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Thoughts for Today: Page 2

Thought for Today

2002. 12-28

Errors in The King James Version:

No. 5: Phip. 2:5-7

"robbery"

The Word of God is perfect, and if the Bible is the Word of God, then it, too, must be perfect. If errors exist in any translation of the Bible, and the Word of God is without error, then that translation of the Bible cannot be the Word of God. After considering this example of mistranslation in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV), ask yourself whether it or any other version of the Bible is the perfect Word of God.

Paul wrote to the Philippians, "Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped after, but humbled himself and took upon himself the form of a servant."

Isaiah reveals to us that Lucifer is the one who grasped after equality with God. In Isaiah 14, the wicked, hidden thoughts of Lucifer’s heart are exposed for us by the One "who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart." When Satan rebelled against God, his thoughts included this revealing phrase: "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will be like the Most High." Satan attempted to steal some of the glory of God for himself; that was his sin against God.

There is none equal to God, and only a fool like the Devil would ever try to seize upon equality with Him. Being wise, the Son of God refused to seize upon equality with God; in fact, he did just the opposite. He humbled himself to became like those who lived on a lower plane. He took on the nature of men and dwelt among us. He did not puff himself up to grasp after the authority and honor that is God’s alone. That is Paul’s plain meaning in Philippians 2:6-7. However, Christian translators who believe in the doctrine of the Trinity see in Philippians 2:6 an opportunity to promote their belief, even though to do so, they must ignore the plain sense of Paul’s words.

The fewer times a Greek word appears in the New Testament writings, the more open it is to a "private interpretation". The Greek word for "something to be seized upon" appears only once in the entire New Testament, and trinitarians, such as the KJV translators, take full advantage of this lack of usage to twist the word toward a meaning that supports what they believe. The King James translation reads, "Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God . . . ."

This error in translating Philippians 2:6 is one of the most reprehensible, for it is an intentional mistranslation, intended to persuade the reader to believe that Paul wrote something that he did not write. In fact, the translation found in the KJV is exactly the opposite of what Paul intended his words to mean. Paul was telling the saints that instead of pursuing equality with God, as Lucifer did, the Son of God went the other way and humbled himself.

Are You Striving to be Equal With God?

Paul told the saints in Philippians 2:5 that he wanted us to have the same mind as Christ had. What kind of mind did Jesus have? If the KJV translation is correct, Christ Jesus thought that to make himself equal with God was no "robbery". Then, to have his mind, we also must think that to be equal with God is no "robbery" for us, too! Think of it! According to the trinitarian translations of Philippians 2:6, you must consider yourself to be equal with God, as Satan did, or you don’t have the mind of Christ!

I have told you before that Satan is the god of Christianity. This trinitarian translation of Philippians is just more evidence of the same.

—

So, while the King James Version of the Bible is, in general, the best of all translations that I have read, it cannot be the Word of God because it contains intentional mistranslations that promote a doctrine that God hates.

You can trust your soul to the Word of God. But when it comes to trusting the Bible, as with trusting anything produced by a man, you need to know the truth for yourself so that you can discern whether or not a translator is being faithful to the Spirit or not. Only those who have heard from God can know who else has heard from Him. Be safe, and get in touch with God for yourself. That way, you will be able to understand and recognize the strange spirit that is behind some of the verses we find in every version of the Bible that is out there.

Jesus did not say that he would send us book that would guide us into all truth, but that he would send the holy Ghost to guide us into all truth. Pray that God will help you tune in to what the Spirit is saying to the body of Christ right now. There is no other truth but that. The only right doctrine that exists is what Jesus is saying now. Do you hear him?

Thought for Today

2002. 12-27

Errors in The King James Version:

No. 3: 1Peter 2:2

"Grow unto salvation"

This particular error found in the KJV of the Bible was one of omission. In translating 1Peter 2:2, the translators wrote, "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." What Peter originally wrote, however, was this: "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation." In other words, born-again children of God must be fed the word of God in order to grow until salvation comes. That means, of course, that the KJV translators understood salvation to be a future hope, not a synonym for conversion.

Millions of Christians testify of the day in the past when they "got saved!", but the translators of the KJV were not of that breed. In fact, no Christian in all of the recorded history of Christianity was of that breed. The claim of "I got saved" is a relatively new phenomenon in history. It began in earnest near the beginning of the twentieth century.

The writings of the men called the founding "fathers" of Christianity contain no testimonies from any one of them of "getting saved". Even as far from right as they had drifted, they understood that salvation is the future hope of the saints. They all taught that a holy life had to be lived so that one may receive the reward of salvation that Jesus will bring with him when he returns. To teach that when Jesus returns, he will save only those who have obeyed God’s commandments is a doctrine that is anathema to Christians today who claim to already have "gotten saved", but it is the truth, and Christians throughout the centuries, including the translators of the KJV, knew it.

So, I cannot believe that the KJV translators left out the last part of 1 Peter 2:2 intentionally, to promote the idea that one receives salvation when he is converted. They did not believe that any more than Peter believed that. Their error of omission in the King James appears to be just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill mistake. But in the Word of God, there are no mistakes.

—

So, while the King James Version of the Bible is the best of all translations I have read, it cannot be the Word of God because it has mistakes in it.

You can trust your soul to the Word of God. But when it comes to trusting the Bible, as with trusting anything produced by a man, you need to know the truth first so that you can know whether or not that man has really heard from God. Only those who have heard from God can recognize who else has heard from God. As I said before, the only way to be able to recognize the truth of God is to get in touch with God for yourself. That way, you will be able to understand and recognize the fundamental difference between the Word that proceeds from the Almighty and a word that comes from the pen of a frail human.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-25

Errors in The King James Version:

No. 3: Judges 18:30

"Gershom, son of Manasseh"

When Israel came into Canaan, there were times of mass confusion concerning the way to serve God. The Levites, who were ordained to teach God’s people the right ways of God’s Law, failed miserably to do so. One story from the book of Judges tells us of a young, bright Levite who traveled from his home to find a place where he could function as a priest, even though he was not ordained by God to do so, not being of the priestly lineage of Aaron. He found a wealthy man named Micah living within the tribe of Ephraim who offered him a large salary to be function as a priest in the house of gods that Micah had built. The young man agreed to this magnanimous offer and became the official priest of Micah’s household.

Soon afterward, however, a group of men from the tribe of Dan passed by and, having learned of Micah’s house of gods, dropped by for a visit and made the young Levite a more lucrative offer. They seized Micah’s gods and rode off with the foolish young man who now was thrilled with his new position as priest of an entire tribe in Israel instead of priest for just one household.

He rode away with the thieves, and his descendants became the priests of the tribe of Dan in northern Canaan for the entirety of Israel’s history in the Promised Land. Even during the time of David, who labored to restore unity and government under God’s Law in Israel, the young Levite’s descendants continued in the north to pervert God’s ways and ruin the hope of eternal life that God had given to His children. For hundreds of years, they taught and practiced a kind of worship that did far more harm that good, and they prevented many thousands of God’s own people form seeking Him as He had told them to do.

Judges 17 and 18 tell us of this story, and we only learn the young Levite’s name near the end. Judges 18: 30 in the KJV says, "And the children of Dan set up the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests unto the tribe of Dan." But wait! Gershom, the son of Manasseh? I don’t think the genealogical records of the Bible will support this. So, we look at the original text, where we see that the word "Manasseh" does not exist in this verse. Instead, the Hebrews says: "Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses . . . ."

Sad, isn’t it? Moses, Israel’s meek deliverer, is the man who had a son named Gershom (Ex. 18:3), not Manasseh. And Gershom’s young son, Jonathan, did more to undermine Moses’ godly influence on Israel than almost any other person in Israel’s history. But you would never know this tragic irony if you trusted only the King James Version of the Bible because those translators erred when they translated the Hebrew word for "Moses" as being "Manasseh".

—

As I said before, the King James Version of the Bible is the best translation of all translations that I have read. But it is not the Word of God. The Word of God has creative power in it. Whatever it says, is. If the KJV were the Word of God, then when it called Gershom the son of Manasseh, Manasseh would have suddenly had a son named Gershom. But the Bible isn’t the Word, and it cannot create a son for Manasseh by the name of Gershom.

The error of Judges 18:30 is an error in translation of a simple name that is impossible to explain, just as it is impossible to deny. But there is no such error in the Word of God.

You can trust your souls to the Word of God. But when it comes to trusting the Bible, as with trusting anything from a man, you had best know the truth first so that you can know whether or not he is speaking the truth that comes from God alone. And the only way to be able to recognize the truth of God is to get in touch with God for yourself. That way, you will be able to understand and recognize the fundamental difference between the Word that proceeds from the Almighty and a word, even something as simple as a name, that comes from the pen of a frail human.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-25

Errors in The King James Version:

No. 2: Acts 12:4

"Easter"

The Word of God is perfect, and if the Bible is the Word of God, then it must be perfect. If errors exist in any translation of the Bible, but the Word of God is without error, then that translation of the Bible cannot be the Word of God. After considering this example of mistranslation in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV), ask yourself whether it or any other version of the Bible is the perfect Word of God.

When Herod saw how much it pleased the Jewish rulers that he had executed James, the brother of Jesus, he decided to be even more aggressive in his cruelty toward those who worshiped the Lord Jesus. A prime target of his wrath was Peter, whom the cunning king arrested. Herod know how much the congregation loved Peter, but he did not understand that the congregation would never attack his soldiers at the prison to rescue Peter, and so, to make certain that no one would do so, he commanded that Peter be guarded by sixteen Roman soldiers.

It was in the spring of the year, and there were many Jews crowded into Jerusalem for the Passover. Just a couple of years before, the political leaders of Israel had decided not to arrest Jesus until after the Passover Feast "lest there be an uproar among the people". They knew that Jesus was popular with "the common people" and wanted to wait until most of them had gone home before they took him. And now, Herod, in a calculated political move, decided to bring Peter out of prison into public view only after the Jews had completed their Easter celebration, lest . . . Wait a minute. Easter? Herod was waiting until after Easter? Why, the Christian "holy day" of "Easter" did not exist for hundreds of years after this time, and even then, it took hundreds of years more for Christians to agree as to which day was the right holy one! Herod couldn’t have been waiting for Easter; he knew nothing about it, and neither did anybody else on earth.

I had better check my King James Bible again, just to see if I read it incorrectly. Hmmm. . . . No, there it is: "And when Herod apprehended Peter, he put him in prison . . . intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."

The Greek word translated as "Easter" in this verse is the word for Passover; it cannot possibly have been misread as meaning "Easter" by the translators. They intentionally mistranslated a word in this verse to legitimatize their religion and make it appear as if the Christian "holy day" called Easter was endorsed by the Bible. This is the only place the word "Easter" occurs in the King James Version, and it should not even be here. God never gave that day to the saints to celebrate, as He had given Israel her holy days under Moses. God never gave any holy days to the saints; this New Testament is in spirit not in the flesh. The Old Testament holy days were used by God under the Law to foreshadow the holy life Jesus would give his family. There are no holy days in this New Covenant, only holy people.

Paul told the Gentile saints at Colossae not to allow anyone to condemn them for not observing the yearly, monthly, and weekly holy days of the Law of Moses (Col. 2:16-17), saying that they were but "shadows of things to come" in Christ. But in time, when the apostles were gone, Christianity emerged as an imposter congregation, and with it came "holy days" such as Easter and Christmas. For the translators of the King James Version of the Bible to intentionally mistranslate the word "Passover" as "Easter" was sinful. That wrong translation was inspired by Satan in an attempt to legitimize in the eyes of the readers the "holy days" that he had devised out of his own heart. Unfortunately, with his lovely ceremonies and his flattery of Jesus, Satan has persuaded many, even among the true family of God, to embrace Christianity as the family of God.

