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what is halloween?

10/30/2017

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What is Halloween?

When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.  There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer (one who communicates with the dead).  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.  (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)

Halloween is upon us. What is the background of our mild-mannered Halloween, practiced in America today?  The word: Halloween comes from two words: “hallowed evening.” It was the evening before All Saints Day, established by the Roman Catholic Church. They were trying to “Christianize” the Celtic celebrations. The Celts believed that at this time of year, departed spirits of the dead returned to earth. The Celts built bonfires and wore costumes to scare off the returning ghosts.

www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween The History Channel has several 3-minute videos that are informative (plus lots of commercials). 
Without question, Halloween is connected to the underworld of Satan. It is built upon the idea of many returning departed spirits. This gets into witchcraft and communication with the dead. However, communication with the dead is Satanic deception.  Familiar spirit: Sorcerers or necormancers, who professed to call up the dead to answer questions.  were said to have a "familiar spirit" ( Deuteronomy 18:11)

The marshmallow stage is the sweetest and safest-appearing version; the candy version. It is the most visible, the most practiced and the most smiled upon version. Children are taken by their parents to a dozen or so homes. They knock on the door and announce: “Trick or treat!”  You know how that’s done. Who could say anything about the sweet and innocent celebration of Halloween as it is now done in America?

In researching this article, I read that at least a fourth of all the candy sold in America takes place around the celebration of Halloween. So, like Christmas, it has become big money. Money Magazine says: “Americans will spend over $8 billion on candy, decorations, costumes and cards this year. 

What would Jesus do about Halloween? Jesus would be in total agreement with His Father. He would ask: “What is the theme of Halloween?”  The theme of Halloween is about encountering departed spirits of the dead. 

How to deal with the sweet version of Halloween is not easy. It takes a strategy and some planning. Make no mistake about the wide web Satan is spinning to suck in your children. It’s not just about “trick or treat.” It is so much bigger than that. The goal is to enlist your children into allegiance to him. There are drugs, pornography for older children, raunchy music with a message of rebellion against parents and authority in general.
 

The sweet version of Halloween is going on with church people joining right in to help make it a success. We don’t like conflict, so we just go along with the flow. In most Christian homes, the Bible is never read. Parents are not praying with their children. No spiritual bonds are being made in the home to counteract the strong bonds being made with friends and school indoctrination in evolution. It’s a field day for Satan to own the children. Halloween is just one spoke in the wheel.
 

What can we do to counteract Halloween? If your church has a Harvest Festival celebration, then make sure you and your children are a part of that. Support it. Participate in it. Thousands of churches in America are now hosting Harvest Festival activities in opposition to Halloween. Churches should do this when possible.  If there is not a church-sponsored Harvest Festival in your area, a few families can get together and plan a fun-filled Harvest Festival at a home. Dress up but not in satanic uniforms and without the paraphernalia of spiritism. Decorate the place with bales of hay, corn shocks, pumpkins and other fall produce, bob for apples and come up with games suitable for the ages attending.  Have a prayer time and testimony time.

At our house, for many years we have had candy ready and greeted the young Halloween players at our door. We try to have a good tract on Halloween that goes into each bag. Takers have slacked off in recent years. I think church activity on Halloween night is attracting many of them.
 

We should not make light of the Kingdom of Satan and his hierarchy of demonic spirits. Many years ago, it was my duty to witness a two-hour wrestling between a counselor and a demon in a teen-age girl. The girl was sitting on a raised flat surface, sitting up. The demon would take hold of her vocal chords and she spoke something like a man, but in a guttural sound. After a while she was wearing down and would lie back. When the demon wanted to talk, she would bolt up into a sitting position like she had been hit with electricity and begin to talk in the other voice. This went on until at last the demon left her. After it was over, she slept for most of two days.

The Teen Challenge Ministry, begun by David Wilkerson, had many problems with demon possessed teenagers in the large cities of America. I learned this from a counselor in a counseling center in Indianapolis, IN. The counselor worked with teens in a Teen Challenge location for several years. In Indianapolis, I was witnessing the counseling by this man with a troubled pastor. During a break, I noticed that the counselor’s books were in disarray in a book shelf. He said that the day before he was counseling a teenager in that office and the teenager began making passes at him. When he refused, the teenager raged at him in a demonic voice. Suddenly the girl jumped up and began pulling down his books onto the floor. He had not had time to clean up the mess before our scheduled meeting with him. 

There is such a thing as a spirit world of demons who operate in this world. It’s not pleasant to think about but it is true, and the Bible is strong on this. Halloween is party time for demons who find people that will allow them to enter their bodies. Don’t tinker with demons. We are no match for them unless we are right with God and command them in the name of Jesus Christ. If this happens, you’d better make sure that you and the Holy Spirit are one and there’s no unfinished business between you and the Lord. 

I was sharing a radio broadcast with Pastor B.S. and Missionary R.M. in Pensacola, FL. After the broadcast we went to a coffee shop to talk. The missionary had just returned from Japan. He told about a young missionary who went into a Japanese sacred shrine temple and began to order the demons around that sometimes inhabit the idols in the shrine. The missionary was warned not to do that. The demons jumped him and beat him up. He thought he could do it in his own strength. He was wrong. 

Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., founder of Bob Jones University, wrote in one of his books, his experience of attending a seance with some people and a spirit medium when he was a young preacher. No one can talk to the dead. Some can talk with demons who are imposters of the dead. Dr. Jones said the spirit medium told him some things about himself that no one knew but himself. One time was enough for him. He left the demons alone. Ω


Read Through the Bible in a Year
OCTOBER 31, 2017 – TUESDAY
 A.M.  Jeremiah 29-30 P.M.  Titus 1 
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:23b

Song for Today:
Holy, Holy, Holy (5:21) (Royal Albert Hall – London)                    
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ZfrO0UW_s 
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.




