When Prayer Becomes Distasteful

I realize the title of this article will be objectionable to the “Spiritually Elite.” Those who make a “pretense” in prayer, whose long prayers come from “feigned” lips. Who desire to be seen always on top of the spiritual heap, so to speak. But the common Christian knows better. We ordinary folks recognize prayer is not always a bed of roses; at times, because of the thorns in our way, it can be very difficult. Listen to Job when things got grim, “If I had called, and he had answered me; [yet] would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.”

Nevertheless, during those tough times we need to heed the words of the gospel song, “When you don’t feel like praying, pray.” When we do not want to pray we need to pray all the more. Spurgeon said, “When you can pray, and long to pray, why then you will pray; but when you cannot pray, and do not wish to pray, why then you must pray, or evil will come of it.” He goes on to say, “He is on the brink of ruin who forgets the mercy-seat.”

Prayer is the breath of the child of God’s spiritual life. When it ceases, we die, and are left only with an outward dry and crusty shell, the inside empty of any life. You can be assured, lifeless Christians are prayerless Christians! A great misnomer is, “Prayer Changes Things.” This little cliché is not always true, but it is a fact that prayer changes us. How many times has one entered their prayer closet a dead man or woman and came out a living, vibrant, fire-brand?

“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken ...and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost... And ... great power... and great grace was upon them all.”

Richard D. Sandlin

How "The Man Christ Jesus" Lived the Christian Life

“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost...was led by the Spirit...And Jesus...[said]...man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Since Jesus Christ was the founder of Christianity, it behooves all Christians to follow the original pattern laid down by Him in living for God on this earth. Following man-made methods can sometimes be disastrous. It caused Bible teacher, Harry A. Ironside to have a nervous breakdown, and J.I. Packer came close to one, according to his testimony. They both found, to their chagrin, the men who espoused such teachings did not come up to them their own selves.    

I discovered years ago in studying and adhering to the “Deeper Life” teachings that it led to a constant scraping of my spiritual insides. I dissected each and every thing in my life; it all went under a microscope.  There was never a moment of inner peace, only turmoil. I oft questioned my spiritual sanity. I thought of David’s words on many occasions, that these things were, “Too high for me...I cannot [attain] unto [them].”

Jesus’ life was a simple one when it came to living for God. He yielded Himself to the indwelling Spirit and soaked His life with the scriptures. He was saturated with both! He lived by a set of principles laid down in the Word by the Holy Spirit. As a result, He was able to obey His God on a moment by moment basis. There was no frustration as to what was on down the road in the distant future; only “now” and “next” concerned Him.

“Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet (now), and a light unto my path (next).”      

The Character of God

“Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person...”

Our English word character finds its roots in the Latin, Greek, and French. Taking them jointly, we come up with the meaning: to engrave, imprint, stamp, mark, or inscribe. The artists and craftsmen of Greece used this word to describe the etching on the face of a seal and the engraving of a face on a stamp.

As Caesar’s exact image was inscribed in a coin, so also is the image of God engraved in the face of Jesus Christ. That is, the character of God is seen only in Christ Jesus. As one author wrote, “The Father’s whole “character” is fully and for ever stamped and sealed upon His Son.”  

Therefore, the spiritual and moral character of God, and that of us, His children, should be our chief interest. His character, and then our own, these two things ought to most concern you and me in the whole world.

Death will one day strip us bare of all that we now pursue and possess. Only one thing shall endure for ever, the image and likeness of our characters to that of Christ. And like Him, we also shall carry to the same place the same things that He carried. And by the way, they’re the only things we possess here that are worth carrying there!

Richard. D. Sandlin

Band-Aid Solutions

"And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple."

There is a great lesson to be learned from this lame man. How many of us, like him, labor under the wrong assumption? We spend most, if not all, of our lives thinking the lesser is the answer to the greater. This pitiful paralytic thought he needed certain things, but, in reality, what he needed was just one thing— to get on his feet.

There is an imaginary need and a real need in all of our lives. The former, at best, is only temporary. The latter is permanent. Isn't it interesting, when we finally get what we feel will fix our condition, shortly after, we're again looking for new solutions. When will we ever learn, the answer is in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

When you're totally dependent on Christ, you'll find the independence you long for.

