Stories of Faith - Episode 76

 

General Charles Gordon (1833-1885) served Queen Victoria in China and elsewhere, but when living in England he'd give away 90 percent of his income. When he heard about a famine in Lancashire, he scratched off the inscription from a pure gold medal he'd received from a world leader and sent it up north, saying they should melt it down and use the money to buy bread for the poor. That day he wrote in his diary: "The last earthly thing I had in this world that I valued I have given to the Lord Jesus."

Source: Our Daily Bread 2024 Annual Edition

Stories of Faith - Episode 75

Michael Green narrated:

If we prayed in support of evangelism and missionary work instead of giving lip-service to it - we should see great advance. I shall never forget learning this lesson afresh. The occasion was a mission in the University of Cambridge, and I was leading it. Large numbers were packing the Guildhall every night, but few were professing conversion. Many Christians in Cambridge mentioned that they found it very hard to pray. So did I. On the penultimate night of the mission I did not sleep very much, and I think that was fairly general among the Christian community. We had finally begun to give prayer its place. Back in Nottingham at St John's, where I was on the staff, somebody had a vision that night., it was of me standing between the trenches in No Man's Land during the first world war. There were soldiers in our trenches who were supposed to be supplying covering fire. Instead, they were playing cards. That vision drove people in St John's to prayer, and a prayer vigil was kept in a room apart all that day. In the evening in Cambridge, some 800 students stayed to an explanation of the way to Christ after the final talk, and scores of them committed themselves to our Lord. It certainly taught me a lesson about the link between prayer and evangelism.

Culled from "Evangelism - Now and Then" by Michael Green

Stories of Faith - Episode 74

Elias Letwaba was born in 1870 to a man of God and of the Word who lived in Middleburg, Transvaal. He was always in prayer and considered a little odd by others around him. His mother, on the other hand, was a nominal Christian. Things changed dramatically when six months before Letwaba was born his mother was grinding wheat. She suddenly saw a man clothed in white standing before her. The messenger said, "You will shortly have a strong baby boy. He is to be a messenger for Me, to carry my Gospel message to many places. He will suffer much persecution and weariness, but I will be with him and protect him until his death, making him a means of blessing to thousands and an instrument in my hands for establishing many Christian churches." The man disappeared and Letwaba's mother became a strong believer from that point forward.

Letwaba's family was educated and learned Dutch so that they would have access to literary material. They often entertained teachers, missionaries, and visiting teachers in their home. At one point, when a visiting preacher came, Letwaba told his parents of his desire to preach the gospel. At nineteen years old Letwaba would tramp the villages with his twelve-year old brother, Wilfred, and preach wherever anyone would listen. He took the name of Elias. God began to speak to him out of the Word. One day God highlighted Matthew 8:16-17 "And when evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "He Himself took our infirmities, and carried away our diseases." (NASB) Letwaba felt a tingling in his hands and a heart to see the sick healed. That day Letwaba was in Heidelberg when he met a woman whose daughter was fourteen years old and never walked. He prayed for the girl and left, not knowing for five years that she was healed from that moment on.

Letwaba joined the Berlin Lutheran Mission but was unhappy to find out that the church was a social club and sin was overlooked. His heart longed for holiness, and he struggled with personal sin. When he was twenty he switched to the Bapedi Lutherans, and stayed with them for nineteen years. Still he struggled with a sense of powerlessness and the teaching that focused on the traditions of men instead of the Word of God. There was a conviction in his life that there was more and he began crying out to God for His power of salvation to be made manifest. In his struggle he became ill and was close to death. Jesus appeared to him and called him to an open confession of his sin so that he would be healed. He was afraid of losing his reputation but he went to those he sinned against first, and then to his wife and the missionaries with whom he worked to expose it all. Letwaba left the Bepedi Lutherans and sought for people who would believe God.

Letwaba connected himself to the Zion Apostolic Church. He saw that the people had a living faith and he chose to be baptized by them. Still his heart was hungry for more. Letwaba went to one of the elders and explained, "I have fasted and cried many bitter tears. I have lain awake at nights, longing for holiness, and for the power of God, but the missionaries with who I work and the native preachers with who I have associated only regard me as a crank, and laugh at me for my pains. Oh tell me where can I find what I need?" The elder told him that John G. Lake and Tom Hezmellhalch were preaching at the old Zulu Mission and that they should go and hear them. It is described that the meetings in Doorfontein in April 1908 were like a spiritual cyclone had hit the city, hundreds were healed and thousands were being saved. So great was the power of God on Lake that he would shake hands with someone entering the hall and they would fall to the ground under the power of the Spirit.

John G. Lake invited Letwaba up onto the stage where he was preaching. This angered many of the white participants. Lake, however, refused to be cowed and kissed Letwaba and welcomed him into the meeting. People were threatening to throw Letwaba out when Lake said "if you throw him out then I will go out too." Letwaba's heart was melded to Lake's from that point. Letwaba followed Lake to his house where Lake shared his heart with him. Since Lake and Hezmellhalch were getting ready for Bloemfontein they invited Letwaba to go with him. On February 9, 1909 Letwaba was gloriously filled with the Holy Spirit. Letwaba traveled with the pair and was involved in the programs.

Letwaba returned home and shared the good news of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with his father. His father immediately responded and was filled and began speaking in tongues. He also began an itinerant ministry of his own. He was beaten, stoned, kicked, and verbally and physically abused but he kept on going because there was a fire in his bones. Letwaba invited Lake to come to his home area of Potgietersrus. Lake and Hezmellhalch would visit for a few days at a time and all the men would minister together, seeing the sick healed. Letwaba felt a pressing desire for the party to go north to Zoutpansberg. They did so but several of the members caught malaria and two of the party died. Letwaba was broken-hearted as the men returned to the south but God called him to go back to the north Transvaal.

Letwaba began his ministry by walking hundreds of miles to visit remote village. Everywhere he went he prayed for the sick and preached the gospel. One village he visited was in drought and all the animals were dying. The Holy Spirit came upon him and he declared, "I decree to you people, by the Word of God, that by this time tomorrow you shall have the rain you need. Your fields and your cattle shall be saved, and you will know that God still lives to answer the prayers of those who believe in Him." Letwaba spent the night in prayer and by the morning rain poured down upon the village. The village became open to Christ. Letwaba was an intercessor. He often spent hours in prayer seeking God. In one case he was praying in a building that was being painted by unbelievers. They were mocking him, but the power of God hit the building and the entire building shook. They refused to work again until he was done his time of prayer.

The Apostolic Faith Mission, recognizing Letwaba's leadership, gave him the superintendence of the Zoutpansberg, Waterberg, and Middleberg native churches. Letwaba felt a growing need to have a school to train leaders. Oftentimes those who had heard the good news had little scriptural foundation and fell into error easily. He decided to open the "Patmos Bible School" at Potgietersrus. It was built on faith in 1924 and completed without debt. It went on to include dormitories for the students and a school for children. The coursework was extensive and covered three years. Letwaba fed the students from his own home farm and small salary from the Apostolic Faith Mission. Letwaba was self-educated and spoke seven languages including English, German, Dutch, Tonga, Zulu, Suto, and Xosa. He trained his students extensively in the Bible but also included practical skills in speaking and deportment as well as the English and Dutch languages.

Letwaba had the care of thirty-seven churches. On Sundays he would lead services at five or six locations and would start at 5:30 in the morning and continue until 9:00 at night. He also taught six hours a day at the Bible school. He continued the school until 1935 when he was 65 years old. His congregations were tribally mixed, and often his sermons had to be given through two or three interpreters. He had a heart for holiness His was a fervent preacher and saw healings and miracles in his ministry. It is reported that he saw as many as 10,000 healings in his life. He is often considered to be the man who received the mantle of Lake's healing ministry in South Africa. Letwaba died in 1959 at the age of 89.

A description of Elias Letwaba is found in Gordon Lindsay's book on John G. Lake called "John G. Lake - Apostle to Africa". Chapter 5 is titled Elias Letwaba, the Man Who Carried on the Work and Chapter 6 is titled The Mantle Falls on Letwaba. There is also extensive coverage of Letwaba in the book titled "When God Makes a Pastor" by W. F. P Burton published in 1934.

Source: https://healingandrevival.com/BioELetwaba.htm

Stories of Faith - Episode 74

By the time Alex Montez turned 3, he was a traveling musician in southern Mexico.

“We were playing as a family: guitars, violins, mandolin,” Alex remembers. “I played the maracas. That’s the only thing I got to play, but it was fun!”

Alex and his six siblings, criss-crossed the Mexican countryside with their missionary parents.

“I was doing the things that every preacher’s kid does, you know, doing the singing,” he says. “Still, something was missing because for some reason I was believing in the faith of my parents, but not in my own faith.”

Eventually, music became his god.

“I was in love with music,” Alex says. “There was a deep search in my soul. When I heard music something clicked inside of me. Something just exploded!”

At 13, Alex secretly joined a band that played in nightclubs. One night after a big show, the grown men he played with took him out to celebrate.

“That night when they took me for my surprise, they actually took me to a prostitution house,” Alex recalls. “That night changed me forever. It became an addiction. Everything became lies and hiding, and I began to live a double life.”

Three years later, his father died of a heart attack. The sudden loss shattered 16-year-old Alex.

“I remember saying these words, ‘Right when I need him the most, You’re taking him away. Why are You doing this to me?’ I began to actually talk to God like that. And it set a huge sadness, emptiness, and anger. I was very, very angry.”

Alex poured his emotions into his music. At 18, he moved to the U.S. to begin a new life. He married, started a family and opened his own recording studio. It wasn’t long before he was producing records for some of Latin music’s biggest names, like Selena. Then came his big break: a major record deal.

On tour, Alex partied night after night.

My career grew more and more, and my affairs were multiple and my wife had no idea,” he says.

His singing career hit a major high when he wrote Muy Especial, a song he performed with his 4-year-old daughter Jennifer. But behind the scenes, Alex was coming apart.

“The sexual addiction, the alcohol combined with the drugs—I couldn’t handle it anymore. I tried in front of people to appear that I had it together, but I didn’t.

His adulterous affairs destroyed his marriage, and his wife filed for divorce. His music suffered too. He lost his studio, his home and his career.

“As fast as it went up, faster it came down crumbling, very fast,” Alex remembers. ”I began to get very depressed and I began crying. I was crying all the time.”

Alex roamed the streets for days, until a family friend took him in. One day while home alone, he found a gun.

“That thing had like a spotlight on it,” Alex says. “And I heard that voice telling me, ‘That’s your answer. Just take the shot and it’ll be all over.’”

Alex made one last phone call to his brother, Chris.

“All he said was,’ I’m sorry, goodbye.’” Chris recalls. “As that was happening I told my sister ‘Come with me let’s pray.’ We began praying and asking the Lord to be present where Alex was and to show us where Alex was. And I had just a glimpse in my mind of where to go find Alex.”

Chris and a friend drove across town to find his brother, just as Alex shot himself in the stomach.

“The next thing I know, things are getting cold and dark,” Alex says. “I closed my eyes and I was out.”

Moments later, Chris and his friend found Alex lying on the ground.

“We went to his body and turned him over and rebuked death,” Chris says. “God was not only present, He was active.”

Alex survived his injuries, and woke up in the hospital.

“I had tried and tried and tried to be a better person, and I couldn’t,” Alex shares. “And I was desperate. I knew that I needed God because He was the only One that was more powerful than the one that had a hold of me. He had the power to break all of that stuff off me.”

Then, a stranger visited his room to pray with him.

“I totally believe that God gave me a lucid moment, a moment of awareness at that very moment for this person to ask me, ‘Do you want to receive salvation?’” Alex says. “I nodded my head and I squeezed his finger or his hand, and then and then he prayed over me. I received Jesus, fully knowing what I was doing, I received Him as my Lord and Savior. And so God began an incredible transformation in my life and I had a visitation from Jesus, and I know that.”

Alex says Jesus healed his body, and freed him from all of his addictions.

“I’m reading the Gospels, and I’m reading what Jesus did for other people, and I would stop and weep and cry,” Alex reveals. “I said, ‘I need that. I need that.’ The stuff that was tormenting me, the voices, the desires, all of that was boom! Like something had come over and completely wiped it out. Only Jesus can do something like that. Only Him!”

Today Alex is remarried and raising a family with his wife Lizza Lamb.

“God has done amazing things with restoring my relationships with my kids that are even grown

now,” Alex says. “I’ve been able to ask forgiveness.”

“The transformation for Alex was very, very real,” Lizza shares. “He’s a great dad to his kids, and protects them, and shows them the love of God the way a dad should.”

Together the couple pastors a Spanish-speaking church in Angleton, Texas, called La Vida Regional.“Jesus is everything for me today. Everything! His blood is real to forgive our sins. Forever I am thankful and grateful for what He’s done. No matter where you’re at and no matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter to Him. If you just come to Him, His arms are wide open, like they were for me. So that’s Jesus. He can do that for you too.”

Source: https://www2.cbn.com/article/not-selected/alex-montez-losing-everything-gain-it-all

Stories of Faith - Episode 73

Addison Adamu grew up in a strict Muslim family in Ghana.

“We were taught and trained that once born a Muslim, you are always a Muslim,” remembers Addison. “I used to follow my father to the mosque five times a day.”

Addison never seriously questioned the rituals of his family’s faith until a friend at school showed him a Bible.

“I didn’t want to read the Bible because if I’m caught, it will be another story,” says Addison. “It’s like the highest degree of crime to convert from Islam to Christianity. He told me that God is love. It’s not about what you do, but it’s about having faith in him through Jesus Christ.”

That’s when his friend invited him to a Christian healing service.

“I was very curious to go,” says Addison. “Those who came with their crutches, they started abandoning their crutches, and they were screaming and shouting, ‘I am healed! I am healed!’ That shook my idea about Jesus Christ that he’s just one of the prophets. The healing power of Jesus Christ is real! And that day, I accepted him as my Lord and my personal Savior.”

Addison stopped going to the mosque with his family and began sneaking off to church. One day, his father confronted him.

“When I look at his face, the rage, the anger, he was a monster saying, ‘Come here, boy. Tell me where are you going,’” says Addison. “And I said, ‘church.’ ‘What? You’re going to church?’ He pull out a sword, and he run after me. He started yelling, cursing me, ‘I deny you as a son, you are a traitor, you have denied our faith, and you are not my son anymore.’”

Addison hid in his friend’s home. After three weeks of hiding, he heard his father had become paralyzed and was dying of an illness doctors couldn’t diagnose.

“When I heard that, I told my friend, ‘Let’s go and pray for my father,’” remembers Addison. “And he said, ‘No, Addison, you cannot do it. This is very dangerous. They are looking for you—they want to kill you!’ He said, ‘You don’t understand,’ and I say, ‘You don’t understand!’ When Jesus heals my father, they will know that Jesus is real.”

Addison went to see his father.

“He was looking at me,” remembers Addison. “He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t do anything, but he could hear. And I said, ‘Dad, I’m here to pray for you.’ I said, ‘Lord Jesus, I know you are a healer. Heal my father right now, so that the Muslims here and the whole world will know that you are a healer.’ Before my prayer ended, I saw my father moving his body. He got up from his bed and he sat. He started talking, ‘Addison, your Jesus prayer has healed me. Your Jesus is real. I can talk, I can move my body. All the pain is gone.’ He said, ‘Come back home, you are my son and no more persecution,’ in front of everybody.”

Many family members saw what happened and also gave their lives to Christ.

“That healing miracle led to the conversion of my mother from Islam to Christianity,” says Addison. “My younger sister gave her life to Christ. My younger brother gave his life to Christ. Even my half sisters and brothers who were very devout and they were all mad at me, insulting me, happen to look for me to kill me, they all gave their lives to Christ as a result and they started going to church with me.”

Addison left Ghana and came to the United States to attend seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. He now travels around the country speaking and praying for others.

“Since I gave my life to Christ, my life has never been the same,” says Addison. I’ve been changed into a new person and his love has brought me joy, peace, happiness. We don’t have to do anything to earn his love. We just have to embrace him into our lives.”

Source: https://www2.cbn.com/article/not-selected/addison-adamus-faith-adventure

Stories of Faith - Episode 72

Execution of Three Men by Firing Squad

Colin Chapman, in The Case For Christianity, quotes Ugandan Bishop Festo Kivengere’s account of the 1973 execution by firing squad of three men from his diocese:

February 10 began as a sad day for us in Kabale. People were commanded to come to the stadium and witness the execution. Death permeated the atmosphere. A silent crowd of about three thousand was there to watch.

I had permission from the authorities to speak to the men before they died, and two of my fellow ministers were with me.

They brought the men in a truck and unloaded them. They were handcuffed and their feet were chained. The firing squad stood at attention. As we walked into the center of the stadium, I was wondering what to say. How do you give the gospel to doomed men who are probably seething with rage?

We approached them from behind, and as they turned to look at us, what a sight! Their faces were all alight with an unmistakable glow and radiance. Before we could say anything, one of them burst out:

“Bishop, thank you for coming! I wanted to tell you. The day I was arrested, in my prison cell, I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my heart. He came in and forgave me all my sins! Heaven is now open, and there is nothing between me and my God! Please tell my wife and children that I am going to be with Jesus. Ask them to accept him into their lives as I did.”

The other two men told similar stories, excitedly raising their hands, which rattled their handcuffs.

I felt that what I needed to do was to talk to the soldiers, not to the condemned. So I translated what the men had said into a language the soldiers understood. The military men were standing there with guns cocked and bewilderment on their faces. They were so dumbfounded that they forgot to put the hoods over the men’s faces!

The three faced the firing squad standing close together. They looked toward the people and began to wave, handcuffs and all. The people waved back. Then shots were fired, and the three were with Jesus.

We stood in front of them, our own hearts throbbing with joy, mingled with tears. It was a day never to be forgotten. Though dead, the men spoke loudly to all of Kigezi District and beyond, so that there was an upsurge of life in Christ, which challenges death and defeats it.

The next Sunday, I was preaching to a huge crowd in the home town of one of the executed men. Again, the feel of death was over the congregation. But when I gave them the testimony of their man, and how he died, there erupted a great song of praise to Jesus! Many turned to the Lord there.

Source: https://bible.org/illustration/execution-three-men-firing-squad

Stories of Faith - Episode 71

Birmingham is a post-Civil War city founded in 1871 in response to the discovery of one of the world’s richest mineral deposits of iron, coal, and limestone. The abundance of these raw materials led to a thriving steel industry, and Birmingham became the “Pittsburgh of the South.” In the early twentieth century, the leaders of Birmingham commissioned a statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge, to represent the city at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Today, Vulcan stands 56-feet tall high atop Red Mountain overlooking the city, a symbol of Birmingham’s history. Colossus-like, Vulcan is the largest cast-iron statue in the world, welcoming thousands of visitors every day from near and far.

But Birmingham is also known for another statue, one less prominent and auspicious. It is not the image of a Roman deity standing tall and proud, looking upward at the sky with a spear in his hand. No, this statue depicts an older man, shoulders slumping, hat in hand, kneeling in prayer. The man is James Alexander Bryan (1863-1941), who was known affectionately as “Brother Bryan.” For more than fifty years he served as pastor of Birmingham’s Third Presbyterian Church. Catherine Marshall once referred to him as “the patron saint of Birmingham.” If anyone ever deserved that title, it was surely he.

Though well-trained at Princeton Theological Seminary, Brother Bryan was not known for heady sermons or church politics. Rather, he was dearly loved as the tender shepherd of the entire city. He ministered to everyone who crossed his path, rich and poor, black and white, the mighty and the meek. He reached out to students, nurses, and factory workers. He was the unofficial chaplain to the fire and police departments. His heart went out especially to the poor, the destitute, the jobless, the hungry, the lonely, the lost. In the spirit of Francis of Assisi, Brother Bryan served those on the margins of society. Born in South Carolina during the American Civil War, he grew up in the era of segregation and Jim Crow laws. He knew injustice when he saw it and he determined to treat everyone he met with dignity and respect. As a minister in the city that later would be called “Bombingham,” Brother Bryan became an apostle of racial reconciliation. He believed that every person was an image-bearer of God and thus infinitely dear and precious in the sight of the heavenly Father.

What was the secret of Brother Bryan’s ministry? By all accounts, it was the spirit and practice of prayer. Hunter B. Blakely, whose book, Religion in Shoes, tells the story of Bryan’s life, reports that “Let us pray” were the words most frequently upon the lips of this beloved pastor. “No man has ever believed more implicitly in prayer than he, and never were prayers more unconventional. Prayer seems to him as natural as for a man to breathe the air. Why not, he would reason, for is God not the most real thing in the universe?”

Brother Bryan was a promiscuous pray-er who prayed with thousands in hospitals, prisons, and halfway houses. He prayed with countless others at weddings and funerals, over the telephone, on the sidewalk, in the mills and factories of the city, and in his pastor’s study, which was known as Birmingham’s “confessional.” It was said that “the fragrance of his prayer life permeated the whole city.” His prayers were often short and to the point, but they were more than pious platitudes. He knew that prayer was a vital component of what St. Paul called “the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:11). Every prayer involved spiritual combat, and one of his most characteristic prayers was this one: “O Lord, help us to fight the devil!”

One of the most interesting prayer stories from Brother Bryan’s life came from one Thursday night when he was walking home alone after dark. Suddenly, a man jumped out of an alley, pushed a gun into his face, and said, “Hands up.” Brother Bryan complied as the man rifled through his pockets, taking his watch and the little cash he had on him. When the robbery was done and before the thief could depart, he heard the minister say, “Brother, let us pray.” As Brother Bryan prayed, the thief lowered his gun and placed the watch and stolen money back into the hands of his victim.

Brother Bryan died in 1941, but his legacy still lives on in many ways: in the church he served, which is still a dynamic center of Christian witness in the heart of the city; in Brother Bryan Mission, which reaches out in Jesus’s name to homeless and displaced persons in Birmingham; and in the silent witness to the power of prayer seen in the statue of Brother Bryan, well placed for all to see at a busy intersection “where cross the crowded ways of life.” Today, in the valley far below the feet of the great Vulcan kneels the humble pastor. His life’s work is inscribed at the statue’s base in bronze and stone: 

Fervent in prayer,

Consecrated in life,

Sympathetic in counsel,

Friend of the friendless,

the sorrowing, the poor and rich:

He went about doing good.

What does the god of fire have to do with the man of prayer? The true God is called a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24, Heb. 12:29). In the Bible, fire and prayer often belong together, as when the prophet Elijah prayed and fire fell from heaven on Mount Carmel, and when the distraught disciples prayed in the Upper Room and Pentecostal fire set the place ablaze. God’s work is done in the context of such prayer. Surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses—including Brother Bryan—God’s people are given to know that, in the words of James, “the effectual fervent, fiery prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 4:16, KJV).

Source: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/01/god-of-fire-man-of-prayer