By John Stallings
It was sometime in the evening, maybe six p.m, & hot as blazes. A wild Friday night booze party was in full swing.
This was a “knock down drag out” affair, the kind that lasts all night. There’s loud music, & plenty of liquor. Off color jokes were being told, & raucous laughter echoed down the halls.
The host of the affair rises to speak now & then & his words are received with cheers by the teeming, screaming group. He carries himself with confidence & to look at him you’d never think he ever had a moment of self-doubt.
Why the celebration? Good question! Everyone had heard the news; the news that set this party off. There is much to be happy about, that is if the news is true. They aren’t sure just yet. If the word coming in is correct, then the host has pulled off his greatest coup. This will be one for the books.
After all, this “transaction” had been hard- fought to be sure. For awhile it seemed as if it might not happen but it did. The host, -- let’s use a Mafia term here; the host was a “made man.” He now knows the victory is his.
All Friday night into Saturday morning the gaiety is in full swing. You’d have expected the crowd to thin out a little bit but it has actually grown larger & louder. If anyone left the party you couldn’t tell it because someone else was there to take their place.
The host was sticking around to party it up with the crowd. His magnetic personality assured him the loyalty of this group. All day Saturday the party goers stay with it, partially drunk on booze & partially drunk with power because of what their leader has accomplished. By Saturday night people from all around the area had gathered to join in the merry-making, making it an even happier celebration. In the dark corners, unbelievably wild behavior was taking place.
Then it happened. The music stopped. The precise moment isn’t known but in the early hours of Sunday morning, a messenger/courier arrived with news. He walked up to the host, bent over & whispered something in his ear. You could have heard a marshmallow fall on a carpet. What was happening? The host seemed to grow faint but quickly recovered & ordered some of his top aides to check the story out. Within minutes it was confirmed. The worst fears of the host had become reality.
I don’t believe I mentioned that this party was going on in hell & the host was Satan. Due to this latest bulletin the party that started on Good Friday was called to a halt on Easter morning.
What Satan thought was going to be his greatest victory had been turned into a defeat. The reason for this wild party was Christ’s death on the cross on Friday. The reason the party ended so abruptly was the news that Jesus had risen from the grave on Sunday morning & was now alive. How could this have happened? Exactly how will this news affect Satan? The question I’d like to answer is this;
WHAT WOULD THIS NEWS MEAN TO SATAN?
I’d like to suggest five answers to that question.
1. Satan’s head is crushed.
In Genesis 3:15 God had told Satan;-I will put enmity between you & the woman & between your offspring & hers; He will crush your head & you will strike His heel. These words actually constitute the first gospel sermon & it was preached in The Garden of Eden, by God to the devil. We see by this that our God wasn’t non-plussed by man’s failure, as always He had a plan.
Although you may not see it at first, Christ is in this verse because He’s the ultimate Seed of the Woman of whom God spoke who would one day crush the ugly serpent’s head. Although Satan delivered a terrible blow to Jesus on Good Friday, all he really did was strike Jesus on the heel. Painful as it was, it was nothing compared to what Jesus did to Satan on the cross.
2. At Calvary, Jesus destroyed the works of Satan.-1 John 3:8
The word destroy here doesn’t mean to annihilate, but to “render powerless.” Like a large machine that runs on electricity is useless without power, when Jesus died He “pulled the plug” on Satan. Perhaps we might see Satan as possessing great power but in truth he can do nothing without God’s permission. The day will come when Satan’s utter impotence will be revealed to the universe & those who followed him will discover they were following a toothless lion.
3. When Christ died on the cross Satan’s power was broken forever.
Hebrews 2:14 says;…that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Of all the fears man has, the greatest one is death. In a church I pastored, we were having more funerals among the membership than I’d ever seen in one place. I started to think the whole church was going to die. Toward the end of this seemingly endless string of deaths, I conducted the funeral of a precious woman who’d been in the church along with her family for decades. After the service while we waited for everyone to pay their last respects to this dear lady a young man came up & stood beside me. He was visibly shaken, probably because most of the folk who’d passed away were his kinfolk. He leaned toward me & whispered two words in my ear; -- “Death Stinks.” This young man had managed to succinctly sum death up as honestly as I’d ever heard it described.
Because of Adam’s sin, death entered the human family but after Christ’s death on the cross, we have His promise-if you believe in me you’ll never die.
4. At his death Jesus set Satan’s prisoners free.
The death of Christ brought some startling changes in the spirit world, some of which remain a mystery. We don’t have a complete understanding of it all yet, but we do know enough to know something monumental happened “behind the scenes” as a result of Christ’s death.
Many theologians believe that Christ, between His crucifixion & resurrection went into the regions of darkness & proclaimed His victory over the devil & his demons. 1 Peter 3:18-21.
There are differences of opinion here. As I often say, ---we see through a glass darkly. These of course are the words of Paul. I would reject any teaching that suggests that there’s some kind of post-death salvation offered to people in hell. The following passages make it clear that isn’t the case. - 2 Corinthians 6:1-2/Hebrews 9:27. There’s nothing in the Bible that offers a single ray of hope to a person who dies outside of Christ. However, there’s one thing we can be sure of, the death of Christ shook-up the spirit realm if not the whole of the universe.
5. When Christ died demons were disarmed.
Colossians 2:15 declares—Having disarmed the powers & authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
To disarm someone means to take from them the means by which they might hurt you. If a man has a gun pointed at you he’s not disarmed until you take the gun away from him. As long as he has the gun you’re in trouble. When Jesus died on the cross He took the guns & ammo out of the hands of the demons and He publicly humiliated them. Picture an army returning home having beaten an enemy & behind the returning soldiers march a long line of weary, dirty, emaciated men, prisoners with their hands tied being displayed as proof of the victor’s supremacy.
Again, when Jesus died, something stupendous happened in the spirit realm. Although it was invisible to the naked eye, it was seen by all the angels & the Old Testament saints. They watched as Jesus like a conquering Old West hero, entered the infernal regions & disarmed the “bad guys” one by one. Then He marched them in full view of His heavenly Father so that every created being would know the He had defeated hell & all its denizens.
This means that although demons have power, they have been disarmed & can’t hurt us. If we will use the “shield of faith” provided for us, every fiery dart can be quenched. The one exception to that is if you & I dabble with evil & play with sin. If we do that it’s like handing the devil a loaded gun & saying, “Go ahead & shoot me.” He’ll always be glad to oblige us.
Paul tells us to be on guard or Satan would take advantage of us. 2 Cor.2:11—One of the keys Paul gave to being victorious over Satan is not to be ignorant of his tricks & devices. Informed Christians however, full of the Word of God & The Holy Spirit & exercising vigilance & sobriety need not be in a position to be caught off guard.
In Revelation 20:10 we learn of Satan’s final end when he’s thrown into the lake of burning sulfur & tormented day & night for ever & ever.
THERE IS ONE BIG QUESTION LEFT UNANSWERED!
If Christ defeated Satan, & He did, why is there so much evil in the world? Like Hal Lindsay said in his excellent book, “Satan is alive & well on planet earth.” The devil seems to be having a field day & he certainly doesn’t seem to be defeated does he? How else can you explain a woman killing her own children? How can you explain a human being, being dragged to death behind a truck? How do you explain evil in the White House, Satanism on the rise, & porn flowing like a filthy river in the streets of America?
SATAN IS OUT ON BAIL
When we are told on the one hand that Satan is defeated, and then on the other hand we’re told to be vigilant because the devil goes about as a roaring lion, is this not a contradiction? The answer is no!! In legal terms what happened at the cross found Satan guilty & he was sentenced to ultimate eternal destruction. However the sentence hasn’t been executed yet, although there’s no way for Satan to escape.
Satan is currently out on bail, wreaking havoc left & right waiting for the day he’ll be cast into the Lake of Fire once & for all. Until then he’ll be doing what he does best, destroying lives, breaking up homes & disrupting God’s work where & when he can. He is angry because he knows his time is short.
Another way we could put it is; - The cross was D-Day in World War 11. Once the Allies landed at Normandy the defeat of Germany was certain. Much fighting would ensue & many soldiers would die, but the Allies won the war on December 6, 1944. Satan’s D- Day happened when Christ died on the cross. Since then his defeat has been a “done deal,” his ultimate surrender guaranteed. Meanwhile he fights on in his desperate battle, a defeated but still dangerous foe.
DEFEATED BUT STILL DANGEROUS, HOW SHOULD WE DEAL WITH SATAN?
First of all, we should make sure we don’t confuse “dealing with the devil” with “making deals with the devil.” We should also keep in mind that Satan isn’t “Omni anything.”
He isn’t omnipresent—Job 1:17---1 Peter 5:8
He isn’t omnipotent—or all powerful—Rev. 12:7
He isn’t omniscient—He doesn’t know everything—Job 1—1 John4:4
We should also remember the fact that Satan only has so many demons to use & they can’t multiply. He has imposed limits.-Luke 22:31
Here’s a short list of some of the powers Satan has;
Disappointment
Discouragement
Despair
Doubt
Disbelief
Distraction
Double mindedness
Dishonesty
Deceit
Dullness
Delay
Discord
Defilement
Defame &
Disobedience
Here are some of his titles or descriptions;
The evil or wicked one
The tempter
The Prince of this world
The god of this age
Prince of the power of this world
Accuser of the brethren
Prince of the demons
Deceiver of the whole world
Adversary
Enemy
Father of lies
Murderer
Serpent
Dragon
Leviathan
Angel of light
A roaring lion
Here’s the scriptural plan to defeat Satan;
1.Expect satanic evil
Peter tells us; -Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though some strange thing were happening to you.—1 Peter 4:12
Satan’s on a leash its true, but it’s a very long leash so always be on guard.
2.Stand & fight
Ephesians 6:11-17 tells us; --finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord & in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against & blood but against principalities, against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wicked in heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day & having done all, to stand.
3.Resist the devil & he will flee from you. James 4:7
Isn’t that interesting? All we have to do is resist & Satan will leave. Now this should give us some idea as to just how brave Satan really is. If a lady was walking to her car & a man came up & demanded her purse & car keys, & the lady said, “NO! You aren’t getting my purse,” do you think even the most cowardly crook would say, “O.K. That’s fine, then turn around & run?
No way! Even the most cravenly crook would press the issue since he’d already put himself at risk. If no one was around to see it, you can believe the crook would probably get that purse. But with Satan, according to the Bible, & I might add, according to our personal experience, all we have to do to get old split-foot to turn tail & run is to resist him. Satan has nothing that will work against us if we have our armor on & resist him in Jesus’ name.
I love the story the late Lester Sumrall used to tell about being in Panama City, Panama preaching. One night a demon entered his room & as he came in the room shook violently. Sumrall was sitting on his cot, leaning up against the wall reading his Bible. The room shook so hard that the cot he was sitting on moved out into the middle of the room with him on it. Sumrall didn’t flinch, but just stood up & rebuked the evil spirit & commanded him to leave. He could feel the evil spirit making his departure, going out the same window he came in. But Brother Sumrall looked at his cot out in the middle of the room & rushed to the window & shouted, “ hey devil, come back here.” He could feel the demon entering the room again & Sumrall said, “Devil if I’m not mistaken, when you came in awhile ago, my cot was up against the wall. Devil, you put it back like it was.” He stood & watched as the cot slowly moved back up against the wall.
It’s high time we Christians quit allowing Satan to come into our lives & disrupt them when all we have to do is take authority over him in Jesus name.
4. Hate evil
Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.—Romans 12:9.
Let me share with you a method we used when rearing our children. If music which we didn’t approve of was played either on the radio or T.V, or if something would pop up on a T.V program or in a movie, right on the spot we’d express our disapproval of it in the hearing of the kids.
You might say—“Well you shouldn’t have been in a position for that to assault your ear & eye gate,” & you’d be right. However how realistic is it for us who aren’t Amish to be totally insulated from things of which we don’t approve? I’m just saying—when you’ve done your best to shelter your progeny from the evils of the world & something slips through, make it a teaching moment & right then & there speak out loudly & clearly about how obnoxious the thing is & counter it with your standards & beliefs. Let it be well known that you “abhor evil.”
