Two for the price of one

Normally on Mondays I post about the sermon the day before. I was also planning to post some thoughts and events of the Nashville ATI conference. They both ended up kind of being the same thing, so here goes.

I arrived in Nashville on Monday after a pleasant weekend with old friends at Ryan & Theodosia’s wedding. (I know, it’s one of the most unique names I’ve ever heard also.) That was a very happy time, and pretty much an IMI reunion.

My family and I stayed at a beautiful condo resort, with two rooms that were pretty much like apartments, and tons of space compared to a hotel room. We got a great deal on the rooms and greatly enjoyed them. We even had some friends over for dinner on Wednesday night who were staying at the same place. The Lane family and the Stearn family, both of whom are very dear friends to us.

I saw many of my old friends, and even some friends I didn’t expect to see at all. I was pleasantly surprised at seeing Shiopei and Shiowei, sisters whom I met at HQ. I enjoyed chatting with them. “Jack”, his bro Micah and their parents, Daniel J., Jonathan G. (all of whom I will probably see again in a short time), my better looking, ugly-toothed alter-ego, JarEd Y. (Jared, Why?) , and so many others. And then “Funky & Spunky”, widow and daughter comedy team, game and visited me over the weekend as they traveled back to Florida from Nashville. I saw so many good friends at N’ville that I felt a little bad for not being able to spend more time with all of them.

The conference itself was outstanding. The speakers were by and large quite good. Doug Small talked about “entertaining God”, in the sense that Abraham did, and applied that to our prayer lives. That is a very good message, though I didn’t hear it in Nashville. I’ve heard it other times. When I did hear Mr. Small speak during the week, it was very, very good. Of course Chris Hogan, Mike Bell, Woody Shoemaker, Ken Pierpont, were also good. (I didn’t physically hear Chris Hogan, but dad liked it.) The Waller family shared about the events and impact surrounding the death of their son Isaac while they were serving with the Institute in Mongolia. That was moving. He really did lay his life down for those people, and the fact that they buried him in Mongolia really impacted the people there.

Mr. Gothard was good also. He was very excited about the new program called “Great Expeditions”. I was around when that idea first came up, and I was very skeptical at first. But after this last week it sounds like a very exciting opportunity with some real potential. My brother took part in that first trip, and will be working on a team to improve the program when he gets back to HQ.

Mr. G also talked about something that he believed to be the most important thing we would learn all week. He said, basically, that if we came away with only this one concept, and all the rest was forgotten, it would be a week well spent. He talked about “Great Expeditions”, but that wasn’t the one thing. He talked about how we need to be light to this dark world, but that wasn’t the most important thing he said. He said we need to get away from this idea of “going to church” and starting thinking more about “being the Church”, but that wasn’t the biggest one. He said “spiritual discernment is more important than intellectual wisdom”, which is so rock-solidly true I could post just about that, but it wasn’t the most important thing he said.

Before I tell you what he said, I should tell you a little background. Mr. Gothard has done things and said things to me personally that have greatly hurt me, even made me want to quit. Now, by God’s grace I have forgiven him, and I can look back now and see God’s hand in all that has taken place, and I am grateful for how things went. God used that to grow me in a BIG way, and I’m grateful for it now. It was quite hard at the time, but God has done just such an amazing thing inside me that I am able to truly forgive and love Mr. G. And I do love him. When I first saw him at Nashville he gave me a hug! He doesn’t do that to everyone, and he said some very kind things to me, so I know he appreciates me also. This was healing to me, and I feel like all our past is under the bridge. (Incidentally, I had to forgive before he asked for it.) He certainly has his faults, but we all do, and in spite of those he is a very gifted Bible teacher and a wise and godly man.

(Boy, you’re doing good if you’ve read this far.)
I say all of that to show that I have a right to be angry and bitter towards the Institute, but I am not. (Thanks to God.) But at the same time, I found myself during the week at Nashville being somewhat cynical. This bothered me a bit. I don’t want to be cynical and/or negative all the time. But I also don’t just swallow everything that’s fed to me. See I used to work for IBLP and I know that the image and the statements made in public are not always backed up by the reality behind the scenes. They don’t lie, but it seems that promises are made that are not fulfilled, or statements made that are premature. The public picture is portrayed as all rosie and much, much blessing, when the reality is very dire and there is much concern and low moral among the staff. (Along with blessings.) So I found myself being a little skeptical and questioning the reality of what was said. Sometimes. Over all things were good, but I found this reaction in me, and I began to understand why there are so many people that are very cynical and harsh toward IBLP. I am not condoning those attitudes, but merely saying that I understand their perspective better I think.

One speaker was particularly discouraging to me. But Mr. Gothard got up after he was done and said something that completely changed my emotions and made me excited and even tearful about the wonderful things God is doing and intends to do in IBLP.

The speaker talked about the importance of vision, and having a purpose, etc. I agree that it is important, and knowing God’s purposes for our lives is valuable and something we should seek. However, this speaker presented that issue as the ultimate, as the most important thing you can do. He said that knowing your purpose, and pursuing it, is the one thing we cannot fail to do. He was communicating that it was the most vital thing to achieving success as Christians. (He was speaking of physical purposes, like what job you are to do, or what your ministry is.) I know the man and so I was pretty certain that he was not intending to come across that way, but I knew that there would be people in the audience that would take what he said out of balance.

I was praying, hard, that God would not let people be deceived or confused. I was imagining some poor young man who hears that and then begins to pursue the things he enjoys and is good at and tries to “do something great for God”, and then gets to the middle of his life and finds out that he has missed the deeper, more important things of a relationship with God. That is where true success lies. We are not to do things for God but we should instead find out what he is already doing and do them with Him! He should be the leader, not us. So I prayed and asked God to communicate the truth to the people. And then Mr. Gothard got up and was the answer to my prayer…

(You sure you want to keep going? This may be my longest post yet. )
Mr. Gothard stood there and said that all those things were good, and important, and it was an excellent presentation of them. But he said if you miss out on this one thing, all of that seeking after your purpose will be in vain. He said that most important activity we can do to bring success and joy to our lives is to Memorize and Meditate on God’s Word day and night! Our relationship with the Lord is the most important thing, and we get to know the Lord better, and learn to recognize his voice better, through time in the Word. Our relationship grows as we meditate. And he said that it’s important to do more than just read it, or even study it, but that meditation is vital. Certainly reading and studying is part of meditation, but not all of it. Meditation is more an activity of the spirit, while studying for example is an activity of the mind. Both are important, and usually go hand in hand. But the point is that we often neglect meditation for other disciplines, when that is really the most important thing we can do to bring success. God promises prosperity to the man that meditates. (Or woman.)

In fact, Mr. G confessed his own failure in this area, and said he believed that impacted the other ATI dads in a negative way, and so he asked all the men to forgive him for that failure. We did of course, and he went on to share about how 5-6 weeks ago he noticed that God was not blessing the ministry as he did. He sensed some sort of block to God’s power. Things that should have gone forward didn’t, etc. So he asked God what the problem was, and God said that he had left his first love of meditation on Scripture. He would rise early, and start writing and using his mind in study, rather than really spending time with God. (Not that he neglected time with God completely, but just in the area of meditation.)

Any way, that really, really encouraged me. It showed me that in spite of my skepticism God is doing wonderful things in the Institute, and will continue to do them. There is more I could say, but I am just about typed out.

I will say that my sermon yesterday was basically what I had shared above, and also some thoughts about Peter walking on the water, and being afraid of the wind and starting to sink. He needed to keep the Lord Jesus as his vision, his focus. When that stopped he started sinking. So when it comes to “vision”, we need to keep our eyes on the Lord, with him as the center, not the “great things” we plan on doing for him. And I believe the best way to focus on the Lord is through time with him through Memorization and Meditation. Much time soaking up his word into our soul, into our hearts. 2 Peter 1 says that all that pertains to life and godliness comes through the “true knowledge” of Christ. That “true knowledge” is something that God reveals to us. We can’t figure it out mentally. (I talk about this in my post on May 15th.) This revelation knowledge, this manifestation of Christ, comes to those that “keep his commandments”. (See John 14:21) Keep = Observe, look at intently, to guard, etc. (i.e. Meditation). Keep does not mean simply “obey”. Obedience comes from the keeping.

After preaching this message we sang “Be Thou My Vision” as the alter call. Several people responded by coming forward. People that normally don’t come forward. At least three men that I can remember, including an 18 year old young friend of mine. His mother also was up there. The Spirit of God was so powerful among us yesterday, I just can’t hardly grasp it. The song service after the message was also very appropriate. And I didn’t choose those songs, yet they fit real well! Wow! Just wow! Praise the Lord, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg if we would let the life of Christ begin to live in us more and more. But that means we have to surrender ourselves to him.

May you do that this week, with much joy and success. May you have the grace to meditate on Scripture day and night. (And may God give you an extra blessing for reading this extremely long post.)