Easter is a not a holy day, and just like the religion of Christianity as a whole, has nothing whatsoever to do with God. Men just think that it does. And for the translators of the KJV to purposefully mistranslate a verse in the holy Book of God to make it appear that God ordained Christianity and her unholy "holy days" was a wicked thing for men to do.

—

As I said before, the King James Version of the Bible is the best translation of all translations that I have read. But it is not the Word of God. The Word of God has creative power in it. Whatever it says, is. If the KJV were the Word of God, then when it called a holy day "Easter", then Easter would be a holy day. But it isn’t the Word, and it cannot make anything holy. Before you celebrate any day as holy, above all other days, you should find out from God whether He has ever ordained any day as holy in this New Covenant.

The error of Acts 12:4 is an error in translation that was made because the translators were Christians, and Christians have renamed some old things and called them holy days. The translators were translating the text in such a way as to make "Easter" seem to be a sacred thing. That way, when people read that part of the Bible, they would be more inclined to honor Christianity, and the translators’ positions would then be more secure.

You can trust your souls to the Word of God. But when it comes to trusting the Bible, as with trusting any product of man’s labor, you had best know the truth first. The only way to know the truth is to get in touch with God, so that you can understand the fundamental difference between the symbolic Old Covenant and the New Covenant of real spiritual life.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-23

The King James Version and the Word of God

The Bible is not the Word of God, and there is no good reason for God’s children to believe that it is. The Bible itself never claims to be the Word of God; then, why should we? To discover who first called the Bible the Word of God would be an interesting mystery in Christian history to research and to solve. What was his agenda, I wonder? Who was he attempting to impress? He may have been trying, albeit in the flesh, to give honor to God for giving us that Book of all books, but to call a book the Word of God is to show disrespect to the living Word of God, and it betrays a lack of experience with Jesus. Anyone who has personally heard from God knows the difference between what God says now (the Word of God) and the written record of what He said in the past (the Bible).

The Word of God cannot be sold at your local religious bookstore for $29.95, or for any other price. The Word of God cannot be sold at all. Paul told Timothy, "the word of God is not bound." But the Bible is "bound"; some Bibles are bound in leather jackets; some are bound in cloth; some, in paper.

The Word of God is whatever God says, and He is still talking. In the Bible, whenever the Word of God came to a prophet, it came verbally. We read over and over in the Old Testament, "The word of God came, saying . . . ." Jesus is called the Word of God in Revelation 19 because he is the "express image" of God. The holy Spirit is called the Word of God in Ephesians 6:17 because God’s thoughts and feelings are communicated to us through His Spirit. The Word of God is a living thing; in fact, it gives us life! Peter said that the saints are born again "not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Pet. 1:23). To ignore what the Bible itself says and to say that the Bible is the Word of God is to yield to the pressure of an over-religious spirit that simply is not of God.

For a complete treatment of this subject, you can read my little book, Is The Bible The Word of God?

KJV

There is only one version of the Word of God; God only says what He says. But there are hundreds of versions of the Bible. The King James Version of the holy Bible (KJV) is the most trustworthy version of the Bible that I have found. Many years ago now, for example, I determined to learn the book of Proverbs perfectly. I read it carefully, using the KJV. Every time I came to a verse that was worded strangely or was difficult to understand, I would open other, more modern versions of the Bible for clarification. Then, I would open my Hebrew bible and read it in the original language. A pattern emerged. I saw repeatedly that when the KJV was difficult to understand, the Hebrew was equally difficult to understand. And I saw that when the Hebrew was obscure, the translators of other modern versions of the Bible would frequently make something up in an attempt to overcome the difficulty in translation. From that experience, I learned to trust even the obscure KJV passages. I learned that the translators of the KJV in 1611 felt no pressure to force the Scriptures to "make sense" and that they were comfortable simply communicating faithfully to the reader whatever difficulties in translation that the original text presented to them.

Paul said that while Jews demand a sign, we Gentiles stumble in faith when it comes to what we call "wisdom". In other words, the Jews’ nature is to demand miracles, and the Gentiles’ nature is to doubt miracles. It is the nature of Gentiles to refuse to follow something that doesn’t make us appear to be wise; Gentiles have difficulty trusting their souls to something that doesn’t "make sense". This is why so many modern translators are tempted to add to, or subtract from the original languages in order to smooth over obtuse passages of Hebrew and Greek. The Gentile mind, left to its own devices, demands that everything must "make sense" so that it may feel wise. For one glaring example, the carnal mind of Gentiles cannot comprehend God’s power to create, so it invented a doctrine that it pretends to understand, the doctrine of Evolution, and promotes it as the real explanation of life on earth.

The fact that the translators of the KJV overcame, to a large extent, that kind of temptation and translated the difficult Hebrew into equally difficult English gives me a high regard for their work. And this is why I say that the KJV is the most faithful translation of the original Greek and Hebrew of all the translations I have used. It is a translation slandered by many today as archaic, and to a small extent it is, but it is beautifully, poetically written and, despite its bad publicity, is not difficult to understand. So, I will defend the King James Version as the best of all translations to date. However, I am not obsessed with it, as some believers are, to the point of claiming that it is the inviolate Word of God and that it contains no errors. I know for a fact that the King James Version it does contain some errors in translation, blatant errors that cannot be defended. Some of those errors are the result of the King James translators’ faith in certain false doctrines, such as the bizarre doctrine of the "holy Trinity".

In the coming days, I will point out some of these obvious errors in the KJV, not to denigrate the KJV, as so many today are doing, but because those errors need to be recognized by those who, like me, use the KJV as their Bible. I trust the KJV, to the point at which it is so obviously wrong that I cannot ignore it. Anyone who has known me over the past 30 years can tell you that when I am reading the Bible and come across a verse that seems strange to me, my first assumption is that I am ignorant and the Bible is right. But when the translation of that verse itself is incongruent with what the Bible says in other places, and when I can see a clear attempt by the translator to bend the meaning of certain Hebrew or Greek words to match what they themselves believe, then I have to confess that in those cases, the translators abused their authority to translate to the reader the true meaning of the original writer’s words.

Be doubtful of my purpose if you must, but be honest with yourself. If I present to you incontrovertible evidence of mistranslation, admit that it happened. Don’t hide behind a misguided reverence for the KJV. Doing so may fulfill the natural Gentile desire to appear wise, but in God’s sight, it is very, very foolish.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-20

Baptism and the New Birth

That one is baptized with the holy Ghost into the body of Christ is an indisputable fact of Biblical doctrine. Paul could not have written it any more succinctly than he did in 1Corinthians 12:13: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." To be born again is to be baptized with God’s Spirit. The Bible offers no alternatives to that truth.

The only issue, then, is whether or not everyone who is baptized with the holy Ghost speaks in tongues (or has "stammering lips", as Isaiah 28 says) the moment that he receives that baptism. In other words, if someone believes in Jesus but has not spoken in tongues, is that person born again? It is absolutely necessary that you know the answer to that question.

If asked, "Is every person in the family of God baptized with the holy Ghost?", multiplied millions of non-Pentecostal Christians would answer with a resounding "yes!", while Pentecostals would shout, "No!" And if the question were asked, "Does every person who is baptized with the holy Ghost speak in tongues?", multiplied millions of Pentecostal Christians would give a resounding "Yes!", while non-Pentecostal Christians would shout, "No!" Both groups are half right and half wrong. Non-Pentecostals are correct in teaching that every person in God’s family has been baptized with the holy Ghost, and Pentecostals are correct in saying that every one who has been baptized with the holy Ghost spoke in tongues when it happened.

This ever-seething controversy over who is really born again and who is not is a prime example of the mass confusion that characterizes Christianity, and it is one of the reasons why the Spirit is calling God’s children out of that half-right religion.

Begin your search for the truth by asking yourself this question: "When were the disciples born again?" And pray for a willing heart when He gives you His simple answer.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-19

"Who really loves God?"

From a sermon in a Monday night meeting in my home in the spring of 1981.

Paul said that "The Lord is that Spirit." In other words, Jesus is where the Spirit is. The Spirit of God is the way that Jesus is present on earth. He is here in spirit now, and he has promised to come to earth again in person.

Whoever enjoys the joy and liberty of God's Spirit when it falls in power in the assembly of saints truly desires to be in God's presence. The holy Ghost is God's presence, and the man who despises the holy Ghost when it falls on God's people despises Jesus. How do you feel when you see someone roll across the floor under the power of God? How does it make you feel to see a child of God weeping and dancing for joy under the power of the holy Ghost in the midst of the congregation? How does it make you feel to see an entire congregation of saints on their knees seeking the face of God? When Jesus heals a person, do you rejoice or do you suspect that something else really happened? If you enjoy the things God's Spirit does, then you really love what God does because "the Lord is that Spirit". The Spirit is the presence of the Father and the Son.

When the holy Ghost shows up, righteous people melt before the mighty presence of our holy God. The holy Ghost causes men to feel their smallness and their need, and it magnifies God's greatness so that even blind men can see it. It causes men to weep and to laugh, to fall on their faces and to leap for joy, to shout, to dance, to worship aloud, to raise holy hands toward heaven. The holy Ghost empowers man to speak in languages he has not known, to heal the sick, to prophesy, and to do many other miraculous things that man cannot do in himself.

Do you love the things that the holy Ghost does? If so, then you love God. On the other hand, if you do not love the things the Spirit does, then you really do not love the true God. Billions of people on earth today claim to love God, but they hate what the holy Ghost does when it falls upon men. In truth, they do not know who God is and what He is like, and what most people really love who say that they love God is a god of their own imagination.

Suppose someone told others that they loved you, but they avoided you whenever possible. Would you believe that they loved you if they hated to hear your voice and hated what you did when they were in your presence? If you were God, would you believe that people love you if they hated your presence? Could you trust that they loved you if they hated everything you did when you were near them? Would you think that people loved you who dreaded the thought that you might come to where they are and who ridiculed those who did enjoy your presence? What if they told everyone, when you were not around them, that they loved you dearly and longed someday to see you, but whenever they saw you coming, they always went out the back door? If they loved you, wouldn't they love something about you?

The truth is, as I said in that long-ago sermon, "If you are ashamed of the holy Ghost, you are ashamed of Jesus." And if you love the holy Ghost, then you love Jesus. It is that simple. It has to be that way because "the Lord is that Spirit." How can you love Jesus and reject his Spirit? Give up the vain thoughts of the flesh. We cannot have one without the other. The people who really have God are the people who really have the holy Ghost. God has no other people, no other family. Jesus dwells in no one but those in whom His Spirit dwells.

There are no options. If you have the holy Ghost baptism, you have Christ in you. If you do not have the holy Ghost baptism, then you do not have Christ in you. And since "Christ in you is the hope of glory", then if you do not have the holy Ghost, then you have no hope of eternal life. You must remember that "The Lord is that Spirit." As much as vain man would love to have Jesus without submitting to the power of the holy Ghost, and as hard as they have worked at devising for themselves congregations and doctrines that excuse their lack of power as being of God, there is no such thing. There is no body of Christ where there is no holy Ghost. There is no new birth where there is no holy Ghost. There is no hope of salvation where there is no holy Ghost. There is no sanctification, there is no access to the Father, there is no knowledge of God, and there is no fellowship in the light, where there is no holy Ghost. In short, there is no God without the holy Ghost.

Claims of men are meaningless. Forsake them. God is where the holy Ghost is, and nowhere else. Find out where the people are who have the holy Ghost and who do not rejoice in the flesh. Go there and stay there. If you love God, you belong nowhere else.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-18

"It is impossible."

Jesus surprised his disciples by stating that it was exceptionally difficult for any rich man to be saved from the wrath of God and to enter into eternal life. They thought that rich men in Israel were the most righteous of all people. (They had the money to be able to appear to be the most righteous.) And if rich men would scarcely be saved, then how could poor, despised disciples hope to escape the damnation of God?

