The Patience of God … (July 2023 Update)
Patience is something everyone values but few have. One person said, “I was tested for patience once. The results came out negative!” And we are all grateful whenever someone is patient with us. While we love the patience of others, the patience of God is something that is absolutely essential for all of us! Psalm 130:3-4 puts it best: “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.” When it comes to God’s forgiveness, His patience is the only reason that we are still here today.
In one of my favorite sermons by Jonathan Edwards (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”), Edwards accurately describes the wrath that we all deserve from God. He likens us to a poisonous spider that we would hold over a flame to destroy it. We would quickly let it go to perish in the fire. But not so with God. In spite of our sin, which is far worse and greater than the poison of the spider, Edwards says that God still holds the thread and does not let us go. He continues to wait patiently and to give sinners an opportunity to repent. That’s the patience of God!
There are many passages in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament that speak about the patience of God. The God we meet in Scripture is a patient God. He brings about His will through many means and instruments. And He accomplishes the work of His hand without being rushed at all.
If we were God, we would have grown impatient with other people a long time ago. We become angry with the slightest offence and our anger boils over. When the Jesus and his disciples were refused entrance into one Samaritan town (Luke 9:51-56), the disciples, in their impatience, wanted to call down fire and destroy the town. But Jesus rebuked them and said, “You do not know what spirit you are of.” The disciples were very impatient; Jesus displayed great patience. Such is the patience of God! Thankfully, His patience is not like our patience!
This is why God’s patience is essential for our very existence. The result of God’s patience is that we are not destroyed. Listen to just a few of these verses. Nehemiah 9:16-17 says,
“But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not heed Your commandments. They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of Your wonders That You did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion, they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and you did not forsake them.”
They deserved to be destroyed but, because of God’s patience, they were not.
We see the same thing in Jonah 4:2. After God fails to destroy Nineveh, Jonah complains: “Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” Nineveh deserved to be destroyed. But God not only patiently endured with them and their wickedness, He also sent a messenger to call them to repentance. Without God’s patience, Nineveh would have been destroyed.
Aren’t you glad God is patient with you? Without the patience of God, we would have also perished. Without His patience, we would never have known His mercy.
How should the patience of God affect us? First, it should increase our gratefulness for our salvation. Only because God was patient with us did we come to faith in Him. He would have been completely righteous to have destroyed us all for our sin. But He did not. Not only this, but He patiently sent His messengers to share the good news with us. Think how many times we rejected the gospel and His messengers. But God was patient with us and continued to reach out to us with the gospel. In fact, Paul tells us that God’s perfect patience with us is also an example to the world so that others might also believe in Him (“But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”) God has been patient with us. If not for the patience of God, we would have perished long ago.
Second, God’s patience should encourage us to share the gospel – repeatedly. If God was not patient toward sinners, He would have removed them from this world. But He is patient with sinners – even those He knows will never come to Him. This is what Paul tells us in Romans 9:22: “What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?” In fact, in 2 Peter 3:9, Peter tells us why the Lord has delayed His coming. It is to give more opportunity for people to repent. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” The Lord’s patience toward sinners should cause us to be patient and keep on sharing the gospel – even with those who have rejected it many times.
Third, God’s patience should encourage us to be patient too. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 13:4, Paul tells us that the two chief characteristics of love are patience and kindness. “Love is patient, love is kind.” Then he proceeds to list eight negatives to show what love is NOT. We are not naturally patient with each other. But if we really love each other, we will learn to be patient. Because love is patient. God’s love is seen in His amazing patience toward us all.
All the attributes of God are essential. But without His patience, not one of us would have ever been saved. We all desire patience – but God’s patience is something none of us could ever live without!
Teaching Ministry …
Last month, we finished our class, Research and Writing, that started in May. Now I am working on finishing grading the papers from the class. Many students told us how much they appreciated what they learned during the class. One student put it this way: “When we started the class, we weren’t sure where you were going and why we needed this class. But this class helped us in so many ways with our writing and communication and our ability to teach God’s Word.” Every year, we get similar responses.
I have a short (very) break now until my next class in September. But I will need to get started on preparing the class to have it ready by August. Thank you for your prayers for me as I have taught this past year. It has been especially hard for me teaching online, but it has been a helpful tool so that students can continue to learn during the war. But I especially miss the personal interaction that teaching in class gives me. I’m planning to teach online again this fall and I might try to make some trips to teach in person after we get more settled. Please continue to pray for wisdom as I seek to know how I can be most helpful.
Also, I continue to be involved in the nursing home ministry in Fayetteville. Sometimes I’m preaching; sometimes leading the worship. It has been a real joy to be able to minister in the way even though I have to drive about 45 minutes to get to the service at 8:15 in the morning. Then I hop back in the car and hurry home to get my family so we can make it to church. I am looking forward to being in Fayetteville, so I don’t need to drive so much.
Please continue to pray for us as we settle here in the states and determine what direction we will take in ministry in the coming year. For now, I have classes to teach online at least until January. We are praying about working with some missionary organizations providing training and pastoral care. Also, there is the possibility of helping with a ministry in the Republic of Georgia (Russian speaking) where missionaries are being trained. This would be in the form of language helps and translations (mainly Katya) and theological and missionary education (mainly Jim). We would also be making some ministry trips overseas once we can get settled here in the states. Please pray that we have wisdom because we want to continue to be useful in ministry in the coming years.
A Roof – finally! …
Our progress has been slow (teaching us patience), but we are getting there. Last week, we were finally able to get the roof on. What a difference it makes! It not only looks like a house; it is so nice to be able to work mostly in the shade. (The roof is actually complete, but I didn’t have any new pictures before the update). We celebrated our new roof by having our first meal in the house!
The roof construction was done by a group of Mennonite builders. What a joy it is to work with them! It has been great to be able to share about the Lord and talk about things in the Bible and to hear them singing hymns and scripture songs while they are building. They are also going to complete the interior framing. But, on Saturday, one of their workers had a heart attack and died. So, we are going to need to wait until after the funeral on Wednesday for our interior walls. This puts us behind a few more days but we really like working with these guys. Pray for them (almost all are related in some way) as they grieve (but not without hope) over the loss of a dear brother.
We have a lot to do before the end of this month. First, we are getting our electric installed by a friend from Little Rock. Then we will be doing the “top-out” for the plumbing. And finally, we will be having our HVAC system installed. It’s a lot of work and a lot of details! My head is spinning from everything I need to do in a short amount of time. Then, in August, we will be installing the drywall and starting painting.
All of these delays mean we will definitely not be able to move in at the end of August. And we got some bad news about our Plan “B.” We were planning to live in a camper that some friends were going to let us use, but we found out from the POA that they do not allow someone to live in a tent or camper while building. So, we went to Plan “C” – to try to live in the unfinished house while we are working on it. That would have been very difficult, especially with trying to do Homeschool and teaching classes online. So, we went to Plan “D.” We have a friend in Fayetteville who is willing to rent us a small 1-bedroom apartment on a month-to-month basis. We think we will need this for 2-3 months. It will be nice to be back in Fayetteville and that alone will save us a lot of gas money. It will be a lot less hectic than trying to work in the house while we are living there.
We finally sold our house in Ukraine. It sold for $25K less than we had hoped but we are glad that we were able to get something for it. And we need every bit of the money so that we can keep building here. Just pray that the money can be eventually transferred here to us. It is difficult getting money out of Ukraine because of the war. It will probably need to be brought out in smaller portions. We think we should have all the money by November. Pray that everything goes well with getting the money back to us.
Family …
This past month, Katya’s mom has been staying with us. She has been a really big help. She has been able to watch the girls for us while Katya and I work on the house. She has also enjoyed cooking and teaching the girls how to cook. We also took her to a number of special places, including Crystal Bridges (Art Museum), Eureka Springs and on a few Arkansas trails.
We are really enjoying being back in the states (except for the prices!). On Father’s Day, we went to see a baseball game. Katya’s mom was with us, and it was the first time she and our girls had ever been to a baseball game. Even though I got the cheapest tickets, they ended up being right on the field on the third base line. You couldn’t ask for better seats. Everyone loved it, and we even were treated to a bottom of the ninth, two-out, single that drove in the winning run for the home team!
We also love celebrating Independence Day in the states! Over the past few trips home, we’ve been able to enjoy watching the fireworks in Fayetteville. We got to do so again. And it was Katya’s mother’s first time to celebrate and see the fireworks.
Even with the warm summer months, the girls still enjoy reading about as much as anything. We hope their love for books continues throughout their lifetime.
Pray for Ukraine …
This month, Ukrainian forces began a counteroffensive to try to remove Russian troops from the east. While the going is very difficult, Ukraine is making some progress against deeply entrenched Russian troops. Pray for the liberation of all of Ukraine.
Also, please pray for our neighbor, Andrii, who is making trips to Kherson to help with the victims of flooding there (after Russia blew up the dam) as well as many other friends who are serving the Lord by ministering to others in the war. We also have a number of chaplain friends who are serving in the armed forces. Thank you for praying for Ukraine!
We are so grateful for God’s patience, and we are praying that we can continue to have patience also. Thank you for all your prayers for us during these very difficult days!
By His Grace,
Jim, Katya, Kristina and Nadia
If you missed previous updates or just want to read some short theological reflections, you can find these at our website at https://teachingresources.org/ .
Also, some have asked about how to support us. You can send checks to Teaching Resources International, PO Box 1025, Cabot, AR 72023 or pay through PayPal on our website. Just put “#1000 Ehrhard” in the memo so our treasurer knows where to allocate the funds. If you want to help with our relocation fund or building efforts, put Relocation in the memo.
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