Our Heavenly Father Provides!

Mathew 6:31-32 “Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Where withal shall we be clothed? ( For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

I was asked to go to Cleveland, Ohio to start a Church. There was a small family and a few other believers there in need of a pastor. I took my wife, my three children, and my brother and his family also came along to help get the Church get started. In total we arrived with four adults and 7 children. We were not receiving any financial support from any organization and the few believers attending the Church were not contributing enough financially to provide for us. The house we were living in had 3 floors. The first floor we converted into a meeting hall with a kitchen and the other two floors we lived in.

My brother and I would go out witnessing in the streets many days. One day we met a homeless man named Jimmy. Every once in a while he would come to the house asking for something to eat. Regardless of our own situation, whatever we had to eat we would give to him.

After a few months, we added a few believers to the church but their contributions still weren’t enough financially to sustain our needs. I vividly remember the day that all the food ran out and the cabinets were completely empty. We had no money to buy food and no money coming in. We had no way of purchasing any more food to feed our children or ourselves. After dinner and the feeding of the children, there was only one piece of bread and a very small amount of mayonnaise left. I did not eat with the others, because there was not enough food for all of us. I had my eyes and heart on that one piece of bread and little mayonnaise. I waited until everyone had gone to bed and I went down into the kitchen to get that piece of bread. Suddenly, I heard a knock at the door. As I went to the door, there was Jimmy ” Pastor I am hungry! Can you please give me something to eat?”. I explained to Jimmy that we ran out of food and had nothing left. But, Jimmy persisted, “Please Pastor, I am hungry”.

In my mind, I kept thinking of the one piece of bread and mayonnaise. I was trying to justify in my mind that Jimmy would not want this. I was also embarrassed to give such a small thing to him. But there was Jimmy, and he kept on pleading. So finally I said to him, “I told you that we ran out of food, and the truth is we only have one piece of bread and a little mayonnaise left. Without hesitation he shouted, “I’ll take it!”

So there I was taking Jimmy to the kitchen and giving him the last piece of bread and mayonnaise that I had been craving all evening. I will always remember the brilliant smile he gave while eating that piece of bread. He so enjoyed it and like all the others times, when he was done he simply got up and left. With literally nothing left to eat in the house, all I could do at that point was go to bed.

The next morning we all met for prayer around 8:00 am. Knowing that we had no food for the children, we started to pray and thank God for His goodness and His faithfulness. After 15 minutes of prayer there was a knock at the door.

When I went to the door, there stood a gentleman who was a city employee from the electric company. As I opened the door, he came in and asked if they could trim the tree in the back yard off of the electric line. He explained that the owner of the house had issued an order one year ago. I looked at the order and surely, it was one year ago to the day so I agreed to let him do the work that he needed to do. We stopped prayer and the children went up to the third floor back porch to watch the trucks come and trim the tree. I went out into the back yard and truthfully, I had not gone there before. I really had no reason to as it was a small yard and there was an ally behind it. As I’m standing there, I heard the man shout to me “Sir, do you want me to shake the tree?”. I said, “What?” and he shouted back, “It is an apple tree!” I shouted quickly, “Sure shake it!”

Wow!!! In the moment that he shook that tree hundreds of apples fell to the ground. Hundreds of them!!! I stood in awe at the goodness and faithfulness of God. After the electric company left, the children with all of our pots and pans went and collected all of the fallen apples. We praised God and had the greatest day eating cooked apples. We even had many to share with our neighbors!!

The very next day, a car pulled up with a family from Ohio that brought us a half of a cow of meat. We did not know them, but they said the Lord told them to bring it to us. And from that day on we never lacked food again. Praise God!!!

As I look back on that time, I always remember the testing of the “One Piece Of Bread and A Little Mayonnaise”. I always have wondered if Jimmy was perhaps an Angel, because I never saw him again after that night. I will never forget his beautiful smile. I was surely tested by God that night when he came because God knows how much I wanted that one piece of bread. I can only thank my Heavenly Father for sending Jimmy to me that night. To think that one year before, the owner had ordered the tree to be trimmed in the back yard, and on the day we had absolutely no food left in our home, God sent them to trim it and provide us with apples. How Great is our God!! How faithful to His Word!!

