What are you doing here?

by Keith Hazell, Lethbridge, Alberta; Canada

          When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the 
      mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
      (1 Kings 19:13)

     Airports are interesting places! Sitting and listening and watching can be fascinating for us as we travel. Sometimes the public address system in a big airport will blare out the name of someone we know. We wonder “Is it him or her, or someone else with the same name?” It is even more surprising when we actually see someone we know as we are passing through a mega airport. Our first question is, “What are you doing here?”

     It’s a good question to actually ask ourselves about the city we live in and call home. Why are we here? What are we doing? Motivation for where we live can come from a multitude of things: weather, education, employment, proximity to family. Should God have a part in our choice of home and why we live there? Rarely in current Christian circles do people actually indicate that they are in their present location because God told them to be there. Of course we expect a missionary to be able to say, “The Lord called me to Tajikistan,” but what about Joe the average believer? Should you sense a call of God to your city?            

     Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6-10)

     Paul and his companions set out with their own intention of a destination. They were blocked, however, by the Holy Spirit from entering several places. I wonder whether we take the Holy Spirit into account in our choice of location. Would we actually be aware if he was blocking us? So often we find ourselves in locations that are pleasing to us but perhaps not the will of God for our lives. For Paul and his party there was an intervention of the Holy Spirit that they all acknowledged, but more than that they decided to respond to it.   

     I asked a leader of the underground church in China how they set about planting a church in a new community. She said “We hear from God the name of a city or town, and then we pray and choose 5 families from our church. We go to the 5 families and tell them of this and they move to the new city and become the foundation members of the church there.” For them, their priority about where they live is determined by the Holy Spirit.

   Today in many churches there is a lack of leaders who are really committed to the task of building a New Testament Church in their community. Why is this? In so many cases believers in these churches have no vision or commitment to the specific City where they live and no heart to actually be involved like Paul and his party in preaching the Gospel there, and building something significant. For them church is a place they attend regularly, but it is basically generic. Any church in any city would be fine! Thus they do not have a heart for building with their leaders a vital church in their community. Paul and his party were called together on a mission to build something specifically in Macedonia, and could invest their lives in it because God had called them. 

     How about you and I? I met an accountant who lived in a western Canadian city. This man had been offered promotion five times, which would have greatly improved his finances and prospects of further promotion. Each time he refused, because he felt that God should determine his location. He was convinced that it should not simply be in the hands of his employer to make the decision for him.

     Is it possible for us to be called to a city or town? Can that understanding effectively change our attitude to our commitment and involvement in our local church? If we felt called might we not invest more of our time, money and energy to see the Gospel firmly planted there?

          For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have
      many people in this city.  (Acts 18:10)

     The urgency of the hour demands that a sense of destiny and purpose be evident in our lives and actions as responsible believers. Knowing we are where we should be is a good beginning. What are you doing here?

All Bible references are taken from the:

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Beware of the Amalekites!

by Keith Hazell, Lethbridge, Alberta; Canada

     “Where are you going?” I was often asked as a child in the little village where I lived. Usually I answered with conviction, “Nowhere,” since I had no real direction in my daily meanderings through the paths and woods where I wandered.

     In those days it was pretty safe. There were very few child predators in wartime England. Time spent on our own as children was not a thing that put fear in the hearts of our hard-working parents. Today parents need a clear definition of where their kids are, what they are doing, and how long they will be there.

     Simply put we live in dangerous times! As in the natural, so also in the spiritual this is a dangerous time for us as believers. There has been a tendency for Charismatics to always be on the move. Our churches have been marked by a cafeteria style which means if you can’t find what you want here, you go somewhere else. I have heard amazing stories of believers of 25 years vintage leaving churches because they are not being fed. In the natural a 25-year-old would scoff at being handfed with a spoon! Yet in the spiritual realm their expectation is a lifetime that never requires any spiritual growth or maturity based on seeking after God and reading His Word for themselves.

     In the Scriptures the Amalekites, also called the sons of Amalek, were at odds with God’s chosen people always looking to trap them one way or the other. Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. (Deuteronomy 25:17-18)

     Something was happening here. The people of Israel were on a journey to the land God had prepared for them. They were pursuing their godly call and direction, but a strange thing was happening. Some of the people were losing their place in the marching order. They had started well but were slowly, but surely, losing touch with Moses and the leaders and slipping further and further back in the crowd. They were complaining and making the journey difficult for others as well, with gossip and division marking their regress. As time went on they were losing sight of the direction of the nation, and they were soon enveloped in a cloud of dust where they lost orientation, and suddenly became vulnerable to the Amalekites lurking in the shadows.

