from the VCC Newsletter on 3/16/2020: Coronavirus, Courage, and Christian Mission.

From the earliest days of the church the church understood that life in Christ was more than life here and now. This liberated the church to be courageous in the face of death unlike any other religion in history. The people of God were convinced that to live was Christ but to die was gain. This was not some haphazard caution to the wind, it was not a lack of respect for the precious gift of life, but rather it came from the deeper conviction that eternal life was at stake. Not their own eternal life, which was secured in Jesus, but the eternal life of those who were perishing around them. The thought of others dying and facing a Christless eternity drove them to be courageous, confident that losing their life now so that others might live eternally was worth the risk. 

One of the reasons that there are Christian hospitals today was that the early church led the way in caring for people in times of plague, disease, disaster, and uncertainty. They were not afraid of dying from disease, if that meant they might share the gospel with those who were dying. There in a person's greatest hour of need countless Christians gave their lives for the sake of the gospel. Likewise in times of famine Christians were known not for hoarding to survive but saving for sharing, until they had nothing left. Remember that when Elijah was held up in the home of the widow that it was her willingness to share her last morsel with the prophet that ultimately saved her life and the life of her son. God blessed them not for hoarding but for sharing even though they were not Israelites. The history of the church has been “they loved not their lives, even unto death.” 

So here we are in a crazy time of people hoarding, running amuck in fear, worried about the Corona Virus 19 (CoVid19). The stores are already out of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. (It’s not a stomach virus, so why are we out of toilet paper?)  My point is that panic has set in and the passing of misinformation is dangerous. So let me be clear, masks do not keep you from getting sick. They keep you from passing your sickness. It stops your germs when coughing and sneezing from spreading your infected droplets. It does not filter out airborne viruses from reaching you. If you put a mask on and you can still smell your dinner, proof that it’s not keeping things out, only in. The best solution for stopping the spread of viruses is still washing your hands (20+ seconds), and covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough with your elbow, not your hand. 

So then, as much as I hate getting sick, my real question is, what should we do? First we should pray. Pray for healing, pray for the stop of the virus spreading, and pray for all of this to stop. 

Second, we should ask God what he is doing and join him in his work. So that might mean we attend to those who are ill, so that we can be the hands and feet of the gospel to those who are sick. Sometimes faith is spelled R-I-S-K and the risk is real. You might get sick! 

And what if the threat actually becomes life and death? What do we do then? The answer is we do what we are continually doing even before the covid19, we die to ourselves. Do we close down services? Probably not, people need comfort in times like that, but you might need to refrain short-term because of your health. I urge you to be wise and to be innocent of evil. Do the right things, get rest, be kind, don’t hoard, don’t spread misinformation, and be helpful to others. And as you go, make disciples of Christ from among the lost whom you serve in their hour of need. 

Grace and peace,

Hal  

From the Vineyard Newsletter on 11/25: The Great Commission- Part 2

Last week I wrote to you briefly about the Great Commission and the importance of evangelism. If you did not read that letter please go back and do that? This week I want to continue those thoughts.

As I said, the best way to begin evangelism is with a prayer list. To make a list of those persons in your life that you want to see come to Christ, and begin praying for their salvation on a regular basis. As well, I invited you to send me your prayer list, and with your permission, I would even share it with our prayer team. 

This week, I want to suggest some additional simple steps to evangelism. Like the last step, this one is also rooted in prayer. It is praying for God to stir your heart with zeal for the lost. Our lives are often so full of other things, that there is not much room in our hearts (or lives) for the lost. So before we will ever make room in our schedule we need a change of heart. The place to begin then is praying, “God I know that your heart is for the lost. Please give me passion for the lost. Please give me the zeal to reach my friends, neighbors, and family. Please give me a heart for my community.” That prayer will do more to you than you can imagine. You cannot pray that prayer and it not affect your love for the lost.

If you will start with these two things: (1) prayer for people on your list, and (2) prayer for your own passion/zeal to be ignited for the lost. I promise you that you will see people get saved. 

One last thing, will you, as an act of evangelism, please invite your neighbors to our Christmas Eve Candlelight Services on December 24? We have two service times, 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm.

