Leaving the Comfort Zone to Experience God's Provision

Back in October I had a post Could This Be God's Provision? in which I described a quandary related to how I support my family. I was good at my work as a consultant designing software. Unlike most of my consultant co-workers, I actually had a local client and did not have to travel on business very much.

Then it happened. My boss' boss told me she wanted me to sell more consulting services vs. actually be the one to do the work. This began a couple of months of introspection about my career and God's provision. I was comfortable where I was and what I was doing. But was I too comfortable? In the last few years I have been trying to be alert to the leading of the Holy Spirit and I really wondered "Was I supposed to say 'yes' to this career change? Was there a reason this opportunity presented itself? Was this an accident? Is this a door of opportunity that has opened for a short time and I'm supposed to walk thru the door... without having to know the final outcome?"

In the previous post I told of several friends from church who found themselves no longer being able to remain employees and actually had to take a financial risk and make a leap of faith to buy out the boss and become business owners. I had every reason to believe they became closer to God and God's will in the process. I began comparing my situation to theirs and wondering if this was my time in life that God wanted me to get out of my comfort zone and take a leap of faith and trust in His provision.

Well... guess what happened?

Since October I talked to many different people. I made a point to talk to some self employed Christian men who had taken some risk in their work lives. I talked to trusted co-workers. I would say about 90% of the advise I got was to "go for it" (the change to marketing that is). I prayed for wisdom and discernment. I asked God to help me honor Him in whatever I was supposed to do as His provision for my family.

I work in a very matrixed organization so I have a lot of different managers and told them all I thought I wanted to make a switch to do more selling even if that meant I had to leave my comfortable, no-travel technical position. All were supportive. I had only one final phone call with the "big boss" who started the whole process by telling me to worry more about selling and less about delivery (doing it myself). I scheduled the call about two weeks in advance where I expected to give her my "Yes I'd like to do this. I'd like to change my job title. I'm willing to take on a sales quota."

Two days before my call, everything changed. I found out the very same boss who had told me to sell more only two months earlier had suggested my name to take a technical leadership role on a project with a major electronics company. I must admit my first reaction was that this was a very bad sign. She must have reconsidered and decided I couldn't sell.

Then I started to get more information. She didn't suggest my name to keep me from changing to a marketing post. She suggested my name to take a leadership position at one of her most important accounts. It turns out this client was not just any client but a client doing a huge amount of business with my employer. I wouldn't just be consulting. I would be working directly for an influential technology executive at this firm. I wouldn't just be working a couple of hours away from home. There was a very real possibility of a trip to China and Toronto, Canada. This "delivery" position had a huge amount of impact and visibility.

So now you know. I sought counsel from many Christian men I trusted. I prayed for discernment. I prayed for God to show me His will. I didn't switch job titles to go into marketing. I am genuinely excited about my new challenge and the many different people I will meet from many different cultures. I now look at the whole exercise about going into marketing to have been more about "am I willing to leave what is comfortable if that is what God wants me to do?" And.. I now leave Sunday morning for China. Ain't God good!

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

I Closed My Business. Was I Correct in Discerning God's Will?

In the spring and early summer of 2005, I began wondering if God was asking me to take my interest in spiritual journaling and writing about my faith to a higher level. At the time, I was also very concerned about the impact of globalization on my career designing business software. I began to wonder if God was leading me to start a business "on the side" to both develop my spiritual gift of writing and provide for the financial needs of my family.

In July of 2005, I believed God wanted me to do it. I felt even if my business venture was not a financial success there must be something God wants me to learn from the process. My plan was to provide some inspirational material "for free" but also offer some Christian material available for sale as eBooks for a very nominal fee (eg. $2.95) and take payments using PayPal. I wasn't expecting to make a lot of money but I wasn't risking a lot of money either. I decided I'd rather try and fail than not try and wonder for the rest of my life whether I had missed out on serving God's purpose or missed out on some blessing He had in store for me.

I took a long lunch from work one day and drove down to the county clerk's office and for $20 took out a business license for Caleb's Publishing. The name is a reference to the Old Testament character Caleb who was one of the twelve spies Moses dispatch to scope out the promised land.
Here's what I wrote back then. (Click here for the original.)

