Some sins I confessed, so composure keep,
Growing self-praise for keeping to His word;
Other offenses I left buried deep,
Hoping to hide them from the Lord. unheard!
What a fool! From God is nothing concealed;
His eye is all-seeing, and all is known;
Each hair on your head to Him is revealed,
And each thought a-borning is clearly shown!
I planned, like a thief---half-confess, then rise,
My concscience pure, in heaven, a clean scroll;
But I got no joy, and no sin's reprise*;
No forgiveness for the guilt of my soul!
Then I knew, no pardon would ever come,
Until I confessed all, and not just some!
*forgiven and forgotten
Although to gain the approval of Jesus, it is often said that all you have to do is believe in Him, that can be an oversimplification. By the word 'believe' is not meant just mental assent; "believe" is used like a summary of things that take place when a person decides by free will to become a Christian. It is given free, but the recipient shoud at the very least make a change in lifestyle from one that is lived apart from Jesus and the Bible to one that lives with Jesus and the Bible. God is the only entity that can know truth in the heart of a person. No other human being can know for sure who is saved and who is not.
I will try to list what is meant by the words "believe in Jesus as Lord".
At the very minimum:
1. You believe that the historical man Jesus really was God limiting Himself to the capabilities of a man; though He was killed on the cross, yet He was resurrected from the dead.
2. You understand that your life has ignored Jesus and the Bible, and that you have sinned against His commandments. You repent, meaning you are sorry for your past; you talk to Him as prayer, asking Him to fogive your sins, and you vow to change your lifestyle---to make a 180-degree change in the way you live. the new things in your life especially being love for Him and love for others. Your new life attempts to eliminate all sin; you learn what sin is by studying His words in the Bible, and by daily prayers to Him.
I know this seems a lot more difficult to do than simply to 'believe'; but if you believe and yet do none of the other things above, you may not be truly saved. Remember, no man can judge whether you are saved or not---only God!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Who Is The Disgrace To Grace?
Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, became
Disgrace to grace, the proud preacher announced;
For God's children, the world's ways are a shame!
Well. that's true, and Lot ought to be denounced;
But the Spirit whispered, "He should be told,
'Look at yourself, blind guide, before others!"
I knew, he was one who planned to control
All Baptists, this Allen, naming brothers!
How arrogant! New leaders pre-approve,
Coaching messengers, and stacking the vote!
Backroom politics, brothers to remove,
Judging who's fit; casting some from the boat!
Lot was hardly apt a target for you,
Who undid Baptists with your judging crew!
"When you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye." (Matthew 7:3)
One of the most difficult tendencies to eliminate from our habits is the one Jesus spoke of above. It is an ingrained trait in every person to observe the faults of others with a calculating, judging, comparing eye. We comfort ourselves by concluding that we are not as bad as the next guy. This trait is an obstacle in trying to enlist a friend to join us in serving Jesus. The most frequent reaction is, "You think you are better than I." We don't think that at all, but it strikes our friend in that way, because he is comparing his life with what he sees in ours.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:1-2)
Baptists have just passed through a 40-year period of internal conflict, during which some Christians took it upon themselves to take control of the central coordinating offices and all boards of trustees of schools, seminaries, and mission boards. It was accomplished by the smoke-filled backroom politics used by the world in its power struggles; delegations were stacked with pre-coached members, slates of new officers pre-approved, based on rumor and hearsay. The established leadership were naively depending upon everyone's good will and dependence upon the Holy Spirit; the attackers took no chances, putting up persons sworn to their agenda. We're past that now, with the Baptist conventions in ruins, missions declining, converts at an all-time low. No one knows what will happen next.
Disgrace to grace, the proud preacher announced;
For God's children, the world's ways are a shame!
Well. that's true, and Lot ought to be denounced;
But the Spirit whispered, "He should be told,
'Look at yourself, blind guide, before others!"
I knew, he was one who planned to control
All Baptists, this Allen, naming brothers!
How arrogant! New leaders pre-approve,
Coaching messengers, and stacking the vote!
Backroom politics, brothers to remove,
Judging who's fit; casting some from the boat!
Lot was hardly apt a target for you,
Who undid Baptists with your judging crew!
