“The whirlwind and the storm”

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Mark McMillion

You may have read about the very severe storms in Texas over the last few days. Yesterday we had here in Austin one of the stronger rain events ever I think. Or maybe it wasn’t that much but it’s just that the ground has been so soaked already from the rain over the last month or two that the heavy rains almost immediately created a lot of flooding.

But with this I wanted to write you about another of “God’s little miracles”. Sometimes we don’t know what God does until after He’s done it. I read online today that there had been a tornado that touched down in Austin on Saturday night. So I looked up the info and it turns out that this was around a mile from where I live. And from the direction the storm was going, I was able to see that this tornado went over our house about a minute or two before it touched down.

It was not a real gigantic one like they can be; this one uprooted trees and tore off roofs a mere walk from where I live. I later remembered that Saturday night I was downstairs next to our fire place and it was making a whistling noise, not normal. So I figured the wind must be pretty strong outside. I went to the front door and it was not only raining hard, there was really a strong wind that was blowing the trees around. Bad, but not greatly unusual for Texas. But this must have been right at the time when this tornado cloud was going over us.

So it was a shock this morning to realize that we’d nearly been hit by a tornado, one of the stronger residual fears that everyone in this part of the world has somewhere in their mind. When I was a child, the city I was born in had an “F5” tornado that killed 114 people including my father’s cousin and the dad of one of my friend’s. So it’s just something that everyone in this part of the country knows you have to take seriously.

I later thought about a verse I memorized years ago which I saw fulfilled in this deliverance and protection that we experienced here a couple of days ago, “The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm”. (Nahum 1:3)

When prophecy dawns on you

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Mark McMillion

I had so many amazing experiences on my recent trip to southeastern Europe. One night the ones I was staying with had a Bible study for their close friends at their house. The idea was that since I was there and I’ve made a series of videos on the book of Daniel, that we could watch one of those with the visitors who often come there.

Most of the people in the room were a generation younger than me and the majority were not brought up in a Christian family. Several of them were brought up Muslims. Another was a young woman from Western Europe, from a traditional Catholic background, who’d come to do volunteer work in the country I was in. She’s been working with my friends who minister to needy people and she’s gradually gotten to know the things of the Lord and the Lord Himself in a stronger way over the last months.

We watched what’s perhaps the simplest introduction to prophecy in the Bible: Daniel chapter 2. For many years and in many lands I’ve seen how Daniel 2 is the most understandable starting point for anyone who’s never had any idea about the phenomenon of Bible prophecy.

For me it was something of a reward in itself to just be there and watch the ones who were watching the video I’ve done on Daniel chapter 2. I therefore watched the viewers more than the video itself to try to gauge their reaction and interest in it all. The best part for me was at the end.

The young West European woman from the Catholic background was (… how shall I describe this…) well, she was trying to find what she wanted to say after the video. But for several of us, we could tell she’d been surprised and almost stunned by what she’d seen.

It certainly seemed that she’d perhaps become aware for the first time of the phenomenon of Bible prophecy, that God has in history used His prophets to give us definite signposts that will occur “up the road” of history. And for those of us who are now “in the future”, so to speak, we can look back and see that some key points in history were clearly foretold before they happened.

When I personally first found out about this, I was in my early 20’s. And I too had the same experience of amazement, wonder, and almost unbelief that there was something like this that I’d never been told of before. For me back then, I was also mad because I’d gone many years to good schools and to university but nowhere had anyone ever told me anything about the truth of Bible prophecy. And in her words and expressions after the video that night, this young woman was evidently having the same experience of joy, mixed with amazement, and at the same time many questions. It’s just hard to believe that something like this exists.

It was noticeable to most of us that this dear young woman had just had a very strong experience, “the eyes of her understanding being opened” (Ephesians 1:18), that she’d seen something she’d never seen before. She had questions but she almost didn’t know how to ask them. She thought she was understanding what she’d seen but she wanted to be sure she did. Perhaps for the rest of us, the best part was that we could tell that she’d just had a real experience with the light of God’s Word, kind of like when it says about the disciples after Jesus’ resurrection, “they believed not for joy” (Luke 24:41).

