Deeper Truths for Hungry Hearts
June 2015 • Volume XIII Number 10
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Thoughts for Consideration:
Greetings again my Brethren. This month we will start on a new section as we begin to look at God’s call in the life of Moses. Seen in Moses’ life are three major areas that must be a part of our lives if we are going to be useful to God when He calls. The three areas are: preparation, qualification, and providence. All of the areas are equally important and are progressive in nature. Without a solid time of learning the lessons from God in preparation there will be no qualification, we will not be approved by God, and if this does not happen then there will be no providence in our life and our ministry. All three must be present at the right time and for the right reasons. You could say for the right reason, yes our motives and heart condition must be right all along the way of our training. This month we will look at why God called Moses. We have learned in the past we are called because God has a plan and purpose for everyone’s life, well so too in Moses life. Funny how we look at someone and say look at that fellow God is really using him more than I so God must love him the more, well this is not true. Our service to God is not greater or lesser than another’s person. All service is the same in God’s eyes according to God’s plan and purpose and when we change things to help God out we can really mess things up. We need to just go along for the ride and do those things God wants us to do at the level of our preparation and if we are approved (qualified) in them God will give us His providence. If then God moves us along to something else (maybe bigger and better in our opinion) glory be to God, if not glory be to God. So Moses was called because: God heard the people groaning. In Exodus we read, “And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” (Exodus 2:23-24) God heard the people there was a need that needed to be met and the only way God could meet the need was to sent a man He had prepared, qualified, and give His providence too. There must always be a need for God to get involved. Mankind sinned in the garden and needed a saviour so God sent His son. There must always be a need for God move in our situations. The ideal would be us living in a pleasant land (just us and God) without any needs, but that is not reality. Our land is often filled with needs that can only be corrected by God’s hand of providence in our lives. Now not all of our needs must be met by God, oh no God expects us to handle some of this need meeting, but the ones that are out of our hands (by either God’s plan or by our doing) God and God alone is the one who meets our needs. For example: we have a job and work for money to meet the need for food and shelter; we work, but God gives us the money not our boss. Everything we get comes from God. but we must do our part to help God meet our needs. In the late 70s many Christians went on what they called “love walks” where they just walked with the LORD and did not work, but expected the LORD to speak to others to give them money, well this is not what the Bible says, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) We must all do our part in helping God meet the need. Another reason what Moses was called to lead the Children of Israel was God saw their affliction, Again in Exodus we read, “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;” (Exodus 3:7) Affliction moves God’s heart. No matter the heart condition of the person God’s heart is always moved by affliction and those who have been beaten and down trodden. David in the Psalms said, “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” (Psalms 34:18) When God’s sees such a one He always gets involved. Many people (Christians included) want to be near God, but the Bible says, “The LORD is nigh” or near those who are broken hearted and of a contrite spirit. The word “contrite” here means crushed and ground to powder. Not too many people especially Christians (I include myself here at time) want to be crushed even by God and ground to powder and do not even talk about being broken, even broken hearted. But God saw the peoples’ affliction and responded to both their cries and what God saw. In Verse 8 the LORD said, I am to come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, but He did not come down in “person” oh no He sent Moses who He had in training for 40 years. Moses life can be divided into three 40 year periods. The first 40 years of his life Moses was in the palace of Pharaoh learning, mighty in word and deed, then the next 40 years of Moses’ life was in the wilderness in service to Jethro watching his sheep and working out all of the things from the last 40 years he would not need for the last 40 years of service to God leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness. When God finished with Moses this mighty man of valor, in word and deed could not speak. “And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” (Exodus 4:10) Just goes to show us God can use anyone He has prepared.
Next month we will continue to look at Moses’ preparation. Can you hear Him now?
