Can I ? Should I?

Bible Reading:  I Corinthians 6:1-12

Key Verse: Verse 12 – “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

Key Words:  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient 

The word expedient means appropriate, proper.  There are things you can do by law but the question is, “Is it appropriate?”

There were those who were eating meat that had been offered to idols.  This was a detriment to other young believers so Paul says all things are lawful, but they may not be appropriate.

Some years ago in a Wednesday night prayer meeting service, the congregation was greeting one another when one of the members (who was mentally challenged) pulled out a Richard Nixon Halloween mask, put it on, and was walking around holding up both arms and giving the “peace sign.”  Most everyone got a laugh out of it but all agreed that his actions were inappropriate.  So it is with many of our actions.  We are free to do certain things, but we must not only ask, “Am I free to do this thing?”  We must also ask, “Is it appropriate?  Is it proper?”

We can wear a clown suit to a wedding, but should we?  So before we do things, we should ask ourselves, not can I, but should I!!

 

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ Do your best to be appropriate and proper at all times.

We Dropped It

 Bible Reading:  II Timothy 3:1-8

Key Verse: Verse 5 – “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

Key Words:  Having a form of godliness

This generation fits into this category and some have dropped the truth.  I have heard such statements as, “I don’t need to be in every church service.”  Or how about this one, “I already know all Bible truth so I don’t need the church.”  And yes, I really heard someone say that.  They have dropped the truth.

There is a story about a family who had a treasure.  It had been handed down through several generations.  It was a genuine antique vase.  It was kept on the mantel in the living room as a special object of enjoyment.  One day when the lady of the house came home, she was greeted by her daughter.  The daughter said, “Momma, you know that vase you told us has been passed down from generation to generation?”  Her mother acknowledged that she did in fact know the vase and her daughter then said, “Momma, this generation just dropped it.”

Our generation has been dropping many things – many of the values, standards, and attitudes have been dropped by this present generation.  May we live by the truth!!

 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ He who doesn’t live by the truth has dropped it!

The Negative

Bible Reading: Nehemiah 4:1-11 

Key Verse: Verse 3 – “Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said,  Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.”

Key Words:  Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall

Some people find the negative in everything, even some things which are positive.  Here’s an example.

A man and his dog are walking along the beach when they come upon another visitor to the beach.  The owner of the dog is proud of his dog’s mastered feat – so he says to the visitor, “Watch this!”  He tosses a piece of driftwood far out into the sea and the dog immediately runs on top of the ocean and fetches the wood and runs back.  The visitor just shakes his head in disbelief.  Whereupon the owner repeats the procedure twice.  Finally he asks the visitor, “Did you notice anything unusual?”  The visitor responds, “Your dog can’t swim, can he?”

So for all of you who live with, work with, or have to deal with those who find a negative in everything, remember Jesus endured Thomas, the Pharisees and the naysayers.  So just be Christ-like and keep your testimony.

 

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ Don’t let the negative personality cause you to respond in kind.

Say What!

 Bible Reading:  Matthew 7:1-12

Key Verse: Verse 3 - “ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Key Words: but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

 

Some people can’t see their own faults because they are too busy looking for faults in others.  To say the least, these people just don’t get that they, not their neighbor, are the problem.

A woman met with a marriage counselor and abruptly informed him: “I would like to divorce my husband.”  The counselor replied, “Do you have any grounds?”  She answered, “Why, yes.  We have almost an acre.”  The puzzled counselor asked her, “You don’t understand.  What I want to know is do you and your husband have a grudge?”  The woman answered, “Actually, we don’t, but we do have a nice carport.”  The counselor shook his head and said, “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I just don’t see any reason why you should divorce your husband.”  The woman answered the counselor, “It’s just that the man can’t carry on an intelligent conversation.”

She was the problem but like some others, she just didn’t see it!  May we examine ourselves before blaming others…amen and amen!

 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Good communication requires looking at other’s perspective, not just our own.

Look Up In the Air

Bible Reading:  Acts 1:1-11

Key Verse: Verse  11 - “Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

Key Words:  shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven

Twice in the summer of 1952, UFOs were picked up on radar screens at Washington's National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base. They seemed to be buzzing the White House and Capitol.

Near midnight on July 19, flight controllers at National saw “seven pips” clustered together in one corner of the radar screen.  They would “loaf along” at 100 to 130 miles per hour, then suddenly accelerate to fantastic speeds – as much as 7,200 mph – before vanishing.  Andrews radar technicians observed blips, too, and airline pilots saw bright lights in the sky.  But when air force jets investigated at dawn, the lights had disappeared.

