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who made me?

8/31/2019

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                     Who Made Me?

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  (Psalms 139:14)
 
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)
 

JOY ARRIVED IN CHATTANOOGA NOVEMBER 1956; DAVID 15 MONTHS LATER. Joy found her motherly instinct in feeding David. In 1959 we moved to Pensacola, Florida. In the right picture above, Joy is dressed up for Sunday school.

THE MOBILE HOME IN THE BACKGROUND IS A STORY. We had bought it new, and had it pulled from Chattanooga to Pensacola; parked it under a grove of Water Oak trees. One chilly night we fired the kerosene furnace and went to bed. We awakened and flipped on the light, but it was dim. Our mouth and nose were black and black cobwebs were hanging from the light. We began coughing and realized the room was full of black carbon smoke from the furnace.

A FREAK ATMOSPHERIC DEPRESSION HAD SETTLED ONTO THE TREES and the furnace was running on low and was not hot enough to push the smoke through the trees. It backed up into the mobile home and we were close to being on our way to the other world. The reason we did not all perish is that it wasn’t our time.

OUR NEXT STOP WAS JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA where Joy turned three. She was a chatterbox and full of questions. One evening she and I were outside, sitting on a bottom step. We looked up at the sky and I said: “Do you see the star?” “Can you say star?” “Do you know who made the star?” “God made the star.” “Do you know who made you?” “God made you.”

FROM THAT DAY FORWARD, IT WAS A CONTINUAL GAME OF NAMING THINGS GOD made and sounding the name of it. One day we were driving through a street in Jacksonville and a dump truck was dumping dirt to fill a wash-out. We had to stop and wait. Joy pointed to the truck and I knew she wanted me to tell her what it was. “It’s a truck. Can you say truck?” She said: “truck.” “God made the truck?” I said, “No, a man made the truck.” That was a challenge. Now she was facing a whole new world of separating what God had made from what man had made. It held her fascination for several months and she learned the names of many things and whether God made them or if they were man-made.

WHAT I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT, was that Joy would soon start teaching her brother, David, the names of star and tree and flower and God made them; and the names of truck, car, bicycle and shoes that man had made. It had not occurred to me that I was teaching a teacher.

BACK UP A BIT: While we lived in Pensacola, I found a Christian bookstore and a book:  “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” by Ken Taylor. Our family called it: “The Baby Moses Book.” (The Christian Bookstore in Southern Pines, NC has them. Or you can find used copies at Amazon.) Ken Taylor wrote the stories for his children during his daily train trek from home to his work in Chicago. He died in 2005 at age 88. He and his wife had ten children and 28 grandchildren.
 
WE READ THE STORY BOOK TO JOY AND DAVID. Each story included a full-page, four-color picture. As we read the stories to them, we asked them if they could point to: (whatever we named). It became a routine. We read and asked them to point and name the people/things in the picture.

SOON, JOY WAS "READING" THE STORIES TO DAVID.  She couldn’t read a word but that didn’t stop her from reading to David. We turned the book over to Joy and David with the simple instruction: “Take good care of it and try not to tear it. Don’t mark in it.” So, they carried the book around and looked at it at will and told the stories to each other. David learned that he could read the stories even though he couldn’t read either. They were very good at reading pictures.

 
THE ABOVE STORY HAD ONE OVERRIDING POINT: “God made me.” When God called Moses to the great task of leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt into a land the Lord would show them, he began writing a book for them. The first thing God had Moses to write about in his book, was where they came from and where the world, the sun, moon and stars came from.
 
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2) In the rest of chapter one Moses continues with the story and finishes with:
 
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.  (Genesis 1:31)  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  (Genesis 2:1)

 
EVERYTHING IS BRAND-SPANKING NEW! NOTHING HAS DIED YET. God looked at everything He had made, and it was not just “good;” it was VERY GOOD! “Very” leaps out at me. I first though it might have been added by the King James translators and that it would be in italics. Not added. Not in italics. “Very” in verse 31 above is translated from a Hebrew word. I give you the lengthy Strong’s Dictionary entry for “very.”

VERY: STRONG'S DICTIONARY, WORD #H3966 From the same as H181; properly vehemence, that is, (with or without preposition) vehemently; by implication wholly, speedily, etc. (often with other words as an intensive or superlative; especially when repeated): - diligently, especially, exceeding (-ly), far, fast, good, great (-ly), X louder and louder, might (-ily, -y), (so) much, quickly, (so) sore, utterly, very (+ much, sore), well.” (God is pleased with how good it is.)

QUESTION: WOULD GOD HAVE SAID HIS CREATION WAS VERY GOOD if it had been filled with billions of dead animal fossils? Jewish and Christian traditions (3,000 years for Jewish tradition and 2,000 years for Christian tradition) have both held that nothing had died when God finished His creation in six days. Every living thing God had made was still alive after six days of creation.

“IN THE BEGINNING" OCCURS 17 TIMES IN THE BIBLE. Each time “in the beginning” occurs, the context of its occurrence is plain enough for any common person to see what it’s talking about. When Jesus refers divorce back to “the beginning,” it points back to that week of creation. Earth, stars, animals, first man and first woman, all of it is contained in “In the Beginning.”

THE PERIOD OF "IN THE BEGINNING" IS SIX DAYS. He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered (allowed) you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.  (Matthew 19:8) The whole of creation is included in: “in the beginning.” Those six days. It is not good to take apart what God has put together. “In the beginning” is a cluster of six days, and not great periods of time made up by modern men and dragged into the Bible.

Read Through the Bible in a Year
AUGUST 30, 2019 - FRIDAY
 A.M. Psalm 142-144    P.M. 1 Corinthians 10:14-23
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

A Good Verse to Memorize:
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  (Matthew 4:4   (See Deuteronomy 8:3)


Song for Today:
Just Keep on Praying (3:08) (Seniors-Duet with Accordion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9m975_J3Pg
(You may have to adjust the volume and delete an ad.

Health Tip: 
Protein in Plants.  The protein in green grass is demonstrated by the large protein bodies of cows and horses that are made mostly of green grass.  The protein in carrot juice is about the same as the protein in human mother’s milk. All vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, grains contain protein. A medium-size potato contains about six grams of protein, or about the same as in an egg.  Protein is made up of nine “Essential” amino acids and four “Non-essential” amino acids.  By mixing plants in our diet, we can get complete protein.


In the beginning, the ideal human diet appointed by God was a diet of plants (Genesis 1:29).  After the Flood, the earth experienced an ice age and growing crops was limited. We were then allowed to eat animals: Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.  (Genesis 9:3) When we eat food of any kind, the body breaks the protein down into its amino acids and reassembles the amino acids into the desirable form.


 
 

 

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just keep on praying...

8/28/2019

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     Moses the Prayer Warrior

Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.  Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.  (Deuteronomy 9:24-25)
 
WHEN I WAS TEN YEARS OLD, I had been saved about a year and was attending the First Baptist Church of Mountain City, Tennessee. On Sunday night they had: BTU (Baptist Training Union). Each student had a Quarterly and we took turns reading a part we had been assigned the previous week. Before we read our parts, we had some little boxes we checked off and one of them was a box for Dailey Bible Reading. I didn’t dare miss my daily Bible reading. So, every night I opened that quarterly, turned to the chapter in my Bible and read it.

