Does God Work in Heterodox Churches?

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Matthew
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Does God Work in Heterodox Churches?

Post by Matthew »

QUESTION:
"Does God work in heterodox Churches?"

Yes. Here is proof, the kind of which I can testify to in my own life as a former Evangelical Protestant, as well as the lives of many of my godly friends in the Evangelical world. The examples are truly past counting.

Last night my mother-in-law shared this wonderful story about prayer printed on several sheets of paper she’s had for years. Looks like it came from a little pamphlet, but there was no identification on the pages, so if anyone know’s where this came from, please let me know so I can give credit.

Anyway – I believe you’ll find this story to be a real blessing.

Enjoy…


Those who have the privilege of reading the Signs of the Times may have enjoyed that wonderful prayer story by Leonard C. Lee which appeared in a late issue. He says that he had always thought that prayer concerned only the forgiveness of sins; that it was his own job to look after himself while he lived, and God would decide what to do with him afterward.

He had given his heart to God as a boy of twelve; but now at nineteen, he, like Jonah, was running away from God and trying to lose himself in the northern wilderness, thinking that God would forget. After having helped a neighbor move his household goods to southern Alberta, Canada, he decided to work his way north to Alaska. By February, in the dead of winter, he had traveled nearly a thousand miles through snow and was attempting to reach a trading post on the Liard River. He was plunging along on snowshoes into a howling blizzard trying to follow the outlines of a creek which he believed would lead him to the river.

He had started with plenty of provisions when he left the settlement on the Peace River, but the fury of the blizzard had pinned him down for days. At last his food was gone, yet he was forced to keep going to keep from freezing to death. Finally he decided that he would never make it and was wondering if anyone would miss him, when suddenly he heard a voice saying, “Turn to the left.” He looked around, but no one was in sight. He started on north again, but again he heard that voice, almost pleading in its intensity, “Turn to the left.” He could see no reason for turning to the left into the howling blizzard, so started on north once more. But there came over him a strange feeling that he was running away from God. He couldn’t stand it, so he took a look at his compass and turned to the left toward the hills and into the freezing wind. Blinded by the driving snow, he had miles to climb and the going was hard.

It was getting dark with an arctic twilight when he crossed the divide and descended to another creek bed. He decided to turn right and follow this creek to the river, but again he heard that voice, “Turn to the left.” He obeyed, and a few rods up from the creek he saw a cabin half buried under the snow. Using his snowshoe for a shovel, he dug his way to the door and went in. It was pitch dark. Out of the blackness came a groan, which startled him. He struck a match, and there was an old man in a sleeping bag lying on a low bunk, his beard and eyebrows covered with ice from his breath. His eyes looked sunken and feverish.

Now we use Leonard Lee’s own words: “I rushed from the cabin to gather some scrub wood while twilight lingered, and soon had a fire going. I looked for food in the cabin, but found none. As the room warmed up, the old man was able to talk a little. He was Henry Bruce. He had been on his way to the trading post when he fell and broke his leg. He had crawled into the abandoned cabin hoping that someone would find him. He had been there for a week and had given up hope. Then he turned to God in prayer, asking Him to send help.

“The very timing jolted my youthful self-confidence as I realized that a hand had reached down from heaven and answered an old man’s prayer. At the very moment I was wondering if anyone would miss me, God was sending His angel to guide me to this lonely cabin. I knew that food and medical help had to be obtained quickly. I built up a good fire that would keep the cabin warm for hours and enough snow melted for the old man to drink.

“‘Where can I get supplies?’ I asked.

“‘About twenty miles west,’ he said.

“Again a strange feeling of awe came over me. I had been going in the wrong direction, trudging into an empty freezing wilderness. I had been too proud to ask for help; too self-sufficient to pray. But the prayer of an old man who needed God and asked for help had given God an excuse to turn me in the right direction.

“‘Let’s pray before you go,’ Henry Bruce said.

“I knelt by his bunk as I had at my mother’s knee, while he laid his hand on my head and in a feeble, faltering voice asked God to take care of me.”

The wind died down; the stars were shining. The thermometer dropped to about 40 below. Lee’s stomach was empty, and his bones ached; but he forgot his weariness in the needs of another. He almost ran those twenty desperate miles in an effort to get help before the fire died down and the arctic cold crept in and snuffed out the life in the cabin.

Telling of his experience, Lee says that as he pushed on toward the trading post he had the feeling that he was walking in a dream with someone walking beside him and some unseen power picking up his snowshoes and setting them down. he reached the post safely. Two strong men with a dog team were sent to take food to the old man and bring him in for medical help.

“I couldn’t help thinking that God called Abraham and Isaac and Jacob thousands of years ago,” said Lee, “but He called me yesterday. The same God who sent Jonah to save the Ninevites sent me to save Henry Bruce. The same loving Saviour who walked with the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace had walked with me through the blizzard and the biting cold. An old man’s prayer and faith had moved the hand of God to reach down and stop me in the snow and change my course and my life.”

The old trapper recovered and went back to Edmonton, where he lived with relatives. He asked; he believed; he received. “From that day,” said Leonard Lee, “prayer took on a new meaning for me.”

Remember, God is a prayer-hearing God, and He commands us to pray. The first step in prayer is to ask. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7

--http://backtoenoch.info/answered-prayer ... ilderness/

Logically, the next question is, "Well, if that is the case, and with such startling examples, then are they then not part of the Mystical Body of Christ? Are they then not also being saved and bound for the Kingdom of God?"

The answer to this is that it touches on two aspects of salvation: Personal salvation and the place of the Church and her Holy Mysteries in our salvation. To put this as concisely as possible I would say that in my evangelical days when on certain occasions God definitely had compassion on me and answered my prayers in some crisis, that was not "salvation" per se, but God's kindness that leads us to repentance, and this is not limited to the defining borderlands of the Visible Church. However, both Scripture and the Holy Fathers teach us that salvation cannot be effected without the Holy Mysteries, especially that of the Eucharist: "Unless ye eat my flesh and drink My Blood, ye have no life in you." So, while we see the working of God in the heterodox religions, and indeed not only them but in all humanity, this does not mean they are saved or can be saved outside the Church--at least there is no assurance sufficient that we should ever tell people that. None of the saints and fathers ever went in that direction. Rather, they all with one voice compel them to come into the safe harbour of the One True Church and receive the Life at her hands through the ministration of the Mysteries that She alone possesses.

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Maria
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Re: Does God Work in Heterodox Churches?

Post by Maria »

Amen.

And that is why we should pray for the heterodox daily in our prayers that they may be led into salvation.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Barbara
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Re: Does God Work in Heterodox Churches?

Post by Barbara »

What a story to read ! Enjoyable and inspiring.

But you mean that evangelicals believe that one does not pray to God except to forgive their sins, and not for healing or any other need ?

Agios_Irineos
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Re: Does God Work in Heterodox Churches?

Post by Agios_Irineos »

Evangelicals believe whatever idea strikes their fancy when they pick up the bible. Since they operate with no authority or accountability for their beliefs they evangelical world covers every spectrum of possible belief because the bible can mean whatever they decide it should mean!

It's truly a tragedy

Matthew
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Re: Does God Work in Heterodox Churches?

Post by Matthew »

Yes, it is sad, however a significant number of them are coming towards Historic Orthodoxy. That is very good news.

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