B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #247

B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #247

 

I Cor.. 16:9 ‘For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

 

Aug. 30, 2013

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Fellowship is an Activity

On our website www.lutheranmissions.org we have under ‘Teachings’ a longer and a shorter explanation of our fellowship. This is not a thing merely on paper. We value our spiritual fellowship with our overseas brothers and sisters as witnessed by our visits to them. We also want to extend this relationship of oneness in the faith and teaching to others. The following list points up our activity and desire in this area. To maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace we meet with each other.

In June and July the yearly Mission Helpers trip saw work in India by these volunteers.

A visitation team met with a pastor in Mexico a while back and a visit again in January is planned.

Pastor Gurath has returned from Kenya.

Pastor Mayhew will be going to Tanzania in September.

Pastor Ude has just returned to India from Congo.

Fellowship is also seen in overseas brethren visiting us in the USA. Martin Essien’s recently visited from Nigeria.

In October in India the leaders will meet from India, Myanmar and Nepal in fellowship. And we are interested in extending this relationship so that two guests are invited from Myanmar and India who have asked for fellowship with the CLC.

On my way back to India I will be visiting contacts in Germany as we are always ready to share the precious relationship.

USA congregations reach out to people in Peru and Liberia.

We are in fellowship with individuals in Sweden and Australia and would be delighted to visit them.

And just as we do extension so do our brethren as witnessed by two areas of Zambia reached by two of our overseas pastors.

We keep a sharp eye open and an ear attuned to contact in Thailand, Haiti and Sudan.

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Words of the Wise – God Rules part 1

Introduction

 

Our spiritual vision sometimes gets blurred. God has to refocus us. In our thinking and actions we start to go off on a tangent. God brings us back to the straight line. We may begin to limit our view to this earth and what we see. Then we must look up and remember that He rules. We need to look into the Scriptures and remember the lessons there from ages past but yet so applicable to right now.

 

Sad to say there are those times when believers ask ‘How long Lord?’ We wonder how long it will be until this suffering will end, this persecution will stop, this wickedness ceases. In weakness we ask God ‘When will you show Yourself to be God?’ All we need do is look into the Word and see how He has been and how He promises that He does not change and will do as He has always done. And let us look within to see what He has done.

 

In this study we look to the words of the wise in Proverbs. These collected sayings were to be words to live by. Their inclusion in the book is even evidence that they were being used, and therefore could be used in any age. They are practical for us in our distress. They are also practically short and easy to remember to be called to mind when we are bothered and frustrated because we don’t see God doing something. Of course He is at work even as we sleep. He never grows tired or fails to note what is happening for He is God, not man. God rules.

 

God Rules from the Beginning

3:19-20 “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens; by His knowledge the deeps broke forth, and the clouds drop down the dew.”

Just think how in six normal 24 hour days God created everything by His almighty Word. This is the fantastic starting point to remembering that He rules. The God who put the constellations in the heavens and filled the oceans with creatures is not a God who then departs for some other region not to be involved. True enough His laws of nature are set in place, yet it is by His Word that He upholds all this vast creation. “…upholding the universe by His word of power.” Heb. 1:3 He can suspend His laws as in the case of Joshua and the battle against the Amorites. Josh. 10:12-14 By suspending the laws of nature and extending the daylight it shows that He intervenes in the affairs of this created world and in His people’s interests, “for the Lord fought for Israel.”

 

3:33 “The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the abode of the righteous.”

 

This is brief and to the point and to be recollected when we might start to doubt that things are going right. This is a principle that is echoed again in 10:29 “The Lord is a stronghold to him whose way is upright, but destruction to evildoers.” It is said a little differently and reminds us that God repeats this over and over again in His inspired Word in various ways to remind us that no matter what the situation God rules with His principles, which are unalterable from the beginning.

God Rules All for He Sees All

5:21 “For man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he watches all his paths.”

It is not just the wicked or the believers, but all that He sees, “man’s ways.” Here we have the omniscience of God, this quality of God that so far exceeds man’s as the continuous light of the sun exceeds the short-lived tiny light of a match that is struck and soon burns out. This quality of God is like the earth in its wide girth and immense size compared to a fly speck that is like man’s knowledge and what he sees. Our Lord Jesus told us that the very hairs upon our head are numbered. He knows us so well. And a worthless sparrow can fall to the earth and God knows it, how much more then does He take note of us. Since He cares for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, so for us who were made in His image there is so much more loving care.

 

Because He sees all, He rules all. Think of Elijah on Mt. Carmel mocking Baal. 1 Kings 18 Our God does not sleep and need to be awakened. Our God does not go somewhere where He does not know and rule. Our God is not limited in His knowledge that He goes somewhere and is not aware of what is going on in the place from which He departed. Our living Lord is not distracted by something and fails to take note of what is going on. He does not miss anything. When the fire from heaven fell on Elijah’s altar, all was consumed: the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, the water in the trench. So our God sees and thus rules all.

 

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Pastor David Koenig