Imagine Being A Missionary

Imagine Being A Missionary:

Support them, Be With them, and Be one where you are.

By Dwight Cunkle

   Allow me to describe briefly what it can be like to be a new missionary family, alone in a third world country...

   Can you imagine being thankful you can use a bathroom with running water instead of an outhouse. What feels like 99% humidity and being glad to take a cold shower? Imagine in April and May not only does everything turn brown and it is 100 degrees, but water is so rationed that you may not even have any to use all day? Imagine rolling blackouts (we sang worship songs and hymns then played almost an entire board game in the dark) and never know when the lights will go out let alone come on again.

     Imagine no Stop signs, traffic lights, and the roads often are shared by cars, farm trucks, bicyclers, walkers of all ages, plus dogs, cows, goats etc. Can you imagine having to travel several hours including riding on the ferry across a huge lake just to go to the grocery store or get mail? And the road that you use to go to the main part of the island is rock and mud and often you must crawl and bump along in low gear.

   Imagine not being able to talk on the phone with friends and relatives here in the states and having to drive at least five minutes to get on the Internet. The sad part of that is hardly ever does anyone write you emails or Facebook messages and almost never a letter.       

    Imagine the need to be so frugal you wash sandwich baggies so you can reuse them because you want to have extra money to serve and give people in need around you, and you don't know if it may be weeks before you can go to a store to buy them. Imagine having to learn a foreign language while trying to relate with people with whom you cannot communicate.

Imagine the loneliness... The silent pain.

The strangeness of this new environment…

Then imagine the gladness to receive suitcases full of blessings to give others and some to share yourselves. Imagine the sweetness of being able to receive news from the states, share your stories, and be encouraged because people came so far to be with you and to help you in your work.

Imagine that despite the difficulties and hardships you love the Lord Jesus Christ and you give to those around you without expectation of seeing change or accomplishing anything in the eyes of men. Imagine being received with favor by these simple people who sing joyfully out of tune and treat church like it is a high point of the week. Imagine riding a bicycle 20 km just to come to a meeting. Imagine people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, welcoming teachings on worship and prayer, listening like never before to sense how and what God is communicating with them. Imagine being so appreciative that someone came so far teaching you some new songs and helping you experience the peace and the joy of God in a fresh new way. (One young man testified that he received healing in his heart when we sang the song that God gave me for them).

But also imagine what a difference you can make by praying, writing, giving, going... Imagine doing your part of the Great Commission-by giving your life in small ways through the day to serve others and be a witness for Christ. Imagine offering your life and your family to God for his will to be done. Imagine  not giving up when you can't see clearly what difference you are making? Not quitting everyday. Not feeling sorry for yourself because you have work to do today-living for Christ and being an example of the gospel and love of God together. Imagine seeing your family minister to others and choose Christ over the material things and superficial things of culture controlling their time and desires. Imagine lives being impacted for eternity as you simply do the next task and serve the next person in need God brings near you. Imagine Great Grace and beauty and growth and love and a wholly different way of life. Imagine quiet while looking daily up to the mountains to God from where your help comes from. Imagine peace and contentment in simple things and a slower and simpler lifestyle. Imagine you and God, living as One, with all your weakness but all his fullness and love as a sweet gift in some present moment.

Imagine all you can but then go and love Christ and love your neighbor do the task before you with simple faith and devotion.

God’s Word Is Always Ahead of Science

God’s Word Is Always Ahead of Science

By Rick Warren

“Praise him, you highest heaven and the water above the sky. Let them praise the name of the Lord because they were created by his command. He set them in their places forever and ever. He made it a law that no one can break.” (Psalm 148:4-6 GW)

Someone may have told you at one time that the Bible isn’t scientifically accurate. That person is wrong. They’ve either never studied the Bible or never studied science. God sets up the laws of science; he made sure that his Word doesn’t contradict those laws.

Johannes Kepler, the famous mathematician and astronomer, once said, “Science is simply thinking God’s thoughts after him.” In other words, God established the laws of physics, and then we discover them.

The Bible wasn’t meant to be a scientific textbook. You don’t study the Bible to build a rocket. And the Bible doesn’t use scientific language. But the Bible never gives bad science! Not once during the 1,600 years in which the Bible was written does it give bad science. In fact, it’s always ahead of science.

For example:

·         For thousands of years, people believed that the earth was flat. But God said 2,600 years ago in Isaiah 40:22 that God is enthroned above the sphere of the earth.

·         For thousands of years, people believed something held the earth up. Hindus believed huge elephants did it. The Greeks believed Atlas did it. The Egyptians believed five columns held the earth up. The Bible never says that anything is holding the planet up.

·         For thousands of years, people believed that the number of stars were finite. But Jeremiah 33:22 says the number of stars can’t be counted.

