The Alliance eCommunity: The Alliance eCommunity -> Bob Fetherlin's Blog

At the height of winter in Helsinki, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia, there are only three or four hours of light a day. For many local residents this results in Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD. Light therapy is the most effective treatment for SAD.

There are known locations in these cities where people can go to get their daily dose of light. One in Helsinki is Cafe Engel. Coffee and pastries are served up with heavy concentrations of electric lights throughout the restaurant. It's a popular place in the winter because people long for light.

We were designed for light. When we don't get enough of it, the likelihood of our struggling with irritability, anxiety, weight gain, and insomnia increases.

Our souls long for light as well. Jesus, the light of the world, shines brightly in and through those who know, trust and worship him, who in repentance and belief have invited him into their lives to push back the darkness that's a part of our fallen nature, that characterizes our human journey. With his light comes overwhelming hope!

May we have a growing concern for those who have never been exposed to the light of Christ! May we be moved to action to get light to them.

To follow Bob on Twitter, his username is Fetherbird.

With all the hours I spend on airplanes, you'd think I'd be a pretty calm flier. I am most of the time. But today we hit some pretty rough air and it lasted for close to an hour. Not only was I concerned and jittery, so were several other passengers around me. It was downright scary.

Except for one very calm guy. While my knuckles were turning white, there he sat peacefully as if he was sitting by the fireplace in his living room reading the paper. "How can this guy be so calm in the midst of this turbulance?" I wondered.

Then I discovered he was a commercial pilot. He understood what the plane could handle. He had been on this "sky" road many times before. He knew there was no real reason for concern even though several of us were about to lose it.

Well, we eventually landed safely and my pulse slowed, my heart quieted. Then I began to wonder, "Why were you so up tight, Fetherlin?"

Upon further reflection, why do we as God's beloved ever get up tight? Isn't our mighty God in control? Does he not do all things well? When we face strong winds, updrafts and downdrafts, storms and even sleet in our journey, is he still not with us? He knows what we can handle and will not allow us to be tested beyond our limit.

Hopefully the next time turbulence comes, I'll remember.

In fear and amazement his disciples asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him." Luke 8:25

He will not let you be tested beyond what you can bear. 1 Cor 10:13

Dr. David Garrison, author of Church Planting Movements, met recently with Alliance missions leaders. Something he said greatly challenged me. If we focus on the question "What can I do?," the Great Commission will never be fulfilled. No one of us has what it takes to complete it.

Rather the strategic question is "What's it gonna take?" It's gonna take more than I can do, more than any one of us can do. It's gonna take kingdom synergy, lots of people working together in power of the Holy Spirit, people fully devoted to Christ, committed to Him, His mission and working under His lordship with the forces of heaven. It's gonna take pouring ourselves out, even sacrifice. It's gonna take God at work through us. His joy is to empower people fully committed to Him and His mission.

What's it gonna take? Everything we are and everything we have. God's power and involvement. Pouring it out until there are zero unengaged, unreached people groups left on this planet. May this happen in our lifetimes!

The story is told of a couple returning back to their homeland for retirement after close to fifty years of serving overseas. They had faithfully poured themselves out to see local communities of faith established among a people who previously had little if any access to the gospel. After all their toil and tears, they arrived home with no one to meet them at the airport.

The more the husband thought about no one being there to welcome them home, the more he became embittered. "Doesn't anyone care that we gave our lives away for Christ, loving a people very different from us and seeing Christ's church established among them?" His wife urged him to get alone with God and work out the answer to his frustration.

The husband went into the bedroom and closed the door. After more than an hour, he came out with a radiant look on his face. "What happened?" his wife asked.

"God helped me see that we're not home yet," replied the husband.

In whatever you may be doing for the King and the kingdom today, remember that your reward does not come from others here on earth. You're not home yet!

I love a great fireworks display. Watching the explosion of sounds, the cocktail of colors and intricate patterns of light against the night-time sky delights me.

Fireworks are beautiful but brief. They are visible one moment and gone the next. The delight quickly passes.

This is the month to celebrate Thanksgiving. It's that time when we have a national holiday to give thanks to God for who he is, for his goodness and faithfulness, for his bountiful provision. We have one day a year set aside to do this.

I'm guilty. I've planned ministry initiatives, had them all on paper with all the key people lined up and committed to carrying them out, then invited God to bless my work. It really was more my work than his when I stop and think about it. Prayer was the last component.

As we think about four Pushing Back the Darkness initiatives, where does prayer fit in? It's got to be first and foremost. Today we're praying . . . before we know the countries where these initiatives will be birthed, before we know the people who will be sent, before we know the strategy. This prayer is with the understanding that if God is not in these initiatives from the start, they're sure to fail. If God's power is absent, we'll be fighting with the weapons of this world. Instead, my heart's passion and longing is to fight "with weapons that are not of this world, that have divine power to demolish strongholds" (2 Cor 10:4). The places where these four initiatives are likely to be birthed will be places that are strongholds of darkness, where intentional barriers have been set up to keep anything and anyone associated with Jesus Christ out. Only God's power can break down these centuries-old strongholds.

So I'm praying. Many others are praying. You're invited to pray. The first probe team is on the ground now in Central Asia. Pray for God to guide them, for favor with local people, for great connections with those already seeking and serving Christ in these difficult places, for eyes of faith to see what God wants them to see, for his revelation of what he wants to C&MA to do to help push back the darkness. The desire of our hearts to invest among people who today have critically low access to the gospel. This is high risk . . . hard, rocky soil with many potential weeds to choke the seed . . . extremely difficult . . . and quite frankly overwhelming from where I sit. But prayer gives me hope. It strengthens my heart and the hearts of those on the probe team today. And it demonstrates desperation for God's involvement, leading this right from the start.

This is not about us going in, then inviting the King of Glory to follow us. It's about his going in ahead of us, then our discerning how to follow him!

All of us long to understand why we're here on this planet, what our purpose is. These words from Hudson Taylor are challenging and insightful as we seek to discover our purpose:

"Finding one's purpose with God can be a strange and mysterious journey. Or it can be as plain as asking God for a task and then watching your desire for that task grow within you.

Problem is, most of us forget to ask God to fill us with a fervent spirit to serve him. Then years later, we wake up and realize we had our life. We made our small choices . . . our safe choices.

But somehow we missed the richness of following our God down an unchartered path."

Consider this: Ask God for a fervent spirit to serve him, do with all your heart the tasks he puts in front of you to do, and follow him down an unchartered path.

As a Christ follower, are you growing? If so, what have you done in the last week to contribute to your growth?

There are two dimensions to personal spiritual growth. First and of greatest importance is God's part . . . his grace and redemptive involvement, his Spirit's work. Your intentional investment is the second.

I'm sure you've nourished and cared for your body in recent hours. Have you nourished your soul from the Scriptures? Has encouraging time with other believers been a part of your recent schedule? Are you reading a faith-building book? Other than a brief pause to thank God for your food, any prayer with another person over the past twenty-four hours? Have you had an unanticipated experience of awe in realizing how great God is? In the last couple of days, have you felt at all overwhelmed by his love for you? Has the name of Jesus been mentioned in any conversation this past week with an unbeliever? Is there an area of your life you're now working on in an effort to become more like Christ?

Have you had any death-to-self funerals today? Has self been on the altar to die once again so that Jesus can live in and through you? When selfishness has welled up within you, have you applied the Spirit's power to crucify that old nature?

Do you right now have a grateful heart? Has that normal bent to complain and talk negatively about others been replaced by words of thankfulness, encouragement, worship and blessing?

If you've been too busy to think about growing in these areas, stop for just a moment. Take a deep breath . . . and ask God to help you grow to become more like Jesus . . . and to invest in those areas of life that are most important in his sight. You may be very surprised at what can happen as you play your part . . . and he plays his!

Here's a huge question that has been stalking me for weeks now. If we brought every US Alliance international worker home and started all over again, where would we go? In other words, if we could make a fresh start today, to what countries would we go? What countries would we not go to? Let's ponder this question in our hearts for a few moments . . .

In some places where we have people today, we'd continue. In other places, we'd say,

Having missionaries in this country last century was important, but it's not as needed now. Today there are Alliance churches and many other partners there who can carry on the work. In alignment with the heart of the Apostle Paul and A.B. Simpson, let's go to places and peoples where access to the gospel is critically low . . . that those who have not yet been told about him will see, and those who have not yet heard will understand.

If we're in countries we would not go to, we should put a transition plan in place and with resolve, graciously, gradually exit. History tells us those churches will get along much better without us than most of us would think . . . because even though we are no longer there, God is! And the more they depend upon him rather than us, the healthier they'll be.

The result of thinking through this strategic question well helps us see where we need to be going to push back the darkness!

Most who read this blog will never meet my Mother. She's 85 now, frail, with deteriorating eyesight. Recently she signed a power of attorney so that I could help her with her bill paying and banking.

As I got into her financial records, I noticed a mysterious, monthly withdrawal of a relatively substantial amount. Concerned, I asked her for an explanation. "Oh, that's what I give to the Lord each month. I have a missons pledge, a building fund pledge, plus I give to support the on-going ministry of the church." I was shocked . . . the amount in question was nearly 40% of her very limited monthly income.

I wanted to blurt out, "But Mom, that's too much. You're giving more than you can afford!"

Before I could get these words out, Mom reassured me, "Bob, God has always taken care of me."

Upon further reflection, I realized this kind of giving has been a part of Mom's heart and practice for years. She's obsessed with Jesus, and this is an expression of that holy obsession. Now it's up to me to not only be challenged by her example, but to follow in her footsteps.

Malachi 3:7-10 puts the challenge before us:

"Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty.

But you ask, "How are we to return?"

"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me."

But you ask, "How do we rob you?"

"In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse-- the whole nation of you-- because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

I'm grateful for this heritage of giving!