The press swarmed the Pentagon.  Intelligence officers blamed temperature inversions, but experienced air traffic controllers asserted that the blips represented substantial objects.  How else could radar have detected them?

Later that week, amber lights were seen elsewhere in the sky, including over the Guided Missile Long-Range Proving Ground in Florida.  Then on July 26, more blips appeared on a Washington radar screen.  A jet sent in pursuit couldn’t even get close.  Three days later, the air force called a press conference, it’s largest and longest since World War II.  Officially, the UFOs were debunked as a weather phenomenon.  Nonetheless, the eerie sightings remained a mystery to many.

One day though, soon I hope and pray, there will be an identifiable Person who breaks through the eastern sky.  Jesus will come to earth and establish His Millennial reign on earth.  Are you ready for His return?

 

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ Don’t be looking for UFOs.  Be ready for the Lord’s return.

Fencing In- Fencing Out

Bible Reading: Philippians 3:1-11

Key Verse: Verse 7 – “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”

Key Words:  I counted loss for Christ

In the late 1800s a rancher walked into the general store of a frontier town on the Great Plains and asked the owner for credit for supplies.  “Doin’ any fencin’ this spring, Josh?” asked the storekeeper.  “Sure am, Will,” said the rancher.  “Fencin’ in, or fencin’ out?”  “Fencin’ in.  Taking in another three hundred fifty acres across the creek.”  “Good to hear it, Josh.  You have the credit.  Just tell Henry out back what you need.”  A visitor, overhearing the conversation, commented to the storekeeper that this certainly was an unusual credit system.  “It works,” said the owner.  “If a man’s fencin’ out, he’s running scared with what he’s got.  If he’s fencin’ in, he’s got hope.  I always give credit to a man who’s fencing in.”

Which raises the question in regard to our “credit” with Christ: are we gaining souls for His glory or are we losing ground?  Are we accomplishing more for His glory this year than we did last year?

 Let’s be busy in 2024 for God’s glory and not lose ground.

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ It’s better to be fencin’ in than fencin’ out.

That's Truth

Bible Reading: Psalm 119:153-160

Key Verse: Verse 160 – “Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Key Words: Thy word is true from the beginning

Some things we believe to be true.  For example, the following is recorded in the Reader’s Digest book on Strange Stories.  

“We still don’t know for sure.  America’s best-known case of cannibalism involved the Donner Party, a California-bound wagon train of 82 souls that was snow-bound in the High Sierras during the 1846-47 winter.  Less well known is the fact that they were led to their tragic fate by a lie told by Jim Bridger, the famed mountain man.

“Bridger owned a supply post along a new route known as the Hastings Cutoff, and he wanted the route used.  He told the Donners it was a ‘fine, level road.’  They set out on July 31.  By October – after struggling across the boulder-strewn terrain and trackless desert – they were snowed in.  It was six months before help reached them.  Thirty-three party members perished; many of the rest survived by eating the dead.  Jacob Donner was eaten by his children.  James Reed, the only leader who survived, later wrote that, at Bridger’s post, letters had been withheld advising, ‘by no means to go the Hastings Cutoff.’

“As certain as the tragedy seems to have occurred, modern-day anthropologists aren’t so convinced that the cannibalism ever happened.  Using modern forensic methods to examine bone remains, some scientists now conclude that there’s no evidence to support cannibalism at the supposed campsite.  The debate will likely rage on for some time to come.”

Now, while I personally believe the story of the “Donner party,” there is one thing I do know to be true, and that is God’s Word.  We read in II Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

 

                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞ God’s Word is truth!  Live it.

He Gave His Life

Bible Reading: I Timothy 2:1-7

Key Verse: Verse  6  – “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

Key Words: who gave himself a ransom for all

During the World War II battle for Cherbourg, the crew of an American tank, hit by a German shell, scrambled to a nearby doorway for cover.  There they met a small, balding man with sad eyes who was also ducking bullets.  They asked for his autograph.  

That wasn’t unusual.  The man was Ernie Pyle, the GI’s reporter.  He shared the fears, the pain, and the suffering of the men “who do the dying.” And in his column, which ran in 700 publications with a combined circulation of 14 million, he made sure that the folks back home knew exactly what their fighting men were going through.

