A Year of God's Grace

Several months ago I posted on this blog about the bad accident suffered by missions innovator Steve Saint. As Steve has progressed through his injury and recovery, ITEC, his company has released videos on his progress and the testimony of God's grace in his life.  Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the accident, and so another video was released, recapping the previous year's activities.  The video stories are embedded below, beginning with the first down the most recent one at the bottom.  If you watch all the videos it'll take you about 47 minutes, but it's well worth your time.

A Gospel Story

I've posted before about Steve Saint and the accident he went through, and also some of the videos that he has released that have described his journey thus far.  I just saw this most recent video he released (below).  What a magnificent picture of the gospel.  In the video, Steve describes how at church one morning, since he was not able to stand and walk to the front of the church to receive communion, his son and Mincaye (his father's murderer, with whom he has reconciled) pushed him in his wheelchair to the front of the sanctuary to receive communion.  He says that it's a story that no one would believe unless it were true, and it is.  Why?  Only because of the power of the gospel.

Having "A Peace About It"

How do we determine God's will?  How do we know what we should or should not be doing?

I ask because I have several acquaintances who, in the past few weeks, have each told me that they ultimately decided against a decision they were faced with in their lives.  Each experience was unique, and ranged from the seemingly rather mundane to a significant life decision.  The common factor in each of these occurrences was that the individual ultimately decided against whatever was presented to them because they felt that God had not given them "a peace" about doing what they were presented with.  This got me to thinking about how we determine just what exactly God has called us to do.  Does he give us "a peace" when he wants us to do something?  And if he does, what does "having a peace" about doing something look and feel like?  Ultimately, I'm asking if relying on a feeling of peace about a certain situation or outcome of a decision is a valid way of seeking and understanding God's will.

First, I think we need to take into consideration some doctrine about how our emotions work.  The Bible says that our hearts are wicked, self-serving, and are unknowable.  So in one sense, if we are relying on an internal feeling of peace as a verification of God's direction in our lives, we also need to realize that it is possible for our emotions to be deceptive when it comes to the decision making process.  That is, I think we need to be honest about the fact that we have a tendency to serve ourselves and pursue our own desires - not God's.  This is not to say that the Spirit doesn't guide us, and that we always make self-centered decisions.  It is to say that, although we are in Christ, those tendencies still exist.  We need to recognize them, and admit the possibility that a need for a "peaceful easy feeling" might be born out of selfishness.

Second, I think there's a good chance that most of the things God has called us to do are not easy things.  That is, God usually calls people to do the kinds of things that don't necessarily inspire feelings of peace.  Just ask the Apostle Paul how much peace he felt about all of the things God had him do.  So if we gauge what God has called us to do by how much peace is inspired in our innermost emotions by the circumstances of what we are faced with, we may come to wrong decisions.

At the same time, however, we can indeed have peace, even when it comes to hard things, because of who and what God is.  He is the all-powerful God of the universe who sustains life and works to serve and protect those whom he loves.  In this sense, we can rest assured that even when we do hard things we have the support of the Almighty God.  This should bring us a certain sense of peace - even when facing death.  Think about it: the resolve of Daniel's friends as they faced the fiery furnace was steadfast.  They had "a peace" about being burned alive.  Daniel himself went to the lion's den with "a peace."  The apostles no doubt had "a peace" about defying the government and preaching the gospel to the masses.  From whence did their peace come?  From a warm fuzzy feeling in their bosom, or from the knowledge that the God of the universe was going before them?  If any of these had waited for "a peace" before acting on what God had led them to do, they probably wouldn't have done it.  Rather, their peace came from their knowledge of who God is and what he can do.

In this sense, there really isn't anything that we should not have "a peace" about.  If God is indeed for us, then who can be against us?  Whether I am called to something life-changing, like flying to the other side of the world and enter the mission field, or to "just" serve in a seemingly mundane ministry in the local church, God is with us equally in both cases.  And his limitless resources are available to us no matter what we are doing.  In this sense, one should never not do something because one doesn't have enough "peace" about it.  The God of the universe being on your side is all the peace you need.

This is the problem with trying to determine what God wants us to do by using feelings and emotions.  Emotions are ultimately unverifiable and can even lead us astray at times.  Kevin DeYoung's book, Just Do Something: how to make a decision without dreams, visions, fleeces, impressions, open doors, random Bible verses, casting lots, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc., while having perhaps the best subtitle of any book ever, talks about how we can often end up doing nothing when faced with decisions because we're waiting for some mystical feeling or sign.  Rather, he argues, God has told us what we are to do.  We just need to do it.  And when we've started to do it, to continue to do it. This is often a harder process than trying to get the right feeling or sign, and it's usually why people don't do anything.  They wait around in limbo, perhaps because they simply don't like what God has called them to do.

