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Don’t you really appreciate a story
of someone overcoming impossible odds and emerging victorious? You
see this in sports almost every weekend. I enjoy so much those
David vs. Goliath type games except when the Goliath is a team I am
cheering for. In all reality sporting events are a passing story.
What happens when it occurs in the life of a person? I am
constantly inspired by my children. I always called my daughter,
Amy, the Sunshine Princess when she was a little girl. After she
graduated from high school it was so difficult to take her to a
community college and drive away. With six children we didn’t have
any money for college. Amy looked for scholarships, financial aid,
waited tables, took out student loans and emerged after eight years
with two masters degrees in family counseling. Wow! Her story of
setting a goal and exercising perseverance to reach the finish line
is exemplary to other young people. I could tell a story like that
about each of our children. With unemployment at 9.1 percent and
prices rising so many of your goals will be reached as a
broadcasters if you inspire your listeners with a voice of victory.
Living a life walking with Jesus is
not easy. You will have the forces of hell arise against you in an
attempt to walk in the principals of scripture. God allows the
resistance of the evil one to reveal His grace to us, “What if God,
choosing to show His wrath and make his power known, bore with great
patience the objects of His wrath – prepared for destruction? What
if He did this to make the riches of His Glory known to the objects
of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory,” Romans
9:22-24. God does this through humble ordinary Christians and
leaders in the church today that proclaim the supernatural power of
God. This is available through anyone who will lay aside their own
interests and allow God to work in and through them. We need
ordinary men and women that communicate Christ and not themselves.
Preachers are needed who are surrendered to the Spirit’s leading in
proclaiming Biblical truth. You have a powerful platform as a
broadcaster to lead your listeners.
So often we place value on our
productivity and see some as in failure and defeat and others
popular, intellectual and successful. However, what we really need
is found in Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” It
is a move from appearances to reality in the supernatural work of
God. Not our work, but His. It is not a matter of working
ourselves into an emotional frenzy, but waiting on the real work of
God in our lives. Carefully consider in scripture what happens in a
real work of God. “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not
for your sake, Oh house of Israel, that I am going to do these
things, but for the sake of my Holy name which you have profaned
among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of
my great name. I will show myself holy through you before their
eyes,” Ezekiel 36:23. The apostle Paul echoed this same thought in
the introduction in the epistle written to the church of Rome,
“Through Him and for His name sake, we received grace and
apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the
obedience that comes from faith,” Romans 1:5. The emphasis here is
what we do is for His name sake and it is done by Him and not us.
There are some two billion Christians
alive on the earth today. There is a question as always concerning
the legitimacy of some of the groups that profess Christ. However,
it would not take much for all of us to be joined in unity as Christ
is central in most denominations now. It is the true children of
God know the voice of the Shepherd. We need to sing this song
together, “Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away
displeasure toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you
prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us
again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing
love, O lord, and grant us your salvation. I will listen to what
the Lord will say; He promises peace to His people, His saints,”
Psalm 85:5-8. A real move of God is not developed by the
construction of larger buildings where we conduct our programs, but
by the desire of God to work through His people. God desires to
work through your broadcast ministry if you will allow him,
“Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of
living water will flow from within him,” John 7:38. The Lord
desires to work through us and bless us for the sake of His Holy
Name.
So many churches, so many programs,
so many Christian radio stations, so many efforts for His Kingdom
and the Lord is pleased to see His children in efforts to show
increase. There are those in whom the Lord has great pleasure in
the faithfulness of their work, but when God chooses to place his
hand on a person or a work, power will be seen that is only from
Him. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according
to his good purpose,” Philippians 2:13. We are like children who
are taken to a concert to appreciate a performance by a great master
of the instrument and are motivated to perform in such a way. Some
will perhaps continue and reach that goal. However, in the work of
God there is mastery than can never be achieved until the breath of
God is felt across our efforts and the work is lifted up not for our
benefit, but for the sake of His Holy Name.
