The Gospel

Have you thought about the Gospel lately? The gospel is the good news of salvation for hell-deserving sinners through the Person and work of Jesus Christ. It really should be something that we think about often as it relates to us. It is the one thing we are to be most passionate about. And not just passionate about sharing it with others, but also thinking and meditating on it ourselves. We need to rejoice in it, dwell on it and allow it to be the lens in which we look at our lives and the world around us.

I pray that we would learn that we need to be desperate for the gospel everyday. We need it to help us to keep from becoming a religion based people instead of a relationship based people. We need it to help keep us from becoming performance based Christian instead of grace based.

May we first preach the gospel to ourselves each day and in doing so we will realize with greater clarity the grace of God that was shed abroad in our hearts. We not only need to know the gospel, but also to love the God of the gospel and to see how it applies to every aspect and area of our lives.

"Moreover, bretheren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have reeived, and wherin ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:1-3).

That Dreaded Word - Cancer

On Monday, June 27th, our lives at the Nulf family changed forever.  To what extent that change will be is yet to be determined.  This was the infamous day my wife Brenda told me that the biopsy that was done came back positive.  That dreaded word that everyone fears came crashing through my mind when my wife told me that she had cancer.  The technical term the doctors gave us was Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, which is a form of breast cancer.

I don't want to sound pious here, but my wife and family have been incredibly blessed.  Not to say that we have not had our share of problems and issues in our lives, but for the most part, life has been pretty good - praise be to God!  In fact, we often talked about that over the last few years and wondered if and when our time would come.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that everyone has to go through great tragedies and deep valleys in their life, but we also understand that we were by no means exempt from it.  In fact, the Bible tells us that if we are living for Christ, you will go through trials and tribulations and we are to count it all joy (James 1:2). 

I have often preached that God's glory is seen greatest and clearest through the suffering of his children.  That may sound strange to you, but it's not strange to the Scriptures and all anyone has to do is look at God's only begotten Son and the Cross at Calvary.  I will tell you that God's glory has never been nor will be ever greater or clearer than when his Son Jesus willingly went to the Cross at Calvary and died for your sins and mine.

For whatever reason God has chosed Brenda and the Nulf family, our greatest desire is to glorify our Father as we travel this road.  I will tell you that God's grace has been incredible!  The following day my wife told me that she had cancer my devotion time took me to Psalm 23.  What a word from the Lord.  I have used that passage many times as a pastor to minister to people with the wonderful word of God.  Now that verse spoke to me and my heart as never before - He is MY Shephered and 'Oh' how he has continued to restore my soul! 

When I had finished my devotions, I powered up my computer where I found a church member had posted on Facebook a video - the video was the song "It is well with my soul".  Most of us know the story behind that song and those wonderful words became mine - "it is well with my soul." 

The following day (Wednesday), my daily Bible reading took me to Ezekiel 24.  As I read, I came upon Ezekiel 24:15-24.  God said that He was going to take Ezekiel’s wife; the “delight of his eyes” was going to be taken away from him as a sign to what was going to happen with the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem.  What’s interesting in these verses is what’s not said.  Nowhere in this text do you hear Ezekiel’s protest to God.  Folks we are bought with a price, and our life is not our own (1 Cor. 6:20).  In other words, there is nothing that God does not have the right to ask of you or me.  And in whatever He may ask of us, we are to glorify Him.  If we are to share in His glory, we must also be willingly to share in His suffering. 

I would submit to you that in suffering, the temptation is the same wheter it is coming from cancer, persecution or even when you are slandered.  And the temptation is always to say, "God is not good, and it is not worth serving him, and escaping from this suffering becomes the focus and this sinful way then becomes preferred and dominates our lives." My resolution and Brenda's is that we will trust him and keep trusting him; we have and will continue to experience his soverign mercy and overwhelming grace towards us.  We will hold on to him as he is holding on to us. 

Dear God, we thank you that we have been counted worthy to suffer for you. May we, through this bring honor and glory to your name for you are worthy!

"The Life of Trust" - George Müller (1805–1898)

I came across this article in Christian History Magazine and thought it to be interesting. As a young convert, I often heard quotes from the pulpit on Müller’s incredible trust in the Lord to provide for his needs in ministry. Why it interests me is because, we today trust very little in God and first try to meet our needs in our own strength, ingenuity, and wherewithal, and it’s only when we have totally exhausted our means that we’ll turn to God. My prayer is that the church, God’s people would rekindle this type of faith and trust in a good and great God.