We have a similar pattern in our churches today. Peter cautions believers:

     Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-9)  

We need to be careful in our behavior in the local church, lest we find ourselves willingly surrendering vision, speaking critically, and becoming a liability instead of an asset in the Kingdom. Paul encourages Christians to resist the devil and to stand firm in faith. In another passage Paul encouraged believers to restore out of love the sinner in their church who repents, “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes”.  (2 Corinthians 2:11)

     Just as Satan did with Israel in the Wilderness, today it is definitely a plan of the Enemy to deceive many believers, enticing them to drop out of local churches in a cloud of confusion, and to become neutralized in their effectiveness in the Kingdom. Therefore, great care must be taken by those leaving a local church, to make certain they are not departing without the direction and destiny of God. Above all they need a real attitude check to ensure their departure has the purest of motives, and does not spring from pride, rebellion, or a spirit of independence. Is the person leaving out of frustration, or out of faith?

Abraham is an excellent example of a man who acted by faith after God called him to leave his homeland.           

     By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10)

     There are times in our walk of faith, when like Abraham, God tells someone to set out and leave for an unspecified destination. For Abraham and those with him, this was to be the beginning of a journey of faith leading to a destination that they were unable to define. Many people today are hearing a distinctive call, as Abraham did. They know they have heard, but may seem to be abandoning ship without an adequate explanation. Yet they have heard from the Lord and are stepping out in the same spirit of faith as Abraham.  

Another good example is found in Acts 13 when Paul got a word from the Prophets separating him and Barnabus to a new ministry.

     In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. (Acts 13:1-4)  

     The Antioch church, as well as Paul and Barnabas, were all unaware of where their mission would take them, how they would be supported financially, or when or if they would actually return to Antioch.

     The preceding thoughts are two sides of the same coin. On one side there are those who carelessly drop out of their local churches, because of offence, fickleness or carelessness. These people are not seriously considering the dangers of falling behind into the dust cloud where the spirit of the Amelakites is waiting to destroy them. For them, moving on is not the result of a sense of mission and forward movement in God, but rather one of inertia, indifference and lack of being joined or accountable to anyone for anything.  

     The Amalekites are still with us! Those who are falling back into the dust, often lay claim to being treated badly, but they frequently are the cause of their own troubles. Bad attitudes and spiritual naivety are leading people into isolation and often into spiritual deception. In the present situation of turmoil, church leaders need to take a clearheaded look at people and their true reasons for the present extreme mobility in the Body of Christ.

     On the other side of the coin, there are some who are moving on, but without a clear and obvious situation to step into. They do so, without rancor, bitterness, or their own agenda, seeking the permission of their overseers. Because they are unable to articulate an acceptable explanation, they are often considered, rebellious, and having a bad spirit by their leaders. This misunderstanding can divide personal relationships that would otherwise continue profitably for both parties.

     Those who are leaving in faith need to go, where possible, with a sense of release and blessing from their local church. They need to step out, not drop out. They need to step out in faith to become a catalyst for change, rather than drop out to become a critic for destruction. At the same time, since there are new things happening all around the Body of Christ, local churches need to be willing to expand their umbrella and covering to different expressions of the life of God.

     Fear of innovation and creativity are making some leaders become defensive and threatened in their position in local churches. Some of those who have vision that goes beyond the present scope of their local church need to look for ways of pursuing this vision with patience and the co-operation of their leaders, rather than simply abandoning ship. Both leaders and those leaving need to avoid anger and bitterness since this will impede either party from being able to walk in the blessing of God.

     If you are moving into something new that you see God doing, don’t take your chip or bitterness with you, because you will only infect the very thing you are trying to support or initiate. Sadly, many new things that are being initiated will be destroyed. They contain a kernel of truth, but the truth is overridden by the entrenched bitterness of promoters who have fallen out of relationship with their former spiritual home. Thus the Enemy achieves his goals, and the Amalekites strike again.

