I recently received a recall notice from the company that made the car I drive around. The notice tells me that there is something really wrong with a switch that is supposed to alert the drivers behind me when I step on the brakes. This switch turns on what are called the brake lights to let the person behind me know I am stopping. The recall notice tells me that in some of the cars like mine, this switch has not been working all the time. What happens then is the driver behind that car does not know it is stopping, and often strikes it from behind. This is not a good thing.
So the company issued a recall notice that said I need to bring my car into a repair facility to have the switch replaced. It is not that the switch can be repaired. It simply must be replaced. It is not doing the job it was made for and so must be totally replaced.
In the Bible, we find that God has looked upon humanity and has decided that our spiritual hearts are not functioning in the manner that he intended when he made us. God tells us that we have hearts of stone, and he needs to replace that heart with a heart made of flesh. As the prophet Ezekiel says in chapter 11, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,….” By that God is telling us that he has issued a recall notice for all of humanity. God looks on us and sees that we do not have a heart focused on a single person worthy of worship. Our hearts are all over the place, and when it comes to God, it is as if we are made of stone.
So a recall notice has and is going out to all of humanity. I received my car’s recall notice in the mail. It had started its journey to me from the same place that all the rest of the notices had gone out from, but it was presented to me by the last person in a long line of workers in the post office of the United States. Every one of those people was important in getting the notice to me, but without the efforts of the last person who carried the mail to me personally, all the work of the others would have been in vain.
God, in issuing his recall notice, started it out in the hands of the people who wrote the Bible for us. Since then it has been handed down from one person to the next to the next until finally it gets to each of us personally. That is what each person who knows Jesus is privileged to bring to the next one in line to hear it.
In the Bible there is a wonderful story about God coming to Moses to issue a recall notice. Moses, from his infancy, had been raised to be the leader of Israel, but when he was about 40, life took a bad turn for him and he ran from God and from his calling. For the next forty years, while God’s people suffered in slavery, Moses lived in obscurity in a faraway place, far from his calling. So God went to Moses in a burning bush and issued a recall notice that he could not escape.
God told him that his people were suffering, they were crying out for someone to set them free. They were longing for a deliverer. But the deliverer had forgotten his call; he needed a recall. Might we say that Moses’ heart had turned to stone in terms of his calling to lead Israel out of slavery? God comes and gives Moses a heart of flesh for his people. And Moses goes back in obedience to God and lives out his calling to set his people free.
God Continues to Call His Chosen Leaders to Set His People Free
I am convinced that God has not stopped issuing recall notices for many of us who have wandered far from him. A pastor in Zambia writes, “I am Pastor Matthew, called to serve the Lord Almighty. I was born again on the 7th May, 1999, in a miraculous way. I had just come from drinking and I had had a fight. My jeans were stained with blood. When I was chased from my uncle’s place, I found myself in a church which had all night prayers. From that day, all was changed in my life.” His heart of stone was changed to a heart of flesh. Now Matthew’s vision is to be the pastor a large church “where the power of God is operating. I am called to help many people who are enslaved in various problems to return to God…The vision of church planting never departs from my mind.”
Pastor Matthew got his recall notice and now he is focused on getting that notice out to as many people as he can. God, when he recalled Moses, said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land…”
At Christian Leaders Institute, we train men and women for the wonderfully frightening task of being people who carry the Lord’s recall notice to his suffering people. All over the earth, there are people who are being crushed by any number of difficult slave drivers. God hears their cry, he knows they need to be recalled so they too may have the heart of flesh which will, with his power, give them the strength to destroy every stronghold that is in rebellion to God. Who will carry the recall notices to them? Everyone in the long chain of people who have been entrusted with that notice are important. But it is the final person who is key in God’s great mission to set people free from the Evil One.
Who is God laying on your heart, even as you read this? Do you hear him issuing a recall notice and, do you know that he is calling you to be the last person in the line to get that notice to his suffering people? If you need training to be the best carrier of that notice you can be, we want to give you that training. In God’s great mission, we see our calling as the equipping of all of you who will carry the message for the last mile to God’s expectant people.