Truth doesn’t change.

Talk It Over:        

·         Search the Bible today for truths that confirm what you see all around you in nature.

·         How do you respond when someone says the Bible isn’t scientifically accurate?

 © 2013 Purpose Driven Life.All rights reserved.

ABANDONMENT AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD BRINGS BLESSING

ABANDONMENT AND OBEDIENCE

TO GOD BRINGS BLESSING

By Dwight Cunkle

Fearing and Loving God I can put persons and things I love on the altar of the "God Who Provides"

Here is the exact quote that someone I referenced in my sermon on Sunday heard God impressing on her when she was trying to release her children into God's hands:   He said, "I will be as gentle as possible and as firm as necessary."

It reminds me of Gen 22, where Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice his only son whom he loves. In faith (trusting God) Abraham says, "The lad and I will worship then return." This is the first occurrence of the words worship and love in the Bible, and they come in the context of the only time God speaks of offering the firstborn as a whole burnt offering (except his own son). At the last moment while Abraham is obeying, Yahweh  interrupts him, affirms his fear of the Lord, confirms him and his future generations in covenant blessing, and shows him a ram stuck in the thicket to be a substitutionary sacrifice instead of Isaac.  

Abraham named that place, "The Lord Will Provide" (Yahweh Jireh). What would have happened if Abraham had not feared the Lord and trusted Yahweh enough to obey HIm? Is there anything or anyone we are clinging to or trying to protect from what may be God's will? Perhaps there are areas of blessing not seen yet, waiting for us to place what and/or whom we love on the altar before "The God Who Provides." 

JESUS AND THE TRUE CHURCH ARE A PATHWAY TO HEALING AND WHOLENESS FROM SEXUAL AND RELATIONAL BROKENNESS

JESUS AND THE TRUE CHURCH 

ARE A PATHWAY TO HEALING AND WHOLENESS FROM SEXUAL AND RELATIONAL BROKENNESS 

By Dwight Cunkle

  

 All of us know family or friends who have been impacted by the pain of sexual or relational issues. The cross of Christ and the word of God provide a pathway of restoration and freedom but it takes people to walk with them through the healing process.   

      Over a year ago I remember being especially burdened over the lack of a pathway of healing and a community of support for people in this painful battle. I didn't know that I was about to discover where these things already existed. Since then I have become friends with men and women who have experienced a beautiful restoration to God and freedom from shame or confusion.  Though the journey was extremely difficult and long I now know there is true hope and instruction for new life and wholeness in relationships. And there is equipping for those who feel called to be part of the healing process with others. Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and he uses real people as his hands and heart.

      After attending conferences, reading numerous books, spending many hours of prayer and conversation with pastors and hearing many stories from people of their own struggles in the area of relational or sexual wounding or brokenness, I believe God is sharing his heart with us for his sons and daughters and the restoration of his image in them.

   God's purpose for elders and pastor teachers is to equip the members of the body as well as keep watch over the flock from harm. These two charges to our office are held before God as truth in tension but not in conflict.

We  point to Christ as the Way for all who will come, and we teach God’s word as a boundary of safety for those who do.

      Marriage has God-given boundaries called covenant. Jesus said that men try to change what God created in the beginning but throughout Scripture and the history of humanity it is one man and woman committed for life and for the sake of the children they create and/or will influence through their marriage. Malachi chapter 2 states that the purpose of marriage is to produce godly children.
Marriage was designed by God and upheld by the governments of the earth to promote "the common good."  The marriage boundary  reveals Christ’s love a path of life.

RELATIONSHIP WITH FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT (PART TWO)

RELATIONSHIP WITH FATHER, SON, 

AND HOLY SPIRIT

(PART TWO)

By Dwight Cunkle

"What good does it do to speak learnedly 

about the Trinity if, lacking humility, 

you displease the Trinity?" 

T.A. Kempis

I in them and you in me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness, And give the godless world evidence [to believe] That you've sent me and loved them the same way you've loved me. I have made your very being known to them-Who you are and what you do-And continue to make it known, So that your love for me be in them Exactly as I am in them. (Jn 17:23, 26)

... Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. "The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen. (Matthew 11:27 MSG)

Personalize these verses by speaking directly to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity:
[Holy Spirit, You…] will honor  and  glorify Jesus, because [You] will take of (receive, draw upon) what is (in Jesus) and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to (us). (Jn 16:14)

Jesus, It is You who show us the Father.
Holy Spirit and Jesus, help us to know Father God with You.

Father God... (that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give (us) a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of (our) hearts enlightened, that (we) may know what is the hope to which he has called (us), what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward (us) who believe, according to the working of his great might (Ephesians 1:17-19 ESV)

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, fullness of God that fills us in love, unifies us in love and through the church will fill the whole earth with your glory and goodness in love, we abide in holy fellowship and oneness with You. We enter into conversation with You. Open our ears to hear and respond.