About Caleb's Publishing™

Caleb's Publishing™ was founded by Philip Hartman in July 2005 as a "leap of faith." Like many men in their mid-40's I had achieved some success in my profession but began wondering if God had something else in mind. This then became a frequent topic in my prayer life for approximately 1.5 years. Along the way, I was introduced to the idea of combining a business with a personal ministry. I also began regularly keeping a spiritual journal and discovered I really enjoyed writing about matters of faith. What you see is the result of this spiritual journey so far. I don't know where this journey is going to take me, but that is part of the fun!

Incidentally, I highly recommend the book Halftime by Bob Buford to any man who is feeling the same way. Also, visit the halftime.org website.

I hope to serve the community by:

• Providing original and thought-provoking material to assist Sunday School teachers, small group discussion leaders, pastors, and anyone seeking a closer relationship with God
• Giving you the benefit of the many hours I have spent in research over the last several years reading various books, articles, and websites. If something was thought-provoking or convicted me, then I suspect it may have the same impact on you.
• Encouraging "regular Christians" who feel God may have chosen to use them for His purposes thru their gift of writing.
• Providing a wider, Internet audience for anyone who has a message or story to tell. I want to publish both unique Christian works and original secular works in fields such as history.

Where did the name of the company and website come from?

I devoted a lot of my spare time in the evenings over the coming months to creating a website, writing, editing some sermon materials I inherited from my father and grandfather, trying to figure out how to show up in search engines like Google, and more. I did learn a lot. I felt good about sharing my faith in this way. I was amazed to find from my website statistics that my little website got visitors from far away places like the UK, Australia, Canada, India, Finland, and more.

However, one thing I was not doing was making money. In hindsight, I have come to understand how much free Christian material is available over the Internet. (Like this blog.)

Without any real fanfare, I officially closed Caleb’s Publishing today as a business entity. The ISP still hasn’t shut the site down even though I never renewed the hosting contract.

Now I must wrestle with whether I was correct in how I discerned God’s will 1.5 years ago. Was he leading me to start the business as I thought? Does it even matter if I didn't make money (espcially if I didn't risk much money)? Was it vanity on my part? Was I right about developing my own writing but wrong about the publishing other people’s writing? Was God trying to teach me something that did not depend on whether the business made money? I guess I’ll never know for sure until I’m in heaven some day. For the moment, I'd like to think I did what He wanted. I took a chance for Him. I got out of my comfort zone. People on the other side of the world did read some of what I wrote. I might have had a positive impact.

God, have I learned the lesson about writing and publishing You wanted to teach me thru Caleb’s Publishing? Did I discern Your will correctly? If not, then I pray that You correct my ways and help me discern Your will properly. If I did, then I pray that You reveal to me what You would have me do to serve You next. Amen.

Copyright © 2006 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Preparation for His Purposes

My blogger friend Donny Prater shares a great lesson for all of us about how God can prepare us for His purposes without us realizing it at the time. See A Man Coming Alive in christ: A Writing Revelation

"Did you ever have a moment of revelation? You know what I mean, it's when out of the blue your mind starts to wander and then, like a bolt of lightening, an idea pops into your head and just clicks"

God Can Use Your Voice Mail Greeting

A Man Coming Alive in christ: Leave Your Phone On, God Might Call.....

Check out the post above on Donny Prater's "A Man Coming Alive" blog that talks about how God used one man's cell phone voice mail greeting to save one and possibly two lives.

A Much Needed Reminder That God Can and Usually Prefers to Use Ordinary People

It appears that according to the Bible our willingness to allow God to lead us and use us is more important than whether others would consider us qualified, talented enough, or whether we have the right credentials.

Read on...

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (New International Version)

26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."^[a]

Here is a modern paraphrase that strikes home...

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (The Message)

26-31Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

Adding to Our Prayer List

Things We Usually Pray for

• for forgiveness of our sin
• to help us stop sinning more
• to help someone else stop sinning more
• to remove or minimize the consequences of our sin or bad decisions previously made (likely decisions made without seeking God’s will first)
• to remove or minimize the consequences of someone else’s sin on our lives
• that our family & friends come to know Jesus as their Savior
• for the future good health, happiness, and general well being of ourselves, family, & friends
• for help in dealing with a difficult person in our lives
• to remove a difficult situation in our lives
• to take away our desire to repeat a difficult sin
• for financial blessings or for success in life
• for success in and God’s blessing upon the plans we have made for the future
• for relief from financial distress or burdens
• for His provision of a job so that we can support our families
• to help us be a better parent to our children
• to change our spouse so that he or she becomes more like the person we need them to be
• to heal someone close to us already suffering from an illness or injury
• for His protection from accidents and anyone who might intentionally harm us or our family & friends
• to bless and lead our church leaders and other spiritual leaders who minister to us.
• to bless and lead the executive, legislative, and judicial governmental leaders in the decisions they make which affect all of us.
• to bless and protect from harm those who willingly risk their lives to protect us such as our policeman, firefighters, and military.
• that doctors and nurses who try to make us or our family well again have the skill and wisdom they need to provide the proper medical care.