Having gathered the courage to ask the Lord about his alarming statement, one of the disciples, no doubt trembling within, approached Jesus with the question, "Who then can be saved?"

The first part of Jesus' response must have struck the disciples with terror: "With men, it is impossible. . ." This was an unheard-of doctrine! Impossible for men to escape the wrath of God? Impossible for men to escape damnation in the Lake of Fire? Impossible for men to obtain eternal life? How frightening a note that was for Jesus to offer them!

But then, he added a ray of hope by concluding, "but with God all things are possible."

Yes, there is hope for man, but only if God does something. Nothing man has the power and wisdom to do can possibly rid his soul of sin and empower him to obey the commandments of God. Sin is too much a part of man's nature for him to make himself a new and clean creature. There is hope for man's salvation, but only if God acts.

What does that mean, though, in practical terms? What was Jesus really telling his disciples by saying, "With men it is impossible to be saved, but with God, all things are possible"? Its simplest and most challenging meaning is this:

It means that it is impossible for anything that man can do, think, or build by his own power and understanding to save anyone from sin and its consequences. It means that physical circumcision, commanded by God for men to do under the Old Testament, is no longer be of any spiritual value, and that only the circumcision of man's heart that God gives is of any profit to the soul (Rom. 2:28). It means that no baptism that a man administers can possibly wash away sins or benefit the soul in any way, and that only the baptism of the holy Ghost that Christ gives is of any value for obtaining eternal life. It means that no "communion" using natural things that men serve is of any spiritual value, and that only the "communion of the holy Ghost" is of God. It means that no family that can be joined is God's family, and that only the family that Jesus baptizes men into by the holy Ghost will save anyone. Nothing that man can do will save anyone. It is the work of God that saves.

Listen to the voice of Jesus! "With men, it is impossible!"

Do not trust in the baptisms men give. Do not trust in the congregations that men have started. Do not even taste of the communion that men hand to you. Do not trust in the doctrines and ceremonies that men have devised. With men, it is impossible to do anything for your soul. They can only do something to your body and tell you that it will benefit your soul. But do not trust the word of men. Trust your soul to the Word of God.

Be wise, and trust in God. Let Him be both your greatest fear and your strong tower. Christianity is a religion built upon what men say and do. Come out of it! Put all your faith in Jesus and in his power to save. He alone is "able to save to the uttermost" those who trust in him. With men, it is impossible.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-17

"To you it is given."

From a Bible study in my home in the Spring of 1981.

In Matthew 13, Jesus delivered a lengthy sermon to a multitude gathered along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. There were so many people crowding around him that day that he actually had to commandeer a little ship and deliver his sermon from out on the sea. The most remarkable thing about this sermon, however, is not that Jesus preached from the sea to the shore but that he taught the people in nothing but parables, one right after the other. In other words, he taught the people that day in a way that was intended to prevent them from understanding what he was saying.

Later, when Jesus and his disciples were alone, they asked the Lord why he did that, saying, "Why speakest thou unto them in parables?" The answer Jesus gave is stunning in its implications.

The Master replied, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."

Think of that! Jesus intentionally spoke to that multitude of God's own people in a way that was intended to keep them in the dark! Of all the lessons we could learn by considering this terrifying reality, the greatest is the most obvious; to wit, that if God does not choose you, you cannot choose Him.

There are many wise men of earth who reject the power of the holy Ghost and the truth of the gospel of Christ as if they have something better. They try to make it appear as if they are of such superior intellect or social standing that it would be beneath their dignity to humble themselves before the Lord Jesus. But the truth is much different from that. As I said in that Monday night prayer meeting long ago now, "The wise men of earth think they do not believe in the power of God because they see a better way. But if any man does not believe in the power of God, it is because God has hidden it from his eyes, and God has not called him." Jesus said the same thing in these words: "No man can come unto me except the Father call him." Hunger for God is a gift from God. Hunger for God is, in reality, God wanting you. "We love Him", John wrote, "because He first loved us." But if God does not love us first, if God does not show mercy to us by convicting us of our sins, it is impossible that we should want Him or His righteousness.

Paul told the assembly of saints in Corinth to pause from reading his letter and look around at the congregation that was there with them. He wanted them to ponder over the kind of people who were gathered there in the assembly of saints. Then, from afar, he told them what they themselves saw: "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen." The wise men of earth, and the nobles, and "mighty" of whom Paul spoke may have ridiculed the gospel as if they were above it and didn't need Jesus' help, but the truth was that God had not called them into His heavenly kingdom.

I went on to say in my sermon that evening, "The only reason any person on earth has not received the holy Ghost is that God has not given it to him." What other reason could there be? It is God's holy Ghost to give or not to give. There can be no other reason for any man to be without God's eternal life but that God has thus far refused to give it to him. Pity the man, my brother, who feels no pangs of guilt when he sins. God has cursed him. Pity the rich, the famous, and all the "mighty" of earth who sin with a smile. God will turn their laughter into terror in the day of His wrath, and He will lift you up who have kept His ways and have not denied His faith.

And finally, in my message that night I added, "Everyone who knows the truth has received the baptism of the holy Ghost or is seeking it." This is true because everyone whose heart has been touched by God desires the things that be of God.

Jesus, not man, is in charge of who enters the kingdom of God. The people who pretend to be too sophisticated to have an interest in the holy Ghost and its power over sin and sickness are deceived; they think that following Jesus is a choice that they have the power to make. But being born again is "not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God" (Jn. 1:13). One evangelist, Billy Graham, being full of zeal but lacking in knowledge, became world famous by exhorting men to "make a decision for Christ". But coming to God is not man's decision to make. Jesus even told his own disciples, "you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you" (Jn. 15:16). In all the years of Mr. Graham's travels and labor, there was never one case of a person being born again as a result of obeying his exhortation for men to "make a decision for Christ" (unless, of course, they later became acquainted with the power of the holy Ghost and repented). Never, in his entire career, did a single soul receive the baptism of the holy Ghost (with the evidence of speaking in other tongues) by leaving their seat in the auditorium and going up to him to make their "decision for Christ." Why? They were making a decision for Christ, rather than to repent and cry out for God's mercy so that Christ would make a decision for them. He was not sent by God to preach, and his gospel had no power to wash men from sin. He could convince thousands to make a decision, but he could not lead sinners to the new birth because he himself did not did not understand what it was. It is one of the many bizarre doctrinal episodes in recent times that Mr. Graham wrote a well known book titled, How to be Born Again, and in it, he never once mentioned the pentecostal baptism.

What good is it for a man to decide to follow God? The whole world is populated with people who have decided to follow God. Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and thousands of others have decided to follow God. But it is the decision of God to touch a heart and to create in it a thirst for righteousness that makes the only real difference. Man is neither wise enough nor good enough to choose God. The heart of man is the most deceitful thing in the universe (Jer. 17:9); it will never lead man to decide to obey the true God. Humble yourself to face the fact that man is just plain stuck in sin unless God decides to help him get out of it, and God begins that work of mercy by touching man's heart so that man can begin to want to get out of sin. To paraphrase John, "We want Him because He first wanted us."

The touch of God creates in man a willingness to be changed. If you are willing to change, then you can be healed from every ungodly influence that has ever touched your life. That is the mercy of God for you. It is not of man, and you should be thankful for every desire of your heart to do what is right.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-16

"Lovest Thou Me?"

One major flaw in the English language is that it has but one word for "love", when in fact there are many different kinds of love: the holy love of God, the love of friends or brothers, romantic love, and perhaps others.

The Greek language did a far better job at providing the speaker with alternatives when it came to referring to "love". The Greeks had completely different words for completely different kinds of love. The word for God’s holy love, agape, does not even closely resemble the word for romantic love, eros, etc. When translating from the Greek into English, these different words for love are usually translated simply as "love", and the reader is left to his own devises to determine what kind of love is being talked about. Most of the time, the kind of love intended is easy to determine. Other times, such as in John 21:15-17, knowing that there are different kinds of love being referred to by Jesus is critical to understanding what touched Peter’s heart and made him so heavy with grief.

In John 21:15, the resurrected Lord asked Peter, "Do you love me", using the word agape. This means that Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him with the pure, unshakable love of God. Now, Peter was not the same man that he was the night before Jesus had died. That night, Peter had boasted before the other disciples of his absolute devotion to Jesus, saying that he would even die for the Master. Not long after that, intimidated by fear of capture and torture, Peter found himself cursing and swearing that he had never even known Jesus. This humiliating event had crushed Peter’s boastful spirit. That same night, when Peter realized what he had done, he rushed out of the high priests’s courtyard, we are told, and "wept bitterly." He was not now so self-assured.

Therefore, in response to Jesus’ inquiry, Peter could only say, "Lord, you know I love you as a friend." What the English cannot tell you is that Peter changed the word the Jesus used for "love" to the kind of love a brother or a friend holds for another. Peter could no longer boast of his deep devotion to Christ; he had learned that what he thought he was and what he really was might be two different things. Still, he could not deny that he loved Jesus; he knew that in his heart there lived a love for Jesus of some kind. It might not be the kind of love that never fails, the love of God, but he knew he loved the Lord. So, he avoided Jesus’ question by replying with a different word for "love".

Shortly afterward, Jesus repeated his question: "Simon Peter, do you love me [with the love of God]?" Again, Peter avoided the issue and replied, "Lord. you know I love you [as a friend]."

Finally, Jesus turned to Peter and asked, "Peter, do you love me", but this time Jesus changed the word he used for "love" to that which Peter had been using. This time, Jesus was asking Peter, "Do you really love me as a friend?"

We are told that when Jesus questioned Peter’s claim that he loved him as a friend, "Peter was grieved when Jesus said to him the third time, ‘Lovest thou me?’"

The reason Peter was so grieved at the question was not that Jesus had asked it three times. Jesus had not asked the same question three times, even though the English makes it seem so. In the original language, at this third time, Jesus had asked Peter an entirely new question! He had asked Peter if he was telling the truth when he claimed to love Jesus as a friend!

After the episode of denying that he knew the Lord, Peter now possessed the humility necessary to admit that he was not wise enough or good enough to even love the Lord as a friend–if that had been the case. He was now a broken, not a boastful man. He was no longer confident in himself. At the same time, Peter felt in the deepest recesses of his heart that he loved Jesus–at the very least as a friend–and he could not deny it.

He humbled himself before Jesus and said, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you as a friend." In other words, Peter was saying, "Lord, I know that you can prove me wrong if I am deceived again about myself and my devotion to you, but with all my heart I believe that I love you as a friend. Have mercy on me."

Peter was right. He did love Jesus, and I believe that he and the other disciples loved Jesus with all the love that humans can have for God. But they would need a far greater love for Jesus than that if they were to be able to stand for the gospel that would be entrusted to them. Paul would later say, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given to us" (Rom. 5:5). From that, we can see that until the holy Ghost came on the day of Pentecost, none of Jesus’ disciples loved him with the love of God. They couldn’t have loved him so, for the love of God had not yet been shed into their hearts. That is why on the night of the Lord’s arrest, "They all forsook him and fled." They loved Jesus as a friend, but they could not yet love him with the love of God. After the Spirit came, those same disciples did have the love of God for Jesus in their hearts, and they proved that love many times over by suffering as they did for his name.

In a sermon in 1981, I pointed out to the saints at Grandma's house that at the last supper, when Jesus announced to his disciples that one of them would betray him, we are told that in response to this revelation from Jesus, they all began to ask, "Is it I?" The reason all of his disciples asked, "Is it I?", is that they all had entertained the idea at one time or another. They all had considered betraying Jesus. At various times and places, Jesus had rebuked them all, either individually or as group. At various times and places Jesus had taught doctrines that shook them to the foundation of their souls. Many times, Jesus had put his disciples’ love for him through fiery tests, and it had almost been overwhelmed more than once. When he told then that one of them would betray him, they all felt shame. They all knew what they, at different times, had felt.

