As Tim heads to Vietnam in about a week, I want to give you a short glimpse into what God is doing there. The use of God’s Plan for His Disciples and God’s Plan for His Church has been amazing! Over the last few years, 70 groups have studied through God's Plan for His Church, and this has sprung from the passion of one “Timothy” who caught the vision of what God could do through taking others back to Scripture. AMAZING!!! This work is all self-sustaining and indigenous--truly unbelievable and rare in our day; something only God can do! This makes all the years of praying and labor worthwhile, and gives us hope and encouragement to press on until the task is done. What makes this training so important is that it is reproducible in any culture, at any time, and can go on without us from the West. Not only has our training material been translated into Vietnamese and Hmong, but is also being translated into Duo. These are major languages in Vietnam and will equip believers, pastors and church leaders for greater expansion of the gospel. If this could be started in every country, Matthew 24:14 would soon be fulfilled and the world would be turned upside down as they did in Acts 17:6 for our Savior. Not only will this complete the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), but also prepare the Church for the return of our King of kings to earth (Revelation 19:7). Thank you for standing with us in prayer and investment into ministries like this. God will be glorified through abundant fruit.
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Put your imagination hat on for a moment. What if you were standing before a world map on the floor with very tiny lights in every part of the world. Some were lighting up and others were not. Those that are lit represent places where God is working and the gospel is spreading with the speed of light. Those lights that are dark is where God is not working – there is no light of the gospel and no one there to share that light. How would you feel in your heart about those dark places? I have held this picture in my mind after my partner shared a dream he had of what God is doing around the world. Often my eyes fill with tears, for two reasons. One reason is the dark areas of the globe. Because of limitations God has placed on me, I can’t “GO”. Can you “GO” in my place? Yet, I often have tears of joy. I see little lights getting brighter and a few just turning on. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10–11). Less than a year ago, we launched into a project of writing God’s Plan for His Disciples that takes believers back to Scripture to anchor their faith in the authority of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. In less than a year, this tool has spread the Good News of the Gospel to new and existing believers in Vietnam, China, Ecuador, Nigeria, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. You can be part of this movement of God and see lights turn on in dark places! When the door closed for us in China, God opened another in Tel Aviv to work through God’s Plan for His Disciples (GPHD) and God’s Plan for His Church (GPHC) with Chinese brothers and sisters from there. We were also able to meet with a Chinese House Church and a traditional Church, making many connections with various Chinese leaders who were involved with several universities as students and teachers along with some migrant workers. They are working through GPHD and Lord willing, Tim plans on a follow-up meeting with them in Israel in August. It is always so encouraging to see them grasp and learn God's Word. From this meeting, we are connecting with several more Chinese leaders in Taiwan. What a joy to work with the Chinese who are so hungry for the Word and desire to serve and go on mission without any material support because they love Jesus. This is so refreshing! Paul was not discouraged by closed doors. He and Silas planned traveling to Bithynia to preach the gospel, “but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (Acts 16:7). Rather than being disheartened, they pushed on in a different direction. Then it happened; “A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:9–10). God is never stopped by the schemes of man. If we let Him, He will redirect us into the path that He has already provided so His work will continue – often with better results than we had planned. This week Tim is attending a conference that addresses the challenging issues of evangelizing in a Buddhist context. How important is it that the gospel of Jesus Christ reaches these people? Here are a few facts that should stir our hearts toward great passion for evangelizing these people. · Buddhist population: 620,000,000 · 575 Buddhist people groups · 7 of these groups have a population over 10,000,000 · 439 of the people groups are unreached I ask that you use the next few days to pray for Tim and those who attend this conference, that they see more clearly the urgent need of using biblical methods to reach these people groups. More will be reported on this conference at the end of the week as it becomes available. Below is a map showing the places where Buddhist populations are the highest. As we have examined John 15, we have observed how important it is to “abide in the vine,” the Lord Jesus. Without actively ‘remaining in Him,’ we will be unfruitful and God the Father will not receive glory through us. We also looked at the consequences of not abiding in Christ.
Now we come to another dimension of this relationship – LOVE! “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love” (15:9). Here we see that Jesus is equating the way God loves Jesus His Son as being exactly the same way that Jesus has loved us. How are we to know the reality of this love? We get a deeper insight through the Lord’s prayer in John 17:26; “I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). Think about this for a moment. Jesus affirms that the Father’s love for Jesus is the same love Jesus has for us and it should be IN US! Now, combine that principle with Jesus’ instructions in chapter 15 that we are to abide in that love that began with God the Father. What difference would that love make in our attitude toward maintaining a strong relationship with Jesus in our life and ministry? Would we be more concerned about “ABIDING” in Jesus because the Spirit has given us to know His love, its divine quality, and its motivating power? Anything done out of pure love has a far greater impact than doing anything out of duty. What is your motivation? If I were to imagine myself sitting around with the eleven disciples (Judas had left) as Jesus continued His final teaching before His arrest, trial and crucifixion, I could see the smile on His face. Some of the points He made in previous verses about not ‘abiding in the vine’ were so challenging. I would never want them to be true of me and “thrown away”! Then Jesus comes back to the purpose of bearing fruit; “by this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8). The Father’s glory is the end result of bearing fruit. I want that…and so do you. But is that what you and I think about when we are in the hurry of planning and executing ministry? I fear that it is more common for us to plan and implement based on what others have done or methods others have used that seem successful, or applauded by the majority. The issue often boils down to who we are seeking to please. We have said it before and must say it again, that success in the Lord’s work is NEVER measured by any man-made, denomination-made, or organizational systems. It is not about numbers. It is all about God’s glory! There is another factor Jesus brings into this picture. If we are fruit for the Father’s glory, we are proving to others that we are really a disciple of Jesus. That is the kind of reputation I want to have. In a world of hero followers, and in the Church that often boasts of big names that are the author of their programs, I want to be known as a faithful disciple of Jesus. The proof of that is whether the life I live or the fruit of my ministry is truly for the Father’s glory. How would someone outside your church or organization describe your ministry? After the challenging message that we looked at yesterday, we come to the recipe for guaranteed success. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). WHAT A PROMISE!
