OUT OF THE BOX

There is a joke I heard years ago about a fellow named Harvey who used to brag saying, “Everybody knows me.” His friend said, “Well, John Wayne doesn’t know you.” So Harvey took his friend to Hollywood to John Wayne’s house. John Wayne came to the door and with a big smile said, “Harvey! So great to see you again!” The same thing occurred with a few other famous people. They all knew Harvey. So the friend said, “I guarantee you the Pope doesn’t know you.” So he and Harvey went to the Vatican in Rome. The pope was about to come out onto the balcony to wave at the large crowd. Harvey told his friend, “They don’t know you, so you stay here while I go inside and up to the Pope’s room. When he comes out onto the balcony, I’ll be standing beside him. That way you’ll know that he truly does know me.” Harvey then disappeared inside while his friend stood in the crowd looking up at the balcony. Suddenly, the Pope came out onto the balcony. And sure enough, there was Harvey standing beside him, ...

Below is a letter I wrote to a friend about 25 years ago. The friend was involved in an adulterous relationship and about to leave the marriage. Names are withheld out of respect for the parties involved. I am posting this letter here because I believe there may be someone today who may be struggling with the temptation, who may be in or about to enter a sinful relationship, and who needs to read the appeal and warnings given in this letter. ---Billy Long A Letter Regarding Adultery Dear ____ I have been wanting to communicate with you for some time now, but have delayed because of the awkwardness of the situation. Laurel and I have grieved over the news of your leaving [spouse]. We have been thinking about you and obviously have been very concerned. We have wanted to talk to you but have been unsure as to your potential reaction to us, and have been waiting on God’s timing. I’m sure you already have some idea as to what we might be saying to you, given the circumstance. But I think yo...

  "In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” Psalm 94:19. REFUSING COMFORT “Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, ‘For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.’ Thus his father wept for Him.” Genesis 37: 34-35 "Refusing comfort" refers to the state in which the loss or pain is so great and final that there seems to be absolutely nothing that could possibly heal the hurt, relieve the pain, or replace the loss. Jacob found himself in this condition as he experienced heart-wrenching grief over the loss of his son Joseph. No one was able to comfort him. No words could relieve or console him. GENUINE, NOT SUPEFICIAL To a person in such grief the idea of comfort often seems like an empty and futile promise. Consolation is viewed much like the consolation prize which is usua...

  Below is a testimony of a miraculous healing that many of my friends have heard me speak of many times over the years.  What a joy it was to reconnect with Rob in 2016, about 5 years ago. What a blessing it was to know that this high school kid, now an adult, is strong in his walk with the Lord and still sharing his wonderful testimony.  ---Billy Long HIGH SCHOOL KIDS EXPERIENCE JESUS In 1971 when Laurel and I were first married we were asked to speak at a youth retreat for a group of high school kids from a Baptist church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.. While I was sharing our testimony of our walk and experiences with the Lord, you could have heard a pin drop. It was as if Jesus was walking among us. His presence became more real each time I mentioned his name. A couple of the kids expressed a desire to know Him. Then a few more. Suddenly twenty of them were on their feet and praying with and for one another. The other twenty, along with the football players, remained seated and...

God and Creation: Look At Your Nose "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse of heaven His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their sound has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." -Psalm 19: 1-4. No matter what is your religion or spiritual belief system, it logically must bring you to the intellectual and philosophical conclusion that there has to be a creator and a Sovereign manager over it all. For instance, reincarnation is a complicated process, if it were true. If you believe in reincarnation, I would have to ask you, “Who manages and directs it? Where did the spirits come from that keep reincarnating upward. Who does the evaluating regarding good and bad and which ones move upward and which ones move downward?” You always come back to the necessity of a creator and manager. Even the dynamics of pantheism that pe...

  Exorcism in the New Testament Church There are three erroneous approaches to the subject of Satan and demons. The first is the open and active involvement in demonic activity as in the occult, psychic phenomena, and the animism of primitive societies. This also includes meditation and other New Age practices that involve meditation. The second erroneous approach is to deny their existence altogether. The third and somewhat irrational approach is that of Christians who believe in the existence of evil spirits because they read about them in the Bible, but ignore the subject as if the evil spirits described in the biblical examples somehow mysteriously faded into the background and do not relate in any real way to our contemporary society except to entice people to sin. I heard a well-known TV and radio preacher say, “Jesus, the apostles, and the disciples in scripture cast out demons, but we do not do that today.” This man loves the Lord and believes the Bible to be true, but he...