If the disciples who walked with the Lord while he was on earth could not love Jesus with the love of God before they received the holy Ghost, then neither can any one else. You may love Jesus as a friend, and that is a good thing for anyone to do, including Peter, but that will not suffice. No man is able to endure the persecutions that obeying Jesus always brings without having in his heart the kind of love that only the holy Ghost baptism puts in it.

You need the baptism of the holy Ghost because you need the love of God. You will fail if you love Jesus as a friend, or as a brother, just as Peter did when the fiery trial came. But you cannot possibly love Jesus any other way without the holy Ghost baptism that sheds God’s holy love into your heart. What devotion to Jesus that men claim without the holy Ghost baptism is only as dependable as was Peter’s claim of devotion on the night Jesus was arrested. He learned the hard way what we can learn from his example, if we are wise. Having the love of God for the Savior is not ours to claim; it is God’s to give. Ask Him today to help you love Jesus as only He can make you love him.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-13

Phony Conquerors

Paul asked the saints to pray for him, so that he might have the courage to speak the things that God had revealed to him. The truth that God revealed to Paul was so challenging to the accepted doctrines of his day, including some of the doctrines of the congregation up to that time, that Paul needed great spiritual strength just to confess before men what Jesus had revealed to him. Having great confidence in the faith and righteousness of the saints in Thessalonica, Paul wrote in both his letters to them, "Brethren, pray for us", but the principal reason Paul requested the saints to aid him in prayer was expressed best in his letter to the saints at Ephesus: " . . . praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . . for all saints, and for me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel" (6:18-19).

This is the attitude of every man who has truly heard and learned the truth from God. The word of God challenges every man, and no man of himself can overcome the world’s resistance to it. No man can, by his own will and power, preach the truth of Christ. I have learned that by experience. There have been times I have had to plead with the Lord to please give me faith to believe what he had shown me, much less to proclaim it. The Word of God reveals to the man to whom it comes just how little spiritual strength he has, and how much he must depend on Jesus in order to do the will of God.

Like you, no doubt, I have at times heard fiery Christian ministers on their radio or TV programs declare that they were going to preach the gospel even if no one on earth stood with them. They seem so completely confident that, even if the whole world turned against them, they would boldly hold forth the Word of God to the whole world alone. A few years ago, after hearing such a boast from one Christian radio minister, the Spirit spoke to my heart and said, "That’s what a man says who has never heard from God." And I understood exactly what Jesus meant.

That man has no knowledge of what resisting the world is, for his gospel is of the world. He is saying what the world wants him to say, and in is heart he knows that. He is saying what he is saying to gain both favor and money from men.

The reason those ministers proclaim that they possess such mighty faith and strength, even if the whole world turns against them, is because they know that it impresses the listening audience. The very reason such a man is teaching whatever it is that he is teaching is because so many others are teaching it! He has received nothing from God for the body of Christ. If God were to speak to such a man and reveal His truth, he would be on his face begging God for courage to confess before men what he now knows to be true. I have met a number of men who have seen the truth and are now being paid to teach other things to their respective congregations. They do not have the courage to speak the whole counsel of God to their congregations. I know these men, and they know me. May our merciful God help them, as He has had to help me, to speak the things that we now understand.

Remember, my dear brothers and sisters, the man who boasts of his spiritual power to overcome an entire world of opposition is the man who has no idea of what opposition from the world really is. God has not spoken to that man; he is of the world, and the world is paying him to boast of his devotion to Jesus. When God speaks to a man, that man realizes his own desperate weakness and his absolute need of strength from Jesus to confess the truth.

The Word of God is holy and is so different from everything that we first can expect that it changes forever the man to whom it comes. It both demands change and provides the power to change. Once that change is accomplished, the servant of God is never the one boasting of what he will do even if the whole world fights against him. Instead, he is glorifying God for His mercy, both to reveal truth and to give the heart boldness to love it.

I once asked my very wise father if he ever had experiences like mine. Then I told him that on several occasions, I had obeyed God, but I had come so close to not obeying Him that I couldn’t rejoice all that much. He replied, "Oh, yes!", and I could tell that he knew exactly how I had felt. The way of the Spirit is a way of victory, but not a victory that is so easy that it can be taken for granted and boasted about. This is why it is foolish to claim to be already saved. Nobody who walks in the Spirit does that.

Paul told the saints at Corinth to judge nothing before Jesus comes back. He will declare who will be saved and who will not. He even said that he knew nothing against himself, but that did not make him right with God (1Cor. 4:1-5). It counts for nothing for us to claim to be saved. It isn’t about us; it is about Jesus, who alone has the authority from God to declare a man saved or damned.

Live right; fear God; and "hope to the end for the salvation that shall be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." No one will be saved because he claims to be, just as no one is overcoming the world just because he claims that he would be able to, no matter what. No one’s tongue is his savior.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-12

Pilgrims and Strangers

The Bible tells us that all of God’s children are strangers and pilgrims on earth. We know that. But every time somebody tries to make himself a stranger or a pilgrim, he just makes himself another part of this weird world. Righteous people are strangers here not because they try to be or even want to be, but because God’s holiness and love make them different. We never please God by trying to make ourselves different from others. In fact, we can’t make ourselves different from others. Every "new thing" that men do in their efforts to be different from others is a failure, for "There is no new thing under the sun." Every different thing eventually proves to be just more of the same old stuff of sin.

Changing man and making him a "new creature" that is different from the world is God's work, not man’s. Man cannot make himself a stranger here, no matter how hard he tries. The weirder a person makes himself in an effort to be different, the more he fits in with this wacky planet. This is a bizarre, wicked planet, and that is why it will be destroyed (2Pet. 3). In the meantime, we are to live simple and godly lives, content with Jesus and his family. Living a sweet and normal life is what makes God’s children strangers on earth, not any abnormal behavior or dress.

A godly person makes every effort to be as much like an ordinary person in this world as he can be, yet without sin. That’s what Jesus did for us. He became as much like us as he could be, while having no sin. That is why we thought there was something wrong with him and killed him. He was normal and pure; we were the ones who were sick.

I was taught in an acting class in college that the proper way to act like a drunk person is to try to be sober. After all, isn’t that what a drunk person is trying to do? In the Lord, there is a similarity concerning being spiritual. The people who are truly spiritual are not trying to be different from the world; they are trying to fit in (yet without sin) so that they can help somebody. We don’t have to try to be what we really are. On the other hand, those who are not truly spiritual are the ones who make the greatest effort to appear to be. And the harder they try, the weirder and more ungodly they become, in spite of how they appear. The most spiritual people I have ever met, the "deepest" people in the Lord, have also been the simplest, most down-to-earth people that I have ever met. They were very different from the world internally, but outwardly they would have impressed no one with their sanctity. They weren’t even trying.

The reason the world’s religious men and women wear clothes that are different from the norm is to impress others of their closeness to God. The children of God are not to do that. If there is anything that causes a child of God to stand out in a crowd, it should be the nature of Christ shining through them. Appearances can be deceiving. God wants us to walk in His Spirit and not to concern ourselves with attempts to impress others with appearances.

Pray for eyes to see what I am telling you. Beware those who wear tall, pointed hats as a sign that they are from God; it is instead a sign that they are not of God at all. Beware those who wear flowing robes and white collars as signs that they are anointed servants of Jesus; such things are signs that those men have no anointing from God at all. Beware those who wear crosses about their necks as a sign of their devotion to the Lord; that cross is instead a sign of what they would do to Jesus again, were he to return to earth as a man. All such things are used by carnally minded men to make themselves appear to be "pilgrims and strangers in the earth." In truth, using such things makes them fit right in with the world’s religious system of vanity and lies. All the world uses symbols to prove that they have a connection with God. The body of Christ has the connection; it needs no symbols.

It is sad to see a child of God who enjoys being different from others. That is an indication of a serious spiritual problem. The righteous take no pleasure in being different from other people; they want everybody to love Jesus together and be made free. They want all people everywhere to understand life in the same way, to have the same judgment, and to bear the same love toward one another. And this was Paul’s earnest desire for the assembly (1Cor. 1:10; Phip. 2:1-2). And in Christ alone lies the hope for unity among men. The boast of the upright has never been in how different they were from others in the world but in how God molded their lives to be like Him (1Cor. 1:31).

Godly joy comes not from being different from the world but from being like God, and Jesus showed us how. Jesus had no halo. There were several occasions in which he was being sought in a crowd and could not be found. This is how God makes men truly to be pilgrims and strangers with Him. By the power of His Spirit, He re-creates the inward man, thus making us "new creatures" that do not belong on earth. Everything and everybody else on earth does belong here, no matter how hard they try to appear not to. Actually, the harder they try, the more they belong.

May God save us from the vain effort of trying to make ourselves pilgrims and strangers on earth. By donning clever, ornate garments or by performing somber ceremonies, it is possible to persuade the blind to think that we are of God, but why bother? What will it matter on the Day of Judgment if others in this life thought we were holy?

Thought for Today

2002. 12-11

Loving the Spirit

From a conversation with the Pittmans, December 11, 2002

Reminiscing in the evening with Brother Earl and Sister Betty about some old saints we used to know, we recalled that some of the sweetest old mothers in Christ that we met along the way who understood very little of the doctrine. Doctrine, valuable as it is, was not what kept them over the years from evil; rather, it was their love of the power of God. They loved to feel the power of the holy Ghost, and their love of those feelings kept them from unclean things that would have take those feelings away.

Dear old Sister Atkinson had a gift of discerning spirits such as I have seldom seen, and she couldn’t even read the Bible, so poorly could she see. But she loved the power of the holy Ghost, and when she met any spirit that did not love it, she recognized and hated it. She was a gentle soul, but she knew how to say no to the devil.

When Brother Earl, or I, or anyone else visited with little Sister Minnie Weaver, at the time over 90 years old, the power of God would often fill the house where we sat. Visiting these saints was not like visiting "old folks"; not at all! They were full of the holy Ghost and fire! They blessed us more than we blessed them. I didn’t stop at their home out of sympathy; I stopped out of desire for fellowship and because I loved them.

Sister Weaver was one of the pioneers of the Church of God denomination in Henderson, NC. She spoke occasionally of the days long before my birth when she would wash clothes during the week so that she could have a dime to put into the offering plate on Sunday for the building fund. Now, however, in her last days, she was all but abandoned by that same sect, and, according to her, she could not persuade even one of her own children to take her to a Sunday or Wednesday night Church of God meeting. Why? Because they knew she would scold the whole congregation for their worldliness and lack of spiritual joy and power. This is what she told me; I am inventing nothing.

She wanted to go to a meeting to light a fire under them and stir them up to seek God, but she could not persuade anyone in that congregation to pick her up and take her. Not being a member, I felt that I should stay out of it. Besides, if they didn’t want her company, I would take their part. And so, Sister Weaver and I often feasted to the full with Jesus, both in meetings in her home with other saints or in precious times spent reading the Bible, singing, and praying with her alone.

She lived into well into her nineties, and after this precious old saint died, the South Henderson Church of God held a funeral for old Sister Weaver. Her very talented grandson, State Overseer for the Church of God in Nebraska, flew in for the event, to sing and play the piano. Accolades for her faithfulness and her charitable acts over the many decades were heaped upon her by those present. I overheard an elderly man mention to another man that Sister Weaver had served as a wet nurse for him when he was an infant. Many others there had also been helped by this hard-working, humble soul. In the years of her strength, she gave some of them a place to stay when they need one; she fed some of them when they were hungry; she nursed some of them when they were sick; she cared for children when their parents could not.

