Being Steady And True

Some years ago, a man in Romania began serving God with all his heart. When Communism fell and private enterprise got going, he became very involved and prospered. But his soul wasn't prospering. It was agony to be in a meeting with him. Sometime later he came to us and told us that in the business he was in, he had to be crooked to exist. He said, "I have decided to turn my back on the life I have been living." That was at a great material loss. He didn't sell off what he had. He walked away and left it. He began to drive a lorry and that man got peace. When he spoke in a meeting he had something to say. That was the fiery furnace, but Jesus went through it with him. No one would know to look at that man what he had been through. There is no smoke from the fiery furnace, but he has peace.


A young couple in Romania started up a small business and employed two people. They went to a tax office to get the right procedures sorted out. They had forms to fill in about what they paid the employees. The clerk told her she should just put down the minimum wage and not declare what she was actually paying, because everyone else did that. Because our friend insisted on putting down the right amount, the clerk laughed at her. Our friend went away happy.

A few years ago, I stayed with a young family in another country. They were from two different countries and were working apart when they decided to marry. Then the young man got work in the same land as the young woman and she rented an apartment. Her colleagues in work said, "You will now be living together.” When she made it clear that that wouldn't happen, they just laughed at her. But that young couple are happy. They did it God's Way. We are not our own, to do things the way the world does them or how our own human nature would want it. We are not our own, but when we do things in God's Way, we have peace.

 - Craig Fulton