Saturday, June 06, 2009
Worldwide Interest
It's interesting to note that of the last 75 visits to the Muller blog, we had visitors from the following countries:
United States
Trinidad & Tobago
England
New Zealand
Switzerland
Canada
Australia
Norway
Hong Kong
France
Kuwait
South Africa
Taiwan
Germany
Truly there is a worldwide interest in the life of this man who simply trusted God!
Summarizing a Life of Faith
The following summary appeared on a web site which I found today. This gives a good overview of a life well-lived. Oh that we might live for His glory as George Muller did. This summary was found here.
The Life and Ministry of George Muller:
George Mueller was a man of faith. George Mueller was a prayer warrior.
His ministry was blessed because he trusted God completely.
His 63 year ministry included: the supported missionaries, the establishment of the Scriptural Knowledge Institute in England, teaching Sunday school and day school, distributing Bibles and Christian tracts, and caring for England's orphans.
He financially supported missionary operations in 26 different countries.
He was directly involved in the Christian instruction of 121,683 pupils.
He distributed: 281,652 Bibles:
1,448,662 New Testaments; 21,343 copies of the Book of Psalms; 222,196 other portions of the Holy Scriptures.
He distributed 111,489,067 Christian tracts, booklets and pamphlets.
He was directly involved in the conversion of 2,813 orphans.
He mastered 6 languages: French, German, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and English.
Mr. Mueller was a native of Prussia, born in Kroppenstaedt, on September 27, 1805.
After his conversion, he saw beyond the present to a greater goal. He realized that God alone was able to supply his every need by faith. He took God at His Word and boldly came before the throne of grace to receive.
Mr. Mueller never found the throne vacant nor the supplies exhausted. He asked, knowing that God was able.
Near the end of his life he admitted to reading the entire Bible about 200 times; 100 times on his knees. He found God's promises, believed them, and acted accordingly.
Mr. Mueller mastered the lesson of outlooks: living by the heavenly uplook rather than the earthly outlook.
"The Lord pours in, while we seek to pour out."
He asked God to pour in the supplies, so that they might be distributed to others.
As Mr. Mueller faithfully distributed God's abundance of money and supplies; God poured in more needed materials.
Mr. Mueller testimony includes the specific answers of 50,000 prayers; 5,000 prayers had been answered on the day of asking!
He diligently kept records and his prayer request records indicate a 2-page entry format. On one page he wrote the petition and date; on the opposite page he recorded the answer date. He recommended this form to believers who desired specific results to their prayers.
"…I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming. Thousands and tens of thousands of times have my prayers been answered. When once I am persuaded that a thing is right and for the glory of God, I go on praying for it until the answer comes. George Mueller never gives up!"
"Let not Satan deceive you, in making you think you could not have the same faith, but that is only for persons situated as I am. When I lose such a thing as a key, I ask the Lord to direct me to it, and I look for an answer to my prayer; when a person with whom I have an appointment does not come…I ask the Lord to be pleased to hasten him to me, and I look for an answer…Thus in all my temporal and spiritual concerns I pray to the Lord and expect an answer to my request; and may not you do the same dear believing reader?"
His Christian advice and rules to strengthen faith were simple:
1. Read the Bible and meditate upon it. God has become known to us through prayer and meditation upon His Word.
2. Seek to maintain an upright heart and a good conscience.
3. If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial, be strengthened.
4. Give God time to work.
Mr. Mueller believed that nothing was too insignificant to take to the Lord in prayer. He believed the scriptures to be literal.
Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
…the Mueller's set off for the United States in August 1877 aboard the Sardian…Off Newfoundland the weather turned cold and the ship's progress was seriously retarded by fog. The captain had been on the bridge for 24 hours when something happened which was to revolutionize his life. George Mueller appeared on the bridge.
"Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon."
"It is impossible," said the captain.
"Very well, " said Mueller, "if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way--I have never broken an engagement for 52 years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray."
The Captain wondered which lunatic asylum Mueller had come from.
"Mr. Mueller," he said, "do you know how dense this fog is?"
"No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God."
Mueller then knelt down and prayed. When he had finished the captain was about to pray, but Mueller put his hand on his shoulder, and told him:
"First, you do not believe He will and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it."
The captain looked at Mueller in amazement.
"Captain," he continued, I have known my Lord for 52 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone."
The captain walked across to the door and opened it. The fog had lifted. It was the captain himself, who later told the story of this incident, and who was subsequently described by a well known evangelist as "one of the most devoted men I ever knew."
It was prayer that kept Mr. Mueller's soul free of doubt, worry, and fear. As a result, he could write such entries as on March 9, 1847, "The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith." And a later one, "The greater the trial, the sweeter the victory."
Mr. Mueller's victories came through prayer and his trust in the Lord's unfailing promises.
"It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly continue in prayer, until we obtain an answer; and further, we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing."
During just the last year of Mr. Mueller's life are recorded these gifts to feed and care for thousands of England's orphans.
7, 203 loaves of bread
5,222 buns
20 boxes of soap
9 tons of coal
26 haunches of venison
112 rabbits
312 pheasants
5 bags of oatmeal
26 cases of oranges
5 boxes of dates
4,013 pounds of meat
...hundreds of other essentials
Mr. Mueller's faithful prayers brought into the orphan houses $2.5 million.
George Mueller was faithful.
Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Answers to Prayer by George Mueller; Moody Press
George Muller Delighted in God by Roger Steer; Harold Shaw Publishers
George Muller, Man of Faith & Miracles by Basil Miller; Dimension Books
The Autobiography of George Muller by George Muller; Whitaker House