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You
Were Asked To Pray For:
All
of Our Military, Their Family’s & All the Civilian Workers in The Middle
East, Zee Mink Fuller and Family, Her son’s Bryan Armstrong and Hunter
Hackie, Daughter Shannon, and Brother Philip & Sondra Thornsberry,
Virgil & Alice Hoskins, Grandchildren, and his daughters Liz Janis and
Debbie Gray, Alecia Clements, Bryndon
Thomas, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston,
Helen Maggard, Renee Jackson, Larry Mollette, Larry Mollette II
& Family, Linda Mollette, Kirby Mollette, Kerry Pennington, Kim Butler, Danny & Nita Mollette, Verna Mae Allen, Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn,
Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Ronnie Henderson Jr,
Donnie Henderson, Kevin Henderson, Ricky Henderson, Rosalie Graves, Terry
Hanson, Jim Stagner, Bro. & Mrs. Hammond, Don
Hammond, Archie & Barbara Griffin & son Daniel, Larry Platt, Bro.
& Sister Bob Keller, Wanda Fowler, Kathy Rosinbaum,
Brenda Galusha and Jewel, Mary Ramsey, Donna
Johnson, Fay Johnson, Bobby Walker, Luann Reynolds, Bro. & Sis. Curtis
Pugh, Timothy and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jim & Linda Meier, Brother
David & Sister Anne Shortt, Brother Manuel
Seymour & Family, Doris Hammock, Letha Langford, Leacho
Tittle, Brother & Sister Kelley Hinson, Brother
& Sister Frank James, Billy and Jo Hobbs, Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout and her Niece, Pastor G. L. Burr, Alicia Lightsey, Melody Carr, Betty, Gina, Janie Capps, Kathy
Johnson, and Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches
in Russia.
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A Though From Pastor Johnson:
Greed!
1 Timothy
6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some
coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows.”
Beloved, we live in a time when
greed is the number one cause of our world’s problems. While this is not a
new problem it is worse than ever and only getting even worse. It seems to me
that the great economic crises we are in today came about as the results of
greed. Companies wanting more and more and doing just about anything to
everything to gain money until the piggy bank went broke and we now see the
results. Churches are not exempt from this, greed as you can also see by
looking at them and seeing the funds needed to support their programs.
Pastors’ are being hired not as God has set them in place but rather to gain
attendance and to bring in money to build their empires. Our government is
not exempt either they continually tax and spend like they have unlimited resources.
Greed is defined as “excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or
possessions” and I believe this sums up what I have tried to say thus far.
The Lord said “For the love of
money is the root of all evil…” not the money but rather the peoples love for
it. How does a Pastor of a large church get a larger church? Bring in more
money. How does a CEO get a larger company? Bring in more money. How does a
Politician win re-election? Bring more money to their state. As unfortunate
as it is, it is called greed, we never have enough. The Lord did not say that
“some evil” is brought about for mans love of money but rather “all evil” has
a money and a greed as its root. One source put it this way in describing
greed “an all-consuming desire for more than one needs or deserves” and I
agree. The Lord never planned for His churches to beg and plead for money nor
did He ever plan for His churches to be greedy. The Lord never planned for
His Under-Sheppard to beg and plead for money nor did He ever justify His
Pastors to take more from His churches than they needed. 1 Timothy 3:3
"Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient,
not a brawler, not covetous;" Those that do have failed to comply with
their requirements as ordered by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord also
commanded Deacons to be like minded in this department. 1 Timothy 3:8 Likewise must the deacons be
grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;” Money and the
love for it and the greediness for it has caused much havoc in a lot of
churches today. I believe this is a greater problem today than we all are
wiling to recognize. Beloved we as Christians are to be more like the Lord
Jesus with no place to lay our head. How many times does God warn against the
rich and the wealthy and speak about the blessings of the meek and poor.
However I am convinced that some of us would be more like the young rich man
and refuse to sell what we have and give it to the poor rather than be more
like Jesus and give all we have for others even if they are undeserving.