Written David Stahl
ARTICLE REVIEW:
What Are We After
In the Books of Acts in the town of Antioch of Pisidia Paul stood up in the synagogue on the Sabbath and recounted the oral history of the Jews by saying, “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.” (Acts 13:22) Now most Christians read this verse and make the quantum leap thinking David had a heart like God’s. Oh how wonderful that would be to have a heart like God’s, but how can we have a heart like God’s when Jeremiah tells us our hearts are deceitful and wicked above all things. No I do not think Acts 13:22 is drawing the parallel of David’s and God’s heart, but is saying what we all must desire if we would be like God, we all must desire to be after God’s own heart. Do you see the difference? Not have a heart like His (even though this is God’s eternal intention) I believe this will never happen this side of heaven, but be must be after His heart. Did you know it matters what we are after? What my friend are you after? The answer is easy to see all one needs to do is look at our lives and our check book to see what we are after. Our lives reflect what we really believe not what we tell our friends or what we want to be. Our lives are a direct reflection of the amount of revelation and authority we have in God. And our check book tells the story of what we spend our treasure and riches on and what we think is important. Charles Haun always said, (as he got his wallet out of his pants and waved it at the congregation) “once God gets a hold of this (his wallet) He has all of us.” It is one thing to give God our heart (not much of an investment in that on our part) but it is another thing to give God our check book. What are we going after in the world and all of her distractions: religion, politics, sports, hobbies, shopping, gaming, watching TV, reading, leisure time, the list is endless or are we after the things of God: reading His Holy Scriptures, prayer, giving so that others may receive, good works with the reward in heaven, service, communion with God and our brothers and sisters, the list can go on, but it is not so endless. And why? Because the things of God will cost us something to partake of them. If we truly desire the things of God there is a price we must pay to be able to partake of all of God’s heavenly glory. Most religions and denominations will tell you, just become a Christian and you will have God’s best for your life, well that is almost true (still a lie), but they leave out the part where we must lay our life down so that Christ can live through us. They conveniently gloss over the verses that tell us we must lose our life for Christ’s sake so that we can find it. Losing comes first my friend, finding second. They go to sitting in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) with Christ, but never discuss John 12:24-25 where we must fall into the ground and die. I wonder why they do this? Well, they are not after the things of God, but after the things of the world. Religions of men and denominations at best only paint ½ of the truth this is why they are so destructive to the Body of Christ. I promise you my friend if you are really after the things of God it will cost you. To know God’s power it will cost you something (God gets to pick the sacrifice not us), to know God’s presence it will cost you something far different than to know His power, and I promise you by all that is Holy, if you desire to know God’s person it will cost you all you have. It will cost you your life, but that is okay this is God’s plan for our lives for us to die so that He may live through us, but for God to be able to live through us we must die to our selfishness, our self-seeking, self-life, and how do we do this by desiring the things of God (this is our choice) by having a heart that is after God’s.
In Psalms 42 we read, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? 3My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. 5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” (Psalms 42:1-5) We sing a song about these verses, but few stop to understand what is really being said in these verses. Please notice the progression in these five verses: (verses 1-2) panting and thirsting (verses 3) tears and religious works, and (verse 4-5) repentance and inward sober reflection. I wonder why they made the song from the first two verses? The real message from God here is in verses 4 and 5. But, here in verse 1 and 2 the writer goes after the things of God with great longing and great desire pouring out his heart, but the writer ends these verses with, “when shall I come and appear before God?” What happened to His desire and thirsting? Reality set in. My friend when we have a real encounter with God we will not feel like singing and dancing our emotional projection will be done away with. The clamor of our striving and self-effort will be done away with. We at best will be happy just to be alive and content with our mouth stopped We have been reduced and now God can build in us His character and nature of looking and acting like His precious Son Jesus Christ. We like Isaiah will see God high and lifted up and His train will fill the temple of our heart, what a holy place in God. Oh God, how I want this more and more in my life, but I find I am alive to myself and my will. I hear deep teachings and know them to be true and desire so to possess what I hear, but in the end they slip through my fingers and all I have is a bowl of well wishes. Please help me oh Lord.
