Greetings
again my Brethren. As we behold His glory more and more we are
changed into whatsoever we behold and as we are changed we then are able to receive
His precious promises. This is God’s
main objective in our lives for us to be changed into the character and nature
of His Son, Jesus Christ, so we will be able to correctly function and operate
with Him in earthly and heavenly matters and so that we will be able to receive
His precious promises. How can we
receive the things of God if we do not have a heart like God’s? How can we receive the things of God if we
have not put on the mind of Christ? Before we can receive the things of God we first must be changed, our heart and mind must be
changed so that we will be able to see like Him, so we will be able to love
like Him, so we will be able to touch lives like Him. Many Christians today try to claim the things
of God, well how we can we claim something that is not
ours? Did you know the word “claim” is
not in the KJV of the Bible? How can we hold something if it has not be given
to us? If I told you I was going to give
you $5000 I must give it to you before you can possess it, so too with the
things of God. Why do we think we can
just claim something from God and not be given it? Sadly this is why many Christians today in
the church do not have the power and authority of God moving in their
lives. They are claiming the things of
God, but have not received God’s promises, His things. “For ye have
need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive
the promise.” (Hebrews 10:36) Even after
doing “the will of God” we may have
to wait on Him to give us or for us to receive what He wants for us. We often think God is like a paymaster, we do what He wants
us to do and we get a reward, well God does not function according to what we
think and our expectation. He functions
according to His sovereign plan for our lives and if He has to change, His plan
to make us happy, we have not succeeded oh no we have failed. If God has to change His plan for us He knows
His plan for our lives is in jeopardy of being lost.
Paul
tells us, “For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
the children of God:” (Romans
Many
Christians think we are to be changed so that we can become little mini-gods
doing signs and wonders on things on earth, well that is not what Jesus said
and did. All of Jesus’
signs and wonders, all of His miracles came as a by-product of His obedience to
His Father. Jesus’ only intention was to do the will of the Father who
sent Him to lay down His life so that we might live through His death. “I can of mine own self do
nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine
own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” (John 5:30) We too must not
seek our will, but the will of the Father who has sent us. Can you imagine Jesus saying, “I can of mine own self do nothing:,” while He did miracles; raised the dead, opened blind
eyes, and so much more. Why would Jesus make this statement? Because, He knew
the source of His power was, “the will of
the Father which hath sent me.” Dear
friend this too is our source. Let us
allow God to change our lives so that we will be able to become like His dear
sweet Son Jesus Christ. Let us allow God to teach us to wait on Him so that we
will be able to receive His precious promises, His things to the point we will
be able to, “cry Abba Father.” Let is also learn His precious promises come
to us, we receive them after we endure His dealings
and judgments in our lives. It is the
enduring and learning that qualifies us to receive His precious promises. More
next month on this and other topics.
ARTICLE REVIEW:
Laying Down Our Lives
In
Matthew we find Jesus teaching the disciples two of the greatest commandments, “Your
shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all your soul; and
with all your mind.
This is first and greatest commandant. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And
these two commandants hang all the law and the Prophets.” (Matthew22:37-40). Like us the Disciples seemed to have problems
with loving their “neighbor as yourself.” I wonder why the Disciples and us have problems with loving our neighbors? Well, in God we must do first things first
and we must keep the order God has established in the way we do things. God has
a specific arrangement in mind in everything He does and He expects us to
follow, to the letter, His idea of how things are to be done. We do not get to
make up new spiritual principles and ways of doing things even if we think God
will be gloried in some way. Lying or manipulating people to get them to church
is wrong no matter how you justify it.
To be what God has purposed our live to be, we must go the way God has
established. And God and His ways, change NOT. Many
Christian’s today see no harm in varying in small areas of their walk, well this my friend is extremely dangerous. Variance in God
cannot be measured until it becomes a problem and the longer we vary from what
God has established the farther we will move away from God.
But here in Matthew, for us to be able to “love our
neighbor as our self” we must first be able to, “love the Lord your God
with all of your heart with all your soul; and with all your mind,”
according to the “all
the law and the Prophets.” Sadly many Christians put their love for their
neighbors ahead of the love they have for God.
