GOOD AND EVIL

(Mat 27:41-42 NIV) "In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. {42} "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him."

A man who had lost his son in Iraq said: "Where was God when my son was dying?" His pastor gently asked: "Where was God when his own son was dying?" We need to understand that God can do anything, but not without consequences.

Millions believe that if we pray with faith, God must answer our prayers. They quote 41 verses from the gosple like: (Mat 17:20 NIV) "He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

The word Faith is mentioned 245 Times in the New Testament in similar verses like this one. Wonderful! Now we can pray and God will work miracles for us as we do anything we please.

The "gospel of Faith" is used by thousands of Preachers to generate millions for their support. They promise "miracles and blessing" if the suffering saints will send them very large offerings. All of the gimics, silly cheap tricks they use to keep their banks accounts overflowing and their corporate jets flying will one day be judged by God.

Desperate people who know very little about Jesus and his ministry are willing to gamble anything in the hopes of being healed, blessed or lifted out of poverty. It's a "very sad religious lottery" as they send in money they can't afford to loose.

HERE'S A TEST! Take anything you want from God and pray this prayer. "Lord, this is what I want and I don't care what you think about it. I want what I want even if it is contrary to your will."

If you feel a little uncomfortable with that it may be because you read the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44 describes his agony by saying "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Jesus is praying about his coming crucifixion. "(Mat 26:39 NIV) "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

Jesus used the phrase 41 times... "He that sent me..." Often Jesus talked about the "Father who sent me". Nothing was more important to Jesus than to do the will of his heavenly Father. Here's just one of them.

(John 5:30 NIV) "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." (John 6:38 NIV) "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me."

Our Heavenly father can see the consequences of everything we ask of him. He can see the future and know exactly what will bless us or bring pain and sorrow into our lives. Prayer is not weak. The real prayer of faith is powerful. So God decides which prayers to answer and which to delay or reject.

It's interesting that as the agony of the Cross was about to end Jesus quoted this passage from the Psalms. (Mat 27:46 NIV) "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

No, it wasn't the 23rd Psalms. Most people quote that when they are in trouble. It was (Psa 22:1 NIV) "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" If we read this entire Psalm we see that it describes exactly what Jesus was enduring on the cross for us.

For many years I've prayed like this: "Father, this is what I want. But you can see the future and I can't. So I want your will to be done in my life". God listens to our prayers and we need to keep praying.

There much more to this subject. I'm going to continue it on my Bible Study Blog. I'm going to explain the Bible concept of good and evil. (Go up to the link on the left side of this page and click on (Ken's Bible Study)

Keep praying with a sincere heart. God does answer prayer.

A BALONEY SANDWICH

After the resurrection of Jesus, Peter talked the other disciples into going fishing with him. You can read about it in John 21:3. Well, they didn’t catch anything but early the next morning they saw someone on the beach with bread and fish on the fire.

Incredibly it was Jesus, our resurrected Lord, who had fixed breakfast for them. Jesus told them how to make a record breaking catch. When they all got to the shore he told them in John 21:10 to bring some of their fish they had just caught and put it with his.

Bob Benson, was the son of John Benson who created the largest Music Publishing house in the world in Nashville. He was our friend and his son Bob was in the ministry. In a wonderful book called “See you at the house” Bob tells a story that is perfect for this Bible story. He recalled an old fashion Sunday school picnic.

He said as a young boy, he came home at the last minute and rushed into the kitchen to get his stuff ready. All he could find in the refrigerator was one dried up piece of baloney and just enough mustard in the bottom of the jar so he got it all over his knuckles trying to get to it. He pasted that brick together and tore out for the picnic.

When it came time to eat he sat at a table and spread out his sandwich. The lady next to him was a wonderful cook and she had fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad and homemade rolls, sliced tomatoes, pickles and celery. Then in the middle of that she had two big chocolate cakes with icing so thick you could have build a house with it.

She leaned over to him and said: “You know Bob, we just love baloney sandwiches. Why don't we just put it all together?” He made a feeble protest and said he couldn’t—all the time eyeing the fried chicken and chocolate cake.

After a little urging he gave in and sat there eating like a king when he came like a pauper. Bob said it finally dawned on him that God was saying that same thing to him. “Let’s take what you’ve got and what I have and put it together.” Bob said, that’s a bargain of a lifetime.

You know, there are lots of people who are running through life clutching their dumb bag with that stale baloney sandwich. They are half-starved and yet hanging on for dear life to “their” baloney sandwich. They are saying: “God’s not going to get my sandwich! No sir...this is mine.”