It’s experiences like this that turn us from everyday, bored, dull, worldly people into His turned-on, inspired, joy-filled Christians and even disciples. Sometimes it has very little to do with others. It’s just those moments when the Lord Himself somehow personally shines into our innermost heart and mind, revealing Himself to be the Savoir and King that He is.

For some of us, we’ve had experiences like that off and on for many years. We know the thrills and joys of that heavenly realm and the world to come. But for me that night it was especially encouraging. This young woman is still new to the things of the Lord, someone who’s still growing into the fullness of a Christian disciple. And that night she got a strong jolt from the Lord through His Word to see the world as He sees it and as He’s made it.

As the Bible says, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). Or as King David prayed, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your Word.” (Psalm 119:18) It was a joy that night to see this young woman beholding wonderful things from His Word.

O încadrare a profeției în istorie (Romanian video)

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Mark McMillion

Romanian

Această înregistrare prezintă fenomenul profeţiei biblice, dar şi istoria Israelului. Este prima înregistrare dintr-o serie de materiale pe tema profeţiilor lui Daniel. Mulţi oameni nu ştiu ce este profeţia biblică. Şi eu sunt unul dintre cei care nu avea habar până când nu a survenit o schimbare majoră în viaţa mea, când am aflat că Dumnezeu este real şi că există o lume spirituală. Mai târziu am devenit creştin şi am fost intrigat când am citit Biblia şi mai ales când am aflat despre descoperirile minunate din profeţiile biblice.

Acest material video în limba engleză se numeşte “An Introduction to Prophecy in History”. Poate fi accesat în limba engleză aici. Următoarea înregistrare în limba română va fi Daniel capitolul 2. Va fi şi aceea gata în curând. Sper ca acest material să fie o binecuvântare; sper să fie o încântare şi o sursă de hrană spirituală pentru fiecare dintre voi, datorită minunăţiei care este Cuvântul lui Dumnezeu.

English

I’ve been able to complete the first video in Romanian of the Prophecies of Daniel series. This one in English is “An Introduction to Prophecy in History”. This can be seen in English here.

Many people don’t know what Bible prophecy is. I certainly didn’t until I had a big change in my life when I found out that God is real and the spiritual world really exists. Later I became a Christian and was so surprised when I read the Bible, especially the marvelous disclosures of Bible prophecy.

So, in doing this series on the prophecies of Daniel, I felt it would be good to first present the phenomenon of Bible prophecy, as well as a brief background of ancient history and the history of ancient Israel. History is the backdrop against which the prophecies of the prophets stand out as beacons and signposts of the future to come.

The next Romanian video will be Daniel chapter 2. My hope is that this video and perhaps others in Romanian will be ready this year. Meanwhile, I’m working on several other foreign language videos on Bible prophecy and I hope to have those out in the next months. God bless you.

Still

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Mark McMillion

I’m really thankful that God has made it so that the Bible has had such an impact on my life. Like someone said one time, “When all else fails, you’ll still have Jesus.” And equally it can be said, “When all else fails and you seem to have nothing and no one, you’ll still have God’s Word.”

Often individual Bible verses are almost like my friends, ones that I’ve been through experiences with, ones that have gotten me through those experiences when I might not have survived. And occasionally even just one word in a verse has huge significance for me. One place like that is in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes.

It’s mostly assumed that this book was written by Solomon, although it doesn’t explicitly say so. It’s similar to the Proverbs of Solomon in many ways. But also it has a few places in it which made it so that it’s possibly the book in the Bible that was closest to being left out when the canon of Scripture was competed so long ago.

As you may know about Solomon, he’s said to be the wisest man that ever lived. But then also it says that Solomon “loved many strange women” (I Kings 11:1) and that “his wives turned away his heart” (I Kings 11:4) . Strange as it may seem, there was no specific law against having more than one wife in the laws of Moses. It says that you shalt not “multiply wives to thyself.” (Deuteronomy 17:17) Several of God’s greats in the Old Testament had more than one wife and nothing was said about this. But the Bible says Solomon had “700 wives and 1000 concubines” (I Kings 11:3). And it seems many of these were foreign women who worshiped other gods and got Solomon to build temples to those gods in Israel.

To make a long story short, God spoke to Solomon that, after his death, Israel would be divided and that only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin would stay loyal to the house of David. (See I Kings 11) So Solomon knew in his later years that, as we say here in the States, “the jig was up”. The glory days were gone. Things were not anywhere near as they had been under his father David or perhaps in the early years of his own rule.