Locking Both Doors

In one of my old revival sermons, I have an illustration of a Royal Stag. This magnificent creature would drink each evening from a pond in a meadow. Because he was blind in one eye, he always drank with his good eye toward the meadow. After observing the animal for some time, a wise hunter circled around and came at him in a canoe from the pond side. It took only one shot to fell him. He was what they call, blindsided. 

I fear far too many of us lock the front door, while leaving the backdoor opened for the enemy to enter. Samson could boast he kept that part of his Nazarite vow by not getting drunk, while committing whoredoms surpassed by few in the scriptures. Satan always comes at a time and in a way he is least expected. He knows our temperament and shoots his fiery darts at our most vulnerable area. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

“And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.”

Richard. D. Sandlin

 

The Cost of Putting Christ First

If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Three conditions must be realized and met before one can truly say Christ is preeminent in their life. The first requirement is a parental one; the second, personal; and the third, relates to the material. Before deciding that Jesus is going to have first place in your life, these three musts, must be considered. In the middle of our context, Christ tells His followers, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have [sufficient] to finish [it]?

In that outstanding cop movie, The Untouchables, there is a great statement. Kevin Costner plays Elliott Ness, who is attempting to get Al Capone, but with no results. Sean Connery’s character is an old-fashioned Irish beat cop, Jim Malone. Ness asks Malone how he can get Capone. The old Irish cop answers his question with a question, “What are you prepared to do?”

This is the question each child of God must ask themselves from time to time when confronted with going deeper with Christ. You must consider what it will cost you, and if you’re willing to pay that price. To go all out for Christ one must offer up to Him their very life. Not in theory, but in reality! This is not a game.

Since I am an avid movie buff, allow me one last illustration. In the film, The Wind and the Lion, Sean Connery plays the part of a rugged desert chieftain with great principles. In one scene, he asks his compatriot “Is there not one thing in your life that is worth losing everything for?”

In closing this article let me ask you, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, “Is there not one thing in your life that is worth losing everything for?”

Richard. D. Sandlin

 

 

Life Goes On

"...the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before." Life goes on. God never intended us to live in the miracle but in the minute. We are to be doing in the present moment not doting in past miracles.

Special and spectacular events are just that— events. They are but short parentheses in our lives. We should remember them but not attempt to relive them. They are part of the past, but the Christian life is to be lived in the now. No matter how great mountaintop experiences are, there is a normal life to be lived at its foot.

Normal Christianity is living a normal life in the Spirit.

The Limitations of God

“With God all things are possible”

Upon reading my title for this article I can already hear someone cry out, “Blasphemy!” They would argue the very scripture I use proves their charge. But since we’re told the Holy Ghost teaches by comparison, let us do just that. The writer of Hebrews tells us it is “impossible for God to lie.”

Isn’t it wonderful our God is limited in this area? That there is something in the life of God even He cannot do. Magnificent I say, because it is impossible for God to break His Word! Moses puts it this way, “God [is] not a man, that he should lie...hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

But David tells us of a second limitation of God. His hands are tied by our lack of faith. Speaking of God’s people, he writes, “They...limited the Holy One of Israel.”  It seems unbelief binds God that He cannot work on His peoples’ behalf, as He would. We are told when Jesus came to His hometown, “He could there do no mighty work...because of their unbelief.”

Therefore, a limited faith can limit a limitless God! “Lord, increase our faith.”

Richard. D. Sandlin

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

The axiom I entitled this article has been in use since at least the mid-16th century. Its meaning is clear; those of similar taste congregate in groups. In our universe, we have what is called, “The law of gravitation.” But there is also another similar to it, “The law of moral gravitation.”

In the book of Acts we’re told the early Christians, as soon as they were released from prison, “...went to their own company.” The first opportunity they had to choose—they chose to go to their own kind. The real test of who and what we are is seen when we are free to choose. To whom and to what are we drawn? Rules and laws can’t change human nature.

All of us have a moral attraction. That is, we’re attracted to our own kind. We are comfortable with them. Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells when, as a young medical doctor, he attended a stage-play with a worldly couple. Afterward, as they left the theater, he noticed a Salvation Army band playing hymns on the street corner. At that moment, he said to himself, “These are the people I belong to.”

I seriously question anyone who says they’re going to heaven that is not drawn to a spiritual atmosphere on earth.

