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Logos Ministries Incorporated
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Volume 4, Number 2 -- October 1996 IT’S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING! (This is the sixth in a series of meditations on principles one can find in the Scriptures; principles that affect the way we live and serve God.) ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED. The people who live for God are a timeless minority. The purpose for this is the same in every era. In the Old Testament, if God had given Israel's 20,000 man army victory, they would have thought it was because of their military might and skill. If, on the other hand, God gave victory to a handful of ill-equipped, poorly trained Jewish soldiers over thousands of their enemies, then it was very clear that it was God who gave the victory. This accomplished two things: It kept Israel humble. They never forgot that it had to be God who did it. It also gave them a vivid picture of the power of God. There are many examples in the Bible. In the story of Noah, Genesis 6, nothing is said about anyone agreeing with Noah. It appears that Noah took a lonely stand in the face of ridicule and abuse. Nevertheless, God miraculously preserved Noah and his entire family. Genesis 14 tells the story of Abraham's rescue of Lot from the four eastern kings. We know that Abraham's neighbors sent several men and Abraham had 318 men in his household. God gave this small band victory over the large armies of the eastern kings,. When Abraham returned, he gave a tenth of the spoil to Melchizedek as a way of acknowledging that it was God who gave them victory. In Deuteronomy 20, Moses gave Israel instructions concerning the conquest of Canaan. Israel would face the fiercest armies in the world. These armies had horses and chariots, the nuclear weapons of that era. Nevertheless, God was prepared to give Israel victory over them all. The story of Gideon, Judges 7, is well known. Historically, there have been many armies that have been too small, but no other army was ever too large. As you know God told Gideon that he had too many men. God explained His reasoning, "...In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her..." In Genesis 37 ff., Joseph repeatedly stood all alone. His ten older brothers conspired to kill him. Even in selling him as a slave it was considered a death warrant. The whole Egyptian power structure was bent to favor Potiphar's guilty wife and punish innocent Joseph. The cup bearer and baker worked against Joseph. Through it all, God was with Joseph and ultimately used his life and faithfulness to preserve both Egypt and Israel. In Judges chapter four, Barak struggled with this principle. He knew that Israel's army was outnumbered. He also knew that the enemy had 900 chariots. Barak refused to go into battle unless Deborah went with him. Deborah, on the other hand, realized that it did not matter how large the army was. The enemies 900 chariots did not matter. God could and would give them victory because of His great power, not theirs. Thus it was that a housewife, armed with only the tools she used around her tent, won the victory for Israel because God enabled her to do so. Daniel chapter six tells a similar story. The princes and lower level officers were jealous of Daniel and conspired to have him killed. God did not prevent their fiendish plans, but rather used the results of them to bring respect to Daniel and praise to Himself. In I Samuel 17, David stood all alone against the giant Goliath. God enabled David to kill the giant while Israel's tiny army trembled. Again, David and a small band of loyal followers were able to elude Saul's large army. This small group was even in the position to kill Saul, but David refused to do so out of respect for the anointing of God. Paul and Silas, in Acts 16, stood alone against the rulers of the city and Roman power structure. God did not prevent this from happening. When the evil rulers illegally placed Paul and Silas in prison, God used this unfortunate experience to redeem the jail-keeper and his family. This same principle appears in the Gospel record.
Some people talk about winning the whole world to Christ. That would be wonderful, but Jesus made it very clear that this is not the way things would turn out. God designed that His people bring even additional glory to His name by accomplishing miraculous things while seriously outnumbered both in numbers and that which they have at their command to accomplish the task . Think about your life. Think about the life of the church. We are most uncomfortable because we are the minority. Intentionally or otherwise, we think about being the powerful majority who can control what happens in our community and nation. Granted, it is much more comfortable to be the majority. It seemingly requires less faith to be in control as the majority. That is NOT God's intent. God wants to use our vulnerable minority, powerless position to bring greater glory and honor to His name and kingdom. It is precisely at this point that this principle gives us an insight into God's intent for us. It requires greater faith to be outnumbered and armed with inferior weaponry. That is exactly the area in which God wants us to grow. The issue is simple: are we willing to be extremely vulnerable in order to bring great glory to God and His kingdom? Are we willing to trust God to show Himself strong through our precarious situation? It is to this point that God would help us to grow.
