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GET INVOLVED IN ROMANIA
We don’t know where to
begin or how to adequately convey to you the burden God has laid on our hearts
concerning the Romanian children.
Matt has worked hard,
prayed without ceasing, loved and encouraged our daughters to be who God has
created them to be. He felt that three teenage 
girls were a full-time
commitment, but then God introduced us to 385 children with no parents, no
encouragement, no prayer covering. They now have become our “spiritual”
children, and we know, with God’s help and relationships with others, that we
can and will see God change their lives.
Most of these children
are gypsies. They have HIV (because of blood transfusions at birth ordered by
the previous Communist regime). They do not have any family anywhere to be
found. They have simply been abandoned.
Last fall, God spoke
loud and clear through His word that we are commanded to do more. This is not a
suggestion, but a command. We were reading Deut. 24:19-21 which says to “set a
portion of our field aside for the fatherless.” James 1:27 says that “Pure and
faultless religion is this: to look after the orphan and widow in their
distress.”
It doesn’t get any
clearer to us than that. We know these children are the future political
leaders, doctors, lawyers, teachers, fathers, husbands, etc. And this is a
God-given opportunity to mold them and see God glorified in
The trend in the
I believe there is much to be gleaned by the writings of C.S. Lewis, and I know
I’m not alone in this belief. Many consider him to be one of the greatest
Christian minds of our time. His inspirational writings span a relatively large
number of topics, which I personally have found useful over the years. Here are
a few quotes from C.S. Lewis on various topics:
On the subject of growth: “Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis
of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth.”
On the subject of good and evil: “Good and evil both increase at compound
interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such
infinite importance.”
On the subject of miracles: “I am in no way committed to the assertion that God
has never worked miracles through and for pagans or never permitted created
supernatural beings to do so.”
The singing group “The 2nd Chapter of Acts” (formed by me and my two sisters)
had read Lewis’s book series, The Chronicles of Narnia. These stories had a
very profound effect on all of us. It wasn’t long before we began writing songs
inspired by one of the books in the series, The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe. Over a span of years, we had enough songs put together to complete an
album, which we called “The
Roar Of Love.”
I recall one day, before the album was released, Keith Green walked into our
house followed closely by another gentleman. At first I didn’t recognize the guy
with Keith, but as he was being introduced, my mouth hung open and I couldn’t
believe my eyes. It was Bob Dylan. Keith told us that he wanted Bob to hear our
“Narnia” recording.
As Bob sat there in our house listening (by the way, he listened to the whole
thing, which surprised me), I couldn’t help but find myself staring at him. I
had never in my life been around someone who had affected the world of music
like he had. When the music finally ended, Bob turned around and told us (and I
really think he was being sincere) how much he loved it and that the singing
and production really blew him away.
If you’ve never heard this recording and you’d like to have a copy, you can
obtain it through our website store. Originally released in 1980, this CD
remains in my mind as one of the best projects that 2nd Chapter of Acts ever
recorded.
Blessings to you this
day,
Matthew Ward
Tuesday, September
11, 2001……
I was ten minutes from
the
As my wife and I turned
the car for home, we had already begun to listen to the radio reports. The
first thing I did was to go to my daughters’ schools. I signed them out for the
day and headed for our church. A sizeable group had already gathered for
prayer, and we began to pray in earnest for the events that were unfolding.
Almost two weeks have
passed now since the unbelievable attacks, and I’m faced with a new fear I’ve
never had to deal with before—not the fear of flying, but the fear of not
getting to my intended destination.
Travel in general has
been pretty strange lately, but for obvious reasons nothing compares to air
travel. Today I flew from
I wrote a song some 15
years ago or so called, “Time Will Tell.” The first verse of the song says,
“Father in Heaven, how long will your mercy stay, how long will Your hand keep
the judgment of death away from a land who names your name, a land founded on
love, but rejecting your freedom we turn to follow hollow gods.”
I believe that judgment
starts with the house of God. We as God’s people are as much to blame (if not
more so) than anyone else. Oh, we can look at all the causation from a purely
humanistic view and say we need more security, or we need to update all the
visa laws and have a computer-based tracking system so we can follow up on
those immigrants who come into our country for whatever reasons and make sure
they are doing what they said they were going to be doing. Don’t get me wrong.
