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what is in your hand?

7/31/2018

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        What is In Your Hand?
And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.  And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.  And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:  (Exodus 4:2-4)

I POSTED THIS MORNING MINUTE  over a year ago. I’ve updated it, but the message is the same. What has God placed in your hand?  We don’t need to wait until we can do some really great thing for God before do ANYTHING for Him.
 

 DR. BILL AND KATHY RICE HAD A DEAF DAUGHTER. Because of her deafness, they came to realize that there were many deaf young people in America. They built a Bible camp in Murfreesboro, TN: The Bill Rice Ranch to reach deaf young people with the Gospel. Dr. Rice preached this text in chapel at Tennessee Temple College over sixty years ago, “What is In Your Hand?” It had a great influence on my life. For years, the question has run through my mind: “What is In Your Hand?”
 
SEVERAL BIBLE STORIES ILLUSTRATE THE FACT THAT GOD PUTS THINGS into our hands to be used for Him. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.  (1Samuel 17:49) (Read: 44-50) Children still love this story today and several children’s songs continue to be written about it. David could not use King Saul’s armor or his sword. But he was a soldier to be reckoned with when he used what God had put into his hands: the sling and stones on the ground.

THIS IS ANOTHER VERSE THAT SHOULD BE FOREMOST in our thinking: For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?  (1Corinthians 4:7)

THE IDEA OF THIS ARTICLE is that God puts things into our hands and employs what is in our hands for His glory and purpose. God does not equip rabbits to fly and does not enable birds to run faster than a cat. So, what has God put into our hands? We may not see it at the beginning but as we look back, we see that God was there from the very beginning.
 
IF YOU CANNOT DISCERN THE WILL OF GOD FOR YOUR LIFE, perhaps you should begin by looking at what is in your hands. God is not going to use a one-arm man to be a violinist. He does not use a tenor to sing bass. He is not going to use me as an artist to paint beautiful pictures or to run a big corporation or to be the President of the United States. But, there were some things God put into my hands.
 
AS A FARM BOY, I UNDERSTOOD that one can only use the tool that is in your hands. So, what is in your hands?  What is in your heart? What drives you? In this article, I will not go into the importance of prayer and surrender to what God shows you, although that is uppermost for Christians.
 
THE AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF D.L.MOODY (1837-1899) notes that he knew his strengths and his weaknesses and had due regard for both. Also, he emphasized using his strengths and spent less time trying to use his lesser talents. Good advice. Whatever we do, we ought to learn to do it with all the ability God gives us. (I’m not your man for making a coconut cake.)
 
YOUNG DAVID DID NOT BEGIN HIS USE OF THE SLING on the day he put down Goliath. God positioned David in the care of his father’s sheep so that he developed the use of the sling into a fine-tuned skill. David simply did not miss. Obviously, God had His eye on David in the womb of his mother and began shaping him long before he knew he was being shaped.
 
GOD ENDOWS BABIES WITH QUALITIES NOT OF THEIR OWN MAKING and watches over them to bring His plan to pass. Do we think Bill Gates figured out his computer ideas on his own?  I don’t think so. In the Body of Christ, the Holy Spirit gives gifts to people “as He will.” Though we are similar, we are not identical. None of David’s brothers were suitable for God’s purpose of providing a king for Israel. His sling and his poetic pen were to be his key of access to God’s appointed place. David used what was in his hand and he was good at it.

I’VE ALREADY MENTIONED THAT THE ARMOR OF SAUL was not a fit tool for David, although it was a fine piece of armor. And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.  (1Samuel 17:38-39) What is in thy hand?

I MEET LEFT-HANDED PEOPLE OF MY GENERATION whose teachers went to great lengths to rescue them from their left-handed "handicap." The aim was to standardize the abilities of the students. My teachers in my 1st and 2nd grades were smarter and left my left hand alone.

THOMAS A. EDISON, who gets credit for perfecting the electric light bulb and the phonograph, was designated by his teacher as “the class dunce”. Einstein of Germany was considered by his teachers to be slow and unteachable.  Sometimes it seems that God’s sense of humor may be at work when He endows certain ones with hidden advantages that go unrecognized because they are substandard.

IN SOME FAMILIES, HERE IS THE SMARTEST CHILD and the slowest child. A parent may be worn out struggling with the slow child. One day it comes out in a burst of frustration: “Why can’t you be like your brother?” The slow one doesn’t know why he cannot be like his brother and he is hurt for life by an impatient parent who said the wrong thing and wounded the child.

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE CHILD. The problem is the parent who does not recognize that the Creator God appoints children with different things in their hands. Children have no obligation to be like each other. They have an obligation to use what God has put into their hands to the best of their ability.


WHEN I WAS FIVE YEARS OLD IN 1939, my daddy let me type my name on his 1935 Royal typewriter he had bought new. He used it to write letters to businesses to sell wood products from his sawmill. He took great pride in his typewriter and kept the cover over it to keep out the dust. He only had one word of caution: “Be sure and put in two pieces of paper so you don’t damage the roller.”  I don’t know why he trusted a five-year-old to type on his machine with two fingers. Perhaps he did not know, either.
 
TODAY, THAT TYPEWRITER SITS ON MY DESK and I use it for typing my Bible memory cards. Mostly, it reminds me that the Lord put my hands on it when I was five years old. My hands are still free of arthritis. I’m not nearly as good as many other writers, but that is what God has put into my hands. …if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.  (1Peter 4:11)
 
MY GRANDPA RICHARDS FINISHED THE 3RD GRADE and was amazing with his hands in farming with mules. His Christian character and good will toward men was well known. His word was his bond. I’m reminded of what God said about Samuel: …and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. (1Samuel 3:19).
 
GRANDPA'S FUNERAL FILLED THE CHURCH HOUSE TO OVERFLOWING. His hands and his heart were a great influence in his community. My father and mother worked hard with their hands and were good at what they did. It was clear to me that whatever I did, I was not to sit on my hands, but use them for God’s glory. And I ask you: what is in your hands? God wants to use you and will use what He has put into your hands. Ω
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 31, 2017 - TUESDAY  
 A.M. Psalms 62-64   P.M.  Romans 1
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

A Good Verse to Memorize:
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.  (Luke 24:44)

 Song for Today:
The Unclouded Day (3:32) (Dan Carr - Piano, Kathy Owens)                        

https://www.facebook.com/100009410046480/videos/1855726871417630/
You may need to adjust your volume.
                                                   
 
 

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a load of empties

7/30/2018

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           A Load of Empties

For the word of God is quick (living), 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.    (Hebrews 4:12)
 
DURING WORLD WAR II, our family traveled a lot on trains when our gasoline rationing stamps ran low or when we had a bad tire and no stamps for a tire or a tire could not be found. The train engines all looked like the one in the picture. If the land was flat, a passenger train might run 70-80 miles an hour and out west they might top out at 100 miles an hour. In short: they could “flat-out” move along! I liked everything about them except they charged a dime for a bottle of Coke and anywhere else you could buy a Coke for a nickel. I thought they were taking advantage of us.
 