Food for thought... Should We Add Some Prayers More More Like These?

• Seek God’s will in a difficult decision we must make before we make the decision
• “I thank You and praise You God for Your grace in forgiving me of the sins I’ve committed in the past and for forgiving me in advance for sins I will no doubt commit in the future. Help me accept Your gift of grace. Help me stop feeling guilty about the past and help me instead to get about the business of glorifying and serving You to the best of my ability both now and in the future.”
• Ask God to show us where He is already actively working around us and reveal to us how we should alter our plans and join Him
• Help us to be able to forgive someone who has sinned against us because we are having trouble forgiving them
• Ask God to reveal what He wants us to learn from a difficult situation when He chooses not to make it go away. (see I Peter 1:6-8)
• To change us so that we become the person our spouse needs us to be.
• That we be able to rejoice in the difficult circumstances we face if is because God is “pruning” us to bear even more fruit for Him in the future. (see John 15:1-8)
• That the Holy Spirit lead us so that we always glorify God in what we think, say, and do... and that our lives be a positive influence on all those around us.
• Ask God to reveal His purpose for our life, how He wants to use us to serve His purpose, and for the Holy Spirit to lead us and equip us for those tasks.
• Ask God to reveal to us His plan for our “outreach” to those outside the church who do not yet believe.
• Ask God to reveal to us His plan for our “inreach” to serve our fellow believers
• For help in accepting a “no” or “wait” answer from God to one of our prayers for His help
• For strength to persevere in times of adversity when God chooses not to relieve us from difficult circumstances or consequences
• That God use the Holy Spirit to prepare the heart of someone who does not believe in Jesus to be ready to hear God’s truth and accept Jesus
• That God use us in some way to help someone who does not believe to come to know Jesus as their Savior
• That God use us today in some way to plant a spiritual “seed” in someone’s life, water a seed someone else has already planted in their life, or otherwise care for any spiritual “plant” which may be growing in someone’s life.
• For the words to say to or the actions to take towards someone that God puts in our path today
• That today God would place someone in our path that we are to influence in some way for God’s glory.
• The ability to discern whose heart the Holy Spirit has already prepared and that God would prepare us to be ready to help that person find Christ in their life, or at least help them get started.
• How we should respond as a Christian when someone around us is involved in some sin such as adultery, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography, drugs, theft, dishonesty, etc.
• Identify what we do now or have now that God would have us give up so that we might more time/energy/resources to serve Him better
• Help us identify the right balance of our time/energy/resources across our jobs, marriage, children, church, service to others, personal enjoyment, and personal growth.
• Unity among Christians in the face of dissention and disagreement in the Church
• That God give us joy when we submit to and obey God
• That God give us the ability to lovingly confront believers who are giving in to sin.
• That God give us the ability to discern between His truth and false teachings
• That God give us the ability to discern between godly spiritual leaders and false ones
• That God help us to submit to the godly leaders God puts over us.
• That we have a hunger to know more about God and be have a closer personal relationship with God

Copyright © 2005 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

With God at Our Desks - Faith in the Workplace

On October 31, 2004, the New York Times published an article entitled "Faith at Work" by Russell Shorto. The article not only takes a look at the faith at work movement, but highlights the ministry of one bank in Minnesota and all they do through their business. It is worth taking some time to look over, regardless of your point of view. This article will make you think! Click here to view the NY Times article

God Uses Imperfect People

God can and often does use imperfect people to accomplish his purposes.

Look at the lineage of Jesus in Matthew 1:3. “Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.” Read Genesis 38 about how Judah fathered Perez with his daughter-in-law Tamar. She dressed up as a prostitute to get pregnant when Judah had money to spend after selling the wool from his sheep. David committed adultery with Bathsheba. (II Samuel chapter 11) David had her husband Euriah put in the front lines of battle to make sure he got killed to cover his sin. Yet God chose to have Jesus come from the “house of David.” Note that in Matthew 1:6 “David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife.” While the child David fathered while Uriah was alive died, the sinners David and Bathsheba are still in the lineage of Christ through their son Solomon!

