Quotes on trials

"I am mended by my sickness, enriched by my poverty, and strengthened by my weakness.... Thus was it with.... Manasseh, when he was in affliction, "He besought the Lord his God": even that king's iron was more precious to him than his gold, his jail a more happy lodging than his palace, Babylon a better school than Jerusalem. What fools are we, then, to frown upon our afflictions! These, how crabbed soever, are our best friends. They are not indeed for our pleasure, they are for our profit."
—Abraham Wright

"Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us. "
—Arthur W. Pink

"He that rides to be crowned, will not think much of a rainy day."
—John Trapp

We made a mistake

Matthew 6:
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."


When I entered my first years of ministry in California, our church was small but active in the community. I have many fond memories of my time there, but one incident sticks in my mind as a bad situation.

One evening after the Sunday night service, our head pastor asked a certain family to come forward and stand next to him in front of the entire church. The "Smith" family had been beset by numerous financial setbacks through the years, and they could not make ends meet. the mother and four children stood before the church - the children arranging from infant to teens.

Our pastor then made a ceremony of bring bag after bag of groceries up front and handing them to each family member or placing them at their feet.

Though the gift was bountiful, the situation was not. I will always remember the look on the faces of the teens - pure embarrassment and humiliation.

In order to display our own good works, our church had made a bad mistake. Small wonder why, after graduation, none of the children returned to our church even though they lived in town. Practically every one of them has become obsessed with making money.

We made a bad mistake. This should have been done in private.

Nicholas to Camp Redcloud?

Nicholas may be spending the summer at Camp Redcloud, an in-your-face wilderness Christian retreat.

If you'd like to see a fine camp with a great mission, please click on this link. Jill and I were pleased to find that Tim and Deb McKinney, two good friends of ours, are on staff at the camp. If Tim is on staff, then I know that the place must be pretty active! Here is the link:

http://www.campredcloud.org/

Leviticus 8:31 key to growing in the Lord

Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, "Cook the meat at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and eat it there with the bread from the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, 'Aaron and his sons are to eat it.' Then burn up the rest of the meat and the bread. Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days. What has been done today was commanded by the LORD to make atonement for you. You must stay at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days and do what the LORD requires, so you will not die; for that is what I have been commanded." So Aaron and his sons did everything the LORD commanded through Moses.

Aaron and his sons had to do one of the hardest things I can imagine.

They had to wait.

This would be a real test for me. Perhaps it's my heritage - I have both Russian and German in my blood, and neither line is known for being lazy. Standing around is a very difficult thing for me. in fact, I find it very hard to tolerate people who are not working. I must admit that I have little compassion for someone who does not get up and move.

Yet, here, Aaron was explicitly told by the Lord to wait. Not move. Rely upon God, not Aaron's talent - or Moses' speeches - or the people's reactions.

No.

Wait.

This would force Aaron to learn submission. What man truly wants to have to stand around? This show s the true test of dependence upon the Lord.

And I look at my life and see the times when it was good for me to wait.

I remember clearly the time when I was held back from taking a pastorate in San Jose. I wanted to be a senior pastor so bad. So bad. But the Lord bade me to wait and I did... and narrowly avoided a terrible blow to my life.

I didn't know that a current of sin was running through the deacon board. Within two years of my withdrawal that church had a monstrous downfall and is now gone from the face of the earth. If I had run ahead of God I would have been in the midst of that tragedy.