Richard D. Sandlin

 

*Childhood Agonies

“How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.” “And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him.” Some of us also have experienced satanic attacks in particular areas of our lives from our youth up. We are made to believe, because of the longevity of its nature, we need not hope for deliverance. But time, distance, and condition are no problem to the timeless, eternal Miracle Worker.

Today’s psychological jargon, under the disguise of being spiritual, tells us we cannot expect change, but, rather, we are to accept these things. But whenever we determine a thing originates with Satan, and that he is the source, we are never to accept it as the norm. Those of us who have experienced child abuse, rejection, and a score of other childhood tortures, can still be freed from the agonizing memories of those dark ordeals, if we will simply come to Jesus and allow Him to deal with the devil. “But,” you say, “I do not have enough faith.” In such cases, just say, “I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” It worked two-thousand years ago and I guarantee it still does. For, you see, it worked for me.

You cannot carry the unpleasant memories of childhood into adulthood and expect to be mature.

Richard D. Sandlin

Rise up O Men and Women of God

If the devil can keep a saint of God cowering in a corner, then he or she will never break out of their prison; a prison of despair, if you please. This jail without bars will keep them bound indefinitely. Fear will so paralyze the prisoner that they will never venture beyond their 6 by 6 cell. It will be a life sentence of confinement.

The scriptures tell us when Peter lay in prison, chained between two guards, God sent His angel to deliver him. When Simon awoke to the fact and arose to follow his emancipator, it says, “and his chains fell off.” Not while Peter was passively lying there was he freed, but after he actively arose in obedient faith.

I read that in India they bind their young elephants to a stake with a straw chain. As the animal grows older and larger, it does not attempt to pull away, believing it cannot. O, beloved child of God, why not give that chain that has held you for so long a good yank by faith, remembering, Jesus came to set captives free.

 Arise, my soul, arise,
shake off your guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice,
in my behalf appears.

Richard D. Sandlin

Top Priority

“He is before all things” And why is this? Because He was before all things; all things were created by and for Him. All things consist because of Him. All things in our universe would fall apart without Him. And so will it be in an individual’s life. He is the only one who can keep things together, whether it is the world, a church, our family, or a person’s life. If Christ is not first of all, then He is nothing at all!

The turning point in this world’s history was when it went from B.C. to A.D. Thus it was in the life of the apostle Paul. Before Christ, he simply existed, but after he met the risen Son of God, his testimony was “Christ... is [my] life.” If one used contemporary vernacular in telling Paul to, “Get a life,” his reply, I’m sure, would have been, “I have!” Christ was the very breath he breathed. When Christ became his all, he found his all.

The world’s Christ is good, but the Christ of the Lord is God. A good man is limited in how much he can do for another; the God-Man knows no limitations. And that my friend, is why I say with the great apostle, “For me to live is Christ.”

Richard D Sandlin

The Starting Point

A homespun saying I use to help those (and myself) who’ve made a mess of things in their lives, is “Begin from where you’re at.” Waiting for an opportune time is to wait in vain. The best way to take care of any type of bad situation is by starting where you’re at. Wherever “here” is, that’s where you start.

Those who refuse to start from where they are, spend their lives at the starting gate and never go anywhere in life’s race. Someone has said, “Don’t be paralyzed by the past, stay riveted on the present moment.” Yesterday is history; whether glorious or gory, it is the Sacred Now that is the secret to life.

Contrary to what most of us have been taught, we cannot go back and make a brand-new start. But we can start from now and make a brand-new ending. It is never too late to be what you might have been. You may not be that person as long as you wished, but you can die being that person with whatever time you have left.  

St Francis of Assisi once said, “Start by doing what is necessary. Then do what is possible. Suddenly, you are doing the impossible.”

Richard D. Sandlin  

Taking Away the Dross

“Take away the Dross...”

One dictionary’s definition of the word dross is: Waste or impure matter; the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal as a result of oxidation; worthless, commonplace, or trivial matter.

Amy Carmichael once asked a refiner how he knew when the gold was purified. He answered, “When I can see my face in it.” Oh, child of God, should we then hate the fire that purifies the gold?

Every pain He inflicts is to lessen self’s hold on us and make us more like Him. Peter was unaware when standing at the fire that the Lord would use His own fire as a means to burn away the dross in his life.

