“In the Beginning”

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” –Genesis 1:1

Is it God who is central in your life? If you look at Abraham’s life, we can see that seventy-five years were wasted and burned up, because at seventy-five only he came to know God. We bury ourselves in the grave, ever before others carry us to it. The angels and God weep over our wasted life.

God came into the life of Abraham at the age of seventy-five. And then he lived a hundred years more. They were years when he learnt faith and became the father of the faithful. They were precious years. He left a legacy of faith to Isaac and to all that would walk in the path of faith. Is God in your life? Some enter into fleshly love affairs in their youth and bury their talents thereby.

Have you put your family into the care of God in the beginning of this year? Madame Guyon’s thoughts thrilled the hearts of saints. Is there the treasure of heaven in your heart? Then all your thoughts are treasures.

Sarah was a good mother and a good wife to Abraham. She did not hinder but allowed the grace of God to work freely in Abraham. I wanted to compromise in certain things after marriage. But my wife helped me to maintain my spiritual life.

Solomon prayed for wisdom. Yet in his middle- age, he married heathen women and he built temples for idols. He had no proper wife to guide him nor a son or a prophet.

The angel of God appeared to Gideon and said, “God is with you.” God saw his sorrows, desires and longings. If you see sin and do not condemn it, that sin will come into you and your family too. Are you not storing up money to be given to your children? That money will choke your throat. The needs of the Gospel must be met first. Do you see those dire needs? Have you learnt to serve God? You become mighty by believing in the Lord Jesus with all your heart.

Material things do not satisfy. We claim equal share with other members in the family property. Are we alert to claim spiritual possessions? If we learn to wait on God, we will know how to conquer and how to progress. Otherwise you will be satisfied with no real achievement. If you wait on God, He will make you a great person. Jesus said that failure must be ruled out of my life. So that became a maxim with me.

God is with you. Why are you despairing? Wait on God and know God’s will. Wait on God and He will bring it to pass. We shall walk with God. We must rejoice with trembling. We must learn to follow, not just imitate Christ. The Word of God must go into us. Americans received the Word of God long ago. Christianity gave them character. They had the strength to fight slavery in times past. Did God ever tell you how to measure your life?

When I had the call of God to leave my work, my hometown, and my people, I obeyed. At that time there were no openings to preach the Gospel. But in God’s will when you begin to pray, God will bring people to you. It started with one man and God said, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.” And God did so. Don’t stop praying. Don’t give up. Spiritual strength is His. Go and win the people around you. It is through the strength of the Lamb we conquer. What a wonderful person you will become when His Word abides in you!

Your personality is your thought-content. When your thoughts are full of God’s thoughts you are a rich person. “More to be desired are they than gold…sweeter than honey…by keeping of them is great reward.” These teachings are all on a higher plane. When can we ask according to His will? Only when we are filled with His thoughts. “When we preserve the word of God in the heart, the prayer that comes out of it will be in the will of God. Then we can pray with great confidence. Begin this year with God. Let God be our Alpha and Omega.

— N. Daniel

“If two of you shall agree”

“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Jesus, Matthew 18:19).

Men seem to think that unless they gather a whole crowd to support their cause, no one will listen to them or be impressed. To focus the attention of the public or the government upon their project or plan, they crank up a mass rally with their supporters or stage noisy demonstrations.

In industry, thousands of valuable man-hours are lost by strikes for every conceivable reason. . . . These striking men are certain that their strength lies in numbers. Politicians too stick to this principle. Take the crowd away from them and they look so sheepish and imbecile.

It is numbers, numbers, numbers; we are brainwashed into thinking that numbers mean everything. But the Lord Jesus said that “if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

“If two of you shall agree”: it seems a simple enough thing to achieve, but in reality it is difficult to find two people who will agree on unselfish projects.

Gather two businessmen and say to them, “Look, there are too many broken homes in this city. The children of these homes are neglected and love-lorn; in time they will become a danger to society, unless we find some way to shower love upon them. Perhaps you must build a special home for them and set aside part of your money for their care.” They may agree that this would be nice and even necessary to do; but one or the other or both of them will find excuses. . . . How many great plans die at the committee stage itself!

Two men can’t agree; two women rarely agree; two sisters, but they have diametrically opposed views; two leaders, but they use completely different methods. So we have a babel of voices, one crying one thing and another the opposite.

But when a man repents of his sins and receives the New Life in Christ, there comes a great longing in him to do good to his neighbours. It is not an aimless and haphazard scattering of money I am talking about, but a strong, fixed, benevolent longing, to sacrifice, to serve, and to save others. So it is not hard for two young men who are transformed by Jesus’ power to put their hearts and heads together, to launch some great movement which will transform the lives of thousands.

