A spiritual cliff hanger. *grin*.

 

Brad

 

From: The Electronic Church [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Phil Scovell
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 3:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: When The Bible Doesn't Work

 

From the thousands of hours I have spent in the last few years praying with
others on a one to one bases, it is clear we all don't often believe what we
are reading is true from God's Word.  Put another way, we don't often feel
it is applicable.  When agreement in prayer is conducted, the truth comes
out as to why we react in such ways.  I could name dozens of passages of
Scriptures, many we all know and have memorized, that we claim we believe
with all our heart.  Then why is it that we are unable to experience the
confirmation, that is, the passages of promises, God makes to us who call
ourselves Bible Believers?  One big reason we don't admit such feelings is
because we are afraid we are committing sin, maybe even the unpardonable
sin, or God might strike us with lightning or some incurable disease, and
worst of all, we might be accused of being an unbeliever by Satan himself or
even a so called born again Christian; the latter being worse.  Then, too,
what would happen if the pastor found out we had doubts about even one Bible
verse?  Lord, have mercy, such a terrible thing.  I can guarantee you right
now that half the people reading this would ardently deny they have a
doubting bone in their body; God bless there pea picking hearts, as
Tennessee Ernie Ford use to always say.  So the first thing we do is deny we
have any doubt.

 

The second thing we do is suffer.  Usually this is in the form of secret
fear.  "I'm not a good enough Christian so that's why it doesn't work for
me."  "If I was as spiritual as," then we name people we see on TV programs
or see at church or hear on radio broadcast, "because they sure believe."
Another thought is such promises work only for the super spiritual or
Christian elite.  The problem is compound when we attempt to believe in a
promise and then, when it fails, or worse yet, when we fail, we know it
wasn't God's will.  Lord, deliver us from evil!  Of course, many of us have
suffered at the hands of those who claim to believe in God's Word and they
even tell us they have the gift, whatever that is, and when they lay hands
on us and pray, things don't work out like they hoped and we get the blame
for their lack of belief.  Then there is the hopeless theology preached and
taught that the Bible has so many of hundreds, yea, thousands of promises
and every one of them belongs to us.  The hell it does!  I said it that way
because that sort of doctrine belongs in hell.  Not every promise in the
book is ours.  If that were true, we'd all be in big trouble.  Only promises
directed to God's own children belong to us.  Those directed to Satan, his
demons, and the lost belong to them alone and not us.  In short, fear that
something in God's Word won't work for us is a major blockage to faith for
most of us who claim to be born again.  Did you know the hell itself wasn't
made for you or me, that is, the saved, the truly born again?  Jesus, while
on earth, said it was made for Satan and his demons.  Look it up for
yourself if you doubt what I just said.

 

Another source of our inability to believe is acceptance.  We want to be
like other Christians.  We seen God's blessing on their lives and we desire
that for ourselves.  Is that wrong?  Of course not but they don't get the
last word; Jesus does.  Then we get into trouble when we try and emulate
them.  By that I mean, we attempt to copy them.  Emulate is just a nicer
sounding word but it is striving to become equal with others through
imitation.  Go ahead and use your dictionary to look it up, emulation I
mean, if you disagree with my interpretation.  There is only one we are
literally told to imitate and if you don't know whom that is, I'll have to
write more on that topic later because there is one passage of Scripture in
the New Testament that literally tells us to imitate God.  You won't believe
it when you see/read it either.  Say, that's the problem; we don't believe?
So what in the world is belief anyway.  I'll talk about that specifically
next time.  The answer is simple so don't worry about trying to figure it
out yet.

 

I was visiting a small church one day, speaking of imitating, and the guest
speaker was, in fact, attempting to pattern his ministry after another well
known preacher.  I won't name him, what does it matter, but I'll give you a
hint; he is an international speaker and is from South Africa originally.
This young preacher I was listening to was, in his own right, good.  I
disagreed how he went about it but he did tell a story about himself, and a
failure of his, that I'll repeat here.  He had been having wonderful special
meetings with many getting born again, many getting healed, and many getting
baptized because he carried with him, as he traveled, his own baptistery;
according to his own words, and he admitted he was really hyped and pumped
up from these great meetings the Lord was allowing him to have.  So, he is
on the second floor of a motel one day, looking off the balcony, down at the
outdoor swimming pool and thinking about faith and the power of God he had
been witnessing.  He was so cranked up spiritually, the thought came to him
that he could walk on water just like Jesus, and Peter, did during a storm.
He walked right down to the pool, no one was around, and he stepped out and
began walking.  He then said,  "As I lay on the bottom of the pool, I
suddenly realized just how stupid I had been."  Like I said, at least he
admitted it and at least he learned something, too, apparently.  Didn't he
believe?  I'd say he did.  Didn't he have faith?  Of course he did.  Then
why didn't he walk on water?  Because he wanted to imitate others and he
believed more in himself instead of God.  Actually, God never told him to do
any such thing, walking on water I mean, but that revelation didn't come to
him until e was at the bottom of the pool sucking water.

 

Let me tell you a true story about myself.  I traveled for about 5 years and
serving as a guest speaker.  Sandy  and I were in Illinois Several different
times.  This particular time, since we were going to be in this church 8
days, Sunday through Sunday, conducting what we called, and still do if you
are a Baptist, revival meetings.  We stayed with a retired couple.  Our
first son was still an infant at the time but he was with us.  This couple
had never been around any blind people and especially with a new born baby
but they were wonderful and just acted natural around us the week we were
there.  It didn't take us long to discover the 67 year old man had just
become born again, saved that is, 4 years earlier and he was hungry for
God's Word.  He had lots of questions and wasn't afraid to debate his
interpretation of certain Bible passages.  I'll tell the whole story about
him some day but it would be too long to do so now.

 

This man was perhaps one of the greatest men of faith I have ever been
around.  The stories and testimonies he told about things he prayed for were
so uplifting, I decided I wanted that kind of faith to work in my life.
Believing is all it takes, was how I saw it as I listen to this man talk
about how God had answered his prayers, so how could I lose?  I had faith, I
knew God's promises, so one day I took all of my over-the-counter headaches
medications and dumped them down the drain.  I was committed, you see, to
believing God and His promises, and I was stepping out in faith that I would
no longer have migraine headaches.  The first day was fine but the next came
with an all day headache.  I kept praying, and believing, but it got worse
instead of better.  I preached that night with one of the worst headaches I
ever had up until that day.  It was so bad, I could hardly think coherent
thoughts by the time church was over.  On the wait home, I gave in, and
asked our hosts we were staying with to stop at a store so I could buy some
headache medication.  After arriving home, we had coffee and pie and I took
some of the medication.  Within a half an hour, my headache was gone and so
was my faith; I was, to say the least, discourage.  I had tried, I had
believed, I had shown faith, I was standing on the promises of God, so why
didn't it work for me just like it did for the man and his wife we were
staying with at that time?  I had no answer until decades later when the
Lord told me why it didn't work.

 

More to come later.

 

 

Phil.
Living His Name
WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.COM