The true worth of a saint lies beneath his or her external life. It was when God stripped Job of everything he held dear, his crown, health, wife, children, friends, finances, and reputation, you see the real value of the man.

And suffering Job understood this. Listen to him cry out from the midst of God’s fiery trial. “[When] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” And so will it be with you, my dear hurting brother and sister.

 Richard D. Sandlin

 

**WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!

Would you like to know one of the chief difficulties in my Christian life? It is waiting on God. It seems I'm always ready when God isn't. I know it is hard for some of us to grasp, but God's delays are not denials. Whenever we wait for God, we're showing Him our complete helplessness. Every Bible saint, greatly blessed of God, knew what it meant to go through a long waiting process.

Noah waited for the promise; David waited for a kingdom; Joseph waited for deliverance; Moses waited for God's call; Zacharias and Elizabeth waited for a child; Elijah waited to be used; Paul waited for revelation; and our blessed Lord waited for God's time, working as a carpenter. You win by waiting!

Let me encourage you by listing a few scriptures. "My soul, wait thou only upon God"..."On thee do I wait all the day"..."Let none that wait on thee be ashamed"..."Wait on the Lord"..."Wait patiently for Him"..."They waited not for His counsel"..."Wait on the Lord, and keep His way"..."I will wait upon the Lord"..."We have waited for Him"..."Blessed are all they that wait for Him"..."They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength"..."They shall not be ashamed that wait upon thee"..."The Lord is good unto  them that wait for Him"..."It is good that a man should quietly wait for the Lord"..."Wait for His Son from heaven"..."Wait on God continually"..."Therefore will the Lord wait-blessed are all they that wait for Him." 

I think you get my drift.

 Richard D. Sandlin 

Ecclesiastes Christians

There are three types of people in this world: those with a saved life, but a lost soul; those with a saved soul, but lost life; and those with both a saved soul and saved life. During the time of this transitory experience in Solomon’s life of which he writes, he would fit into the second category of the above three mentioned.

Life at best can be perplexing at times. Hard to understand, let alone control. When we attempt to comprehend things from the human standpoint, we’re standing in the wrong place. As David said, “When I thought to know this, it [was] too painful for me.” That is, until he looked at it from God’s perspective.

It is not looking at the things under the sun, but unto Him above the sun. The Ecclesiastes Christian says, “Life is not worth living.” The Spiritual Christian, “Life is worth living.” The first finds life without God is gloomy; the second, life with God is glorious! You cannot enjoy life to its fullest without the Giver of Life’s breath upon you.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

 R.D. Sandlin

Honorable Men and Women

The Bible speaks of both honorable men and women. And these were not honest because it was the best policy, but, for them, there was no other policy. There is only one avenue open to this sort of glowing character.  

Ludwig van Beethoven said, “To me, the highest thing after God is my honor.” Honest folks are not without faults, but they are without guile. As another has said, “The worse mistake an honest man or woman can make is an honest mistake.”

In the movie, Rob Roy, a son asks his father, “Father, what is honor?” To which the parent answered, “Son, honor is something a man gives himself, and no one can take it from him.” “An honest man or woman is the noblest work of God,” says one.

“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an “honest man.” (George Washington)

 R.D. Sandlin

Let's Pray About It-No!

I understand the conventional and acceptable thing to say in any situation is, “Let’s pray about it.” But woe be to the man or woman who suggests, “Let’s think about it first.” Behind all meaningful prayer you will find sanctified thought. Think it through, then pray it through.

When Paul mentions making our requests known to God, it necessitates prior thought. Esther was ready to make her request known to the king when asked, because she had thought her petition through. We give more thought to what we will request of a banker than our King.

My wife and I visited a church some years ago and I was asked by the pastor to lead the congregation in prayer. I hesitated a few moments to gather my thoughts. While I was doing so, he once again asked, thinking I had not heard him.

I wonder sometimes when some of us come to God in prayer, if He doesn’t ask the angels, “What will this babbler say?”

R.D. Sandlin

Monotony in Prayer

Take Christ out of our service to God and you find boredom; leave Him out of your prayers and you’re faced with monotony. Prayer, like the Bible, is to be Christological to the core. One reason our prayers, both privately and publically, are so dry and dull is because there is so little of Jesus in them.

What a wilderness we make of our prayer life when, as one old divine puts it, we have “untheological devotions.” Paul was a great intellect, as well as theologian, but we see Paul at his very best in his prayers. I read recently somewhere that Paul was our master teacher in divinity, but especially in devotion. He fell asleep at night full of praise and prayer to Christ Jesus, and in the morning he began again where he had left off the previous night.

I encourage each of you to take note, when reading Paul’s epistles, how he fills his prayers with the person of Jesus Christ. Nowhere will you see this man’s magnificent mind and great heart revealed more than in his prayers. It was, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus, Jesus, my Lord, Christ Jesus, Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ, in every prayer of his. He knew how to get God’s ear; he incessantly bragged on His Son. Nothing will endear God to a man or woman like constantly speaking to Him of His only begotten Son.

God never tires in hearing such prayers. And you can always be assured of an immediate audience when such prayers are offered up!

R.D. Sandlin

The Majority Report

“If God be for us, who [can be] against us?

When God is for you, your minority status moves up to majority. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. used to tell his preacher boys, “When you and God enter a town, you’re with the majority.” Therefore, the popular saying, “Daniel in the lion’s den,” to be Biblically correct, should be, “The lions in Daniel’s den.” God is not now, nor has He ever been, or will He be in the future, in the minority.

God is the supreme eternal majority: He can out wit, out vote, out fight, out think, out maneuver, out last, and out run, any and all, from eternity to eternity. He always has the last say and deciding vote in every situation. If God is against you, it matters not who is for you. Ask Pharaoh.

Jesus was always conscious of the fact that His crowd was in the majority. On one occasion, He mentioned He could call twelve legions of angels if He so desired, and God would presently supply them. If you use a Roman legion as a standard, that would be 72,000 angels. The full strength of a legion was 6,000 men. You might recall in the Old Testament one angel killing 185,000 of His people’s enemy.

Elisha’s Prayer

“And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that [be] with us [are] more than they that [be] with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain [was] full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

ONE MAN OR WOMAN OF GOD IS THE MAJORITY!

R.D. Sandlin

 

 

Lifetime Repentance

“God...granted repentance unto life.”

When the Methodist preacher, William Taylor, was asked what he would choose for a gift in his old age, he answered, “Repentance unto life.” In his book, The Apostle Paul, Alexander Whyte writes, “If you are well read in Paul’s old-age Epistles you will find far more repentance unto life in his last years, than even in his years of immediate conversion and remorse. You meet with an ever deeper bitterness at sin, and at himself, as time goes on with Paul: and, then, a corresponding amazement at God’s mercy.”

Studying Paul’s Christian life from start to finish you’ll find the following: at the beginning he says, he is “the least of the apostles”; later on, that he is “less than the least of all saints”; then, as an old man, declares, “I am chief [of sinners].” It is well to remember, “Christ in you,” does not negate the sin that is in you. The more Christ fills our lives the more sinful we will see ourselves to be. The Biblical principle is that light manifests darkness. This, seeing one’s sinfulness, is not a bad thing, but rather a good thing. It is here we learn true mercy and grace!

When a saint believes he or she is getting worse in God’s sight, in reality, they are getting better.”

Faith without Frills

Showing no disrespect, but real, honest to goodness, down to earth faith, is a “Plain Jane.” You might say, “There is no beauty that we should desire [her].” She is not “dolled up,” to make her more attractive. She never calls attention to herself.

True faith is modest, simple, unadorned and basic. She is not a party girl; she is a working girl. She works seven days a week, and if she isn’t working, she dies. Her job is serving as a messenger girl who carries our requests to the front office.

Whenever she is used as the means of making our “wants and wishes” known to the “ONE” in charge, you can be sure she will return with one of two things for the recipient. The desired thing we longed for, or a peace that passes all understanding that will keep our hearts and minds.

“The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.” (William James)

R.D. Sandlin

 

"The Book" and the Books

Most certainly, the Bible is the, “Book of Books!” But this does not abnegate all other books. Even Heaven has other books in its library. Paul was pre-eminently a man of “One Book,” but that does not mean it was the only book he read. Luke records he was familiar with the poets.   

As an old man shut up in prison, and on his last leg, so to speak, he told Timothy to bring his books and the parchments.  The aged saint was reading and writing up till the end. As Calvin said, “Paul has not lost his delight in books, even when he is near his death.”

