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Ambassador4Christ
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« on: November 07, 2003, 05:58:15 PM » |
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The Answer was Silence
A Personal Testimony by Cornelius R. Stam
When I was a youth I was much disturbed about God's will for my life. Raised in a missionary family, I heard many foreign missionaries stress the need for additional helpers in the particular areas of the world in which they were engaged.
I heard missionaries from Africa tell of the appalling need in that great dark continent. Again and again, as I listened to these faithful pioneers, one of my own brothers among them, I felt deeply convicted that I should volunteer for missionary service in Africa.
But then, one evening, I heard a stirring address by a missionary from India. He told of the filth and squalor, the starvation and disease, the superstition and fear among the millions of India still without Christ. I bought Katherine Mayo's book, Mother India, just to learn more about the people of that densely populated land, and this now filled me with feelings of self reproach. I felt that I ought to be out there witnessing to them about Christ.
On another occasion, however, I heard a missionary from China, who challenged us all with the great need among China's millions-one quarter of the world's population, still lying almost wholly in heathen darkness. After hearing this message I could not help feeling that it was to China I should go. My brother, John, was already preparing for service there under China Inland Mission.
To complicate matters still further, a dedicated man of God from South America put his arm around me one night and said: “Young man, have you ever thought of the great spiritual need of the neglected continent just to the south of us? It is so near, yet so sadly ignored. South America needs young men like you to tell its benighted millions about salvation through Christ.” I had known and talked with many missionaries from South and Central America and knew that while the masses there were religious indeed, they too still groped in superstition, idolatry and fear.
What was I to do? I had prayed earnestly day after day that God would give me clear guidance as to which field of service I should enter, but I had become bewildered as I heard about the crying need of the teeming millions in so many parts of the world.
In those days I spent two weeks of most years with Mennonites in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and this year I had been invited to spend two weeks with our beloved friends, Clarence and Martha Hendricks, with whom I still correspond occasionally. They did not know it, but I was determined to use this time away from home to seek and to find God's will for my life. Night after night, before retiring, I cried to God to show me whether He wanted me to witness for Christ in China, or in India, or in Africa, or in South America or, perhaps, in some other place.
One thing I learned from that experience: unanswered prayer can sometimes be the very best answer God could possibly give us. The result of my earnest pleas disappointed me at the time, for the answer was-silence, profound, incomprehensible silence. As I look back, however, I cannot thank God enough for teaching me the spiritual lesson that I must "walk by faith, not by sight," nor even by feeling; that sometimes He would have us c; follow His leading one step at a time, not even certain of the destination.
Evidently God was showing me that He wanted me to stay right where I was, digging more deeply into that precious Book which I had already come to love so much, and meantime witnessing faithfully for Christ as opportunities presented themselves. Already I was becoming actively engaged in street corner meetings and home gospel and Bible study meetings, and soon I was to begin house-to-house visitation in earnest-five days a week for three years.
The path since then has not always been easy—sometimes it has been very difficult, and I have stumbled and failed many times along the way. Yet, I have always deeply loved that great Book and the blessed One it presents. Best of all, I began at an early age to see the importance of "rightly dividing the Word of truth." Ever since my early teens I have been thrilled with the wonderful message of grace and what the Apostle Paul, by inspiration, calls “my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery” (Rom. 16:25; cf. Eph. 3:1-3). Also from youth it has been my sincere desire, not only to understand the Bible but, by His grace, to obey it, and to share with others the light I have received from its pages.
In all this I came to experience the love of a heavenly Father. How tenderly He led me through “the slippery paths of youth,” into a ministry so blessed and wonderful that I could not have asked for more except it were that my service for Him might better reflect the riches of His grace to me.
Yes, sometimes silence is the very best answer that God's love can give.
“True prayer is not a petition that our will may be done by God but that His will may be done in us.”
--Berean Searchlight, March, I982
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nChrist
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« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2003, 11:30:56 PM » |
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Oklahoma Howdy to Ambassador4Christ,
A Personal Testimony by Cornelius R. Stam
Thanks Brother!
I'm convinced that Cornelius Stam found what God wanted him to do. His writing is a powerful tool that God uses to reach the lost and build up HIS children in TRUTH. I love his writing style and his ability to help God's children see and understand that TRUTH in God's Holy Word.
Love In Christ,
Tom
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Willowbirch
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« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2003, 12:34:56 PM » |
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Thank you!
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"Man dreams and desires; God broods, and wills, and quickens."
