Ezra 7:27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem:

Though we might see the king working to beautify the house of the Lord we are shown that it was God that put it in his heart. The beauty of serving God is knowing that He is at work in our hearts and lives. He is integrally involved in what we do!

Seek Him knowing that He is already at work in your heart and ministry. You have a hunger to love God and serve Him, you want to be involved in ministering to others! Do you realize that He is at work in you causing you to desire things for Him and His glory.

Why do you think that you want to serve God? Why do you make plans to do something for God?

If you know that God is working on you then act on those godly desires that He put in your heart!

On this day in 1891,

During the 1800s, the American west saw a massive explosion in growth.  With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the East and West were connected and hoard of people began the vast migration.  With the discover of gold, the growth increased even more.  Along the railways, towns grew up.  When gold was discovered, the city was grow to thousands overnight.  When the gold was depleted, those thousands would leave and the city would be left empty overnight.  Lawlessness and immorality was common in these towns and many of the Churches back east watched with great concern as the West grew more wicked and lost every day.  Something had to be done.

Smith was one of the few missionaries who were trying to make a difference in the growing West.  He was working in Minnesota to start Sunday Schools for the children and to turn those schools into Churches by reaching the parents.  Two problems always stood in his way: the lack of places to meet and the vast distance between where people lived.  Once a Sunday School got started, it would quickly outgrow the small backrooms they were in.  So they would meet outside.  But once winter came, they had to end the Sunday School until spring.  But one of the Sunday Schools came up with a brilliant plan.  In their small town was an old railroad car that was sidetracked in the town.  After gaining  permission from the railroad company, the Sunday School began to meet in the large railroad car.  Soon, a church grew out of that Sunday School!  When Smith saw the success of this “railroad Sunday School”, an idea began to form in his mind, “I at once dreamed that the day would come when a missionary rail car would be built for the purpose of carrying the gospel to new communities.”

At the same time, another missionary in the region had returned from a trip to Russia, where he observed, in Siberia, rail cars that had been converted into small church.  These cars would travel across the Trans-Siberian railroad and stop at villages to hold worship service.   This idea was exactly what Smith was looking for.  Equipped with his own ideas and the plans retrieved of the Russians cars, he met with several wealthy Business men.  These men caught the vision and soon got behind the work, enlisting other sponsors and using their influence at the railroad factory to have the special car built.  On May 23rd, 1891, the first car was completed.

The car measured 10 ft by 60 ft.  In the back was a small living quarter for the missionary and his wife.  Only couples with no children were allowed to be Rail car missionaries.  These quarters included a bed, desk, stove, kitchen, and bathroom sink.  The rest of the car was a compacted church, with a pump organ, pulpit, pews, and even small panels of stain glass above the windows.

This was how the car would work.  A missionary and his wife would live on the car.  They would arrive at a new town that had no church, unhitch the car from the train, and use it as a temporary church building.  The goal was to create a strong church there that would be able to afford to build their own building.  The car was only temporary.  Once a building was built and a pastor was found or the Church, the missionary and his car would hook back up on the next train and move to a new town.  Often a missionary would travel between several different towns at the same time, going back and forth to establish churches in each town.  If a boom town grew up overnight, a missionary and his car could be there with the next train.  If a boom town died overnight, the missionary would follow the people to their new home.

In a region as vast and nomadic as the Wild West, the Chapel Cars were invaluable in spreading the Gospel and starting churches.  The Baptist missionary societies, during the course of the years, built seven of the Chapel Cars and saw dozens of missionaries serve on them.  Other denominations also built several.  These cars did much to spread the Gospel throughout the American West.  The first Baptist churches in North and South Dakota were started as Chapel Cars.  Hundreds of other churches grew out of these amazing cars.

Source:

This Train is Bound for Glory

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On this day in 1918,

Alexander was born in Panten, Germany, but was orphaned at a very young age.  He began to move among relatives, living from house to house.  In this uncertain life, the young man found a source of certainty and strength in the Word of God and fell in love with his Lord.  He enrolled in seminary to become a missionary and was sent out by the Berlin Missionary Society to South Africa.  He arrived in 1860.

Once in South Africa, Alexander pioneered into the northern part of the Vaal River.  No other missionary with the BMS had gone up there before.  He started several churches and mission stations in the area and several other missionaries came to the area to help him work.  After five years in this area, severe persecution broke out against the new churches.  Several of the Christians were killed and Alexander, fearing for the safety of his family, fled to the Transvaal Republic.  With his own money, he built a home for his family and a mission station to serve as a refuge for the persecuted Christians.  He named his new station Botshabelo, meaning place of refuge.  He stayed in the Transvaal Republic until 1883.  He then returned to Germany to serve as a leader in the Berlin Missionary Society.

After seven years as one of the director of the society, his heart began to long for the land he had once loved and served in.  So he returned to South Africa at the age of fifty-three and started two more churches. He spent several more years in South Africa before returning to Germany, where he died at age of 81.