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diotrophes loves the center stage2

10/29/2017

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Diotrephes Loves the Center Stage
I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. (3John 1:9)

There was a beautiful, young-but-grown red and black rooster that had a commanding voice. Every morning he flapped his wings and positioned himself on the post of the barnyard gate. 

When he was sure that all eyes were on him, he reared back and crowed about the time the sun peaked above the trees around the barnyard. Not once, but several times he crowed until he commanded the attention of all the animals and even Farmer Brown who usually came out the back door to milk the cow about the time the rooster crowed, and the sun was coming up. 

This went on for months until one day the rooster had a brilliant thought…he was the cause of the sun coming up! It changed his personality and he began to boss the other animals around and even attacked the farmer’s wife with his spurs one Saturday morning when she came in the barnyard to feed the chickens. On Sunday, the family invited the pastor and his family to have Sunday dinner with them. Everyone was delighted with the extra-large bowl of rooster-and-dumplings. 

Our verse for today was written by 90-year-old John, the only surviving disciple of Jesus.  He wrote his last little book about the end of the first century. Titus in A.D. 70 had destroyed Jerusalem.  The Temple was destroyed along with the Jewish priesthood. A million Jews had been slaughtered in Jerusalem who had come to town for the Passover Feast. So, the destruction of Jerusalem was at least 20 years behind them

To backtrack further, forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus had been crucified, rose from the dead, commissioned the disciples, and returned to Heaven to await the restitution of things necessary for His return to earth (Acts 3:21). One day His disciples got into a spirited discussion about which of them was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?  But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.  (Mark 9:33-34)

They thought following Jesus was about an immediate kingdom much like King David had, and running the Romans out of town. But, they soon learned there was not going to be an immediate kingdom. God the Father knew when that would take place but even the angels in Heaven did not know.  That’s a brief background of this last letter of John’s.

The letter is to Gaius, an outstanding servant of the Lord and refers to himself as the “Elder.”  This was his signature name for himself.  He wrote just 14 verses, saying that he had more to say but he would see him soon. He had great respect and love for Gaius and mentioned that Gaius supported various men who traveled in ministry. Having said that, he mentioned a letter he had sent to the church and in the same sentence mentions that Diotrephes would not receive him. Who is this peanut who was a leader of some kind in the church but did not, would not listen to anything old John had to say ──Old John who was known to lean on Jesus when the disciples ate with Him and the one “whom Jesus loved?”

We have a problem here! It’s the same old problem some of the disciples had when they wanted to be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom. Diotrephes knew Jerusalem had been destroyed along with the Temple and the priesthood. Diotrephes loved to have the preeminence. He loved to be the center of attention at the church. He was a big shot and he didn’t want to give it up even to the Elder 90-year-old John who had something to say worth hearing.   

Do we have that problem today? I’m afraid some servants of the Lord love to hear their own voices or like to show off their musical talents. Nobody knows about this but the Lord, unless it’s so strong it’s obvious. “Look at me! Admire me!” What a temptation that can be today. The opposite of that is a determination to bring glory to God and to honor Him. In that case it will be all right to listen to somebody else preach or sing without feeling slighted.

When I was one of the leaders of a Christian school organization in North Carolina, one of the pastors who attended our meetings in Raleigh, NC drove all the way from Sylvia, NC not far from Asheville. One day the news came that the pastor and his wife and been gunned down in their own front yard. The sheriff found them lying close together in the frost and their little four-year-old daughter crying and shivering and pleading with her mother: “Wake up Mommy! Wake up Mommy!
  

A deacon in the church and assistant to the pastor was jealous of the attention the pastor was getting from the congregation as its leader. He wanted that recognition for himself. His envy of the pastor grew until he murdered the pastor and his wife.

Jesus said: Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.  (Matthew 6:1-2)

WORTH REMEMBERING: Jesus Believed that God Made Male and Female from the Beginning of Creation. (Mark 10:6)


Read Through the Bible in a Year
OCTOBER 30, 2017 – MONDAY
 A.M.  Jeremiah 27-28     P.M.  2 Tim. 4 
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:23b


Song for Today:
To God Be the Glory (3:25) (Royal Albert Hall – London)                    

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-15v9iworAU  
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.




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jesus is the friend of sinners

10/26/2017

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Jesus Is the Friend of Sinners  
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)

I was seventeen and working with Steve in my father’s sawmill at Stevenson, AL. It was “Alabama Hot” and we were stacking Hickory handle squares in neat stacks outside to be air-dried. Steve’s blue work shirt was wet with sweat and his overall bib was wet and I wasn’t far behind him. He was a hard worker.

We paused under a shade to cool. I began to inquire about his soul and his need to be saved. 
He virtually jumped at the chance to be saved. He had served 20 years in prison for his part in killing an old farmer at the end of his corn field. He and a friend carefully planned to rob the man. It was during the Great Depression and they thought the man carried a roll of money in the pocket on the bib of his overalls. They waited until he finished plowing a row and when he began to turn the mule for the next row, Steve and his friend killed the old man.

Instead of a roll o money, they got $3.00 from him. That was it! Killed him for $3.00. His buddy turned "State's Evidence" and accused Steve of doing it by himself. So, Steve had 20 years to think about his sin. He was very much a sinner and was ripe to be saved.

While we were cooling down, I quickly ran through a few verses in my New Testament and asked him if he wanted to pray to be saved. He did. We prayed and then I led Steve in a prayer and he prayed after me. He trembled and shook and wept and just broke down and sobbed as he felt the burden lift from soul for having killed that man. And then we had to get back to work.
 

I have found through many years of witnessing to people that my problem has not been in getting people saved. The problem has come in getting people lost. I didn’t have to spend much time getting Steve to believe he was lost and needed to be saved.  We do not want anything to be wrong with us. We do not want to be "sinners." Therefore, we labor and struggle not to be a sinner. And if we must admit that we are a sinner, it is somebody else's fault. I thank God when I find someone who readily admits that he or she is a sinner.