So how do we determine what to do?  Todd Friel offers a framework for discerning God's will for your life that I think is helpful:

1. Determine what you want to do.  It would be foolish to say that our own desires, preferences, and talents don't factor into the things we do.  After all, God has made us who we are for a purpose.  We should allow those things that make us unique to guide us in the process of determining what God wants us to do.  So step one would be to figure out what you want to do.  If you don't want to do something, it's possible that God may not want you to do that, but don't scratch something off your list just because you don't want to do it.  God still may give you what you need to see it through.

2. Read the Bible.  The Bible is God's direction for all of life.  Every question is answered the Bible; every directive is given in the Bible; all information about what people should be doing with their lives is written in the Bible.  In order to know what I should be doing with my life, I need to be reading the Bible.

3. Pray.  Ask God for wisdom about what you want to do.  Confess sin and your tendency to seek your own desires first.  Repeat steps 2 and 3.

4. Seek godly counsel.  Think you might know what God wants you to do?  Run it by a few other older, wiser people and see what they think.  This is an important step, and is one that should not be avoided.  One of the most important parts of my own call to ministry was receiving affirmation from other people that they likewise believed that God had called me to ministry.  Seek godly counsel, and listen to it.  After all, someone wiser than you may have a different idea about what you're about to do, and God could be using them to guide you away from a particular action.

5. Do it!  Once you've determined what you want to do, read your Bible, prayed, and sought godly counsel, then just do it!  Make sure you do whatever you've committed to do well, and that you see it through to the end.

Note that a person could go through these five steps and still feel rather uncomfortable about what they have determined God had called them to do.  For instance, becoming a missionary and going to a foreign country to live, work, and preach the gospel is something that would scare me to death.  My fear and lack of peace, however, is no indication that God has not indeed called me to do it.  So then, should I wait for God to give me "a peace" about something before I do it?  Maybe, if the peace we're talking about is knowledge of his greatness and power.  We just need to be careful about personal feelings and emotions when it comes to decision making and claiming God's will for our lives.

And I should know, because I have a peace about that.

From the Archives

This week I'm working on wrapping up our intergenerational Sunday School class, "The Righteous Shall Live By Faith."  It's a study on the 10 Commandments that's masterfully written so as to engage adults and children alike.  I was looking through some of my notes from this past summer and came upon what you see below.  It's a blog post that I meant to post back in June, but forgot to do.  For what it's worth, here's what I was thinking about one day last June as I was preparing a Sunday School lesson.

I have had the privilege of teaching the 5th and 6th grade Sunday School class at Riverview for the past two years now, and I look forward to teaching it again this year, beginning in September.  I also have the privilege of teaching Riverview's intergenerational class this summer, along with my mom.

We usually have somewhat of an unwritten policy at the church that states that volunteers who teach during the school year (September through May) don't teach during the summer so as to give them a break.  After all, they put in approximately 40 weeks of lesson preparation and presentation during the year.  My mom is also one of our regular Sunday School teachers, and she was due for a summer off.  This year, however, I asked my mom to help me teach the intergenerational class during the summer, which meant that neither she nor I would get a break (although I don't usually get a break - I'm always teaching something somewhere, which I am usually more than happy to do).  

Anywho, we got to talking while we were working on our lesson prep for the summer intergenerational class.  I was a bit bummed that I had to get my mom to teach the class with me.  This is not to imply that my mom's a bad teacher, or that I didn't want to do it with her, but more of a lament that it is often times difficult to find and recruit "fresh blood" for church ministries, especially Sunday School teachers, and that the usual people tend to end up getting asked again and again, and sometimes have to give up the summer break that they would usually enjoy in order to fill a volunteer ministry role, which was exactly what my mom was doing by helping me teach Summer Sunday School.

It suddenly dawned on me, however, that my mom is probably coming toward the end of her Sunday School teaching career.  That put my thoughts into a whole different perspective: since my mom is a gifted teacher and enjoys teaching, and especially sins she probably won't be teaching for too much longer (in the grand scheme of things, at least) then we should get everything we can out of her now! That is, if she won't be around for forever, let's utilize her God-given gifts and talents in teaching as much as we can in the present, while she is still physically able to do so. Not to do so would be a waste. 

Then I got to thinking about myself.  It sure would be nice to have a three month break where I didn't have to teach Sunday School, volunteer for such and such ministry do this, do that, etc.  But then again, I don't have "much" time left either.  In other words, my time as a Sunday School teacher has an end date - a shelf life, if you will.  And the thought of me not teaching Sunday School while I can, especially in light of the fact that my time and ability to teach has an expiration date, gave me a sense of urgency that I want to hold on to.