Now it is important (if you want to know where I am in God) to know I am more a Quietest more along the line and teachings, as far back, as St. Augustine, Father Lawrence, Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon, Mike Molinos (Fenelon’s student), and more modern John Wright Follette and Walter Beuttler (both Charles’ teachers), Charles Haun (my teacher), and then me. But the line does not stop there, anyone I disciple probably will walk in this way out from the teaching they have received from me. You know it does matter who your teacher is. In these lives runs a thread of teaching and understanding that believes as we are quiet and still before the Lord (waiting before the Lord), during our solace reflection and meditation on God can we really hear from Him, when our mouth, desires, hungers, thirst, and thoughts are still and silent before Him then our spirit can rise up from the depth of our soul, then will we hear from heaven. In the Psalms again we read, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10) and so many more verses that encourage us to quiet our spirit so that we can come to know God who speaks to us (1 Kings 19:12) in a small still voice. Oh no my friend it is not an emotional or mental projection to God, but an inward swelling of our spirit pushing up and out of us towards God who put this desire in us to touch His heart. My heart within me drops when I hear Christians justify their emotional presumption with, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 18And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” (Ephesians 5:17-19) These three verses have nothing to do with singing songs in church, but here Paul is encouraging us to “be filled with the Spirit” and to make “melody in our heart to the Lord.” Why do we think this is about singing songs in church? The direction of our heart melody is always to be to the Lord. Oh no my friend this is not singing songs or playing musical instruments, but communion (no words required heart to heart) with the Lord, by the Spirit of God. Communion with God is a thing of the Spirit where our heart is fine-tuned and then in tune with God. Our spiritual growth and development will never happen in our lives if we continually press into God with our emotions and feelings which are deceptive and always will mislead us astray from the truth of the word of God. Peter also takes up this thought when he said, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 3If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (1 Peter 2-3) How can we do this? First, by desiring the “sincere milk of the word” where-by we can grow learning the basics and fundamentals to achieve an elementary level of spiritual development that we can use to build on to be able to take on the meat of the word of God. The word “sincere” here (Strong’s #97) means unmixed, unadulterated, and pure. This “milk of the word” must not be mixed with the things of the world nor with our flesh if we are going to grow spiritually and establish healthy understandings and principles in the Lord. Spiritual things that are not mixed and adulterated by other contaminated teachings. So many young Christians from the start are taught a denominational religious dogma that sets them up for frustration and ensures they will always stay a babe in the Lord. Sadly often I believe this is out of design, who wants their kids (young Christians) growing up and asking their parents (religious denominations) some hard questions or wants to see their kids leave the nest (church) for what God wants for their lives, because if they do leave valuable hands to work around the home (church) will be lost. And second, we must walk in obedience and submit to what God has for our lives, then and only then can we “taste the Lord is gracious.”
My friend we must be after the things God is after, we must have a heart after the things God has a heart for. Many of my friends ask me if we are not to use our emotions to make our approach to the Lord then why did God give us emotions? Well that is easy, God gave us emotions so we could have a compassionate heart and feel sadness for those people who are lost and undone without His precious Son Jesus Christ not so we can thrill our “selves” at church when the music gets rocking or at some Christian rock concert. The same reason God gave us arms to reach out and care for people and legs so we can travel the many miles around the world to share the Gospel for Him not to up jump up and down and spin around like some top, how foolish to think so. And an understanding deep within us to be able to know the Creator and to be able to appreciate the beauty of a sunrise or sunset He has created. I have learned over the years when I am feeling weak in my emotions and in my self-strength I am usually moving correctly in God, but when I am feeling good and strong in my emotions and my self-strength I find myself getting off track and not going after what God is going after. My friend what are you going after?