"When you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye." (Matthew 7:3)
One of the most difficult tendencies to eliminate from our habits is the one Jesus spoke of above. It is an ingrained trait in every person to observe the faults of others with a calculating, judging, comparing eye. We comfort ourselves by concluding that we are not as bad as the next guy. This trait is an obstacle in trying to enlist a friend to join us in serving Jesus. The most frequent reaction is, "You think you are better than I." We don't think that at all, but it strikes our friend in that way, because he is comparing his life with what he sees in ours.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:1-2)
Baptists have just passed through a 40-year period of internal conflict, during which some Christians took it upon themselves to take control of the central coordinating offices and all boards of trustees of schools, seminaries, and mission boards. It was accomplished by the smoke-filled backroom politics used by the world in its power struggles; delegations were stacked with pre-coached members, slates of new officers pre-approved, based on rumor and hearsay. The established leadership were naively depending upon everyone's good will and dependence upon the Holy Spirit; the attackers took no chances, putting up persons sworn to their agenda. We're past that now, with the Baptist conventions in ruins, missions declining, converts at an all-time low. No one knows what will happen next.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Man Is Free To Choose
Why didn't God change His mind and repent
Making man, when Adam doomed us to hell?
"Enough!" He could have cried. "Christ won't be sent
To die in shame for this empty shell!
See. those maggots in my hand stay alive;
I'll just turn it, dropping them into flame,
Then make a better, who won't with Me strive!
The new ones will obey, avoiding shame!"
Yes, but if He had, how could He be sure
They truly loved Him of their own free choice?
He wants real love, not bought by planted lure,
Or a built-in deafness to Satan's voice!
God gave us all complete freedom of will,
Even if we choose Satan's hell to fill!
Had God wanted created men who were forced to be obedient to Him, He would have made us that way. Instead, He wanted evil to come into the world as a test for us, that our choice to be 'good' and follow His commands is made voluntarily, without bribe or coercion. Only by doing that could He be absolutely sure to admit to heaven eternally only persons who can be absolutely worthy of His trust.
Do you suppose that He allowed the angel Lucifer to commit the sin of disloyalty and attempt to overthrow his own Creator so that he might be cast down to earth with full power to tempt man's allegiance away from God in order that men would have to resist the attempted blandishments and choose God by his free will? What a complex sentence, and what a complex question! Even so, there is a lot of truth in that question that we need to consider.
"Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12) [brackets added]
It is very difficult for us to understand the phrase to become the children of God. Yet it means exactly what it says. God will absolutely adopt you as half-brother or half-sister to Jesus Christ, making you a member of His own family, if you believe in Jesus, feel very sorrow for your negligence in obeying His commands found in the Bible, ask His forgiveness, and change your life to live by His directions. Knowing how great is the trust God puts in you to adopt you, it is easy to understand why He is anxious that you choose to do this freely.
And a lot of people believe that the God that offers this invitation to join His immediate family is the same person as the 'Allah' of Islam! Allah gives no free choice: His followers do so because of fear of being killed if they do not swear for Allah; they keep on being followers because of their fear of being killed if they leave the ranks of Islam---if you do so, you become a renegade with a death sentence upon your head.
Making man, when Adam doomed us to hell?
"Enough!" He could have cried. "Christ won't be sent
To die in shame for this empty shell!
See. those maggots in my hand stay alive;
I'll just turn it, dropping them into flame,
Then make a better, who won't with Me strive!
The new ones will obey, avoiding shame!"
Yes, but if He had, how could He be sure
They truly loved Him of their own free choice?
He wants real love, not bought by planted lure,
Or a built-in deafness to Satan's voice!
God gave us all complete freedom of will,
Even if we choose Satan's hell to fill!
Had God wanted created men who were forced to be obedient to Him, He would have made us that way. Instead, He wanted evil to come into the world as a test for us, that our choice to be 'good' and follow His commands is made voluntarily, without bribe or coercion. Only by doing that could He be absolutely sure to admit to heaven eternally only persons who can be absolutely worthy of His trust.
Do you suppose that He allowed the angel Lucifer to commit the sin of disloyalty and attempt to overthrow his own Creator so that he might be cast down to earth with full power to tempt man's allegiance away from God in order that men would have to resist the attempted blandishments and choose God by his free will? What a complex sentence, and what a complex question! Even so, there is a lot of truth in that question that we need to consider.
"Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12) [brackets added]
It is very difficult for us to understand the phrase to become the children of God. Yet it means exactly what it says. God will absolutely adopt you as half-brother or half-sister to Jesus Christ, making you a member of His own family, if you believe in Jesus, feel very sorrow for your negligence in obeying His commands found in the Bible, ask His forgiveness, and change your life to live by His directions. Knowing how great is the trust God puts in you to adopt you, it is easy to understand why He is anxious that you choose to do this freely.
And a lot of people believe that the God that offers this invitation to join His immediate family is the same person as the 'Allah' of Islam! Allah gives no free choice: His followers do so because of fear of being killed if they do not swear for Allah; they keep on being followers because of their fear of being killed if they leave the ranks of Islam---if you do so, you become a renegade with a death sentence upon your head.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
It Takes Two Wills To Smother Lust
The flesh never sleeps, its eternal lust
Unslaked; no matter how oft requited*,
It demands new thrills, and its owner must
Provide e'er more once the beast's excited!
It was not enough for David just to look;
He must bring her close, and then he must touch!
The plot's the same, whate'er cover's on the book;
Lust's lion must have it all, ne'er too much!
Later, the Christian knows he's much too weak,
Lust so easily overcomes his fort;
God's Spirit warns stronger will must he seek,
To hold the pirate ship of lust in port!
Two iron wills are needed to smother lust;
If the male succeeds, then the female must!
*satisfied
In the 1930's when I was a teenager, I became a Christian. We were taught that our bodies were temples of God and must be kept undefiled with premarital sex; it was understood as a given that both boys and girls were required to present their married partners virgin bodies, untouched by sexual experience. This was an unwritten law for everyone, and it was seldom violated. It is vastly different today, as few virgin boys or girls even finish high school. We preachers in the years after WW2 and before the advent of television warned our congregations not to put those immoral purveyors of sin into our homes. Now I have lived to see an entire nation lose its purity in front of Satan's most effective instrument of evil, the television set.
"One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful." (2 Samuel 11:2)
It was no sin for David to see Bathsheba in the bathtub, but it was to send for her to come to his bed. She already had a husband, and she sinned when she did not refuse him. Well, they both ate the whole enchilada, because she became pregnant, and David contrived to have her husband killed. Lust in men and women would be America's greatest sin, if it were not for the murder of unborn babies, legalized abortion. But its power is nothing new as the 3000-year-old story above testifies. As they say, it takes two to tango; it also takes two to satiate the demands of lust. Old fashioned will power that refuses to give in, no matter how much pressure our lust exerts on us, is the only way to overcome the beast.
Unslaked; no matter how oft requited*,
It demands new thrills, and its owner must
Provide e'er more once the beast's excited!
It was not enough for David just to look;
He must bring her close, and then he must touch!
The plot's the same, whate'er cover's on the book;
Lust's lion must have it all, ne'er too much!
Later, the Christian knows he's much too weak,
Lust so easily overcomes his fort;
God's Spirit warns stronger will must he seek,
To hold the pirate ship of lust in port!
Two iron wills are needed to smother lust;
If the male succeeds, then the female must!
*satisfied
In the 1930's when I was a teenager, I became a Christian. We were taught that our bodies were temples of God and must be kept undefiled with premarital sex; it was understood as a given that both boys and girls were required to present their married partners virgin bodies, untouched by sexual experience. This was an unwritten law for everyone, and it was seldom violated. It is vastly different today, as few virgin boys or girls even finish high school. We preachers in the years after WW2 and before the advent of television warned our congregations not to put those immoral purveyors of sin into our homes. Now I have lived to see an entire nation lose its purity in front of Satan's most effective instrument of evil, the television set.
"One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful." (2 Samuel 11:2)
It was no sin for David to see Bathsheba in the bathtub, but it was to send for her to come to his bed. She already had a husband, and she sinned when she did not refuse him. Well, they both ate the whole enchilada, because she became pregnant, and David contrived to have her husband killed. Lust in men and women would be America's greatest sin, if it were not for the murder of unborn babies, legalized abortion. But its power is nothing new as the 3000-year-old story above testifies. As they say, it takes two to tango; it also takes two to satiate the demands of lust. Old fashioned will power that refuses to give in, no matter how much pressure our lust exerts on us, is the only way to overcome the beast.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Solace Of Israel
Shall Arab rage wipe Israel from the globe?