Who would have guessed that Simone Eind would end up at a free Bible School in the Netherlands online? Simone knew that God was calling her into ministry, but she wouldn’t be able to afford traditional training. She was compelled to pursue an impossible calling: to obtain training for Christian Ministry without money or proper educational background. But Simone found that when God calls, He provides. Christian Leaders Institute has a growing number of students who study at this Bible School in the Netherlands. What God provided was the training that she required without the cost usually associated with it. This same training is offered to called leaders like Simone throughout the world without any charge to the students. The stories of how God is at work in the lives of students at CLI is amazing.
Here is Simone’s story:
My name is Simone Eind and I live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I am 42 years old, married and I have two children.
When I heard about Jesus, at the age of 20, I thought I would give it a try… It was either that or else just quit living! Up until that time I had been a suicidal teenager. I had run away from home at the age of 14 because of the abusive environment there. After running away, I lived in a home for teenage girls for several years. I became a Christian through the preaching of a young man who was allowed to come and share the gospel in my class. Later on I married him!!!
Even as a young girl I knew that there was a God, up in heaven, who created everything. My mother told me that and I just believed it! I saw a Bible at my grandmother’s house and asked my mother what it was. She told about God, that He created everything, about the Ten Commandments and about the “happy news”. As a girl I didn’t understand what could possibly be so happy about it. My mother didn’t know it herself! So, I believed in the God of the two commandments that I could still remember: We have to love our enemies and we are not allowed to lie.
I even did my best to keep these commandments as a little girl. My father was my enemy, yet I tried to love him. However, when he continually only hurt me, I gave up. In the process I became mad at God! Yet still, I kept on searching for Him as a girl.
When I was 10 years old I walked into a church. I left there without anyone telling me about Jesus. (They talked a lot about war!) At the age of 14 I dared to walk into a church again. Once again no one told me who Jesus was. The preacher asked people to come to the front. I didn’t understand what the preacher was talking about, but I felt such an urge to go up! I stood there with some others at the front of the church. They prayed for me and I left, but still not knowing who Jesus is. Yet something had happened!! It felt like I was floating as I walked home. I felt so happy! But when I got home, my parents told me that I couldn’t go there anymore. How is it possible that people can come to church and leave again not knowing about Jesus?
When I met Jesus I was in a deep depression. I didn’t want to live anymore. But Jesus told me about Himself! He told me that He wanted me to live. At first I decided to live only because He wanted me to. But then He told me that He wanted me to want it as well. Step by step He brought me out of the dark pit. We climbed out of it together. Jesus was there right beside me.
Since there was just a lot of hatred in my heart, Jesus taught me to love again. In the past I had hated my father, but Jesus taught me to love my dad and to pray for him. At the age of 25 came a big turning point in my life… I forgave and spoke forgiveness out toward my parents for all the terrible things that had happened, for all the hurt and pain in my life. And I asked them also to forgive me for my mistakes. My father stood there with tears in his eyes… He passed away a few years ago as a consequence of alcoholism. He never wanted to know anything about Jesus. But, although there is a small chance, still I hope I will see him in heaven. After I forgave my parents I said to the Lord: Remember me, Lord! I’ve done your will!
The next day when I woke up and walked through my house I felt that something had changed.
Up until I was 25 years old I had terrible nightmares almost every night. I would run in total panic through my home. This continued even after I was already married. I had an occult seeing ‘gift’. I could see and sense the dark spiritual world, and I was so afraid of it that the fear mastered me. After I forgave my parents, however, Jesus set me free: free from nightmares, from seeing the dark things and from the terrible fears that came along with it. I am so grateful that He did this for me! I’d been an emotional wreck, but the Lord healed me, restored me and set me free from the chains of the enemy!!!
When I was pregnant with my oldest son the Lord came very close and spoke to me. He told me of His desire for me and what I would be allowed to do for Him. At that time I just marveled at it. I didn’t know how He would or could accomplish it. But He did! He gave me the desire to speak: about Him and for revival; to explain what is written in His word; to reach out to the lost and broken; to proclaim freedom to those that are bound; to shine light in people’s darkness; to strengthen the body of Christ; and to make it more effective, watchful and ready!
I am leading the women’s work in the church were we going and I’m also involved in children’s work.
