God's last name isn't damn!

By John Stallings



I didn’t believe Bill Clinton when he said he smoked marijuana but didn’t inhale; neither do I believe Sen. Barack Obama when he claimed he was unaware of the incendiary, racist anti-American sermons of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

It stretches credibility for me to believe that the Sunday after 9/11 when this nation was shaken to its core & multitudes that rarely go to church crowded into places of worship across America to mourn, Barack Obama decided to skip church.

I was born at night but not last night.

But to be fair, I also have to blame our liberal media who should be fair & balanced, for not having found this story long ago. I mean, look what happened in 2000, when George Bush stopped by Bob Jones University to give a standard stump speech during his bid for the presidency. That was one single moment but the media had a “conniption fit,” while 20 years in Obama’s church life is explained away when his “crazy uncle” married him & baptized his children too.

All of us make mistakes & that includes the Rev. Wright & most of us apologize when we transgress, except those who obviously feel an apology would so diminish them they can’t get it out. But it seems to me that Rev. Wright is sticking by his abominable rhetoric because as far as I know he has offered no apology.

Forgiveness in my mind is automatic in one sense, especially for the believer, but in another sense its greatest work hasn’t come to fruition until an apology has been made by whoever needs to make it.

Forrest Gump’s statement comes to mind; “I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.” If Forrest could figure that out certainly you & I are smart enough to know by the tone of a person’s voice when they are speaking minus Christian love.

But the good Senator Obama has thrown his granny under the bus & now it seems he’s put Rev.Wright there also, likening him to a “crazy uncle.” Clearly in his attempt to deflect from Wrights anti-American rantings Obama stepped in another hole about the race issue.

Rule number rule one for public figures, -- when you’re in a hole, stop digging.

The Rev. Wright may have enough degrees to be called Dr. Fahrenheit but his statements are among the most uneducated ones I’ve ever heard.

It’s immaterial to me if he preached hateful things often or only occasionally. It doesn’t take much language like that to do real damage. Rat poison is 95% wheat & other tasty products rats like, & only about 5% poison. If that wasn’t the case no rat would eat it & I hear they gobble it down.

I’ll guarantee you if you told your wife you didn’t like the way she cooked & kept house just one time, you’d find out how much damage can be done with one statement like that over a twenty year period.

Before I leave the Rev. Wright, I’d like to humbly suggest some words he could use in the future if he wants to offset the damage he’s done.

INSTEAD OF – “GOD ----- AMERICA,” WHY NOT LEAD US ALL IN THESE WORDS THAT ACTUALLY COMPRISE A PRAYER PUT TO MUSIC BY IRVING BERLIN, THE YEAR I WAS BORN;

“While the storm clouds gather across the sea,
Let us pledge allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer,

GOD BLESS AMERICA,
Land that I love,
Stand beside her, and guide her,
Thru the night with a light from above,
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
GOD BLESS AMERICA, MY HOME SWEET HOME.”

Notice the second line of that prayer’s chorus; “Stand beside her.” America certainly isn’t perfect but in reality she’s us. She needs we, her loyal citizens to “be supportive & prayerful-- “& guide her through the night with a light from above.” That “light from above” invokes God’s concern for the affairs of our great nation. “Through the night”-- represents the dark night of terrorist’s attacks & an avowed enemy who prays & works for America’ destruction. “My home sweet home” reminds us that we do have an awesome homeland & those who hate us are only jealous of “what God hath wrought.”

But the purpose of this blog isn’t to discuss Obama, nor really for that matter the right honorable Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I want to discuss the power of words & the taking of the Lord’s name in vain.

First- -- the power of words.

In the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, there’s a variety of crane that tends to cackle a lot. I guess it’s in their DNA to do it, like we humans yawn without really planning to.

All that noise gets attention from eagles, one of their natural enemies & they just swoop down & grab one up for a tasty meal. The experienced cranes have found a way around this & they will pick up a rock large enough to fill their mouths thus preventing them from cackling & becoming an easy lunch for an eagle.

Isn’t it strange that mankind has been able to split the atom, walk on the moon, construct enough WMD to destroy this world many times over, yet can’t seem to control an opening in the front of the human head called a mouth & the little small piece of muscle tissue that lives there?

Alex Dunlap has written a tract entitled- Ten reasons why I swear, the purpose of which is to show us how foolish swearing is. Here are the reasons he gives;

1. It indicates how clearly my mind works.
2. It’s a fine mark of my manliness.
3. It shows my awesome self-control.
4. It pleases my mother so much.
5. It makes me such good company & such a brilliant conservationists.
6. It leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind about my good breading.
7. It impresses folk that I have more than an ordinary education.
8. It’s an unmistakable mark of culture & refinement.
9. It allows me to fit in with people of culture & refinement.
10. It’s my way of honoring God who says; Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.
The Third Commandment deals with much more than filthy words. This commandment deals with the profane use of God’s Holy Name. God’s Name is Holy & isn’t to be used unless it’s in connection with His praise or His proclamation. But sadly it seems that God’s name has become nothing more in many quarters than a curse word to be thrown around at will.

Profanity is defines as, “Characterized by irreverence for God, impious, base, a profane act or utterance.”

Profane speech is typically language that involves taking God’s name in vain, vile or vulgar, viciously degrading to others, and/or gutter in nature. The Bible regulates man’s speech. [Ex.20:7, Jas.3:10, Matt. 12:36, 37.

A little girl was attending Sunday School for the very first time & as she heard the Christmas story she blurted out; “why did they name that sweet baby a swear word?” It was the first time she’d ever heard His name used outside of a curse.

We’re literally surrounded by profanity. Did you know in one year’s time prime-time T.V shows 8,333 acts of violence, 14,313 incidents of sex & 23,566 uses of profanity? Words that were once banned are now heard about once every five minutes on prime-time T.V, sitcoms.

Many movies that are now considered family oriented contain vile, filthy & cheap language. There’s a movement in America to promote filthy speech. According to an article appearing in the Rocky Mountain News, September 8, 2001, by Diana West, the major television networks NBC, ABC & CBS have a pledge: “According to a front-page report in The New York Times, the networks’ solution to restore their endangered audience is this, to put more dirty words on the air.” This isn’t a joke, it’s a movement.

Most stand-up comics would be speechless if all profanity were kept out of their routines. The goal seems to be lower & lower levels of degrading language to the point of wallowing in the mud.

1. GOD”S NAME IS A VENERABLE NAME. [Sacred, Holy, worthy of respect.]

There are many names given in the Bible but let’s concentrate on just 2.

1. LORD---When you see this name in the Bible it’s the English rendering of the word “Jehovah.” It describes God as the self-existence eternal One. It’s the name “I AM.” He revealed Himself the Moses in EX.3:14. This name is used to declare God’s nature that is unchanging & eternal. Mal.3:6—James 1:17. In the Bible Jehovah is coupled with other words to form compound names for God which reveal more about His nature & his attributes.

Some are;

A. Jehovah- Jireh- “The Lord will provide”—Gen.22:14
B. Jehovah-Nissi—“The Lord is my banner.”—Ex.17:15
C. Jehovah-Shalom—“The Lord is peace.---Judges 6:24
D. Jehovah Shammah—The Lord is there---Ez.48:35
E. Jehovah Tsebaoth—The Lord of Hosts”—1 Sam.1:3
F. Jehovah-Rohi—“The Lord is my Shepard”—Psa.23:1

2. GOD—Elohim—refers to the One Supreme, faithful triune God. This is the most common word for God in the Bible, being used over 2,000 times. In fact when God stepped out of eternity to reveal Himself to us that’s the Name He chose; a name depicting Him as the Strong, faithful dependable God.

Other names for God in the Old Testament are, El-God, El-Shadday-God Almighty & Adonai—Lord.

It’s interesting that one of the first lines in The Lord’s Prayer is, “Hallowed be thy name.”
We should also keep in mind that included in the words we are forbidden by God to use are words that curse & degrade man. While I’ve never taken the Lord’s Name in vain, I’m sure that during unguarded moments I’ve put people in the “spiritual burn unit” with my words. For that I greave & have repented & will do so by God’s grace each time I miss the mark. Listen to James 3:9;

Therewith bless we God even the Father; and therewith we curse men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Pastor James goes on to further explain in verses 10-12 that when a person uses speech to blaspheme God or degrade man, he is showing the corrupt nature of his own heart. Listen;

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing & cursing. My brethren these things ought not so to be.
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water & bitter? Can a fig tree my brethren bear olive berries? either a vine, or figs? So can no fountain both yield both salt water & fresh?

I was thinking about something recently. I’m not saying that George Bush has been perfect & I’ve certainly had my differences with him & have said so publically. But I’ve watched the news & stayed abreast of current events about as much as anyone in the last eight years, & I can’t remember ever having heard Bush say a negative thing about anyone. Maybe you can enlighten me here but I just haven’t heard it. I’ve heard him chide the Congress for their laxity but to be frank there have been times I’ve felt he should have said more. But never have I heard the man engage in a personal attack against anyone & that’s more than I can say for most politicians.

I’m just saying that the fact that hardly anyone will say good things publicly for the president nowadays is as much a comment on us as a nation as it is on the man. One man's opinion.

