The_Preserving_Saving_Sustaining_Faithfulness_of_God.pdf

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.—Deuteronomy 7:9

After returning from a teaching trip to Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary (CBTS) with my wife, Kelina, and The Bethlehem Institute (Track 2) graduate Dieudonné Tamfu, I have been left with the sweet taste of God’s goodness in his faithfulness to his people.

Have you considered recently how faithful God is to you? Often in evangelical circles our faithfulness to God is emphasized as we are rightly called to turn from sin and the allure of the world.

But is it not remarkable that the supreme, sovereign Creator of all that exists is faithful to those who love him? Who are we that God should be faithful to us? Here are a few instances of God’s astounding faithfulness that became evident through our time in Cameroon.

God was faithful to Dieudonné and me as we prepared and taught our classes. Dieudonné had 46 students in his class on Isaiah, and I had 12 students in my class on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Both of us were delighted to dive into these books with these bright, eager students.

God was faithful to Kelina as she built a relationship with our cook, Mercy—this being an answer to prayer as a divinely appointed relationship. God was faithful in meeting us in class and in conversations as we were moved to worship and our eyes opened to perceive new wonders of who he is.

God has been faithful, we learned, to call out a people for his own possession from among the peoples of Cameroon. Since British Baptist missionary Alfred Saker set out in the 1850s to make the gospel known in Cameroon, there has been an enduring Christian presence. Though Saker endured suffering, disease, and the death of many of his colleagues, he desired a better country, a heavenly one (cf. Hebrews 11:16).

God has been faithful in preserving the long, mutually beneficial relationship between Bethlehem and CBTS. Since Pastor John spoke at CBTS in Spring 1985, then-Bethlehem-pastor Steve Roy was sent to teach at the school for a year in 1986, and current-Bethlehem-pastor Tom Steller was sent to teach for a year in 1990.

God has been faithful to CBTS in providing equipped and trained faculty over the years. Through our partnership, Wilfred Fon, Amos Nchuoji, and Philemon Yong came to the U.S. to pursue PhDs and returned to teach at the school. Presently, Dieudonné is pursuing a PhD after having completed his studies here at Bethlehem.

Additionally, global partners Tim & Amy Moline just arrived on campus this August as Tim joins the faculty of the school. We have been laboring together for the sake of the gospel in Africa—over 25 years of partnership with a steady stream of our people going to work with CBTS. (See Pastor Tom’s Star article from August 19, 1991, “An Update on the Cameroon Connection.”)

God has been faithful to CBTS in providing a solid library to serve and equip students. Though the library has faced challenges with the loss of resources, God is showing himself faithful in providing new equipment to better serve students and maintain the resources the library has. Pray with us for God’s continued faithfulness as we continue to seek to make improvements.

And, most important, God is faithful in preserving our faith through it all—through sorrow, hardship, and suffering. The Epistle to the Hebrews, which I had the pleasure to exult over in class, painstakingly makes the point that the very Son of God, who reigns with all power and authority, is the author and perfecter of our faith; Jesus penned faith into our lives since we first believed and he will see that our faith is brought to completion when we finally enter the rest he secured for us.

God is faithful in not leaving us to ourselves but providing for us a sympathetic, understanding high priest, Jesus, who intercedes for us and has opened a way for us into the very presence of God (Hebrews 10:20).

The faithfulness of God sustains and preserves every Christian and every effort to make Jesus known. If God was one who did not keep the covenants and promises he makes, then we have no abiding hope and no foundation from which to press on. If God was one who goes back on his word, we have no “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19). Without the faithfulness of God, we are lost.

God has been exceedingly faithful to the people of Cameroon, to CBTS, to short-term teachers like me and long-term faculty-to-be like Dieudonné, and to every Christian who holds fast to their confession without wavering.

So praise God with me for his faithfulness and recount to yourself, your friends, your family, your small group, and your pastors and elders how God has been remarkably faithful. Let God’s past faithfulness buttress your faith in his future faithfulness.

Preserved with you in the faithfulness of God,

Brett Toney
Pastoral Assistant to Kenny Stokes
Bethlehem Seminary Apprentice