Pyle, who described himself as a “talker to obscure people,” took on notes for his stories except the names and addresses of the men with whom he spoke.  By 1945, he was earning a six-figure income.  But he couldn’t desert the men whose stories needed telling, so he headed to the Pacific for the invasion of Okinawa.  On April 18, hit by Japanese machine-gunfire on Ie Shima, he died instantly.  He was 44.

While Pyle gave his life to tell the story of a few, there is One Who gave His life for all.  Yes, for you and for me.  His name is Jesus Christ.  This is what we need to be telling:  that Jesus Christ gave His life so all may live.  I am thankful for men and women like Ernie Pyle; but without Christ, I would be bound for hell.

To God be the glory for the great things He hath done.

                                                                                     Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ “Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD.”        Psalm 150:6

He Didn't Wear A Tie

Bible Reading:  Matthew 11:25-30

Key Verse: Verse 28 – “ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Key Words: Come unto me

The purpose of the church, among other things, is to stand for righteousness and to evangelize the world; but so often we get all tied up in appearance that we get our priorities all mixed up.  Let me explain.

A man crashed his plane in the desert.  Stranded without water, the unfortunate man trudged through the desert for hours until he could no longer stay on his feet.  Then, as he began crawling across the burning sands, he encountered a necktie salesman.  “Can I interest you in a nice new tie?” the salesman asked.  “Are you serious?” the man gasped. “I’m dying of thirst and you want to sell me a necktie?”  The salesman shrugged his shoulders and moved on, and the dying man resumed his crawling.  Finally, he came upon an unbelievable sight.  There, before his eyes, in the middle of the desert, was a magnificent restaurant with neon lights blazing and a parking lot filled with cars.  The desperate man crawled to the front door.  With his voice growing weaker and weaker, he said to the doorman, “Please, help me in, I must have something to drink.”  To which the doorman replied, “Sorry sir, gentlemen are not admitted without a tie.”

 This man’s need was not a tie but water.  So it is when people come to the house of God.  Their need is not a tie but Jesus!!

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Understand man’s real need is not a rule but a Ruler: Jesus Christ the Savior.

His Name Is

Bible Reading:  Matthew 1:18-25

Key Verse: Verse 25 – “And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”

Key Words: and he called his name JESUS

The following was taken from Reader’s Digest, “Strange Stories.”

Theories of how our favorite Americanism came to be:

“The earliest known appearance of ‘OK’ in print, in a March 23, 1839, edition of Boston’s Morning Post, explains its meaning as ‘all correct,’ spelled ‘oll correct.’ But as the years past and the expression gained wide circulation, speculation grew about how OK came to be.  Was it the abbreviation for Old Kinderhook, President Martin Van Buren’s nickname (he was from Kinderhook, New York)?  Did it refer to Old Keokuk, an Indian chief who signed treaties with his initials?  Or perhaps it came from the Finnish word oikea, which means ‘correct’? 

“OK reached the West Indies by 1847, England a few years later, India by 1883, and the Philippines around 1908.  American soldiers carried it to Japan and Korea in the mid-20^th century.  OK is now part of the language nearly everywhere, no matter how it is spelled: o.k., O.K., okay, okey, oke, or even okeh.”

Reminds me of the names of Jesus, whether it is Emmanuel, Messiah, Christ, or Jesus

 

                                                                                        Dr, Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞It’s not just knowing the names of Jesus, but having Him as your Savior that is the important thing.

If God Be For Us

Bible Reading:  Romans 8:28-39

Key Verse: Verse 31 – “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

Key Words: If God be for us, who can be against us

If God is for you and me, then no matter how others may try to harm us or even destroy us, God will work all things out for our good.

The following story reminds me of this Biblical truth.  Horace Greeley, famous editor of the New York Tribune, was noted for having the most illegible handwriting there was.  Often he couldn’t even read it himself if it was a few hours “cold.”  One day he wrote an editorial just before the paper went to press, and the typesetter could hardly read it, and because it was too late for correction, it appeared in print with a number of outstanding errors.  When Greeley read it, he was furious.  He fired the typesetter on the spot.  He even wrote him a scorching letter in which he denounced him for his stupidity.  But the note was in such a terrible hand the typesetter couldn’t read it.

 But since he had been told in person that he was fired, he set out to look for another job at the office of a rival newspaper.  The foreman at the other paper asked him if he had any recommendations.  “Sure,” said the man, “I’ve got a letter from Mr. Greeley.”  And he produced the letter in which Greeley called him all sorts of names.  The foreman glanced at it, but couldn’t read it either.  He asked, “How much are you making with Greeley?”  The typesetter named a figure.  The foreman replied, “I’ll give you $15 a week more.  Start tomorrow morning.”

