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who is truly saved?

11/13/2019

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                    Who Is Truly Saved?   
But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.  (Luke 18:16-18)
 
ALL WHO CLAIM TO BE CHRISTIANS are not “genuine believers.” The key to entering Heaven is attitude, submission to what God has provided for us for salvation. God has provided a Savior who died on a Roman cross in fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. He is God’s only provision for salvation. Submission to Him as Lord and Savior is essential for eternal salvation.
 
IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO BE SOMEWHAT RELIGIOUS. God looks on the heart and man looks on the outward appearance. We cannot always look at the life of a person and know if they are saved. We can estimate (only) by using the yardstick God has given us.
 
●HAS THE INDIVIDUAL HUMBLED HIMSELF/HERSELF TO THE MESSAGE of the Cross as a little child humbles and submits to a mother or father? That childlike attitude of humility and trust is required of one coming to God. Jesus said that without this child-like attitude toward God, one cannot enter the kingdom of God.
 
“JESUS HAD TAUGHT THAT IT WAS NECESSARY TO BE HUMBLE BEFORE GOD. In these verses He compared that humility to childlikeness: And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 
But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer (allow) little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.  (Luke 18:15-17) (See also: Matthew 19:14 and Mark 10:14.)
 
“IN THESE WORDS, JESUS WAS STATING THAT A PERSON MUST COME TO HIM in humility in order to enter the kingdom. Children come with expectation and excitement. They come realizing that they are not sufficient in themselves. They depend totally on others. If these same attitudes are not present in adults, they can never enter into the kingdom.” (Bible Knowledge Commentary)
 
●HAS THE PERSON REPENTED? (Repentance means “a change of mind that results in a change of conduct and lifestyle.”) There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.  (Luke 13:1-3)
 
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.  (Luke 13:4-5)
 
●IS THE PERSON FOLLOWING AFTER PEACE AND HOLINESS?
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Hebrews 12:14)
 
●IS THE PERSON ABIDING IN THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST?
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

●DOES THE PERSON HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SHEPHERD? My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  (John 10:27)

●IS THE PERSON BOTHERED BY THE SINS AROUND HIM/HER? (God) turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)  (2Peter 2:6-8)
 
WE MIGHT NOT THINK LOT WAS SAVED, SINCE HE CHOSE TO GO TOWARD SODOM and live there. But Peter tells us how miserable he was in living there. But Lot’s wife was a different story. She didn’t want to leave Sodom. She lingered behind and God turned her into a pillar of salt. Jesus said of her: Remember Lot's wife.  (Luke 17:32)
 
IN EZEKIEL'S DAY, GOD TOLD HIM TO: Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.  (Ezekiel 9:4) The lives of these people were spared because they were bothered by the sins going on around them. Makes you wonder about the people of today, does it not? Who is bothered by the sins of our day?
 
●GOD KNOWS THE PEOPLE WHO BELONG TO HIM.  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.  (2Timothy 2:19)
 
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT SHEEP AVOID MUD HOLES AND PIG PENS. But pigs are at home in pig pens and mudholes. Pigs thrive on wallowing in mud. Sheep avoid getting mud on their coat. God has chosen to call his people: “My sheep.” You can be saved while you are in the pig pen, but you will make a genuine effort to get out of the pig pen. You definitely will prefer not to stay there.Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?  (2Corinthians 13:5)
 
KNOWING WHETHER YOU ARE A GENUINE CHRISTIAN IS A SERIOUS MATTER. If Christ is in you, there will be some characteristics in your life, in your appetites, in the kind of people you enjoy being with. If you are a reprobate, one who is the opposite of a Christian, then you need to know about it.
 
IF GOING TO CHURCH AND HEARING THE WORD OF GOD BOTHERS YOU HERE, it would bother you in Heaven. If Amazing Grace and There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood bothers you here, you would not like it in Heaven, either.
 
IF YOU ARE NOT HUMBLE, YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH GOD, including Heaven. James wrote: … God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.  (James 4:6) Paul said: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)
 
DO YOU SEE WHY I KEEP SAYING THAT A PROUD MAN/WOMAN CANNOT BE SAVED? God resists him/her. God gives His grace to people who humble their hearts. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)
 
WE ARE NOT SAVED BY DOING GOOD THINGS AND AVOIDING BAD THINGS. We cannot do good things well enough to be saved by them. But good things (by God’s definition) will be in the life of one who is a genuine believer in Christ. It’s not my word. It’s what the Bible says. It is good to go to the altar at church and pray and perhaps even weep. But our salvation goes deeper than that. We must be converted. We must genuinely repent of our sins. We must genuinely receive Christ as Savior and Lord of our lives. We must be “born again” by the Spirit of God.
 
WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH WITHOUT WORKS.  BUT WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH A FAITH...THAT WORKS. 

●For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  (Romans 10:13)
 
●For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  (John 3:16)
 
●Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.  (John 5:24)
 
●Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  (John 3:3) Ω
 
  Read Through the Bible in a Year
 November 14, 2019 – THURSDAY
 A.M. Ezekiel 7-9   P.M.  Hebrews 10:24-39
Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

A Good Verse to Memorize:
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.  (Jeremiah 29:13) (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)

Song for Today:
Just As I Am (3:30) (Samonte – Mennonite Choir)                       
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxA0TFe3-Uo
         You may need to adjust your volume.
                                                   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Trying to make water run uphill

11/12/2019

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Trying to Make Water Run Uphill
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.  (Proverbs 22:6) The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.  (Psalms 58:3) Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 4:9,   Deuteronomy 6:7;   Psalm 78:3-6;   Ephesians 6:4;   2Timothy 3:15   Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.  (Psalms 127:3)
 
IN THIS WORLD, NOTHING IS AS VALUABLE, and nothing is as challenging as raising a child from the womb. They immediately become the center of the world and yet, they are a gift from God. We may think they belong to us, but, they belong to God because He made them, and we are raising them for Him.

THE FIRST PROBLEM WE HAVE WITH RAISING CHILDREN is that God made them with a will of their own and their will clashes with our will. “Feed me and feed me now!” “Change me and change me now!”  The easiest thing is to simply give in to them until they are twenty (or thirty) and decide to leave home. I read this week where a couple went to court to evict their 30-year-old, dead-beat son from their home. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44215648 But, that’s not what God had in mind by giving children to parents to raise.

THE HOME IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TEACHING CENTER THE CHILD WILL EVER HAVE. It is intense the first five years. For thousands of years, governments of all kinds have recognized the role of parents in raising children. By law, in America, parents control children and property and this is in contrast to socialistic and communist governments that own everything and are the primary guardian of children. THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL IS THE ARM OF THE HOME. The public school of my day was much like the Christian school of today. 
   
THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS IN AMERICA ARE LEGALLY "LOCO PARENTIS" or, “in place of the parents.” But that “in place of the parents” is limited and of short duration. Parents pay the tuition costs of teaching children in private schools. In contrast, public schools are tax-funded and assume more direct control of the children. Even in public schools, there is not a complete ownership of the children. If children are neglected and become wards of the State, and the State has to pay for medical treatments, then the State is more likely to decide whether or not the child will have a certain surgery.

RAISING CHILDREN SOMETIMES BECOMES LIKE trying to make water run uphill. It takes wise and dedicated parents to raise children today. When the young bodies begin to change into adults, they begin to assert themselves and form strong relationships with other young people which become their moral anchor rather than their parents. That is a sticky wicket and the importance of the parents’ accumulative influence begins to come into play.

OUR TEXT TODAY IS QUOTED OFTEN BY TEACHERS, PASTORS, and to a lesser degree by parents. I’ve been watching this process and have been involved in it as a parent and as a pastor/counselor for many years.
 
SEVERAL THINGS WORK AGAINST PARENTS when children reach the age of independence. Parents, today, are working long hours to provide money for the family. This cuts down on the time spent together with the children. TV, the hand-held electronic gadgets have become a robber of necessary family time and this involves parents as well as the children.

FAMILIES SHOULD BE EMPHATIC ABOUT having at least one sit-down meal at the table where there is no TV or gadgets and the phone taken off the hook. Pleasant conversation with no conversation that will condemn or catapult into a fire storm.

FAMILIES SHOULD HAVE FAMILY DEVOTIONS TOGETHER, daily and an age-appropriate Bible memory program. Bible verses should be memorized and should include some Bible chapters.  One new verse per week and a workable plan that everyone understands and agrees to. Start young. “God is love.” John 4:8b.

I DETERMINED THAT MY CHILDREN WOULD KNOW 100 VERSES by the time they left home. It should have been more, including several chapters, including Psalms. I started memorizing Bible verses in the 2nd grade in public school. I kept working at it after I got saved two years later, until I had memorized several hundred verses. They come up today and are a great help.

I’M DISTURBED THAT SO MANY GIRLS ARE BEING MOLESTED AT HOME THESE DAYS. It is no longer so strange that boys are telling of being raped when they were young.Mixed marriages are contributing to part of it, but not all. Family members that visit the home and are known to the girls are responsible for a lot of it. One charismatic Bible teacher tells her audience of mostly women that her own father molested her over 200 times. When this happens, even one time, it is an awesome wound that generates deep-seated problems for years to come. But many of them are abused for years.

OFTEN, THESE WOUNDED GIRLS BEGIN TAKING DRUGS to numb the torment. Then it becomes an endless cycle and it takes the hand of God from Heaven to rescue them. Divorce of the parents is one of the prime things that sets bad things in motion. We know this from the testimony of the young people affected by it. At the same time, divorce is the only way out for some parents and it gives me no satisfaction to have to say that.

AS FAMILIES GET AWAY FROM THE BIBLE in their daily living, including the families of pastors and Christian leaders, the problems multiply. There is no substitute for genuine conversion and obedience to the Word of God. God snatched me as a brand from the burning. Some of my cousins didn’t do well because they didn’t know the Lord and were filled with their own ways.

RAISING A FAMILY DOES NOT HAVE TO BE LIKE MAKING WATER RUN UPHILL. But you will have to be strong in the Lord if you are going to avoid some of the tragedies we are seeing today. Cling to God! Cling to the Word of God! Sing the better hymns that have some meat in them. Many of the Christians of the past testify that they learned much of their Bible knowledge from the rich hymns they sang.

I’M AFRAID THAT A LOT OF THE MUSIC BEING USED TODAY IS FEATHER WEIGHT. Much of what formed my core beliefs came from hymns I learned as a child and my teen years. We can sing My Hope Is Built and There Is A Fountain and Living By Faith in the same amount of time as the watered down songs. The first hymn I learned to play was: Nothing But the Blood. Solid! Good, solid hymns will help you raise your family.
        
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 NOVEMBER 13, 2019 - WEDNESDAY
A.M Ezekiel 4-6   P.M Hebrews 10:1-23
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize: 
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.  (Psalms 33:12)
 
Song for Today: 
When I See the Blood (1:32) (1st & 2nd Grade: Calvary Christian School)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRybMkc3xqU
 You may have to adjust the volume and delete Ad

Health Hint:
The freight train of cold air from the north has invaded our homes and it’s dry! Dry air dries out your nose and throat and promotes the growth of bacteria on the membrane surfaces. Solution: Get out your Vicks Vaporizer that you cleaned out and put away last spring. Put in a half-teaspoon of salt and fill to the “full” mark. Stir well. Keep it going day and night. Too much salt will make it spit in the floor. Reduce the salt by pouring out half the water and filling to the top mark. Add enough salt to make it work well.

People used to keep a tea kettle going on their wood-burning cooking stoves or a coffee can of water on their stove in the living room. So, this is a reminder, nothing new. If you have central air and heat with a built-in vaporizer, now is the time to have your technician to check it out and declare that it’s working perfectly. We don’t have that, so we use the VICKS vaporizer from now ‘till April.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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our national guard

11/11/2019

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Our National Guard 
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.  (Romans 13:7-8) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  (John 15:13)
 
WE OWE MUCH TO THE MEN AND WOMEN who have served and continue to serve in our military. I group them altogether and call them: OUR NATIONAL GUARD!
 
“AFTER WORLD WAR II, November 11 was recognized as a day of tribute to veterans of both wars. Beginning in 1954, the United States designated November 11 as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars. (Google) Typing in “November 11 Holiday” brought up 3,250,000,000 results.” We are indebted to all those before us and those who wear the uniform of the United States today to defend us from armed aggression abroad. My awareness of our military began at my grandpa’s house.

AT GRANDPA AND GRANDMA RICHARD'S HOUSE, talk of the Civil War (1860-1865) erupted often, even though it was slightly before their time. To me, it was strange talk about the “Silver War.”  An aunt was holding back her last sack of shelled corn as a guerilla Union soldier tried to take it away from her. He ripped open the sack with his bayonet and began pouring the corn into his bag. She quickly seized his rifle and began beating him over the head with it. He ran out the door and yelled to his buddy, let’s get out of here! This gal will fight! The rifle was loaded (they used 58 to 69 caliber bullets). I’ve examined one of those big “mini-balls.” It wouldn’t be good news. If they hit an arm or leg, it usually had to be amputated and they didn’t always have morphine.
 
ON THE CARR SIDE, DAD'S GRANDPA: WILLIAM CARR: was in the Battle of Lookout Mountain overlooking Chattanooga, and as they retreated to Chickamauga, Georgia (a bloody place) he was captured and sent to a New York prison. There was a prisoner exchange and he was sent home. Some Union guerillas came by and shot him in his own front yard. His mother threw her hoop skirt over him and shamed them: “Go on! You’ve shot him! What more do you want?” They left him. His parents carried him into the house and laid him on the kitchen table. They gave him several swallows of whiskey and a stick to bite on while they dug the bullet out of him.

WILLIAM'S DADDY MADE A WOODEN COFFIN and put enough rocks in it to equal William’s weight and nailed the lid tight on the coffin. The community gathered in and attended William’s “funeral.”  William stayed in a back room until he was able to ride a horse. Then, he and his fiancé’ rode two horses at night until they got to Kansas, where they were married and stayed until the war was over.  Kansas was a neutral state during the war. My daddy spent a lot of time at his grandpa’s house. He sat on the floor in the door of the kitchen while his grandpa told him the stories again and again. (And my daddy told them to me.)

THEY DIDN'T TALK MUCH ABOUT WORLD WAR ONE, and I never knew why. But on a warm Sunday, December 7, 1941, we went to church at Falling Springs and that afternoon worked at moving wood into the house because the battery radio warned of a cold front moving in. The radio was also telling, repeatedly, of the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor that morning. I was seven and didn’t understand it, but the family discussion indicated that it was a big thing and very serious.

AS AMERICA READIED FOR THE INVASION OF GERMANY, we lived in the eastern tip of Tennessee: Mountain City. One day, Fort Bragg, NC began pouring American troops, trucks, tanks, artillery, and many Jeeps through that little town. Hundreds and hundreds. They were practicing maneuvers in mountain terrain before invading Germany. Eventually, they would be moving an army through the mountains and Black Forest of Germany (so we were told). Day after day. They carried their gasoline tankers with the convoy.

I WAS A 10-YEAR-OLD "SODA JERK" IN A DRUG STORE AND BUS STATION (all the usual young men were in the army). Every time a convoy came past the door of our drug store, we rushed outside and stood on the sidewalk until they rumbled by. The sight of all those soldiers and equipment passing by made a permanent memory in all of us who saw it.

THE NEWS PEOPLE NEVER ANTICIPATED THAT AMERICA WOULD PUT 17 MILLION people in uniform and turn loose America’s awesome power to manufacture a war machine in a short time. John Brookaw (Born Feb. 1940) would later write an outstanding book about “The Great Generation” that came out of the Great Depression to band together and win the greatest war that had ever been fought.

THEN CAME THE KOREAN WAR AND VIETNAM AND IRAQ and numerous “peace keeping” smaller military conflicts. It seems that once we have a war, we have to leave a lot of troops there. We still have troops in Germany, Japan, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and only the Lord and the Pentagon know where else we have soldiers. Google (Wikipedia) says “The military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with over 170,000 of its active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories.”

WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS DONE SUPPORT WORK WITH OUR MILITARY, especially medical. But now, as women have been moved into the front lines of war, they have suffered the wounds that used to be for men-only. Our 2nd picture today shows just a few wounded war women with artificial limbs. In our War on Terror since 2001, 149 women have died in combat. I urge you to read this article: https://www.cmrlink.org/sitrep/full/grim-toll-of-military-women-killed-in-war
            
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 NOVEMBER 11, 2019 - MONDAY
 A.M Lamentations 3-5    P.M Hebrews 8
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize: 
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.  (Psalms 33:12)
 
Song for Today: 
The Star-Spangled Banner- Concert Band and Soldiers' Chorus  (1:44)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DADmZdbQ9x8
 You may have to adjust the volume and delete Ad
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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when the bucket runs dry3

11/8/2019

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     When the Bucket Runs Dry

And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.  (Exodus 17:1)

IN MEDLOCK HOLLOW, when I turned 8, I was officially old enough to draw water out of the well. It WAS and IS a very big deal for an eight-year-old to be allowed to go ALONE to a well big enough to fall into head-first and drown. On the other hand, Medlock Hollow was not an ordinary place and we were not an ordinary family. We were farmer/sawmill people and everyone in the family had jobs to do.
 
THE INDIANS WHO HAD OCCUPIED THAT HOLLOW BEFORE US had had plenty of wild game and good ground for gardening. When my grandpa or my older brother broke ground with the turning plow, I followed in the furrow, bare-footed and looked for arrowheads and usually found some. There was water and plenty of game in the woods. But the Indians didn’t have a well. That was dug when the house was built, sometime before the Civil War.

THE WELL BUCKET HAD A 3" LENGTH OF PIPE attached to one side of the top of the bucket so that when the bucket hit the water in the well, the bucket would turn over and fill with water. The bucket was drawn up with a windless rope and crank and emptied into another (nicer) bucket to be carried into the house. The well had a good reputation for good, sweet water.

OUR WELL WAS DUG BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. A big slab of sandstone had been dragged there with mules and a 36” round hole chiseled through the middle of it for accessing the well. Dressing the slab must have taken several days. A square wooden floor covered the well and a knee-high box was built around the well. A  wooden shroud with a roof rose above it all and supported the windless.The slab and shroud prevented surface water from running into the well and polluting it. It also kept dogs and cats and thirsty coons, wildcats and other critters from falling into the well. 

THE EMPTY BUCKET PICTURES OUR LIVES WHEN WE RUN DRY. We could always go to the well and refill the bucket because the well never ran dry, even in a time of drought. Even so, we need to be refilled with the Holy Spirit many times in our lives. We are baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ one time (1Corinthians 12:13) but filled with the Spirit many times (Ephesians 5:18).

THE OLD TESTAMENT IS THE LARGER HALF OF OUR BIBLE and is the foundation of the New Testament. We are to feed on it and learn from it.  Now all these things happened unto them (Old Test.) for ensamples (examples) and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.  (1Corinthians 10:11)

THE BIBLE MENTIONS WATER 396 TIMES. After our need to breathe, our most intense need is water. God teaches us about our spiritual life by studying “water” in the Bible.
The people ran out of water while they were following the commandment of the Lord. (Exodus 17:1) There’s no mention of any sin or anything displeasing to the Lord. However, this experience was a trial of their faith and it resulted in their murmuring and complaining, which was a bad sin against God.
 
THIS IS IMPORTANT: At times, we may experience a shortage of the most needed things while we are obeying the Lord. Remember Elijah who was told to go to the Brook Cherith and the brook finally ran dry? Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.  (1 Kings 17:3-5)
 
 OUR FAITH WILL ALSO BE TRIED. How are we going to react to the trying of our faith? By running out of water, the intensity of their personal need was increased. It is hard for us to advance in faith in the midst of plenty. Paul said he had learned, by faith, to suffer need. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  (Philippians 4:12)

THEN PAUL INSERTS THAT FAMOUS VERSE that is often quoted out of context: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.  (Philippians 4:13) Paul, what kind of things can you do through Christ? Paul said that through Christ he could be full, and he could be hungry, to abound and to suffer need. He could do ALL of those things through Christ.

IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE IT WOULD BRING GLORY TO GOD to claim that one could suffer need and be hungry “by the power of Christ.” But that is exactly what he is saying. Christians in Africa and other countries, at time, have had to dig up roots and worms because there was no food. Some Christians have been locked up in their churches and burned up with the burning buildings. They died in faith.

And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:  (Hebrews 11:36-39)

WHEN GOD IS GOING TO DISPLAY HIS POWER, He sometimes will increase our difficulties before He moves His hand. He increased the difficulties of the Hebrew brick makers in Egypt before He delivered them from their hardships. No straw was provided for their bricks, but they still had to produce the same number of bricks per day. Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.  (Exodus 5:7)

ABRAHAM SENT HAGAR AND HER SON (also the son of Abraham) into the wilderness with a bottle of water. That was enough for the first part of her wandering. It was the best she could do. She had been sent away by the authority in her life: by Abraham. And in obedience to that authority, the water ran out.

And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.  And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.  (Gen 21:15-17)

PLEASE STUDY THIS CAREFULLY. Hagar seemed to be carrying the sole weight of their plight. The text records her words, her voice, her weeping. And yet, God heard the voice of the lad. No mention is made of God hearing the mother’s words. Though she lifted up her voice, she may not have lifted her voice to God. She may have wailed in despair without reaching out to God.
 
ON THE OTHER HAND,GOD HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LAD The angel begins speaking to Hagar and says: “What aileth thee, Hagar?” There is no mention by the angel that Hagar had prayed to the Lord. The angel said to Hagar: “Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.”
 
DID THE LAD PRAY TO GOD AND HIS MOTHER DID NOT? It seems that may be the case. The wording of these three verses is tight with no explanation. We may be confident that the angel dealt with the first need of Hagar: “fear not.” Hagar was afraid her son was going to die there, and she removed herself the distance of a bowshot, or 200-300 yards.
 
ROBER BROWNING HAMILTON LEFT US THIS FAMOUS POEM. “I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chatted all the way; But left me none the wiser for all she had to say.  I walked a mile with Sorrow; And ne’er a word said she; But, oh! The things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me.”

DIGGING DEEPER: The Bible Knowledge Commentary has this to say: “This chapter records two additional provisions by God for His people: WATER (Exodus 17:1-7) and VICTORY IN BATTLE (Exodus 17:8-16). God was demonstrating that He is capable of nourishing and sustaining His own. Parched from their journey and finding no water in the oasis, the people again complained against Moses and blamed him for taking them out of Egypt (cf. Exodus 16:3). This was worse than their murmurings of distrust at Marah (Exodus 15:24) or in the Desert of Sin (Exodus 16:2), for here they even quarreled with Moses (Exodus 17:2) and were about to stone him (Exodus 17:4). Such quarreling, Moses said, was putting the Lord to the test (Exodus 17:2), that is, they were challenging the Lord, trying His patience (Exodus 17:7) rather than trusting Him.

“BUT GOD WAS PATIENT WITH HIS DISOBDIENT AND GRUMBLING PEOPLE He told Moses to take… the staff with which he had struck the Nile River (Exodus 7:20) and to strike a rock at Horeb (Exodus 17:6). This “staff of God” (Exodus 4:20; Exodus 17:9) was a symbol of power; holding it was a sign of dependence and trust in God. Though Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, Israel did not camp at Sinai until later (Exodus 19:1). However, “Horeb” can also mean the Sinai region.

“REPHIDIM WAS CLOSE TO SINAI so that the mountain slopes reached there. In Moses’ striking the rock, the Lord was pleased to satiate His thirsty people with an abundant supply of water. So the Lord provided for them through another miracle. Because the people had tested the Lord there, Moses called the place by two names: Massah (“testing”) and Meribah (“quarreling”). (BKC)

IN REVELATION, JESUS SAID HE WOULD GIVE WATER to people who are thirsty for Him. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.  (Revelation 21:6)  Do you ever get thirsty for God?
            
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 NOVEMBER 8, 2019 - FRIDAY   A.M Jeremiah 49-50    P.M Hebrews 5
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Good Verse to Memorize: 
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him and bless his name.  (Psalm 100:4)

Song for Today: 
Tell Me the Story of Jesus (5:49) (Gaither Group)  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AghsSvQ_2B8
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Them that honor me...

11/6/2019

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 Them That Honor Me…
 …them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.  (1Samuel 2:30)

ELI WAS THE LORD'S HIGH PRIEST.  He knew a lot about being the High Priest and knew a lot about the law of God. But he was an easy-going kind of man and this carried over into his relationship with his sons who were also in the priesthood. His sons were bad apples and Eli was a softie with their bad behavior.

ELI'S SONS WERE CUTTING li’s sons were cutting themselves some choice meat, raw meat, before the fat was burned off.  That violated God’s explicit commands.  In verse 22 we learn that his sons were picking out women at the door of the Tabernacle to have sex with.  Eli knew about these things but did not restrain his sons. He should have put them out of the priesthood as an example to the rest of the priests. Finally, God’s patience ran out with Eli.

And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house?  And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?  (1Samuel 2:27-28)

● And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the LORD'S.  (Leviticus 3:16)
 
THE PRIESTS WHO RECEIVED THE OFFERINGS could take a small amount of the meat of the offerings for themselves, to feed their families. But they were to take it after the fat had burned off. Eli’s sons argued with the people who came to sacrifice until the people despised the offering of the Lord. Eli’s sons were insisting on having raw meat before the fat was burned off. Below is a recorded conversation of the contention that went on. The people were wondering: “Why does God let this go on?”
 
Also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw. And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth; then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.  (1Samuel 2:15-17)
 
●ELI IS REPRIMANDED. Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?  (1Samuel 2:29) This is plain.

Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.  (1Samuel 2:30)

GOD DIDN'T CHANGE HIS MIND ABOUT HIS INSTRUCTIONS TO THE PRIESTS, which included Eli’s father-priest. Eli had messed up so bad that he had dishonored his earthly father and disobeyed the Lord. God was going to have to do something about it.

THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH TO CAUSE ELI TO STRAIGHTEN UP and take his sons in hand, but the warning fell on Eli’s deaf ears.  He gave his wicked sons a little pep talk and reasoned with them. We do not negotiate with God──we obey Him! Eli’s sons were under him in employment. Outside of an employment setting, parents cannot force grown children to obey the Lord. We can only pray for them and urge them to follow the Lord. But, Eli was the employer of his sons and he was under the direct supervision of the Lord.

BUT, IF CHILDREN ARE UNDER OUR ROOF, they are under our authority and under our rules; especially in the teen years. That can be a tough time. Many hours of example, prayer, pleading, and firm enforcement of the rules go into those years. Eli did not do his best. We are to do our best. Parents do their children NO favor by trying to be buddies with them. You are not a buddy; you are an authority figure. Wear it. “Under my roof – under my rules.”  James Dobson called it: “Tough Love.” His book by that name is still available for as little as $1.00 through several outlets online.

I HAD TO PRACTICE THIS. Once, I had to open the kitchen door and offer one of my sons a choice between my-roof-and-rules or the street outside. I meant it and after staring into the dark and the street for a minute or two, he decided my roof and rules were a better choice. It was never brought up again. Tough love is not easy.  Before I was married, I had talked with people on the streets, in jails and rescue missions and I saw what rebellion would do to young people. I knew that a loving but firm hand is a must.

WHEN I WAS 14, MY DAD BROUGHT A YOUNG MAN HOME WITH HIM from the sawmill. He worked on Saturday at putting in new fence posts for the pasture field. Sunday morning, he went to church with me in the big farm truck. After church, I couldn’t find him. He had hitchhiked to an old friend’s house who was in the army. His friend came home unexpectedly and found the young man I took to church, in bed with his wife. The soldier split his head with a double-bladed axe. I don’t know if this young man had ever experienced tough love from a loving father. All I knew was that he was a bloody mess and dead, and it happened fast. Breakfast at our table and the funeral home that night.

BROTHER ROLOFF HAD A HEART FOR TRASHED TEENAGERS AND BROKEN HOMES and named his radio broadcast: Family Altar. Many of the rebellious kids in his homes were children of pastors. They knew Bible verses and Amazing Grace, but they were rebels. Pastor Kent Kelly and I ate breakfast with him in his home kitchen in Texas. He couldn’t eat for the phone ringing. He paced back and forth in the kitchen as he took a desperate call from Germany.

READ THE BIBLE AND PRAY WITH YOUR CHILDREN. Live what you preach. Listen to them without chewing them out. Compliment them for what they do right. Hold them accountable for doing wrong. That’s part of your job.

Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.  (1Samuel 2:22)

And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the LORD'S people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them.  (1Samuel 2:22-25)

“….the Lord would slay them.”  God knows hearts. He knows when self-will is so set against God that a man is not going to change.  No need to talk to these young men anymore. Their days are numbered. Now we have the scenario with the child Samuel. 
And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.  And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD.  (1Samuel 3:19-20)

THE END OF THE STORY IS THAT GOD SENT ELI'S SONS INTO BATTLE and they were killed. When Eli received the news that his sons were dead and that the Ark of God had been taken in battle, Eli went into shock, fell off his seat and broke his neck.

GOD IS SERIOUS ABOUT PEOPLE HONORING HIM and serious about people who despise Him and His word.  Eli didn’t lose his salvation. But he lost his life. There is a sin unto death in the Old Testament and a sin unto death in the New Testament. The sin unto death can happen to a Christian. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.  (1John 5:16-17)
 
ALL SIN IS NOT THE SAME. There is a sin unto death. Most sins are not unto death. Therefore, all sins are not the same in the sight of the Lord.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.  (1Corinthians 11:30-32)
 
We must honor the Lord in everything we do. That will keep us from running into the trouble Eli got himself into. Ω
  ●This article is edited and reprinted from September 15, 2015 and November 17, 2017

Read Through the Bible in a Year
 NOVEMBER 7, 2019 - THURSDAY
  A.M   Jeremiah 46-48    P.M Hebrews 4
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize: 
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.  (Proverbs 3:5-6)
 
Song for Today: 
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus (2:39) (Gaither)  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehuBXUD5h8U
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I intended to let Brother Roloff sing this morning, but this one got to me. Let’s follow Jesus.
 
 
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wonderfully made...

11/5/2019

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                    Wonderfully Made…  
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
 
Marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. (Or, of the body.)  (Psalms139:13-15.)
 
FOR THOU HAST POSSESSED MY REINS - “possessed” (to set upright, erect, as a cane or reed is upright and erect. Included is the idea of being made, created (Genesis 14:19, 22) as God created the heavens and the earth.
 
THE WORD "REINS" MEANS LITERALLY THE "KIDNEYS," and then, it comes to denote the inward part, the mind, the soul, the seat of the desires, affections, and passions. Jeremiah 11:20. Psalm 7:9; Job 19:27. The meaning here is, that God had made him; that the innermost recesses of his being had been constituted as they are by God; and that, “therefore,” God must be able to see all that there is in the very depths of the soul, however it may be hidden from the eye of man. (Bible Knowledge Commentary)

THOU HAST COVERED ME IN MY MOTHER'S WOMB -The word here rendered “cover” means properly to interweave; to weave; to knit together, and the literal translation would be, “Thou hast “woven” me in my mother’s womb, meaning that God had put his parts together, as one who weaves cloth, or who makes a basket.

THE ORIGINAL WORD HAS, HOWEVER, ALSO THE IDEA OF PROTECTING as in a booth or hut, woven or knit together - to wit, of boughs and branches. The first signification (above) best suits the connection; and then the sense would be, that as God had made him - as he had formed his members, and united them in a bodily frame and form before he was born - he must be able to understand all his thoughts and feelings. As he was not concealed from God before he saw the light. (BKC)

AND NOW, LOOK AT THIS: Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  (Psalms 139:16) God is making this child from a blueprint in His book. In medical schools, the parts of a body are identified in anatomy class/book and given names and numbers. it is a human being inside the womb before it is born to the outside.

EVERY PART OF OUR BODY IS IN THE BOOK OF GOD'S BLUEPRINTS. Every abortion stops a beating heart. Every abortion seizes God’s work of creation of another human being. When a child is killed in the womb, it is an affront against the sovereignty of God as much as it would be to snatch a sleeping child out of its crib and put it to death.
 
I AGREE WITH DAVID ABOUT BEING FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE. Design! Everything around us was designed by Almighty God! Did you watch The City of the Bees in the last Morning Minute? (There was a link.) Today, I’m including a link to The Red River of Life video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g4HfttXsyY&t=10s (28 minutes) Very interesting!  Like the City of The Bees, I first watched this by means of a 16mm film. It was copyrighted in 1957. Increasing our attention to God’s creation is important to God and vital to our faith, especially for the young people of today.

HALF-WAY THROUGH THE VIDEO, you will see an actual human heart, whose owner donated it to scientists to use in study and teaching. The heart is installed in a special apparatus that enables the heart to beat and pump liquid. By special cameras, you will see inside different compartments of the heart while it is pumping.  You will also study the red blood cell. Be amazed by what you see! We are fearfully and wonderfully made! Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
November 6, 2019 – WEDNESDAY
A.M.  Jeremiah 43-45   P.M.  Hebrews 3
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Great Verse to Memorize:
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  (Psalms 100:3) (Cut a 3x5 card in half and put a verse on each half-card    
 
Song for Today:
How Great Thou Art (3:45) – (Royal Hall London?)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBLRsUMtuFQ&list=RDgM7gt_cSxjw&index=4
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god's three books...

11/3/2019

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    God’s Three Books…  
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.  (Deuteronomy 8:3)
 
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  (Matthew 4:4)
(Jesus here quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 and quoted the Old Testament at least 40 times.)

GOD COMMUNICATES WITH MANKIND in three primary ways: 1. By things created. 2. Through our conscience 3. By special revelation, The Bible. He also communicates with us by the leading of the Holy Spirit, through chastisement and through blessing. At times He has spoken directly to individuals by spoken words and through dreams and visions. You may want to put this and further studies in a folder for future reference.

GOD COMMUNICATES THROUGH HIS CREATION: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:18-20)

THINGS AROUND US ARE DESIGNED AND NOT AN EXPLOSION. Explosions result in chaos and order does not come out of chaos. Living things reproduce themselves endlessly for thousands of years. These created things speak to us about God’s awesome power and that He rules over us. We are accountable to Him.

EVERY LIVING THING IS PRODUCED AND OPERATED BY A DNA MOLECULE. Where does that knowledge come from? We can lose DNA but cannot create DNA. Birds, butterflies, beasts, bacteria, and blue whales operate with amazing accuracy and purpose. The BLUE WHALES rule the oceans at up to 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile. You are no accident, my friend. You were made!!!

HOWEVER, MANKIND REBELS AGAINST GOD'S ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD. Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?  (Psalms 12:4)  Even Christians may get the idea that they are their own boss: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

DO OUR POSSESSIONS BELONG TO US OR TO GOD?
The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.  (Psalms 24:1) But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,…. (Deuteronomy 8:18)  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  (Psalms 100:3) See also: Exodus 9:29; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 24:1; 1Corinthians 10:26, 28
 
GOD CREATES US WITH A CONSCIENCE, which urges us to do right. Conscience does not always tell what is right, but tells us to do right, whatever that is. The conscience can be instructed to identify right and wrong. The conscience can be seared as with a hot iron. Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; (1 Timothy 4:2) We are warned:…To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.  (Hebrews 4:7)
 
SOME GENTILES ARE GUIDED PRIMARILY BY THEIR CONSCIENCE:
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)  (Romans 2:14-15) God will judge these people by their own rules. They break their own rules.

GOD DIRECTS HIS OWN BY HIS SPIRIT:
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,  (Luke 4:1) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  (Romans 8:14) But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.  (Romans 8:9)

GOD BRINGS SOME TO REPENTANCE THROUGH HIS GOODNESS TO THEM. …despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; (Romans 2:4-5)
 
GOD'S CREATION IS MASSIVE AND OF INFINITE VARIETY. One of the most interesting videos on creation is The City of the Bees (1962) by Moody Science and Dr. Irwin A. Moon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwSkczlAuvY  27.35 minutes – color. I first watched this about 1955, almost 65 years ago, when it was on 16mm movie film. Someone has rescued it and you can now watch it free at the above link. Honeybees have been studied more than any insect and rightly so. Please view this video and then forward the link to your family and friends. You will be amazed at the individual bees and how they function as a hive.

Read Through the Bible in a Year
November 4, 2019 – MONDAY
A.M.  Jeremiah 38-39   P.M.  Titus 2
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Verse to Memorize:
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  (Matthew 4:4) (Copy onto a 3x5 card cut in half.)
 
Song for Today:
Honey in the Rock-(2:59) – (Original Carter Family)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFUm6YedvJQ

This was probably recorded in the mid-1930’s during the hardest part of The Depression. We had a wind-up Victrola that played 78 rpm records. We had a few Carter Family records and we wore them out. We didn’t have Honey In The Rock. This one has a guitar and an autoharp. It was 1950 before I ever saw an autoharp. It is making the higher-pitched sound in this recording. There are several pictures of their home.

They were dirt-poor, Christian farmers, toughing out the Depression. I hunted up this song to go with the link on honeybees. The Carter Family recorded 1927-56. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Family. Their history is worth reading.                                  
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how's your appetite?

11/1/2019

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  ​         How’s Your Appetite?         
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (1Peter 2:1-2)
 
WHEN I WAS TWELVE YEARS OLD, the summer came on and I was drooping around, pushing myself to do the milking and gardening and other farm chores. I ended up in Dr. Mitchell’s office in Crossville, TN. He did the usual things: “Stick out your tongue,” etc. First question: “How’s your appetite?” I hadn’t noticed, but that was a chore, too. He gave me a bottle of “tonic.” (A spoonful in a glass of water was bitter). He gave me a Vitamin B shot and suspected that my thyroid was low (which has to do with metabolism and appetite.) In a few days I was a busy farmer with a good appetite and energy.

THE APOSTLE PETER WROTE: As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:  (1Peter 2:2) The next time Peter wrote a letter he was still urging Christians to grow:  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…(2Peter 3:18)  
 
THE WORD: "DESIRE" IS USED HERE,  and it has to do with appetite. A desire for the milk of the Word of God. Not merely a sense of duty. Desire. Appetite for the milk of the Word of God. When chickens, pigs, calves, horses, or humans get sick, it affects their appetite. Appetite for the Word of God is extremely important for a Christian.
 
JESUS ASKED PETER THREE TIMES IF HE LOVED HIM.and Peter said he did. Jesus said: “Feed my lambs; feed my sheep.” Jesus didn’t tell Peter to catch the first boat and start going all over the world preaching and getting people saved. Peter’s first job was to tend the sheep and feed them well. Does that seem strange?  The whole world was lost and in need of being saved and Jesus told Peter to feed the sheep. Starved sheep won’t be much of a witness to lost people.
 
OF COURSE, TODAY WE HAVE SOME WELL-FED SHEEP that won’t open their mouths to lost people. I say, “well-fed” sheep. That may not be the case. Some sheep get fed and some sheep get entertained.  Entertaining the sheep and feeding the sheep are not the same. Peter learned his lesson. He is concerned about the appetite of new Christians. First things first: milk.
 
PAUL WAS CONCERNED ABOUT GETTING NEW CHRISTIANS FED. He had trouble getting them on a strong diet. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?  (1Corinthians 3:1-3)
 
IN OUR TEXT IN 1PETER 2, Peter told them to first lay aside: malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speaking. This baggage would prevent them from growing, even if they took in the Word of God. If you are not getting much out of your Bible reading, you may want to check up on the baggage.
 
 WE ARE READING ABOUT SUFFERING CHRISTIANS.  Suffering, in the life of a genuine Christian, produces separation from the evil of the world, our own flesh, and the devil. But for that to come to pass we need a good spiritual appetite. Some Christians have the idea that when we are saved and the Holy Spirit moves into our bodies, Christ is in us and we are in Christ, therefore, our job is to be passive and hold steady while the Spirit of God does all the work and we just watch Him
 
OTHERS BELIEVE THAT THEY MUST DO EVERYTHING THEMSELVES, so they spend a lot of time praying for God to get interested in helping them live the Christian life. They are struggling with addictions and the difficulties of life and their answer is to double down and work harder. Both extremes miss the point that we are co-laborers with the Lord. There is a part that the Holy Spirit must do and as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit, there is the part we must do in order for us to live a victorious Christian life.
 
IT'S LIKE RAISING A GARDEN. God makes the seeds, the soil, the rain and He also makes the weeds and grass. A lazy man will not make much of a gardener and a lazy man will not make much of a Christian.  There is much reading and studying of the Word of God and much praying to be done. These things are work and require discipline.
 
BUT, AS WE WORK IN THE WORD OF GOD and as we work in prayer, God begins to grow a garden. The power units of the Word of God are concentrated in the phrases. We should hear, read, study, memorize and meditate in the Word of God. We will never do greater praying than when we pray the Word of God back to the Lord.  The Word builds our faith and fuels our praying.  That is the truth!  The Word of God builds our faith and fuels our praying. I’ve said it twice.  I meant to say it twice.  Let me say it again: The Word of God builds our faith and fuels our praying.
 
IT'S SO IMPORTANT THAT WE GUARD OUR APPETITE for the Word of God and prayer. How do we build an appetite for the Word of God? By hearing the Word of God; by reading the Word of God; by studying the Word of God; by memorizing the Word of God; by meditating in the Word of God. How do we build an appetite for prayer? We build an appetite for prayer by praying. Prayer is talking to God. But, it’s more than that. It’s also HOW we talk to God.
 
Jesus said: After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  (Matthew 6:9-15)
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
November 1, 2019 – FRIDAY
A.M.  Jeremiah 31-32   P.M.  Titus 2
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Verses to Memorize:
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.  My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:…. (Psalm 42:1-2a)
 
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.  (2Corinthians 1:3-4) (Copy on a 3x5 card cut in half.)
 
Song for Today:
Walking Through the Flames – (Men’s Ensemble – Calvary Memorial)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUuOn9FPMRE
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the devil's night

10/30/2019

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        The Devil’s Night…

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
 
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.  (Ephesians 5:11-12)

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  (Romans 13:12)
 
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:  (1 Peter 2:9)
 
FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS; they don’t want to go away. Feelings are stubborn things; they don’ want go away. Another thing about facts and feelings is that they tend to run together so that we can not always tell the difference.
 
SINCE I WAS TEN OR SO, I’ve heard that Halloween is “the devil’s night.” Medlock Hollow, my birthplace, was a sanctuary of a sort. We were isolated and protected from the evils of urban life… except what we, ourselves, imported in. Nobody ever rolled our house with toilet paper. In fact, a roll of that kind of paper would have been a strange thing at our house and especially on our house, a tree, or in the outdoor privy. We didn’t “do” Halloween at Medlock.
 
WE WENT TO SCHOOL AT ALPINE, TN and it was somewhat “progressive.” On the morning after Halloween, at the elementary school, we discovered that the boys’ outdoor privy had been turned up on its side and we would have to scout for our own private place until a crew from the county could make it to Alpine and upright our school privy. Nobody dared to get close to the big square hole in the ground. We knew danger when we saw it. Fall in there and you were a “gon-er.” Finally, some men came, and it was wonderful (!) to see our privy back in its place.
 
ONE OF THE FARMERS DISCOVERED THAT HIS WAGON was on top of his barn. Some boys had removed the wheels and somehow lugged the wagon up on top of the barn and reinstalled the wheels. His big bull of almost a thousand pounds had somehow submitted to strangers and permitted himself to be led to the high school. They broke into the school and led the bull upstairs to the auditorium and tied him to a post.
 
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE HAD NO "BULL EXPERIENCE," I should tell you that a bull can be coaxed up the stairs ten times easier than he can be coaxed down the stairs. I still don’t know how they got that bull own those stairs. Alpine was “progressive” in the sense that it was in step with other places across America that was celebrating “The Devil’s Night:” a night that used fun, mischief, and pranks as an excuse to move into the more devilish forms of wild indulgence that came to be called “The Devil’s Night.”
 
IF INTERESTED, YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT AT WIKIPEDIA:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Night I plugged “Devil’s Night” into Google and in just seconds it registered 65-million hits on the Web. So, my use of “Devil’s Night” is not of my own creation to cast a slur at America’s “fun night.” At least 65-million places on the Web know about: “The Devil’s Night”  and it’s associated with Halloween.
 
FOR US, A LOT CHANGED SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In one day, America dropped everything and went to war. We would never be the same. What the great depression could not do in 12 years, the Japanese did in one day. We woke up! For us, that meant moving 300 miles east to Mountain City, TN. Among other things, I was introduced to Halloween.

NOT "TRICK OR TREAT" BUT SOME JUST PLAIN MEAN STUFF. I heard it called “mischief” and “pranks.” It was a license to go beyond that, into the domain of “vandalism.” Other days you would go to jail, but on Halloween, somehow you got a pass to destroy property and lay burdens on people. The ground floor of Halloween was to soap the windows of the car and/or house.
 
WHEN WE MOVED TO MOUNTAIN CITY, TN IN 1942, I was suddenly a city dude, with running water and electric lights and an inside privy. I also learned that it was “progressive” in its observance of the Devil’s night.
 
IN MOUNTAIN CITY, WE COULD WALK OUT THE FRONT DOOR and see the elementary school and 100 yards further was the high school. We were in the lap of luxury! We were….affluent! (I had never heard of the word, but that was us!)
 
MY UNCLE QUALLS (MY DADDY'S BROTHER) found himself a bride and moved into a house with a tin roof about 200 yards from our house. We also lived about that far from the city jail. The sheriff lived in the jail. We had never been so safe. No rattlesnakes, coons, foxes, or wild cats (we had plenty of them all at Medlock).
 
HALLOWEEN ROLLED AROUND AND SOON AFTER LIGHTS WERE OUT, rocks were raining down on Uncle’s metal roof. Uncle ran out the front door and the boys got away. He latched the screen and left the wood door open. The rocks came down and when he pushed through the screen door, barefooted, there was a paper bag on fire on his porch. He began to stomp the fire(barefooted?) only to discover that the bag was almost half full of fresh cow manure. (All of this in sight of the county jail..!!)
 
THAT ALL PASSED AND HE WENT TO BED but left the front door open and the screen door un-latched so he could rush through the door. He was almost asleep when the gravel on the roof brought him to. He rushed through the house and kicked the screen door with his bare foot only to discover that they had found a railroad crosstie and laid it across the screen door. He must have broken some toes. So much for the affluent society we had moved into. This was a taste of “The Devil’s Night.”
 
THE WAR ENDED AND WE MOVED TO THE HOMESTEADS at Crossville, TN. We had 18 acres, a barn and farm animals, including a prize milk cow that gave four gallons of milk a day when she was fresh. Tennessee had an “open range” law which allowed people to turn their cows loose in the countryside to graze along the roads. It kept the roads clean, saved the State and County money and fed a lot of cows. Every place was responsible to keep their yards fenced and gated to keep cows out of their yards. Halloween came in 1946 and I was twelve.
 
ONE OF THE FAVORITE "TRICKS" OF HALLOWEEN was for a half-dozen boys to lift the rough Oak gate off its hinges and carry the gate a good distance down the road. The farmer would have to get help to carry his gate back and put it back on the hinges. We had our little crew and came to the 3rd gate. (The others were too tight to get off the hinges.) We lifted it off, proud of ourselves. We saw a light flash on the front porch and knew the man had gone inside and we had seen his living room light as he went inside.
 
A MINUTE OR SO AND THE LIGHT FLASHED AGAIN. We were moving along quietly with the gate and heard a metallic click, like the click of a shot gun. We set the gate by the side of the road and took off as fast as we could run. Ka-blaaam!!!  It was indeed a shotgun and the shot scattered along the wire fence beside us. (He didn’t shoot into the road.)
 