Source:

Alexander Merensky

On this day in 1869, Jonas King, missionary in Syria and Greece, died.

Jonas attended Williams College and Andover Theological Seminary.  He was then sent out by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to start a Palestinian Mission.  Working closely with Pliny Fisk, they visited Egypt, Jerusalem, and Lebanon.  They settled in Lebanon, where they worked diligently to learn Arabic and familiarize themselves with the culture.

After studying the the language and culture, the men began to work in Syria, starting churches and teaching the new Christians.  The men would also travel to other areas in the region, such as Jerusalem and Egypt, to help settle new missionaries into their post.  In 1825, Jonas returned to America for three years, during which time he traveled to several churches and colleges, promoting the work of the Palestinian Mission and raising funds and men for the work.

When he returned in 1828, he settled in Athens, Greece, where he started several churches.  He had gone to Greece with the hope of reforming the old Orthodox churches back to the teachings of the Bible.  But his efforts were met by severe opposition. Realizing the impossibility of his dream, he left the old, decaying churches and started several new ones where the Bible was clearly taught.

In his memoirs, King summarizes his own life and ministry, a ministry founded upon God’s word and the power from God:

In all my missionary labors, I have ever sought wisdom and direction from on high, feeling that I could not trust to my own wisdom and understanding. In many trying scenes and difficult circumstances, the hand of God has been most manifest in my deliverance. I have been endeavoring to declare those great truths contained in the word of God necessary for men to know and believe in order to be saved.

In my missionary labors in my native country, in France, in Palestine and Syria, and in Greece, my great object has been to build up the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. To this I have sacrificed my own private interests and my personal reputation and comfort, and God has been faithful to his promise and has provided for me… ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,’ he has said, ‘and all these things shall be added unto you.’

With a constitution naturally feeble, and with frequent bodily infirmities, I have been enabled to perform more labors than I could at first have thought possible. God strengthened me, he supported me, he healed my diseases, he delivered me in times of danger; he who led Israel through the deep as on dry land, and fed them in the wilderness, and cast out their enemies, and gave them possession of the promised land—he who sent his angel and saved Daniel from the mouth of the lions, and the three children from the power of the heat in the fiery furnace—has stood by me, and in him alone has been my hope. If I have done anything in his cause, to him I ascribe the glory.

Source:

Jonas King, Missionary to Syria and Greece

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]]> http://austingardner.net/2012/05/22/7936/feed/ 0 http://austingardner.net/2012/05/22/separation/ http://austingardner.net/2012/05/22/separation/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 16:37:58 +0000 wagardner http://austingardner.net/?p=7937 Today’s reading Ezra 3-6

Ezra 6:21 And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat,

They separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen to seek the Lord. We have been born again. We should separate ourselves from self worship, seek glorying, self seeking, etc to die to ourselves and to live to and for God.

Separation is not from but from and to!

What have you seen as unpleasing to God in your life and separated from, be it thoughts, actions, emotions, etc? How have you given yourself more to the Lord to love and seek Him?

Spurgeon, C. H. (2005). Exploring the Mind and Heart of the Prince of Preachers: Five-Thousand Illustrations Selected from the Works of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (320). Oswego, IL: Fox River Press.

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Ezra 1:5 Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.

God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to build Him a house. Cyrus then asked the people who had felt God move in their lives and motivate them to go and build the house. Some were motivated to give. Others were motivated to go but it seems like all of God’s people took part in the work in one way or the other.

God is at work in our hearts. When you have desires to do something for God then you can know that God is at work in your life. Are you sensitive to Him and His leading? Do you listen to see what He might say to you?

I want to be stirred by Him and I always want to be waiting to hear what He has to say!

On this day in 1832,

Taylor was born into a Christian home. His father was a chemist and a local Methodist preacher.  His mother was a godly woman.  Both and father and his mother would often prayer over Hudson Taylor when he was only a small child, begging God to one day use their son.  However, as the young boy grew into a teen, he became skeptical and worldly. His thoughts were on living for this life only.  For several years, he followd this path.  Until one day…

When he was 17 years of age, he went into his father’s library one afternoon in June, 1849 in search of a book to read. This was in a barn or warehouse adjacent to the house. Finally, he picked up a gospel tract entitled, “It is Finished,” and decided to read the story on the front. He came upon the expression, “The Finished work of Christ.”  Remembering the words, “It is Finished,” he raised the question — “What was finished?” The answers seemed to fall in place and he received Christ as his Saviour.

The same afternoon and time, his mother was visiting some 75 miles away. Experiencing an intense yearning for the conversion of her son, she turned the key in the door and resolved not to leave the spot until her prayers were answered. Hours later she left with assurance. She returned 10 days later and was met at the door by her son who said he had good news for her. She said, “I know, my boy. I have been rejoicing for a fortnight in the glad tidings you have to tell me.”1

This young man would grow to become one of the most influential missionaries to ever work in China.  The work he started and helped others start would see thousands of Chinese come to Christ.

  Source:

Wholesome Words 1

On this day in 1891, George Louis Williams was ordained to the Gospel ministry.  Two months later, he and his wife, Alice, were sent out by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions as missionaries to China.

The Williams arrived in China and spent their first years learning the language and studying the culture.  George, aside from his duty with the churches, began to work among Opium addicts, helping them overcome their addictions and teaching them of Christ.  Alice began to work with the ladies, helping them learn to read the Bible and discipling them.

In 1899, after nearly nine years in China, Alice and her children briefly returned to America, because her mother was rapidly declining in her health and Alice wished to be with her for her final days.  George had to finish some final things at the mission before he could join his family back in America for a short furlough.  But the opportunity never came.  Just weeks before he was preparing to leave, the Boxer rebellion broke out across China.  Hundreds of foreigners were killed, including George and thirteen other missionaries who were working in the area.  The church buildings and mission house was all destroyed.

Alice did not allow the death of her husband to destroy her.  After the rebellion was over and everything calmed back down, Alice returned to CHina to continue the work her husband gave his life for.  She was one of the first missionaries to return to Taigu after the killings.

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On this day in 1861,

Almost a hundred years earlier, when explorer James Cook first visited Erromanga, he remarked “This will be a dangerous place for missionaries to work”.  But despite the dim outlook, the champions of the Gospel would not be dismayed.  In 1839, John Williams and James Harris landed on the shores of Erromanga, hoping to reach out to the large number of people living on the island.  But they were killed.  The death of these two men scared other European and American missionaries from trying to reach the Island.  But the new Christians on the neighboring were much more bold.  Within the next few years, over 40 missionaries from neighboring islands went to Erromanga.  They were all killed or starved to death.  Many talked on giving up all attempts to reach the island.

Gordon refused to follow the others in surrendering the thousands of souls of Erromanga to Hell.  He began to study medicine and theology, so that he could teach the people of Christ and also help heal the diseases they often contracted from the traders who came to the islands (the horrid abuse the traders often caused the people was one of the main reasons they hated foreigners so much.)  In 1857, he set out for  Erromanga with his wife.  During the trip, he studied the language of the people diligently, so he would be able to communicate effectively with them once he arrived.  When this brave couple landed, the people of the Island were amazed to find white people who could speak their language and let them build a home and church among them.

For five years, this couple bravely faced sickness and hardship as they taught the people of Christ.  Slowly, they began to see fruit.  But their work began to cause conflict with the leadership of the island, because their teachings went completely contrary to the harsh culture of the Erromangans.  And the new Christians were turning away from the old lifestyle   Tense grew, but the Gordons continued on.  Forty Erromangans had turned to Christ and joined the growing church.

In 1861, a merchant ship came to the island and, in the course of its time there, infected the island with measles.  Hundreds died from the disease.  The Gordons did everything in their power to help stop the spread, but there was little they could do.  The enraged chiefs began to blame them for the disease.  He ordered them killed.  So on May 20th, as George was out working, two natives came up to him and asked for his help in treating a sick boy.  As he walked with them back to his house to get medicine, the other Natives jumped out of the jungle and ambushed him, chopping him to death with tomahawks.  Not far away, another man had just killed Ellen at her home.

When James Gordon heard of the killing of his brother, he immediately left his home in Canada and went to Erromanga to keep his brothers work alive.  For eleven years, he loved and gave to the people who killed his brother.  And then he was also killed.  He would be the last missionary who would try to scale the shore of this island for a long time.  But by the time of his death, the church started was strong enough to continue to work and see hundreds of Erromangans saved!

Source:

Valiant Circle of Christians on Erromanga

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II Chronicles 34:27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.

Josiah gets mercy from the Lord even in his sin because his heart is tender and he humbles himself before the Lord. He heard what God was going to do and he ripped his clothes, he cried out to the Lord and the Lord heard him.

It was the tender heart and the willingness to humble himself that touched the heart of God. I wonder how often I react in pride thinking I deserve better for myself? I wonder if I have the habit of defending myself rather than examining myself?

God help us to be tender to the leading of your Holy Spirit. Help us to be willing to recognize you as God in all of our lives. God help me stay small in my eyes and always see you as big!

II Chronicles 32:8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Hezekiah knew that God was with him and that God would win the battle. He was able to look at all the problems and realize that he was truly helpless yet know that God would be with them. Their fight was not a personal fight but a spiritual fight. It was a fight for the honor and glory of God.

I am afraid that we want to honor and glorify God too often by what we do in the flesh. We little consider Him and the Holy Spirit and what He can and will do. We do not think about the fact that we are in a war for His glory. We want Him glorified in our worship, in our lives, in our obedience, in our preaching, in our church services. It is all about Him.

I want to rely more on Him. I want to realize that I can’t but He can. I want to know that He is fighting in the battles I am in so I must let Him pick my fights!