In Ecclesiastes 12 there’s almost a haunting melancholy to the chapter. “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when you shall say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’.” (Ecc.12:1) It sounds so much like the plea of a broken and failed father to his children to make the most of the life they have before the evil days come, which it sounds like Solomon knew he was already living in. Over half of chapter 12 has that sound to it, a little mournful, a little sad, a little defeated.

But then we come to verse nine. It says this. “And because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he sought out and set in order many proverbs.”(Ecc.12:9) And it goes on to describe this preacher, Solomon was almost certainly talking about himself, still “seeking out acceptable words”. (Ecc.12:10)

This has always spoken to me so much. To me I see Solomon in his later years. Maybe, probably he knew and felt that in some ways the glory had departed from his life and from Israel and that tough times were coming. But that one word almost haunts me in a good sense: “still”. He still taught the people wisdom, even after he’d committed major sins and had been exposed. He still stayed faithful to his calling and gifts. He still fed the Lord’s sheep. In his case, his gift was to recognize wisdom and to collect bits of wisdom into proverbs.

But how does that work for us? How does that work for me? Paul said that we were to be “instant in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2). He also talked about “patient continuance in well doing.” (Romans 2:7) This in some ways reminds me of the story of Ruth and Naomi that I wrote about a while back. It sometimes feels like we are finished, used up, passed over, just a shell of what we used to be. The fruitful years seem to be gone and we are depleted, good for nothing except to go off somewhere to die. But that’s not true. Solomon “still taught the people knowledge”. Still …, even though it was not like the glory years, he stayed faithful to his calling and ministry.

Would to God that each of us would be like that. Solomon kept on being faithful to his skill and gifts and calling, perhaps because he knew even back then what Paul would later write, “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:32) And this was true, even after his sins had gotten the best of him in many ways. How many of us feel our sins have gotten the best of us? Or perhaps the sins of others have gotten the best of us? If you feel like that, remember Ruth and Solomon. “Still.”

Пророчества изпълнени в историята

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Mark McMillion

(Bulgarian video)

Български [Bulgarian]

Това видео представя феномена на Библейското пророчество, както и историята на древен Израел. Това е първото видео, което съм направил от серия върху пророчествата на Даниил. Много хора не знаят какво е Библейско пророчество. И аз не знаех, докато не се случи огромна промяна в моя живот и разбрах, че Бог е реален и духовният свят наистина съществува. По-късно станах християнин и бях толкова изненадан, когато четях Библията, особено удивителните разкрития на Библейските пророчества.

Това видео на английски се нарича “An Introduction to Prophecy in History” . Може да се гледа на английски тук. Моето следващо видео на български ще бъде Даниил 2 глава. То ще бъде готово скоро. Надявам се това видео да бъде благословение за вас и да се нахраните духовно от чудесата на Божието Слово.

С уважение, Марк

English

I’ve been able to complete the first video in Bulgarian of the Prophecies of Daniel series. This one in English is “An Introduction to Prophecy in History”. This can be seen in English here.

The next Bulgarian video will be Daniel chapter 2. My hope is that this video and perhaps others in Bulgarian will be ready this year. Meanwhile, I’m working on several other foreign language videos on Bible prophecy and I hope to have those out in the next months. God bless you.

Hearing from God, like your life depended on it

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Mark McMillion

Last month I was in a situation where it was desperately important that I heard from God right then. My friend and I were driving the next morning to visit a school in Reyhanli, Turkey, about 200 meters from the border with Syria. I wrote about this visit in my blog post “Visiting Syria part 1”.

But we were realistic enough to know that real danger was possible. We’d phoned ahead to several ones who knew the situation and were involved and they all said that it was safe to make the trip. But in the final analysis, as believers in God and in Jesus, the most important guidance and green light, or red, needed to come from Him.

So we really prayed. And for both of us we just kept getting the witness of the Spirit in our hearts and Bible verses that it was His Will that we go, verses like “When He puts forth His sheep, He goes before them”. (John 10:4) And “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14)

We took these from the Lord and we made the trip. Of course we were aware that the radical religionists right across the border in Syria would gladly pay a very large bounty for someone to kidnap us and turn us over to them. So we were keeping a good watch out on our way there for any funny business. But it all went really well and there was miraculous protection and blessing.