Written by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
A Short Thought on Prayer
When was the last time a church service had prayer for the sick or prayer for any other situation? When was the last time you heard, “Jesus can fix it?” Truthfully, most of the churches we attend do have special prayer and are flexible enough in their service to allow extra prayer time if needed, and I’m a firm believer that Jesus can fix anything. A lot of people don’t want to pray really expecting anything from GOD because of the ole “what if nothing happens.” The results of prayer are not a reflection on the one praying, but on the one being prayed to. We aren’t responsible for the results, GOD is. So we should pray in complete abandon to GOD because He is responsible for the answer not us. Either He answers or He doesn’t. Our job is to believe in GOD even if nothing seems to be happening and actually most of the time the answer comes in GOD’s time NOT our time anyway. GOD likes to take His time and cover all the bases—so to speak. We should always: 1. Believe that GOD hears us. 2. Know that GOD can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. 3. Know that just because we don’t get the answer we want doesn’t mean that GOD doesn’t care. We are not responsible for the outcome of prayer we ARE however responsible for praying according to the will of GOD. Our Brother James has this to say on the subject, “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church: and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Eli was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain on the earth by the space of three years and six months. He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” (James 5: 13-18) So there you have it. Let us endeavor to have the mind of Christ so we can effectively pray and seek GOD’S face in any given situation. As the prophets in the Old Testament were in tune with GOD and as Jesus was in tune with GOD, so must we be in tune with GOD to pray according to HIS will, NOT our will. It must be thy will be done not my will be done.
Written by Karen Stahl
NEEDS NO WANTS:
1. In Silistra, Bulgaria Pastor(s) Niki Marsov and Emil Nedelchev. Included now are missionaries from Romania Nicu and Elena. Times are troubled in Bulgaria much prayer and support is needed.
2. Constanta, Romania Pastors Luke and Jacob at Bethel Church and George Ritisan at the Romanian Center for Cross-cultural Studies Bible School and the Faru (Lighthouse) Church.
3. In Suceava, Romania Pastors Nicu and Marcel at St. Andrews Church. They are still standing by God’s grace.
4. Pastor Joseph Mutua in Nairobi, Kenya needs your prayer and financial support.
5. Pastor Mike Olufemi in Aveile, Nigeria. He needs our prayers and support to be a light in great darkness.
6. Pastor S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries in Hyderabad and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor Julian in Sankaraguptham, India.
7. Pastor Metin Mintaz, Dan, Cathy, and members of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
8. Pastor Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastors Isreal Mutaitina and John Balone in Bukoba, Tanzania.
9. Monthly financial support for Vivian’s Maternity and Child Care Clinic project in Aviele, Nigeria.
10. Pastor Tek Dahl at Gethsemane, Church (his church) and their radio station “Good News 105.1 FM” in Kathmandu, Nepal.
11. Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), and, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli, Rwanda.
12. Money for an industrial strength potato peeler at the Mission School in Romania.
Next Home Group Meeting:
Our next Home Group Meeting will be TUESDAY 23 June 2015
232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
7:00 pm please RSVP
Home: (910) 741-0489
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
June: Local Ministry
July: Local Ministry
August: Local Ministry
I am still available to share what God has given me at churches and/or home groups. If God moves on your heart to support BHG or other ministries we personally know we would be honored to serve as a go between. Remember, if we want a blessing from God the spiritual principle is we must bless others. Remember, God is to you what you are to God.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Address:
David and Karen Stahl
232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
Phone:
Home: (910) 741-0489
Mobile: (910) 382-9287
FAX: (910) 741-0489
Email:
Ministry E-mail: dstahl@beholdinghisglory.com
Personal E-mail: mtnebo@hotmail.com
Online:
Beholding His Glory Website
Beholding His Glory Blog
The AuthorHouse link below will lead you to our latest book, “Thoughts for Consideration.” Just copy it into your web browser and return. Also you can purchase two of our other books “Adventures with God.” and “God Still Performs Miracles: A Book of Personal Encouragement.”
http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorCenter/Protected/BookHome.aspx?bookID=61464
Please take a minute and take a look, they all make for a great encouraging gift, giving hope and sharing God’s love through a deeper teaching that someone can enjoy again and again. All of our books can be purchased at all book stores like Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Book-A-Million, and etc., any Christian Book Store that orders, and all book ordering on-line companies like Amazon.com. Or if you are like me from the old school just contact us, we will let you know the price and then we will mail it out to your home address. Postage and handling is on a case by case basis.
If you know someone you think would enjoy receiving this newsletter or if you receive this newsletter and do not wish to please let me know. Contributions to this ministry is always appreciated and needed the more time continues. Please feel free to contact us with the above information. The cost is great, but the cost for not supporting to others is even greater. And remember, all donations are tax deductible.