I sat alone near the back of the auditorium and watched in awe as this filthy thing called Christianity used the dead body of that precious saint for its own glory–the same saint these people had all but completely ignored for years, and whom they had refused to allow in their services while she lived! It reminded me of the spectacular state funeral that Hitler held for General Erwin Rommel after he had secretly ordered him to be murdered. Sister Weaver’s funeral looked so good and sounded so good! Her grandson is a gifted and an anointed musician, and a good speaker, and the other singers and speakers performed their parts well. Yet, in the midst of their solemn pageantry, visions kept coming to my mind of Sister Weaver sitting alone in her humble home behind the South Henderson cotton mill wishing in vain that just one of these people would come take her to a worship service. And the lovely music and singing could not drown the echoes of her creaky little voice that resounded in my head: "I can’t get none of ‘em to take me up there!"

As I sat alone in the rear of the building, it felt as if my heart would burst with grief, not for Sister Weaver (she was doing just fine) but for those precious people at the funeral, people of God who had long ago spiritually died, but who still had a reputation for life merely because the word "pentecostal" applied to them. Every beautiful note in their songs tore at my heart. Every kind word they expressed for the old saint was a knife entering the chambers of my soul. With a suffocating heaviness in my breast, I quietly withdrew through a rear door when, at the direction of the minister, the congregation bowed their heads to offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for their dear, departed Sister Weaver, who in reality was welcome in their meeting now only because she was dead.

Somebody will answer to God for that outrage against Christ, but her story is actually a digression from what I originally intended to write, which is that those old saints were kept from evil not so much by their knowledge of the doctrine of Christ but by their deep and abiding love of the holy Ghost and fire. When a person loves the holy Ghost, he loves Jesus; and when any person loves Jesus, the Father will love him. Jesus said that it is for this reason that God loved the disciples (Jn. 14:21).

If you love to feel the power of God, if you love feeling the presence of the Spirit of God, that love will save you from evil deeds that would quench those holy feelings within you. I know that it will do so because I saw precious old saints, both men and women, who were kept by the power of God from committing sin, even though they didn’t have much understanding of the doctrine. All they had going for them was that they truly loved the power of God’s Spirit, and I learned from them that loving God and the feelings of His Spirit is enough.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-10

Established

From a sermon by John D. Clark, Sr., on February 1, 1981

I will tell you, child of God, something about yourself that you most likely do not know. Christian minsters will not tell their congregations this truth because they are ignorant of it, and because their congregations who hired them would most likely fire them if they did. This truth your need to know about yourself: You have a price for which you would sell the Lord Jesus. You may not want to think so, but it is true–true, that is, unless your heart has been, in the apostle’s words, "rooted and grounded" in the love and faith of God. It is what Paul called "being established" in the Lord, and every member of God’s family on earth whose heart is not established would sell Jesus into the hands of murderers today if someone having the right price would offer it to them.

Most of God’s children today have not betrayed Jesus only because Jesus is preventing Satan from coming to them with their asking price, and Jesus is saving them, as he has saved us all, from making that deal with the devil because he loves us. It is God’s mercy that keeps Satan away from us with the right price until we grow spiritually to the point that we would not, under any circumstances sell Jesus out.

Every child of God who has ever been born of the Spirit has been born again still having the old, carnal mind. The mind of Christ is not attained, nor is the carnal mind subdued and overcome, merely by being born again. Attaining to the mind of Christ requires patience, desire, and perseverance in the things of God. Paul called those in the congregation who were carnally minded "babes in Christ" (1Cor. 3:1), and he was sad that he could not teach them as he wanted to teach them because they were unable to comprehend what he would tell them. There is such a thing as failing to grow up in the Lord when the time for it has come (Heb 5:12), but even then, God loves His children and still gives us time to repent and seek His face. But as I have often said, God is merciful and patient, but He is nobody’s fool. There is an end to His patience with any one of us, and only the foolish push Him beyond that dreaded line.

Paul encouraged the saints to pursue holiness in the fear of God and walk in the Spirit until "we grow up [in Christ] in all things" (Eph. 4:15). Those who make that effort and pay the price to obtain the mind of Christ find themselves clear of anything in their hearts that Satan could use to lure them to be unfaithful to Jesus. But every one in God’s family who has not yet attained to that level of spiritual maturity still has a selling out price, and it is only the by the mercy of God that no one yet has offered it to them.

Your greatest adversary, my dear brother is not the devil; rather, your greatest enemy is what remains in you of the carnal mind. God is very patient (otherwise, we would all be cut off!), and He will tenderly work with us for years to help us overcome spiritual weaknesses and faults. He will tenderly, or if we need it, brutally, deal with us to give us our best opportunity to stand before Him as "a perfect man" and to attain to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). Until then, God saves us from what we would do to His Son, and to ourselves, for a price.

The heart of man is the most deceitful thing in this creation (Jer. 17:9). That is why some of you cannot believe what I am telling you now. The carnal mind denies that it is even there, much less that it is the greatest danger to your soul. It refuses to go away willingly; it sees no need to leave at all. This being true, we can see that the natural heart of man poses a greater threat to men’s souls than does the devil himself. Until the holy Ghost completely purges your deceitful heart from your old thoughts and ways, your own heart will deceive you more quickly than the devil can. And those in the body of Christ who "harden their neck" against the many, gentle reproofs of God "shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Prov. 29:1).

Your selling-out price may be to have a wife or a husband; it may be to have earthly riches, or to have a position and a title. Multitudes have sold out the Lord because "they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (Jn.12:43), and God sent someone to them with praise.

Korah was offered his selling-out price, and led the Rebellion in the Wilderness against the meekest man on earth. Ahithophel, King David’s wisest counselor, was offered his selling-out price and joined Absalom’s conspiracy against his own father. God offered Judas his selling-out price, and he betrayed his loving Lord into the hands of murderers. God offered Ananias and Sapphira their selling-out price, and they lied to the holy Ghost. The congregations of Asia were offered their selling-out price, and they rejected Paul and his gospel in favor of a more democratic form of religion that included ceremonies and lies that they liked to hear.

Until ours heart are rooted in the love of God, my friend, we, too, would sell out the Savior–for the right price. Admit it to yourself, and seek the help of God! We must attain to the mind of Christ or a lie can still find a place in our hearts! Let us humble ourselves to confess that we need God to save us from ourselves; that we need Him to rescue us from our own lusts and opinions, lest we find ourselves opposing some good work of God.

Here is an illuminating excerpt from my book about my father’s life and work:

God’s Grinding Wheel

Sister Pyver was a faithful saint who had fallen into the habit of testifying in almost every meeting about her sinful husband and his mistreatment of her. Her husband was indeed a sinner who cared nothing for Christ, and he probably did give her a very difficult time. But that wasn’t the point, and Jesus helped my father teach this sister that by giving him a dream.

In this dream, he saw a magnificent building being built by God’s angels. He talked with the angels as they worked and learned that the building was one for spiritual worship. The stones in the building were square-cut, and they fit perfectly one against the other. Beside the building was a large pile of rough stones that still had to be ground down so that they could be used in the construction. Beyond, in a field, was a pile of stones that had cracked while being ground down and had been thrown away.

He walked around the construction site, observing the workmen as they fit the stones that had been made smooth into the walls. He was surprised to see Sister Pyver’s husband there. He was busily working on a rough stone that he held in his hands and did not acknowledge my father’s presence. The rough-talking sinner was sweating at a huge grinding wheel, turning its pedal with his foot. Occasionally, a stream of tobacco juice shot out from beneath his huge handlebar moustache onto the stone, lubricating it as it turned, thus aiding him in his effort to grind the stone until it was fit to be used by the angels.

Then, my father noticed something. Looking closely, he saw that upon the stone that was being ground down there was a name–and the name was Sister Pyver’s! He watched as old Mr. Pyver held the stone tight against his grinding wheel, sweating, spitting, and cursing as he worked.

Turning again to view the busy scene around him, my father asked an angel about the rough stones that had not yet been ground down. Pointing to the stone on which Mr. Pyver was working feverishly, the angel said, "These are stones that must still be hewn so that they will fit into the building, as that one there is being hewn."

"What if one of these stones cracks and goes bad after it has been ground down and placed into the building?"

The angel replied with a gentle look, "The stones don’t go bad after they are in the building. Once they are in the building, they are never taken out." He understood then that he was being taught that when someone has been chastened and trained by the Lord, he is "rooted and grounded in the faith", or "established in Christ" and will not return again to sin.

Again, he approached the angel with a question. "Why have those stones over there in the field been thrown away?"

"They," replied the angel, "are the children of God who refused His discipline and have been turned over to their own ways."

Once more, my father turned his attention to that dirty old Mr. Pyver. He was still spitting his tobacco juice on the grinding wheel, sweating and cursing as he worked. And Brother Clark understood that what Sister Pyver was really struggling against was not her husband; it was her own will. God was only using her ungodly husband to mold her into the kind of child He wanted her to be. Her husband was doing his job well; he was working hard at sinning and making her life miserable. Now, all that was needed was for her to do her part well and learn to keep her victory and peace in every circumstance.

Later, he told Sister Pyver of his dream and encouraged her to yield to the chastening hand of God. She never again uttered another complaint in any of her testimonies in meetings about her sinner husband because she knew that God was only using him to make her worthy to have a place in that building where spiritual sacrifices are made to and accepted by God. She became "established" in the faith.

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Peter’s fervent hope for the saints was that "the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

All of us have been and will be corrected by God. Some receive His correction, and others refuse it. But He offers it to us all. Be wise. Humble yourself to God; in due time, He will lift you up, and you will be happy that you were willing to be molded by His power.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-09

Having Sins

It wasn’t always in meetings of the congregation that we were taught the good things of God by my father and the other old saints. Often, sitting in someone’s living room, in the most informal of atmospheres, the conversation contained precious jewels of truth and wisdom. One such memory has to do with a most misunderstood verse: Jn. 1: In that verse, John wrote, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1Jn. 1:8).

Many have misunderstood that verse. They read it as if it said, "If we say that we are not sinning, we are deceived, and the truth is not in us." But that is not what John wrote. "Having sin" and "committing sin" are not necessarily the same thing. Besides, if we are all now sinning, then how are we to understand John’s later verses, such as, "He that committeth sinneth is of the devil" (1Jn. 3:8), and "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not" (1Jn. 3:1)? If we all are sinning, as many teach, and if all who are sinning are of the devil, then according to the teaching of many Christian teachers, we all are of the devil! That just won’t work.

When John wrote 1:8, he was not saying that we are all presently sinning, just that we all do have sin. And we all have sin, just as John said, because we all have committed sins in the past. John himself, and all of Jesus’ other apostles, had sins, but they were not still sinning. John would have agreed with Paul when he wrote, " All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." John himself told the saints that "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1Jn. 1:10). Yes, we all have sinned, and because of that, we all have sins that are ours, but that fact does not demand the conclusion that we are all still sinning.

The sins you have committed are yours, not mine. The sins I committed as a foolish young man are mine, nobody else’s. We all have sins that we once committed. But where is the Biblical demand that we should confess that we are all still sinning? Whoever is still sinning is of the devil, as John said, but if we are all still sinning, then who are the people to whom John was speaking when he said, "Ye are of God, little children . . . ." (1Jn. 4:4). "Ye" cannot be "of God" if ye are still sinning because if "ye" are still sinning, the "ye" of the devil, according to John. The typical interpretation of 1John 1:8 requires that no one on earth, even members of the body of Christ, is "of God" because no one can cease from sinning, but Peter taught us that children of God who have turned from righteousness and cannot cease from sin have been cursed by the Father (2Pet. 2:14). Can we really believe that all of God’s children are cursed? We must conclude that, if none of us can cease from sin.

The real issue, my dear friends, is not whether we have sins or not; we all do have them. I do not question that. The issue is, "Where are the sins that are yours?" Paul said that some men’s sins go before them; that is, they are confessed and repented of. Other men’s sins, Paul continued, follow them to the Judgment of God (1Tim. 5:24). That is to say, some men have not repented of their sins and have not been cleansed from them by the blood of Jesus, and when they meet God on the Day of Judgment. Their sins will also come up at the Judgment to be accounted for.

