Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith
The Bible is filled with biography – one character after another parade across the pages. God loves to teach lasting lessons through the lives of individuals. With that in mind, Stephen Davey has undertaken a special biographical series illustrating biblical truths through the lives of contemporary believers. These ordinary men and women provide a wonderful legacy. They are influenced and influential because of their faith in God. They are Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith.
Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith
George Mueller's Legacy: Uplifting the Destitute through Faith
Ever wondered how faith can be transformed into heroic action? This episode is a tribute to the life and works of the extraordinary George Mueller, a man whose steadfast belief in God turned him from a life of immorality to a luminary in the gospel world. We start off by comparing our lives to the mysterious hills and valleys of Peru; a beautiful metaphor for God's artistry and grace in our lives. A shift in perspective is all it takes to fully appreciate the divine intervention in our lives.
We journey through the life of Mueller, his remarkable transformation and his zealous dedication to live by the gospel. Mueller was a man who dared to defy societal norms, who believed in the joy of giving and the power of prayer. We discuss his monumental initiative, the Scripture Knowledge Institute, and its five-fold commitment towards Christian education, and missionary work. We also delve into Mueller's unique ways of inspiring others to trust in God's faithfulness. This episode is a testament to Mueller's faith and his dedication to uplift the lives of the destitute. So, sit back and let the story of George Mueller inspire you, as we unravel the intricacies of his faith-filled journey.
music. Welcome to Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith. With Stephen Davie, I'm your host, scott Wiley. In this series, stephen explores the lives and legacies of ordinary people whose faith had a profound impact. Stephen is the president of Wisdom International. You can learn more at wisdominternational. In today's episode, you'll meet George Mueller. Jesus promised in Matthew 6 that God would supply all our daily needs, and George Mueller took that promise seriously. His life became a stage where on God would constantly display His faithfulness in unforgettable ways.
Speaker 2:In her book entitled Mystery on the Desert, a woman by the name of Maria Reich described her for her readers. These hills and valleys you may have seen pictures of them created by the Indians in Peru were created centuries ago. Looping hills that would kind of run and circle around and then suddenly stop short, mounds that would appear for no apparent purpose or reason, just sort of randomly appear. No sense or pattern. For centuries all of these twisting hills and these mounds and depressions were thought to be mystical patterns, perhaps for some kind of ancient or religious system. Some, until more recent days, thought that they were perhaps ancient remnants of irrigation systems for farming. All the way up to 1939, they remained a mystery. But in 1939, the mystery was rather easily solved by a man by the name of Paul Kosaka, a professor of anthropology. He discovered that these were not irrigation systems after all, and they weren't mystical, religious whatever. They were works of art created into the landscape by the Indians. And he discovered it because of another discovery called an airplane, and he flew overhead and because of a higher than Earth perspective. He was able to discover the form of a bird, the forms and patterns of other animals. The landscape had effectively been this unique canvas upon which these Indians rather creatively created these sort of drew with dirt, I suppose you could say these birds and animals. Once he flew overhead and he gained this higher than life perspective, he could see it all clearly. Imagine, though, which is still somewhat mysterious, creating art that you really can't understand on planet Earth, creating artistic forms of beauty, outlines of animals that you really can't fully appreciate or understand until you get a higher perspective. But as I read that and you're already five minutes ahead of me you know this is a wonderful analogy to the Christian life, isn't it? It is. Thank you, sir, you got it. You're five minutes ahead of me.
Speaker 2:In Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes a rather bold statement. I want to give you two verses tonight. So it turned to Romans, chapter eight. Very familiar, bold statement. Many of you probably have this text memorized.
Speaker 2:He writes in Romans, chapter eight and verse 28,. For we know that all things work together. For what, for good? To them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose, the apostle Paul is basically saying that all these seemingly ranked and seemingly random patterns in our lives that seem mysterious, sudden, maybe, at times just meandering, you know, they stop and then they start, they go up and they go down just as quickly. All of that demands a higher than life, higher than Earth perspective. Paul effectively says with this text we've got to get a higher view of life in order to really appreciate what God is doing.
Speaker 2:And you notice, here he speaks with absolute confidence, doesn't he? It begins with for we, what no? Now you notice, he doesn't say that all things are good. He says that all things work together for good. Because all things aren't good. All things work together. The word work together, a wonderful Greek word which gives us our word synergistic, synergistically working. Webster defines synergism as the combined action of two or more things which have a greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects.
