I am not necessarily opposed to family councilors, Alcoholic Anonymous, psychiatry, and a host of other things used as legitimate means to get people back on their moral feet. I’d be inconsistent if I were, for I believe medicines can be used to cure physical ills. What I am against is total dependence on the means, even to the extent of glorying in them.
Everything good comes from God; therefore, whether it is Divine healing, or the use of means, behind it all is God. Whatever or whoever is used to get the job done, God, and God alone is to get all the glory, not individuals or institutions. To be grateful for them is one thing, to glory in them is another. “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” “My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise…”
I’ve often wondered why it is today we do not hear more of instant and permanent deliverance in Christian’s lives. Such as drunkards, druggies, perverts, demon possessed, and such like. Have we limited the Holy One? Do we no longer believe He came to set the captive free? That nothing is too hard for God? Have we become so familiar with Him like His home townsmen that it can be said of us also, “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief?”
It may not be your fault if you’re physically handicapped, but you have no one to blame if you are a Spiritual cripple.
Nov 29, 2010
Nov 26, 2010
A Legible Prescription
“…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…” The great Physician left His patients a personal prescription when facing pain. And this prescription He legibly wrote out in His Word: We are to look past pain. His example was to keep one’s eyes on the joy of the afterward, not the pain of the present.
When the soul is sorrowful, the spirit in agony, and the body wracked with pain, faith in a future joy enables us to endure the unpleasantness of life’s discomforts. I cannot help but believe this is what kept Job going. In the midst of all his sufferings, he knew there was a future day in which he would see God. What a joy to anticipate
Who cares about a long night, if an eternal day awaits.
When the soul is sorrowful, the spirit in agony, and the body wracked with pain, faith in a future joy enables us to endure the unpleasantness of life’s discomforts. I cannot help but believe this is what kept Job going. In the midst of all his sufferings, he knew there was a future day in which he would see God. What a joy to anticipate
Who cares about a long night, if an eternal day awaits.
Nov 21, 2010
A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND
On Nov.17th my good friend, Rev. Bill Riddick of Ocean Springs, Ms., went to be with the Lord.
Bill Riddick was my friend in the true Biblical sense of the word. You will not find many men today with the caliber of character he possessed. As the western writer, Louis L'Amour, describes a man you can depend on, "He is one you can ride the river with." Bill was such a man. I'm saddened for young men who will no longer have such manliness as Bill's to emulate. May God in his mercy raise up some young Bill Riddicks! America is in desperate need of them.
Richard D. Sandlin
San Andreas, CA.
Bill Riddick was my friend in the true Biblical sense of the word. You will not find many men today with the caliber of character he possessed. As the western writer, Louis L'Amour, describes a man you can depend on, "He is one you can ride the river with." Bill was such a man. I'm saddened for young men who will no longer have such manliness as Bill's to emulate. May God in his mercy raise up some young Bill Riddicks! America is in desperate need of them.
Richard D. Sandlin
San Andreas, CA.
Nov 5, 2010
*Hindsight Faith
"Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he” (John 13:19;14:29). This is particularly true of prophecy. Many passages of Scripture that promise and foretell our Lord’s return have a certain element of obscurity connected with them. Our text certainly teaches that the interpretation of some prophecies will only be understood after their fulfillment. Only then will we grasp their significance. You might say, belief after the fact.
May this truth humble and deliver us from prophetic dogmatism. The fact of His coming ought to be our first and foremost concern. Good and godly men throughout Church history have differed on the minor aspects of prophecy. Prophetic interpretation should never be a basis of fellowship. Only the fact that He is coming a second time should be. Because of many prophetic students’ dogmatism, they have lost the blessedness of the “blessed hope.”
The early Church didn’t debate the Second Coming; they looked for it.
May this truth humble and deliver us from prophetic dogmatism. The fact of His coming ought to be our first and foremost concern. Good and godly men throughout Church history have differed on the minor aspects of prophecy. Prophetic interpretation should never be a basis of fellowship. Only the fact that He is coming a second time should be. Because of many prophetic students’ dogmatism, they have lost the blessedness of the “blessed hope.”
The early Church didn’t debate the Second Coming; they looked for it.
Nov 4, 2010
*Personal Attention
Writing to the Corinthian Christians, Paul tells them that God had comforted him in all his troubles so that he might comfort others with the comfort wherewith God comforted him. Herein lies a tremendous truth, which is, God deals with some directly and others in an indirect way. God comes to certain ones who are hurting, pours in the oil of healing, then bids them go and do likewise.
Many of us make the mistake Naaman made. He thought Elisha would deal with him personally; but, instead, he sent another in his place. Because of this, at first, he mistakenly turned away from the provided means wherein lay his help. When God sends His personal emissary to us, it does not mean He is any less concerned or involved in our personal lives.
Jesus said whoever received the one He sent to them received Him. Let us be careful that we do not turn away God’s chosen and end up comfortless.
Many of us make the mistake Naaman made. He thought Elisha would deal with him personally; but, instead, he sent another in his place. Because of this, at first, he mistakenly turned away from the provided means wherein lay his help. When God sends His personal emissary to us, it does not mean He is any less concerned or involved in our personal lives.
Jesus said whoever received the one He sent to them received Him. Let us be careful that we do not turn away God’s chosen and end up comfortless.
Nov 2, 2010
The Will of God Is Always…
Someone said, “The Will of God is always bigger than we bargained for.” This is true in more ways than one; for God’s will, to the surprise of many, affects not just us, but others. As Oswald Chambers writes, “If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us.” We cannot prevent the suffering of others if we are going to do God’s Will. To attempt to relieve their grief will only grieve the Lord. Allow Him to deal with all the consequences resulting in our obeying Him.
When the wise men followed God’s plan for their lives, the result was that untold numbers of children, under the age of two, were killed by Herod. How do you suppose the parents, grandparents, and siblings of those little ones felt toward the three men’s brand of Christianity? And what about James and John who left their old father sitting in a boat, leaving him alone with a business he had built-up for his sons to take? The two had left all to follow the Galilean, of whom there was such controversy that people were divided everywhere He went.
In the movie entitled, The Untouchables, there is a great scene that illustrates my point. Eliot Ness, played by Kevin Costner, wants to bring down Al Capone. He asks a regular cop on the beat named Malone, played by Sean Connery, how to do this. to which the seasoned cop answers by asking the question, “What are you prepared to do?” “Are you willing to go all the way?” What about us, what is our answer?
God’s Will is about God, not about us and others!
When the wise men followed God’s plan for their lives, the result was that untold numbers of children, under the age of two, were killed by Herod. How do you suppose the parents, grandparents, and siblings of those little ones felt toward the three men’s brand of Christianity? And what about James and John who left their old father sitting in a boat, leaving him alone with a business he had built-up for his sons to take? The two had left all to follow the Galilean, of whom there was such controversy that people were divided everywhere He went.
In the movie entitled, The Untouchables, there is a great scene that illustrates my point. Eliot Ness, played by Kevin Costner, wants to bring down Al Capone. He asks a regular cop on the beat named Malone, played by Sean Connery, how to do this. to which the seasoned cop answers by asking the question, “What are you prepared to do?” “Are you willing to go all the way?” What about us, what is our answer?
God’s Will is about God, not about us and others!
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