God's Will

When asked how he determined the will of God on any matter,
George Muller listed the following steps he believed were necessary:

1. “I get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own
in regard to any particular matter.”

2. “I do not leave the result to feelings or simple impressions.
That can make one open to great delusions.”

3. “I seek God’s will through, or in connection with, his Word.
If you look to the Spirit without the Word, you open yourself to
delusion.”

4. “I consider providential [God-controlled] circumstances.”

5. “I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me.”

6. “I make sure I have a clear conscience before God and man.”

7. “Every time I listened to men instead of God, I made serious
mistakes.”

8. “I act only when I am at peace, after much prayer, waiting on
God with faith.”

Those who walk by faith, seeking only God’s perfect will, are often
sorely tested and tried. More and more in my own life, I am finding
out how important diligent prayer and Bible reading are. Sadly, not
many of God’s people pray diligently nowadays. Instead, there is
much TV viewing and very little of waiting on God.

When I give myself to prayer, my faith rises. And when I feed on
God’s Word, my confidence in his power to lead and help me
increases. The Lord becomes my banker, my advisor, my
attorney.

(quoted from David Wilkerson)

Moving and QUDOS

This past Sunday we had our first Sunday meeting in the QUDOS room of the University of Glasgow's Queen Maragaret Union. Since I'm not there to report, check out Brian's and Kirsty's blogs. They detail the last week of Re:Hope as it pertains to moving to our new, temporary dwelling. Photos too!

Scottish Invasion

Mark headed back to Glasgow today after 10 days of helping me support raise and communicate with my church in Ohio. It was such a good idea to invite him to visit (if I do say so myself). He is visible evidence of the God's work in Re:Hope over the last 4 years. Sometimes supporters just need to see that firsthand, even if they already believe it is happening. Mark just needed to be who he is and people were attracted to that. He gave me a louder voice to speak about what Re:Hope is, and many were encouraged by his brief testimony when he spoke in front of 500 people on Sunday. Maybe he also got a vision of what life might be like in the USA when he comes to Multnomah Bible College - bar the Mustang and guns.

2 weeks

I received bad news Friday. We were told we have 2 weeks to vacate our church building, the minimum required in our church lease. Perhaps they got permission to build or someone else made an offer that has high enough. This couldn't come at a worse time, since Wade and I are out of the country. I don't like being away at times like this. So I'm asking for prayer for the church:

-wisdom to know how to respond, especially for Brian
-that God would fight for us
-that our church would glorify God and become more holy through this
-for alternative venues to be made known
-even that somehow we would be able to stay in the building
-my own attitude would be one of faith and trust, not fear and anger

Join us in prayer. God can do impossible things!

Ohio home

Week One back in the States. After a completely smooth journey to Richmond, I soaked up some sun and briefly bonded with my parents before driving to Ohio in our old 1992 Ford Explorer. The car is not the ideal travel vehicle, but it's free and the seats are comfortable. By going the speed limit, I was able to eek out 23 MPG, which I think is a record. (and that probably only interests me!)

Reached Ohio and made my home in the basement of some friends. Sunday I spoke at three services of Northampton United Methodist Church and led the prayer time. I only had a few minutes, so I gave some examples of how God is clearly, miraculously at work in Re:Hope and reminded people that God still hears prayers and is still intervening. I was greeted very warmly by friends and received lots of hugs. God has blessed me.

Today I start to get to work on a project that must be dealt with before I leave: emptying my storage unit! Through a combination of selling and giving away, I need to rid myself of all my American earthly possessions to save myself $75/month. It's Memorial Day today, but I don't think I'll be doing any real memorialising, except in my head.

1 week

There's a week left before I go to the USA for some 'furlough' time. These times are usually stressful with lots of things that need to get done. There's never a great time to leave Re:Hope, and this time is no exception. Wade and Leah will be gone for parts of the summer, and that will leave room for others to step into our roles temporarily.

There's been much going on lately. There was a baptism last week and one this coming Sunday. This past weekend we held 'Simply Colossians,' a blitz through a study of Colossians, where six people spoke on different sections of the book. It was retreat-like, except that we were in the church building. Can you believe that about 40-50 people attended? That's 25% of Sunday attendence! Some people have exams this week and still took the whole day Saturday to learn from God's word.

Next week we're hosting a missions team from Multnomah Seminary in Oregon. One of their tasks will be to assist in the production of our La Nuit Deux music event. Should be great. Wish I were going to be there.

In addition good things have happened recently that I can't write about here; these give me lots to give thanks for and fresh news to tell when I get home.

Flowers for God

John Piper uses a great analogy to illustrate when selfishness is good - when it is concerned with and springs from the delight in another.

A husband wants to surprise his wife. So he walks up to the front door of his house with a bouquet of flowers. He rings the doorbell. When his wife answers, she's very surprised, and says, "Dear, you're so sweet!" And the husband says, "No, I'm just doing my duty."

That's strange to us because we can see that this is not love.

The second illustration is like the first, except it ends differently. When the wife answers the door she says, "Dear, you are so sweet!" And the husband says, "Come with me right now, I've arranged for a babysitter, and you and I are going away for the night. I wouldn't want to be anywhere other than with you."

What if the wife then said, "You're so selfish! All you can think about is you you you! You wouldn't want to be anywhere else? Hmph."?

The point Piper was making is his famous "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him." It's not selfish to love God so much because we get joy as a result.

I wonder how far this analogy can be pushed, because reality sometimes feels like this to me. Apologies to the Lord, this is not how I feel all the time:

Flowers in hand, I walk up to the door and ring the bell for God. On the door is a note, "Hi dear child, I'm away for the moment. I'll be back as soon as I can, but it might be a few years. While you're waiting, open the box I've left in front of the door. It's got all our old love letters. I've saved them! Keep reading those and remembering those sweet times til I return. Love, God." It starts to rain. A few times He rings me on my mobile, but I can only pick up a word or two and the rest is garbled.

Piper says we can only be 70-80% delighted in God during this life, that there will always be distractions and sin that get in the way. Maybe that's why the analogy is imperfect. I just want to see God and delight in Him as He is. Or maybe this is an occasion when feelings aren't describing the situation accurately. That I need to remind myself of the truth that God is here and I can meet with Him and delight myself with Him.

Power of Ten

Seth Godin writes that for the 'new' marketing, you must forget going for the anonymous masses and pick ten people you know. If they don't buy it, then start over with a new product.

I know evangelism is not marketing, but isn't there some truth to how the Gospel truly spreads? Change 'ten' to 'twelve' and you've got Acts. The major difference is that when your closest ten don't buy it, you should either change your method, rethink what message you're actually communicating, or move on to another ten.

Are there ten people in my LIFE who have heard me tell (or show) them the message of Jesus and really bought into it, that it was the best thing they ever discovered? Hmmm, I don't think so. That's embarrassing.

Smart

On the window of one of those cheque-cashing stores (i.e. predatory lenders). Silly me, I thought that the cause of the 'crunch' was people going into debt who had no business going into debt. Obviously, the solution to a lot of debt is going into more debt (and high interest debt at that!). Brilliant!

Reminds me of "Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford". "So, let's say I don't have the money to buy something, should I buy it anyway?" "Noo.."

Back of the Room

Read a great story by Dan. Now you know what goes on in the back of the room on Sundays.