Teaching Resources International

Little Providences from A Big God! …  (May 2021 Update) 

Every day, we experience “little providences” from the hand of God, but we usually don’t notice it. The providence is mysterious – often even hidden from our eyes. Yet the little providences that we do see remind us that the Lord is working all things together for good even behind the scenes. 

The word “providence” is a Latin term which literally means to “see before.” It means that God sees everything before anything happens and He makes plans to accomplish what He desires. Biblical providence is not the same as fate or luck. Luck is blind, but God is all-seeing. Luck is what happens accidentally; providence happens because God sees and plans ahead. Fate is impersonal; it does not care about the people who are affected. Providence is personal; it comes from the hand of a loving Father. 

Since we don’t see what God is doing, we are often (at least initially) frustrated by the providences of God. We desire one thing, but it seems like God is letting everything get in the way of our plans! Providence often feels frustrating – until we see the amazing way God is working out everything for His glory and for our good. On our trip back to the US this past month, we experienced many “little providences” – some caused me a great deal of frustration. But the Lord showed us His kindness and His wisdom in each situation.  

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In 1996, just 5 years after Ukraine gained its independence from the USSR, Kyiv Theological Seminary opened its door to its first students. Since then, KTS has prepared students for many different ministries in Ukraine, including Pastoral Ministries, Church Planting, Biblical Studies, Christian Education, Biblical Counseling, Youth Ministries, and Missions. KTS has also developed Master’s degree programs in Biblical Studies, Youth Ministry, and Biblical Counseling. And a number of our graduates have gone on to complete other Masters and Doctoral degrees in Europe, Great Britain, and America. But most of all, KTS has excelled in training and preparing Ukrainians for church ministries in Ukraine. 

It has been my joy to be part of this ministry of teaching and training since September 1996 – that will be 25 years this fall. I first came to Kyiv to teach at the end of September 1996, and I have been teaching there ever since. It has been my joy to teach some of the best students in the world during these years! Many of these students have returned to KTS to teach and direct many of its programs. Even the current President of KTS, Ruslan Khmyz, was one of my first students at KTS! Eight (8) former students are now professors at the seminary and four (4) serve as Program Directors at the seminary. Five (5) more are serving as Assistant Directors for the various seminary programs. One former student, Vitalii Mariash. is now our Academic Dean and another, Eduard Borysov, is the Director for our Talbot Seminary Master’s Degree program. (In addition to those serving at KTS, some of the first graduates are also teaching and serving as program directors and professors at Ukrainian Baptist Seminary in Lviv). It is amazing to look back and see how God has raised up leaders from these students who are now teaching and training the future leaders for the church of Ukraine! 

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I love the Toy Story movies and I especially love Buzz Lightyear. He repeats his motto boldly – “To infinity and beyond” like it is really possible. But, in reality, it is not even logical. You cannot go beyond infinity! However, when speaking about God, it actually might make sense. In other words, even infinity itself is not sufficient to describe the majesty of God. Infinity is at least a concept we can grasp.  But God’s existence and power is actually – well, beyond infinity! 

Lately I have been reading about some of the theories of Stephen Hawking and other scientists concerning their ideas of multiverses. (That’s a whole other story.) But in the process of reading their theories, there was one common concern that all scientists in this quest had – the idea of infinity bothered them greatly. It was a concept that they acknowledged mathematically but they could not fit into their theories. Infinite is something that they could not measure, so they had to work with imaginary numbers to avoid infinity in their equations (because infinity would either result in models with endless loops or collapsing in on themselves). And since they could not test their theories on an infinite universe, they had to examine only small sections of the universe and then extrapolate their data which again leads to an unworkable infinity! 

But God is infinite. He defies measurement. He defies understanding. Simply put, the Lord is beyond measure. Therefore, one attribute of God is infinity – or we might say, infinity and beyond! 

(more…)

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Thankful … in 2020? (December 2020 Update) 

How can we be thankful in 2020? For everyone, this has been a very difficult year: children doing school from home, restaurants going out of business because of restrictions, friends and family hospitalized from Covid, jobs lost and now election uncertainty. It is hard to remember a year with more difficulty. Yet Thanksgiving is upon us and how can we be thankful with all that we have been through and with all that is going on now? 

In Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul admonishes the Philippian believers to “Rejoice in the Lord always!” And so that they see the importance of this, he repeats it, “And again, I say, Rejoice!”  

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