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

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

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

Understanding The End Of Days

By John Stallings


As we progress through a calendar year, we see certain signs & events all around us. If you’re anything like me, it’s usually the July 4th celebration that slips up on you & nips your nose first, letting you know the year is moving along.

Our lives are typically moving so fast that we next may be caught by surprise when we see a sign in our local grocery store advertising Halloween candies for sale.

Then we see Thanksgiving turkeys on sale & shortly after that we hear Christmas music & start to see Christmas decorations springing up around us. What a shock. How could another year be melting away? Time is marching on & the business world keeps reminding us.

There’s one teaching about the end of days that says God will send earthquakes & famines etc. [obviously this is happening now] as signposts along the way to let us know what time it is on His calendar. That’s true in a way.

However there’s another sense in which God isn’t doing that at all. The signal events we are now & will continue to witness around the world are the result of the earth itself crying out at the presence of its creator. Sound strange? Its not. The earth recognizes its Lord & calls out in greeting, crying out in testimony to Christ’s birth, crucifixion, resurrection & His coming again in glory. In Romans 8:19-22, Paul reminds us—The creation waits with eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay & brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait for our adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies….
In Matthew 24, The Disciples asked Jesus when they could expect the end of the world to come. Jesus tells them of the many things that will transpire in the last days & makes a plea for men to be ready to meet Him.

I once heard a story about a young Bride who was going to elope. Her fiancé’ would come late that evening & call to her & she’d climb down a ladder to meet him. After dark, because she didn’t know exactly when he’d come she put on her wedding dress & threw an old housecoat over it so her family wouldn’t be the wiser. When she heard his call, all she’d need to do was throw off the old housecoat & go to meet her waiting husband to be.

This to me is a perfect illustration of we who are waiting with great expectation for the appearing of our Bridegroom Jesus Christ. Our worldly possessions are just an old “housecoat” we’ll fling aside & happily go to meet Him when we hear His clarion call.

THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS ISN’T ONE, BUT TWO PARTS

Part one is an event we call the “Rapture.” This is when Jesus will leap from the battlements of the sky & call those who’ve received Him as Savior to come home to heaven. At this time He’ll raise the believers who’ve already died & take those who are living to be with Him forever.

Part two will take place around seven years after part one. This event will see the return of Christ in glory & power. He will descend upon the world & will defeat all His enemies & will establish His Kingdom upon the earth. He will personally rule in peace for 1,000 years.

Both these events are equally important in the eternal scope of things. However to those of us who are alive at this present moment, the Rapture is of utmost importance. Why? Because it’s the next event on God’s calendar of prophetic events & it will happen. As a matter of fact it could happen as you read this message. That’s why it’s so important that we understand the end of the age & the great need to be ready to meet the Lord when He comes.

There are some who believe The Rapture will take place during the seven year Tribulation period but I believe the church will be taken out before God’s wrath is unleashed on earth. 1 Thess.5:9. The church is often mentioned in the first three chapters of Revelation but after a “catching up” in Revelation 4:1, it isn’t mentioned again until Rev.19:11-16. It’s obvious to me the Church has been taken away.

There are believers present during the entire Tribulation because they’ve been brought to faith by turning to Christ as their Messiah. However the Church itself isn’t mentioned in any tribulation passage.

The Bible gives many examples of signs that should warn us of the coming of the end of the age.

· Six such signs are given by Jesus.
· Two characteristics are given by Paul, &
· Twelve other occurrences are given by the prophets to occur prior to or soon after the end of the age.

While we are told we will not know the time of the end, God obviously wanted us to know when that time was getting closer. Unfortunately many Christians take the verses that we won’t know the time of His coming to mean they should ignore any & all scriptural warning of things to come.

Many churches are asleep & in isolation at the present time so God in His wisdom wants to show us a few signs to wake us up & remind us there is work to do. Others have fallen into the trap of fearing being labeled a “conspiracy theorists” should they display an interest in the Biblical prophecies about our future on Earth.

