Beacon Articles

Discouragement

2010-02-17T13:53:00.002-05:00

On February eleventh, the first and second year girls had a fabulous woman's meeting with Mary Aldrich, on the topic of Discouragement.

We discussed our natural responses to it, which included: staying in bed, escaping, venting, avoiding the problem, and talking to a lot of people. None of these actually deal with the problem.

And then we discussed how we should react.

1 - Pray. (Psalm 118:5) "Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free."

2 - Get Back to Work. (Philippians 4:13) "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

3 - Avoid the Discouragers (Nehemiah 6:2-4) "Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono." But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner."

4 - Avoid Time Consumers. (Ephesians 5:16+17) "making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

5 - Remove Bad Habits. (Romans 12:2) "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

6 - Rest. (Matthew 11:28) "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

7 - Don't Isolate Yourself. (Nehemiah 4:10) "In Judah it was said, "The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall."

8 - Encourage Someone Else. (Hebrews 10:24+25) "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

9 - Remember How God has Helped You in the Past. (2 Corinthians 1:3+4) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

10 - Praise Him. (Psalm 89:1) "I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations."

11 - Help Others. (Proverbs 11:25) "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered."

12 - Remember that God is Our Refuge and Strength. (Psalm 46:1-3) "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling."

Vision in a Desert

2009-11-17T20:54:00.008-05:00

For some reason, life is not always a bed of roses. Sure, we can be cheerful, and we may be able to rejoice in our salvation, but sometimes it's more satisfying to have something that encompasses more. A question might ring unspoken on our lips: is it possible to be glad in spiritually dry times?

This morning, I was reading my Bible like any other morning. Unfortunately, I've had a very busy week and my quiet times with God have been a bit rushed, but this Sabbath morning I wanted to soak more in God's Word. So as I was reading along, minding my own business so to speak, I came across the account in Acts about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. However, it wasn't the story I noticed, but what happened right before the story. Here's the scoop. Philip has just come from Samaria where he had just blazed a trail for Christianity. The crowds practically hung on his every word, eating up every syllable he uttered and probably smacking their lips as they did so. More importantly, they had responded and many were saved. Oh, and don't forget that God had also performed great miracles through him. Basically, I think we might be able to say that Philip was on a spiritual high. He was walking on air, probably ready to spring forward to evangelize the whole globe if God spoke the word, and perhaps his ear was just itching to hear the command.

What he heard was not what he expected. Acts 8:26 tells us how an angel of the Lord told him to follow a certain road. That sounds promising. Surely the road will take him to some great city that will soon be falling on its knees when its inhabitants hear what Philip has to say. All roads lead to Rome, right? Not this one. We're told quite simply that this was a desert place. Huh? If I had been Philip, I can easily imagine myself saying, "Hello! Didn't you just see what I've been doing? There are almost no people in the desert! How am I supposed to spread the good news? Lizards can't be evangelized, can they? If you send me into the desert, I won't be of any use!" Although it may be natural to feel this way, I've realized more fully for perhaps the first time how inaccurate that outlook really is.

First of all, usefulness isn’t dependent on how you think you should be used, but on how the One who designed you chooses to use you. Just because you're a hammer doesn't mean that all you’re going to do is pound in nails. What if you're called to pull up nails? Or what if as a gung-ho fork ready to stab any food, you’re called instead to simply have food shoved against you so that the spoon can scoop up the edibles? Has the hammer or the fork lost its usefulness just because it's not pounding in nails or stabbing victuals? Of course not! Each is merely being plugged in to fill a different job. Maybe you are designed to be someone who brings hundreds of people to the Lord, but if the Holy Spirit calls you to a desert place to do one small task for Him that can be just as effective.

What stood out even more to me in this story is that sometimes the Holy Spirit may send us into the desert. As Christians living in the world, spiritually dry times are almost inevitable, but should we be discouraged just because we don't sense God's work in our lives? No, God may be choosing to send us into a desert and if so He knows exactly what He's doing. After all, how are we supposed to have faith in God's goodness if He's constantly showering us with blessings? In essence we could be saying, "Yeah, God, I know you're good because I've seen all these wonderful things happening to me, but I don't understand why you're not good to me now when I need you most." Don't you see? God can never stop His faithfulness no matter how hard He tries, but He CAN stop His blessings; we just need to be able to recognize the difference. However, what we need to realize the most right here is that not only does the Holy Spirit sometimes send us into a desert, but He's also right there in the desert with us. And if that's the case, suddenly the desert seems to have lost some of its desert-like qualities. So it's okay if you're experiencing dry times. Perhaps that is exactly where God wants you to be. His power is not limited by a lack of rain.

I mentioned a shower of blessings. Perhaps a fine example of this would be Jesus feeding the multitudes in the wilderness. In one of the cases, they wanted to forcibly make Him king, but unfortunately their motives weren't pure. The fact is that they loved Jesus, not for who He was, but for what He gave them. Are we like the grasping multitude? Are we followers of Christ because we're hungry for the Bread of Life, the only One who can satisfy, or because we're hungry for the bread of blessings we receive from Him? When we talked about this in class a little while ago, I felt rather convicted because I think sometimes I tend to love the blessing (the "bread") rather than the Blesser (the "Bread"). That is, it's easy to love God when I'm experiencing happiness and peace and everything is going my way, but do I love Him just as much when I feel dry and hopeless with nothing to offer anybody? Do I seek Jesus or the things that He offers? I'm purposing to make the Blesser my ultimate goal, rather than the blessing. And hey, remember that although the blessings might not follow us into the desert, the Blesser does! So even in a barren land we can still cling to the heart of God, even when His ways don't make sense. Let Jesus be our only vision as we relax in the knowledge that we’re where we're supposed to be.

Speaking of vision reminds me of something else I noticed in my Bible reading a few weeks ago. The eighth chapter of Mark gives us the story of the blind man of Bethsaida whom Jesus healed, but what I think is very unique about this story is the fact that Jesus touched his eyes twice. What could this mean? We know that Christ certainly had the power to heal him with one touch or even no touch at all, so why did He lay hands on him twice?

I don't think there has to be an answer to this question. The fact is, God is God and He can do anything He wants to do, but I still wonder if Jesus might have been trying to tell us something. What if Jesus didn't heal the blind man all at once because He didn't want to make it too easy? Think about it. In a sense, we're all like blind men. We're all familiar with the song, "Amazing Grace":

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost but now am found

Was blind but now I see.

There you go. That song isn’t the Bible but it's almost the next best thing to it. We're all blind, or once were blind, but Christ made us see. Suppose once Jesus gave us our sight we suddenly saw all spiritual things with piercing clarity. Where would our need for Jesus be then? We might praise Him for what He did for us, but if everything were apparent to us in our perfect spiritual vision we would have no need to stay connected to Jesus, and we could go on our merry way and never see Him again.

Notice that the blind man wasn't content with his first gift of "sight." When you think about it, going from absolute darkness to being able to see men like walking trees is quite an improvement. Wow, this is amazing, right? Well, yes, it is, but if he had been content with that simple step up he would have missed out on the giant leap to the real deal.

In a similar way, many of us may be in the same position that the blind man was in between Touch One and Touch Two. We're saved, we now can "see," but do we really see? Are we pressing on for new heights that can be gained with Christ, or are we settling for our mediocre plateau? Are we on a daily quest to see more of Jesus and make His vision ours, or are we happy to rejoice in our current position? Are we staying close enough to Jesus so He can touch us again or are we drifting about, enjoying our newfound views of men walking about like trees? True, our salvation and the spiritual vision that Jesus has already given us is wonderfully precious, but I think that all of it might turn out to be mere shadows in comparison to the pinnacle of reality that He's longing to show us. Are we yearning for it as much as He is? Are we keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, ready for Him to touch them again? I don't know about you, but I don't want to settle for one touch from Jesus. After all, who wants 20-50 vision when they can have 20-10?

One thing I've learned so far at Bibleschool is that in the end, almost every spiritual lesson boils down to one thing: stay connected to Jesus. He is the answer to every problem, every care, and every burden. Nothing lies outside of His scope or ability. He can use any situation no matter how bleak it is. He's there in the desert and He's there in our blindness. And I think that what He has in store for us is beyond the unfathomable reaches of our imaginations.

So maybe we are in a desert, or maybe our eyes do feel weak; do we have a fervent desire to see Jesus, no matter what it takes? Does an all-consuming fire for Him burn within us so that nothing else really matters? Don't be discouraged if you feel too parched to strike the match yourself. The Holy Spirit can set the blaze burning even if you find yourself in a shriveled wilderness. Fire usually kindles best in the driest of deserts.

A brief overview of the first six weeks by Klara

2009-11-01T18:37:00.005-05:00

Craig's opening meeting was centered on two phrases: "Bring not a few", and "One thing is needful." The first is from the story about Elijah providing oil for the widow and telling her to gather many jars. Craig tied this in with beginning the Bible school year with great expectations. The second phrase is from the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was doing all of the work, while Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet, listening to His words. Upon hearing Martha's complaint, Jesus told her, "Mary has chosen the better part...only one thing is needful." During the first year student's class on the Harmony of the four Gospels, we learned that the thing that is needful is being willing to let other things--even good things--go, and listen with focused attention to our Master's words.

Craig's was the first of many rich meetings, all of which can't be recounted now, but a few overall themes have stood out. Couple with Craig's meeting was the Feast of Harvest theme of "Be still and know that I am God." One especially powerful meeting was Mr. Dale Noss's, in which he reviewed four lessons he'd learned while walking each morning. The first was the same as the Feast theme. He pointed out that the verse could also be read, "Be still, and thereby know that I am God." Mr. Noss's second lesson was that when Elijah was in the cave on Mt. Horeb, God was in the gentle blowing wind. Having recently read this passage in my devotions, I was struck again by the fact that God doesn't usually speak through earthquakes and fire from heave. We have to be listening attentively to hear His words. However, the flip side of that was a movie we watched a couple of weeks later called, "God Loves the Impossible", by Otto Konig, a former missionary to Papua New Guinea. His point was that God is waiting for our faith to be great enough so He can do really big things. He described in detail the account of Elijah versus the 400 prophets of Baal. Elijah had bucket after bucket of water poured on the alter so that when God lit the wood on fire it would be obvious that it was a divine act. Finally, he told them a sufficient amount had been poured out. At that point its almost as if God said, "Stand back Elijah, I'm going to blast this thing."

The two points mentioned above are only a couple of examples of the rich lessons I have been learning at Bible school. It is so good to be reminded that God is the God of the impossible. He sent fire from heaven when Elijah prayed, and He is entirely capable of performing miracles today. Yet, even though He is the Almighty God, He wants us to be still so He can speak to us.