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Always remember that while “men” may not always treat us right, the Judge of all the earth will!

Personal Directions

Bible Reading:  John 3:16-21

Key Verse: Verse 16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Key Words: he gave his only begotten Son

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Pastor Clifford S. Stewart of Louisville, Kentucky, sent his parents a microwave oven one Christmas.  Here’s how he recalls the experience.

“They were excited that now they, too, could be a part of the i

nstant generation.  When Dad unpacked the microwave and plugged it in, literally within seconds, the microwave transformed two smiles into frowns!  Even after reading the directions they couldn’t make it work.  Two days later my mother was playing bridge with a friend and confessed her inability to get that microwave oven even to boil water. ‘To get this thing to work,’ she exclaimed, ‘I really don’t need better directions; I just need my son to come along with the gift!’”

When God gave the gift of salvation, he didn’t send a booklet of complicated instructions for us to figure out; He sent His Son.  To God be the glory for that!!

 

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ All that is needed for salvation is Jesus.

A Family Squabble

Bible Reading:  Galatians 5:1-18

Key Verse: Verse 15 – “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

Key Words: But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

J. Vernon McGee writes:  “I have always wanted to preach a sermon on this text, and I would entitle it ‘Christian Cannibals.’  Did you know that in many churches today the Christians bite, eat, and devour one another?  And the bite is as bad as that of a mad dog. There is nothing you can take that will cure the wound.  All you can do is suffer. There are a lot of mad dogs running around today.  They will bite and devour you. Unfortunately, the world has passed by the church in our day, and I’m sorry it has because there are many fine people in our churches and many wonderful preachers throughout this country.  But the lives of some Christians are keeping the world away from certain churches.  I personally know examples of this.  I know churches in which the Christians have no love for each other, but they bite and devour one another.  It is a terrible thing!”

Thomas Rolfe could have been an Indian chief.  Instead the son of Pocahontas and Jamestown planter John Rolfe became a wealthy landowner, inheriting his father’s 400-acre plantation plus thousands of acres from his grandfather, Chief Powhatan (his real name was Wahunsunacock, but because he was chief of the Powhatans, the English called him Chief Powhatan).  When the time came to make a choice between his two heritages, he donned an English uniform and helped to wipe out his mother’s tribe.

Raised by an uncle in England after Pocahontas died there in 1617, the young man returned to his Virginia birthplace around 1635.  Relations had been tense between colonists and Indians since 1622, when the Powhatan tribe – led by Pocahontas’ uncle, the war chief Opechancanough – had massacred 347 people, including John Rolfe.

Colonists were forbidden to “speak or parley” with the tribesmen, but young Rolfe petitioned the governor in 1641 “to let him go see Opechancanough to whom he is allied and Cleopatra, his mother’s sister.”  No record of the meeting exists; we must imagine the confrontation between the Anglicized 26-year-old, hearing his mother’s tongue spoken the first time in his adult life, and the Indians, gazing at a face that bore a striking resemblance to that of their beloved lost princess.

In 1644, Opechancanough, who was said to be over 100 years old, mounted another assault.  Carried on a litter, he led his warriors in raids that killed more than 400 Virginians.  The colonists, among them Lieutenant Thomas Rolfe, fought back.  Opechancanough was captured and killed.  By 1646, the General Assembly reported that the American Indians were “so routed and dispersed they are no longer a nation.”

 

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Know that if a church bites and devours one another, we will eventually consume one another.

The Scales of Justice

Bible Reading:  Numbers 32:20-33

Key Verse: Verse 23 – “But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.”

Key Words: be sure your sins will find you out

The scale of justice can truly be a painful experience.  We are told in Romans 12:19b, “Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord.”  Payback is a hard thing to endure; but we are told that we reap what we sow!!

But our key verse is the principle for the day: “Be sure your sins will find you out.”

A certain woman, preparing to entertain guests, went to a small grocery store to buy food.  She stopped at the meat counter and asked the attendant for a large chicken.  He reached down in the cold storage compartment, grabbed the last chicken he had, and placed it on the scale. “This one weighs four pounds ma'am,” he said.

“I'm not sure that will be enough,” the woman replied.  “Don't you have a bigger one?”

