Why does it take so long for man to learn anything? A question for the ages. Man still hasn’t learned a lot. Just look at the world and you’ll understand. God knew that man had to adsorb a little information at time. All at once would just bounce off his brain. Jesus took 12 men and taught them for 3 years so they could function as the church. The bible says here a little info, there a little info. A lot of people began to follow Jesus and He wanted to make sure they understood what they were doing. They began to follow because of the miracle of the loaves. Which He did twice, feeding over 5000 people. Also they followed because of the healings He performed. Jesus wanted people to really understand the cost. He said if you want to follow me, you have to deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Me. If you would save yourself, you will lose your life. But if you lose your life for My sake and the gospel, you will save your life. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? If you deny Me before men, I will deny you before My Father in heaven. Learn a little at a time, here a little, there a little.

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John was the son of Zebedee the high priest. He was generally considered a prophet in Israel. John was born to Zebedee in his old age and his only son. When Zebedee performed his duties as high priest in the temple, God showed him that his son was the next prophet of Israel. Zebedee took from the temple the camel hair tallit and leather girdle of Elijah home with him. It had been stored at the altar of incense in the Holy of Holies. John was Jesus’ cousin. They knew each other because their mothers, Mary and Elizabeth were close. John grew up like any son of a high priest, he was sent to school. God had revealed to him who he was. So at the appropriate age John didn’t join the priesthood, he went into the wilderness. God taught him on the backside of the desert. John was revealed at the right time and season, Yom Kippur. Everyone was going to a river to be baptized for the remission of sins. John was there for a specific reason and he was not afraid to say what God wanted to say. When the religious leaders came out of Jerusalem to be baptized John spoke to them. He called them a brood of vipers fleeing from the wrath to come. John told them to repent first then be baptized. This endeared him to them so much so that they wanted to kill him. They did kill him later. But John was there to introduce, baptize, Jesus to His ministry. Do you know this man called Jesus? He is waiting to meet you. All you have to do is call out his name.

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Have you ever stopped and looked at nature. All the plants and animals in this world are very interesting. I stopped on my way home yesterday and took pictures of clouds. The sun was behind a formation. It had an opening and the sun shone through. It was quite striking. I like to look at clouds right before a storm. That is when then are the most beautiful. I talked about the Cherokee Roses on my street. There is an innate beauty about them. You want to guess why? It not because man put fertilizer on them. You know that is what man does a lot in this world. Guess why nature is so beautiful. It is because God created it for Himself and for us. You know that God create all things to share in His life. This includes us. But have you ever considered the Lilies of the field which are beautiful today and thrown into the fire tomorrow. We can’t grow anything by command. We can’t speak to our hair and change the color. We can’t add any years to our lives at all. But God who created all of this can. And He will see to our needs as well for we better than the lilies of the fields. For we are worth more to God than anything. Trust and believe Him.

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What do you believe is the truth? Are you willing to stand up for the truth? Do you have convictions that you will not compromise? Or do you believe in anything at all? Do you know the difference between morals and ethics? Morals are what you believe and trust in. You would not change your mind on the subject for any reason. Ethics change with the situation. They never last and aren’t worth much. Ethical behavior is doing what is right in your eyes. Moral behavior is doing what is right because it is right not convenient. How many people do you know that are willing to stand up for you, even if it cost them their lives. I have searched for just a person all my life. That person is worthy of our loyalty and honor. It seems that people I know have fallen short of this cost. I only found one person on this earth that was worth so much. As the bible says in Romans 5:7-9 “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

There is only one person and His name is Jesus.

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Several years ago, I was teaching first aid for the American Red Cross. I took a basic EMT course to teach their first responder course. After I finished the course, I took the National Medical Board exam for basic EMT. I passed the exam barely. The part I had the hardest time with was signs and symptoms. It is a very important part of the medical field. It is necessary to find out what is wrong with a person. It was one of the hardest courses I have ever taken. But signs and symptoms apply to more than the medical field. It applies to life itself. In this country, there has been a great spiritual revival about every 40 years. The revival is about bringing people back to God. Many of the names of the evangelists in the 20^th century you know. Names like, Aimee Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, T.L. Osborn, Morris Cello, Derek Prince, and David Wilkerson. All those revivals occurred because of the decline of Western Civilization. The US is the most evangelized country in the world. And today, it is the most heathen country in the world. Most countries are sending evangelist to the US. The same signs and symptoms of every great civilization’s decline in apparent in the US. It has been 40 years since the last great revival movement. It is time for believers to begin praying again for the move of God. The only other alternative is the fall of our society.

