I still remember the cold winter wind blowing through the cracks in the old mill house where my parents and I lived. I always told my students that I did not grow up poor; rather we were ‘poo’ because we could not even afford an ‘r’ for the end of the word. A mill house, built for mill workers or tenet farmers, was a simple four-room structure with a tin roof constructed from rough-cut lumber. When the lumber dried, it left cracks big enough to see the outside—of course no such thing as insulation. The only heat was either a wood or oil stove in the living area. If you stood close, you would toast on one side and freeze on the backside. To stay warm, you had to turn in circles like a rotisserie chicken. Summers with 100 degree plus weather was fun, ‘ha-ha’. I didn’t even know what an air-conditioner was. So, that is my humble beginning.
After Donna and I were married, our first home was a little better than the mill-house—it did have insulation. She also grew up ‘poo’. Shortly after our marriage, we committed our lives to Christ. WOW! What a turning point! Paul told the church at Ephesus, Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think—according to the power that works in you (Eph 3:20). A contemporary translation could be, you cannot imagine in your wildest dreams what God is going to do with your life. Another verse I often use in my teaching is the story of the little boy who gave his five loaves and two fish to Jesus. Jesus took it, gave thanks for it, fed 5,000 men plus their wives and children, and even had leftovers. I doubt I had the equivalent of five loaves and two fish to offer, but I gave Him what little I had. I had spent my entire life in South Carolina and had only a sixth grade reading level when I entered Bible College, and as an only child growing up in a rural area, I had no social skills. That is not a lot to offer.
Jesus took that little bit I committed to Him, blessed it, and has sent me to thirty-two countries around the world ministering for Him. Typically, I sit on the platform with other ministers looking out sometimes to hundreds and even thousands waiting to hear me teach. Every time, I wonder in myself what I am doing there—halfway around the world with so many people coming to listen to me. The Holy Spirit always reminds me I am there because He sent me and He has just multiplied the little I gave Him. As of last week, people in fifty-one countries of the world have read the Sustaining Word. Please note that I am not sharing this to bring attention to myself. My purpose is the bring glory to Jesus and show what He can do with anyone who will commit to Him and give what they have—does not matter how small or little it is. He is the multiplier.
This morning after four months of the most intense spiritual battle of my life, I am sitting in the office of our new home writing this. One year ago, Donna accepted a teaching position as a Nursing Instructor at a University about 70 miles from our now former Columbia home. She has commuted daily since then. In April after viewing hundreds of houses, we walked onto this property and both said, “We are home.” I told Donna during the process of searching for a new home I merely wanted to complete life on earth better than the way I started. I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams what God had planned for us. Maybe, it was because this home was God’s ordained place that Satan was determined to stop us. Paul told the church in Rome that Satan had hindered him from coming. Yes, Paul was delayed but not stopped and did make it to Rome. Satan can hinder; he cannot stop. He hindered us for four months, but we are here.
Our beautiful new home sits in the middle of our small farm with a five stall barn for any kind of animal we desire and includes an apartment above. I can even hunt on my own property in the woods around our house. The only similarity with my beginnings in a mill-house is both have space for a garden. God is able.
God is able to do the same for you. I have known so many hopeless Christians who have given up on having a better life. Churches are full of believers who sit every week and do nothing because they believe they have nothing to offer. Yet, the little boy only had five loaves and two fish; Moses had only a staff; Samson killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey; David was just a shepherd boy; Peter was an uneducated fisherman; and the list continues beyond the space I have. Do not forget Joseph from last week’s SW—he was a slave and prisoner one day and the Prime Minister of a nation the next day. God is able.
Sustaining Word for the Week:
God will do above and beyond your wildest dreams. What is required of you? Let Him take control of your life and give Him what you have. He will do the rest. To God be the glory for what He has done for me and what He will also do for you.