When I was growing up in central Ohio, it was not uncommon for there to be chickens running around in the yard. We would collect their eggs and take one from time to time for fried chicken or chicken and dumplings. Now, during the day, those chickens would scratch around in the yard, the pasture or sometimes they would venture into the edge of the woods. But, sometime in the afternoon, those chickens would begin to head back to their roost. They might wander far and wide, but they always went to the roost when evening came.
There is a verse in the Old Testament that says, “…and be sure your sin will find you out,” Num. 32:23. That is not a threat. It is not even a promise. It is just a statement of the facts. Just like those chickens that could be depended on to head back to the roost at night, you can be sure of the fact that your sins will come home to you too.
Dr. Pierce Harris of Atlanta, Georgia, once spoke at a prison work camp. The prisoner introducing him recalled earlier days of association with the minister. "Several years ago," he said, "two boys lived in the same community in north Georgia and attended the same school, played with the same bunch of fellows, and went to the same Sunday School. One of them dropped out of Sunday School because he felt he had outgrown it, and that it was 'sissy stuff.' The other boy kept on going because he felt that it really meant something in his life. The boy who dropped out is the one who is making this introduction today. The boy who kept going to Sunday School is the famous preacher who will preach to us this morning. Chickens do come home to roost.
Have you thought about what could happen in your life? Have you thought what the fallout would be if you fell into sin? Have you considered what might happen and what lives might be ruined if you took that fatal step and went away from the Lord into sin? Are you willing to pay that high a price? You never know who might be destroyed because of an indiscretion in your life! Don’t think for a moment that your sins won’t affect the innocent people around you. Don’t think for a minute that you can do as you please an affect no one else. You are deceiving yourself when you believe that! May the Lord help us all to count the cost and stay close to Him!
Many people are paying a high price for their sins today! Parents who lived in sin during the formative years of their children’s lives, but who are now saved, watch their children continue to stay away from the Lord. Some man or woman who gave into a moment of temptation now bear in their body the horror of a venereal disease. Others have squandered their lives for a time of pleasure and lost their ability to minister. Sin has the power to cripple you and destroy you, if you allow it to get a foothold in your life. Whatever you have to do to be free of your sin is exactly what you need to do!
Evangelist Sam Jones used to tell the following story:
“While I was preaching in a certain town, there was a boy who would come into the back part of the church and lie down and go to sleep. He was drunk. His father, who was a good Christian man, would take him home.
One morning after one of these experiences, the boy came downstairs. The father met him and said, "Hold on, Son. I want you to go to church with me and be a Christian." The son said, "No, Father, I do not want to be a Christian. I am not going to church. Please get out of my way, for I am going to town."
The father pleaded tenderly and said, "Son, your mother has slept little for nights. She is almost dying. You are killing us all. Please go and become a Christian like your father has." But the son glared at him and said, "Do you know who the man is who gave me my first drink?" The father answered, "No." Then as he rushed past him and out of the door, he angrily said, "You are the man, sir." The father said that if the boy had shot him through the heart, it could not have hurt more. Yes, we reap what we sow.”
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Saved! But Not From Sorrow
Praise God! I am born again, but I am not saved from sorrow. Tears are the portion and lot of us all here upon this earth. For many years, I could say that I had never had a broken heart. I had never sorrowed. All in my family were well and strong. I had never lost a loved one by death. I had never trod the valley of sorrow. I had never shed bitter tears. However, never again can I say this. In December of 1969, one of the three men who most shaped and influenced my life went out into eternity. My Uncle John Wright passed away. Sandra and I were just engaged to be married and my wife’s first experience with my family was to attend his funeral. My heart was broken. Tears came freely then, and often since. I was saved then as much as ever, but I was not saved from sorrow.
My father passed away in September of 1980, just one day away from his sixty-sixth birthday. I wept again like a baby for the sorrow of my father’s death. Then twenty years later my father-in-law died from his injuries of a car accident. And later that same year my blessed mother died. My heart was emptied again.
Sometime in the lives of us all sorrow will come. This sorrow will make us long for the day when Jesus will wipe away all tears from our eyes. He has given to us this promise: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). The time will come when no saved person will ever weep, when our hearts will never bleed again.
My father passed away in September of 1980, just one day away from his sixty-sixth birthday. I wept again like a baby for the sorrow of my father’s death. Then twenty years later my father-in-law died from his injuries of a car accident. And later that same year my blessed mother died. My heart was emptied again.
Sometime in the lives of us all sorrow will come. This sorrow will make us long for the day when Jesus will wipe away all tears from our eyes. He has given to us this promise: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). The time will come when no saved person will ever weep, when our hearts will never bleed again.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Prayer Is So Important To Me
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 KJV)
"Well, all we can do now is pray." "We'll just pray about it." Sometimes when I hear such expressions they are almost put in a negative tone. Prayer is one of the most positive privileges of salvation. Prayer is a result of the deepest relationship a soul can have with the living God. When we hear the lost say, "Our prayers go out to them" they are dealing in truths of which they know not. Only the redeemed are bidden “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16 KJV)
Today I am praying especially for a friend. His sister has past away and tomorrow he must stand before his family and preach the funeral. I remember when she called him one day and asked, "Danny, can you tell me how to be saved?" We all rejoiced over her repentance and trust in Jesus Christ as her Saviour. Now she is with her Lord, comforted and rejoicing. We prayed that she would be saved and now we pray for her family that they will do the same.