The lesson I learned through this was that God can be TRUSTED!! He is faithful to His Word. Proverbs 3:5-6 TRUST in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

His Servant

Tom Dant

GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!

Habakkuk 1:5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe though, it be told you.

Around 1978 I was pastoring a new church in Cleveland Ohio when I received a request to go to the city Yellow Knife in North West Territories to hold evangelistic meetings. North West Territories is a remote part of northern Canada and Yellow Knife was a very small and cold city. At the time there were 30,000 people living in this area and 10,000 of them were in Yellow Knife, which housed the government. At this time the Government would try to recruit young people from Canada by offering one year contracts to live and work there with double wages and all expenses paid for travel, plus a one month paid vacation.

I was traveling with a new young minister from Toronto Canada. I had known him and his family when I pastored the church in Toronto. This young minister was from the northwest territories and his brother in law lived there. He was very talented in music and the invitation came from his relative because of the burden to win souls in Yellow Knife.

As we arrived in Yellow Knife, the first thing I noticed was how cold it was. It was 58 degrees below zero with the wind chill. God knows that I am not a cold person…but only for Jesus! The Northern lights were just breathtakingly beautiful. Also, the trees were very short because of how high Yellow Knife is on the globe. Every thing is frozen. Lakes are solid and snow covered mostly everything. The house we were staying in had heat (Thank God) and it was there that we were inviting people to come for the meetings.

The first night of the meetings, 12 “Long Haired Hippies” showed up. To start the meeting I had my fellow minister open with prayer and follow with playing music. Right from the beginning the guitar went out of tune and his voice went off key, and became so bad that after a few minutes I just had to stop him singing. Then to be the “Savior” of this rocky start I stood up to preach. It was horrible! As I started to speak, I could hardly talk. What came out of my mouth was something I can hardly explain. My mind went blank. My words did not make any sense, even to me. After a few minutes I just stopped. Embarrassed, I closed the meeting and told every one that we would be there again tomorrow night.

The other minister and I went to our room. All we could do was CRY! Father what happened? We prayed and cried for over 2 hours. I could never remember in all my ministry, not being able to put a few words together. There was no grace. It was the most terrible feeling in the world. Why was I here? Was I out of His Will? All these questions were going through my mind. And the worst of all was that “GOD WAS SILENT”.

The next night we came to the meeting by faith not knowing if anyone would come after our terrible showing for the Lord, but to our surprise all 12 “Hippies” were there waiting on us. As I stood up to open in prayer, a young girl raised her hand and shouted, “Can I say something!” I was glad they were there and wanted this night to be a success, so I said, “Sure”. She stood up and said, “last night when the minister started to sing and play music, he was bad!….but then you stood up to preach….and you were worst!…I went home and got in bed and slept, but, In my sleep JESUS CAME TO ME AND TOLD ME MY SINS WERE FORGIVEN!…i AM SAVED!

The most amazing miracle was that, one after another, each “Hippie” stood up and said, JESUS came to them in a dream and forgave their sins and they were SAVED AND BORN AGAIN. Hallelujah! What could I say. I just started praising God! It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. I explained to them now that they were “BORN AGAIN” and that they needed to take Water Baptism. So. we arranged for them to meet us at the YWCA swimming pool the next evening. These 12 “Hippies” had never heard anything about Salvation or Water Baptism. The had never had any teaching on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, but each and every one of them as they came out of the water received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in new tongues. It was so GLORIOUS! I could only praise God!

What a wonderful God we have. He already knew what He wanted to do for these lovely souls in Yellow Knife. And I believe He has plans for us also in these last days. Are you and I ready to receive what He has for us?…He is a Great and Mighty God!
During this year in 2020…..What marvelous thing does He have planned for you?

GOD SURELY WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!…..WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

His Servant
Tom Dant

Miraculous Faith!

