By David J. Stewart | November 2013
Hebrews 11:27, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”
God is so awesome! The past several weeks have been some of the most
emotional, heart-searching and hectic weeks of my life, but I rejoice that
my name is written in Heaven, for freedom in America and for all of God's
wonderful blessings. I was in Murfreesboro, Tennessee yesterday for a
doctor's appointment. Thankfully I was able to obtain much needed pain and
sleep medications. I am now in Nashville, at a hotel by the international
airport. I'm flying out early tomorrow Wednesday morning back to the
Micronesian islands. It's a 21 hour flight. Thank God for Ambien!
When I was in Honolulu, Hawaii a few weeks ago, I walked along Waikiki Beach and by chance came across a musical group named Maunalua playing their guitars and singing. I broke down in tears as the music touched my heart. I wrote to the group and thanked them for their music. In kind response, they have since put the song that I heard on their website's main webpage (the song plays automatically, give it a few seconds to download). Maunalua have albums available at Amazon.com. I love these guys! Hawaiian's love to sing about family, romance and their homeland. The song sounds far better in live performance. I wish everyone could have been there with me. Oahu is my favorite island, because of all the rainbows. They appear all the time. And every rainbow is a reminder that God always keeps His promises.
Well, to say that the past several weeks have been interesting is an understatement. It wasn't a vacation, that's for sure. With my continuous neck pain from osteoarthritis/stenosis and burning, tingling, radiating pain from radiculopathy and peripheral neuropathy, everything that I do is in spite of my health afflictions. Once my medical appointment fell through in Hawaii, everything went into a spin, one bad thing affecting another. It was a nightmarish domino effect. All the way I was trying to find a car, find a place to live and resettle, with pressure building to find a source for pain medications (which I couldn't). As I learned the hard way, it takes weeks, if not months, to get approved for a new doctor, plus scheduling an appointment usually means waiting about one month after you're approved. I've been living out of a suitcase for the past several weeks, having stayed in dozens of hotels and am so tired. I haven't done this much driving in 10 years and it has been overwhelming physically for me.
After all has been said and done, I am homesick for the tropical islands where I have lived for so many years. God impressed upon my heart long, long ago to become a missionary to the islands and that is what I have done these many years, in addition to my online ministry. Sometimes God's guidance seems unclear, but He has promised to guide us. I recently decided to move to the states, but God showed me differently, at least for the foreseeable future. God told me to go back to Micronesia! Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” It was great to be back on the mainland for a few weeks, but this is not where I belong. Of course, my true home ultimately is in Heaven with my Lord Jesus Christ!
I know a lot of people find me a person of interest because of my uncommon stand for Jesus Christ, the King James Bible and against the evils of our generation. Psalms 12:1, “Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.” Any good that I accomplish is Jesus Christ in me. It is by the Spirit of the Lord that this ministry exists and continues, not by my feeble abilities. The Spirit of God is in me as a Christian (Romans 8:9). Because of my uncompromising stand against false prophets and evil I am despised and hated by many, but I love them in the Lord. They hate the Lord, not me. John 7:7, “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” I don't expect everyone to understand me, although I know many of you do. I am who God made me, called to be a preacher of the gospel, the prisoner of the Lord. Philemon 1:1, “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” Servants can quit, prisoners cannot. I'd rather die than quit. I am the Lord's prisoner, bought with a price!
Everybody's different, but we're all created in the precious and magnificent image of our beloved Creator. In hindsight, I wish I had done many things differently over the past several weeks. Yet, I don't blame myself for sincere mistakes I've made, because under the same circumstances I would have made the same decisions without the knowledge that I have now. As a godly man has said, “Only God knows the things that would have happened if the things that happened hadn't happened!” I love that statement of truth! Amen!
Despite all the disappointments, frustrations and stress, I don't complain in the least when I consider that 700,000 Filipinos just had their homes destroyed by typhoon Haiyan and thousands of people are dead. The pictures of coffins in the streets are heartbreaking. I've been praying for Rick Martin, Rick and Gaylene Fannin and other missionaries working in the Philippines. Click Here If You'd Like To Help Baptist Missionaries In The Philippines. Brother Rick Fannin was one of my high school teachers at our Baptist church in Chicago and a godly man. If you want to help donate to anybody in the Philippines, this is the man of God to help.
As each day passes, Heaven is my yearned for home where my heart wants to be with Jesus. Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” The Bible teaches that Christians are as pilgrims and strangers in this temporal earthly life. As the world becomes more wicked, warped and weird, I certainly feel like a stranger in the new modern culture. Everyone is getting covered with tattoos these days. I stopped at a drive-thru in Knoxville, Tennessee and a woman had some words tattooed across her neck. As she held the food out, I saw both of her arms completely covered with tattoos. I felt compassion for her, knowing that the Devil takes control over people's lives. As our heavenly Father, God doesn't try to control us. Rather, He allows us to have a freewill to obey or not. In sharp contrast, Satan always tries to control a person's life with addiction and bondage to sin. By the way, parents ought not try to control their adult children's lives, for that is what Satan does!
Lord willing, things will get back to some normalcy in my life in the weeks to come, and please keep me in your prayers. I have a new found appreciation and broader perspective on life after what I've been through, and that which does not kill us only makes us stronger in the Lord if we faint (quit) not. Amen and amen! For a short time I ran out of pain medications and the withdrawal symptoms were awful. I felt like dying. The thing that compelled me to keep going was faith. 1st John 5:4, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” My heavenly Father watches over me, cares about me and “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). Pain, suffering, disappointment and heartache are all a normal part of life. As the book of Solomon teaches, there is a time for everything. Unshakable faith comes from having your faith shaken. God only had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without burdens, heartaches and afflictions. I do not know what the future holds, but I DO KNOW Who holds the future!!!