I heard Brother Andrew speak for the first time just recently. I don’t know much about the man other than he’s legendary all over the world for his missionary work & his writings. The statement he made that stuck with me was in reference to a conversation he had with a devout Muslim recently. The Muslim man said, “You Christians aren’t doing a very good job of following Jesus & you need to get back to your book,” meaning the Bible.

Brother Andrew agreed with the man’s statement. Then the Muslim man said, “We Muslims aren’t doing a very good job of following Muhammad either. We need to get back to our book.” He of course spoke of The Quran. Brother Andrew continued, [of course he was now speaking to his audience, not the Muslim man,] “We’d better pray they don’t start following Muhammad more closely if they do there’ll be a blood-bath all over the world.”

Then brother Andrew asked the man what he felt the Muslims wanted as a people, whereupon the Muslim man answered, “We want someone to tell us who God is.” Think about that statement. In the final analysis they are hungering to know about the real God of heaven & in all probability wondering deep in their souls if they’ve found the right one. We of course know the answer to that. The thought struck me that we in America who are acquainted with the true & living God should be doing a better job of educating people as to who our God really is.

Of course the first thing we must do is stop using God’s name so casually & began to ascribe worth & honor to His name in every way possible. We will all stand before God & give account for the ways in which we’ve used His Name. When we make promises & vows to God then turn around & do the opposite we’re misusing His Name. The person who uses God’s Name in vain can never be fully right with God & in a position for His blessings until that sin is repented of.

I heard about a foul-mouthed old miner who after he was saved had to retrain his mules. It seems after he cleaned up his speech the animals weren’t able to understand a command he gave them.

One day a farmer was late getting home & his wife asked him why it took as long. His reply was, “Well I picked up the preacher down the road & after that moment those horses couldn’t understand a thing I said.”

God’s plan for His people is for us to guard our tongues in everything we say, especially when we use His name.

Years ago a missionary to the Orient witnessed a 20 year old native approach a heathen idol, kneel down, pull out a knife & cut his tongue out. Within minutes the young man had collapsed in a pool of his own blood & died at the idols feet.

God wouldn’t be glorified in our doing such a foolish thing, but He does want our tongues consecrated wholly to His worship, His adoration & His glorification.

I love The Gaither’s song,

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s just something about that name.
Master, Savior Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all heaven & earth proclaim,
King’s & kingdoms shall all pass away,

But there’s something about that name.

How are we using our tongue?

REMEMBER, GOD’S LAST NAME IS NOT DAMN!


BLESSINGS,

John

DEATH IN THE POT

By John Stallings

…..Oh thou man of God, there is death in the pot…… 2 Kings 4:40


There was a famine in the land. Food was hard to find. Elisha was the master of a group of young prophets. As he traveled with them the time came for them to eat & he told them to put a pot on the fire.

They did have faith because even though there was a famine they believed God was able to provide something for them to eat.

In the mean time they went looking for food. I think what they had in mind was a nice vegetable stew. One of the young men found a wild vine & shredded the gourds from the vine into the pot. A mystery stew or “Gourd Goulash” was concocted & when it was done the prophets prepared to eat, not knowing that one chef was getting ready to accidentally kill a bunch of preachers.

The food seethed into a stew & as the young men begin to chow down, one by one they realized something was wrong & they spit out the stew shouting, “Master, there is death in the pot.” Thank God they had the good sense to immediately reject the poisonous food & spit it out without apology. They just couldn’t get it past their gums. Elisha found some meal & threw it into the pot & suddenly Poison Porridge became a Succulent Stew. Now we’re talking a blue ribbon dish worthy of Martha Stewart, perfectly seasoned with not a hint of a bitter aftertaste. All the harm was removed & they could eat it. The meal offering was a type of Christ & it was put in the pot to cancel the damage done by the false, death-dealing vine.

Certainly we can see a spiritual parallel here to our day & time. Elisha & his students were in need because of a famine. In spite of the gospel that is constantly being beamed out through television, radio, shortwave, cyberspace, books, Cd's, DVDs, etc. there’s a famine of the Word of God in America & people are spiritually dying.

THE YOUNG PROPHET WHO PICKED THE POISON GOURD WAS SINCERE-- BUT SINCERELY WRONG.

I don’t want to be too hard on this young man because the mistake he made in choosing the gourd was, as far as we know an honest mistake. He wasn’t a very good botanist & was probably even a worse cook. However he didn’t hire on as a cook but was helping as best he could. He was just lacking in discernment about what could & couldn’t be eaten.

If anything gives me concern these days, it’s the fact that in spite of the tidal wave of spiritual resources & knowledge available in this nation, a large segment of the population has a huge deficit of spiritual depth & discernment. When we think about where the nation stands at present, it’s obvious what the next national election could mean to all of us.

It gives us pause when we consider the prospects of an extreme liberal politician entering the Oval office, standing against just about everything we stand for as Christians.

Thought I’ve always kept this blog a place where folk can come & be edified by the Word of God, anyone who’s ever read my jottings know where I stand on Billary.

BUT—WHAT’S IN THE OBAMA POT???

Obama’s pastor of twenty years, Jeremiah Wright, has been on my radar screen long before I ever heard of Obama.

I won’t belabor the point here & put you through a morbid re-visitation of what Wright is all about, but suffice to say, to call Wright a radical is like saying the Pacific ocean is a little damp. I hear that he retired last month & to be frank I don’t know if it’s because the IRS is investigating his church because of some of his over the top rantings, venturing deeply into the realm of politics. Sounds about “Wright.” Obviously the man is a lightening rod.

As I’m sure some of you have, I’ve recently listened to & read from various disgusting excerpts of Rev. [“God---America!”& that middle word isn’t bless] Wright, Obama’s pastor says that America’s “chickens are coming home to roost.” My problem with this man is not simply that he is a radical though well-meaning black pastor. My problem with him is that he’s a nut & the more Obama tries to deny this, the worse it gets. He readily confesses that he took the title of his book, - "The audacity of hope” from a Wright lecture.

There can be no doubt that some keys to Obama’s success are his education, diction, charisma, & sense of decency. To many who lack discernment there’s a “what’s not to like” quality about the man.

But there are several basic concerns with Obama;

1. He’s wet behind the political ears. He’s done nothing that I know of,- of importance in his career but use flowery words that mean nothing. We don’t know what his “change” really means.
2. Obama is the most liberal or “far left” person in Congress & that includes Ted Kennedy & John Kerry.
3. He seems to believe the press about himself, for example that he just might be the political “messiah.”
4. He will surrender in Iraq & remove our army immediately, which will bring untold chaos & bloodshed if not outright genocide.

5. He also openly says that if elected president he’ll all but end our military superiority in the world, scale down our nuclear prowess & have Americans depending on hope instead of the kind of military might that has kept us safe during the last sixty-plus years of the nuclear age. He would never allow nuclear weapons to be used for any purpose at any time.

6. Obama is a “foggy man,” meaning we know little about him. Too little.

7. Obama’s church, Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, started Trumpet Newsmagazine in 1982. Each year the magazine gives awards in various categories. Last year they gave the Dr. Jeremiah Wright award to Louis Farrakhan saying “he truly epitomizes greatness.” Farrakhan’s history is a rancid stew of lies & turning history on its ear.

· Obama voted against banning partial birth abortion.
· He voted no on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.
· Supports affirmative action in Colleges & Government.
· In 2001 he questioned harsh penalties for drug dealing.
· Says he’ll deal with street level drug dealing as a minimum wage affair.
· Admitted marijuana use in high school & college.
· He’s willing to meet with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jung IL & Mahmoud Ahmaadinejad.
· Among his first goals after being elected would be to have a conference with all Muslim nations.
· Opposed the Patriot Act
· First bill he signed that was passed was campaign finance reform.
· Voted no on prohibiting law suits against gun manufacturers.
· Supports universal health care.
· Voted yes on providing habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees.
· Supports granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
· Supports extending welfare to illegal immigrants.
· Voted NO on making English the official language of the USA.
· Voted yes on comprehensive immigrant reform.
· Voted yes on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security.
· Wants to make the minimum wage a “living wage.”
· Voted with Democratic Party 96% of 251 votes.
· Is a big believer in separation of church & state.
· Opposed to any efforts to Privatize Social Security & instead supports increasing the amount of tax paid.
· Voted NO on repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax.
· Voted NO on repealing the “death tax.”
· He is ranked as the MOST LIBERAL SENATOR in the Senate today & that takes some doing.

This tidal wave could very well undermine the very foundations of this great country.

Just yesterday Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York resigned in disgrace after being caught having dealings with a prostitution ring during a period of over ten years. The call girl he hired for $4,300 per “date” was not much older than his oldest daughter. The man was either viciously self-destructive or pathologically arrogant believing he wouldn’t get caught.

The irony of it was that the reformist Gov. Spitzer campaigned for the office with a strong morality message & was in the process of enacting a new felony statute to punish human trafficking.

“Hypocrisy, thy name is Spitzer.”

I read somewhere that Spitzer’s name was even being mentioned in conjunction with a run for the White House at some point down the road. When we see how corrupt people in high places can be, it underscores the fact that Americans need to be extremely discerning in the months ahead. Certainly “there’s death in our political pot.”