True conversion means renouncing self and reaching out to Christ. When self is still strongly entrenched in you, you cannot say you are truly converted. A person who has come to the Cross of Jesus and seen that irresistible love which claims his all—his will, mind, ambitions, and whole personality—truly turns away from doing his own will and begins to do God’s will. Turning from self-will to God’s will is true conversion.

Such a man wants to glorify God, and live a self-denying life. Pleasing the Saviour is his greatest delight. Now for two converted people to pray together and think alike is nothing astonishing. They have the Word of God to unify them. When two people thus pray together with unified hearts and minds, great power is generated; miracles take place; God is right there amongst them. It has been said that the Church is where the Holy Spirit works.

When we pray in Jesus’ Name, it is hardly possible to ask selfish little things from God. Jesus our Lord teaches us to pray for great things, things that build His kingdom.

“If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done. . .” God rarely likes to deny His children. Unless it is absolutely injurious to you, God does not want to withhold a request which comes from united hearts.

I meet many young couples who have been married several years but don’t pray together. Living together and yet not praying together! You can reduce your marriage to the purely animal level, but be sure, dire consequences will stem from the neglect of praying together.

From the time I was a child I saw my father and mother praying together daily. Their prayer resulted in our home being a lovely place, full of harmony and peace. In that atmosphere there was health and hardly any painful disease. We enjoyed great security as children. Fear had no place in our home. We knew that when our father prayed God did miracles. So nothing worried us unduly. Mother was gentle on the one hand and firm on the other and taught us implicit obedience.

My father and mother made a wonderful team. We children never heard them fighting or arguing about money, but we often heard their voices in prayer. We had many opportunities to see the efficacy of prayer made from clean hearts.

There was a very cultured old lady who lived in our home for a long period. She had held very high government positions and as she desired the fellowship of God’s children, my father let her stay with us.

One day, however, she was taken ill with severe abdominal pain. It was an emergency case of intestinal obstruction. But doctors would not operate on her as she was very old and frail. . . . But the suffering became unbearable. We children who had never known our parents’ prayer to fail, were watching the worsening condition with some concern. Whatever was to be done needed to be done quickly.

That night, father and mother spent nearly the whole night in prayer. And the Lord who said, “Whatsoever you agree on earth and pray for, it shall be done,” heard their prayer. By the morning the agony ceased and the gentle old lady was healed. Never again did she suffer in that way.

Our motives are very important in prayer. If you want your prayer to be answered purely because it will add to your comfort and prosperity, God is in no way obliged to hear you. Nor should you ask for your prayer to be heard in order that your importance should be enhanced, or that you should gain a reputation among your acquaintances as a man of piety. There should be nothing selfish in your asking.

Why do you want your health to be restored? Is it to rise up and glorify God and be His true disciple? Why do you ask for promotion? Is it that in that higher post, you want to wield a stronger influence for Jesus and for righteousness, such that all evil or unrighteousness should be banished from your office? If so, God will grant you your desire. I always rejoice when men whom Jesus has transformed—righteous men—come to positions of great responsibility.

Get yourself a new heart and begin to pray with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart.

— Joshua Daniel

“Delivered from alcohol”

Testimony of Mark Rydinski

When I was young, I spent my life foolishly, though I thought I was very smart. I thought it was great to meet with my friends every night after work and have a few drinks. Of course, my wife didn’t like me doing this, because I usually came home none too steady on my feet.

In 1972, we gave our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. As new Christians, we didn’t know what to do. So as a new believer, I did what was normal for me. I’d come home from work, and my car had a habit of turning into this one tavern. I couldn’t control the steering wheel anymore. Because of my commitment to Christ, I realized that what I was doing was wrong, but I didn’t know how to stop.

The fact was drinking was such a normal part of my life that it was hard for me to see anything wrong in it. When I was a youngster, my dad operated three saloons in South Bend, Indiana. So drinking was something that was part of our lives. In fact, that’s how my dad made a living. And I didn’t see anything wrong with it.

But then, the Lord had a hold of me, and I got to feeling so guilty every time that I would have a drink. Even at home, I found so many hiding places for my bottle. But my wife didn’t like me sneaking drinks, and she said, "Mark, why don’t you just take that bottle and set it here on the cupboard here in the kitchen? You don’t have to go downstairs sneaking drinks. I know you’re drinking."

But I was ashamed. It bothered me, but yet I couldn’t stop. I tried on my own. There was no way I could quit. My pastor even tried to help me, but I guess he didn’t have the right combination.

And then in the year 1978, we heard that a missionary, Reverend Daniel, was coming to our church. For me, I wasn’t one of those fellows that liked to go to church at night. Sunday was fine, but any extra time, that wasn’t my cup of tea. But anyway, Rev. Daniel came and for some reason or other, no matter how much I drank throughout the day, I still attended the meetings at the church on the week nights. There was something that Rev. Daniel was saying that got to me. His words were like a magnet; the Lord was pulling me there every night.