UP IN KENTUCKY, a conductor was collecting tickets from the passengers and punching holes in the tickets. Someone asked the conductor about who was in the car behind them. “Aw, just a car load of empties.” “Empties? What do you mean?” “Preacher boys on the way back to school. They’ve been out preaching in country churches and they preached themselves empty yesterday. Today, they’re sleeping it off and going back to school to get filled up again for next Sunday. They do this every week.”
 
EVANGELIST HYMAN APPLEMAN said that preachers ought to read themselves full, think themselves clear, pray themselves keen, and preach themselves empty.” When I heard him say that, I thought I had really heard something, and I still think that. It’s hard to run over when we’re half-full. So, we need to work hard at filling up. But, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes a week of reading and studying just don’t give birth to a good sermon and the Lord may send through a message from a different direction that had nothing to do with a week of study. A dedicated preacher knows about these things and he bends with the wind as God may blow upon him.
 
NEVERTHELESS, GOD-CALLED PREACHERS ARE DILIGENT in study and faithful to preach what God seems to be laying out. When we preach, the physical energy required is like unloading a wagon load of hay. Spurgeon didn’t want to talk to anyone after he finished preaching because the drain of delivery had depleted him. Like Elijah who outran Ahab’s chariot ahead of the impending rain and was depleted. Spent!
 
THE BOOK THAT A PREACHER IS CALLED TO PREACH, is no ordinary book. Through the Holy Spirit, it has a way of taking over and directing the train of thought. The same Holy Spirit also works on the listener and becomes the teacher of the understanding as well as the leader of the listener’s spirit.
 
THERE ARE DILIGENT PREACHERS AND THERE ARE LAZY PREACHERS. Diligent preachers have spent enough time in the Word that they know their place and they are dependent upon the Spirit of God to aid the preacher and to aid the hearer. Lazy preachers are sometimes quite fluent and gifted at gab but have no acquaintance with the Spirit of God who inspired the Book. It is the Spirit of God who calls men to preach the Word and it should not be thought strange that the same Spirit of God must lead and endue the preacher with power if it is to amount to anything. We are called to salvation and everyone is called to service and some are called to public preaching of the Word.
 
EVERY WEEK, I PRAY FOR GOD TO EMPOWER ALL THE PREACHERS HE HAS CALLED as they preach to all the churches He has built, that there may be a stirring in the Mulberry trees. May the breath of Heaven breathe heavily upon the preachers of our land! It is the hope of America. Preach no less than a full measure of the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit of God.
 
WHEN I WAS IN CHICAGO, I once heard an evangelist tell a thousand preachers: “If you preachers don’t learn how to pray, you need not bother to learn how to preach.” I think that about covers it.  May God have mercy on America and stir us up to know and serve God. Pray for your pastor. He needs your prayers and you need the practice. Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 30, 2018 - MONDAY       
A.M. Psalms 59-61         P.M.   Acts 28:16-31                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:
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:
When the Roll Is Called (3:31) (Gaither Group)       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LjZfjuOASs&list=RDcNzJf8_ZGTM&index=4

● Healthy Hint:
 WITHOUT FAT IN YOUR DIET, YOU WILL DIE. During the “extremely low fat” craze our nation endured for over twenty years, gall bladder surgeries soared high! The gall bladder empties when fat comes through to be digested. No fat, no emptying of the gall bladder. The gall, liver bile, just sits there and turns to stone. We need good fat in our diet. But when heated, some fat (unsaturated) takes on oxygen and it becomes oxygenated. Not good. When I was taking chelation treatments to clean out my arteries, Dr. Rozema explained to me that there are mainly four sources of fat that can be heated and remain one of the “good guys.” Hog Lard; Olive Oil; Peanut Oil; and Butter. Since that time, Coconut Oil has been added to the list.
 

DO NOT HEAT ANY OTHER KIND OF OIL AND EAT IT.  Trans-fats have hydrogen added to an oil fat to make it solid at room temperature, such as Crisco and all margarines. Not good. You may want to grease your black iron skillet with Crisco, otherwise, leave it alone. The vegetable oils in the store are a no-no for heating.

USE FRESH FLAX OIL, OLIVE OIL, ETC. for salad dressings. Margarine, the butter substitute, is a NO-NO-NO! It’s a trans-fat. Use butter. Get good fat from seeds, nuts, avocados. Pecans, English walnuts, and most nuts are good-guy fats. Keep all opened fats in the frig. Use a small bottle to contain a small amount at room temperature and use it up before it turns rancid. Ω

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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bible phrases...and clauses

7/25/2018

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        Bible Phrases…and Clauses
And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: (Matthew 9:20) 
And (they) besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.  (Matthew 14:36)
 
I’VE BEEN WANTING TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT BIBLE PHRASES (AND CLAUSES) for several months and it was never handy. To mention “phrases” is to open my memory and the trip to Livingston, TN (September 1940) to get my very own copy of Peter and Peggy from the Jenkins and Darwin dry goods store. I held it in my lap all the way home in the back seat of Grandpa’s ’29 Model A Ford. What a treasure I held in my lap! I didn’t sleep much that night. I had never heard of parts of speech; of phrases and clauses.
 
A PHRASE IS TWO OR MORE WORDS ACTING AS A UNIT IN A SENTENCE. A clause is two or more words that contain a subject and predicate and that make up part or all of a sentence. Short clips of words that give meaning, that make sense. Book titles and article titles have to be short, so they are almost always a phrase or clause. It is a condensed way of making sense. Our text verses today easily break up into shorter pieces of meaning: phrases and clauses.
 
THE WOMAN IN OUR TEXT illustrates the great amount of truth that is bound up in phrases (and clauses) of the Bible.  We speak of Bible verses, but the breaking up of Bible text into verses and chapters only goes back to 1551 (Greek manuscripts of the New Testament) and 1571 (Hebrew Bible). Chapters and verses are a thing come lately and are not part of he inspired text. We read and memorize chapters and verses. But our learning mechanism does not do well with numbers. We force ourselves to include the chapter and verse in memorizing. It is an indexing system and it serves a great and useful purpose.
 
THE CHAPTERS AND VERSES IN BIBLE TEXT helps us to find and recall verses. But, it does not promote the learning of the text. Trust me on this one. I’ve searched everything I can find on memorizing Scripture for the last sixty years and when I felt like I had covered it, I stopped trying to find anything else.

NUMBERS ARE HARD TO MEMORIZE. They make memorizing the text much more difficult, but the chapter and verse numbers are such a valuable tool, it is worth the extra effort to say the reference before and after the verse. Everybody in church knows a lot more Scripture than they can find in the Bible. Phrases and clauses, are so much easier to remember than numbers. In short, we remember things about people better than anything. If people are in a photograph or painting, it is often more interesting.

 
THE WOMAN IN TODAY'S TEXT MAKES IT EASIER TO REMEMBER. Out of all the words in the text, we will glean and remember: “sick woman touched his garment.” Our brains paraphrase words as we read them. There’s a story in those five words. In our text today, we also learn that several other people had the same idea of touching the hem of His garment that they might be healed.
 
WE LEARN MUCH FROM LISTENING TO SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS AND SERMONS. But, they are not attached to anything to make them easily recalled so we think we didn’t learn anything. God knows a lot about making brains and He did a marvelous job in making the human brain. If the information went to the brain through one of our five senses, it’s in there for good.
 
