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<\/a>As things turned out, it was the most incredible character-shaping and building eight-and-a-half years of either of our lives.\u00a0 We were involved in so many different types of ministries and had opportunities to learn so many different things, that I can’t imagine life without that experience.\u00a0 It’s where I finished my Master of Divinity degree and where, as a church-planter, I was specifically called as a pastor (though I was called into ministry at age 15).\u00a0 New England is where I fell in love with cross-cultural missions and apologetics and worldview studies.\u00a0 It’s where I began to understand what it means to be a real friend, investing in people for years in order to reach their hearts (New Englanders aren’t called the “Frozen Chosen” for nothing).<\/p>\nOur time in New England is also where we were the most financially challenged.\u00a0 In spite of Karen and I working throughout these ministry years in the northeast, we were often wondering how we would make our next house payment, how the bills would be paid, and how God was going to see us through.\u00a0 We didn’t always know…but He always did.\u00a0 There were times when, literally, money would come through the mail the day before a bill was due to be sent (one with the exact amount plus the exact change for the stamp!).<\/p>\n
The point I am making is this: Faith isn’t faith until it’s put to the test.\u00a0 We never know, fully in our own hearts, that God can be trusted until we really need to trust Him.\u00a0 That isn’t to say that we don’t believe<\/em> God is faithful in our hearts and heads prior to experience, but it is still theoretical until we experience it.\u00a0 Sometimes, we walk into those experiences knowing that God will have to deliver us if we’re going to make it while other times, God does the pushing and prodding until He gets us to a place where we have no choice, only to teach us what it means to trust and to allow us the blessing of experiencing His all-sufficiency.<\/p>\n Here is where the rubber of your faith meets the road of your experience.\u00a0 Is God to be trusted?\u00a0 Are you going to trust Him when there is no safety net?\u00a0 Our we going to declare with the Psalmist, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High \n<\/a>Most of us are in a situation right now, where it seems hard to see where things are going, economically, in these downward times.\u00a0 After years of plenty (which, ironically, was when Karen and I were experiencing the least we’ve ever had), the economy has taken a dive and it is affecting everyone.\u00a0 The question is how is everyone responding?\u00a0 More importantly, how will I respond and how will you?<\/p>\n
\nwill abide in the shadow of the Almighty.\u00a0 I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’\u201d (Ps 91:1-2)?\u00a0 Is He still God when the 401K dries up and the stock market ebbs and flows, when the savings runs out and when the bills continue to increase?<\/p>\n<\/a>