THOUGHTS FOR CONSIDERATION: Greetings again my friends. Motives, motives what are our motives for doing things for God? You would think this would not be a big deal to God, but my friends I assure you it is. As a matter of fact, how and why we do things for God are two of the biggest deals, because they speak of our integrity and yes, our motives. Most Christians today do things for God to see what they will get out of it. They serve God to see if He will come through for them in a pinch or when they really need something. Other Christians serve God to soften life’s blows making life more bearable. While others serve God in ministry as a preacher or teacher of the Bible to make a living. Oh LORD never let this be me! All of these examples, and there are many more, are dead wrong. I remember when I started in the ministry my Bible Teacher told me if I want money all I have to do is tell people what they want to hear and what they already know and people will pour money into to my life. I have known and seen this in action time and time again by “ministers” I use to look up to and thought they were moving with God, but in the end, it was all about as they say, “follow the money.” Oh, the stories I could tell you about “ministers” working for themselves building for the future their kingdom and not what God wants. But, I digress and need to stay on topic. My friend how we do things and why we do things, for God, speaks of our maturity, commitment, and dedication, not to mention already spoken our integrity. My friend God cannot do much with immature and dishonourable children who do things for Him for the wrong reason. It has always been not what we do for God, but how we do things for God. After Jesus shared the parable of the Sower with the disciples He says, in verse 17 and 18, “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. 18Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.” (Luke 8:17-18) My friend I would encourage you to read these two verses again. Notice Jesus DID NOT say take heed what you hear, oh no, Jesus said, “Take heed therefore (therefore means because what was previously said) how ye hear.” We cannot help what we hear unless we put on a set of headphones and turn the volume up or maybe stick something like ear plugs in our ears to muffle or quiet the sound. What we hear is what we hear, the noise or the wave of sound floating through the air, we cannot help that, but that is not what Jesus was talking about them. Jesus was talking about do we hear things about others and even ourselves with the right heart condition and right motives. Do we hear things and think how we can get the advantage on them. Do we hear things about people so we decide how we are going to vilify them so we can marginalize them. Now do not sit there and act like you do not know what I am talking about. We all have done it. Our “true” motives are ever before us. Only two people really know how we hear, God and us. Our motives goes deep into our character and nature. Recently, a one-time friend, who I thought would never leave our (Karen and mine) side turned on us like white on rice. We were shocked and hurt, dazed to be honest and it took a few days working through this betrayal with prayer and assuring each other we did nothing deserving of this. But, we know if they hated Jesus, and they did, then they will hate us too. The sad part is we know why they did what they did, but we could not, no matter how hard we tried to stop it. Once people set themselves on a course for destruction all you can do is given them a wide birth, maybe pray, and be there to help them pick up the pieces. In 2 Chronicles 25:1-2 we read of a King of Israel who at the age of 29 began to reign as King of Israel. The author (maybe Ezra) writes, “Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart. Wow, this guy who had it all “King of Israel,” he was young, a ruler, yet “he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.” In other words he ruled and reigned over Israel with the wrong motives, his heart condition was not perfect or without fault. People could see in him the greed, selfishness, wrongness, immaturity, and evil this all leads to in him. For 29 years he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. I am amazed God will let people continue in their wayward lifestyle for long periods of time. I thank God for His grace longsuffering, and mercy that we are not cut down and carried off to be burned. My friend God is looking at NOT what we do for Him, but how we do things for Him. He closely scrutinizes us in the small things to know if He can trust us in the big things.