READ BIBLE STORIES TO YOUR CHILDREN. Read them to your family. Read them yourself. What causes us to remember things? It is a mystery as to how and what kind of things will trigger our memory.  Our early childhood is there, deeply engraved. The more we dwell on our childhood, the more we can remember.
 
THE BIBLE PHRASES (AND CLAUSES) WE HAVE HEARD since we were children, are embedded permanently in our brains. As we continue to hear, read, study, memorize and meditate on Scripture, the closer it comes to the surface and is easier to recall and use in our thinking and praying and sharing. We usually don’t use the whole verse. We use the “usable parts of the verse.” It’s important that we understand how our brains and our learning system work.
 
WHEN I WAS A STUDENT AT TENNESSEE TEMPLE COLLEGE, I went by a bargain book table in the book store and spotted a used copy of a book of Spurgeon’s sermons. I took it back to my room and thumbed through it. I spotted a sermon title: “She Told Him All,” and read the sermon. It was my first realization that short phrases (and clauses) are the sticky part that we remember best. I remember it to this day and remember what the cover of the book looked like. Years later, I went to Google Books and looked it up and read the sermon again. The clause: “She told Him All,” impressed Spurgeon so much that he made a sermon of it and blessed the hearts of a lot of people in the congregation and the heart of a country boy who was reading it 55 years later.
 
SPURGEON WAS A "PHRASE AND CLAUSE" PREACHER. After several years I realized that there is a class of preachers who are “Phrase and Clause Preachers.” Maybe it takes a simpleton like me to appreciate it, but I learned to love that kind of preaching that is true to the scriptures. Another master-weaver of Bible phrases is a British Bible teaching preacher named: Arthur Pink (1886-1952). He was in his peak during World War2. He preached a lot in this country and his books sell well to this day.
 
ONE OF HIS BOOKS: Elijah, is one of my favorites. I try to read it through every year. He is a master-weaver of Bible phrases (and clauses). I mean by this, that the meat of the paragraph or sentence is found not in the whole verse but in a short part of the verse. I highly recommend Elijah to you. His books are all over the place in Amazon. You can find good-condition used copies of several titles.
 
DO YOU MARK AND UNDERLINE IN YOUR BIBLE? I do. My Bible is a working Bible and I don’t feel disrespectful if I mark in it. I mostly mark phrases and clauses. If I’m going to designate a whole verse, I usually draw a box car around the whole verse. I keep an old plastic charge card or advertising card in my Bible for a straight-edge, so my marking will not be such a mess. I keep another card in our Bible Knowledge Commentary for marking. Some people like pink or blue. I use whatever I have at hand.
 
IF I DESIGNATE HE VERSE TO BE MEMORIZED, I write “M” in the margin and circle it. If I want to use it in Morning Minute, I write “MM” and circle it. I make notes at the top and bottom of the page or in the margin, if there is room. When we finish reading a chapter in our joint Bible reading, Monday-Saturday, I write the date: 2018-07-25. The next time we come to that chapter, it’s interesting to note the last time we read it. It’s hard to part with an old Bible. Ω
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 25, 2018 – WEDNESDAY       
A.M. Psalms 44-46         P.M.   Acts 25                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower (Psalm 18:2).   (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 

●Song for Today:
How Great Thou Art (5:37) (Huge Gaither Group Aboard Ship)       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51ODew7nE4o

● Healthy Hint:
Keeping your tooth brush in a small glass jar half-filled with hydrogen peroxide will keep it sterilized. HOWEVER: Before you put it in your mouth, hold it under the faucet and thoroughly rinse off the hydrogen peroxide (it will thin the skin in your mouth and promote mouth sores. If you have a mouth sore, squeeze a blob of aloe Vera gel on a clean finger or Q-tip and apply generously on the sore, morning and evening until it’s well.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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IN THE IMAGE OF GOD - Part 5

7/23/2018

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    In the Image of God-Part 5

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  (Genesis 1:26-27)
 

IT MIGHT SEEM MORE LIKELY THAT GOD would want to represent His likeness in the dazzling display of stars. The Milky Way is an awesome exhibition; a continuous parade of God’s majesty and power.  David slept under the canopy of the heaven hundreds of nights and was impressed by the stars. He said: He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.  (Psalm 147:4) God knows exactly how many stars are out there and has given a name to each of the stars.
 
HE KNOWS ABOUT EVERY BIRD THAT FALLS and knows how many hairs are on your head.
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.  (Matthew 10:29-:31)

BUT, GOD DID NOT MAKE THE STARS OR THE BIRDS IN HIS IMAGE. When you look in the mirror, you are looking at something more valuable to God than the stars or anything you have ever seen on this earth. He chose to make human beings in His image. That ought to make us proud and humble at the same time. Since God made us in His image, in what way are we made like God? We’re not as smart as God. We’re not as strong as God. We’re not as good as God. We’re not as long-lasting in this world as God. We get sick and die, so just how are we made in the image of God?
 
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT VERSES IN THE BIBLE about what and who we are, is this verse: And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (1Thessalonians 5:23)
 
THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF US AS BEING BODY AND SOUL. The Bible also speaks of us as being body, soul and spirit.  Some of the best condensed notes I know of on this subject is in the Scofield Reference Bible. I do not use this study Bible for everything because it is severely flawed in its comments in Genesis and the subject of creation. But it is an excellent teaching Bible on many other important Bible subjects.
 
I HAVE WORN OUT FOUR COPIES OF THE SCOFIELD BIBLE, running references and marking it up, before the days of computers. (The bindings on the Scofield Bible are weak and come apart easily.) In 1909 it had eight of the finest Bible teachers and scholars as consulting editors, including A.T. Pierson, Arno Gaebelein, and William Pettingill. The editor of the Scofield Bible was C.I. Scofield. The following notes are found on page 1270, at the close of 1Thessalonians.
 
“MAN A TRINITY. That the human soul and spirit are not identical is proved by the facts that they are divisible, (Hebrews 4:12), and that soul and spirit are sharply distinguished in the burial and resurrection of the body. It is sown a natural body (Greek, "soma psuchikon" meaning "soul-body"), it is raised a spiritual body (Greek, "soma pneumatikon" meaning "spirit-body"). (1Corinthians 15:44).
 
“To assert, therefore, that there is no difference between soul and spirit is to assert that there is no difference between the mortal body and the resurrection body. In Scripture use, the distinction between spirit and soul may be traced. Briefly, that distinction is that the spirit is that part of man which "knows" (1Corinthians 2:11) his mind; the soul is the seat of the affections, desires, and so of the emotions, and of the active will, the self. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful" (Matthew 26:38). “See also; (Matthew 11:29); (John  12:27).
 
“The word transliterated "soul" in the Old Testament (Hebrew, "nephesh") is the exact equivalent of the New Testament word for soul (Greek, "psuchē"), and the use of "soul" in the Old Testament is identical with the use of that word in the New Testament (see, for example); (Deuteronomy 6:5); (Deuteronomy 14:26); (1Samuel 18:1); (1Samuel 20:4); (1Samuel 20:17); (Job 7:11); (Job 7:15); (Job 14:22); (Psalm 42:6); (Psalm 84:2).
 
