How well do we know the lord in provision?

When a woman indicated that she loves the lord and would not put her husband first in her heart, and she loves the lord first and foremost. I wonder if she really knows what she is talking about.  When we talk about the heart, we really mean the will and that  is not a fixed size.  One also has to question how much she loves the lord if that is based on owning property.  If a man does not own property, then he is a weak leader. In that case most minister or vicars are weak leaders by that measure. 

I think God is more interested in Character.  How much do our hearts, ( wills belong to him)?  How much do we trust him to supply our need?

Often we think we know that the bible teaches and at an academic level we do.  However I have found that I learned far more about what it means by being in situations where I had to do it and trust the lord all the more to get me through difficulties.

I think that for some they are so blind that they cannot see that their trust is limited.  They trust the lord for salvation, but they will not trust him for daily provision even though Jesus himself taught us to pray for daily provision.  He called it, "Daily bread".  Many of us want it all in advance before we will really believe and God may force us into situations were we are not in control and we cry out to him for help.  One gets to know him so much better this way.

Who am I?

At the team meeting today, our field leader said that if we were interested in money we were in the wrong job. We put so much emphasis in OM on a high calling because we are serving the lord. After the on line argument I had with Dian and the impertinence from her, I found myself saying yes, exactly, that is who I am, someone serving the lord. I felt so refreshed and refocused on hearing what the field leader said in those few simple words.  It made me all the more determined to press on and not be distracted.


I think Dian had no idea about the level of commitment it takes, and would always complain about provision.  The people of Israel did nothing to make manna grow in the wilderness.  God provided it, but then they complained and talked about the wonderful food they had in Egypt ( when they were slaves)  they rejected god and grumbled against him for they wanted meat.  God said to moses he would provide it. Even Moses was astonished and told God that even if they killed all the cattle there would not be enough.  God brought qual in abundance. Too much in fact that it went off and he punished Israel for their complaining.

I see myself as being like Peter, who got out of the boat to walk on the water.  People dwell on him sinking in unbelief, but fail to remember that at least he had faith to get out of the boat.  None of the others did.

Being in mission makes me all the more aware of Gods provision. 

Levites unlike the other tribes were not Land owners. the other tribes supported them as they went about their priestly duties serving the lord and that is what we are like.

Gods provision and friends first and foremost.

I suppose Dian had one view beyond which she was not willing to go.  I find myself dwelling more and more on Gods provision and a greater calling to trust him for provision and it is to this that I cling to.  God does not provide for me in the common way.  I knew this to be the case when I joined OM and I did that with fear and trembling. 20 years further on, I still find I am learning about his provision.  It is however a pity, that she was not willing to look.  To actually meet me and find out.  However, she was insensitive and rude, and I suspect would have been a liability.  I have decided to join Friends first. I have been putting this off as it costs and other people would be doing the work for me.  However, one of the examples of their clientele identified herself as a missionary and my plan is to identify myself in that fashion so that my cards are on the table right at the start and not likely to attract time wasters who would be better off appealing to someone who only does conventional work.

team focus days

It was just brilliant to have our team focus days at this time. For the first time in all the years I have been here the extended team were here for the christmas party.  Also as I looked round them, I thought, "This is me, a missionary and for all its pitfalls I love it".  It reminded me of who I am against the rudeness of a certain person who has not even met me.  All of these people at the focus days are people I love and by whom I am loved who understand Gods provision in a way that the offending party does not, nor wants to.  She even would not look at the chapters I sent her which is at least consistent with her rudeness and also I think fear, as in reading them she may be confronted by God and realise that I am actually a human being used by God in a way that is further than even I realise. 

I wonder if she will have achieved her ambition by March or will she just change the month but stick to the plan?  I expect I will never know. 

If she listened, she would learn so much more.

As usual, however, I found the focus day both challenging and thrilling.  We had a good discussion about who we are as a team.  One man in particular whom I have always admired gave a perspective on the team DNA.  He pointed out that if we change the way we operate, then that becomes who we are.  As an example he said that we did not turn the telephones off when he joined.  When we did, it changed the way that we engage with people.  ( this was before email)  I think we all learn a lot from him.

Hight earners

A person claims to have gone out with older men and been loved by them.  Men who were doctors or certainly high earners.  I found this person fun, intelligent, but emotionally lacking and rude.  On more than one occassion she could see that I reacted emotionally but said she did not understand why.  The first time, I dismissed it, the second, I paid more attention and reached the conclusion that she was not willing to listen to anything I say about Gods provision, or being prescriptive about what she wanted to have from God by March, namely a husband whom she has not met yet who is a home owner.  Her aunt has done this.   I told her that I did not think that wise.  One should get to know people and I in view of her cutting remarks, I told her she was rude.  She called it telling the truth, but lets face it, if you are rude, it is because it is part of your character and insensitivity often lies behind rudeness.  I would rather be used of God, sensitive and even emotional and depend on him for provision than be in her shoes.

I fear that if she finds such a husband, he will find that she is emotionally bankrupt. I suspect all those men she went out with discovered this.

Going down

Sometimes, I look back on some people and I see them for what they are rather than what I once thought they were and I realise that God prevented me from being with them for they would have dragged me down.

hmmmmm. I have my doubts.

There are some people, who are Christians and very well meaning, but they have a private agenda and in the pursuit of it, they are rude.  They also expect God to be like Aladdin genie and grant them their wishes and in the time they want.  In so doing, they show what they really are and the are deceiving themselves.  They have no concept of mission and make Gods word say things they want it to say.  They also claim to be following the holy spirit.

North Parish Sermon for 16/11/14

Genesis 12: 1-7

Acts 9:1-31

WE ARE ALL WITHOUT EXCEPTION CALLED TO MISSION.

That may seem like a bold statement, but we are indeed all called to mission for Gods instrument for world evangelism is the church.  Christ himself founded the church and it is the church that he uses to reach the world

All of us in OM are members of the church. 

I am a member of the North Parish and my own call to mission is in administration or what the king James Version calls the gift of governments. 

For some it means going to the mission field

For others it is prayer and supporting those who have gone,  but all of us are called in some form or another.

Abraham was called.

Abraham was the first missionary

God told him to leave his home and go to  land that God would show him.  Abraham did not argue about it.  He left all that he had known and took his wife, his nephew and his possessions.

It was a life changing decision, but Abraham did it in accordance with his call and in obedient to God.

God promised him that he would become a great nation and through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed, and Abraham believed God.

Note that the promise extended to the whole world.  In that promise God was promising that not only would he bless Abrahams family and descendants, but every nation in the world and that is mission.

If you have trusted in Christ and accepted him as your saviour, then you are part of the promise that God made to Abraham that day.  We are grafted in to Gods family. We are adopted sons and daughter with all the rights of family members as if we had never sinned.

We can see that as we reach out in love to all the nations of the world down through the ages to the present day, then God is Faithful. 

He has not forgotten his promise

He is still carrying it out.

Those around Abraham were blessed.  There were those who trusted in Abrahams God the only God.

Even when Abraham was called by god it seemed to Sacrifice Isaac his only son, Abraham still believed the promise and that God was well able to carry it out, and we must also learn to trust the lord like Abraham did.

God sometimes works in ways that we would never dream of.  In the promise to Abraham, we see that God promised that the gentiles would be blessed. We would be grafted in and Gods instrument for doing that was his bitter enemy, a man called Saul of Tarsus

In acts 9 v1 we see that Saul was not a nice man

In fact he breathed threats and murder against the disciples

If we had a company meeting about strategy and how to move world evangelism forward, it would not occur to us that we would use a man like that.  Saul hated the disciples and had the them in prison and many faced death.

It was on the road to Demascus to arrest the disciples that God confronted Saul

Note what God said to him, “Saul, why are you persecuting ME?”

Saul in his misplaced zeal was persecuting the very God whom he thought he was serving.

God also said to him, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”.

If I had been in Sauls sandals that day ( not shoes), I would have been terrified.

We also read in V10 that there was in Demascus ( the city Saul was traveling to) a disciple called Ananias and in a vision, God told him to go to a street called straight and enquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus called Saul, FOR HE IS PRAYING.

In that moment as Saul was praying God was acting in response.

God told him that in a vision, Saul had seen a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him that he may receive his sight.

BLINDNESS DID NOT STOP SAUL SEEING GODS VISION

Ananias did not understand why God would send him to Saul, for he knew that Saul had come to arrest the disciples.

God however told GO FOR HE IS A CHOSEN INSTRUMENT TO BEAR MY NAME BEFORE THE GENTILES AND KINGS AND SONS OF ISRAEL.

I will show him what HE MUST SUFFER FOR MY NAMES SAKE.

Ananias did as he was told and when he got there he said

BROTHER SAUL. Can you imagine it?

The enemy, the persecuter for the first time is called Brother.

Can you see how precious those words must have been to Saul?

As soon as Saul had his sight and had stayed with the disciples learning more of Jesus Saul set about going to the synagogue and proclaiming Christ.

THE MINISTRY HE WAS CALLED TO STARTED IMMEDIATELY.

WE ALSE SEE THAT SAUL, WHO BECAME PAUL, STARTED OUT WITH A PLAN, BUT GOD HAD A DIFFERENT PLAN FOR HIM

MY OWN LIFE IS LIKE THAT

I grew up in another church which is now closed and at 17 years old, I decided that I had enough and did not want to go to church again, so my plan was that I would go round a number of different churches each Sunday to satisfy my parents ( who wanted me to go to church) and then when I had been around a lot they would be so tired that they would not concern themselves about the matter.

The first church I went to was this one.  MY INTENTION WAS TO COME FOR ONE SERVICE.

As I set out that day, “If I am ever going to go to this place a second time then I will have to be impressed with the preaching and as I have never heard impressive preaching, that is not likely to happen, is it”?

How wrong I was

BALCONY/ PREACHING

STOPPED AT DOOR, /MEETING KATE/ BILL AND JEAN TAIT.

I CAME A SECOND TIME, THEN THIRD AND A FORTH. Six months passed, I was in the youth fellowship and the prayer meeting .

We see from the passage we read, that when Paul started his ministry there were those who did not believe him and were afraid. 

HAVE YOU EVER FELT THE NEED OF A BARNABUS?

Sometimes you need another believer to re assure you and encourage you.  I have had many such people who were once members of this church who are now with the lord.

Agnes Whiteford encouraged me to come to the prayer meeting. I had never been to a prayer meeting before ( Tell the story)

West Smethick Rally

I went to the EFCC West Midlands Rally in West Smethick today.  I met an Asian man, who was converted in the very church we were meeting in at a film event about  Sheik man who became a christian and then the man himself ( who thought he was going to see a James Bond film) had discussion and he himself was converted.  OM was behind the event and he still links in with us. He was converted in 1977.  He know several people whom I also know.