MY PHILOSOPHY IS SIMPLE……

God included it in the Bible & since God is all-knowing, we should trust that it is something we should know & study along with the rest of His Word.

Please understand; whether you believe in a pre-trib rapture as I do, or believe Christians will be witness to the full Tribulation, wrath & final judgment, the beginning of birth pains & the signs of the end of days should have the same effect on all of us. We should be motivated to do the work of evangelism in the time we have left. Incidentally, I’m pre-trib, but I’m also “pan-trib.” I believe everything’s going to “pan-out” fine for the Christian.

Coming now is a quick study of the signs God has given us of the impending end of days. I would encourage you not to take my word for what lies just ahead but study for yourself & be prepared for what is coming. Most importantly we should be prepared to share it with others.

SIX SIGNS GIVEN BY JESUS TO INDICATE HIS COMING & THE END OF DAYS

1. FALSE PROPHETS AND CHRISTS.

Matthew 24:5—For many will come in my name saying; I am Christ & will mislead many.

Matt.24:11—And many false prophets will arise & will mislead many.
Jim Jones & David Koresh are examples of these false Christs as well as thousand of others who aren’t quite as well known. There is an air of expectation in our day that seems to be waiting for the antichrist, even preparing the way for him to be accepted.

2. WARS

Matt.24:6---And you will be hearing of wars & rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened , for those things must take place but the end is not yet.

More people have been killed in warfare in the last one-hundred years than at any other time in history. As the death toll rises in the Middle East more & more countries work feverishly to develop devastating weapons of mass destruction.

There are currently 30 ongoing conflicts/wars worldwide. We typically only hear about a handful, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. but some regions have been at war for decades. Two new conflicts started in 2007.

3. FAMINES

Matt.24:7—For nation will rise against nation & kingdom against kingdom & in various places there will be famines & earthquakes.

If you follow the news you know that a large portion of the earth’s population is suffering from food shortage at present.

4. EARTHQUAKES—Matt. 24:7

The number & intensity of earthquakes this century is at a higher level at present than at any other time in history.

To cite one earthquake, the recent Sichuan earthquake in China measured 8.0 according to the China Seismological Bureau. The quake was felt as far away as 1,500 km where office buildings swayed with the tremor.

It was the deadliest & strongest quake to hit China since 1976 which killed 240,000 people. The recent quake left 68,109 confirmed dead with 364,552 injured & 19, 851 listed as missing.

The quake was followed by two major quakes which led to the collapse of 420,000 buildings & on Mat 25th, a major aftershock of 6.0 hit northeast of the original quake’s epicenter causing eight deaths & 927 injuries.

By contrast, in the years from 1890 to 1900 there was only one major earthquake in the world.

5. TRIBULATIONS

Matt. 24:8-9—But these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you to tribulation & will kill you & you will be hated by all nations on account of my name.

Christians are under attack throughout the world today. Of course this isn’t “The Tribulation” but rather “a tribulation.” In the United States Christians still enjoy freedom to worship God without suffering much more than hatred or discrimination at work & school. However in many countries such as China, Sudan, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Russia & many other Muslim nations Christians suffer much greater persecution & often death for their faith.

These first five signs will increase in intensity & severity as the tribulation approaches much like the birth pangs or contractions of a pregnant woman worsen as the delivery approaches.

6. THE GOSPEL WILL BE PREACHED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

Matt. 24:14—And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations & then shall the end come.

This prophecy has already been fulfilled through television, radio, missionaries the translation of the Bible into many languages & the internet. People all over the world now hear the message of Christ from missionaries who have the means to travel the globe & via technology that allows us to communicate with people on the other side of the world right from our own homes, churches & offices.

TWO CHARACTERISTICS OF THE END OF THE AGE FROM THE APOSTLE PAUL

1. GODLESSNESS IN THE LAST DAYS

2 Timothy 3:1-7---But realize this that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of Godliness although they have denied its power’ always learning & never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

If you’ve watched television, read a newspaper, or just walked outside your front door its obvious the prophecy has & is being fulfilled by our generation.

