April 2007 is a special month for us. April 3 Wana and I plan to observe our 65th Wedding Anniversary. This is a special day for us. April 19 Wana plans to observe her 82nd birthday. Wana is a wonderful person and wife.
CONGRATULATIONS to Rev. Leonard Fletcher, Mountain City, Tennessee. “I am not ashamed” is one of the top Christian songs in our nation. Wana and I were listening to the ‘Inspirations’ sing the other night. Five hundred or more were present and they started singing ‘I am not Ashamed,’ in a moment the entire crowd was on their feet with lifted hands. Rev. Fletcher wrote that song. One of the Inspirations told me that it was the one song that brought people to their feet every time they sang it. Leonard and Linda Fletcher are dear friends of our. Wana and I love and admire them. He is the Pastor of Dyson Grove Baptist Church, Mountain City, Tennessee.
Some of the books that I am reading this month: ‘How we got our Bible’ by Neil R. Lightfoot: ‘The Apostolic Preaching of The Cross’ by Leon Morris: ‘God’s Three Deadlines ‘ by J. Harold Smith: ‘Biblical Demonology’ by Merrill F. Unger, and ‘What on Earth is Happening?’ by Ray Steadman. I hope each Christian will do some reading. We glean so much from others.
LIVING WITH A THORN IN THE FLESH! The Bible story is found in Second Corinthians chapter 12-1-10. There is not a greater Christian in the history of man than Paul. Note: The letter to Second Corinthians was written in the mid 50’s. The Roman Government probably killed Paul in mid or late 60’s. If I am correct he lived with that thorn about 24 years. Corinthians 12-2) Paul’s philosophy was: I am not going to quit; I am going through with my Wonderful Lord. In chapter eleven he tells of many persecutions and in chapter 12 or a wonderful and glorious experience and then came the THORN. He had been faithful to His Lord. Being good or great does not mean that we will never have a thorn in our lives.
This whole story tells us that much of what we hear on T.V. from the Charismatics is not right. It was not sin that brought Paul’s thorn rather it was this Glorious Experience. Paul prayed three times that it might be removed but it was not. There are some things that we do not know nor understand. JOHN MILTON, 1608-1674, wrote Paradise Lost and was a great poet. He had many personal problems and was blind—but he continued on. J. VERNON McGEE was one of God’s great Bible preachers, teachers and writers but suffered, was laid aside and died with Cancer. His Radio Program blessed thousands of people daily. CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON suffered, oh how he suffered, with Gout until at times he was unable to preach and other times had to be out of the country but he went on living with a thorn.
Thorns come in many different forms. I am thinking of the many widows Wana and I know who lost the husband they loved and yet they are staying true to their Lord. I am thinking of Faye Samples, Louise Chumley and others, and husbands who lost their lovely wives but are true to the Church. Others who have suffered a heart breaking divorce but continue living for their Lord. Bret and Dana Stacey, Norman, Oklahoma, have a lovely daughter who is so afflicted but they go on for their Lord. Bo Trivette, Bristol, VA is confined to a wheel chair but no one is more faithful than Bo. Doris Wilson who returned from Africa and would love to be back in Africa but she has so many health problems. Out in California, Carole lost her husband and recently her Mother and Father; yet I know of no one who loves her Lord more than Carole. My close friend, Rev. Pete Ruble, recently had a cancerous kidney removed but still is a great Pastor. These have said, ‘no thorn (trouble, suffering, heartache, things I don’t understand, loss of my dearest loved one, loneliness, weakness, and unable to go or do) is going to keep me from loving my Lord. One of the great Methodist Preachers, Warren Lathem and his wife, Jane, lost a Christian son is the crash of an Airplane in the everglades of Florida but Warren is doing such a great work for His Lord. He and Jane are two of the sweetest Christians you ever met. I could write pages of names of people that we know who have and are suffering but are some of the greatest Christians to be found anyplace.
When you have some time study Second Corinthians chapter 12. Paul says there was GIVEN to me a thorn in the flesh. Did it hurt…Yes! Did it go away…NO! Paul prayed earnestly that it might be removed but that prayer was not answered and yet Paul did feel that it was not worthwhile to pray. He had no feeling to stop working but was determined to go on…’thorn or no thorn.’ He did not feel less loved by His Lord. He did not offer his resignation or stop going to Church or stop giving his all to the cause of Christ.