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Ambassador4Christ
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« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2003, 07:34:00 PM » |
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Oklahoma Howdy to Ambassador4Christ,
A Personal Testimony by Cornelius R. Stam
Thanks Brother!
I'm convinced that Cornelius Stam found what God wanted him to do. His writing is a powerful tool that God uses to reach the lost and build up HIS children in TRUTH. I love his writing style and his ability to help God's children see and understand that TRUTH in God's Holy Word.
Love In Christ,
Tom
Your welcome Brother, and once again I agree with you 100% Grace & Peace |
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Ambassador4Christ
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« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2003, 07:34:51 PM » |
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Thank you!
Your welcome  Grace & Peace |
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Brother Love
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« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2003, 06:20:43 AM » |
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The Answer was Silence
A Personal Testimony by Cornelius R. Stam
When I was a youth I was much disturbed about God's will for my life. Raised in a missionary family, I heard many foreign missionaries stress the need for additional helpers in the particular areas of the world in which they were engaged.
I heard missionaries from Africa tell of the appalling need in that great dark continent. Again and again, as I listened to these faithful pioneers, one of my own brothers among them, I felt deeply convicted that I should volunteer for missionary service in Africa.
But then, one evening, I heard a stirring address by a missionary from India. He told of the filth and squalor, the starvation and disease, the superstition and fear among the millions of India still without Christ. I bought Katherine Mayo's book, Mother India, just to learn more about the people of that densely populated land, and this now filled me with feelings of self reproach. I felt that I ought to be out there witnessing to them about Christ.
On another occasion, however, I heard a missionary from China, who challenged us all with the great need among China's millions-one quarter of the world's population, still lying almost wholly in heathen darkness. After hearing this message I could not help feeling that it was to China I should go. My brother, John, was already preparing for service there under China Inland Mission.
To complicate matters still further, a dedicated man of God from South America put his arm around me one night and said: “Young man, have you ever thought of the great spiritual need of the neglected continent just to the south of us? It is so near, yet so sadly ignored. South America needs young men like you to tell its benighted millions about salvation through Christ.” I had known and talked with many missionaries from South and Central America and knew that while the masses there were religious indeed, they too still groped in superstition, idolatry and fear.
What was I to do? I had prayed earnestly day after day that God would give me clear guidance as to which field of service I should enter, but I had become bewildered as I heard about the crying need of the teeming millions in so many parts of the world.
In those days I spent two weeks of most years with Mennonites in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and this year I had been invited to spend two weeks with our beloved friends, Clarence and Martha Hendricks, with whom I still correspond occasionally. They did not know it, but I was determined to use this time away from home to seek and to find God's will for my life. Night after night, before retiring, I cried to God to show me whether He wanted me to witness for Christ in China, or in India, or in Africa, or in South America or, perhaps, in some other place.
One thing I learned from that experience: unanswered prayer can sometimes be the very best answer God could possibly give us. The result of my earnest pleas disappointed me at the time, for the answer was-silence, profound, incomprehensible silence. As I look back, however, I cannot thank God enough for teaching me the spiritual lesson that I must "walk by faith, not by sight," nor even by feeling; that sometimes He would have us c; follow His leading one step at a time, not even certain of the destination.
Evidently God was showing me that He wanted me to stay right where I was, digging more deeply into that precious Book which I had already come to love so much, and meantime witnessing faithfully for Christ as opportunities presented themselves. Already I was becoming actively engaged in street corner meetings and home gospel and Bible study meetings, and soon I was to begin house-to-house visitation in earnest-five days a week for three years.
The path since then has not always been easy—sometimes it has been very difficult, and I have stumbled and failed many times along the way. Yet, I have always deeply loved that great Book and the blessed One it presents. Best of all, I began at an early age to see the importance of "rightly dividing the Word of truth." Ever since my early teens I have been thrilled with the wonderful message of grace and what the Apostle Paul, by inspiration, calls “my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery” (Rom. 16:25; cf. Eph. 3:1-3). Also from youth it has been my sincere desire, not only to understand the Bible but, by His grace, to obey it, and to share with others the light I have received from its pages.
In all this I came to experience the love of a heavenly Father. How tenderly He led me through “the slippery paths of youth,” into a ministry so blessed and wonderful that I could not have asked for more except it were that my service for Him might better reflect the riches of His grace to me.
Yes, sometimes silence is the very best answer that God's love can give.
“True prayer is not a petition that our will may be done by God but that His will may be done in us.”
--Berean Searchlight, March, I982
This study is helpful, I need this kind of preaching Daily Brother Love  |
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Willowbirch
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« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2003, 01:01:13 PM » |
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 Thank you, A4C! (P.S. 12 more posts until you hit 2000! Then we're gonna have a party for you, okay?)
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"Man dreams and desires; God broods, and wills, and quickens."
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Brother Love
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« Reply #7 on: November 11, 2003, 05:47:20 AM » |
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Oklahoma Howdy to Ambassador4Christ,
A Personal Testimony by Cornelius R. Stam
Thanks Brother!
I'm convinced that Cornelius Stam found what God wanted him to do. His writing is a powerful tool that God uses to reach the lost and build up HIS children in TRUTH. I love his writing style and his ability to help God's children see and understand that TRUTH in God's Holy Word.
Love In Christ,
Tom
DITTO Amen Brother Love |
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Ambassador4Christ
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« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2003, 05:49:04 PM » |
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Thank you, A4C! (P.S. 12 more posts until you hit 2000! Then we're gonna have a party for you, okay?) Thanks Sister |
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Symphony
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« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2003, 10:16:11 PM » |
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Yep. I'm thinking the Lord is answering prayers all about us, we just see what we want to see, so we don't see'm.
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The Crusader
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« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2004, 06:29:00 AM » |
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I agree.
Yes, sometimes silence is the very best answer that God's love can give.
“True prayer is not a petition that our will may be done by God but that His will may be done in us.”
Amen
The Crusader
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Willowbirch
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« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2004, 12:35:02 PM » |
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I agree.
Yes, sometimes silence is the very best answer that God's love can give.
“True prayer is not a petition that our will may be done by God but that His will may be done in us.”
Amen
The Crusader
Amen! |
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"Man dreams and desires; God broods, and wills, and quickens."
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The Crusader
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« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2004, 06:16:18 AM » |
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Once again Amen
One thing I learned from that experience: unanswered prayer can sometimes be the very best answer God could possibly give us. The result of my earnest pleas disappointed me at the time, for the answer was-silence, profound, incomprehensible silence. As I look back, however, I cannot thank God enough for teaching me the spiritual lesson that I must "walk by faith, not by sight," nor even by feeling; that sometimes He would have us c; follow His leading one step at a time, not even certain of the destination.
And another Amen
Your friend and brother
The Crusader
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Ambassador4Christ
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« Reply #13 on: January 25, 2004, 08:56:16 AM » |
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Unanswered prayers... and the secret of contentment Paul writes in Philippians 4:12-13 "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." How did he learn the secret of contentment? Of being content even when "hungry" or "in want"? It went back a number of years to an experi-ence that he tells about in 2 Corinthians 12:7-8 when he had a need in his life. He pleaded with the Lord three times to remove that thorn in his flesh. And the Lord's answer was ... No! Instead of taking away Paul's problem, as Paul had prayed, the Lord said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So Paul then says, "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor. 12:9). In the administration of God's grace that the Lord Jesus revealed to the Apostle Paul, He does not promise to fix all our problems. There is no promise like in the gospels where the Lord promised Israel that "whatever you ask in faith you shall receive." Read through all of Paul's letters where he writes about the administration of God's grace that the Lord Jesus revealed to him for us today, and you never read a promise like 'whatever you ask in faith you'll receive.' Here is the answer to the problem of unanswered prayers today. Claiming a promise that wasn't made to us. Today, under grace, we have the promise of "grace and power" (2 Corinthians 12:  suffi-cient for any problem in our lives, and the Lord Jesus wants us to learn this secret of contentment. Not that He will fix all our problems or "move all our mountains" out of our way, no matter how much faith we may have, but that He is our strength. "I can do everything through Christ who constantly strengthens me!" Have you learn-ed the secret? Do you know God's Grace For Today? By Dennis Kiszonas ================================= Should this devotional be a blessing to you, maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to start receiving the daily word. You may forward this to them, by copy and paste method, and they can use the below link to subscribe. We love to meet new people Daily Inspirational WEB SITE Grace And The Truth www.graceandthetruth.comE-Mail GracentheTruth@aol.com 2 Tim 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. |
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Ambassador4Christ
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« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2004, 09:27:31 AM » |
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"I can do everything through Christ who constantly strengthens me!" Have you learned the secret? Do you know God's Grace For Today?
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