  

Grace and peace,

Hal 

From the VCC Newsletter on 12/10: Reaching the Unreached

A people group is considered unreached when less than 2% of a population has been evangelized.  In the Matthew 24:14 we read, And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. I have often noted that the word we translate as nations in English is actually the Greek word ethnos, from which we derive our English word, ethnic or ethnicity but the old translation of nations still persists giving us sometimes the wrong impression about global missions.

Consider that there are only 195 nations in the world but there are 6,500 people groups (ethnos) in the world of which 2,500 of those ethnos have no church –Nor is there any work being to establish one. When I worked in northern Mexico we had 13 of these unreached people groups who did not speak Spanish and did not have any church that spoke their language. Working in Juarez Mexico it was ironic to me that on one of the mountains in the city of Juarez were the words: La biblia es la verde., Leela. (the Bible is the truth. Read it.) Sadly, on that mountain top lived a group of Tarahumara indians that did not read or speak Spanish. Every year Christians passed these folks on their way to paint a sign in Spanish, but did not learn to speak the language of the people living under the words. Mexico is considered a Christian nation, but the Tarahumara people are unreached (less than 2% Christian, with no viable church).  Although we made considerable effort on the mountain we were unable to any significant inroads in that community, but I have not forgotten the people. This is why it is important for us to pray differently, for the sake of the mission, to reach every ethnos with the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just every nation.

 

After a great deal of prayer I feel the Lord has put it on my heart for us to change our nation of the month prayer format to praying for unreached people groups by the nations where they reside. Specifically, that we pray for those people groups to be reached and to have a church of their own. I hope you will join me as we focus our global mission attention in both prayer and giving to focus our attention on the unreached people groups. Our goal being to send missionaries to begin a church for every unreached people group, so that the gospel of the Kingdom would be proclaimed to every ethnos under heaven and hasten the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to rule and reign over the new heavens and new earth.

I hope you are as excited as I am to see what God is going to do in reaching these ethnos through our prayers and missions.

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING

A few weeks ago (in March) I had a dream about the urgency of prayer in our church, followed by several confirming words, dreams and visions from others in the body. It was a real wake-up call to make sure that prayer had its proper place in the church, drawing us not to religious practice, but deeply into intimacy with Jesus.

The problem was busyness! We all get busy, we all have too much to do, but the truth is that we don't stop and pray because we have time, we pray because we need the power of the Hoy Sprit for living. We pray because we need direction from our heavenly Father. We pray because we need the mercy of Jesus. We do not pray because we must (as in law) we pray because we must (as in our deepest need to be whole).

Here we are now, about one month out form that first urgent call to pray. Since that time I have certainly changed my prayer routine, made more room in my schedule throughout lent and I have committed to keep that space for the Lord. I have heard from several people that they needed that call to action as well, and who have reoriented their lives to be more intentional in relationship with God. We have also seen a renewed interest in our prayer meeting, which we moved to Tuesdays at noon.

At the same time, I also see that the dire warning has passed and there is a tendency to let the urgent fade into the background of normalcy. It is easy to let complacency creep back in and for us to begin doing everything in our own strength. It is all too easy to let our stomach decide that we need to eat now before we pray. To let urgency demand we skip prayer meeting to spend time catching up on work. To let TV take the place of intimacy not only with God but also with those whom we live.

Most of us have expressed some level of concern for our nation in recent months both during the election and afterwards. Some have taken to political posting, arguing, and letting fear control their view of life. Others have buried their heads in the sand or on pinterest posts to avoid the ugliness of political debate. Yet the truth is that what we are talking about when we speak of the civility of a society, its manners, it social decorum, its moral underpinnings, and the issues of justice in a society is that the real need is for revival. For people to be transformed. We cannot transform a society except one heart at a time being transformed by the love of God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The need in our land is less about making America great again, and making America good again, as in good like God is good, as in intentionally becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.

So one month later my real reason for writing is wondering, what will it take to bring us to our knees in prayer? What will convince us that our deepest need is for God? Politics do not change the world, they only reflect the condition of the hearts of those who vote and those who lead. Laws do not change people, God proved that on day one when Adam and Eve chose rebellion over relationship with God and broke his laws bring about sin and death. The Law of the Old Testament did not save us, that was Jesus who died on the cross because we were guilty of violating the Law. More laws will not make our society better or more free, or more moral. Putting the ten commandments on court house lawns will not change our society unless we first write them on our hearts.