I don't have much time.  I need to be doing what God has called me to do, which right now is teaching Sunday School.  Even if it means I have to put some more time into my weeks during the summer preparing Sunday School lessons when I could be vacationing, taking it easy during the week, or just relaxing.  There's plenty of time for that throughout the rest of my life.  But who knows how much longer I'll be able to teach Sunday School (my ministry role might change, someone else might step forward, I might be unable to because of some change in my physical condition, etc.)?  Sure, I'm "only" 31 years old, but who knows what tomorrow will bring?  I only have a certain amount of time left (even if it's a long time, I've still got an end date), and I want to make the most of it.

I pray that God will continue to give me this urgency in my life and ministry.

I Stood a Mendicant of God

I posted a few weeks ago about Steve Saint and his bad accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down.  He has since undergone surgery to relieve the pressure on his spinal cord and the paralysis has somewhat abated.  Here you can see how he has begun to regain some of his movement and strength in his limbs.

I've also talked on this blog about how much I appreciate Steve Saint and his insatiable appetite to be an innovator for the mission field.  The guy comes up with new inventions that help missionaries preach the gospel and do what they need to do on the mission field.  We need more guys like Steve Saint holding the rope for those going down into the well.  Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that Steve is not just holding the rope, but he's making a better rope.

Here's the latest update on Steve's recovery from his accident, produced by his company, I-tec.  This man's resolve and attitude throughout this process is inspiring and encouraging.  Rather than lamenting, or even learning to adapt to his new condition (let's face it: his life is forever changed; he's a 60+ year old guy who sustained a spinal cord injury - he won't ever be the same or be able to do those things he had done before the accident), he is instead looking for what God is doing in him through this accident. As you can see in the video, he's discovering things about himself and about God that he would have never known had he not been injured.  In a sense, the injury has been a blessing to him. Watch this video.  It's worth your six minutes.



The poem that Steve recites is as follows:

I stood, a mendicant of God, before his royal throne

and begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.

I took the gift from out his hand, but as I would depart I cried, 

'But Lord, this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart. 

This is a strange and hurtful gift which thou hast given me.' 

He said, 'My child, I give good gifts. I gave my best to thee.' 

I took it home, and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore, 

As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more. 

I learned he never gives a thorn without this added grace:  

He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides his face.

God's Word in the Bariai Language

Here's one of the coolest things I've seen in a while.  It's a video of the Bariai people of Papua New Guinea receiving a copy of the New Testament in their own language for the very first time (you'll need to download the file to watch it).  Steve and Carol Jean Gallagher, whom Riverview supports as missionaries, have been working on translating the Bible for the Bariai people since 1993.  19 Years!  That's how long it has taken them to learn the language and translate the New Testament in its entirety, in addition to Genesis and Exodus.  What an amazing feat.

Think about this: there is at least one Bible in almost every house in America.  Probably more than one, even.  Most people don't read them, and those who have them almost certainly take them for granted - even Christians.  And here, these people halfway across the globe receive God's word in their own language for the first time.  They parade it through the village, dance around it, and sing songs!  What an amazing sight to behold!  May God bless Steve and Carol Jean for their faithfulness to this translation ministry, and brining God's word to a people who otherwise had no access to it.

The new Bariai Bible was dedicated last weekend on July 7.  Here's a brief written update on the translation project and the release of the new Bible from Steve and Carol Jean:

Saturday and Sunday, July 7 and 8 were great days of celebration for the Bariai people and for us.  On Saturday boats were loaded with the Bariai scriptures containing Genesis, Exodus, and the NEw Testament.  The boxes of books were loaded on a motorboat, but a representative copy was carried on a  special canoe paddled by men in traditional decorations, singing traditional songs.  With great honor, it was taken to the next village.  After being off-loaded, the books were paraded through the village and up the hill to the church.  There the priest declared that the church approves this translation of the scriptures for use and encouraged people to read it.

On Sunday morning, the Bibles were officially blessed by the priest during the church service, and he read a letter of endorsement sent by the bishop.  Again, he told the people that they need to read it and follow it.  We're thankful for his encouraging endorsement.  

The service was followed by a few speeches, a little rain, and then clear weather for feasting, dancing, and singing.  About 100 people bought copies of the scriptures, along with four audio scripture players.  

In my opinion, this is some of the most exciting work the church is doing: sending people out to preach the gospel and make God's word available for all who would like to read it.  Be praying for Steve and Carol Jean, and the kingdom impacting work they're doing on the other side of the world.