I’m not saying those are bad things to do, but I think until we as a body
address the root of the problem, we will always have areas that are vulnerable.
The question arises,
how do we as a body do something to change our current situation? We must first
make up our minds about what it is we are facing. Is this a spiritual problem,
a physical problem, or a combination of the two? If you take sides and say it
is just a natural, physical problem or you say it’s just a spiritual one, you
will suffer from a very narrow point of view. What will it take for people to
stop flying planes into buildings or keep them from doing a number of other
crazy things? I think we will see the biggest change when the body of Christ
rises up and says, “We have a responsibility to reach these people with the truth
of God’s love.” How is this accomplished? Through prayer and missions, I
believe. God changes people, but he uses people to reach them.
The first Sunday after
the attacks, a man named Fred Marker spoke at our church. Fred is one of the
main leaders of an organization called Y.W.A.M. (Youth With A Mission), which
happens to be the largest missionary organization in the world. As we were
focused on the problems in the
As Fred began to share,
his main focus was not so much on the events of the last few days, but more on
what we could do as a people to help change the mind set of those who would be
likely to do something so terrible. As you can imagine, Fred’s heart is very
much towards reaching the lost through missionary
efforts. He was adamant
about finding out the condition of our hearts that morning as it related to the
idea of going out into the world and reaching those with the Gospel who need to
hear it. Fred noted that many of the places that so desperately need to hear
the truth are ones that are the most dangerous and at time require the greatest
sacrifice.
A question was posed to
the church that morning: Are there any here who will stand up and say to me, “I
feel the Lord is leading me into missions, into potentially some of the hardest
and most life threatening places on earth, to help make a difference for the
When the service ended,
I really started to put some thought into the idea of missions being the most
powerful and direct way to bring about real and lasting change. I guess I
always thought of missions as our way to reach the souls of the lost, but not
really a tool that the Lord would use to change the way a people group would
think as it relates to political and religious outcomes.
I have begun to pray
with both a renewed fervor and focus for what I believe to be the single most
powerful weapon we have against terrorism, that being the obedient missionary.
How often do you really pray for those called to fight a fight that seems so
huge, one that has such broad scope, and that has its roots in nothing short of
all-out spiritual warfare?
Lord, teach me how to
pray for those who have been called to sacrifice so much, for those who place
themselves in harm’s way (even at times to the death) for the Gospel! May I
become more supportive through prayer and finances to those who are making a
difference in the world, not just for those they reach, but also for myself,
one who reaps the benefit of their work directly and indirectly.
What a great
fellowship, unlike any other the world has to offer, one complete with glory as
well as suffering, is to know the Christ in His majesty as well as his public
humility. There can be nothing that can compare with knowing Him.
Seeing Him as a
physician as well as a vagabond, will you learn to put your unfailing trust in
the King of Glory? Seeing Him in his Glory, one can put trust in His eternal
greatness, but if you choose to view Him with the glasses of this world, you
will only see him through your earthly involvement. It will reduce you to
nothing more than knowing Him as an acquaintance, as someone you can chit chat
with, as your buddy, we say in current terms.
Abba Father: Certainly He is that, but we have a tendency to coat God with
artificial sweetener, reducing the Most High God to images we can come to grips
with. We water down God’s endless character traits into finite quantifiable
elements. Somewhere on the road of relationship, we make the decision to
worship only what we can control, and we lose all sight of his sovereignty.
I took my
four-month-old puppy for a walk this morning. There is an area not too far from
my house where you can see some erosion taking place. The dirt is being taken
away right at the base of some pine trees. You can plainly see about half the
root system sticking out from the side of the eroded hill.
The image I saw first
was the beauty of the exposed roots, their intricate weaving, the way you can
so obviously see how they would hold down the tree if securely burrowed in the
soil. It got me thinking. If the erosion keeps up at the pace that has been
set, it won’t be too long before those trees will be in great jeopardy.
The Lord showed me a
picture of the enemy, how he comes along eating away at the soil of our lives,
the very fabric of our anchor. Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. The
imagery was so clear to me that I felt a welling up of tears as I thought about
how the enemy was trying to do that in my own life. How subtle are his ways. He
never comes at me blatantly any more. He slowly tears away at the soil of
truth, so slowly we don’t see it happening. Two things start to take place: our
nourishment begins to diminish and our foundation is literally taken away. When
storms come, we have neither the strength nor the ground to stand. We topple
over like so much dead wood.