I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND MUCH ABOUT  IT but I read the Bible so I could mark the box Sunday night.  And then I caught myself zipping through the Bible chapter. I didn’t get a thing out of it, but I had read it out loud in a hurry and could check my box next Sunday. I read the Bible that way for several years. I picked up little bits and pieces here and there but not much. We don’t learn much from Bible reading when we just zip through it.  “There now, I’ve read my Bible today.”

I READ THE BIBLE THROUGH SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE I NOTICED that Moses fell down before the Lord for forty days TWICE!  When he first got on top of the mountain to meet with God, he was there forty days and nights talking with God. After talking with God for forty days and nights without eating or drinking water, God gave Moses two tablets of stone with the law written on it. See: Ex. 24:12 and 31:18.

WHILE THIS WAS GOING ON, THE PEOPLE GOT TIRED of waiting on Moses and they rose up to play. They were dancing around a golden calf. It was party time! God told Moses to go down and check it out. Moses pitched a striped fit and threw down the tablets of stone God had given him and broke them.

 MOSES ENDED UP PLEADING FOR THE LIFE OF HIS OLDER BROTHER, Aaron, and for the whole congregation. God was going to kill them all and start over again. Moses pled for their lives, reasoning with God on their behalf. When it was over, God told Moses to bring tablets of stone to replace the tablets he had broken, and God would write on them again.
In Deuteronomy we learn that when Moses went back to God a second time, he spent another forty days with God in prayer. Moses was a prayer warrior.  (See Exodus 34:1,4)

FAST FORWARD TO OUR DAY when America has broken every law in God’s book and stuck their finger in God’s eye. We find a similar situation in Ezekiel’s day. He wrote:  And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.  (Eze 22:30).  Ezekiel and Jeremiah stood in the gap the best they could to plead with the nation of Israel to turn to God. In 586 B.C.  it was over and  the army of Babylon leveled the city and hauled off the leaders and the choice citizens of the nation in chains to be the slaves of Babylon for 70 years.
 
SHOULD WE NOT STAND IN THE GAP on behalf of America? At the same time, above, God instructed His servant messengers who were going to execute judgment to pause and do something special: And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.  (Ezekiel 9:4)
 
I BELIEVE IN AMERICA SOME PEOPLE ARE SIGNING AND CRYING over the abominations that are going on in America today. How many are there?  What does the Lord see in us? Are we part of the big party going on in America or are we some of those who sigh and cry over the abominations of America? I want to be found with Moses and Ezekiel and Jeremiah who were on God’s side and were grieved over the sins of the nation. What do you say? Ω    (Pray for Robyn Tinker: Sent home. Mother of 2 - youngest is 9-year boy)
 
 Read Through the Bible in a Year
 AUGUST 29, 2019 - THURSDAY
 A.M. Psalm 139-141    P.M. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

A Good Verse to Memorize:
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  (Matthew 4:4   (See Deuteronomy 8:3)


Song for Today:
Just Keep on Praying (3:08) (Seniors-Duet with Accordion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9m975_J3Pg
 (You may have to adjust the volume and delete an ad.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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hours of m & M's

8/26/2019

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​       Hours of M and M’s
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  (Colossians 3:16)
 
WHEN WE WERE COMMUTING A LOT between Flat Rock and Southern Pines, we often did the 475-mile trek in one shot with a couple of pit stops. Of course, if you’re tired to begin with, the eyelids get heavy. Coffee is the old standby, but coffee on an empty stomach did not set well with me. A medium-size bag of M&M’s proved to be the answer: loaded with sugar and caffeine. Combined with coffee, it can help you read signs, stay in your lane, and keep your distance from the big trucks.

IT'S A VERY HEALTHY THING TO DO since it keeps you from running into bridges and trees. The fact that it plays havoc with your insulin and arteries is secondary to its benefit of keeping all your blood inside your body. You can eat health food another day.

I MENTIONED OUR USE OF M&M's one time during a church service and the next time we headed west toward Flat Rock, Suzanna Woodruff surprised us with the largest bag of M&M’s. Some things you never forget and that’s one of them. Every time I walk past the M&M’s in Walmart, I think of Suzanna Woodruff.

DURING THAT TIME, I WAS ALSO INTO A PROJECT OF PRINTING Bible memory cards and trying to get people to memorize Scripture. I knew from my days of memorizing Scripture with the Navigators (1953) that there were five ways we are to exercise ourselves in the Word of God.  1. Hear.  2. Read. 3. Study. 4. Memorize. And 5. Meditate. So, I included those five points in an instruction sheet and wondered how I could title them.

WHILE I WAS LOOKING AT THE FIVE WORDS, the first letter of each word became obvious: H.R.S.M.M. Surely, I’m not the only one that can see the caption: “HRS of M&M’s!”
If you want to remember the five ways to encounter the Word of God, just remember the caption: “HRS of M&M’s.” HEAR – READ – STUDY – MEMORIZE – MEDITATE.  If you would like to remember those five things for life without working at it, say them aloud five times a day for a month. Write them five times a day for a month on a junk envelope.

HERE'S A VERSE TO GO WITH EACH WORD. Memorize the verses to go along with the words. In a month you’ll have it down pat and it will bless you to know that you are installing some vital information for life. The one word that’s missing is: OBEY.

HEAR.  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  (Romans 10:17)

READ. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.  (1Thessalonians 5:27)

STUDY. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  (2Timothy 2:15)

MEMORIZE. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  (Psalm 119:11)

MEDITATE. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.  (Joshua 1:8)

IF YOU WANT TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL in any endeavor, two words stand out: READ and DO. If you want this article to do anything permanent in your life: READ and DO. I hope you will lay hold of these five things and incorporate them into your life until you draw your last breath. Please don’t be satisfied that you may have been entertained for three minutes while you whizzed through this page on your way to work or school. Come back and devour this page! Please!
 
THE REASON I'M MAKING THE FIRST LINES OF PARAGRAPHS BOLD, is because it helps reading on smart phones. The font size (letter size) on smart phones is small. The bold lines help the eyes to pace your progress through the article. I noticed the advantage in reading on my phone, so I upped the use of bold at the beginning of paragraphs. The purpose of MORNING MINUTE is to encourage you. To that end we remind you of what you already know and sprinkle a few goodies here and there that may be new to you. Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
 AUGUST 27, 2019 -  TUESDAY
 A.M. Psalm 132-135    P.M. 1 Corinthians 8
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

A Good Verse to Memorize:
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  (Jeremiah 29:11)

Song for Today:
Joy Comes in the Morning (3:56) (Joy Gardner – Gaither)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_yUd7f_S2c
Please Note: If you have been to the valley, this will bless your heart.
 (You may have to adjust the volume and delete an ad.
 
 
 
 


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take good care of your bible

8/25/2019

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 Take Good Care of Your Bible
And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.  (Mark 4:24-25)
 
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THESE VERSES was a sobering experience and I still come back to them with reverence. There is a law here that governs how much we are going to hear from Heaven. Some call it: The Law of Use. If God enlightens us and we make use of what He has given, the door is open for us to receive more. If we neglect or despise His gift to us, we will lose touch with what we have already received. A fuzzy mind can take away a lot of stuff we used to know.
 
