CrossTrainers

Date: May 19th 2010

Speaker: Bob Stouffer

Title: God Built –  “Wait for the Lord”

Opening

You have probably heard me speak about the fertility issues early our marriage.  We tried and tried, but Cheryl could not get pregnant.

Over the course of several years, we suffered through frustration.   We tracked body temperatures and optimum periods of ovulation.

I was poked and probed by two doctors and an intern, and they discovered that I had testicular varicosity of the veins, thus constricting the production of sperm.  A little embarrassing it was.

Month-in and month-out, we tried new strategies, but no pregnancy. The doctors said our next option was in vitro fertilization, which would have cost $10,000 an attempt – with no guarantee of success.  I was a teacher making around $15,000 a year!   We said, “No, thanks.  We need to step back and be give this some more time.”

One month later, Cheryl was pregnant with Molly! Praise the Lord!  I will never forget that winter day when Cheryl poked her head into my classroom during a school day, her eyes brimming with tears, a grin spreading across her face!

Fast forward a few years.

The infertility issues continued. Cheryl had to deal with thyroid cancer, and the radioactive iodine treatment was unsafe for conception.  She got a clean bill-of-health.  We kept trying.  No success.

Cheryl’s cycle would last weeks on-end.  We decided she better have the equivalent of a hysterectomy.   So, natural childbirth was out of the question.  But we still wanted more children. We looked into adoption.  We were set to adopt through an international agency in the Dominican Republic, but adoptions were discontinued when insidious people in that country were blinding infants for black market corneal transplants.

We started figuring that God was trying to “tell” us something.  Perhaps we should be grateful to have Molly alone.

Then, my sister-in-law, Amy, found out about children who were available for adoption in Brazil.  I called Ed Nahas, who had done our home study.  I asked if we could get another copy of our home study in Spanish.  He asked if we would be willing to adopt a bi-racial child in the Des Moines area.  Adoption agencies have greater difficulty finding placements for bi-racial children, since these children eventually live in two worlds of race.

Obviously, if we were willing to adopt from the Dominican or Brazil, we would be willing to adopt a bi-racial child.

At that time, the attorney who did 60% of the private closed adoptions in Polk County was also, not coincidentally, the father of two sons who had been students at Urbandale High School while I was Principal of UHS.

In fewer than 10 days, Cheryl and I picked Hannah up from this attorney’s office!  She was 21 days old!

Praise the Lord!  We were parents again, and we had no less joy in an attorney’s office than we experienced in the birthing room!

There was a lot of waiting in those stories, wasn’t there?  Perhaps you were even frustrated for Cheryl and me at certain points of these testimonies.

But wasn’t God so good in blessing us with Molly, and wasn’t God so good in blessing us with Hannah – in his perfect timing?!!

Waiting on the Lord.

Steve Farrar has it right in his book, God Built — “Waiting is easy to write about.  But it’s hard to live out.”  (p. 147)

Discuss these questions with one other guy –

#1  Who in the Bible was willing to wait on the Lord?

• Noah, even if everyone else thought him foolish

• Moses, for 40 years as a shepherd

• Joshua, marching around Jericho and, as for his household, he served the Lord

• Job, in spite of his tragic circumstances

• Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets of God

• Hannah, who gave her son Samuel over the Lord for ministry

• David, who could have killed Saul on more than one occasion, and who had been anointed by Samuel

Steve wrote in his book, “Interesting, isn’t it, that when God looks for a man after His own heart [David], the test of that man’s heart is his willingness to wait.”  (p. 140)

• Ruth

• Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego

• John the Baptist

• Jesus

• John

• Paul

• Peter

• Stephen

#2  Who in the Bible was not willing to wait on the Lord?

• Adam and Eve

• Sarai, not waiting for the son promised by the Lord, and Ishmael was the result

• Jacob, who stole his brother Esau’s birthright

• Moses, when he took matters into his own hand and murdered an Egyptian

• King Saul, who built an altar when told not to and who didn’t kill all of his enemies’ livestock, when he was told to

In God Built, Steve Farrar wrote, “Saul was unwilling to wait.  And he lost the kingdom that could have been his for generations.  Resisting God’s training, he just didn’t have the heart to obey.”  (p. 140)

• The Prodigal Son

• All of the disciples who walked away from Jesus and His hard teaching

Text of Analysis

Joseph was falsely thrown into jail, and he was forced to wait.  But Joseph was good at waiting.  And God is good at being faithful.  Joseph waited from his 17^th birthday until his 30^th birthday until the Lord placed him in a position of honor, power, and prestige.

God “is in control over prolonged waiting.”  (p. 129)

“. . .none of us likes to wait – for anything.”  (p. 130)

We often ask, “Why doesn’t God do something miraculous and instantly change our situations when we are waiting?”  (p. 130)

“We’re sometimes compelled to wait in uncomfortable, uneasy circumstances, where the outcome is far from certain.  But even then – perhaps especially then – God is at work.”  (p. 130, emphasis in original)

Isaiah 64:4 – “No eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.”  (English Standard Version)

“. . .God is always working.  While we are waiting, God is working.”  (p. 131, emphasis in original)

South African Pastor Andrew Murray –

In difficult and unwanted circumstances –  waited and journaled –

“Let me say I am here,

1. By God’s appointment
2. In His keeping
3. Under His training
4. For His time.”

That’s good, isn’t it?!

“Joseph was being trained in prison while he waited.  He had to learn to wait on God for His timing.”  (p. 138, emphasis in original)

“You never read one word about [Joseph] complaining to the Lord or becoming bitter.”  (p. 139)

And “Going into his two-year stint of prolonged waiting, Joseph had no idea how long he would be in that mode.  The Lord had determined two years, and two years it was.”  (p. 141)

Lamentations 3:1-25   “. . .the LORD is good to those who wait for Him.”

Psalm 130:5 – “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope.”

“If you are waiting on God, the only way that you keep hope alive is to stay in your Bible.  Read it, chew on it, and embrace the promises. . . .Keep your Bible open and live off the promises.”  (p. 148)

Questions for Consideration and Applications

• How do you draw closer to God while you are waiting on Him?
• Steve Farrar wrote, “We’re sometimes compelled to wait in uncomfortable, uneasy circumstances, where the outcome is far from certain.”  What sorts of spiritual disciplines or daily activities might help us hold onto our faith when we’re in situations like this?
• Read Psalm 25:3, 27:14, 28:9, 37:7, 37:34; 48:14, 62:5, and 147:11.  Read Isaiah 40:31 and 46:3-4.  What does the Word of God promise for those who wait patiently on the Lord?
• Andrew Murray wrote, “Let me say I am here by God’s appointment, in His keeping, under His training, and for His time.”  Which of those aspects of waiting bring/s you the most comfort and encouragement right now, and why?
• What answer to a prayer are you waiting on right now?  How patient have you been during your wait?
• What are the dangers of refusing to wait for the Lord’s timing and bulling ahead on our own schedule and in our own wisdom?

Closing

God blessed us with Hannah and Molly, but Cheryl and I could have been childless.  Children, income, possessions, prestige, and power do not, ultimately, satisfy.

God sustained the Israelites with daily manna and water.  But such bread and water pale in comparison to Jesus.  Jesus is the “living water” and the bread which brings eternal life.

Wait on the Lord.

Wait on the Lord.

Wait on the Lord.

God is enough.

God is enough.

God is enough.

Let’s pray. . .

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes provided by Bob Stouffer)

CrossTrainers

Date: March 24th 2010

Speaker: Bob Stouffer

Title: God and Time

Psalm 90:4

This week Bob closed out the book “Infinite Impact” by Stu Webber.

He began with the riddle from The Hobbit

This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountains down.

What is it?  TIME!

Bob wasn’t planning on doing this message but God took him on an about face to look at God’s perspective on time.

The question was asked, “What is God’s perspective on time?”  Bob asked us to discuss this, deeply, not on a surface level.  We were to discuss what we know is doctrinally true about God and time.

God is Eternal

God alone is eternal, believers in Jesus Christ will experience “everlasting” life but we are not ETERNAL beings like God

Dr. Wayne Grudem, in his book Systematic Theology, defines God’s eternality as follows:

“God has not beginning, end, or succession of moments in His own being, and He sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time” (Grudem p. 168)

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit — All three persons, dwell as one ETERNALLY

“…Time does not change God, it has no effect on His being…” (Grudem p. 169)

Jesus was fully human when on this earth, but, since He was fully God, time did not change His divine nature.  Time contstrained His human essence, but His divine nature was not changed.

“…the passing of time does not add to or detract from God’s knowledge: He knows all things past, present and future..” (Grudem p. 169)

God has NEVER ceased to exist

He alone can say, “I AM” !

“The fact that God never began to exist can also be concluded from the fact that God created all things and that He Himself is an immaterial Spirit” (Grudem p. 169)

GOD IS IMMATERIAL SPIRIT.

“Before God created the Universe, there was no ‘time’ at leas not the sense of succession of moments one after another.  Therefore, when God created the universe, He also created time.” (Grudem p. 169)

God views the past as vividly as the present and as vividly as the future.

Psalm 90:4 shows that God views a thousand years as yesterday.

“… all of past history is viewed by God with great clarity and vividness: all of time since the creation is to God as if it just happened” (Grudem p. 170)

“..any one day seems to God to be present in his consciousness forever” (Grudem p. 170)

“..in God’s perspective any extremely long period of time is as if it just happened.  And any very short period of time (such as one day) seems to God to last forever..” (Grudem p. 170)

God is Timeless

“.. God is Timeless..” (Grudem p. 170)

“..God created time and is Lord over time..” (Grudem p. 171)

“..Thus God somehow know stands above time and is able to see it all as present in His consciousness.” (Grudem p. 171)

Some theologians “have objected that God cannot be ‘timelessly eternal’ in the sens described aboe, because the moment He creates something, He is acting in time and therefore He must exist in time.” (Grudem p. 172)

God uses time for His own purposes (Grudem p. 172)

God uses time to display His glory (Grudem p. 172)

“..as God’s peopl we will experience the fullness of joy in God’s presence for all eternity – not in the sense that we will no longer experience time, but in the sense that our lives will go on forever.” (Grudem p. 173)

This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountains down.

This thing – time -all things devours – but this thing – time – DOES NOT DEVOUR GOD!!

Makes your head hurt doesn’t it?  Our heads should hurt when we are attempting to discover new truths about God.  We are told to love the Lord our God with all of our MINDS.

According to Bob, the best sentence in Stu’s book appears on page 3.

“..God is the lor of our entire timelines.  At the same ‘moment’ He hovers over our present, He also walks in our past and goes before our futures.” (Webber, Infiniate Impact p.3)

Bob closed with the following:

CS Lewis once said, “The future is somethign which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

Bob’s timeline started in August of 1958

How will  your earthly timeline end?  When will your earthly timeline end?

How will we use our lives?  In his book, Stu Weber point out that the decisions we make about how we live our lives “shapes our destiny and the interlocking destinies of many, many other people” (Webber,  p. xix)

I want my life to count for something!

I want to make the Infinate Impact of which Stu Weber wrote about.

I want to share the sentement of Mr. Kenneth P. Bowles “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid broadside, throughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow, what a ride!’”

Flame on!!

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(pj quoting Bob’s notes for Crosstrainers 3/24/2010)