The balloon was literally hanging over my house. I took a picture of it.
In the month of May, when the weather is good, you can regularly see hot air balloons in the Netherlands in the evening. A few years ago, such an impressive balloon passed over my house. I was lying on the roof terrace and suddenly this colossal balloon appeared above me. It was hovering right above me. I took a picture of it.
I've never been in a hot air balloon before, but it seems very special to go on a trip like that. All you've got is air. And it turns out that air is enough to travel through the sky. As long as you know what air does, what it can do, and how to use that knowledge. Rising air (thermals), wind direction and the ability of air to heat up are the elements you can play with.
The balloonist does not seem to own anything. He does not own the air, he does not own the wind or the wind direction. But he knows what he has to do to make this journey through the sky.
This is a very nice parallel to the life of a believer. John 3:8 says, "The wind blows whereever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (NIV11uk).
We have a safe basket under the balloon because of salvation in Jesus Christ. We don't just float through the air. Christian life is not possible without the finished work of Jesus in death and resurrection. At the same time there is the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost. He is the wind in our lives that determines the direction. The Hebrew and Greek word translated by "spirit" can also be translated by "breath" and "wind".
The life of a believer is characterised by an interplay between staying in the basket and dealing with the wind. The security of the basket is the security that faith gives us in our new position in Christ. In that position nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is the static security, the ground beneath our feet. At the same time, there is also the wind of the Spirit. This is the dynamic aspect of dealing with God. The wind sets things in motion. And so the Spirit gives the direction. And we can learn to deal with this dynamic aspect from the position of certainty in Christ. The Bible calls this "the stewardship of the mysteries of God " (1 Cor 4:1):
“us be regarded as … stewards (trustees) of the mysteries of God” (Amp15)
Just as the balloonist knows how to handle his balloon and the wind, so a believer knows how to handle the secrets that God has entrusted to him.
You only share secrets with someone with whom you have an intimate relationship. As a believer, you know things because you have an intimate relationship with God, from His Word and in prayer. And as a result, you learn to discern the winds of God, to trust them, to anticipate them, and to move with them in the direction He is leading.
Our daily involvement with salvation and anticipation of the Spirit's movement makes us stewards. The Greek word for steward used here is oikonomos (Strong 3623). It means 'steward of a house', but in Greek it is used specifically for 'steward', the person who manages money and property. For this reason the Amplified Bible explains this word by adding the words trustees and administrators. (Check the online Bible)
Just as there is a priesthood of all believers, so all believers are stewards as well. And this stewardship takes place from the secure basket of salvation, in intimate communion with God, through which the slightest breeze of the Spirit is perceived.
Over the past year we have been strongly drawn to Africa. It was our conviction that God want to get His Word into the smallest capillaries of this continent and that we can be a part of that with the Online Bible Apps. The Online Bible Apps enable pastors and believers to have the Bibles and books they need.
Six months ago things started to happen and before I knew it I was planning a trip to South Africa. At first the trip did not go as planned. There was a delay of several hours in Zurich. The flight was cancelled and half a day later I had a new flight, but this one had a stopover in Ethiopia. At the airport I saw a melting pot of African cultures. The huge delay ensured that my travel expenses, which were quite high for me, were fully reimbursed. All I had to do was fill in the compensation form. So God provided the money for this trip. And when I arrived in South Africa, God confirmed that I had to be there. The wind came from a different direction, which led me to Africa and gave me new insights.
In the office over here in the Netherlands, we are aware that we are administrators of a Bible app and trustees of the biblical content in that app. With that comes the responsibility to handle it wisely. There are many possibilities, but we are always forced to make choices within the constraints we face. At the same time, we are aware of how dependent we are on the body of Christ, both here in the Netherlands and in Africa. We understand there is a principle in the body of Christ: If we give what we are able to give, then we can expect that God will provide through others in the Body of Christ what we need to continue. Despite the many opportunities we have, our resources are limited. We don't have enough workers and we don't have enough financial resources to add the whole African continent to our ministry.
We are thinking hard about adding more "workers" and it is a matter of prayer (pray to the Lord of the harvest..., Jesus said in Mt 9:38). In order to raise the necessary funds, we have started the Professional Premium Use. This premium programme will enable us to do much more in the English, French and Portuguese languages, which cover 65% of the population of the African continent. There is a lot of work to be done especially in French, Portuguese and local African languages. Will you HELP?
