The other day I received a rather nasty letter. Don’t worry, this a near daily experience. According to the tracking service I use several thousand people per issue “hit” my website for these letters. On occasion I get some very nice comments, some even send an offering. This does somewhat assuage the negative!
The poor man mentioned a noted preacher of yesteryear and bragged on how his successors had changed several of the man’s cardinal points of ministry. I of course wrote back that I had known the founder personally, had taken him to a few meeting in the plane I had back then and commented that I know well or slightly the men of whom my nasty writer had bragged on. My comment was simple, “The giants to whom you refer never had the courage to challenge the founder to his face, and now that he is dead they have taken the ministry under the pretense of being in step with the founders’ ideals and now push ideas to which he was vehemently opposed. I am certain that a ministry position obtained by fraud is criminal.”
I haven’t had to shave my ears for several days. I am worried? Years ago I admit I would have been terrified. No more. Why? When you have lost everything, you no longer have anything to fear, and are free to be whom and what God has made and is making of you.
Truth be known, the founder of whom I write lost money, prestige and even reputation when he began publishing his take on scripture. Anyone who has ventured outside the walls of their sanctuary knows for sure, you can’t please everybody, so be sure to do all possible to be convinced you are pleasing the Lord.
Commenting along this line Dan Jarvis wrote:
“Fearing what other people think of you is a vice that never satisfies, resolves or ends.”
John is his Gospel says this about the people of Jesus’s day:
“However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.” John 7:13.
The writer of Hebrews puts it like this:
“So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6.
Here’s one with a little brutal humor:
“The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors.” Mr. Napoleon Hill.
I write along these lines today for a number of reasons, one being to as did David, encourage myself in the Lord. Another being to perhaps encourage you as you’re facing some type of criticism, trial, betrayal or serious financial loss. This is to say nothing of having at an earlier time chosen a “Jobs’ wife” for a mate! (Not me, you). Pray through what you believe to be God’s will for your life and get with it. No matter what line you are led of the Lord to embark on, be certain of those who “know” better to rise up and vociferously oppose what you perceive as the will of Christ.
You are the one who must walk in your shoes, and you are the one who must be at peace that the shoes are on the path the Lord has chosen for you. Just because a critic has a smooth path given to him or her, does not mean that all of Gods’ paths are smooth. The path up Calvary’s hill was not well kept.
Copyright © 2015 Larry Lilly
Great IT Work Found! Click Oral Deckard
The poor man mentioned a noted preacher of yesteryear and bragged on how his successors had changed several of the man’s cardinal points of ministry. I of course wrote back that I had known the founder personally, had taken him to a few meeting in the plane I had back then and commented that I know well or slightly the men of whom my nasty writer had bragged on. My comment was simple, “The giants to whom you refer never had the courage to challenge the founder to his face, and now that he is dead they have taken the ministry under the pretense of being in step with the founders’ ideals and now push ideas to which he was vehemently opposed. I am certain that a ministry position obtained by fraud is criminal.”
I haven’t had to shave my ears for several days. I am worried? Years ago I admit I would have been terrified. No more. Why? When you have lost everything, you no longer have anything to fear, and are free to be whom and what God has made and is making of you.
Truth be known, the founder of whom I write lost money, prestige and even reputation when he began publishing his take on scripture. Anyone who has ventured outside the walls of their sanctuary knows for sure, you can’t please everybody, so be sure to do all possible to be convinced you are pleasing the Lord.
Commenting along this line Dan Jarvis wrote:
“Fearing what other people think of you is a vice that never satisfies, resolves or ends.”
John is his Gospel says this about the people of Jesus’s day:
“However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.” John 7:13.
The writer of Hebrews puts it like this:
“So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6.
Here’s one with a little brutal humor:
“The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors.” Mr. Napoleon Hill.
I write along these lines today for a number of reasons, one being to as did David, encourage myself in the Lord. Another being to perhaps encourage you as you’re facing some type of criticism, trial, betrayal or serious financial loss. This is to say nothing of having at an earlier time chosen a “Jobs’ wife” for a mate! (Not me, you). Pray through what you believe to be God’s will for your life and get with it. No matter what line you are led of the Lord to embark on, be certain of those who “know” better to rise up and vociferously oppose what you perceive as the will of Christ.
You are the one who must walk in your shoes, and you are the one who must be at peace that the shoes are on the path the Lord has chosen for you. Just because a critic has a smooth path given to him or her, does not mean that all of Gods’ paths are smooth. The path up Calvary’s hill was not well kept.
Copyright © 2015 Larry Lilly
Great IT Work Found! Click Oral Deckard
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