Living the Journey

Last November, livingthejourney.com posted a speech about competing affections that Stephen wrote after God did a deep work in His life during a Journey to the Heart. Following is an abridged version of a second speech he recently wrote on selling out for God.

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“What are you doing here? Worshipping your imaginary God?” The church members cowered in the pews, wondering if there were more soldiers and more guns outside. “All those who are faithful to God, move to the right side of the church. You will be shot for your faith! You who wish to go home and keep your life, stand on the left side. You must decide to live or die.” Those people who moved to the left side then slowly filed out, taking one last look at their friends who would soon be dead.

If this happened at your church, where would you be? Many Christians in America are not living to please God. It was recently reported that “in this generation as never before, cultural gravity relentlessly pulls at Christian children. Nearly 80% leave the church by the time they complete high school.”

By living for ourselves without living solely for Him we are missing out on God’s power in our lives. Revelation 3:16 says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” If you live like a normal Christian in America, you would probably fall into this lukewarm group that God says He will spew out of His mouth. But you don’t need to be lukewarm if you sell out for God.

Only by being sold out for God and living all for Jesus can we be a true lights that shine brightly in this world. Matthew 5:14 and 16 says,  “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Then we can live with the power that God gives to us. Paul stated, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

George Müller was a man who gave himself fully to God. He received the means necessary to erect the great buildings and to feed over ten thousand orphans day by day for sixty years. In all that time the children did not have to go without a meal. Sometimes mealtime was almost at hand and they did not know where the food was going to come from, but the Lord always sent it in due time.

How can you grow to be fully God’s servant? First, die to self. “Dying for God is easy; you only have to do it once. Living for God is hard; you have to do it every day.” The apostle Paul proclaimed: “I die daily” (I Corinthians 15:31). We as believers are required to die to self in order to be on fire for the Lord and achieve the greatest impact for His Kingdom.

Second, in order to be sold out for God you must yield all your personal rights and expectations to Him, giving Him your dreams, your possessions, and your money. A young man named R. G. LeTourneau learned how little he really needed to live on. He decided to live on 10% and give the Lord 90% and the Lord abundantly blessed him. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

Third, dedicate your life to the Lord. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says “Jesus is my co-pilot”? When we fully dedicate our lives to God, we make Jesus our pilot instead of our co-pilot. Let Him get behind the wheel and take you places you never dreamed possible.

What is keeping you from selling yourself out to God and living to please and glorify our father in heaven?

The story that I opened with ends like this: When only those on the right remained, the soldiers put down their weapons. “We, too, are Christians,” they said, “but we wish to worship without hypocrites.” Would you have the courage to stand up for God and not walk away? Have you really sold out for God?

~ Stephen
July 2009 Journey

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On the way home, hungry, tired, and a bit sooty, we talked about the day and Elijah said, “I’m kind of excited to see what God has in store for us. He wouldn’t just take half of our business away without having something in mind.” — by Brenda Kaneshiro

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On August 28th of this year we were watching the Anger Resolution DVD series by Bill Gothard for our morning worship and part of our homeschool program. On this day, he gave an example of a man who lost his business, put these principles to practice, and within a day or two got not only his business back, but more.

Mr. Gothard gave an acronym to use to remember the principles. In short, here it is: When you are faced with a trial (great or small) remember to be GREAT.

• G ive thanks immediately! You don’t have to know why or really feel thankful, just give thanks knowing that God has a purpose for everything.

• R ejoice in all things. This is where you begin looking for possible benefits like teaching a lesson, drawing you closer to God, putting someone specific in your path, etc.

• E ngraft Scripture. Romans 8:28 is good for this one, but you can also apply one that fits your situation.

• A sk God to give you added grace to get through. Realize that He wants you to succeed and be happy and healthy. It takes a good character, and this is sometimes what it takes to develop our character.

• T riumph in the victory! When you follow the prior steps, you will triumph and know it was God’s victory in you!

So, we learned this, and I gave it to the children in the children’s story the following day at church. As we were there in the church service, we saw a fire engine race past the church with its siren on. After church, we could see smoke coming from the hills behind the hospital. By the end of lunch, the fire had gotten bigger. On our way home that evening, we stopped by one of our apiary sites that was within 3 miles of the fire to see if it might be in danger. We had 33 of our oldest and strongest hives there. That was about half of our production hives. We drove in, and it was apparent that the fire was moving in the other direction. We asked one of the neighboring residents to call us if anything changed, and then we went home.

At 5:00 the next morning on Sunday, August 30, we got a call from the neighbor saying the wind had changed, and our bees may be in danger. We woke the children, got everyone dressed and in our bee suits and jumped in the truck to race to the apiary which was about 30 minutes away. On the way there, we discussed how we had given those bees as well as our other assets to God. We reminded each other that He is the one who has blessed our business, and He can remove the bees if it seems best to Him.

When we arrived, it was obvious that the bees would soon be in the path of the fire. There was no time to move them all. Each of the 33 colonies weighed an average of 300 pounds! We had to make a quick decision. We could save a few. Maybe we had enough time to load 4 or 5 onto the truck and get out, but the problem would be with the rest of the bees. There were approximately 1.5 million bees in that apiary. As soon as the fire would approach the hives, the bees would fly out. The only clear airpath for them was right into the line of residential homes where the occupants and firemen were already working to put out the fire. One neighbor in particular is deathly allergic to bee stings. This could possibly create a bigger disaster than the fire.