In John Wesley’s house in London there hangs a letter on the wall from George Whitefild. Rev. Whitefield said, “ Brother John pray for me that I will ask no quarter from our Lord but that I will serve Him—whatever comes of goes.” I read that letter in Wesley’s house and cried like a baby. That is my prayer, ‘Jesus, Wana and I plan to go through until we are at home with you…what ever comes our way.’
Our Lord’s promise was, ‘My Grace is sufficient for thee.’ Was that Grace sufficient? Yes! He wrote so much of the New Testament, reached so much of that part of the world and touched the whole Roman world of his day and has and is touching the lives of every Christian who lives today. His life and record is one of the greatest in the history of man.
Paul’s prayers were answered, not as he prayed (three times) but in a different way. It is best that Jesus answered HIS WAY. Example: The form of our prayer is often denied when the substance of our prayer is granted. ST. MONICA prayed in a seaside chapel on the African coast that her son, AUGUSTINE (354-430) might be prevented from going to Rome, for she feared what might become of him in that home of licentiousness. Even as she prayed with strong crying and tears, her son sailed for Italy. And, there in Rome, AMBROSE (born 340-died April 4, 397) led him to the light, and he became a Christian in the very place from which his mother’s prayers would have kept him. If the thing we plead for and the way we choose be oft denied it is because there is something greater, and a better way, which God is preparing to bestow upon us.
(You will find a great blessing if you study the life of AMBROSE.) It is said that a swarm of bees swarmed on Ambrose’s face as a baby in his crib. They moved on and left some honey on the face of Ambrose. His father said, ‘that honey was a sign that his son, Ambrose, would be a honey-tongued speaker’—and he was. The sermons of Ambrose led Augustine to Christ and Augustine was Ambrose’s successor.)
We never cease to be amazed at the way our God works in our lives. The way He leads and directs even though we pray for something different. So many times in life the THORN is the best thing that could ever happen. I will you an example in my own life when things that I had planned did not work out the way I had planned.
World War 11 was over in Europe (1945). I had been accepted to study at Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma. I was so excited and looked forward to start my study there. A decision to invade Japan was made and my Army Division was one of the Divisions to invade. I was called to the Pacific. It bothered me but I had no choice but to go. We left California on a Troop Ship. That night as we sailed from San Francisco I could see the lights of that city and wondered why I was there instead of the University. I knelt in prayer, “Father, you know best, I don’t understand, but I will do my best to serve you.” The next morning some soldiers came and asked if we could have Bible Study. That was a great door opened for me. The Atomic Bomb was dropped and we did not have to invade Japan. From August until December of 1945, I had opportunities to preach to people who had never heard and that time changed my entire life. I had the use of a Jeep and each evening I would head to the mountains and preach to natives who had never heard. In one service an older man came and said, “What about that man you talked about? What is His Name? I said, ‘JESUS.’ He took me by the hand and said, ‘I take that Jesus as my Jesus.’ He was the richest man in the area. He had more cows, pigs and chickens than the rest. As we started to leave he came to me and asked where he could sleep. I did not quite understand but he said when I took that Jesus I gave him everything, my house, cows, pigs and all else. I said to him, ‘This is the good part about Jesus. He gives you back your house, cows, pigs and everything else.’ He said something like this…’He is a good Jesus.’ Wow, that is shouting ground. Friend, HE IS A GOOD JESUS. He saves us and gives us so much that it is impossible to count His blessings. JERRY MOORE, a Christian friend of ours, said the other morning while sitting in our kitchen, “what do people do without Christ?’
I wish I had five or six pages to tell you more about that wonderful passage in Second Corinthians, chapter twelve, perhaps I can in another newletter.
Your gifts to the Winfrey Evangelistic Association allows us to send checks each month to sixteen different Missionaries. Your gifts are tax-deductible. It is such a joy to have a part in a work that is worldwide. We can’t go but we can help those who are on the field for Our Lord.
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