Waiting on God the LORD’S Visits
September 2021 • Volume XX Number 01
”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:
ARTICLE REVIEW:
Greetings again my Brethren. As we begin a new year (19) in Beholding His Glory (BHG) I am amazed when I look back and see what the LORD started in September 2002 when He said, “put a name to your travels” and when done BHG was birthed for the glory of God in the earth as it is done in Heaven. Next year it will be 20 years God has used Karen, I, and BHG to touch the world as He sees fit. But for history to be complete BHG started in September 2002, but Karen and I left for Germany in July 1996 and we established Christliche Gemeinde Stuttgart on Karen’s birthday 27 April 1997. So 26 of our almost 42 years of marriage have been lived in a desire to travel abroad (according to God’s will) and share this wondrous Gospel message of Jesus Christ with the world. How we thank God for the opportunity to serve Him and His people and look forward to many more years ahead as He wills. You know when it is all said and done the best we can do for God is just be a servant He can use.
Okay let us end this section of teaching and it will be part 5 to how God is seen as to visiting His people. Part 1seen though answered prayer, part 2 seen through providential intervention, part 3 seen through fulfilling His promises, part 4 seen as supernatural deliverance, and the last section and probably the most important was God is seen as visiting His children through personal revelation. John tells us in the Book of John, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21) Did you get that? The end of the verse says God, “will manifest myself to him.” What a precious promise from God He, “will manifest myself to him.” Now I do not know about you my friend, but that gets me excited to know God will manifest Himself to me. After all why was man created? God certainly was not lonely He had the Angels and all of the other creatures in Heaven to keep Him company and if they did not provide fellowship and worship God would have the stones cry out to Him. Jesus told this to the Pharisees in Luke, “And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. 40And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:39-40) Have you ever thought why God created man? Well I feel pretty sure you have, but to me there is only one answer to this question and any other question like why are we saved? Or Why does God love us? The answer to this and all other types of questions is so that we can come to know a holy God and come to learn how to walk with Him. There is no other answer logical answer that makes spiritual sense. So that we can come to know a holy God and come to learn how to walk with Him is the only answer God is looking for in our lives. I think I will be talking about this truth more often. It was Jesus prayer in the real LORD’s prayer which is not Matthew 6:9-13, but John 17:1-26. In verse three Jesus sets up His prayer to His Father, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) Life eternal is not living forever, but “that they might know thee the only true God.” And like all things in God it is our choice to come to know a Holy God. Even in John 14:21 there are two certain requirements we must meet to be able to have God manifest Himself to us and share personal revelation and His heart. Jesus lays these two requirements out at the beginning of the verse: (1) He that hath my commandments and keepeth them and (2) he it is that loveth me: and I will love him. So, we must first know or “hath” His commandments, which for the folks in Jesus’ day (Jesus being a good Jew) could have been the keeping of the 613 Mosaics laws I am not really sure on this one, but in Mark Jesus made it perfectly clear (He was repeating the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy 6:4-5) what He meant for us Gentiles today. In Mark we read, “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31) So we are to not only know the laws, but more importantly we must keep them every day of our lives. And the second requirement was to love Jesus and if we love Jesus then He will love us. Not sure again here, but if we do not love Him this will NEVER change His love for us. So, “if” (the most important word in the Bible because it sets the condition for receiving from God) we meet these requirements then He “will manifest myself to him.” Again our choice.
Next month we will take a critical look at the word “manifest” in John 14:21 as it relates to our human senses. Do you see Him draw near? Please know God is near to them who are near to Him. Do you feel His presence? Do you see His hand in your life? He is waiting on us to make our first move. Written by David Stahl
The Intent of Our Heart
No matter what we do (even for God) does it not matter if the intent of our heart is wrong. All of our service and good works in the church, money given, even our perfect attendance will not matter to God if our motives and intentions are impure. It is the intent of our heart God is looking at and nothing more. Now the performance based religious folks will doom me to hell for such words, but that is okay because deep in their heart they know I am telling the truth yet they lack the heart to speak the truth. The Son of God (from the beginning of eternity) held a position of equality with God. Nevertheless He willingly set this equality aside that He might take on an identification with mankind in order to pay the penalty for man’s sin. It was through obedience and suffering that He experientially entered into this position as Saviour yet the intent of His heart was never to ascend above His Father’s will for His life. In Philippians we read the heart intent of Jesus Christ, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8) The intent of His heart was settled and established not on the cross, but in the Garden of Gethsemane (which means where oil is pressed) where the Father pressed out the life and heart of Jesus. I am reminded now of the story from Bill Pepper who shares of the Chinese father who attended an underground church until he was caught by the authorities. The entire family was arrested