Next month we will continue looking at the perfect heart of the “Prophet of God” who must also have an obedient heart. I hope this is you my friend. Are you a Prophet of God? To be a Prophet we must be able to hear His voice. Listen closely and you will hear. Written by David Stahl
ARTICLE REVIEW:
Teaching vs Training
At the end of the 1960s there was a shift from evangelism to teaching in the church and of course with the increase of Bible teachers we now have more false Bible teachers. Remember a false Bible teacher is still a Bible teacher just like a false prophet is still a prophet only they speak falsely. Today we fill stadiums, coliseums, and arenas with Bible teachers of the day, but to what end? If you wanted to be someone in the church then you had to become a great teacher. Rarely are evangelists mentioned if they are they are mentioned in passing and only about them teaching some new doctrine or fad like the word of faith crowd started by Oral Roberts, Kenneth Copeland, and their disciples, which destroyed the church. Now please do not get me wrong I have nothing against teaching the word of God after all Jesus is our great teacher and I teach, but it seemed after the west coast Jesus movement fizzled out the church went to teaching to know God instead of a experiential based knowledge. Again teaching is important, but teaching is not training. The present day model of a church service beginning in the early 1970s and still current today in most churches was: three fast ones and a slow one (songs), some announcements, taking up the offering (to the tune of the doxology or some special number), teaching a good sermon from the Scriptures (rarely a message there is a huge difference), an altar call, and then off to the local restaurant for lunch. We find this same format (except for lunch) in churches if they have a mid week service. The focal point of the service is the teaching (should be the LORD), but remember we go to church not to receive a blessing, but be a blessing. I hear many Christians say if I do not go to the mid week service I will not get my fix, my shot in the arm to carry me to Sunday, I just cannot make it. Well this is just wrong thinking church is not about us, but it is about learning something (in the teaching) that we can share with our family, our neighbours, our colleagues at work and tell them about Jesus Christ. This my friend is called evangelism telling people in the world about the good news of the Gospel, telling people about Jesus. But did you know less than 5% of Christians in America in the last 12 months have shared their testimony (how Jesus saved them and cleaned up their life) or even shared the simple salvation message of Jesus Christ and the Gospel? No wonder the church is off her rails the people who are to share the good news of the Gospel are not equipped nor prepared to take the message to their neighbour, even unto the ends of the world, yet churches are full, big mega churches dot the land, Bible Schools are packed with students who want to gain knowledge of God, but are not sure about the experiences of God. Most have never heard of this concept (God working in our lives) while the people of America and the world shuffle further and further into lunacy and craziness. In the Psalms David said, “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.” (Psalm 103:7) Here God could not reveal or manifest His ways to the Children of Israel only His acts. Apparently there is more than one way for God to express or reveal Himself to us and I am here to tell you teaching only gets us to knowledge about Him, a mental assent that satisfies our curiosity and feelings (usually from what others write), but there is a deeper way God desires to express Himself, a direct revelation of God. As teaching is to support evangelism training supports the revelation of God. What is missing in the church today is training. When was the last time you went to a Sunday or Wednesday service and was trained to do something for the LORD? Trained to share the Scriptures, trained to help someone with a problem in their lives? No teaching is the mode we see today, but teaching is an academic model patterned from secular education where the professor (the pastor in this case) stands up behind the pulpit and delivers a good sermon to make everyone feel good imparting some knowledge. As I said teaching is to support evangelism, but the evangelism piece of ministry has been lost since the early 1970s. Jesus said “go” (or in the Greek “as you are going”), but we stay and encourage others to go. Going seems to be too hard, too uncomfortable, and too dangerous in which they are, but all of that never will change the mind of Jesus for us nor His plan for reaching the world. No, I will sit right here in church and hear another sermon from the pastor and gain more knowledge. My friend we will never know anything about God unless we can allow Him to train us because in the training is found the revelation of who God is. A personal knowing of God’s nature and character resulting from the training from the hard times and the good times, from the inward reflection and soul searching that is required of God to know Him. I think at this point we need to define two words. The first word is “teach.” Teaching (adj) is the act of passing on knowledge, to teach is (v) the action of teaching. Where training (adj) or train (v) is to develop the mind and character of someone. We will never get to God with only teaching this is