If we just remain silent, too often “silence means consent” & our kids could be confused as to what their parents truly believe. As a father I’ve seen times when right in the middle of an otherwise wholesome variety program, up would pop a group of half-adorned leggy dancers. I’m not a prude nor am I naive, but certainly half-dressed women doing a “leg-show” don’t meet my standards, so if I didn’t pull the plug completely, I’d certainly switch channels, & maybe check back later. I’m sure you understand the problem there. But maybe you had or have a better plan than we had, if so I applaud you.
5.Use the weapon of prayer.
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing that the weight of the sin of the world would soon be on His shoulders. He prayed with such agony that actual blood popped out of His skin. So great was His abhorrence of sin that He even asked God to take the cup from Him. Finally He prayed,-Not my will but thine be done.
Jesus won the victory because He poured out His soul to God. Let us not think that our battles will be won any other way. If the Son of God must agonize in prayer, how much more must we cry out to God?
6. Renounce & expose the devil & confess Jesus Christ openly.-
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.-Matt.6:13
Jesus made it clear that if we’ll confess Him before men, He’ll acknowledge us before the Father in heaven, & if we deny Him He’ll deny us before the Father. Matt. 10:32-33
7. Overcome evil with good.-Romans 12:21
In these days when Christianity is being pushed back into the shadows & people are in many instances ashamed to speak the name of Jesus, you & I as Christians should be bold in our proclamations that Jesus is still the Door of heaven.
Remember this. The Captain of our Salvation has already won the battle.
Satan can harass you but he can’t destroy you.
Satan is out on bail but his fate is sealed & his doom is sure. Jesus has defeated him at the cross.
Listen to the words of Jesus;
The thief comes to steal kill & destroy; I have come that they might have life, & have it more abundantly.. John 10:10
Blessings,
John
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Sunday, January 22, 2017
There's Something About Trouble
By John Stallings
Horatio Spafford was a man who knew a lot about trouble. He lost his only son, 4 years old, to pneumonia. He lost much of his wealth in the Chicago fire.
Someone suggested it would help him & his family if they went to England to hear a preacher in revival there. Spafford got tickets to take his family to England by ship but at the last second he had business to come up so he sent his family on ahead.
On the way the ship the family was on collided with another ship & Spafford lost all of his three daughters. His wife sent him a telegram with two words—Saved Alone!
On the way to England to be with his wife he told the captain to let him know where his daughters had died. After Spafford saw the place, he went to his room & wrote the now famous words;
When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.
Some people have the notion that being a Christian means no more trouble.
However it doesn’t take them long to learn that’s not the reality. Jesus said; - In the world ye shall have trouble: but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.—John 16:33. Life is filled with an infinite variety of trouble.
There’s imaginary trouble; trouble that is just conjured up in the mind. But even so, stressing over imaginary trouble robs us of the strength to face real problems. Worry, in a manner of speaking could possibly be productive if we knew what to worry about; but then we never know, do we? Worry might not be so destructive if we could do it intelligently.
The greatest minds who ever lived have said at the end of long lives; - “Most of the things I worried about never happened.”
Then there’s yesterday’s trouble. Some people like the past better than the present. It’s obvious because they dwell in the past in their thought life. We can’t cause the past to turn out differently no matter how much time we spend rehashing it. It’s O.K to go over things that have happened to us but we must put a time limit on the rehash & move on.
There’s also tomorrow’s trouble. If we spend too much time worrying about tomorrow we lose our ability to deal with the present. Jesus said;-Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matt. 6:34.
I love Ira Stanphill’s song with the following lines;…. many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow & I know who holds my hand.
One thing we can be sure of; life will bring to all of us our share of trouble. Paul reminds us in Romans 8:34, that trouble can’t separate us from the loving care of God. What is needed in trouble is that we hold onto hope & stay upbeat even when we’re being beat-up. God spoke through the Psalmist & said, -Call upon me in the day of trouble & I will deliver thee & thou shalt glorify me. Usually trouble has a way of moving us toward God.
Paul & Silas prayed in the prison at midnight & God sent an earthquake to set them free. - Acts 16:25. - When things get darkest people will always pray & when we pray we can expect God to show up.
In Luke 12:49 Jesus said, I am come to send fire on the earth. You probably haven’t heard a sermon on that lately because it’s one of His least popular statements. This message never even made it to the top ten because people don’t like to think of following Christ as fire & trouble.
I believe the fire Jesus speaks of can be likened to a welders fire; a fire that binds things together. A welder’s fire isn’t destructive but constructive, creating things that are useful. Trouble will make you & me either bitter or better. The same fire that melts the wax hardens the clay.
Job 5:7 says,--yet man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Someone said that a short descriptive definition of life would be; “they were born they had trouble & they died.” That might be a tad negative especially for we who are Christians because to us life has a more positive meaning. But the point is; life is neither all good nor all bad for any of us, it’s just life. Stop & think about it; how could we expect to have a full participation in something as dynamic as life & never run into problems. Jesus certainly understood trouble because it was His constant companion from cradle to grave.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE BRINGS US CLOSER TO GOD.
In Psalm 46:1 the Psalmist said;--God is our refuge & strength, a very present help in the time of trouble.
This verse isn’t just a promise, it’s a commentary on the very nature of God. There are times when we all feel like God has gone on vacation in Key West & forgotten our phone number. We feel the heavens are brass & don’t have that sense of closeness to God that makes us feel secure. Notice in this verse that God isn’t just present when trouble comes, He’s very present. Not only is He very present He’s a very present HELP in trouble. If you’ve ever stood by the bedside of a dying loved one, or been knocked off your feet by a doctors diagnosis, you understand that verse.
There are times when we may feel God is far away. In truth there are times when God will hide His face temporarily to test us so we can see if our faith is working. We’ve all been there when we just can’t “feel God.” But there is one thing of which we can be sure & every Christian who ever lived can testify to it; God will always be a very present help in times when we’re crushed by life’s pressures. God isn’t only going to be there, He’s going to help us!
God isn’t going to just be with us, He’s going to be under-girding & lifting us up so that when it’s over we’ll look back & say of a certainty, we couldn’t have made it without Him.
GOD WATCHES US LIKE A HAWK WHEN WE’RE GOING THROUGH TROUBLE.
There’s something about trouble that causes God to hover near us & make certain that we know He’s there. Our trouble gets His attention. Christ’s affinity with trouble brings Him near His children in troubled times.
There’s a popular secular “love song” that I hear once in a while that has this line; ---You left me just when I needed you most. But God doesn’t operate that way. Like the old Hymn says;
Jesus is near, to comfort & cheer, just when I need him most.
PAUL WAS NO STRANGER TO TROUBLE
Paul said:-That I may know Him & the power of His resurrection & the fellowship of His sufferings…... Philippians 3:10
We hear a lot more these days about the power of His resurrection than we do the fellowship of His sufferings.
Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9;-We are TROUBLED on every side yet not distressed: we are perplexed but not in despair: persecuted but not forgotten, cast down but not destroyed.
Listen again;-For when we were come to Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.—2 Cor. 7:5
Listen to Paul again in 2 Cor. 12:7-9—And lest I be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a throne in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me.
And He said unto me, my Grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Listen to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:8;--For we would not have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed above measure & above strength, insomuch that we despaired of life.
Then Paul continues in the 10th verse- that it was God who always delivered him from trouble.
In the 23rd Psalm verse 4, David tells us the same thing—yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow death I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod & thy staff they comfort me.
Listen again in the 91st Psalm 11-12—For He shall give His angels charge over thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thy dash thy foot against a stone.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE PURIFIES US
1 Peter 4:12-13 says;-Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing has happened to you; But rejoice that ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed ye may be glad with exceeding joy.
We shouldn’t be surprised when God gives us a test now & then; its standard operating procedure for God.
JOB IS THE POSTER BOY FOR TROUBLE IN THE BIBLE
Job is the quintessential example of how God uses trouble to purify us. Job said; But He knows the way that I take & when He hath tried me I shall come forth as pure gold. Job 23:10
Job is “pulled through the knothole backwards” time & again but at the end we see him restored & made stronger. He knows in his heart that God isn’t trying to kill him, but is purifying him.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE STRENGTHENS OUR CHARACTER
Joseph is one of the two men in the Old Testament about whom not one negative word is spoken.[Daniel is the other one.] If you’ve read Joseph’s story, you’ll know that it’s nothing short of remarkable. The Bible account of his story starts as a teenager & continues until his death at 110.
Joseph was truly a beloved & favored son- but a hated brother. From his youth he had trouble that would have killed most people emotionally if not physically. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, & later imprisoned on a trumped-up rape charge. From approximately the age of seventeen to thirty, not much good happens to Joseph.
Because of his strong godly character & God’s faithfulness, Joseph lived to see deliverance & promotion & was ultimately placed in high command as Pharaoh’s personal confidant & Prime Minister.
Instead of letting trouble destroy him, Joseph’s trouble strengthened him & he was catapulted to greatness. Trouble forged Joseph into one of God’s giants.
When I was thirteen I got an inexpensive guitar for Christmas & started teaching myself to play. As you probably know, anything with strings is by nature a continuous maintenance instrument because the strings will loosen. I’ve threatened a few times to tune my guitar & have it welded so the strings can’t change. When strings get loose, the instrument is out of tune & incapable of bringing forth anything but sour sounds.
Tuning a guitar is a very tedious exercise because the strings are fragile & break easily. What must be done is to slowly turn & twist the string & little by little add pressure until its tuned. Pressure is what puts the potential for music in the strings. If you take a guitar & loosen all the strings you get nothing but a sickening noise. But the right amount of pressure will make the instrument usable. No pressure, no music.
When tuning a guitar your imagination will sometimes tell you the strings are saying, “Ouch!” You can almost hear them saying, “stop hurting me, stop twisting.” To tune a guitar properly you have to be a little ruthless especially if it’s a new string because to get it right a lot of pressure has to be applied.
It’s the same with our lives. If we never are put under pressure we lose the edge that makes us useful. Of course God knows just how much pressure we can take. It’s not God’s objective to break us down, that would render us unusable. He’s an all-wise father & He knows our frame.
TROUBLE USUALLY COMES JUST BEFORE GREAT VICTORY.
We’d be hard pressed to find in the Bible a more telling story about human nature than the story of the twelve spies sent into Canaan. In the reaction of the Israelites we find fear & bravery, timidity & courage, trust & mistrust, pessimism & optimism.
This story points to the truth about ourselves; for our human tendency is to recoil from things that have an element of danger in them.
Of course the twelve returned from spying out the Promised land & all of then admitted that the land was lush & filled with richness & plenty. “ It flows with milk & honey” they said, “and the fruit is plentiful.” The spies even brought some samples of the fruit to prove their point. The children of Israel had never seen anything like the size & lusciousness of such grapes.
These people had just been released from several generations of slavery. They were now a free people & thanks to God’s goodness they were home. But the truth is, these folk were still a fickle people whose faith could be easily shaken. So when they heard the reports of the size & strength of the Canaanites, they quaked with fear.
In actuality, all the sign posts were there to show the people of God how close they were to victory. They were on the brink of their destiny & their breakthrough. There will always be giants close by our victories to scare us off & sadly we too often give up right at the point of victory. Satan sees that we’re on the verge of winning so he throws every bit of pressure he can at us trying to get us to back up.
If you’re a sports fan you know that right at the end of a game the pressure is always the greatest. This is to be expected. At the end of the game the pressure is great because the outcome is about to be decided. If anybody is going to do anything- they’d better do it quickly, the game is almost over.
Before Jesus won His victory at Calvary Satan did all he could to stop Him from going all the way to the cross, because that was His mission, to die for our sins. When the pressure starts to build & everything seems to be going wrong, you’re getting close to something the devil wants to beat you out of.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE TEACHES US OF GOD’S INTEGRITY.
God gets closely involved with His “called people” during trouble. It’s in times of trouble that God gets a chance to be God in our lives. Listen to this powerful verse;
…you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, & ordained you, that ye should go & bring forth fruit & that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you ask the father in my name He may give it to you.- John 15:16
Isaiah 54:17 says,-No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper: and every tongue that shall rise against thee thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord & their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
God doesn’t promise that He’ll stop the weapons from being formed; He just says He won’t allow them to prosper against us. When God has chosen you, you can run but you can’t hide. He’ll find you! If you make your bed in hell He’ll find you there. God called Israel out of Egypt & sent Moses to bring them out. There wasn’t a chance that He was going to turn His back on them though it took forty years of wandering in the desert. Israel was His chosen people & though He dealt harshly with them at times He was always working with them.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE CAN BLIND US TO THE REVELATION OF GOD.