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD, GOD, ALMIGHTY How is my relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (listening and responding)? (PART ONE)

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD, GOD, ALMIGHTY

How is my relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 

(listening and responding)?

(PART ONE)

By Dwight Cunkle

Last Sunday I asked how well we relate to all three persons of the Trinity. Is anything hindering our fellowship and intimacy and prayer with them? Is anything hindering us from asking for the gifts God gives us to minister to  one another in love as members of one another in the church, his body, and to people in the world as witness to God’s love and power to save them?

Try placing your hand on your heart or opening them to the Lord as you pray: 
Holy Spirit, Comforter, Teacher, Spirit of the Father, You who have brought Jesus and the Father to dwell in me...
I gently turn inward (he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.... We have received the Spirit...I am filled with Holy Spirit....
I ask Holy Spirit that You help me come to Jesus - open the eyes of my heart to go deeper with you into this union with Christ... Cause the glory of God to shine in my heart in the face of Jesus...

Jesus You are the only mediator between man and God. Whoever sees you sees the Father. Show me the Father. My Lord, My Savior. I was born in sin and lived full of sin and only by your grace am I saved because You are the Friend of sinners. You are my friend so I ask You, with Holy Spirit, to help me experience intimacies with the Father with You.

We have access to the Father through the Son by the Spirit, so, God You are my Father, and in your Son I am also your son/daughter, because I am joined in the same Spirit.

Father, Son the Living Word, Holy Spirit my Counselor, what hinders me, what offends You...

How are You pleased with me?

How do you think of me and what would you say to me?

Glory be to the Father, the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen

ANGER IN THE CHURCH - THE BIGGEST DETERRENT TO GROWTH

ANGER IN THE CHURCH - 

THE BIGGEST DETERRENT TO GROWTH

By Dwight Cunkle

Mishandled anger hinders Holy Spirit in the Church

By this shall all men know my disciples - OR NOT

    A recent survey reported that the biggest reason people do not attend a particular church is the presence of anger among members. On the other hand, goodwill and mutual care and trust are among the largest attractors for those choosing a church family. I believe God doesn't even want to come to church where people choose themselves, their opinions, their pride, their feelings, their programs, etc… over the love of God.

     I can be pretty good at throwing a pity party for one -ME! God interrupted my self-made misery once by speaking something like the following to me:
Do you really believe, “Love never fails”? If so, believe that your and other people’s failures opportune love.
     I had to make a choice—nurse my pride or tend His love. I could get trapped in the mental re-runs of offense or turn this into God’s moment to transform me and possibly others in love and truth. What is God up to???

     “love is not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs. is not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs...love bears all things.”
 
   Whether I am repeatedly dwelling on my own failure or keeping record of someone else’s, both are failures to love. If I know how to handle my anger constructively I can receive and give love in practical and helpful ways. How will we settle disputes among one another, win the world to Christ, confront evil around us and judge angels  if we can’t constructively resolve anger toward one another???????  

     Some people need to get angry at sin but are passive. In this series I repeatedly have stated that anger has a purpose and can be used positively. God is angry at sin. He judges redemptively-meaning he disciplines us for our own good.  All us are saved by grace from his wrath. Do we show the same mercy to others and seek their good?  Jesus was especially angry at patterns of self-righteousness in religious people. Would he be angry at us?

      Let every man be quick to listen but slow to use his tongue, and slow to lose his temper. For man’s temper is never the means of achieving God’s true goodness. (James  1:19-20)

     Anger used against others is abusive, controlling, full of pride and self-protective. Paul wrote that it is better to be wronged and suffer than be a bad example of Christ to the world? How self-aware am I about my anger triggers? Do I tend to shoot first when I am hurt, feel threatened, disrespected or stressed? Do I listen to others who feel that I am angry or do I insist that I am not angry –boy that works really well, huh?

     Can we  see our body language, tone of voice and words through the eyes and feelings of others? When angry we are not good judges of how we are behaving. Few people have been taught how to make good choices when feeling hurt or wronged. It helps to receive counsel regarding how to speak the truth in love to one another and patiently help work through our blind spots.

     Otherwise we risk getting old alone. We expose ourselves and others to sickness. We are like bad breath to one another and hinder new potential members in the church. Since we will give account to God for our word, let’s expose our anger through confession and the transforming power of God’s love instead of being in denial or stuffing our feelings. It takes Godly love and spiritual authority to become an apostolic community of Holy Spirit.

This is #14 in the series on 

The Anger Trap: How to free ourselves from the frustrations that sabotage life and relationships, 

based on the book by Dr. Les Carter. 

To see the back entries go to Covenantlifechurch.com and click on our blog “Pastor’s Corner.”