There's no need to try to get anyone saved who is not a sinner. Therefore, I like to ask an individual "Do you need to be saved?" "Do you want to be saved?" “Do you know how to be saved?" Do you want me to pray with you?”  I may ask the person, “What is God going to do with you when you stand before Him and give an account of yourself?"
 

A lot of people know they are sinners but they still don't want to be saved because they love their sin. They do not want God to be in charge of them. They want to be God, themselves. "I will tell God what He can have." "I will be in the place of God." God will not save a man until he understands he's a sinner in trouble with a Holy God. I sometimes tell a person: "The Bible says it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27). Do you suppose there's anything to that?" "What are you going to tell Him when you stand before Him?" We must engage the minds of people about being a sinner if we want to reach their souls.

This is by no means a “how to do it” page. We can’t save anyone. Salvation is of the Lord and He has to do the convicting and the saving of souls. But, we can be faithful witnesses wherever we go and do our best to engage the minds of people in where they are going to spend eternity. And then, if the person will listen, we can give them John 3:16:  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) and For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  (Romans 10:13)

If you know or if you will memorize these two verses (above) you will have a solid rock for witnessing to people you meet in many, many situations. They’re short and to the point and if there’s an opportunity to follow it up with prayer, that can be done too.

The MacArthur study BiBle makes this comment: calls on the name. This familiar OT expression (e.g., Psa_79:5-6; Psa_105:1; Psa_116:4-5) does not refer to some desperate cry to just any deity but to the one true God as He has revealed Himself—a revelation which now includes recognition of Jesus as Lord (Rom_10:9) and of the One who raised up Jesus from the dead (Rom_10:9).

In Romans 10:13, Paul quoted Joel (Joel_2:32) to further emphasize that salvation is available for people of all nations and races.
 

Most Christians have a sincere desire to witness at every opportunity but do not know how to go about it or may not realize how simple it is. Don’t make witnessing a complicated thing. It is not a discourse on theology and covering a lot of fine points. You have to keep it simple or the one you’re talking to may very well respond with a “Huh?”
 

John 3:16 and Romans 10:13 is all you need to engage the mind of about anyone you meet. Practice it and when you find someone to talk to, take it as far as the conversation makes it possible. We are seed sowers. And I know from gardening experience since I was five years old that you are not going to get any turnips to come up unless you sow some turnip seeds.

Do this: decide you are going to be a witness for the Lord. Practice the two verses and the few suggestions given here and ask God to lead you to someone to talk to. Remember that the first Christians DID NOT have a Bible or a pocket testament. They only had what they had memorized….and that was enough. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  (Acts 8:4)

These were just common, ordinary, plain, poor people who knew next to nothing about preaching. They used what they knew and shared it with as many as they could. Somehow, their simple message began to take hold.

Truth is, the woods are full of lost people. Everywhere we turn there are lost people. Don’t worry about doing it exactly right. Just do it! Everybody we meet is not going to be a murderer in a corn field. Everybody is not going to be gripped by their sin and waiting for someone to come along to help them get saved. That’s ok. Do some seed sowing. And if someone trembles or agrees to let you pray with them, do it. Ω



Read Through the Bible in a Year
OCTOBER 27, 2017 – FRIDAY
 A.M.  Jeremiah 20-22    2 Tim. 1 
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  (Hebrews 4:2)

Song for Today:
Tell Me the Story of Jesus (5:49) (Ritchie-Parker – Gaither)                     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AghsSvQ_2B8  
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.














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the quest for significance2

10/25/2017

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The Quest for Signficance…
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.  (Romans 13:7)
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It shows up in the class room: loud, non-cooperating misbehavior of school students. Experienced teachers can spot them easily. They are wounded and painfully aware of their deficit. So, they roar like a lion to show themselves strong and fierce. I saw it when I was teaching school.
s a high school principal, it was almost a daily challenge to sort through the hidden trouble in the lives of misbehaving students sent to the office for me to “take care of.”
 

A high school student went down the hall, opening each class room and flipping off the classroom lights. When she was brought to my office, the obvious question was: “Why did you do it?” But I didn’t ask the question. I sat there and looked at her a minute as she looked down at the floor. Only the Lord really knows these students. I asked the Lord for some insight. Sometimes, insight can be as troubling as the problem. Now that I know, I’ve got to tell this young lady.

I said: “I know what’s bothering you. You’re angry with God for making you taller than the other students in your class.” Her lips began to tremble and tears ran down. I believe the Holy Spirit gave me that insight. “Do you know how much God loves you and that He made you like He did because He has a special purpose for your life?” She didn’t need to be punished; she needed a meltdown, a confrontation with something that was buried deep inside.
 

A student from the previous year came by my office to chat a few minutes. She leaned against the door frame and was fiddling with a car key on a chain on her index finger. I asked her how she was doing and she was going to just be friendly and do regular chit-chat. The key looked new and I asked her if that was the key to a new car.  She replied that it was and suddenly the tears began to roll down. “I don’t really want a new car! I want my daddy to have time for me! I sit down to talk and instead of talking, he gives me money to go buy new clothes. He doesn’t have time to talk to me!”

OK. It’s my turn. What do I tell this young lady who has spilled her insides in one short outburst?  To this day it is one of the most heart-wrenching things that ever happened to me. I couldn’t fix it. She needed her daddy and I wasn’t her daddy. I tried to assure her she was loved, but that was a hard sell.
  

There is the need for breath, for water, food, and sleep. In this list of needs, the need for significance probably comes next. Our need for worth is deep-seated. We need to be valuable to someone and it needs to be communicated to us in a way that is meaningful to us.  The context of “honour to whom honour” (above) is talking about fidelity to government authority over the Christian. But the wording “to whom” surely goes beyond a government setting. It would not mean to be mindful of human duty to government officials and leave room for us to be disorderly and destructive to people outside of government.
 