why the church is in trouble we must be trained in the “ways” of God to be able to understand His “ways” if not we will only know the theoretical aspects of Him and never know His heart. The push is for the knowledge of another man’s revelation in books, experiences, and teachings which will never take us to God. Now God’s training can be painful as He takes us deeper and deeper into to the wilderness to train us. Even Jesus found this out the hard way. In Matthew we read, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17) Even with the Father speaking, the heavens opening up, and the Holy spirit descending that was not enough for Jesus to start His ministry. He (Jesus) had to undergo some training in the wilderness. And I ask you is the servant greater than the Master? Matthew continues, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness . . . . ” (Matthew 4:1) so too for our lives. I think we have enough teaching. What will I gain if I hear another sermon on something I have heard many times before? Oh, it may have a different approach or a new twist, but the divine thought and expression from the word of God is the same truth and it works this way, but now training will develop us in ways teaching cannot. Training develops our mind (like teaching they are similar), but training develops our character and our soul. Training develops faith, unity, a singleness of purpose in us. When I was in the military in operational units in the US Navy we would train and train and train. And if we got tired of training we would train some more. Training has a critical purpose it develops faith in our equipment. It develops a boldness and assurance in us that words can never touch. How will we know our gas mask works? Well, we have to go to the gas chamber, get gassed, put on our gas mask and clear it, then and only then will we know our gas mask works. The same is true with any piece of our equipment. Just teaching will never do it. We can have classes all day on our gas mask, on our weapons, on the enemy from some of the very best instructors in the world, but if there is never any application experience we will never really know if our equipment, our self, and our friends are battle ready. The principle in God as in the military, is training with our equipment develops faith in the equipment and each other. In a company run we run as fast as the slowest man, why? Because this tells everyone in the company if we get dinged in battle no one will be left behind. And if we have no faith in our equipment or each other then we will be defeated in battle. I will let that sink in. No wonder the church is on the run it lacks faith developed from lack of training and lack of relationship. In Proverbs we read, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Notice this verse did not say, “teach up a child.” Why? Teaching only knowledge will not keep them from departing. You know there is a huge difference between teaching a child and training a child. Teaching is the art of passing on knowledge have it be one on one or in a classroom setting. While training is application based, trial and error, hands on learning, how things operate, when enough is really enough when to speak and when not to speak and so much more. Teaching will never provide skills development only training. We talk with our kids and say we are teaching them how to be good little Christians, but in reality they are watching our behaviour and our actions to see what we have learned. Only what we have really learned can we pass on to our kids. Sadly, too often it is the old, “do not do as I do, but do as I say.” If we truly train (not teach) our kids in the way they are to go then it will be a part of their character and nature and my friend it will then be extremely hard for them to depart from the way God has for them to go. There will be a gnawing in their heart that will draw them back again and again. It is not a matter of our teaching or their ability to learn, but did we train our kids through personal example and a Godly life style? Have we developed a faith and a belief in God in them so that no matter what they see or feel their training will hold them in the heat of the battle? Teaching or training it is our choice. The church needs to involve people in the service again and provide some application based hands on knowledge that will develop them is ways where they can come to know God not only through knowledge, but through revelation which is God’s measuring stick of man. Written by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
They Are Out There
Back in Deuteronomy 18:9-14, GOD said, “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, (Strong’s #7080, #7081 from #7080 determine by lot or magical scroll, to divine, soothsayer, from #7081 oracle (reward of), divine sentence witchcraft, or an observer of times, Also #6049 to cloud over, act covertly, practice magic, bring enchanter or observe times (soothsayer sorcerer) or an enchanter, (#5172 hiss whisper a magic spell, prognosticate, divine, enchanter, enchantment diligently observe) or a witch (#3784 whisper a spell, to incant or practice magic, sorcerer use witchcraft. Or a charmer (#2266, #2267 to join, literality or figuratively by means of spells to fascinate, charm, be compact, couple together, have fellowship with, join self to, league, a spell, enchantment), or a consulter with familiar spirits, (#7592 to inquire, to request, demand, ask council on, beg, borrow, earnestly inquire, obtain