Hi all,
Thank you for your prayers for us and our family. Brian continues to recover well from his back surgery, for which we are very thankful. Barb and I are well, as is Chris.
We have ministry trips coming up in the next weeks and months, and Chris is always a concern for us. Being mentally about 4, though physically he is 44, he asks the staff at the group home when Dad is coming. On Fridays, he sits on the edge of his bedbout 8am, and calls out to the staff, saying looking out the window, knowing I will arrive a: “There’s dad!” when he sees my car pull in. He is always in the back of our minds as we travel. Thanks for your prayers for his peace.
Orlando conference, September 20, see above.
We are keeping the numbers small as we do, to maintain intimacy, allow for questions and answers, personal prayer, and flexibility to flow with the Lord.
House Churches
CWOWI continues to grow month by month as house churches start, or older ones who want to be part of others on the same spiritual page. The biggest change I’ve seen in these last 23 years of CWOWI, is that people want to do house church because they want the real, the genuine. They don’t seek the fellowship of house church because of hurt from an auditorium church, but because they want a tangible reality found in relationships in Christ. It is amazing.
KWOWI
In the last couple of years, we have all seen the cost of living go up, which hits second —and third-world nations particularly hard. This means our sponsors’ support doesn’t go as far as it used to, so we will be changing how we disburse their support in the coming months.
Support of the children will continue, with the funds focusing on church family activities for the children rather than going to each family individually. In this way we can group supporting funds together to reach all the children with food, physical needs, Bible education and such, in a more effective way. Additionally, as our sponsored children ‘graduate’ from our support, which is at the elementary level, we are receiving increased requests for tuition help for high school, trade school, and college. Being able to pool resources will enable KWOWI to be more flexible for these needs in the future.
The difference between faith and trust
Faith flows from a revelation from the Lord. By grace are we saved – grace is a revelation of God or His plan. Peter received grace, a revelation from the Father that Jesus is the Christ. When he spoke it out, that was faith. Noah received a revelation about the flood and instructions to build the ark. Faith was his response. Faith is always based on a revelation, a grace first. Faith is our response to grace.
Hope is of the soul, the mind and emotions. Grace is a revelation, and that revelation causes our mind to imagine what it will be like when….that is hope.
For instance in Mark 5: 26-28 the woman with the hemorrhaging condition; “When she had heard of Jesus…she said, ‘If I just touch His clothes I will be healed.'” When she heard of Jesus and all those healings, she had a revelation she would be healed, and that gave her hope. Faith was her touching the hem of His clothes – her action based upon the revelation, which had given her hope. Faith was the response.
In Mark 10: 46-52 blind Bartmaeus stood by the road, and “When he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth he cried out: ‘You Son of David (Messiah) have mercy on me.'” Bartimaeus had a revelation that Jesus was Messiah, just like Peter did in Matthew 16: 16-17. This produced hope and the faith to call Jesus the Messiah out loud in the midst of the crowd. Jesus told him: “Go your way, your faith has made you whole.”
Hebrews 10: 16-20 tells us that God cannot lie, so once He promised Abraham that he would become a mighty nation, He swore by Himself to back up the promise. “By these two things we lay hold of the hope set before us, which serve as an anchor of our soul, firm and secure. It enters into heaven behind the veil, where Jesus has already gone…”
Hope enters into heaven which means our soul, imagination, thoughts, emotions. First came the promise, which is a revelation of God’s intent. Revelation (grace) produces hope in our soul, and then we respond with an action, and that is faith. That is why “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” First the revelation, then hope is produced, then faith is our response. We see that pattern throughout the Bible, and after these verses in Hebrews chapter 10, he goes right into the ‘hall of faith’, in chapter 11 – and they all followed the same pattern. Revelation, hope, faith responds.
All of that to say that trust is different.
Trust is passive. Faith is active. Faith is our response to a revelation of God’s will or plan. Trust is passive, based on knowing Him and His character from His past faithfulness. Faith is based on a revelation of something that will happen. Trust is based on what He has already done. Trust is therefore at peace not knowing exactly what will happen, because He has proven Himself faithful in the past.
Proverbs 3: 5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” Trust is based on when we don’t know the future, but we know that whatever happens, He will be there, He has it under control, His provision will be revealed when it is needed. We choose NOT to lean on our own understanding.
Trust turns things completely over to God. Trust is passive, faith is an action based on a specific revelation. Proverbs 30: 5 says He will be a shield to those who trust Him. That is often hard, sitting in neutral so to speak. It gets easier the more and better you know Him. The New Testament speaks of ‘being persuaded’ by the Lord.
Romans 4: 21 says of Abraham: “Being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able to do.” Paul wrote in II Timothy 1: 12: “I know Him in whom I have trusted…and am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve entrusted to Him until that day.”
Trust comes to the end of oneself. While faith is go, go, go based on a revelation – Noah keep building that boat in spite of those all around you who don’t believe. Abraham keep walking to the Promised Land, Joshua keep marching around the city. But trust is passive, based on a quiet assurance because we have become fully persuaded that He will do what He says, and that He will keep those and that which we’ve entrusted to Him. And that trust comes through knowing Him.
My suggestion is to take time and review His faithfulness to you to this point. If you weren’t with Jesus now, would you even be alive? Review His faithfulness. Hebrews 11: 11 says; “Sarah received strength to conceive and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she had judged Him faithful who had promised.” Judge God’s faithfulness in your own life. Take the time to review it. You too will then grow in faith, and trust, which brings peace and rest.
Trust comes from knowing someone’s character. As the Lord was there for you in the past and as He is here with you now, so will He be in the future. Rest in that. Based on His past record of faithfulness, be fully persuaded that what He had promised, He is faithful to do.
Thank you for being in our lives!
Blessings!
John & Barb, Brian & Amy.
