Have you encounter a person like John

 

Mark 1: 4 – 8

 

April 26, 2020

 

 

“John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.  Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.  And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

This reminds me of a man named Del, who came to our church in Spring, Texas, with a caravan of people living in travel trailers.  One of the families was expecting any moment a child to be born, and I, for one, was vocal with the men I prayed with each Saturday morning, that was the craziest thing I had ever heard.  It was not a one-week revival, but two, and guess what, they wanted my wife and others to cook for them in our church kitchen, three meals each day? 

 

Now it was called the “Life Action Singers” and I could not help but wonder how we were going to survive two weeks of singing.  We had heard that at the last church they had stayed for a full month; I was sure not looking forward to this!

 

Do you recall that Isaiah the prophet of God stated that God was going to send a forerunner to prepare the way for His Son’s entry into ministry?  Do you recall how different he was, but do you also recall he came baptizing, but it was a baptizing of repentance of sins.  Do you recall his dress was different, his approach to ministry was not even close to what the Jewish Priest was doing at the temple service?  What happened?  People were awakened to sin, they confessed their sins, and they repented of them!

 

Why did I begin by talking about Del Fehsenfeld Jr., the founder of Life Action Ministries?  Because for the first time in my spiritual life, I witnessed a revival in a local body of believers.  Del was different than anyone in ministry I had ever met, and I believed he and John the Baptist had a lot in common.  It is recorded that Del often said; 

 

“One of the problems in much of our church work today is that we sit in a meeting room and make our plans, then ask God to bless them … rather than getting in the Word of God on our knees first and getting the mind of God, then moving ahead with the confidence of knowing that what He has ordained, He will bless!”

 

The Life Actions Singers stayed for three weeks, and many came and confessed sins. One of the staff got up one night and stated that God had shown him he was not teachable and asked for prayer.  The night that God got hold of me, the Life Action Singers passed out a paper called the “Complete Spiritual,” it was three pages front and back, and as I took the test, it became clear I had failed, it was part three and I had several question marks, three, yes and it stated if you circled one or more yes, check this box.  Then it quoted Proverbs 6:16 &17, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,”  and this thought came into my mind, I’ve never shed innocent blood, but I’m surely guilty of the other two.  I’m glad I did not quit taking the test, for the next six questions should have been answered yes, and I did, but I knew I was not being truthful, and I also knew God knew I was not being truthful.  It states in print:  Realize “. . . Your iniquities have separated between you and God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

 

Spring Baptist is a large church, and many seemed to have finished the test quickly, and the noise was upsetting. How could they be so happy when I was in such pain, I had failed the test!  I was a follower of Christ; I had entered into Him and He lived in me, but pride and arrogance had made me like a Pharisee, and that night I confessed to my Father and was restored to fellowship with the LORD.

 

The Complete Spiritual ended with this statement: “Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40)

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

 

 

 

Introduction to Mark and the first 3 verses

                                                                

 

Marks Gospel

    April 25, 2020

 

The Introduction and verses 1-3

 

Today I’m using the introduction found in the Holman Christian Standard  Study Bible

 

“Mark’s Gospel emphasizes actions and deeds.  Jesus is on the go – healing, casting out demons, performing miracles, hurrying from place to place, and teaching.  In Mark, everything happens “immediately.”  As soon as one episode ends, another begins.  The rapid pace slows down when Jesus enters Jerusalem (11:1).   Therefore, events are marked by days and His final day by hours.”

 

 

Mark 1: 1 - 3

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.   As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,”

Jan and I are very blessed to have come to know Jesus as our Redeemer and Lord. We were both in our twenties, and our experiences are different, about a year apart, mine in a Hotel room and hers in the back of a Church building, and she recalls little that the preacher said.  As we reflect on our early time with the Lord, people were sent to us to mentor and encourage us in the ways of God.  I am so thankful for my first mentor, an amazing man who I later found out was an All-American football player at TCU and played pro-ball for the New York Giants.  He was also referred to as Dry Hole Jack in the Oil industry, in that the first 19 holes he drilled were dry.  Then one day he drilled the 20^th and became a millionaire.  He came to Christ in his early forties, and He began with me in the book of John.  What Jack taught me was that I am loved by God!  Jack did not do the correct things, like bowing your head when it was just the two of us; he just brought Jesus into the conversation.

