Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Light Fellowship

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 5, 2020
Light Fellowship
 
As with other such start-ups, we first met in homes. One major goal was to develop leadership and out of the five male believers mentioned last week, four were potential elders and one possibly a deacon.
 
This is an unusual situation to start with. In the previous church plant we were involved in, the early believers had been very much fringe people. I earlier described them as starting their spiritual life at minus 22 and it took a long time to get them up to above zero. They all turned out well in spite of the rough spot, some of them going on to do big things for the Lord. Our five present new believers were starting at about minus five and some moved forward rapidly.
 
However, Satan was not slow in seeking to torpedo this new work. A worker from another group brought a young fellow named Falcon, who claimed to be a believer. He attended regularly but since his earliest contacts had been with the Catholic Church, he began to draw the others in that direction.
 
Over time, Falcon and Chris left us for the Catholic Church. Falcon said he was more comfortable there because he never had to take any responsibility, and if he didn’t come one Sunday, no one asked him why. Chris had other reasons: he wanted to get to Europe, and the priest promised to help him with that, while we did not.
 
Then Freedom moved to Europe to marry. He was the one I missed the most, for we had a very close friendship, and his energy, creativity and determination had been key in the development of the fellowship and other believers.
 
In the founding of Light Fellowship we did a lot of things right, but we also made one big mistake. In focusing on leadership development, we failed to keep up the momentum of evangelism. It is a fact that for a church plant to “take off” there needs to be a “critical mass” of fifteen to twenty committed believers. We never did reach that number and eventually, after we left, Light Church fizzled and was closed down.
 
That was a very sad event for me; it was the “death of a vision.” On the positive side, however, most of the believers from Light have joined other churches and continue to grow in their spiritual life, and that is a great encouragement.
 
I have prayed for a “resurrection” of Light Fellowship, clinging to the promise in Psalm 1:3, given to the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.”
 
That phrase, “Whatever he does prospers,” is what stands out to me. May Light Fellowship prosper in whatever way the Lord chooses! Looking back at it, so far it has been that the believers trained and nurtured have gone on to be a blessing to other fellowships. Prospering from God’s point of view can be very different from our perspective and desires. We need to trust God and move on with Him.
 
Picture: Freedom and his wife
Image may contain: 2 people, indoor
Filed under:

Psalm 5:9-10

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 4, 2020
Psalm 5:9 “Not a word from their [my enemies] mouth can be trusted;”
 
[Satan is the father of lies: his native language is deception, so nothing he says can be trusted. Just look at how he dealt with Eve in Genesis 3. Every statement was a twisting of truth either by insinuation (“Did God really say….?”), by outright contradiction (“You will not surely die….”) or by accusation of God (…for God knows that when you eat…you will be like God….”). Not one word from Satan or his forces is reliable.]
 
“their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit.”
 
[In our enemies there is no life or light or love, all is rebellion against what is true, right and good. The words and thoughts of Satan and his hordes are destructive, debilitating and demonic. Yet we somehow naturally believe the lies of the devil, like, “If you do this, you will be happier than in denying yourself for God,” and “Don’t miss this one, you’ll never have another chance to indulge yourself like this.”
 
We are drawn like moths to Satan’s flame, to the illusion of comfort and power, excitement and fulfillment. But we end up getting burned and having, as the Psalmist says, a mouth full of gravel, broken teeth and ongoing pain. Such is the result of listening to advice from the kingdom of darkness.]
 
Give us wisdom and insight, Lord, so that we might discern and willfully reject the lies of the enemy and walk instead in the light of Truth and Righteousness and Grace, so that your Spirit can have full reign in our lives, bringing you ever more glory.
 
Psalm 5:10 “Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.”
 
[You are the One who must deal with my enemies, O Lord, whether they be demons or people being used by the devil. And praise you, Lord Jesus, that you have defeated them through your obedience, humility, meekness and self-denial, rescuing us from the dominion of darkness, bringing us into your Kingdom of Light!
 