To all those who are greedy and
refuse to reverse your thinking, you will face Jesus Christ someday and pay
account for your greediness. To all of those companies who have lied,
cheated, stole from you customers you will also pay account to Jesus Christ,
and to our Governmental bodies you also will pay account to Jesus Christ.
Pastors and churches do not think just because you do things in the name of
Jesus and call it righteousness that it is; you too will not escape the
judgment of Jesus Christ. I believe as Pastors and churches we may have
learned too much from the secular world. Beloved all I ask is that you think
about it.
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“The Lord My Deliverer” By
Octavius Winslow
"Who delivered us from so great a
death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us."
2 Cor. 1:10
It was a needful and precious petition the Lord Jesus taught His
disciples--and which we require daily to offer--"DELIVER us from
evil." We are in constant need of deliverance, exposed, as we are, to
continued, varied, and potent evils, visible and invisible, temporal and
spiritual, to evade and overcome which we have no native power, and can
therefore hope for no self-deliverance.
But who is our true Deliverer? It is He who is our Portion, who taught us
thus to pray, and who is Himself our Great Deliverer. Let us take the THREE
TENSES employed by the apostle in the words at the head of this meditation,
as illustrating the Lord's great deliverance of His people.
And first, there is the Lord's PAST
deliverance. "Who deliverED us from so great a
death." Jesus stooped from the throne of Deity
to the cross of a condemned felon, to deliver us from 'so great a death,' and
from the bitter pains and pangs of the 'second death,' the death that is
eternal. A sin-offering for our sins, accursed with our curse, condemned by
our condemnation, and dying our death, the precious blood streaming from His
torn side and bursting heart made a full atonement for our vast and countless
offences, effacing every syllable of the indictment that was against us, and
blotting out every stain of sin that was upon us--thus having delivered us
from so great a death. My soul! avail yourself of
this wondrous deliverance, this perfect redemption, this free pardon; and by
the application of the atoning blood to your conscience, walk in the happy
enjoyment of all the blessings of a charter of salvation and celestial
citizenship which Christ's deliverance makes yours.
Second, there is a PRESENT deliverance. "And He DOES deliver." In
addition to the canceling of all past offences, Christ's deliverance involves
our present emancipation from an unrenewed nature.
To pardon our guilt and to leave us the servants of sin and the slaves of
Satan would be a species of refined cruelty with which God could never be
charged. Our present deliverance, then, is freedom from spiritual death, by
which we become living souls, and thus we are now delivered from so great a
death, and can join the apostle in "giving thanks unto the Father who
has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son." Yes! Jesus delivers now.
Are you in any present difficulty or
sorrow, need or temptation? Christ can deliver you, and deliver you now. Cry
mightily to Him. He has power to deliver, fullness to supply, and a loving,
sympathizing heart to comfort. Your perplexity cannot baffle His wisdom, your
needs cannot exhaust His resources, your sorrow cannot distance His sympathy.
He who has delivered you out of six troubles will not forsake you in the
seventh. O my soul! live upon a present Savior,
rejoice in a present salvation, and do not forget that God in Christ is a
very present help in every time of need.
Third, He who has delivered, who does deliver,
will yet deliver us in all the FUTURE of our history. Faith acquires strength
for the present by a remembrance of the past deliverances of God; and from
the experience of the present, it looks forward with confidence to the
future--"In whom we trust that He will yet deliver us." Then, O my soul, be not over-anxious about your future. God is
faithful, Jesus is unchangeable, and all that the Lord your Portion has been
He is now, and He will be in all future trouble, sickness, and death--an
all-sufficient, all-loving, all-faithful deliverer, never leaving nor
forsaking you, until He has "delivered you out of the miseries of this
sinful world, having your perfect consummation and bliss in body and soul in
His eternal and everlasting kingdom." "Call upon Me in the day of
trouble--I will DELIVER you, and you shall glorify Me."
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