|
Volume 16, Issue 1
HAVE YOU EVER WISHED
FOR AN EARLY TRIP TO HEAVEN?
Dear Friends,
Have you ever had a bad day and wished that
you could be taken to heaven and have a talk with Jesus to find answers
to all your questions? There have been many nights when I have prayed
and asked God to allow me a two-way ticket to heaven, so that I could
get the answer to my problem and come back. I often remind God that He
has done this for many people. Enoch who made several trips to heaven
before God permanently kept him there but there has been no trip for me
so far.
Life has been emotionally hard since we were
forced to close down Resurrection Life of Jesus Church due to lack of
interest by the members. This necessitated moving out of the building
and relocating our equipment to the production center of EAEC.
Incidentally, we have been working diligently on the new studio and are
in the process of setting up the equipment. Sadly, the majority of the
church membership did not consider that we owed rent on the church
facility and I was one left holding the bag to make sure that the
landlord is paid.
I thought there couldn’t be any more blows
from the Devil with the destruction of the church ministry. European
American Evangelistic Crusades (EAEC) was still intact and we would
continue the work of God despite this setback. Then I received an email
that a key officer of EAEC was resigning due to personal reasons. This
hurt a lot because we were already shorthanded and the responsibilities
of this person will have to be covered by someone else for the time
being. Nevertheless, God is in control and there is no crisis in heaven.
The same day we received a letter in the mail from a medical missionary
who is struggling to pay just her own bills but had decided to send a
gift to the ministry. The accompanying letter made an impact on me and I
want to share it with you:
Dear Rev. Torell,
Please find enclosed a gift from the Lord
to your ministry. This is certainly the have-nots sharing with those in
need.
I sense that the Lord wants to convey two
messages to you with this gift.
1. That he loves you very much and is
with you despite the horrible downturns that seem so to regularly
arrive, and I suppose we could look at these as back-handed compliments
since adversity generally only comes like this to those who are about
the Father’s business.
2. A word of caution, you are far from
retirement from the Lord’s service, but he wants you to “retire” the
stubbornness. Don’t be afraid of a mistake;allow Him to completely
guide you. He wants you to become His friend, not just his disciple;
which means to be willing
to walk through things that can
be fearful to us - and for each it’s different. The end result is total
and complete confidence in Him and His sovereign ways. It took the 2010
earthquake to finally convince me, I hope it won’t be that to you! The
Lord’s richest blessing to you and for your ministry.”
As I re-read this letter, I realized that
for some 44 years, I have preached the love of God and His care for
people, but never stopped to look at myself. This prophetic message was
correct; I had not been able to fully receive the love of God and I
certainly did not consider that I could be His friend. I felt like a
failure since I wasn’t able to rescue Resurrection Life of Jesus Church.
So yes, I was being stubborn in my refusal to let go, and when the
church died, part of me died also. I had already forgotten that God had
specifically told me in January this year that I was no longer to pastor
the church because He wanted me to invest all my time to a worldwide
internet ministry. I was guilty of trying to eat the cake and saving
some of it at the same time.
I have peace now as I let go of my personal
efforts to work in the ministry. It is up to God to develop and keep it
alive. The apostle Paul tells us in first Corinthians chapter twelve
that all Christians are members of Christ’s body and that all parts are
important. (1 Cor. 12:12-26) No individual, church or mission
organization can claim a monopoly on representing God to the world. It
is Christ who possesses us and each believer in Christ is like an
individual cell in a human body. Some cells make up the brain, others a
hand or the colon, but Christ is the head. The body of Christ is not
made for the believers, just like a human body is not made for the
cells. The body of Christ is made for Jesus to dwell in and do His work
on this earth. A human body is made up of trillions of cells, some live
only two days while others can live up to 30 years. I realize that in a
mission organization like EAEC, there will be those who stay for a long
time and there are those who will leave early. God will fill the need
and bring in others who can help in the work that Jesus has called us to
do. Praise the Lord!
Yours in Christ,
John S. Torell
Volume 16, Issue 1 |