The only thing to do was to take the minutes we had to close the entrance of each hive to make sure the bees did not fly out. We broke into teams. Father and Mother got busy using duct tape to close up the entrances on one side of the apiary, Elijah and Tabitha teamed up to tape up the entrances of the hives on the other side of the apiary, and Elisabeth and Esther stood in the back of the truck watching the fire closely and letting us know how close it was getting.

Pretty soon, both Elisabeth and Esther were all excited telling us we needed to leave now! We could feel the heat, and the flames were big, loud and close. We had to get out while we could. We drove around to the street and helped one of the homeowners keep the fire from his house. We used hoses, wet towels and sheets, and shovels. Every once in awhile we would see a cloud of black smoke go up. It was another hive going up in flames. The water carrying helicopters came over us with their buckets and dumped as much water as fast as they could on the residences. We were so thankful that none of the houses got burned, and no one got stung, even though the fire burned over 8000 acres with 17 fingers to monitor at the same time.

When it was over, all that was left of our bee hives were little piles of nails and metal queen excluders where each hive had been. As we walked through, we remembered the people whose homes each of those hives came from when we removed them as wild bees. We thought of all the honey we had harvested at this site, and how blessed we had been.

On the way home, hungry, tired, and a bit sooty, we talked about the day and Elijah said, “I’m kind of excited to see what God has in store for us. He wouldn’t just take half of our business away without having something in mind.” Tabitha said, “Well, we don’t have to move those bees any more or harvest their honey.”

Sure enough, a few days later on September 3, we were invited to speak at a retreat in Canada. We had been asked earlier during the summer, but we declined because we knew at this time we would be busy harvesting honey and moving bees. Now we had only a few weeks to get our talks ready and get passports and tickets, but God blessed, and we had a wonderful time! Those people in Canada told us the things we presented were just what they needed to hear.

We just arrived back home two days ago, and God is still blessing. Now we’re just arranging for a new account with a large order. Praise God, He is so good! When the children have a disagreement between them or we’re tempted to feel like we’ve been wronged, we can look back and remember, “Oh, G-R-E-A-T!!”

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The entirety of this condensed article was originally published in the Utmost Way Magazine: http://www.utmostway.com/current/the-g-r-e-a-t-fire

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God did an amazing work in Stephen’s life on a Journey to the Heart this summer. Following is the abridged version of a speech that he has recently written about competing affections.

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Could you imagine a young teenager spending $8,000 and devoting an average of 8 hours a day for three years on a particular activity? This adds up to 3 months a year, day and night!

Today I would like to talk about what I’ll refer to as competing affections. A competing affection is when your love and desire for anything or anyone is greater than your love and desire for God.

Matthew 6:13 says that “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Last summer, money was a competing affection in my life. I was giving out business cards and doing any type of work no matter how hard it was. I made over $1,000 dollars over the summer. This was a competing affection in my life because I was putting so much time into my work that I was neglecting my relationship with the Lord. I was being fearful over having enough money for my future needs. When I realized this, I asked God to help me set my priorities straight. I gave my money to the Lord and He has blessed me and took the burden of my future off my back. I still work because I love to work, but it is not motivated by fear of the future.

My friend Vince who had such an extraordinary devotion to video games explained to me his story. “Back when I was a young teenager I would play about eight hours of video game a day. Believe it or not, I actually spent about eight thousand dollars in video games. The reason why I don’t do this any more is because God has opened my eyes and shown me how much it had become a competing affection. I was putting God on the side and my own will on the throne of my life.”

What freedom there is when you give your affections to God and live for Him instead of money, relationships, idols, or even video games!

~ Stephen
July 2009 Guys Journey

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Listen to the following excerpts from David Wilkerson’s soul-stirring sermon on anguish and after seven minutes your passion for true revival may never be the same.

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The Apostle Paul encouraged us to view our Journey as a race when he wrote, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2). What a great perspective on life!

So many excellent analogies come to mind when we start thinking about viewing our lives as a race. For example, did you know that a champion runner has two fears?

First, that he will run out of strength before he reaches the finish line. This will give his opponents the ability to spring by him and win the race.

Second, that he will have strength left over after the race. This means that he could have used this strength in the race and achieved a better timing!

“Whatever you do, put your whole heart and soul into it,
as into work done for God, and not merely for men -
knowing that your real reward, a heavenly one, will come
from God, since you are actually employed by Christ,
and not just by your earthly master”
(Colossians 3:23; J.B. Phillips translation).

To discover 7 Secrets of a Champion Runner, take a look at the publication Choose the Narrow Way, now available online!

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Today we cover the final key in our series on how to conquer the fear of rejection. Over the past six weeks we have taken a look at the following six steps:

1. Do Not Love the Praise of People
2. Stop Comparing Yourself with Others
3. Accept Your Unchangeables
4. Greet Everyone Enthusiastically
5. Give Valuable Things to Others
6. Understand Your Worth to God

And now…

7. Rejoice Over Rejection for Christ.

The more effective you are in benefiting the lives of others, the greater will be the brightness of your life, and the more Satan will revile you. However, this should cause you to rejoice because your life will receive great rewards in heaven:

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

The Greek word for “exceeding glad” doesn’t just mean to be happy. It means “to leap for joy, to show one’s joy by leaping and skipping, denoting excessive or ecstatic joy and delight.” It’s intense!

We can have this degree of joy when we have our focus on the eternal benefits we will experience in eternity instead of the temporal rejection we are experiencing right now:

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (I Peter 4:12-13).

“Lord, I now ‘trade in’ my reputation for the name of the Lord Jesus. It is no longer important what people think of me. It is only important that they see Jesus in me.”

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