For many settings, “what is due” is simply love. Jesus said: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  (John 13:34)  One definition I read of love is “meeting the essential needs of another person who cannot provide those needs for himself or herself.” We have the example of this in Jesus’ death on the cross.
 

Jesus explained this to the brilliant and religious Nicodemus: 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)  Christians are obligated to love others, which means that the act or attitude toward another person is within the reach of our will. It is something we decide to do. We love him, because he first loved us.  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?  (1John 4:19-20)

I’m using the word “significance” to indicate something within us that we crave and at the root of it is the desire to be loved. If you marry without truly loving the person you are about to marry, you are not having your best day. I must be up front about this. I have seen a lot of “stuff” going on in the lives of people in the last 60 years. I see children who are deprived of love and they are a disaster on their way to tragedy. People will do all manner of strange things to satisfy this craving for love, significance. 

It is central to the Christian message that we love one another. If we do not get the point from those words, we can look at more words in the true “Lord’s Prayer” in John 17. It is about relationships with each other and notice the short word that’s used to convey this meaning: “one.” That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:   I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.  (John 17:21-23)

I didn’t always understand this important truth. There came a time in my life when I understood that my supreme identity is in this: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” I saw this quoted from another old man, somewhere, and I acknowledge the truth of it, but I didn’t get my understanding of this from reading about another old man.
 

I WANT YOU TO LOVE ME and I will do reasonable things to stay on your good side but I must tell you up front: if you decide you don’t want to love me, then I’ll have to make do without it. But you will not have affected the foundation of my soul. If you don’t love me, God will still love me as surely as the sun comes up every morning. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.  (Psalm 27:10) 

Friends and even family may turn against you and you may have to leave a dear loved one or friend at the graveside. But, train yourself to always look toward Heaven. My worth comes from Heaven, from a loving heavenly Father that will never forsake me. That is my significance. That is my first source of certain love. Gather what love you can from family and friends but don’t forget to look heavenward.

I’m worth something to my Heavenly Father. He made me and then He redeemed me by the blood of the Lamb. I’m really somebody! I have this standing with God and no one can take it from me. Not only so, but God does not love me any more than He loves you.  Did your father or mother slight you? I am blessed to have strong memories of a loving father and mother who would have given their lives for me. But I have listened to people who do not have that satisfaction and I am always made sad when I hear it.

But, regardless, there is one who loves you and has decreed that you have worth, real worth, significance, real significance. He proved this when He said, “I Love You, Written in Red.” Was there ever a greater song than that?
 

Love lifted me. It is the dirtiest song in the song books of rescue missions because dirty thumbs of street people have held the book open at that page. I have preached in missions and thumbed through the song books, looking for the dirtiest pages. It’s always the dirtiest song in the book. Another dirty page is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The other dirty page is “Amazing Grace.” These songs have had great power to lift the hopes of hopeless people who came in off the street to get a bowl of beans and a dose of love for their souls. Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year
OCTOBER 26, 2017 – THURSDAY
 A.M.  Jeremiah 17-19 P.M.  1 Tim. 6 
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  (Hebrews 4:2)

Song for Today:
I Love You Written in Red (4:13) (Janet Paschal – Gaither)                     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTxOS5vZ-Hc 
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.


 














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train up a child...

10/24/2017

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Train up a Child
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). …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  (2Timothy 3:15).

In September 1940 I rode a yellow bus to the above almost new school building in Alpine, TN, built by the WPA and began my “higher education” in the first grade.  I say, “higher education” because I already knew most of the letters on the baking powder can and lard bucket in the kitchen at home. I still had to learn Z and Q and was having a little trouble remembering H. Mrs. Brown, a young widow, was my teacher. She also taught 2nd grade.

Next year I was promoted to the other side of the room, 2nd grade, and we had a new teacher, Miss Vaughn. She wrote John 3:16 on the blackboard and we recited it every morning before we prayed together. After Christmas we began John 3:17. The memory verses at the bottom of Morning Minute are an idea that began with Miss Vaughn 77 years ago.
  

Miss Vaughn also played the first piano I ever heard. (We didn’t have a piano at church.) It was in the lunch room and she played it every week to begin chapel. She played hymns with gusto and we sang with her, with gusto. The lunch room was at the end of the walk, up the steps and through the double doors. (This is the sandstone building.)

We were not supposed to carry pocket knives in the second grade, but most of the boys did and some of them were from Wilder, TN. (Well-named.) I closed a blue-handled pocket knife (Christmas gift) on my own finger which drew a lot of blood but we didn’t cut each other. We used our knives to play Mumbley-peg at recess.
 

If parents sent their children to school with tobacco, they could smoke down at the privy during lunch. Two of the toughest boys chewed tobacco. I tried a “chaw” and leaned up against the wall between the two windows (pictured above) and chewed with vigor to show myself a man in front of the older boys. As the wall and the sky became unstable, I slid down the wall and my stomach drove me toward the ball field behind the camera in this photo. The “professionals” in the 4-6 grade would have to do the tobacco chewing.
 

When we teach children the Word of God, it may go to the bone and guide their lives. It might even inspire them to call on the Lord and become a Christian and a citizen of Heaven.  They may even teach their own children.  It’s not a sure-fire thing. They may grow up to be mean as the devil, but, as a whole, a well-taught child will be a well-lived adult. 

After this, we moved 300 miles away and I practiced cussin’ so I would fit in with the rough boys I wanted to run with. But, the seed had been sown and my conscience had been set. When the preacher preached the Bible hot and heavy in the bean market, October 1943, it was over. I ran to God!