The hymnist writes:
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and grieves to bare.
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
O, what needs we often forfeit
O, what needless pain we bare.
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
My wife's favorite verses are “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” (1John 5:14-15 KJV)
One of the great quotes I have written in the fly-leaf of my Bible is "God does nothing, but by prayer." I believe that.
Wherever I may be, whether at home in my own church, or on a plane flying to Germany, or on a train traveling from Hungary into Romania, I spend Thursdays in prayer for my children, their mates and my grandchildren. It is the only legacy I can leave them. Tonight our church will meet once again for an old-fashioned prayer meeting. No special programs for kids, no activities for teens, this is our time to pray as a church family. Prayer is so important to me.
"Well, all we can do now is pray." "We'll just pray about it." Sometimes when I hear such expressions they are almost put in a negative tone. Prayer is one of the most positive privileges of salvation. Prayer is a result of the deepest relationship a soul can have with the living God. When we hear the lost say, "Our prayers go out to them" they are dealing in truths of which they know not. Only the redeemed are bidden “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16 KJV)
Today I am praying especially for a friend. His sister has past away and tomorrow he must stand before his family and preach the funeral. I remember when she called him one day and asked, "Danny, can you tell me how to be saved?" We all rejoiced over her repentance and trust in Jesus Christ as her Saviour. Now she is with her Lord, comforted and rejoicing. We prayed that she would be saved and now we pray for her family that they will do the same.
The hymnist writes:
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and grieves to bare.
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
O, what needs we often forfeit
O, what needless pain we bare.
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
My wife's favorite verses are “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” (1John 5:14-15 KJV)
One of the great quotes I have written in the fly-leaf of my Bible is "God does nothing, but by prayer." I believe that.
Wherever I may be, whether at home in my own church, or on a plane flying to Germany, or on a train traveling from Hungary into Romania, I spend Thursdays in prayer for my children, their mates and my grandchildren. It is the only legacy I can leave them. Tonight our church will meet once again for an old-fashioned prayer meeting. No special programs for kids, no activities for teens, this is our time to pray as a church family. Prayer is so important to me.
Friday, January 11, 2008
A FOOL OUT OF HIS PLACE
“And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither. For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head.” (1Kings 2:36-37 KJV)
The mercy shown to Shimei, first by David who was spitefully cursed by Shimei, and then by Solomon whom David warned about Shimei, was ignored and forgotten by this man who seemingly escaped death twice. Rather than executing him as David suggested to Solomon, the king allows him to build a house and live in Jerusalem with only one stipulation, he is never to leave Jerusalem or cross the Kidron valley. Seems like a good deal to me. No prison sentence. No execution. You can live with your family. Just stay in your place and live in peace.
But the Bible tells us he thought more of the loss of two servants than he did his life and agreement with the king. He left his place, went to Gath, and returned with servants in hand only to find the displeasure and wrath of Solomon. Obviously, he should have stayed in his place and given up the loss of two servants, but too many times our pride does our thinking for us. It is shallow and selfish thinking.
Just like Shimei, we are shown mercy, start living "high on the hog," and either neglect or forget the mercies that are given to us. We start believing the substance we acquire to be the blessing of God and forget the obligation we have to His mercy.
Later, Solomon would write: “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him. Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.” (Ecclesiastes 10:8-9 KJV)
Such is the way of a fool out of his place.
The mercy shown to Shimei, first by David who was spitefully cursed by Shimei, and then by Solomon whom David warned about Shimei, was ignored and forgotten by this man who seemingly escaped death twice. Rather than executing him as David suggested to Solomon, the king allows him to build a house and live in Jerusalem with only one stipulation, he is never to leave Jerusalem or cross the Kidron valley. Seems like a good deal to me. No prison sentence. No execution. You can live with your family. Just stay in your place and live in peace.
But the Bible tells us he thought more of the loss of two servants than he did his life and agreement with the king. He left his place, went to Gath, and returned with servants in hand only to find the displeasure and wrath of Solomon. Obviously, he should have stayed in his place and given up the loss of two servants, but too many times our pride does our thinking for us. It is shallow and selfish thinking.
Just like Shimei, we are shown mercy, start living "high on the hog," and either neglect or forget the mercies that are given to us. We start believing the substance we acquire to be the blessing of God and forget the obligation we have to His mercy.
