Bible Quiz: Each week this blog will begin with two questions. The answers are at the end of the blog. Have fun!!
According To the Bible:
1. Numerology – 666 is an unlucky number.
2. Numerology - There are numerical codes in the Bible that can be discovered by giving the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or English alphabet numerical values. (Also – 7 is the perfect number, 3 is the number for God, etc., etc., etc…)
Dear Prayer Warriors,
“You teach on the family but are never home – how does that work?!?!” Actually, I am surprised that I am not asked this question more often. I have come to realize that neglecting the home for the sake of the ministry is such a norm among pastors, conference speakers and para-church executives that people do not even think to ask it.
The answer is that I stayed home and behaved myself until my children were grown and out of the home. I remember, early in our marriage, that El and I came to the conclusion that God the Holy Spirit’s injunction in 1 Timothy 3:4-5 that an elder "must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?)" was not one of many suggestions as to the qualifications of an elder, but a direct command – a deal-breaker.
We made three decisions… 1. I would only work two nights a week. 2. I would only make two trips a year and those for two weeks or less. 3. Eleanor would not work outside the home until our youngest was established in school and, thereafter, would only hold jobs that allowed her to be home when the children were home.
So the answer is, “I was at home” or, rather, “We were at home.” Pastors told me I would never be hired by a church. Others said my ministry would dry up and blow away. Supervisors of a para-church ministry told me that I might as well quit and go to work in the secular world. Businessmen told me I would go broke. None of these dire predictions came true. At the time, though, we could not see into the future to know the result of this decision. We did sacrifice some career opportunities along with job promotions, and our standard of living was definitely impacted. We decided, however, that we would do the ministry by faith and obedience to the holy, eternal, inerrant, written Word of God or not at all - that if God had called us to teach the Word of God, then He would supply the grace for us to obey the Word of God (which He has). Abiding by these convictions resulted in short-term loss for long-term gain. In terms of family, we are very glad we made these decisions.
This is the same line of thinking that brought us to the conviction that we would not pay bribes. We have been ministering overseas for over 20 years in 25 countries, and we have never paid a bribe. The list goes on – adulterating the gospel, questionable moral practices and questionable fundraising practices, to name a few.
We decided that if God had indeed called us to teach the Word of God, then He had called us to obey the Word of God. We decided we might as well find out early if He would supply the grace for this and that this would be an indication of His call. I can testify, after 35 years in full-time Christian ministry, that if you are called to teach the Word of God, then God will supply the grace to obey the Word of God. We began with this application to our family priorities and then expanded it to other areas as they came along.
Now, however, all of our children are grown and have “flown the coop.” We have an empty nest (we don’t even have a dog) so we are free to give our last years of ministry to the harvest fields of the world in terms of traveling outside of the home. We do, though, continue to work hard at maintaining a good relationship with our children in a number of ways.
When overseas… Emails – We communicate regularly with our children through this media. Texting – El found a great international plan that allows us to text back and forth. Facebook – We can post real time pictures this way. Skype – Where the internet allows, we can get live feed audio/visual conversations. When we are overseas, our children take the initiative in setting up a regular Skype appointment with us. For our grandchildren, we are TV stars as they get to watch us and interact with us on the computer screen. We have sometimes recorded ourselves reading a book to the grandkids and send them this with the book before we leave.
When home… Our children understand that we are not retired and have a full ministry schedule while in the US. We have, however, been tweaking our travel schedule to come up with a plan that we are just instituting this year. Since our ministry schedule is done as much as four years in advance, this has been slow to develop.
We decided to try to put at least six weeks between each ministry trip. This schedule allows us one week to recover, one weekend (including going to church with them) with each of our children and one Sunday with our home church. As we plan for the future, we hope to be able to maintain this goal. A businessman who has long supported our ministry – Renny Austin - exhorted me, over ten years ago, that Eleanor had made many sacrifices for the ministry and that one of those should not be her relationship with her adult children and grandchildren. I think this is valid. It is my desire to honor Eleanor, to honor our children’s desire for us to spend more time with them and to bless myself, as well, to the complete limit that God allows.
Please continue to pray for me that I will be a wise steward in the scheduling of the ministry.
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Director – Grace Community Int. Tyumen, Russia (deep in the heart of Siberia)
Answers to this week’s Bible Quiz
1 & 2. F - False! False! False! Numerology is a totally “bogus” pseudo-biblical discipline. God the Holy Spirit never says that 666 is unlucky, that 7 is the perfect number, that 3 is the number for God or that numbering Hebrew or Greek will reveal hidden codes. Although God the Holy Spirit has absolutely nothing to say about numerology, He does speak strongly to those who perpetrate myths in His name (1 Timothy 1:4 & 7; 2 Timothy 4:4; Titus 1:13-14).
Now ask yourself – what other things about the Bible do I believe which are, in reality, false? From now on when something is taught about the Bible, your first questions will be – “Which Book, Chapter and Verse establish this?”
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