There are other well-known examples.

Before becoming a great Christian evangelist spreading the word of Christ, the apostle Paul was called Saul and he traveled around trying to destroy Christianity (Acts 8).

Abrahm lied telling one king that his beautiful wife Sarai was his sister, because he didn’t trust God to protect him. He was afraid they would kill him to take Sarai for themselves. (Genesis 12:10-20) Later Abrahm was Abraham and he told yet another king the same lie about his wife Sarah, again not trusting God to protect him. (Genesis 20) He told the same lie twice and both time failed to trust in God’s protection!

Peter was able to walk on water until he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the wind and waves instead. (Matthew 14:25-31) Peter also denied Christ three times.

Moses killed a man and you know how God used him. I hope you will let God use you too!

Another “imperfect person” thought. My church had a pastor who spent time as a missionary on Guam and had served successfully at several churches. Along the way, he helped many come to know Jesus. Also along the way, he also started getting emotional attachments to women in his congregation. At a minimum, he committed some kind of emotional adultery. He wound up getting asked to resign from my church in disgrace. I traded emails shortly later with a missionary our church was sponsoring. (This man was planning to enter a Muslim country where it was illegal to preach Christianity.) I mentioned this rather ugly preacher situation to him and he responded with an insightful statement. “Whatever God accomplished through Brother XXX is still valid. Those people are still saved!” We have no power on our own. God works through us. Even if we later screw up, it was still God working… and can work through us again.

You comments are welcome and encouraged!

Discerning God's Will and Pleasing God

THE FACT THAT I THINK that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

God's Math

We keep an equation in our heart that adds up something like this:

My abilities + experience + training

+ my personality and appearance + my past

+ the expectations of others = my assigned territory.

God’s math would look more like this:

My willingness and weakness + God’s will and supernatural power = my expanding territory.

Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life

A Prayer to Start Each Day

I start my day with words like “Lord, today is Your day. Today is going to include temptation, and I know my tendency is to act in the flesh. I don’t want to do that. I want to walk in the light... in Your will. I want to act in Your Spirit. I want to respond as You would have me respond. So I place myself on Your altar, and I ask You to assist me as I accept Your power to hold me in Your will. Help me to live like that moment by moment, all through this day.

Charles R. Swindoll, The Mystery of God's Will

Are You Safer With the 11 Homeless Men?

I had a whirlwind experience the week before last in which I think God was trying to tell me something and prod me in the direction of ministry towards the homeless.

I am an adult Sunday School teacher at my church, rotating every third week. My spot in the rotation happened to fall on Sunday, January 1, 2006. About five days ahead of time, I decided that I had better get serious about preparing what I was going to say. I dug out the “Exploring the Bible” material we are using from Lifeway and began reading the teacher’s material. This week’s lesson was based on Romans 12:1-8. I was struck by the first verse:

Romans 12:1 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
A Living Sacrifice
1 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you (A) to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, (B) holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. [a]

I found myself trying to think of what it meant to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” I came up with several angles to discuss including

• taking care of your body for it is the Temple of the Holy Spirit
• providing acts of service to serve God, and
• being physically present where and when God needs you to be.

After making a first pass through the material, I decided to take a diversion and go check my email. I didn’t have any personal email messages, but I did have an email newsletter from “Christianity Today Daily Newsletter-HTML” that caught my attention. The subject line read “Philip Yancey: What the Homeless Taught Me About Prayer – CTDirect”. Philip Yancey is the author of one of my favorite books, What’s So Amazing About Grace. Also, several members of my Sunday School class are active in the “Room at the Inn” program at my church in which we let homeless men sleep on our gym floor one night a week during the cold winter months. So... I decided to open the email and take a look.

There were several wonderful quotes in the article which lept out at me as being perfect examples of “providing acts of service” and “being physically present where and where God needs you to be.” Perhaps the most important one was this. Quoting a man named John who had 25 years of experience ministering to the homeless.

John said, "the best ministry I can offer is a long-term relationship. I hope that over the years and decades street people learn to trust me as someone who can handle their secrets. I hope that trust will gradually spill over to God. I tell people who encounter the homeless that eye contact and a listening ear may be more important than food or money or Bible verses. They need to connect in some small way with another human being, someone who sees them as a person of worth."

The article also quoted the experience of Mike Yankoski, a college student who took 5 months off from school to live on the street with the homeless and write the book Under the Overpass. According to Mike, a quarter of the homeless people he knows have an active Christian faith.

The article ended with a wonder short poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Make it so the poor are no longerdespised and thrown away.
Look at them standing about—like wildflowers, which have nowhere else to grow.

At this point I was excited that I had something new and not in the Lifeway book to interject into our Sunday School Class discussion on Sunday. I was to get more than I bargained for.

When Sunday, January 1st arrived and I got up to give my lesson on Romans 12:1-8 and facilitate discussion, I read a good portion of the Philip Yancey article. The article had the desired affect and really got some good discussion going. It just so happened that the leader of our “Room at the Inn” ministry was sitting on the back row. She spoke up and asked “Do you know the new thing we’re starting a new thing at “Room at the Inn” tonight? (emphasis on tonight) In fact, I didn’t know anything about it.

She went on to explain that our church had been selected to get the same group of 11 men for 6 weeks in a row who were part of a program called “Odyssey.” This program provides on-going mentoring, training, moral support, etc. to the homeless men and tries to get them off the street into regular jobs and housing. The work with them to get them off their addictions, how to behave in job interviews, skills like getting up everyday on time to get to work, encouragement to stick to jobs they do get (and not quit after two weeks), etc.

This was sounding more and more like “being physically present where and when God needs you to be” and I made a comment, only half joking, that “I guess I was supposed to get that email this week when I did.”

We went on then to talk about some of the other verses in Romans 12:1-8 that talked about “not being conformed to the world” but instead being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We talked also about how we as Christians should “not to think of himself more highly than he should think.” Both of these points seemed made to order for the homeless ministry. The homeless no doubt need to “renew their mind” by focusing on God and God’s plan for their lives and we in the church should not look down upon our Christian brothers on the street and judge them.

I read from the Lifeway material a quote that “The safest, most wonderful place in the world is in the will of God.” I turned to them and asked them. “What do you think of that? Is that really true?” There was a lot of head nodding. I then asked “Where are you safer? In the room with those 11 homeless men at Room in the Inn tonight? Or... at home tonight watching football?” I saw several sets of eyes in the class get bigger and we got into a good discussion of what it meant to be “safer” and how God’s view and a worldly view could be quite different.

After the lesson was over and we dismissed with prayer, the leader of our “Room at the Inn” ministry came up and asked me if I would be willing to come back tonight and give a shortened version of the lesson which included our discussion of our bodies as a sacrifice, the renewing of our mind, and not to think to highly of ourselves. I remembered my joke earlier, “I guess I was supposed to get that email this week when I did.” I decided that for whatever reason, God must have wanted me to be with the homeless men that night.

I returned to church that night about 6 PM. The men and the volunteers formed a circle on the gym floor, we said grace, and had dinner. When the men were about finished eating, I got up to give my “shortened version” of the lesson. This group of men had been together for a while in the Odyssey program. As a result, they were not shy at all about talking about their struggles and the influence of God in their lives. As many of them had started their downward spiral due to “running around with the wrong crowd” they had a lot to say about being “transformed vs. conformed” in particular.

Since we as a church were to get the same group of men back for the next several weeks, we went around the dinner table to give our names and to introduce ourselves. I was taken aback at how these men were almost eager to tell their story of their fall. Several made a point to take the blame for their situation on themselves for the poor choices they had made earlier in life. Most also expressed a level of belief in God. Many quoted scripture by memory. I silently accepted Mike Yankoski’s assessment that at least one fourth of the homeless have an active Christian faith as likely to be true and even more so for this Odyssey group in front of me.

Several of the homeless men’s comments resonated with me in particular.

• Several admitted to being alcoholics, with one saying he had been sober for 3 years now. The other homeless men seemed genuinely happy for him in this accomplishment.
  
• Several talked about drugs, especially cocaine.
  
• Some had been in jail.
  
• Several had good jobs and plenty of money before their fall.
  
• One didn’t know where one of his children was.
  
• There were bouts of depression.
  
• Several with multiple divorces.
  
• A couple who went into a downward spiral after a breakup with a wife or girlfriend they really loved.
  
• There were several health problems.
  
• Many cited coming from Christian homes.
  
• One talked about his sour attitude when faced with the prospects of switching from a huge amount of money selling drugs to making only $7 / hour in an honest job. (He talked of being in possession of drugs worth $165,000 on the street.)
• Some were veterans.
  
