A Seminar with Seamands, Part 1
Along life’s way, God sends to us people who open to us the treasures of the truth of God’s Word in such a powerful, unique and unforgettable way. That was true in the case of Evangelist Tommy Tyson, and it was also true for my wife and myself in the ministry of Dr. David Seamands who was a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY. Come with us now as he shares with us some powerful lessons that he learned in the “University of Life.”
We were privileged to be part of a seminar in Minnesota in 1986 where David Seamands was one of the featured speakers. His book Healing For Damaged Emotions is well known. As with King David and the Apostle Paul, David Seamands knew the forgiving and restoring power of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. What follows are some ministry and counseling insights from this most gifted man of God. It took place on a beautiful spring morning in May when Dr. Seamands opened the day with a simple but powerful devotional. I share it with you now with a few of my own comments indicated along the way. (My comments throughout are in parentheses) Be blessed and be a ministry blessing.
I HAVE LEARNED
In a Friday morning devotional, Dr. Seamands read the words of the Apostle Paul from Philippians 4:11-12,
“Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever
circumstances I am.”
“I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live
in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret
of being filled and being hungry, both of having abundance
and suffering need.”
The Apostle Paul states twice “I Have Learned!” And what he learned is a post-graduate doctorate program for most religious people – to be content in whatever state he was in. It is a secret that many religious people never discover. Dr. Seamands went on to impress us with this simple but profound truth:
“OUR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IS NEVER COMPLETE.”
He then shared the story about how at commencement time, a graduate was coming down the steps of the convocation center holding his AB diploma in his hands. At the bottom of the steps was a figure of “Father Time” beckoning to the graduate with these words:
“NOW COME WITH ME AND LET ME TEACH YOU THE REST
OF THE ALPHABET.
Paul was brilliant in many ways and in many subjects, but he kept on learning. His best education, as with all of us, came in “The University of Life,” or if you will, “The School of Hard Knocks.” God continued to give him homework in his lifelong continuing education to expand his mind and deepen him in the truth. What were some of his courses? Quite a curriculum! Prison, beatings, stoning, rods, wilderness survival, danger, cold, heat, shipwreck etc.! (We don’t choose the subjects, God does. There are no electives in God’s University of Life. Only requirements.) Paul’s research laboratory was floating in an ocean. He had all specialty courses. Also, how to escape over a wall! It was in this “School of Hard-Knocks” that he needed a man like “Luke The Beloved Physician” with him much of the time. (Colossians 4:10-14)
Perhaps the greatest lesson Saul/Paul learned was the death of his “Super Self” and the birth of his “Christ Self.” His homework had totally reprogrammed his mind into the servant-mind of Christ. So Paul begins his letters as in Romans 1:1
“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set
apart for the gospel of God.“
Big Saul became little Paul and the little Paul became saturated with the big Christ. The big Christ can only use the little us. It was a lifelong educational process for Paul and it will be for us. Listen:
“THERE ARE NO INSTANTIZINGS IN GOD’S POST GRADUATE
CURRICULUM IN THE SCHOOL OF LIFE.”
If you will:
“ONLY GOD IS THE GREAT ‘I AM’ WHILE WE ARE ALWAYS THE
‘BECOMING ONES.’ “
Dr. Seamands reminded us that the book of our lives has many chapters, as in the childhood chapter, the student chapter, the marriage-family chapter or the single-adult chapter, and the empty nest chapter etc. But the “Becoming Chapter” is never finished until our dying day.
LESSONS LEARNED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIFE
Then Dr. Seamands went on to share with us the four greatest lessons he learned in “God’s University of Life.” First:
“GOD IS IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE OF OUR LIVES.”
How our parishioners and counselees need to know this in their trials and wilderness experiences. The Lord is right there! That is why Paul writes in Philippians 4:4-5,
“Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, rejoice!”
“Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men.
THE LORD IS NEAR.”
If you will, “The Lord is at hand.” Or again, “The Lord is on hand.” He is always with us. Jesus promised us in Hebrews 13:5-6,
“I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
“so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper,
I will not be afraid. What shall men do unto me.”
God meets us everywhere! Jesus is our eternal, omnipresent contemporary. We are never alone!
Second, not that God is the author of each and every circumstance, but rather:
“GOD IS THE MASTER OF EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE.”
God is not the author of all things, but He is Master of everything. So Paul wrote the awesome words of Romans 8:28,
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those
who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
(How awesome for us to know that while God does not author all things, He is Lord over all things. We read about Jesus Christ in Romans 5:9,
How we need to help our congregations live into that truth and shout their “Amens” to it! We would be less than honest if we didn’t admit that for both for ourselves and for them, there are those moments of doubt and wavering when we wonder just who is at the wheel of the universe. Not only that, but if someone is at the wheel of history steering things, he must be a drunk. Worse yet it seems to us at times from all the visible givens that Satan must be the driver. Or, when our faith seems to bottom out, maybe there is no wheel and no driver after all.)
We must help our people to sink their faith teeth into Romans 8:28. Dr. Seamands went on to say,
“IF A CHILD OF GOD CAN KNOW THAT THERE IS DIVINE MEANING AND
PURPOSE IN PAIN AND SUFFERING, HE CAN ENDURE ANYTHING.”
If you will:
“HE CAN ENDURE ANY DIFFICULT ‘WHAT’ IF HE IS ASSURED THAT THERE
IS A PERFECT DIVINE ‘WHY.’”