On September 5, I left for the Ukraine. I arrived in Kiev on September 6 and took an overnight train to Donetsk. This 500 mile train ride took about 20 hours. I rested up on Saturday evening. On Sunday, I preached in the church in the city of Mekeebka Monday morning I started teaching a class in the book of Hebrews. I taught the third year pastors class that I taught last year. These students have had two years of Greek, so we conducted the class using the Greek New Testament rather than the Russian and English. Because a new schedule was to begin on September 23, we had only two weeks to teach this class. This necessitated teaching all morning and in the afternoon. This was a grueling schedule, but it was really exciting. The student body at the seminary has doubled since last year. There are now about 250 in residence at the seminary including spouses and children. Finances are really tight at the school The Ukrainian economy is not really any better than it was a year ago. Some mine workers in the city have not been paid in over six months, though they have worked all that time. The wealthy are building big, American style homes and driving Mercedes, but everyone else is just barely surviving. This makes it difficult for the churches as well as the college. I had a great time teaching. It was really exciting to share with these students again knowing that they will be graduating and serving in churches and mission situations before I go back there again. SPIRITUAL LIFE RETREAT On October 17, I will begin a three day spiritual life retreat for the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. The focus of this retreat is to look carefully at what the New Testament says about a number of ingredients of spiritual growth. To prepare myself for this series of lectures, I have written a book covering 17 different ingredients of spiritual growth. This book has been printed and will be available, for the first time, at this retreat. The printing of the book is due to be completed on October 7,1996. One box of books will be sent immediately to the retreat center to be sold at the retreat. The balance of the printing will be sent to my home. You may remember that in the newsletters for the past year and a half, we have urged you to join us in praying for the ministers and congregations of the North Indiana Conference. It has been a great joy to pray for tone district each day. It was a special blessing to pray for congregations who were without a pastor. It is our hope that God has made this a time of great blessing for each minister and congregation in the conference. I thank God for this opportunity to share with these fellow Christians who are intent on growing in their walk with Christ. NEW BOOK As indicated earlier, I have written a book in preparation for the Spiritual Growth Retreat in Indiana. The book is entitled, IMITATORS OF GOD. This book attempts to look at every pertinent verse in the New Testament to help us identify how the New Testament defines the spiritual growth ingredient and discover what the Scriptures say about it. In reality, this is an exercise in the final step in Inductive Bible Study - Correlation. By the time you receive this newsletter, the book will be available through Logos Ministries. You will see the book listed on the order blank included with this newsletter. TWO MORE BOOKS As you know, I have written four books since September, 1995. Two of these - Discovering the Message of Scripture and Imitators of God - have been published as bound books. The other two books - a study of Hebrews and a Study of the book of Judges - are almost complete. They lack only the chapters providing questions for each lesson. These should be finished before our next newsletter. AN IMPORTANT PROJECT At Donetsk Christian University, there are a lot of students who are suffering from stomach problems. In great part, there are two reasons for this problem:
This is very serious because the university is located in an area where they face two debilitating epidemics at the same time and have for the past three years. People have been very generous to offer financial help in the attempt to provide a commercial dishwasher that heats its own water and can sterilize the dishes. To date, people have given nearly $1,600.00 to help provide this machine. upon arrival, we discovered new restrictions on imported goods. It is now not feasible to import a dishwasher from Germany as planned. Ukrainian authorities are taxing imports up to and above the cost of the machine. It now appears that it will be necessary to secure a commercial dishwasher made in the Ukraine. A search is being made to discover the cost. Our best guestimates are that it will cost in the vicinity of $3,000.00. We will keep you informed concerning this project. As soon as we know the cost of the machine, we will let you know. Nothing will be done until there is sufficient money on hand to pay for the machine in full. Should you wish to participate in this project, please make the check out to Logos Ministries, but mark it clearly - "Dishwasher." REQUESTS FOR BOOKS Over a year ago, we sent 1,000 copies of the book "Did You Know This?!" to the students of the Sudan Interior Mission training schools in Africa. In recent weeks, we have been receiving at least one request for books each week. In each instance, they want several books. As you may know, we believe that one of our mandates, as a ministry, is to provide free books to the students and pastors in third world countries and the former Soviet Union. The requests of these students from Africa are a fulfillment of that mission for us. A problem develops, however. When you figure the cost of printing the Biblical book studies, packaging and shipping them to Africa, it costs about $30.00 for each book. The shoestring budget of our ministry does not allow for this kind of expenditure very often. We want to provide books to these students, but need some means to accomplish this. Recently I have talked with the Sudan Interior Mission concerning this. They are checking on the possibility of having the books published in Africa. We cannot be sure, but for the same amount that it would cost to send 100 books we could be able to give away 3,000 books printed in Africa. Please pray about this. We believe God wants us to provide these books to the students. We are asking God to show us how we can accomplish it. OUR BOOKS IN THE UKRAINE Copies of my recent books have been placed on the shelves of the library in Donetsk Christian University. As we have indicated in earlier newsletters, a committee is actively engaged in choosing English theological books to translate into Russian. Some of the books that I have written have been placed on the list for evaluation. (I recently received a package from the Ukraine. In the package was a copy of a Russian language Christian magazine. In it was an article which was a chapter taken from the book I wrote on the names of God.) If the committee performing this evaluation so agrees, some of these books will be translated and printed in the Russian language. These would then be sold in Christian book stores across the former Soviet Union. We must pray that God's will would be accomplished in these decisions. |
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