BuildPlant Blog

By Mitch Tulloch Here's another God Story for those of you who read our blog. We love telling these stories from our life because people can learn from them that God is real and that He loves you and has a plan for your life . A few months ago our kitchen sink got plugged and wouldn't drain. This was a real problem for us because not having a working sink in the kitchen makes it hard to prepare meals and wash dishes! So we called a rooter service and they sent a guy who tried to clear it, but his drain snake wasn't long enough to get all the way down to the blockage. (Our kitchen is on the upper level and our house has several levels.) He then called a second guy who had a 50 foot (15 meter) snake and we anxiously waited for him to arrive. The new guy discovered that our main sewer drain also seemed plugged, so the first thing he did was clear that. Then he used his snake to clear the problem with the kitchen sink and was successful. Fixing the problem, which involved calling two plumbers, took almost the entire day and cost us more than six-hundred dollars. Argh! So we thought the problem had been solved, but then yesterday I noticed water starting to pool in the kitchen sink again. I turned off the tap and the water slowly drained away, but it was clear that there was a partial blockage down at the bottom of the drainpipe that connects under the kitchen sink. Oh no, I thought. Will we have to spend hundreds of dollars on the plumber again? Is this problem going to start recurring frequently? Will we have to tear open the basement wall to expose the drainpipe to fix it? How much will that cost?? My glass was quickly becoming half-full, not half-empty. In other words, I was fearing the worst. Better try to fix this myself first if possible, I decided. So I poured some Drano into the kitchen sink drain, waited a half hour, and then poured a bucket full of hot water into the sink. The water pooled and drained ever so slowly. Rats. What to do? I told Ingrid about the problem and I could tell from her expression that she was worried too. I texted our friends Ken and Bonnie and asked them to pray about our situation. Then I sat down and worried. After wrestling with my anxiety for a while, I thought: Wait a minute. Isn't God my Father? Hasn't he promised to help us in times of difficulty? Now what was that promise He gave me about a dozen years ago...oh yeah, it was this: My hand will be constantly with him, he will be able to rely on my arm. (Psalm 89:21, Jerusalem Bible Translation) So I prayed, "Lord, I need your help. You said your hand will be constantly with me and that I can rely on your arm. So please show me how I can fix this problem." And immediately two things came to mind. The first was that it would be best to wait until morning when the drainpipe has fully drained before trying the Drano approach again, and this time to pour a whole 2.3 liter bottle into the drain because the blockage is way down in the basement and there's a lot of meandering pipe between the sink and the blockage. The second thing that popped into my head was the phrase "boiling water." Aha, I thought: a pail of hot water from the bathtub faucet is at most about 50 degrees Celsius, but a big pot of boiling water heated on the stove will be near 100 degrees so it should have a much greater dissolving effect on any gunk blocking the drainpipe. So was that God who put those thoughts into my mind to help me unplug our drain? Of course! How do I know? Because of His promise to us in James 1:5 which says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." Anyways, the next morning I got up early, poured a whole jug of Drano into the sink, put a big pot of water on the stove, waited 30 minutes, and poured the boiling water into the sink. It went down pretty fast. Then I filled up a big bucket of hot water from the bathtub and repeated. The sink drained quickly. Then as a final test, I put the stopper in the sink and filled it right up with hot water and pulled the stopper. The water went down like a stone falling from the sky. Thank you, Lord!!! Lessons learned Reflecting on what happened, I can think of five things that I should remember when problems like this arise: First, remember the promises that God has given you! These may be Bible verses that have "jumped off the page" when you read them, knowing that God specifically means them for your attention. Or they may be prophetic words given to you by others, or words the Holy Spirit has spoken into your heart directly. Whatever way God speaks to you, write it down so you won't forget it, and read them over periodically to keep them fresh in your heart. Second, ask your brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for you! Ken and Bonnie are our longtime friends, and the four of us have walked through many difficulties and challenges in life together. That's what belonging to the Body of Christ is all about: Christians helping Christians because we're members of the same Body. And when one part of your body (your arm, for example) is in pain, your whole body feels it and wants to help. Third, face your problems with courage. A few years ago I was facing some serious difficulty and felt overwhelmed. I turned to the Psalms and was reading one of them in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, when I came across the word ἀνδρίζου (andrizdou) which is usually translated in English as "be courageous" or "take courage" but literally means "be manly" or better "be a man!" That word really spoke to me at the time, and it helped me successfully face the difficulty I had been experiencing with confidence and courage, knowing that God was on my side. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). Fourth, address issues before they happen. I used to be a terrible procrastinator, and still am sometimes. I had set a monthly reminder in Outlook that I should use Drano on the kitchen sink once a month, but having put off doing this for several months look what happened. But I've learned my lesson (I hope) and am going to be more serious about maintaining our kitchen sink now. Once a week I'll heat a pot of water on the stove and pour boiling water into the sink. And once a month a whole jug of Drano is going into it. Finally, don't forget to worship and pray. After we went to bed yesterday, Ingrid woke up worried in the middle of the night. So she began singing an old Vineyard worship song to herself: Lord I will put my trust in You And I will not faint Lord I will put my trust in You... ( lyrics for song ) Then Ingrid prayed and asked the Lord to give her a pleasant dream to quell her fears about the situation. And he did — she fell asleep again and slept soundly, and towards morning she had a wonderful dream about us being with her family laughing and having fun together. Look at how much our heavenly Father loves us, who are His children through Jesus! Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. (Psalm 54:4 NIV)