Well, when you can’t stand your tasteless and tough baloney sandwich any longer just remember - it doesn’t have to be that way. God doesn’t need your sandwich, but you need his feast. It’s such a great blessing and joy to share with God and all the folks around us. Remember, you’ve been invited to something better.

John Benson built the biggest religious music company in the world in Nashville Tennessee. (Benson Publishing Company) He was a multimillionaire and at the top of the music business.

He invited us to come to his house one morning when someone had stolen Maggie’s song. He fixed that problem and was very kind to us. His son, Bob Benson, felt called to the ministry. He wrote this story in a book he published called “See you at the House.” He died in his early thirties.

FEELING INADEQUATE?

I love the old comic strip depicting Lucy, Charlie Brown and Linus lying in a field, looking up at the bright white clouds in an azure blue sky. Lucy asks Linus, “what do you see?”

Linus replies, “That cloud looks like a profile of Beethoven. Those clouds look like an outline of the blue Azores. And those clouds remind me of Saul of Tarsus holding the cloak of Stephen as he was being stoned.”

Then Lucy turns to Charlie Brown and asks, “And Charlie Brown, what do you see?”
And Charlie Brown says, “I was going to say I saw a ducky and a doggy . . . but I've changed my mind."

THE FEAR OF FAILURE HAUNTS US ALL.

Most Christian church members know the story of Moses pretty well. Pharaoh’s daughter rescued baby Moses from the river. She happened to be a banker and went down to the river and drew out a little prophet. (Yes, I know it’s bad…)

You can start with Exodus 2:10 and read the whole story about Moses. He was the most important person in the long history of Israel. In the New Testament Jesus took Peter, James and John up to a mountaintop where he was transfigured before them. Two people came down from heaven to talk with Jesus about his coming suffering and crucifixion. Moses and Elijah. From excuses to astonishing competence – that was the life of Moses. Moses is quoted Eighty times in the New Testament.

Yet when God called him to lead he gave more excuses than a dog has fleas. Talk about the lack of self-confidence…. Moses was pathetic. He started with not being young enough (he was 80 years old) and worked down from there.

God said: “Moses, your physical capabilities and your handicaps are my doing. Your limitations are my problem I’ll take care of them. Don’t plead inadequacy as an excuse for disobedience.”

This has been proven over and over again in history. People, in spite of handicaps and in spite of adversity, have accomplished far more than humanly speaking we thought they could.

Take Beethoven, for example. He was totally deaf during the last 8 years of his life but it was during that tragic period that he wrote his Ninth Symphony, often acclaimed as his greatest musical work. Yet, he never heard it.

A horribly deformed dwarf-like cripple named Charles Steinbeck became one of the outstanding electrical geniuses of all time. He held patents on over 100 inventions, and he did this during his tenure as a consulting engineer with the General Electric Company. This pitiful little man did most of his work half standing and half leaning on a stool. An indomitable will guided him to accomplishments seldom matched by others in perfect health.

Or consider John Milton, one of England’s greatest poets. He wrote his magnificent epic, Paradise Lost, after some 10 or 12 years of total blindness. Through a spirit of determination seldom equaled in the annals of literature, he was able to turn tragedy into triumph. His well-known sonnet on his blindness illustrates his feeling of responsibility toward God who made him, and endowed him with such magnificent genius:

We couldn’t and shouldn’t try to do things we were not called to do. However, if we know that God is calling us to do more than we ever dreamed possible then we must allow him to make it happen.

How human it is to make excuses. Excuses are evidence of unbelief. For if we truly believed God has called us to greater things then we need to step forward and salute our Command-in-Chief, and say, Yes Sir! What’s next?

WHAT'S IN YOUR HAND MOSES? (Exo 4:2-7 NIV)

“Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. {3} The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. {4} Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

{5} “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.” {6} Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow. {7} “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.”

Are you a housewife and a mother? You’ve got pots and pans and children created in the image of God. If you are a nurse you’ve got a thermometer, or a syringe, or a Bedpan. If you are a secretary, you’ve got a pencil, a steno pad, and a computer keyboard. Are you a physician? You’ve got a stethoscope, or an X-ray, or a Scalpel.
Are you a teacher? You’ve got a textbook, and some chalk, and a wall full of charts, and a head full of knowledge, and a room full of children waiting to blossom like flowers. Are you a businessman? You’ve got management skills, and financial acumen, and commercial opportunity.

However if God calls you to be more than you ever dreamed you could be then you must obey. God is not looking for experts. God is not looking for supermen and super-women. God is not looking for uncommonly strong and resourceful people. God is looking for people who will take what they have in their hands and put it at his disposal.

How about using what you have to do more than you ever dreamed you could do?