So often we run ahead of God and
perform well by the standards of the world and even find great
success, but such accomplishment falls far short of what will occur
when we understand that God’s work is so much more, “I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me,” Galatians 2:20. When we come to
an understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done for us we
begin our understanding of what it means to be saved. At some point
we will enter in His presence, but there are many uncertainties and
lessons to be learned between those two points. We are surrendered
to The Lord and are guided by Scripture and the Holy Spirit as Paul
says in writing to the church at Galatia, “But by faith we eagerly
await through the Spirit for the righteousness for which we hope
(Gal 5:5).” At this point we only have a taste of what we will
absolutely know when we have a resurrected body like Him.
When the perishable has been clothed
with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the
saying that is written will come true: Death has been swallowed up
in victory. Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your
sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. 2 Corinthians 15:54-55
I just wonder why individual
Christians, broadcasters and the church are not doing so much more.
With so great a salvation that has been given to us, the truth and
guidance of scripture, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the
promise of glory which is just before us why does it seem that we
are standing still when “the fields are ripe and ready for
harvest?” We seem to be so content in the routine of attending
church and going about our daily functions when there are so many
desperate spiritual and physical needs all around us. We have been
equipped and commissioned for extraordinary service to the Lord and
have not grasped the dynamics of what can happen when we put faith
into action. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith
and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so
that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us
to do,” Ephesians 2:8-10. The picture that comes to my mind is that
of books on a library shelf that go unread as the works of God which
He has empowered, but go undone for the lack of willing servants.
We need to understand that perfect
provision has been made for the ministry He has commissioned. It is
as if there are great supplies in the storehouse of God to
abundantly quench the heart’s desire of the spiritual starving with
the bread of life and water that satisfies the soul. What is
lacking are those willing to open the doors and pray, load the
provisions, drive the trucks and distribute the everlasting good
news of the deliverance of God. The church today is much maligned
by the liberal media, but it seems that we are willing to accept
what is being said, thereby affirming that we allow His name to be
profaned. The words of James 2:17-18 shouts at us, “In the same
way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your
faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.”
By our very name, Christian, we are
called out by God to His glory. We are empowered for ministry not
based on a standard we have established, but an anointed strength
from on high. Paul in writing to the church at Thessalonica
emphasized this theme as seen in the New Testament Church, “We
always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, We
continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by
faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thessalonica 1:2. It is not a
matter of human effort, but that of surrender and allowing God to
work through us show us his power from on high. What greater power
is there other than the creation of all things, the blameless life
of Christ in His earthly ministry, His endurance through the
thirty-nine lashes and death on the cross and resurrection from the
grave? Following this the Holy Spirit came upon us. We need to
allow God to implement this power in ministry through us.
Oh God, that you would help me to
allow the Holy Spirit to work through me and those that have joined
together in the work of faith so that we may understand the dynamics
of the power of God in everything that transpires. Allow us to
utilize the power that has been granted in such away as to only see
you. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and
godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own
glory and goodness. Through these He has given his very great and
precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the
divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil
desires,” 2 Peter 1:3-4. Understand what is said here that it is
“His divine power,” it is “His own glory and goodness,” and it is
“His great and precious promises.” We cannot claim any of it as the
work of our denomination, organization or claim any credit of our
own. It is not us, but the object of our faith where we find
victory as stated in 2 John 5:4-5, “Everyone who is born of God
overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the
world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he
who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
With
Great Plains Christian Radio Don put KJIL on the air in 1991 in a
town of 1500 people, Meade, KS. The one station expanded to nine
full power stations and forty translators over a 19 year period.
Don developed the fundraising plan to take the organization to
an annual income of over two million dollars in rural Kansas. Don
was also involved with putting WMHK in SC on the air and WGRC in PA.
Don has won numerous awards as an individual for news, sports,
production and air personality. Also, KJIL is a five time winner of
Station of the Year. Contact Don
[email protected]
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