What does this have to do with the book of Mark, a lot of Johns Gospel is an introduction to how much God loves you and me, it is about a promised one who would come and redeem his people, it is about them rejecting Jesus and you and I being grafted into Christ, it gives us an account of the disciples and their doubt and unbelief.  Most of all, John was not jumping from one event to the next.  Mark is telling the same thing, but it is always immediate.  As a New Creation in Christ, I needed someone who was in love with Jesus, someone whom I could look up to and at the same time see a man who knew that the only thing of value in his life was his new friend, Jesus Christ.  I grew up in church and knew all about Jesus, and I believed that He was the Son of God, but I could not believe he could love someone as evil as I was.  God knew my need for love and acceptance. He sent Jack so I could learn how God loved me, a mess, yes, in Christ, but still trying to hold on to a little of the worldly things.  I hope you will explore the book of Mark with me, and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you whatever it is you need at this stage in your life.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Job did what God told him to do

  

 

 

 

 

Job 42: 10 – 16

 

April 24, 2020

 

 

“And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.  Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.   He had also seven sons and three daughters.   And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch.   And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.   And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.  And Job died, an old man, and full of days.”

What lessons have you learned not so much about Job, but about yourself?  Are you going through a hard time with the Pandemic of Fear, maybe someone you love has turned against you in this Covid-19 coronavirus, in that you no longer meet the social, emotional, or financial needs, as you did just months ago?  

Maybe you’re a pastor of a large church and worry about how to meet the needs of your flock, knowing that people are not going to be happy with you for the decision you are going to require in this pandemic of fear.  If so, you understand a little about where our President and governors are coming from.  If they open the economy too soon and the first person that gets sick, they will be blamed by the media, and if no one gets sick, they will be blamed for not opening sooner and the damage they have done to so many families.

Leadership is not for sissy’s!

Now, this is what Job did: He listened to the only one who has complete knowledge, and did what God had instructed him to do, and because of that, Job was in right standing with both God and man.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Job prayer for his three Friends

 Job 42:7 -  9

 

April 23, 2020

 

 

“After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.  Now, therefore, take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”  So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.”

 

Often, God uses others to confront us about sin. I will never forget the action of a young man. I was staying at his home when my life was in total rebellion, wanting what I thought I wanted and not concerned that I was disgracing the name of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  One day I said something I’m not sure what, and my friend Ronnie, who at that time did not profess to be a follower of Christ, said something I knew was God speaking through him.  Ronnie’s reply was so powerful, “Bob, I thought you professed to be a Christian, that is not the way Christians talk or act.”  

 

Job’s three friends, while trying to defend God, made wrong judgments and accusations about the reason for Job’s condition.  It became clear that they did not understand God’s love for His creation and made God out to be an insensitive enforcer of justice.

 

 I totally missed that Job's three friends had left Job, and by the time they returned, Job’s health was restored.  Now that may have happened the moment Job confessed or weeks later, the Scripture does not give us that insight.  For them to have a right relationship with the Father, they had to do as God required of them.

 

I remember one of the best Lay Renewals Jan and I went to was in Amarillo, Texas, led by my friend and mentor Jack Archer.  We had witnessed God moving amazingly, and we had taken two or three young girls with us.  I stopped for gas, and the person running the station said something to me that I reacted to in the wrong way.  The young girls heard my reply, it was harsh but not wrong, till the Lord spoke into my mind to turn around and go back the 20 or so miles and ask the man to forgive me.  I had a great argument, we had a long way to go, it was going the wrong way, but it seems God was saying, Do you want to have my hand on you? If so, go back and ask the man to forgive you.  I went back, the man was not into forgiveness but instead said ok, but I do not even recall who you are or why I’m forgiving you.  That was not his words, but it was close to that.  As I drove off to Houston, I understood it was not about the gas attendant, but my willingness to be obedient.  Job’s friends were obedient, and God used Job’s prayer to make them in right standing with Him.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

