HAS GOD REALLY SAID?

WHAT IS THIS?   It's part of the Wailing Wall, a remnant of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, Israel. Many Orthodox Jews and MANY OTHERS visit here to pray to God - many to pray for the Return of the Messiah.....  Looks as if the brother sitting down has decided to WAIT for as long as it takes - and with a certain definite expectancy that He for Whom he waits WILL COME, and have fellowship!    I really LIKED this photo.   It kind of sweeps all conceptual ideas about what matters in life away having decided once and for all that nothing matters more than just being with Jesus, and WAITING for Him to come into one's life.  Of course I am well aware of this concept.   Nevertheless there have been - there ARE - times when my normal placid and calm exterior conceals disquiet within!   CAN a Christian - and God centred person - waver in his or her faith?     It seems true.    In fact I was reading even today that Mother Theresa wrestled for 50 years with periodic attacks of very real doubt.      I suppose we should not be surprised since Satan started with Eve by attacking her confidence - DID God really SAY..?   So insidious.   So alarming that such a question can be asked and at the same be given consideration.       I have often been poked in this way by the Enemy.      He knows us so well......knows when to nudge us into doubt and even fear. HAS God really said?.....

Did He really MEAN ....?   

Has He REALLY promised never to leave you or forsake you?       And such sudden queries to test what we thought were firm and unquestionable tenets of our faith, usually come at times of pressure and over anxiety. 

For the last THREE months we have stood by and watched (not without prayer and much seeking of the Lord) as Kenya has slowly reacted to World Recession.      Month by month

we have seen incoming funds reduce until now we are almost 50% down on last year, whilst at the same time costs have also risen by something like 30%.       We have tried to cope with this by our own economy, but generally we seem not to have made a lot of headway.     We have in fact had to BORROW from the School (which runs separately to the Homes) in order to get through to the present time.       

SUPPOSE the Lord does not supply our NEED this time round..? What will we do?     We cannot borrow more......    Shall we need to wind up our affairs - say that God is no longer our Provision........?     BIG QUESTIONS.        HAVE we rightly discerned what God has said to us about 'living by faith?'        Is World Recession bigger and more than GOD?'     Nay, God forbid that we should believe such a lie, such a wicked and untrue suggestion.    

AWAY with you Satan; get thee hence!   What YOU say does not have the taste of God.

THIS WEEK, I have been physically challenged (perhaps ATTACKED is nearer the truth) by a friend and colleague of long standing.      He knows the trial and the tightness of our situation of course.      "Perhaps the Lord is showing us that we should stop just WAITING on Him, and get up and do something for ourselves for a change?    Maybe we should get up and go asking for help from others around us?',  he said.

I was quite cast down about this turn of conversation, and rebuked the brother for what I considered discouragement.    BUT it reminded me of the Lord's Temptation in the Wilderness 

(Matthew 4v1-4).   He had been 40 days in that desert place, and He hungered.      His desperate NEED at that moment in a desert and almost inaccessible spot, was for something to eat  - FOOD.        There was NOTHING IN SIGHT.       The Devil took immediate opportunity -

"If you are the Son of God,

command that these stones become bread."

JESUS did not take his advice!    Instead, turning away from His desperate need, He faces back to God. He replied to Satan and said -

It is written,

Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

How easy to be deflected from God and from His Word to us, when our material and physical comfort is put in jeopardy.      Satan never gives up on this very prosperous line of attack.  He is recorded in Job as telling God - 

' Skin for skin!  

Yes, all that  man has he will give for his life. 

 Give me permission now to stretch forth my hand, 

and touch his bone and his flesh- he will curse God to his face!!'     

Yes I know it is a 'free' quote from Job 2v4-5 but I have not changed the truth of it.         

THE ONLY LIFE SAVER, IS THE WORD OF GOD.     Let go of that and we have nothing left to hang on to - and then indeed we shall sink, together with all that we are and have.         BUT I am SO jealous for the LORD, that His Honour is upheld, and that His Praise and Glory are in no way diminished that I am the more straightened, and the more determined to demonstrate our dependence upon His Faithfulness and Truth.     We shall continue to WAIT upon the Lord,  yea we shall take our rest and WAIT upon Him.       Surely He WILL deliver us, and appear before us all Glorious and Victorious against all the force and and lies of the Enemy.

We are coming THROUGH it all!      I love the illustration below on the left showing Jesus and the disciples coming through the storm;   I love the THRUST of that boat's prow, heedless of the waves and lightening, and the general 'feeling' that ESCAPE is at hand.     Really exhilarating and exciting, AND encouraging!!    Praise Jesus!

ON MONDAY MORNING,  I was in my Office trying to calculate how many shillings could be spared on food, and how much if anything on outstanding School Fees.     I needed about 2,500 English pounds for the Fees!    Students from our Homes had already been at home waiting with us for a fortnight.          Suddenly a missionary brother that fellowship with us in prayer strode in and hugged me and said ' Here is a Gift from friends of ours from Germany.  

We want Testimony to have it.  -   It was a cheque for Ksh.280,000/- EXACTLY what was needed to get ALL our College and University students back onto their courses.     It was as if a LIFELINE HAD BEEN THROWN TO US.     I just stared at my brother.       'We would have got it to you even earlier, but there has been a problem with the Bank in Germany!'  he said.           In the midst of the darkness and storm clouds a sudden shaft of SUNLIGHT lit up the world around us.       The darkness and the storm was still there, but God had proved it was nothing for Him to pierce it AND no doubt to actually DISPERSE it.

He is in the boat with us, and we are speeding towards clear sky and sunshine.   Rejoice with us!!  There are many of us in this BOAT!    Testimony is like the ARK - it is built for Salvation, and it is GOD that buoys it up and keep it afloat by His Holy Spirit, and His Strong Right Arm. 

We are SHUT IN WITH GOD.       We are unable to leave or escape.     There is no helm to steer with, no sail or engine to drive us forward. We are in the Hand of God, driven 

forward on a course only HE has charted, empowered and enabled by His Strength.       It can be and often IS a Roller Coaster ride - a mixture of screams and laughter, apprehension and rapturous wonder.       God IS Good - ALL the time.    JOIN US in your own personal 'boat' dedicated to His Service.

Throw out the Life-line to danger fraught men,

Sinking in anguish where you've never been:

Winds of temptation and billows of woe

Will soon hurl them back where the dark waters flow.

We are all, men and women alike, Life-boat people, risking out lives to rescue the perishing but made brave and bold by having Jesus with us in the Boat.   How can we FAIL?

God be with you each one, and lift up your hearts and lives to rise above all the logistics the Enemy can try to ensnare you with and to disturb your peace and confidence with.  REBUKE him - and he WILL flee.

With out Love and Affection in Father's Love always

John and Esther