It reminds me of another situation, almost exactly 10 years earlier, when I was in Jakarta, Indonesia, immediately after one of the worst natural disasters of the last hundred years when the Asia Tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean.

The city that suffered the worst was Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra. The friends who I was working with at the time in Jakarta knew immediately that some of us would have to go there to help. And I knew strongly in my heart that one of the first ones who needed to go was me.

Teaching kids at a refugee camp in Aceh, 2005

But this was again a place where very serious, life and death prayer was a necessity. Probably there was more danger in this recent trip to the Syrian border. But in going to Banda Aceh, we were going to be faced with over 150,000 dead who were still left to be found, bagged up and carried off to mass burial grounds.

The infrastructure of the city of 450,000 was virtually gone. The fact that it was one of the strictest Muslim parts of Indonesia didn’t seem to be as big a deal as just the overall danger of aftershocks, extreme living conditions and would we be able to live with the shock to our emotions that all the devastation had wrought? It was a time when we needed to be certain we were in the will of God; otherwise it would be extremely unwise to go there.

But also in that situation the Lord came through clearly and blessed our time there immensely. Here’s a newsletter I sent to friends while I was in Banda Aceh 10 years ago, called “With Muslims in Tragedy“. God hears all our prayers, including the simple little ones that we often pray throughout the day. But at times we must be desperate and get answers from Him, sometimes as a matter of life and death.

I’m thinking about this a lot currently as I’m at something of a personal crossroads. I’m facing some decisions involved with possibly pulling up roots and going to a new country I’ve very seldom ever been in before, more or less starting out from scratch in what would be a major change of direction and a completely new chapter in my life.

I really need to know what God’s will is. Like Paul said, “Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesian 5:17) Common sense doesn’t help a lot in these situations. Common sense would not have agreed with the trip to Reyhanli, Turkey or the time spent in Banda Aceh. But the life of faith and following the directions from God almost always goes contrary to common sense. “By faith Moses forsook Egypt”. (Hebrews 11:27) “Abraham went out not knowing whether he went”. (Hebrews 11:8)

For me it’s a time I need to know that I’m on the right track, moving with the flow of His Spirit, having no will of my own and that my thoughts and leadings are of Him. Otherwise it could be a real disaster. Thanks for your prayers for me in these decisions at this time.

Why study the book of Daniel?

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Mark McMillion

With the way the world is in these times, more and more people have at least some curiosity about Bible prophecy and the future it tells us of. But once you start searching around, you can really find some different, even opposing ideas about it all. So much of it can even engender fear or confusion.

Often folks just give up trying to grasp any constants or absolutes that can be found about the subject of Bible prophecy. Some have even said, “Hasn’t the book of Daniel already been fulfilled? Isn’t it only written for Jewish people?” That’s what some say.

Recently I was meeting with a group of people who are studying the subject of prophecy in the Bible. The main thing we were reading was from the book of Ezekiel. It’s being taught in this group that Ezekiel chapter 38 is in the process of being fulfilled right now in currents events playing out in the Middle East, as a precursor to the final events leading up to the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. Then I have other friends talk to me about verses in Isaiah which they say predict a soon coming atomic annihilation the city of Damascus, Syria. Others in recent times have come to see Psalm 83 (written by King David as a prayer against the nations he was battling with in 900 BC) as being a specific endtime prophecy which is about to be fulfilled in current events in the Middle East

So, why am I doing a series on the book of Daniel? Shouldn’t we be studying Ezekiel or Isaiah? Or Psalm 83? Here’s why. If you’re looking for authority in the Bible, there’s no greater than Jesus Himself. Did He talk about the future, the time before His return and His coming Kingdom? Absolutely. The two main chapters where He talked about this were Matthew 24 and Mark 13. He’s quoted as saying this in both chapters but I’ll quote from Matthew 24:15. “When you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand).”

Matthew 24:15

When asked about the future, Jesus didn’t refer to Ezekiel, or Isaiah, or any other book in the Bible. But He did refer specifically to the book of Daniel and even to a specific passage of Scripture in that book. Then He went on to say, “Whoever reads, let him understand.” Jesus both emphases that book and made it unusually clear, highlighting the importance of understanding that particular passage.

