<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

Men of Faith: George Müller

Coming up next, please stay tuned for It Is Written, presented by Pastor John Bradshaw.

♪♪ Did you ever look at 1 of those interesting pictures where you gaze at it long enough or in the right way and suddenly an image appears?

They call them stereograms, auto-stereograms.

They create the illusion of a three-dimensional scene.

They look like a collection of random dots or patterns but hidden in there, well, it might be an animal or a building, could be anything at all.

It's due to something called stereopsis, binocular depth perception, your brain making sense of the information it's receiving from 2 eyes at the same time.

You can stare at 1 of those things for ages and not see anything and then suddenly the image jumps out.

It can be hard not to see it after a while.

The city of Bristol in the west of England is a little like 1 of those images.

Look at Bristol today and what do you see?

It's a city of half a million people, a hundred miles or so west of London.

The drive will take you 2 and a half hours.

By train you're there in a little over an hour and a half.

Cross the Severn River and you're in Wales.

Cross the Avon River and you're still in Bristol.

But if you do so, you can cross it on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, an incredible thing designed by the man voted by British people to be the second greatest Briton from Great Britain, the delightfully named engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Brunel also designed the SS Great Britain, which in the mid-1800s was the largest passenger ship in the world.

And in case you're wondering, no, it isn't the same Avon River as the 1 that runs through William Shakespeare's hometown.

Stratford-upon-Avon is upon a different Avon River.

In fact, there are 5 different Avon rivers in England.

The word Avon comes from a Celtic word meaning river.

If you were to study Bristol, you'd notice it's an historic city.

People have been living here for a thousand years or more.

Beyond that, it's fairly typical for a city of this size.

Hollywood icon and Academy Award nominee, Cary Grant was born here as Archibald Leach.

Banksy, the world-renowned artist, is also a Bristolian.

Okay, we're going to look more closely now.

And we're going to look slightly to the north.

If you go out of the downtown, past the university, keep on going and before long you'll get to Ashley Down.

There's a cluster of buildings which at first glance give nothing away.

You'll have to look more closely, look really close and a picture begins to emerge.

A picture of faith, of incredible faith, a portrait of a remarkable man who impacted the world, who changed the world for thousands and thousands of people, a man whose life and ministry still changes lives today.

He was born in a place that doesn't even exist today, the Kingdom of Prussia.

He was born in 1805, about 32 miles and 322 years from where Martin Luther was born.

George Mueller became 1 of Bristol's most well-known residents.

Even Charles Dickens visited Bristol to see Mueller and witness his work.

His work was housing, raising, and educating orphans.

And what's remarkable about Mueller's enterprise is that he did it all without ever asking anyone, not anyone, for money.

He was a liar and a thief and a drunk, and he was immoral and he was a gambler.

While he was still a boy, barely a teenager.

His father wanted him to become a minister in the Lutheran church, the state church.

Not because the dad wanted his son to be a man of God.

He wanted him to earn a decent living and have a secure job and occupy a respectable place in society.

And it might've worked out if Mueller wasn't such a scoundrel.

While he was studying for the ministry at a university in Halle near Leipzig, he was invited to a Bible study in someone's home.

And there, something changed in his heart.

He got new friends, new habits, a new direction in life.

He became something of a spiritual leader on campus.

When war prevented him from going to Bucharest to serve as a missionary, he came to London to serve as a missionary to Jews.

Before long, he was pastoring a church in the Southwest of England.

When he came to Bristol in 1832, King William IV was on the throne.

Muller pastored a church that stood right on this spot, Ebenezer Chapel, and it was here that things really began to change for him.

He decided he would no longer receive a salary and that he wouldn't rent pews to his congregation.

And It was here in Bristol that he and his good friend, Henry Craik, founded a movement that impacted the world, running orphanages without ever raising money to do so.

He built numerous buildings, many of them very large, and raised thousands of orphans, but he never raised any money.

The book of Revelation describes God's last-day people as people of faith.

Find out how you can have faith to stand in earth's last days.

Call now and ask for today's free offer, Faith When It Matters.

To receive Faith When It Matters, call 800-253-3000.

You can also visit us online, write to the address on your screen, or text FREEFAITH to 71392.

When George Mueller got married at the age of 25, he and his new wife, Mary, made the decision that George would not receive a salary, Nor would the Muellers ever speak to anybody about their needs.

Now you might think that God just rained money down on them from heaven.

Often they were flat broke or down to just a few pennies.

But throughout it all, Mueller was a very successful minister.

Ebenezer Chapel here in Bristol was a very busy place.

And then George got the idea that he would look after orphans.

Number 1, he wanted to look after orphans.

But secondly, well, this is what George Mueller himself said.

"...this is the primary reason for establishing the Orphan House.

I certainly desire to be used by God to help the poor children and train them in the ways of God.

But the primary object of the work is that God would be magnified, Because the orphans under my care will be provided with all they need through prayer and faith.

Everyone will see that God is faithful and hears prayer.

It began right here on Wilson Street and God provided the means.

First a donation of a shilling, call that around $12 today.

Before long, Mueller was operating 2 orphanages, 2 orphan houses, right about there.

When the houses were no longer suitable, when they were no longer big enough and the neighbors started complaining, Mueller decided to build new orphanage buildings here in Ashley Down, which back then was way out in the country.

Back to Menu

Men of Faith: George Müller

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

I Shall Return

28m

Grateful

28m

Somebody Cares

27m

The Seven Churches

The Seven Churches of Revelation: Pergamos

28m

Who Was Desmond Doss?

28m

Lost

Lost Sheep

29m

Designed With Purpose

It’s All About the Genes

29m

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2024: Themes in the Gospel of John

07 Blessed Are Those Who Believe

28m

To Hell and Back

28m

InVerse 4th Quarter 2024: The Gospel of John

09 Preparing the Disciples

29m

Is Heaven For Real?

2. Is Heaven For Real?- When Do We Get There #1

29m

Running the Race

28m

Sound Doctrine