Joy of Mentoring

God has blessed me tremendously with a young brother whom i will call A. He is fervent, teachable, appreciative, and inquisitive. Our times together fly by as we work through questions, pray, get into the Word, and even eat together. In a relatively short time we have formed relational bonds based on trust, in God, and in each other. He draws things that God has planted in me that most other people have no interest in. As i read Paul's letters, it seems that this is what his relationship with Timothy was like. Consider the following: "For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ..." ( 1 Cor. 4:17 NKJV) "I hope in the Lord to send Timothy to you soon,so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For i have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare." ( Phil. 2:19-20 ESV) "We sent Timothy, our brother and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in you faith." (! Thess 3:2 ESV)
These relationships are what build the church and the Kingdom. May each of us be a Timothy or have Timothy's in our lives. May God grant us opportunities to give from what we have received.
* Fun with Words* The NT letter Colossians pronounced "collisions."

Willing to Suffer?

Yesterday I spent time with a fervent, godly brother named John who is experiencing a lot of major adversity in his life in many areas. These don't appear to result from sin or bad choices. As I reflected on his situation and asked God for wisdom, the following came to me. Why does Job experience suffering? "Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" ( Job 1:8 NKJV) God trusts Job to trust Him no matter how much he suffers. Job proves faithful to the trust reposed in him. ""Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him." ( Job 13:15a)
Now many will object at this point. Is God some kind of celestial puppet master capriciously playing with the lives of men? Not when seen with the eyes of faith. In fact, He is giving us the tremendous privilege of working with Him to fulfill his purposes. "To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Ephesians 3:10-11)
If we regard God, rather than ourselves, as the center of the universe, and are willing to depend on Him even if we suffer, then He can use us, like Job, to manifest His wisdom and glory to angels, demons, and any other created beings in the heavenly realms- the audience of our efforts on the stage of God.
* In this post i am starting a new, periodic feature called "Fun with Words", based on my attempts to learn Portuguese, and of those who first language is not English to learn that tongue. Today's phonetic attempt is "peapoles", as in "We the peapoles." Couldn't resist.

Practical Vision

Now that our church has received guidelines on how to make decisions, we are embarking on the new journey of what practical vision that God has for us. For a number of years i have dreamed of being involved with a growing network of relationally connected, home based groups that are multiplying because new converts are being added to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. These new ones are being mentored in their faith, becoming spiritually healthy, and eager to reproduce. The sobering reality is that it is quite possible that no one in our current group, despite our desire to do this, has the apostolic type gifting to get this off the ground. As I travel through New England, I encounter a number of small groups that have clawed out a toehold in one place, often for a number of years. They love the Lord, are faithfully walking in what they have received, but are not seeing Kingdom growth. May we respond to the Holy Spirit.
Saturday morning our church gathered for prayer, primarily for the Sunday celebration gathering, and for those who don't know Christ. Sunday we had the privilege of hosting our fourth monthly celebration with a diverse array of participants from various parts of the Body. In the evening went to an outreach by a newly formed group in Framingham. God is faithful.

Spiritual Reality

In 2nd Kings 6 we read a story of Elisha the prophet trapped in the city of Dothan by the king of Syria. "When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" He said, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O Lord, please open his eyes so that he may see." So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." (2 Kings 6:15-17 ESV)
What was the difference between the two men? One walked by faith. The other walked by sight. ( 2 Cor. 5:7) Elisha knew the horses and chariots of fire were present before he could see them physically. The servant had to see them. Which is the true reality- the physical or the spiritual? This is where so many in the West, who have grown up with the concept of rationality and logic don't walk in faith. How ironic that our intellect and education is actually a hindrance. And this plays out in so many ways.
Do we believe the scientists that say that humans evolved or the Bible that tells us that God created humans from the dust of the earth? What proof do we as Christians have that angels exist? Has one ever been dissected in a lab? Can we subject them to any kind of analysis? What if much of what we understand to be true from a natural perspective is actually distorted or wrong?

Doors Opening

In Colossians 4, Paul asks them to pray "that God may open to us a door..." (Col 4:2b ESV) God has responded to a similar prayer made by me and others for which I am very grateful. In the last week I have had the opportunity to meet with my brother Sanford for prayer and fellowship, my brother Andre for a blessed time of mentoring, prayer, and beginning 1 Timothy, gathering with a group of believers in western MA to pray for the perishing, meeting with Steve and three other brothers in NH to promote a vision of relational unity, a young couple who are growing in the Lord and asking important questions, and today with brothers from our fellowship to pray and provide support for one another, talking with another brother about acknowledging him as a deacon, and finally, this afternoon with yet another brother to get into Romans 13, discussion and prayer. The Lord Jesus has blessed me in all of these encounters. It is my privilege and joy to give anything of what He has given to me.
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this coming week I am scheduled to get together with three different groups of brothers for various purposes. In coming times I hope to go to New Brunswick, and Montreal, Canada, as well as southern and northern California. God is faithful. Thank you, Jesus, for ordering my life in such a way as to set me free to do these things.