Admittedly, that verse, Matthew 24:15, is not very easy to understand at first glance. That’s one of the reasons why, in my series on Daniel, I start with the first prophetic chapter in Daniel and then build on it. The series begins with Daniel chapter 2, then goes on to chapters 7 and 8, before we are really ready to look at this emphasized statement that Jesus made about certain passages in what turns out to be Daniel 9 and 11.

Then, if we look at what is considered the most specifically prophetic book in the New Testament, Revelation, it is full of material that refers back to characters and events first introduced in Daniel’s visions and prophecies some 600 or more years earlier than the date of Revelation.

It reminds me of what Paul said, “I as a wise master builder have laid the foundation and another builds thereupon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid.” (I Corinthians 3:10) Paul was not speaking here about Bible prophecy and the book of Daniel. But what he said can very much apply to the foundation of endtime prophecy that the Lord revealed to Daniel and which Jesus pointed us toward. It just seems like so many today are busy building edifices of endtime prophetic interpretation on little, if any, solid foundation. Simply finding some passage in the Old Testament that seems conveniently to match some aspect of today’s world and then proclaiming that as our major insight into current events and the future is a pretty shaky way to portray the events of the future according to prophetic Scripture.

With so much being wondered about nowadays having to do with fulfilled prophecy and possible events to come, I’m convinced that an understanding of Daniel’s prophecies offers the best hope of establishing a foundation for understanding future certainties. And no, definitely it’s not all been fulfilled. Numerous things that are first clearly spoken of in Daniel, and further clarified in Revelation, just haven’t happened yet. And it seems Jesus Himself pointed us to this beginning point when He referred to specifics in Daniel yet to be fulfilled and said, “Whoever reads, let him understand.”

“Truth be known”

Posted on April 18, 2015 by Mark McMillion

Most of you who read these posts are native English speakers. But I’m aware that there’s a minority who are not. Having lived for years in foreign countries, I’ve come to where I can speak a simplified English and can at times look into phrases that native English speakers take for granted. One example could be when we say, “Truth be known…” and then go on to reveal something that might not otherwise be said.

Truth be known. That’s really the way things should be, isn’t it? Truth should be known. But is it always? I may have written how that, in my youth, I really wasn’t looking for God since I’d concluded that there was no such thing. “God, Jesus, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny”, that’s what I always said, with a grin and gusto. “Little did I know.” There’s another good phrase but I’ll stick with “truth be known” for now. But although I wasn’t looking for God, I really was looking for the truth.

Truth has virtually always occupied a major significance on my “operating system”, if you know what I mean. But I’ve also come to realize, often by sad and dramatic experience, that truth is not that big a thing for some people.

King David said to God, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts…”. (Psalm 51:6) Or as Jesus said, “That on the good ground are they that in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it…”. (Luke 8:15)

Honesty. Truth. These are the attributes of the Godly, regardless of nation, culture or creed. We’re all tempted to lies and dishonesty; I certainly tried that for a while. But my conscience was screaming at me and struggling for supremacy in my soul.

Sadly and shockingly, I’ve met ones who’ve even seemed to come to the Lord and been taught by me who I found later were not really “dealing with a straight deck”, as they say in poker. They were not honest. And to my chagrin, some of these people played me for a fool and I didn’t catch on for a while.

Was I naive? Too trusting? Too unwilling to see what was going on? Probably so to some degree. But the people I’m thinking of are ones who evidently, I found later, had a history of that kind of behavior and were virtually compulsive liars. Pretty sad, no?

“So Mark, why didn’t you catch that sooner? Why didn’t you see right through them immediately, if you really have a link with the Lord?”

I wondered about that. Well, for one, I think the Lord may have even been pulling a fast one on the folks who thought they were pulling a fast one on me. All the while, “Christ was preached”. Like Paul said about some folks who were preaching the gospel but with contention and not sincerely, “nevertheless, Christ is preached.” (Philippians 1:18) In this case, these were people were coming as His sheep but they were not “without guile”. (John 1:47) But all the while I was sharing the Word of God with them and dealing with them honestly.

What do you do in situations like that? You could get mad at them for their dishonesty and evidently trying to trick you. You could get mad at yourself for being somewhat deceived and made a fool of. I’ve definitely felt that in some cases.