It is easy to love a person, an animal, or even a thing, because we can
physically see, feel, and touch them, but now loving God that a different
story. After all we cannot see, feel, or
touch God can we? The answer to this
question may surprise you and is the real answer to the question the Disciple
asked Jesus in verse 36, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandant in the
law?” (Matthew 22:36). Please notice
the Disciples were asking Jesus about the commandants of the law, but to be
able to see God we must go beyond the commandant of the law and the Prophets.
We must have the ability to go beyond the heart of the issue. Remember, at the heart of every issue it is
always an issue of my heart. To be able
to see He who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27) we must be able to see beyond right
and wrong, to be able to separate out the weighty issues of life such as;
forgiveness, mercy, grace, and judgment.
Now please do not misunderstand me we must “love the
Lord your God with all of your heart with all your soul; and with all your
mind” and “love our neighbor as yourself” Jesus commands us to do
this, but please understand doing this only fulfills the requirements of the
law and Prophets. But, Jesus fulfilled the law and the Prophets. “Do not
think that I have come to destroy the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to
destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I
say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no
means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
(Matthew 5:17-18) We must be able to go much deeper to touch the
heart of God and our neighbor’s. In John 15, we find Jesus again teaching the
Disciples on this topic, but here there is a deeper focus then the law and the
Prophets. Here there is a progressive revelation of truth in operation. “These
things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you and that your joy may be
full. This is My commandant (not
the commandant of the law and the Prophets) that you love one another as I
have loved you. Greater love has no one
that this than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:11-13) Here Jesus is sharing a
progressive truth that requires sacrifice and loss to walk in the love of the Father,
much deeper then the law and the Prophets, more costly then worshipping God
with our heart, soul, and mind. You know
it is easy to worship God, but when God begins to talk with us about laying our
life down, well now that is a different thing. Why? Because this laying down of
one’s life is very
painful, a very costly price indeed, but sacrifice and loss to our self must
always be paid for the will of God to be accomplished. For life to be saved, someone’s life must
die. Jesus said “ .
. . but whoever loses his life for My
sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16:25) Life must be saved by someone else losing
their life. God must be able to get us over our desire not to lose our
life. He must be able to bring us to a
place where loss of our things, us not getting our way does not move us out of
His way. He must be able to bring us to
a place where we desire to lay our life down for our friends.
When I think of one laying down their life daily I have an
example before my eyes in life of “my sweetheart” and wife Karen. When we first got married Karen desired to be
a model. When she got out of the U. S.
Navy she contacted a well know modeling studio wanting to began
her career. Well, along came our first born, David. Karen had to lay her life down, lay aside her
life to be able to give life to David.
And after David came Daniel, Constance, and Joshua. Karen never became a model, but in place of
her losing her life, now the life of God reigns in the life of our
children. She laid down her life of
being a model so that our children could experience the abundant resurrection
life of God and with my help also able to function correctly in this world. She
has been doing this for all of our 25 plus years of marriage. I shared his
point with my son Daniel and Sarah his gracious wife who are the parents of our
first grandchild. Now God’s process of
laying our life down now continues in them. As children appear in a marriage
the parent’s needs and wants must take a back seat to the needs of their
children. Parents must lay down their lives for their children, but sadly often
this is not the case in many Christian homes.
When I retired in Aug 2000 from the military either Karen or I had to
get a federal job so we could continue in the American system while living in
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
Karen will not be adding
something this month, but remember, the best is yet to come.
POETRY CORNER:
Beyond
The Vast Horizons By Edward
Lawler
Beyond
the vast Horizons lies a world full of love beyond your wildest dreams,
All
cares and troubles from your earthly soul leave you it seems,
To
be perfect in mind and body and live without care,
Peace
and serenity will prevail because your Lord will be there,
He
will ease your troubled mind and calm you with a gentle hand,
Whenever
you need someone turn to him He will always understand.
DEAR FRIENDS:
As the bus with Connie and Joshua on
it pulled out of the parking lot heading for Eastern Carolina University (ECU)
I realized Karen (my Sweetheart) and I were in store for yet another
change. Change in our lives is evitable
we must accept change and embrace it in God.