The New Testament word for spirit (Greek, "pneuma") like the Old Testament (Hebrew, "ruach"), is translated, "air", "breath", "wind," but predominantly "spirit," whether of God (for example); (Genesis 1:2); (Matthew 3:16) or of man; (Genesis 41:8); (1Corinthians 5:5).
 
Because man is "spirit", he is capable of God-consciousness, and of communication with God; (Job 32:8); (Psalm 18:28); (Proverbs 20:27); because he is "soul", he has self-consciousness; (Psalm 13:2); (Psalm 42:5); (Psalm 42:6); (Psalm 42:11); and, because he is "body", he has, through his senses, world consciousness.  (Scofield Reference Bible Copyright 1909, 1917, 1937, 1945)
 
I URGE YOU TO CONSIDER LOOKING UP THE REFERENCES ABOVE (AND BELOW) and perhaps mark them in your Bible. This short assignment to study will not take long and you will be richly rewarded to understand what the Bible says about it. The comments below are from the Bible Knowledge Commentary.
 
“THOUGH PAUL SPOKE OF THE CHRISTIAN AS SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY, man is described elsewhere as having two parts — body and spirit (Jamess 2:26; 2Corinthians 7:1), or body and soul (Matthew 10:28). And man is also said to have a heart, mind, conscience, and other parts. Rather than teaching man as having only three parts, Paul was probably using the three terms here to identify the different aspects of personhood he wished to emphasize.

THE SPIRIT IS THE HIGHEST AND MOST UNIQUE PART OF MAN that enables him to communicate with God. The soul is the part of man that makes him conscious of himself; it is the seat of his personality. The body, of course, is the physical part through which the inner person expresses himself and by which he is immediately recognized. Paul was saying then that he desired that the Thessalonians would be kept blameless by God in their relationships with Him in their inner personal lives, and in their social contacts with other people.” (Bible Knowledge Commentary).

A VERY IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER ABOUT MAN and his being created in the image of God, is that man followed the leading of Satan to sin against God and we are born into the world as lost sinners. God knew we would do this. Before the creation of the world, in the mind of God, Jesus was crucified as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. Two thousand years ago, that happened. Jesus died on the cross and rose again the third day just like the Old Testament scriptures said He would.

ANYONE WHO TURNS TO GOD IN REPENTANCE (turning away from all known sin) and who receives Jesus Christ as his/her personal Savior and Lord, will be saved. Jesus took our place and the wrath of God upon our sins was poured out upon His son on the Cross. 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) Ω

 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 24, 2018 – MONDAY       
A.M. Psalms 41-43         P.M.   Acts 24                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower (Psalm 18:2).   (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 

●Song for Today:
Drinking At the Springs Of Living Water (2:10) (Melody Four Quartet)       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghm4Jz2afaE&list=RDGhm4Jz2afaE   (2:14)
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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the lord is my rock

7/22/2018

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     The Lord is My Rock 
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower (Psalm 18:2).
 
WE MAY NOT THINK MUCH ABOUT the value of a rock, today. But in some parts of the world and at times in history, the idea of a rock was very important. If you’re going to build a house, you want to build it upon a rock that will not move and crack the walls of your house.

IN WINSTON-SALEM, NC THE NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY blew up one Sunday morning when someone flipped a light switch. Several men were killed. The building had been built on top of an abandoned garbage dump. Bulldozers covered it over with dirt and the building was built. But years passed, and the garbage dump was slowly making methane gas. The gas seeped into the building and when the light switch was flipped, the hidden spark of the switch set off the gas. The building was not built upon a rock.

IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA I WORKED IN A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL and church that brought in a thousand children every Sunday morning on a fleet of church buses. These children had few personal possessions and in that sandy area there simply were no rocks. The church buildings had downspouts that emptied into round basins filled with fist-size rocks.

ONE DAY WE NOTICED THAT THE ROCKS in the basins were getting low. Some of the basins were empty. We watched on Sunday mornings and saw that some of the boys who rode a bus to church were putting a rock or two in their pockets to take home as their personal rock. It was a prized possession. The bus pastors began checking the boys as they boarded the buses for home and collected the rocks. They put the rocks back in the drain basins. The next week it was to do all over again. It was the only way to keep the rest of the rocks in the drains.

DAVID THE PSALMIST TALKED ABOUT THE LORD BEING HIS ROCK, a rock big enough to make a shade from the hot sun.  It was a personal thing. Many people know nothing about a personal God they can call “my rock.” As he thought about it, God was bigger than a rock: a whole fortress and his personal deliverer. David thought about all the things God was to him and he added that God was his strength and his protecting buckler shield. Come to think of it, God was also his horn of salvation – the horn of a sheep ram was a symbol of strength.

TO DEFEND THE CITY, it was necessary to see a long way off so the watchman of the city could sound the alarm and call the defenders of the city to take their places for battle with the enemy. To see a long way off, a high tower was needed. David realized that God was his high tower. All of us need a high tower at times so we can see around us. All these things made David safe. God himself is our safety.

DAVID SAID, "ALL THESE THINGS ARE MINE!" He uses the word “my” seven times. Children learn early to call a toy or a chair “mine.” It is great to think of God as “my God!” David and Job both thought about the advantages of a rock.
For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.  (Psalm 27:5)
 
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.  (Psalm 61:2)
 
Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?  She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.  From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.  (Job 39:27-29)
 
Can you say: “The Lord is my rock?” I hope you like the song for today: Hiding in Thee (Thou Blest Rock of Ages). (Dick Anthony’s Singing Men)
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 23, 2018 – MONDAY       
A.M. Psalms 38-40         P.M.   Acts 23:12-35                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower (Psalm 18:2).   (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 
●Song for Today:
Hiding in Thee (3:10) (Dick Anthony’s 16 Singing Men)       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZe88UQkyU8
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 


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in the image of God - Part 4

7/19/2018

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                In The Image of God Part 4

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  (Genesis 1:27)
 

CORRECTION: Yesterday I wrote that Dr. John Walvoord had said that calling words figurative instead of literal, had resulted  in over sixty different ideas of End time Bible Prophecy.
 
I FOUND THE BOOK: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, A Commentary by John F. Walvoord. On page 19 he says: “As many as fifty different interpretations of the book of Revelation therefore evolve, depending on the time and circumstances of the expositor.”
 
 SO, THE NUMBER IS FIFTY RATHER THAN SIXTY. That’s still a lot of fiction coming from the pens of Bible “scholars” who are engaged in making the words mean what they please. But, if you are a word artist, this is what you get. You cannot have a true Bible, an authoritative Bible with men changing the text to suit themselves. Is it literal, or is it a figure of speech? Both kinds are in the Bible. It should be counted as literal unless the text makes it clear that it’s a figure of speech. When Jesus said: “I am the bread of life,” it is obvious that He is not a loaf of bread.   
 
THE REASON I HAVE INCLUDED PROPHECY WITH CREATION is that in both cases, adhering to the text is important. In Exodus, Moses says: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  (Exodus 20:11)
 
IN EXODUS 31:17, THE BIBLE SAYS: It (the Sabbath) is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.  (Exodus 31:17)
 
THESE VERSES WERE WRITTEN TO PLAIN, SIMPLE JEWS who knew what a day is. A day back then is what a day is today. It is not reasonable that God would tell them something that only an evolutionist of today would know what it means.  For many centuries, the smartest of men read those words and thought it meant days as they were accustomed to seeing. And then, suddenly, Darwin comes along and influences Bible teachers to re-think what a day is. Bible teachers must not appear to be dummies, behind the times.
 
IF YOU ARE WRTING A COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES, teaching/preaching from this text, how many days did the Lord take to make heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is?  Are you going to go by what Moses wrote or are you going to impose a different number on what Moses wrote? If you don’t like this to happen in six days, I must tell you that the burden of proof is on you to change what Moses wrote.  Was Moses a bad writer? Was Moses old and undependable when he was writing for God? What reason might you have for ignoring Moses and changing the number to suit yourself?
 
LET ME GIVE YOU A GENTLE HINT HERE. If you change what Moses wrote, it is not going to put Moses in crisis and cause him to pace back and forth in his room in Heaven because you are messing with his writing. You are free to change anything in Moses’ writing to make you appear to be “enlightened.”  But the burden of proof is on you if you change what Moses wrote. Why are you changing what Moses wrote to another number? Why? Who are you trying to please? Do you think God stutters? Is God better at making things than He is at writing about them?
 
IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT MOSES WROTE FOR GOD about six days of creation of the earth and sea and all that is in them, what else do you not like about the Mosaic account of creation? That’s what young people are asking today. Why not change everything else in the text that keeps you from agreeing with the evolutionists and atheists who are in charge of the American educational system? They’ve got a long list of things “Moses didn’t get right.” This one item illustrates the problem men have with the Word of God when they begin to tinker with it. Who are you trying to impress? Who are you trying to please?
 
LET ME SUGGEST ONE MORE THING HERE. The Lord has proven Himself to be extremely good at designing and making things in the stars, the earth, the sea, and the fantastic life that is so small it takes a powerful microscope to see it. Did you ever see a DNA molecule that controls the structure of people and animals and mosquitoes? There is more information in a DNA molecule than is in the Encyclopedia Britannica. We can’t see a DNA molecule, but you can see a set of encyclopedias. And a DNA molecule has the most information in it.
 
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY POSTED THIS LITTLE THING about mosquito hearts and blood: “Most of the time, the heart pumps the mosquito'sblood—a clear liquid called hemolymph—toward the mosquito's head, but occasionally it reverses direction. The mosquito doesn't have arteries and veins like mammals. ... The heart is the narrow tube that runs horizontally across the middle of the picture. (Oct 15, 2010 (Picture not included here.) (I looked this up on Google and copied it in about a minute.)
 
THE QUESTION HAS TO BE ASKED: “Can God make such a vast universe, but He doesn’t quite have the hang of writing a Bible and telling His servant Moses how long it took Him to make it? My friend, I don’t think the problem is with Moses or with His God who told him what to write. If you have a problem with the words: “six days” that are staring at you from the Word of God, the problem may not be with Moses or with His God. The Jewish sabbath is based on a six-day creation of the universe.
 
IN JEWISH SCHOLARSHIP, there is a battle between those who hold to a literal, six-day creation as the Jewish Torah declares, and the word artists who hold to an allegorical view of creation.
 
IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCHES have lost a million people. Much of this loss is because they are losing their young people. It has been studied to death. There are several reasons why young people are leaving Bible-preaching churches today. One of the big reasons is that the churches have given in to the claims of evolution and have left a six-day creation to embrace a very old earth that is supposedly millions/billions of years old. In other words, they have thrown their Bibles in the trash can to please the evolutionists and their word artists. Young people have been watching their preachers squirm, trying to look holy and up-to-date at the same time. "What else in the Bible is unreliable?" Yes, they’re asking this.
 
IF THE BOOK OF GENESIS IS NOT RELIABLE, the rest of the Bible is equally unreliable. If the book of Genesis is not reliable, the rest of the Bible does not matter. If the Book of Genesis is not reliable, we do not have a Bible. Young people are smart enough to see this and their hormones are driving them up a wall. Why deny themselves the pleasures of the world if the Bible is not true? Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!
 
SO, IN TRYINIG TO LOOK SMART, THE CHURCHES ARE THROWING IN THE TOWEL and the young people see what they are doing. If the Bible is not true, if it feels good, do it. Kill all the people who get in your way, especially the helpless ones in the womb. If there is no Bible, there remains only a culture of death. If you have the death of God, then you have the death of man. It all goes back to whether we pay attention to the words in the Bible or if we “correct” the words of Moses to suit ourselves.
 
THE SCOFIELD BIBLE GOT INTO THIS GAME OF CHICKEN IN 1909 in its footnotes on Genesis. They panicked when Darwin came along asserting himself and making noise. Darwin was not a scientist. He was flawed to the core. Some NASA scientists wrote a book: Darwin’s Black Box and showed how shallow and wrong he was. Today, we have a growing number of highly educated, thoroughly credentialed men and women who think Moses knew how to write and got it right.
 
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.  (Matthew 4:4)
  
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 19, 2018 – THURSDAY       
A.M.  Psalms 28-30         P.M.   Acts 21:1-14                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a
broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)  (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 
●Song for Today:
Surely Goodness and Mercy (3:49) (Dick Anthony’s 16 Singing Men)       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISO18SCs-80
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 


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in the image of god - part 3

7/18/2018

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           In the Image of God – Part 3
 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female cre
ated he them.  (Genesis 1:27)
 

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, (Genesis 2:4)
 
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  (Genesis 2:7-8)
 
GOD'S CROWNING WORK OF CREATION is His creation of man because man is the only thing God created in His image. In studying Creation, great caution is to be exercised lest our system of interpretation lead us astray. Alongside Creation, the subject of Prophecy must be approached with caution. These two subjects share the same difficulty of interpretation to arrive at the truth.
 
INTERPRETATIONS OF CREATION AND PROPHECY are either based on a literal reading of the language in the Bible, or the interpretations are based on imposing figurative meanings upon the words of Scripture.  Creation and Prophecy have suffered much at the hands of artists who impose fiction upon the words of these subjects.  I didn’t make this up. I gleaned it from years of study after those who have spent a lifetime studying the Scriptures in these two subjects.
 
A GREAT TRUTH:The Bible was intended to be understood. The Bible was not handed down to us as a box of gibberish that no one could ever understand. God does not entertain Himself by watching us struggle endlessly with things over our heads. In the passing of time, inquisitive minds and humble hearts will understand increasingly as they continue to study and compare the Scriptures with the unfolding of prophecies being acted out in the affairs of the world.
 
ANOTHER GREATH TRUTH: The words and phrases of the Bible are to be read in an ordinary way unless the text or the book indicates that the words are used in a symbolic sense. In other words, stars are stars and earthquakes are earthquakes unless the text makes it clear that something else is intended. The Bible does use words at times in a symbolic way, but the text or the setting will make it clear that the words are symbolic and not literal. For example: Jesus said He was the door (John 10:9). We understand what He meant: He is the means of access. He did not mean that He is a wooden panel with hinges and a door knob. He used a figure of speech. There are many figures of speech in the Bible.
 
WHEN READERS AND TEACHERS AND PREACHERS fail to determine the difference between plain use of a word and its use as a figure of speech, they can get way off-base and deceive themselves and anyone who will listen to them.  To avoid falling into that trap, we have this verse:  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  (2Timothy 2:15)
 
YOU WILL NOTICE THAT ALONG WITH THE WORD: 'STUDY," is the word: “workman.” This means a man (or woman) who works at studying. Study is sometimes hard work and takes time. We can be lazy in our attitude toward the Word of God. Not good. If we want beans and tomatoes out of the ground, we must work for them. We must sweat for them. If we want the treasure from he Word of God, we must set our minds toward working in God’s garden of truth.
 
WE NEED TO BRING AN HONEST, DILIGENT MIND to the Word of God and be willing to work hard at learning what God is saying. The Bible is no place to be lazy. But, oh! What treasure there is in this Book of books! It’s worth the effort. Even after diligent study, sometimes honest minds will disagree. That’s okay. Just agree to disagree and go on with your Christian life.
 
THERE ARE THREE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE that deserve careful study regarding whether the words and phrases are literal or figurative: The Book of Genesis; The Book of Daniel; and The Book of Revelation. There are other books, but these three books deserve extra-careful study to avoid going off on a tangent or being discouraged from reading them at all.
 
LET'S PUT IT ANOTHER WAY: The subject of prophecy and creation must be read and interpreted like all other parts of the Bible to avoid falling into a trap of deception.  Dr. John Walvoord, a national figure and past president of the Dallas Theological Seminary, reported in one of his books, a study he had made. I will summarize it. He said that he had read and examined about every system of interpretation of prophecy in the western world as to their method of interpreting Bible prophecy.
 
HIS SURVEY REVEALED THAT ALL THE SYSTEMS OF INTERPRETATION are in two camps. There is the camp that assumes the words in the Bible are to be taken literally unless the Bible is clear that the words of figurative. The other camp, at will, imposes upon words the status of “figurative language.”
 
BY TAKING THE LIBERTY OF CALLING WORDS FIGURATIVE, AT WILL, there has resulted over sixty different ideas of the meaning of Bible passages that deal with the end times. Sixty different systems of thought about end-time verses in the Bible! Some even speculate that the end-time prophecies occur in Heaven. Some say the end-time occurred at the time of Christ and His crucifixion. Once you strip away the meaning of words, you can write any kind of fiction you want to write.
 
ALL THESE DIFFERENT SPECULATIONS OCCUR BECAUSE THE WRITERS departed from reading the words with a literal meaning. Of those who use a literal reading of words, there are only a few schools of thought about creation and the end-time. If the words mean what they say, there are only a few things you can do with those words. If you have the liberty of imposing upon words your own private meaning, you can become a writer of fiction as you teach Bible Creation and Bible Prophecy. Ω
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 18, 2018 – WEDNESDAY       
A.M.  Psalms 25-27         P.M.   Acts 20:17-38                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a
broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)  (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 
●Song for Today:
It Took a Miracle (3:31) (Sandi Patti and Her Father – Her mother is the pianist.)         

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN0Ys4BTbO4
 
 IF THIS DOESN'T LIGHT YOUR FIRE; YOUR WOOD IS WET!
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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in the image of god - part 2

7/16/2018

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In the Image of God – Part 2
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  (Genesis 1:27)
 
I'M GOING TO STEP ASIDE AND LET  J. Vernon McGee give us his thoughts on verse 27. The whole article is his work and I’m thankful to be able to share it with you.

“WE HAVE HERE JUST THE SIMPLE FACT of the creation of man. This is the third time we find the word
bara, which means to create out of nothing. So we see that man is created; he is something new. Bara is the same word that occurred in the first verse of Genesis:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." He created the physical universe. Then He created life: "And God created great whales, and  every living creature that moveth …" (Genesis 1:21). Now we see that God created man: "So God created man in his own image." God will give us the details of His creation of man in the next chapter, and we can see from this that God has left out a great deal about the creation of the universe.

"IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH" is all the information He has given to us, and it's about all we can know about it. He could have filled in details, but He didn't. He will go into more detail about only one act of His creation, and that is His creation of man. Do you know why? It is because this record was written for man; God wants him to know about his origin. It is as if God were saying, "I would like very much for you to pay attention to your own creation and not be speculating about the creation of the universe." This verse tells us something tremendous.

"SO GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE." I want to submit to you that this is one of the great statements of the Word of God. I cannot conceive of anything quite as wonderful as this. What does it mean? Well, man is like God, I think, as a trinity. Immediately someone is going to say, "Oh, I know what you mean. You mean that man is physically and mentally and spiritually a being." Yes, I believe that is true.

“PAUL, IN 1THESSALONIANS 5:23 SAYS THAT VERY THING:  "… And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Although this is true, we will see when we get into the next chapter that it actually means more than that. I think that it refers to the fact that man is a personality, and as a personality he is self-conscious, and he is one who makes his own decisions. He is a free moral agent. Apparently that is the thing which is unique about mankind. I believe this is what is meant by God creating man in His own image.

"MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM." These verses do not give to us the details of how man was created and how woman was created. We won't find that until we come to the second chapter. That is the reason that I say that God did not intend to give us the details concerning the creation of this great universe that we are in or He would have given us another chapter relative to that. But He offers no explanation other than He is the Creator.

“THIS PUTS US RIGHT BACK O THE ALL-IMPORTANT TRUTH which we find in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Hebrews 11:3). Things we see today were made out of things which did not even exist before. The creation was made ex nihilo, out of nothing. Somebody says, "Explain that." My friend, I can't explain it. And evolution doesn't explain it either.

“EVOLUTION HAS NEVER ANSWERED THE QUESTION OF HOW NOTHING becomes something. It always starts with a little amoeba, or with a garbage can, or with a little piece of seaweed, or with an animal up in a tree. Our minds must have something to start with, but the Bible starts with nothing. God created! This is the tremendous revelation of this chapter.” (McGee)

 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 JULY 17, 2018 – TUESDAY       
A.M.  Psalms 22-24         P.M.   Acts 20:1-16                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a
broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)  (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 

●Song for Today:
I Believe In Miracles  (2:38) (Norma Zimmer) (and also by the Melody Four)         

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_mErZxHVwM

I finally found: I Believe in Miracles, written by Carlton Buck and music by John Peterson. This song was a sequel to: It Took a Miracle. I first heard this song soon after it was written, 1956. Norma Zimmer (1923-2011) is the best solo artist I could find. She sang for Lawrence Welk for 22 years and was known to have a love for traditional hymns. This recording was made at an early Billy Graham meeting, about 1956. The pianist is probably Ted Smith, a concert pianist from Canada.
​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOhlte5Bko

The Melody Four quartet will also sing: I Believe in Miracles. This quartet may have been part of a larger group, Dick Anthony, and His Sixteen Singing Men. They became known in the 50’s. Piano, guitar, string-bass accompaniment. (The pianist is a little frilly.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 


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in the image of god

7/15/2018

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                In the Image of God 
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  (Genesis 1:26-27)
 
IT IS IMPORTANT TO GET GENESIS RIGHT. Otherwise, you don’t have a Bible. Genesis is about the creation of the entire universe. I have chosen two verses that deal with the crowning work of creation, and that is the creation of man. We say it is the crowning work of creation because the creation of man is the only part of creation that is in the image of God.