Where are your sins? Have you confessed them to God and been cleansed from them by the washing of the holy Ghost baptism (Tit. 3:5)? If so, your sins have gone on before you, to be blotted out before you stand before Christ in the Day of God’s wrath. Even so, they are still your sins; nobody else committed those sins for you. They are still yours even if you have been forgiven for committing them. Likewise, sins that men have committed and have not repented of are theirs. The difference is only that the sins not confessed and forsaken are still following the sinner to the Judgment.

When David sinned in the matter of Bath-sheba, his conscience bothered him day and night. The tormented king finally cried out a heart-felt confession to God, saying,"My sin is ever before me!" This is the heart’s cry of every child of God who loves righteousness and peace. He cannot rest at night because the footsteps of sins following him to the Judgment Seat of Christ fill him with the terror of God.; he must confess his transgression to God and be forgiven.

You have sins, and I have sins. Only a stubborn and proud man would even attempt to deny that fact. Jesus came to wash us from the stains of our past sins, but not only to do that. He also came to save us by his strength from committing any more sins. That done, we can make our boast in his strength, not our own, as the apostle said, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" ( 1Cor. 1:31).

The misinterpretation of 1John 1:8 is just a small part of Satan’s cruel campaign to discourage the children of God from serving their Father acceptably in true holiness. It is designed to rob you of faith in God’s power to save from the dominion of sin. Do not be intimidated, my dear brother, by Christian ministers who reject your confession of living a godly life. They will sarcastically ask, "So, you think you can live without sin?" as if to do that were an evil thing. But they do not believe in the power of Jesus to save from sin because he is not saving them from sinning. They are merely teaching what they have experienced themselves. Poor, blind men, who proclaim liberty to others and "they themselves are the servants of corruption" (2Pet. 2:19). Who wants their gospel of hopeless bondage to wickedness?

Living without sin is not difficult when we submit ourselves to God. The Bible says that "the way of the transgressor is hard", not the way of the upright. Quite the contrary; Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden light."

Jesus’ yoke is is easy, not because God requires nothing of us, but because he demands sinless living and then by his Spirit lives for us, so that we can be sinless. Paul said, "The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God" and "I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me." And, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Are we to understand Paul’s last statement here to mean, "I can do all things through Christ except cease from sin"? The life of a child of God is a life of peace and victory over sin, not one of bondage and constant frustration.

If you are still sinning, why don’t you get out of the way and let Christ live in you? If you are not now sinning, it can only be because the sinless One already dwells in your heart, living your life for you and letting you rest from your own opinions and labors.

The Lord lamented through the ancient prophet Jeremiah that His people had "forgotten their resting place" (Jer. 50:6). How much more must He be grieved today at the teaching of sin to God’s children, the teaching that would steal their faith in His saving power so that they cannot never rest? Be courageous, dear child of God! Trust in His care for you and withstand the tide of error that vainly beats against the simple truth of Christ, who reminded us of the precious invitation of God to man: "Be ye holy, for I am holy."

Thought for Today

2002. 12-06

Loving the World

I am sitting by a window surveying a scene of wintry destruction. A freezing rain storm struck this area two nights ago, and all day long yesterday, through the night, and even still this morning, the sound of trees limbs and whole trees snapping under the strain of heavy ice can be heard echoing through the surrounding woods. My wife woke me before daylight yesterday, saying that there were hunters outside our home. But it was still dark outside, and it wasn’t the sound of high-powered guns we were hearing. It was the sound of tree limbs breaking and whole trees snapping in half under the weight of ice. Many trees that have not uprooted or broken are so bent with ice that they will have to be cut down. I estimate that we have lost, just in the neighborhood around my home, several hundred trees.

Over one million people are now without electrical power because of this ice storm. Here in my neighborhood, power lines are lying on the ground in several places. A small tree fell on my new car, crushing the roof and smashing out the back window. The stout railing along the large boardwalk from my back yard to my neighbor’s yard was crushed in a couple of places by falling trees. Fortunately, my house has been hit only once, with little apparent damage. It could have been much worse.

Every time we went outside yesterday to check on the situation, we saw new damage caused by fallen trees. Anytime we stood outside, thundering echoes of crashing limbs and trees somewhere in the woods around us punctuated the stillness. As I returned from one short walk outside, I saw a tall, bent pine tree in the woods in front of my house crack in half, then hit another, causing that tree to snap in half, and then those two hit a third tall pine that also cracked in half, and they all crashed to earth together with a frightening noise. Last night late, as we sat in the dark by the comforting fireplace, we heard a now familiar crackling sound of a huge tree falling. We could tell that it was very close. We immediately went out with flashlights and were relieved to see that the monster had come short of hitting the house by a few feet.

The dense, cold fog before dawn this morning presented me with an eerie view. There were large tree tops dangling upside down, held to the trunk by a thin thread of sap wood and bark; there were whole trees, tall and badly weighted down with ice, while others remained standing only by leaning on the icy trees next to it. There was a tangled heap of trees in one direction, and in another direction stood tall, thin trunks, sticking up out of the ground like pencils, their tops lying below them in mangled heaps on the snow-and-ice-covered ground. The thick fog is being dissipated quickly now by a sunshine that we have not seen for several days. But the clear morning air is revealing scenes of devastation that I can only compare to that caused by strong hurricanes that have passed through here before.

Talking with Brother Bob yesterday as we stood outside marveling at the wreckage of our property, the Scripture came to me that says, "Love not the world". Our "world" here in this neighborhood is pretty. It has rocks that spring up on the side of small hills that shadow a winding little creek. It has tall pines and large hardwoods in abundance. A few years back, one agricultural extension agent, having walked over this land with Bob, told him that this was some of the prettiest property that he had seen anywhere in the state. It is easy to love such a beautiful place. Looking at it all yesterday, though, it seemed to me that it is foolhardy to love anything in a world that can change so much, so quickly. My, what changes can take place in just a day! What is there to love in a world that changes, and that will, at some point, be altogether gone? Why invest our dreams in a world that cannot long remain as it is? Jesus counseled us to invest our love and hope in heavenly, eternal things, "for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Mt. 6:19-21).

In 1985, when my mother died, I was grieving alone as I lay on my living room couch late into the night. It was April, and with the spring in this part of the world comes the honeysuckle vine, with a sweet fragrance that heavily floods the surrounding air. As I lay there beneath an open window, the rich aroma of honeysuckle from somewhere outside wafted into my room on the warm, gentle breeze. Always before, I had loved to smell that sweetness, but not now. I was surprised by my almost violent reaction. The sweet smell angered and disgusted me because I knew that it would not last. I knew that no matter how pleasing the fragrance was, and no matter how much I liked it, it would soon be gone, and there was nothing that I could do to change that fact. I rose up and stiffly closed the window, despising the alluring aroma of the honeysuckle vines–hating it, actually. If I had possessed the power, I think I would have cursed that honeysuckle vine as Jesus once cursed a fig tree. As it was, I just shut the window down with a loud thud. Then I lay down again to be alone with my thoughts.

My mother had been sweet, too, but she was gone. And how many times had I held in my grasp a loved one or a pleasure that also was suddenly gone, and could not be recalled! Worst of all, there was nothing I could do about it! Absolutely nothing. It was the fearful work of God.

I felt very deeply at that time that my mother, and others whop had died, were blessed, and that I was cursed to still be alive in this worthless world, a world damned by God to constantly change and, in the end, burn up completely. Peter told us, "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Pet. 3:10). Every pleasant thing in this world is temporary. The world dangles good things in front of us, and when our hearts give in and reach out to hold them, they are snatched away like a cruel joke played on us by a sadist. What wise man has ever loved this dying world? What is here to love? It is all passing away!

Fifty one years ago today my mother bore me into this vain world, and in all that time, I have found nothing good in this world that lasts. I have only seen fifty one years of change. This is why Solomon called this world "vain", saying, "Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. All is vanity." The pleasures of this world are vain; they are not eternal. Peace in this world is an illusion that men grasp after, think they have, then go to war again. Happiness over earthly events is always short-lived. It is for that reason that Solomon, too, came to hate this world.

This world is a wretched, frustrating place because there is nothing eternal in it. Solomon sought near and far for something–anything-in this world that would last, something that would not forsake him after he had come to love it, but he found nothing. This world irritated him beyond description, and he came to believe that the dead were blessed more than the living. The day of one’s death, he wrote, is better than the day of one’s birth (Eccl. 7:1). After all, everything in the world of the dead is eternal, and that was what all wise men long for-something good that is eternal, something that will not break the heart by going away.

"Love not the world", said John, "neither the things in the world." Those who are so foolish as to love this dying world do not have the love of God in them (1Jn. 2:15). How can one love both the eternal God and a world cursed with death?

Those who love God cannot be satisfied by anything in this world. They are looking for a city built by God and not man; they are looking for a kingdom that cannot be shaken, much less removed; they are longing for a world in which righteousness dwells and nothing changes; they are yearning for a land in which no one dies, where there is neither sorrow nor pain. This is not a vain hope; it is the promise of God in Jesus Christ (Rev. 7:16-17; 21:4).

I hate this life. I hate a life in which mothers, and their children, can die, a life in which people hunger and thirst, where diseases cripple, where accidents maim people and wars destroy works of art. This is an evil planet, where corrupt governments run by sinners hold dominion over the saints of the Most High.

All who love God and embrace His promise of a better world "confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13). If you love life, then you do not belong on this earth. If you love life, then you, too, hate the life this world offers you. It offers you a life that is fleeting, and even then it comes at a high price. Jesus offers life eternal, and he offers it freely to whoever will ask him for it. He is still saying to man what John heard him say at the close of his Revelation: "Let him that is athirst come. And whoever will, let him take of the waters of life freely."

Thought for Today

2002. 12-05

In Romans 5, Paul wrote that “death reigned from Adam to __________. Can you fill in the blank? Who ended death’s reign over man? Jesus, of course. But that is not the name that Paul put in that space. What Paul actually wrote was, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses. This is a statement that not a single one of us would have believed, had not an apostle of Jesus been the one who taught it. But how can this be? If Jesus is the Prince of Life, how is it that Moses is the one who ended death’s reign over man?

When Paul said that Moses ended death’s reign over man, he meant that what Moses ministered to men ended death’s reign. Moses the man could not have done anything except that God anointed him with something good for the earth. God gave His holy Law to Moses to pass on to Israel, and it was the Law which Moses gave to Israel, not Moses the man, that ended death’s dreadful reign. That being understood, however, how could the Law end death’s reign, seeing that it was not perfect (Heb. 8:7) and could not make those who submitted to it perfect (Heb. 10:1)?

For all its weakness because of the flesh, the Law was a holy foretaste, a shadow, of Jesus and his priestly work (Heb. 8:5); it was an earthly pattern of heavenly things (Heb. 9:23). The Law carried so much weight in both heaven and earth that every transgression of it brought about God’s hot displeasure. We are told that “He who despised Moses’s Law died without mercy” (Heb. 10:28).

The elements of the Law were carnal. Those who kept the Law used dead and non-living things to perform the ceremonial rites that the Law required. The killed animals and used their blood and dead bodies to atone for sin. They build tents and temples for the worship of God. The priests and Levites were required to robe themselves in non-living clothes for worship, and to revere special days pf the year as sacred. And in keeping the commandments of God contained in the Law, men were granted the promise of eternal life, for “He that doeth these things shall live in them.” This means that those who kept the Law obtained the promise of eternal life by using dead things. They were made masters over death, they were taught by God how to make death their servant in order to attain to life. This effectively ended death’s complete dominion over mankind. In God’s Law that He gave to Moses, man first tasted the liberty from death that Jesus would bring.