• A general inability to “stick to things”... for example, getting a job only to quit shortly later.
  
• The all seemed to realize they had squandered opportunities in life.

Each of the volunteers from our church also talked about ourselves. All of them but myself had been working with the homeless for a while and made a point to emphasize that while they may not have “done drugs” or “been in prison” we had our own sins and faults and needed God’s grace too.

A week later, I remembered that comment about “I guess I was supposed to get that email” and my question to my Sunday School class about “Where are you safer? In that room of 11 homeless men?” Some might wonder if I guilted myself into this. Or... was the Holy Spirit really prompting me to get more involved with these men and to be “physically present” and lend an ear “where and when” God needs me to be? I decided to err on the side of action and came back for a second week.

Most of the same men were back this time. After dinner, some volunteers went off into a quiet room to talk to any of the men who wanted to talk and get prayer requests. Not as many as I would have hoped came by. Some of them got distracted by taking a smoking break and shooting some basketball in the church gym. We did get a few who had a lot to say. We got the following prayer requests:

• Strength (to persevere).
  
• Submission (willingness to submit) to God.
  
• That the men would stick to the Odyssey program and finish what they started.
  
• To be able to go back to school and learn a trade.
  
• To be able to “stay the course”.
  
• To overcome selfishness in their life.
  
• Avoid binge drinking.
  
• Avoid binge spending of all their money.
  
• To be able to stick with a job.
  
• To better understand themselves.
  
• A tranquil mind.
  
• Eliminate worry about the future.
  
• One wanted to be able to return to Florida where he was from.
  
• Healing from depression and self pity.
  
• Avoid being financially irresponsible.

I hope you will join me in praying for this group of men trying to put their lives back together and get off the streets.

God, I pray that if it is Your will, You will bless these homeless men. Put a barrier around them to protect them from the Devil’s temptation. Put good influences around them to encourage them when they are tempted to go back to the life they want to leave. Use this group of homeless men who are sticking together in a mighty way make a positive difference in their lives. Heal them physically. Heal their broken relationships. Give them wisdom in the handling of their personal decisions and finances. Give them a peace that as they seek Your will they should not worry about the future. Give them the strength to endure trials and grow in the process. Grow their faith and help them to put Your will first in their lives and learn to submit to You. Above all, lead any of them who have not yet accepted Your Son Jesus as their Savior to seek You. Draw them all close to You. I pray also for all the volunteers who are ministering to them. Give us all the strength and wisdom and patience to help them. Use us to be a blessing to them. This we ask in Your name. Amen.

A Spirit of Anticipation

I found myself wondering whether I have the kind of spirit of “anticipation” that God would want me to have.

It all started when I was preparing to teach Sunday School and read in the Gospel of Luke about Simeon and the prophetess Anna.

Luke 2:22-40 (New International Version)
22When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord"[a]), 24and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons."[b]

25Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss[c] your servant in peace. 30For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31which you have prepared in the sight of all people, 32a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

33The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

36There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.[d] She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

39When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

See how Simeon was “righteous and devout” to the point of God choosing to reveal that the arrival of the Messiah was to be within his lifetime? Think of the anticipation he must have felt knowing that Christ was coming soon. Imagine the difference this would have made in his life. Also note how he was attentive to the subtle promptings of the Holy Spirit and was present in the Temple on the exact day that Mary and Joseph were to present the baby Jesus. God chose to use Simeon to announce that Jesus would be a “light for revelation to the Gentiles” as well.

As for the prophetess Anna, I cannot imagine myself never leaving the temple but always being in an attitude of prayer. And, I am sorry to say, I have not taken up the spiritual discipline of fasting either. I do not believe anyone could spend decades in constant worship without anticipating that God was about to work in a mighty way right there in the community where she was.

I must now ask myself some difficult questions.

• How well am I worshiping God?
• Do I live in anticipation that God will work in some mighty way right here where I am?
• Am I listening attentively to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?
• Will I be willing to speak boldly for God if asked to?
• Do I have the perseverance to wait expectantly for decades for an answer to prayer?

God, I pray that You will mold me into the kind of man You need me to be. If it be Your will, give me the faith and perseverance of Simeon and Anna. They both never stopped believing You would keep Your promises. They both waited with anticipation for You to work in Your own time.