They've smothered Jewish dreams by daily fear
Of bombs hidden beneath each Arab robe
That garbs any shopper who comes near!
Will the next rocket hit a children's park,
Or school, where the lives have newly begun?
Does a gaping hole an explosion mark,
Where smuggled nitro's gruesome work was done?
Let Ishmael's seed* of the Chosen** beware;
The Lion of Judah*** soon comes in power!
Bringing judgment for which you can't prepare,
And Israel will enjoy her finest hour!
*Arabs **Israel ***Jesus Christ
Ever since God chose Isaac over Ishmael to sire His Chosen People, the Arab descendants of Ishmael have hated Isaac's progeny, the Jewish race. All the nations surrounding Israel have sworn to destroy her totally from the earth; their everlasting violence continues in current conflict in the Middle East. It has lasted 3500 years and will not end until Jesus Christ returns to earth and destroys the Arab nations themselves.
Arab nations use their undeserved wealth from oil to blitzkrieg the world with propaganda depicting the tiny nation of Israel as the salacious aggressor against the supposedly defenseless refugees, the Palestinians,
when, in fact, the very opposite is true. And the world has largely swallowed the false idea, for the United Nations, the European Union, old Soviet bloc, and even South America exert unimaginable pressure on the 7 million Israelis, fighting only for survival, are castigated for bullying the 200 million Arabs. Israel has never attacked without giving plenty of advance warnings, risking unnecessary defeat in their humanitarian desire to spare civilian casualties, although the Palestinian terrorists fight from civilian hospitals, mosques, and schools, deliberately pushing civilians into the path of Israeli offensive fire, their entire purpose being to provide so-called egregious evidence to support their publicity falsehoods. The United States is the only great nation that has stood firmly on Israel's side in its fight for survival, although world pressure is causing us to push them into riskier concessions in the world's relentless clamor for peace in the Middle East.
The Bible prophesied all this, and it also says that Israel will be almost down and out when Christ returns and, with the voice of King of the universe, will destroy the nations harassing Israel. I believe that our nation, the USA, on the one hand, has angered God beyond imagination with legalized abortion; and on the other, has pleased Him with our supporting Israel, the apple of God's eye; and the latter is the only reason He has not already judged us for our unspeakable sin. If we drop our aid for Israel, there will be no further delay in the punishment in store for us.
They've smothered Jewish dreams by daily fear
Of bombs hidden beneath each Arab robe
That garbs any shopper who comes near!
Will the next rocket hit a children's park,
Or school, where the lives have newly begun?
Does a gaping hole an explosion mark,
Where smuggled nitro's gruesome work was done?
Let Ishmael's seed* of the Chosen** beware;
The Lion of Judah*** soon comes in power!
Bringing judgment for which you can't prepare,
And Israel will enjoy her finest hour!
*Arabs **Israel ***Jesus Christ
Ever since God chose Isaac over Ishmael to sire His Chosen People, the Arab descendants of Ishmael have hated Isaac's progeny, the Jewish race. All the nations surrounding Israel have sworn to destroy her totally from the earth; their everlasting violence continues in current conflict in the Middle East. It has lasted 3500 years and will not end until Jesus Christ returns to earth and destroys the Arab nations themselves.
Arab nations use their undeserved wealth from oil to blitzkrieg the world with propaganda depicting the tiny nation of Israel as the salacious aggressor against the supposedly defenseless refugees, the Palestinians,
when, in fact, the very opposite is true. And the world has largely swallowed the false idea, for the United Nations, the European Union, old Soviet bloc, and even South America exert unimaginable pressure on the 7 million Israelis, fighting only for survival, are castigated for bullying the 200 million Arabs. Israel has never attacked without giving plenty of advance warnings, risking unnecessary defeat in their humanitarian desire to spare civilian casualties, although the Palestinian terrorists fight from civilian hospitals, mosques, and schools, deliberately pushing civilians into the path of Israeli offensive fire, their entire purpose being to provide so-called egregious evidence to support their publicity falsehoods. The United States is the only great nation that has stood firmly on Israel's side in its fight for survival, although world pressure is causing us to push them into riskier concessions in the world's relentless clamor for peace in the Middle East.