The truth is:
“ONLY THEN CAN THE CHILD OF GOD TRULY BECOME A
WOUNDED HEALER.”
Fact:
“THE FINEST COUNSELORS ARE THOSE WHO HAVE GONE
THROUGH IT THEMSELVES.”
(Often it is the case that we don’t realize the meaning and purpose until some time has passed. The Psalmist said exactly that in Psalm 119:67-68, and we must read it carefully. It is all there! He says,
“Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Thy word.”
“Thou art good and doest good; teach me Thy statutes.”
If that isn’t included in the meaning of Romans 8:28-29, then there is no meaning to be found. Before God afflicted the psalmist, he was straying away from God and into sin. But here in his case, when God as the Author and Master of his affliction afflicted him, He learned the hard way that God’s way is not only the best and safest way, it is the only way. He calls the “Afflicting God” in his life a good God and the God Who does good through our feeling bad, for through “God’s School of Affliction” he learned to keep God’s statutes.)
We must be assured and we must reassure our people of this:
“GOD NEVER LOPS AND PRUNES US BUT TO MAKE US FRUITFUL.”
And again:
“GOD NEVER CAUSES US TO PASS THROUGH FIRE, BUT TO PURGE
AND TO REFINE US.”
So we read in Hebrews 12:6 and 11 KJV,
“For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom He receiveth.”
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised thereby.”
Third, we must also teach and help our people to learn and grab hold of the following truth:
“NOTHING IS TOO DIFFICULT, TOO LARGE OR TOO SMALL TO
BE THE GRIST IN GOD’S MILL.”
All things big and small, easy or hard, are worked by God for the good of those who love Him.
Dr. Seamands reminded us that it is the little things that drive us nuts. He said he had to learn the following principle from God:
“GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF THE ELEPHANTS IN LIFE, AND WE MUST
TAKE CARE OF THE GNATS.”
Dr. Seamands then told us the story of when he was a missionary in India, he was riding in a train which because of an accident was detained in a little town for 24 hours. He had forgotten to bring anything to read and he had nothing to do. The language in that area of India was different too, so he wandered around and found a remnant of the old British Empire – Higginbottoms Book Store. There he found one very large English book, extremely worn and over a 1000 pages long. It was the novel by Ayn Rand entitled Atlas Shrugged, which is about the economic carnage caused by big, controlling government run amuck. He spent the entire rest of the day reading it, all the while thinking that he had lost a whole day in his life. He eventually finished reading the entire book.
Years later at his pastorate in Wilmore, KY, a college sophomore young man called him with doubts about the Christian faith. It wasn’t long when they met in Dr. Seamands office that it became immediately apparent that the young fellow was an intellectual who looked at Dr. Seamands simply as an ignorant missionary. Or as Dr. Seamands put it, “He looked at me like I was exhibit ‘A’ before the flood.” It was obvious the young cerebral didn’t expect any help from this relic missionary/pastor.
The young man then in his literary pride blurted out the question, “Have you read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged?” Dr. Seamands said, “Of course I have read it.” The young man appeared deflated because he thought pridefully that he was the only one in the room who had. He learned that you can be an intellectual and a Christian at the same time. That led in the days ahead to a wonderful relationship and Dr. Seamands ultimately led the young man to Jesus Christ as His Savior and Lord. Then Dr. Seamands pointed out that each day, even a day which seems lost in our lives, has meaning for and shapes our future. Again we must say:
“NOTHING IS TOO DIFFICULT, TOO LARGE OR TOO SMALL TO
BE THE GRIST IN GOD’S MILL.”
Fourth, in that morning devotional, Dr. Seamands shared with us the final great lesson he had learned in “God’s University of Life.” He called it:
“THE DIVISION OF LABOR IN CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.”
Dr. Seamands served for a few months in a small settlement in India during the monsoon season. The nearest river was 7 miles away, and it rained for 56 days. Soon the river was near his house. It was a sea of mud and Dr. Seamands was stuck in the house. He told the Lord that being at that place was a waste of his time and of his great gifts. It continued to pour while he continued to complain to God.
Then one day the Holy Spirit said to him:
“IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO LEARN THE DIVISION OF LABOR, THAT IS,
WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AND WHAT IS
MY RESPONSIBILITY.”
The Holy Spirit continued:
“YOUR RESPONSIBILITY IS THE DEPTH, AND MY RESPONSIBILITY
IS THE LENGTH, WIDTH AND BREADTH.”
Your responsibility is the DEPTH. Something clicked inside him and he read every book he could get his hands on. He read roughly 50 books which he outlined not knowing that he was headed for decades of ministry in the pastorate. He drilled deeper in the wells of truth than he had ever done before. Paul learned the secret of Christian ministry:
“BE A DISCIPLINED STUDENT OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND THEN
WHAT GOD DOES IS HIS BUSINESS.”
What was it that the Holy Spirit said to and through the Apostle Paul? We read in II Timothy 2:15,
“Be diligent to present yourself approved of God a workman who does
not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.”
In short what God was saying was this:
“HE DOES NOT WANT FIRST OF ALL SUCCESS VS FAILURE. WHAT
GOD IS LOOKING FOR IN HIS SERVANTS IS FAITHFULNESS
IN AND TO THE WORD OF GOD.”