Speaker 2:So, paul, has in mind, any one event in your life may not seem to be working out. Paul is saying that every single event synergistically produces something better than any one of those single events Produces that which is, in the mind of God, good. You mean an event of evil, of false accusations, cruelty, injustice, crime, failure, broken relationships, hatred, pain, suffering, jealousy, abandonment, even murder? You mean that yes, because every one of those single things I mentioned occurred in the life of Jesus Christ in his final days, and they all worked together, something that we would say was good. Paul says this is going to happen and this higher than earth perspective is something that we need to pursue, that is, those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Those are, by the way, just two descriptions of believers. You love God, you've been called by God to a purpose which he will fulfill in your life, not only now, but in the future, in your glorification and perfection, and that time and moment when we will see him face to face. So every random hill, every twisting valley, every steep ascent, every quick descent, every sudden stop or start is the artistry of God at work in our lives, and we take it by faith and eventually, thank God, we will get an elevated view that we struggle through it now and we'll see the work of God, probably explained by his grace. We'll look back and see so many things so much more clearly.
Speaker 2:Now there's a lesser known verse that we could call a twin verse of Romans, 8.28. It's Psalm 84, verse 11. Look there, psalm 84, verse 11. For the Lord God is a sun. S-u-n. Only time you find that in the word is here. For the Lord, God is a sun and shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. Now watch this. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. Again, this is a reference to every believer, and with incredible confidence, you know, matching Paul. You have the sons of Korah here who are composing this musical statement of faith. No good thing will he withhold from his children. So if you don't have something, god would say it's because I don't view it as good for you. If you have something that you don't want, god would say you have it because I consider it good for you. It has an ultimate purpose and I'm working it all out in your life. These texts, this higher than earth perspective, become the foundation for one of the most amazing testimonies that I have studied, and I have to tell you it's been difficult to wind this thing down, because the series ends with our next study, the next Lord's Day and Sunday evening's end, and try to figure out which two to bring to you one tonight, one then.
Speaker 2:But this man has just sort of leapt off the pages. As I have scanned biographies, I have read more in detail, but this one particular man and his wife will stake their lives and their ministries on such simple and yet bold confidence that God would never withhold something that he considered good in their lives, that he would never give them something that he didn't consider good and that everything worked synergistically together for their ultimate good. Now, before I give you his name and talk about his fruitful ministry, you need to know he was an unlikely candidate for God's service. In fact, everything seemed to be working together to keep him away from the Lord. His name was George Mueller. He was a German, born in, technically, the kingdom of Prussia, and I had forgotten that. I had to do more study than I cared to admit, but finally figured it out and don't have time to give it to you, but at any rate he was born in 1805. His native language was German.
Speaker 2:It seems that both of his parents were unbelievers. In fact, his father was a revenue collector for the government, made plenty of money, seemed to live for it. George and his brother routinely stole from their father in order to support their own lives of gambling and immorality. His father decided when George was rather young to make a Lutheran minister out of them, not because of any kind of spiritual calling or obligation, but because the Lutheran ministers were supported by the state. It was a good living, comfortable living life, so he sent him off to study for that. That didn't work out too well. It all fell apart, in fact, when his mother suddenly died. George was 14 at the time and unaware that she had died. He writes later I was playing cards until two in the morning and then on the next day being Sunday, evidently the day she died my companions and I got drunk and wandered the streets.
Speaker 2:By the age of 16, george Mueller will be in prison charged with theft. His father bails him out, beats him and then takes him to a different city nearby to settle down and try to straighten him out. He evidently did straighten up a bit. I guess that scared him in prison. So he applied himself, completed his undergraduate studies and a few years later then he entered seminary yes, seminary. And you're thinking, wait, he's unconverted. He was, in fact. He would later write that of the 900 Divinity students at his seminary, only nine of them were Christians. They would effectively choose this living. They would live off the government, they would rent pews in their church, literally sell seats and perform liturgical services, weddings and funerals, and make their comfortable life.