The good news is Christ is still the answer to all of man’s problems & He remains the only antidote for the deadly toxins that abound in our society. My heart goes out to Spitzer’s wife & three precious daughters. Will you join me in prayer for him that he will find forgiveness, redemption & a new life through Jesus Christ?

Discernment pops up everywhere in the Bible. Proverbs 27:7 states, -The full soul loathes the honeycomb but to the hungry soul every bitter things is sweet. We’d better get some spiritual discernment quick in America because there’s death in the political pot we’re about to dip in to.

Notice in the story that the prophets were so hungry they probably would have eaten bitter soup. The problem with this stew wasn’t just bitterness, it was deadly poisonous. There was truly death in the pot. [I’ve eaten a few poison Tacos in my time, & guzzled a few glasses of poison Tea down around the Mexican border, but that’s another story] The pot had to be healed & the meal Elisha added to it caused a miracle.

WE HAVE TOO MANY ENTRY-LEVEL CHRISTIANS WHO STAY THAT WAY.

In some of the flat mid-western states after a strong thunderstorm on a hot summer day, a site may appear that looks like a huge body of inviting water to swim in & even drink from & be refreshed. But as we step in we suddenly realize that though it may look like an ocean of water, it’s only an inch deep. In the same way, we may appear to be deep Christians but if we’ve lived our lives for self-only, we’ll be a mere mirage of maturity. When people get close to us they’ll perceive the illusion—Width-without-depth.

Let’s analyze what’s happening in America. In many churches, deep-level Bible teaching opportunities & discipleship classes have just about disappeared & we’ve gone for one big Sunday morning worship service. People love it & the attendance is doing quite well, thank you very much. Other services have fallen through the cracks except that big service. People are coming in droves. Things are exciting & people like it. The music is lively, the sound is neat, & there are cool spotlights, quality dramas, need-oriented preaching & magnificent musicals.

Morale is up. Attendance is up. Excitement is up. But is Godliness up? Is Christlikeness up? Is there any maturity in evidence or do we just have larger & larger audiences coming to watch the performance? Are people as concerned as they ought to be about real Christian commitment?

Are people just “coming to see the show?” Are we just letting people breeze through the church that aren’t really letting their religion cramp their style? Are people picking & choosing what appeals to them & letting the rest alone? Are the people our churches are producing a shallow but happy lot?

Am I against that one big Sunday morning service? A thousands times no! As an evangelist, [with a lot of miles on him] frankly, speaking from the natural, I’m happy when we can sing & preach only once on Sunday morning & go kick off our shoes for the rest of the day. The problem is we’re producing shallow Christians. We’re producing a “spiritual river” that’s a mile wide & an inch deep & entry-level Christians who’re not growing.

The writer of Hebrews said; Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection……..Heb. 6:1

My concern is that we have so democratized & lowered the threshold for salvation enabling everybody to call themselves a Christian, that we now have many who’ve never been truly converted. Peter was saved but Jesus told him when he was converted he’d strengthen the brethren. Luke 22:32.

A young single evangelist friend of mine told me about dating a girl who actually pressured him to have sex with her. When he explained to her it was wrong to have sex outside of marriage she responded by saying, “that’s what’s wrong with a church like yours. At our church we can do anything we want to do & God forgives us.”

I don’t think for a moment that her pastor preached that message; at least I certainly don’t want to believe it. I don’t know if the young woman picked that up by not having a keen listening ear to the message being preached, or if the message was preached with such lack of conviction it came across as compromising.

For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? 2 Cor.14:8

I think it significant that Elisha’s young prophets, though they may not have been proficient chefs, had the discernment to quickly recognize that the stew meant death if eaten & promptly spit it out.

I’m not exalting one church denomination above another here but may God help us to have discernment to recognize false teaching when we hear it & not get caught up in it to the damnation of our eternal souls. Listen to Paul’s words;

Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils….1 Timothy 4:1

A man equipped with a diver’s suit & all the necessary equipment, slipped below the surface of the sea & plummeted into the murky depths below with a small ship waiting for him above. All at once the diver got a message through his radio from the ship above him saying, “Come quick, the ship is sinking.” The story may be a little silly but the diver is supposed to be the one we would expect to be in distress & the ship is there to haul him up in case of an emergency. But in this story the diver is fine but the ship is sinking. That diver isn’t going to be much help to the ship.

We often see this dynamic; the individual, who ordinarily would be the one needing to be strengthened & supported, is doing just fine. In fact the individual is stronger than those above him who’re in leadership. This of course isn’t always true but in some cases the person, the institution, the school or church that sits atop the hierarchy is the one that’s sinking. Isn’t that what we’ve just seen in the case of Governor Spitzer of New York?

We should respect those whom God has placed in leadership because of their position, but not to the point of blind adherence, when we see them veering off from what we know to be the true & right path.


Notice how Elisha’s story ends. Not with a group of preachers rubbing their stomachs & rolling in pain; but with them talking with one another about how great was their God who can turn poison into porridge. God can bless in spite of our blunders.

In the world we’re living in, there are many false vines that, though they look good & healthy bring death. Often we don’t see the death-dealing quality at first blush.

Have you ever heard a politician or preacher say things that bothered you on a deep level? I know I have. Dear friend we have to know the difference between the deadly vines & the True Vine.

If a television minister or a politician tells us something that is opposite to what Jesus says we must be able to say;

Let God be true and every man a liar.

Unfortunately, many Christians aren’t good at discerning because they don’t know their Bible. But the good news is I believe a revival of Bible teaching is coming in short order. Maybe this disturbing political situation will wake the Church up & once again pulpits from coast to coast will go back to teaching the Word of God.

All kinds of things will get people through the doors of our churches but it’s only God’s Word that will change an individual’s mind-set, values & life-style.

But though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Gal.1:8-9.

Blessings,

John

MONSTERS FROM INNER SPACE

By John Stallings

One of the sayings of Christ that used to baffle me was;

There is nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him those are they that defile the man. Mark 7:15

I pondered this statement for quite some time before finding the simple answer. My thinking was; --- surely we know that ingesting strong drink, inhaling tobacco smoke, eating too much of the wrong foods, ingesting poisonous things, or breathing air laden with pollutants are the things that defile us. But Jesus is saying it’s just the opposite; the things that go into a man aren’t what defile him, but rather the things that come out of him. How strange, until you get the revelation.

One day I was in a grocery store & God used a very simple object to reach my simple mind. He said, “Why don’t you go ask the man in the veggie department to wrap you up a half pound of malice?Then go by & ask the butcher to wrap you up a couple of pounds of hate. Check in the drug department & buy some fear, envy, lust & maybe some hypocrisy. Then on your way out pick up some fraud & deceit & maybe a sack of anxiety.”

It was like a light-bulb was turned on in my mind. That store didn’t carry those articles. Fear, murder, adultery, lies, envy, malice & hypocrisy aren’t concocted by the pharmaceutical industry and don’t roll down the conveyor belts of any manufacturer. These things aren’t even resident in the hearts of the brute animals of the jungle. They can’t be found in the hearts of cats & dogs & birds or the fish that swim the murky depths of the sea. The only creator of these monsters is the darkened, fallen, sinful heart of man.

1. WORRY & ANXIETY ARE MONSTERS FROM INNER SPACE.

We think that somehow worry comes to us from the outside but in truth worry is something we do, not something done to us. That’s why Jesus commands us not to do it. Matt.6:26-27---33-34.

I heard about a man who worried so much it gave him an ulcer. He hired a man to do his worrying for him & paid him $100,000. One day he was telling a friend about what he’d done & the friend asked “how in the world can you afford to pay someone that much money to do your worrying?” He answered, “I don’t know, I’m letting him worry about that.”

Wouldn’t it be great if we could pay someone to do our worrying for us?

Back in the sixties I read a book by Dale Carnegie called “How to stop worrying & start living.” It’s an excellent book, & among other things, he gives a four-step rule for dealing with worry.

Carnegie tells in the forward of his book that in the mid-nineteen thirties, not long after the great depression ended, he realized how prevalent worry was among professional men & saw that worry was actually killing people. He looked through libraries to find books on the subject but couldn’t find any so he wrote his book on worry.

As far as I know Carnegie wasn’t a Christian but he includes many passages of scripture in his book so it’s obvious that he found as others have that the Word of God is the definitive book on worry & anxiety.

Philippians 4:7 says;

Don’t be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer & petition with thanksgiving present your requests to the lord.

This is a command of God. From start to finish the Bible tell us plainly not to worry, presents us cases where people have been worried & then shows us how they came out of it with God’s help.

Mental health experts say more than half of our hospital beds are filled with people suffering the effects of worry. Mental distress can cause headaches, arthritis, cystitis, colitis, backaches, ulcers, depression, digestive disorders, & even death. When we add to that the mental fatigue of nights without sleep & days without peace we get a glimpse of the havoc worry plays in destroying the quality & quantity of life.

The mortality rate of worry is astounding. Worry is bad for us because it has no nutritional value for the body or for the soul. Some people try not to let anything happen to them that they haven’t worried about well in advance. They have raised worry to an art form. God never intended that the people He created & saved should hang between certainty & doubt, filled with anxiety over so many things.

It’s been said that the average person’s worries break down like this;

40% about things that never happen
30% about the past that can’t be changed
12% about inaccurate criticism from other people
10% about health which gets worse because of worry
8% about real problems we have to face

Someone said, “When you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure nine of them will fall into the ditch before they reach you.”

If you’re a close observer, you can look at a person & see worry on their countenance. It makes them look haggard & bends the body over choking the creative life out of them. Worry is serious business. You can almost feel sorry for them & feel like saying, “There, there, things will be alright.” But God says, “No! Repent! Stop this way of life.” Worry is a radical kind of unbelief & it drives the dagger of slander into the ribs of God’s integrity.

When we worry we take the imagination that’s supposed to see God in everything & misuse it by conjuring up things that have no redeeming value. When we hear a voice telling us how bad things are going to be, we can be certain we’re not hearing God’s voice. It’s not God’s voice because God doesn’t dwell in the nightmare, “never- never” world of Apocalypse Now.

I’m going to say something now that will shock you; worry, real hard-core worry is worse than drug addiction. It’s worse than other sinful behaviors & monsters that are also born in the shadows of our inner-space. Why-you say? Worry is worse because worry is actually the father & progenitor of many of these heinous monsters such as drug & alcohol addiction.

Worry can cause a person to get into drugs & alcohol in order to drown out the pain it brings. It can cause people to lash out at everybody & alienate friends. Worry has many bad “monster cousins” that slip right into our lives when worry opens the door. Worry has a close friend called anger. Worry has a close traveling companion called self-pity. Many people go into adulterous affairs because they are feeling sorry for themselves & tell themselves their flesh needs a little pampering. It all started with worry & anxiety, and then slipped into self-pity.

Worriers have a subtle way of dumping on others. They transfer their worry to other people so innocently if you blink you’ll miss it. After the worrier leaves others can’t figure out why they’re now in depression. It’s because the worrier always sees the dark side & bring their troubles in, spreading them all around. Sometimes worry even masquerades as “prayer concerns.”

Before we make the decision to dump on others we need to remember that it takes eight positive thoughts to cancel or cover one negative thought. That’s why God is so serious about our mental attitudes. He doesn’t suggest that we don’t worry & fret, He absolutely forbids His children to worry & fret about anything.

Longstanding anxieties & worries arise out of a lifestyle in which we’ve forgotten God & His wonderful provisions for us. I wish I knew a gentler way of saying that. I don’t want to come off pompous here because I’ve had to fight worry in my life like fighting the demons of hell. But I can tell you that in those times when I’ve allowed worry to climb into the saddle, it’s been times when I wasn’t bringing God into the equation. Doesn’t that ring true with you?

If the Bible commands me to “be anxious for nothing” & the Bible commands me to “fear not,” I can be sure that it’s within my power to stop it. I can choose to believe God’s presence is with me & in His presence fear & anxiety are swallowed up. There’s no twelve step formula to be free from worry. We are freed from worry by our fellowship & relationship of trust with the living God.

Have you ever noticed when reading the Psalms; you’re overhearing a man talk to his God? He’s not telling the church or his friends, he’s talking to his God. The Psalmist is clear about how he feels. Sometimes he wants people dead, their wife widows, & their children orphans. He comes out of it but that’s because he went to God with it. Have you talked to God lately in real honesty? He can handle it. Don’t pretend you’re not worried, angry or upset, but take it to God in prayer & let Him know your true feelings.
Watch out now because I’m going to throw you a hanging–curve ball.

GOD DOESN’T ACTUALLY TELL US NOT TO WORRY!

If God were to say, --Be anxious for nothing---he’d actually be dooming us to certain worry. God would never tell us not to worry. The way we’re physiologically made-up, a command -not to worry-would assure us that we’d worry. We’d worry so much that if we ran out of something to worry about that would worry us. Telling us not to worry would be like walking into a dark room & trying to throw the darkness out. No! What do we do in a dark room? We turn on a light.

God doesn’t say – “be anxious for nothing, try to get your mind off of it.” God doesn’t say— “Be anxious for nothing, attack worry with everything you have in you.”

What does God say? He says---Be anxious for nothing—pray! God doesn’t leave us without a plan, but says—Be anxious for nothing BUT in everything by prayer & supplication make your requests known unto the Lord.

Don’t try to come against worry; you’ll lose just like you would if you cursed the darkness. Instead, turn your attention to God & let your requests be made known to Him…..in everything by prayer & supplication---turn to God & let Him know exactly what the cause of your worry is….let your requests be made known. Fully uncover it to God.

In Luke 24:17 & following, The Risen Christ joined Himself to two men as they walked toward a town called Emmaus. Jesus started asking the men questions about what their problem was. He said, in essence, “What’s bugging you guys?” Jesus wanted them to spill out their requests & needs to Him. After they told Him their problems of disappointment & disillusionment, then Jesus started to minister to them. Do you realize the risen Lord wouldn’t deal with their problems until they poured out their hearts to Him? God doesn’t ask questions for information. He already knows everything. He asks questions to get us to talk to Him.—let your requests be made known. Give it all to God!

Don’t just come crashing in asking God for things before you remember His goodness to you in the past…..With thanksgiving let your requests be made known. Forget not all His benefits.

Then we have a wonderful promise. ……The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts & minds through Jesus Christ. ---Phil.4:7

Rather than dumping my gloom on people, I can just tell it all to Jesus & he’ll give me peace that’s incomprehensible. What a promise!

Take your tomorrows that don’t yet exist, take the person & the thing that is giving you cause to worry & fret & just give them all to God.

Whatever your tomorrows hold for you, your spouse, your children & your children’s children, put all of it in God’s hands.

The peace of God will keep you, will garrison you round about as you live for Him Who lives in you. It’s true for all of us! Praise His name!

Blessings,

John

Cherished dislikes

By John Stallings


I’ve never been a fan of professional wrestling but I’ve watched it from time to time. One thing I’ve noticed is that the wrestling story lines involve feuds between characters.

At first the feuds are dramatic, but over time they are bound to become a little flat so the powers that be in the wrestling business will let the characters have a “grudge match.” This match is a final contest after which irrespective of the outcome, the feud is to be over so that each character can pursue other areas of development.

Isn’t it interesting how many of us are less adept than professional wrestlers at releasing ourselves from the bondage of our grudges?

There’s a common theme running through the Old testament against things going on & on for unspecified periods of time? Every forty-ninth or seventh-seventh year was to be a Jubilee year. Debts were cancelled, property was returned to the original owners & prisoners were released. Suffice to say in God’s eyes, things are not meant to go on & on without end.

In Leviticus 19:28 there’s a commandment against permanently marking the flesh. It’s from this passage that we get the law forbidding tattoos.

One definition of a grudge is “a cherished dislike.” Isn’t that interesting? Cherished dislike! It makes sense to cherish something you like, such as your spouse, your children & your friends, but when a person cherishes something they don’t like, something strange is going on.

To cherish a dislike is most definitely an oxymoron; words that don’t seem to belong together. To cherish a dislike is like getting an injury, & being unwilling to let it heal. And people who have a wound they cherish are like time bombs; if you touch that wound they explode. Certain subjects or issues set them off.

AHITHOPHEL HAS A CHERISHED DISLIKE

Ahithophel was a good friend to King David. It would be more accurate to say he started off being David’s friend. David speaks of him years later in Psalm 41:9 & 55:12-14 when telling of a good & precious & trusted friend who betrayed him. Yes, that friend was none other than Ahithophel. Under normal circumstances he seemed nice enough, very bright, and very friendly but he was wound up tighter than a clock. He was ready to explode.

Ahithophel was a wise man, but there was a part of his life where he was very unwise. Even wise people can do some really crazy things. I think Ahithophel is about to teach us that you can’t tell a book by its cover.

The Bible says in 2 Samuel 16:23 that the advice of Ahithopel was like that of one who inquires of God. Isn’t that fantastic? When it came to judgment in most things it was like you were talking to God. How would you like that said about you? “When you get counsel from Joe, it’s like asking God?” “When you get advice from Jane it’s like getting advice from God.”

Ahithopel was one smart motor scooter. In 1 Chronicles 27:33 we read that Ahithopel was the king’s counselor. That meant when the king had a problem he’d call for him. He had access to the palace, & to King David. Think Henry Kissinger or James Baker.

Anytime you wanted good information ask Ahithopel. But as wise as Ahithopel was, he was loaded with explosives, ready to blow at any minute. He was a time bomb & he was carrying a grudge. He was full of bitterness, anger & hostility because of an experience that he had that he wasn’t able to get over.

What was the grudge he was carrying? What’s the grudge you’re carrying? Is there something in your life that’s building up to an explosion? Is there a subject or a person that if someone mentions it will set you off? Maybe it’s some injury or some wrong inflicted on you. Is there a thing or a person in your life that “sets you off?”

Well, let’s see what set Ahithopel off. You will remember the story when Absalom rebelled against David. You can read about it in 2 Samuel 15:2-4. The Bible said he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Absalom would stand by the side of the road leading to the city gates of Jerusalem. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, telling the person there was no one to hear them & add that if he were appointed judge in the land he’d see that everyone got justice.

Absalom was very cleverly stealing the hearts of the people. It’s easy to curry favor when you don’t have the responsibility or authority for it isn’t it? “Well I would help you; I’d do this or that for you if I could.” So he stole the hearts of the people. Absalom did this for four years in Jerusalem, right under his father, King David’s nose. Absalom came back into Jerusalem after he had the experience of killing his step-brother Amnon, who had raped his sister Tamer.

