Christ Communicator

I just listened to the following programs today (about an hour total).  Wow.  I want to encourage you very strongly to do the same.  The title of this post, “Satisfied With God: the Life of George Muller,” was the title of a week of programs on Nancy Leigh Demoss’s radio program (called “Revive Our Hearts” – www.reviveourhearts.com).  Jim Elliff pointed it out to me yesterday (he had the series on a CD)–Jim is one of the individuals interviewed about Muller, and others on this CD include John Piper and Jim Cymbala (Piper’s voice is from his autobiographical message on Muller).  The series is tremendously done.  (In my estimation, the first program is a little slow.)

A couple of times I was moved to tears as I listened to these programs.  It is quite inspiring and makes me want to live a life of trusting God such that God’s power and faithfulness shine forth.  If you click on the links below, they will take you to a page where you can see the transcripts of the shows, but you will also see a ”listen” tab for each program which will give you two or three options for listening (I highly suggest you listen instead of reading the transcripts).

Program 1: The Value of Biographies

Program 2: Life of Trust

Program 3: The Primary Object

Program 4: A Life of Faith

Program 5: Joy in God

FYI, we sell a book at CCW titled A Brief Account of the Life and Labors of George Muller.  It not only includes a small biography of Muller by his second wife, but also selections from Muller’s own writings on money and possessions.  You can see it here.

but I like these, and not just because I am now part of the CCW team.  In fact, I used the Wasted Faith discussion guide at our church in Ohio in a Sunday School class.  In my limited experience, study or discussion guides are normally unhelpful because they ask overly simple questions that really don’t aid the conversation.  The discussion guides for Pursuing God and Wasted Faith are different!  Also, since each chapter in both books is so short (3-4 pages), in a 45-60 minute Sunday School class or Bible study, you can actually read out loud the entire chapter for study (actually, the discussion guides lead you to do this), and then still have time to at least get through half of the discussion guide (or, you could prepare in advance to get through the entire pertinent section of the study guide by elimnating certain questions due to time contraints).  The study guides are free, and click here for the page where you can order the books.   

Our study through Wasted Faith, which is a very helpful little book about true, saving faith versus false faiths and the responsibility of each Christian to examine himself or herself to see if he or she is actually a Christian, was a monumental time of spiritual discernment for several in our Sunday School class in Ohio (it also went a long way in helping them discern biblical methods of evangelism in contrast to the many man-centered methods of the day).  I’m praying for the same kind of impact this year at the Bible study I teach at Park U. After teaching last year through the ending of Mark 8 and then the first chapter of Titus in that Bible study (which is often attended by several unbelievers), I’m planning on reading Pursuing God the first semester of school and using the discussion guide.  Pursuing God is a great book to use for evangelism purposes, but it is also a wonderful book for believers to go through as well because it carefully proclaims the gospel as it works through several key passages in the New Testament.  In this day and age when “methods” seem to be the fad, we need a recovery of the “message” of Jesus Christ.

Click here to see CCW’s selection of resources that have been translated into a variety of languages. These might be of use in your local church context, or perhaps you might think of a situation in which something on the list would be of use. Maybe you know a missionary in a Spanish-speaking country, or perhaps you know of a blind child in your neighborhood or church who might benefit from The Eaglet in Braille.

I would also highlight from the translated resources page at the CCW site the following statement:

“If you’d like to contribute a translation in any language to this page, are proficient in that language and familiar with it’s grammar, please contact webserver@ccwonline.org. We will have the translation checked by another person proficient in the language. We have no money to offer for this project but are hopeful that you will receive a great personal reward by doing it.” 

As most of you know, I regularly contribute to writing for the www.BulletinInserts.org site.  Did you know that you can use those little articles for more than just bulletin inserts?  The CCW team “brainstormed” some ideas several months ago, and you can click here to see the list of uses we produced.

I would be interested to hear from any of you who have used them, and in what capacity.