Something about trouble breaks us, molds us, & makes us into the person God wants us to be. John was marooned on the Isle of Patmos to be punished. But in his loneliest hours John penned for all of mankind “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” that we so cherish today. When things seem to be at their worst, look for God because He’ll be near.
In Jeremiah eighteen, God took the prophet down to the potter’s house & he saw the clay marred in the potters hands. Sometimes God must work harshly with us to so fashion us that we might be vessels of honor in His hands. When God gets ready to work with us it’s a “hands-on” process. He sculptures & chisels us until He gets what He wants out of our lives.
Listen to the words God spoke through the prophet Isaiah;
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel. Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.
When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee: and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:1-3
JACOB’S TROUBLE
We’re entering the foothills of trouble; trouble like the world has never seen. As a matter of fact it’s called—“The time of Jacob’s trouble.” Jer.30:6-7. It’s also called The Great Tribulation, seven years of indescribable suffering. We’re getting so close to it now you can almost feel it in the air.
It will be a time more terrible than men can imagine. It will be a time marked by disruption, desperation, disaster, disobedience & desolation & will conclude with Christ’s second coming.
I just praise the Lord that Christians don’t have to fear these things.
The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is coming back to remove His church from the earth just before that awful time of suffering.
Are you saved & sure that you won’t be here for these terrible days? If not, all you have to do is come to Jesus by faith & He will save you. Having made that decision & commitment, you can trust God for protection when that day of trouble comes.
Blessings,
John
Horatio Spafford was a man who knew a lot about trouble. He lost his only son, 4 years old, to pneumonia. He lost much of his wealth in the Chicago fire.
Someone suggested it would help him & his family if they went to England to hear a preacher in revival there. Spafford got tickets to take his family to England by ship but at the last second he had business to come up so he sent his family on ahead.
On the way the ship the family was on collided with another ship & Spafford lost all of his three daughters. His wife sent him a telegram with two words—Saved Alone!
On the way to England to be with his wife he told the captain to let him know where his daughters had died. After Spafford saw the place, he went to his room & wrote the now famous words;
When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.
Some people have the notion that being a Christian means no more trouble.
However it doesn’t take them long to learn that’s not the reality. Jesus said; - In the world ye shall have trouble: but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.—John 16:33. Life is filled with an infinite variety of trouble.
There’s imaginary trouble; trouble that is just conjured up in the mind. But even so, stressing over imaginary trouble robs us of the strength to face real problems. Worry, in a manner of speaking could possibly be productive if we knew what to worry about; but then we never know, do we? Worry might not be so destructive if we could do it intelligently.
The greatest minds who ever lived have said at the end of long lives; - “Most of the things I worried about never happened.”
Then there’s yesterday’s trouble. Some people like the past better than the present. It’s obvious because they dwell in the past in their thought life. We can’t cause the past to turn out differently no matter how much time we spend rehashing it. It’s O.K to go over things that have happened to us but we must put a time limit on the rehash & move on.
There’s also tomorrow’s trouble. If we spend too much time worrying about tomorrow we lose our ability to deal with the present. Jesus said;-Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matt. 6:34.
I love Ira Stanphill’s song with the following lines;…. many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow & I know who holds my hand.
One thing we can be sure of; life will bring to all of us our share of trouble. Paul reminds us in Romans 8:34, that trouble can’t separate us from the loving care of God. What is needed in trouble is that we hold onto hope & stay upbeat even when we’re being beat-up. God spoke through the Psalmist & said, -Call upon me in the day of trouble & I will deliver thee & thou shalt glorify me. Usually trouble has a way of moving us toward God.
Paul & Silas prayed in the prison at midnight & God sent an earthquake to set them free. - Acts 16:25. - When things get darkest people will always pray & when we pray we can expect God to show up.
In Luke 12:49 Jesus said, I am come to send fire on the earth. You probably haven’t heard a sermon on that lately because it’s one of His least popular statements. This message never even made it to the top ten because people don’t like to think of following Christ as fire & trouble.
I believe the fire Jesus speaks of can be likened to a welders fire; a fire that binds things together. A welder’s fire isn’t destructive but constructive, creating things that are useful. Trouble will make you & me either bitter or better. The same fire that melts the wax hardens the clay.
Job 5:7 says,--yet man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Someone said that a short descriptive definition of life would be; “they were born they had trouble & they died.” That might be a tad negative especially for we who are Christians because to us life has a more positive meaning. But the point is; life is neither all good nor all bad for any of us, it’s just life. Stop & think about it; how could we expect to have a full participation in something as dynamic as life & never run into problems. Jesus certainly understood trouble because it was His constant companion from cradle to grave.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE BRINGS US CLOSER TO GOD.
In Psalm 46:1 the Psalmist said;--God is our refuge & strength, a very present help in the time of trouble.
This verse isn’t just a promise, it’s a commentary on the very nature of God. There are times when we all feel like God has gone on vacation in Key West & forgotten our phone number. We feel the heavens are brass & don’t have that sense of closeness to God that makes us feel secure. Notice in this verse that God isn’t just present when trouble comes, He’s very present. Not only is He very present He’s a very present HELP in trouble. If you’ve ever stood by the bedside of a dying loved one, or been knocked off your feet by a doctors diagnosis, you understand that verse.
There are times when we may feel God is far away. In truth there are times when God will hide His face temporarily to test us so we can see if our faith is working. We’ve all been there when we just can’t “feel God.” But there is one thing of which we can be sure & every Christian who ever lived can testify to it; God will always be a very present help in times when we’re crushed by life’s pressures. God isn’t only going to be there, He’s going to help us!
God isn’t going to just be with us, He’s going to be under-girding & lifting us up so that when it’s over we’ll look back & say of a certainty, we couldn’t have made it without Him.
GOD WATCHES US LIKE A HAWK WHEN WE’RE GOING THROUGH TROUBLE.
There’s something about trouble that causes God to hover near us & make certain that we know He’s there. Our trouble gets His attention. Christ’s affinity with trouble brings Him near His children in troubled times.
There’s a popular secular “love song” that I hear once in a while that has this line; ---You left me just when I needed you most. But God doesn’t operate that way. Like the old Hymn says;
Jesus is near, to comfort & cheer, just when I need him most.
PAUL WAS NO STRANGER TO TROUBLE
Paul said:-That I may know Him & the power of His resurrection & the fellowship of His sufferings…... Philippians 3:10
We hear a lot more these days about the power of His resurrection than we do the fellowship of His sufferings.
Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9;-We are TROUBLED on every side yet not distressed: we are perplexed but not in despair: persecuted but not forgotten, cast down but not destroyed.
Listen again;-For when we were come to Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.—2 Cor. 7:5
Listen to Paul again in 2 Cor. 12:7-9—And lest I be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a throne in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me.
And He said unto me, my Grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Listen to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:8;--For we would not have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed above measure & above strength, insomuch that we despaired of life.
Then Paul continues in the 10th verse- that it was God who always delivered him from trouble.
In the 23rd Psalm verse 4, David tells us the same thing—yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow death I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod & thy staff they comfort me.
Listen again in the 91st Psalm 11-12—For He shall give His angels charge over thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thy dash thy foot against a stone.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE PURIFIES US
1 Peter 4:12-13 says;-Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing has happened to you; But rejoice that ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed ye may be glad with exceeding joy.
We shouldn’t be surprised when God gives us a test now & then; its standard operating procedure for God.
JOB IS THE POSTER BOY FOR TROUBLE IN THE BIBLE
Job is the quintessential example of how God uses trouble to purify us. Job said; But He knows the way that I take & when He hath tried me I shall come forth as pure gold. Job 23:10
Job is “pulled through the knothole backwards” time & again but at the end we see him restored & made stronger. He knows in his heart that God isn’t trying to kill him, but is purifying him.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE STRENGTHENS OUR CHARACTER
Joseph is one of the two men in the Old Testament about whom not one negative word is spoken.[Daniel is the other one.] If you’ve read Joseph’s story, you’ll know that it’s nothing short of remarkable. The Bible account of his story starts as a teenager & continues until his death at 110.
Joseph was truly a beloved & favored son- but a hated brother. From his youth he had trouble that would have killed most people emotionally if not physically. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, & later imprisoned on a trumped-up rape charge. From approximately the age of seventeen to thirty, not much good happens to Joseph.
Because of his strong godly character & God’s faithfulness, Joseph lived to see deliverance & promotion & was ultimately placed in high command as Pharaoh’s personal confidant & Prime Minister.
Instead of letting trouble destroy him, Joseph’s trouble strengthened him & he was catapulted to greatness. Trouble forged Joseph into one of God’s giants.
When I was thirteen I got an inexpensive guitar for Christmas & started teaching myself to play. As you probably know, anything with strings is by nature a continuous maintenance instrument because the strings will loosen. I’ve threatened a few times to tune my guitar & have it welded so the strings can’t change. When strings get loose, the instrument is out of tune & incapable of bringing forth anything but sour sounds.
Tuning a guitar is a very tedious exercise because the strings are fragile & break easily. What must be done is to slowly turn & twist the string & little by little add pressure until its tuned. Pressure is what puts the potential for music in the strings. If you take a guitar & loosen all the strings you get nothing but a sickening noise. But the right amount of pressure will make the instrument usable. No pressure, no music.
When tuning a guitar your imagination will sometimes tell you the strings are saying, “Ouch!” You can almost hear them saying, “stop hurting me, stop twisting.” To tune a guitar properly you have to be a little ruthless especially if it’s a new string because to get it right a lot of pressure has to be applied.
It’s the same with our lives. If we never are put under pressure we lose the edge that makes us useful. Of course God knows just how much pressure we can take. It’s not God’s objective to break us down, that would render us unusable. He’s an all-wise father & He knows our frame.
TROUBLE USUALLY COMES JUST BEFORE GREAT VICTORY.
We’d be hard pressed to find in the Bible a more telling story about human nature than the story of the twelve spies sent into Canaan. In the reaction of the Israelites we find fear & bravery, timidity & courage, trust & mistrust, pessimism & optimism.
This story points to the truth about ourselves; for our human tendency is to recoil from things that have an element of danger in them.
Of course the twelve returned from spying out the Promised land & all of then admitted that the land was lush & filled with richness & plenty. “ It flows with milk & honey” they said, “and the fruit is plentiful.” The spies even brought some samples of the fruit to prove their point. The children of Israel had never seen anything like the size & lusciousness of such grapes.
These people had just been released from several generations of slavery. They were now a free people & thanks to God’s goodness they were home. But the truth is, these folk were still a fickle people whose faith could be easily shaken. So when they heard the reports of the size & strength of the Canaanites, they quaked with fear.
In actuality, all the sign posts were there to show the people of God how close they were to victory. They were on the brink of their destiny & their breakthrough. There will always be giants close by our victories to scare us off & sadly we too often give up right at the point of victory. Satan sees that we’re on the verge of winning so he throws every bit of pressure he can at us trying to get us to back up.
If you’re a sports fan you know that right at the end of a game the pressure is always the greatest. This is to be expected. At the end of the game the pressure is great because the outcome is about to be decided. If anybody is going to do anything- they’d better do it quickly, the game is almost over.
Before Jesus won His victory at Calvary Satan did all he could to stop Him from going all the way to the cross, because that was His mission, to die for our sins. When the pressure starts to build & everything seems to be going wrong, you’re getting close to something the devil wants to beat you out of.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE TEACHES US OF GOD’S INTEGRITY.
God gets closely involved with His “called people” during trouble. It’s in times of trouble that God gets a chance to be God in our lives. Listen to this powerful verse;
…you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, & ordained you, that ye should go & bring forth fruit & that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you ask the father in my name He may give it to you.- John 15:16
Isaiah 54:17 says,-No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper: and every tongue that shall rise against thee thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord & their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
God doesn’t promise that He’ll stop the weapons from being formed; He just says He won’t allow them to prosper against us. When God has chosen you, you can run but you can’t hide. He’ll find you! If you make your bed in hell He’ll find you there. God called Israel out of Egypt & sent Moses to bring them out. There wasn’t a chance that He was going to turn His back on them though it took forty years of wandering in the desert. Israel was His chosen people & though He dealt harshly with them at times He was always working with them.
