Eyewitnesses told me they were some of the last words my brother ever spoke. "God is going to do something big on this trip." Some readers of this blog know that shortly after uttering those words my brother, Donald Eugene Enzor, drowned while trying to rescue two other boys. I have recalled that time because yesterday I heard similar words. "God is about to do the greatest works since the Church began." That is not an exact quote but it comes close. Since they were spoken on a Christian program that interviews people about miracles, visions and prophecies some would dismiss them without hesitation. I, however, am bound by I Thessalonians 5:20 & 21: "Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good."
Since that program tries to exalt Christ and the Scriptures I would be wise to give the Holy Spirit time to witness to my spirit about the accuracy of that prediction. I am inclined to take that prophetic word seriously because it is far superior to the pessimism that Christians are uttering on every hand. Great advances of the Kingdom of God and growth of the Church are happening in China, Muslim lands, sub Sahara Africa, Central America and South America. God's people in those lands have cried out to Him and He is pouring water on thirsty ground. God does not love any less His people in the U.S. who are crying out to Him with right motives.
"Right motives" -- that is it! I doubt that God is impressed with our pleading for changes in America when the hidden motives are for an easier life free of persecution. It is a matter of record that believers in other lands have prayed for "difficult times" for us here in the U.S. Those believers see that as the only way the Church in America will be cleansed and purified. Large segments of the Church here have embrace a "gospel" of comfort and prosperity; pagan standards of music and clothing; and a casual acceptance of just about anything the culture says and does. The most conservative churches are, in their own way, as badly in need of change. Mean spirited criticism of other believers and unnecessary church divisions are just the beginning of their problems.
I am most thankful at this moment for all the Churches that are exceptions to the examples just given. From their ranks rise the prayers with pure motives that God most surely hears; the prayers that may very well lead to the unprecedented move of the Spirit of God that some are predicting.
In just one church in Seoul, South Korea hundreds - yes hundreds - regularly come out at 6:00 a.m. to . . . PRAY. The powerful motivation that propels them is what saints of years past called "the burning heart". The worst thing I could do in a blog like this is to throw ice cold criticisms on American Christians who do not seem to have the "burning heart". As an 11 year old Boy Scout one of the first things I learned and loved to practice was the art and science of fire starting: making dry wood shavings, standing the twigs around the shavings like a teepee, striking the match, and gradually adding larger and larger twigs and branches to the fire teepee. If a fire is nearly out blow gently of the embers.
That is what the wise among us will do with our fellow believers. We will gently and carefully stoke the fires and blow gently on the dying embers. We will not throw the cold water of denunciation on them nor will we try to use too often the blow torch of sharp exhortation. "Stir up that inner fire which God gave you . . . for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind." (II Tim. 1:6 ff. from Phillips New Testament In Modern English)
I think that Paul added the "no fear" words because he, and (more importantly) the Holy Spirit, knew that in our time some would try to "work up" spiritual enthusiasm and thus the rest of us would be afraid of the whole idea. In many churches the danger of "wild fire" in spiritual things is about as much to be feared as the inhabitants of a cemetery staging a riot! I should much rather have to "rein in" an overly exuberant brother than to ignite fire in total spiritual coldness. So, let's see now, where are the kindling and the matches? Where are the dying embers? But first, "Breathe on me Breath of God".
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
NEVER STOP!
Working. That's what the title refers to. A friend, and once a fellow teacher in the same Christian school, asked me years ago: "What are your retirement plans?" He was referring to the very modest amount of money that would be available when retirement time came. My answer? "To work 'till I die!" I was not joking and I was not being pessimistic. I hate the word "retirement" and I hate the concept. I am watching things like my diet, weight, exercise, etc. with the deeply held desire to being doing useful and productive ministry and actual, physical work as long as God gives me breath. If I suddenly had several million dollars those plans would not change one iota.
There was once a member of the board at the Christian school where I taught for 34 years who liked to show a computer print out that "proved" how well off financially I could have been. According this insurance company projection, if I had deposited $25 per month in a fund with this company from the day I started teaching until age 65 I would have around $1.5 million. That projection may have been very accurate, but the stock market collapse of 2008 would have wiped out a significant part of it. That collapse wiped out much of the modest amount my wife and I did have.
Much or all of our financial loss could have been prevented if a certain person who had said, "someone should be watching your investments for you" would have been "watching" them when it was in his power to do so. But that is a story for another day. All I can do is forgive him as my Heavenly Father has forgiven me.
I have worked at two vocations since I was 14 years old. On the one hand I was a student and then a teacher (as well as teaching/preaching ministry in churches). On the other hand I began to learn a vocation even before my 15th birthday. During the first year I was married I worked with a man who was the master of masters in that vocation. By God's grace I have been able to fulfill the words of Jesus to "Go and make disciples" and the example of the Apostle Paul: "because he was a tentmaker" (Acts 18:3 & II Thess. 3:6-10). The first ministry/vocation has meant the privilege of impacting lives for eternity. The second has been God's way of providing for the needs of my family. I have had the privilege of working on the interior and exterior of many, many fine homes. This month makes 59 years I have been doing it.
As stated earlier, I intend to keep working at both callings and vocations as long as God gives me breath.
On the matter of pay and retirement for those who serve in vocational Christian work, such as a school or a church: what will ruin their lives is not the lack of money. What will ruin them is bitterness toward those whom they believe "owe me more". I have watched individuals destroy themselves with this kind of resentment and bitterness. Ironically, in one instance it was a person for whom God had provided very much. It is a cancer and if someone cannot be content with modest salaries and retirement benefits then they have no business in vocational Christian work. That is one reason I consider my second vocation so important. But God has also provided for my family and me in another way.
Susan and I were 35 years of age before we owned our first home. For nine years before that we lived in three different houses where, instead of rent, I took care of and improved the properties and did other work. When we did buy a home it was very old and very modest. As God supplied extra funds for us we improved that property nearly every year for 36 years. With improvements in buildings and extra land we were able to sell it for more than eight times what we originally paid for it. So God gave us back a substantial part of what had been lost in 2008. That is one of the meanings of the promise in the Book of Joel: "I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten".
For years I had offered to build my parents a house on our land so that they could live beside us and we could care for them in their later years. As they approached their 86th birthdays they gave me the go ahead to do just that. With the modest equity from their home and the help of many friends we built a home for them. Susan and I never intended to live in that house but that is what God worked out for us. He sent a neighbor to buy the house and land where we had lived for many years and we moved into this newer home two years ago. There is enough in that story to create another blog.
Financial experts would look at our salaries through the years, at our assets and our overall financial picture and be pessimistic. But they don't know our God and his rich provision for his children. We could not have imagined seven years ago that a church in Ashland would call us to be on their staff in a teaching ministry. But our greatest true wealth is our family: three children, their spouses and seven grandchildren who all know and love the Lord. On Sunday, August 4th 2013, our fiftieth wedding anniversary, I gave the morning message from I Samuel 7:12, "Thus far has the Lord helped us".
God certainly has no plans to stop helping us and I have no plans to quit working and ministering. NEVER STOP!
There was once a member of the board at the Christian school where I taught for 34 years who liked to show a computer print out that "proved" how well off financially I could have been. According this insurance company projection, if I had deposited $25 per month in a fund with this company from the day I started teaching until age 65 I would have around $1.5 million. That projection may have been very accurate, but the stock market collapse of 2008 would have wiped out a significant part of it. That collapse wiped out much of the modest amount my wife and I did have.
Much or all of our financial loss could have been prevented if a certain person who had said, "someone should be watching your investments for you" would have been "watching" them when it was in his power to do so. But that is a story for another day. All I can do is forgive him as my Heavenly Father has forgiven me.
I have worked at two vocations since I was 14 years old. On the one hand I was a student and then a teacher (as well as teaching/preaching ministry in churches). On the other hand I began to learn a vocation even before my 15th birthday. During the first year I was married I worked with a man who was the master of masters in that vocation. By God's grace I have been able to fulfill the words of Jesus to "Go and make disciples" and the example of the Apostle Paul: "because he was a tentmaker" (Acts 18:3 & II Thess. 3:6-10). The first ministry/vocation has meant the privilege of impacting lives for eternity. The second has been God's way of providing for the needs of my family. I have had the privilege of working on the interior and exterior of many, many fine homes. This month makes 59 years I have been doing it.
As stated earlier, I intend to keep working at both callings and vocations as long as God gives me breath.
On the matter of pay and retirement for those who serve in vocational Christian work, such as a school or a church: what will ruin their lives is not the lack of money. What will ruin them is bitterness toward those whom they believe "owe me more". I have watched individuals destroy themselves with this kind of resentment and bitterness. Ironically, in one instance it was a person for whom God had provided very much. It is a cancer and if someone cannot be content with modest salaries and retirement benefits then they have no business in vocational Christian work. That is one reason I consider my second vocation so important. But God has also provided for my family and me in another way.
Susan and I were 35 years of age before we owned our first home. For nine years before that we lived in three different houses where, instead of rent, I took care of and improved the properties and did other work. When we did buy a home it was very old and very modest. As God supplied extra funds for us we improved that property nearly every year for 36 years. With improvements in buildings and extra land we were able to sell it for more than eight times what we originally paid for it. So God gave us back a substantial part of what had been lost in 2008. That is one of the meanings of the promise in the Book of Joel: "I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten".
For years I had offered to build my parents a house on our land so that they could live beside us and we could care for them in their later years. As they approached their 86th birthdays they gave me the go ahead to do just that. With the modest equity from their home and the help of many friends we built a home for them. Susan and I never intended to live in that house but that is what God worked out for us. He sent a neighbor to buy the house and land where we had lived for many years and we moved into this newer home two years ago. There is enough in that story to create another blog.
Financial experts would look at our salaries through the years, at our assets and our overall financial picture and be pessimistic. But they don't know our God and his rich provision for his children. We could not have imagined seven years ago that a church in Ashland would call us to be on their staff in a teaching ministry. But our greatest true wealth is our family: three children, their spouses and seven grandchildren who all know and love the Lord. On Sunday, August 4th 2013, our fiftieth wedding anniversary, I gave the morning message from I Samuel 7:12, "Thus far has the Lord helped us".
God certainly has no plans to stop helping us and I have no plans to quit working and ministering. NEVER STOP!
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