PAUL SAID TO TIMOTHY: When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.  (2Timothy 1:5)

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

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; (Deuteronomy 4:9)

GOD SAID TO JOSHUA: 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)

Nothing in this world is more important than teaching and training children to know the Lord and His Word. Where would we be without those who taught us? Ω
────── Edited and reprinted from Morning Minute, March 9, 2016) ─────


Read Through the Bible in a Year
October 25, 2017 - WEDNESDAY
 A.M. Jeremiah 14-16   P.M. 1Timothy 5
(BIBLE GATEWAY will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  (Hebrews 4:2)


Song for Today:
Jesus Loves the Little Children (1:34) (Cedarmont Kids)                     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j01SGogFtFo 
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making music and digging ditches

10/23/2017

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Making Music and Digging Ditches…
And Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, (Jehoram, king of Israel) nor see thee.  But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.  And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Make this valley full of ditches.  (2Kings 3:14-16)

BACKGROUND: Elijah’s dynamic ministry took place in the northern ten tribes known as Israel. (Judah remained intact in the south and functioned with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.) Elijah prodded Ahab to command the prophets of Baal to meet with Elijah on Mt. Carmel for a contest with God and His prophet.

When Elijah’s turn came to pray, he repaired Jehovah’s altar that was broken down, laid on it wood, an offering, and in the time of great drought, ordered precious water to be poured on the altar, and prayed a short prayer. Fire fell from heaven and devoured the offering, wood, water, and even the stones of the altar.

Clouds gathered and the first rain in three years fell in torrents. Israel went through a little emotional fidget, saying they would serve God and renounce the idols of Baal and Jezebel’s priesthood. Their revival toward God was barely skin-deep.


And now, Elijah has gone to Heaven and his understudy, Elisha, has taken his place. Wicked King Ahab has died and his son, Jehoram, is king. Moab has rebelled against him to get out from under the yoke of Israel. The people of Moab were having to pay Israel a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams every year. The king of Israel is between a rock and a hard place so he appeals to Jehoshaphat the king Judah to come and help him fight Moab. "Yeah, I'll go with you." 
 

After Elisha had briefly chewed on the King of Israel he recovered his own composure and said, “bring me a minstrel.”  King Saul, Israel’s first king, relied on music to soothe his tortured soul. David brought his hand-held lyre (a small harp) and Saul would relax. Good music can do that, even today. But there is today some “music” that to me sounds like a cat caught in a screen door and I don’t care for it. I don’t have a verse of Scripture for it. I just don’t like it. If it brings you close to God, then that’s between you and the Lord. It does nothing for me but grate my nerves.

As the minstrel ministered to Elisha with music the Spirit of God moved on Elisha and told him what to do. “Make this valley full of ditches.” Well, now, is that any way to attack an enemy? Just…dig a lot of ditches? There’s a principle here. Do you remember when young David ran out to fight Goliath, the Philistine? David said to him, just before he killed him with his sling and a stone: And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands.  (1Samuel 17:47)


“The battle is the Lord’s.”  In another place we are told: … Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.  (Romans 12:19) I have known about this verse a long time but sometimes I want so bad to help the Lord do His work of “repaying” His vengeance.  The battle is the Lord’s. This has been hard for me to embrace sometimes. I started out “taking care of it” in the second grade and always ended up with a bloody nose and bruises. I was a slow learner. All the boys in my class were bigger than me. “The battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.” “Make this valley full of ditches.”

Is there anything more important or more crucial to the outcome than to “play the guitar” and wait on the Lord?” The music soothed his soul and helped Elisha to concentrate on talking with God and listening to Him. Our God is an awesome God and He is the God of infinite variety. Let’s don’t try to figure out what He will do or how He will do it. Just obey everything He shows you. 

Nobody else was digging ditches; just these people that God told to dig ditches. If you can be still and wait on the Lord to tell you what to do, you’ve got it made. I believe that God’s people ought to connect with Him more than we do. I’m not a good example, but I do intend to practice what I preach.

When I wake up in the morning, if I look over at the clock in the dark and if it’s about time to get up, I just lie there and see if He wants to give me an idea or put something in my mind that I need to do that day. Sometimes, the Lord shows me things when I first wake up. That’s the time to be still and listen and wait. Don’t start your day telling the Lord a bunch of stuff right off. Just be quiet for a while and if you need to say something, just say: “Good morning Lord. Is there something you want me to think about this morning?” Then be quiet. When it’s time to pray, begin by thanking Him.

Sometimes it’s to know which one of two things you’ve been thinking about. Sometimes it’s a matter of waiting until things line up and He gives you the green light. Whatever you need, you can depend on this: Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.  (Psalm 46:10)  Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.  (Psalm 27:14)  Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year 
October 24, 2017 - TUESDAY 
A.M.   Jeremiah 11-13    P.M. 1Timothy 4
(BIBLE GATEWAY will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  (Hebrews 4:2)


Song for Today: 
Near the Cross (2:54) (Dailey & Vincent – Acc. Quartet)

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2jOV222p1Y 
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if we would judge ourselves - pART 4

10/22/2017

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IF WE WOULD JUDGE OURSELVES – Part Four
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning (respecting, appreciating) the Lord's body.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.  (1Corinthians 11:29-32) 

The Apostle John was the last Apostle to die and lived to be about 95. He wrote the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation. He was the one who leaned on Jesus’ breast. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?  (John 21:20)

It would be disrespectful to John to accuse him of being off base for saying there is a sin unto death. To accuse John of not understanding how to live the Christian life would be unreal. To accuse Jesus of loving the wrong disciple would be folly. For two thousand years John has held his place as the “Apostle of Love.” John saw a lot of people pressing into Christianity and watched as the wolves invaded the churches, trying to make merchandise of the saints. He found it necessary to write words that would separate the wheat from the chaff and to encourage the true believers to hold fast. He encouraged the true believers to live up to God’s expectations of them in holy living.
 

