Site Owner and Webmaster: Pastor
David Buffaloe (SBC) Last Update:
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Home of Classic Christian Bible Study
God's Word, The Bible - The Absolute Truth!
In
any museum we will find quite ordinary things - clothes, a walking
stick, a pen, pieces of furniture - which are only of value because
they were possessed and used by some great person. It is the ownership
which gives them worth. It is so with the Christian. The Christian
may be a very ordinary person, but he acquires a new value and
dignity and greatness because he belongs to God. The greatness
of the Christian lies in the fact that he is God's.(William Barclay)
(more quotes
here)
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John 14:1-3, 6 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe
in God, believe also in me. {2} In my Father's house are
many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. {3} And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. ..... {6}
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the
life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
I
was standing in line at the local Chinese Restaurant last
Sunday trying to pay for my meal. Brother Marty Comer
from Sand Ridge was just in front of me. Joking with me
he handed me a “fortune cookie” and when I opened
it the message was:
“No
obstacles will stand in the way of your success this month”
Considering
that the month was nearly over I didn't receive a whole
lot of assurance from that little slip of paper. But I
did think about that phrase for just a moment. “Nothing
will stand in the way of my success”. What is “My
Way”? What is the “Way of success”?
A
little boy's mother asked him to go and get her broom.
The little boy asked “where is it Mama?”, to
which she replied, “It's on the back porch”.
The sun had just gone down and the child was afraid to
step out into the dark, moonless night. His momma realized
what was bothering him and said, “Son, don't you
remember when I told you that Jesus would always be with
you? He'll be with you when you step on to the back porch
– you just have to trust Him.” The child replied,
“Is Jesus really on the back porch, Mama?” “Yes,
honey, now go get my broom”. The child went to the
door, opened it a crack, and whispered through the opening,
“Jesus, if You're there, will you bring me my Mamma's
broom?”
It's
a terrible thing to have a perpetually troubled heart.
The Lord knows that we as humans ........
Hebrews 10:21-25 And having a high priest over the house
of God; {22} Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
{23} Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) {24} And let
us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works: {25} Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,
as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and
so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
The
Voice of the Martyrs organization recently reported:
“On
April 25, Pastor Mohan Babu and two other believers were
severely beaten by 35 Hindu extremists for holding a Vacation
Bible School (VBS) near Bangalore City in Karnataka State.
... the three day VBS was organized by Ragigudda Baptist
Church. ... Around 60 children from different backgrounds
were attending the VBS. As they were worshiping about 35
people ... forcefully entered the hut ... The perpetrators
chased the children without any courtesy and tore the Bibles.
{Pastor} Mohan was severely injured on his lips and was
profusely bleeding.”
We
in America are wonderfully blessed in that such outbreaks
are unlawful and subject to prosecution. There are Christians
in other parts of the world that are beaten, broken, and
even murdered daily. And yet our faith continues to go forth
into all the world. It was no different in the early Church.
As I mentioned last Sunday, Christian believers were killed
for professing that Jesus Christ is the only way unto a
right relationship with God. What saddens myself, and should
sadden you, is that many who profess Jesus Christ as Savior
believe in their hearts the evil and unBiblical doctrine
that there are many ways unto God. Some local Churches ...
Philippians
2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed,
not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. {13}
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure.
One
of the most common questions I am asked as a pastor is “Why
is this happening to me?”. The “this” that
people are referring to is usually a trial of life. It could
be disease, loss of income, personal conflict, persecution,
the death of a loved one or even one's own impending death.
The question is a natural one, and there's certainly nothing
wrong or sinful with a Christian asking this question. As
long as we do not begin to curse God or malign Him in our
trials we have not sinned. There is a Biblical answer for
the question “Why is this happening to me?”
There
are two different ways to make ceramic pottery. There is
the method of pottery where you pour liquidized clay into
a mold. A mold is a hollow pattern of what you want to make.
If you want to make a bunch of the same type thing –
like china plates – you can mold them cheaply and easily.
As long as all of your molds are the same pattern you can
duplicate as many plates as you want quickly and easily.
You'll never find a fine, high quality and expensive piece
of ceramic out of the process of molding. The finest craftsmen
use another, much slower method. They take a piece of clay,
stress it, beat on it, and then put it in the middle of
a potter's wheel. While spinning on this wheel the craftsman
applies pressure and stress, slowly removing imperfections,
until the finished product matches the image that he has
in his mind.
Now
imagine yourself as a piece of raw clay, taken from the
ground by the hand of God. Imagine God as the Potter, and
each day of your life your are turned on the Potter's Wheel.
Is this a crazy concept? Absolutely not! As a matter of
fact, the Prophet Isaiah wrote:
Isaiah
64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay,
and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
The
Lord is our Potter, and we are the clay and the work of
His hands........
I
want to say a few things about this series of messages. I
will be preaching about valleys that we find actually
named in the Bible. But this series would not
be complete or completely useful if I did not include
some of the valleys that we find ourselves in our
daily lives. Not all of these valleys that
I will be preaching on will be applicable to our
situation but we can use these valleys as warnings
to stay clear of them.
I
looked up the words “valley”, “valleys”
“vale” and “dale” in my Bible
program and found them found one hundred and sixty-six
times. The word “dale” means valley
also. It does not take a rocket scientist to
figure out what a valley is. It is a low area
between two high places such as mountains.
When
you talk about mountains, you are talking about
my country. Having grown up in my youth in
the mountains of West Virginia, I love the mountains
but now I am living in the low lands of North Carolina
but loving where God has planted me. They say
you take the boy out of the mountains but you cannot
take the mountain out of the boy. Recently
my wife’s cousin (a fellow West Virginian)
sent an email about some truths about growing up
in the mountains of West Virginia. Some of
the things were funny but true. One of the
true facts is this one: A cool snap (below 70 degrees)
is good pinto-bean weather. I have better careful. I
may have a shouting spell. Another truth is
the only flat places basically in the great state
of West Virginia is man made but we do have a few.
We
go through valleys as Christians. We are immune
to them. In fact, we were not promised an easy
trip but a life that is full of trouble. The
difference between the believer and the unbeliever
is the one who is going with us in these times of
troubles or valleys. We find this precious
promise here once again in this passage of scripture. In
verse four we find those words of promise- “for
thou art with me”. We find this truth
echoed over and over again ...