Fields

"For you are God's field." ( 1 Corinthians 3:9 NKJV) Saturday evening the Lord gave me the privilege of meeting with a home group in Mansfield, CT. These are seasoned believers who have been meeting together for many years. They live in a rural area; our host runs a feed store. We celebrated the Lord's Supper together, worshipped and prayed for one another before examining a passage in Ephesians 4 dealing with bitterness. I urged them to consider visiting other groups ( cross-pollination). One is only half an hour up the road. Their hospitality was warm.
Today i visited a very different group composed of people in their twenties, some still in college, and others that have entered the work force, that began only a few months ago. Awhile ago I had made an appeal to representatives of a number of group to set aside at least once a month to pray for those who don't know Christ at a time other than when they normally meet. This group in Westfield, MA responded, set aside a time, and asked me to visit the group as a number of us had not met previously. They offered me an opportunity to share a little of my testimony, and about the ministry that the Lord has given to me. I am very thankful to Mike & Nic for the invitation, felt completely comfortable, and was encouraged by the receptivity of the people.

Networking

Monday evening I received a call from a man named Bill who said he was from Canada, involved with home churches, and eager to discover what God was doing in my area. He asked whether we could get together. We met Tuesday evening for dinner, joined by his partner Patty. They are professors of psychology at a Canadian college, who have started a business providing ways in which employers can treat their employees better, producing workplace harmony. Both had extensive traditional church experience but had been led about a year and a half ago into a more organic approach to the Christian life. Now they are relationally connected to fifty groups in eastern Canada. I was both fascinated and amazed at how the Holy Spirit is working.
We each gave parts of our stories along with discussion of identity in Christ, boundaries to itinerant ministry, the crucial importance of encouragement, cross pollinating various parts of the Body, and a number of other topics. I found them down to earth, relational, willing to listen, and excited about using the opportunities that the Lord has given them to connect with other networks of believers. For the last six years the Lord has had me working on forming relationships between different groups and leaders in New England. Now He is transitioning me to work with whole networks. Last year it was a Brazilian network. This year I hope it is a Canadian one. May God get the glory!

Victory

Last Saturday morning our church came to a notable victory. For almost a year and a half we had been wrestling with the question of how we make decisions as a group. We have prayed, counseled together, searched the Scriptures, and finally come to consensus with elder guided consensus. We have written out a short set of guidelines. While the process took a long time, the resultant trust, peace and depth of relationship is worth it. We are under the Lordship of Christ, with plurality of eldership, and participation of anyone else who wishes to do so. ( This probably can only work with small groups) We believe that all believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and can hear from God. We are aiming for complete consensus but have the fallback position that if we can't come to that over time, then the elders can make the decision. We did not attempt to cover every possible contingency in our guidelines but are relying on the Holy Spirit, and the trust that He has developed among us to work things out in love. Time will tell how practical this is; we believe we are within Biblical boundaries.
Sunday at our celebration gathering God blessed us with a wonderful blend of people from different parts of the Body of Christ. Our brother Steve from Maine shared on the theme of leadership, and many have testified of the impact on their lives already. We are thankful to God for this opportunity to serve and give as a group.

Victims

Today i am employing a single English word "victims" to post about two distinct categories of people; those who have no interest in becoming victims, and those who do. The first group are paraded constantly on the TV or Internet or radio news. They are those who have died through accidents or fires or the like, or have been murdered or otherwise died unwillingly. Single deaths, unless it is a person considered important, fill local news. Multiple or spectacular deaths are the staple of national or international reporting. This strikes me as a primary characteristic of a pagan society. As one reads the pages of the Old Testament, you can't help being struck by the child or other human sacrifices practiced by those who do not believe in the one true God. Likewise today. Why is the incessant slaughter news? Why must we know about it? To satisfy the "god of this world." (2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV) "who has blinded the minds of the unbelievers."
The second group of victims are those who relish the role of victim, believing that it frees them of all responsibility for their actions. Someone- whether parents, society, institutions etc. is responsible for their situation. Someone is always out to get them, is prejudiced against them, is preventing them from getting what they should receive. Yet Romans 14:12 teaches that everyone will give an account of himself to God. 1 Peter 4:5 says the same. "They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." (NKJV)