lend, pray, obtain leave), or a wizard, (#3049 a knowing one, specifically. a conjurer a ghost, wizard) or a necromancer (#1875, to tread, or frequent, to follow for pursuit or search, to seek or ask, make inquisition question, #4191 to die, be dead, dead body, man one, death destroyer, cause to be like to, must die, to kill). For all that do these things are an abomination (#8441 something disgusting, an abhorrence especially idolatry abominable custom or thing) unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations which thou shalt possess hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14) Now down the road GOD had the Children of Israel to kill everything in various cities, for good reason too, if they were pagan they followed false religions, and pagan customs that would eventually influence the Children of Israel causing them to err, and stumble out of the way God had for them. I double dog guarantee you witchcraft is alive and well in the world today, and Satan is seeking who he can destroy. Dave and I went to the dentist and while in the waiting room I went to give a lady a Chick-Tract, she was very polite and respectful and as we chit-chatted she told me she came from a long line of witches! Nice yes, polite yes, but lost as the day is long. Further experiences with people involved with witchcraft have led to the following conclusion. Evil people may not admit to being a card-carrying member of the local witch coven, but take 50 cents worth of free advice here, if people are very friendly, even polite, when they start to ingratiate themselves into your life or your family’s life, TAKE HEED! Watch out when people are overly charming, they are charmers. They use flattery and subtle wiles to make inroads into your life. Stay away from people that lure you in and act like they are in league with you they too are charmers (and worse) they may be fascinating, enchanting, but they are deceivers, pure evil, and will beguile you and cause you to go astray from God. They are treacherous and deal ever so subtly like a snake. They will oh so skillfully slide into your life, seeming so helpful, so concerned with nothing but a selfish ulterior motive in their heart to get their way. This evilness is so slick and so subtle that if you are not grounded in God you could easily be their next victim. God knows this and forbade the Children of Israel to associate with those nations and people and guess what God too forbids us also to be around people like this. I can’t fully express how slick and deceptive these people are. Paul tells us, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11: 13-15) and this is talking about deceivers also in the Church!! Take heed Charmers and their ilk are out there. Peter writes, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 11 To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5: 8-11) Dave always says you can’t be deceived if you have a love for the truth. So true. Always, ALWAYS seek the LORD in all decisions, don’t let someone into your lives or your kids lives, for anybody, not for your friends, your Mamma, your Dadda, your brother, your sister, your kids NOBODY unless you seek the LORD first!! Even if it makes sense and seems like a right thing to do at the time, ALWAYS SEEK the LORD first. Because you cannot be deceived if you know the truth. God bless, read and study your Bible. Written by Karen Stahl
NEEDS NOT WANTS:
1. In Dobrich, Bulgaria Pastor Niki Marsov and in Silistra Pastor(s) Yanko, and Marcho. Times are troubled in Bulgaria much prayer and support is needed.
2. Constanta, Romania Pastors Luke and Jacob at Bethel Church and in Agigea Brother John Vlad as the Director of the Romanian Center for Cross-cultural Studies Bible School.
3. Pastor S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries in Hyderabad and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor Julian at Gospel Assembly in Sankaraguptham, India.
4. Dan, Cathy, and members of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey. And Pastor Metin ad his folks at the Mavi Kilisesi in Dalaman,
5. Pastor Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastors Isreal Mutaitina and John Balone in Bukoba, Tanzania.
6. Pastor Tek Dahl at Gethsemane, Church (his church) and their radio station “Good News 105.1 FM” in Kathmandu, Nepal.
7. Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), and, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli, Rwanda.
8. Christian and Ina Kopjar Missionaries to the County of Liberia.
9. Betuel and Biannca in Erbil, Kurdistan
NEXT HOME GROUP MEETINGS:
19 May 26 at 7:00 pm
At 232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
7:00 pm please RSVP
(910) 382-9287
BEHOLDING HIS GLORY ON THE RADIO:
On WJCV Jacksonville, NC
“Pebbles of Truth”
1290 AM or 98.3 FM
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 7:30 am
FUTURE BHG SCHEDULE:
May: Local Ministry
June: Erbil, Kurdistan and Dalaman, Turkey
July: 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:
Mobile: (910) 382-9287
FAX: (910) 741-0489
Email:
Website:
Blog:
http://bhisglory.blogspot.com/
FREE OFFERS
Booklets on Spiritual Authority, Spiritual Leadership, Prayer, Body of Christ, and Righteous Living the Four Anchors of God are now available by contacting us and requesting one. You can see them on our home page. Get one now.
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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.
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