Saturday, February 18, 2012

George Mueller

Saved by Grace


Somewhere in time, September 27, 1805, George Mueller was born. George Mueller was not the type of child we would have expected much from. When his mother lay dying, he was out drinking. He was arrested and put in prison when he was sixteen. In prison he made friends with others who were worse than him, but his father did get him out of prison and sent him to school in a different city. Maybe a change of scenery would do him good. It didn’t. He continued on, only to get into more trouble.

The change for George Mueller came in steps. The first step was attending college to become a minister. That may seem an unusual choice for someone who had no spiritual aspirations, but I believe Mueller’s family thought it might give him a good living and maybe even a desire to live differently. It worked in a weird way. The school was extremely secular and many of the students studying for the ministry were not called by God, but a few of them were. These students invited George Mueller to a bible study that began his transformation. He know knew that faith was real and God was the one he needed to serve and his life began to change.

He left for England, perhaps there they would not remember this little liar and thief and his faith would have a chance to take off. He went to England to begin his ministry, but he got sick. While he was sick he was cared for by a man of faith who's faith really rattled George’s idea faith.

This man’s faith was so real to George. I read once that when George would watch him pray, it changed him. Prayers were formal and uttered with design and decorum. Not so with this man. He would fall on his knees and cry out to God with his whole heart. George was introduced to a new doctrine, one not taught in Seminary, the doctrine of Grace. This changed his life.

Romans 3:24 (NIV) “and we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:8 (NIV) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

We can do the best we can, but nothing we can do will earn us a place in heaven. We are saved by grace. It is a free gift from God. For George Mueller, this concept revolutionized his life. He was able to serve God with his whole heart. God paid the price for his salvation, he just needed to love his God and serve Him.
 
I was looking for some information about George Mueller and I found a great amount of information on this website – www.desiringgod.org
From there I pulled this synopsis of the things founded by George Mueller. It surprised me, I had really only heard about the orphan homes, but there was more than that.

“In 1834 (when he was 28) he founded The Scripture Knowledge Institute for Home and Abroad, because he was disillusioned with the post-millennialism, the liberalism, and the worldly strategies (like going into debt) of existing mission organizations. Five branches of this Institute developed: 1) Schools for children and adults to teach Bible knowledge, 2) Bible distribution, 3) missionary support, 4) tract and book distribution, and 5) “to board, clothe and Scripturally educate destitute children who have lost both parents by death.”

In addition to pastoring his church, he founded and worked in all these other things. His work with the orphans gained him the most attention on his life and the strength of this faith.

There is one story where the orphans and had no food for the next day. He told everyone to go to bed, the Lord would provide. He went to bed and slept soundly, he was not worried, he knew the Lord would provide.

The story goes that a milk cart broke down in the morning and the milk was donated. A baker was awakened in the night by God and told to bake bread because the orphans were hungry. When the children woke up, the Lord had provided food just like George Mueller told them he would.
 
Mueller never asked for money for any of his ministries. He and the orphans never went hungry. That takes a tremendous amount of faith.

George knew that if God could save sinners by His Grace, He could take care of them also.  He totally relied on that.

George Mueller died on March 10, 1898 at the age of 92. In his life time, he took care of 10,024 children. When he died, tens of thousands attended his funeral.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all put our faith into action so fully?


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