GRACE AND APOSTLESHIP

2005 Key Verse Testimony

Brian Karcher (Detroit UBF)

Romans 1:5

“Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.”

Our Father in Heaven, you are the Holy and Awesome God. You are the God of the living, the God of hope and the God of truth. Thank you for sending your one and only Son Jesus Christ to become our ransom sacrifice. Thank you for the blood of Jesus which washes away all my sins. Thank you for guiding me and my family throughout 2004. We pray that we may obey Jesus’ holy mission and life as people of faith in our generation. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

First, be thankful and worship God. Many events happened last year. If I think about these events from a human point of view, I get confused and begin to wonder about the meaning of life. But when I remember the prayer topics I had at the beginning of the year, I can see God’s work. I began 2004 with three prayer topics based on Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”

The first prayer topic was to worship God acceptably. This sounds quite simple. But in light of a growing family and Satan’s jealousy, I discovered that worshipping God requires strength, humility and repentance. When I read the Old Testament, I see that God gave very specific instructions to the Israelites about the place and manner of worship. God cannot be worshipped just anywhere in anyway; we must build an altar of worship to God. On February 8^th, 2004, S.Mary and our family held our first worship service in Detroit as a new house church. We began the year in a 2 bedroom apartment on Wayne State campus. The apartment was in the basement of a 97 year old building on the edge of a dangerous area of Detroit. But to me, it was paradise! I really hoped to live there for many years. But soon we found that S.Mary was expecting our fourth child. It quickly became apparent that the small 2 bedroom basement apartment was not suitable for four children, worship service, Bible studies and my home office. So we found a good apartment about 15 minutes away. However, just before moving in, we were rejected because the landlord thought our children would be too noisy. So we found another apartment, but were again rejected for the same reason. Finally, we found two apartments, one for us to live in and one for have worship service. But this arrangement became too expensive. Then after a few months, the apartment was sold and we were forced to move out once again. Finally, in December, God provided one large, rented house, big enough for everything and a place where our children can be as loud as they want. Throughout 2003, we felt like Isaac digging wells in Genesis 26. We finally found our Rehoboth, the well no one quarreled over. We felt like Isaac who said, “Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land” (Gen 26:19-22). Though we were forced to move several times, we held on to this first prayer topic, to worship God acceptably. In the midst of all the moves, God enabled us to keep Sunday Worship each Sunday without fail. 2004 was filled with much chaos, but each Sunday we found peace by worshipping the living God. In 2004 God formed a clear conviction in my heart: the meaning of life is to worship God.

The second prayer topic was to study Scripture ardently. In 2004, God provided a solid foundation of Scripture through Toledo UBF. I am thankful for Dr.Paul Hong and the messenger team in Toledo UBF. As I prepared weekly messages, following one week behind the Toledo UBF message, I was able to benefit from their rich ministry of God’s word. In 2004, we studied 13 different books of the Bible, while maintaining a verse by verse study of Luke’s gospel. In 2004, I also began reading Scripture much more than previous years. It was because 2004 was the year I faced much criticism and condemnation from people who hate our UBF ministry. In past years, I have experienced some people who didn’t like me. But never had I experienced people who called me evil and labeled God’s work as Satan’s work. This negative influence led me to read the Bible all the more passionately. I became convinced that the Bible is the Christian doctrine God gave us. So many people claim to know so much. But they study people’s opinions about the Bible instead of the Bible itself. In 2004 God formed a second conviction in my heart: the Bible is the word of God.

The final prayer topic in 2004 was to serve students faithfully. In 2004, God sent ten students for us to serve at various times: Cassie Anderson, Zhong Nie, Sabrina Nie, Johansen Wuele, Stephanie, Tomo, Jenny, Carol, Claire and Geraurd. Only Cassie Anderson was the result of our fishing on Wayne State campus. The other students came through Chicago coworkers, such as S.Gideon Sherwin who introduced us to Zhong and Sabrina and especially M.Paul Kim. I had never met M.Paul Kim, but in 2004 he became a wonderful coworker to our house church. Because of his law studies, M.Paul attended classes at Oakland University, about 30 minutes north of Detroit. Each Sunday, he drove to Detroit to attend our Sunday worship service. He usually brought a new student when he attended. Among these students, a German exchange student named Johansen was most faithful and presided a few times at worship service. Our family enjoyed serving M.Paul Kim and the Oakland students with the word of God and several delicious meals. We also had the privilege to serve many coworkers who visited us from Toledo UBF. The visiting ministry of Toledo UBF helped sustain our willingness to serve and continually reminded us of student ministry. I was also encouraged by a few Toledo UBF brothers, such as S.Jeremy Holloway, who went fishing with me on campus. Additionally, we also had visits from S.Rhoel Lomahan from Chicago, S. Jason and Cymbrie Schooler and their family from Portland, Oregon, Ryan Kostecky from Toledo and S.Mary’s parents from London, England. In 2004 God formed a third conviction in my heart: The blessed life is the life of serving.

Second, we received grace and apostleship (Romans 1:5). I’ve adopted the Toledo UBF 2005 key verse as my own: “Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” When Apostle Paul spoke of grace and apostleship, he did not say “I received…”. Instead he said, “We received…” He clearly meant that everyone who received grace also received apostleship. Biblically speaking, grace cannot be separated from apostleship. This is clear even from Genesis. God gave Adam and Eve abundant grace and blessing. At the same time, God gave them a command to be fruitful and to rule over the creatures of the earth (Genesis 1:28,29). God saved Apostle Paul and gave him much grace in order to use him as his servant. Therefore, I must not take God's grace lightly. When I receive God's grace, I must live for the glory of God as a servant of Christ Jesus. When I receive God’s grace, I must learn the obedience that comes from faith.

In light of Romans 1:5, I begin 2005 with three prayer topics: to live for Jesus’ name’s sake, to teach grace and apostleship to students and to learn obedience that comes from faith.

One Word: We received grace and apostleship.