“….If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. “Matthew 17:20

What a wonderful Word from the Lord! ……To know that there is a Faith that works Miracles and when a believer exercises that faith, and results are manifested, that nothing would be impossible. Doesn’t the Lord tell us in Mark 11:22 “…Have Faith in God. For verily I say unto you That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. ”

A faith in God…” who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. “Romans 4:17 And as Jesus said, …”with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27. Do we not remember the Miracles in Egypt by the hand of God to free His people from Pharaoh? Or the walls of Jericho tumbling down! Have we forgot all the miracles in Jesus life and ministry? Let us look to our God and Father who knows all our needs. Let us believe in Him and His word.

I remember after I was saved and called to serve Him. The Lord opened a door and gave us a house on many acres to live in. This was a large house fully furnished. It had two living rooms and a guest house. This is a story for another time. . But, one night we were having a small meeting in the house with a group of around 20 people. I was sharing on faith and after the meeting my wife rebuked me. Because she noticed that as I was sharing on faith, she saw that there were holes in the soles of my shoes. She told me to go and buy some shoes. We had some money, but I told her that I was going to wait and see what God would do. I had not noticed that my shoes had holes in the soles. The reason was because daily we would go out and pass out some Gospel literature. I must have worn them down.

Two days later, we arrived back at the house from passing out some more Gospel literature. There she was! My wife standing at the door! ” You Know!’ she said. “What” ….I replied. “You Know!” ….Truthfully, I had no idea what she was talking about. Then suddenly, she said,….”you really don’t know!” I said,…”know what?” Tom listen……

“I was in the house and heard a knock at the door. This was very unusual, because I did not hear any car approach in the drive way. ” You see we lived in the middle of the woods. There was a drive way to our house of approximately one quarter mile. So it was unusual for some one to walk to the house. She continued,..” Some one keep knocking at the door. As I opened the door, there stood a very well dressed older lady with a bag in Her hands. You could tell that she was a little nervous. “

Then she spoke. ” You do not know me. I live on the other side of the woods. My husband was the Superior Court Judge in Arlington County Virginia.” Immediately, my wife responded….” Is my husband locked up?” (we had been arrested before for passing out Gospel literature) She responded,…”No! You see my husband passed away 2 days ago!” ” I am so sorry” my wife responded. “Please”….She said back, ….” It is ok we are Christians and I know my husband is with the Lord. But, today as I was walking up the stairs to my bedroom, I heard a voice say…..”Go into the closet and take two pairs of shoes and take it to my servant who lives in the woods!”. She then asked,….”Is there a servant of God here who needs shoes?” It was then my wife bowed Her head and said….” Yes my husband.”

I could not believe what I was hearing. I thought my wife was just kidding me. But, she insisted that it was true. She dragged me into the house and took me to the dinning room table. There on the table was a bag. As I opened it, and there to my astonishment, were two pairs of shoes. They were brand new. As I tried them on, they fit perfectly. What was God trying to teach me? It was then that I understood. That God could speak to people we did not know, to come and meet our needs. This was my First lesson in Faith. To believe in a God that knows and cares for our needs. To me this was a Miracle.

Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:13….We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, “I believed, and therefore have I spoken; We also believe, and therefore speak.” Our faith comes from God as we hear what God wants for us. His Word directs us into all things that He desires for us. As our hope looks to God, we believe He will do what He has promised. ” With out faith, it is impossible to please God.” God wants us to trust and believe in Him. ” Is there anything to hard for the Lord?”

I believe in Miracles! I hope you do too! Because we serve a miracle working God.

His servant Tom

Called To Victory!

Like many roles in Life and in the Church, being a true leader is a calling.
“Make your calling and election sure”

LEADERSHIP is your contribution and your service to your Church. It’s your survival, and that of those your lead,. Ask anyone in the armed forces–especially those operating in the battle field–about leadership, and their answer will be telling. It’s usually along the lines of: “I am leading you to keep you alive. I lead for you, and I lead to make you better.”

“We preach warning every man , and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

THE POINT IS: Leadership is never about you–it’s about the Church. Those who are true leaders will lead their Churches to Victory and inspire them to be ready for the Lords coming. Leadership is not about bossing or being in control.