The Holy Spirit's Leadership in the Life of a Christian

A couple of weeks ago I was preparing a Sunday School lesson on the leadership of Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. I sent an email to friends asking if they had a story to tell about how the Holy Spirit had worked in their life. This is a great story from one of my friends.


Testimony of the Spirit’s Leading

When I taught at the Christian school in East Tennessee, I had rebuilt the engine in our little Ford Falcon. She was running like a well-oiled sewing machine. A week or so later, my wife was rear ended on Alcoa highway and totaled the auto. She had minor cuts and bruises. We could not buy a car at that time because we had bought our son one in his senior year of high school. We both had asked the Lord to teach us to trust Him, but this wasn’t the method we would have chosen.

As we prayed we sensed the Holy Spirit directing us just to praise the Lord and trust Him for a car.

In the meantime we (the school) had been led of the Lord to trust Him for $50,000 extra for school expenses. One day my wife was on her way to Nashville with one of our staff, and they were listening to a tape by Jack Taylor, relative to giving. She said the Lord asked her how much she had to give. She said nothing. The Lord then said, "You have that $900 insurance check." She almost choked but finally said, "OK, Lord, I am willing but you will have to tell my husband.” When she returned to town she said, “The Lord told me something, but I can’t tell you.” I thought, “What in the world is she up to?”

Well, the insurance salesman called the week of Thanksgiving and told us he would come by Friday and leave a check for $900- a good price for a used car. Now to a memorable Thanksgiving Day. We had a special service in the school chapel (this was a day and a boarding school). When we bowed for prayer to end the service, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Give me the insurance money and trust me for a car.”

I leaned over to my wife, still in the middle of prayer time, and said, “The Lord just told me something but I don’t think you will like it.” She snickered and I thought she was being irreverent. BUT she knew what the Lord had said. Afterward we laughed, cried, prayed and both agreed this was the Spirit’s leading.

At the cafeteria I bowed my head in prayer and a white car flashed through my head. I did not know what to think, since such was not normal for me.

For 2-3 weeks we were filled with joy to give the money and enjoy being without an auto. The only person who knew about this was Jane, the Chairman of the Trustees, my wife’s prayer partner. Jane was in a grocery store when one of her neighbors stopped her and said, “You know I am retiring and we want to downsize to one car.” Do you think the (my friend’s last name)’s could use an auto in their work at the school?” Jane responded, “I don’t know you will have to call them.”

At that time I was out of town and on a school trip. The lady called and offered the auto and my wife said, “We really can’t afford to buy one now. We are paying for our son’s.” The lady responded, “Oh no, it is paid for. I want to give it to you.”

I got back in town and told my wife it had to be white. I had not before told her of the experience at the lunch table. People who see things are sometimes thought to be- you know. Well, we went over to the couple’s house and they had a good running used WHITE Pontiac. Hallelujah!

Now, about the end of the school year, my son for some reason was driving this car and got rear ended. This time the Lord said, “Take the insurance and get another car.”

The Christian Life is Not

The Christian life is not about our life being a succession of one happy day after another. It is not about our comfort or a low-stress lifestyle.

Instead, it is entirely possible that God may want us to leave our comfort zone and embark on a journey of faith. God may lead us towards something which seems impossible for us to accomplish on our own. Usually, that is the point! God, and not us, deserves the all the credit for what is happening. Perhaps He just wants to know whether we will really trust Him. Perhaps He will only reveal the path before us one step at a time. He may place us on a path where we can rarely see what lies over the next hill or around the next corner. At times it may seem like walking alone in the dark with a light that only illuminates the next footstep. But.. God is always right there with us.

The Christian life is not being well thought of by our neighbors.

Your neighbors may think you are narrow-minded. They may think you’re “not very smart” or “intolerant.” They may make fun of you behind your back. “Can you believe that guy? He actually believes that stuff!”

The Christian life is not our ticket to material success in career and life.

We cannot negotiate a contract with God. “Ok God, I agree to worship You and only You. In return, You God will provide me with an above average income and protect me from financial upheaval. Sounds like a fair bargain to me God. Is that a deal?” God is not a Las Vegas slot machine that gives us preference on winning the big jackpot. God rarely tells anyone the winning lottery ticket number ahead of time. Instead, He wants us to be willing to depend on Him for what we really need... not what we say we want.

The Christian life is not a way to banish the Devil and his temptation from our life.