But it does help to have a deeper, higher view of it all. In the times this happened to me (it hasn’t been often), it’s been where I was honest and up front with these people, sharing my faith with them and in some situations trying to strengthen and establish in the faith some who were posing as Christians.

Were they Christians? Deep question. If you feel that folks have to be perfect in spirit to receive the Lord and become a Christian, you might say no. I do know that they all received a strong witness. They said they were Christians. I was sharing the Word with them, praying with them and in some situations having classes with them. It’s good to remember that obscure verse, “God’s Word does not return void. It accomplishes His purpose.” (Isiah 55:11)

Everyone will be accountable for the truth they’ve been shown and seen. It seems like some folks would almost rather hold on to their abilities (if we can call it that) to trick and deceive people. On the other hand, many who’ve dabbled in deep dishonesty and deception have thrown off that temptation when confronted with the pure truth and light of the love of God and His Word.

But for us who know Him, it’s good to remember that “Truth” is right up there with “Love”, when we’re talking about the things of God. Many of us know that “God is love.” (I John 4:8) But equally, Jesus said “I am … the truth..” (John 14:6) “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:37) We should extol, strive for and exalt truth in the same way and as much as we do love. Or so it seems to me.

Tales from Trondheim (part 2): “the day of small things”

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Mark McMillion

As I wrote in the first post of this series, the time my former wife and I spent in Trondheim, Norway back in the mid 70’s was actually somewhat rough. It’s no reflection against Trondheim; it’s an interesting place with an interesting history. But for us, it was really kind of a “Gethsemane”, ha!

But besides the amazing experience we had with the young man who went to be with the Lord a few days after leaving our fellowship, another experience was very strong in our lives, one that mainly had to do with my former wife.

She was, and is, a gifted soul winner and personal witness. At this time she was well along with her pregnancy of our first son and so she was often staying back in our meager little flat during the day. But her zeal for souls was such that she somehow struck up a contact with a young little girl in our neighborhood.

This little girl was around 8 years old and had virtually no friends. Her mom was single and the little girl herself was not really “pretty” but was sort of plain and also overweight. So she ended up getting teased a lot by kids her age and it was really weighing heavily on this little girl’s life. Her mom was at work all day and this little girl was actually at a severe crisis point in her life.

Well, my former wife ended up praying with this precious little girl to receive Jesus and the new life in Him that He could give. She told me about it with joy when I came home from a day of witnessing and taking care of business things on the streets of Trondheim.

Some weeks later this little girl’s mother called on us. Basically she said, “I don’t know what you did but I want to thank you”. She went on to say that her little girl had become totally different from before, with more confidence and strength, able to stand up to her bullying friends and just had really become “a new creature in Christ Jesus” (II Corinthians 5:17). This of course brought us immense joy as we felt we hadn’t been seeing a lot of fruit in our efforts to evangelize Trondheim during that winter.

And it was a real eye-opener for me. At that time my focus was still on the hippy generation my former wife and I had come out of. But here was a little 8 year old who was in the biggest crisis of her life, her light almost snuffled out through bullying and just being alone so much. So salvation had come at the time she needed it most, even though she was younger than I figured folks needed salvation… a lesson I hope I never forget.

It’s rather like the verse from Zachariah, “despise not the day of small things”. (Zechariah 4:10) That’s certainly how we looked at our time in Trondheim, as a day of small things. But looking back, the Lord was working and changing lives, even through us in those dry times.

Not long after that we journeyed south and ended up having our first son in Stockholm, Sweden in the spring of ‘75. But even in that difficult time, He still helped us to bear some fruit, to touch some lives and to help a few people.

And the amazing sequel to all this is that 25 years later I met, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, an American missionary and his Norwegian wife. He’d been led to the Lord in Trondheim by ones we’d left in charge of our fledgling efforts there back in the ’70’s. He had been a backpacking young American who was met and witnessed to by our friends in Trondheim and had receive the Lord right there on the street. He had gone on to marry a dear Norwegian sister in the Lord I also knew and had since moved to the interior of Brazil to serve the Lord there.

So the ways of the Lord can at times seem strange. But here were at least these three lives that were strongly changed for Him during those months we were there and immediately after, even though for ourselves it was some of the most difficult months of our lives.