The attendant put the chicken back into the compartment, pretended to search through some ice for another one, then brought out the same bird, discreetly applying some finger pressure to the scale.  “Ah,” he said with a smile, “This one weighs six pounds.”

“I'm not sure,” the woman frowned.  “I'll tell you what - wrap them both up for me!”

Oops! Be sure your sin will find you out!! And it did!! And so will it for all of us.  There is a payday someday.

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞ Honesty is the best policy after all, isn’t it?

The Great Enemy

Bible Reading: Revelation 12:1-10

Key Verse: Verse 10 – “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

Key Words: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down

M. R. DeHaan II once wrote:  “The early morning racket was so loud that I rolled out of bed and went to the front door to see what was happening.  I knew about their longstanding argument.  But I had never heard them go at it like this before.  There in the trees in front of our house it appeared that the crows and the blue jays were quarreling again.  Their war of words and wings had escalated beyond anything I’d ever seen before.   I watched the ‘reserves’ fly in and take positions in the branches.  The actual bombings and strafing was concentrated in the upper regions of a big oak.

“But I saw something I hadn’t expected.  A pair of huge brown wings made a tactical retreat to a nearby branch.  There was no crow, and this was not the usual spat between the blacks and blues.  They weren’t even fighting each other on this Sunday morning.  They had found a common enemy.  They had located an owl, and their mutual dislike for one another was lost in a conflict of greater proportions.  Together the crows and the blue jays had combined forces against the owl.”

We may not always agree on every issue, but one common thing we do agree on is that Satan is our ultimate enemy.  One day soon the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords will cast him down.  To God be the glory!

 

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Remember, if Satan is our enemy we must be doing something right.

Let Me In

Bible Reading: Matthew 7:7-12

Key Verse: Verse  7 – “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”

Key Words: knock, and it shall be opened unto you

I read the following recently.  “When my daughter Michelle was six years old, we went to a hotel in Vail, Colorado.  My children were having great fun exploring all the features of the hotel in detail.  While my son and I were watching television in the bedroom, and my wife was taking a shower, Michelle was in the other room ‘exploring.’  Michelle began to knock on the door in the other room.  I turned toward the room and told her to stop knocking on the bathroom door while Mom was taking a shower.

“A couple minutes later we heard the faint knocking again.  I told her to stop it; this time with a little more force in my voice.  Once again she began to knock on the door, and now her knocking was accompanied by a muffled scream, ‘Let me in!’

“I was tired of listening to my daughter bother her mother like this.  I flew off the bed and went into the other room.  No one was there, yet the knocking continued.  She had locked herself outside the room and was beginning to panic.  I apologetically opened the door and granted her immediate entrance.”

Aren’t you glad that when we knock that God doesn’t become angry?  He just opens the door of blessing for us.

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Don’t forget to knock.

The Slothful Man

Bible Reading: Proverbs 26:13-20

Key Verse: Verse 13 – “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets.”

Key Words: The slothful man saith

No matter what our situation, we should always rise above slothfulness.

There are always things to do and new ways of doing things but we can’t let the slothful keep us from accomplishing “things.”

Early in the eighteenth century two young monks were disciplined by their abbot for an infraction of the monastery rules.  “Brothers Bennett and Fidelis,” he said sternly, “your punishment will be seclusion for three months – under the rule of silence!”  At first the disciplined ones gave themselves to prayer and study, but the silence was oppressive and the idle hours weighed heavily on them.  Finally the younger monk had an idea.  He collected all the smooth, flat stones of one size until, with the help of his “silent partner,” they had gathered twenty-eight.  He then placed different numbers on each of them and began devising a new game to while away their unproductive hours.  It was difficult for them to communicate, but after a few weeks they managed by making gestures to outline certain rules to govern their play with these marked stones.  The most difficult thing was keeping silent when they were excited over winning a game.  Then they had a happy idea.  They were allowed to utter aloud the prayer, “Dixit Dominus Domino Meo.”  By reducing this to one word, the victor was able to signal his triumph by excitedly exclaiming, “Domino! Domino!”  The pastime they devised has been refined but is still played in scores of countries today.

Not only are these games to be “invented,” there are souls to be saved, so don’t be slothful in the business of God.

 

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞ Think of ways to reach others for Christ.

Keep On Praying

Bible Reading:  Acts 12:1-19

Key Verse: Verse 5 – “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.”

Key Words: prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him

Dr. John Rice says in one of his books that faith is not the only condition of answered prayer.  He advises us to consider several grounds on which God has promised to answer prayer.  