During the course of Jesus’ ministry and training the disciples, there were times when they forgot what He said or the miracles He performed (Matthew 16:9; 26:75; Mark 8:18; Luke 22:61; 24:8). To overcome this ‘memory loss’ Jesus reminds them in John 15 that abiding in Him requires remembering His words. His words must “abide or remain” in them and in us. I have heard many say that they have a hard time memorizing Scripture. I ask them, “did you forget your last meal?” We can come up with a thousand excuses, but the reality is that we always remember what is important to us. Job said, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food” (23:12). The word “treasured” means to “hide, conceal or store up.” When Jesus’ words mean more to us than food, money, people and possessions, it will be easy to spend time planting His word in our hearts (Psalm 119:11). The man that God blesses will “delight in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (1:2). When this becomes true of us, then our request in prayer will be answered. “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5:14). It is little wonder Jesus combined our abiding in Him with His Word abiding in us. What is on your menu for today? Will you select a large portion of God’s Word for your meal? There are verses in Scripture that many like to bypass, either because the interpretation may be difficult or the point of the verse hits too close to the heart. That is the case with John 15:6; “If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:6). Jesus never spoke an idle word! As I have spent time asking the Spirit to reveal the point of Jesus’ words in this verse, it becomes clear that we must keep the context in our thinking. He is the “Vine” and we as disciples are the “branches.” The branches had their beginning in the vine and somewhere in the growing process, the branch stopped receiving live-giving nourishment from the vine – it became independent of the vine. We saw in 15:2, branches that do not bear fruit require severe action by the “Vinedresser.” It is the same with branches that do not abide in the Vine. When we become disconnected with the Savior through careless living, we allow immorality and many other sins to separate us from Him. Because we have been saved for one reason; God’s glory (Ephesian 1:12, 14), He is jealous of our fruit bearing. Such a branch that “does not abide in” the Vine “is thrown away;” literally means to “cut off and throw it from you.” It no longer has any use and “withers” or “dries up” and must be burned. Many today who once had a fruitful ministry are now put aside because they failed to abide in a close walk with the Lord. Let us not be in their number. Before we dismiss this idea as being too harsh and not the true meaning, consider Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 3:13; “each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” Let the fire of the Spirit test us now, REPENT and RETURN to abiding in Christ and become FRUITFUL again. Because of a technical problem, we were not able to post yesterday’s blog at the normal time. Be sure to go back and read the last post as part of this series. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4). By nature, we are very independent people. When it comes to the things of God, independence never works. That is the point Jesus makes in John 15. You and I cannot bear fruit for the Father’s glory (15:8) or fruit that will last (“abide, remain or stay,” 15:16) unless we are always connected and drawing our resources for producing the fruit from a close walk with the Lord Jesus. What does this look like in practical life and ministry experience? How do we cooperate with the Lord so He is the One producing the fruit in us and not by our own effort? The details of how this works will be different for each person, but there are general principles that apply to all of us. Jesus made it clear; “apart from Me you can do nothing” (15:5). Here are a few principles:
Before you leave this blog page, take a pen and paper and write down at least two things the Spirit is prompting you to do in your personal walk with the Lord that will make you more fruitful. The hardest thing for any of us to accept is God’s pruning knife. Cutting away what we have produced or what appears to us as acceptable, is painful. We feel that our efforts have been wasted and the appearance of our lives will look bad to others. While these feelings are humanly understandable, they ignore some factors that are far greater than our disappointment. God our Father, the Vinedresser, sees with divine precision and with eternal perspective. He knows what we do not know or understand. He sees far more than outward appearances. Paul warned the Colossians about those who “have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:23). Fruitfulness never comes from the flesh of man; only the work of the Spirit. We may be producing fruit, but God’s desire is to take our lives and shape them through pruning so that they produce even more fruit. This tests our willingness to trust Him without questioning the method, timing or length of His pruning process. The more we learn the Father through intimacy with the Lord (John 14:8-9), the more we will trust His sovereign hand in every detail of our lives. Sometimes the pruning takes place in areas of our families, work, church, health or finances that we do not expect, at a time that seems inconvenient, or for a length and degree of reduction that seems unfair. Listen again to the words of Jesus; “every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Pruning is never for punishment! Remember the words in Hebrews? “The Lord disciplines the one He loves” (12:6). It is part of the Father’s nature to prune with love each one connected with His Son, the Vine. Thank Him rather than complain. |
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