At the end of the week, Rev. Daniel talked to our pastor, and said, "There is a brother in the congregation that needs help. If you can arrange a meeting of some sort, I would very much appreciate it." So my pastor asked if it will be all right if Rev. Daniel could come over to our house. Well, we liked to have company and said that would be fine.

So when Rev. Daniel came in that evening with our pastor, my wife offered him a 7-Up or a cold drink. But he said, "No sister. I’m here on business." And he meant it too! Then he said to me, "I understand you have a problem."

"Yes," I said, "I have a drinking problem. I’d like to stop, but I can’t."

And he said, "Well, there must be something in your life, between you and the Lord, that’s holding you back. We’ve got to find out what it is." So Rev. Daniel took me down to the pea patch to talk privately. Eventually it came out that I had been a bartender, and he said to me, "Have you asked these families for forgiveness for the amount of alcohol that you gave these fellows that go to the bar? Have you ever asked to be forgiven?"

I said, "Ask the families for forgiveness? Joshua, there’s no way. Most of the people I didn’t even know. There’s nothing I can do about it."

He said, "Did you ever ask God to forgive you?"

I said, "No. Not really."

He said, "Would you like to get down on your knees and talk to God and ask Him to forgive you?"

REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE

So that night I got down on my knees and asked the Lord to forgive me for being a bartender and for drinking like I was doing. And before I had got off my knees, I could feel something working through my system, completely changing me. You talk about instant coffee, well I was instantly free from drink. From that moment on, I had no taste for it. Even the presence of alcohol didn’t bother me one bit. And God watched over me.

CALLED TO SERVE!

About a year later, I went to an evening service and the Lord began speaking to me. A young man was at the church as a gospel chalk artist. He was up there drawing beautiful pictures out of the Bible, depicting stories. And, the Lord said to me, "Now, you were an artist when you were sober. When you were sober, you could draw. But when the booze would take over, you couldn’t do anything. But I know you’re clean now. I’d like to have you start a ministry as a chalk artist."

So that happened! My wife and I had a beautiful ministry for 13 years. We went to many states, many churches, and many campgrounds. And I would draw a picture out of the Bible, and I would also give my testimony. Many times I was invited to clubs where they weren’t used to hearing the Word of God. And I’d always say, "Yes, I’d love to come to you, providing you let me give my testimony first." So it was always agreed that I could give my testimony. That’s what I would do: give my testimony and I would draw the pictures. And we had a wonderful ministry.

When I look back over my life, I am so thankful for my beautiful wife of 57 years. And I am so thankful that the Lord freed me and gave me a chance to serve Him.

“He Chose Your Lot”

Do you think God has made a mistake in your life? If instead of being a poor man you had been rich, if instead of being a lone woman you had had one to call you wife and little children to clutch your dress and call you mother, if instead of being tied to the office stool you had been a minister or missionary, you think that you would have been a better, sweeter character. But I want you to understand that God chose for you your lot in life out of myriads that were open to Him, because just where you are you might realize your noblest possibilities. Otherwise God would have made you different from what you are. But your soul, born into His kingdom, was a matter of care and thought to Him, how best He might nurture you; and He chose your lot with its irritations, its trials, its difficulties, all the agony that eats at your nature.

Though men and women do not guess it, He chose your soul just as it is, because in it, if you will let Him, He can realize the fairest life within your reach. Look at the potter’s wheel with the clay lump spinning round. I begin to manipulate the clay. It rises beneath my hand till I come to one certain point where, either through some flaw in the clay, a bubble or a fault, it resists me. Leaving that point, I put my hand around again, and in some other direction endeavour to secure my purpose, and then come back to that one point, but again I meet that obstruction that thwarts me. The genius of my brain as an artist is complete; the power of my hand to manipulate is unrivaled; it is the clay that thwarts me, until presently, because I have been frustrated again and again, the work is a marred, spoiled thing.

Now is not that true of you?

The one trouble of my life, years ago, was just this about which I am speaking now. God was dealing with me. I suppose He wanted to make me a vessel fit for His use. But there was one point in my life where I fought God as the clay fights the hand of the potter. I fought God; I will not say for how long. God help me! The only benefit that I can get now out of those years the cankerworm has eaten is to discover the secret in other lives while they, too, are standing still, and then to take them to the Christ to whom I went myself. There I shall encourage them to hope that He who years ago took up a spoiled and marred life and made a little of it, will take other men and women and will find out where they have thwarted Him. If they let Him, He will touch them there, and as they yield to Him they will be made again.

— F. B. Meyer

“Reality Check”

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24).


	Laymen's Evangelical Fellowship International 46200 West Ten Mile Road, Novi, MI 48374