Learning To Lean (Part 1)

Living With Jesus

Proverbs 3:5–6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

The last few weeks have been filled with busyness but through all the labor the Lord has been teaching us to lean on Him. There are may things that we must lean on God to do and trust Him for the results. It is one thing to talk about resting in the Lord, but it is entirely different to live it. Satan is active and always seeking to corrupt our understanding of reality. A unkind glance from someone, who is absorbed in a personal trial at the moment, can be interpreted as hostility. Satan plants thoughts into our mind trying to convince us that a brother and sister in Christ is at odds with us and before long our relationship is broken. The battlefield was in the mind and we lost because we believed the lie of Satan. If we rely on our understanding of a situation or circumstances Satan will always have the upper hand in our life, family, and ministry.  As we rest in the Lord we find peace and comfort in His will, His strength, and His wisdom.

Listening To The Holy Spirit

On November 1-2 Baptist Circuit Riding Mission held there annual conference at Faith Baptist Church in Greeley, Co. The conference is named in memorial to Jeff Sawyer who worked with the circuit riders and took part in the establishment of Oregon Trail Baptist Church. He pastored Oregon Trail Baptist Church from the time it was a small Bible Study meeting in Fort Laramie until he died of cancer and the Lord took Him home. One young man from church accompanied me to the conference and God used the preaching of the Word to encourage and convict me personally.

Letting Go And Letting God

Letting Go Of Money

At the conference, Cindy Sawyer (Jeff Sawyers wife), presented a quilt she had made to be auctioned off for the building fund of Oregon Trail Baptist Church. The quilt brought $850 and that enabled us as a church to make a mortgage payment of $3,000 this month. The financial situation of our church has been the greatest demonstration of God’s provision so far. I believe God is using this very practical area to teach lessons of faith in the spiritual realm.

To put things in perspective…

• As of May 1st we owed $30,000 on our building and had 2 years to pay.
• Our average offering was about $800 per month.
• Our monthly payment is $500 each month with the remaining due May 4th 2014.
• Since may we have put almost $7500 toward the mortgage
• All the bills are paid and the extra payments have already saved us about $415 in interest.

Letting Go Of Ministry

Watching the Lord work on the financial front is only the beginning. As we have endeavored to involve ourselves in the community and reach people with the Gospel we feel to be making little to no progress. Just this last week at a chili supper in the Guernsey Senior Center a couple told me that when they visited our church a few weeks ago they enjoyed the services and planned on coming back on a regular basis. That was good news enough but then they added that they had a friend that they were trying to get to come. I was jumping up and down on the inside because I knew that the Lord had been working on hearts.

Letting Go Of Me

God has bought a young man to our church who is disabled and has some unique challenges but he has already been a blessing to my wife and I. He is so willing and excited to serve the Lord even with his limited composite to understand. When I asked him to pass out flyers for our Harvest Dinner I didn’t expect him to literally get every business in town before I could and I didn’t expect him to go around town personally inviting people to the dinner. I pray that God continues to use this young man and bless him for his faith. Humanly people like him are rejected by society and yet Christ loves them and so should we.