McGEE MAKES THIS OBSERVATION: “The first question that arises is: How was man created? The next chapter will tell us that. "And let them have dominion." God gave him dominion over the earth, and I do not think this means that God made him a sort of glorified gardener of the Garden of Eden. Adam had tremendous authority given to him. We will find out a little later that God says to him that he is to do certain things relative to this creation that God has given to him.”

THE BOOK OF GENESIS IS A CONTROVERSIAL BOOK. The underlying question of the controversy is the age of the earth. Was the earth made in six days, as the Bible says, or did it evolve over a period of billions of years. I belong to the school of a young earth; That is, that the earth was created in six literal days as we count days, today. To arrive at the belief in an earth that is millions and billions of years old is to become tangled in a complicated maize of a multitude of theories that contradict each other.

I HAVE DONE A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF HOMEWORK ON THIS for the past sixty-plus years. I like to spend my time reading the top people in each of the opposing views so I can get to the meat of the controversy. The top men at Dallas Theological Seminary have spent a lifetime in study and searching the various schools of thought in interpreting various views.

TO MAKE IT AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE, I believe that Dr. John Walvoord is the best spokesman for a young earth. He bases this upon a simple rule of study: assume the Bible should be read with literal meaning unless it is clear from the context and text that it is a figure of speech. If you read the Bible any other way, you find yourself trapped in Bible fiction with no means of arriving at true meaning. If there is no true meaning, then the Bible has no authority.

DR.J.VERNON McGEE ADOPTS A BELIEF IN A YOUNG EARTH when he, above, says that the “how” of man’s creation is in chapter 2. The Morning Minute is only big enough to announce the subject of creation and to make a few brief comments.  Today, I'm making  a short introduction to the subject of the creation of man in God’s image. There will be several parts to this series. Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 
  JULY 16, 2018 – MONDAY       
A.M.  Psalms 19-21         P.M.  Acts 19:21-41                                     
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 
●Good Memory Verse:
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a
broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)  (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 
●Song for Today:
Somebody Bigger  (3:17) (Andy Griffeth)        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPy9nuzFGE&list=PLnd0JjD5b75MZ-F599TT5bL3QMEETPmxs
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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LEAVING THE SHELL

7/13/2018

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Picture
 
          Leaving the Shell
Today, a friend drove me to Decatur, Alabama where I attended the memorial service of one of my longest, and dearest friends: Dr. Bill Compton. They played part of Bill’s sermon on the 23rd Psalm. I’m working on posting that on his page at www.biblewalking.com so you can listen to it.
 
I WAS ASKED TO BRING THE MESSAGE AND READ SCRIPTURE at the graveside. Three years ago, almost to the day, we were there to leave the remains of his dear wife, Jesse Compton. We need to be reminded constantly that we were made to be on this earth for only a very short time. At the gravesite, we do not leave the person. We only leave the house the person lived in. That’s important and that’s what this article is about. We leave the shell of the walnut behind.
 
THE BIBLE SAYS: …there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.  (Proverbs 18:24) Bill Compton has been that to me. Thanks to the family for the privilege of participating in this special service.
 
JESUS SAID:…I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (John 11:25) and: …. because I live, ye shall live also.  (John 14:19) When Jesus rose from the dead, it shook the Roman Empire. When Christians were fed to the lions in Rome, the Romans said: “They die well.” The Apostles were willing to die because they had seen the resurrected Christ and saw Him ascend into Heaven.
 
WHEN I'M INTO SOMETHING OVER MY HEAD, I like to listen to people who have been there and have something to say. When I think about dying, I’m in over my head. Paul wrote something about dying in Philippians 1:21-23.  Fourteen years earlier, when he had been stoned, he went up into the third heaven and saw things he didn’t ordinarily see. In 2 Corinthians 12:4 he was caught up into paradise and he didn’t know if his body went with him or not, but his knowing part, his seeing part, and his hearing part were all there taking it in.
 
PAUL HAD A HEAD START ON EVERYBODY ELSE IN KNOWING WHAT HE WAS getting into. He had already seen that dying was gain and that dying was not “ceasing to exist.”  I think he suspected that his body was still lying in the road, but he didn’t know for sure.
 
PAUL SAID: to die is gain.  (Philippians 1:21) For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Phillipians 1:23)
 
PAUL USED HE WORD "DEPART" AND THAT GETS INTO DEEP WATER.  In the context he has to be talking about his soul and spirit leaving his body. In the next breath he says: “to be with Christ.” Whatever is going to leave the body is going to be with Christ. He knew his head was coming off. He knew his body would instantly die on the spot.
 
WE ARE IN THE SAME FRAMEWORK OF FAITH AS PAUL. We can talk about departing and being with Christ. That’s a lot better than thinking that your body is everything and all of you is going to be covered with dirt. Paul didn’t talk that way. He talked about departing. He talked about being with Christ. He talked about being in Paradise. He talked about being in the Third Heaven. Brother Bill Compton is not here today. He left town several days ago. He’s in Heaven with Jesus. He and Jesse have been talking up a storm. He is well. She is well. They’re waiting for you.
 
NOW, YOU CAN BELIEVE IN SOME OF THE MODERN EVOLUTIONARY STUFF being taught in our schools if you want to. But, I’m not getting on that bus. What they teach is not science. It’s not observable. It’s not measurable. It’s not repeatable. It’s not predictable. They preach a faith of death and nothingness.
 
THEY PREACH THAT WHEN YOU HAVE BURIED THE BODY, you have buried everything. Paul, the Apostle of the Christian faith preaches that when you bury the body, you only bury the part that’s left behind, the shell of the walnut. If you know the Lord, in death there is a part that leaves the body and ascends into the third heaven to be with Christ. Do you have a firm grip on that? Does that have a firm grip on you?
 
THERE MAY BE SOMEONE HERE TODAY WHO DOES NOT KNOW that you are body, soul, and spirit and that when you die, only the body dies and your soul and spirit separate from your body. Your spirit is the part of you that knows and that can know God. Your soul is the part of you that makes you self -conscious and is the seat of your emotions. When you are born, you are born to be alive somewhere forever. You cannot kill your soul and spirit. Bill Compton believed and taught those things. If you need to be saved, he would want you to be saved today.
 
IF THAT IS YOU, PLEASE REALIZE THAT JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS FOR YOU and paid your sin debt for you and you can be saved today. Do you want someone to pray with you?
 
IN EARLY SEPTEMBER 1952, AFTER LUNCH, I entered the Temple Building at Tenn. Temple and climbed the stairs to the 4th floor, turned right and went to the end of the hall. On my right was Room 401. I set down my suitcase and accordion and knocked on the door. A voice said: “Come in!” Which I did. It was the corner room.
 
THERE WERE TWO ARMY BUNK BEDS, A TABLE, AND A SINK AND TWO WINDOWS. On the upper bunk opposite the door and in front of the window, lay a young man in his underwear…on his belly with his chin resting on his wrist and his wrist was on the rail of the iron bed.
 
I COULD TELL I HAD INTERRUPTED HIS AFTERNOON NAP. I waited for him to greet me and give me his name. The first thing out of his mouth was: “Are you a Southern Baptist?” I said, “I’m from a Baptist church in Stevenson, AL”. (At the moment, I couldn’t remember if it was Southern Baptist.
 
HE THEN SAID: "I'M BILL COMPTON. WHAT'S YOUR NAME? What I didn’t know was that as a young pastor he had just been through a tug-of-war in the church he had been pastoring and it had gotten ugly. Never mind that Tenn. Temple was housed in the old Highland Park Baptist Church that had been a Southern Baptist Church since the Roman Empire. He just saw a new face coming through the door and he wanted to know if “I was one of them.”

HE HAD FINISHED COLLEGE AT TENN.TEMPLE and was in Seminary. (Note: At that time, the Southern Baptist Convention was experiencing an explosion of unbelief and rank liberalism. Much of it has turned around today. It still has a way to go, But, some of the strongest pastors today are Southern Baptist.)

 
I HAD NO IDEA WHO THIS FELLOW WAS OR HOW WE WOULD GET ALONG, or how we would get along with two other students that might be assigned to that little room. I did know that not everybody likes to take a bath. We did get two more in the room and yes, we did have to urge one of them now and then to take a bath.
 
YOU DON'T KNOW ANYBODY UNTIL YOU LIVE WITH THEM. I never one time heard Bill Compton talk down to anyone or talk down about anyone. He knew what he wouldn’t do and he didn’t cross that line. He stood for God and the Word of God. He also was an encyclopedia of wit and humor and thrived on the exercise of it.
 
HE WAS CLEAN AND ORDERLY. Several times I saw him sitting at the table studying and suddenly, he would slam his book down on the table and say: “This place is a mess. I can’t study in this.” He would get up and begin putting everything in its place. Every shoe under the edge of somebody’s bed; every shirt and jacket hung up on the rack. “Is this yours? What do you want to do with it?” The sink was clean, the mirror was clean. He would then return to his studying.
 
BILL HAD DUBBED OUR ROOM AS: "THE CROW'S NEST," and was often a grand social station. Friends would drop by. If you wanted to study, just pick up your books and go down a couple of stories to the library. A lot of bulls were shot in that room. One night one of the visitors had brought in a book and laid it on our table. Bill wasn’t in a talking mood and saw the book. While the others talked, he sat on a lower bunk and leaned back against the wall to read the book.
 
I GLANCED AT HIM OCCASIONALLY AND NOTICED HE WAS SLOWLY TURNING A PAGE every few seconds. After a while he laid the book down and said: “That’s a good book.” The owner said, “do you want to borrow it and read it?” He said, “I just read it.” “No, you didn’t!” “Yes, I did. I read it.” The other guy had read the book and he began to ask Bill questions about the book and he answered all of his questions.” I quietly thought to myself: “Hmmmm. We’ve got a speed reader with a photographic memory on our hands here”.

I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING. I just filed that little episode in the back of my mind and said to myself: “If I need to know anything, I’ll ask Bill.” So, we have talked, many times. It turned out that Bill has read most of the books worth reading. He knows the book title and who wrote it and if it’s worth reading.

 
THAT DAY WHEN I FIRST SAW THE YOUNG MAN IN HIS UNDERWEAR, I did not realize how much I would come to love him, that he would perform my wedding ceremony to Shirley Martin, would teach me many valuable things, (he was a teacher’s teacher) or that I would end up being his assistant in Jacksonville, Florida.
 
I CERTAINLY DID NOT EXPECT TO BE SPEAKING AT HIS MEMORIAL SERVICE or that he would be 88 years old….and I never thought about how much I would miss him when he was gone. I had planned to visit him soon and get him to sing our favorite duet: Day by Day. A friend had bought me a special little stand to hold my iPhone, so I could record it. It wouldn’t take much coaxing. He loved to sing and was quite good at it. He sang soprano and I filled in the harmony above and below it. He and Shirley and I sang several songs as a trio when we were in Jacksonville.
 
BEFORE I FORGET IT, I NEED TO MENTION THAT I HAD INVITED HIM TO HAVE A PAGE in his name on biblewalking.com. He posted a few things there and I’m going to leave his page as he left it.  http://www.biblewalking.com/from-the-desk-of-pastor-bill-compton.html . I’ll need to do a little tidying up.
 
EARLY-ON, BILL FOUND JESSE AS THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS and set out to win her heart. He made short work of it and they were soon a pair. He had his own unique ritual he went through in the Crow’s Nest after a date with Jesse. It was impossible for him to come back “normal” after being with her. No one was surprised when they tied the knot.
 
THE "CROW'S NEST," SERVED AS A DE-BRIEFING CENTER after the exciting dates. Lindsay Terry, a life-long friend of Bill Compton, also from Decatur, was sure to return from his date to tell how “out-of-this-world” his date of the evening was. Lindsay was a citizen of the Crow’s Nest for at least one school year. He had a bouquet of girls and they were all “wonderful.” He settled on Marilyn, a beautiful blonde from California. Marilyn is now his widow since Lindsay went home to be with the Lord a few weeks ago.
 
FAST FORWARD TO RECENT YEARS.  When I called Bill, he had his phone on speaker. Jesse would call to me and we would have our little conversation. She was the jewel that fit with Bill so well. When she drifted into Alzheimer’s, Bill was right by her side. She was his priority until the Lord called her home.
 
I KNOW HIS HEART WAS BROKEN WHEN JESSE WENT HOME THREE YEARS AGO. We talked many times and Bill was content to lean on the goodness and providence of the Lord from day to day. A few weeks ago, he fell in his home and broke his shoulder. When it would not heal, he had surgery. He was undergoing rehab and as they tried to lift him out of his chair, he slumped over and was gone.
 
 HE AND JESSE HAD A LOT TO CATCH UP ON WHEN HE WENT HOME THIS WEEK. More and more of those I know, and love have moved “over there.” It doesn’t seem such a strange place anymore. Some of the phone numbers don’t work anymore. There’s no one there to answer them. God was merciful to me 32 years ago to let Barbara come into my life.
 
PRAISE TO OUR GOD AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WHO DOETH ALL THINGS WELL. We shall rejoice and reign with Him forever when He comes as the King of Kings. Very soon, we will all be Home! The best is yet to come! Ω
 
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year

 JULY 13, 2018 – FRIDAY       
A.M.  Psalms 10-12         P.M.  Acts 17:16-34                                      
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
 

●Good Memory Verse:
For I am in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.  (Philippians 1:23-24)  (Write verse on scrap of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
 
●Song for Today:
Beyond the Sunset (4:17) (Gaither Group)        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_rH47om5TI
Beyond the Sunset is such a great song, and so appropriate for today, I have left it for another day. Such a beautiful song. The poem: “Should You Go First, and I Remain” is outstanding.  I hope you enjoy it!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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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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