In the book of the Bible we call Daniel, in the third chapter, we have an intriguing passage. The great King Nebuchadnezzar had set up a big statue of himself. Then he gathered all his royl bureaucrats to the capital city. Once they had arrived, he instructed them to bow down and worship the statue that he had made of himself. It seems he did this to ensure that they all were totally devoted to his cause. But there were these three guys who turned him down as far as the worship thing went. They said,
16 …, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
When a tragedy like a great storm happens as it did in the Philippines a few months ago, there are survivors who immediately think about giving thanks to God. It seems to be on everyone’s lips – even journalists who otherwise would not invoke God except on a horrific occasion such as the massive tornado. (Oh yeah, Wolf Blitzer found out that not everyone is thanking God, see http://mobile.wnd.com/2013/05/wolf-blitzer-to-atheist-thank-god-right/ after the Moore, Oklahoma tornado in the USA last year) But what about those who did not survive? What about those whose loved ones are dead today? What should they be saying?
In the Bible book of Romans, there is a place where it says, “22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” When the mighty typhoon Haiyan blew through the city called Tacloban in the Philippines, the creation itself groaned in sorrow. When there were flood waters inundating many different areas in the world last year, the creation groaned. When people are faced with difficulties that tax their ability to cope to the breaking point; the creation itself groans.
We do not know what to pray sometimes. Other times God seems so far away. Sometimes God seems to not care as the three friends at the mouth of the fiery furnace could envision. But God is always God. And God is always near. We just do not always know of his holy presence.
Our pain, our loss, our fear, our sadness, our souls groaning and aching for the end of evil all get in the way of sensing God nearby. But if we listen to the creation and we hear the groaning, then we can renew our hope that one day, one day all will be right. We walk by faith today. Not by sight. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction about things not seen. When even we groan, that remains the only way to live.
The Christian faith is a way of life that is committed to the understanding that God is in charge of all the universe. We do not always understand the ways of God. Nor do we always have a way to calmly face the dire circumstances we are dealing with. But the Christian faith reminds me that nothing in the world can separate me from the love of God that is mine in Christ Jesus our lord. There are times when those in authority will order us to forget our commitment to the God who is invisible and give our allegiance that an idol that can be seen. But it is at that moment that we can say with the three friends, “the God we serve is able to deliver us …, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” That takes faith.
In one of the memorable passages of the Bible, the prophet Isaiah says that weary people can find new strength for living when they wait for the Lord. He writes, “…they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” And so often we find ourselves worn out and weak. There are many sources of weariness in our lives.
The philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, once wrote a story about three souls being locked in a single room for eternity. In that story we find this line, “Hell is other people.” Other people, says Sartre, make us weary because they make us objects and only want to use us for their own advancement. Another source of weariness comes from the difficulties we have when our bodies become ill. We find ourselves weary and tired day after day as the illness sucks the vitality out of us. Yet another source is the spiritual weariness that comes from longing for God when we do not know him. Actually, all our weariness stems from that central longing in our hearts. We need God to revive our souls and give us a new life that can flourish.
Pray and Wait on the Lord to be Free of Weariness
It is that life in Jesus which we proclaim as Christians. So we have the opportunity to help those who are weary. What we at Christian Leaders Institute seek to do is to train Christians to be ready, willing, and able to be tools in God’s hands to renew and revive the world’s population. We as Christians can turn Sartre’s world upside down. With revival going on in our hearts, other people become our flock of eagles who soar on outstretched wings together with us. Together we gain the strength God provides in Jesus. Together we shed our weariness and find new life surging in our hearts.