Issues of faith have
always been a stumbling block to us. It’s nearly impossible for some of us to
accept certain things because we can’t rationalize them or wrap the skin of logic
around them. But a walk of faith is exactly what the Lord requires. Why do you
suppose this is? Is there a certain childlike element of faith that God sees as
essential?
There are specific
qualities that all of us as parents long to see in our children. One of these
is trust. Trust plays a large part in the developmental aspects of a child’s
character. Trust builds faith. If I never demonstrated an outward expression of
love to my children, they would have no reason to believe I love them. On the
other hand, if I ask them to do a certain thing for me, and if I reward them
for doing it, they learn to trust that if I ask them to do something for me
they will be compensated.
For those of us who
have walked with God for some years, there always seems to come a time when the
Lord apparently removes Himself from our situation. It is as though He’s seeing
whether the work He’s done in us has found soil to grow in. He still tends to
the crop, but He does so in a different manner, cultivating us from an apparent
distance, instructing us to take up the implements of battle without having to
dress us Himself.
Faith that has found
its deep work in us will produce a strong warrior. If God steps back from us,
faith allows us to press in and find Him anew. To try to function without faith
is sin, yet for those of us who are spiritually less mature, that is what often
happens. If we remain untrained, we will inevitably shrink from the battle,
remaining hidden in shadows, being made impotent by default. Faith becomes for
us a catalyst, a springboard into the river of belief.
It’s late October, and
the fall colors are still quite vivid. I’m thinking of things in my own life
that seem to be changing as well. The ebb and flow of the seasons never ceases
to amaze me.
I’ve become mindful of
some things in my own life that, like the turning leaves, show themselves
brilliant even in death. So now that my mind is slowly being taken over with
thoughts of fall, why am I holding onto so much dead weight? There are so many
things that I grasp onto that have lost their usefulness. I grow afraid of
letting go. They’ve worked in the past. I guess it’s the old mentality in me
that cries out, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Sometimes if you don’t
take the leap and make the change before you have to, it can be too late. I’ve
seen this happen a lot lately in the business world. Things change so fast in
today’s market place, especially in the area of technology-based businesses,
that if you don’t possess the ability to stay a little ahead of the trend, it’s
over. It doesn’t matter how big your company is. It can be over in a flash.
So as fall sets in,
it’s my desire to learn, as the trees have, to let go of the seeds, to make
room for silence, dormancy, stillness, and reflection.
This season of the soul
can make it much easier to listen. It prepares you to receive. By stripping the
old dead leaves away and allowing last season’s growths to fall away, we leave
nothing for the winds to rustle, nothing on us to be rattled.
Many people make the
annual “New Year’s resolutions.” I hardly ever do that. It seems as though I
face most of my resolutions during the fall, when everything in nature appears
to be taking a breather. I guess it’s easier for me to gather my thoughts about
what I should do, or what I should become in the future, before the craziness
of the holiday season gets into full swing and crowds out any free time to just
contemplate.
You would think, after
being a Christian as many years as I have, I would have mastered the art of
listening, but I’m learning that being still and having an ear tuned for the
voice of God isn’t as simple as one might think. Since I’ve learned that it’s
easier to be still in the fall, my prayer is that the Lord will give me His
grace (unmerited favor) to truly focus on what it is he has in store for me in
the new season.
I heard an old radio
preacher the other day say something I’ll never forget. He said, “The main
difference I see in today’s churches, compared to the early churches of the New
Testament, is this: the early church had such power that ‘signs’ followed them.
Today, the church is following the ‘signs.’”
That statement really
got me thinking. Why is it that the modern day churches have so few real
outward manifestations of God’s presence? Why is it that every time there seems
to be a new move of God, we flock to it like bees to the hive? Why have we
reduced God’s moving to a select group of people or certain geographic
locations? Is God not fully capable of moving wherever a surrendered heart
cries out to Him?
The early church seemed
to walk in a greater amount of power. Many were healed of various maladies,
others were raised from the dead. Some today argue that that was a dispensational
outpouring, one that was needed for the early church so it could be
established. But I don’t really see how that is likely, when you read the
scriptures and find Jesus saying, (as it refers to His miracle workings) “And
greater things shall ye do.”