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Before I walked with the Lord, I was not a compassionate person. I believed if you caused it you payed the price. It’s a hard way of looking at things. It also doesn’t generate any love for any one. God began to show me people and their problems. I began to see their needs. I began to have compassion for people. God is moved by compassion. He sees a person in trouble, whether they caused it or not and does something about. People think that they will get out of the consequences of their actions, if God forgives them. Sometimes yes and sometimes no. When we do something it creates consequences that may last forever. I pray fervently that I don’t cause others to suffer my consequences. God is forgiving and will forgive sin if we confess it to Him.  Because of God’s compassion for man, He has moved heaven and earth for us. When Jesus first began preaching in Israel, one of the things He did was healing people. People would come from miles away to ask Jesus to heal them. One day He was at Peter’s house and there hundreds of people trying to see Him. 4 men carrying a litter with a man who had palsy. They couldn’t get into the house. So they went on the roof and torn a hole in it to get the man to Jesus. Jesus was moved by their faith and compassion for the man. At first He said your sins are forgiven, then because of the Pharisees there. He said arise take up your pallet and go home. And he did. It makes no difference who you are or what you have done. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened for you.

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Everybody remembers the story of Jonah and the whale. Most people don’t talk about why God sent Jonah to Nineveh. This was the capital of the Assyrians. They had raided into Israel and had killed whoever they saw, men, women and children. God wanted to give the Ninevites the opportunity to repent of the sins. Otherwise God was going to destroy Nineveh. Jonah said let them all die. Then Jonah ran from God. Boarded a ship bound for wherever. There arose a storm until they all believe they would die. They asked everybody what they could do to stop this. Jonah said God was angry with him. They needed to throw him overboard. Finally they did. The Whale swallowed Jonah. He was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. Until Jonah repented. He went to Nineveh. He preached repentance and 100,000 people repented of their sins. Jonah became angry with God. He wanted revenge, but God wanted life. What do you see in this story? Do you understand what it is all about? It is the story of our life. It is what God will do to bring us to repentance. God doesn’t want revenge. He is willing to send someone to you to help you. Hear what God is saying to you. Just as it was in the days of Jonah, God sent Jesus into hell for three days and nights for us.

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After a forest fire in the 1950’s, forest fire fighters found a bear cub up in a tree. The cub survived the fire barely. He had climbed in the tree to escape the fire. It was badly burned but survived. The little bear recovered from his wounds and eventually ended up in the National Zoo in Washington D.C. They named the bear Smokey. The US Forest Service took the bear as mascot. They began an advertisement campaign to prevent forest fires. And in all the commercials Smokey the bear would say, only you can prevent forest fires. Because of the large amount of fires recently in the western US, they have revived the Smokey the bear commercials. This time he says, only you can prevent wildfires. Yet I know people that start fires daily just by what they say. The unfortunate thing about that is that they can’t take it back. A person asked how they could take back what they said. The answer was take a small box of feathers to a mountain top and release them in the wind. Then go and get all the feathers back in the box. It is impossible. And the damage can stay for years.

Jas 1:26 (KJV) If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Jas 3:5-6 (KJV) Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

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When Jesus came to earth as a man, he knew that God had a plan for his life. Jesus lived a normal life in Israel. He became a Pharisee, Rabbi. Jesus taught the people as well as his disciples how to live and what to expect from God. This was nothing new, he just explained the Law to everyone. Jesus knew that he was going to die for our sins. He trusted God to bring to pass his will on earth. God raised Jesus from the dead to make him King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But Jesus’ job wasn’t through. There were final instructions for the disciples. Jesus told the disciple that when He ascended into heaven God was going to send the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. We would become kings and priest, prophets to God. He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit. So in the upper room, 120 disciples waited and prayed. The Holy Spirit came down and filled each person in that room. There was so much noise that people outside came to see what was going on. There were at less 3000 people gathered. They heard something they never heard before. The disciples were speaking in tongues, in a heavenly language. They also heard these disciples speak all the different languages of the world. For they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, just as God had promised on the Day of Pentecost.

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I am not talking about the religious denomination. I am talking about the movement of God. The first reference to it in the bible was about King Saul chasing David. Saul was so close to catching David, God had to intervene. The Holy Spirit came upon Saul. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy and speak in other tongues. His men asked if Saul was one of the prophets. It stopped Saul long enough for David to escape. So, the prophets of God were, first, filled with the Holy Spirit. Second, their lives changed and everyone saw it. Third, the prophets of God prophesied and spoke in other tongues. Not everyone was able to receive this, because the Holy Spirit was only given to everyone after Jesus died and rose again. When Jesus rose into heaven on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down and filled everyone in the upper room. All the people in Israel that saw and heard this and knew what had happened. They knew because there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for 400 years. The people perceived that these ordinary people had received from the Spirit of God. It is said that over 3000 people believed on Jesus that day. Pentecostalism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in other tongues, is the power of God in our lives. This is the power to accomplish God’s will on this earth. Just like on the day of Pentecost, it is for every believer who ask for it.

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