Then there were four years of winning the people & ingratiating himself to everyone. Absalom wants to be king of Israel so he goes up to Hebron & starts a rebellion. He gathered an army & was organizing a cabinet. He was reaching out to everyone who’d support him & getting ready to march on Jerusalem.

Absalom asked Ahithopel to join him, but how could he do that? Ahithopel was too wise for that & had been serving in David’s cabinet for too long. But Absalom reached right into David’s cabinet & got Ahithophel to join the rebellion. Because of that his rebellion gained strength. Because Absalom was able to attract some of David’s counselors everybody else began to think, “Well I guess we’d better get on the right side of this. You know Ahithopel; who when you ask of him it’s like asking God, & he’s joined the conspiracy. Apparently we should join too.” And the conspiracy gained strength.

How could this smart man Ahithopel get involved in all this ugly insurrection? Certainly he was smart enough to know this rebellion wasn’t a sure thing. But Absalom knew something about Ahithopel; he knew the dirty little secret that made him radioactive. Over the four years in Jerusalem he had opportunity to talk & commiserate with people & he got close enough to Ahithophel to learn he was carrying a grudge, a very heavy grudge & cherished dislike about David.

This grudge was the thing that caused Ahithophel to be not only willing but eager to abandon David. What was this grudge? What would cause Ahithopel to abandon his long-time friend David? 2 Samuel 23:34 gives a list of David’s mighty men & it mentions Eliam, the son of Ahithophel. So we find Ahithophel had a son named Eliam. So what?

Let’s look at David’s sin with Bathsheba & make a few connections. Are you ready? Ahithophel had a son named Eliam. Eliam had a daughter named Bathsheba. Bathsheba had been stolen by David & her husband had been killed by David. Here’s the grudge; Bathsheba was Ahithophel’s grand-daughter.

Bathsheba had most likely forgiven David, & maybe Elaim Bathsheba’s father had forgiven David. We know God had forgiven David but Ahithophel; Bathsheba’s grandfather never forgave David. He carried a grudge for years & years & it festered in him until it finally exploded when he had opportunity in Absolam’s rebellion to abandon David. Absalom was estranged from his father David & Ahithophel sought to drive the wedge further in & use it to foment rebellion.

We know what happened next. Absalom marched on Jerusalem & chased David out. After David had fled, Absalom asked Ahithophel what to do next & Ahithophel’s advice was—“Sleep with your fathers concubines.” Ahithophel knew if Absalom did something like that it would be a supreme insult to David & in all likelihood he’d never be united with his father. His next advice was to use twelve thousand men & march against David immediately.

Instead of following Ahithophel’s advice Absalom decided to ask someone else. It was Hushai, David’s friend who had stayed behind to frustrate the council of Ahithophel. Hushai won Absalom’s confidence & gave him advice that in the end would allow David to be warned of what’s about to take place & David is spared. All the men of Absalom said that the advice of Hushai was better than the advice of Ahithophel. Hushai’s advice appealed to Absalom’s ego better anyway but it ended the career of Ahithophel. It was also the end of Ahithephel because when he heard his advice hadn’t been followed he went home, set his business affairs in order & hanged himself.

As you can see this story is fraught with collateral damage. Ahithephel’s life is truly a tragic one & is a testimony to what carrying a grudge can do.

In reality, the grudge we’re carrying doesn’t hurt the person we’re seeking to injure, it only hurts ourselves. Holding a grudge is like drinking poison hoping someone else will die. Forgiveness isn’t something we bestow on others who come asking us for it, it’s something we bestow freely on others for if we don’t it comes back like a boomerang to cut out our hearts.

TO SAY THE LEAST, GRUDGEVILLE IS A MISERABLE PLACE TO LIVE.

A while back I read the story about a man who has been picketing a Catholic church in Massachusetts for quite some time with a sign that reads; -- A pedophile priest ruined my life.”

I can’t really relate to the sexual abuse that man suffered, & I’m in no way judging him, however something in me recoils when someone is so quick to let the actions of others, no matter how dastardly, take away their desire to overcome in life.

Sexual abuse is a terrible, life wrenching experience & I share the anger & outrage at the injustice of it. I can understand him standing in all kinds of weather to sound the alarm about what heinous crimes are being committed against the innocent. I know that many victims of childhood abuse spend decades struggling to liberate themselves from the damage inflicted on them.

In spite of this deep & early wounding, surely this person shouldn’t be doomed to the garbage heap of humanity because of what this evil priest did all those many years ago. A human being made in the image of God, is capable of astounding resilience & recovery by the grace of God.

Why be a victim of what this or any injustice did to you & let it rob you of the life God has planned for you when you can look to Jesus Christ, who took stripes for our healing, was murdered by cruel hands & has promised to restore our lives through faith in Him & His death on the cross.

God understands all we’ve gone through & no matter what injustices we’ve suffered we can find hope in trusting Him for a brand new life full of possibility, purpose & joy.

I’ll be the first to say life has been good to me & although I’ve had hurts & disappoints, I’ve never had the sense of victimization some have experienced. That said, it saddens me when I see people defining their lives by the terrible things that happened to them long ago instead of focusing on the possibilities of a new life available to them through Christ.

While I understand where people are coming from when they say, “I’m an adult survivor of an alcoholic parent,” or “I survived the Oklahoma Federal building bombing” or “the twin tower attack in New York on September 11th,” to me it’s unhealthy to define our very lives in terms of terrible events that have damaged us in the past when we there’s so much God-given life to be lived.

Please don’t misunderstand me here; if an individual has been deeply hurt by a tragedy, event or relationship, to try to pretend they weren’t really hurt, is like putting a dirty old bandage over a gaping wound. The bleeding will continue & no healing occurs. But when we hold on to grudges or unforgiveness as a way of punishing those who’ve wronged us, in reality the only one we really succeed in diminishing is ourselves.

A forgiveness study conducted at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, had the following findings;

“Seventy-one subjects were measured for heart-rate, blood-pressure & stress levels, & asked to think about people who had lied, insulted or rejected them. The test subjects were given a choice: imagine holding the grudge, or forgiving the offender. The results were that forgivers had lower heart rates & blood pressure & felt calmer & more in control. Holding grudges led to higher stress levels & greater feelings of anger & sadness.”

Thomas Hartman, who is a counselor for parents whose children have been murdered or killed by drunk drivers, says “eventually the parents who survive well learn to move on & let go of their extreme anger. There is room for anger, but the very critical question is,--how long do you want to live this way? The reality is that the people who stay there, drenched in their anger, never grow.”

But by claiming the promise—therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold all things are become new….2 Cor.5:17—you can be touched & restored by Christ in the most intimate areas of your life, be made whole & move forward to newness. Forgiveness is first & foremost a gift to ourselves.

THERE’S ONLY SO MUCH ROOM IN THE HUMAN HEART.

If all your heartspace is taken up with a collection of unforgiven hurts, unprocessed anger & bitter resentments that you never managed to clear out through forgiveness, then your heartspace is all occupied, unavailable when the good things come along. Yes, we can move through life, skipping this unforgiveness part, carrying the cargo of unforgiven hurts; of course we can. But it will cost us. It will cost energy, joy, & freedom & love to keep carrying all that junk. And it may very well cost our life.

A CASE STUDY IN HOW FORGIVENESS SHOULD OPERATE.

Philemon is a unique little book. It’s one of the shortest books in the New Testament. Even though the word forgiveness is never mentioned, this book truly fleshes out the subject beautifully.

But reading Philemon is a little like walking into the middle of a movie & having to figure out the characters & plot & then leaving before the end.

I’d like to take a stab at sharing what’s going on in this book.

There are three characters; a runaway slave, an offended slave owner & a godly apostle. The slaves name is Onesimus & he’d run away from his master & fled to Rome. Rome was a hot-bed for runaway slaves because they could get lost in the crowd.

But somehow in Rome Onesimus came in contact with the apostle Paul & became a Christian.

The second character is Philemon, the Christian slave owner. The system of slavery in those days was different than what we think of as slavery. At its best it was a type of employment for a set period of time. The slaves theoretically were like employees & enjoyed a fairly good standard of living.

Many became like family members & some could eventually purchase their freedom. Roman slavery had similarities to our system of employment but abuses developed.

At the time Onesimus ran away from Philemon most slavery had become unconscionable & slaves were protected by no laws. In the first century an owner could do as he liked with a slave so slaves running away would be branded, flogged or even killed.

Philemon would have expected to at least give Onesimus a beating he’d never forget. So you have the awkward situation of a Christian slave owner whose runaway slave had become a Christian. For Philemon to refuse to forgive Onesimus would be in inconsistent with how he himself had been forgiven by Christ.

LET’S LOOK AT SOME PRINCIPLES OF FORGIVENESS PHILEMON GIVES US

The first principle in forgiving someone is to change our thoughts toward the individual. The way we think determines the way we feel so if we’re to change the way we feel about another person we have to change the way we think about them.

When Paul writes to Philemon to convince him to show kindness to Onesimus he says, “I think of him as my own son….Phil.1:10 NLT.
Paul says in essence; --Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good no longer as a slave as a dear brother.” 1:15-16.