SOMETHING ABOUT TROUBLE CAN BLIND US TO THE REVELATION OF GOD.
Something about trouble breaks us, molds us, & makes us into the person God wants us to be. John was marooned on the Isle of Patmos to be punished. But in his loneliest hours John penned for all of mankind “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” that we so cherish today. When things seem to be at their worst, look for God because He’ll be near.
In Jeremiah eighteen, God took the prophet down to the potter’s house & he saw the clay marred in the potters hands. Sometimes God must work harshly with us to so fashion us that we might be vessels of honor in His hands. When God gets ready to work with us it’s a “hands-on” process. He sculptures & chisels us until He gets what He wants out of our lives.
Listen to the words God spoke through the prophet Isaiah;
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel. Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.
When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee: and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:1-3
JACOB’S TROUBLE
We’re entering the foothills of trouble; trouble like the world has never seen. As a matter of fact it’s called—“The time of Jacob’s trouble.” Jer.30:6-7. It’s also called The Great Tribulation, seven years of indescribable suffering. We’re getting so close to it now you can almost feel it in the air.
It will be a time more terrible than men can imagine. It will be a time marked by disruption, desperation, disaster, disobedience & desolation & will conclude with Christ’s second coming.
I just praise the Lord that Christians don’t have to fear these things.
The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is coming back to remove His church from the earth just before that awful time of suffering.
Are you saved & sure that you won’t be here for these terrible days? If not, all you have to do is come to Jesus by faith & He will save you. Having made that decision & commitment, you can trust God for protection when that day of trouble comes.
Blessings,
John
Friday, January 20, 2017
Dottie Rambo And Me
By John Stallings
I was as shocked & saddened as the rest of the world when I heard a few years back- in the early morning of May eleven, Dottie Rambo slipped through the phantom walls that separate this life from eternity. Heaven must be in a hub-bub as we speak. “Dottie’s home you’ all.”
The first words I spoke to Juda were, “well, Dottie died with her boots on.” How poetic. Dottie went to heaven on Mother’s day. She died as she lived. Always the dramatic. Always the poetic. Always Dottie.
Dottie was four years older than me. She was born in 1934 & I in 1938. When we started off in evangelism in the early 1960’s, we recorded & sang mostly Dottie’s songs. The reason: I hadn’t as yet written songs good enough to sing in our meetings. Maybe I still haven’t.
I can remember the first song of Dottie’s that we sang; “Its me again Lord.”
Here’s something you’d never know if I didn’t tell you. I won a Dove Award before Dottie did. Interesting. Right? But if you’ll stay with me, you’re in for an even greater surprise.
In 1974 I was pastoring a church in Montgomery Alabama. We had just completed the new sanctuary seating just over 1,000. I booked the Rambo’s for a concert that year. They drew a good crowd & “outdid” themselves.
To be frank, Dottie didn’t really know me then & I didn’t know her very well. We never got to know each other very well. Three years later I wrote “Learning to lean” & in 1977 it won Nashville’s Dove award for- Song of the year.”
When Dottie & I were in the same room in Nashville, in a post- Dove Award party, Dottie wouldn’t speak to me. That’s right. Dottie walked right past me, nose in the air & --no speaky.
But wait. That never bothered me because I totally understood. Musicians are a temperamental bunch. The reason she wouldn’t speak was that she was upset. Upset because she’d never gotten a Dove Award. That’s right. The great Dottie Rambo hadn’t as yet ever won a Dove award. This was a travesty. To Dottie, my winning the Dove was “beginners luck.” As far as the Nashville crowd was concerned, I was a “nobody.”
I think Dottie got her Dove five years later with “We shall behold Him.” Listen; if I’d been writing gospel music since I was eight years old & had been overlooked by the Gospel Music Industry, I’m sure I’d have been steamed also.
Please don’t think I put myself on the same level musically with Dottie. I don’t. Dottie had a body of work that was almost beyond comprehension. Songwriting wasn’t something I started out to do in life anyway. Even if it had been, I doubt I could have ever come close to Dottie. She was “the bomb.”
Over the years since she went to heaven, I’ve thought a lot about Dottie. I guess it’s my way of mourning the loss of such a gigantic talent/ministry. I’ve taken another look at her work & learned lots about her I never knew. She wrote songs of unimpeachable truth from a deep well of insight into truth of the heart's experience & the soul's knowledge.
I’ve often jokingly told people “I started out young.” Didn’t we all? But with Dottie Rambo that’s no joke. She started writing songs at eight & she caught Governor Jimmy Davis’ eye when she was ten. I was just learning to wave buh-bye at that age.
Have you given any thought to the irony of Dottie’s passing? Her most famous early song was “Sheltered in the arms of God," & it talks about how she’s protected from the storms of life. Investigators say it’s almost certain her tour bus was blown off the road by strong winds that were blowing across the state at the time she was killed. One line in that song says, “I have no fear for naught of earth can harm me.”
But right here is where the Christian faith is so different, so magnificent. When we’re in God’s hands He protects us & if anything hits us it only moves us closer to Him. We also believe in Healing but if we die, God has just totally healed us, we’re with Him.
Paul said, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Dottie suffered right up to her death with back pain & had gone through nine serious back operations in her life. To utter an understatement; Dottie’s not suffering now; she’s sheltered in the arms of God eternally
Dottie died early in the morning on Mother’s Day on a starless night somewhere by the side of the road. In years to come, should Christ tarry, every Mother’s Day we’ll automatically think of Dottie. She died so unexpectedly. I hope & pray none of her loved-ones were giving her the old “cold-shoulder” at the time, if so, Mother's Day to them will always mean something very different.
One last thing; I’ve been asking myself why I never wrote Dottie when she was alive & told her what an inspiration she was to me. It’s too late now. But I’m not going to let the Devil beat my brains out over it. Let’s see, who else is there who's still breathing I could write & give some affirmation to? So, so many, & you can believe I’ll get right on it.
Perhaps Dottie’s’ greatest song, the one that won her The Dove Award was, “We shall behold Him.” She doesn’t need that Blessed Hope anymore, she’s with The Master eternally, but you & I certainly do.
Aren’t you glad she left these words?
We shall behold Him, we shall behold Him,
Face to face, in all of His glory.
And we shall behold Him; yes we shall behold Him,
Face to face, our Saviour and Lord.
Congrats on your promotion Dottie. We’ll miss you, but we'll see you soon!
Blessings,
John
I was as shocked & saddened as the rest of the world when I heard a few years back- in the early morning of May eleven, Dottie Rambo slipped through the phantom walls that separate this life from eternity. Heaven must be in a hub-bub as we speak. “Dottie’s home you’ all.”
The first words I spoke to Juda were, “well, Dottie died with her boots on.” How poetic. Dottie went to heaven on Mother’s day. She died as she lived. Always the dramatic. Always the poetic. Always Dottie.
Dottie was four years older than me. She was born in 1934 & I in 1938. When we started off in evangelism in the early 1960’s, we recorded & sang mostly Dottie’s songs. The reason: I hadn’t as yet written songs good enough to sing in our meetings. Maybe I still haven’t.
I can remember the first song of Dottie’s that we sang; “Its me again Lord.”
Here’s something you’d never know if I didn’t tell you. I won a Dove Award before Dottie did. Interesting. Right? But if you’ll stay with me, you’re in for an even greater surprise.
In 1974 I was pastoring a church in Montgomery Alabama. We had just completed the new sanctuary seating just over 1,000. I booked the Rambo’s for a concert that year. They drew a good crowd & “outdid” themselves.
To be frank, Dottie didn’t really know me then & I didn’t know her very well. We never got to know each other very well. Three years later I wrote “Learning to lean” & in 1977 it won Nashville’s Dove award for- Song of the year.”
When Dottie & I were in the same room in Nashville, in a post- Dove Award party, Dottie wouldn’t speak to me. That’s right. Dottie walked right past me, nose in the air & --no speaky.
But wait. That never bothered me because I totally understood. Musicians are a temperamental bunch. The reason she wouldn’t speak was that she was upset. Upset because she’d never gotten a Dove Award. That’s right. The great Dottie Rambo hadn’t as yet ever won a Dove award. This was a travesty. To Dottie, my winning the Dove was “beginners luck.” As far as the Nashville crowd was concerned, I was a “nobody.”
I think Dottie got her Dove five years later with “We shall behold Him.” Listen; if I’d been writing gospel music since I was eight years old & had been overlooked by the Gospel Music Industry, I’m sure I’d have been steamed also.
Please don’t think I put myself on the same level musically with Dottie. I don’t. Dottie had a body of work that was almost beyond comprehension. Songwriting wasn’t something I started out to do in life anyway. Even if it had been, I doubt I could have ever come close to Dottie. She was “the bomb.”
Over the years since she went to heaven, I’ve thought a lot about Dottie. I guess it’s my way of mourning the loss of such a gigantic talent/ministry. I’ve taken another look at her work & learned lots about her I never knew. She wrote songs of unimpeachable truth from a deep well of insight into truth of the heart's experience & the soul's knowledge.
I’ve often jokingly told people “I started out young.” Didn’t we all? But with Dottie Rambo that’s no joke. She started writing songs at eight & she caught Governor Jimmy Davis’ eye when she was ten. I was just learning to wave buh-bye at that age.
Have you given any thought to the irony of Dottie’s passing? Her most famous early song was “Sheltered in the arms of God," & it talks about how she’s protected from the storms of life. Investigators say it’s almost certain her tour bus was blown off the road by strong winds that were blowing across the state at the time she was killed. One line in that song says, “I have no fear for naught of earth can harm me.”
But right here is where the Christian faith is so different, so magnificent. When we’re in God’s hands He protects us & if anything hits us it only moves us closer to Him. We also believe in Healing but if we die, God has just totally healed us, we’re with Him.
Paul said, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Dottie suffered right up to her death with back pain & had gone through nine serious back operations in her life. To utter an understatement; Dottie’s not suffering now; she’s sheltered in the arms of God eternally
Dottie died early in the morning on Mother’s Day on a starless night somewhere by the side of the road. In years to come, should Christ tarry, every Mother’s Day we’ll automatically think of Dottie. She died so unexpectedly. I hope & pray none of her loved-ones were giving her the old “cold-shoulder” at the time, if so, Mother's Day to them will always mean something very different.
One last thing; I’ve been asking myself why I never wrote Dottie when she was alive & told her what an inspiration she was to me. It’s too late now. But I’m not going to let the Devil beat my brains out over it. Let’s see, who else is there who's still breathing I could write & give some affirmation to? So, so many, & you can believe I’ll get right on it.
Perhaps Dottie’s’ greatest song, the one that won her The Dove Award was, “We shall behold Him.” She doesn’t need that Blessed Hope anymore, she’s with The Master eternally, but you & I certainly do.
Aren’t you glad she left these words?
We shall behold Him, we shall behold Him,
Face to face, in all of His glory.
And we shall behold Him; yes we shall behold Him,
Face to face, our Saviour and Lord.
Congrats on your promotion Dottie. We’ll miss you, but we'll see you soon!
Blessings,
John
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
The Magnificent 700
By John Stallings
Judges 20 tells the story of 700 chosen left-handed slingers who formed a regiment in Israel’s army.
What is underplayed is that these left handed warriors had once been right handed. The battles of those days were fought with spear and sword and the enemy would try to incapacitate the right hand or the right arm of their enemy.
The 700 men in question had been so incapacitated that they could no longer use their right hands or right arms with any effectiveness. They couldn’t carry a sword or spear or other similar weapons of battle. They could only carry a sling. Generally these men would be relegated to menial tasks or retirement. I imagine that through the years hundreds of men from generals to captains to common foot soldiers had taken the longest walk of their lives… the walk home.
These wounded warriors were then relegated to a life of memories, disappointment and sometimes great bitterness. The weapon that had severed their arm or hand had also severed their ability to move on with their life. The battle they’d now have to fight would be with themselves.
In our modern day armed services, if a soldier is wounded he is taken off the battle field, no questions asked. The individual has no choice. However in ancient Israel, a soldier had a choice. He could go or he could stay. These 700 slingers could have been discharged and gone home, out of harm’s way but they wouldn’t hear of it.