The Bible prophesied all this, and it also says that Israel will be almost down and out when Christ returns and, with the voice of King of the universe, will destroy the nations harassing Israel. I believe that our nation, the USA, on the one hand, has angered God beyond imagination with legalized abortion; and on the other, has pleased Him with our supporting Israel, the apple of God's eye; and the latter is the only reason He has not already judged us for our unspeakable sin. If we drop our aid for Israel, there will be no further delay in the punishment in store for us.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Satan's Counterfeit Christianity
O, Satan! What a deceiver you are!
Not content with reaping countless lost souls
Who reject Jesus, keeping heaven afar,
Your copycat gospel of fear unfolds!
You chose Gabriel to impersonate,
Whispering clever deceits in the ear
Of that puppet prophet, the would-be great!
You named their god God, just to interfere,
Bringing needless confusion to all those
Who followed Jehovah, hoping to sway
Them from the true God, who they at first chose,
To the false bed where you and Allah lay!
Your trmped-up religion will never stand,
When Christ returns to His beleagured land!
1. What if the angel that spoke the Qur'an to Mohammed was Lucifer(Satan) instead of Gabriel?
2. Why not Lucifer, who was roaming freely over the earth seeking who he might devour in his ongoing war against Jehovah?
3. Isn't the text of the Qur'an hopelessly garbled, yet far too clever for the uneducated Arab listener to have authored? Clever, in that it includes enough Bible characters, language, and twisted events to sound credible to some shallow Christians; clever, especially, in the use of "God" for Islam's supreme being, so that many consider Allah and God to be the same. One quick glance at the attributes of each would show clearly that impossibility.
4. In the Bible, what made God so angry that He felt compelled to state emphatically 67 times in the book of Ezekiel that Then they shall know that I am God? He said this to both Jews and Arabs after His various actions restoring Jews to the land of Israel and destruction of their Arab tormentors.
Could it have been due to the Islamic custom of Salat prayers 5 times daily, a billion people shouting There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet? Hearing that incessantly would likely make God angry.
5. Isn't Islam the Mystery Babylon of Revelation, and won't their Ninth Mahdi return and be the AntiChrist, trying to force all the world to worship him as Jesus Christ, beheading those who will not?
Not content with reaping countless lost souls
Who reject Jesus, keeping heaven afar,
Your copycat gospel of fear unfolds!
You chose Gabriel to impersonate,
Whispering clever deceits in the ear
Of that puppet prophet, the would-be great!
You named their god God, just to interfere,
Bringing needless confusion to all those
Who followed Jehovah, hoping to sway
Them from the true God, who they at first chose,
To the false bed where you and Allah lay!
Your trmped-up religion will never stand,
When Christ returns to His beleagured land!
1. What if the angel that spoke the Qur'an to Mohammed was Lucifer(Satan) instead of Gabriel?
2. Why not Lucifer, who was roaming freely over the earth seeking who he might devour in his ongoing war against Jehovah?
3. Isn't the text of the Qur'an hopelessly garbled, yet far too clever for the uneducated Arab listener to have authored? Clever, in that it includes enough Bible characters, language, and twisted events to sound credible to some shallow Christians; clever, especially, in the use of "God" for Islam's supreme being, so that many consider Allah and God to be the same. One quick glance at the attributes of each would show clearly that impossibility.
4. In the Bible, what made God so angry that He felt compelled to state emphatically 67 times in the book of Ezekiel that Then they shall know that I am God? He said this to both Jews and Arabs after His various actions restoring Jews to the land of Israel and destruction of their Arab tormentors.
Could it have been due to the Islamic custom of Salat prayers 5 times daily, a billion people shouting There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet? Hearing that incessantly would likely make God angry.
5. Isn't Islam the Mystery Babylon of Revelation, and won't their Ninth Mahdi return and be the AntiChrist, trying to force all the world to worship him as Jesus Christ, beheading those who will not?
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Ship Of Grace
Let the winds of destruction batter long,
Her walls assailed from within and without;
Still, the sounds of Old One Hundred* rise strong,
Her weatherworn cross proudly lifting stout!
Yet, she stands! Despite storms that drag her down,
Amazing those outside her happy fold;
God's folk inside know of her queenly crown,
A wedding feast for them, heaven will hold!