In hindsight, I realize now that I was already home, but I needed to try to move away to realize that I belong right where I was. I know others are praying for me, as I do for all my web visitors, including my enemies whom I love in the Lord. I love you because I have invested my life into you. Every hour spent, every prayer, every mouse click, each keystroke and every article that I write and publish is an investment in the lives of others, and that includes all of you! Amen! I love you all and there's nothing that you can do about it!
God bless you all, and thank you so much to all of my web visitors
and unsung friends around the world. You are my epistles as Paul said.
2nd Corinthians 3:2, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and
read of all men.”
Why God Deliberately Led The Israelites Into Hard Times
God led the freed Israelites from Egypt into a desert wilderness with no water, no food, scorpions, snakes and extreme weather conditions of burning sun and blowing sand storms. God led them into a very hard way to test their faith, to see if they would continue to keep God's commandments or not. This is exactly what we are taught in Deuteronomy 8:1-4. Read why God led the Jews into such horrible conditions in Deuteronomy 8:2, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” Yet, God provided water, food, meat and took care of the Israelites despite their constant whining, bickering, rebelling and complaining against God and Moses.
The same God Whom we worship today 3,500 years later uses the same methods to test and break His children. No Christian is exempt from being led into the wilderness (that is, tough times and hardships). God wants to see how we're going to react. Will we complain as many of the Jews did? Or will we have a spirit of faith as did Joshua and Caleb? I choose to praise the Lord anyhow!
Consistent Prayer Is Much Better Than
Long Prayer
I've been repeating this section on prayer, because repetition is the key to learning and I want you to learn prayer so much. Most new believers pray for a while, don't see any results and then quit. Or people are unsaved and pray to a false god they do not know. Oh my friend, prayer doesn't work that way because God doesn't work that way. God works behind the scenes in ways that way cannot see nor understand. This is why we are commanded in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Most people pray and quit because they don't understand why God hasn't answered. You just do as God commanded and PRAY WITHOUT CEASING (1st Thessalonians 4:17). We ought to pray throughout the day as we go about our business, as problems arise, as we think of others who are suffering, as we continually realize how great and real and merciful and awesome our God is! Jesus is precious!
I'm just taking things one day at a time. God is with me wherever I go (Hebrews 13:5). My faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know more trials and tribulations are ahead, as always, but God will see me through as He always has. Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus! All my Christian brothers and sisters in the Lord, please keep me in your continued prayers. I believe that even a small prayer activates the machinery in Heaven and starts the ball of God's omnipotent power rolling. To believe in prayer is to believe in God Who hears and answers prayer. To not pray is a lack of faith, saying that we really don't believe God cares about us nor will He do anything to help us, so why pray?
Listen to what King David said in Psalms 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.” David said that he prayed to God, but God didn't seem to hear him at all. Yet God was very much awake and listening! Psalms 44:23, “Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.”
David was frustrated, impatient and bold in his prayers to God. David asked God how much longer He was going to stay sleeping? David cried out in prayer, but didn't feel like God was listening. We've all been there. I've learned that you truly begin to mature in the Lord when you keep on praying anyway, no matter how dismal, unproductive or useless prayer may seem in our finite, flawed and human minds. God is capable of doing the unimaginable, miracles and that which everyone said couldn't be done. It requires a greater faith to keep praying when the answers don't seem to be coming, and faith pleases God.
Anybody would gladly pray if the skies of heaven poured down gold, silver and materialistic blessings. I believe that's why God steps out of the picture and makes us feel like He's ignoring us. In fact, this is the exact Biblical teaching of Luke 18:1-8. The unjust judge avenged the irritating woman to get rid of her, but God ignores us to test us (that is, to test how much faith we really have). How much faith do you have? You have as much faith, not how long you pray; but rather, how persistent you pray. Long prayers don't impress God (Matthew 6:7-8), but to keep praying when it seems like there's no reason left to pray greatly pleases God. Let's all start praying consistently, morning and evening and afternoon. Amen!
Remember the story of the rabbit and the turtle. The rabbit was fast and could outrun the turtle anytime, anywhere. But the turtle still won the race, because he kept with the stuff! The rabbit became overconfident and lost sight of his purpose, but the turtle stayed with the course and finished. In God's marathon it's not a matter of who finishes first; but rather, just finishing the race that He has set before you. Amen! All God expects is that we keep going, never quit, don't stop praying, don't stop sharing the Gospel, keep trying to do right, and keep trusting Him at all times, no matter what happens (Job 13:15).
The best of Christians may fail to live right 5 times out of 10, but that's a lot better than failing 10 times out of 10 because you're a heathen that's not even trying. I am speaking of our fellowship with God here, as Christians. I am not speaking of salvation, which has nothing to do with our lifestyle or how hard we try to live right. Eternal life is a free gift, paid in full by Jesus' precious blood. All we do is receive God's righteousness by faith in the Gospel, that is, Christ's death, burial and resurrection three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). What a Savior! Jesus is precious!!!
We are all living on borrowed time, so may we all learn to number our days by living each day for the Lord Jesus Christ...
Psalms 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
The Error Of Expecting Everyone To Have The Same Salvation Experience As Paul
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
I love you all in the Lord, whoever you may be!
1st Thessalonians 5:25, “Brethren, pray for us.”