Because keeping the Law saved mens’ souls, the Law was “glorious”, but its glory depended upon one thing: Jesus. The Law was holy because the One it spoke of was even holier. The Law was good because the One is spoke of was even better. What perfection was in the Law was there because it spoke of the One who was perfect. Keeping the Law loosed men from the power of death and delivered souls from hell because the One of whom it spoke holds the keys of both Death and Hell in his hand. The Law that was so holy that a man’s attitude toward it would either save or damn his soul, and yet Jesus and his work is so much holier that it made the mighty Law of Moses of no more effect whatsoever. Everything depended on Jesus, and when he accomplished his holy work, the Law was made irrelevant. What life its ceremonies contained fell dead at Jesus’ feet. Even Moses’ knees bow before Jesus.

Paul called Moses’ Law “the ministration of death”, and that is true. It used dead things to guide people to life; it was our “schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ” (Gal. ). But it required dead ceremonies to be performed. The Law liberated from the dominion of death, but it needed dead things in order to stay functional. It liberated men from the power of death, but it also bound men to death because it required men to use dead things.

Still, the Law was “glorious”. It was so holy that any offence against it brought about a punishment from God. Yet, when Jesus came, his glory was so far superior to that of the Law that the Law was relegated to God’s trash can. The Sabbaths of the Law, for the breaking of which a person could be stoned to death (Num. ), became nothing to God or man. The burning of the Law’s specially formulated incense was so holy that Aaron’s two oldest sons were killed by God for not following the rules concerning it, became sin to offer. Once God’s Son Jesus came and suffered for the sins of the world, the offering of animal sacrifices, sacrifices that God Himself had ordained, became as the sins of murder and idolatry, making a man worthy of death (Isa. 66:3). Jesus was so precious to his Father that when he came to earth and did his wonderful work, the Father discarded that precious, holy Law that spoke of His Son. It had served its purpose, and it no longer held any value for the salvation of man. Think of it! Jesus is so precious to God that his death made it sin for men to continue to do what God once had demanded they do if they hoped to be saved from damnation!

Consider the greatness of the man Jesus, who brought to nothing the holiest thing on earth. The Law, so glorious and holy that it empowered those who obeyed it to escape the iron-fisted dominion of death, became nothing because of him. The Law that temporarily made men masters over death, itself died because the Giver of Life himself came and dwelt among us.

Yes, Moses ended death’s reign over man, a reign that began in the Garden of Eden, but he accomplished that astonishing feat only because his Law was the shadow of the Lord Jesus. Praise God! Jesus is so great that just his shadow ended death’s tyranny over man. Just his shadow frightened Satan and loosened his awful grip on man’s throat. How it melts the heart to realize that this same Jesus, before whom angels bow and demons tremble, loves us so much that he was willing to suffer and die in our stead. We could have no better friend than he who made the worlds and sustains them still in his power. This tender-hearted Lord of life who loves us and gave himself for us will keep us buy his love and power until the end, when he will destroy death itself for our sakes.

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death”, Paul wrote. But the destruction of death is something that the Law could never have done. The Law needed dead things to stay alive; it used dead things and had to keep death around in order to be useful for man. But not Jesus. He does not need death in order to bless us. He blesses us with life, and that more abundantly. In the place that he has prepared for us, death will never have a part and will never again come to mind.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-03

"Feelings"

You may have been warned by Christian teachers many times, "Do not go by your feelings." They are wrong. Your feelings are used by God to guide you to Him, and a wise person will pay close attention to how he feels when making crucial decisions.

In Romans 14:17, Paul wrote, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy." Two of these three things that make up the kingdom of God, according to Paul, are feelings: joy and peace. Should we not pay attention to whether or not those feelings are in our hearts? How would we ever be able to be acquainted with and enjoy our Father’s kingdom?

The holy Ghost was sent from heaven, said Jesus, to "reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (Jn. 16:8). This holy reproof convicts men’s hearts, and conviction is a feeling that causes men to repent. Should we pay no attention to God’s conviction of our hearts? How then could we ever repent?

"The fear of the Lord is clean", said David in Psalm 19:9. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom", wrote Solomon (Prov. 1:7). And the wise man counseled his children to know that "the fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Prov. 8:13). Are we to ignore all feelings of fear of God, when we are told (Ps. 36:1) that only the wicked do not fear God? Even the Lord Jesus feared God, and his prayers were heard and answered because he did (Heb. 5:7). Jesus sternly warned his disciples to fear God (Lk. 12:5). Fear is a feeling! Should we listen to Christian ministers who tell us not to be led by feelings, when fear of God is a feeling that motivated some of the most righteous deeds in human history? Noah was moved by fear to build his ark. If Noah had been like the rest of mankind and had no fear of God, the whole human race would have perished in the Flood. Should we ignore the holy feeling of fear, when there can be no cleanness, or righteousness, or hatred of evil, or wisdom, without the fear of God?

There are many feelings that are inspired by the Spirit of God. In fact, every feeling possible to man was created by God for man and is used of God to direct man’s steps. Love is a feeling that motivates man to behave as God does toward others. Joy is a feeling that inspires men to praise the Lord. Peace is a feeling that inspires men to learn of God. Longsuffering is a feeling that enables man to be merciful as God has been merciful to him. Gentleness is a feeling that mortifies the pride in man’s flesh. Goodness is a feeling of loving to do God’s will toward those less fortunate than yourself. Faith is a feeling that springs from a clear conscience and begets confidence toward God. Meekness is a feeling that makes the saints willing servants to others, under God. Temperance is a sincere desire to please God in all things, even in those in which excess would be called good by others.

To which of these feelings are Christian teachers referring when they warn their congregations not to be led by feelings?

I suspect that the real reason they say such things is that they know their congregations have feelings that their doctrines cannot satisfy. I suspect that they warn men not to feel because they know that men feel bored with their powerless sermons and their useless ceremonies. I suspect that they warn men not to listen to their hearts because their own hearts cannot be trusted. Such men are tragically, sadly mistaken in their beliefs. I counsel you, my friends, to trust in your Creator and to pay close attention to your feelings. "Blessed are they" said the Master, "who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

Hunger and thirst, you will note, are feelings. And if you ignore them, it could prove to be an eternal, deadly error.

Thought for Today

2002. 12-02

From a sermon by George C. Clark at a prayer meeting at Grandma’s house in 1968.

Often, Jesus and his twelve disciples are depicted as traveling alone through the countryside as he ministered to the children of Israel, just thirteen men wandering from city to city declaring the nearness of the kingdom of God. But that was rarely, if ever, the case. Most of the time, Jesus was surrounded by a crowd, and he always had many more than twelve disciples. In Acts 1:21-22, we learn names of some other men who followed Jesus "all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the same day that he was taken up from us". Near Jesus were women who followed him throughout the time he ministered on earth, paying out of their own pockets for his food and other needs (Lk. 8:2-3; Mk. 15:40-41). While Jesus ministered heavenly things to Israel, these women ministered to him the things of earth that he needed. Some of these women possibly had children with them as they followed Jesus, for when Jesus needed a child to use as an example of meekness, he had one readily available (Mt. 18:1-3).

Jesus had disciples in abundance, and as he anointed the twelve to heal the sick, so he on one occasion anointed 70 of them and sent them to the cities of Israel (Lk. 10:1). It is true that Jesus chose twelve disciples to be especially close to him, but he had a large group of disciples from which to pick those twelve.

The multitude of Jesus’ disciples came from every sect in Israel. He had many disciples from among the sect of the Pharisees. In Luke 12, when Jesus and his disciples passed through the midst of a cornfield, Pharisees were there to question their conduct. Why were they out in the middle of a cornfield with Jesus, seeing his disciples pull corn and eat it? They were following Jesus, along with the women and the multitude of other disciples who followed him. Once, a large group of disciples was insulted by his teaching at Capernaum and forsook him permanently (Jn 6:66).

Jesus’ ministry was completely informal. If you will pay close attention as you read through the gospels, you will notice that in Jesus’ presence, there was never a sense of formality. He was not a professional ecclesiastic, trained in stylish oratory and homiletics. He was a simple man who used simple words to communicate God’s simple way of grace. Paul warned the saints not to be lured away from the simplicity that is in Christ (2Cor. 11:3). When any man waxes eloquent in his declaration of the gospel, it is unlikely that he has heard from God, for "the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power" (1Cor. 4:2). Eloquence is what religious leaders offer souls when they do not have God with them.

"Jesus never had a formal [worship] service." So said Preacher Clark in that country home prayer meeting long ago. Jesus taught in the fields, along the sea shore, and in houses. From the evidence we have in the gospels, people around him felt free to converse with him as he was teaching them. They felt welcome to ask questions and make comments. To be sure, there were times when the power of God was with him to preach so that no man could speak, but quite often those about him felt perfectly free to voice their feelings; he wasn’t troubled by it at all.

The people who followed Jesus regularly, as well as those who came to be healed or taught, never had a sense of being in a "religious service" when they were in his presence. He set sinners at ease with the love of God. Men and women, with their children, sat on the grass or on the floor of a house, or by the sea shore, listening and watching God’s humble servant preach the gospel of hope. They never dressed in special clothes when they came, and neither did he. He came to be like us, not to be different. And he was the same ordinary-looking man (Isa. 53:1) at every place and at every time anyone saw him.

Beware the man who dresses differently from ordinary men so that he may appear to be a servant of God. There were men who did the same thing in ancient Israel (Zech. 13:4). If a man is truly a man sent from God, he is not concerned with appearing to be one. All who dress in special clothing in order to appear to be ministers of God are both deceived and deceivers. All of them! And God wants His sons to stop doing such things in imitation of men who do not know Him.

Beware the houses that are built differently from ordinary houses so that they may appear to be houses of worship. For your own soul’s sake, stay away from houses with crosses high above them, the houses with ornate, stained-glass windows and with signs in front inviting people to enter and worship God. The only houses of worship that are of God in this covenant are the bodies of holy Ghost baptized men and women. All such houses are houses of death, not life. All of them! "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" Why then should the children of God envy the ungodly and partake of their ignorant ways?

Beware religious gatherings of people in which men behave differently from the way they behave at other times so that they may make it appear to be a gathering of God’s family. If it was truly a meeting of the family of God, the people would not come together for a "service" in which they are required to dress differently and change their behavior in order to show God reverence. Brother, you will show God greater reverence than they are doing if you simply refuse to sit among the congregation of the dead. To join one of these cursed congregations is to show great disrespect to Jesus. It is an affront to God. They are ungodly imitations of true meetings, and wise men rejoice to have nothing to do with them. Solomon warned us that if we choose some other path than what is true in God, then we will "remain in the congregation of the dead" (Prov. 21:16). Choose life.

Through the prophet Jeremiah (17:13), the Son spoke to the Father, saying, "O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed", and then he added, "and they that forsake me shall be written in the earth." I have known precious children of God who, being "overtaken in a fault", have forsaken the right ways of Jesus and have added their names to the earthly roles of the blind. Oh, how the heart of God hurts for them! God is calling His children out of Christianity, the family that appears to be but is not the family of God, and out of the specially built houses that appear to be but are not houses of worship, and away from professionally trained men who know how to appear to be but are not sent from God. It is all wrong. All of it! Jesus is pleading for those who love him to come out of it all.

May God give us all the grace to forsake the foolish and to live, to have the faith to forsake the appearances of righteousness and to embrace the substance of it, and to love life so much that we refuse to endure the alluring formalities of the ways of death.

Thought for Today

2002. 11-26

New Songs

The Psalmist wrote and sang many new songs to the Lord, and he encouraged others to do the same. He said in one place, "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the Lord with harp; sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new song! Play skillfully with a loud noise!"