Hear me, you demons that abide below,
Wreak your worst upon the old Ship of Grace**;
Christ loves His bride, and nothing you bestow
Will keep His church from her appointed place!
Sail on, O ark; you are safe from the flood,
Your precious cargo washed in precious blood!
*favorite old hymn **church
You will take a giant leap upward in your climb to gain, and to stay in, the love of Jesus if you make attending church a habit in your life. Of course, you can be saved and never go to church, but it is a hundred times easier if you include church attendance. The benefits to you? Uncountable!
Most important benefit: Faith in Jesus. Romans 10:17 informs us that the way you get and grow faith in Jesus is by hearing, hearing, hearing the gospel. Everytime you attend worship, you will hear, hear, hear a sermon that tells the good news of gospel. Also, you need to attend a small group session, where others just like you are seeking ways to love each other. They are there to help in times of trouble, like when you lose your job, or get sick and need child care, or when a loved one dies, etc. There are thousands of times of distress and thousands of ways you are going to need help. Their prayers, calls, visits, gifts of food, etc., will assist you to survive crises, and your aid to them likewise will fit Jesus' admonition in Matthew 25 to assist your brethren to gain salvation.
Every dollar you put in the collection plate will multiply itself a hundred or more times by the dollars that others also give. Large groups can help supply the needs of the deprived in geometrically greater proportion than what one individual can do. A person who believes he wants to be saved by God but who decides not to attend church is thinking more of himself than of serving others.
Space will not permit even a tenth of the benefits of church attendance to be listed. Going it alone is keeping God from having a fair chance of blessing you and showing what He will do for you. As for myself, I can testify to having received many miraculous healings from God as a result of my church friends' prayers for safety undergoing dangerous surgeries; plus He restored my eyesight because of their prayers; plus He protected me through 5 years of danger all over the world from 1943 to 1948, due to the faithful prayers of my childhood church brethren, and many other blessings I hardly can guess. I shudder to think what would have been my fate relying only upon myself.
Her walls assailed from within and without;
Still, the sounds of Old One Hundred* rise strong,
Her weatherworn cross proudly lifting stout!
Yet, she stands! Despite storms that drag her down,
Amazing those outside her happy fold;
God's folk inside know of her queenly crown,
A wedding feast for them, heaven will hold!
Hear me, you demons that abide below,
Wreak your worst upon the old Ship of Grace**;
Christ loves His bride, and nothing you bestow
Will keep His church from her appointed place!
Sail on, O ark; you are safe from the flood,
Your precious cargo washed in precious blood!
*favorite old hymn **church
You will take a giant leap upward in your climb to gain, and to stay in, the love of Jesus if you make attending church a habit in your life. Of course, you can be saved and never go to church, but it is a hundred times easier if you include church attendance. The benefits to you? Uncountable!
Most important benefit: Faith in Jesus. Romans 10:17 informs us that the way you get and grow faith in Jesus is by hearing, hearing, hearing the gospel. Everytime you attend worship, you will hear, hear, hear a sermon that tells the good news of gospel. Also, you need to attend a small group session, where others just like you are seeking ways to love each other. They are there to help in times of trouble, like when you lose your job, or get sick and need child care, or when a loved one dies, etc. There are thousands of times of distress and thousands of ways you are going to need help. Their prayers, calls, visits, gifts of food, etc., will assist you to survive crises, and your aid to them likewise will fit Jesus' admonition in Matthew 25 to assist your brethren to gain salvation.
Every dollar you put in the collection plate will multiply itself a hundred or more times by the dollars that others also give. Large groups can help supply the needs of the deprived in geometrically greater proportion than what one individual can do. A person who believes he wants to be saved by God but who decides not to attend church is thinking more of himself than of serving others.
Space will not permit even a tenth of the benefits of church attendance to be listed. Going it alone is keeping God from having a fair chance of blessing you and showing what He will do for you. As for myself, I can testify to having received many miraculous healings from God as a result of my church friends' prayers for safety undergoing dangerous surgeries; plus He restored my eyesight because of their prayers; plus He protected me through 5 years of danger all over the world from 1943 to 1948, due to the faithful prayers of my childhood church brethren, and many other blessings I hardly can guess. I shudder to think what would have been my fate relying only upon myself.
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