Philemon was asked to think differently toward Onesimus by no longer seeing him as a slave but as a new brother in Christ, to recognize that God used what happened to bring glory to Himself.

I once had a man in a church I pastored to angrily confront me in front of the whole church in a business meeting. His tone of voice & his words left little doubt of his feelings about something the church had voted to do. It was my first church, in fact it was my first business meeting & I have to tell you I was quite unnerved there for awhile.

I was blessed to be able to move on with the meeting but my next challenge was to forgive the man for doing & saying things that everyone agreed was egregious. Truthfully I didn’t feel like forgiving him. I asked God to help me in my thinking toward the man. I began to pray for him, not so much because I wanted to but because I knew I had to obey God in the matter.

Slowly my thoughts began to change & instead of feeling sorry for myself I started to see the man in a different light. I actually started to feel compassion for him he was so obviously confused.

The man left the church for a few months but then one day he came back & he acted as if nothing had happened. I walked up to him after the service & shook his hand & greeted him & thankfully there was no show-down or ugly scene. We both left church that day knowing time & prayer had taken care of it & I knew I’d forgiven him.

There also must be acceptance of the offending person & a path must be cleared for reconciliation. Paul tells Philemon, “So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you’d welcome me.”---1:17. To accept someone who’s wronged you, you must refuse to hold a grudge. Don’t allow resentment to take hold & never seek to retaliate. Remember, Philemon could have beaten or even killed Onesimus but Paul is asking him not to retaliate or punish him. Luke 6:33-36.

Never bring up past wrongs, let them die. God never brings up our wrongs & never reminds us of the hurts we’ve knowingly or unknowingly inflicted on other people. Paul tells Philemon, “If he has done you wrong in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me.” Phil.1:18

But this isn’t a “pie-in-the-sky” cure-all. We’ll still have to face our anger over the situation from time to time. True forgiveness doesn’t ask us to excuse the sin against us & if the offense was real it can’t just be swept under the rug. I’ve learned that forgiveness is often a process & we must walk in each day. You might even have to deal with the damage done by the person.

I forgave the man in my church but I still had to deal with some problems he caused. I also knew that he’d be on proving ground with me for some time insofar as being leadership material, absent a lot of growth & maturity.

You can forgive a person who let your child be injured while in their care but that doesn’t mean you put him in charge of children again. It’s likely you’ll have to make changes in the way you relate to the person you’ve forgiven but still forgive fully & completely but also realistically, considering whatever damage that’s been done.

Only heaven will reveal what finally happened with Philemon & Onesimus but since this story was placed in the Bible, to me that indicates in all probability Philemon & Onesimus ultimately worked things out amicably & in a civil Christian manner.

If Philemon forgave Onesimus the one who benefited most wasn’t the forgiven but the one who forgave. If you want to experience the eternal blessings that come to the one who forgives, follow the principles of forgiveness outlined in this little letter Paul wrote to Philemon.

Lay all grudges & unforgiveness aside for the longer you carry them the bigger & heavier they become. Then your heart will be set free & you’ll know unspeakable joy that will more than compensate for every sacrifice you’ve made.

Blessings,

John

Putting The Worlds Most Influential Woman Evangelist To The Bible Test

By John Stallings

….beware of false prophets. Matthew 7:15 There are others with large audiences, but by her standards they are dwarfed.

She gets her message to more people than anyone else on earth. Let’s face it, she’s number one; the world’s most powerful evangelist. She’s a consummate entertainer, a publisher, publishing her own magazine O, which is a massive success, (2.7 million Monthly readership) and any book she promotes through her book club instantly becomes a bestseller. She’s an Internet powerhouse and her website is visited by millions. She’s the power behind an Internet and cable conglomerate called Oxygen that specializes in feminist programming. She’s a mega-business tycoon with her own Production Company, Harpo productions and studio. Her flagship Television talk show is always top rated; as a matter of fact, it’s the top rated talk show in history and reaches 30 million people a week in 111 countries. She is also an award winning actress, a financial powerhouse worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as a mover and shaker who underwrites various and sundry causes. She is many things, but let’s talk about her as an evangelist. She is warm, down to earth, charming and is exceptionally good with ordinary folk. Her vast multimedia empire gives her a platform that no living preacher can match and believe me she’s using that platform to spread religion. She espouses her own spiritual ideas and frequently features her favorite spiritual adviser's on her show. Her website offers answers to many spiritual questions. We’ve established the fact that she’s spreading religion, but what religion is she spreading? THE MOST POWERFUL TELEVISION EVANGELIST IN THE WORLD TODAY IS OPRAH WINFREY. I warn you in advance, if you’re an Oprah fan, some of the things I’m going to say will be tough to hear. And she is spreading the “New Age” religion & make no mistake, Oprah Winfrey isn’t a Christian nor does she claim to be. She is a consummate New Ager, and there’s no question that millions of 40- something housewives faithfully watch her and give a positive nod to everything she says. The massively influential Oprah was named in 1997 by Newsweek magazine, “The most important person in books and magazines.” It was that year when she started Angel Network, a philanthropic outreach that has raised 27 million dollars for needy people worldwide. She got my attention when she endorsed Barack Obama for the Democrat candidate for the Presidency in 2008.That endorsement changed the political landscape giving America a problem we didn't need--THE OBAMA PROBLEM!

In 2004, Time magazine named Oprah one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2005, she received the prestigious NAACP Hall of Fame award. Let’s give credit where credit is due, in many ways Oprah’s show offers an alternative to some of the other trashy programming airing on daytime TV. She has the most magnetic personality imaginable. I give her that, hands down. She can be justifiably proud of the way she has risen from very humble and painful beginnings to such mega-stardom and world fame & at least Oprah is using her fame and influence to seek to improve people’s lives. I’m sure that Oprah the evangelist has helped and encouraged multitudes to make many positive changes in their lives. Kudos are in order here. But remember, Satan is perfectly happy to let us mix in some of our own goodness, if in so doing he can take our eyes off the perfection that is in Christ Jesus alone. Satan is happy to see us making short-term improvements in our lives, so long as we forget that it’s only the Gospel of Jesus Christ that can bring us real forgiveness for our sins and eternal life with God. How does what Oprah teaches harmonize with what the Bible teaches? Hold on tight, I’m going to tell you. 1. OPRAH FEELS THE BIBLE IS TOO LIMITED & BELIEVES NEW AGE THINKING ILLUMINATES & FILLS THE GAPS THE BIBLE MISSES. She believes New Age thinking mostly agrees with the Bible, but it seriously doesn’t and there are huge life-or- death differences. Oprah believes in the FORCE- “I call it God,” she says. But this is a terrible mistake. The Lord isn’t a force, but rather an all-powerful Person. Oprah says each of us is part of that force and we have the potential to reach down deep inside ourselves and tap into that force. She goes on, saying that we don’t need Jesus and “Our biggest mistake is to believe that there’s only one way. Actually, there are many paths leading to “what you call God. There couldn’t possibly be only one way.” If Oprah is correct, Jesus is a liar, for Jesus said,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. John 14:6. So Jesus says he’s the only way, but Oprah contradicts Jesus and says there are many ways to God. She teaches that God cares more about our hearts than whether or not we call Jesus Lord. But Oprah is wrong! Houston, we have a problem.

Acts 4:12 makes it clear that, “There is no other name…by which we must be saved.” 2. OPRAH CLAIMS TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE SPIRITS OF HER ANCESTORS & OTHER DEAD PEOPLE. New Age religion encourages such things but the Bible fiercely forbids trying to communicate with dead people or other spirit beings. The Bible clearly tells us in Isaiah 8:19 that we should inquire of God instead of going to old spirits or demons that are out to trick and destroy us. Old Testament King Saul in his backslidings started going to fortune tellers when God had forbidden it, seeking to learn from hell what heaven would no longer tell him. Oprah ignores the Bible and goes ahead and seeks the very type of contact that God forbids. 3. OPRAH FEELS TO LIVE WITH HER BOYFRIEND STEDMAN, UNMARRIED- IS PERFECTLY OKAY. The Bible calls this fornication and obviously living in sin. The Bible commands that a couple be married before they live together. Oprah says, “it works so well this way, I wouldn’t want to mess it up.” So America’s beloved “Evangelist Oprah” slaps God in the face and by example, encourages millions of others to follow suit. Shame, shame Oprah! You feel that your feelings matter more than the facts of what God commands us to do. Your acid test is your subjective feelings rather than God’s objective commandments. Oprah’s religion contradicts the Bible. She spreads falsehoods about the most basic things: the nature of God, the way of salvation, the source of supernatural truth, and the standard for moral living. 4. OPRAH GETS HER THEOLOGY FROM GURUS AND NEW AGE TEACHERS. New Agers like Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Shirley MacLaine, Betty Eadie and James Van Praagh are often on her program. These people don’t believe in a personal God but in an impersonal power. Shirley MacLaine goes so far as to say, “if everyone was taught one basic spiritual law, we’d all be happier and that law is that; everyone is God; everyone.” Oprah’s guru says, “The Universe is wise and compassionate and doesn’t burden you with a destiny. It provides you with potential. Your life depends on your choices. There are no right or wrong answers, only your holy life, and the experiences that you create in it.” These people promote a Godless religion and a Christless spirituality in a slick manner which popularizes the principle of reincarnation; which says that if you don’t get it right this time you will the next. This is anti-Bible. What about salvation through Jesus Christ? These Guru’s deny this and speak of, no right, no wrong, no sin no judgment, no hell, no need for a savior. Your soul creates another life for you to live and die many times. This is re-incarnation. But the Bible says,

“Man is destined to die once and after that the judgment. Hebrews 9:27.