It’s like that verse, “In due season we shall reap if we faint not.”(Galatians 6:9) I can tell you, it sure felt like we fainted a lot back then and we were claiming the verse “he will make a way of escape that you be able to bear it.” (I Corinthians 10:13) But all the while He was still using us “in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2) and there was “fruit that remained” (John 15:16), even from that difficult time.

Somehow all these things were crossing my mind tonight. Maybe someone needs this, to know “your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58) and that He will always bring people into our lives who need Him and all that He has bestowed on us. God bless you.

Tales from Trondheim (Part 1)

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Mark McMillion

My former wife is from Norway and when we’d been married less than a year, we were living in Trondheim, Norway. In the winter, the sun comes up at 10 in the morning and goes down at 2 in the afternoon, whereas down south in Oslo it comes up at 9 and goes down at 3.

It’s wonderful to be newly married and expecting your first child. We had a little base in Trondheim and were witnessing to people about the Lord, especially the young people. But frankly, it was a rather rough time for us both physically and even financially. On the other hand, there were also some amazing spiritual times there where the Lord was really working.

Some friends of ours in Oslo had led a young man to the Lord who came from a very rough “street culture” background. He’d been a drug addict but through salvation he’d become “a new creature in Christ Jesus” (II Corinthians 5:17). He was still a teenager, a big Norwegian guy. But he had a meek and changed spirit and we were glad to have him to come work with us in Trondheim as we tried to strengthen him in his new life for the Lord.

But a life of full time discipleship is not easy and we didn’t have it easy then. Not everyone is cut out for a Christian missionary lifestyle and it was becoming evident to us that, as sweet and transformed as our new friend was, he was having a very difficult time to “take up his cross daily”. (Luke 9:23)

At length my wife and I really prayed as we just felt this wasn’t working and the trajectory of this young man’s life was not moving towards full time Christian discipleship. But he was a nice guy, really saved and thankful for his salvation. At times back in those days, it was a temptation to look down on someone if they weren’t ready and able to serve the Lord full time. There had been many from those days who did become full time disciples and missionaries who went on for the next decades to serve the Lord at the ends of the earth. So we sometimes were tempted to look down on ones who didn’t make that standard, Lord forgives us.

But in this case, after my former wife and I prayed together, the Lord led us to have personal communion with this dear young man, encouraging him that perhaps full time Christian discipleship was not what was for him. We had a sweet time of fellowship with him, encouraging him in the Lord and sending him back south to Oslo before the weekend.

Around Monday I made our regular call to friends in Oslo. They asked me, “Do you remember Bjørn?” I said, “Of course, he just left here a few days ago.” So they said, “Well he’s gone to be with the Lord”.

I was really, really shocked. My friends went on to tell me that he’d gone down to Oslo and then on to Bergen on the Norwegian west coast. He stayed with his uncle’s family and the next day after he got there, didn’t come down to breakfast. They went up to see how he was and found him dead. Evidently the drugs that he’d been doing before he got saved caused an air bubble to enter into his blood stream and that night it had lodged in his brain, taking his life.

My former wife and I were in deep shock on so many levels. I was not yet 26 and my wife was 22. Death was not something we experienced much, especially with someone we’d just been very close to a few days before.

But we were so glad that the Lord had led us in prayer to be gentle with this young man, not to condemn him for his weaknesses but to have a time of communion with him, something very unusual for us at that time, and to send him on his way with love when we might have condemned him for his weaknesses.

We just felt very strongly that the Lord had taken him home to be with Him before he might be tempted to return to his former lifestyle that he’d been delivered from. He’d been saved from a very hellish existence on the streets of Oslo and the Lord saw fit to take him home to be with Him at that point, when he’d had a victorious life.

It was an exceedingly sobering experience to be so near to someone who was a few days away from their graduation to heaven. It helped us, during our time there, to keep the heavenly vision and to stay true to our callings at a time when in many ways we were “troubled on every side”. (II Corinthians 7:4)

And I just thought about all this tonight as one of the so many experiences I’ve had in a life as a missionary and disciple of the Lord. It was the direct leading of the Lord to have communion with this precious young man and to send him on his way with encouragement, rather than condemnation, that so touched us as the Lord’s mercy on us, that we somehow were able to show His mercy towards this young man, which we might not have done without prayer.