SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #89 ---- 9/27/99
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #89 ---- 9/27/99
TITLE: "Our Greatest Strength"
My Dear Partner in Ministry:
What a harried and hurried week this past one has been! After a
fantastic Sunday last week, Jo Ann and I hurried off to my parents' home
where we spent the next six days helping them prepare for and conduct a
"yard sale" (for you non-westerners, that's an event when you clear out
your closets, attics, and corners and try to make a little money off the
sale of things you no longer want or need, but hate to give away).
We returned home late Saturday evening to a telephone answering machine
full of messages including the report of a death, a church member's
frustrations over rumors being circulated, and another member's grave
concerns over a proposed mission opportunity, (makes me so glad I'm only
the interim pastor!), in addition to multitudes of Jo Ann's flowers
crying out for water, and two acres of grass desperately needing to be
cut.
In spite of all that, it was great to get back home.
This week promises to be equally packed as we begin a week of team member
interviews during Missions Week at the university in preparation for next
May's trip to the Balkans, try to get the grass cut, and resume our
"pastoral" duties at the church.
But, I'm glad I can begin the week with you ---- a regular highlight of
every week for me.
UPDATE ON PRAYER REQUESTS:
The latest information I have on the two men for whom I recently
requested prayer is as follows: Missionary Roy Boudoin had successful
bypass surgery (five arteries) in Zurich, has been discharged from the
hospital, and is recuperating with family back in the United States. The
lymphoma cancer has spread to the bone marrow of pastor Gary Taylor, and
he is suffering severely from the medical treatments. Please continue
praying appropriately for both men, their families, and their ministries.
SEARCHING FOR OUR GREATEST STRENGTH:
Back in the early and mid 1980's, I did an extensive amount of conference
preaching in the Puget Sound area of the extreme northwestern part of the
United States ---- places like Richmond Highlands, Beverly Park,
Enumclaw, North Bend, Edmonds, Ballard and the like. We had some awesome
moves of God in some of those places. At one point Jo Ann and I traveled
there five times in just over two years, ministering in many churches.
One such occasion was in a church pastored by a young man who was to
later become one of my associate evangelists with Life Unlimited
Ministries. He now directs our entire LUM Northwest work.
It was one of those evenings where, although I had both a mind and a
notebook full of sermons I could have preached, nothing was heavy on my
heart ---- I didn't have a clue. Throughout the praise and worship time,
ably led by an outstanding minister of worship, I sat and leafed through
my Bible and my notebook, trying to get "locked in" on what God was
wanting me to preach.
The congregational singing ended ---- the offering was received ---- and
the worship leader stood to sing his solo. In a totally vulnerable way,
he announced that the song he intended to sing was not in his heart, and
he needed us to pray that God would show him what to do. The pastor
returned to the podium, led in prayer, and then this young man allowed
the Holy Spirit to bring alive a song that left virtually everyone in the
auditorium in tears.
During all this time, I continued searching not just for a sermon, but
for the heart of God.
Just before the worship leader interrupted my searching with his
admission of a song without his heart, I had carelessly let my Bible fall
open to II Corinthians. While the pastor was praying, I softly turned
the first page and found myself staring directly at chapter three ----
Paul's discussion of Moses and the veil over his face.
As the young man began to sing that song of ministry, God prompted my
heart that I was to share my own heart from that chapter, and that I
could trust Him to enable me to do it ---- so shut my Bible, be quiet,
and listen.
In obediently doing so, an unusual peace and quietness of spirit swept
over me, and I freely immersed myself in the presence of the Lord as
expressed through that wonderful song. To this day I have no
recollection of the young man's name or of the song he sang.
Now, friend, I do not recommend this process as the main way of sermon
preparation. On the other hand, maybe I should. All I know is that,
when I stood to preach, with absolutely no clue of what I was going to
say, and no thought of what the focus of the message needed to be, God
absolutely opened up that passage to an exegetical treatment like I had
never experienced before and have never experienced since in nearly
thirty years of preaching. The pastor still laughs with me about the
fact that my message that night was not only exegetical, but was done in
an alliterative style, rhyming words and all.
God showed me two very important things out of that passage as He shaped
it into a personal application for my own life. He first showed me a
principle in the life of Moses that affected so many people. Secondly,
he showed me that I had done the same thing Moses had done.
I had tried to make my most vulnerable weakness into my greatest strength
---- and it wasn't going to work. Why would it not work? ---- because I
was doing what Moses did.
WEARING THE VEIL OF GLORY:
The story is thrilling. Moses had met with God on the Mountain and had
received the Laws of God for Israel. As you recall, the primary purpose
of the Laws were not to create something for God's people to obey, but to
really show them that they couldn't meet His standards without Him.
Moses' encounter with God on that mountain was so powerful and anointed
by His presence that, when Moses returned from the mountain with the
tablets, the people could not look on his face because of the brilliance
of the glory of God. It was absolutely overpowering and blinding in its
intensity ---- so much so that people became afraid to be around Moses
---- because of the glory of God.
The glory of God became Moses' ministry strength.
So, a plan was developed whereby Moses, whenever he was among the people,
would wear a veil over his face in order that people could stand to be
around him. It's been quite awhile since I had to wear a veil in order
for people to be able to hang around me.
When it was time for Moses to be outside among the people, especially
during times of leadership or instruction, he would wear the veil, thus
diminishing the intensity of God's glory so the people could handle it.
(Do you feel a message brewing here? Maybe some of us have accommodated
our people the same way.)
After a period of time, as Moses continued to wear the veil when out in
public, he began to notice that his face didn't shine like it once did.
It seemed to be fading. But ---- he still wore the veil.
This continued for many days, each day the outward shining of God's glory
growing weaker and weaker ---- and Moses continued to wear the veil,
though it was no longer needed, because the glory of God on Moses had so
diminished that he now looked like ---- and acted like ---- an ordinary
man. Which is actually all he was all along.
Now Moses faced a problem. Outside of his own tent, Aaron and perhaps
Joshua and Hur were probably the only ones who had noticed the change
---- but they knew. They had seen him without the veil, and they knew
the glory was gone. So, what should Moses do?
For whatever reason which we'll never know this side of heaven, Moses
chose to continue wearing the veil, and what had at one time been the
greatest strength of his ministry had now become his greatest lie and his
greatest effort of deception. The representation of the once-present
glory of God on his life now had become the ever-present attempt to
impress the people with his own status, reputation, and importance.
Moses is not the last man to fall into that same trap, my friend. Many
churches around the world are filled with ministers from whom God's glory
has long departed. When that happens, the only alternatives are to
either wear some type of "veil" of hypocritical pretense, or become
totally humbled and fully vulnerable before the people and tell them,
"without God and His glory, I am absolutely nothing ---- not even a zero
---- just a nothing." (A nothing is a zero with the rim rubbed out so it
cannot be seen.)
RETAINING THE VEIL WITHOUT THE GLORY:
What do many of us do when we minister without the glory?
The very same thing, my friend. We create pretend veils made up of
degrees, personality styles, ideas, slick gimmicks, exegetical expertise
and a thousand other things to hide the fading glory. The more the glory
fades, the more we grasp for heavier and bigger veils, trying to bluff
our ways through the agony by the use of intellectual stimuli, emotional
coercion, or Hollywood style sensationalism.
In II Corinthians chapters three and four, Paul identifies several things
that happen when we try to retain the veil when it is no longer needed.
You see, it was never God's intent that His glory would remain on Moses.
Moses just happened to receive the shining of God's glory for one simple
reason ---- He had been in the presence of God. God's glory belongs to
no man ---- not even Moses. It belongs only to God. While God may
temporarily deposit it on a person or a situation, He never gives it away
---- He only loans it, and then only for a season, and for a reason.
There has never been any man in all of creation upon whom God intended
His glory to rest indefinitely. And there was certainly no man ever
granted permission to claim ownership of His glory. When such a horrible
thing is attempted, . . .
1. The ministry of death through the law engraved on lifeless stone
returns to a man's work. What was intended to produce life and liberty,
instead produces the stench of death. The glory resting on the
commandments written in stone soon revealed death to all who did not meet
the standard.
Today thousands of ministers try to maintain the glory of God by
preaching death-producing legalism and performance-based religion. They
don't know that death is already built into the law; they don't need to
try to improve on it or make the point. Their own ministries prove that
death exists.
2. The ministry of the Holy Spirit, with its far greater glory, is
unappreciated, often neglected, and sometimes even unrecognized. When a
man either seeks to keep God's glory, create his own, or hide the fact
that God's glory is not there, the Holy Spirit is deeply grieved and
soundly quenched to the point that it is as if the Holy Spirit didn't
even exist.
3. The credibility of and respect for the minister is lost, and he is
recognized for what he is ---- a phoney. When Moses recognized the glory
was fading, he had to face his own pride over being exposed. He opted to
save face rather than face up to the fact that he was not the main
character in this saga ---- God was. And only God could keep the glory
because it belonged only to Him, and He was the only one to decide with
whom to share His glory. Moses lost at least some degree of credibility
and respect by his actions of deceit. Have you ever tried to deceive
your people over your spiritual condition?
4. The hearts of the people become hardened. When I read verses 13
through 18 in that chapter, I am stunned to see the outcome of a man's
conduct. When Moses insisted on continuing to wear the veil, I believe
that, as the people began to learn the truth, they simply concluded, "Big
deal! If all this God stuff means no more to Moses than to become a liar
who deceives us, then why should I bother with the laws of God? They
mean nothing!" Nothing will turn a person off and harden his heart
against the Gospel more than to discover deception and distortion in the
life and message of the minister.
5. A pattern of religion without the glory of God was established. That
condition remains today ---- perhaps all because of what Moses chose to
do that day thousands of years ago. Any religion that is void of the
glory of God, even if it is called Christianity, will do anything to
redeem man, but will seal him into a false sense of security which will
ultimately result in his eternal doom.
6. The god of this world continues blinding people by his own deception
of the truth, while the glory of God fails to be manifested through
humble and surrendered believers. As a result, they never see the light
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, the image of God, because all they
see is the corroded statues of religious hypocrisy.
7. People, believers and unbelievers alike, fail to understand the
miracle of a redemptive relationship between God and man that leads to
release and liberty. Paul insists it is unnecessary to use a veil any
longer.
Be real. Be yourself. Allow the glory of God to show in your life in
those moments when He provides it. He says that it's like standing in
front of a mirror and being amazed and overwhelmed when you see the glory
of God shining back from your own countenance. And, he is dumbfounded
when he realizes that we are continually being transformed into the
likeness of Christ as we are set free from the glory of the law to the
greater glory of the Spirit.
DISPLAYING THE GLORY WITHOUT THE VEIL:
Then in chapter four Paul begins describing the transforming process of
becoming transparent and vulnerable, resting solely in the presence and
the glory of the Lord Himself.
He declares first that we have a ministry of removing the veil of
pretense because we have received mercy from God. Therefore, we do not
lose heart and get discouraged when people misunderstand our honesty and
humility. He continues, then, by insisting that we do away fully with
all those pretenses we created because we were ashamed, and that we not
minister in a scheming way or in a way that perverts and adulterates the
word of God, but that we be totally open and truthful about who we are
and that in ourselves we are nothing.
Further, he makes the indisputable point that we have this treasure ----
the light of the glory of God ---- in clay pots in order that the
greatness of the power will be clearly recognized as being of God and not
of ourselves.
In order to assure that happening, Paul indicates that afflictions,
confusion, persecution, and attacks will come our way, but that, apart
from the lessons God wants us to learn from them all, we will not be
crushed, despairing, forsaken, or destroyed.
He seems to summarize the idea, then, that throughout our lives and
ministries, we will always be delivered over to the death to self process
in order that the life of Jesus will be clearly manifested in our own
flesh. He ends up by reminding us not to lose heart, because the
temporary and short-lived affliction we endure God is going to use to
produce an enormous measure of eternal glory beyond our wildest
imaginations ---- so much so that the day will come when what we do not
see is more real than what we do. The things in the spiritual realm will
be more real than that which is in the visible and physical world.
YOUR GREATEST STRENGTH:
So, what is your greatest strength for ministry, my dear friend?
It is your vulnerability and transparency before your people. It is when
you remove the veil and let them see for themselves that you are a common
ordinary person on whom the glory of God sometimes rests, but you are
just a clay pot.
The treasure is not the pot itself ---- it is what is contained in the
pot, and that is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
Take the veil off. Be real. Be transparent. Stop using pretenses.
Stop relying on your own skills to convince people of God's message.
Your absolutely greatest strength for ministry is your total weakness and
helplessness apart from God. Paul knew this. God had told him, "My
strength is made perfect in your weakest condition."
We have wasted far too much time and energy creating and wearing our own
veils trying to hide the absence of God's presence and glory on our
ministries.
The world needs something better of us.
Try being transparent, honest, and vulnerable.
Then they will see the glory of God on your life and in your ministry.
Today would be a good day to begin.
In His Bond of Grace,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright September, 1999. All rights reserved.
If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.
If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know.
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Hang in there! I'm with you!
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