He pressed them not to love the world in its godless way of living.  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.  (1John 2:15-17)

John had to deal with sin in the lives of believers. His ultimate statement to them was that there is a sin unto death for the Christian. (John agreed with Paul in our featured text above.)

John wrote: If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.  All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.  (1John 5:16-17)

John doesn’t say how Christians would recognize “a sin unto death” as opposed to “a sin NOT unto death.” He assumes that those who were praying would know the difference in their spirit. God’s people are encouraged to “pray in the Spirit.” Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;  (Ephesians 6:18)

All sin is not the same. The sin unto death was different in the sight of God than a sin that was not unto death. John points out in verse 17 that all unrighteousness is sin. And in the same breath, he says there is a sin not unto death. He wants to make it clear that all sin does not carry the death penalty. It was also that way in the Old Testament.
 

The words: “sin” and “sins” occurs a combined total of 620 times in the King James Bible. The words: “abomination” and “abominations” occur 102 times in the King James Bible. The words: “abomination” and “sin” are not interchangeable. “Abomination” is more offensive to God than “sin.” Abomination is an especially offensive sin. God’s judgment upon people in the Old Testament bears this out.
 

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and two other cities in the plain were burned to the ground. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.  (Gen 19:28) …the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:  (Deuteronomy 29:23b)

They were not the only cities in the world that were sinning. Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed for common, ordinary sin. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.  (Ezekiel 16:49)

We have a cameo shot of what that pride spawned in their lives. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. (Genesis 19:4-7)

They exalted themselves against God in pride and their pride gave them permission to embrace the sin of homosexuality. A plain reading of Scripture bears this out and it has been the prevailing interpretation of Bible students for many centuries. Only recently have some church leaders been twisting the Scriptures to suit their own perverted lifestyle.
 

All sin is not the same. All sin does not invoke the same penalty in this life from the Lord. That is true among the unsaved and true among the saved people. The solution to “sin unto sickness” and “sin unto death” is to judge ourselves and repent of our sins. We must remember that 1Corinthians and Hebrews and 1John are all in the New Testament.

Paul says that in Corinth many were sick and many were dead because they were living in sin and covered it over by disrespecting the Lord’s Supper/Communion. That’s in step with what God did to some people in the Old Testament. This whole thing revolves around the corrupt condition of their hearts and there was no fear of God in their eyes (Romans 3:18)

You can do anything you like if you do not respect God and have no affection for God. It doesn’t matter if it’s Old Testament or New Testament. We’re not discussing the eternal destiny of people. We’re talking about earthly behavior and God’s reaction to it in the here and now. The entire book of Ephesians is about the warfare of the believer. Becoming a Christian does not make us sinless. Christians cannot lose their salvation but they can lose their fellowship with God and lose their fear (respect, affection) of God. 


MOSES COMMITTED A SIN UNTO DEATH. God Himself explained that Moses committed a sin unto death when he struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock. Moses was closer to God than any man on the face of the earth, but his long-standing anger problem took hold of him and he lost the fear of God before his eyes. He did not lose his salvation. (He appeared later on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah to meet  Jesus, Peter, James and John.) 

Moses lost the privilege of entering the Promised Land because of his sin and Joshua took his place. And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.  (Numbers 20:11-12) 

Moses’ last assignment was to go up onto the mountain to die (Deut. 34:5). Moses had the opportunity to take charge of himself and obey God. But, like the Christians in Corinth, he chose to publicly dishonor God and he had to go to the mountain and die for it. I have great respect for Moses. In eternity he can tell his own story if it needs to be told. We can say this, if Moses had judged himself, he would have obeyed the Lord and would have spoken to the rock.
 

A HANDFUL OF REBELS OPPOSED MOSES AND GOD. The earth swallowed them up and closed back over them. And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.  (Numbers 16:32-33) There was no fear of God before their eyes. If they had judged themselves, this would not have happened.
 

NADAB AND ABIHU OFFERED STRANGE FIRE UNTO THE LORD AND HE BURNED THEM UP.  And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.  (Leviticus 10:1-2) There was no fear of God before their eyes. If they had judged themselves, this would not have happened. 

It is fitting to quote Charles Spurgeon in our picture for the last four days: “If you will not have death to sin, then you shall have sin unto death. There is no alternative. If you do not die to sin, then you shall die for sin. If you do not slay sin, sin will slay you.  As long as a man is alive and out of hell, he cannot have any cause to complain.” Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year 
October 23, 2017 - MONDAY
A.M.  Jeremiah 9-10       P.M. 1 Timothy 3
(BIBLE GATEWAY will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  (Hebrews 4:2)

Song for Today: 
O to Be Like Thee (3:06) (Dailey & Vincent – Acc. Quartet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ2d3BNlThY 
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If we would judge ourselves - part 3

10/20/2017

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If We Would Judge Ourselves – Part Three
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.  (1Corinthians 11:29-32) 

When I called on God to save me in the bean market in October 1943, I knew little about what I was signing on to. But I knew it was better than what I had. I knew that Christ had come to seek and to save that which lost and that I was very lost and needed to be saved.

So, we made a deal. I furnished a lost boy and God furnished eternal salvation and wrapped me in it. I signed on for the duration, whatever that was. He was my Savior and Lord. It came in the package. He would come for me some day and take me to Heaven to live with Him. I understood that when I was nine. In all these years I have never debated whether I would be in church next Sunday. That was settled in October 1943.


I started reading my “Bible” right away, at age nine. A woman in a Santa Clause suit came along the street with a shoulder bag full of paper-back New Testaments. She gave me one. That was two months after I had been saved. I didn’t understand much of what I read but it was interesting and I gathered meaningful things from it. I didn’t read it through, just here and there.
 

It was years later that I learned how firm was my relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It included God’s watchful, loving, and caring eye on me. It also likened my heavenly Father’s relationship to me to me to be like my earthly father’s relation to me. Included in His love for me was the possibility that He might chasten me, should I decide to walk outside the path He had designated for me. He is the Father. I am the son. He is the authority. I am the one to submit to His authority.

One day, I came across this passage in Hebrews: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure (experience) chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.  (Hebrews 12:6-8)

I’m pretty sure I discovered this in my early teens, not from preaching or Sunday school, but from reading. Who are going to get upset with if it comes to you through your own reading? It’s laid out so clearly that a young teenager can understand what it’s saying. God loves us and He loves us too much to allow us to wander all over creation and making friends with bad company that doesn’t know God. 

God will save you while you’re in the hog pen but He loves you too much to leave you in the hog pen. Expect it. Count on it. When you sign on with God and His Son and the Holy Spirit, He is not going to let you go. He is not going to let you wallow in the mud without showing you the bathtub. 

If you know the Lord and you wander away from the Him and His gentle persuasion doesn’t draw you back to Himself, He is going to lay His hand on you and get your attention. God is very talented at touching you where you need touching the most. I have been to the woodshed several times. I don’t have to read a book or hear a sermon to tell you about this. If you can run your life with little thought about God and He doesn’t lay His hand on you in discipline, it is because you are a bastard and not a son. Tough truth! It’s in the verses above.  

Some pastors are wearing themselves out trying to preserve fruit they’re not having. You can’t make disciples out of lost people. God does not chasten lost people to bring them back to Him because they have never been to Him. But God does chasten His own people who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

One day my mother was washing clothes in a big iron wash kettle that had been moved beside a wet-weather stream. She filled the kettle and built a fire under it with wood her father had dragged up with the mules. The fire was going good, the water was beginning to steam. I was about six and brought my tricycle to ride wherever it was smooth enough to ride. The smoothest place was around the wash kettle, just outside the reach of the fire. My mother told me 2-3 times not to ride around the kettle. She took hold of me and just short of a thrashing, she pointed up the path, away from the fire. 

I had a brilliant thought. “You don’t love me.” There now.  I have whipped my mama. I wasn’t prepared for her answer. She said, “O but I do love you. If I didn’t love you, I would leave you alone and let you ride around the fire until you fall into it and burn yourself to death.” (I had no answer for that.) Suddenly, I was ashamed. And I felt so dumb. I remember that scene like it was yesterday. Love is like that. Sometimes it has to be tough love. Sometimes her tough love was a peach tree switch that stung my legs. Those times made me pay closer attention to her words when she tried not to have to switch me.  My father never laid his hands on me, not ever. He gave me gentle tongue lashings that went to the bone. I learned to say: ‘Yes sir. I won’t do it again.” 

I loved preaching because preachers told good stories, even if they were Bible stories. One story I well-remember was about a shepherd that tried several times to restrain a frisky lamb that kept wandering off and getting tangled in bramble bushes. One day, the sad shepherd untangled the lamb and took it over to a rock and laid the lamb’s front leg on the rock. With another stone he broke the lamb’s leg. It hurt! My, how it hurt! He made a splint out of some small pieces of wood he found and wrapped the leg with a strip of cloth he ripped from his own robe. 

Then he carried the lamb in one arm with the lamb pressed against his body under his heart, and used his other arm to manage his staff. This went on day after day. After several weeks he removed the splint and set the lamb down. It had not walked in several weeks and it staggered. But the leg was healed and the lamb could soon walk normal. But, the lamb had changed. From then on, he stayed close to the shepherd. Never again did the lamb wander off and get tangled in the bramble bushes. 

So, if you know the Lord and He has to chasten you, just remember that it is because of His great love for you that He is using this to draw you to Himself, closer than you have ever been. He wants you to be close to Him. Ω

In Part Four we will look at 1John.

Read Through the Bible in a Year 
October 21, 2017 - SATURDAY 
 A.M.  Jeremiah 5-6       P.M. 1 Timothy 1
(BIBLE GATEWAY will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  (Hebrews 4:2)


2 Songs for Today: 
Holy, Holy, Holy & Now Thank We All Our God (5:21) (Royal Albert Hall, London)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ZfrO0UW_s        
                         
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If we would judge ourselves - Part 2

10/19/2017

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If We Would Judge Ourselves – Part Two
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.  (1Corinthians 11:29-32) 

When I became a pastor in 1953 and looked for verses to read at Communion services, I saw Paul’s message to the Corinthians. I began reading this passage at every Communion service. It is a plain warning to Christians about living in known sin and then glossing it over with public participation in this sacred observance.

Persistent sin is bad enough, but to cover it over with a public testimony of obedience to the Lord in a Communion service appears to cross a serious line with the Lord. In Corinth, it had brought on sickness and death to: “many.”
 

There IS a sin unto death for Christians who truly know the Lord but turn their backs on the Lord and ignore His will. It would be a sin that the individual knows is a sin. It may be a long-term persistence in sin that the person knows should not be. Or, like Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, it may be a one-time sin of such significance that the Lord will not overlook.
 

What is the sin unto death? The Bible does not name a particular sin that may result in death. The warnings in the Bible are nameless and broad.  It may be that the sin is simply a strong defiance of God that He will not permit.

We Christians know when we are sinning. We know when our hearts are cold. We know when we have drifted away from the Lord. God allows us to do that and patiently works with us to draw us back to Himself. But, there comes that watershed when we are in conscious defiance of God like a belligerent child who faces a parent and says: “No!” On this occasion, it is the child of God saying “No!” to the Lord.

It is much like the contest between God and lost people when He is convicting them of sin and drawing them to be saved. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit convicts and draws for the last time and the response is a firm No!  Sometimes that person is cut off. Evangelist Paul Ferguson told me of many in his meetings who died shortly after their contest with God in his meetings. Mordechai Ham, the evangelist who held a meeting in Charlotte, NC where Billy Graham was saved, had several people to die during his meetings. 

When Christians decide to have no respect or affection for God, they can be cut off. In our text today, we have a solemn warning to Christians against pushing against God in disobedience. It’s not my word. I’m just the messenger.
   

Paul warns people about partaking the Lord’s Supper while in sin against God. He says that “many” are “weak and sickly among you.” He goes further and says: “many sleep.” Among the Christians in the church at Corinth some had sinned the sin unto death and Paul assumed in his letter to them that they knew what he was talking about. 

The solution to this, the way to avoid this kind of sickness and this kind of death, was to judge themselves and turn from their sin so the Lord would not have to judge them. The problem that lost people and some saved people have is: There is no fear of God before their eyes.  (Romans 3:18) McGee comments on this verse: Paul seems to sum up all of man's sin in this final statement. He has no fear of God at all. Man is living as if God does not exist. Man actually defies God. What a picture this gives of mankind!

Several other respected Bible commentators voice similar comments. The fear in Rom. 3:18 means a reverential respect, an affection for God. That is the root of the problem. Attitude is everything. Attitude governs actions, good or bad. Christians who let their love for God corrode and weaken are subject to following the lusts of their own flesh and their sinful nature that still resides in us. 

Christians who have convinced themselves that God will put up with anything our sinful nature wants us to do, are at a severe disadvantage. In a contest with God, you are not going to win. You are going to get acquainted with His determination to correct you. The world and the devil and our own sinful nature are powerful threats to the Christian. 

These are solemn warnings to the backslider: 
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways:...  (Proverbs 14:14) Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.  (Jeremiah 2:19)

In Part 3 we will look at John’s writings and the writer of Hebrews. Ω
​

Read Through the Bible in a Year 
 October 20, 2017 - THURSDAY 
  A.M.  Jeremiah 3-4       P.M. 2 Thess 3
(BIBLE GATEWAY will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verse to Memorize:
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  (2Corinthians 5:17)


Song for Today: 
And Can It Be (4:18) (British Congregational Sing)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQeIGbKqiw8                  
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If we would judge ourselves - part 1

10/18/2017

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If We Would Judge Ourselves – Part One
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.  (1Corinthians 11:29-32)

The quote above by Charles Spurgeon (1835-1892) is stern and overreaching into our lives. He is not saying we shall die for sin in the place of Christ. He is saying that as Christians, we may bring upon ourselves an earthly death penalty for stubborn, persistent sin. 

It is in those of us who believe in the eternal security of the believer, to believe that since we are eternally saved, God will always touch us in mercy and grace and He will never go against us. That is the ideal. I would to God that once we are saved, there is only the smooth ascent of the stairs into Heaven with no problems. But that is usually not the case. King David was as saved as anyone can get but he messed up, big time! God did not leave him alone. He corrected him and made him an example to the rest of us. 

We have three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. These three enemies mitigate against the will of God and go against our own new nature imparted to us when we are born again by the Spirit of God. 

Bluntly stated: “There is a sin unto death for saved people.” In Acts 5:1-11, Ananias and Saphira were slain by the Spirit of God for lying to God. Nothing is mentioned about them being false Christians. We may assume they were Christians and that they sinned a sin unto death. It was an example to the rest of the young church. They feared to do what this couple had done. That’s what God intended.

If God should kill every Christian that sins after they are saved, there would not be any Christians on the earth. Obviously, He does not kill every Christian that sins.  For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.  (Ecc 7:20) 

And yet, John says this: We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.  (1John 5:18) (Does not make a continual and habitual practice of sin.) The “sinneth not”  here is not absolute and without exception. In a general way, the life is changed and is no longer characterized by sinful practice. 

OUR NEW NATURE DOES NOT SIN AT ALL because it is created by God in the new birth. But OUR OLD NATURE CAN DO NOTHING BUT SIN ALL THE TIME. Therefore, there is constant warfare within our own souls between our new nature and our old nature. Our new nature was imparted by God at the time of our new birth. Our old nature was packaged with us when we were born. Christians are in a process of continual sanctification as we gradually learn how to yield to the Holy Spirit and overcome our old sinful nature.
 

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  (2Corinthians 5:17) We are a new creation that can be seen by its new direction of living. It is not perfect, but it is now in the direction of obedience to God, with a new appetite and a new loyalty.
 

In Pensacola, Florida a retired auto mechanic, Ed Gay, was working on my car in his back yard. He walked away from his house to a small building and picked up a toolbox in the doorway. As he was putting the tools up and wiping the grease from his hands, he told me: “This little building where I keep my tools and car parts used to be our house. When God saved me, everything changed. Before long we had enough money to start work on a new house. I never want to forget where I lived when God saved me.” That’s the best illustration I’ve found of what it means: “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  Ed Gay was a new man. He was not a perfect man.

I’ve tried to lay a foundation for our text in 1Corinthians 11 and give a picture of where we are as Christians. We are eternally secure in Christ and will in no way lose our salvation, even for the worst of sins we may fall into. However, the sin of the Christian is out of character as a Christian and if we will not deal with our sin, God will deal with us. The first step is that we lose the peace of God in our spirit and feel alienated from God. Sinning Christians will feel more lost than lost people. He gives us space to repent.

The attitude of God is expressed here: 

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.  (Psalm 103:11-14)
 

In Part 2 we will continue: “If We Would Judge Ourselves.” Ω

Read Through the Bible in a Year 
October 19, 2017 - THURSDAY 
 A.M.  Jeremiah 1-2       P.M. 2 Thess 2
(BIBLE GATEWAY will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)

Good Verses to Memorize:
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  (2Corinthians 5:17)


Song for Today:
Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior (5:14) (Gaither Group)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePPOaX6HTPI 
 You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.














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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 
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    We enjoy gardening, reading, church, family and friends.

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