At Christian Leaders Institute we have students who are in training to be the encourager of revival in the lives of weary people. One of our students in Nairobi, Kenya, says of her calling, “I counsel individuals and groups to grow and achieve their dreams as a Christian counselor. I am committed to social change…” Another from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, says, “My goal is to study the Bible more thoroughly and help the church to provide contextualized Bible Study materials and lead the Christian education ministry of the church.” He is doing that so he can turn back the weariness that he finds among his people in Addis Ababa. A pastor from Fort Portal, Uganda, writes of himself and his struggles with life. He says, “For a long time I became very blind- blind to the sinful life and lies that tortured my mind. I couldn’t sleep at night; everyday became an internal fight- a fight to find a purpose for my life, who would ever think that something like this could happen? Then again, how could anyone know? I wouldn’t let anybody in. God burned a desire in my heart …” Now he is getting training which he knows will enable him to be used of the Lord to bring revival to thousands. He discovered that when he waited upon the Lord, suddenly God gave him wings to soar like an eagle.
Each of these students and thousands more like them are examples of what the Bible means when it says, “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” God is the one who is at work in the lives of those who study with us. God will bring his good work to completion in their lives. He will equip them to bring not weariness, but revival to cities, towns, villages, and even more remote places where people will discover a community in Jesus that frees them from sin, from guilt, from aimlessness to serve Jesus with great joy.
What it is about Christian people who enter ministry- whether it be full-time or part-time bi-vocational pastors? What makes them think that they can speak for the Lord Most High? What gives them the courage to stand in front of others and say, “This is what God is speaking to us today.”?
There are many such questions that I have had over the years as I looked at myself. Who am I to speak on God’s behalf? What kind of person do I need to be to actually find the courage to be a spokesperson for God? Why would a desperately shy farm kid from the fields of Iowa in the United States think he could be a man who pointed people toward the Creator of Heaven and Earth? “Who am I that God would choose to use me?” echoes through my heart even yet today.
The People Who Speak on God’s Behalf
Let me tell you about some of us. Please understand, I am only speaking for myself and for some others whose stories I have heard and read. But I think that I can safely say that there are some common traits that would move someone to become a pastor.
- The first common characteristic of these people who come alongside others to show them the way of God are people who have heard the Lord say to them as clearly as he said to Ezekiel the prophet in Bible time (see http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+33%3A7&version=ESV), “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel.” Those who are faithful pastors are people who have heard the Lord calling their names ad giving them a task. You are a watchman for me. You are to warn people of what will happen if they continue in their ways of ignoring Me or serving other gods who are not true. You need to show them the way home. I, says the Lord, I give you this task. The first and foremost characteristic is the conviction that God has spoken to their hearts and they must do this even if they do not want to.
- The second common characteristic is those teach at and those who come to Christian Leaders Institute to be trained for the work of revival is that they themselves have been revived in their walk with God. It may seem like a strange thing to say, but each of us here know that God has reached deep inside of our lives and given us a heart that is alive to Jesus. We were dead, but now we are alive. Our spiritual selves had been no more than a withered dry tree, but now it is alive by the power of the Creator and Redeemer so that our lives will produce fruit for God. In the Bible we find a passage that reads, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. ( see http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A1-10&version=ESV) God has made us alive in his Son Jesus. That is second to hearing his call.
- The third common characteristic is that we are people who are doing this so that the whole world may come to know God and find new life in Jesus. A man named Philip, from the country of Cameroon, who is one of our students writes this, “My hope is that through this seminary, I will acquire the knowledge that will enable me to preach the uncompromised Good News of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. This training will enable me to fulfill this calling of not just winning souls and church planting but also to build a free traditional Bible school in Africa just like CLI that will help create new leaders to expand the work of God.” The movement among the population of the world that leads people back to God is called Revival. We pray that God will use us to being revival to the millions who are still dead in their sins. That we will be used by God to speak his Word of Love in Jesus to those who need to hear the sound of God’s voice. We are people who know we are not worthy, nor are we all that articulate. But God can use our faltering words, our humble faith, and our trembling voices to miraculously reach those who God is calling from death to life.
So what is it about us who are these preachers of God’s Good News? We’re tools in the hand of a God who can make even the dead live, the sinner a saint, and the rebel into a follower of the King of Kings. That is who we are, not much in ourselves, but in Christ the workmanship of God.