Deeper Truths for Hungry Hearts
April 2015 • Volume XIII Number 08
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Thoughts for Consideration:
Greetings again my Brethren. Last month we looked at how God expects a prompt and speedy execution on our behalf when He speaks to us. It is the first time God speaks He is looking for our response. We would expect no less from our children. When our kids were growing up and we spoke to them as little babies we had to speak time and time again, but as they grew in stature and intellect we expected and even demanded at times speaking once is enough. At time their obedience to our speaking could mean life or death as they were crossing the road; come or not come or not to play with certain items they may find. So too with God, He desires to speak to us one time because having to speak again and again only means we have not learned the lesson God is trying to teach us. Now God is longsuffering and will speak again, again, and again, but why should we try His patience and disappoint God in our not hearing and learning? Let us strive to listen closely to His call and move as His word moves us. This month we will continue looking at the Call of the Apostles by ever being watchful for any divine communication. What is the value of hearing from God? Just one word from God can change the course of lives. This was the case in my life. While I was stationed in the Germany and pastoring a growing church God spoke one word to me, “retire.” Now God did not say what to do next just “retire.” God is not a chatter box He does not do a lot of talking His words give much guidance and direction, even one word. I retired from the US Military and continued pastoring while adding two teaching jobs; one as a substitute teacher at the American High School and another working as a teacher for a German company teaching business English to German executives to supplement our income. No word from God to do all of this I just knew to do this as His will to pay the bills. God speaking to us lets us know many things, but one and probably the most important is His seal of approval in our life. Read the Bible, God speaks to His children and when He spoke His children knew what to do and how to do it. Another reason for God to speak to us and probably the second most important reason is for correction. Direction and correction what God speaks to us. Now we like the pats on the back and the well done my son or daughter, okay they happen, but we will never hear these words until we get the direction and correction down in our heart, mind, and lives. In Psalms David heard from God (a divine word of communication) and replied back to God, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psalms 40:6-8) David was telling God something He already knew and David knew God knew. God knows all things. This knowing gave David boldness to kill a bear, lion, and a giant with a sling. Run for his life time and time again from King Saul. Become King commit adultery and assist in a murder and yet God loved him and David learned from His mistakes and failures. Yes it is direction and correction this is the call from God for His children and out from that is the wherewith all to do all that God requires of us. How important is hearing? It is everything in our walk with God. As I said earlier often our obedience to God can mean survival or death, both physically and spiritually. So many times in my travels just one word of warning or confirmation enabled me to move correctly even in the face of danger and certain defeat. Peter shares, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5:8) 1 Peter was written to encourage the believers to endure the intense persecution that was prevalent in the area and to prepare the readers for the difficult times ahead of them between 112 (under Trajan) and 249 (under Decius) AD. The first time I went to Africa this verse was really opened to my understanding. Now the devil is compared to “a roaring lion.” Now the devil is not a lion, oh no Peter said the devil is “as” a roaring lion. The first time I went to Africa I was taken out in the bush and we came across a pride of lions which had a big old male man did he roar and show his teeth, oh how he scared me until it dawned on me that was all he had a roar and big teeth. He roared and roared and acted like he was chasing the prey, but stopped short of the attack. It was the smaller, quiet, female lions lurking in the bushes that the prey did not see which took the attack and took down the prey. As I look at this verse yes the devil is there we cannot deny that, but we must put him in the place he is, an old roaring lion whose roar is worse than his bite. Paul tells us Jesus through His death, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15) The only power the devil has in our lives is the power we give him. Before we tackle the devil we first must allow God to kill our love for the world and our self. This is why the devil has a field day in most Christians lives there is a hook for the love of the world and our self that the devil can exploit in us.
Next month we will continue looking at the Call of the Apostles by continuing to look at the divine “Principles of Service” as we look at surrendering our personal choice. Can you hear Him now?
Written David Stahl
ARTICLE REVIEW:
More Then Believing
Karen and I were at the commissary (a type of supermarket where only people associated with the military can go) a few weeks ago and we over heard a lady say, “we have to hold on believing” and the Holy Spirit quickened in my spirit, “hold on to what?” I answered my thoughts, “hold to what God said.” Now the word faith and believing are interchangeable, anytime we read the word faith we will be correct saying believing, so too is the spiritual principle of directing our faith or belief into something particular. Many denominations teach stand on the promises of God’s word. I cannot begin to tell you, when growing up, how many times I heard, “brother stand on God’s word and believe the promise.” In the 70s you could buy a promise box, small cards with all of the promises in the Bible in a box and each day you were to pull a card out and claim the promise on the card, well my friend that is not how God operates. The word “claim” is not in the KJV of the Bible, any promise we received from God will be given to us because we have met the condition. For the promise box to be complete the back side of the card needed to have the condition written on it so that we would know what we would have to do to be able to receive the promise from God. Every promise of God has a condition we must meet. Even salvation is not condition free. Did you know salvation will not be for everyone? John tells us what we must do to be saved, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Salvation is for only those who believe in Jesus, not for those who believe. Salvation is extended to “whosoever may come,” but those who receive salvation will be only for those who believe in Jesus, all others will be lost. How arrogant and selfish we are to think we can claim something that belongs to God or just believe something will be ours and God will give it to us. No wonder many Christians give up and fall out of God. Their entire foundation of their salvation and thinking has been laid wrong and when they make an approach to God with their faulty foundation they will never reach His heart. Now please listen to me real good, I do not care how long you have been believing for something or what you are standing on, if God did not speak it to you (personally) then it will not happen. Healing someone is so easy if God says so, if not you and the people expecting to be healed will be confused and frustrated when you pray and pray and nothing happens. Now do not believe the old stand-by lie that you do not have enough faith to be healed. This is a lie from the heart of those who would want to manipulate and deceive people for gain. I have seen and heard this all around the world. We have no faith my friend until we are at a place of need and weakness in our lives where we can hear God speak it into our lives. In the Book of Romans we see Paul correcting this wrong thinking at the Church of Rome. “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 18But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. 19But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. 20But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. 21But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” (Romans 10:16-21) Please notice how Paul handles their presumption and wrong thinking. First, Paul lays a couple questions at their feet to point their spirit toward soul searching and introspection. “But I say, Have they not heard?” And then answers his own question. “Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” Next Paul asks another question, ”But I say, Did not Israel know?” And then answers this question with, “First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.” Sadly the word of God went forth “unto the ends of the world” and in spite of hearing the word of God preached time and time again they never came to the knowledge of the truth so God declared, “All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” Sadly today in the church there is not much difference. Why did God say they were “disobedient and gainsaying people?” Because they did not hear the word of God? Oh no my friend, because their hearing was not founded in what God has said. In verse 10:17, we find the key to understanding these verses. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Please let me say that again, “faith cometh by hearing.” Now we already know it is not about just hearing God’s word (we have learned that in verses 18 and 19) as some denominations and churches teach and preach, but is about hearing what God said. In the early 90s many of my friends and our pastor would ride around in their car playing the Bible on tape expecting to get faith, believing just hearing the Bible being read will give them faith, well if that be true then every Sunday in America when the masses head for their favorite restaurant they would leave church filled with faith. Oh no my friends God does not operate like that, Romans 10:17 in the Greek Bible says this, “So then faith cometh by hearing a word from God.” (Romans 10:17 (Greek) Do you see the difference? It is not just believing or having faith, but being able to hear what God is saying in any given situation and if we can hear what God is saying then we will be able to sink the faith God gave us into whatever God said. How easy is that? Do you see the difference? If you cannot see the difference then you will never be able to hear and receive faith the way God has purposed us to receive it and worse we will continue to deceive ourselves in just believing. My friend it is much more than just believing we must hear, believe, and receive what God has said, for in the hearing and the receiving is every skill, ability, anointing, and knowing, every bit of power we will ever need to do that which God has asked us to do.
On my first ministry trip to Ansbach, Germany I learned the importance of really hearing what is being said. In my case not hearing could have cost me my life. Our church, Christliche Gemeinde Stuttgart, started out from a military chapel service on Robinson Barracks. Before I arrived there was a black American fellow who considered himself the Pastor of the chapel service in Stuttgart and of 6 other military chapel services in Germany as well as a church in England, Norway, Romania, Germany, and a few in Africa. He had a real sweet deal receiving tithes from all of these churches and chapel services, but as time went on God made me responsible and accountable, according to the 6th ASG, US Army Chaplains Office, for the building and the people. God gave me the key to the front door and with it came the spiritual authority. Anyway, I was asked to travel up to Ansbach, Germany about seven hours by train and share at another chapel service. Now I have never rode the trains in Germany, so my good friend and later Associate Pastor Joseph Ojatabu (a Nigerian) said he would go and show me how to ride the trains. So we met at the Haufbahnhauf (main train station) in Stuttgart. We got on the train and departed. On our trip we had to make a connection in Frankfurt. When we arrived to Frankfurt we got down from the train and leisurely walked over to the next Gleis (train track). As we were riding up from Stuttgart I was telling Joseph there were many commercials on American TV where Americans where running for a train jumping over barrels, dodging fruit stands, all of the typical stuff you would imagine, well Joseph said we do not have to worry this will not happen to us. Well as we waited for the train to arrive Joseph noticed we were at the wrong Gleis so we quickly walked to the main board and discovered our train was at the other end of the Haufbahnhauf in Frankfurt which was four times the size of Stuttgart’s. So like a cheetah Joseph was off and running dodging in and out of people and I like a turtle was not so close behind him. I would see him occasionally as he zigzagged through the crowd for my bearings. We had seconds to make the train. Joseph made the train with time to spare, but I was not so fortunate. As I was running through the crowd I thought this is just like it was on the TV, running for a train in Germany. As I reached the train it began to back out, Joseph and others were standing in the doorway yelling run faster, so I grabbed the hand rail by the door and began to run faster. The faster the train backed out the faster I ran until I noticed the end of the platform coming quickly. So I had to make a decision, either jump (which could cost me my life) or let go and miss the train. As I was running I was thinking hey this is like the TV commercials running for a train in Germany. So I ran as fast as one could in a pair of penny loafers, swung my book bag up and in the open doorway, and jumped with all I had within me. Now this was blind faith (it could have cost me my life), suddenly out of the doorway came hands grabbing me (from my shoulder to my feet) lifting me up and on the train and as I was floating onto the train I thought hey, this is just like on the commercials on TV back in the States. Now here is my point to this story if I would not have heard the people telling me to jump I would have missed the train. Yes, I know running beside a high speed train may not be the wisest thing to do, but I did not want to miss the train and what God had planned for us. Hearing was receiving. So too in our lives without hearing what God has spoken to us we will not be able to receive from God. No hearing no receiving from God.
As we can see our walk with the Lord is much more than just believing. I do not know about you, but the longer I go with God the more I realize trying to serve God in Spirit and truth is the toughest thing we will ever do in our lives. It is almost impossible except for the faith God speaks to us. Even our salvation begins with God speaking a measure of faith to us, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3) How do we receive this measure of faith? We hear God speak it to us. What do we use this faith for? To believe on Him and be saved and out from this initial faith there is faith to faith, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17) We receive this measure of faith when we open our heart to God out from a broken and contrite spirit. Until then we have no strength to draw near to God. You see it is more than just believing.
Written by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
Our Pound of Flesh
Paul states in Ephesians, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as GOD for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32) I read a story a long time ago that really puts forgiveness into its proper perspective. A Romanian prisoner was beaten to the point of being paralyzed from the neck down. He laid in his own waste and could not even get a drink of water until the other prisoners came back from their forced labor to tend to him. This went on for years until he was finally released to his family. One day the very guard who paralyzed him came to the door. He apologized for what he did (even though he did not expect forgiveness) and turned to walked away to go hang himself when the little paralyzed man said he wished he could embrace the guard, because he had been praying for him for years, that he loved him and forgave him. Jesus himself on the cross, beaten, battered, and bleeding said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) What love bestowed upon us by GOD and His precious Son Jesus! And the lovely little Romanian man; what love for GOD and his fellow man. We all are shallow souls indeed that cannot forgive the few measly offenses against us. I don’t know anybody who has been so mistreated, so down trodden, so abused in life that they cannot forgive anyone, but I know plenty of people that take offense over any and every thing and will harbor unforgiveness in their heart and think that they’re okay with GOD!!! They reject the truth, reject the teaching in the Bible, and will emotionally blackmail those around them because they are offended and want their pound of flesh. Be careful this is dangerous ground! Dave says unforgiveness is a manifestation of a lack of relationship with GOD. This unforgiving attitude is not holy nor Godly, but is devilish, reeks of pride, self-centeredness, and borders on idolatry. Jesus said in Mark, “And when ye stand praying forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25-26) If GOD can (and will) forgive us when we ask HIM (and repent of our sins) who are we not to forgive our fellow human being? What makes us so special? Are we Above GOD? Is the servant greater than the Master? No, but we are shallow, pitiful, spiteful human beings who want our pound of flesh. God help us. Friends let us put aside our pride and be reconciled to those who we’ve offended and who have offended us. Let us walk in the love and truth of GOD. Let us be courteous and humble before our GOD lest “So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespass.” (Matthew 18:35). We are commanded to forgive, woe to us if out of our pride and arrogance we do not forgive our brethren. GOD Bless, the best is yet to come.
Written by Karen Stahl
NEEDS NO WANTS:
1. In Silistra, Bulgaria Pastor(s) Niki Marsov and Emil Nedelchev. Included now are missionaries from Romania Nicu and Elena. Times are troubled in Bulgaria much prayer and support is needed.
2. Constanta, Romania Pastors Luke and Jacob at Bethel Church and George Ritisan at the Romanian Center for Cross-cultural Studies Bible School and the Faru (Lighthouse) Church.
3. In Suceava, Romania Pastors Nicu and Marcel at St. Andrews Church. They are still standing by God’s grace.
4. Pastor Joseph Mutua in Nairobi, Kenya needs your prayer and financial support.
5. Pastor Mike Olufemi in Aveile, Nigeria. He needs our prayers and support to be a light in great darkness.
6. Pastor S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries in Hyderabad and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor Julian in Sankaraguptham, India.
7. Pastor Metin Mintaz, Dan, Cathy, and members of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
8. Pastor Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastors Isreal Mutaitina and John Balone in Bukoba, Tanzania.
9. Monthly financial support for Vivian’s Maternity and Child Care Clinic project in Aviele, Nigeria.
10. Pastor Tek Dahl at Gethsemane, Church (his church) and their radio station “Good News 105.1 FM” in Kathmandu, Nepal.
11. Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), and, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli, Rwanda.
12. Money for an industrial strength potato peeler at the Mission School in Romania.
Next Home Group Meeting:
Our next Home Group Meeting will be TUESDAY 28 April 2015
232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
7:00 pm please RSVP
Home: (910) 741-0489
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
April: Local Ministry
May: India
June: Local Ministry
I am still available to share what God has given me at churches and/or home groups. If God moves on your heart to support BHG or other ministries we personally know we would be honored to serve as a go between. Remember, if we want a blessing from God the spiritual principle is we must bless others. Remember, God is to you what you are to God.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Address:
David and Karen Stahl
232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
Phone:
Home: (910) 741-0489
Mobile: (910) 382-9287
FAX: (910) 741-0489
Email:
Ministry E-mail: dstahl@beholdinghisglory.com
Personal E-mail: mtnebo@hotmail.com
Online:
Beholding His Glory Website
Beholding His Glory Blog
The AuthorHouse link below will lead you to our latest book, “Thoughts for Consideration.” Just copy it into your web browser and return. Also you can purchase two of our other books “Adventures with God.” and “God Still Performs Miracles: A Book of Personal Encouragement.”
http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorCenter/Protected/BookHome.aspx?bookID=61464
Please take a minute and take a look, they all make for a great encouraging gift, giving hope and sharing God’s love through a deeper teaching that someone can enjoy again and again. All of our books can be purchased at all book stores like Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Book-A-Million, and etc., any Christian Book Store that orders, and all book ordering on-line companies like Amazon.com. Or if you are like me from the old school just contact us, we will let you know the price and then we will mail it out to your home address. Postage and handling is on a case by case basis.
If you know someone you think would enjoy receiving this newsletter or if you receive this newsletter and do not wish to please let me know. Contributions to this ministry is always appreciated and needed the more time continues. Please feel free to contact us with the above information. The cost is great, but the cost for not supporting to others is even greater. And remember, all donations are tax deductible.