This is “Karma”…. “Nothing happens to you that don’t come from a choice you made, either in this life or a previous life. Its all in your hands and this is the lesson of Karma.” The message Oprah sends out is; -- don’t just listen to the Bible or think hard about the words God speaks; just watch Oprah and her Guru and feel them emote. They may sincerely believe what they’re saying but they have put there faith in lies, and are spreading those lies to millions of people. I’ll go so far as to give them the benefit of the doubt that they don’t realize that Satan himself is the author of the ideas they promote. Satan isn’t stupid. He knows the best possible way to spread his message isn’t through some wild-eyed seemingly nutty person, but rather through a likable, warm woman full of good intentions, eager to help people. Another of Oprah’s Guru’s is a woman named Iyanla Vanzant who makes statements like, “The power is in your hands. The reason you are on this planet is to awaken to your God-self, to celebrate life, and to do what brings you JOY!” That’s just another re-hash of Satan’s old lie in the garden of Eden “You will be like God.” But now Satan doesn’t speak through a snake, he uses powerful and popular women. If we chose to follow our own warm-fuzzy feelings rather than the word of God, we are asking to become dupes of Satan. God says,

“Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit.”… Woe to the women “who prophesy out of their own imagination.” (Ezekiel 13:3,-17).

5. OPRAH & HER GURUS ARE BIG ON THE IDEA OF FORGIVENESS. That seems strange to me because there’s never a hint of the problem of sin on Oprah’s shows. Only the power of positive thinking can change the world. Bad human behavior is only the result of the need for attitude adjustments or the “realignment of energies.” They can be heard talking about forgiving all the time but if there’s no personal God to sin against, and if there’s no such thing as a wrong choice or a sin, what real need does anyone have for forgiveness? What they teach is all about just keeping your feelings positive. Dismiss the notion that something is wrong with you or anyone else and delight in your own “evolving Godhood.” This view is a cheap counterfeit replacement for what Bible forgiveness really is. It’s an insult to the Son of God who died that we might be forgiven of our sins. Personally, I like Oprah. I admire her talent and accomplishments. From the first time I saw her in the early eighties, I recognized there was something special about her and have often enjoyed watching her unique interviews. She’s a breath of fresh air in many ways & if nothing else, she provides a positive outlook when these days negativity abounds. Looking at her in purely human terms, “what’s not to like about Oprah?” However we must remember that while New Age Humanism sounds great, (who isn’t for the human race?), from a scriptural standpoint, Oprah the evangelist will destroy your spirit if you place your faith in the religion she promotes. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit but try the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and now is already in the world.”(1 John 4:1-3) THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT CANNOT BE COMPROMISED.TO WIT…. God has provided only one message of salvation: the Bible. God has provided just one way to be saved. If you or I reject Jesus we will perish in hell. But if we believe in Him and Him alone, we will live forever in heaven. It’s just that simple. My prayer is; may God help people who are confused or deceived by false religion. I AM PRAYING FOR YOU OPRAH, AND THAT’S THE TRUTH.

Blessings,

John

Sometimes the boat sinks anyway

By John Stallings


Shipwrecks are fascinating.

Remember the movie, “Titanic?” It was the blockbuster movie of the year all about the ship which was called “unsinkable” hitting an iceberg & going down on her first & only voyage.

What did the Titanic teach us? For one thing the maritime nations of the world changed their policies about ship’s radio rooms after a neighboring ship turned off its radio set for the night because it was bedtime, when the Titanic was starting to sink with hundreds of souls beneath the cold waves.

Shipbuilders learned about lifeboats becoming useless when a ship lists to one side. And they also learned you have to have enough lifeboats for all on board. And maybe they learned from the Titanic not to boast as if she were actually unsinkable because clearly, she wasn’t.

In this article we’ll look at perhaps the most famous shipwreck in history, Paul’s shipwreck in route to Rome & see what spiritual lessons we can learn. That story is dramatically told in Acts 27.

One thing I’ll tell you up front is that the storm Paul encountered has to be one of the most horrendous experiences any man ever endured. It lasted two weeks & much of that time neither the sun nor stars were seen.

I’ve lived in Florida most of my life & can tell you that two days in the grip of a ferocious storm is about all a human can endure, & that’s’ with the provision that you’re on stable ground, not like Paul, aboard a small ship.

We’ll see one thing for absolutely certain, & that is even in the worst of times, God’s redeeming hand can come forth & give us a reason for hope & good cheer.

Secular literary experts & writers have given kudos’ to chapters 27 & 28 of Acts which recount Paul’s shipwreck, saying that for sheer purity of story telling, they are unrivaled in all the history of the literary world.

Luke, who wrote Acts, besides being a physician, was a cracking good writer & storyteller. If it weren’t for Luke we’d not have what has become the classic telling of the Christmas story. If it weren’t for Luke we’d have never heard the line, “There was no room in the end,” nor would we know about the stable, the shepherds or the angels.

Luke alone gives us the memorable parables of the Prodigal Son & the Good Samaritan. Luke introduces us to little Zacchaeus & crafted the post-Easter story about the “Road to Emmaus.”

In the book of Acts Luke tells us about “The day Of Pentecost,” the drama of Ananias & Sapphira, the Ethiopian Eunuch, Saul’s Damascus road conversion, Eutychus falling out the window after a long sermon by Paul, & the missionary journeys of Paul, Peter & the other Apostles.

But nowhere in Luke’s writings are his rich descriptive powers on display better than in the last two chapters of Acts.

Luke’s telling of Paul’s shipwreck has even been studied by scholars as a kind of primer in ancient sea-faring techniques. Luke’s description of the sailors, the ship, the riggings are so detailed as to give us an accurate, technological glimpse into how they used to navigate the seas back then.

But as an evangelist, Luke never wrote only for the artistry of it all. His purpose was always to help the reader to come to a better & stronger faith in The Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.

As Acts opens, Luke is encouraging Theophilus & his flock to see that there were always struggles in the Christian life & that there was never any “golden-age” of the church during which there were no problems, quarrels among believers, no mistakes & no suffering.

In my opinion nowhere in scripture do you see that message more clearly than in Acts 27. Paul’s shipwreck is an actual historical event but it’s also a kind of parable & metaphor with its high seas, storms that come & winds that howl, for the trials & difficulties in the lives of believers.

Paul had been traveling across the Near East for nine months preaching through Israel & Syria, Turkey & Greece & now he’s headed for the greatest city in the land, the center of military & political might on earth, Rome.

He’s requested an audience with Caesar. He’s been under arrest for a while & has exhausted his legal options in the smaller venues so as a Roman citizen he has this final right to take his case directly to Caesar & it couldn’t be denied. You have to give Paul some credit, he went for it. So now, finally he’s being transported via ship to Italy.

Paul is on a grain-carrying ship, which is also a ship full of prisoners. Against his advice the sailors are going to try a wintertime trip during the stormiest season. During this era, massive amounts of grain were being transported by ship which was a money-maker for the ship owners, thus their willingness to take a risk.

As Paul predicted, the ship & its crew encountered a nightmare of a storm. It didn’t take an experienced sailor to know there’d be no saving of the ship. The sailors did all possible to keep the ship afloat, including throwing grain overboard & finally things that were vital to the ships viability. In the end all that was saved were the souls on board. This brings me to the first important point;

WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER A STORM, DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN YOURSELF.

The sailors worked night & day, undergirding the ship, which means they ran cables underneath the ship to keep the planks from separating & twice they lightened the load to keep it afloat. If you & I are in a storm & our boat is sinking, if we don’t do everything we can it will probably sink. While the saying “God helps them who help themselves” isn’t in the Bible, the principle & thought most certainly is.

When I was a kid they used to say, “Work like it all depends on you then pray like it all depends on God.” Good advice.

Ephesians 6:10-17 admonishes us to “put on the whole armor of God,” & it lists all the battle dress for the child of God. God doesn’t put the armor on us, we do that ourselves & though God will help us, we’re expected to put on the armor & be ready to fight the fight of faith. Next;

PRAY AND ASK FOR GOD’S ASSISTANCE—Acts 27:29

The sailors prayed they’d see the light of day.

I remember reading about a woman who worked in a factory & was trained to operate an expensive machine. After her training, her superior told her if the machine ever got jammed, not to try to force it to work, but to call for him.

One day the machine jammed & the woman began to do everything she could to get it working. She cut it off, then cut it back on, pushed & pulled to no avail. She worked frantically with the jammed machine until she smelled smoke & finally cut it off & called her supervisor. When the supervisor came & checked the machine out, he saw that the well intentioned woman had burned up its motor. The woman cried & said, “I did all I could do to get the machine running again.” Her boss said, “Lady, you’ve never done all you can do until you’ve called me.”

After you & I have exhausted all our efforts & seen no success, & we’ve come to the end of our abilities, we can call on our heavenly Father in prayer & be assured of His help.

