Thiemann Life

I find it strange that in today’s “American Christianity” there is a silent debate roaring under the radar. That debate consists of two important questions, ‘Who was Jesus Christ?’ and ‘Did He truly demand radical obedience?’ Obviously, these two questions are of supreme importance for every Christian today to take to heart and develop an honest Biblical answer.

During my own wrestling with these questions I found myself perusing through a Christian bookstore. I couldn’t help but wonder if the Jesus of the Bible is the same person we see depicted in all of the “coffee table” devotionals, with flowery paper that I saw filling the bookshelves. As a lot of these books were written by today’s Pastors I wondered, “Is He (Jesus) the one we hear represented from their writings and pulpits?” Or have we lost some of whom He really was and kept those things that we like?

My fear is that the majority of evangelical Christians living in America today are learning about and following a domesticated Jesus that we have created in an image that fits our liking and comfort zone. When I read the Bible and hear the things that Jesus said and commanded, and when I hear the radical commitment He called His disciples too I can’t help but question many of the teachings of today’s American Christian Pastors. If we were to do a side by side comparison of the disciples that followed Jesus then with the “disciples” that follow Jesus now would they look the same? Would we see as a norm, radical people who give up their lives, jobs, comforts and follow Jesus to the death? People that no matter what hardships they face will be faithful to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth? Because, that is what I see from the lives of those that Jesus called in the New Testament times. Did the call change in the past two-thousand years or have the ears of the Church today been plugged with things that don’t demand radical commitment and obedience?

To build my case let’s look at one simple passage found in Matthew chapter 9. We see that Jesus’ ministry is well under way when He encounters a tax collector named Matthew. Now I don’t think I need to build the context of the tax collectors corruption of that day. But one thing is I think is clear, these men were most likely well off financially. It is a man in this occupation and way of life that Jesus walks up to and simply says, “follow me.” Matthew had a choice to make. I believe Matthew understood all too well the realities that were packed into those two words. Matthew new abandonment to his old life and ways were now required of him to be able to follow Jesus. Matthew counted the cost and it says, “He (Matthew) arose from his tax collecting table and followed Him” (emphasis added). He abandoned all to follow Jesus!

Has that calling changed? Does Jesus say to sinners today, “stand up, abandon your life, pick up your cross and follow me!” or does He say, “simply raise your hand or make eye contact with a pastor during an alter call?” I don’t think the call to discipleship has changed. I believe the same redial commitment to discipleship is still required of ALL Christians. However, I see all too often people today finding their security in the fact that they raised their hand during an alter call while everyone eyes were closed or some other form of preaching tactic. I don’t think that is what He demanded  of people. I see Him calling people to stand up and forsake their former lives, turn from their sin and wholeheartedly without question follow Him no matter what the cost.

The Jesus of the Bible is not domesticated like a little house kitten, He is the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” and “He will rule and reign with a rod of iron.” The choice remains the same for people today then it was back then – bow and recognize that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords and that He demands obedience and faithfulness to His Kingdom from His citizens. We have the choice. We can bow now and submit to Him as our King and Lord or have our knees shatter under the wait of glory that will be made manifest before His Throne on that day of judgment when we come to realize that He is in fact the King of kings and Lord of lords.

My New Years Challenge

Please take some time and examine these passages and ask yourself “is this true of you?” Because, it is what Jesus required then and it is what He requires now.

Matthew 10:34–39 (NKJV)
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

Luke 9:23–26 (NKJV)
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”

Luke 9:62 (NKJV)
But Jesus said to him,  “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus’ call requires that you accept ALL of Him and that you give your life ALL for Him or you have not, nor will not, receive any of Him.

Think about it!

I would LOVE to hear your comments and feedback on this article. Please leave a comment.

All For Him,
Pastor Mike Thiemann
Director
 Saving Grace World Missions

We are often mistaken when we believe that missions originated in the New Testament.  True, the calling of a specific people, namely the church, was given a “new task” that is called the Great Commission.  However, this “new task” is actually only a portion of the task that God began unfolding a very long time ago.

So where did missions begin?  To answer this question we must turn to the left in our Bibles a long way from the book of Acts and Matthew chapter 28, to Genesis chapter 3.  Within Genesis chapter 3 we see that God has brought into being creation,  which He has titled “good.”  Creation was perfect, but slithering in the midst of the garden was one who sought to destroy that which God had brought into perfect existence.

We are all very familiar with the story and suffer every day from the consequences of this event brought upon all mankind.  We understand the promise that disobedience brought when man ate of the fruit of the tree – death.  That is what God said…. this was the law:  ”If you eat the fruit you will die.”  Death is the just consequence for the breaking of God’s law that man brought upon himself.

We often think of this as one of the darkest chapters in the Bible. However, this chapter of the Bible absolutely blows my mind! Man ate the fruit of the tree that he was commanded not to and did not drop dead on the spot which would have been a just punishment.  In light of this fact, what do we learn about God?  Well, many things I think. But what I want to highlight here is that we see the very first missionary venture of God as He stood up from His throne and stepped down into His creation.  God knew exactly what had transpired and He new exactly what He was going to need to do to bring this, now corrupt creation, back into fellowship with Himself.  He needed to provide a perfect sacrifice of His blood.  God knew the death penalty was the only option, but He was unwilling to put that responsibility upon mankind knowing that man was unable to appease the full wrath of the God.  Therefore, God stepped down as the first missionary and entered the darkness of this world in order to pursue salvation on man’s behalf.  That’s amazing.  However, the most amazing part is the fact that He never relented in the His pursuit of salvation for each and everyone of us.  He pursued it all the way to the cross, enduring the indescribable pain and suffering, and uttered those amazing words that brought the reality of reconciliation into existence for anyone who would believe – “it is finished!”  The penalty of death was now satisfied and salvation was accomplished and God and God alone is the one that brought that task to fruition.

Our wonderful privilege now as New Testament believers is to join with God in the mission that He started in Genesis chapter 3.  What a glorious privilege!!  We are allowed to partner with God in His missionary work.

So you see, missions didn’t originate in Matthew chapter 28 or Acts chapter 1 or any of the other so called “Great Commission” verses, but these are only new chapters of God’s ongoing missionary venture.  Missions originated in the heart of God when He stepped down to pursue mankind on that day in the cool of the garden when God called out to the first unregenerate man. Like Douglass Webster said in the opening words of his book, “We begin then where missions begins, with God.”

My encouragement and challenge to you is… Do you have a heart for the lost?  God does!  Every page of the Bible unfolds God’s heartbeat for the lost.  As believers our hearts should beat with that which God’s heart beats for.  Is your heart in rhythm with God’s heart?  I pray that we will all take this to heart.  Are you consumed and are you burdened with the realities of the lost? God was, God is, and God will always be burdened for the lost.  So much so that He sent His only son to die in the place of lost man and now He is sending us to go and tell them.

Greetings,

Yesterday morning we headed down the path to the location where our taxi driver was waiting to take us into the Garhwali village. Pastor Trent had visited this village two years ago when there wasn’t a single believer. Now there are seven (well actually nine but I will get to that in a minute). The drive out to the village was quite an adventure. I am pretty sure that I saw an episode of IRT Deadliest Roads filmed on this stretch of highway. What made the time pass a little easier were the breathtaking views of the Himalayan Mountain peaks off in the distance and the jungle/rain forest all around.

About half way to the village we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch. The people were eager to greet us and shake our hands. I was able to sit and talk to an old man for a few minutes and hit with the reality that religion and culture here are one and the same as he asked me “where is your homeland where you pray.” I told him that I am from America and I pray to the one and only God (he is a Hindu man so we emphasis that there is only one true God) who sits upon the throne.

After lunch we got back into the jeep and headed down the road again towards our destination. Once we reached the outskirts of the Garhwali village we had to unpack the jeep and hike all our gear up the side of the mountain. It was quite exhausting. We reached the location and where we set up camp (we were literally camping… tents, sleeping bags, ya… the whole nine yards) and were greeted by the two other American missionaries that are out here on a short-term trip.

The village people were all very welcoming and the kids ran up two us and were excited about getting their pictures taken and then looking at them on our cameras. It was an absolute joy.

After we got camp set up Pritim walked Trent and I to two of the neighboring villages… keep in mind the steep trails and streams that needed to be crossed. We were able to visit some of the families that Pratim had developed good relationships with and have tea with them. I was in heaven just sitting there with these people and hearing them talk and seeing how they live. There are over 9,000 villages in this area of the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains and Pratim and the ministry here has only been able to minister in about 13 of them and it has taken over 13 years to see a single convert. The task here is truly labor intensive and takes years of developing relationships with the people and it is now starting to pay off. In the last two years they have seen seven people come to the Lord and last night as Pastor Trent shared the Gospel during the little church service two ladies whom Pratim and the other believers had been witnessing to for a long time finally came forth and made a profession of faith. There was great rejoicing in the little room we were in as they prayed to the living God for the first time publicly and assuredly there was even greater rejoicing going on in Heaven. After the meeting Pratim talked with the two ladies (I will share some history on them next) for a few minutes and encouraged them in their decision.

Some History:

Pratim has been sharing with this family for a long time. The father passed away a few years ago and left his widow, a daughter and a son. A few years ago Pratim had given a bible to the son, whose name is Rokish, and he took the bible back home and tore it up with great joy and laughing with his family as they ridiculed and mocked Pratim. A while later, Rokish received another bible and during a conversation with Rokish Pratim noticed that a lot of verses had been underlined in his bible. Pratim was shocked. They invited Rokish to a little retreat and he explained that he has been reading his bible and has fallen in love with it and is ashamed that he once tore up this book he now loves. In fact, last night during the study he had his bible sitting on his knee and it slipped off and landed on the floor. He moved with lightning speed to pick it up. After he dusted it off he kissed it and gave it a big hug. God truly changed this young man’s life (he is only 16). As we were with him yesterday and today I never saw him stop smiling. He is currently learning to play the guitar and lead worship in his own language (FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!). Pratim was explaining to Trent and I that he believes this young man is the one God has selected to be the first pastor in this village as he just goes around and shares with everyone and invites his people to come to the bible study.

We believe that God is in the midst of starting a great revival with these people and now is the time for believers to move and get involved. It’s time to reach the remaining 8,999 villages with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to challenge and encourage you to pray. Pray that the Lord continues to move. I also want to challenge you to get involved. Do you believe that God is big enough to use you to reach these people? I want to ask you to seek the Lord. The harvest here is truly plentiful but the labors are very very few. Is God calling you to get involved in this harvest here in India? If so step out. Come and meet with Pastor Trent and I and join hands with us and our dear brother Pratim and let’s see what God is going to do.

Tomorrow we catch our train back to Delhi and are going to be spending a day there resting before we start the long journey home. Please pray for safe travels. We will see you all soon.

God Bless,

Pastor Mike & Trent

click below to visit Pratim’s Blog and learn about his ministry in India

Greetings,

After three days of travel we are finally here in Mussoorie with the Masih Family. The drive up the mountain was quite an adventure with a cliff on one side and a wall on the other. Pratim drove like an expert avoiding the cows, the people and all the other cars coming head on towards us.

Pratim Masih and his family in India

This country here is breathtaking. We are high up in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. It is amazing to me how many villages are scattered on the hillsides (they are more like cliffs than hills). This is truly an unreached area. Pastor Trent and I just stood on Pratim’s porch and prayed over these villages.

Tomorrow we are traveling into a village that Pratim has been working in and up until recently had not one single believer (now there are seven). We will be spending the night there fellowshipping with the believers. Please pray that the Lord would give us a timely word to speak into their lives.

I will write another update once we get back from the village the day after tomorrow. Please continue to pray. Click below to visit Pratim’s Blog to see about his ministry.

–
God Bless,

Pastor Mike Thiemann

Greetings,

The last few days of the Pastors Conference have been amazing. There is something special about these people here in Nepal and God if pouring out his Spirit everywhere and doing great revival. It is awesome to think that just 10-12 years ago there wasn’t a single believer in the area we had the pastors conference. Now we had around 140-150 pastors and leaders who are planting churches and bringing the light of Jesus Christ to this Hindu land.

The final day of the conference, I think, was the best. Pastor Eric closed the teachings with 1st Timothy Chapter 6 and Pastor Brent lead communion. It was such a joy to partake in communion together with these dear brothers and sisters and I was floored when I sat back and watched them worship. It never gets old worshiping the Living God with people of another culture and language.

After communion we told the people that we love them with all our hearts and wanted to show them by washing their feet. They were amazed. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. As we were washing their feet they just started crying and after we dried them they jumped out of their chair to give us a great big bear hug. It was truly a taste of heaven watching the love of God pour out over all of us. I couldn’t help but to cry with them… as I am also shedding some tears now remembering the event.

Another highlight of the conference was when Pastor Eric and I stayed back at night with the people for a couple of hours. Gopaul (who is kind of like the Sr. Pastor of all these pastors) brought over a lady whose husband was recently killed by Hindu radicals for preaching the Gospel. We sat that for a while and just listened to Gopaul explain the story. At the end we thanked the lady for the sacrifices she has made in bringing the Gospel to her people, encouraged her to never give up, and closed by gathering around and praying for her.

At about noon I was escorted back to the hotel to pick up Pastor Trent (who stayed back because he was sick) and we were off to the airport to catch our plane to Kathmandu. We had a great night of fellowship and rest and now are getting ready to go the the airport to catch our next flight into Dehli.

I love you all and thank you for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for our trip. Our first leg is done and now we are starting our second into another unreached land to fellowship and minister with our dear brother Pratim.

Reaching the Nations One Soul At A Time,

Pastor Mike Thiemann

Below are some pictures from the conference as a slide show