The Old Testament book of Numbers has a story about Balak, the king of Moab. Scared of Israel after seeing their military success, he was desperate to find a way to avoid defeat himself. Balak sought out Balaam, known as a prophet who spoke oracles, to curse Israel for him. After repeatedly paying Balaam and making many sacrifices, Balaam refused to curse Israel because God told him to bless Israel, not curse them. Balak would not give up, and before a third try, “Balak said to Balaam, ‘Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.’” (Numbers 23:27)
Where did Balak get the idea that changing location would get God on his side? That changing location would change God’s mind or bring God’s blessing to Balak (in the form of a curse on Israel)? Doesn’t it seem naïve? God’s character doesn’t change with location, or any other circumstances.
However, how often do we think a change in circumstances will bring God’s blessing? How often do we pray that God change our situation because we think the grass is greener somewhere else? Maybe if I lived in a different place, God would bless me. Maybe if I got a better job, would it be a blessing? Maybe if I went to a different church? Maybe if I was in a different relationship? Maybe if God would put us where we want to be, that He will bless us then? Are we saying “come with us God to another place, and perhaps it will please You to bless us there” in another way?
Warren Wiersbe wrote that “We are prone to think that a change in circumstances is always the answer to a problem. But the problem is usually within us and not around us. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.”[1]
God calls each of us for specific reasons, and the circumstances may be part of the reason. Referencing whether it is better to be married or single, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:24, “So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.” In other words, God wants to bless you in, or even through, your present circumstances. He may change them, but He may not.
In God’s plan, the grass is usually greenest right where we already are. If we can faithfully be the blessing needed in our circumstances, God will be faithful in His time and place. He will bless His people, only sometimes with better circumstances, but always with spiritual fruit.
God always says: “Come now, I will be with you where you are. It pleases me to bless you in all situations and circumstances.”
The grass is greenest where He is.
[1] Wiersbe, Warren. Be Wise (1 Corinthians) (1982).
On this date in 1976, Mao Zedong, or Chairman Mao, founder of the communist People’s Republic of China, died at the age of 82. Some look at Mao’s death as a positive turning point for Christianity in China, since under Mao China had expelled all Western Christian missionaries between 1949 and 1953. However, while it is impossible to come up with precise numbers across a 3.7 million square mile country, Christians probably were about 1 percent of China’s population when Western missionaries were kicked out, but by the 1980s about 5 percent of the population went by Christ’s name. The Christian population grew by ten times, while the overall population doubled. How did this happen?
Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom, authors of the book “Clouds of Witnesses” say the key to this growth was “the resilience of the Chinese believers themselves…securely rooted in Chinese life before Mao.” [1] In expelling missionaries, Mao was in part responding to “treaty ports” created at the end of the 1839-42 Opium War. Through these ports foreign powers had extra territorial rights, allowing influences including missionaries to come in, but these ports also allowed opium to flow freely into China from Western countries. Therefore, in the mind of many Chinese, Christianity became linked with both Western imperialism and opium addiction. When Karl Marx said “religion is the opiate of the masses” he may have been thinking of this connection. But native Chinese believers, sometimes planted by Europe-based evangelizing organizations like China Inland Mission, remained behind and spread resilient forms of Christianity that were attractive to the Chinese population.
John Sung Several of these Chinese Christians are profiled by Noll and Nystrom, including John Sung who lived from 1901 to 1944, before Mao’s communist revolution. Around Christmas 1926, Sung heard child evangelist Uldine Utley preach a sermon at Calvary Baptist Church in New York, near where he was attending Union Theological Seminary. This sermon, along with other influences, countered the liberal Christianity he was being taught where the Bible was just “a collection of myths.” He returned to China, determined to spread the gospel in the land of his birth with frenetic energy. In a one-year period in 1931-2, Sung and a small group of missionaries “traveled over 50,000 miles, held 1,200 meetings, preached to more than 400,000 people in thirteen provinces, registered more than 18,000 ‘decisions’” for Christ. Many of these new Christians formed traveling bands themselves. Sung is considered the last great evangelist in China and Southeast Asia before Mao’s reign.
Dora Yu Even earlier, another driver of this resilient, Chinese Christianity was Dora Yu (1873-1931). Dora’s ministry benefitted tremendously from a 1905 decision by Dowager Empress Cixi to replace China’s traditional Confucian civil service examinations with general public schools. Under this system, mission-run schools became a valued option, and one of Dora’s early ministries was to train “Bible women” to not only educate women generally, but also to teach them the Bible, pray with them, and teach them to live by faith. Mostly traveling by foot, in “1903, Dora Yu visited with 925 women and 211 children.” Later, her ministry grew and she became famous for itinerant preaching, reaching many others who would carry on the Lord’s work.
Because of our proneness to look at the bucket and forget the fountain, God has frequently to change His means of supply to keep our eyes fixed on the source
Watchman Nee
Watchman Nee In 1920, Nee Shu-Tsu would hear Dora Yu preach. Later known as Watchman Nee, he “planted at least four hundred Christian churches over a thirty-year period of active ministry.” He died in 1972 in a Communist prison after spending 20 years there. Watchman Nee wrote that “Because of our proneness to look at the bucket and forget the fountain, God has frequently to change His means of supply to keep our eyes fixed on the source.”
Whether it is a European missionary, a child preacher in New York City, a Chinese man temporarily studying in New York City, or a Chinese woman walking miles through the countryside:
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” – Isaiah 52:7
As Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 – “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This rock is the gospel of the kingdom of God, and not even a brutal regime like that of Chairman Mao could prevail against it.
Soli Deo Gloria
[1] Noll, Mark A.; Nystrom, Carolyn. Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia (2011). This post is drawn from chapters 12 and 14.
When Jeremiah was called to serve as a prophet in the Old Testament, God told him he was literally made for it in Jeremiah 1:5 –
“‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’”
However, Jeremiah’s response was not an enthusiastic one. Jeremiah 1:6-8 records this exchange:
“Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.’ But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.’”
Even though God had just said “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” Jeremiah objects that he was too young and did not have the natural ability required for the job. Maybe he doubted anyone would listen to him, so God must have the wrong guy. God doesn’t disagree that Jeremiah was young (he already knew that), but knows that God’s ability is what matters, not Jeremiah’s. God knew that someday you and I would be reading Jeremiah’s words regardless of his own youth or ability. God never picks the wrong person for the job.
But if “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”[1] why does the Scripture tell us that one of its own authors doubted and questioned God Himself?
The answer of course, is “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” We should learn not only from Jeremiah’s prophecies to the people of his time, but also from His experience with God. In hindsight, we think that because Jeremiah is a book of the Bible, of course he was able to do the work God gave him, but in the moment of his call, Jeremiah had no idea. So, when we think our ability is not enough the job at hand, we should remember Jeremiah’s youth and remember that “God does not call the equipped; He equips the called,” as the saying goes. Jeremiah learned this from his own experience, and we may learn from it as well because the Bible records it.
Also, God shows us Jeremiah’s flaws to comfort us when we feel inadequate, not only in ability but also in faith. Even if we know that “God does not call the equipped; He equips the called,” we don’t always act on that knowledge. Jeremiah doubts not only his call, but there are other examples, including when he questions why he should buy a field the Babylonians were about to seize.[2] Doubt is not something that only some Christians feel – we are not alone in our weakness. Even the Bible’s own authors had doubt because they could not see as God sees.
God is patient when we are honest with Him about our doubts, but He is also honest with us when He says we were literally made to serve Him. No Christian is inadequate for the work God gives them, for in His power He accomplishes what He wants. He has no doubts and is faithful in providing everything we need.
Sometimes God sends us before we think we are ready, so we can learn to put our confidence in the right place like Paul, who wrote: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13
[1] 2 Timothy 3:16 [2] The story is in Jeremiah 32, which I covered in an earlier post, here.
In the Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange uses a powerful Time Stone to watch millions of possible future outcomes and find one where the Avengers win. The solution involves huge, almost unconscionable losses, including giving the villain, Thanos, exactly what he needs to commit genocide. The movie was part one of two, and the second wasn’t released until a full year later. Infinity War ends with Thanos victorious, and audiences had to wait to see if Strange’s decisions and sacrifices would work. Would the trust the Avengers put in him be rewarded and lead to their deliverance? It didn’t look good at the time, and it was actually a pretty grim movie.
Marvel’s story had cast Strange in the role of a prophet, except that Strange himself saw the future, and decided himself what to report back to the others, who had to trust what he said he saw, his judgement in what to share, and be willing to stick with it no matter what. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah’s call from God to be a prophet in Jeremiah 1:8-10 has some interesting comparisons with Marvel’s story line. The verses are:
“Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD. Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Unlike Doctor Strange, Jeremiah did not have the big picture; he could not pick and choose what to say. God would “put…words in your mouth,” words specifically chosen from perfect and infinite knowledge to be exactly what was needed. Strange was able to act on his plan, although the others didn’t understand and resisted. In Jeremiah’s case, Israel did not listen to him, and God actually told Jeremiah they wouldn’t, but he prophesied anyway. He was created for that purpose, and in the verses above he was assured to “not be afraid of them.”
While Strange promised that his plan would work, we had to wait for the sequel to see it. God promised Jeremiah, who also told the people, that his plan would work, and that the words God gave Jeremiah would determine the fates of “nations” and “kingdoms”, who God would “pluck up” and “break down.” But Jeremiah died waiting for the sequel. During his lifetime, Israel was plucked up by the Babylonians and sent into exile as punishment for their rejection of God, which was also a rejection of Jeremiah. His life was like a pretty grim movie, but his story was not finished, as we now know.
In his lifetime Jeremiah may have looked like a failure, but in the years after and in eternity, his work as a prophet and also his personal experience of God has provided invaluable lessons for millions. God knew this from the beginning because He didn’t have to wait a year to see the sequel. He has already seen them all. Therefore, we can trust what He sees, His judgement in what to share, and be willing to stick with it no matter what, because His story and ours does not end in this lifetime.
“It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God.” – C. S. Lewis
(Prior posts on Jeremiah’s call are here and here)
Have you ever heard a voice from heaven? If you did, how would you know to believe it?
In John 12:28 Jesus said in front of a crowd of people: “Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven, saying “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
When this voice spoke, the hearers still had to decide whether or not to believe it. Not everyone on the scene had faith that this voice was actually God. Not everyone who heard it and thought it was God decided that this God deserved their obedience, even though these people were eyewitnesses to a supernatural event that many today would be thrilled to see, to “prove” God’s existence.
Suppose someone on the scene looked up at the sky and said: “Who do you think you are? I don’t know who this ‘Jesus’ guy is, and I sure don’t know who you are – why should I follow you?” Perhaps the voice from heaven responds with a bolt of lightning, and this poor man is now a dead smoldering heap.
Now, the man next to this one could be thinking: “I really should follow this Jesus person, because if I don’t, the next bolt could be for me.” This is rational, solid reasoning. But reason is not the same as faith. This man’s other response could be: “Jesus really is the Son of God and deserves my loyalty. I’m grateful that He is willing to accept me as I am.” Did the lightning really provide convincing evidence of this? Are there still other alternatives? Could the voice be interpreted as some other deity trying to gain followers? Perhaps, so therefore this second response is more like faith than reason.
So, even faced with overwhelming evidence, “reason” does not power a decision to truly make a decision, “faith” does. Reason can lead a horse to water, but it can’t make him drink. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8)
In addition, claims contrary to Christianity require a supernatural faith (albeit one without a source), and here are two examples
1) “There is no God” – Some say that if he exists, he should show himself. Of course, as we have seen, even those who claimed to know Jesus Himself and witness his miracles say this would not convince a skeptic who decided not to believe. Also, how does one prove God does not exist? Europeans used to believe there was no such thing as a black swan because they had never seen one – until they traveled more of the world. They could never prove that black swans did not exist, but they could (and did) believe it. To prove it, they would have to be personally present in all parts of the universe at all times simultaneously – in essence, they would need to be God to prove that all swans were white. “There is no God” cannot be proven by reason, but a skeptic can claim that they have not witnessed God in their experience, and that they have faith that God does not exist outside their experience.
2) “Man is the result of purely natural processes” – If “natural” is that which science has explained, and “supernatural” is everything else, it turns out that this is a claim about the supernatural, not a claim that there is no supernatural. If you change “observed” to “observable” in Merriam-Webster’s definition of “supernatural” (“of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe”), you see this distinction. Merriam-Webster takes for granted that all things “supernatural” will become “natural” through scientific advancement in the way the current majority thinks they will. The consensus in Galileo’s day was that everything revolved around the earth – but the consensus was proved wrong. Proving that man is purely natural requires that the current thinking on evolution is correct, and faith that nothing outside of current knowledge could ever possibly over-turn it.
However, in the words of G.K. Chesterton, “Science knows nothing whatever about pre-historic man; for the excellent reason that he is pre-historic.” The “evidence” for one species changing into another is based on deductions from historical fossils, not on eyewitness accounts. While man has observed species mutate and acquire new traits, we have not yet seen a monkey (or anything else) mutating into a man. Regardless, theories of human evolution make a lot of claims about the history of mutations across species. It takes the observed changes within a species, and assumes that over millennia these mutations lead to one species changing into another, then another… It also claims that future evidence will inevitably support current evidence, in spite of the fact that evidence for evolution has been overturned repeatedly in history. Even in my own experience, what I was taught in middle school was different than what I was taught in college about evolution. If the historical track record is not that good, why have faith that the future track record will be perfect? Evolutionists refer to the process of discovery by trial and error consistently as “progress”, but is it always? Unless you already know beyond any shadow of doubt what you are progressing toward, how do you know you are progressing?
I’m not claiming to have dis-proved evolution here, but only to show that to prove it beyond a shadow of any possible doubt is beyond the power of reason. It’s another black swan.
Claims that there is no supernatural, are claims about the supernatural. These claims would require supernatural means to prove. They require seeing the future and the past, therefore, to believe a supernatural claim without supernatural evidence requires faith. It is beyond reason and proof. To me, the evidence and the logic do not live up to the claims they want to support.
Claims that there is no supernatural, are claims about the supernatural.
All people have faith – just in different things. Materialists fail to explain how man, as a mere complex set of materials and chemical reactions, consciously and intentionally goes about his life pondering deep thoughts about the origin of himself, while an earthworm does not bother. Christians – even the authors of the Bible – fail to explain how some consciously and intentionally choose faith when presented with miracles, while others do not.
There will always be such a thing as the “supernatural”. All people speculate about what’s out there in that realm of knowledge we can’t reproduce in a lab. Many people have dogmas about what’s in that realm – evolutionists believe that everything they do not understand yet will confirm that there is no God; religious people believe that there is enough evidence in the world we’ve already observed to warrant the possibility of a God.
On the one hand, you have the supernatural claims of natural men, claiming two things: 1) that they (and you) are the accidental result of millennia of chemical mutations, and that these chemicals follow rules that they do not know the origins of (yet); and 2) that the chemicals in their brain “believe” without a doubt that they can predict that what they do not know will confirm what they currently know and believe. This future evidence will prove their current belief, which was itself the result of a chain of accidental chemical reactions (but apparently under the purposeful control of some unknown thing that seeks to convince you of your mere natural chemicalness).
On the other hand, there is a written record of a man who claimed to be from that supernatural realm, who sees the future and the past, who knew there were black swans. How many there were. Where they were. And that the Europeans would eventually find them. This man asked for your belief – which set of claims is more reasonable?
“Come near to God and he will come near to you” – James 4:8
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 