2. APOSTASY—FALLING AWAY FROM THE FAITH

2 Timothy 4:1-3---But the spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits & doctrines of demons.
By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron men who forbid marriage & advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe & know the truth.

Many churches of our day have embraced homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle & preach tolerance & compromise in place of God’s truth for the salvation of the world. The environmentalist movement lures them into a worship of mother earth & other fallacies.

FULFILLMENTS OF BIBLE PROPHECY REQUIRED FOR THE END OF THE AGE

1. EXISTENCE OF A 200,000,000 MAN ARMY IN THE EAST

Revelation 9:16---And the number of the armies of horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

An army of this size had never existed until China’s army reached that number in the 1960’s.

2. REBUILDING OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE [EUROPEAN COMMUNITY]
Daniel 2:32-33---Daniel 2:40-43

The fourth kingdom of iron is the Roman Empire according to Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The two legs are the division of the Roman Empire into an eastern part called the Byzantine Empire which ended in the 1400’s & a western part based in Rome which ended in the 400’s. Since the Roman Empire dissolved Europe has never formed one Empire again but has been separate nations. However the European Union now has 15 member States & is preparing for the accession of 13 eastern & southern European countries.

3. RETURN OF ONE PURE LANGUAGE, HEBREW, TO ISRAEL
Zephaniah 3:9---For I will return to the people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.

Prior to the restoration of Israel in 1948, Hebrew was a dead language. More & more Hebrew is spoken throughout Israel.

4. REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE & RESTORATION OF TEMPLE WORSHIP
Revelation 11:2—Daniel 9:26-27

Some archaeologists believe the temple is actually 340 feet south of the Dome of the Rock site, putting the Dome of the Rock within the Court of the Gentiles. There are many groups already working on preparations for the new temple. The blueprints are done, the temple garments have been made & there have already been attempts to lay the cornerstone. The only thing standing in the way is Islam’s third holiest site, the Dome of the Rock & government
support for such an undertaking.

5. APPEARANCE OF THE RED HEIFER AFTER 2000 YEARS.

Numbers 19; 2-7 describes the Red heifer & how it will be required to be used in the process of purification. In 1997 the first Red Heifer was born in 2000 years. Another Red Heifer was born in Israel in March of 2002.

6. INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE

Daniel 12:4—But as for you Daniel, conceal these words & seal the book until the end of time; many will go back & forth & knowledge will increase.

Billy Graham was quoted as saying, “ninety percent of all engineers & scientists who have ever lived are alive today.”

7. RETURN OF THE ETHIOPIAN JEWS TO ISRAEL

Zephaniah 3:10-11—From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my worshippers my dispersed ones will bring my offerings….

In 1984 Operation Moses saw the airlift of 15,000 Jews who had fled to the refugee camps in Sudan to escape starvation. Operation Solomon flew 20,000 Jews to Israel from Ethiopia itself.


8. THE RISE OF RUSSIA

In order for some end time events to occur, Russia will have to be a strong nation with a strong military.

Ezekiel 38:2, 4, 8-Son of man set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog the prince of Rosh, Meshech & Tubal and prophecy against them. I will turn you about & put hooks in your jaws & I will bring you out………

9. RETURN OF RUSSIAN JEWS TO ISRAEL

Jeremiah 23:7-8—Therefore behold, the days are coming declares the Lord, when they will no longer say, as the Lord lives who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives, who brought up & led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land & from all the countries where I have driven them. Then they will live on their own soil.

In the 1970’s & 80’s there was a mass exodus of Russian Jews out of Communist Russia. In 1999 the AP reported a dramatic increase in number of Jewish immigrants from Russia bringing the largest number of Russian Jews to Israel since the 1990’s.

10. TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MARK OF THE BEAST

Revelation 13:16-17—And he causes all the small & the great & the rich & the poor & the free men & the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead & he provides that no one will be able to buy or sell except the ones who have the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

This technology is already in use. In 2002 a Florida family had VeriChips implanted. The device is made of silicon & called a VeriChip. It’s a small radio transmitter about the size of a piece of rice that is injected under a person’s skin. It transmits a unique personal ID number whenever it’s within a few feet of a special receiver unit. Alzheimer’s patients & others will possibly, sooner or later have these chips implanted for their protection. VeriChip’s maker describes it as “a miniaturized, implantable, radio frequency identification device [RFID] that can be used in a variety of security, emergency & health care applications.”

Is this the biochip the mark of the beast will use under command of the coming man of sin? We don’t really know but what is significant is that people are being softened to the idea of a mark or an implant as a means of security, medical info & maintaining & regulating a more interdependent world. It doesn’t take a genius to see how the Antichrist's mark will easily be introduced to the world.

11. PLANS FOR A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT

Suffice to say that The United Nations, World Trade Organization, International Criminal Court, UN peacekeeping/police force, numerous UN & other agencies are preliminary steps to the formation of a one world government.

The increasing terrorist threat & the middle east conflict will only speed up the formation of this governing body as fear & promises of better security make people more willing to give up their national sovereignty for global governance.

12. INSTANT COMMUNICATION AROUND THE WORLD

REV.11:3,7-10---And I will grant authority to my two witnesses & they will prophecy for twelve hundred & sixty days, clothed in sackcloth…….
Television & the 24-hour news networks make it possible for people around the world to see the dead prophets & rejoice at their deaths.

Personally I look forward to the Rapture because it will mean a total release of the stress & struggles of this life. There is nothing in this world I desire to hold onto. I will simply leave this old world with its problems & ascend to heaven where I will enjoy the presence of the Lord & His Saints forever.

I’ve always assumed the people who read my blog & others like it are already saved people & assured of going in the Rapture. Are you sure about what will happen to you when Jesus comes? If He came right now would you be left to endure the Tribulation? If there’s the slightest doubt about your relationship with the Lord, why don’t you give Him your heart right now?

But when these things begin to take place, straighten up & lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. --Luke 21:28


Blessings,


John

Go Tell That Fox....

By John Stallings

Luke 13:31-35 contains one of my favorite stories about Jesus & some of my favorite words that He spoke.

 We often think of Him as a mild mannered man preaching on how to be more “mild- mannered.” Some see Him as a man who just wants to be loved & accepted & will bend over backwards to please as many people as He can. Obviously nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus wasn’t --as some seem to see Him-- a young man with His head in the clouds floating around trying to enlist people into His imaginary kingdom.

In this passage some Pharisees come to Him saying Herod was making death threats against him. They must have thought it would be an interesting “news flash” for Jesus. They probably thought He’d be spooked by hearing Herod wanted to kill him. They may have even thought He would tell them to tell Herod He’d be happy to do anything he suggested; that He’d rush to Jerusalem & maybe make things easier for Himself. The motives of these Pharisees are suspect because in truth they’ve been the ones responsible for pumping Herod full of suspicion concerning Jesus. What they told Herod about Jesus being a threat to his earthly power was nothing but a pack of lies.

Hell would have frozen over before Jesus would have been afraid of anyone, certainly not a wicked heathen like Herod. Jesus responds with these words; “go tell that fox that today & tomorrow I’m healing the sick & casting out demons & on the third day I’ll finish up.” The word fox isn’t a complimentary term nor was it meant to be unnecessarily harsh. I think we see the real Jesus here. A little later we see Him heading toward Jerusalem & lamenting that they had rejected Him. So we know that we don’t have a case-hardened Jesus. But when it came to His work, He didn’t play around. Jesus was saying; & I’m paraphrasing here,

Go tell that fox that ---I will drive out devils & heal people today & tomorrow & on the third day I will reach my goal. Luke 13:32--NIV


Go tell that fox I’m working on my schedule not his.

