{"id":4597,"date":"2012-07-12T10:09:24","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T14:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/?p=4597"},"modified":"2012-07-11T10:13:21","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T14:13:21","slug":"not-circumstances-but-you-and-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/2012\/07\/12\/not-circumstances-but-you-and-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Not circumstances, but you and I"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pabiure\"<\/a>
Pabiure, right, is ready for his his first plane ride at age 87.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The people in the Mengen village were fascinated. They had never before seen or heard God\u2019s Word in their own language. As they read Mark and Acts with Mengen believers from another village, something began to dawn on them.<\/p>\n

The villages in their area are doing well by the standards in Papua New Guinea. They have schools and hospitals, airstrips and stores. But they realized they have no concept of how to live at peace with God. They are unsure of their future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that we are living OK here on earth,\u201d they said. \u201cBut what about afterwards?\u201d<\/p>\n

They invited the believers to come and present chronological Bible lessons. As a result, a team of Mengen believers went to teach them, including the oldest man in the village, Pabiure, 87.<\/p>\n

Hearing that story spoke to me for a couple of reasons.<\/p>\n

I have thought that one reason Americans are so resistant to the gospel is prosperity. And I\u2019ve thought that perhaps these economically difficult times would drive people to God. But I haven\u2019t seen that happening.<\/p>\n

This story reminded me that almost no one ever comes to God unless someone leads them. These Mengen villagers encountered something bigger than their circumstances, good or bad: believers with the Word of God. The real issue isn\u2019t the circumstances; the issue is what you and I are doing with the Word in the world around us.<\/p>\n

I was also impressed by Pabiure. By Papua New Guinea standards, he\u2019s ancient. To get to the other village, he had to get into an airplane for the first time.<\/p>\n

I think his example makes a mockery of all the excuses you and I use to not step out in faith and do the things God is calling us to do.<\/p>\n

I can certainly think of times in my life \u2013 some fairly recent \u2013 when I hesitated to do what God prompted me to do. And by His grace and mercy, I can now look back at those and say to myself, \u201cYou silly little man. How can you lack the faith to trust God Who made everything to make possible what He has commanded?\u201d<\/p>\n

I find I go from \u201cI can\u2019t,\u201d to the nail-biting \u201cOK, Lord, if You say so,\u201d and finally to \u201cWow, how could I doubt?\u201d Then it starts all over again. It\u2019s a cycle in my life, and I think for all believers. It\u2019s how God builds our faith, and wherever you are, you\u2019re haven\u2019t arrived yet.<\/p>\n

Where are you in that cycle?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the \u201cI can\u2019t\u201d phase, perhaps you ought to think about Pabiure, and about the fact that God\u2019s aim is to bless us and, through us, others.<\/p>\n

Moving on to \u201cOK, Lord, if You say so,\u201d can change lives.<\/p>\n

And if you trust Him through that, you can to move on to \u201cWow, how could I doubt?\u201d which is great because you know He\u2019s grown your faith and because another challenge is coming. OK, so maybe we\u2019d like to do without the next challenge, but it\u2019s for our own good.<\/p>\n

Is there a challenge you\u2019re struggling with? I\u2019d love to pray with you. Write me and tell me as much about it as you feel comfortable sharing.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The people in the Mengen village were fascinated. They had never before seen or heard God\u2019s Word in their own language. As they read Mark and Acts with Mengen believers from another village, something began to dawn on them. The villages in their area are doing well by the standards in Papua New Guinea. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[76,34],"class_list":["post-4597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ministry","tag-faith","tag-outreach","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}