Celebration of Birthdays

The presence of the Lord was powerful in church on Sunday morning.  It was glorious to worship the Lord together and to hear his Word.  Then after church a lunch was served in honor of two people who had birthdays.  Everyone who could stay after the meeting was invited to enjoy stuffed cabbage, a fancy potato-vegetable salad, cheese biscuits and lots of desserts.  We had such a wonderful time in fellowship that one of the ladies who cooked the meal suggested we have a meal every month.
What a great encouragement it is to be with God's people!

Inste Group Forming

This past week there was a meeting for people interested in taking an Inste class.  We were pleased that several came and submitted applications with payment.  Praise God!  It is very exciting to see many wanting to learn more about the Word of God and about their part in the Body of Christ.  Please pray for us as we facilitate the group.  And pray for the group that we will get off to a smooth start and that God changes each of us by His Word.

Nancy's pictures of the meeting did not turn out, so here is a picture of the local park covered in beautiful frost.

"Then they will fast"

View of the city of Gherla from the hill in the summer

Many evangelical churches call for a fast during the month of January.  It is an appropriate time since the holidays are over and few other events interfere.  Our church, the Open Bible Church in Gherla, Romania, is fasting right now, asking God for the church to be transformed according to his will and for the entire city of Gherla to come to know Jesus Christ as Lord.
Those in our church who wished to join the fast signed up for the days they would fast. The manner of fasting is left up to the individual.  Some people are going without food for a meal or for all day on their fast days.  Others are doing a Daniel fast, eating mostly vegetables.  The teens are encouraged to give up using their phones on their fasting days.  The point is we deny ourselves something that we depend on and enjoy daily in order to focus our attention on the Lord.
Jesus said his followers would fast after he was no longer with them in the flesh (Matthew 9:15) and that is what we are doing. Fasting does not force God to listen to us nor does it change his mind.  Fasting changes us by helping us change our focus from ourselves and what we want to God and what he wants.  Fasting helps us pray according to the will of God as we listen to him.
If you are fasting and praying this month, please add us and Gherla, Romania to your prayer list.  We are asking God here in Romania for what believers are asking around the world--a mighty spiritual awakening.  Lord, hear our prayers!

Pressing Toward the Goal

At the beginning of a new year, it is good to look back and thank God for what he did in the old year, what he did for us, in us and through us.

January 4, 2019, leaving Des Moines, Iowa for Gherla, Romania

This blog lists many of the highlights for the year.  As we look back through what God did for us and through us, we are reminded that what we thank God for most are the people God worked through to bless us, encourage us, help us, work along side us, translate for us, support us with their money and prayers and everything else.  We thank God for you!
Also as we look back over 2019, we see that most of our days were full of normal life.  In ministry we had meetings, we prayed, we fasted, we advised, we encouraged, we preached and we taught.  Nearly every day we studied language, navigated through a new culture and took care of the business of life.  We thank God that he was with us in the exciting times when we all sensed his mighty presence in church and in the dull times washing dishes and mowing the lawn.  God was good to us in 2019.
Having said that, we would like to share what Mike received from the Lord on December  26: 
During the worship time in church this morning, the Holy Spirit strongly impressed upon me a word for the coming year which I shared with the congregation at the end of the service. I was reminded of the passage in Ezra 3 when Israel, after returning to Jerusalem from 70 years of captivity in Babylon, began to lay the foundation for the temple. When the foundation was finished everyone began to rejoice and praise God for what He was doing. However, verse 12 says that those who remembered the former temple did not rejoice but wept instead. I assume they wept because they could see that the new temple was not going to be as wonderful as the previous one. Therefore, they could not even share in the rejoicing in what God was doing in the present because it was not the same as what they experienced in the past.

It is normal for us to look back over the events of our lives, especially at this time of year. There is nothing wrong with reviewing the past and praising God for all the good things He has done in our lives. However, if we continue to dwell on the past we can become discouraged and even critical if the present does not seem to be as wonderful as the past. It is possible that we can't even see, let alone rejoice in, what God is doing now because our mind is on how things used to be.
The word I believe God has for us is what Paul said in Phil. 3: 13-14: "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." God has something new for us this year. For many, He will be laying new foundations and rebuilding what had been destroyed. But, whatever He does this year it will not look like what had been experienced before. We can look back and praise Him for the previous blessings and victories as wonderful as they were, but let's not live there. Instead, we must leave the past in the past and keep our vision, our hope, and our faith in what He is doing now even if it is not the same.
Keep pressing toward the goal of Christ in 2020!