THE POWER OF CHOICE
Years ago, if you wanted a pair of shoes, you couldn’t go down to “Payless Shoes” or “Shoe Carnival”. You couldn’t even go down to Sears or J.C. Penney to pick a pair of ready made shoes to wear. There was a time when – if you wanted shoes or boots – you had to go someone called a “Shoe Cobbler.” When Ronald Reagan was a young man, an aunt had taken him to a cobbler to have a pair of shoes made for him. The shoemaker asked the young Reagan “do you want a square toe or a round toe?” Reagan hemmed and hawed. So the cobbler said, “Come back in a day or two and let me know what you want.”
A few days later the shoemaker saw Reagan on the street and asked what he had decided about the shoes. “I still have not made up my mind,” the boy answered. “Very well,” said the cobbler. When Reagan received the shoes, he was shocked to see that one shoe had a square toe and the other had a round toe. Years later Reagan commented: “Looking at those shoes every day taught me a lesson. If you do not make your own decisions, somebody else will make them for you!”
God created us to be a people capable of making choices. And God has always given His people the power of choice. In the Old Testament Joshua told the Israelites,
“… CHOOSE for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
When Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he urged the people who were gathered there to serve God instead of Baal, and he asked them,
“How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
Elijah is telling the people to make a choice… get on with it.
God calls upon us to choose Him, because if we don’t choose Him - to serve Him and obey Him and love Him - then the choice will be made for us. Someone else or something else will become more important in our lives and God will be shouldered off to one side. In modern day America we enjoy many freedoms and one of the sweetest is the freedom of choice. Living in this great nation we have the choice to say whatever we want to say, worship any way we want and- to the utter chagrin of many politicians, we have the freedom to own a firearm.
As Christians we have many awesome freedoms too. Through the blood of Jesus we have freedom from death, hell and the grave. Satan no longer has dominion over our lives.
Freedom of choice is a very serious, sobering freedom. Have you ever looked at it that way? We make decisions every day, some major and some minor. Just this morning every one of us woke up and made a choice of what we’d wear and what we’d eat. We get in our cars to drive and as the day progresses we make hundreds of choices and don’t really think much about it. We aren’t robots. God made us with a free will and it’s out of that free will that we decide wither we’ll obey or disobey God.
On a daily basis we’re bombarded with choices. There are several newspapers we can choose to read. When we switch on the radio there are many stations we can choose to tune to. On television there are many commercials that clamor for our attention. Every time we make a decision we should consult with God in prayer. And always bear in mind that choices can either build or break you. Lot’s choice of what looked like a fertile land ruined him and his family.
We can choose to love our wives as Christ loved the church or not. Wives can choose to submit to their husbands demonstrating their submission to Christ or not. We can allow the flesh to control us which will lead to death and destruction or we can choose to allow the Holy Spirit to control us which will produce a bountiful harvest of joy in our lives.
Just as the left-handed slingers did, we have a choice. We can make a choice to let our wounds and hurts turn us bitter and ingrown or we can by God’s grace get up and dust ourselves off and move forward to great accomplishments.
LEADERSHIP
What made the difference for all these “handicapped soldiers?” Their commander and leader was named Benjamin. One day he saw all these men wounded who refused to leave and go home and recognized their potential. Right then and there he decided that these men could be winners again with a little help. He could help them to bury the ghosts of the past. He reminded them that they still had a warrior’s mind and a warrior’s heart. He instituted a program to help the right handed men develop into left-handed warriors. With Benjamin’s leadership a bunch of “zeros” could become “Heroes.”It was possible because of a leader who cared enough to look past their wounds, to look past their disappointments, to look past their failures and see inside of them. Inside there was still the heart of a winner which was evidenced by their unwillingness to leave the battle.
We aren’t told how long it took to re-train a soldier who all his life had been right-handed but you can imagine it was no easy task. It must have taken hundreds of hours. However they not only became functional slinging with their left hand, they became so efficient they never missed. These lefties would take a horse hair, either from its mane or tail, tie a rock to one end so the wind wouldn’t blow it, then hit the hair, as much as 200 yards away at over 100 miles an hour and never miss. Judges 20:16. Today there are many “wounded warriors” among us. The definition of a left-handed warrior is;
“Anyone whose been wounded in life either physically, emotionally, spiritually, or financially and yet against all odds has risen from the devastation to become a champion.”
I’d like to think that there are still leaders like Benjamin wise enough to know that these “wounded warriors” can become “left-handed champions.” These men already had a wealth of experience. They are winners that just need somebody to love them enough and care enough to once again help them to engage in life’s battles. They just needed a leader. Maybe you know what it’s like to fight the good fight yet get beat-up bruised and battered. Perhaps you know what it feels like to give it your best shot but still lose… and be hurt so deeply you didn’t want to live. You may know what it’s like to want to quit. I certainly do.
I believe that most of the problems we have in our nation, our churches or our lives is a problem of leadership. Benjamin taught these wounded men to use what they still had, to put the past behind them and draw a line in the sand and say ENOUGH. They needed to get back into the fray.
ENOUGH SELF-PITY
If the 700 slingers had succumbed to self-pity they’d have been doomed. Self-pity is the taste left after our “sacrifices” go unappreciated. We’ll all have to fight the good fight while we’re on his earth. If we’re waiting for someone to put their arm around our shoulder and tell us “you done good,” well, we’re just going to have to put our lives on hold until they decide to do it, if they ever do. Since support and appreciation probably isn’t going to be forthcoming, we have to decide whether we’ll throw in the towel and quit and do nothing or find a way to look at our sacrifices differently.
When I start to bellyache over things that aren’t all that bad, I look at what others have gone through and I begin to see my “sacrifices “ in a new way and my self-pity goes up the chimney.
Two coaches were sitting in a coffee shop talking about how incompetent and almost stupid their football players were that year. One coach would tell about something dumb one of his boys did then the other coach would top it. About that time one coach saw one of his players walking down the sidewalk and called him in. He said “son, would you go over to my office on the campus and see if I’m there?” The young man said, Alright coach” and walked out the door.
The other coach said “that’s nothing.” He saw one of the boys on his football team walking along and called him in. He said to the other coach, “Watch this.”He said to his player, “Son, here’s fifty cents. Would you please go and buy me a new Cadillac?” The boy retorted, “Alright coach” and walked out the door.
The two players met on the street and one said to the other, “You know, I’ve got the dumbest coach I’ve ever had. He gave me fifty cents and told me to go buy him a new Cadillac. Can you believe it; the crazy man didn’t even tell me what color to buy?” The other player said, “That’s nothing. Guess what my coach just asked me to do. He’s sitting in the coffee shop with your coach. He wants me to walk all the way down to the school to check and see if he’s in his office. Isn’t that dumb? The crazy man has a phone right at his elbow, he could call down there.”
Everybody has trouble. Life is war. Life is stress. The culture is stress, the kids are stress, education is stress, and relationships are stress. Welcome to “club stress.”
BETTER AFTER THE WOUNDING
This boggles the mind; these men who’d been right handed were even better with their left hand after they were re-trained and re-oriented. If these men had only been competent enough to go on the battlefield and not fall down and get in someone’s way, that would have been one thing. But they had become so deadly accurate they could hit a hair from great distances “and not miss.” If you think anything like I do, this is astounding.
It would have been a big mistake for an enemy army to see these guys coming with missing right arms, twirling a couple of lengths of string around the fingers of their left hand and laugh and say in essence, “What you gonna do?” Before those words got out of their mouths a few dozen eyes would be shot out not to mention the others who lay dead because a rock had penetrated their skull. A sling in the hands of an expert was a serious piece of equipment, though light weight and non-threatening. After all, look what little David did with a sling when he faced the giant Goliath.
JOB
If you’ve been wounded in life, why not believe that things will be better because of it? Isn’t that what thee slingers experienced? You and I can actually become stronger in the broken places. Job's latter days were blessed more than his beginning. His livestock is doubled 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 female donkeys. He is blessed with 7 sons and 3 beautiful daughters. The daughters were provided an inheritance along with their brothers. He lived 140 years, saw descendants to the fourth generation, and died full of days
WE’LL ALL BE WOUNDED BY LIFE IN SOME WAY
Pastor James teaches us about the need to develop patience [staying power] and perseverance. He realized that patience is vital in maintaining the necessary faith to see the realization of God’s promises:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4).
James said, “when you fall into various trials.” He didn't say-if you fall into various trials.” For example, God informed the prophet Isaiah, “I will be with you . . . when you walk through the fire” (Is 43:2). It is a matter of fact that you will face trials in life. The only thing God promises is that He will be “with” you during your trials.
He does not promise that the Christian life will be a life of ease. You might say John, that doesn’t sound like faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with faith; it has to with the reality of living life.
In one of the Rocky movies, Rocky told a young fighter, “It’s not about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can be hit and stay in the fight.” Many fighters never were champions, not because their punch didn’t kick like a mule, but because they had a “glass jaw,” meaning if you hit them hard it knocked all the fight out of them.
Staying Put
No doubt the reason the left-handed slingers were chosen by Benjamin was the “staying power” they evidenced. They wanted to stay. They believed so much in the cause, the last thing they wanted to think about was leaving the front lines of the war where the battle raged.
I knew a preacher who determined to stay at his first church for his entire ministry. He was bucking a trend. Somehow we American pastors, without really noticing what was happening, got our ministries redefined in the terms of careerism. Too many stopped thinking of the church as a location for pastoral spirituality and started thinking of it as an opportunity for advancement. Not good!
Not that my preacher friend was never tempted to move on. He had his battles with the “shake-the-dust-off-my-feetism” that too easily moves many of us out of our places of endeavor. But he stayed put and shared with me many times how he had found a depth in his life he never realized existed.Staying put when everything about our culture seems to say "get moving," isn’t always easy. But what’s the hurry?
Not that staying put is for everyone, every time. There are jobs, schools and relationships in which staying put is an invitation to disaster and destruction. Sometimes leaving certain situations is the only blessed possibility. But these times are fewer and farther between than we are conditioned to believe. Our reasons for leaving are usually less holy than we’d like to admit. We can get “ants in our spiritual pants” and end up packing up more often than is probably healthy. We miss what we might discover if we stayed put, especially if we decide to move in the mistaken hope that we will find things much different in a new place.
Jesus said, "I am with you always." Imagine what we might experience if we learned to truly be where we are, and stayed put long enough to explore and discover all the wonderful ways God is truly with us.
Acts 14 contains a very interesting narrative… Paul and Barnabas in Iconium;
Listen to it;Acts 14:1-3 ;
And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagoge of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude of Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews striied uo the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.A long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of His grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
Did you see that phrase-a long time therefore abode they speaking...?” Apostolic ministry is “opportunity driven” and Paul and Barnabas saw an opportunity for ministry and see people saved and set free. These Holy Ghost filled men had staying power. In a situation where they were battling the odds and their lives were in danger,--they stayed a long time.
All too often people are defeated not because of a lack of ability, but because they quit too soon. Many people lose heart and throw in the towel before the game is finished. You and I know that problems are a fact of life; we must expect them. Life is not a joy ride. It’s not like riding Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" where we float through the water on little boats, watching from a distance the cannon fire and the splashing water.
Life is real with real pain, real problems, and real frustrations. People get sick, they experience disappointment, they shed tears, and they are touched by death. So what do we do? We have a secret weapon in facing the difficulties and pressures of life.
“Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us” -2 Cor. 4:7
This will probably sound a little strange but I believe if we could hear God’s voice audibly, especially as he speaks to His children, it would sound a lot like a dog trainer [we certainly aren’t dogs] saying—stay, stay, stay.
If you and I can learn to stay put when the battle gets hot, if we can put less emphasis on deliverance and more on development, then we can be numbered with the magnificent 700 chosen left-handed warriors who refused to leave the battle even though seriously wounded and…
“Could hit a hair from 200 yards and not miss.”
Blessings,
John
Judges 20 tells the story of 700 chosen left-handed slingers who formed a regiment in Israel’s army.
What is underplayed is that these left handed warriors had once been right handed. The battles of those days were fought with spear and sword and the enemy would try to incapacitate the right hand or the right arm of their enemy.
The 700 men in question had been so incapacitated that they could no longer use their right hands or right arms with any effectiveness. They couldn’t carry a sword or spear or other similar weapons of battle. They could only carry a sling. Generally these men would be relegated to menial tasks or retirement. I imagine that through the years hundreds of men from generals to captains to common foot soldiers had taken the longest walk of their lives… the walk home.