Go tell that fox there’s no chance I’m going to restructure my life out of fear of him.

Go tell that fox I’m taking no detours in my plans because of him.

Go tell that fox (& I’m still paraphrasing) I’m fully aware of what awaits me in Jerusalem, after all isn’t that the city where all the prophets have been slain?

Go tell that fox there are some things I MUST DO before my earthly ministry is complete. Vr.33

Go tell that fox (in essence) that I’m not naïve of the dangers I face. I can read the future, but he can’t, & I can say with total authority when I’ll be in Jerusalem.

There are five things I see in this short story that are very powerful to me;

1. Jesus is still running on schedule.

You & I, much like Herod, don’t know what’s going to happen five minutes from now but Jesus was well able to tell Herod without fear of failure, exactly what would transpire in His life for the next three days. Jesus was right on schedule & arrived in Jerusalem to face Herod.

We don’t have to wonder if we’ll see Jesus again or if He’ll return for His Bride because when the time is right He’ll appear just as He appeared in Herod’s court.

2. Nothing Jesus starts is ever left unfinished.

He had a goal He strived for on earth & He also has a goal in each of our lives. If we cooperate with Him He’ll complete the work He has begun in us.

3. Jesus feared no man or woman & neither should we.

Herod wasn’t able to shake Him because He never allowed fear to influence Him. His admonition was always “Fear not” & he lived by that creed. Fear is powerful because it’s a form of faith. When we fear, we don’t really doubt a good outcome, we believe in a negative outcome.

4. This story tells us that nothing Jesus says will fail.

Jesus’ words were infallible & so is every word that God was spoken.
Not one jot nor tittle will ever pass away from God’s Word & His promises.-Matt.5:18


5. Many have opposed Jesus but their names are in the dustbin of history & Jesus lives on.

Jesus did finally meet Herod in Luke chapter 23. The Bible says Herod was thrilled to see Jesus because he’d heard so much about Him & wanted to see Him perform a miracle. Of course Jesus never used His miraculous power in that way & He refused to speak a word to Herod. Herod became so angry he told His soldiers to put a beautiful robe on Jesus & they mocked Him.

Then Jesus was sent to Pilate to be judged. I think we could safely say that Herod the old fox was “out-foxed” that day in his own court but the meeting is tinged with sadness. Sadness because Herod met Jesus, the one who was sent to die for him & all of mankind, & he never knew whom he met.

He missed the hour of his visitation.

Blessings,

John

"Show Me The Money "

By John Stallings


In the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays a character on a professional football team & Tom Cruise plays a high-powered pro sports agent.

The movie is about transformation; two men who learn how to value something more important than money & two women who always knew.

In the most memorable scene in the movie, the two men get into a heated argument over their contract & end up shouting the mantra, “Show me the money! Show me the money! Show me the money!”

I always think of that scene when I read the words of Jesus when the Pharisees & Herodians tried to trip him up about whether taxes should be paid to the emperor. It was a trap to set Him at variance with the entrenched powers of the day.

Jesus avoided their trap by saying—Show me the money! Or more literally, --Show me the coin used for tax.—Matthew 22:19.

This is when Jesus uttered the famous statement, after examining the coin-- Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesars, and unto God the things that are God’s.

In the last year, money, even the sound of the word, especially when we hear billion & trillion so much, has taken on an extraordinarily different meaning. Many of us never thought we’d see the day when our government would throw money around & encourage people to spend. The concept that you can’t spend your way to prosperity has gone the way of the Dinosaurs & now it seems the idea is--we can borrow our way out of this or if necessary we’ll run the money printing presses 24/7 until we fix it.

GREED

It’s apparent that greed on the part of some in the world of high finance has gotten us into our present state of economic crisis. The Bible has a lot to say about greed, & contrary to insidious tycoon Gordon Gekko’s wrong-headed statements in the film Wall Street, “greed aint good.”