Born in Germany, the son of a tax collector, George Müller lived a wicked life as a youth but was converted at about age 20 at a Moravian mission. He went to England in 1829 to do mission work and eventually became a preacher affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren. He determined to rely totally on the Lord for his financial support. His policy continued even after he started an orphanage in Bristol. Without direct appeals for funds, his orphanage was supported and grew. By the time he died, more than ten thousand orphans had been cared for in his orphanages—his possessions amounted to merely a few hundred dollars’ worth.

The following is excerpted from his journal, The Life of Trust: A Narrative of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller.

I stated to the brethren, at the end of October, 1830, that I should for the future give up having any regular salary. After I had given my reasons for doing so, I read Philippians iv., and told the saints that if they still had a desire to do something towards my support, by voluntary gifts, I had no objections to receive them, though ever so small, either in money or provisions….

About the same time, also, my wife and I had grace given to us to take the Lord’s commandment, “Sell that ye have, and give alms,” Luke xii. 33, literally, and to carry it out. Our staff and support in this matter were Matthew vi. 19–34, John xiv. 13, 14. We leaned on the arm of the Lord Jesus. It is now twenty-five years since we set out in this way, and we do not in the least regret the step we then took. As I have written down how the Lord has been pleased to deal with us since, I shall be able to relate some facts concerning this matter, as far as they may tend to edification.

Nov. 18, 1830. Our money was reduced to about eight shillings. When I was praying with my wife in the morning, the Lord brought to my mind the state of our purse, and I was led to ask him for some money. About four hours after, a sister said to me, “Do you want any money?” “I told the brethren,” said I, “dear sister, when I gave up my salary, that I would for the future tell the Lord only about my wants.” She replied, “But he has told me to give you some money. About a fortnight ago, I asked him what I should do for him, and he told me to give you some money; and last Saturday it came again powerfully to my mind, and has not left me since, and I felt it so forcibly last night that I could not help speaking of it to brother P.” My heart rejoiced, seeing the Lord’s faithfulness, but I thought it better not to tell her about our circumstances, lest she should be influenced to give accordingly; and I also was assured that, if it were of the Lord, she could not but give. I therefore turned the conversation to other subjects, but when I left she gave me two guineas. We were full of joy on account of the goodness of the Lord. I would call upon the reader to admire the gentleness of the Lord, that he did not try our faith much at the commencement, but allowed us to see his willingness to help us, before he was pleased to try it more fully….

I would observe here, by the way, that if any of the children of God should think that such a mode of living leads away from the Lord, and from caring about spiritual things, and has the effect of causing the mind to be taken up with the question, What shall I eat?—What shall I drink?— and Wherewithal shall I be clothed?—I would request him prayerfully to consider the following remarks: 1. I have had experience of both ways, and know that my present mode of living, as to temporal things, is connected with less care. 2. Confidence in the Lord, to whom alone I look for the supply of my temporal wants, keeps me, when a case of distress comes before me, or when the Lord’s work calls for my pecuniary aid, from anxious reckoning like this: Will my salary last out? Shall I have enough myself the next month? etc. In this my freedom, I am, by the grace of God, generally, at least, able to say to myself something like this: My Lord is not limited: he can again supply; he knows that this present case has been sent to me: and thus, this way of living so far from leading to anxiety is rather the means of keeping from it. And truly it was once said to me by an individual,—You can do such and such things and need not to lay by, for the church in the whole of Devonshire cares about your wants. My reply was: The Lord can use not merely any of the saints throughout Devonshire, but those throughout the world, as instruments to supply my temporal wants. 3. This way of living has often been the means of reviving the work of grace in my heart, when I have been getting cold: and it also has been the means of bringing me back again to the Lord, after I have been backsliding. For it will not do,—it is not possible to live in sin, and at the same time, by communion with God, to draw down from heaven everything one needs for the life that now is. 4. Frequently, too, a fresh answer to prayer, obtained in this way, has been the means of quickening my soul, and filling me with much joy.

Bibliography:
Christian History Magazine-Issue 14: Money in Christian History: Part I (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1987).