Our deepest need is not for social transformation but personal transformation. Pray without ceasing is not a rule, but a way of life that takes me into the presence of God to know his heart, to know his will, and to empower me to do his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Who Can Hear the Voice of God (Part 1)

On April 1, 1996 I was returning from the Detroit area to West Michigan (Muskegon) with a van load of teenagers who had gone with me to Michigan Christian College (Rochester College) in Rochester Hills, Michigan for the day.  I had spoken at chapel that morning, and then later that I day I spoke in one of the Bible classes.  It had been a full day and everybody was talking excitedly about the days events and about how much fun it was to see some of their friends and so on.  I was just outside of Portland, Michigan when suddenly the car fell silent, a miracle itself if you have ever made a road trip with a van full of teenager’s before, but in the sudden quiet I heard a deep male voice call my name.  Startled I looked around the van to find everyone sound asleep.  I checked the radio only to find it turned completely off. A moment later I heard the voice again, this time much louder and clearer. I was stunned. My response was shaky at best but I inquired of the voice as to what was wanted of me.  I was then very clearly told that the Lord wanted me to get out of debt over the next six months, and then it proceeded to tell me how I could do it, right down to exact figures of how much to pay on what debts, and even how much to sell my van for.  As soon as I had taken down all the information the teens all simultaneously awoke and began to chatter in the same way that they had been speaking previously.  I was bursting on the inside to get home and share this plan with my wife.  I had no sooner arrived home than I told her the whole thing, which was met with a little skepticism. Dawn had been working on a plan to get us out of debt for sometime, and the quickest she could see clear of the debt was three years. How could we possibly do it in six months?  As I lay out the entire plan Dawn was somewhat speechless, in part because I had exact dollar amounts of what we owed.  Understand that at that time I had very little interest in our finances, and I did not know what all of our bills were, let alone any dollar amounts. In her quizzical response she asked me what the password was for the Quicken program;  I didn’t know. She then began to re-crunch the numbers and told me, you must have heard this from God. In the months that followed it was a really hard thing to do.  Honestly, I didn’t really want to do everything the Lord told me to do (like see the van) and in the end, because of my delay in doing some of those tasks, it took more like eight months to get completely out of debt, but we did it.  Had I not heard so directly from the Lord I probably would never have involved myself so deeply in our finances, nor would I have done anything so radical to get out of the debt, but getting out of debt the way the Lord had instructed me was what cleared the way for us to be able to walk away from my job, just over a year later, to begin the ground work on a church plant.  

When I explain those events to others some have asked me if it was an audible voice? You know, I am not sure, it seemed so but there was no one else who heard it.  What I can tell you is that if it was an audible voice that it was the only time God's voice has been audible to me. I have heard God's voice many times before in other ways, and after that event, but not the same way. Sometimes I hear more clearly, and other times ever so faintly, but what I have discovered is that the degree of clarity by which I hear his voice usually is directly proportionate to the task I must tackle. I don’t mean how hard the task is, some tasks like watching my youngest son Matthew go through heart surgery were more difficult, but rather the difficulty in my being able to follow through. It was not really a hard decision to have Matthew operated on, even though it was a painful decision, the alternative was to let him die. However, getting me to engage in the finances, be disciplined in my spending, and make the hard calls that I didn't want to make, and did not absolutely have to make . . . that was hard, but with Matthew I really had no choice, the circumstances dictated my response.

For some, what I just said is no big stretch, but for others that sounds too incredible.  Most of the time when we talk about God speaking to people we want to know what could be so special about that person that God would speak to them. Or even why God spoke to them but not to us. Let me address those two things. What is so special about the person who hears God’s voice that they get to hear God’s voice? Then second, Why do some Christians hear God’s voice and why do other Christians feel they do not hear his voice?

What’s So Special About The Person Who Hears God’s Voice?

