Featured Article: Elijah’s Dive

Andy

“What doest thou here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:9

In the initial stages of Elijah’s trek south, the Lord does not give us much of a window into his mind. Like so many events in his life, this one begins abruptly and with little explanation. In short, he receives a threat from Jezebel and hightails it out of the northern valley of Megiddo.

By the time he had stopped running, he was on the other side of the country, though he did make a few stops along the way.

First, when he arrived at the southern city of Beersheba, he got rid of his servant. We don’t know any more about his thoughts until after he had walked alone for an entire day into the desert and sat down under a rough, broom-like tree. There, presumably exhausted, he voiced some of his frustration.

“I’ve been a miserable failure,” he said to God, “just like those who’ve gone before me!”

He then promptly fell asleep until woken up by an angel who gave him water and some kind of remarkable cake. With this nourishment he received strength to walk no less than 40 days, to Mount Horeb, wherever that was.

Again he went to sleep, this time in a cave. And when he woke up, he heard the question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

And then more of his thinking surfaces.

“I have served you faithfully and all for nothing. Not only that, but I am the last prophet, and our enemies are now trying to kill me too.”

At this point, anybody reading the story for the first time should be in some kind of shock.

What in the world had happened to Elijah?

Where was the great man of faith, so strong and bold? What had happened to the one who looked like he would charge the fiery gates of evil with a squirt gun? Never before had he shown such weakness, not at least on the pages of Scripture.

But alas, the truth was bound to come out sooner or later. He too had selfish, sinful passions, and a tendency to be governed by them, like every other human being.

By working back through the scenes of his life we can figure out some of the reasons for his sour attitude. And hopefully, by paying attention and applying what we learn, we can avoid this particular phase of his life.

It appears that Elijah had conjured up some pretty over-sized expectations that set him up for a nasty and painful spiritual fall. Notice a few of them, and how easily we could have come to the same conclusions, if we had been in his sandals.

He obviously thought the Mount Carmel victory would be a definitive spiritual turning point for Israel. He was wrong. He apparently expected the opposition to suddenly melt away. And again he was wrong. He also must have thought his ministry would be appreciated by his countrymen. He was again wrong. And then he panicked, thinking Jezabel would be able to kill him.

Wrong again.

But how easy it is to criticize him from our comfortable Bible reading chairs. It seems so clear to us, doesn’t it? He should have known better! He should have used simple logic. How on earth could he possibly doubt God’s protection and provision after the crows, the brook, the widow, the bin and jar, the altar, the firebomb, the tiny cloud, etc. etc. etc…

His depression just doesn’t seem to make sense.

And that’s exactly the point.

Many times depression doesn’t make sense, except to us. Inside our little thinking bubble we can come to many erroneous expectations that seem right. But they aren’t.

We may think life is going to be more pleasant than it turns out to be. But then our job, our health, our mate, our ministry, our friends, our position, one after another come in less than what our private chart predicted.

Then some painful surprise blows into our world, the entire castle of dreams comes crashing down, and our outlook takes a nosedive.

For some reason, and against all Biblical teaching, we let our expectations become unrealistic, and God lets a dose of reality jolt us back into what life often is like on a sin cursed earth.

The unbeliever, who does not know God, or understand His ways, or grasp why anything is like it is, at least has that as an excuse. But we who know the Lord should not fall into this kind of trap.

He has lovingly warned us in the Scriptures that we can expect life to be full of challenges, often very surprising and sometimes unpleasant.

Dear Father, help me walk realistically today. May I face the battles you send by faith, without worrying about tomorrow’s, for which You have not yet offered grace. Amen.

Prayer & Dates: September 2016

September Prayer/Praises and Special Dates

Click the link above to download a PDF of prayer requests and praises as well as the birthdays and anniversaries for September. Note: You will need to login to SecureCloud in order to view this document. Once you have logged in, click on Files, Shared, then Headquarter Happenings, then scroll to the month you would like to view. This step protects people with WWNTBM in restricted access fields.

From Our President: September 2016

Danny Whetstone

“This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” 1 Timothy 3:1

There are no insignificant callings to serve the Lord. It was my privilege to serve the Lord as a pastor for more than ten years before following His leading into missions work. With that said, we understand that God has ordained that the work of the church would be led by men called to serve Him as pastors of the local church. It has been my experience that God-called pastors all have the work of the Lord at heart.

No matter what our position is in the service of our great God we all have opinions. Even pastors disagree on so many subjects. It should not surprise us that they might have various opinions concerning missions. It is pastors that direct their congregations to support our ministries around the world. We are given the opportunity to share our ministries in churches because pastors invite us to do so. We share our burdens both in our presentations and preaching. We espouse our positions on various things. Pastors will often consider the mission that we are serving with, our position on doctrinal matters, and our presentation of the work that God has led us to do.

It appears obvious to me that if we change our doctrinal position, or if the Lord leads us in a different direction than presented to the church, we should share that change with the pastor. We should not assume that the pastor or the church would want to continue to support the changes that we have settled on. Every calling of God is important, but when we are expecting the local church to support our ministries prayerfully and financially it makes us accountable to them. Furthermore, God has made us accountable to them.

The pastors that I am with week after week sincerely want to get the gospel to the world. They should not have to be concerned that they are supporting missionaries that are pulling the wool over their eyes because those missionaries feel that the church owes them something. It is the Lord that called us into the work, and it is the Lord that will sustain our ministries. If God is pleased with the changes that we decide to make, then God will raise up the support to carry that work out without us being crafty with the church and its pastors.

Pastors, evangelists, and missionaries are all accountable to the church in one way or another. It is an honor to work together with others to accomplish the great commission. Make it a practice to pray for your supporting pastors and churches. They are praying and pulling for you.

In His Service,
Danny A. Whetstone

From the Memo Board: September 2016

New Missionaries

Wards Spring 2012Michael and Mona Ward have recently joined the World Wide family. They are sent out of the Southside Baptist Church in Goodview, VA, with Pastor Donnie Glass. Bro. Ward has pastored for over 25 years in a variety of ministries. Their desire is to work along with Bro. Edgar Feghaly in representing the Middle East African Partnership.

 

 

 

Baby Announcement!Knickerbockers

Congratulations to Stephen and Julie Knickerbocker on the birth of Alina Lois Knickerbocker. She was born at 8:02 a.m. on August 12th. Alina was 20.5 inches long and weighed 8.5 lbs. Praise the Lord for a speedy delivery and a healthy baby and mother! The Knickerbockers have been in France for Alina’s birth, and will soon return to their field of Burkina Faso.

Updated Manual

We have recently updated the Missionary Procedures Manual, in order to include changes that have taken place over the past few years. Most of these changes have been published individually in Headquarter Happenings over time. The current version of the manual is now available in SecureCloud, under the Forms and Manuals section. If you have any questions please contact Naomi Torberson.

Direct Line Ministries

DirectLine Ministry was started in 1999 by Paul and Debbie Deem his response to his burden for helping missionaries to receive church planting materials in foreign countries.

He writes:

“DirectLine Ministry now has a team of 10 couples and has sent thousands of Bibles and materials to 20 different countries including: the Philippines, Mexico, Honduras, remote Islands in the Bahamas, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, parts of Africa, India, and Chile.

Here are just a few of the donated items we have shipped to missionaries and national pastors: appliances, hymnals, pulpits, sound equipment, food, hygiene items, new toys, new clothing, teaching materials. Most importantly, we have shipped thousands of Bibles and millions of Scripture booklets and tracts!”

If your ministry could benefit from these services, please contact their office via phone (740-667-6166) or email ([email protected]).

Free Online Children’s Programs

Click here to listen to many of the Patch the Pirate episodes online for free. This is a great resource for kids!

Featured Article: 2016 Pastors’ Conference in Beirut, Lebanon

Krachenfels Gene FFW14Executive Board Member, Dr. Gene Krachenfels, travelled to Lebanon to speak in the seminary. John O’Malley asked Brother Krachenfels to share with us his experiences and testimony of what God is doing in this region.

Bible Baptist Seminary, Lebanon
July 10-15, 2016

This year’s Pastors’ Conference in Beirut, Lebanon was a tremendous meeting. Pastors and church members alike from Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Germany were in attendance for this week of preaching and teaching. “Al-hamdu lillah” (The praise is God’s) was a commonly heard phrase throughout the conference as attendees were challenged to serve the Lord in a variety of ways. With nearly 150 in attendance, Pastor Milad Khaled and Brother Edgar Feghaly did a great job coordinating this event. Setting and adjusting the speaking schedule, transporting speakers and guests to and from the conference center, interpreting each of the lectures and services, distributing teaching materials, along with a wide variety of administrative details, all came together perfectly.

The meeting’s four speakers were assigned subjects intended to encourage and instruct those present. Edgar Feghaly taught about the fallacies of the Watchtower Society and Jehovah’s Witnesses, Dr. Jerry Scheidbach (Lighthouse Baptist Church, Santa Maria, CA) addressed the importance of Prayer and Fasting, Dr. Ray Shutt (Church of the Open Door, Westminster, MD) went through a Soul-Winning and Discipleship course, and I reviewed the history and errors of Reformed Theology and Calvinism. To complete each day’s lectures, Dr. Norris Belcher (pastor of the Church of the Open Door, Westminster, MD) preached uplifting and convicting messages that were greatly used of God.

This year’s meeting for the Bible Baptist Seminary was held at the Beit El Safa Conference Center in the mountains north of Beirut. Far removed from the city, its quiet setting allowed attendees to concentrate on studying God’s Word, fellowshipping with those of like precious faith, and having their spiritual batteries recharged.

Getting to know these pastors, hearing their testimonies, and learning about their ministries was both challenging and convicting. The difficulties and dangers these men face on a daily basis are very real, yet they continue to faithfully serve the Lord. The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Any believer who is living for the Lord experiences trials, difficulties, and opposition along the way, but when resistance becomes more than verbal it takes on a whole new meaning. It was a privilege to meet and to be with these dear saints, most of which we will not see again this side of glory. But what a joy to know that one day we, with all of the saints of God, will gather from lands near and far at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and worship Him Who is worthy to receive all glory and honor and power.

God is working mightily through these men and others like them as they preach the Gospel of Christ to those who are diametrically opposed to this wonderful message of salvation. Please remember to pray for them as they tirelessly labor in the Middle East in the face of the daily threat of persecution. Also continue to pray for Brother Edgar Feghaly as he works to aid these brethren in their work and to provide them with sound Biblical training that they may commit to others that which they have received.