We well remember the story in 2 Kings Chapter 5 of Naaman, a military captain from Syria dipping seven times in the dirty little river Jordan & being cleansed of his leprosy. Elisha the prophet who sent Namaan to the river to dip wasn’t willing to take anything from him in the way of payment but his greedy servant Gehazi was.

Namaan had come to Elisha’s house prepared to pay handsomely but it was just too much for Gehazi to stand by & watch all that beautiful money disappearing. His attitude was- “My master’s crazy. I’ll never have a pair of Gucci shoes on these old tired feet of mine or wear an Armani suit if I don’t look out for myself. Why not make a quick buck while I can?”

Gehazi ran to catch up to Naaman as he was leaving Israel to go back home to Syria, & he was prepared to lie to get what he wanted.He wanted payola!

THE STORY OF GEHAZI IS, TO SAY THE LEAST, A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR ALL INVOLVED IN MINISTRY.

Before I get into more detail about Gehazi however, I want to mention some very positive things that have taken place ministry- wise around the nation & the world that we’ve witnessed personally. It’s too bad that these things get little or no press coverage. I won’t use names or places, just suffice to say it’s something we rejoiced in seeing & hearing. If I’m going to make constructively critical comments about ministry, I feel it’s incumbent on me to speak loudly & clearly of the things I see of a positive nature.

Some time ago Juda & I were ministering in a small country outside the U.S. The pastors there told us of one of the “big American evangelists,” [a man I’ve known personally for years] who’d recently held a crusade there & never took an offering for himself or his ministry. It was a huge campaign & many were saved & healed. As a matter of fact, some the local pastors were disappointed that the evangelist didn’t give the people an opportunity to contribute. They were grateful for the great move of God in their midst, & were willing to give.

Some onlookers were unhappy that the minister wouldn’t take a dime for his work in their country [it seems that sometimes a preacher can’t win no matter what he does] but this man obviously felt the same way Elisha did in the case of Naaman; he didn’t want to receive money for his ministry on that occasion.

I’ve recently heard of other ministries who’ve done the same thing this evangelist did in other parts of the world. I feel it behooves us to see the good & magnify it, especially in areas where ministry is being watched with a jaundiced eye.

Having said that; - there’s no doubt in my mind that many of the financial excesses these days in the Church have no other explanation than greed;

OLD FASHIONED GEHAZI GREED!

We’re quick to acknowledge problems that crop up in the lives of ministers. Who among us hasn’t been shocked & saddened upon hearing of some of the ugly sins ministry gets caught up in; such as adultery, sexual perversion, jealousy, envy, drug abuse & drunkenness, lying, debauchery, angry outbursts, & the list goes on. Ministers are only human beings who must lean hard on God’s mercy & grace like everyone else. And of course they are prime targets of Satan.

We often hear requests to pray for this or that man or woman of God, or a church or Christian University that’s besieged with problems. This can & does happen in just about any denomination you can name. Tragically, we’ve come to almost expect to hear now & then about something going terribly wrong in the life of a well known servant of God.

Why is it then that we can quickly wrap our minds around the aforementioned sins befalling those in high places of spiritual leadership when the one sin we can’t seem to diagnose is greed-- when we see it as plain as the nose on a face? It’s difficult for us to “call a spade a spade” when it comes to what is obviously –GREED & SELFISH AMBITION. We hesitate to speak our mind when we see someone operating as a “spiritual father” but they are standing up saying- in actuality or in essence—“Show me the money. I’m a highly favored & anointed prophet of God & if you expect me to manifest my gifts, - “cough up the dough.”

In my view, unnecessary buildings are built, unnecessary airplanes are bought, lavish homes are acquired, more T.V or radio time is purchased, & much of it is done because of –Selfish Ambition. Read Galatians 5: 16-21 & you’ll see narcissistic self-ambition listed & God makes it clear—those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Here’s the truth; any ambitious effort outside the leading of the Holy Spirit is sin for me, for you or anyone else called of God.

Someone might ask—“What does this man have against prosperity, especially for servants of God?” I have nothing at all against God’s workers prospering & being well compensated.