If however we fail to call on God & our boat hits the bottom, we have to take the responsibility for the calamity.

Have you ever wondered---?

WHAT’S GOD’S GREAT MAN OF FAITH DOING IN A STORM ANYWAY?

Some people believe if you have enough faith you’ll never encounter a storm but in this story, Paul, “God’s man of the hour, -of faith & power” gets into a killer hurricane & it goes on for two weeks.

This may shock you, but—Faith produces storms!

There’s nothing in the Bible even remotely hinting that a Christian will be exempt from trouble. You very well could come under persecution in your life for being a Christian. Jesus, Job & many of the Bible greats got into trouble not because they were bad but because they were good.

There is more persecution of Christians worldwide at present than there ever has been in history. We should be grateful we’ve not been called on to resist unto blood. In countries like Australia & Canada the pulpit has been declared a public place & ministers have been fined & threatened for things they’ve preached. Things that heretofore could be said freely are now prosecuted under “hate speech laws.”

Maybe your persecution will be so subtle you hardly even recognize it as persecution. You might have someone say, “You know, you profess to be a Christian but……” --then they proceed to rake you over the coals, holding you to some standard they themselves miss by a million light years.

The fact that they profess nothing & you profess Christ somehow in their mind leaves them freer to condemn you. The real motive behind their attacks against you is their disgust for your love & devotion to Jesus Christ.

Though the ship Paul is sailing on is tossed around like a toothpick & he hasn’t seen the sun in days, he doesn’t panic. He stands before the 276 sailors aboard & assures them that God will spare all of their lives, with one provision; they unequivocally must stay with the ship. Here’s another lesson;

WHEN YOU’RE IN A STORM--DON’T JUMP SHIP!

One of the temptations in a storm is to try to get away from the problem.

I’m tempted to laugh when I hear young ladies say things like, “I’m tired of all these house rules & pressures from my parents, & I’m going to leave home & get married.” This young lady doesn’t know much about marriage if she thinks it means liberty to do exactly as she pleases.

I smile when I hear young men say, “I’m sick of people telling me what to do & having to live with curfews & all that stuff, I’m going to join the Marines.” This young man will get a surprise when he arrives at boot-camp.

Here’s a question for all of us; --how are we ever going to see God perform a miracle if we leave the place where the miracle is needed?

The most important thing a person could possess to be successful, outside of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, is stickability. Staying power; the ability not to run when the going gets tough. You may need a vacation, but don’t jump ship. You may have to fast & pray but don’t jump ship.

LIGHTEN YOUR LOAD DURING A STORM.

Luke tells us after a few days rolling around in this killer of a storm that the sailors started lightening the ship. To show you how desperate they were, they even threw overboard the grain which could have been eaten.

Then things got so desperate they threw overboard the tackling of the ship.

If I knew exactly what tackling was I’d share it with you but for the life of me I can’t tell you. It must have been masking & sails & other paraphernalia but I know they had tackling on the ship. They probably went out & bought tackling before they shoved off. I can hear two sailors talking a day or two before the ship was to sail, “Hey Sam, we’ve got to get some tackling for the ship before we sail you know?” “Right Joe,” Sam retorts, “we have to get that tackling.” Hey Sam, what’s tackling?” Sam probably said, “Well, I don’t rightly know what tackling is either but they told me to go buy some & there’s a tackling store down on Main Street.”

TACKLING IS ANYTHING WE DON’T ACTUALLY NEED TO SURVIVE.

I don’t know what the tackling is in your life. It would probably be different than my tackling but we all have tackling. I think a good rule of thumb would be; --tackling is whatever we don’t really need to survive when things start getting stormy in our lives.

We’re entering choppy waters in America economically & politically. Sadly we’re seeing unprecedented home foreclosures, high energy costs & people of all strata’s are feeling the squeeze. We’re entering an era now where things that we’ve always had in abundance will be harder & harder to come by.

Yet our culture is a consumer oriented culture geared toward always showing us things we need to “be happy.” I have a car with over one-hundred thousand miles on it & it’s a great car. However now & then I get itchy, wanting to buy a new car with that new car smell & look. The advertisements tell me there are 48 easy payments. I know that’s a lie. There may be two easy payments, the first & last ones, but those other 46 payments are hard.

In America we strive for bigger houses, better cars, more money & power. Jesus never taught us to directly condemn wealth but He spoke often about the danger that wealth could cause.

IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER- MONEY HAS A DEMONIC DIMENSION.

What would drive a person to sell their body? Why would someone risk prison by selling illegal drugs? What drives people to cheat on their taxes or break into homes & steal? M.O.N.E.Y.

Jesus taught that there only two masters, not God & the devil, but God & money. Mammon is a Syrian God of money & people bowed down to it & worshipped it. They prayed for its success in their lives. In short there was a demonic stronghold & it held sway over people. When Jesus spoke of the God/mammon, people knew what He was talking about.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:10—For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness & pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

MONEY ALSO HAS A SPIRITUAL DIMENSION.

In Luke 19:11-27 Jesus told us about 3 men who were entrusted with money & then God basically stood back to see how they’d handle the money that He deposited into their care. When we stand before God He will ask us how we spent the time & talent He invested in us while on earth.

When Jesus went to church, He didn’t sit on the front seat or the back seat. Believe it or not, He sat over by the offering plate actually watching what the people were dropping in. What if your preacher did that?—Matt.12:41

GIVING IS THE STRONGEST ANTIDOTE THAT EXISTS AGAINST GOD-MAMMON!

I don’t have space to drill down into the true nature of tithing in this writing but suffice to say it’s a weekly reminder of who’s in charge of our lives, God or God-mammon.

After Paul & the other passengers on board this ship had struggled for two weeks, the ship they were sailing on splintered into pieces & all of them made it safely to shore on a little island called Melita, or modern day Malta.

GOD CAN BRING US SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES WHEN WE’RE STRUGGLING TO KEEP OUR HEADS ABOVE WATER.

Here’s something amazing; while Paul was fighting for his life & the lives of others aboard a ship that was just about to disintegrate, with all kinds of violent wind, an out of control steering gear & steady pounding by huge waves, Paul had a dream or a vision.

Isn’t that something? This dream didn’t come when things were going smoothly, this appearance of an angel from God. There was no mood music playing & pastel lights turned low. No, thanks be to God He spoke to Paul when things were in chaos, when there was trouble on the left, disaster on the right, problems up ahead & tragedy right behind. That’s when God chose to speak to Paul.

When things get a little crazy, maybe God knows He has our attention. God speaks to us through thoughts, dreams, visions, instincts & a multitude of other ways. Many times He’ll speak when we are full of adrenaline trying to meet the clear & present danger that we face. God can & does often speak when we are so exhausted we don’t think we can do another thing productive to keep things afloat.

Are you going through a storm? It won’t be all bad if God uses that time to let you see things in a different light.

SOMETIMES, AFTER ALL OUR PRAYERS & EFFORTS-- THE BOAT WILL SINK ANYWAY.

Sometimes in spite of all your efforts & all your tears & all your prayers & all the love you've invested , all of it will die right before your eyes. Just like the destruction of the boat Paul was traveling on, after the victory he saw in the salvaging of every soul on board, his boat sank anyway. In these times it's important to remember that God is still in control & His children will be rescued no matter what.


Most of us are familiar with the eccentric [I almost wrote crazy man] cable television billionaire Ted Turner. At an American Humanist Association banquet when he received an award for his work on the environment & world peace, he openly criticized Christianity.

He said, “Jesus would be sick at His stomach over the way His ideas have been twisted. I’ve been saved seven or eight times but I gave it up when despite my prayers my sister died. The more I strayed from the faith the better I felt.”

Ted Turner is dead wrong but his attitude isn’t much different than many, especially people who’ve been around as long as Turner. It’s interesting at least to me that Turner & I, give or take a few days, are exactly the same age.

Like Ted Turner, I’ve seen my share of “boats” sink & hit the bottom. Some of my greatest heartaches have come because of the failure of people I’ve loved.

I know I’m not alone in this but I’ve helped people in my life & have been shocked & disappointed when they turned against me & did everything in their power to destroy me. I’ve lived to see [not believe] that seemingly “no good deed goes unpunished.”

If God had put me together differently I’d have long ago sworn-off helping anyone ever again. But something in my heart has demanded that I keep reaching out to others as much as is in my power.

I’ve had friendships but certain things have happened which broke the friendship & the wreckage blights the landscape of my life.

Like Turner I also have had prayers that so far have seemed unanswered but the difference is, I truly believe that God’s at work in every detail of my life & the only reason He didn’t give me what I asked for is so that He may, in His own time, give me something better.

No matter what happens to you today it will be better tomorrow.
I believe that if you just live, you’ll outlive many of your problems. I’ve learned that people love the human touch, a warm hug or just a pat on the back. I believe that even when I’m in pain I don’t have to be one.

I’ve learned that no matter how many “ships” I see sink God will put others in my life if I refuse to get bitter & keep an open heart.

I have learned, I truly have learned, that I still have a lot to learn.

Paul understood that even in the midst of life’s storms, God proclaims, God performs & God provides,- in your storm, or in mine, ---in a private storm or a public one,

In the life of an individual ---or a church or a nation.

Blessings,

John