Sharon,
I saw, and have seem, am still aware of changes in
your life and I'm very happy for the testimony you shared below. I know,
the way I talk and the way I write, people often get the feeling I'm
suggesting I have reached a high spiritual plateau but I am still living the
changes that came to me 14 years ago and with what I've faced in the last 12
years, I don't think I would have made it without the Lord continuing to heal
me. The church we are attending, for example, is a Baptist church, of all
things. The pastor, last week, said starting the first week of September,
he is going to start teaching on prayer and we will also have home meetings each
week teaching on prayer. Sandy and I were talking as we went to bed a
night or two later about a situation we are aware of personally in this
church. She was questioning the attitude of someone and basically trying
to figure out why it was happening to some degree. The pastor had also,
during his announcement of the teachings on prayer, said that he personally did
not really know how to pray himself. I felt sad a pastor had to make such
a public confession but obviously, he is being transparent and showing just how
serious he really is about prayer and learning to pray. My comment to my
wife that night, as I began to say, was, if I had been asked, do you know how to
pray, would be yes, I do. That would sound as pride to most but what I
went through to learn how to pray was nothing I ever dreamed would happen then
or now. Odd, too, because the Lord just taught me something a week or two
ago about prayer, something new to me personally, while my computer was
down. It was so simple, I couldn't believe I'd never heard about it before
but I've been doing what the Lord told me ever since He revealed it to me.
I'll probably write about it some day. You may think I'm joking but the
first or second time we prayed together, I told Sandy, there is this lady in
Idaho I'm praying with that is incredibly spiritually sensitive and she knows
the Scriptures like few people I've met. Sharon, you will never know,
until Heaven, how much I learned just through those times we prayed together and
getting to watch and witness God working in your life was a great blessing to me
personally.
Phil.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2014 7:43
PM
Subject: Re: Lost a subscriber
Hi all,
I did notice that grant expounded on the
scriptures in a logical way, which is on the dot as far as God's Word is
concerned. But I thought there might be something missing. I know
that there is a place where God allows us to struggle, where, in a moment of
darkness we might take His word and be convinced that it's personal and
something to be afraid of, or we can feel that those verses against fear just
aren't working, as I remember some of your articles mentioning this kind of
blockage, Phil. I know I used verses in god's word to either frighten
myself or the devil used it against me. We know that even the devil used
scripture on Jesus to make "a tantalizing" point for Him to prove He was god's
son. I'll give you an example, not one that was always on my mind, but just to
illustrate the times I experienced this train of thought and emotion.
Jesus said to the Jewish Rulers, "You worship me with your lips, but your
hearts are far from me." Yes, He did say in another passage that "by
your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.",
but the previous quote took first place and I felt hopeless. You see,
for most of my life, I've struggled with the idea that I was being insincere
when I asked God for help and deliverance because I pictured having to go
through emotional withdrawal of the toxic "quick fix from the devil", and I
wasn't willing to hold out until it was over, even though it would be
temporary. So I could say yes with my lips, but my heart "could very
well be far from the Lord." I think that the fear that we've committed,
or might commit, the unpardonable sin is a classic case of worry about God's
Word, too. But thanks be to Jesus, I'm being pulled out of that slimy
pit and am being set on that rock that will always be a firm place to stand
on! That passage fits my situation just about perfectly. Maybe
part of it is my bias against what some believers believe and don't believe,
but I'm pretty sure about these things.
Phil, if you ever feel The Lord
would prompt you to send this kind of message, you have my
support.
Sharon
On 8/23/2014 3:34 PM, Phil Scovell wrote:
I'm sorry to announce we lost a subscriber who
emailed me to be removed from the List. I'm telling you now so you
won't wonder where Grant went. I had talked with him on the phone and
asked him a few weeks ago to start a Bible Study type conversation on the
list because Grant is one of the best theological sound Christians I know
and he also documents everything by the Word. His feeling was that he
didn't get much response to his posting and that the list had decayed into
addressing the Bible by feelings and not the Word. I suspect there was
more to it than that but I'm sad to see him leave anyway. I felt the
Lord telling me to ask Grant to begin a Bible study with us and that alone,
of course, I felt was the voice of the Lord encouraging me to ask him to
lead a Bible study. He said more about why he was leaving but I let
that go. Needless to say, Grant is a great man of God and I hope he
returns soon.
Phil.