and the authorities said they would kill each one of his family members, starting with his wife, unless he told them who the leader of the church was. The father with tears in his eyes looked at his wife and family and said, “I will see you all in the morning.” The father had an established heart and his faith was settled in believing though God or the government would slay him (or his family) yet he would trust Him. Willfully Jesus submitted Himself to the disciplines and the testings of life so He might qualify through experience as well as by His identity as our Savior. The writer of the Book of Hebrews writes, “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him.” (Hebrews 5:8-9)Is the student greater than the Master? Jesus had settled this issue within His being and His heart was right toward God. Inwardly He was determined to pay the full price for the outworking of the will of God though it would cost Him His physical life. We often say brother or sister give me your testimony well guess what no test no testimony. Jesus now had a testimony because He endured the test. Because of His obedience to the will of the Father Jesus humbled Himself and became the Lamb of God upon Calvary’s cross and then died in our stead shedding His precious blood that our sin might be cleansed. Because of this the Father brought Him forth in resurrection life and then highly exalted Him. Again Paul in Philippians helps us here, “Wherefore, God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess He is Lord.” (Philippians 2:9-10) God cares not of the stature of a man, his abilities, skills, or talents. I find it sad (wrong thinking) when sports players point up to the heavens after they score as if to give God thanks for their ability to run the football or shoot a basketball, well God is not looking at their sports ability God is always looking at the intent of their heart. We see this truth painfully play out in I Samuel, “And it came to pass, when they were come, that he (Samuel)looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (I Samuel 16:6-7) Samuel would have chosen the one who outwardly appeared to meet every qualification. However the Lord revealed a different method of qualification — the intent of the heart. This principle is exemplified in God’s rejection of Eliab and in the selection of David for the throne of Israel. But later David was severely tested when Saul turned against him; but under extreme pressure David chose the LORD and His ways. His experience (his test for his testimony) during this time of testing is recorded in Psalm 27:1-4. God saw that David would choose Him in the difficulties that he would face and later declared him to be “ . . . a man after His own heart.” (I Samuel 13:14). Another example of this principle is revealed in the choosing of Jacob, a deceiver over his Brother Esau. “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Romans 9:13). At first glance this Scripture seems to indicate that divine approval is an arbitrary choice made by God. However the LORD’s choice is based upon a divine principle. Outwardly it appears that Esau should have been the right choice. He was the firstborn and when his father requested meat he willingly went to get it for him (Genesis 27:1-4) But previously when under the pressure of intense hunger Esau despised the blessing of God and sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup and received a present temporal satisfaction (Genesis 25:29-33). Jesus faced this same test of hunger in the wilderness, but refused to turn stones into bread in order to feed His hunger when He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) a continual truth that must grip our hearts today. While Esau was seeking meat for his father Jacob deceived his father into imparting the blessing to him rather than to his brother. But later when Jacob was under intense pressure the true quality of his character came forth. Jacob had fled from Esau and was now returning home with all of his possessions. In Genesis 32:6-8 he was told that everything that he owned was in jeopardy as Esau was coming with 400 men toward him. Then Jacob humbled his heart before the LORD and asked for His help (Genesis 32:9-12). He sent all of his possessions toward Esau in two separate companies and then remained alone to see what would happen when the first group came to Esau. His plan was that if Esau destroyed the first group he could take the second group and escape still the deceiver, but in the end after wrestling with an angel (some people say it was man and others say it was even God) Jacob received a change of nature, along with position, and power. The Bible says he “wrestled” well if it was God why would you want to wrestle with God? I wonder what Jacob would have gotten if he would have not wrestled, but submitted to God? Maybe God had something much better than a name change One thing for sure he would not have received a limp he carried with him all the days of his life. Make no mistake my brother any time we wrestle with God we will come out on the short end of the stick. Make no mistake my friend any time we wrestle with God He will have to break our heart to get our attention so that we can align our intention up with His intention. In the end Esau who had sought rather to satisfy the present hunger of his stomach lost out, but there was a change of his heart condition towards his brother (over the years of separation) Jacob now called Israel. I want to believe even though the Bible really does not say it, but I hope there was a real time of reconciliation between Esau and Israel. God’s heart is never for brothers to be at odds with each other even in the face of their heart condition towards God and God’s heart condition towards them. Funny how God deals with us according to the intent of our heart, that is according to what we truly desire to be. The present state or condition in which we find ourselves will be changed by the LORD if we truly put Him first and then trust Him. The Bible is full of examples like with David and Israel. At the end of the day is does not matter what you do for God it matters how you do it and the intent of your heart.
Written by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
The Fifth Commandment
Did you know the fifth commandment is the only commandment of the 10 Commandments with a promise? We read, “Honour (Strong’s #H3513, to glorify, make great, and respect) thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy GOD giveth thee.” (Exodus 20:12) There are no provisos or other fine print exceptions–such as respect your parents IF they agree with you, or respect your parents only if they never misspeak, or respect them if they’ve never had to smack your butt or do whatever in discipline, but perhaps if they, the kids, weren’t blockheads they wouldn’t have gotten a whack on the bottom in the first place! Nope respect for our parents is given IT IS NOT EARNED. That is worldly thinking. GOD was quite clear in this Commandment. Face it there’s no fine print! Now I’m not talking about parents that have done gross things like sexual misconduct or other heinous betrayals of their family that is a whole other ballgame. For this article I am talking about everyday parents. Now GOD knows, if children do not grow up to respect and listen to their earthly parents they certainly won’t listen to or respect Him. GOD expects us to snap our kids up and put the fear of GOD in them or they will fail in life. There is nothing wrong with a healthy respect or fear of one’s parents. We as parents are NOT our children’s friend. A friend can’t discipline a friend and if we are palsy-walsy with our kids it’s hard to discipline them. We the parents will NEVER ever be on the same level as our kids. I don’t care how old they get, I don’t care how smart and accomplished they become, our children ARE NOT OUR PEERS, and if kids are allowed to treat their parents as equals well shame on them and their parents. Nowhere in the Bible are any of the parents in the stories palsy-walsy with their kids. Now some adult children misbehaved (BIG TIME) and GOD snapped them up. Actually He schwacked Aaron’s two sons and Israel’s enemies killed Eli’s two sons. GOD ain’t no joke. He takes a dim view of adult kids that disrespect their parents. Now are we as parents perfect? Heck no! In my life that was the one thing I did not want to fail in. The responsibility seemed over-whelming to me and yes I have had many, many parental failings mostly due to my undisciplined character. Did I do the best that I could? Yes for the most part. There were times when I spoke when I should’ve shut up and times I was quiet and should’ve spoke up. No Mother-of-the-Year award for me! However, if my kids disrespect me for whatever reason GOD will hold them accountable not me. At this stage of the game I assume they all realize that we love them, we did the best we could at the time, and that we tried to teach them the golden rule. If they take offense because we popped them on the butt or get up in their face occasionally to keep them in line, OH WELL. The Bible says, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child: but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” (Proverbs 22:15) And here’s the kicker: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (promptly) (Proverbs 13:24) If someone is too lazy to correct their kids and can’t or won’t take the time to discipline them the Bible says they hate their kids. Let me tell you if GOD loves you I double-dog guarantee you GOD will correct you. “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his corrections: for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” (Proverbs 3: 11-12) If we haven’t taught our kids to obey us parents who they can see how on earth do we expect them to obey an invisible GOD whom they cannot see? And for grandparents don’t you spoil those grandkids that’s wrong. You are obligated in the eyes of GOD to snap their little butts up also if they’re in your charge. The notion of ratting on the kids to their parents and letting the parents deal with the offence is wrong worldly thinking. Snap them up THEN you tell your son or daughter the little darling was a stinker. If grandkids are at your house and they misbehave do not put up with that foolishness. Grandkids are not to come to your place, tear it up, drive you crazy, and do whatever, no sir. That’s not love. Love is holding their feet to the fire and making them accountable. Their souls are at stake! Don’t let the cuteness sway you. If you tell them no and they do the opposite and give you that sly smile, snap that kid up. Do not foster their rebellion after all that’s what it is, rebellion. Again the Bible says, “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.21Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.” (Colossians 3:20-21) This of course is for those who would go overboard (maybe even harsh) in the area of child discipline. Discipline must always be fair and balanced with love. And the promise with the fifth commandment is not wealth, glory, happiness, fame, or fortune, but long life what a promise from God.
Written by Karen Stahl
NEEDS NO WANTS:
- In Dobrich, Bulgaria Pastor Niki Marsov and in SilistraPastor(s) Yanko, Marcho, and Emil. Times are troubled in Bulgaria much prayer and support is needed.
- Constanta, Romania Pastors Luke and Jacob at Bethel Church and Ian at the Romanian Center for Cross-cultural Studies Bible School.
- In Suceava, Romania Pastors Nicu at St. Andrews Church. They are still standing by God’s grace.
- Pastor Joseph Mutua in Nairobi, Kenya needs your prayer and financial support.
- Pastor Mike Olufemi in Aveile,Nigeria. He needs our prayers and support to be a light in great darkness.
- Pastor S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries in Hyderabad and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor Julian in Sankaraguptham, India.
- Dan, Cathy, and members of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Pastor Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastors Isreal Mutaitina and John Balone in Bukoba, Tanzania.
- Monthly financial support for Vivian’s Maternity and Child Care Clinic project in Aviele, Nigeria.
- Pastor Tek Dahl at Gethsemane, Church (his church) and their radio station “Good News 105.1 FM” in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), and, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli,Rwanda.
NEXT HOME GROUP MEETING:
21 September at 7:00 pm
At 232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
7:00 pm please RSVP
Guest Speaker will be Dustin Peters
Home: (910) 741-0489
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
September: Local Ministry
October: Local Ministry
November: Bulgaria & Romania (Projected)
Email: charliegolfone@outlook.com
ROCK FELLOWSHIP ON THE RADIO:
On WJCV Jacksonville, NC
1290 AM or 98.3 FM
Every Sunday morning at 9:00 am
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:
dstahl@beholdinghisglory.com
Website:
www.www.beholdinghisglory.com/
Blog:
http://bhisglory.blogspot.com/
NEW OFFER
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.
The Author House 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.
