Part 95

Becoming Christian in a way we never expected…from above.

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from where comes my help?

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth,” (Psalm 121: 1,2).

(Message in part from Tommy Tenney Tommy Tenney is the youngest of three generations of ministry. Born in 1956, he began preaching at the age of 16. He is a well-known revivalist sparking the fires of revival in America and countries around the world. He has experienced the miraculous. The obsession of his life is pursuit of the manifest presence of God. Tenney’s books are available from Destiny Image, www.reapernet.com or P.O. Box 310, Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310)

Last week my wife, Peggy, said that she passed a sign in front of the Victory in Truth Ministries church between Bucyrus and Marion that said Tommy Tenney “Here” Sunday, March 11. I replied that they must be showing Tenney’s movie about Elizabeth, “One Night With the King.” She replied “No, it says he was going to be there. Wow! “Tommy Tenney preaching in rural Crawford County? Nah, that can’t be,” I thought to myself.  So, being a doubting Jim, I got in the car and went out and read the sign. Sure enough it said, “Here.” Peggy said, Janell and I are going, want to come along? I replied sure. Who would pass up a chance to see Tommy Tenney in person, after all we had traveled to Grove City and to Baltimore, and other places, to hear his messages.

Tommy’s book “The God Chasers had sold millions of copies and Wally World even has an amplified edition made special for their stores. Off to the VITM church we went and joined in some excited praise and worship. When the time came for Tenney to speak, a man ascended to the platform. I was sure it was some other Tommy Tenney. But much to my chagrin, when the man began to speak, there was no doubt. The bit of southern Lousiana speech was my first tip and I whispered to the Hancock’s in front of us, “That’s him!” We were in for a treat and a treatment!

Warning! If you are comfortable or complacent and you want to stay that way, don’t even open its pages! –writes Cindy Jacobs, of Tenney’s book “ The God Chasers.”

An English revival preacher once wrote of Tenneys work – “…not for the fainthearted but for those who, in pursuit of God, are willing to die in the process.” – Ken Gott.

“Why am I preaching in a place that once was a cornfield between Bucyrus and Marion,” he asked, “because I want to and need to. I’m glad to be back!” Obviously he had been there before.

Known for his prayer in typical Tenney style, which includes this prayer “Lord God I am here to meet with you, and I am learning how to handle the Holy things of Your presence. Have mercy on me Lord Jesus.”

Numbers Chapter 17

Tenney asked everyone to open their Bibles to Numbers 17, and mark the spot. Instead of preaching from it, Tenney said He was going to preach to it. To make an hour and ten-minute sermon fit the space we have here, I am going to reference the points that he made.

Tenney told of a story about a lemon tree that his daughter bought while shopping. He didn’t have a green thumb and tried not to plant the tree. No matter how much the lemon tree was ignored in its tub, it continued growing. Tenney was sure it would never bear fruit. When they sold their home and moved to a new house, he reluctantly moved the lemon tree in its tub to the new place where it continued to grow unattended. His daughter was five when he purchased the tree. “It takes seven years for any tree to grow fruit,” he stated. And guess what …on the seventh year the lemon tree produced lemons. One ripe lemon squirted juices “all over” when Tenney cut it in the kitchen.

Tenney hadn’t come to talk so much about the lemon tree that somehow grew in his backyard, but about an Almond tree in the Bible. It like the lemon tree grew out of the earth.

Tenney had purchased a tree a Lowe’s for the demonstration at the chuch (it wasn’t an Almond tree but whatever they had in stock). He pointed to the tree and said that God would surely bless that tree.

No longer had he said that when he picked up a machete and began chopping off at the root, and all the foliage. What happens to something when you cut it off at the ground?” He asked. Most things cut off at the ground die.

He didn’t stop there has he wacked off all of the bark in front of an amazed church audience. When he was finished there wasn’t a leaf or a piece of bark still on the tree. He continued to say; “God wants you and wants to bless you.” The tree was obviously ruined for any purpose of man, or at least that’s what we thought.

He then put the remaining rod of the tree out in the sun (figuratively) and turned it a little each day until it was completely dried out. He began to tell the story of Moses in Numbers 17. It turns out that God did want that stick of a tree. Moses spoke to the children of Israel and each of their leaders were to give him a rod according to their father’s houses. 

Tenney took the rod of the tree he had just butchered and placed it behind “The Vail” representing what Moses did with the 12 rods. After a time, “on the morrow” he went up and pulled out the rod he had placed there. It had grown foliage, produced blossoms, and ripe almonds.

Tenney’s point was that man’s ways and man’s thoughts aren’t Gods ways or Gods thoughts. God wanted that tree for a rod and staff, the first thing he picked up in the morning and the last thing he laid down at night. The rod and staff were the closest thing to the Lord. By cutting off the tree he had made it useful to God in the way that God wanted. Not just to bear Almonds, but to be His (God’s) support and protection. The rod would help him with every aspect of his daily life.

What a powerful message!

We don’t always think that God thinks of us as useful or special. When we are at our lowest point, even cutoff, we feel that God isn’t there for us. Then, in God’s own timing, not ours, never early, and never late, God comes in a powerful way. Just like he did with the Almond tree.

Numbers 17:5 The rod and the blossom, a reminder to the people of God’s choosing and the consequences of rebelling against His chosen servants. We too can forget who is in charge. We can forget God’s grace in times when we so badly need to be delivered. This powerful help didn’t come from the ground, but from God above. We shouldn’t trust only in earthly things, but from the giver of all life from above, our creator and sustainer, the Lord God of all.

INSPIRATION: “The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forward and even forevermore.” Psalm 121:8

Write: croneis@earthlink.net