The very nature of the question says more than the question asks. Our assumption is that God speaking to someone automatically makes them somehow better than those around them. In fact, one of the greatest turn off for many people is when they see someone who is a hypocrite saying that they have heard from God on something.  They immediately think how could that be?  For some of us that’s enough to write-off the whole idea of hearing God speak to anyone.  Just the other day I heard someone ask, what was so special about the Jews that they became God’s chosen people?  The answers to those two very different questions are really the same.  God does not arbitrarily choose people. God chose the Jews because Noah, in Genesis 6, chose God before the flood, and again in Genesis 9 after the flood. Then one of his son, Shem, chose God (Genesis 11) and then in Genesis 12, Shem’s Great, Great, Great, Great, Great grandson Abram chose God. Abram was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the Father of Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, and he chose God also. And to each of those men, and their families, God made promises to them based on their decision to keep choosing God in the same way that he chose them. (Not that they did it perfectly.) In fact, they did it quite imperfectly, as we all do, but it is better to choose God imperfectly, then to not choose God because we can do that perfectly. Right? Just to be clear, God did not just look down one day and pick a favorite nation or race. In fact, the Bible is quite clear on this topic in Romans 2.11, speaking of God’s relationship to the Jews as his chosen people, as well as his relationship to those who are not Jews, and it says, “For God does not show favoritism.”  God chooses those who choose him.

So then in John 8.47 it says very clearly in reference to hearing the voice of God, He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God (NIV84). Now with that verse some of you who are Christian's might feel as if you just came under a heavy judgment, but don't judge this yet. The point is that God speaks to his people, and that one must belong to Jesus Christ to hear God's voice. 

That brings us to our second point. Some of you may be thinking why haven’t I heard his voice? Without much explanation you might get one of two responses. One would be to question if you have ever really been saved (and for some people that could be a legitimate concern). As Rick Warren is fond of saying, "Sitting in a church house does not make you a Christian anymore than sitting in a hen house makes you a chicken" but don’t camp out there.  Another common response is to reject the idea that God is speaking today.  In other words, to let a subjective experience (or lack of experience) dictate what you believe. So if you think that you have never heard God’s voice then you conclude that God does not speak today. So the pendulum swings to two extremes? Consider these other options.

  

First, every Christian can and does hear the voice of God. You may need to get still and quiet long enough to listen but every Christian hears from God, but there isn't any second class Christians. Also, it is not an issue of maturity, or even some kind of second work of grace either. Every Christian church teaches Christians can pray, meaning they can speak to God, and expect that when you talk to God will get guidance from God. That’s why Christians pray! Christians expect that God is going to respond. Prayer for the Christian is not just some kind of mental gymnastics or meditation technique. The effects of Christian prayer are not just psychosomatic.

Christians pray expecting God to respond, because God cared enough about them to that Jesus died for them, and they assume that if God loves you enough to send his Son to die for you that God also loves you enough to talk to you?  Prayer is not just a formula, or method to manipulate God. Prayer is intimacy and relationship with God.  The point is that many Christian’s do not hear from God simply because they have never been taught to identify God's voice. There are other issues that can interrupt people hearing from God, we call those problems, SIN.  

Sin is a common problem in not hearing God. Just like those who do not know God are separated from God by sin, and therefore cannot hear his voice, sometimes Christian's wallow in their sin and can’t hear God either (God knows the proud from afar. 1 Peter 5.5) Being prideful in our sin, or being religious, keeps us at a distance from God. Consider the nature of God, Jesus became a man, and was born in a stable with the stench of animals, to reach us. God who had every reason to be prideful was/is humble. In contrast, if you look at pride, all the way back to the garden when the serpent told Eve, 'eat this and you will be like God'  nothing deafens a believer like pride.  Author, C. S. Lewis, once said, the hardest part about pride is that it is easy to see in others but to discover it in ourselves it must be revealed to us.

Another issue that can make believers spiritually hard-of-hearing is how they treat others. In 1 Peter 3.7 it warns the men to treat their wives with respect so that nothing hinders their prayers. The same can be said about how believers treat any human being. No one is exempt, male or female, from treating others with respect. 

So what if you are a Christian, and you are not wallowing in sin, but you still don’t think you hear God’s voice? The next few articles on my blog are going to be about helping you, so make sure to follow along through this series of articles on hearing the voice of God, because the primary reason some Christians do not hear God’s voice is because they have never been taught. Even Jesus' disciples had to ask Jesus, to teach them to pray.