Good books can make us better people. How many from the past, to this present, give testimony to the fact that it was a certain book that turned their whole life around. Paul seems to bears this truth out. “Give attendance to reading...that thy profiting may appear to all.”

Thomas Boston wrote concerning his reading of good books. “I plied my books. After earnestly plying my books, I felt my heart begin to grow better. I always find that my health and my heart are the better according as I ply my books.”

What about Lot?

“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked... (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soul from day to day with [their] unlawful deeds;)... The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.”

When we read God delivered “just Lot,” it doesn’t mean only Lot, for others came out of Sodom with him. The word “just” is used here as in justified. The context supports this by the kindred words righteous and godly.

Professing Christians sometimes like to use Lot to defend their sinning and to prove eternal security. But, I’d remind such of the old camp meeting preacher’s statement, “Eternal security only works if you’re saved.”

The question is not, “Can a Christian sin?” The question is, “Can a Christian sin and get by with it?” Hebrews tells us if one does, and goes without any type of chastening, “then are [they] bastards, and not sons.” That is, they don’t have a heavenly Father!

But the test goes much deeper than a fear of God hurting you for sinning; it comes down to a fear of you hurting God by your sinning. David said, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” There were others involved in David’s sin, yet, as far as he was concerned, it was his God who stood at the front of the line.

When I was a pastor and one of my flock doubted his or her salvation because of some horrendous sin he or she had committed, I asked only one question, “How did you feel when you sinned?” If the answer was “Awful,” they were safe-home. If there was no sensitivity, they had no home.

The word “vexed” in our above text comes from a French word, which in turn is taken from the Latin. It means: “To agitate, to trouble, afflict, harass, distress, provoke.” Again I would ask, “How do you feel when you sin?” 

It Was Good Advice

Many years ago, while serving as a pastor, I like many preachers had my share of church problems. The most trying being when a segment of influential members left. After their departure, I continued opening the sore, so to speak, in my messages. One of my best parishioners met with me and revealed that he and his family would be leaving our assembly. When asked why, referring to our past troubles, he said, “Preacher, it’s over, but you won’t let go of it.”

I had allowed the painful past to be a part of what should have, and could have, been a pleasant present. I kept my shovel handy so I could visit the graveyard daily to dig up the putrefying corpse of yesterday. I refused to heed Paul’s words, “Forgetting those things which are behind.” Like the maniac of Gadara I dwelt among the tombs. And can you believe, I wondered why I didn’t feel alive. But thank God, I finally woke up, cast aside my grave-clothes, and began again living among the living.

Maybe some of my reader’s need also to heed my friend’s advice, and leave the cemetery behind them.   

Have a Seat

“Sit ye here, while I go...yonder.”

While ministering in Ireland many years ago, I had a great Bible truth ingrained in me while watching shepherds with their sheepdogs on a mountainside. The two were inseparable, except for those times the master would command his companion to “sit.” Then, old faithful would stay, even if her friend left her sight. She would not move until hearing his order to do so or a gesture from him to indicate she should.

One of the great lessons of the Christian life is to learn simply to sit.  Mary is a good example of this. When Jesus came to town, her sister Martha, “ran” to meet Him. But it is recorded of Mary, “Mary sat [still] in the house.” And she did not move until being told, “The Master is come, and calleth for thee...As soon as she heard [that], she arose quickly, and came unto him.”

It takes a strong person to sit still. Isaiah puts it this way, “Their strength is to sit still.” Wise Naomi knew this. She told Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.” And so it is with our heavenly Boaz!

All the fuss of life is gone once we “sit still” and let Him engineer things.

Homesick for God

I will arise and go to my Father”

I believe it was Teddy Roosevelt who said he thought the story of the Prodigal Son was the greatest piece of literature ever written. It had all the ingredients to make it so. I personally was drawn to Christ from the preaching of this magnificent narrative.

Contrary to popular option, the son is not the main character, but the father. It was not the house the boy ached for, but his father. It was a person he was homesick for, not a place. As a teenage boy returning from Korea, it wasn’t the old dilapidated dwelling I longed for, but my precious little mother I yearned to see. Wherever she was, was home.

In a sermon by George H. Morrison entitled, “Homesickness of the Soul,” he tells the following story.

“One of the saddest letters in all literature is a letter written by our own poet, David Gray. David Gray was born eight miles from Glasgow; he went to the Free Church Normal in this city. His honest father would have made a preacher of him, but God forestalled that by making him a poet. Well, nothing would satisfy David but he must go to London. He suffered much there and fell into consumption. And this is one of his last letters home:— ‘Torquay, Jan. 6, 1861. Dear Parents,—I am coming home—homesick. I cannot stay from home any longer. What’s the good of me being so far from home and sick and ill? O God! I wish I were home never to leave it more! Tell everybody that I am coming back—no better: worse, worse. What’s about climate, about frost or snow or cold weather, when one’s at home? I wish I had never left it. . . . I have no money, and I want to get home, home, home. What shall I do, O God! Father, I shall steal to you again, because I did not use you rightly. . . . Will you forgive me? Do I ask that? . . . I have come through things that would make your hearts ache for me—things that I shall never tell to anybody but you, and you shall keep them secret as the grave. Get my own little room ready quick, quick; have it all tidy, and clean, and cosy, against my homecoming. I wish to die there, and nobody shall nurse me except my own dear mother, ever, ever again. O home, home, home!’”

Our Corinthian Culture

They teach Sunday school classes, preach, sing, usher, and hold important church offices. They are professing Christians who are in good standing among many of their brethren in our assemblies. They’re husbands, wives, young adults, friends, and neighbors. No one dare speak out, for who are we to throw stones. And God have mercy on the one who mentions church discipline. In fact, this generation of Christians would not understand the meaning. I’m speaking of the vast amount of fornicating Christians around us. Or should I say, professing Christians.

Many permissive saints may not think much of the immorality that prevails amongst the so-called followers of Christ today, but that is only because of their ignorance. Or is it their cowardice?

The following scriptures show what God thinks of this wicked sin. By the way, you can forget revival in your church until this mess is cleaned up.

 

THUS SAITH THE LORD

Write unto them, that they abstain from...fornication.

It is reported commonly [that there is] fornication among you.

Now the body [is] not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. Flee fornication. Every sin  that  a man  doeth is  without  the body; but he that committeth fornication  sinneth  against  his own  body.

Nevertheless, [to avoid] fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own  husband.

Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication ...which they have committed.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are...fornication.

But fornication ...let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth...fornication.

For this is the will of God [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah...giving themselves over to fornication...are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance  of eternal  fire.

But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them...who taught...the children of Israel...to commit fornication.

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

And the woman... arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and  pearls...and filthiness of her fornication.

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators.

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator... with such an one no not to eat.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When It Rains It Pours

I like to use quips both in conversation and my writings, especially when they have a scriptural principle. Concerning the title of our article, don’t you think this axiom could have originated with Noah? Sayings such as, “It rained buckets full,” and the idea of a, “rain barrel” may well be traced back to his day.

As severe as this trial was upon the old man, there was a silver lining, a multi-colored one, if you please. And like Israel’s cloud, although this test had its dark side, it had its bright side also.  God promised it was a one-time thing. Once it passed, it would not happen again. As we’re so often told in the Bible, “And it came to pass.”

In spite of the prolonged darkness and being tossed to and fro for what Noah must have felt an eternity, he saw the sun shine again through the upper window. After being shut-in for so long a time, he was once again able to place his feet on solid ground. The storm had passed and everything was now new. There was freshness in the air; it was a new beginning.

“And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”

Where the Ice Cream Fits In

Years ago, I remember a popular song entitled, “Three Little Words.” Today, I would like to discuss three words from scripture and their practical meaning. The first of these is justice, which means, “getting what you deserve.” The second is mercy. This is “getting less than one deserves.” And lastly, grace, which is getting more than a person deserves.

Let me illustrate how this trio fits together. A father made plain to his son that if he disobeyed again the boy would receive ten swats. And, of course, the inevitable happened. In the child’s bedroom, the father proceeded with the punishment, but stopped at nine swats. After they had prayed together and hugged, the father took his son to a nearby ice cream parlor. While sitting at the table enjoying their ice cream, the father looked at his boy and said, “Son, the ten swats I promised was justice, but withholding one was mercy, and the ice cream you are enjoying so much—is GRACE!

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

A Song Says It

This world, as we know it, is anything but original, they’re plagiarists. Most if not all their movie plots, quips, story books, songs, etc., that have any substance, can be traced directly to the Bible. For example, the song, “People Who Need People.” Scriptures teach this truth throughout. Even the man Christ Jesus, in His humanity, needed others.

In spite romanticizing loners and depicting them as different from all the rest of the flock, they’re a very lonely people. And I might add, always in danger. Used rightly, the saying, “There is safety in numbers,” is true. “Woe to him [that is] alone when he falleth; for [he hath] not another to help him up.

In the Old Testament, the people of Laish illustrate this fact. They lived independent of all others, and within themselves. They were isolationists! When trouble came, they had no one to come to their assistance. Read the following excerpts from Judges, chapter eighteen.

“[They] came to Laish, and saw the people that [were] therein, how they...had no business with [any] man...And [there was] no deliverer, because ...they had no business with [any] man.”

Sooner or later, everybody needs somebody. It’s good to have neighbors help put out the flames when your house is on fire. You’ll not be able to do it alone.

Choice of Means

"God... devises means...” So says the wise woman of Tekoah to David. I’ve never had a problem in God’s use of means, as long as I could be the one to pick and choose them. My difficulty arises when God does the selecting. I speak particularly of three areas.

To start with, I prefer to hand-pick those who minister the Word of God to me. I want to be the one who decides whether it is to be Paul, Apollos, or Cephas. Many of us like to choose our preachers like we do our ice cream; we only like certain flavors. And we refuse to try any other.

I also want to have a say in determining who will rebuke me. I do not cherish the thought of Balaam’s “dumb ass” correcting me. As hard as a rebuke is, I can endure it, but certainly not from one who I feel is inferior to me. Let them be at least an equal, not someone I consider beneath me.  

Lastly, there is this thing of a use of means in healing. I desire God to directly heal me, without the use of any means. I don’t want clay made out of spittle as a means in my healing. Some of us have the same problem Naaman had; we have a preconceived idea of how we are to be healed. Certainly not in the “muddy Jordon.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to go to doctors, in spite of the fact the Great Physician Himself plainly told us sick people need a physician. Like Paul needed Doctor Luke, his constant companion.

It’s good to remember, in God’s closet there are a variety of garments He disguises Himself with (the garb of a gardener). And in His tool shed are a great host of devices He uses as means (the pool of Siloam).

“For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”

Everthing Includes Little Things

The Bible tells us to pray about everything, not just big things. The “everything” includes little things. The carnal man or woman is impressed with the miraculous, but not the mundane. But to the spiritual person, answered prayer concerning those small insignificant things in life is as much a thrill as moving a mountain.

An event that took place in the life of Elizabeth Elliot illustrates my point. Several friends of hers who were mountain climbers were beginning their ascent when one of them was jarred a little, and one of her contacts fell out unto the snowy ground below. There were a lot of footprints at the bottom where it had fallen, as well as debris left by some of the group. She and Elizabeth looked diligently for the lens, since the young lady would need it to make the climb to the top. After a while, realizing the impossibility of the situation, they had all but given up. But as a last resort, decided to pray. And it was then, low and behold, they noticed a movement on the ground. And can you believe, there was a little ant dragging the lens through the snow!

Dear friend, God can help in any and all situations, big or small. Remember, He is also the LORD of the ant. “Go to the ant... consider her ways, and be wise.”

Thinking Things Through

The old-time country mother, when asked by one of her children for approval to do something of significance, would reply, “We’ll have to wait and get the mind of your father first.” This is the meaning of having the mind of Christ. Words are simply formations of a thought process. Thus, God’s mind is found in His Word.

But once His thinking on a matter is ascertained, we must work it out to its logical conclusion. Sanctified logic is perfectly legitimate, as long as it is not placed first. You know, “the cart before the ox saying. We are to come at things scripturally, then logically. Samson’s mother is a good example of a scripturally logical thinker (Jud.13, notice verse 23). To get a firm grasp on truth, it must be thought through.

We need active thinkers; idle thinkers never get anywhere. Paul was possibly the world’s greatest thinker. You might say he was a born thinker. He was unable to leave anything alone; he pursued it to its very root. He was constantly thinking of the issues of life, and so should we be. Refusal to think things through to their end is the cause of most, if not all our problems.

Agatha Christie’s eccentric Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, referred of his brain as the “little grey cells” at work. Some of ours have been on the dole long enough; it’s time we put them to work!