us is the God who keeps us.

The hymn, 'The Love of God' describes this pouring out of God's love very well. Written in 1917 by Frederick M. Lehman, the lyrics follow:

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.

Refrain
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Refrain

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Refrain

I Pledge Allegiance to What?

Am I the only one that thinks that the Pledge to the Christian flag is odd? There are a couple versions of this pledge, one of which goes like this:

"I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior, for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."

It seems iconish or Catholic-esque to me. If we take the 'flag' part out of that paragraph then I could live with it because the rest of the words are mostly biblical (I would change the last phrase to say 'all who repent and believe'). I pledge my allegiance to the Savior alone, not to the recently man-made symbol of him. I read some things on the internet on how this flag came into being and its uses and such... I understand the symbolism that is meant here, but do we really need a 'Christian Flag', to divert our attention? Don't we already have the beauty of Christ to capture our gaze? Don't we already have the cross? Don't we already have biblical symbols that remind us of or point us to the Savior, like the ordinances of Communion and Baptism? Do we find any such pledge in the Bible?

I'm just asking...

The Theology of Resting in God

I couldn't resist sharing the devotion for August 12, from Oswald Chambers' classic devotional work, "My Utmost for His Highest".

"Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" (Matthew 8:26).

When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.

"… O you of little faith!" What a stinging pain must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, "We missed the mark again!" And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we were facing.

There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.

We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.

Goodbye Charlotte

Though I had not seen you for years, I still remember those days as a kid when we would come to visit. And I remember your visits to our house too. Those were days and years gone by too fast.

We prayed for you as you traveled down the painful road of cancer. You didn't die on Sunday. You are more alive now than ever, because you are now face to face with the Savior and your pain and toil are over.

You are free now... enjoying the benefits of eternity... something that the rest of us long for. Goodbye Charlotte, I'll see you on the other side.

Eliot Mooney - One of the Many Reasons Why I am Strongly Pro Life

Go to Randy Alcorn's website and read about Eliot Mooney: http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/

Or see the video about him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0

Pew Crimes

I recently read an outstanding book by James R. White called "Pulpit Crimes". In it, he suggests that the impotency found in today's Christian circles is largely due to the 'crimes' committed in the pulpit. In some cases, pastors (or anyone who stands behind the sacred desk) often have not taken their task of preaching the Word quite as seriously as they are expected to. Clarity of speech is non-existant at times. Explanations of crucial cornerstone doctrines maybe confusing or even flat out wrong. Proper exegesis, dividing the Word correctly, is a thing of the past.

In typical James R. White fashion, he does much to make the reader think through the issues. I did come to an unexpected conclusion, however, upon finishing the book. I wondered how many of those 'pulpit crimes' I had been committing as I teach Sunday School. Furthermore, I wondered how many 'PEW' crimes I had been committing. After all, the pastor is not the only criminal here, right?

I considered writing my own book on 'pew crimes'. If I were to write such a book, I would include the following 'pew crimes', of which there is enough evidence to convict any of us of being guilty:
1). Stumbling into church at the last minute, unprepared for worship. How often have we stayed up late on Saturday night for entertainment value, only to have our worship lackluster on Sunday morning.
2). A wandering and distracted mind during worship. The afternoon dinner or football game looms large in our minds while we're singing, 'How Great Thou Art'.
3). Pretending to know it all, thus being unteachable. We're a pretty intelligent bunch of Christians, we are...
4). Carrying a load of guilt from unconfessed sin into the worship service. Isaiah tells us in chapter 57 that our 'iniquities have made a separation between you and your God'.
5). Participating in the communion service without a full self-examination (eating and drinking condemnation to yourself).
6). Being an "over-Berean", that is, over-criticizing the pastor. Holding the pastor or teacher accountable to Biblical truth, as the noble Bereans did in the book of Acts, is one thing. Criticizing out of selfish motives is quite another.
7). Focusing on style and dress. Yes, the fashion police are alive and well in the church. We want to make sure we are respectful and modest in our attire, but our family motto has always been: 'we dress up on the inside'.

I am sure there are many others I could list, but I am starting to convict myself.
Are you as guilty as I am?

George Mueller, Devoted to Prayer - Part 3

So, what can we learn from this man of God, George Mueller?

