Josh Litton...on Muller

It's always encouraging to receive positive comments from those who read this George Muller blog.  Recently Josh Litton left a comment so I checked out his blog.  He recently wrote a post where he referenced George Muller.

Josh writes:

Christ for Chicago:  Glorifying God through this ministry

In 2011 I discovered George Müller. I knew of Müller as a man of faith and prayer who took care of orphans in 19th century England, but the rest of his life was a blank to me.

I found a seed of purpose sown in my life’s work when I heard someone discuss Müller’s rationale for building orphanages and approaching ministry the way he did. Sometime later in a bookstore, when I wasn’t even looking for it, I came across Roger Steer’s biography of George Müller and found more of Müller’s rationale for his ministry to the orphans. He said,

I certainly did from my heart desire to be used by God to benefit the bodies of poor children, bereaved of both parents, and seek, in other respects, with the help of God, to do them good for this life—I also particularly longed to be used by God in getting the dear orphans trained up in the fear of God—but still, the first and primary object of the work was that God might be magnified by the fact, that the orphans under my care are provided, with all they need, only by prayer and faith, without anything being asked by me or my fellow-labourers, whereby it may be seen, that God is FAITHFUL STILL, and HEARS PRAYER STILL.

So Müller wanted to help the orphans and do good for them. But his “first and primary object” was to show God’s ability to provide through prayer and by this to help the faith of the saints. The orphans were very important to Müller, but his goal “was that God would be magnified”, and the orphanages were a practical means to that. Again he said,

Now if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained, without asking any individual, the means for establishing and carrying on an Orphan-House: there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted, of the reality of the things of God.

Applying this principle to Christ for Chicago is simple. While “Christ for Chicago exists so that the people of Chicago will be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and live for Jesus as His disciples”, our primary goal is to glorify God. Working to win people to Christ and make disciples is a practical means to that. That said, over the next five days I'll lay out and explain five practical ways we hope God will be glorified through this ministry.

For now, here are the five ways:

1. We want to minister in such way that the work cannot be explained apart from God, leaving people to say, “God did this.”
2. We want to show that Christians can trust their Father in heaven to provide everything they need to do His work, His way, and to live the way He wants without compromise.
3. We want to show that God always makes a way for His truth to be established, even in spite of overwhelming odds against.
4. We want to show what God can do when His people ask and expect Him to do what He’s said He will do.
5. We want God’s work through us to be an apologetic to show that God and the gospel of Jesus are real.