What a wonder, what a joy, what security, safety, purpose and freedom–freedom from the evil of the enemy, the lies of Lucifer, the seduction of self and the rot of rebellion! Help us to rest in your protection today by walking in obedience and praise.]
Image may contain: plant, flower, nature and outdoor
Filed under:

Psalm 5:8

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 3, 2020
Psalm 5:8 “Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies—make straight your way before me.”
 
[Praise be to you, Lord Jesus, for you are my Shepherd, who faithfully, consistently, without fail leads me. You enlighten my path like the first gleam of dawn.
 
Praise you that you guide me in your righteousness, meaning that you never lead me to make a mistake or a wrong turn, never cause me to stumble or get lost. If I do go wrong, it’s my own decision to not follow you.
 
In your leadership you are sinless, your motives are pure, your purposes are positive, your plans are practical, your proposals are perfect, your provision is powerful. You are the One to be trusted.
 
And I do desperately need your leadership, because I am the opposite of these qualities: I am small, ignorant and sinful; I have mixed motives, have no control over the future and do not know what is best.
 
Plus, I am faced with powerful spiritual enemies who desire to bring me down. As it says in Psalm 62: 2,3, “How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down— this leaning wall, this tottering fence? Surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place….”
 
The devil and his demons want to defeat God’s plans by destroying my spiritual life, my witness, my marriage, my family, my future. Alone I am helpless against them, lost before the battle begins.
 
But you, Lord Jesus, are the mighty Victor. You have conquered Satan and his forces, and I must flee to you for protection: “My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge” (Ps. 62:7).
 
You, Lord, equip me, empower me, employ me in your grace and might against the forces of evil, for in your armor and strength I can “resist the devil and he will flee” from me. (James 4).
 
Help me today to follow as you lead, Lord Jesus, to be strong in you and the power of your might, to keep on and use your full armor throughout each day. Help me to fight the right enemy with the right weapons so that I may join you in what you are doing, and that you may be honored in my life today.
Image may contain: sky, tree, plant, outdoor and nature
Filed under:

The Way Up

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 2, 2020
“The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets…. ‘Gather to me my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’”
Psalm 50:1,5
 
The Christian life is like a spiral staircase winding upward to Heaven. The central support, the column of Truth, is made of pure gold, while the steps of obedience are of translucent crystal.
 
When we first become followers of Jesus, there are seven steps in place, taking us up one full turn of the stairway. Each step is a major lesson the Lord has for us, teaching us the basics in dealing with our personal sinful tendencies and practices, such as impatience, selfishness, pride, jealousy, greed or lust.
 
Depending on how teachable we are, going up these first steps may go quite quickly, or may take us a long, long time. Some who are unwilling to learn and repent may never make it up these seven steps at all; their refusal to listen to the Spirit strands them on the lower rungs of the spiritual life.
When we come to the seventh step, we have to stop. The golden central support goes on up, but with nothing more to step up on, we are stymied.
 
“OK, Lord, I need another step to go higher!” we pray. No step is given, but in time a big black burden, some type of problem, appears on our shoulder. “What’s this, Lord?” We exclaim. “I need a step up, not something to weigh me down!”
Then as we struggle to balance this burden, we realize it looks familiar. It is a variation of one of those sins we learned to deal with on the way up. If we respond in repentance, we can lower this burden before the Lord, confessing our sin to Him, thanking Him for revealing this to us again and praising Him for His goodness and wisdom. As we do this, the black, ugly burden is miraculously transformed into translucent crystal, becoming the next step up!
So it goes: each problem that comes to us has the potential to be a burden or to be the next step up to move us onward in our walk with Jesus. The key is our response to it. As Psalm 50:23 says, “He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving [giving thanks by faith when we don’t feel like it] honors me, and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord.” Praise and thanksgiving given out of faith as acts of the will, not the emotions, are powerful transformers of problems and sins into the next step up.
 
As we spiral up the staircase, we will have to deal with the same weaknesses of our character over and over. Satan will say, “Look, you aren’t making any progress; you might as well just give in and surrender to this temptation. Enjoy this sin!”
 
The truth is, however, that we are making progress, for each time we encounter the same sins we are on a higher level; and the answer is the same as before: praise God for the revelation, apply truth in obedience and repentance, step up.
 
Prayer: “Lord, help me to cooperate with you as you work to lead me on to higher levels. Help me to think as you think, to become a person of praise, turning problems into progress. Amen.”
 
–From Edified!
No photo description available.
Filed under:

Psalm 5:6

Published by S.M. Wibberley on January 1, 2020
Psalm 5:6 ‘You destroy those who tell lies;’
 
[To lie is to reject truth, to reject you, Lord Jesus, for you are the Way, the Truth and the Life. To lie is to rely on self, elevating my intellect over your Word; it is to take the short-term, easy way out. What a wonder to know that your truthfulness, Lord, is not superficial conformance on your part, but it is what permeates your whole being: it is part of your essence, your essentialness, your heart.
 
Lies automatically destroy those who use them, leading them away from reality into a web of delusion and insanity where the devil keeps them captive.
 
“bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.”
 
[This is far more than just disliking—you, Lord, are repulsed, repelled by lying and murderous people who lightly take the lives of others, who live in deceit, using, hurting others for their own personal benefit.
 
Today’s human traffickers come to mind, living off the brief and miserable lives of others they have essentially condemned to death. ISIS is a more urgent example: men who enjoy killing and try to deceive others into thinking this is good. Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, the leaders of Sudan and Egypt, China and Russia also come to mind. In such leaders and their brutal followers there is no stability, no goodness, no redeeming factors. They are the opposite of what you are, Lord, and you abhor them.]
 
Psalm 5:7 “But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house;”
 
[Before you called us into your family, each of us was one of the abhorred: liars mired in evil and deception. We all had the potential to be what these blood thirsty, murderous and deceitful men were, we just didn’t have the gall or opportunity to act it out.
 
I praise you that you abhorred what we were in our natural state, but at the same time loved us, then redeemed and transformed us by your great mercy.
 
This is an unbelievably wonderful and great turning of the tables, an incredible restoration of true reality, far beyond what any human being could imagine or create. You are a wonder, O Lord of love, God of goodness, King of kindness!
 
“in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple.”
 
[What other response could there be than worshiping before you? And doing so in awe, in adoration, in thankfulness, in joy, in peace, in submission, in belief, in willing, wholehearted obedience? You are God, you are Great, you are Good, and therefore right now I bow before you. May you be glorified in my life today in each decision, each word, each thought, each response, for you are entirely worthy of this honor and much more!]
Image may contain: plant and flower
Filed under:

Psalm 5:4-5

Published by S.M. Wibberley on December 31, 2019
Psalm 5:4” You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil;”
 
[Praise be to you, Lord God, for you are holy and wholly good: you hate evil, you abhor wickedness, you are repulsed by sin and will punish it.
 
It is wonderful that You, O Lord, are the opposite of evil, being pure, pristine and positive, kind, loving and gracious, righteous, forgiving and merciful. You do no evil, wish no evil, promote no evil. You are good through and through.]
 
“with you the wicked cannot dwell.”
 
[In your holy presence, in your blinding, shining light of purity, the wicked are excluded, unable to stand before you. This is a marvelous truth, because it means that in the new Heaven and the new earth there will be no wickedness!
 
Even in this world, those who choose to remain wicked– rejecting your offer of forgiveness in Jesus and cleansing from sin, receiving the righteousness of Christ–cannot live with you. They cannot be in your family, they cannot dwell in your light, they cannot live in your joy because they choose not to do so.
 
“Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19,20).
 
I praise you, God, that with you there is righteousness, justice and power to deal with the problem of evil and eliminate it. You offer your righteousness to all who will come; we desperately need your forgiveness which brings the righteousness of Christ into our lives.]
 
Psalm 5:5 “The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.”
 
[The proud, trusting in themselves, in their own power, wisdom, work and worth, think they can make it on their own. They think they know better than you and reject your Word, your wisdom, your way (Lord show me when I have such an attitude so I may quickly repent!). They cannot enter your sanctuary and in the end, they will be cast out because, in their pride, they have rejected your Son and chosen to get justice (what we all deserve) over receiving mercy and grace (the opposite of what we all deserve).
 
Praise be to you, Lord God, for you take no pleasure in evil, but have great joy in forgiving, cleansing, adopting and loving all those who come to you through the blood of Jesus! May our wonder at your great and gracious heart ever grow and deepen, leading us to new depths of surrender and new heights of worship.]
Image may contain: flower, plant, tree, outdoor and nature
Filed under:

Light Fellowship

Published by S.M. Wibberley on December 29, 2019
As we were praying and working towards seeing a new church started, the Lord was busy working in other people, too. The little photocopy business on the ground floor of our bookstore building was put up for sale. Since we were looking for new means of income in order to make our business platform self-sustaining, this looked like a good opportunity for us.
 
The location would be another plus; having the bookstore on the third floor meant people had to look up before they would see our sign. Owning the business at street level would allow our sign to be easily seen by anyone passing by.
 
After we bought the photocopy business, Freedom, the young fellow who was already employed there said, “I’ll work for you for a month until you hire someone and I’ll stay to train that person. This sounded good to us, so I accepted his offer.
 
After nearly a month of looking, we hadn’t been able to find anyone suitable among the available believers to do the job, so Freedom made us another offer: “I like you. I think I’ll keep on working for you!”
 
So he essentially hired himself, and we were not sorry. He was creative, pleasant, hardworking, and honest. Those last two qualities were rare ones in the culture.
 
After three months of getting to know him, we began to talk with him about spiritual things. He engaged eagerly. Later he told me the reason for his interest. He’d been a thinker from childhood and had looked carefully into the faith of his fathers. After thinking long and hard about it, he’d rejected this religion in his early teens and became an atheist.
 
Then at age eighteen, while serving his military duty, he was on patrol, sitting on a mountainside around a campfire with his fellow soldiers and he said he suddenly realized that atheism was not an honest stance for anyone to take.
“No one can know for sure that there’s no God,” he said out loud. Looking up at the star-studded sky, he added, “Maybe He lives on the back side of the moon!”
 
That was pretty impressive to me, to see how God had been working in Freedom’s life. Here was a fellow with a 6th grade education who had more insight than many professors with doctorates who persist in holding onto the intellectually dishonest position of atheism.
 
Freedom then went back and reexamined his family’s form the local religion, but ended up rejecting it again. He was now actively looking for direction.
 
After moving to our city he had joined a Mafia group in the neighborhood of our shop and was working toward a leadership position. However, as we shared the gospel with him, he became aware of the vast differences between what the Word says, what the local religion says and what the Mafia had to offer.
 
One Monday after attending Salvation Church with us, Freedom surrendered himself to Christ. With him was a friend, Falcon, who had heard the gospel in another city; he also prayed to accept Christ. These two, along with three other new believers became the core of our new church plant.
 
One of the other early members was Robert, who had a sister and brother-in-law who had come to Christ in another city through the correspondence course. Robert’s sister had talked with him at length about spiritual things. He went to the small meeting his sister attended and was impressed with the message.
 
When he returned to Ankara, his sister gave him the address of one of our workers. Robert got in touch with him and after some weeks of Bible study, Robert made his commitment to Christ.
A third fellow, Chris, actually was led to the Lord by some-one in Salvation Church, but he wanted a smaller fellowship. He met us through the bookstore and joined.
 
The last new believer, Sam, came to us through a chance contact with another one of our workers, an aggressive evangelist. He dragged Sam to one of the early meetings and it was obvious that Sam was not happy to be there. However, as time went on he began to attend on his own, and became the fourth member.
 
These were later joined by two sisters who had gone to the Anglican Church looking for potential husbands, but instead had met one of our lady teammates. She invited them to a bookstore event where they heard the gospel and shortly thereafter made commitments of faith in Jesus. So “Light Fellowship” was launched.
Picture: Robert and his wife with us.
Image may contain: 4 people, people smiling, people standing and suit
 
Filed under:

Psalm 5:2

Published by S.M. Wibberley on December 28, 2019
Psalm 5:2 “Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.”
 
[Praise you, Heavenly Father, that with the help of the Spirit, we can come to you through Jesus in prayer. Praise you that when we don’t know how to pray or what to pray, you, Holy Spirit both guide us and intercede for us.
 
Praise you, Lord Jesus, that you also pray for us. Prayer is your idea, it is your invitation for us to join you in your great work; it is your invitation into your throne room, into your heart.
 
Praise that you give ear to us, consider our heart’s desire, listen to our cry for help—and that you will answer. “In the day of my trouble I will call to the Lord, for he will answer me” (Psa. 86:7). Yesterday I got a very large, unexpected bill, and could turn to you, call to you for help, and and rest in you, knowing that you will answer—although I don’t know how at this point, I do know that, “The Lord fulfills the desires of those who fear him, he hears their cry and saves them” (Psa. 145).]
 
[The One we pray to is our King and our God, not to some far away deity, not to some heartless, capricious, unconcerned god like that of Is.lam. No, our God is the Ruler of the universe, the Sovereign over all, the Creator and Sustainer, the final Authority, the Beginner and Ender of all—and we belong to Him!
You, Lord Jesus, are my Shepherd, my Lord and my Savior. You are intimately interested in and concerned with your children, you are present with us wherever we are, you go before us, you keep your hand on us, you guide and direct in the smallest details.
 
You are my wonderful, warm, wholly good and strong God! In you I can trust, rest, believe and praise, in and for all things. I can be at peace, full of hope, overflowing with joy and surrounded by grace no matter what difficulties come into my life today.]
Image may contain: tree, sky, outdoor and nature
Filed under:

Provision and Protection

Published by S.M. Wibberley on December 27, 2019
 
“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
Psalm 50:14,15
 
The last few days of my time in the States in June brought one disaster after another. The almost new starter in my van went bad and the replacement one I had installed in PA cost twice what one did in CT. I got a sore throat the last night there, the beginning of a cold—and I didn’t have time to get sick. My plans to return to CT on the 17th were foiled by the decisions of others, making me wait until the 18th, so I lost one day of work in CT. My computer seized up and wouldn’t allow me to send email.
 
When I finally did leave on Friday for CT, I realized I’d forgotten to give an important item to someone and had to return to do that. On the way home the traffic was the worst I’ve ever seen, with numerous slowdowns, including going 10 miles an hour for 24 miles.
 
At the one gas station stop I made, someone was in the single bathroom for a long, long time. Then I locked myself out of the van by accident, with the keys inside. I was late in getting home, losing three hours of good work time. And the materials I’d ordered two weeks ago hadn’t been delivered yet! Then when we brought the pickup truck over to unload the roofing I’d brought, it ran out of gas halfway there. Then I realized that I’d forgotten the charger for my computer in PA, and since I was leaving for Germany Monday morning, there probably wouldn’t be time to get it.
 
In each of these happenings, I was weak: things certainly were beyond my power to control. And in each of these happenings the Holy Spirit said to me quietly, “Don’t complain; this is an opportunity to praise!” He had to remind me because I’m a slow learner–and with His help in each instance I did give thanks, for our God is Sovereign and Good, Wise and Strong. Everything that happens comes with His full knowledge as well as His purpose and grace. The chance to be weak, to appear foolish or to have plans foiled, are opportunities to give Him glory and to honor Him through the praise of faith.
 
As these burdens came one after another, with His help I carefully lowered each one before Him in praise, and was able to stand upright, unencumbered by self-pity, anger, frustration, disappointment, or complaining. Each event then became a step up in my walk with Him, an opportunity to take up His grace, to rest in trust and to rejoice. What a privilege to walk with such a God! What a privilege to go through difficulties so we can honor Him with praise.
 
And as I praised, He worked all out, true to Psalm 50:23, “He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.”
 
I never really got sick. At the gas station I could get back into the locked van because the back door was not latched but tied shut to accommodate the roofing I was carrying. The building materials arrived early the next day and were exactly enough for the job. God sent people to help. All the work got done. The computer straightened out with a restart. The charger arrived an hour before I left for the airport, and He enabled me to be completely ready for the trip.
 
What a God we have! Even if things don’t work out as we desire, we can still praise Him for His wisdom and for how He will use this. Truly, Knowing Jesus is Enough for Joy.
 
Prayer: “Lord, help me to always think in terms of Psalm 50:23, praising you in and for all things, knowing that you do what is best and I can trust you. Amen.”
 
From Edified!
 
Image may contain: sky, cloud, tree, outdoor, nature and water
Filed under:

Hope for Life

Published by S.M. Wibberley on December 26, 2019
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that your lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
 
God is an inveterate gift giver. He loves to pour out goodness on His children every day, and Christmas is a good time to remember that.
One of the gifts He’s given us through Christ is the privilege of personal worship and the powerful positives that flow from it. Such worship is focusing on our triune God, praising Him for who He is, standing in the light of His presence, looking away from the temporal to the eternal, setting our hearts on things above—these all give Him glory and bring transformation in our souls.
 
Here’s a worship entry from my prayer journal, meditating on Romans 15:13 which lists out other gifts our good God loves to give us.
 
“May the God of Hope….” and that is what you are, Lord: the God who is hope, who brings hope, who calls us to hope—a hope which is a rock-solid certainty based on your unchanging, perfect character—you promise, and you deliver.
 
Praise you for your desire to fill your children “with all joy and peace….” This says so much about you, my Lord God. Not just some joy and peace, but all joy and peace. You give us a joy that is unquenchable, unalterable by the difficulties, tragedies and suffering in life, because you, the unchanging God are its source.
You give us a peace that is sure and sound, deep and dynamic, restful and responsible. As we confess and receive forgiveness, you give us peace with you, peace with ourselves, peace with others—a vibrant peace, a powerful peace, a renewable peace, one which can be restored each time we sin. You are truly the God of joy and peace, giving us in abundance these deep qualities every person longs for.
 
Then comes our part: “as [we] trust in him….” Praise you, Lord, for the role you have given us in having this joy and peace. We must trust, believe, live in the truth of who and what you are.
 
As we look away from the problems, aggravations, disappointments and difficulties of life and look up to you, it is clear that we can trust you in all that comes to us. You are the Great Shepherd, the All-Powerful King, the Everlasting Sovereign, the Ruler of the universe, the Lord of Glory, the Spinner of the earth, Bringer of the dawn, the Beginner and Ender of time. Even though the bridge before us seems too short, as we trust you, you will give us a way across.
 
We can trust you by responding with praise, no matter how painful our situation is, because you, in your wisdom, grace and mercy have allowed this for good in our lives and for glory in yours. Forgive us for the many times each day we trust ourselves and not you and therefore complain.
 
Praise you that trusting is the doorway to more blessing: “trust…so that your lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The more we trust you, the more joy and peace you give us and the more Holy Spirit-empowered hope we can receive, leading to more praise and positive, powerful trust.
 
And as we trust, we become a cup of hope, a basin of hope, a spring of hope, a river of hope to everyone we meet, for it will flow out in our attitude, in our words, in our actions, in our reactions.
 
Glory be to you, O Great and Powerful One; you are Wise and Loving, Just and Merciful. You provide so that we may give you ever-increasing glory before the world!
 
Prayer: “Forgive me for being busy here and there with this and that, and not spending time with you, Lord Jesus. Help me to be in the Word, in personal worship, in prayer and in confession every day, to live in the light of your presence all through the day. Amen.”
–from Edified!
Image may contain: sky, outdoor and water
Filed under: