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noah's ark...

6/30/2019

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                 Noah’s Ark...  
And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.  (Genesis 6:12-13)
 
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.  And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.  (Genesis 6:14-16)
 
SATURDAY (JUNE 29, 2019), TWENTY PEOPLE FROM OUR CHURCH in Flat Rock, AL visited the Ark replica in Townsend, KY, called: “The Ark Encounter.” We spent the night in a local motel and were ready to begin the tour the next morning. The Ark is located on I-75 between Lexington, KY and Cincinnati, OH. Property and construction cost $102 Million. One million guests visited last year. On busy days, between 7,000 and 8,000 people visit the park. Attendance has been growing since the park opened two years ago. The picture above was taken by Julie White. The link below opens a news story. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2018/08/02/kentucky-ark-encounter-visitors-sink-lower-than-projections/878239002/ 
 
MELVIN WHITE, RETIRED LOGGER who pushed me in a wheelchair said: “Dan, was this a bucket experience?” “Yep, this was a bucket experience!”  We had a lot to talk about since he was a logger and I had some sawmilling behind me. The upright timbers were whole trees, at least 24” in diameter. The horizontal beams that rested on top of the uprights were at least that big. There were plenty of big wood braces throughout the structure. I’m sure Noah didn’t use the big threaded iron bolts. He must have used wood pegs. They probably made holes for the pegs with chisels and hammer since there were no augurs at that time. It’s obvious that the Ark was put together with some top-notch engineers and craftsmen. IT…IS…STRONG.!!!!
 
VISITORS ARE SHUTTLED IN BIG BUSES from parking lot to the Ark. We entered the Ark by walking under it, into the entrance. Inside, you go to the next level by walking up sturdy wooden ramps. There are many rooms and cages of various sizes. Clay vessels are shaped to funnel food and water to the cages. Many well-done signs are attached to the walls. There are at least two good-size theatres for viewing videos. The door in the side of the Ark opens onto a ramp and serves as a fire exit.
 
THE OVERALL MESSAGE IS TRUE TO THE BIBLE. Clearly, the Ark was built for Noah and his family and the animals that God sent to the Ark. God had warned: And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.  (Genesis 6:3)
 
 THE METAL TOOLS ARE INTERESTING AND THE MEANS THEY MAY HAVE USED for feeding the animals and keeping the ark clean of animal droppings. Plenty of food in bags and clay jars.
 
THE WORLD AT LARGE DOES NOT LIKE TO TALK ABOUT GENESIS CREATION, about Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, or about a coming day of judgment and the burning of the earth with fire in preparation of a new heaven and earth.
 
THE BIG QUESTION FOR TODAY IS:  “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD'S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.  (Exodus 32:26)
 
MY FRIEND, THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND. You are either on the Lord’s side or you are on the world’s side and the devil’s side. Where do you stand today? Another day is coming. God will have the last word. To read the account of Noah’s Ark and the sin on the earth that caused it (the level of violence) it makes us wonder how that day compares to the wickedness of America.
 
THERE IS NO GREATER VIOLENCE THAN THE DELIBERATE MURDER of a child in the womb. (Tearing the arms and legs off a living, conscious baby is not violence? Sucking the brains out of the skull of a living baby in the womb is not violence?) We should remember why God told Noah to build an ark and why God covered the earth with water and drowned every human being on the earth who was outside of the ark. Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
       July 1, 2018 – MONDAY 
   A.M. Job 21-22   P.M. Acts 10:1-23
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) 
 
A Good Verse to Memorize:
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.  (Genesis 6:13)  (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
  
Song for Today:
Come to Me (5:50) (Dan Forrest & Choir)                               
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi6IZCJx3qA
Slow and beautiful – You may need to adjust the sound and delete and ad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Dad's birthday

6/27/2019

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                  Dad’s Birthday
 
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  (Genesis 2:24)
 
A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.  (Ecclesiastes 7:1)
 
TODAY IS MY FATHER'S 121ST BIRTHDAY: JUNE 28, 1898. He lived just three weeks short of 75 years. Today, I’m remembering those earliest days that shaped my life. His early life is also my foundation. He lived across the creek and went to school at Falling Springs Baptist Church and ate his lunch on one of the flat gravestones. (He showed me which one.) He finished the 8th grade back when the 8th grade was stuffed with a lot of English and practical math. He read well and was good at basic math.
 
THE BUILDING IS STILL THERE AND STILL USED FOR CHURCH SERVICES. He made a profession of faith in Christ there at some point and was baptized in the West Fork River. He always sat in the back of the church so he could get out. He didn’t mingle with the people, much. He didn’t like crowds. He was a one-on-one kind of person.
 
HE WATCHED HIS DADDY FARM AND STRUGGLE WITH A MULE, and being the oldest of seven children, he was fascinated at a sawmill he saw. His mind was made up; no mule; somehow, it would be sawmilling for him. He became an expert sawmill man, with a reputation for high-quality wood products. He had to start small.
 
AT AGE 16, WITH THE HELP OF AN UNCLE, FLOYD SPECK, WHO HAD A DOGWOOD MILL, he bought his own mill on credit and hired his teen-age sister, Stella, to fire the boiler that powered the mill. He borrowed a wagon and team of mules and hauled his Dogwood shuttle blocks to his uncle’s mill 10 miles away at Livingston, TN. His uncle paid him for the shuttle blocks and sold them with his own.
 
WORLD WAR I WAS ON AND THE MILITARY NEEDED DOGWOOD SHUTTLES in the weaving mills that made tents, uniforms, etc. When World War I was over, he left the Dogwood mill shuttles and began sawing lumber for building houses and general construction. There was a strong market for lumber. After a few years 1929 arrived and everything shut down. But by 1938, it looked like the Depression was easing up.
 
WITH A BANK LOAN, DAD OBTAINED A WOOD-FIRED, BOILER-POWERED SAWMILL and a crew of 8 men who slept in a bunkhouse in our back yard. The bunkhouse was made of scrap lumber from the mill. My mother cooked breakfast and supper on a wood-burning stove and packed lunches in lard buckets for the mill crew. But the Depression was not completely over. Markets were not stabilized. The economy dipped again, and the building industry halted.
 
DAD WENT BANKRUPT IN 1939 WITH A YARD OF LUMBER ON HAND that would not sell at any price. He (we) lost our sawmill, truck and car. I was five and had not yet started to school. We were ten years into the big “depression” that had put so many people sleeping in the streets and in the soup lines. To many, finding work of any kind at a dollar-a-day meant food on the table.
 
IT HAD LOOKED LIKE THE DEPRESSION MIGHT BE EASING UP AND THE BANKER was willing to make the loan. But a second wave of tight money stopped the building of new houses and we were stuck with a yard of lumber. The WPA came along building new outside toilets and with their labor and our lumber, we got a brand-new outside toilet. So did my grandpa that lived down hill from us.
 
THE BANKER THAT CAME FOR THE SAWMILL, truck and car was crippled from polio and he and I had a little talk while his men were loading up the sawmill. He was sitting in his car with his feet and crutches resting on the ground. He seemed to be such a nice man. Pretty soon he reached in his pocket and gave me a nickel. That was nice! I had never had my own nickel before. I didn’t know he was there to haul away all “our” stuff. (It was his stuff.)
 
AFTER THEY WERE ALL GONE  and I realized what had happened, I took the nickel out of my pocket and looked at it. I didn’t want his ol’ nickel! I suppose I was the only one in the house that had a nickel. But I didn’t know what to do with it. A nickel was too much to throw away. I don’t remember what I did with it.

I DO REMEMBER THAT ON A WARM SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1941, that our battery-powered radio told of an awesome air attack on Pearl Harbor. A winter front was moving in and we spent the afternoon hauling wood on my wagon to the kitchen and living room.  We worked a while and then listened to the news to catch up on what was happening. The short of the story is that:
 
WE MOVED AWAY AND LEFT STACKS OF LUMBER TO ROT. Dad was through cutting lumber. He switched back into cutting Dogwood shuttles through partnership with a company in Greensboro, NC. As America went to war, everything changed. Suddenly the Depression was over, and the nation geared up to fight a world war with Japan, Germany, and Italy.
 
AGAIN, THE MILITARY NEEDED TENTS, TARPS, UNIFORMS, PARACHUTES, jeans and coats for factory workers. Women pouring into factories and offices needing new clothing. The clothing and tent industry required a steady stream of Dogwood shuttle blocks. Dogwood mills became a priority and its workers were deferred from military service to produce shuttles. You might say that all of that took place in one day, December 7, 1941. Everything changed that day. It would ration gasoline, tires, sugar, lard, and new cars and trucks (which were no longer made) and the existing new cars and trucks were moved into warehouses and sold slowly with government permits.)
 
WHEN I THINK ABOUT DAD'S BIRTHDAY, this is what my memory rushes to. Happy Birthday, Dad! I suppose they have birthdays in Heaven. We shall see. My dad’s favorite song was “Keep on the Sunny Side,” by the Carter Family. Ω
 
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 June 28, 2018 – FRIDAY 
 A.M. Job 10-12   P.M. Acts 8:1-25
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
  
A Good Verse to Memorize:
And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?  (Luke 24:31-32) (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 
 Song for Today:
Keep on the Sunny Side (2:53) (Carter Family)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbmQQ4RfzVE                              
 You may need to adjust the sound and delete and ad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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prayer and ministry of the word

6/26/2019

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    Prayer and Ministry of the Word

Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
 
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.  (Acts 6:2-4)
 
THE BOOK OF ACTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT is listed as “The Acts of the Apostles.” But a good number of Bible students prefer to call it: “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” In 1895 A. T. Pierson wrote a book by that title. When I wrote my friend, Dr. Bill Compton, last year, about an issue in the Book of Acts, he immediately referred me to A.T. Pierson’s book as the best book on the Book of Acts.
 
IT WAS HIS LAST BOOK RECOMMENDATION TO ME before the Lord called him home. I found the book on Amazon Books and worked my way through it, marking it in many places. I commend the book to anyone interested in enriching your mind with the Book of Acts, alongside reading the book of Acts from your Bible.
 
THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21. But all of it is not equally enjoyable to read nor equally useful to us average folks. I have noticed that for some Christians there seems to be a “hands-off” stigma hanging over the book of Acts as though it is somehow a dangerous book or an impractical book. But we need to remind ourselves that God put all the books into the Bible for His own reason: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2Timothy 3:16)
 
I LIKE TO READ THROUGH THE BOOK ACTS ONCE A YEAR to remind myself of the real framework of the first Christians. The Day of Pentecost occurred only one time, but the pattern of witnessing for Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit is timeless. If we would obey the Lord in service to Him, we must do it in His power and at His direction. We can do nothing for God in the weak power of human flesh. We get to help the Lord a bit, but salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). Salvation is not of God’s helper-servants.
 
OUR TEXT TODAY IS ABOUT THE APPOINTING OF DEACONS in the church at Jerusalem. This would give better service to those who needed food from sharing Christians, and it would enable the twelve apostles to carry out their main ministry: prayer and the ministry of the Word.
 
ALL CHRISTIANS ARE APPOINTED O ENGAGE IN PRAYER AND THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD, but not in the sense that the Apostles were commissioned, and not to the degree that the Apostles were involved. But this Bible occasion shows that before there can be effective communication of the Gospel, there must be time spent in the Word of God and in prayer.
 
WHEN I WAS SAVED IN OCTOBER 1943, I WAS NINE YEARS OLD and began working on my school buddies the next day. We don’t need a Bible school diploma to be a witness. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.  (1 John 1:3)

I PROBABLY DIDN'T GO ABOUT I THE RIGHT WAY because after 2-3 days of my asking them to go to the meeting, they put me on the ground at morning recess and demanded that I pray. So, I asked the Lord to “get these s.o.b.’s off of me.” Not good. I was surprised that they didn’t want to hear about God and were not glad that I had gotten saved. Everybody will not be glad you are a Christian. Everybody will not want to listen to your appeal to them to know the Lord. Just keep at it.
 
DECIDING TO COMMIT ONESELF TO PRAYER AND THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD can be quick and decisive. It’s a definite point in time and a definite act of one’s heart and mind. Otherwise, it probably is not going to happen. Oh, nobody in the church is against it. It’s just that we are not really for it unless someone else is going to do it. It can be as simple as giving out good, well-written Gospel tracts. Or, it can be more involved as in opening the Bible and showing someone how to be saved. It can be listening to someone unburden their heart and praying with them.
 
IT CAN BE SOWING THE SEED, OR WATERING THE SEED, OR HARVESTING THE SEED when it has borne fruit.  There is such a thing as deciding to give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. The Apostles were already engaged in that but were hindered in having to carry groceries to some of the neediest people in the church. It was a large congregation and many people needed help. Having appointed church deacons would lift that burden from them. But what the apostles were doing in a concentrated manner, individuals were doing as they encountered individuals during the day.
 
As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  (Acts 8:3-4)   What would God have you do? Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 June 27, 2018 – THURSDAY 
 A.M. Job 10-12   P.M. Acts 8:1-25
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
A Good Verse to Memorize:
And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?  (Luke 24:31-32) (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.) 
 
Song for Today:
Showers of Blessing (2:27) (Gaither Group)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrDwO0TQWjM
 Give it a little time – You may need to adjust the sound.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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preach the word

6/25/2019

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       Preach the Word
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:2-4) Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  (Acts 8:4)
 
“PREACH" OCCURS 50 TIMES IN THE KING JAMES BIBLE. In 2 Timothy 4:2-4 it means to proclaim as a public herald; one who travels through the streets calling out an announcement. But in Acts 8:4, “preach” means to evangelize or communicate more on a personal basis.
 
WIERSBE COMMENTS: “In Paul’s day, a ruler had a special herald who made announcements to the people. He was commissioned by the ruler to make his announcements in a loud, clear voice so everyone could hear. He was not an ambassador with the privilege of negotiating; he was a messenger with a proclamation to be heard and heeded. Not to heed the ruler’s messenger was serious; to abuse the messenger was even worse.

“TIMOTHY WAS TO HERALD GOD'S WORD WITH THE AUTHORITY OF HEAVEN BEHIND HIM. The Word of God is what both sinners and saints need. It is a pity that many churches have substituted other things for the preaching of the Word, things that may be good in their place, but that are bad when they replace the proclamation of the Word. In my own pastoral ministry, I have seen what the preaching of the Word can do in churches and in individual lives; and I affirm that nothing can take its place.

“TIMOTHY SHOULD BE DILIGENT AND ALERT to use every opportunity to preach the Word, when it is favorable and even when it is not favorable. It is easy to make excuses when we ought to be making opportunities. Paul himself always found an opportunity to share the Word, whether it was in the temple courts, on a stormy sea, or even in prison. “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap” (Ecc_11:4). Stop making excuses and get to work!

“PREACHING MUST BE MARKED BY THREE ELEMENTS: conviction, warning, and appeal (“reprove, rebuke, exhort”). To quote an old rule of preachers, “He should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” If there is conviction but no remedy, we add to people’s burdens. And if we encourage those who ought to be rebuked, we are assisting them to sin. Biblical preaching must be balanced.” (Wiersbe)

BEYOND THE PUBLIC PROCLAMATION KIND OF PREACHING by one who is gifted and called of God to the task, there is the one-on-one kind of preaching that must be done by individuals who encounter individuals as they go through the day, throughout the world. Much preaching can be done privately by the use of John 3:16 combined with the questions: 1. Do you need to be saved? 2. Do you want to be saved? 3. Do you know how to be saved? 4. Would you like for me to pray with you? Another word for private preaching is “witnessing.”

WHEN WE WAKE UP IN THE MORNING, we should begin the day with thanksgiving to God for rest through the night and the blessing of a new day. Then, ask the Lord to show you someone to greet with John 3:16. That’s not the only verse, but it is a good one. If you have committed your day to the Lord, He may give you another verse or give you another statement to share with those you meet during the day.

JESUS DID A LOT OF PUBLIC PREACHING AND HE ALSO TALKED TO INDIVIDUALS such as the woman by the well in Samaria (John 4). We need to be about the Master’s business of sharing, “preaching” the Word with people we meet during the day. They are in Walmart, at the Post Office. It doesn’t take long to share a good tract with someone at the cash register and ask them to read it. They are those strangers that call you, trying to sell you something. “May I ask you something? Do you have a Bible in your house?” “Do you know the best-loved Bible verse in the whole world for the last two thousand years?” And then quote John 3:16. That is seed-sowing and it is a vital part of “preaching.”
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
June 25, 2019 – TUESDAY
A.M.  Job 4-6   P.M. Acts 7:20-46
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Memory Verse:
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  (Psalm 119:11)
    
Song for Today:
The Loveliness of Christ (4:34) (Solo: Jacob Francis)
https://www.facebook.com/100009410046480/videos/2584280931895550/
                                  This is new to me…a beautiful song!
                       Wait a few seconds. You may have to wait for an ad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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the bible...

6/23/2019

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The Bible…

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
 
WHEN I WAS 17, FINISHING HIGH SCHOOL and working in the afternoons in my father’s sawmill in Stevenson, Alabama, all the area Baptist churches had an “M Night” at the largest church auditorium in Bridgeport, Alabama.” “M Night” was short for: “Mass Youth Meeting.” The auditorium was packed. The special speaker made this statement: “The Bible is a sufficient guide for faith and practice.”  Somehow, I knew I had just heard one of the greatest statements I had ever heard or might ever hear again in my lifetime.
 
I BEGAN GOING TO CHURCH IN MY MOTHER'S WOMB IN 1934 and I had never heard that statement before. It needs to be said every Sunday morning in every Bible-believing church in America! The preacher said it in 1951, because many churches were getting weak on it. They weakened first in the first 11 chapters of  Genesis. Then, in just ten short years, the following happened.
 
IN 1961, THE BROADMAN PRESS, THE PUBLISHING ARM of the Southern Baptist Convention, published a book, authored by Ralph Elliott, the chair of the Old Testament Department that put the Southern Baptist Convention in an uproar. In summary, Dr. Elliott’s book declared that Genesis was filled with myth and was not a reliable book of history, that Adam and Eve were not historical figures and that the Genesis flood was not world-wide but local; that Abraham did not actually hear the voice of God commanding him to sacrifice Isaac. Here is a good article that goes into more detail.

http://www.bpnews.net/41095/1961-controversy-over-the-message-of-genesis-gets-baptist-historians-reflections
 
THIS WEEK, I WANT TO FOCUS ON THE BIBLE and point out its importance in the Christian faith. One of the best statements about the Bible is found inside the cover of Gideon Bibles placed in motels and doctors’ offices. I’m reproducing their statement in full because it is very good. The Gideon statement will take up the rest of Morning Minute for today.
 
“THE BIBLE CONTAINS THE MIND OF GOD, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable.

“READ IT TO BE WISE, BELIEVE IT TO BE SAFE, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you.

“IT IS THE TRAVELER'S MAP, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword and the Christian’s charter. Here too, Heaven is opened and the gates of Hell disclosed.
“Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully.  It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure.

“IT IS GIVEN YOU IN LIFE, WILL BE OPENED AT THE JUDGMENT, and be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.

THE GIDEON STATEMENT CONTINUES: “While these words are not part of the sacred text of the Bible, the thoughts expressed here reflect all that the Bible reveals about man and man’s relationship to God.

“THE GIDEONS INTERNATIONAL BELIEVES IN THE INERRANCY OF THE WORD OF GOD, holding that it’s the true story of a Savior, Jesus Christ, who was God’s Son, born of a virgin. And who died sinless on a cross as a sacrifice for the sin of all who put their faith in Him. We believe He arose again from the grave, conquering death. He is, in fact, the only One through whom mankind can acquire redemption and have relationship with God the Father.

“WE PRAY THAT IF YOU'VE NOT RECEIVED CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR, you’ll consider now the eternal importance of this decision. It is in fact, the most important decision you’ll ever make because it is the one and only decision that will determine where you’ll spend your eternity, in heaven or in hell.” (End quotation from Gideon Bible.)
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 June 24, 2019 – MONDAY
A.M.  Jude 1-3   P.M. Acts 7:1-19
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Memory Verse:
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  (Psalm 119:11)
    
Song for Today:
The Holy Hills of Heaven Call Me (5:49) (Gaither Group)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXrL-Z44KHc&list=RD2UnFNHWJ0tA&index=11
                                                     Wait a few seconds. You may have to wait for an ad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
      
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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our moral authority

6/19/2019

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Our Moral Authority

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  (Genesis 3:1)
 
GOD GAVE ADAM AND EVE A MORAL CODE to Live By: You can eat any other fruit in the garden except the forbidden fruit. But Satan came along and ruined Eve with one question: “Hath God said?” It worked well. Adam bought it. The whole world has been buying it ever since. It’s not good enough that God said “don’t!”
 
WE CAN ALWAYS THINK OF A GOOD REASON to ignore God even if He said “don’t!” God told them that if they ate from that tree, they would die. They did it anyway. And they died. God made us with a will of our own and we use it to think and act independent of God. That’s why we die. (Romans 5:12) Wherefore, as by one-man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
 
EVERYONE HAS SOME FORM OF MORAL AUTHORITY we use in making moral decisions. Hitler killed six million Jews and thought himself to be a moral man. He used Jewish ashes to fertilize rose gardens and used the skins of his victims to make lamp shades. Wouldn’t it be alright for him to do that as long as he was sincere? Anything we can think up is ok if we are sincere about it? Is that what makes it alright? Is that a safe, true moral authority?
 
HE WOULD GET RID OF AN "INFERIOR RACE OF PEOPLE" and build a German empire that would last as long as the Roman Empire: “The Third Reich” he called it…the third thousand years. He assembled architects and poured an enormous amount of concrete so the highways and buildings would last a long time.
 
CBS NEWS REPORTED THIS STORY TODAY: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cynthia-hoffman-murder-alaska-teens-allegedly-killed-friend-after-man-offered-9-million-to-record-rape-and-murder/   This was a heinous crime! Today this story floated down into my iPhone while I was thinking about this article and then in the evening news. What made this wrong? “Well, anybody knows this is wrong!” Apparently, these teenagers thought it was ok enough to do it. Someone says: Conscience! That’s a good word. Whose conscience? The conscience of the killers?
 
SINCE 1973 ABOUT SIXTY MILLION AMERICAN MOTHERS have signed a piece of paper, a death warrant for the death of their unborn baby. A small percentage of them related to the life of the mother or rape or incest. The rest of them were to get rid of inconvenient human life. That’s why Hitler killed six million Jews: to be rid of inconvenient human life. Before they killed six million Jews, they killed over 300,000 disabled Germans. “Useless bread eaters,” he called them.
 
WHAT MAKES SOMETHING RIGHT OR WRONG? What your family taught you? What the gang you ran with taught you? The philosophy books you have read? A college professor?
 
EVERY FEW DAYS IN AMERICA SOMEONE WALKS INTO A SCHOOL OR CHURCH or workplace and starts killing people. In London the murder rate with knives is now on a par with New York City and its guns. It’s coming out of their personal moral authority.
 
WHEN ISRAEL TURNED THEIR BACKS ON GOD, we have this: (Judges 21:25) In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
 
But they had been taught: (Matthew 4:4) But he (Jesus) 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. (Quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3)
 
I WAS TAUGHT IN MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS THAT THE BIBLE IS "A SUFFICIENT GUIDE for faith and practice.” I believed it then and I still believe it. If the Bible is not the dominant influence in your life, you are set up to be victimized by the devil. There are a lot of unchurched people who have been greatly influenced by the Bible and Bible-believing churches. A lot of people who never darken the door of a church have been shaped by the church indirectly: by their mother or father or their schoolteacher who had a decent, Bible-related moral authority upbringing.
 
BUT AS TIME MARCHES ON, THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE IS LEACHING OUT of the families and churches and communities. As the Bible lost influence in our nation, as a nation we have lost our conscience and have presided over the slaughter of sixty million children in the womb. The erroneous decision by the Supreme Court would have been short-lived had the lost influence of the Bible had not already taken place. Individuals, families, churches, schools, the nation: they all have an overriding moral authority.
 
THE FAMILY HAS DESTABILIZED AND NOW WE HAVE A NEW THING, a mass confusion of whether we are male or female and the enabling lie that we were born all wishy-washy. Not so. If a science lab checks the DNA in your saliva, you will be 100% male or female. Johns Hopkins University/Hospital has done a lot of research on this and the science is solid. Our hormones may get out of balance and make us a little flaky and we may get 30 different kinds of mental disorders from chemical imbalances and we get confused.

BE ASSURED THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TRANS-GENDER. You may find a mutilated male or a mutilated female, but their DNA will not change at the hands of a surgeon. The sooner we become honest about the science of male and female, the sooner everyone can get over the great pretending and tragic surgeries that are destroying people.                         Please watch this not-very-long-video – well done. (Email version only)
 
AS THE BIBLE IS REPLACED, IT BECOME "EVERY MAN DOES THAT WHICH IS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES." The cement comes out of the brick wall and what you have left is a stack of unstable bricks that will fall in a heap from the wind. The Bible is very important to the survival of America as we know it. STICK WITH THE BIBLE. STICK WITH PROVEN SCIENCE.
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 June 20, 2019 – THURSDAY
A.M.  Nehemiah 12-13   P.M. Acts 4:23-37
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Memory Verse:
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  (Psalm 119:11)
    
Songs for Today:
Thy Word Have I Hid -  (Cedarmont Kids) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UuMu1tzzN4
 Near to the heart of God (Mennonite choir)                       
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UnFNHWJ0tA&list=RD2UnFNHWJ0tA           
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is your bible old hat?

6/16/2019

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      Is Your Bible Old Hat?
My people are destroyed for lack of kn
owledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children (Hosea 4:6)
 
THE BOOK OF HOSEA SHOULD BE READ and devoured by everyone. One of the biggest dangers in living the Christian life is drifting away from our first love and a weakening down of the Word of God in our hearts.
 
THE APOSTLE JOHN INCLUDES THAT SUBJECT in the book of Revelation: Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.  (Revelation 2:4) If we drift away from our first love, we have lost our vital immunity against sin and it will be easier to sin against God.
 
ISAIAH COMPLAINED THAT ISRAEL HAD A HEART PROBLEM, an attitude problem: Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:  (Isaiah 29:13)

THEY HAD AN ARTIFICIAL FEAR OF GOD. Their so-called “fear of God” was not an inward thing. Their “fear of God” was a set of words that talked about the fear of God. These words were taught to them by human teachers. Their condition was fake; a smokescreen.
 
McGEE COMMENTS: “If you had lived in Isaiah's day, you would have wondered what Isaiah really meant, because the people were going to the temple. It was crowded—anytime a sacrifice was offered you would find people there. There was a place for the men, a court for the women, and a court for the Gentiles. Why was God finding fault with these people?

“THEY WERE ALL COMING TO CHURCH, but they went through all of the ritual with their mouths. It was as if they could say the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, but it did not mean anything to them. They did not believe what they were saying; they did not accept God's Word. God said that their hearts were far from Him. That is the reason He judged them, and that is the reason He is going to judge us today.”

JESUS TALKED ABOUT THE WORDS OF ISAIAH: Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,  This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:7-9)

"IN HOSEA'S DAY THERE A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD OF GOD. My friend, if you are a Christian, the minute you get away from the Word of God, you are doomed to failure in the Christian life. Regardless of the number of conferences or seminars you attend that tell you how to be a success in your home, in your business, and in your social life, you will be a failure. This book makes it crystal-clear that we do not live the Christian life by these little gimmicks and methods, but by a personal knowledge of the Word of God. This is the reason I am concerned with teaching the Word of God—and the reason I teach even the Book of Hosea. People are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

"SEEING THOU HAST FORGOTTEN THE LAW OF THY GOD, I will also forget thy children." God says to the people of this nation, "I will forget you, because you have forgotten Me." Because they have gone through a long, sordid history of departing from the Lord, they have now come to the time of judgment. God has proved His case against these people; in the beginning of the chapter He enumerated their sins—they have broken the Ten Commandments. Therefore, He hands down His decision that He is going to judge them.” (McGee-Abbreviated).

THE VERSES AND COMMENTARY ABOVE are offensive to people who have pushed God away. I read this for the first time when I was about 19. Truth is, I skimmed through it because I was hurrying to get through with it…so I could close the Bible and do something else I wanted to do a lot more than I wanted to read the Bible. When the heart is cold, the Bible can be a dead book…even to a Christian. But, this verse in Hosea grabbed my back bumper and stopped me in my tracks!

TO ME, IT SEEMED UNFAIR THAT GOD WOULD ALLOW HIS PEOPLE to be destroyed just because they didn’t know some things. But after I read it several times, I saw that I had misread it. That’s the problem with half-hearted speed reading of the Word of God. You may not get it. It wasn’t that they simply didn’t know something, but that they were actively rejecting the word of God. They were about as deep as a saucer. They didn’t know. They didn’t want to know. They had no intention of knowing.

THEY WERE RESISTING AND REJECTING EVERY EFFORT GOD WAS MAKING to help them know they were going to be destroyed, and why. Some people have a Bible in the house and a pile magazines on top of it so something else will always be read first and the Bible will never be found under the stack…is that going on at your house? It’s dangerous to join up with the pack of rebels of Hosea 4:6 who were bored with the Word of God.

WHEN GOD SAYS SOMETHING WILL DESTROY YOU, IT MAKES GOOD SENSE to pay attention to it. A lot of people who call themselves Christian are playing a game with God in their house. They are broad-minded, progressive…and busy! Walking under the shadow of the Almighty is serious business and ought not to be neglected.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.  (Psalm 91:1-2)

NO ONE LOVES YOU LIKE GOD. No one will ever love you like God loves you. He wants you to love Him enough to seek His face and walk with Him and obey Him…with all your heart. Ω


 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 June 17, 2019 – MONDAY
A.M.  Ezra 6-8   P.M. John 21
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Memory Verse:
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  (Psalm 119:11)
    
Songs for Today:
Thy Word Have I Hid -  (Cedarmont Kids) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UuMu1tzzN4
                   
Near to the heart of God (Mennonite choir)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UnFNHWJ0tA&list=RD2UnFNHWJ0tA           
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my daddy the sawmiller

6/13/2019

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​                    My Daddy the Saw-Miller     
And he (John the Baptist) shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.  (Luke 1:17)
 
THIS SUNDAY IS "FATHER'S DAY" in the United States. It is a day to pay tribute to our fathers, living and dead, who occupy such an important place in our lives. I always think of the old Jewish priest, Zacharias, who became a father in his old age and how important he was to the nation of Israel.
 
ZACHARIAH, THE PRIEST, AND ELIZABETH were now too old to have a child, so they thought, but God had other plans. He and Elizabeth were going to have a special child, a preacher with the power of the prophet Elijah. His powerful preaching would prepare the hearts of the people for the coming of the promised Jewish Messiah.
 
ONE SPECIAL FEATURE OF HIS PREACHING was that it would turn the hearts of the fathers toward their children. That seems to be a need in every generation. Any nation that has weak fathers is going to be afflicted with moral weakness. The moral decline of America is largely the result of weak fathers who have not modeled the Word of God for their children.
 
FACEBOOK IS ALWAYS FILLED WITH PICTURES OF FATHERS and words of affection and appreciation and we scan through the pictures and comments and enjoy it very much!
I thought it would be good if I join in the recall of fathers and share some memories of my father in Morning Minute.
 
THE PICTURE IS OF MY FATHER and me in 1942 at my dad’s Dogwood mill in Mountain City, TN. I know my mother didn’t take this picture because my collar is too messed up. My dad was forty-four, I was eight and our nation was entering World War II at full speed. One of the highlights of our private life was my going with him on trips. I sat in his lap and steered the car. Mile after mile. He always trusted me to do stuff.
 
Dad professed to be a Christian at that time but was more of a token church attender. He got that settled a few years later. My brother was ten years older and I was “the baby” so I got a lot of attention and more coddling than my brother. My dad was a go-getter in his sawmilling. His products had to be “right.” He bought his first Dogwood mill when he was sixteen and hired his sister, Stella, to fire the boiler that powered the mill. He later had lumber mills, too. But the Great Depression stopped all building and he went bankrupt with a yard full of lumber on hand.
 
That was the last lumber he cut and switched over to Dogwood and Hickory products for the weaving industry, tool handles, skis. The U.S. military was desperate to produce uniforms, tents, parachutes, etc. and the weaving industry depended on dogwood sawmills to produce weaving shuttles and hickory mills to make the batting (picker) sticks for the shuttles.
 
My dad never laid his hand on me in discipline. His sternest words were: “Well, I’d be ashamed!” My mother was a little more emphatic with a peach tree switch. Dad (and Mother) finished the eighth grade back when the eighth grade was full of useful stuff. He was good with a pencil.
 
He realized that in addition to a good sawmill, he needed a good typewriter for correspondence with the mills that finished his Dogwood products. My earliest memories are his new 1935 Royal typewriter and Dad typing with his two fingers. Not bad! He had a pen and a bottle of ink for signing his letters. He sold many truckloads of products with that typewriter; New Hampshire, New York, Greensboro, NC. After the war, he sold products to London and other European countries…with that Royal Typewriter.
 
He saw my interest in the typewriter and when I was five, he turned a chair around and let me stand on my knees and type with two fingers. I was learning my letters off the baking powder and lard cans in the kitchen and learned to spell my name. So, I began typing my name at five. I still have the typewriter and sometimes type Scripture memory cards on it. There’s a company that makes new typewriters and ribbons for the typewriters of the 30’s. I taped the address on the side of the typewriter. When the original cover came apart, he had a heavy leather cover made for it and it’s still in good shape.
 
Dad loved to walk around on the little farm at Crossville, TN, at the Homesteads. But he never put his hands in the dirt or use a hoe or milk a cow or goat or feed a pig or gather eggs. That was my mother’s domain, and mine after I reached twelve.
 
We had a smoke house that dad had repaired, poured a concrete floor, and made it into his office. He loved the Chuck Wagon Gang and had a collection of their records he played in his office. When I was grown and would visit, we always went to his office and he played the Chuck Wagon Gang and the Carter Family.
 
He visited us one time but didn’t spend the night. He was big on luring us to his house and he always wanted to give me some gas money because he didn’t visit us. So, that’s the way we did it.
 
I didn’t get it all together until Dad was gone and I slowly reassembled it into one big picture. He had a drive and determination that few men had. He didn’t know it couldn’t be done. He loved his family. I watched him grow closer to the Lord in his last years. I wouldn’t trade him for any other dad. Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
June 14, 2019 – FRIDAY
A.M.  Ezra 6-8   P.M. John 21
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Memory Verses:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.  (Psalm 33:12-13)
            
 Song for Today:
Precious Memories (5:56) (Jim Hill - Gaither Group)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP05xuYv708
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the christian tongue

6/12/2019

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                The Christian Tongue…      
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:  (Ephesians 4:29-31)

OUR MOUTH, OUR TONGUE, is where we live. Notice that “corrupt communication” comes just before “grieve not the holy Spirit of God.”

DOES ANYTHING CAUSE MORE TROUBLE AMONG PEOPLE THAN THE MOUTH? And, when we become Christians, an uncontrolled mouth and tongue is even more out of place. Jesus always had control of His tongue, even when He was standing on trial for His life before the Roman Governor, Pilate. The High Priest asked Jesus if He had nothing to say. Then, Pilate joined the priest: And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee.  (Mark 15:4)

I’M AFRAID I WOULD HAVE LOST IT. My temper is not in my closet. My temper is in my tongue! It’s a given that, “your dirt is dirtier than my dirt.” “Your words are worse than my words.” We know that alcohol and drugs break up a lot of homes, but I have longed believed that an unruly tongue has broken up more homes than alcohol. Since the beginning of the human race, mankind has struggled to live with his tongue and especially the tongues of those around him. A lot of people have met an early death because of somebody’s unruly tongue.
 
WHEN I WAS LOOKING FOR A PICTURE FOR THIS ARTICLE on Google Images, it took me a long while to find what I was looking for. At least 90% of Google’s pictures of mouths are of women. I couldn’t figure that out. (I probably should not have mentioned it.) It is true that men tend to hold it in and won’t talk to their wives and it drives their wives up a wall. But here is the picture of a man, clean-shaven, in the act of talking. You can see intensity in the shape of his mouth. He’s not mumbling. He’s not whispering! (He may be preaching?)

IN MY TEENS, I found this verse that has blessed me many times: A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.  (Proverbs 25:11) And this verse: The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary:…  (Isaiah 50:4a)
 
BUT, HOW OFTEN HAVE I SAID THINGS, that before they were out of my mouth, I knew it was a raw egg in the floor? You remember how it feels for that one split second when you see the egg roll off the cabinet and the next stop is the floor? It’s not a cooked egg that lands with a thud. It’s a raw egg that lands with a splat! Sometimes words are like that.

“I DIDN'T MEAN THAT!" But you said it. You just blurted it out. It’s a raw egg on the floor. Jesus’ half-brother, James, was nick-named “Camel Knee James” because he prayed so much he had callouses on his knees like a camel. Type in “camel knee James” on Google and see how many responses you get. I did it and got back 15,400,000 responses in one second. (Fifteen million, four hundred thousand.) This James wrote: For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.  (James 3:2)

DO YOU SEE WHAT THIS MAN IS SAYING? He had noticed that many things offended people in his day. But the hardest thing was the use of the tongue…mouth management. It really bothered him. He continued:

Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.  Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
 
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
 
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:  But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.  (James 3:3-8)

THE PSALMIST COMMENTED ON THE PEOPLE OF HIS DAY: …Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?  (Psalm 12:4)

Is there any greater need in Christian testimony than a dedicated, Christian tongue? Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
June 13, 2019 – THURSDAY
A.M.  Ezra 3-5   P.M. John 20
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
 
Great Memory Verses:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.  (Psalm 33:12-13)
            
Song for Today:
There Is a Fountain (4:39) (Gaither Group)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PasK3ZFAOPE
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two mules and a pile of dirt...

6/10/2019

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        Two Mules and a Pile of Dirt…   
And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD. (2 Kings 5:17)
 
READING THE BIBLE AT A RAPID PACE has its place but not in these verses. “We can’t dig taters while we’re running through the garden.” Let’s review the story.

NAAMAN, THE TOP MILITARY GENERAL OF ASSYRIA, (100 miles or so northeast of Israel) has come to Israel on the strength of the testimony of a little captive slave girl in his house, stolen from her Jewish home somewhere along the northern border of Israel.  This little girl had the noble soul of a queen and loved him enough to tell his wife about a prophet of God in Israel that could heal his leprosy. Naaman was marked for a slow and painful death that had no respect for his greatness in perhaps the strongest nation on earth at the time.

HE GOES TO ISRAEL AND GETS A GENUINE PUT-DOWN FROM THE PROPHET OF GOD who wouldn’t even come to the front door of his house to greet this noble Assyrian general. He is told to go and “wash” in the muddy river of Jordan, dip himself under the water seven times and he would be healed.

THE JORDAN RIVER WAS MUDDY, but he had to get God’s help on God’s terms. God will have nothing to do with a proud man. Naaman’s pride was as bad as his leprosy. He finally humbles his heart and at the advice of his servants, obeys the stern old prophet.

NAAMAN IS HEALED ON THE SPOT! HEALED IN THE MUDDY RIVER!  Now, he doesn’t know what to do. He is a new man! He is full of joy! He wants to give something to the old prophet. His “sons of the prophets” could certainly use the money to buy food and clothing. But Elisha won’t have it. He will not have a high-level Assyrian thinking he can “buy God.”

NAAMAN THINKS ABOUT TOMORROW. “An altar!” “I’ve got to have some holy ground! This old prophet lives on holy ground. I’ve got to have some holy ground from the prophet’s house!” If he couldn’t live in Israel and pray to Israel’s God from the land of Israel, he would take a little pile of Israel’s dirt with him. He could build a box around it; and make an altar he could see, or he could scatter the dirt inside a circle and kneel on that dirt.

LET'S LOOK AT SOMETHING. God called on Moses and got his attention with a burning bush that kept on burning. When Moses came over to check it out, the bush talked to him!
And he (God) said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.  (Exodus 3:5)

LATER WHEN MOSES WAS DEAD AND JOSHUA HAD TAKEN HIS PLACE and was about to invade the Promised Land, a stranger showed up and introduced himself as the new “Captain of the LORD”S host.”  And he added immediately: Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.  (Joshua 5:15)

JOSHUA MUST HAVE AGREED THAT IT WAS HOLY GROUND or else he would not have taken off his shoes. Joshua was not a kindergarten student! He was a seasoned warrior and trained for many years by old Moses and had a depth of knowledge of God that few men had. He knew enough about the holy ground thing to immediately take off his shoes! Some people might write this off as too silly to be serious about it. “

NO HOLY GROUND? Well, we don’t worship the ground we revere but if God met you on a certain spot, you’re going to think more of that spot than any other place on earth. I still remember the spot where God met with me in the bean market in October 1943. The bean market has been gone 50 years, but the holy ground is still in my mind and heart. We would do well to have some holy ground.

NAAMAN WOULD SERVE NO OTHER GOD BUT HE GOD OF ISRAEL. But he had to go home to Damascus (the oldest continually inhabited city in the world) and pick up where he left off. He could not force the King of Assyria to worship the God of Israel. He would have to go with his boss and put up a front about the god of Damascus: Hadad-Rimmon, a god of rain and thunder, shortened to Rimmon.

IT WAS HIS DUTY O GO WITH THE KING AND OTHER OFFICIALS OF STATE. Naaman was a new believer with no background and was not ready to risk his life by balking against the King. He was not like Daniel and his three friends (Daniel. 3:12) who refused to bow to the gods of Babylon. He was not as responsible as an Israelite trained in the Word of God.

GOD TOLD ISRAEL WHAT TO DO ABOUT BUILDING ALTARS. Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.  And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.  (Exodus 20:23-25)

JOSHUA REMEMBERED THIS WHEN HE LATER BUILT AN ALTAR: Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal, As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.  (Joshua 8:30-31)

THE ROCK THAT FOLLOWED ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS WAS CHRIST (1Corinthians.10:4). He was the stone which the builders rejected. We must have the Christ of the Bible, the Rock of the Bible. That rock must remain unchanged, unaltered to suit ourselves.
 
TWO MULES AND A PILE OF DIRT DISPLAYS THE NEED FOR A SPECIAL, DAILY MEETING place with God. Jesus had such a place: And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.  (Mark 1:35) He didn’t pray every day at that same place since he did a lot of traveling. But we may be assured that He regularly found a solitary place and prayed. Ω

                Do you need to share today’s message with someone?
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year  
 JUNE 11, 2019 – TUESDAY      
A.M.  2Chronicles: 34-36      P.M.  John 19:1-22
 (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. The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.  (Psalm 33:12-13)
 
Song for Today:
Holy, Holy, Holy (6:38) (John Starnes & Choir -FBC-Jax, Fla.)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-rdFR9pgvo
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    Author

    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: 
    http://www.biblewalking.com/
    contact-us.html.  

    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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