     If we really have new or renewed vision from God, the genuine calling from God propelled by the Holy Spirit will supernaturally attract others without the need on our part to denigrate something else. In the natural world we encounter the Butterfly who begins as a caterpillar and then goes into a hibernation stage in a chrysalis. When the caterpillar emerges, it comes out as a beautiful butterfly. While the butterfly can never fit back into the chrysalis without breaking its wings, it must honor and respect the provision of God which kept it through a period of change and transition allowing it to be born to its ultimate destiny.

     A principal in Scripture teaches us that what happens in the natural realm is paralleled in the spiritual realm. The church as the company of believers is going through a time when something new is appearing out of the apparent hibernation and irrelevance of the past. There is a butterfly slowly emerging. The church as the company of believers cannot be confined by its immediate past, but must recognize with thankfulness that it is springing from the chrysalis of the past to new life by the power of the Holy Spirit of God who has the ability to preserve Christ’s Body of believers and to release it in due season.

All Bible references are taken from the:
New International Version (NIV) 
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society 

 

What Is Our Aim?

By Neil Thielke, August 12, 2007

     My mom told a story about two kids who were trying to walk the straightest line in the fresh snow across the field to the farm place about a quarter mile away. Climbing into the hay mow after their walk to judge the results laid out in the field of snow, they discovered that one line was far straighter than the other. The crooked walker asked his straight-lined friend how he did it. “Simple” was the reply, “I just walked with my eyes focused on the hay mow window at the top of the barn”. Focusing on a goal in the future helps us live straighter, too.
     Once again I am preparing to leave Morris on several extended overseas trips to Ireland, Spain, Kenya and The Republic of Georgia. Traveling offers an opportunity to review my life before departure. How does my life look in light of eternity? If this were my last day in Morris, what would I want my life to mean? Jesus was the Word of God made incarnate. As Christians, we are also meant to have the Word (Jesus) made flesh in us: Jesus living through us as an offering to the world around us.
It is totally irrelevant what other people say, because Jesus gives the final assessment about how straight our line is. What the neighbors or relatives say means nothing, compared to what Jesus says. Things like caring for the disadvantaged, loving others, engaging our community (as well as what goes on in our private lives), are all components of a healthy life-journey -- a straight line.
     Socio-cultural values are crooked sticks to lay our lives against, because the values in society change over decades and centuries. Self-righteous Americans judged Nazi Germany harshly for persecuting the Jews. However, evidence is now surfacing that Americans could have relieved the suffering by allowing the Jews to emigrate to America. For the most part, America closed her doors to the Jews trying to flee Germany for their lives. An even more blatant example is Tony Blair’s written apology on the Dublin airport wall concerning the English ignoring the plight of millions of Irish who perished in the potato famine. Rather than feed the Irish, the English Lords who owned the productive land in Ireland, turned their Irish tenants out of their homes to avoid the taxes designed by British Parliament to feed the starving masses, and exported the food from their farms to be sold abroad. Today’s Cultural values are now casting a negative light on actions that were socially accepted in the England of the 1840’s. Even though the Bible was written centuries ago to a pastoral third world country, the values found in God’s Word never change.
     Bill Clinton said, “It’s about the economy Stupid”, winning the American presidency, because the majority of the American voters accepted his views. But in light of eternity Bill Clinton’s slogan looks pretty trite. Lest the politically Right be left feeling self righteous, the prevailing sexual moral morass of their own camp is also disgusting, whether they are directly involved, or whether they just wink at it by their failure to demand correction.
     US World News and Report ran an assessment on the worst presidents in American history last week. I wonder how God would have ranked them. Even though I have my doctrinal issues with Jimmy Carter, perhaps his morning time in the prayer closet with God every day, whether people saw him or not, would weigh in heavily with God? I think so. Biblical Christianity is not primarily a political movement according to the model in Acts in the Bible. Christianity in the Book of Acts majored on straightening personal lives to walk in line with Jesus, footprints etched in the snowfield of time.
     God sees past our public image. How do we treat our wives -- or husbands for that matter? How about the way we treat our children? Where do our eyes gaze when no one is watching us? Proverbs 17:3 says: “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.” This testing is done in light of the eternal Word of God. 1 Peter 1:25 says “the word of the Lord stands forever." There is no allowance for changing moral standards or for current social trends there!
     As I am packing, these are good questions to consider in light of the haymow window glimpse of eternity. As I look at the weather report, it looks like a lot of fresh snow is coming. It is time to keep my eyes on Jesus, and walk a straight line.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, 
    New International Version®, NIV®. 
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™  
    Used by permission of Zondervan. 
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