• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
archived service at ggwo.org/gml
Extraordinary Lives Knit Souls Together 
by Pastor Thomas SchallerJune 3, 2009Unedited
I Sam. 16:7 - Lord said to Samuel, look not on his countenance...Ihave refused him. The Lord sees not as man sees. Say this...say itagain. Just for fun, turn to your neighbor and say, the Lord sees not asman sees. Ok! Can I get you back now? Finish the verse: The Lordlooks on the heart.vs 12 - he brought him in...he was ruddy...and goodly to look to. TheLord said, arise and anoint him. David was good looking afterall. TheLord said, don't look on the outward, but he looks great. Good lookingkid.I Sam. 17. One thought to speak about Dr. Stevens and how Iremember him and his life. He was born in 1929, the time of depression, in a small town, with N and S street. There was a fewhouses and they come back together. There was no more than 8 bldg'sin that town. His brothers went to war. He stayedhome with his widowed mom. He was taking care of a horse, as a littleboy, 10 or 11 yrs old. THe horse had a heart attack and died on hispost. In the 8th grade, he worked in the tannery. Poverty was a wordto describe his home life.What I think, briefly, his life gives us all hope. From his life we seethat regardless of who you are, very little education, very fewconnections, that are meaniingful and imp, very little support, andencouragement, but if our heart, God looks on the heart, not on theoutward. If God puts his hand on you, it doesn't matter. Thoseelements that are highly esteemed in the world are not with God.When God puts his hand on you, and He is with you, then He is withyou.He became for me, a common person, who showed me anextraordinary life. I never considered him common, but in the sense of being a human being, like we have found in so many parts of theworld. People don't need to hear about great people...successfulpeople. Tell me a story about David. Tell me that one who is a nobody,if their heart, and faith, and if they desire, and move in faith, God canput his hand on you.
 
archived service at ggwo.org/gml
The story of David is that one. In this chap. 17:32 - David said toSAul, let no mans heart fail bec. of him. Thy servant will go and fightthis Philistine. I killed a lion and bear. No one was watching me. I'mnot talking about it. When Jesus Christ visits you in the night, comesto you, sometime at a burning bush, at a picnic table, in the woods, ina field in Harford, on the street in Baltiomore, standing next to a mudpuddle, looking up and asking God, are you real, are you there. Canyou answer me? Are you God?God delights in those people. These are the people we are. There is nodiff. between David and this man of God, or that one or that child of God, or those that stood from Wiscasset Maine...S.Berwick...Lenox...its all the same. WE become champions for commonpeople. We are msngrs for common people. We become ministers of Christ who lost and common people who are saved and want more.After Goliath was killed...David could say, what do I do now? In thecalling of God, your next step will be revealed at that point, not pre-planned before, but at that point. This is another thing about Godbeing with you. You don't know what you will do now.When we were in Maine, did we know what we would be doing later?Did we know...in our victories there are steps and processes. What wedo now, will be revealed to us then. This happened in pastor's life. Wedon't know what we'll do in a year, but it will be revealed to us then.WE don't know what we'll doin another year, but it will be revealed then. If God is with you, youhave a process of victories. Someone says, What will you do later? Idon't know. I don't have it all planned out.I feel this way, being the pastor here now, but also, I know Pastor wassurprised at times, wow, that really worked. What do I do now? What'sthe next step. Watch this: Chap. 18:1 - after this happened...the soulof Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. That's what happened tous. After this und'g occured to us, this was more than flesh and blood,than the state of Maine, or a man. It was more than just people. Weread about it in Church history. When you encounter it, you say inyour heart, I don't know what's going on, but my soul is knit. I want toshow up. I don't know what's happening.How many times travelling with Pastor in the car to Framingham...thatministry of faith, how much we learned, about thoughts of the diligent,tend to plentiousness. We learned that practically. The thoughts of thediligent, little packets of time can be filled with Divine thought. We
 
archived service at ggwo.org/gml
und. how to think...and God is with us in what we are doing. Theatmosphere of our fellowship, the sanctity of the word, the brokeness.Do you remember sometimes the holy laughter in rap sessions, thequiet holiness...our souls were and are knit with these relationshipsthat P. Scibelli mentioned from 2 Tim 2.Read this with me. vs 1 - teh soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. He loved him as his own soul. It should not be unusual for us tolove...God knows, even though we have our own family, this ishappening in churches around the world. There is another man of Godborn somewhere around the world and he becomes a champion for thecommon person...and your soul is knit with him. You say, I know heloves me, and loves God, I know he is honest, his motive is genuine. Iknow this is the work of God. That's how our ministry began.Lastly, in the beginning, we were in Maine on Rt. 1. It was a Baptistchurch up there. One night, after a service, he was hanging around,and I was listening to him talk about his msg. He said, lets go downstairs, and he was talking more about his message. That ended, andwe followed him. Then, he got in his car, and we went to BrunswickMaine to a donut shop. We went in there...laughing...after riding in thecar. I'm brand new...we go in there, and he's just pastor. He said,we're going to start a Bible college. He took a napkin...got a pen fromsomeone, and wrote a few little notes on the napkin. When I left thedonut shop that night, I never met a pastor like this one. I didn't knowexactly what was going on. By nature, I was suspicious. On the otherhand, the HS was all over the place ministering to us. He said, we'restarting a Bible collge.In that summer, 1972, I decided, OK! I went home to tell my family.They disagreed. They took me to the college where I was enrolled...itdidn't work for me. I hitch hiked to Maine from NY. When I got there,there was spiritual fire there. When Pastor was preaching, I sat there,in little kindergarden desks...I thought, here we are. This is Biblecollege. What's going on?There was 33 people. That's how we started. What he said...workedfor...how he lived, and meditated, what he believed was genuine.God's hand was on him. Don't look at the outward. God saw in thatman, maybe that poverty, the brokenness, the emptiness that we allhave in adam, and his hunger and desire and search for truth...and hewas a diligent thinker in his study of the Bible. The result, that wordwent into that heart, and son on , and has impacted parts of the world.Even if it affected only one, one soul is worth the entire world. Wehave an accountability bec. we have seen it and share it and we
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...