Speaker 2:While in seminary, george was invited to an evangelical prayer meeting of just a handful of genuine believers. He was struck by their simple, transparent, genuine worship, and they sang some hymns. One of the men read a sermon. It had to be read because it was illegal for someone to preach and expound on Scripture without an ordained minister present, and ordained ministers weren't interested in evangelical prayer meetings, so none were there. So they read a prayer. What struck George the most was how the meeting began. Evidently everybody in that little room got on their knees and prayed. He wrote I had never either seen anyone on his knees praying, nor had I at any time prayed on my knees. That just really marked him that evening on his bed. He would later write God began a work of grace in my heart. That evening would be the turning point in my life. He was 20 years of age when he gave his life to Jesus Christ, understood the Gospel and accepted Christ as his Savior.
Speaker 2:Four years later, finishing his studies, he came to England as a missionary to the Jews, a ministry that would be inhibited by his lack of English. It would take him a while to learn the language and he would soon leave that ministry because of doctrinal differences, so he abandoned that work. A year later he would be baptized by immersion from his own study of Scripture, coming to believe that that was the only mode biblical. He would become the pastor of a little church where he would meet and marry his future wife. Her name was Mary Groves.
Speaker 2:After entering his marriage and entering into the ministry, george Mueller's character begins to become very evident. He immediately determined to receive a salary only from the people, not from the government, and he would only receive what they joyfully gave. He never went without. He also decided to immediately stop renting pews. He considered that a violation of James chapter 2, where the rich people got the best seats, and so he determined that all the seats would be free, again, going against the status quo which would really be the mark of this man's ministry. While pastoring, their marriage gave birth to a stillborn child.
Speaker 2:In 1832, at the age of 27, he moved to another little church in Bristol, england, and he would stay there and pastor there for more than 50 years While there. Early on, they had a daughter born to them. They named her Lydia. They would later have another child, a son who would live only for three months, and then another son would be born stillborn, I should say a few years later. In the meantime, george and his wife decided to take as many orphans off the street as they could feed, and again, this was against the norm. They renovated their home so that they could house 30 girls. That's a statement of faith or insanity, I'm not quite sure which it is. That was quite a renovation. It was really funny Because, as I read, it wasn't long before the neighbors complained about the noise.
Speaker 2:I can imagine it was noisy and get this. The neighbors complained of the regular disruption of public utilities. Evidently, when all those girls were getting ready, the pipes drained out and there was no water for the neighborhood. So at the beginning of the ministry here, george Mueller and his wife began to take kids off the street. They had one rule there could be no living father or mother. They wanted the truly destitute. They began a tremendously fruitful ministry Within 10 years, without any appeal for government funding, even believers, a house was built to accommodate 300 children.
Speaker 2:Now there are two things that I did not know. There are a number of things, but two that struck me that you may not know as well. We know some things about George Mueller, but not others, and so I thought I would point out these two issues. First, mueller's orphanages, which eventually, by the way, included five buildings where they could house, at any time, 2,050 children, which they did was only a part of his vision. What he actually did was he founded what he called the Scripture Knowledge Institute, and it had a five-fold commitment. I'll give you the five. First, to assist the education of children and adults by providing biblical curriculum. They would write, in fact it would be translated in many languages. Secondly, to distribute Bibles. Third, to distribute biblical materials, tracks and literature. Fourth, to support missionaries to other lands. And fifth, to board clothe and scripturally educate destitute children who'd lost both parents by death.
Speaker 2:Now, again, keep in mind the destitute condition for children in the 19th century, a supposedly civilized culture. And yet when George Mueller began his orphanage in 1832, there were nearly 10,000 children in prison under the age of eight. A lot of that simply had to do with the fact they didn't know what to do with them, these destitute children. So the first surprising element to me of his ministry was, well, not only that he passed her to church for more than 50 years, but that his orphanage was only one of five vision statements. The second surprising element of his orphanage ministry in particular was his primary objective.
Speaker 2:Now, you might think, after what I've already said, that the reason he started the orphanage was because of all those destitute children. That was part of it, but that was not his primary reason. He wanted a way to encourage other believers. In fact, he wrote this, and let me quote him the primary reason for establishing the orphan house was that God may be glorified Should he be pleased to furnish me with the finances showing that it is not a vain thing to trust in him and that thus the faith of his children may be strengthened. In other words, he wanted to start something that only God could support, so that the believing body would be amazed and encouraged at the trustworthiness of God and this is how he went about doing it. Because of this mission and perspective, then. It's one of the reasons why he never asked directly for any funding. He wanted God to do it so clearly that everyone would be encouraged to knew God. He did, however, publish a report. He published it annually. It included personal stories and testimonies and he would mail it to everyone who had ever donated any money, which, of course, had a powerful effect. In fact, as an older man in his 70s, he wrote, and I quote we do not doubt that the Lord used these reports again and again as instruments in leading people to help us with their financial means. He just simply told the story of what God was doing.