Too many Christians are content with their lives and do not want God to
bring something new in their life, while others fear change to the point it
becomes a stronghold in their lives.
Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, tells us we are to put down these
strongholds and place them in the obedience of Christ. As
I sat there with Karen I remember how God has been so faithful to us and our children
how can we not love Him the more? How
God has provided for me, Karen, and all of our kids
all of these years. David, our first born, received a four year scholarship to
ECU and now is married to a wonderful young lady named Kristin. And now Connie and Joshua are heading to ECU
both with scholarships too. Dan, our second
born, is doing outstanding in the U.S. Air Force getting early promotions and also
is married to a wonderful young lady named Sarah and they have the best looking
nine month old girl in the world. God
has “truly” met our need in so many
areas.
In all of these wonderful
changes in our lives God has been there with us. Last Sunday in Sunday School we were talking
about heaven and what heaven will be like, well I will be honest I stopped
trying to think of what heaven is going to be like, the Bible says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) Instead, I now think on God’s
faithfulness and the wonderful changes God has brought into our lives. Who needs to think about
heaven when I can think about how wonderful it will be to hold little Abigail
whom we have only seen for a few weeks last year. Who needs to think about heaven when I can
think about how wonderful it will be when Dave, Kristin, Dan, Sarah, Abigail,
Connie, and Joshua come home as we sit around our dinning room table talking
about the past and the future God has for us. Who needs to get lost in all the so called spiritual things, when we can enjoy the simplistic
things God has provided for us. Remember, doing spiritual things does not make
us spiritual, most often they make us religious. Heaven came down and glory
filled my heart. It is doing the godly
and holy things in simplicity and integrity, as we love Him and our family with
all of our heart, God will honor. It is maintaining a godly perspective as God
brings to us things that we need to conform us into
the image of His dear Son Jesus Christ. And make no mistake, God will bring change after change to
us to see if we have learned the lessons to qualify for the next level of glory
He desires us to move in. As the bus rolled out of sight a tear rolled down my
face, a new adventure begins for Connie and Joshua and yes
a new adventure begins for Karen and I. Let us look towards change with the
right focus, let us not look for what we call bad that may come with the
change, but let us look for the good, the wonderful new adventures God has in
store for us. Let us look at change in
God with bravery, boldly knowing “God
knows the thoughts He has for us and they are for good and not for evil.” (Jeremiah 11:31) Let us rest in knowing
God has a purpose and a plan that is accomplished through the change He is
allowed to bring into our lives.
NEEDS NOT WANTS:
1. In
Silistra,
2. In
3. In
4. Pastor
Joseph Mutua in
5. Pastor
Mike Olufemi in the north of
6. Pastor
S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor
Julian both near
7. Financial
support for the printing of: “God Still Performs Miracles Today: A Book of Person Encouragement.”
8.
Pastor Metin Mintaz and the members
of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in
9. Pastor
Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastor Isreal Mutaitina in
10. Major Rob McIntosh, Chaplin,
11. The Maternity and Children’s Clinic project
in
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
August:
September: Local ministry
October:
I am still available to share what God has given me at
churches and/or home groups. Also, if
God moves on your heart to bless the ministries I visit and share God’s love I
would be honored to make it possible for God and you. God told Abram, “I will bless those who bless
you and curse those who curse you.” (Genesis 12:3) If you want a blessing, then bless someone Remember, God is to you what you are
to God.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Address:
David and Karen
Stahl
Jacksonville , NC 28546
Phone:
Home: (910) 346-1739
FAX: (910) 346-1739
Email:
dstahl@ec.rr.com
Website:
If you know someone who would enjoy receiving this newsletter or if you
receive this newsletter and do not wish to please let me know.
Also if you would like to contribute to this ministry please feel free
to contact me with the above information. Costs ever increase.
PLEASE look within
your abilities to begin supporting or to increase your support to cover these
costs. The cost is great, but the cost for not supporting is even greater. And
remember, all donations are tax deductible.