I want to study theology and a lot more. I want to get more insights into biblical subjects so that I can explain it better and tell people what the Lord wants to tell us through His word.
I don’t have the money or educational background to study theology through a traditional seminary. So the Lord is providing, through CLI, a way for me to reach what I’ve been dreaming of! The Lord is putting all the pieces of the puzzle together in my life. I feel that studying at CLI is the right place for me. I would very much appreciate it if you would send a donation to CLI on my behalf so that the Institute can grow further and continue making effective leaders for the Lord’s Kingdom.
Bible School in the Netherlands is Reaching More and More Students
Christian Leaders Institute has 20 students users in the Netherlands right now. Eight of these students have graduated with at least a Christian Leaders Basic Certificate at the time of this publication. Some may wonder whether a Bible School in the Netherlands in needed? While there are many seminaries and Bible Schools in this country, Christian Leaders Institute is totally free of charge and gives high quality ministry training. Since a large portion of the Netherlands understands and speaks English this makes Christian Leaders Institute a Bible School in the Netherlands that is a real option for many with a ministry calling.
There is a line in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians that reads: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
In our world today, we often find ourselves wondering about belonging. When we see tragic events unfolding in various countries, we wonder if that will come near to us, maybe even engulf us. When we see and hear of war, starvation, heartless oppression of the poor, or painful illness, we wonder if we belong. In the news recently I have been reading of an outbreak of the Ebola virus which kills with seemingly random efficiency. When one person comes down with a fever, others around them quickly move out of the danger zone and the person is left to suffer on their own. They must ask themselves, as I know I would, “Is there no one who will stand with me? Is there no one who will say I belong to them and they will not abandon me?”
One of the most common “illnesses” of the soul is the pain of loneliness. The pain can arise in any number of ways.
- It can come from our sense of alienation from a close friend due to a conflict of opinion.
- It can arise from being alone in a big city. Everything familiar has been left behind and now even in a pressing crowd, the loneliness is painful.
- It can come from being confined in a prison cell. The loneliness engulfs us and overwhelms even the strongest person.
- It can arise from one’s experience of a family structure that leaves one feeling abandoned in the midst of what should and could be one of the places with the best comfort level.
- Name your own issue here. We all have one or fifty.
In the Church, we train people, both men and women, to be physicians of the soul. In the church we discover that the pain of loneliness can be overcome by the power of a God who calls us his children, who has bought us at a price that is called “blood money.” God bought us with the life-blood of his Son, Jesus. Now we are not our own, we belong to God. He gives to the church gifted people who can discern our loneliness and find ways of treating that very real illness.
In the Bible, we discover God addressing our deepest issue of loneliness again and again. Do you know why? What happens when we are lonely? We become afraid. In the Bible we find God saying again and again, “Do not be afraid. I am with you.” Not just a few times, over 350 times. Each time God calls us to not be afraid, he always adds a line about his presence. We discover in our very hearts God’s holy presence. We are, says the Apostle Paul, a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are not our own, we belong to God as his personal residence in the world today.
I Am Not My Own
In Old Testament times, the mountain of Zion was spoken of as God’s residence on earth. If you were going to send an email to God, it needed to go to the email account @templemount.jerusalem. Since the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus after which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, the bodies of God’s people, all over the earth, are where God is living in his holy temple.
For centuries the Church has used a series of questions and answers as a method of teaching the principles of the Christian faith. There are many such catechisms found in various religious communities around the earth. One that I am very familiar with is one that is 450 years old now. It has been in use for centuries in many churches all over the earth. It is called the Heidelberg Catechism. It begins with the following question and answer.
Q & A 1
Q. What is your only comfort
in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.
What is so interesting to me is that 450 years ago, the first issue to be addressed in the training of Christians about what it meant to be a Jesus follower was loneliness and belonging. “I am not my own, but I belong…” No matter what comes my way, no matter how desperate my feelings of loneliness, no matter if I stray far from God, as a Christian I belong to Jesus. I am now a temple of the Holy Spirit. Even if all humans may forsake me and run in fear because of something that is going on with me, God says, “Do not be afraid. I am with you. Your very body is my temple. I bought you with a price. So glorify Me with your body.”