THEN, A SECOND KA-BLAAM!!! And more pellets hitting the length of the wire fence. We were hoping it was only a double-barrel and not a pump gun with six shells. We ran and waited. That was all. Just two. It was enough. “Don’t bother his gate next year.”
That was right-much-more than “trick or treat.”
 
FAST-FORWARD to today. Most of the Halloween activity of today is with little kids dressed up in no-telling what. Some with a Halloween theme and many with any kind of a fun-dress-up they can find or buy on the cheap (or maybe not so cheap). Mama or Daddy are with them (and may come in the house with them if they are small) and they know the people where they are going and it’s totally a fun thing, and nobody has had a single thought about being evil; it’s a break in boredom.
 
BUT I MUST SAY THAT WE ARE STILL STUCK WITH THE OVERRIDING THEME of the occult…witches, goblins, super-power from somewhere and it turns us loose at least on the edge of mischief. I don’t know what they are doing in Detroit and Chicago; hunkering down for their lives. They kill several hundred every year, Halloween or not.
 
WE MUST BE CAREFUL IN OUR CHUCHES AND OUR FAMILIES what kind of memories we are installing in our little kids. Does it look like we are endorsing the occult? We are to do everything to the glory of God, and it is the responsibility of every family to do right before God in the raising of children.
 
WE CAN HAVE A HARVEST FESTIVAL AND HAVE JUST AS MUCH FUN. Fun is not necessarily over on the side of the devil. Fun is what we make it and we can have fun to the glory of God as easily as we can honor the devil. You think? There are all kinds of dopey, fun things we can do without getting in bed with the devil. Hope this helps.Ω
 
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
October 30, 2019 – WEDNESDAY
A.M.  Jeremiah 27-28   P.M.  2Timothy 4
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Verses to Memorize:
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;  (Deuteronomy 4:9)

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  (Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Song for Today:
No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus – (Piano- Laura Francis) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5I2GQQExpY

And:
Victory in Jesus (3:25) (1st/2nd/Grade-Calvary Chr. School – Sou. Pines, NC)
                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_2dN5XM114
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the whole counsel of god

10/29/2019

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            All the Counsel of God…   
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God:
 
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
 
 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.  (Acts 20:26-30)

WHEN JESUS WAS RESTORING PETER TO FELLOWSHIP (after denying Jesus three times at His trial) one might think that Jesus would tell Peter to get on the ball about witnessing to people everywhere who needed to hear the Gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ from the dead. (He did tell us all to preach the gospel to every creature.)

BUT JESUS, INSTEAD, TOLD PETER:” if you love me, feed My sheep.” It took me twenty years to get hold of that. God wants the babes in Christ to grow so they can model to the world what a Christian looks like.

WHEN PAUL FINISHES HIS TRAVELING AND PREACHING, and says his goodbye, the last thing he says is to “feed the church of God.” They’re living in an atmosphere of evangelism and spreading the word that the “Promised One” has come, was crucified and raised from the dead. They get that. That’s their message and program.

BUT SOMETHING THEY MAY NOT GET, is the need to proclaim the WHOLE COUNSEL of God. At that time, the need was to explain how the Old Testament was the root out of which there was to come a church built around the CHRIST who had come and then went away into Heaven and would return.

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.  For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.  And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.  (Acts 3:21-23)
 
PLEASE NOTE THAT GOD'S HOLY PROPHETS HAD EXISTED and had been proclaiming God’s message since the world began. There’s no room here for billions of years between the time the world began and the appearance of prophets on the earth.  Adam and Eve  were within a few days of being as old as the earth.

THIS SMALL DETAIL IS PART OF THE MESSAGE PAUL PROCLAIMED (above) and then said he had proclaimed all the counsel of God. The age of the earth is part of the whole counsel of God, according to Paul. There had been prophets proclaiming the message since the beginning of the world, not billions of years later.
 
ALL THE COUNSEL OF GOD (Acts 20:27) “Jesus had commissioned the apostles to teach the disciples to “observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20), and Paul endeavored to do just that in all the churches for which he felt responsible. It is important that each church, especially its leaders, seek to teach its members the whole Word of God, not to concentrate on a few pet doctrines.” (Henry Morris: The New Defender’s Study Bible, page 1680.)
 
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST TAKES UP A VERY SMALL SPACE IN THE BIBLE. It is the centerpiece and axle of the Bible. But the Gospel is not the whole counsel of God. The Lord wants us to know and share the Gospel with everyone we can, and I have been trying to do that since I got saved in the bean market in October, 1943. I urged my 4th grade classmates to go to the meeting until they were tired of hearing it and worked me over a bit at morning recess. I had cussed with them and that was alright. But talking about getting saved was not what they wanted to hear.

TODAY, I STILL UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS MY GOD-ORDAINED DUTY AND PRIVILEGE to open a conversation about eternity and God at Cracker Barrel (or the auto parts store). To the waitress: “May I ask you something? When you were little, did your mother take you to Sunday School? When you were in Sunday School, did you hear about John 3:16? Do you have a Bible at home?” And with that, we are off and running. I’m not very spiritual or the best witness in the world. But every Christian can be a faithful witness.  
 
SO, THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD IS MORE THAN THE GOSPEL AND GETTING SAVED. It is the whole Word of God. The whole counsel of God is the Old Testament and later included the New Testament. After Christ was crucified and raised from the dead, it was about 30 years before any part of the New Testament had been written, probably the book of James. But the first Christians, as they were persecuted and left Jerusalem, preached the Word.
 
THEY PREACHED JESUS CHRIST OUT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  (Acts 8:4) (They were preaching out of the Old Testament; passages they had memorized.)
 
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.  (Acts 20:32) (The “word of his grace” was the Old Testament.)
 
And he (Phillip) arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,  Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.  (The Old Testament)
 
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.  (
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, (Old Testament) and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?  (Acts 8:27-30)
 
And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.  (Acts 8:34-35) Phillip preached Jesus out of the Old Testament.
 
The New Testament is in the Old, contained.    The Old Testament is in the New, explained. God did not swap the Old Testament for the New Testament. He added the New Testament to the Old Testament. Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
October 30, 2019 – WEDNESDAY
A.M.  Jeremiah 27-28   P.M.  2Timothy 4
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Verses to Memorize:
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;  (Deuteronomy 4:9)

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  (Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Song for Today:
Victory in Jesus (3:25) (1st/2nd/Grade-Calvary Chr. School – Sou. Pines, NC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_2dN5XM114
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    Dan Carr is a "retired" pastor, writer, teacher and continues to write at this website. This blog and other articles are e-mailed free to anyone who wants them. Go to: 
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    Dan and Barbara live 
    at Flat Rock, AL between Chattanooga, TN and Huntsville, AL. on Sand Mtn.
    We enjoy gardening, reading, church, family and friends.

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