These wounded warriors were then relegated to a life of memories, disappointment and sometimes great bitterness. The weapon that had severed their arm or hand had also severed their ability to move on with their life. The battle they’d now have to fight would be with themselves.
In our modern day armed services, if a soldier is wounded he is taken off the battle field, no questions asked. The individual has no choice. However in ancient Israel, a soldier had a choice. He could go or he could stay. These 700 slingers could have been discharged and gone home, out of harm’s way but they wouldn’t hear of it.
THE POWER OF CHOICE
Years ago, if you wanted a pair of shoes, you couldn’t go down to “Payless Shoes” or “Shoe Carnival”. You couldn’t even go down to Sears or J.C. Penney to pick a pair of ready made shoes to wear. There was a time when – if you wanted shoes or boots – you had to go someone called a “Shoe Cobbler.” When Ronald Reagan was a young man, an aunt had taken him to a cobbler to have a pair of shoes made for him. The shoemaker asked the young Reagan “do you want a square toe or a round toe?” Reagan hemmed and hawed. So the cobbler said, “Come back in a day or two and let me know what you want.”
A few days later the shoemaker saw Reagan on the street and asked what he had decided about the shoes. “I still have not made up my mind,” the boy answered. “Very well,” said the cobbler. When Reagan received the shoes, he was shocked to see that one shoe had a square toe and the other had a round toe. Years later Reagan commented: “Looking at those shoes every day taught me a lesson. If you do not make your own decisions, somebody else will make them for you!”
God created us to be a people capable of making choices. And God has always given His people the power of choice. In the Old Testament Joshua told the Israelites,
“… CHOOSE for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
When Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he urged the people who were gathered there to serve God instead of Baal, and he asked them,
“How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
Elijah is telling the people to make a choice… get on with it.
God calls upon us to choose Him, because if we don’t choose Him - to serve Him and obey Him and love Him - then the choice will be made for us. Someone else or something else will become more important in our lives and God will be shouldered off to one side. In modern day America we enjoy many freedoms and one of the sweetest is the freedom of choice. Living in this great nation we have the choice to say whatever we want to say, worship any way we want and- to the utter chagrin of many politicians, we have the freedom to own a firearm.
As Christians we have many awesome freedoms too. Through the blood of Jesus we have freedom from death, hell and the grave. Satan no longer has dominion over our lives.
Freedom of choice is a very serious, sobering freedom. Have you ever looked at it that way? We make decisions every day, some major and some minor. Just this morning every one of us woke up and made a choice of what we’d wear and what we’d eat. We get in our cars to drive and as the day progresses we make hundreds of choices and don’t really think much about it. We aren’t robots. God made us with a free will and it’s out of that free will that we decide wither we’ll obey or disobey God.
On a daily basis we’re bombarded with choices. There are several newspapers we can choose to read. When we switch on the radio there are many stations we can choose to tune to. On television there are many commercials that clamor for our attention. Every time we make a decision we should consult with God in prayer. And always bear in mind that choices can either build or break you. Lot’s choice of what looked like a fertile land ruined him and his family.
We can choose to love our wives as Christ loved the church or not. Wives can choose to submit to their husbands demonstrating their submission to Christ or not. We can allow the flesh to control us which will lead to death and destruction or we can choose to allow the Holy Spirit to control us which will produce a bountiful harvest of joy in our lives.
Just as the left-handed slingers did, we have a choice. We can make a choice to let our wounds and hurts turn us bitter and ingrown or we can by God’s grace get up and dust ourselves off and move forward to great accomplishments.
LEADERSHIP
What made the difference for all these “handicapped soldiers?” Their commander and leader was named Benjamin. One day he saw all these men wounded who refused to leave and go home and recognized their potential. Right then and there he decided that these men could be winners again with a little help. He could help them to bury the ghosts of the past. He reminded them that they still had a warrior’s mind and a warrior’s heart. He instituted a program to help the right handed men develop into left-handed warriors. With Benjamin’s leadership a bunch of “zeros” could become “Heroes.”It was possible because of a leader who cared enough to look past their wounds, to look past their disappointments, to look past their failures and see inside of them. Inside there was still the heart of a winner which was evidenced by their unwillingness to leave the battle.
We aren’t told how long it took to re-train a soldier who all his life had been right-handed but you can imagine it was no easy task. It must have taken hundreds of hours. However they not only became functional slinging with their left hand, they became so efficient they never missed. These lefties would take a horse hair, either from its mane or tail, tie a rock to one end so the wind wouldn’t blow it, then hit the hair, as much as 200 yards away at over 100 miles an hour and never miss. Judges 20:16. Today there are many “wounded warriors” among us. The definition of a left-handed warrior is;
“Anyone whose been wounded in life either physically, emotionally, spiritually, or financially and yet against all odds has risen from the devastation to become a champion.”
I’d like to think that there are still leaders like Benjamin wise enough to know that these “wounded warriors” can become “left-handed champions.” These men already had a wealth of experience. They are winners that just need somebody to love them enough and care enough to once again help them to engage in life’s battles. They just needed a leader. Maybe you know what it’s like to fight the good fight yet get beat-up bruised and battered. Perhaps you know what it feels like to give it your best shot but still lose… and be hurt so deeply you didn’t want to live. You may know what it’s like to want to quit. I certainly do.
I believe that most of the problems we have in our nation, our churches or our lives is a problem of leadership. Benjamin taught these wounded men to use what they still had, to put the past behind them and draw a line in the sand and say ENOUGH. They needed to get back into the fray.
ENOUGH SELF-PITY
If the 700 slingers had succumbed to self-pity they’d have been doomed. Self-pity is the taste left after our “sacrifices” go unappreciated. We’ll all have to fight the good fight while we’re on his earth. If we’re waiting for someone to put their arm around our shoulder and tell us “you done good,” well, we’re just going to have to put our lives on hold until they decide to do it, if they ever do. Since support and appreciation probably isn’t going to be forthcoming, we have to decide whether we’ll throw in the towel and quit and do nothing or find a way to look at our sacrifices differently.
When I start to bellyache over things that aren’t all that bad, I look at what others have gone through and I begin to see my “sacrifices “ in a new way and my self-pity goes up the chimney.
Two coaches were sitting in a coffee shop talking about how incompetent and almost stupid their football players were that year. One coach would tell about something dumb one of his boys did then the other coach would top it. About that time one coach saw one of his players walking down the sidewalk and called him in. He said “son, would you go over to my office on the campus and see if I’m there?” The young man said, Alright coach” and walked out the door.
The other coach said “that’s nothing.” He saw one of the boys on his football team walking along and called him in. He said to the other coach, “Watch this.”He said to his player, “Son, here’s fifty cents. Would you please go and buy me a new Cadillac?” The boy retorted, “Alright coach” and walked out the door.
The two players met on the street and one said to the other, “You know, I’ve got the dumbest coach I’ve ever had. He gave me fifty cents and told me to go buy him a new Cadillac. Can you believe it; the crazy man didn’t even tell me what color to buy?” The other player said, “That’s nothing. Guess what my coach just asked me to do. He’s sitting in the coffee shop with your coach. He wants me to walk all the way down to the school to check and see if he’s in his office. Isn’t that dumb? The crazy man has a phone right at his elbow, he could call down there.”
Everybody has trouble. Life is war. Life is stress. The culture is stress, the kids are stress, education is stress, and relationships are stress. Welcome to “club stress.”
BETTER AFTER THE WOUNDING
This boggles the mind; these men who’d been right handed were even better with their left hand after they were re-trained and re-oriented. If these men had only been competent enough to go on the battlefield and not fall down and get in someone’s way, that would have been one thing. But they had become so deadly accurate they could hit a hair from great distances “and not miss.” If you think anything like I do, this is astounding.
It would have been a big mistake for an enemy army to see these guys coming with missing right arms, twirling a couple of lengths of string around the fingers of their left hand and laugh and say in essence, “What you gonna do?” Before those words got out of their mouths a few dozen eyes would be shot out not to mention the others who lay dead because a rock had penetrated their skull. A sling in the hands of an expert was a serious piece of equipment, though light weight and non-threatening. After all, look what little David did with a sling when he faced the giant Goliath.
JOB
If you’ve been wounded in life, why not believe that things will be better because of it? Isn’t that what thee slingers experienced? You and I can actually become stronger in the broken places. Job's latter days were blessed more than his beginning. His livestock is doubled 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 female donkeys. He is blessed with 7 sons and 3 beautiful daughters. The daughters were provided an inheritance along with their brothers. He lived 140 years, saw descendants to the fourth generation, and died full of days
WE’LL ALL BE WOUNDED BY LIFE IN SOME WAY
Pastor James teaches us about the need to develop patience [staying power] and perseverance. He realized that patience is vital in maintaining the necessary faith to see the realization of God’s promises:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4).
James said, “when you fall into various trials.” He didn't say-if you fall into various trials.” For example, God informed the prophet Isaiah, “I will be with you . . . when you walk through the fire” (Is 43:2). It is a matter of fact that you will face trials in life. The only thing God promises is that He will be “with” you during your trials.
He does not promise that the Christian life will be a life of ease. You might say John, that doesn’t sound like faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with faith; it has to with the reality of living life.
In one of the Rocky movies, Rocky told a young fighter, “It’s not about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can be hit and stay in the fight.” Many fighters never were champions, not because their punch didn’t kick like a mule, but because they had a “glass jaw,” meaning if you hit them hard it knocked all the fight out of them.
Staying Put
No doubt the reason the left-handed slingers were chosen by Benjamin was the “staying power” they evidenced. They wanted to stay. They believed so much in the cause, the last thing they wanted to think about was leaving the front lines of the war where the battle raged.
I knew a preacher who determined to stay at his first church for his entire ministry. He was bucking a trend. Somehow we American pastors, without really noticing what was happening, got our ministries redefined in the terms of careerism. Too many stopped thinking of the church as a location for pastoral spirituality and started thinking of it as an opportunity for advancement. Not good!
Not that my preacher friend was never tempted to move on. He had his battles with the “shake-the-dust-off-my-feetism” that too easily moves many of us out of our places of endeavor. But he stayed put and shared with me many times how he had found a depth in his life he never realized existed.Staying put when everything about our culture seems to say "get moving," isn’t always easy. But what’s the hurry?
Not that staying put is for everyone, every time. There are jobs, schools and relationships in which staying put is an invitation to disaster and destruction. Sometimes leaving certain situations is the only blessed possibility. But these times are fewer and farther between than we are conditioned to believe. Our reasons for leaving are usually less holy than we’d like to admit. We can get “ants in our spiritual pants” and end up packing up more often than is probably healthy. We miss what we might discover if we stayed put, especially if we decide to move in the mistaken hope that we will find things much different in a new place.
Jesus said, "I am with you always." Imagine what we might experience if we learned to truly be where we are, and stayed put long enough to explore and discover all the wonderful ways God is truly with us.
Acts 14 contains a very interesting narrative… Paul and Barnabas in Iconium;
Listen to it;Acts 14:1-3 ;
And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagoge of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude of Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews striied uo the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.A long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of His grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
Did you see that phrase-a long time therefore abode they speaking...?” Apostolic ministry is “opportunity driven” and Paul and Barnabas saw an opportunity for ministry and see people saved and set free. These Holy Ghost filled men had staying power. In a situation where they were battling the odds and their lives were in danger,--they stayed a long time.
All too often people are defeated not because of a lack of ability, but because they quit too soon. Many people lose heart and throw in the towel before the game is finished. You and I know that problems are a fact of life; we must expect them. Life is not a joy ride. It’s not like riding Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" where we float through the water on little boats, watching from a distance the cannon fire and the splashing water.
Life is real with real pain, real problems, and real frustrations. People get sick, they experience disappointment, they shed tears, and they are touched by death. So what do we do? We have a secret weapon in facing the difficulties and pressures of life.
“Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us” -2 Cor. 4:7
This will probably sound a little strange but I believe if we could hear God’s voice audibly, especially as he speaks to His children, it would sound a lot like a dog trainer [we certainly aren’t dogs] saying—stay, stay, stay.
If you and I can learn to stay put when the battle gets hot, if we can put less emphasis on deliverance and more on development, then we can be numbered with the magnificent 700 chosen left-handed warriors who refused to leave the battle even though seriously wounded and…
“Could hit a hair from 200 yards and not miss.”
Blessings,
John
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Don't Go To Moab!