He was a man who was fully devoted to prayer. After having been sickly as a young man, by 1839, George was physically and mentally healthy than he’d ever been. He attributed this to his habit of rising early to pray (and the eccentric habit of dunking his head in cold water).

George also realized that God's sovereignty was at the very root of his confidence. He said, "God is almighty, the hearts of all men are in his hands."

I will let Mueller speak for himself as I make several observations from his life. Quotes are taken from the biography, Delighed in God, by Roger Steer.

Mueller had proper FOCUS – "My eyes look not at the empty stores and the empty purse, but to the riches of the Lord only".

Mueller had NO WORRIES – "Our need is my comfort"

Mueller had JOY – "Inexpressible was the delight I had in God, who had thus given me the full answer to my thousands of prayers"

Mueller had PATIENCE – "See how precious it is to wait on God! See how those who do not do so our confounded! Is it not manifest that it is most precious, in every way to depend on God?"

Mueller had VISION – "My chief object was the glory of God, by giving a practical demonstration as to what could be accomplished simply through the instrumentality of prayer and faith". (reflecting on the days when he was seeking God for wisdom regarding starting the orphanage)

Mueller had unshakable FAITH– "My hope was in God alone. I knew him, and I knew He would do what was best for me. My heart was satisfied with Him. I delighted myself in Him." (when he thought his first wife was dying from a serious illness. She survived that particular illness.)

Mueller had PERSEVERANCE – "The great fault of the children of God is, they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything for God’s glory, they should pray until they get it. He has heard my prayers tens of thousands of times. Once I am persuaded that a thing is right and for the glory of God, I go on praying for it until the answer comes – George Mueller never gives up!"

Many people would ask George the secret to his spiritual success, to which he would reply,
"There was a day when I died, utterly died. Died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will – died to the world, its approval or censure – died to the approval or blame of even my brethren and friends – and since then I have studied to show myself approved only unto God".

George Mueller did die... physically. On March 10, 1898 at 6:00am, George peacefully went to his heavenly home... but not without making an eternal impact in this world.

What will you and I accomplish as a result of meeting with God in prayer???

George Mueller, Devoted to Prayer - Part 2

To get to the reason for George Muller’s spiritual success, we need to start early in his life: He lived a godless and reckless life when he was young. He was a liar and a thief.
When his mother was dying, he was spending time out on the street drunk. He spent four weeks in jail at age 16 for stealing. His father, who was an unbeliever bailed him out.
George’s father sent him to the University of Halle to study divinity and prepare for the ministry because "that would be a good living". Neither he nor George had any spiritual aspirations.

When Mueller was 20 years old, he was invited to a Bible Study. Of that invitation to Bible study he said, "It was to me as if I had found something after which I had been seeking all my life long. I immediately wished to go." As a side note, we can never over-estimate the power of God to change someone's life through a simple invitation to Bible study, church or Sunday School. At the close of the meeting, they sang a hymn and someone prayed. Mueller thought, "I could not pray as well, though I am a much more educated man." After that evening of Bible study, Mueller stated: "I have not the least doubt, that on that evening, God began a work of grace in me. . . . That evening was the turning point in my life."

Six or seven weeks later and after much prayer, Mueller returned to see his father to seek his permission to become a missionary. His father was furious, disowning him. In the hopes of becoming a missionary, Muller went to England to work with the London Missionary Society, but because of his theology and ministry convictions his association with them ended.

In the meantime, in the summer of 1829, George became sick and ended up staying with another man of God while he recovered in the town of Teignmouth.

Two crucial discoveries while he was sick:
1) . the preciousness of reading and meditating on the word of God, and
2). the truth of the doctrines of grace.

He said 40 years later that his preaching had been fruitless from 1825 to 1829 in Germany. But then he had been taught the doctrine of Grace in England. Nornally, we might look at 'sickness' as being a disturbance or interruption in our plans, but as God's sovereignty goes, Mueller was right on schedule... In learning these doctrines of grace and God's sovereignty, Mueller states,
"…when it pleased God to reveal these truths to me, and my heart was brought to such a state that I could say, "I am not only content simply to be a hammer, an axe, or a saw, in God's hands; but I shall count it an honor to be taken up and used by Him in any way; and if sinners are converted through my instrumentality, from my inmost soul I will give Him all the glory"

God's sovereignty = Mueller's confidence. It was at this time that George Mueller sought to glorify God through a children's ministry, and the idea of the orphanage was born. Mueller and his wife prayed incessantly for wisdom and guidance. It became clear that this is what the Lord would have him do in ministry. When he studied the passage in Psalm 81:10, where it says, 'open your mouth wide and I will fill it', George realized that they had prayed long and hard about whether or not to start this kind of ministry, but not how to fund it or staff it. So now he set out to pray diligently for God to provide everything necessary to make it happen.

Because of his confidence in God to provide, he didn't take a regular salary, he didn't go into debt or take out loans and he didn't ask anyone directly for money at any time. God answered these prayers for provision exceedingly and abundantly more than Mueller could have thought or asked. In his biography on George Mueller, Delighted in God, Roger Steer details many, many accounts of how Mueller and the orphanage was well provided for. Answered prayer, after answered prayer are recorded in this very encouraging book.

What can we learn from a guy like Mueller? Part 3 next time will let George Mueller speak for himself as I post quotes from the book then.

George Mueller, Devoted to Prayer - Part 1

Last summer I read a biography on George Mueller, one of my heroes of the faith. I recently reacquainted myself with this great man of God for a Sunday School lecture.

He was born in 1805, and lived a full life of 92 years, going to heaven in 1898. He was born in Germany, but spent most of his life in Bristol, England where he pastored the same church for over sixty-six years. Mueller married Mary Groves in 1830 (she died in 1870). They had one daughter that survived infancy (Lydia). He married Suzanna Sanger in 1871 (she died in 1894).

When George was 28, he founded The Scripture Knowledge Institute for Home and Abroad. There were five aggressive goals of the Institute: 1). establish schools for children and adults to teach Bible knowledge, 2). Bible distribution, 3). missionary support, 4). tract and book distribution, and 5). "to board, clothe and Scripturally educate destitute children who have lost both parents by death".

Mueller's vision for children grew into the orphan ministry that he is so well-known for.
He built five large orphan houses and cared for 10,024 orphans in his lifetime. He never took out a loan or incurred debt and he never asked anyone for money. He didn’t take a salary for 68 years and he rejected life insurance and retirement accounts. Mueller, his family and his orphans never went hungry.

George Mueller was quite the accomplished individual. He did all this while he was preaching three times a week from 1830 to 1898. If you do the math, that is at least 10,000 sermons.
At age 70 he fulfilled a life-long dream of missionary work for the next 17 years until he was 87.
He traveled to 42 different countries, preaching once a day, addressing some three million people. In 1878, Mueller and his wife Suzanna were invited to the White House to meet with President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes.

How does someone accomplish so much? To what do we attribute the many spiritual successes and victories of George Mueller? Find out next time!

Back To School

We did a little 'back to school' shopping tonight. My sons both picked out their bookbag/backpacks and lunch boxes. We have a few more things to get before the first day of school at the end of August. It may sound trivial, but the bookbags and lunch boxes are an answer to prayer. When you thank God for His provision, and pray for Him to continue to provide - and then when there is money to get backpacks and lunch boxes - that is a direct answer to prayer.

We recently had another direct answer to prayer regarding the kids going back to school. They attend our church's school - First Baptist Christian School - where they are receiving a top-notch education. We have been extremely impressed with the program. For some months now, there has been a need to fill a vacancy in the Principal position. And so we prayed. This is no light matter for us, and so we prayed for this person who would be a key in setting the direction and policy for the school. We prayed for this person who would be shepherding our children for 7 hours out of the day. We prayed for this person who would be bringing new ideas and thoughts to the table.

Yesterday, we spent the day helping our new principal, his wife and seven children move into their new house. This man - and his family - are a direct answer to our many prayers. We have heard him speak several times at our church, we spent time with his family yesterday and we are looking forward to knowing them more personally in the coming days and weeks. We are quite confident that this man and his family were the ones that God had in mind to minister to our family at the school - and to use in increasing our faith, seeing as how He is interested in hearing and acting on our prayers.

In a familiar passage of scripture, James 4:2, we are told that 'you have not because you ask not'. We can literally state the converse of that: 'we asked, and we received'.

Thank you Lord, for another answer.