Here is a quick summary from Randy of his time in Cambodia: Yes, Praise our Awesome Lord! He has done more here in Cambodia than I had imagined or expected. (1) When I arrived at the BL, I found 1,000 manuals were printed and ready! (Our manual, God's Plan for His Church, is already in nearly 35 languages. While we had our old edition in Khmer language, this is our latest edition with completely new translation work. It is truly a milestone for our work in Cambodia!) (2) I printed 15 banners with no words for $105. That is $7 per banner! (These are banners that give the overview of God's Plan for His Church. We just started using them this year, and now we are making a way for them to be easily translated into the languages of the people.) (3) Yesterday (Dec. 7), Brother B's friend came to the BL and I gave her 400 manuals and 3 banners! (Brother B is our "Timothy," a true servant of God reaching out to his entire home country of Vietnam and beyond. He is now doing work in Cambodia, thus the need for the manuals to be given to his contact. This is a new breakthrough of multiplication in Cambodia!) (4) Eight people (5 men, 3 women) graduated and gave amazing reports on chapter 7! (Chapter 7 is where those who have completed a thorough study of Acts and Paul's epistles put together their plan for church planting and church renewal.) (5) One man, “KS”, has already gone to two provinces to teach GPHC, equipped with 100 manuals and 1 banner! (This "Timothy" is already moving out to train others before I even leave the country!) (6) Yesterday (Dec. 7), I met with “V”, and he renewed his interest and passion for GPHC, asking me to work with teams of Cambodians in 4 provinces during 2017! This is God's amazing grace, opening doors and multiplying His work through graduates (Timothy's) who will take this to their own people. “V” told me story after story of denominations that have strayed from God's Word, relying on their unbiblical structures, and is excited that we will continue bring God's Word to the needy people of Cambodia. (“V” is the key leader in Cambodia with a strong and expansive ministry to the entire country. We have been working with him for several years, but now we are taking this ministry to new places. God is on the move!) (7) God seems to be opening the way to Laos again in 2017! In my meeting with “V”, he shared how he is working with “J” to complete the editing of the new manual in Laos, and we can expect to go there again. (Please pray for “J” because his mother passed away last week.)”
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Tim gives us a report from his mission trip to Northern Thailand: “I just completed training with the Karen Baptist in Northern Thailand mountain villages with leaders representing all 15 districts of the Thailand Karen Baptist attending. These are some of the poorest people we work with; yes, even compared to India. Though they are the poorest, yet they provided their own travel and the church we met at provided all the food and lodging. You can see in the picture the pastor holding a plaque of appreciation to the Jamulang Church demonstrating the charity and servanthood of our Savior. The joy they had in providing for themselves was a blessing and encouragement, not only to me, but certainly for themselves. This was like receiving an early Christmas present!!” Tim “When I first came to America, thirty-one years ago, I crossed the Atlantic with the captain of a steamer who was one of the most devoted men I have ever known, and when we were off the banks of Newfoundland he said to me: “Mr. Inglis, the last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened, that has completely revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. Up to that time I was one of your ordinary Christians. We had a man of God on board, George Muller, of Bristol. I had been on the bridge for twenty-two hours, and never left it. I was startled by someone tapping me on the shoulder. It was George Müller. ‘Captain’ he said, I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon. This was Wednesday. ‘It is impossible, I said. ‘Very well, if your ship can’t take me, God will find other means to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years.’ ‘I would willingly help you. How can I? I am helpless.’ ‘Let us go down to the chart room and pray.’ “I looked at that man of God, and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could the man have come from? I never heard of such a thing. ‘Mr. Müller,’ I said ‘do you know how dense the fog is?’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.’ He got down on his knees and prayed one of the most simple prayers. I muttered to myself: ‘That would not suit a children’s class where the children are not more than eight or nine years old.’ The burden of his prayer was something like this: ‘O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes. Thou knowest the engagement Thou didst make for me in Quebec on Saturday. I believe it is Thy will.’ “When he finished I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. ‘First, you do not believe He will; and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.’ I looked at him, and George Müller said this: ‘Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.’ I got up, and the fog was gone! “You tell that to some people of a scientific turn of mind, and they will say: ‘That is not according to natural laws.’ No, it is according to spiritual laws. The God with whom we have to do is omnipotent. Hold on to God’s omnipotence. Ask believingly. On Saturday afternoon, I may add, George Müller was there on time.” by Charles Inglis, www.mullers.org/find-out-more-1875 This is the kind of confidence in prayer that comes from those who know close intimacy with Jesus. I am reminded of George Müller who at the age of 70 went out on a mission in 1875, traveling 200,000 miles (No planes) for a period of 17 years preaching to over 3 million people. He decided to devote this part of his life to a world-wide ministry of preaching and teaching, sharing his Christian faith. Leaving the orphan homes he had begun years earlier, under the direction of his daughter Lydia and her husband James Wright, he traveled to the United States of America four times, India twice and, on two further occasions, Australia and the Colonies. In addition, George Müller preached in 42 countries, including China and Japan. From 1875 to 1892 Müller was almost constantly engaged on missionary preaching journeys. Throughout his Christian life he always set out his aims and objectives before embarking upon God’s work, and this new area was no exception. Müller wanted to share with a wider audience, the truths he had discovered about God. Further, he desired to encourage Christians to become lovers of the Bible and test everything by the Word of God. Another of his aims was to break down the barriers of denominationalism and to promote, as he put it, “brotherly love amongst Christians.” www.mullers.org/timeline “Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.” (Luke 11:43; see also Matthew 23:6).