In fact, the more we step out in faith to serve God, the more threatening the witness of our life becomes to the Devil. When we allow God to use us for His purposes, we attract the Devil’s attention. We are likely to get more temptation and difficulty than ever before. After all, the Devil doesn’t need not waste his time on us if we live our lives outside of God’s plan for us.

The Christian life is not a one-time event after which nothing more is required of us.

We should not act like we’ve gotten our ticket to heaven and then just wait around to die. God wants us to grow. God wants us to mature. He wants to have a continuous and on-going relationship with Him. He wants us to enjoy the time we spend with Him in prayer and Bible study. When prompted by the Holy Spirit, He wants us to be willing to step out in faith without having to know the final outcome ahead of time. He wants us to be willing to take chances to serve Him.

The Christian life is not about getting God’s blessing on our plans and the choices we’ve already made.

It is more about asking God to reveal what plans He has for us and asking that He equip us for those plans of His. It is more about being willing to alter our plans to align them with God’s plans. It is more about asking for His guidance so that we make our choices according to His will... and seeking His guidance prior to making the decision.

Copyright © 2005 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Leadership of the Holy Spirit

Well, it is my turn to teach Sunday School tomorrow. We’re studying what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit from Romans 8:1-14.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide me in my preparation of the lesson and reveal to me the message that my class needs to hear. I pray also, that when it comes time to teach tomorrow, that the Holy Spirit will guide me as I try to deliver this important message. Give me the words to say. Help me discern the needs of those in the class.

I pray also that You will prepare the hearts of each and every member of the class, myself included, so as to make them ready to hear Your message. God, I pray that You will remove all barriers which might hinder anyone who needs to hear Your message from attending.

Modern Signs of God Working When a Nation Repents

Imagine if 10% of an entire nation all showed up at one location at one time to attend the same prayer meeting.

Imagine if a stream that used to be too foul to drink ran clean again on its own.

Imagine if fishing grounds suddenly began producing more fish.

Imagine if the soil began producing more and bigger fruit.

Well, this all happened on the island nation of Fiji. Take a look at "Let the Sea Resound". This 75-minute documentary describes the spiritual revival of this island nation.

The story starts with the nation of Fiji at its darkest hour in 2000. For the first time, a non-Fijian (ethnic Hindu) government was elected and some radical Fijian nationalists tried to take over the island nation by violence. The economy sank as the violece scared away the all-important tourists from the island. Then political leaders began to openly turn to God. What follows is a "moving and instructive testament of unprecedented Christian unity, contemporary signs and wonders, rapid church growth and genuine socio-political transformation. The breath of God has revived even the land and the sea.

Islanders even tracked down several descendents of a Christian missionary killed by pagan tribesman back in the 1800's, brought them to Fiji, and publically asked for forgiveness for the actions of their ancestors.

I am told that the residents of Fiji are real prayer warriors. Many wake up early in the morning and start their day with prayer. Sinde they are located near the international date line, they like to think of it as starting the new day for the whole world with prayer.

Copyright © 2005 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

My Purpose This Week? And Yours?

My Sunday School literature asked a really deep question as I was reading tonight, “What purpose does God have for you this week in your family, in your job, in your social relationships?” For some reason, this really struck a chord with me. There are so many possible answers. Here are some answers I thought of:

• God wants me to be a good example for my children this week.


• God wants me to love my wife unselfishly this week.


• God wants me to honor Him in the way that I do my job this week.


• God wants me to show Christian love and respect to my co-workers this week.


• God wants me to be a Christian friend this week.


• God wants me to allow a Christian friend to hold me accountable for the way I live my life this week.


• As they have given me permission, God wants me to hold my Christian friends accountable for their lives this week, too.


• God wants me to avoid temptations which draw me away from Him this week.


• God wants me to be a good steward of the financial blessings He has put in my care this week.


• God wants me to live below my means and return a portion of my financial blessings to Him and the Church this week.


• God wants me to give thanks to Him this week.


• God wants me to praise Him this week.


• God wants me to want to have an even closer relationship to Him this week and not just because I want Him to do me a favor.


• God wants me to live my life this week so it is a positive witness to anyone who might be paying attention.


• God wants me to pray that the Holy Spirit would lead me to someone whose heart has been prepared to hear about Jesus this week.


• God wants me to pray that I will be ready and willing to respond when the Holy Spirit prompts me to take action this week.


• God wants me to offer encouragement to someone who needs it this week.


• God wants me to forgive someone who has done me wrong this week.

I would love to hear some of your responses.