Once Again

In my last post, I said that I was confident that God would provide for my upcoming finals bill. And God did indeed provide and allow me to take my finals.

The last day of classes was Tuesday, Wednesday was a free day to study and rest, and then exams started on Thursday at 8:30 am. Wednesday came and I still couldn’t pay my bill and get my exam permit. We kept praying. Thursday came and my bill was still keeping my permit from being released. I wasn’t able to take my Hebrew History exam at 8:30. We kept praying. A friend passed on $24 that someone wanted him to pass on to me for my bill. Someone else left $20 in his room to pass on to me as well. I missed my Missions exam. Back in my room I checked my account online to see if something had happened to my bill and saw that a couple donations had been made anonymously toward my bill. Within an hour or so, about $300 had been applied to my bill anonymously. Then I missed my Galatians/Prison Epistles exam. We kept praying. The anonymous donations kept coming in. By the end of the afternoon four or five hundred had been applied to my account through several anonymous donations. Overall, about $1800 had been applied to my bill by that evening! The student finance office called me to say that I had enough for them to extend the due date on my bill and release my permit.

I was able to take my Internship exam late that afternoon and my Church Planting Exam that night, and my teachers let me make up my missed exams during the next few days! My exams went better than expected and I was able to finish out my junior year! Again it has been shown that God is good and takes care of those following His leading!

And one final note. One of life’s greatest blessings is praying friends. God has blessed me with several godly friends who lift me up in prayer through these times while encouraging me not to get discouraged. To those of you who are in that group, you know who you are, I thank God for you.

A Semester of Miracles

This is a longer post than usual, but it is worth the time taken to read it.

2 Timothy says that we are to be examples in faith, among other things. Now with this in mind, I want to brag on God a little and show off His faithfulness. God keeps working miracles in my life and I would be selfish not to share them and allow others to rejoice in His greatness.

I will begin about four months ago. It was during Christmas break and I had no money with which to begin my next semester at school. I still had to pay almost a thousand dollars on my extended bill from the previous semester, and I would have to pay the first bill of the coming semester before I could register for classes. I knew that my interterm earnings would pay off the previous bill, but there was no way that I could come up with the rest. I was praying, of course. And so were several family members and friends from college. It was just a few days before I was to begin the fifteen hour drive back to school when someone unexpectedly handed me an envelope with a check for one-thousand dollars. This gift allowed me to pay the first bill, register, and buy books. To God be the glory!

Thus my immediate finances were taken care of for the moment. However, because of my back problems and the liability that apparently comes with them, the school let me go from my on campus job just as the semester began. The only source of income for me was gone with the rest of the semester to pay for and with no one in town hiring. Since my loss of work was not from fault of my own, I trusted that it was God’s working to give me more time to focus on my studies and relationship with Him. So I continued into the semester with only the prayer that God would provide.

Through the semester all my needs were continually met. My car never ran out of gas and I always was able to do laundry and buy the miscellaneous supplies that I needed. These provisions came from the occasional money from my parents, which I never asked for but always came just when I needed and covered exactly what I was praying for. Also, on several occasions, a friend would come to me and say that God had put on his heart to give me some money as he handed me a ten or twenty dollar bill.

Then midterms came. For me to be able to take midterms, my bill has to be paid up to date. When midterms started, my bill was still not paid. Several friends were praying fervently for me, and I was surely praying hard also. It was still not paid on the first exam day and I was not able to take my Bible Doctrines exam. The next day I was to have two exams, one at four o’clock and one at seven o’clock in the evening. Several close friends and I continued in prayer through the day until about 3:40 when I looked online once again to see the status of my bill. Although I knew that God would do it, it literally took my breath away when I saw that my balance was at $0. Someone had anonymously paid all $1,600 of my bill. I was able to take both of my exams that day.

That Saturday I had to make up the one exam that I had missed. However, it costs $10 to make up a late test. But God had me covered for that too. Earlier that week, a friend had felt God leading him to give me $10 dollars, and I went to my room and found the money lying on my bed. Again, I had exactly what I needed.

Now I am nearing the end of the semester and it is the time to register for summer practicum. I registered for my Practical Ministry Practicum the other night, but I didn’t have the money to buy the book required for it. Last night I was attempting to sleep and was kinda dozing for about fifteen minutes. Then my roommate came in and started talking to me so I got up, and when I did, I saw that the book that I needed was just sitting beside my bed. Somebody had slipped in and left it there while I was sleeping. Again, I have just what I need just when I need it.

Now I am approaching finals. Again I don’t have the money to pay my college bill, which is required before I am allowed to take finals. But I am looking forward to seeing God miraculously provide again. I have just a week to pay $2000 dollars and no human means of obtaining that money, but I serve a great God! There is no greater life than living by faith and in the confidence that you are right where God wants you to be.

William Carey said that “God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s provision.” I am here because I know that God wants me here. This is His work and I love being a part of it.

Correction to previous post

When I wrote my previous post, I was extremely tired without full mental faculties. I said that the story was written mostly in first-person. What I meant to say was that it was mostly written in present tense.

Philosophy of “Hunger Games”

Last night, my roommate gave me the recently popular book, “Hunger Games.” Because it has become such a popular book among teens and young adults, I decided to read it just for the purpose of understanding what is influencing American youth. Here is a short critique:

One thing that I will give Collins is that she is good at keeping the story moving. There are almost no dead spots and she skillfully builds the suspense, sucking the reader into the story and making it nearly impossible to put the book down (hence why I read most of it in one night and am staying awake and functional only from caffeine right now). Her skill in creating an interesting story is what gave her books success. However, the writing itself is very poor. The grammar is sloppy and most of the book is annoyingly written in first person. Phrasing is often also awkward.

Leaving behind grammar, mechanics, and writing style; there is one aspect of this book that glares out at me. That is the relativistic approach to morality. This story blurs the lines between right and wrong. Rather than right being right and wrong being wrong, it is all relative to what is said to be acceptable and expected. Rather than murder being wrong and leaving it at that, killing innocent people is made to be okay because of special circumstances. This only echoes the philosophy of our post-modern society where absolute truth does not exist.

In conclusion, I admit that the story is engaging and the book is an enjoyable read. However, one must go into it cautiously, with a critical and discerning mind.

What is the purpose of the Gospel according to Romans 1:5?

What is the purpose of the Gospel? Romans 1:5 shows a logical progression that reveals much of the heart of God in the desired result of the work of Christ.

The first four verses of Romans start of talking about the work of Christ, i.e. the Gospel.

Verse 1 identifies Paul as the servant of Christ, set apart for the purpose of the Gospel.

Verse 2 identifies Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecy.

Verse 3 shows Jesus’ humanity.

Verse 4 shows Jesus’ deity, proven by His resurrection.

Then we get to verse 5 which links back to all these preceding verses and reveals the big picture. This verse tells us the purpose of the work of Christ as well as for those of us who have trusted in it.

Verse 5 starts off with “through whom we have received grace and apostleship.” Because of the work of Christ, we who are Christians receive grace and apostleship. This could also validly be translated “grace of apostleship.” The grace that we now receive includes salvation, as well as the privilege of being commissioned to serve Christ (Apostle means “one who is sent”). God’s grace has given to us the status of those commissioned for His service. So we see the first purpose of the Gospel. The purpose of the Gospel is for us to receive grace and to be able to serve Christ.

“for obedience of faith”

The purpose of our receiving grace and apostleship is so that we will live in obedience to Christ. We are not just saved so that we can continue living as normal, with only a security against the fires of Hell. We receive salvation so that we can live a life that is radically different, a life that is characterized by obedience to the commands of Christ. In fact, a person that stays the same after salvation, with little evidence of change, likely did not experience salvation at all. There are many people on the way to Hell that have said “the sinners prayer.” This “obedience of faith” means a obedience that comes from faith, that is characterized by faith. It is the obedience that normally follows faith. Our salvation is given to us for our lives to be sold out to Him and lived to His glory.

“among all nations”

The purpose of our living in obedience to Christ is for Him to be shown among all nations. As has been said by some of my teachers, “God is a missionary God, and the Bible is a missionary Book.” One only has to spend some time in the Old Testament, especially Psalms, to see that the desire of God is for His name to be praise among all nations. And this theme is continued into the New Testament as Jesus commands His followers to “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” It is still His desire today and it is our responsibility to carry it out.

In conclusion:

The purpose of the Gospel is for us to receive grace and apostleshipà

The purpose of our receiving grace and apostleship is so that we will live lives of obedience to Christ à

The purpose of our living in obedience to Christ is for His name to be shown among all nations.

Therefore, the overall purpose of the Gospel is for God’s name to be known among all nations.

That leads to the questions: Are you misusing the Gospel? Are you wasting the Gospel? Or are you somehow using your time, money, life to reach the nations for Christ? God does not call select people to carry out the Great Commission. Rather, all believers are charged with reaching the world for Christ. What are you doing? As John Piper put it: “Go, send, or disobey.” Which one are you doing?

(forgive the formatting, I am doing this via email)

Trip to Haiti

Recently, an opportunity has unexpectedly come up for me to go on a mission trip to Haiti this May. It will be for one week with the organization Mission to Haiti (www.missiontohaiti.org). Because of the short amount of time to raise support (I will need about and plan, I have been a little hesitant. But God has shown me that this is what He wants me to do. Please pray for me as I begin to raise support. I would greatly appreciate it.
Grace and Peace

What is the purpose and motive of missions?

What is the purpose of missions; the underlying philosophy that motivates us, or should motivate us, to forsake all and follow Christ around the world? While my time in studying Scripture and missions philosophy is short, here is the conclusion I have been brought to:

The motive behind our missionary efforts is not man-centered and based on saving people from Hell, it is God-centered and based upon bringing others to praise and glorify His name. The glory of God is the ultimate goal, and unless that is the motivation all of our efforts will be shallow.

Supporting a friend’s blog

A friend of mine is attempting to start a blog writing devotional thoughts and…well any other thing that he comes up with. I ask you to visit his site, even if only for a minute, to give him some web traffic and to encourage him to enter the much needed arena of Christian writing. And leave a comment if you can.
His site is http://thoughts.doomby.com

Much thanks to you all

Do You Think You’re Not Called to Missions?

“‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help…Stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face—whose mercy you have professed to obey—and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”

-William Booth

A New Understanding of 1 Corinthians 14:1-25

No matter how long one studies the Bible, I think that there will always be passages that remain a mystery. Areas remain that seem fuzzy or don’t quite make sense. However, one of the beautiful rewards of being a lifetime student of the Bible is that God is always revealing a greater insight into these passages, so that over time there are fewer and fewer “mystery” passages remaining.

The whole issue of “speaking in tongues” has always been vague to me, mostly because I have never heard 1 Corinthians 14:1-25 clearly explained. Or explanations I have heard have been insufficient or contradictory. What is Paul talking about when he says that one who speaks in tongues speaks to God rather than men; or when he wishes that all men could speak in tongues; or having an interpreter for the one who speaks in tongues?

Well it was in Greek class last week that this passage was clearly explained. Our professor was using 1 Corinthians 14:10 as an example for a certain classification of Greek syntax, and we began discussing the meaning of the verse, as well as the surrounding passage. The historical context and setting is very important to understand this passage.

At the time that Paul wrote this, the city of Corinth was a winter harbor and trade center. Therefore, many cultures and languages were always represented in the city. In order to be effective witnesses, many of the Christians would learn foreign languages so that they could witness to these other cultures. Apparently, some Christians became proud because of their ability to witness in other languages, and they would begin speaking and preaching in foreign languages while in the church. There would also have been members of the church who were from other countries and could not speak Greek. They would try to speak in church sometimes but nobody could understand them.

So we have a bunch of people who can speak Greek, but are speaking other languages to show off. And we have foreigners who are trying to share what God has taught them, but no one understands. So Paul tells the church that speaking a foreign language is not doing any good, no matter how great the message is that they are trying to communicate. So those doing it to show off need to stop, and the foreigners who can’t speak Greek need to get an interpreter.