Speaker 2:George and his family never took a formal salary. He maintained that position. History records that he administrated about $100 million. Amazing, there were times in his early years, especially when the finances didn't come in until just the nick of time. You've probably heard some of those stories, and I did verify that one of the more popular ones was indeed true.
Speaker 2:On one occasion he sat at breakfast. He had one orphan house. He had 300 orphans gathered there for breakfast. They had their plates in front of them, nothing in the plate and they had their cups in front of them and nothing in their cups, nothing to eat and no money. He stood and gave thanks for their breakfast. He actually stood and prayed thank you, lord, for this food. As he sat down and I'm sure his staff wondered okay, now what? A knock came at the front gate. It allowed a baker to enter who had been unable to sleep the night before and he explained that he knew he must bake bread for everyone and he came to deliver it as soon as he left. Another knock came and the village milkman, whose cart had just broken down in front of the orphanage, knocked and was given entrance, saying that the milk would spoil by the time he fixed his wagon. And would you be in any immediate need of free milk? They just so happened to be in need of it and it was enough for 300 children.
Speaker 2:George Mueller would write this as an old man. It simply needed to be seen that if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, could establish and carry out an orphan house, it could be instrumental in strengthening the faith of Christians and serve as a testimony to the unconverted of the reality of the things of God. Did you catch that. I mean George Mueller wanted to simply have the opportunity to become a visual aid to the world of God's faithfulness, to demonstrate that God was real, that God would as he would write, quoting one of his favorite texts not withhold anything he considered good for those who walk uprightly by the end of his ministry and his ministry wouldn't end with his life, it would continue under the leadership of his son-in-law long after his death. But at the end of Mueller's life the Institute would have distributed 244,000 biblical resources, 285,000 entire Bibles, 1.4 million biblical resources, 1.4 million New Testaments. They would have supported numerous missionaries and one of their favorites happened to be Hudson Taylor and housed and cared for and educated just over 10,000 orphans. What can't be fully calculated, however, is the effect of his ministry on the believing church. In fact, one author said that his ministry so inspired others that at least 100,000 orphans were cared for during his lifetime in England alone.
Speaker 2:But I have to tell you, if I can just kind of bring this thing down to a close here, to study the life of George Mueller, it is to study the life of someone who simply took God at his word. There was a simplicity about him. He loved to read the word. He would read it just over 200 times in his lifetime and he had a very simple, transparent prayer life, which continues to be so commendable. But he just simply encouraged everybody to trust God, and that God was trustworthy. In fact, I discovered this particular tradition when each child reached young adulthood and was able to live on his own, george Mueller would bring that young adult in and pray with him, and what he would do is he would put a Bible in their right hand and he would put a piece of money, a coin, in their left hand, and before he prayed he would look at that young adult and he would say he would explain that if they held on to what was in their right hand, god would make sure there was just enough in their left hand. That's so good. That's how he lived when he gave his life to Christ. You remember he was struck by believers getting on their knees to pray. That would become his practice as well.
Speaker 2:When he was 92 years of age, he led a prayer meeting at the church that he'd pastored for decades on a Wednesday evening. He had asked the next morning that his hosts Bring him a cup of tea, but when they knocked on the door the following morning at 7 am. There was no answer. They entered and they found him beside his bed, having died, while praying on his knees. That's how he lived, that's how he died. He remains a living testimony to the church to this day that God will not withhold any good thing to those who walk uprightly. Those good things might be steep hills, they might be twisting, turning valleys, but God will keep his promise. God is creating divine art with every one of our lives and with a higher than earth perspective. We're going to get that perfectly later, but even now we can see that God is indeed providing everything necessary for those who know him, for those who follow him. I think if George Mueller were standing here, he would simply say God is trustworthy, stay the course.
Speaker 1:That was Stephen Davy, the President of Wisdom International. You're listening to his series Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith. If you enjoyed hearing the story of George Mueller, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast or wherever you're listening. Stephen has a website filled with resources to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means and apply it to your life. Learn more at wisdominternational. I'm Scott Wiley. Thanks for listening to Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith.