A few days ago, I confessed my “platform lust” in my younger years. This problem has subtle ways of manifesting itself in a million ways, particularly for anyone in ministry at every level of involvement. The “Pharisee” or “flesh” in all of us rises to the surface whenever we are not under the Spirit’s control and Headship of Christ. They are continually seeking to promote Christ-like humility that will more powerfully do the work of ministry rather than a pseudo “Pharisee” who is more interesting in having a place and recognition. We would never want to admit it, but this is a pervasive problem. I am ashamed to admit how often I slip into a self-centered way of thinking, especially when serving in a public setting. We have forgotten that leadership is far more effective through “Having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). There is a dangerous complacency that sets in when we think that our years of intense learning are over. If we are yoked with Christ (Matthew 11:29), the learning process will not end until God says it is finished (Philippians 1:6) and we stand before our Lord in robes of white (Revelation 6:11) and “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:4). “Now He [Jesus] told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them…But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you” (Luke 14:10). Thank you Lord for putting your finger on our heart problem. Help us to always be ‘in training’ as yoked with You. Amen! Let's rejoice in the good news. There are 1,000 newly printed GPHC manuals in the Khmer language! Everything we hoped about this has happened, and the manuals are stored here at the Bible League.
Also, we have our first graduate for this year! Mr. K completed the entire manual and presented his project yesterday. What a dear brother, a true "Timothy" who is developing into a "Paul". We had to move his graduation up because he will not be with us today or tomorrow. But do you want to know why he will be missing? He is going to two provinces to teach GPHC! We prayed over him and sent him out with 100 of the new manuals! I will send a picture to you soon. It looks like the total number graduating are 8 people (6 men and 2 women). We are pressing on to see them finish well, but they have been faithful in the study of God's Word. We started out with around 30 people inquiring and 8 are actually finishing. Some of them have struggled greatly because of their lack of education, but by God's grace they have made it! “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6). What a faithful Lord!! Just this morning we heard that the son of a dear family is suddenly and unexpectedly with the Lord. For them and us, it is a loss. For him, it is gain.
These are times that humanly are impossible to explain. Paul exhorts the believers in Rome; “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). Whether we understand or not, there must be empathy in us that flows out of God’s heart through us toward His creature. Particularly for the family of God (the church), there are Spirit inspired emotions that bind us together as “one body in Christ” (12:5) and demonstrate to the world the kind of love we have for one another (John 13:35). But there is more than just sympathy. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christians have a perspective which we are given in Scripture that inspires hope, understanding and great comfort. Paul helps us with this view in 2 Corinthians 5:1; “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Sin brought death, physical weakness and pain. Christ has delivered us from sin and its effect so that we might enjoy a “new creation”, a new “building from God… eternal”. As I close my thought on this subject, I point you to the change in our capacity to worship. In these frail human bodies, there are limitations to our worship in “spirit and truth” (John 4:23). But in our new “building from God”, there will be no limitation. Again we turn to Paul for perspective: “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21). That will be unhindered worship and unlimited joy! “And He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to Him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”” (Matthew 20:21). Commenting on this passage, Andrew Murray says, “They must not look or ask for it. Their thought must be of the cup and the baptism of humiliation” (Humility, page 18).
Jesus follows up this mothers request by asking a rhetorical question, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”” (Matthew 20:22). The answer would be preposterous except this mother and her boys had no clue as to the intense suffering (“cup”) that Jesus was about to drink. They were among those who fled when Jesus was put on trial (Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:50). Before you puff out your chest and say, ‘I would never ask a stupid question like that’; I ask you, when was the last time you sought any position for the sake of a little recognition? Humility is only crushed in us as much as I pursue wanting to be replaced by Christ. Paul said about his personal pursuit, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Would you choose suffering to gain Christ? The highest position in this world will appear as a star a trillion light years away compared to becoming like Christ and knowing close fellowship with Him. “If it is our belief that God is going to have mercy on His Church in these last ages, it will be because the doctrine and the truth about the Holy Spirit will not only be studied, but sought after with a whole heart. It is not only because that truth will be sought after, but because ministers and congregations will be found bowing before God in deep abasement with one cry: "We have grieved God's Spirit. We have tried to be Christian churches with as little as possible of God's Spirit. We have not sought to be churches filled with the Holy Spirit."”
-Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender, Page 97. If God is prompting your heart to see in Scripture what God says about the Holy Spirit and His work, I urge you to get a new book written by Tim Bunn, The Holy Spirit As Told by God. You can purchase this book from Amazon as well as read comments of individuals who have let this day-by-day journey touch their lives. All proceeds above the cost of the book go toward supporting this ministry. “Whoever would be first among you must be your slave,” (Matthew 20:27). The word “first - prōtos” means “a person who wants a place of prominence or importance”. Jesus put this attitude in contrast to a “slave – doulos” who is “subservient to the authority of another”. This principle is repeated in 23:11.
Imagine twelve disciples spending time in training with Jesus, the lowliest of all men, and “an argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest” (Luke 9:46). I remember too well as a young man when we attended “Bible Conferences”. To my shame, there was always a quest to sit on the platform with the “ministering brother” with a microphone available to speak things I really didn’t understand as I should. God has been, and is, chipping away at that pride. Little do we realize how our culture (even Bible schools and seminaries) foster a ‘self-important’ attitude that nullifies our attempt to present truth. The audience becomes enamored with the speaker and the Word floats off into the air. Jesus warned about the influence of “ruler(s) of the Gentiles [who] lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” Then He adds, “It shall not be so among you” (Matthew 20:25-26, also Mark 10:42-43; Luke 22:25-26). In public it is easier to ‘appear’ humble, especially when good things are being said about you! The great apostle Paul said in two separate letters, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (1 Corinthians 15:9), and “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” (Ephesians 3:8). What is your “doulos” factor? Mine needs a lot of improvement. The Spirit of the Humble Jesus will work in us so we become a slave of Christ – if we let Him. |
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