1)  Faith (Matthew 21:22; Mark 9:23, 11:24); 

2)  Asking in Jesus’ name (John 14:13, 14);

3)  When two or more are united for the same objective (Matthew 18:19); 

4)  Keeping God’s commandments and doing the things that are pleasing in His sight     

    (I John 3:22, 23);  

5)  Persistence in prayer (Matthew 7:7, 8; Luke 11:9-10, 18:8).

At any rate, we do know God is anxious to answer our prayers, and God wants to answer them.  We also know that faith the size of a grain of mustard seed can remove mountains.  Sometimes the pattern is much faith and little prayer.  At other times if is little faith and much prayers.

Ours is only to keep on praying!!

 

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Prayer is like going hunting without a gun.  If you don’t expect much, you won’t get much.

The Servants

Bible Reading: Luke 15:11-32 

Key Verse: Verse 19 – “And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”

Key Words: make me as one of thy hired servants

Steve Kilpatrick brings out in the story of the prodigal son that there are actually three different characters in this story.

First there is the young son, the prodigal who wasted his inheritance on a self-centered lifestyle and ended up in want (verse 14).

Next there is the older brother, who had an attitude problem and became angry with the father for putting a robe on the younger son, putting shoes on his feet, and a ring on his finger.  He was angry because his brother was forgiven and receiving things he had never received.

Then there are the servants, who obeyed and did as they were told and were happy in the service of the master.  Now, isn’t that who we should be?

Bruce Thielemann, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, told of a conversation with a member of his flock who said, “You preachers talk a lot about ‘do unto others,’ but when you get right down to it, it comes down to basin theology.”  Thielemann asked, “Basin theology?  What’s that?”  The layman said, “Remember what Pilate did when he had the chance to acquit Jesus?  He called for a basin and washed his hands of the whole thing.  But Jesus the night before His death, called for a basin and proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples.”   It all comes down to basin theology: Which one will you use?

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ Choose to be a servant.

If

Bible Reading: Romans 6:1-8

Key Verse: Verse 8 – “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:”

Key Words: if

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse years ago wrote the following in regard to the word “if.”

“We constantly use the word ‘if’ to express disbelief and to express belief.  A young man might tell his parents that he was leaving the house to go to the drug store, and his sister might look after him and say, ‘If you’re going to the drug store, I’m Joan of Arc.’  Later the mother of the household might start to leave the house, saying that she was going to the drug store, and the daughter might say, ‘Oh, if you’re going to the drug store, bring me some toothpaste.’  In the one sentence she expresses doubt and disbelief; in the other sentence she expresses confidence and trust.  The ‘if’ in the text, ‘Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him’ (Romans 6:8) is of the latter variety.  Because we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.

“We possess that life, that new man, in and around and overshadowing all of our thoughts and actions and being.  That new man not only resembles Christ, but that new man within us is Christ Himself; for we are made partakers of the divine nature, and it is Christ in us which is our hope of glory.”

 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞ “If” you want real “life” you must die to self.

What Is A Fault?

Bible Reading: Galatians 6:1-10

Key Verse: Verse 1 - “ Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

Key Words: overtaken in a fault

The word fault means an unintentional slip or slide; to say or do something wrong unintentionally.

Some years ago in a cold Colorado winter, the bus captain call a pastor on a Sunday morning and told him the bus battery was “frozen” and the bus wouldn’t start.  The pastor asked, “Will the engine run at all?”  “No,” came the response.  “Keep trying,” was the pastor’s request.  Finally an hour later, the bus captain called the church and a member answered the phone.  The bus captain said, “Tell the pastor that the bus has turned over.” 

Well, you can guess what happened from there. The member went running through the church in a panic telling everyone in sight that the bus had turned over.  Now everyone is in a panic.  People are leaving to try to find “the turned over bus” until the bus comes driving up in the church parking lot.  Now panic turns to anger.  The one who originally received the phone was embarrassed.  Some church members were acting unchristian toward their fellow member.  Now, did he “mess up?”  Yes!  Did he sin?  No!  He did do something unintentionally.  Now, the response should not be to become angry with the member, nor gossip, nor complain, and certainly not resent, but to lovingly restore (put back in place) to show forgiveness and love.

 So remember that next time one of your brothers or sisters commit a fault, restore, “…considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” to slide or react rather than getting the right facts.

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞ Be a Christian, not a critic.