Job's reply to God

  

 

 

 

Job 42:1 – 6

 

April 22, 2020

 

 

 

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

“I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’  Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.   ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’  I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

 

As followers of Christ, I understand we will not stand at the White Throne Judgment, only those who have rejected Jesus Christ as God’s only Son, who died on the Cross for your sins and mine.  We who have bowed a knee will be judged, I’m not at all sure how it is going to work, but I can only imagine a very large screen that is playing back every word that was idle and foolish, every act that did not bring glory to our Lord, since the time we bowed our knee to Christ.  It will not change our relationship with the Father, but it will be a less blessed gift we can bring to our Savior.  You may want to examine Romans 3:10 and Romans 2:16.  Romans 3:10 states clearly that no one is righteous, not one, so if your righteousness is based on your works, and not on Christ, who is your righteousness, you have a big problem.  Romans 2:16 makes it clear that not one thing will be hidden from God, and the Holy Spirit or the Son, I’m thinking the playback is not for God but for us.  I am so thankful it is not based on my performance but on a time in a hotel in Victoria, Texas, where I bowed my knee to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to forgive my life of unbelief, and looking to self, and not the Cross where He overcame by His blood; sin and the grave, and rose in three days and sits at the right hand of the Father.  The good news is He is coming back to rule on the earth for a Thousand Years, and His saints will be with Jesus for eternity.

 

I’ve never been ashamed to confess Jesus as my Lord, but I often have not done so because I know it will not be received. I now understand that’s not my call. I did find this quote from George MacDonald of interest: “We are often unable to tell people what they need to know because they want to know something else.”

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The Gift to be able to Work

 

The Gift to be able to Work

 

Before the fall of man, one can only imagine the joy and fulfillment of work.  We often see the labor and the struggles of work and forget the joy of being able to have the blessing of work, which gives us a sense of fulfillment, purpose, and provision to bless and be a provider.

 

"Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care." Blaise Pascal

 

Blaise said it so well that my role is no longer the provider but the helper; a day without accomplishment is dreadful.  We were designed in our D.& A. to find fulfillment in work.  The Master designer's plan for his children is to work as to the Lord, when a person washes dishes, bakes a cake, designs a building, or runs a business to employ others, if the heart is set on doing the will of God, they have done an act of kindness, and God see it as good.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

 

 

“I have seen the enemy, and it's me.”

 

Job 41

 

April 21, 2020

 

 

If God had needed you and me to understand what a Leviathan is, would He not have told us?  Isn't the point that this created animal was not something Job or anyone else could control or manage?  Let’s move to verses 10 – 11, “No one is fierce enough to rouse it.  Who then is able to stand against me?  Who has a claim against me that I must pay?  Everything under heaven belongs to me.”

 

As stated in chapter 41, the Leviathan is one mean critter, and yet it was a created being, made by God for a purpose.  What I’m not sure about, but then I’m not sure about fire ants and many other things.  The point is God has total control over all creation, so who is a man to stand against God? Is it not like chasing after the wind?  

 

God was telling Job If you cannot confront and control a small part of my creation, how are you going to make a claim against me?  How foolish is it when you and I do not seek Him? Has He not told us that He will give wisdom to all who ask it of Him?

 

I’m not sure who to give credit for this statement, but how true it is and has been in my life: “I have seen the enemy, and it's me.”  When I try living life in my own ability and not looking to the Lord for guidance, I find myself being self-centered and wanting my way, not God’s way.  Thank the LORD, He is slow to anger, and has a great love for His children, even a mess like me.

 

I am not sure about anyone but me, however, this I’m sure of: God loves you and desires a relationship with you.  He owns everything and has no need of anything, so why not allow Him to pour His love into your life?  Never forget He not only loves you, but He is Holy, and He is Just, and because of that He sent Jesus to save us from our sinful selves.  Being Holy, God cannot allow evil or sin into His presence, and yes Jesus made a bridge to God by dying on a cross for you and me, for all people, for before sin came into man, God said we were good, and He walked and talked with both Adam and Eve.  That is the relationship He desires with you.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice