George Mueller's Secret

Greetings All,

      This week's "thought" comes from the well-known man of faith George Mueller of Bristol, England (1805-1898).  The testimony of his life is both amazing and inspiring, with many books being written about him.  For at one point in his life he decided to live entirely by faith, asking God alone, through prayer, to meet his financial needs. It was difficult at first, and with no fixed income he was sometimes down to his last penny before the Lord would supply his need, but God always did.  And soon he was not only able to support himself and his wife Susannah, but eventually build 5 orphan homes which housed over 10,000 orphans from 1834-1898.  And as if that were not enough to occupy his time, would minister in 42 countries (the last at age 87), and preach 3 times a week during this time.  Yet even with so many to take care of, he still stayed true to his conviction not to make his needs known to anyone but God in prayer.

















     
      In the last 68 years of his life (he lived to be 92), he obtained through prayer the equivalent of $7,200,000.00 and never asked anyone directly for any money.  In those last 68 years he never took a salary for his ministry but trusted God to put in people's hearts to send him what he needed. He never took out a loan and never went into debt. And neither he nor the orphans were ever hungry.  Much to his credit, and unlike many today, "George Mueller never prayed for a thing just because he wanted it, or even just because he felt it was greatly needed for God’s work. He would search the Scriptures to find if there was some promise that covered the case. Sometimes he would search the scriptures for days before he presented his petition to God. And then when he found the promise, with his open Bible before him, and his finger upon that promise, he would plead that promise, and so he received what he asked. He always prayed with an open Bible before him" (R. A. Torrey). The story of his life is indeed inspiring, with many accounts of God's miraculous provision and answers to prayer.

     This excerpt is what has been called "George Mueller's Secret," or his personal method of sustaining his inward joy and happiness in Christ amidst the many stresses and responsibilities laid upon him by virtue of overseeing such a large ministry.  I have often reflected back on it and sought to practice his method.  I pray it might be of help to you as well.  Enjoy.

     “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. What is that truth? I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord.  The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord; but how I might get my soul in  a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.  For I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world, and yet not being happy in the Lord, and not being strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in the right spirit.

       Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer after having dressed in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing was to give myself to the reading of God's Word, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words of the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

     The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less to prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.

The difference, then, between my former practice and my present on is this: formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer.... But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from my mind wandering for the first ten minutes, or quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then really began to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word. If often now astonishes me that I did not see this point sooner...

     And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. Now what is food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water passes through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it and applying it to our hearts.  When we pray we speak to God. Now prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season therefore when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate with God's blessing though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man.

     Thus, there is far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had time previously for meditation. I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, in various ways, than I have ever had before; and having now above fourteen years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it.”

     It is my hope that this "secret" comes to be known far and wide, and that it might be used to encourage and challenge many to follow in his footsteps. Obviously, given all Mueller accomplished in his life, no one can say, "It was easy for him  back then, life wasn't as busy then as we are today."  For when I think of all that he did, I find it hard to comprehend how he managed to do it all!  Of course, the answer surely lies (to some degree) in the secret he shares above.  You may seek to try it and see!

In the Service of Jesus,  Pastor Jeff

Gift of Forgiveness

Greetings Everyone!

     Today's "thought" has to do with the gift the Bible calls forgiveness. It comes from Dr. Grant Ethridge, and is found in the book, "The Gift of Jesus."   I found it to be a good reminder and trust you will as well. Enjoy.

Faithful to Forgive

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

I John 1:9

     "Do you remember "if-then" statements from school?  Let's review.  The first part of the statement is conditional -- it may or may not happen. But if that condition does happen, then whatever is described in the second half of the statement will also happen.  These "if-then" statements, like mathematical formulas, are black and white. There is no gray.  Two plus two does not equal fourish.  It equals four.  Three minus one does not equal somewhere close to two or something other than two.  It equals two.

     Look again at today's passage -- it's a most profound if-then statement: "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."   Notice that the verse does not say "God might be faithful," or "there's a possibility that He may be faithful."  It says God IS faithful and He WILL forgive. There is no gray area. Also, he doesn't qualify whether the sins are big or little -- which, after all, is a human construction.  The promise simply says "sins,"  meaning all sins.  If we confess, God is faithful and just to forgive all sins. Whether or not we feel forgiven, or whether or not we've forgiven ourselves, is not the issue. If we truly confess our sins as sins before the Lord, He forgives them.  We are not to cover our sins but confess them.

     What guilt or regret are you dwelling on or reliving today?  Remember: If you have confessed it, then God has forgiven it. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)."

     When I was a child my grandfather (a farmer in his 80's) used to gauge the next day's weather in two ways. 1.) He would look at the sky and take note of the cloud formations, and 2.) he would seek to discern which direction the slightest of winds were blowing in from by licking his finger and sticking it in the air.  The saliva intensified his ability to feel the wind's direction and thus predict the next day's weather. And I must say he usually got right!  He was usually more accurate than the weatherman we watched on the news channel.

     Yet, what may work in terms of predicting the weather is a poor method for discerning forgiveness.  Too many people I know (and I must confess this was true myself in the past) try to discern whether or not we've been forgiven by looking into our soul and testing how we feel.  If we feel forgiven we assume we must be, and if we don't feel we're forgiven, we assume we must not be.  Or as usually happens, one day they will feel they are, and another day they will feel they aren't -- due to using a faulty system of measure.  In fact, if we measure forgiveness by how we feel on any given day, we condemn ourselves to a roller-coaster-ride of seemingly guilt-free days (when our minds are preoccupied with the day's activities) and guilt-ridden nights (when the busyness subsides and we are left with nothing to distract our thoughts or painful memories).

     The Gospel (thankfully) gives us a better remedy for our sin and guilt than how we might happen to feel on any given day. For it bases our forgiveness, and the assurance of it, in the punishment Jesus received in our place on the cross, and the promise of God's forgiveness because of it.  A punishment He paid not just the small sins, as Dr. Ethridge points out, or the sins that no one found out about and really did not harm to others. But every sin -- even the ones that did hurt someone else immensely and have left lasting scars on people and relationships. When Christ went to the cross He died an unimaginably painful death. And I would say He did that (at least in part) not simply because that's the punishment sin deserves, but to convince us beyond any shadow of a doubt that He had paid the sin-debt of even the most unimaginably heinous sins.

     Therefore we don't have to wonder.  Nor do we have to hope, wish, or guess.  Nor does it have to do with how we may happen to feel at any given time (since feelings are fickle).  It has to do with what Christ did on the cross and the promise of God -- something which really is black and white.  "IF I confess our sins, THEN God -- who IS faithful and just -- WILL forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness."

     I know the postmodern mind has an aversion to anything being 'black and white" rather than some shade of gray.  But this is one case (along with others) where healing is thwarted until we see the issue of forgiveness really is black and white.  God purposely made it that way so that the fullness of His redemptive gift in Christ might be internalized in hearts and minds that can be so easily misled by fickle feelings. Feelings are NOT the ultimate gauge of what is true.

     Living in the joy of Christ's finished work and God's precious promise, Pastor Jeff 

Something About That Name

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from a devotional book entitled, "The Gift of Jesus."  It contains devotional contributions from numerous pastors across the U.S., including Pastor Jeff Crook, who penned this entry, entitled, "Something About That Name."  Since there is much truth in what he says, I thought I would like to share it with you. Enjoy.

     
"God also highly exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every other name..." Philippians 2:9

     "Every year a celebrity becomes wildly popular in the media, but before we know it, that name fades into obscurity. [Remember Spencer Tracy, Rita Hayworth, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, Farrah Fawcett, David Cassidy, Lynda Carter, Robert Redford, Brittany Spears,...]

     Often we see the caption, "Where Are They Now?" Apparently, all names have a shelf life.  All but one. There is a name that will never fade -- the name Jesus is timeless and without rival.  God has exalted Jesus and lifted His name above every other name.

     Does it seem as though the name of Jesus is being downplayed today? Are the name and fame of Jesus Christ fading? Absolutely not!  We shouldn't think we need to "hashtag" or "favorite" the name of Jesus to keep His name relevant. The matter has been settled by God Himself.  It is impossible to ignore the exalted name of Jesus.  One day all people will bow at the name of Jesus Christ, confessing Him as Lord (Philippians 2:11). 

     Celebrities are forgotten. [We often strain to remember who some of them were, what they looked like, or why they were so outrageously popular!]  World leaders fade away. Once-famous names inscribed on graveyard headstones become unfamiliar to the living. Yet the eternal Lord Jesus has an eternal name. When all others have been long forgotten, His name will still be spoken, honored and adored."

     As I read this post I thought back to people I had so admired growing up.  People I would have done anything to meet in person, speak with, or get their autograph.  Yet as time marches on, it has a way of burying their importance in the dust. Their names may ring a bell, or sound faintly familiar, or written on a wall or book, but often times we cannot say why.  And even if we can, we must sometimes confess, "I think they may have been an actor, singer, or writer, but I'm not really sure."

     Yes, the names of people come and go.  For instance, I loved my grandfather Clarence Evans a lot.  As a young boy, he was one of the most important people in my world!  Now he's been gone for 36 years, and though he was equally admired by other grandchildren, two of them have already passed away, and within decades most of the others whose lives he touched will also be gone -- myself included. Then, his name will be an unknown name to all the people who might possibly pass by his headstone as they walk through the cemetery in Norfolk, Massachusetts, looking at old gravestones. And the same will eventually be true of me, and all of you who are reading this post today.

     So I ask: Who is all-important to you right now?  Whose name do you praise, if any?  What name is constantly on your lips, or in your regular conversations?  Who or what are you investing your life, and precious time, and energy in?  What legacy are you building to leave behind after you're gone?  And even if you do happen to be admired by someone now, what will be said of you 25, 50, or 100 years from now?

     You see, no matter who you are, or how important you may be to others now, in time your name will be forgotten (Ecclesiastes 1:11) -- unless it was recorded as part of the unfolding, timeless, and eternal plan of the eternal God. Only if your name is "inscribed in the palm of His hand" (Isaiah 49:16), and has been penned in the book of life written before time began (Psalm 139:16 / Revelation 13:8, 17:8, 20:12), will it ever be remembered years from now, or throughout the ages to come.

     In fact, it will not only be remembered, you will be alive and kneeling in adoring worship before the One whose name is above every name!  Because as God has promised, "Every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). Throughout endless eternity those who lived for Jesus on this earth, shall live before Him in heaven, joining the uncountable multitude in praising Him whose name is above all other names.

     May His name (and not any other) be exalted and adored by you now, Pastor Jeff

The A21 Campaign

Greetings All!

Stop!  Before you're tempted to close out this 'thought' because it's "too long" (which in our fast-paced society tends to be anything more than a paragraph or two) I would encourage you to read on. What is shared in this thought is VERY important -- both for you and many others around the world -- 27,000,000+ others to be exact.  Believe me it will be worth you time; and all the more so if it moves you to do something in response to it.
It comes from a lady named Christine Caine, and is found in a book called, "Passion," edited by Louie Giglio, and containing articles by many authors including Francis Chan, John Piper, and others. Christine is the  founder of the A21 Campaign, one of the largest non-profit 

organizations in the world, dedicated to rescuing the victims of human trafficking (labor and sex slaves) in 12 countries. This article tells why she chose to get involved. It is impossible (if one has a heart) to read what she writes and not be moved. Please do.

Divine Interruptions

     "I found myself speaking at a conference in Greece around the time that a little girl named Madeline went missing in Portugal. Her picture was plastered across the TV, in airports, and in magazines. Interpol was searching for this little girl everywhere. I was, of course, very saddened by the disappearance of this little girl, but I didn't know her.  I hadn't met her... Then I saw a second poster for another girl that was missing. This child was named Sophia -- the same name as my second daughter... Suddenly these missing children weren't numbers. They weren't posters and they weren't statistics. They were real -- someone's daughters. Someone's sisters and classmates. I stopped and began to wonder if that were MY Sophia on that poster, what would I do to find her? What wouldn't I give up to see her safe? 

     I later found out that these children were the alleged victims of human trafficking, something that at that time I didn't even know existed. I assumed that the slave trade was abolished with William Wilberforce, but I was wrong. On my watch, in my generation, the current state of slavery has been flourishing in the dark rooms of the world.  With all our great Christian gatherings, our tremendous churches, our wealth of worship songs and resources, right now in the 21st century, there are more slaves on earth than ever before.  It was incomprehensible to me.  How could this be true? How could this happen in our day?   Yet it's true. During our day, more people are being trafficked and sold for labor or sex than ever before in human history. This is unacceptable not merely from the standpoint of human rights; it's unacceptable from the standpoint of the teachings of Jesus...

     With knowledge comes responsibility. We know the slave trade is alive and well right now. We know this, and because we do, we are responsible to do something about it... We might be tempted to equate compassion with getting sad watching a movie or hearing a story. That's not compassion; that's sentiment.  Compassion isn't compassion until you are actually interrupted. It's not real until it inspires you to action.  It was the action of the Good Samaritan, not his sentiment, that separated him from the others that walked by the beaten man on the side of the road... In our choice about whether to cross the road, we must begin by realizing that at one point or another, we were the one lying in the ditch and Jesus crossed the road for us.

     I am a rescued person. I did not discover I was adopted until I was thirty-three years old. Though our parents never told us the truth, on a single day we discovered this family secret and the truth was jarring to say the least. Suddenly I didn't know who I was.  I didn't know whether I was conceived in an adulterous affair or a one-night stand. I didn't know if I was the result of a rape or an underage pregnancy.  But as the panic set in, the Lord reminded me I didn't have to know the specific facts to know who I am... I may not know who I was, but I know who I am; I have been rescued by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Jesus walked across the road between heaven and earth so that I might cross the road for the sake of others.  I was saved by grace that I might walk in the way Jesus did in the world. This is the plan of God -- to use rescued people to rescue people... Jesus has set us free so that we might set others free. He rescued us so that we might rise up, reach back, and rescue others... It could be any one of the twenty-seven million slaves in the world right now.

     But that twenty-seven million must cease to be a number.  Just like you and me, these people are living, breathing human beings created in the image of Almighty God, full of God-given destiny and God-given promise. The same Jesus who set me free can set them free, but how will they hear those words if we do not go tell them? How will they ever know the truth if we, together, don't raise our voices and declare that we will not allow this injustice to prevail? The Apostle Paul said that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1), and we must take that declaration to the world.

     Not long ago I was sitting at one of our shelters with Sonia, one of fourteen rescued victims. One of these young women, one that wasn't a statistic anymore, began telling me about how she was shipped to Istanbul in a container with sixty girls. During the trip, the oxygen tank broke, and when the crate was actually opened, thirty of the girls were dead.  The ones left alive had no passports because the traffickers had taken them. They were locked in an apartment and raped several times a day by men wearing law-enforcement uniforms, so the girls would not trust the police. Then, they were put in a little rubber dingy to be taken from Istanbul to Athens through the Greek Islands. While en route, the traffickers were spotted by a coast guard patrol, and so they threw the girls overboard. Keep in mind that these girls were from villages and had barely seen running water, let alone been in a body of water to swim. Only five survived. Sonia was one of them.

     She was eventually brought to our shelter when police raided a brothel in Athens. It was about that time in this unbelievable story that a Russian girl sitting near us (who had been rescued only one day before Sonia) began to ask me loudly in broken Greek: "Why did you come?" As best I could I began to tell her about how Jesus had rescued me and so I wanted to help her. I told her that God has a plan, a purpose, and a destiny for her life; that it didn't matter what she had gone through -- God was big enough to redeem her past. But it's what she said next that I'll never forget. As I was telling her this good news, she yelled back at me, "If what you are telling me about your God is true, then why didn't you come sooner?"

     Why didn't I come sooner? Those words are haunting. What is so important in our temporal lives that will distract us from the eternal purpose God put us on earth for? What deserves more attention than the very people Jesus died for?  Safety, comfort and security are NOT the goal of Christianity; freedom is.  And because it is, we must rise together to declare that this will not happen on our watch.  Not today.  Not ever again." 

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     I have heard many sermons on the Old Testament passages which speak of the "watchmen" posted on the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Men who scanned the roads and dark outlines of the surrounding terrain all day long, and all night long, watching for danger or any signs of the approach of invading armies. But Christine is right. As Christians we are to do more that simply watch out for threats to the people of God, or the Church. We are to watch out for evil and injustice wherever it occurs, and sound the alarm for other's outside "Jerusalem" who are being mistreated, abused, or are victims of the new forms of human labor or sex slavery.  Many of these victims who are forced into labor or prostitution are children as young as 11 years old (some younger). The question is what are we doing to stop it? To use her words, "we must rise together (as the Church) and declare that this will not happen on our watch."  We are placed on the walls to ensure such things do not go unnoticed or unaddressed.

     The question facing the Church in every generation is: Will we speak up?  Will we somehow get involved?  Will we take the necessary risks and make the necessary sacrifices? Or will we turn a blind eye, and like the majority (at least here in the States), pretend it's not happening around us so we can continue to pursue the three gods of our culture -- "safety, comfort and security."  If it were your 11, 12, or 13 year old daughter (or son) would you simply express your sad "sentiment" or would you be "moved by compassion" to do something to put an end to such evil -- even if your part is to rescue just one of the twenty-seven million slaves worldwide?  God has placed you as watchmen on the walls -- will you allow such a thing to happen on your watch without lifting your voice, or pen, or hands to do something to stop it? As the old Christian hymn declares: "Rise Up Oh Church of God..."  Will we?   Will we think, "How sad..." or will we be,  "moved by compassion..."

In the Bonds of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

The Promise of the Spirit

Greetings All!

 This week's "thought" comes to you from a superb yet not-so-well-known book by William Barclay.  It is entitled: "The Promise of the Spirit."  Barclay is known mostly for his popular "Daily Study Bible Series" covering the entire New Testament. Yet the "Barclay Prayer Book" and this volume about the work of the Spirit, are also good resources to have around on your shelf.
     Today's selection has to do with the power and work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. It focuses on His moving in both extraordinary and everyday ways. I trust his words might challenge and encourage you.  And for those who may be put off by the exclusively "male" language, please remember it was written in a time (1959) when no one really gave it much thought, and the terms "man" and "men" had a more generic "person" or "people" connotation.  Enjoy!

Men of the Spirit

     "No man who asks for, and receives, the guidance of the Spirit can ever be an irrelevant teacher or preacher. The Spirit of God is always looking for men who will be messengers to their day and generation. There is no moment without its message from God, there is no crisis without its word -- if a man can be found by the Spirit to bring that message and that word...  It is the conviction of the Old Testament that no man can prophecy without the Spirit. No man can teach others unless he himself is taught. The Spirit is God's witness in any human situation.  It is through the Spirit that with the need there always comes the power. And it is the Spirit who gives the prophet the strength and courage to bring to men the message of God, whether that message be consolation or condemnation.

        Great as the work of the Spirit is in creation in the Old Testament, still greater is the power of the Spirit in the lives of individual men. The great leaders of the Old Testament are all men who possess the Spirit, have been possessed by the Spirit, and in whom the Spirit dwells... When God has some great task to give a man, He gives it to a man whose equipment for the task is the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The conviction of the Old Testament is that no man can do the work of God without the Spirit of God, and that no man can lead his fellow men unless he himself is led by the Spirit of God...

        In general the work of the Spirit is connected with the extraordinary and the abnormal. The work of the Spirit is not so much a daily power and presence as it is an abnormal phenomenon and manifestation.... It is not everyday life with which the Spirit is connected, but with the unrepeatable moments.  Even in the case of prophecy, the prophecy in early times tends to be ecstatic and abnormal... The manifestations of the Spirit are wonderful and miraculous. [Dreams, interpretation of dreams, visions, prophecies, miracles, tremendous feats of strength, victory over enemies, etc.  Such things begin to happen when, or after, it is said: "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him..."  Gen. 41:38  / Numbers 11:16-17 / Numbers 27:18 / Judges 3:10 / Judges 6:34 / Judges 11:29 / I Sam. 11:6 / I Sam. 16:13 / Isaiah 42:1...]

     Yet, as we shall see, it is not always so... It is possible to over-stress the element of abnormality in the idea of the working of the Spirit in the Old Testament, for the Spirit also stands for the universal presence of God. The Spirit stands for the fact that it is neither possible to lose God in trouble, nor escape God in sin (Psalm 139)...  In Exodus 31:1-3, God told Moses to set Bezaleel aside for the work of building the tabernacle, because, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in sliver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.”

     Here is something new.  Craftsmanship is the gift of the Spirit.  Here is something which in an illuminating flash transfers the Spirit from the realm of theology to the realm of life, from the stillness of the Church to crash of the hammer and the buzz of the saw and the noise of the chisel on the stone in the workshop.  Here the Spirit is indeed in the midst of life and living.  We do well to remember that, whatever gift a man has, of mind or heart, of brain or eye or hand, that gift is the gift of the Spirit.  It is not only the theologian in his study, the priest in his church, the prophet with his message, who is working in the power of the Spirit.  The man at the bench and at the machine, the man in whose hands wood and metal become obedient, the mechanic, the engineer, the carpenter, the fitter, the mason, are all men of the Spirit, and can, and must, serve God in the Spirit."

     Anyone who has been in ministry for any amount of time knows that apart for the power, presence and unction of the Holy Spirit attending our words and efforts, there is little or no lasting (and definitely no eternal) transformational result. As Spurgeon once said in all earnestness in regard to the task of preaching: “We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were a mysterious power going with it—the Holy Ghost changing the will of man.  Oh Sirs!  We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.”  To believe otherwise is to miss the point of divine grace and the indispensability of Spirit's work in the hearts of people.

      As Barclay states in his introduction of this book: "It is my prayer that those who read this book will by their own study come more and more to know the Holy Spirit, not as a doctrine, but as a Person, and that they will thereby experience more of His power in their own lives."  That is my prayer as well.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

How Do You Kill 11 Million People? Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think.

Greetings All,

     Yesterday I spent a good part of my day off reading a book on WWII and then watching a documentary about the same. That war still fascinates me. Not just the breadth of it, but the deception that fueled it, and how many intelligent people actually believed the lies. One of the things that scares me today is that the younger generation is no longer being taught much about it. So much so, that as I quoted a few weeks back, when asked: "70 million Americans (obviously the younger generation) did not know that Germany was our enemy in WWII."  And we can be sure that if they do not even know that Germany was our enemy, they surely do not know the tactics the Nazi party (not just Hitler) used to persuade so many to do so much evil.
     






That's why I share today's thought. It comes from the best-selling author Andy Andrews, and is titled: "How Do You Kill 11 Million People?  Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think."  It is rated "PG-13" and is not for the faint-hearted.  Yet I encourage you to read it -- and share it -- since I believe the old adage is true: "He who Does Not Know History Is Condemned to Repeat It."  It's a well-researched and insightful little book that would take less than an hour to read.  It has its sad parts, but would be well worth your time.  In our era of media spin, when truth seems to matter so little to so many, and its hard to know what to believe when you see numerous quotes of reports online -- it is a sobering wake-up call.  Read with caution.

     "How do you kill 11 million people? Obviously, most of us have never even considered such a thing. Yet when I began to closely research our world's recent history -- the last one hundred years -- that particular question made its unsettling way into my mind. How do you kill 11 million people? 11 million. The number is so large when the word people is attached to it that it becomes almost impossible to take seriously.  "Why 11 million?" you might ask.  What is the significance of that number? Actually the number is 11,283,000 -- the number of people killed by Adolf Hitler between the years 1933 and 1945.

     Incidentally, that particular figure only represents institutionalized killing. It does not include the 5,200,000 German civilians and military dead. Neither does it include the 28,736,000 Europeans killed during World War II as a result of Hitler's aggressive governmental policies.

     Within the same parameters, we could have used the number of Cambodians put to death by their own government: slightly more than three million between 1975 and 1979. Three million -- from a population of eight million.  We could have used the exact figure of 61,911,000. That is the number of people who were murdered by the government of the Soviet Union, shown by their own records, between the years 1917 and 1987.  But only 54,767,000 of the men, women and children put to death by the Communist Party were officially Soviet citizens. (That's almost 2500 per day for 70 years.)

     During World War I, the highest leadership council of Turkey's Young Turk government decided to exterminate every Armenian in the country, whether a soldier fighting for the government or a pregnant woman... all two million of them.  We could have used that number instead. Or, three million in North Korea, more than a million in Mexico, Pakistan, and the Baltic States. The choices available, and numbers of dead killed at the hands of their own government, are staggering. And in other places around the world, they are just getting started.

     But for our purpose, let's focus on the number that is the most well known to us -- the eleven million human beings exterminated by the Nazi regime... To be absolutely clear, the method a government employs in order to do the actual killing is not in question. We already know the variety of tools used to accomplish mass murder. Neither do we need to consider the mind-set of those deranged enough to conceive and carry out a slaughter of innocents. History has provided ample documentation of the damage done to societies by megalomaniacal psychopaths or sociopaths.

     What we need to understand is how eleven million people allow themselves to be killed?  Why, for month after month and year after year, did millions of intelligent human beings -- guarded by a relatively few Nazi soldiers -- willingly load their families into tens of thousands of cattle cars to be transported by rail to one of the many death camps scattered across Europe?...

The Answer is breathtakingly simple. And it is a method still being used by some elected leaders to achieve various goals today... You lie to them.

     According to testimony provided under oath at the Nuremberg Trials (including specific declarations made in court on January 3, 1946, by former SS officers), the act of transporting the Jews to death camps posed a particular challenge for the man who had been named operational manager of the Nazi genocide -- Adolf Eichmann.  "The Master" as he was known, was directed by written order in December of 1941 to implement The Final Solution. Eichmann went about the task as if he were the president of a multinational corporation. He set ambitious goals, recruited enthusiastic staff, and monitored the progress. He charted what worked, and what didn't, and changed policy accordingly. Eichmann measured achievement in quotas filled. Success was rewarded. Failure was punished.

     An intricate web of lies, to be delivered in stages, was designed to ensure the cooperation of the condemned (but unknowing) Jews. First, as barbed wire fences were erected, encircling entire neighborhoods, Eichmann or his representatives met with Jewish leaders to assure them that the physical restrictions being placed upon their community (in what later became known as ghettos) were temporary necessities of war. As long as they cooperated, he told them, no hard would come to those inside the fence. Second, bribes were taken from the Jews in the promise of better living conditions The bribes convinced the Jews that the situation was only temporary... After all, they reasoned, why would the Nazi's accept bribes if they only intend to kill us and take everything anyway?  These first two stages of deception were conducted to prevent uprisings or even escape.

     Finally, Eichmann would appear before a gathering of the entire ghetto. Accompanied by an entourage of no more than thirty local men and officers of his own -- many unarmed -- he addressed the crowd in a strong, clear voice.  According to sworn statements, these were very likely his exact words:

     "Jews: At last it can be reported to you that the Russians are advancing on our eastern front. I apologize for the hasty way we brought you into our protection. Unfortunately, there was little time to explain. You have nothing to worry about. We want only the best for you. You will leave here shortly and be sent to very fine places indeed.  You will work there, your wives will stay at home, and your children will go to school. You will have wonderful lives. We will all be terribly crowded on the trains, but the journey is short. Men? Please keep your families together and board the rail-cars in an orderly manner. Quickly now, my friends, we must hurry!"

     The Jewish husbands and fathers were relieved by the explanation and comforted by the fact that there weren't more armed soldiers. They helped their families onto the rail-cars... each was packed with no less than one hundred human beings and quickly padlocked. At that moment they were lost. The trains rarely stopped until well inside the gates of Auschwitz."

     Though all the blame often gets laid on Hitler, he did not act alone. He had a very intelligent and capable crew of master planners with him -- planners who were very gifted at the art of controlling the media, deceiving a nation, playing on people's national pride, and silencing all opposition. In a day when we have less and less ability to control what we see, or the agenda and message behind it, a little glance back at recent history can be helpful.

     As Andrews stated regarding his whether or not he had a "political agenda" for writing the book: "Of course. Here's mine. I want America's present and future to live up to America's core values as written by our Founding Fathers and set forth in the constitution.  In addition, I want the public to vigilantly hold them accountable for doing so." 

     I would encourage one more thing we need to hold people in positions of power accountable to.  It's found in the Bible: "You Shall Not Bear False Witness."  For when truth doesn't matter, as history shows, people's lives are at risk.

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff