Psalm 18:48b  “You exalted me above my foes;”

[Yes, Lord, “You rescue me from my strong enemies, from my foes who are too strong for me.” (Psalm 18:17)]

“from violent men you rescued me.”

[They “confronted me on the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me” (Ps. 18:18,19).]

Psalm 18:49 “Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name.”

[You are Lord, the God who fights for us. I remember the many times you protected me from many dangers: false accusations, from being put on trial twice for my faith, from legal attacks from a mentally ill lawyer, from the head of the national police personally pressuring me to leave, from an expulsion order from the attorney general of the country…and the list goes on. So now you can fight for me in my present danger. And you will!

You are worthy of glory and honor and exaltation and praise, for you are the Savior of all, especially of those who believe in you. You are worthy of being lifted up among the nations. You are the Most High, you are Lord, you are Sovereign, you are Good, all the time.

In every circumstance I can trust you, bow before you, follow your Word and know that you will work it all out. To you be glory and honor today.

Psalm 18:42 “I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind; I poured them out like mud in the streets.”

[David knew this is your doing, Lord Jesus, for you are his  shield and strength].

18:43-45 [David could say in his situation] “You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations; people I did not know are subject to me. As soon as they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cringe before me. They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.”

At the moment I am facing an unpleasant situation with a nasty neighbor. He thinks he’s my enemy but it’s really Satan who is my enemy. In this situation, like David, I will choose to walk in the fear of the Lord: “depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” The hope of this man coming around in reason is very small, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.

My prayer is from Psalm 86:16,17 “Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant… Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.” And I know He will answer somehow, someway. And I am waiting.

[Your power, Lord Jesus, always triumphs in the end. Praise be to you, O Triune God, for you are faithful to protect, provide and lead us through our daily battles.

Help us to keep on your armor and use well the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, so that Satan may be defeated and you be honored today.]

Summer of 2008

The summer of 2008 proved to be an incredibly stressful one for me. We were finishing up a big construction project for the business, one that had promise of a good profit. However, that  was the year the world-wide financial crisis crashed onto the scene, and our hopes of good sales were dashed. This left us unable for the moment to pay back all the interest-free loans we’d been given. Fortunately the men who had made the loans were willing to wait for repayment.

Then my car was stolen. It was an old one, a 1993 Fiat station wagon, a model no longer in production. Used parts were hard to come by, so it is probable that the thieves immediately chopped it up to sell for parts.

At any rate, we never saw it again. I was sad to lose it, for we had hoped to sell it and use the money to buy a car in Germany. We would just have to trust the Lord to work that out. So we praised Him and moved on.

That summer we had responsibility for organizing three big conferences. One was for all those members in our group who were working with Hindus. The second was a leadership training conference for our leaders from all over the world. The third was the annual conference for our folks here. All three were to be held in the same hotel in late July and would overlap with one another.

I began work on finding a hotel more than a year in advance, and soon, through a Christian travel agent, found one at a good price. We signed the contract and everything looked like it was ready.

However, in early July, the month the conferences were scheduled, the travel agent called and said that they were having trouble with the hotel, should we switch to another place?

Finding an available hotel in high tourist season to take three large groups was unlikely. It was a certainty that the prices would be considerably higher and beside all that, all of our people had been given the address of this hotel and some had already left on long trips, expecting to stay there at the end of their travel.   A change at such a late date just didn’t seem feasible.

The travel agent and I decided to check out the hotel ourselves, making the nine hour drive during the night, arriving in time for breakfast.

What we saw did not look good. The boiled eggs still had chicken manure on the shells; although the plates had been washed, many still had the remains of grease and food from the previous night’s meal on them. The water in the swimming pool was murky. The place in general did not look clean.

We talked with the owner and he assured us it would be in better shape when we came for the conferences, so we decided to stick with it.

The day before the conference was to start, Barbara and I took a bus down to the hotel. This particular bus did not allow cell phones to be used, but at rest stops I kept getting calls from people arriving at the airport who could not find the drivers assigned to pick them up and transport them to the hotel.

I felt really bad about this, but could do nothing. Fortunately these early arrivers were experienced and godly types who eventually found their own way to the hotel.

When we arrived, the hotel was, if anything, worse than before. It was supposedly a three star hotel, but had, in my opinion, become a “no star” hotel.

I found some of the employees who would work with me and in two days we were able to move it up at least two stars. The dishwasher got fixed, the food improved, the pool got cleaned, air conditioners were repaired and extra beds were found.

We bought fans for the meeting rooms as the promised air conditioning was woefully inadequate, and  did what was necessary to clean things up, including buying air fresheners .

At one point I had to go down to the laundry room myself and find sheets and pillows for some of our arrivals, and for several days I worked until 1 or 2 am to get everyone settled.

The difficulty with the transportation company not finding the incoming attendees at the airport continued. There was obviously some spiritual warfare involved.

.  In one case, I sent one of our Hindu workers, an Indian himself, to meet someone he knew. He is quite dark, so he stood out in the crowd, and also held a sign, but still he and the new arrival did not find each other. Similar incidences happened a number of times.

All my work to make the hotel more habitable took place while the leadership training conference was going on.  In addition to this work I was expected to attend this conference and also was scheduled to do some of the teaching.

I was glad that after all the effort of making  improvements in the hotel’s initial condition, that everything seemed to be going  more smoothly. I had no idea that events were going to take us on a drastic turn for the worse.

More on the purpose of life. The Lord God, has given us meaning in life, the possibility of having purpose, which can only flow from Him. Without our Great God, all else is, from a human perspective, meaningless, random, chaos, and chance.

I think, in contrast, of how most people live in the toxic Darwinian, postmodern atmosphere, where meaning is just some chemical reaction we produce in our brains, where might makes right in the survival of the fittest, where everything is natural and therefore acceptable, where morals and ethics are human concepts, changeable at any time, where life ends at death and where worth is nonexistent—this is a description of pure purposelessness.

No one, not even the most ardent atheist who espouses this false philosophy, can live that way. Man without meaning equals despair. As philosophers like Camus and Sartre said, in such a situation, the only serious question is whether to commit suicide or not.

In contrast, the God of the Bible has rescued us from this dominion of darkness, He has brought us into the Kingdom of Love and Light and Life where we can know where we came from, who we are and where we are going.

We can join Him in His great plans. We can have belonging, worth and competence (Eph. 1:18,19). In Jesus Christ we are embraced, accepted, cleansed, forgiven, valued, commissioned and equipped for special service to the King (Eph. 1:3-10).

We can do things that will last for eternity–sharing with others about our King, Jesus, and the salvation He offers, and doing the good works He’s prepared for us. We can know that we belong to the winning side, we can give exaltation to God and we can earn glory, praise and honor (1 Peter 1:6,7) which we can then submit to Jesus in worship when we enter Heaven.

Praise you, Lord Jesus, that your death and resurrection brought to us all these marvelous possibilities and more. So, instead of complaining about things we don’t get, help us to focus on these wonderful gifts, on the light, love and life you have granted us. Help us to rejoice in you all through each day, enjoying living in the Truth where there is meaning, purpose and love.

Psalm 18:36 “You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.”

[You attend to the details I can’t even think about, Lord,  like where my next step will be; your capacity to deal with the minutia of our lives is amazing.

You protect through provision of exactly what we need, and bring us on to the place of achievement and success that you have designed for each—the good works you prepared for us to do (Eph. 2:10).

All credit, honor, praise and glory must go to you, Heavenly Father. You are the One to be exalted, not us in what we accomplish. We play the small role you give, while you move all the events of history along to accomplish the ending of time, the elimination of sin and death–the glorious conclusion you have for us.

I thank you and praise you for the privilege of knowing you, being your child, working as your partner, trusting you by praising in all circumstances. Help us to continually remember that reality is joining you in your plans, not you joining us in ours. If anyone is to follow Jesus, we must deny ourselves take up our cross and follow Him and no one else.

To you, Lord God, be glory and honor in all: may your name be exalted, may your Word be lifted up, may many be drawn to you today through what you are doing in our lives.]