I remember the story of a pastor who was at the alter praying, “Oh Lord, please keep me poor & humble.” Over & over he repeated the same prayer, “Oh Lord, please keep me poor & humble.” When the preacher rose from his knees, one of the church deacons who’d been listening to his pastor pray, came up to him & patted his shoulder & said, “Pastor, you don’t have to worry, if the Lord will keep you humble we’ll keep you poor.”

This kind of attitude toward ministers is tragic. The Bible makes it clear—Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn.-1 Cor.9:9

I have discovered in my own life that God blesses our giving &
I’m sure you & I can point out many times in our lives when we gave to God & were greatly blessed for doing so. That has been my experience over & over in my life. I also must confess that I have made the mistake of being unduly influenced by a high-pressure-“show me the money” ministry. I’ve said before that when this kind of tactic is used it’s tantamount to emotional rape.

When I was just getting started in the ministry, my father advised me that if I went to a big convention, & was going to be in several services a day for a week or so, to get a twenty dollar bill broken into ones-—now days that might be a fifty or one-hundred dollar bill—so that I could put something in every offering.

I remember one time when I was at a convention, & had to call my parents & ask them to wire me ten dollars. I didn’t have enough money to buy gas to get to my next preaching engagement.

I can look back over my life & see times when I was so spiritually immature that it breaks my heart. God is a loving Father but He isn’t obligated to bless our carnality or our lack of good judgment.

I believe God not only owns 10% of our money, He owns 100% of it & once we realize that, our attitude about stewardship will take on new meaning. He owns it all; hence He is certainly well able & willing to tell us what to do with the finances that pass through our hands.

LET’S GET BACK TO GEHAZI

When Gehazi caught up with Naaman, he told him, -My master sent me to say “Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver & two sets of clothing.”--2 Kings 5:21-23.
In other words— “show me the money!”

Naaman was generous with Gehazi urging him to accept the gifts even tying them up in special bags-two talents of silver with two sets of clothing. Naaman is understandably happy to pay for his healing. When Naaman’s helpers were asked how much Naaman paid for his healing, they would say, “Two talents of silver,” --which was a lot of money, as a matter of fact in that day you could have bought a house with that amount of money. People no doubt heard about this & thought the prophet had charged that for God’s gift. That was exactly what Elisha had wanted to avoid.

Gehazi compounds his sin by lying. He trumps up a story about two needy servants of God from the back country & plays on Naaman’s generosity. This sometimes happens today. It’s not exactly unknown for missionaries to exaggerate the need so they can get more money for their mission. Sad to say sometimes the whole thing is a scam all made up to raise more money.

I knew a missionary evangelist years ago who ran a “bicycle scam.” He would get up & tell the people that he needed—“to buy a dozen or so bicycles to put under little native boys in a foreign country so they could distribute Bibles or gospel tracks in the hard to reach villages.” One night when a pastor gave the missionary the money the folk had given, he asked, -- “How many bicycles do you feel you can buy with the money raised tonight?” The missionary looked him squarely in the eye & said, “Oh this offering tonight will go for my personal expenses.” Of course the missionary was entitled to living & traveling expenses, but the way he went about raising the money was an outright lie. He took up money under false pretences. And that’s just exactly what Gehazi was doing.

Certainly things like this are the exception not the rule, but how such scams dishonor God.

We see here the danger of a man trying to catch the overflow of another mans gifts & ministry. Up to now Gehazi, as far as we know had been an exemplary servant but it’s clear that his heart is not right with God. We often hear that God has no grandchildren & that’s so true isn’t it? We also see here the danger of depending on someone else’s spirituality. It very obviously doesn’t work. You can grow up in a godly household, be a member of a church, or even a church officer or minister & still not be a child of God.

CURSED

Now Gehazi has got to keep telling lies to prop up the other lies. “Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.” When Gehazi stood in front of Elisha, he forgot two things; Elisha was no fool, & he also had the gift of knowledge. He knew what the servant had been up to & pronounced judgment on him & his descendants forever. Then Gehazi left Elisha’s presence a leper as white as snow.

Gehazi was carnally minded & Paul writes---to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life & peace.-Romans 8:6. Sin will make a person think they’re wiser than the spiritual person but in the end it will be the spiritually minded individual who’ll inherit eternal life.

CURSE REVERSED??

Gehazi went out from Elisha’s presence being cursed along with his seed forever. Right? Right!

But if you’ll read chapters 5-8 of 2 Kings, you’ll find something you may have overlooked. In chapter 5 we have all the Gehazi mess, the graft, the deception & the lies. Gehazi’s doom is sealed; he’ll be a leper along with his offspring for the rest of his days. Right? Right!

If you skip over to the eight chapter verses 1-4, you’ll find a man talking to the king. Here’s what the Bible says-

And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying tell me I pray thee all the great things that Elisha hath done.

Gehazi, the man we would think was dead or dying was standing there talking to the king. He wasn’t being treated as an unclean person as he’d been treated before. What has happened?

FOUR LEPERS AT THE GATE OF SAMARIA

In chapter 7, we have the story of the 4 lepers. Do you remember that story? Well there was a famine in Samaria, & these 4 lepers were sitting outside the gate of the city starving.

We’re a country of fast food restaurants. We have such an overabundance of food. It’s a shame to see how food is wasted when millions of people all over the world are starving. Imagine if you will a food shortage where you & all your friends were hungry. Your supply of groceries was completely shut off.

Imagine if you can the hunger & desperation being so great people were paying $50 for the head of a donkey to eat & $3 for a pint of dove droppings. You & I think in our minds, how gross, how disgusting but to the people of Samaria it was all very real. People were even boiling their children & eating them.

Rather than sit & starve, the lepers decide to infiltrate the enemy’s camp at twilight in search of food. But what a surprise they got when they got inside the city. There was no one there. Their camp was deserted. God had arranged it so that the Syrian army thought the Egyptians & the Hittites were on their way the help the city so they abandoned the camp leaving everything behind. God allowed the sound of the 4 leprous men dragging their feet to sound thunderous.

The four lepers hit pay dirt. There was food everywhere. There were clothes & there were riches. They went into one tent & found food, & they ate their fill. Think about what it must have been like for these lepers.

It pays to read the Bible & read it thoroughly. We have no actual proof for what I’m about to say but it’s very possible that these 4 lepers were Gehazi & his three sons.

Have you ever heard that God will test you & if you fail the test He’ll keep testing you until you pass the test? Well it’s true. Gehazi failed the test of greed the first time with Naaman, but here he is again, confronted with more abundance of material things than he could ever dream.

But what did Gehazi do this time? He & the other lepers have a different attitude about the spoils they found. They knew in their hearts they must share it with the starving people of the city or something dreadful would happen to them. You may say, “yes but Gehazi was cursed, how could God deliver him from leprosy after that?”

Naaman got a deliverance from his curse of leprosy didn’t he? Why not a healing for a repentant Gehazi? If it’s true, it’s just like God. By sharing the good news with the people of Samaria, the disgraced man himself, the man who shamed Israel by taking money from the gentile Naaman, was the person who saved the entire population of Samaria from death through the siege & famine.

Also if it's true that Gehazi was cleansed as Naaman was, it only cost Naaman seven dips in a muddy river while it cost Gehazi seven years.

Yes, we have a changed Gehazi; old “messed-up-/show- me- the money-Gehazi,” who even though he was punished, made up his mind not to sit & die. He said, “I must get up from here, things can’t get any worse & I have nothing left to lose.”

Did God heal Gehazi of his leprosy, allow him & his sons to be vessels used to perform a miracle to save a people & a city, & then restore him to serventhood? The story has all the earmarks of our, loving, forgiving restoration God, doesn’t it?

Read it for yourself & I have a feeling it will cause you to exclaim;

“What a mighty God we serve!”

Every Blessing,

John

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