Later, Solomon would write: “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him. Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.” (Ecclesiastes 10:8-9 KJV)
Such is the way of a fool out of his place.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
YE DID RUN WELL
“Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:7 KJV)
Some folks are so blessed as to begin life well. What I mean is, they have the advantages of growing up in a Christian home, attending a solid Bible believing church, and receiving an education void of humanism. They may not be "rich" with the things and privileges of this world, but they have been given a higher value. I certainly have benefitted from the afore mentioned privileges. My first visit to church was when I was one week old. Even though I missed out on going to Christian school, I had teachers who were truly Christian, read the Bible in class and prayed openly in public school.
The Apostle states "Ye did run well..." But then asks "...who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" In modern vernacular "What happened to you?" With such advantage and privilege from God, one would think that surely this individual would excel for God, stand firm on the old truths of the Bible and live holy lives to honor God. But we find that there has been an interruption in the holy progression. These spiritual "silver spoons" end up as social derelicts, crippled from serving Christ, and self-centered embittered rebels. I do not mean to imply that they all are so, but far too many meet the description.
What happened? Well, it didn't come from God. The leaven of the world got in someway and polluted the mind and heart. Rather than returning to the "King's highway" they seek the solace of the worldly shadows where they can hide from the truth they were once taught as a child and embellish themselves with the modern "feel good" religion. Misery loves company, so they influence others to follow in their ways which enhances their pride.
God has been too good to us for us to treat Him in such a manner. “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:7 KJV)
Some folks are so blessed as to begin life well. What I mean is, they have the advantages of growing up in a Christian home, attending a solid Bible believing church, and receiving an education void of humanism. They may not be "rich" with the things and privileges of this world, but they have been given a higher value. I certainly have benefitted from the afore mentioned privileges. My first visit to church was when I was one week old. Even though I missed out on going to Christian school, I had teachers who were truly Christian, read the Bible in class and prayed openly in public school.
The Apostle states "Ye did run well..." But then asks "...who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" In modern vernacular "What happened to you?" With such advantage and privilege from God, one would think that surely this individual would excel for God, stand firm on the old truths of the Bible and live holy lives to honor God. But we find that there has been an interruption in the holy progression. These spiritual "silver spoons" end up as social derelicts, crippled from serving Christ, and self-centered embittered rebels. I do not mean to imply that they all are so, but far too many meet the description.
What happened? Well, it didn't come from God. The leaven of the world got in someway and polluted the mind and heart. Rather than returning to the "King's highway" they seek the solace of the worldly shadows where they can hide from the truth they were once taught as a child and embellish themselves with the modern "feel good" religion. Misery loves company, so they influence others to follow in their ways which enhances their pride.
God has been too good to us for us to treat Him in such a manner. “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:7 KJV)
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
What The New Year Holds
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6 KJV)
Change is a part of man's character. We have a real hard time being consistent and steady about things in life. We can be sure that:
1. There will be changes in technology. The hot items in electronics today will be archaic and old fashioned in just a little while.
2. There will be medical changes. Things that were once impossible are now routine, and what used to take weeks or months to heal is now considered "outpatient."
3. There will be moral changes. Some in my congregation were shocked not long ago when I stated that if America was going to give legal status to sodomites and allow gay marriages, it would not be long until bestiality would follow. Sure enough, one of my men reported that a woman was seeking permission from a court to marry her dog (oh, yuk!).
4. Fashion always changes. What is popular today will be out of mode before the end of 2008.
5. Religion changes almost as much as fashion. False religion and perversion of truth surface all the time, mostly because preachers today are tossed about with every wind of doctrine that comes along and they are too double-minded.
6. And of course, there will be political changes. This year a new president will be elected in the U.S. Most all the candidates are calling for "change" within their respective parties.
Praise God! Jesus Christ never changes!
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
(James 1:17 KJV)
We can always count on His dependability.
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
(Numbers 23:19 KJV)
Happy New Year to all. May God prosper you well this new year because I may need to borrow some money. :-)
Change is a part of man's character. We have a real hard time being consistent and steady about things in life. We can be sure that:
1. There will be changes in technology. The hot items in electronics today will be archaic and old fashioned in just a little while.
2. There will be medical changes. Things that were once impossible are now routine, and what used to take weeks or months to heal is now considered "outpatient."
3. There will be moral changes. Some in my congregation were shocked not long ago when I stated that if America was going to give legal status to sodomites and allow gay marriages, it would not be long until bestiality would follow. Sure enough, one of my men reported that a woman was seeking permission from a court to marry her dog (oh, yuk!).
4. Fashion always changes. What is popular today will be out of mode before the end of 2008.
5. Religion changes almost as much as fashion. False religion and perversion of truth surface all the time, mostly because preachers today are tossed about with every wind of doctrine that comes along and they are too double-minded.
6. And of course, there will be political changes. This year a new president will be elected in the U.S. Most all the candidates are calling for "change" within their respective parties.
Praise God! Jesus Christ never changes!
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
(James 1:17 KJV)
We can always count on His dependability.
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
(Numbers 23:19 KJV)
Happy New Year to all. May God prosper you well this new year because I may need to borrow some money. :-)
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