Chapter 1 of our latest book Simple Kingdom: Word and Spirit is now available for reading on our website! Work is progressing steadily on this new title and we've decided to make each chapter available as we finish writing them. You can read the chapter here . More coming soon!

In a previous post I outlined some tips on how to become more effective in personal evangelism. I learned these years ago from listening to John Wimber teaching on the subject. I've been finding these tips helpful lately as Ingrid and I try to tell the people we meet in the marketplace about Jesus. In this present post I'll list some more tips gleaned from John's teaching, and I've incorporated these additional tips into the PDF titled John Wimber on Personal Evangelism which can be found in the Resources section of our website . You're the bait! The way you live and act will open the door "You're different. Why?" (from Ingrid) Use the J-word in your response! Meet them where they are at spiritually Not everyone is hungry for God People are at many different levels in the process of coming to God Fill up their cup, but don't overfill Give them a Bible verse that relate to their present need This means you need to know the Scriptures! Remember that God is seeking them even if they aren't looking for Him Be sincere when answering their questions Admit that you don't know the answer "But this I do know..." Still more to come... —Mitch

Guest post by Martin Buehlmann Church is not just a building and not just a worship service. Church is first of all a lived community and the following of Jesus! In the Bible, the word "church" is often understood as a community of people. Phrases that describe it include the Body of Christ, the People of God and the Fellowship of the Saints. This means that church happens in everyday life — in our relationships, in serving, in sharing, and in living out our faith together. In other words, church is not the place you go to, but the life you live together. The church should also be a community of love. For in John 13:34-35 Jesus said, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Love, mutual care, and community are therefore central marks of the church. In the New Testament, Christians often met together in homes (see for example Rom 16:5, Col 4:15 and Philem 2). The early church was therefore not primarily an institution with church buildings, but a community of faith lived out in everyday life. So church is not only a place you attend, but a community you live. Be blessed and encouraged! Martin Buehlmann Leader Emeritus of the Vineyard Movement in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

In a previous post I talked about some instructions that Jesus gave his followers when he sent them forth on their first ministry trip. One additional instruction Jesus gave to them was this: "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them" (Mark 6:11). This instruction — to shake off the dust from their feet — used to bother me, because it sounds like the disciples would be saying "To hell with you!" as they departed from towns that didn't receive their message. And since the message of the gospel is supposed to be good news (Mark 1:15) it seems somewhat discordant for them to say something like that. The key however to understanding Jesus' instruction is the phrase "as a testimony against them". The idea is that when harvest time arrives at the end of the age, God will send forth his angels to gather his wheat into his barn (see Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43). And when the angels come to those who rejected the message, the people of that town will likely cry "But we never even heard about this good news! Give us a chance please to repent!" Then the angels will point to the dust still lying on the ground and say, "See? There is the evidence that you were given opportunity to repent! But you rejected those the Lord sent you!" And so they will have no excuse. Of course all this happened two thousand years ago and all of those towns and the people that were in them are long gone. So the focus here can't be on the final Day of Judgment, but on the judgment that happened a few decades later when the Roman legions under Titus swept across Judea and beseiged Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple (see Matthew 24). For while with the coming of Jesus God's future kingdom now breaks through intermittently into our present age with signs and wonders and with healings and deliverance, so also the future judgement by the Son of Man breaks through from time to time into our present evil age. (Image: Sandals - from a Renaissance painting, artist unknown)