GOD HAS IMPARTED KNOWLEDGE to wasps, hornets, spiders, birds and beavers, the ability to build their different nests and dens and how to propagate their kind. They’ve been doing it for thousands of years. They’re all still here! They are all locked into the only thing they know, and it works! Likewise, we should take heed when God tells us to take care of what He shows us in His Word.
 
THE ORDINARY, USUAL LAW OF USE holds that by use, we are to obtain the best possible results. By disuse we will lose our grasp on what we had. That’s true in playing golf, basketball, music, use of computers.
 
TED SMITH WAS A CONCERT PIANIST FROM CANADA, who played for Billy Graham for 54 years. When they were in Chattanooga in 1953, he met with the music students in the chapel at Tennessee Temple. I attended his lecture.  He said he practiced piano two hours a day to keep from losing his edge.
 
WE CAN LEARN FROM JIMMY STEWART, the well-known actor and B-24 bomber pilot during World War II. He was part of the U.S. Air Force build-up in England. It was a staging area. Some practice flying was done by fresh planes and crews coming in. They needed to practice the skills they had been taught. One flew into a water tank and they flew into each other. They flew in tight formations to protect themselves from enemy fighters and flying in tight formation was very hard and dangerous. They needed practice.
 
WHEN THERE WAS A BREAK IN THE WEATHER to permit flying, Stewart had his crew of 10 men on his plane in the air in practice flights so they would “keep their edge.” The B-24 flew at high altitude and it was extremely cold. It was dubbed: “The Flying Coffin” because the only exit was near the tail and it was hard for all the crew to make it that far with parachutes on. If the plane nosed down, they had to climb almost straight up to get to the tail exit.
 
WHEN STEWART ROUTED HIS MEN OUT OF BED to practice-fly, they complained. However, when Stewart became a squadron leader of several planes, some of the men in the larger wing formation of planes noticed that more of his planes made it back to base. They wanted to fly with him. Stewart’s practice of keeping his crews “razor sharp” paid off.
 
HE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO FINISH HIS "25 MISSIONS" because the Germans found out he was flying and wanted to take him down. If they could have captured him, they could have made a propaganda film to help demoralize our Air Force. Jimmy Stewart knew the value of keeping sharp and on the cutting edge of what you are doing. We should do that with our Bibles and our prayer life.
 
TODAY'S VERSES SPEAK OF A SPECIAL WAY God measures and regulates what He has shared with us. The verses are a higher level than ordinary “learning and forgetting”.
 
WE HAVE TWO BIBLES: The Bible on the table, and the Bible inside us. We should take care of our physical Bible and take care of the Bible inside us.
 
MY FRIEND, PAUL FERGUSON (evangelist and welter-weight boxing champion for 11 years), told me that when he quit boxing, he wrote Dr. John R. Rice about several things and in one of his letters to Paul, Dr. Rice said: “Work hard at memorizing Scripture. Preachers tend to be lazy in memorizing and their preaching is weak because of it.” That is, their preaching is not rich in the Word of God. A pack of 3x5 cards (for writing verses) can transform a preacher’s ministry. Paul memorized eight thousand verses. In the later part of his life he didn’t learn any more verses but spent time reviewing the verses he knew.
 
I ONCE HEARD DR. RICE SAY to a thousand preachers in Chicago: “If you don’t learn how to pray, you needn’t bother to learn how to preach.”  That’s all I remember from that trip and returning home in a snowstorm. We should take good care of our internal Bible and, should study what God says about prayer.
 
THE BIBLE TELLS US WE SHOULD TAKE IN THE BIBLE five ways. We should: Hear, Read, Study, Memorize, and Meditate. This is enough for an article and I plan to come back to it another time. I just mention it here.
 
MOSES WROTE WHAT GOD TOLD HIM TO WRITE. Deuteronomy (means the 2nd writing) was a summary Moses wrote not long before his death. Jesus quoted the Psalms the most and Deuteronomy the second most often.
 
THE FIRST THING MOSES TOLD HIS PEOPLE (in Genesis) was where they came from and where the world came from. The world and the universe were created by God in six 24-hour days and there is no mention of billions of years or of animal fossils or of judgment of any kind. It was all creation. At the end of six days, it was all spanking brand new. They needed to know that. In Genesis 6 he told them about Noah, the ark and the world-wide flood that destroyed every breathing thing. (The flood produced the billions of fossils found today. The fossils came from the Flood and not from long ages of evolution.)
 
TODAY, THERE IS A TENDENCY IN SEMINARIES to try to to get along with the evolutionists who need billions of years to sell their story. In the fossil record in the earth, there are billions of skeletons and not one case where one kind of animal changed into another kind. We need to take care of the Book of Genesis and don’t add to it. Moses wrote it like God told him to write it.
 
MOSES TOLD EVERYONE NOT TO BE REWRITING HIS WORDS to suit themselves.  What thing so ever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.  (Deuteronomy 12:32)
 
PAUL WARNED HIS READERS: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.  (Colossians 2:8)
 

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, THERE WAS A CONSTANT THREAT of philosophies or systems of thought, being brought into the congregations. The source of these false philosophies was from two directions: 1. The various Greek ideas and 2. False ideas coming out of a Jewish source. Much of the New Testament is given to refuting these troublesome intrusions into the churches. Church people were able to be taken captive when they were untaught and therefore a prey to whatever wind of doctrine that came along.
 
IT'S THE SAME TODAY. People who do not know their Bible are game to be taken. If something sounds religious, many people will buy it.
 
TWO OF THE MOST NEEDED SCRIPTURE PASSAGES TODAY ARE:
●Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.  (2 Timothy 2:15-16)
 
●And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  (2 Timothy 3:15-16) 
 

IT'S A TOUGH WORLD WE ARE LIVING IN and our children sometimes get caught up in it and bring heartache home with them. Parents have a tough job and need the Word of God. Take time to be holy. Take good care of your Bible. I hope each of you have found a good Bible-believing church to faithfully attend and be a part of. Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year
AUGUST 26, 2019 - MONDAY
A.M.  Psalm 119:49-104       P.M.  1Corinthians 4
 (Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Memory Verse:
Now
ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  (John 15:3)
 

Song for Today:
Break Thou the Bread of Life (2:18) (Acapeldridge.com)                       

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQpj4TSe-Ec                         
 You may need to adjust your volume
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 


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how will people know I'm a christian?

8/21/2019

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    How Will People Know I Am a Christian?   :
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.  (John 13:34-35) …the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.  (Rom 5:5)

AT CHURCH, I HEARD STRONG PREACHING on being a Christian witness to a lost and dying world, long before I was saved at nine in a bean market in October 1943. So, when I got saved, the next day I went to school excited and told my cussin’ buddies I had been saved and wanted them to go to the bean market and hear Preacher Dan Graham preach. That’s all I knew to do so I repeated it every day that week until they had had enough of it.

AT MORNING RECESS, A SPUNKY BOY PUT ME ON THE GROUND while a circle gathered around. We were at least half-way friends. We had gone through several shouting matches on the playground over Chevrolet and Ford. Jimmy was a Chevrolet Man and I was a Ford Man. We would stand facing each other and take turns shouting at each other: “Chevrolet!” “Ford!” “Chevrolet!”  “Ford!”

HOW DO YOU BRING CLOSURE TO SUCH PLAYGROUND NONSENSE? Nobody wins such a shouting match, but there was a great deal of pleasure to be had in shouting at each other. Putting me on the ground and demanding that I pray something was a new twist in our normal shouting matches.

HE DEMANDED THAT I PRAY SOMETHING. “Pray!” Well, I saw he meant business and I didn’t have a clue what I should pray. I was nine years old and all my praying experience was to listen to the adults say phrases they had learned from long years of going to church. But it was either pray or get a bloody nose. So, I prayed: “Lord, get this S.O.B. off of me!” As soon as it was out of my mouth, I knew that was NOT the way praying should be done.

BUT, BEFORE I COULD THINK IT THROUGH and pray something more Biblical, he was satisfied that I had prayed well-enough, released the iron grip he had on my wrists against the ground, and got up. He had won. He had forced me to pray. He was satisfied with a pagan prayer. The bell rang and it was back to the classroom. That was the strangest thing I had been through in my whole life. That was the first time I had ever prayed for anyone. I had not made much of a Christian impression on him.

THAT WAS THE FIRST INKLING I HAD THAT EVERYONE WOULD NOT BE HAPPY when somebody gets saved. I didn’t know beans about being a witness to a lost and dying world. But this is a typical story of what happens when people get saved and want to share Christ with their circle. They may not engage in a schoolyard brawl but reaching out to someone the first time will be strange and the listener may push back.

THERE ARE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF PEOPLE we need to witness to. Our first circle is the people we know best and this is where Christians do most of their witnessing. Witnessing to strangers with tracts is much easier than witnessing to family and friends we know. Family and friends know too much stuff about us and may push back.
The words of Jesus in our text today are suited to our efforts at reaching people in our closest circles. I’ve always liked good preaching and good Christian reading. Recently, I came across this comment by J. Vernon McGee that fits our topic for today. It will take the rest of our space to use all of it.

“NOW HE GIVES TO THEM A NEW COMMANDMENT. Some folk would seem to think that He said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you are fundamental in the faith." Now friend, I believe in being fundamental in the faith, I believe in the inerrancy of the Word of God, in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that He died on the Cross for the expiation of sin; that He died a substitutionary, vicarious death for the sins of the world. I believe He was raised bodily and ascended back into heaven and that He is coming personally to take His church out of the world.

“BUT I WANT TO SAY THIS, AND I WANT TO SAY IT VERY CAREFULLY: believing those things does not convince the unsaved world outside. The world is dying for just a little love. Jesus says that His disciples are to be known for their love.

“WHEN I WAS A BOY, MY DAD DIED AND I WENT TOR WORK to support my mother and sister; so, I stayed with two aunts and a bachelor uncle. One aunt was a Baptist and the other a Presbyterian. My uncle was an unbeliever and a beer drinker. Every Sunday he would get up just in time for the noon meal. For dinner every Sunday we heard all the Baptist dirt and the Presbyterian dirt. Years later, when my uncle was in the hospital, one of my aunts wept and asked me, "Vernon, why doesn't he come to Christ?"

“I ALMOST TOLD HER. Friend, may I say, we do not win the lost by being Christian cannibals. "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (Gal_5:15).

THIS IS THE TYPE OF THING THAT IS TURNING THE UNSAVED AWAY from the church today. This is the reason they don't come in to hear the gospel.
They hear the gossip before they can hear the gospel! Do you realize that the most important commandment for a Christian is not to witness, not to serve, but to love other believers?

TERTULLIAN WRITES THAT THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT was disturbed about the early church. Christians were increasing in number by leaps and bounds. Because they wouldn't take even a pinch of incense and put it before the image of the emperor, the Romans felt they might be disloyal. Spies went into the Christian gathering and came back with a report something like this:

"THESE CHRISTIANS ARE VERY STRANGE PEOPLE. They meet together in an empty room to worship. They do not have an image. They speak of One by the name of Jesus, who is absent, but whom they seem to be expecting at any time. And my, how they love Him and how they love one another."

NOW IF SPIES CAME FROM AN ATHEISTIC GOVERNMENT to see whether Christianity is genuine and they came to your church, what would be the verdict? Would they go back to report how these Christians love each other? (McGee) Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
AUGUST 22, 2019 - THURSDAY
A.M.  Psalm 119:49-104       P.M.  1Corinthians 4
 (Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Memory Verse:
And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  (Mark 16:15)

 Song for Today:
There is a Fountain (4:39) (Gaither Group- 5,151,930 views)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PasK3ZFAOPE
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knowing enough to be saved

8/20/2019

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whT          
 Knowing Enough to be Saved…
    
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.  (John 6:44)
 
I DID THE CLASS WORK FOR MY HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR YEAR at Stevenson, Alabama, (1951-52) (picture above) and received a high school diploma through the mail from the Homestead High School in Crossville, TN. I attended a class in the morning and worked in my dad’s Hickory saw mill the rest of the day. I took American History through the University of Alabama and did the tests at Stevenson. (I only needed two credits.)
 
I HAD BEEN WITNESSING TO MY SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER at Stevenson. He was not long out of college and sharp. He was easy-going and respectful of my outreach to him about being saved. One day before class I came in early and we were alone in the room. He said: “Dan, can the heathen be saved before you get there and preach to them?” In those days I knew somewhere between “a lot” and “almost everything.”  (The danger of a little learning is that the one who has it may not know it’s only a little.) I answered him,
 
“WELL, SOMEBODY'S GOT TO TELL THEM HOW TO BE SAVED." I didn’t know what Isaiah and Joel had said. So, I was almost sure that a missionary would have to be there with a Bible in hand before they could be saved. My teacher was kind and let me down easy. At the time, I was satisfied I had answered him well, not knowing I had not answered him at all. A mental fog enshrouded me that helped me to forget it.
 
THAT WAS ALMOST 70 YEARS AGO, AND I HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT that morning many times. Is he still living? Where? Did he ever get an answer to his question and reach out to the Lord? I have wished to sit down and talk with him again for an hour. When I get to Heaven, I’m going to look for him. I hope he’ll be there.
 
I FINISHED BIBLE COLLEGE AND NEVER CONSIDERED: “What is the minimum one must know to be saved?” Evangelism class never asked that question. We memorized 100-150 verses and prepared to do battle with objections.
 
I WENT TO JAMAICA TWO SUMMERS WITH A TEAM and we walked 3-4 miles a day giving out Gospels of John, going over 3-4 points of being saved, praying with them, having them to repeat a prayer after us. We had 1,200 professions of faith the first year and 600 the 2nd year. I had learned John 3:16 in the second grade but had not learned that’s all you really need to know to share the Gospel. It’s got all the talking points in it.
  
SEVERAL YEARS LATER, I was working as a lobbyist for Christian school liberty in the NC Legislature and a much older State Senator, a Methodist farmer from the East Sandhills of NC, quietly asked me the same question in a slightly different way. To myself: “I’m tired of this!” I said to him, “I don’t know the answer, but I promise you I will do some Bible digging and come back and tell you what I find.” I did.
 
THAT NIGHT I GOT ON MY KNEES AND TOLD THE LORD THAT HE WOULD HAVE TO SHOW ME where to find the answer to the Senator’s question. It was the same question my high school teacher had asked me, and I had been too lazy about digging it up. This time, I had it to do. There were a half-dozen doors of inquiry I could enter, so I began in earnest.
 
THE FIRST THING I SAW WAS THAT GOD IS A TRINITY; you can talk to either of them and it counts for all three. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17 He made much of the oneness of Him and the Father.  Jesus is not only the Savior, He is also the co-creator of the earth and universe. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  (John 1:3) WHEN YOU TALK TO THE ONE WHO MADE THE STARS, YOU'RE ALSO TALKING TO THE ONE WHO WENT TO THE CROSS. OK?
 
IF A MAN IN A REMOTE ISLAND JUNGLE LOOKS UP IN THE SKY AT NIGHT and calls upon the one who made the stars, does it offend God and disqualify the man because he does not know about the Trinity and about Jesus? The man has never been inside a church building and has never had a Bible in his hand and does not know there is such a thing. Is he in trouble with God because he doesn’t know a single Bible verse and doesn’t know a single character mentioned in the Bible? Is he in trouble with God because he is so ignorant and was born in the wrong place and time to know anything?
 
This is what the man must believe to come to God: But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  (Hebrews 11:6) This is the bare minimum a man must know and believe about God to make a connection with Him.
 
BUT, WHAT ABOUT THE DEATH, BURIAL AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST? God thinks more highly of that than we do, and we can trust Him to get to that in His own time and in His own way. But the Gospel is NOT the beginning place with God and the heathen who know absolutely nothing about Him. There has never been one human being so far-removed from God that there was no beginning place for him to get to Heaven.
 
IS HEBREWS 11:6 A GOOD VERSE FOR YOU TO MEMORIZE deep in your soul? It was for me. If I had had that verse memorized, I would have known immediately what to tell my high school teacher and the senator in North Carolina. It’s as important as John 3:16.
 
GOD EXISTS AND WILL RESPOND TO ANYONE ON THE EARTH who diligently seeks Him. This is what the Bible says a man/woman/boy/girl must know and believe and that’s all they have to know and believe as a beginning place with God. God said so!
 
PEOPLE IN ALL HISTORY, ALL OVER THE WORLD have been watching the sun come up and set. They have watched birds and insects, many kinds of animals, and have observed how so many things work together to make it possible for human beings to live.
 
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.  (Psalms 19:1-3)
 
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:  (Romans 1:20) If a man will respond in faith to what God has shown him, God is going to do business with him.

 
FAIR QUESTION! Will God show a person enough to render him without excuse but fall short of showing him how to be saved? NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! If a person will respond to what God has shown him/her, there’s more to follow. Abraham came up with a similar question when judgment was about to fall on Lot and his family. He spoke up to God and gave Him a hard question:
 
ABRAHAM PLEADED WITH GOD: That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?  (Genesis 18:25)
 

APPARENTLY, IT WAS OK FOR ABRAHAM TO INSIST THAT THE JUDGE of all the earth do right. The man who knows nothing about God, can expect God to do the right thing. A man who knows nothing about the Gospel and nothing about the Trinity will not be fussed at because of his ignorance not of his own making. If he calls on the one who made the heavens, God is going to show that man everything He wants him to know to be 100% right with Him. Can we trust the Almighty God to do that? If we can trust the Almighty God to do that, then the question: “What about the heathen who don’t know God” vanishes into thin air!
 
THESE VERSES SHOW WHAT GOD IS LOOKING FOR IN DOING BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE:
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalms 34:18)
 

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.  (Psalms 51:17)
 
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  (Isaiah 57:15)
 
…the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him…..  (2 Chronicles 16:9a)
 

Sooner or later, John 3:16 is going to come into the picture. Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year   
AUGUST 21, 2019 – WEDNESDAY         
A.M.  Psalm 119:1-48  P.M.  1 Corinthians 3
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)


Good Verse to Memorize:
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.  (John 6:44)
 

Song for Today: 
The Battle Hymn…(5:26) (First Bapt. Dallas-Choir & Orchestra-June 30,2019)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2LZ9cVRkDw
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.
 

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i will draw all men...

8/19/2019

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              I Will Draw All Men…    
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.  (John 6:44)
 
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.  (John 12:32)
 
And when he is come, he will reprove (convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  (John 16:8)
 
JESUS' DRAWING "ALL MEN" UNTO HIMSELF is to be understood in two ways. He will draw all individuals in the world to Himself and He will draw kinds of men to Himself who are not Jews. No one can come to Him without the Father drawing him. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.  It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.  (John 6:44-45) (All Jews did not know their God and that is an awesome thought. It’s the same way among all who say they are Christians, but all “Christians” are not Christians.)
 
SINCE JESUS DIED FOR EVERY SINNER IN THE WORLD, (see 1 John 2:2 below) and none of them can or will come to Him without be drawn to Him, it stands to reason that He draws all men to Himself. He is eternal in the same sense as the Father and Holy Spirit and the sinners of Noah’s day were drawn by Him, although they may not have known about the Trinity of the God-Head.  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.  (1 John 2:2)
 
THE INVISIBLE MAGNETIC FIELD AROUND A BAR MAGNET (pictured above) illustrates the drawing of people to Christ by the Holy Spirit. We continue to read stories of people in Iran and other Muslim countries having dreams about Christ and some of them are responding to the dreams by getting on their knees and surrendering their lives to Christ. It is happening on a scale that is troubling to the authorities and the families where the “dreamers” live.

THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT GOD THE FATHER, DRAWING PEOPLE TO CHRIST through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Preachers and Christian workers can’t save anyone. None! We work with the Holy Spirit who is drawing people.

 
GOD DREW MOSES TO A BURNING BUSH.  And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.  And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.  (Exodus 3:2-4)
 
WHILE NOAH AND HIS SONS WERE BUILDING THE ARK, HE PREACHED TO THE PEOPLE who came to see him out of curiosity. Noah warned them about a flood that was coming, and God used Noah’s words as a base for striving with the spirits of the people who came to watch him. 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 WRITER OF HEBREWS URGED HIS COMPANIONS to draw near to God without faking it: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.  (Hebrews 10:22)
 
JAMES IS THE ICON OF PRAYER. HE WAS CALLED "CAMEL-KNEE JAMES." If you type “camel-knee James” into Google, you will get about 16,400,000 hits in 0.66 seconds (less than one second). His knees were calloused from praying so much. We should expect James to know how to advise us about drawing near to God. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.  (James 4:8) Jesus is not talking about forcing men to Himself but attracting men to Himself; drawing men to Himself.
 
OUR TEXT TODAY IS ABOUT A JEWISH SITUATION THAT WAS ABOUT TO CHANGE. To the Jewish mind, their one, true God had always been a Jewish thing. But, now, they are to learn that God’s active program is going to go beyond “Jewish.” Jesus was going to draw “ALL MEN” to Himself; not just Jews. Their new scope of religious activity was going to be: “into all the world, to every creature.” The Jewish Temple and its system of animal sacrifice would be destroyed. But even that would not turn the Jewish mind and heart toward …the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
 
IT HAD NOT BEEN THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO EVANGELIZE NON-JEWS. Their responsibility had been to keep separated from their pagan, non-Jewish neighbors. If non-Jews wanted to become Jewish and worship in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, they could do that. But now, Jesus would draw ALL MEN to Himself to be saved. Jesus, the Jewish Messiah would draw Gentiles from all over the world to Himself.
 
GOD HAD GIVEN HINTS ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP TO THE REST OF THE WORLD through Isaiah and Joel. Isaiah said: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.  (Isaiah 45:22) Apparently, this invitation was for men to be saved by bowing their knee to God where they were anywhere in the world.
 
THEY DID NOT HAVE TO MAKE A TRIP TO JERUSALEM TO BE SAVED. They could be saved without bringing a goat or a dove to Jerusalem. It was without becoming a part of the Jewish temple and the Jewish sacrifices. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
 
THIS EXTENDED TO THE NEW TESTAMENT:  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11) The issue was the knee and the tongue that were exercised by the heart. Submission! Surrender! The Philippian jailer would be told: “Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…(Acts 16:31)
 
JERUSALEM WAS SPECIAL TO GOD BUT NOT THE GATE TO HEAVEN.  The Temple and the city of Jerusalem were where the Lord had chosen to put His name, And the LORD said unto him [Solomon], I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there forever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.  (1 Kings 9:3) And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.  (1 Kings 11:36)
 
AGAIN, JERUSALEM WAS NOT THE GATE TO HEAVEN. But… the Jews felt like Jerusalem and the Temple were the gate to Heaven. Jerusalem and the Temple housed the Holy of Holies, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, which housed the tablets of stone carved with the finger of God and Moses brought down off Mount Sinai. (One could not get closer to God than that.)
 
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.  (Joel 2:32)

This was with their faces turned toward Jerusalem where the Jewish messiah would be slain and raised from the dead. As we see in Romans, that salvation was going to be through the Jewish lamb of God who was crucified in Jerusalem and not through the Jewish slaughter of bulls, goats and sheep and doves. The animal sacrifice industry was going to be shut down.
 
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered (saved). (Joel 2) (This is repeated in Romans 10:13)


Read Through the Bible in a Year  
AUGUST 20, 2019 – TUESDAY         
A.M.  Psalm 116-118 P.M.  1 Corinthians 2
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
​

Good Verse to Memorize:
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.  (John 12:32)
 
Song for Today: 
The Holy Hills of Heaven Call Me (5:49) (Vestal Goodman-Dottie Rambo with Gaither Group)           

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXrL-Z44KHc
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 


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keeping murder in the family

8/10/2019

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          Keeping Murder in the Family
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?  And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.  (Genesis 4:8-10)
 
THIS WEEK AMERICA HAS HAD TWO MASS SHOOTINGS: in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas that left 31 people dead. Whereas in the past, the accusers and media have blamed guns for the tragedies, things have suddenly changed and President Trump, not guns, has been blamed for the deaths by his political proponents and some news people.  
 
TIME.COM HAS A CHART OF ALL MASS KILLINGS IN AMERICA in America for the last 37 years (since 1982). https://time.com/4965022/deadliest-mass-shooting-us-history/
 
THE LAST PRESIDENT HAD 24 MASS SHOOTINGS (according to one news summary) during his tenure of office. (Follow the link above to check this number.) Did anyone blame him for the shootings or the deaths of the people in those 24 shootings? Do we not have a duty to be fair in sorting out the causes of mass shootings? To me, to blame guns is like blaming the fork and spoon for making us fat. Or, like blaming tobacco farmers for making us smoke and get lung cancer. (I smoked during my teen years and I did it all by myself.) To blame any president for a mass killing is to avoid dealing with the problem of mental illness and hatred. The Bible puts the blame where it belongs.
 
WHEN CAIN KILLED HIS BROTHER, ABEL, God didn’t come looking for the rock that did the killing or go see his mother about how she had raised him the wrong way. We don’t know if Cain used a weapon. He may have killed him with his bare hands. But he most likely killed him with a rock. They were not in a house, but in a field where rocks would be plentiful. If the choice of weapons was important, God would have told us. The point of the story is that Cain was “very wroth.” God did not blame the weapon but dealt with the one who used it to do the killing.  Let's go back to the story.
 
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: (Genesis 4:1-4)
 
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.  (Genesis 4:5-7)
 
BETWEEN 2010 AND 2014 BORDER PATROL AGENTS were assaulted with rocks 1,700 times, they fired weapons at rock throwers 43 times, resulting in 10 deaths. Border Patrol agents are permitted to respond to rock-throwers with lethal weapons (Wikipedia)
 
IN THE SUMMARY CHART BELOW BY THE FBI FOR THE YEAR 2017, it includes the different kinds of weapons or objects used to kill the 15,129 people for that year. In the chart you will notice that blunt objects (hammers and other objects such as rocks) killed 467 people. But 692 were killed with their hands, fists, and feet. It seems that violence and murder is in the heart of the person who does the killing.
 
MOST PEOPLE, BY FAR, ARE KILLED WITH HANDGUNS and not with the so-called “assault-type” weapons. I read from another source that of the handguns, most deaths are caused by 22 caliper pistols. The victims most often bleed to death after several minutes. The 22 does not have knocking power to stop an assailant coming at you, so the 22 is not the best defense weapon.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-11.xls
 
WE SHOULD KEEP IN MIND THAT MANY WEAPONS have been outlawed. All automatic weapons are against the law. Tanks, bazooka, hand grenades, machine guns, AK-47’s. All automatic weapons are outlawed. Semi-automatic guns fire one time with each pull of the finger. This would include most handguns: the cylinder type and those with magazine clips. A “showy” semi-automatic rifle that is gussied up to look like an assault rifle is NOT an assault rifle. They’re made to look “showy” and sell. The bump-stock device that can converts a semi-automatic rifle to an automatic rifle is now unlawful.
 
I NOTICE THE NEWS MEDIA IS FINALLY GETTING IT RIGHT in calling the showy rifles an “assault-type” rifle instead of an “assault rifle.” (Big difference.)  You Special Forces men reading this, please cut me a little slack because weapons are not my thing.  If you see something that needs to be changed, please let me know. (And thanks for reading.)
 
I DO BELIEVE THIS: IF GUNS THAT PROTECT US ARE TAKEN FROM US, a lot of people are going to be shot that don’t need to be shot. The signs on restaurant doors and doctors’ offices that say: “This is a gun-free zone” are death traps. It’s a public announcement that any mentally deranged or angry person can come through the door and kill all the people they want to without being in danger of getting shot themselves. Those signs are NOT the brightest idea of safety. They put people in potential danger.
 
BARBARA AND I BOTH HAVE "CONCEALED CARRY" PERMITS and small 38 revolver pistols we carry when we feel we should, especially when traveling. We had a bad experience on I-75 North between Chattanooga and Knoxville, several years ago. Some big guys tried to get us to pull over as though there was something wrong with our front tire.
 
WHEN WE GOT UP TO 100 M.P.H. IN THE OLD BUICK DIESEL,hen we got up to 100 m.p.h. in the old Buick Diesel, they began to drop back. If I had pulled over, I might not be writing this letter. (During our day of training, Barbara beat me on the firing range. You don’t need to be spreading that around.) Of course, when she was 15, she had already shot (dead) a big old flogging rooster with a 22 rifle to protect her mother.)
 
IN AMERICA, THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS was not written into the original Constitution to give you the right to go rabbit hunting. It was given to enable you to resist a tyrannical government if it should come to that as a last resort.  We should try this first:
 
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  (2 Chronicles 7:14)Ω
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year   
AUGUST 9, 2019 – FRIDAY         
A.M.  Psalm 85-87 P.M.  Romans 9
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
And even as they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient (fitting);  (Romans 1:28)
 
Song for Today:
 Rock of Ages (A Cappello congregation) (3:02) (David Killingsworth)           

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxGD_Sbzpuc
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those false prophets...

8/7/2019

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        Those False Prophets…
But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
 
And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?  When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.  (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)
 
FALSE PROPHETS HAVE BEEN AROUND since there were prophets. Up front: everybody is NOT a false prophet who disagrees with me on a Bible topic. God’s approach to the people of Moses’ day (and to us today), was to be aware that there ARE false prophets who will not speak the Word of God but will speak their own words and try to deceive those who listen to them. In New Testament days, the false prophets went after money, prestige, and the weak women in the congregation they might be able to seduce.
 
I HAVE WRITTEN THIS BEFORE. I don’t believe we can be too careful about sorting out what is from man and what is from God. Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. said:  “The Bible contains what God said; It’s true that He said it and what He said is true. The Bible contains what men and women have said. It’s true that they said it; What they said may be true or may not be true. The Bible contains what the Devil has said. It’s true that he said it, but what he said is a lie.” (Bob Jones, Sr.)

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.  (John 8:44)
 
MOSES WAS A LAWGIVER AND A PROPHET. God appointed Moses to receive His law from His hands and to lead the chosen people for Moses’ full lifetime. God also placed the role of “prophet” upon Moses and told him that the ultimate prophet would be like him. That ultimate prophet was “the promised one,” Jesus. The standard that God set up for the prophet Moses and all those that were to follow him, was to speak what God had commanded them to speak; nothing less, nothing more.
 
JESUS QUOTED OLD TESTAMENT PASSAGES when in dialog with public figures and He always outwitted His opponents. People liked it because He knew the Jewish scriptures so well. In the gospels, He quoted Exodus 7 times; Isaiah 8 times; Deuteronomy 9 times; and the Psalms 10 times.

HE SOMETIMES REFERRED TO O.T. BOOKS WITHOUT SAYING WHICH BOOK. For example, in discussing divorce, He said: “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered (allowed) you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (Matthew 19:8) He referred to creation: But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. (Mark 10:6)

PAUL WARNED ABOUT FALSE PROPHETS: For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.  (2Corinthians 11:13-15)
 
AREN'T WE GLAD PAUL GOT RID OF ALL THE FALSE PROPHETS so we won’t have to deal with them? How awful it would be if we still had false prophets today, like, in our seminaries and bookstores and churches and TV and radio programs. How confusing it would be if false prophets were still hanging around to deceive folks today.
 
IF THE DEVIL WERE FREE TO DECEIVE PEOPLE TODAY, he might go after our children and young people and use their friends and their electronic gadgets and other things to attract them away from their families and God.
 
TRUTH IS.....FALSE PROPHETS HAVE INCREASED GREATLY IN OUR DAY! Jesus prophesied that one of the defining things of the last days would be the increase of false prophets. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. (Matthew 24:11) “Many false prophets.” “Shall deceive many.” If you were being deceived, would you know you were being deceived? (If you knew you were being deceived you would no longer be deceived…right?)
 
JESUS REPEATED THE WARNING IN V.24: For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.  (Matthew 24:24)
 
THIS IS NO TIME TO BE LAZY. People are working hard, and there is a sharp decline in reading today. Newspapers are struggling against smart phones. People want to see pictures and cartoons instead of reading words. Reading takes time and requires more effort at thinking. People are grasping for anything that avoids time-consuming reading.
 
BUT THERE'S NO SHORTCUT WHEN I COMES TO THE WORD OF GOD. Pictures help us in highlighting Bible themes, but there is no way to escape the need to read and think. I write more than some people want to read. But I’m supposed to write, so I leave it up to the individuals whether they want to take the time to read it.
 

DAILY BIBLE READING AND PRAYER ARE OUR SUREST MEANS of avoiding the deception of false prophets and false teachers and false TV preachers who make a pitch for you and your family every week. We are way ahead if we have found a good Bible-teaching, Bible-preaching church that faithfully proclaims the Word of God and has good Christians who provoke us unto good works. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: (Hebrews 10:24) Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year  
AUGUST 8, 2019 – THURSDAY         
A.M.  Isaiah 62-64 P.M.  1 Thessalonians 5
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
And even as they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient (fitting);  (Romans 1:28)
 
Song for Today: 
There is a Fountain (2:39) (Calvary Memorial Church Choir)           

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs6N8s1gPuI
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.

Health Hint:
The flu season is not far down the road. Hopefully, you will get nothing or just a garden-variety infection that is not too hard to manage. A flu shot might not be a bad thing, especially if it’s a match for the flu you might get. The authorities have to guess which flu bug its going to be.  I can’t have them because I’ve had Guillain Berre’ (French Polio) and the shot could set that problem off again. Because of that, a doctor pulled me aside 30 years ago and gave me some suggestions for strengthening the immune system.

Drink plenty of water/liquids. Lighten up on heavy eating. Get enough sleep. Don’t get overly tired. Cut your sugar intake – waaay down! Keep on hand plenty of Vitamin C and plenty of garlic (fresh or powder or capsules) Plenty of Vitamin. C means keeping 1,000 mg capsules (NOT TABLETS) on hand. I buy them in large containers: (600 capsules).

When infection comes on, start taking 2-3 1,000 mg capsules of Vit. C Complex
on-the-hour with 8 oz of water. It will produce gas. (Some things are worse than that.) There’s a drugstore, fruit-flavored powder: Emergen-C, that fizzes, that can help with the Vitamin C thing, but it’s not very strong. It’s like an Alka-Seltzer.

If you take Vit. C “to tolerance,” it means to up the dose until the bowels begin to loosen and then back off the dosage a bit. When infection hits you, it uses up all the Vitamin C in your body and it will continue to use a lot until the infection is subdued.

Vitamin C will not kill a virus. It will help you reduce the runny nose and other symptoms until your body can make a blueprint of the virus and begin to produce anti-bodies that will eventually subdue it. When that happens, mucus will thicken, and it will go through a full stage of war until the good guys win.

If you have the flu, you will know it’s not just another sneezing thing.  Contact your doctor by phone or closest Emergency Room and get a “heads up.”

Virus infections are often followed with bacterial infections and they can be helped with anti-biotics. I don’t like the anti-biotics that are swallowed. It kills everything in the gut and takes weeks to recover from the drugs. So, I try to avoid the anti-biotics if possible. We used to get Penicillin shots, and they worked fine on bacterial infections; didn’t go through the gut,  didn’t destroy everything in the gut. But doctors won’t give Penicillin shots these days. Some people are allergic to Penicillin and doctors don’t want to get dragged into that.
  

I’m not a medical person of any kind. This is just information I’ve collected from doctors, nurses, and reading and getting sick myself and listening to people tell their stories. Take care of yourself! (Whatever that is.) Ω
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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GOD'S PROPHETS...

8/6/2019

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Picture
                     God’s Prophets…                            
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.  (Luke 16:31)
 
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.  (Luke 24:27)
 
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)
 
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:  (Isaiah 46:9-10)
 
IN LUKE 16:31, ABRAHAM TELLS THE RICH MAN IN HADES that if his living brothers would not listen to the words of Jewish scripture, neither would they persuaded, though one rose from the dead. In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people referred loosely to the complete body of their scriptures as “Moses and the Prophets.”
 
A FEW CHAPTERS LATER IN LUKE 24:27, Jesus is talking to His disciples and He says: “Moses and the prophets.”  But, in the same discussion with the disciples, he refers to the complete book of Hebrew scriptures again and calls them: 1. The Law of Moses 2. The Prophets, and 3: The Psalms. There is no conflict here. The “Psalms” in that setting was more than what we know as the “Psalms” today. Albert Barnes explains it:
 
“IN THE LAW OF MOSES - The five books of Moses - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Among the Jews this was the first division of the Old Testament, and was called the “law.”
 
“THE PROPHETS - This was the second and largest part of the Hebrew Scriptures. It comprehended the books of Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, which were called the “former prophets;” and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve smaller books from Daniel, to Malachi, which were called the “latter prophets.
 
“THE PSALMS - The word here used probably means what were comprehended under the name of “Hagiographa,” or holy writings. This consisted of the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the two books of Chronicles.

“THIS DIVISION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS IN USE long before the time of Christ and was what he referred to here; and he meant to say that in “each of” these divisions of the Old Testament there were prophecies respecting himself. The “particular” subject before them was his “resurrection from the dead.” A most striking prediction of this is contained in Psalm 16:9-11. Compare it with Acts 2:24-32; Acts 13:35-37. (Albert Barnes)

ALTHOUGH MOSES IS KNOWN PRIMARILY as the “law giver” (and is portrayed that way inside and outside the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.), the Hebrew scriptures have this to say about Moses: And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,  (Deuteronomy 34:10) Obviously, Moses would not have written this about himself. It is assumed that after the death of Moses some responsible scholar wrote this into the record.
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT REFERS TO MOSES AS A PROPHET: For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.  (Act 3:22) Moses was a prophet. The One who was to come to Israel would be a prophet like unto Moses; that is, with the moral authority of Moses. Jesus was a prophet. In fact, Jesus was Prophet, Priest, and King. He has functioned already as a prophet and priest and will one day function as the King of Israel and of the world.
 
CHRISTIANS SOMETIMES COMMENT: “I just don’t read the Old Testament. I do all of my reading in the New Testament.” They mean well. I try to be patient with these dear saints who don’t have a clue as to what they are saying. “The New Testament is in Old contained, and the Old Testament is in the New explained.”
 
WITHOUT THE OLD TESTAMENT, the New Testament has no root or fixed meaning. The Book of Revelation in the New Testament cannot be interpreted apart from the book of Daniel. John Walvoord says: “Among the great prophetic books of Scripture, none provides a more comprehensive and chronological prophetic view of the broad movement of history than the book of Daniel. …Daniel is essential to he structure of prophecy and is the key to the entire Old Testament prophetic revelation.” (Page 7, Daniel, The Key to Prophetic Revelation.”
 
TO GET A FIRM GRASP OF THE BIBLE, it is essential that we include the prophets and their writings. In the New Testament it is often said that such and such an event fulfilled prophecy. In Matthew through Romans 8, the Bible says 58 times “That it might be fulfilled.” How can one hope to understand the New Testament if one does not know “what was being fulfilled?” Prophecies were being fulfilled. What is a prophecy? A prophecy is an utterance of a prophet. We need to study the prophets in the Old Testament.
 
KEEP IN MIND: FOR SEVERAL YEARS AFTER CHRIST ROSE FROM THE DEAD, there were no New Testament books. The book of James is considered by some scholars as being the first New Testament book. It was written not long before A.D. 49. He was martyred in A.D. 62. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by Titus in A. D. 70. So, the first New Testament book was written at least fifteen years after he crucifixion of Christ and maybe longer.  James was the leader of the Church in Jerusalem and his letter does not mention the destruction of Jerusalem.
 
WE FIND THIS IN THE BOOK OF ACTS: Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  (Acts 8:4) Persecution of Christians began shortly after the resurrection of Christ and the Day of Pentecost. What “word” did they preach as they were scattered abroad? They preached Christ out of the Old Testament scriptures.
 
HOW COULD THEY PREACH JESUS OUT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT? Because the Old Testament prophets wrote about the coming Christ. Their ministry in those days was primarily to Jews who were scattered away from Jerusalem because of their occupations that had drawn them away from Jerusalem.
 
MY FAITH SURVIVED THE STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY IN COLLEGE because I knew that the Bible was the book of fulfilled prophecy and that mere human beings cannot predict the future. We have this unique old book that is laced through and through with “it shall come to pass” and “it came to pass.” The prophets were also warning voices of impending judgment if the nation does not turn from its wicked ways. Jonah would be such a voice to Nineveh. Hosea, Amos, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Elijah were warning voices.
 
ISAIAH, THE PRINCE OF PROPHETS, was put into a box and sawed in half. Of Ezekiel, God said: For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.  And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.  (Ezekiel 2:4-5)
 
THE POPHETS WERE ALL FORE-TELLERS. Today, the voices God calls and sends forth are forth-tellers. In both cases: the “fore tellers” and the “forth tellers,”  it is the Word of God. Peter said: We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.  (2Peter 1:19-21)
 
I HAVE READ THAT AROUND 300 PROPHECIES ABOUT JESUS have already been fulfilled and based on so many prophecies having already been fulfilled, we can expect the rest of them to be fulfilled. Paul says of Jesus: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,  (Galatians 4:4) J. Barton Payne in his Encyclopedia of Bible Prophecy, gives a list of 191 prophecies that he deems as having a "personal reference to Christ." Another scholar, Alfred Edersheim, concluded that there at least 456 passages in the Old Testament that Jewish Rabbis historically have interpreted as being about the Messiah. If 300 prophecies have been fulfilled, then we can wait in faith and expectation for the remaining 156 passages to be fulfilled.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR JESUS TO COME AGAIN  and to sit upon the throne of David in Jerusalem, in the fullness of time. And we shall rule and reign with Him for a thousand years. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.  (Revelation 20:6) He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.  (Rev 22:20)
 
Are you ready? Are you looking for Him to return?
 
Read Through the Bible in a Year   
AUGUST 7, 2018 – WEDNESDAY         
A.M.  Psalms 79-81 P.M.  Romans 8:1-18
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
And even as they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient (fitting);  (Romans 1:28)
 
Song for Today:
Let the Rocks Cry Out (2:48) (Calvary Memorial Church Choir)                    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RB339rbvNU
You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.

Health Hint:  
It’s flea time! (May-September. In the south and south-west, it’s year-round.) They come in the house on your feet and legs and on your pets. There are sprays for sale. However, the sprays will not kill all the fleas and you are going to breathe in some of it. Spraying your feet and legs with OFF may help.

Once they are in the house, the surest way we have found is to get out a baking pan, 1”-2” deep and run a half-inch of water in it. Add 2-3 drops of dish detergent and stir it a bit. The detergent will weaken the surface of the water, so the fleas cannot float. They will sink and drown.

Find a goose-neck lamb with 60W (or so) bulb. Bend the light over the pan of water, about 12” above it. Leave light on night and day for a week or so. The fleas will jump upward toward the light and fall into the water and drown. If you want to see how it’s doing, change the soapy water every day and count the fleas. You may need 2-3 pans going. Living room, bedroom, porch, etc. This works. Ω
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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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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