By John Stallings
This story could be ripped from todays headlines.
Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Chilion and Mahlon have left their homeland because of famine.
They were refugees. They went into a new land called Moab searching for food and shelter. Like many people, because of wars, famine, or economic scarcity, they left their homeland in an attempt to begin life anew.
Moab wasn’t a nice place- to say the least. In fact in Psalm 60:8 God called Moab His wash pot, a wash basin where they would wash the guest’s feet. God said that Moab was as filthy as a wash pot. It was a place of trash. Moab was the off-spring of Lot and his oldest daughter Gen. 19:37
So Moab was born out of an incestuous relationship. God had constantly warned His people about Moab. In Jeremiah 48:11, Jeremiah prophecies about Moab and he paints a little picture. He says that Moab has been at ease from his youth. He has always been “no good”, even while he was growing up. And he says here is Jeremiah 48:11 that he has not been emptied from his lees. The picture here is that of wine making. When they made wine, they put it in a vessel and let it set for a while and while it was sitting, the trash would fall to the bottom.
Then they would take that vessel and pour it through a filter into another vessel and let it sit until more trash fell to the bottom. They would do that over and over again until the wine was crystal clear.
God said about Moab that his lees had not been emptied; that he is full of trash. God said about Moab in Zephaniah that He would destroy Moab like Sodom and Gomorrah. Moab was a not a place to be. It was a place of filth. Moab is a type, a picture of the world.
Sometimes people seeking a newer and better life think of a new land as the Promised Land. But promises don’t always work out, and the dreams can sometimes turn into nightmares. This happened for Naomi and her sons.We read the story in the book of Ruth chapter one.
Naomi’s husband Elimelech died leaving his wife and children behind. His sons eventually married wives from their adopted country. Two daughter-in-laws, Orpah and Ruth now became part of this immigrant family.
After tens years both of the sons die, leaving their mother, Naomi, their wives Orpah and Ruth alone and destitute. The cultural times meant that without men/ husbands as providers the women were alone and poor. But famine had come to Moab and Naomi decided it was time to return home. She felt that she had left with everything, and now her returning would be with nothing. In fact, her spirits and hopes were so low when she returned home, she said to the people, "do not call me Naomi but Mara." Mara means bitterness or sorrow. This statement illustrates the depths to which Naomi had plummeted. There was a deep and inconsolable sorrow and hopelessness in her soul. But let’s back up.
Naomi, realizing that there is nothing to stay in Moab for decides it’s time to go home. She releases her daughter in-laws from their family obligation, in part knowing exactly how hard it is to start life in a foreign land. Orpah decides to return to her kinfolk in Moab obviously with hopes of starting all over again. But Ruth refuses to depart from Naomi uttering some of the most memorable words in scripture:
"Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die - there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!"
These are powerful words. Many sermons have been preached on the undying love that Ruth had for Naomi. Her love, commitment and loyalty come through poignantly and powerfully in these words of poetic verse. These words, wherever thou goest I will go- are often used in weddings, which is somewhat strange because the words weren’t spoken by a bride to a husband-to-be but rather by a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law. To me it just goes to show how powerful those words of love and commitment really are.
I WONDER…
I wonder why one of the wives would return home and the other not? I wonder why Orpah would go home to her kinsfolk and Ruth refuse. It causes me to wonder what kind of situation Ruth came from. Was her family dead? Was the family in abject poverty and there was nothing there for her to return to? I wonder whether life for Ruth had been one of abuse, and the marriage to one of Naomi's sons was a relief from the violence and possible death. I wonder why Ruth didn’t go home. Was it because, for the first time in her life she found kindness and care under the tutelage of Naomi? Was it because she found the love of a family in the family of Naomi and didn't want to give that up? Or did she so worry about the future and well being of Naomi that she just didn't want to leave her alone to the elements? I don’t know the reasons for her not returning to her family and kinsfolk, and the scriptures give us no clues. But I do know that there was some compelling reason that she accompanied Naomi into an uncertain future and place.
LIFE CAN HAVE SOME CRAZY BOUNCES
When we think about life and living, you and I understand that life is uncertain and our futures are uncertain! We don't know what will come our way. We don't know what will happen in the next moment. One minute everything can be going along just fine, and the next moment we don't know what hit us! In one moment Naomi had a husband and two sons, and the next she had no husband. Then Naomi had two sons and two daughter in-laws, and then her sons were gone and her life uncertain and frightening. Life is like that! We don't know what twists and turns will come in our lives.
A spouse can die. A child can die. We can lose our family, just like it happened in this story. We might have to start all over again. We may have to start a new job or go back to school for more training and start a new career. We find ourselves in places where we have to make decisions, and sometimes those decisions are difficult ones.
Naomi was going back home with nothing, and Ruth was going into a foreign land with an uncertain future. Sometimes we stare into our futures with more questions than answers. At times we stand in the present moment and cannot imagine what tomorrow looks like. One thing is sure; life can come at you fast! You may remember a blog I posted some time back entitled “Life comes at you fast.” Sometimes it’s too fast for my taste. We can find ourselves looking at problems, things we don't want to face, troubles, and hardships that cause emotional trauma. Naomi and Ruth had this and more. In many of those moments there isn't anything much that we can do about what comes our way. So what do we do? How do we cope? How do we carry on?
Naomi and Ruth didn't know what was before them, but they knew what was behind. They also knew they couldn’t bring the good times back! They knew that they had to go forward because there was nowhere else to run and hide. Naomi returned home saying, "from now on call me "Mara;" bitterness or sorrow. She had lost everything, but there she stood, along with Ruth, with happier times at their backs and uncertainty ahead. It reminds me of the old lPopular song, "Side by side.”
One thing Ruth and Naomi had was love. Surround me with love and I can face some pretty awesome things if I know that love is real. If someone reminds you that they’re with you, backing you up with open hands and hearts offering to heal your hurts and soothe your worries it makes a world of difference doesn’t it? Naomi and Ruth had the love of one another with which to face the future!
FAITH
They seem to also have faith. Faith allows us to face the uncertainty of life, when it comes at you fast, and the joy is sucked out of it. Faith reminds you that whatever happens -it will be all right! Faith allows you and me to stand and face tomorrow, and another tomorrow, and another after that until the sorrow fades and the disappointment turns back to joy.
Faith allows us to face difficulty with a trust and belief that says -hold on and God will work it all out for your good and His glory. Romans 5:3-5 says:
"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."
Faith assures us that we can not only endure, but through our endurance our character is perfected. Through the character building experience hope starts to loom and we find that the hope is real.
Naomi and Ruth had been through some things. They faced the uncertainty and the suffering and eventually came to understand the character that God had placed in them, and through it all found it was not hopeless.
Consider the counsel of Ephesians 6.13:
"Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm."
This means that we have the stuff to face life, and take it as it comes. Faith enables us to take the lemons of life and make lemonade. There is nowhere to run so we will have to stand. Jesus also reminds us of the gift of having faith if only the size of a mustard seed. It doesn't take much faith to start a triumphant process – but it does take some faith. Faith increases if you use it, just as the mustard seed starts small and becomes a shrub where life resides. Remember Hebrews 11:1:
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen."
In faith we can face the present and the future. We can’t go back, but we can go forward. As long as life resides in us we will have the option of going forward.
Naomi and Ruth couldn’t go back, that wasn’t an option. They had no choice, so now they will face the future with love and faith!
DON’T GO TO MOAB
This Book of Ruth is a Book about strong women. It’s a time when men were weak. The reason why I know that Naomi was a strong and unusual woman is because when she came back to Bethlehem the whole town knew her. The whole town was stirred. Another thing to notice in the narrative is that Naomi and her family weren’t starving when they left Bethlehem. By Naomi’s own admission in verse 21, she said we left full.
A STRONG WOMAN CAN LEAD A WEAK MAN TO MOAB
All too often men are so weak spiritually they throw all the decision making on the women folk. Naomi’s name means pleasant, smiling, beautiful, charming, and delightful. Men, strong women can lead you to Moab. A pleasant woman can lead a man almost anywhere. Don’t let your friends, your mama your sister your brother, take you to Moab.
You think things are messed up now. You think you’re having it hard now? Sir, you go to Moab and stay awhile and tell me how you like it there. Tradegy always comes sooner or later to people who leave the House of God for the filth of this world. Moab ruined Naomi because as you read this text and look at verse 13 she said “the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” She said “I was responsible.” And if you notice in verse 20 she said “the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me.” And in verse 21 she said the Lord has afflicted me. She said -"the Lord has testified against me."
Naomi understood that it was her leading that got Elimelech and her two sons down into Moab. She made it back to Bethlehem but her husband died in Moab. She made it back. But her sons married women in Moab, and then her sons died in Moab. If you hang around in Moab, you can lose your family. Naomi lost her family after 10 years in Moab. Everything was gone.
MOAB WILL RUIN YOUR FINANCES
Naomi said in verse 21, “I went out full. I left Bethlehem and I did not know how blessed I was. I didn’t know what I had, but now in retrospect I can see I was full and didn’t know it." Many people don’t know they’re blessed until they go to Moab. Someone has rightly said, “You don’t miss your water until your well runs dry.” Moab will ruin your finances. She said “I went out full but now I’m empty.”
By her own admittance she says “I’m broke.” I've got nothing left, no husband, no sons, I am broke.” It reminds me of the prodigal son who left his father’s house, who by his own admission at the hog pen said, “My father's servants have bread and enough to spare and here I am desiring to eat from the hog pen. " Moab will ruin you financially. I’ve seen people leave the family of God, wipe their hands, get mad and through with God. They take off to Moab and, I’ve seen them come back. I’ve seen them go out full and come back empty.
Moab will impact the way you look. Look at verse 20. Notice that when they came back to town in verse 19, the whole city was moved. She’d been a woman of influence. The townspeople said - "is this Naomi? This can’t be Naomi. This can’t be that, gorgeous, beautiful, eloquent woman of influence who left Bethlehem. This can’t be Naomi."
Moab will even mess up your facial features. I’ve seen people who live in Moab. I’ve see what sin can do. I’ve seen how Moab can eat you up. I’ve seen what dope and substance abuse can do.
They said, Naomi, you haven’t been gone but 10 years and you look far beyond your age. Time has plowed furrows of worry across her face. That body that was like a sculptor’s dream, that figure eight has turned to a figure O. Hair that was as black as a raven’s back—time has speckled it with gray. Skin that was as smooth as a Georgia peach now looks like 10 miles of bad road. Moab will suck all the life from you. Moab will take your joy and age you, quickly.
Naomi said in verse 21 “The Lord has afflicted me.” The word afflicted in the Hebrew means to break into pieces. And sometimes in order to get you back to Bethlehem, He has to break you down. He has to break your pride. He has to tear that ego down. So she says “don’t call me Naomi,” which means beautiful, amiable and pleasant, “call me Mara,” which means bitter. It means “worn out.” "My name is not Naomi any more, it’s Mara."
YOU CAN RETURN
Let me offer a ray of hope here. You can return.
Naomi was hurt and she was lost in Moab, but she heard that God was blessing His people back in Bethlehem. The Bible says “the day you hear my voice, harden not your hearts.” I hear the Bible say “he that hath ear to hear, let him hear what the Lord is saying to him.”
Moab will wound you. Moab will weaken you. Moab will leave you without strength. When Naomi heard that God was blessing His people she said,- "I know that I've been living in Moab. I know that I did wrong and I led my husband away." But she said, "I’m going to hurry up and go back to Bethlehem/ Judah."
Let me tell you why you ought to be in a hurry. James said you ought to get in a hurry because- your life is like a vapor, it’s slowly vanishing away.
I can almost hear Naomi saying, “Lord, I know I messed up. Oh Lord, I left home with gold around my neck, but now I don’t have anything. But I’m going back to Bethlehem. I left home with children and I’ve lost them, but I’m going home to Bethlehem. I left home with a loving husband, but I lost my husband in Moab. But I’m coming back to Bethlehem.”
Are you living in Moab? You can come home today. You can come home… You may have a bad habit … Come home...You may be strung out… Come home…. You may be messed up….. Come home. You may have lost what you had…. Come home. Trouble in your life?… Come home. Family fractured?…. Come home. Finances all gone?… Come home.
God welcomes you back to Bethlehem…. Moab has wasted you… Come on back.
Come back to the father’s house.
