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