Preacher Clark, in his sermon in 1968, said that those who stay in the Spirit will be receiving new songs from God. I believe that. I have to believe it, because I see it happening! The Lord has been giving the saints who gather at my house (the ones anointed for music) some of the most incredible songs I have ever heard. We have recorded many of these new songs and are making CDs of them now. Two such CDs, Sister Sandy’s Song of Moses and Sister Donna’s God is our Refuge, are already out, and Brother Darren’s songs have been blessing folks for a long time now. Let me tell you about some of the new songs that the Lord has given to me over the past two years. I cannot feel that several of these songs are my songs; they are, instead, songs entrusted to me by Jesus. I feel that they are beyond me and my ability to compose.

Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet

This is a song that the Lord gave me in a dream. With it, Jesus asked me a question. As I was hearing the song in my dream, somewhere in the background Jesus was tenderly asking, "Do you really know this about me?" It was as if he was trying to persuade me of his deep and abiding love. Throughout the song, he is telling us, "It does not matter what condition you find yourself in. I am your Savior, and there is nothing that I will not do for you. Can you find it in your heart to trust me? Please believe this about me. Oh, that you could believe that I really do love you this much!"

Brother Darren’s anointed playing of this song from Jesus makes it a powerful testimony to the love of God. It has touched souls very deeply. Several in the congregation have told me they think it is the most beautiful song ever written. It certainly is a song that I have never tired of hearing.

Perfume and Promises

If there is anything other than perfume and promises that this world offers to us (as a substitute for Christ), I do not know what it is. If there is anything other than perfume and promises that Christianity offers to us (as a substitute for Christ), I do not know what it is. This song emphasizes both the emptiness of all that the world has to offer and the foolishness of trading "the Pearl of great price" for the perfume and promises of a dying world.

Jimmy’s Song

Jesus gave me this song in a dream. It was given to me for a brother who was in trouble and hurting, and who needed to know that Jesus loved him. It can apply to every child of God who needs to know that Jesus still cares. Storms of life can surround us–indeed, fall upon us–but God’s sheltering love in Christ will always be there to protect us because, as Jesus says in the song, "There is no one who loves thee as I know I do." If you have fallen short of God’s best for you and are in need of encouragement, listen to this song. The fearful thunder of trouble will not disturb the rest that Jesus will give you. There is no one who loves, or is even able to love you, as he does.

He Loves Me

This was the first of the new generation of songs the Lord gave to me to write, in January of 2001. He gave it to me unexpectedly, as I drove from one town to another after enjoying a prayer meeting with the saints. It was a new kind of song for me, unlike any other I had ever written, but I had no idea that it was just the precursor to a new breed of love songs from Jesus to the assembly that were to soon follow.

The Way of Grace

On several occasions, the congregation has listened to this song for days (and nights) continuously. When the Spirit begins to use this song, it does not wax old. At one point, after hearing the song played for literally days on end, and seeing people lying in the floor under the powerful presence of God for many hours because of it, I asked Brother Gary in Louisville if he had ever heard of a song affecting people the way this song does, and he answered, "I’ve never heard of anything affecting people the way this song does."

I was impressed at how God uses this song to heal completely deep hurts that have burdened hearts, in some cases, from childhood. It has been astonishing to me to watch Jesus take the hurt and replace it with joy and peace such as some had never felt. I had never seen the like.

The Lord is a Refuge for Me

The Lord gave me this song in the middle of the night, in a town to which Jesus sent me in order to rescue a congregation that was confused and divided. I was troubled in my spirit after my first evening there. I did not know whether or not the pastor there would hear the word of the Lord that he had given to me for him, but Jesus came to me in the night with this song of absolute victory and joy, and, my, how it comforted me! The power of God fell so strongly upon me as I lay in the bed that I found myself weeping for the mercy and love that I felt, and then I found myself dancing (while still lying horizontal!) under the mighty power of God. It was an unforgettable experience.

The version of The Lord is a Refuge for Me that will be on the CD of my songs is followed by a special "event" (I do not know what to call it) for which I am completely unable to prepare the listener. I am confident that few, if any, have ever heard anything quite like it. It was Thanksgiving, 2001, and Barbara and I had a lot of company. On one day, we recorded some songs in my office instead of the recording room so that people could be there to watch and listen to the songs being recorded. With this song, there was a group of about 20-30 saints gathered to listen. The Spirit fell on us all, and when Jesus does that to his family, wonderful, amazing things happen. On my CD, I have been constrained by time considerations to included only about 23 of the 30+ minutes of the recording session for this song.

The only thing I can think of to tell anyone in order to prepare him for this rendition of The Lord is a Refuge for Me is to "buckle your seat belt and hold on to your faith. And enjoy the ride with J-E-S-U-S!"

The Vineyard of Red Wine

In about 1976, while I was a seminary student, the Lord gave me a tune to Isaiah 27:1. I don’t remember sharing that tune with anyone, but for 25 years it would occasionally come to mind, especially when I read that part of Isaiah again. In 2001, I would often read from my father’s old Bible in the mornings before my day began. In the spring of that year, it began to happen that the old Bible consistently fell open to Isaiah 14 whenever I laid it out on my desk to read.

After a while, I came to suspect that there was a divine hand in this oddity, and so, before I continued to read in other places, I would read Isaiah 14 whenever it opened itself to that chapter. For months this went on. I believed that God had a reason for wanting me to read Isaiah 14. Then, one morning after the Bible had fallen open to Isaiah 14 again, and as I read it again, the Spirit of the Lord unexpectedly gave me a tune for the verses as I read them. Somehow, I knew that those verses belonged with the tune that the Lord had given to me 25 years before.

This is a war song, telling of Jesus’ final victory over Satan. It is meant to be sung by God’s victorious saints after the last, horrific battle. When the song first came to me, I envisioned an exhausted, muddy soldier standing alone in a smoky, dark, bomb-cratered battlefield. Nothing green has survived and it is dusk, made dimmer still by thick dust and smoke swirling in the air. The war-weary soldier is looking up toward the crest of a hill, near the top of which the trunk of a leafless tree survives, its limbs almost all having been blown away in the battle. As he wearily surveys the destruction, and with the greatest relief of heart, the dazed soldier is thinking to himself, "Wow. We really, really won."

Thought for Today

2002. 11-26

From a Sunday afternoon sermon by Preacher Clark, January 25, 1981

Prepare Your Hearts

"God is not going to anoint everyone in the family of God the way He anoints His leaders in the family." So said Preacher Clark in his sermon that day. God anoints all His children to listen, but only a few to speak to the family and guide it. The responsibility of every member of God’s family is to know who is sent from God and who is not. If you are ever deceived, it is your own fault for not being close enough to God to know the difference between the truth and a lie. A pure heart cannot believe a lie, and a guilt-ridden heart cannot believe the truth.

What can you do to make certain that when you hear the truth you will recognize it? The answer is simple, and Jesus gave it to us. He said in John 7:17, "If any man will do [the Father’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."

Here are some other translations of those words:

"Anyone who chooses to do [God’s] will shall understand whether my teaching comes from God or whether I am talking on my own authority." - Moffatt

"Whoever chooses to do [God’s] will shall know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own." - NAB

"Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own." - NRSV

"If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am one who speaks on my own authority." - ESV

If your heart really longs to do the will of God, you will recognize truth when you hear it. But if you are more interested in appearing to be good than in pleasing God, you will not. There is no man who can, a priori, tell whose heart desires to please God; however, every man who knows the truth can tell whose heart truly desires to please God by watching the reaction of others to truth when it is preached. Those who truly love God also dearly love the truth of the gospel. Those who do not love God with all their hearts also do not dearly love the truth. They can take it or leave it.

There are many excuses offered, but there is but one reason that anyone refuses to come to the light of Christ. John tells us what that one reason is: "Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

"Keep your heart with all diligence," Solomon counseled his children, "for out of it are the issues of life." Your heart’s desire to please God, or it’s lack of desire, will alone determine whether or not you rejoice when you hear the truth. Nothing else. Therefore, guard your heart and do good. And pray, as David did, that God will incline your heart toward His commandments and away from evil practices (Ps. 119:36; 141:4).

If you really want to do God’s will, He is going to remove from your heart and mind the wrong ideas about Him that you have. And you do have them. But because you want to do what is right in His sight, He is going to reveal His heart to you. He is going to send someone your way who has been taught His truth, and you will believe that man when he speaks because your heart yearns for the knowledge of God.

We must prepare for the coming of truth just as we must prepare for the coming of the Lord for his Bride. When the Lord Jesus appears in the sky for his Bride, it will be eternally too late to prepare for his return. Likewise, when truth is preached, it is too late to prepare the heart to receive it.

Now is the time. This is our only opportunity to prepare for what is ahead. Are you prepared to receive the truth that you are about to hear from God? If you truly desire to do God’s will, then you are prepared.

Thought for Today

2002. 11-25

The Shadow of Death

In one of the most famous of the Psalms, King David wrote, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

In a Sunday meeting at the old homeplace, Uncle Joe stood up and testified that he had learned what the valley of the shadow of death is. Then he told us all that the shadow of death is condemnation in the heart. Condemnation is guilt because of sins committed, and sin leads to death (Rom. 6:23), unless the sinner repents. The condemnation that sin brings into the heart foreshadows death. Just as the holy Ghost is a foretaste of eternal life, condemnation is the foretaste of eternal death.

Shakespeare referred to the darkness of night as "the second self of death". That makes for good poetry, but it is not quite true. The real "second self" of death is condemnation in the heart. The gnawing feeling of guilt is death’s earthly shadow. When a person sins and feels the condemnation that follows, death is stalking him; it is close, and he is walking in its very shadow. It is a deep valley, from which a sinner must look up if he hopes to ever escape.

When God applies His holy rod to the back of one of His errant children and causes him to repent, that child has been comforted by God’s chastening rod. He has been snatched away from death and its shadow and brought up into the light of Christ once more. It is for this reason that David wrote, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

David knew what it meant to live in the shadow of death. He lived for months in condemnation after he committed adultery with the beautiful young wife of Uriah, one of the noblest men in his army, and then murdered that righteous soldier in order to cover up his sin. His conscience tormented the king every moment. For more than six long months, he spent every day in the valley of the shadow of death, knowing that he had committed sins that were worthy of death, and sensing the death that was looming over him, daily demanding its right to have his soul.

All the time that David refused to confess his sin to God and seek His mercy, he felt that he was dying inside. He really wanted to be free again, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do the things that he needed to do in order to be free. He wrote, "As long as I kept silent, my bones wasted away. I groaned all the day. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength withered as in dry summer " (Ps. 32:3-4 NAB).

When Nathan, God’s faithful servant, came to David and rebuked him openly for his transgression, that chastisement was a relief to David. At last, he could deal with his sin and be helped by God. God’s rod of correction shamed him, hurt him, but comforted him because it brought him out from under the shadow of death. Then, after David’s sin was "taken away", death had no more claim on him. It no longer loomed over him, demanding his soul because now, his condemnation was gone. He wrote, "Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, ‘I confess my faults to the Lord’, and you took away the guilt of my sin" (Ps. 32:3-5 NAB).

My dear brother or sister, if you are among those who, as David did, find yourself now walking through the valley of the shadow of death, you need not fear any evil. Death may cast its dreadful shadow over you, but it may not have you, for God is with you. Trust Him, and He will comfort you, as He did David, with His loving rod of correction, and He will take you away again into the sunlight of His favor if, like David, that is what you really want.

Thought for Today

2002. 11-24

Broken Bread

From Uncle Joe’s testimony in a meeting at Grandma’s house, late 1970's

Uncle Joe and I had a relationship that was far closer than the usual uncle-nephew relationship. He was like a father to me, but we were closer than even that. Even as a child, my thoughts were his, and his were mine. From what I have seen, there aren’t very many people who ever find such closeness in this life with anyone. I wish that everybody could experience s