Blessings,
John
This story could be ripped from todays headlines.
Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Chilion and Mahlon have left their homeland because of famine.
They were refugees. They went into a new land called Moab searching for food and shelter. Like many people, because of wars, famine, or economic scarcity, they left their homeland in an attempt to begin life anew.
Moab wasn’t a nice place- to say the least. In fact in Psalm 60:8 God called Moab His wash pot, a wash basin where they would wash the guest’s feet. God said that Moab was as filthy as a wash pot. It was a place of trash. Moab was the off-spring of Lot and his oldest daughter Gen. 19:37
So Moab was born out of an incestuous relationship. God had constantly warned His people about Moab. In Jeremiah 48:11, Jeremiah prophecies about Moab and he paints a little picture. He says that Moab has been at ease from his youth. He has always been “no good”, even while he was growing up. And he says here is Jeremiah 48:11 that he has not been emptied from his lees. The picture here is that of wine making. When they made wine, they put it in a vessel and let it set for a while and while it was sitting, the trash would fall to the bottom.
Then they would take that vessel and pour it through a filter into another vessel and let it sit until more trash fell to the bottom. They would do that over and over again until the wine was crystal clear.
God said about Moab that his lees had not been emptied; that he is full of trash. God said about Moab in Zephaniah that He would destroy Moab like Sodom and Gomorrah. Moab was a not a place to be. It was a place of filth. Moab is a type, a picture of the world.
Sometimes people seeking a newer and better life think of a new land as the Promised Land. But promises don’t always work out, and the dreams can sometimes turn into nightmares. This happened for Naomi and her sons.We read the story in the book of Ruth chapter one.
Naomi’s husband Elimelech died leaving his wife and children behind. His sons eventually married wives from their adopted country. Two daughter-in-laws, Orpah and Ruth now became part of this immigrant family.
After tens years both of the sons die, leaving their mother, Naomi, their wives Orpah and Ruth alone and destitute. The cultural times meant that without men/ husbands as providers the women were alone and poor. But famine had come to Moab and Naomi decided it was time to return home. She felt that she had left with everything, and now her returning would be with nothing. In fact, her spirits and hopes were so low when she returned home, she said to the people, "do not call me Naomi but Mara." Mara means bitterness or sorrow. This statement illustrates the depths to which Naomi had plummeted. There was a deep and inconsolable sorrow and hopelessness in her soul. But let’s back up.
Naomi, realizing that there is nothing to stay in Moab for decides it’s time to go home. She releases her daughter in-laws from their family obligation, in part knowing exactly how hard it is to start life in a foreign land. Orpah decides to return to her kinfolk in Moab obviously with hopes of starting all over again. But Ruth refuses to depart from Naomi uttering some of the most memorable words in scripture:
"Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die - there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!"
These are powerful words. Many sermons have been preached on the undying love that Ruth had for Naomi. Her love, commitment and loyalty come through poignantly and powerfully in these words of poetic verse. These words, wherever thou goest I will go- are often used in weddings, which is somewhat strange because the words weren’t spoken by a bride to a husband-to-be but rather by a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law. To me it just goes to show how powerful those words of love and commitment really are.
I WONDER…
I wonder why one of the wives would return home and the other not? I wonder why Orpah would go home to her kinsfolk and Ruth refuse. It causes me to wonder what kind of situation Ruth came from. Was her family dead? Was the family in abject poverty and there was nothing there for her to return to? I wonder whether life for Ruth had been one of abuse, and the marriage to one of Naomi's sons was a relief from the violence and possible death. I wonder why Ruth didn’t go home. Was it because, for the first time in her life she found kindness and care under the tutelage of Naomi? Was it because she found the love of a family in the family of Naomi and didn't want to give that up? Or did she so worry about the future and well being of Naomi that she just didn't want to leave her alone to the elements? I don’t know the reasons for her not returning to her family and kinsfolk, and the scriptures give us no clues. But I do know that there was some compelling reason that she accompanied Naomi into an uncertain future and place.
LIFE CAN HAVE SOME CRAZY BOUNCES
When we think about life and living, you and I understand that life is uncertain and our futures are uncertain! We don't know what will come our way. We don't know what will happen in the next moment. One minute everything can be going along just fine, and the next moment we don't know what hit us! In one moment Naomi had a husband and two sons, and the next she had no husband. Then Naomi had two sons and two daughter in-laws, and then her sons were gone and her life uncertain and frightening. Life is like that! We don't know what twists and turns will come in our lives.
A spouse can die. A child can die. We can lose our family, just like it happened in this story. We might have to start all over again. We may have to start a new job or go back to school for more training and start a new career. We find ourselves in places where we have to make decisions, and sometimes those decisions are difficult ones.
Naomi was going back home with nothing, and Ruth was going into a foreign land with an uncertain future. Sometimes we stare into our futures with more questions than answers. At times we stand in the present moment and cannot imagine what tomorrow looks like. One thing is sure; life can come at you fast! You may remember a blog I posted some time back entitled “Life comes at you fast.” Sometimes it’s too fast for my taste. We can find ourselves looking at problems, things we don't want to face, troubles, and hardships that cause emotional trauma. Naomi and Ruth had this and more. In many of those moments there isn't anything much that we can do about what comes our way. So what do we do? How do we cope? How do we carry on?
Naomi and Ruth didn't know what was before them, but they knew what was behind. They also knew they couldn’t bring the good times back! They knew that they had to go forward because there was nowhere else to run and hide. Naomi returned home saying, "from now on call me "Mara;" bitterness or sorrow. She had lost everything, but there she stood, along with Ruth, with happier times at their backs and uncertainty ahead. It reminds me of the old lPopular song, "Side by side.”
One thing Ruth and Naomi had was love. Surround me with love and I can face some pretty awesome things if I know that love is real. If someone reminds you that they’re with you, backing you up with open hands and hearts offering to heal your hurts and soothe your worries it makes a world of difference doesn’t it? Naomi and Ruth had the love of one another with which to face the future!
FAITH
They seem to also have faith. Faith allows us to face the uncertainty of life, when it comes at you fast, and the joy is sucked out of it. Faith reminds you that whatever happens -it will be all right! Faith allows you and me to stand and face tomorrow, and another tomorrow, and another after that until the sorrow fades and the disappointment turns back to joy.
Faith allows us to face difficulty with a trust and belief that says -hold on and God will work it all out for your good and His glory. Romans 5:3-5 says:
"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."
Faith assures us that we can not only endure, but through our endurance our character is perfected. Through the character building experience hope starts to loom and we find that the hope is real.
Naomi and Ruth had been through some things. They faced the uncertainty and the suffering and eventually came to understand the character that God had placed in them, and through it all found it was not hopeless.
Consider the counsel of Ephesians 6.13:
"Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm."
This means that we have the stuff to face life, and take it as it comes. Faith enables us to take the lemons of life and make lemonade. There is nowhere to run so we will have to stand. Jesus also reminds us of the gift of having faith if only the size of a mustard seed. It doesn't take much faith to start a triumphant process – but it does take some faith. Faith increases if you use it, just as the mustard seed starts small and becomes a shrub where life resides. Remember Hebrews 11:1:
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen."
In faith we can face the present and the future. We can’t go back, but we can go forward. As long as life resides in us we will have the option of going forward.
Naomi and Ruth couldn’t go back, that wasn’t an option. They had no choice, so now they will face the future with love and faith!
DON’T GO TO MOAB
This Book of Ruth is a Book about strong women. It’s a time when men were weak. The reason why I know that Naomi was a strong and unusual woman is because when she came back to Bethlehem the whole town knew her. The whole town was stirred. Another thing to notice in the narrative is that Naomi and her family weren’t starving when they left Bethlehem. By Naomi’s own admission in verse 21, she said we left full.
A STRONG WOMAN CAN LEAD A WEAK MAN TO MOAB
All too often men are so weak spiritually they throw all the decision making on the women folk. Naomi’s name means pleasant, smiling, beautiful, charming, and delightful. Men, strong women can lead you to Moab. A pleasant woman can lead a man almost anywhere. Don’t let your friends, your mama your sister your brother, take you to Moab.
You think things are messed up now. You think you’re having it hard now? Sir, you go to Moab and stay awhile and tell me how you like it there. Tradegy always comes sooner or later to people who leave the House of God for the filth of this world. Moab ruined Naomi because as you read this text and look at verse 13 she said “the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” She said “I was responsible.” And if you notice in verse 20 she said “the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me.” And in verse 21 she said the Lord has afflicted me. She said -"the Lord has testified against me."
Naomi understood that it was her leading that got Elimelech and her two sons down into Moab. She made it back to Bethlehem but her husband died in Moab. She made it back. But her sons married women in Moab, and then her sons died in Moab. If you hang around in Moab, you can lose your family. Naomi lost her family after 10 years in Moab. Everything was gone.
MOAB WILL RUIN YOUR FINANCES
Naomi said in verse 21, “I went out full. I left Bethlehem and I did not know how blessed I was. I didn’t know what I had, but now in retrospect I can see I was full and didn’t know it." Many people don’t know they’re blessed until they go to Moab. Someone has rightly said, “You don’t miss your water until your well runs dry.” Moab will ruin your finances. She said “I went out full but now I’m empty.”
By her own admittance she says “I’m broke.” I've got nothing left, no husband, no sons, I am broke.” It reminds me of the prodigal son who left his father’s house, who by his own admission at the hog pen said, “My father's servants have bread and enough to spare and here I am desiring to eat from the hog pen. " Moab will ruin you financially. I’ve seen people leave the family of God, wipe their hands, get mad and through with God. They take off to Moab and, I’ve seen them come back. I’ve seen them go out full and come back empty.
Moab will impact the way you look. Look at verse 20. Notice that when they came back to town in verse 19, the whole city was moved. She’d been a woman of influence. The townspeople said - "is this Naomi? This can’t be Naomi. This can’t be that, gorgeous, beautiful, eloquent woman of influence who left Bethlehem. This can’t be Naomi."
Moab will even mess up your facial features. I’ve seen people who live in Moab. I’ve see what sin can do. I’ve seen how Moab can eat you up. I’ve seen what dope and substance abuse can do.
They said, Naomi, you haven’t been gone but 10 years and you look far beyond your age. Time has plowed furrows of worry across her face. That body that was like a sculptor’s dream, that figure eight has turned to a figure O. Hair that was as black as a raven’s back—time has speckled it with gray. Skin that was as smooth as a Georgia peach now looks like 10 miles of bad road. Moab will suck all the life from you. Moab will take your joy and age you, quickly.
Naomi said in verse 21 “The Lord has afflicted me.” The word afflicted in the Hebrew means to break into pieces. And sometimes in order to get you back to Bethlehem, He has to break you down. He has to break your pride. He has to tear that ego down. So she says “don’t call me Naomi,” which means beautiful, amiable and pleasant, “call me Mara,” which means bitter. It means “worn out.” "My name is not Naomi any more, it’s Mara."
YOU CAN RETURN
Let me offer a ray of hope here. You can return.
Naomi was hurt and she was lost in Moab, but she heard that God was blessing His people back in Bethlehem. The Bible says “the day you hear my voice, harden not your hearts.” I hear the Bible say “he that hath ear to hear, let him hear what the Lord is saying to him.”
Moab will wound you. Moab will weaken you. Moab will leave you without strength. When Naomi heard that God was blessing His people she said,- "I know that I've been living in Moab. I know that I did wrong and I led my husband away." But she said, "I’m going to hurry up and go back to Bethlehem/ Judah."
Let me tell you why you ought to be in a hurry. James said you ought to get in a hurry because- your life is like a vapor, it’s slowly vanishing away.
I can almost hear Naomi saying, “Lord, I know I messed up. Oh Lord, I left home with gold around my neck, but now I don’t have anything. But I’m going back to Bethlehem. I left home with children and I’ve lost them, but I’m going home to Bethlehem. I left home with a loving husband, but I lost my husband in Moab. But I’m coming back to Bethlehem.”
Are you living in Moab? You can come home today. You can come home… You may have a bad habit … Come home...You may be strung out… Come home…. You may be messed up….. Come home. You may have lost what you had…. Come home. Trouble in your life?… Come home. Family fractured?…. Come home. Finances all gone?… Come home.
God welcomes you back to Bethlehem…. Moab has wasted you… Come on back.
Come back to the father’s house.
Blessings,
John
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