”The Elders that are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock.”

LEADERS have a belief that you and your Church are destined for something special. It is your ability to inspire excellence in others. Every Church, organization, or group, will always,… always , every single time take on the essence of its leader.

“Follow me, as I follow Christ.”

“Let no man despise your youth, but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

IF YOU LEAD with courage, love, and fearlessness, then that’s what your Church will stand for. When you lead with purpose, faith, and vision your will succeed. 
WHEN you lead out of fear , carelessness, and hopeless you will fail.

“I therefore run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one the beateth the air: But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection:”

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”

LEADERS must keep their eyes on Christ. Their desire must be to be like Him. They must “press toward the mark of the High calling of God in Christ Jesus”….. “To put on Christ”…. “To be found in Him”….”To Know Him” ….”Knowing that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is”

LEADERS must keep the Church on course. Keeping it on that narrow path, and in sound doctrine, which some are leaving.

“Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables.”

LEADERS must be able to discern the signs of the times.

“When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather; for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather in day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky: but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And saying , Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

“But the day of the Lord, will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat., the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

LEADERS present a clear vision. To keep the commandments of the Lord.

“A new commandment I give unto you, That you Love one another, as I have Loved you, that you Love one another.”

“Hereby perceive we the Love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

….”And this commandment have we from him. That he who loveth God loves his brother also.”

AND FINALLY: Leadership is only possible through and by His Grace.

“I am what I am by the Grace of God”

LET US PRAY that God will raise up true fearless Leaders in the Church in these last days. Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
His servant Tom

THE KING IS COMING!

These are the words given to Apostle John in the book or Revelations. “And, Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12 . Jesus knows the Father’s eternal purpose for Him is to come back and take away His precious Bride. ” I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3. We are all taught that Jesus is coming back for His Church. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thes. 4:16,17.

The mystery of the Church and Christ is as Eve was made from Adam, so shall the Bride of Christ be bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh. The Fathers purpose before the world was ever made is that His Son would have a Bride created in His image and likeness, made from Him and for His pleasure. That in the fullness of time, He would come back for His Bride, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish, to be joined together for ever and ever.

Many of us forget that Heaven and all the Angels are preparing for the Marriage of the Lamb. This is the Fathers will and has been planned before the foundation of the world. He has Her gown ready, the marriage feast prepared, and the guests are already decided. The scriptures tell us that only the Father knows the day and time that Jesus will return for His Bride.

Oh, how seriously we need to take this calling. To be forever with Jesus. To be by His right hand on His throne beholding His Glory, seeing Him “Face to Face” and being loved by Him for ever. Yet, He has warned us in His teaching that there will be ‘5 Wise and 5 Unwise Virgins”. The 5 Wise made it in to the marriage, but the 5 Unwise did not. They were not ready. Jesus was warning us to be prepared and to be watching and praying for His return. The scriptures tell us that ‘the wife has made Herself Ready”.

There are many warnings in the scriptures. In Jesus’s sermon on the Mount He said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Jesus also warned us in His teachings to be careful not to bury our talents and to minister help to those in need as unto Himself.

The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul said that in these last days there would be a falling away from the faith. Paul warned Timothy “that a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. “

Our Hope is to be ready when He comes! For each of us it will be in our individual life time. For those of us that are older more possibly, we will be with Him sooner then maybe some one younger. If He has not come back for His whole Church at His second coming, when the dead in Christ shall rise first and us that are alive will be caught up for ever to be with Him, then scriptures tell us that when we die there is a Judgement. We will stand at the Judgement seat of Christ. But, none of us know the days and hours we have on this earth. That is in the Lords hands.

So let us arise and run this race as one to win the prize! Let us get back into reading His word and living as He has instructed us to live. It is our time to shine with His Glory! It is our time to be the light of the world! It is our time to bring Glory and Honor to His name! It is time for the “Spirit and Bride” to say, “Come Back Lord Jesus”.

His servant Tom Dant