What has to happen to
us as a body before we start to see the reality of Jesus’ words? How can we
become that which Jesus sees us becoming? Is it just a matter of timing? What
is it He is waiting for? What is it we are waiting for? Do we believe His
words? Do we doubt that He really wants to move through us in such amazing
power?
We need to learn what
it means to really be expectant of the move of God.
I’ve been pondering the
definition of the word “mediocre.” It’s from the Latin word mediocris (medi =
middle, and ocris = mountain or mountain peak.) It can mean average, or
something that is neither good nor bad. It can also mean commonplace, or being
in a middle state.
When I think about the
position of westernized Christianity, I wonder about the condition of the
Church-going, Bible-believing Christian (or at least what they think they
believe about the Bible.) In my travels, I see so many Christians who live
their lives from the position of just getting by. The mentality is one of
survival, not true success. I had a close friend of mine tell me lately that
all he wants out of life is “to just get by.”
Everyone, I suppose,
has his own image of what success really is, but I’m of the mind that no
Christian with any desire to see the life-giving nature of God flowing through
them should live his or her life in the shadow of what the world deems to be
success. I’m not suggesting that we all live in grass huts. As a matter of
fact, what I’m addressing has very little to do with financial status. What I
want to address is the condition of the human heart as it relates to spiritual
matters.
As many of us know, the
most effective tool of our adversary is to simply leave us alone. That tactic,
however, will only work if we are a people of mediocrity, where the heart
within us says that what we are doing is good enough, or that we have come to a
place of feeling somewhat content, and I’m not referring to spiritual
contentment, which is found in Christ as we walk out our lives before Him.
What I have seen in my
32 years of following Christ is that the ones who are the most effective in the
body of Christ are the ones who make a powerful impact into spiritual matters,
the ones who never settle for living out their spiritual lives in a state of
mediocrity, halfway up the mountain. Oh sure, these people come under spiritual
attack, subject to things that most of us will never come in contact with, but
that should never become a reason for any of us to hide in the shadow of spiritual
issues, so to speak.
Our greatest reward, as
I’m sure many can testify to, is the fact that as we begin to walk in the
deeper things of God, seeking out His good pleasure, we will not only
experience the “fiery darts of the enemy,” but we will develop an ever-stronger
relationship with the one who causes the serpent to swallow himself!
My prayer for you is
that you will not be caught off guard, dozing off at the spiritual wheel,
settling for what seems to be good enough, because what seems to be good enough
never is. I pray that you would press in to all that God has for you, for there
is no greater joy, and that you won’t be found, as my good friend used to sing,
“asleep in the light”!
We just got back from a
trip that lasted the better part of a month. In that time, my wife, Deanne, and
I were able to minister in several German cities including
I’d like to say thanks
to the people who made the German portion of the trip possible. First off, I
want to thank Pastor Tom Demont in
Also thanks to Simone,
our driver, who took a week off work to drive my family all over the place, and
I mean all over. Hey, Simone…how fast are we driving now?
To Pastor Uwe Dahike,
thanks for letting me sing at your conference. I felt God’s presence.
To Pastor John
Angelina, I enjoyed getting to know you. Thanks for feeding us at the “Eboli.”
To Bishop John Alan
Neal, thanks for trusting me with your platform. May the prayer I sang over
your church come to fruition.
It’s been many years
since my last visit to
While in
We saw many beautiful
things in
For the Greek portion
of our trip, I’d like to thank everyone associated with the Christian Artist
Seminar.
To George, for giving up work as a taxi driver to get us around
To Alex and Joanne for
our two days on the boat. And for getting us back to the airport!
None of us had ever
been to
Our first place of
ministry was in a small vacation complex about an hour or so outside
Ministering in
Deanne and I had
several other speaking engagements in
On a nicer note, we
were able to spend two days on a wonderful sailboat. The sailboat was a 32-ton
vessel manned by Captain Alex and his two interns from
Another highlight was
visiting the Acropolis in
The other highlight was
standing on Mars Hill, just outside the Acropolis, imagining Paul preaching the
Gospel to the Athenians for the first time.
All in all, our trip to