  Dear Friends,  This  post is longer than usual because it contains three articles I wrote on the subject of Abortion: The Brutality of Abortion, The Absence of Natural Affection, and Child Sacrifice. I encourage you to read them and pass them on to others.  I am re-posting these articles because of the seriousness of this issue, because of the case that is before the Supreme Court today (12/1/21), and because of the law recently enacted in New York allowing babies to be aborted even during the 3rd trimester, which would be right up until the time of birth. This law also allows them to kill the child if the aborted baby is born alive. This is a cruel and wicked abomination. It is these practices that will bring the judgment of God upon our nation. It is time for Christians to pray and for pastors to speak up in the pulpits. --- Billy Long PART ONE THE BRUTALITY OF ABORTION BODIES IN JARS Excavations of pre-Israelite Canaan uncovered a large number of jars containing...

It was a week or two before the beginning of my senior year at Loris High School. Rev Willie Shepard was pastor at Buck Creek Baptist Church where my family attended in 1966. After my experience with Jesus on the housetop, I went to Pastor Shepard’s home to tell him about it. I told him how Jesus had supernaturally revealed Himself to me and confirmed His call on my life. The pastor was excited, especially that I had accepted God’s call to the ministry. He had known it for a long time and had actually told me two years earlier that he felt the Lord was calling me to preach. Others had thought so too. When I was a little kid, Miss Molly, an elderly lady in our community used to tell me, “You’re our little preacher boy. Your great grandfather, William Hickman Long, used to pray for God to raise up a preacher in the family, and you’re it.” He was born in 1836. His prayer “closet” was a tree that had fallen over in the edge of the woods behind his house. The horizontal trunk of that tree w...

  GRACE AND FAITH VS  WORK, OBEDIENCE, REPENTANCE   A CHALLENGE FROM FRIENDS I had four separate conversations with friends that caused me to have concern with some of the doctrinal trends that have been developing in the church over recent years.   One friend was telling me that, under the New Covenant, Christians do not have to repent. Grace has brought forgiveness and a believer does not have to “repent” of sins.   A second friend was telling me that the terms “obey” and “obedience” were part of the Old Testament Law, and therefore, not appropriate for the New Testament Christian.   A third friend expressed concern over my sermon entitled “The Blessing is on the Other Side of Obedience” and that this message undermined faith.   On a fourth occasion a friend expressed a mild disapproval at my teaching on “travail and labor in Intercession.” His implication was that travail seemed to suggest “works” rather than faith.   The error in my friends’ a...

Psalm 31: 9-10, Ps 38:1-5.    "Because of my iniquity…because of my foolishness"   David acknowledged his sin and accepted responsibility for the disciplinary consequences of ignoring God's word. If you have never accepted responsibility for any of the relational conflicts in your life, if you have never apologized for anything or asked anyone for forgiveness, I will have to assume you are self-righteous, arrogant person and you have never really seen yourself.   David knew his adversaries were accusing him falsely, but he did not pretend to be innocent and allow God to be blamed or charged with injustice for the troubles he faced.     How many times have we gotten what we deserved while letting God be blamed for allowing the "sweet thing" to suffer?  If a man's secret sin causes him to fail and lose everything, while he "goes down" blaming Satan and people, others will look at him and say, "How could God let this happen to such a good ...

THE CAT AT THE DOOR When I was just a kid we had a yard cat that should have been out hunting mice, but instead, was always sitting at the screen door meowing and whining plaintively, “begging” for someone to let him in the house. “Meow, meow, meow!” he cried. Translated into English this means, “Let me in. Feed me, pet me, help me, comfort me, make me happy. I want to go inside where it is comfortable and safe. I don’t want to face the world outside.” My Dad hated for a cat to sit at the door begging like that. So he pushed the door open, and shoved the startled cat out onto the carport. As he walked past he said, “When I get back, I am going to haul you off to the shopping center.” He fully intended to get rid of the cat. THE FIGHT About an hour later, I heard a commotion beside the corn barn at the edge of our back yard. I turned my head in time to see about 15 or 20 squawking chickens flapping their wings, jumping in the air, and scurrying in every direction to flee the water hole ...

This is our latest installment in our discussion of "burnt stones." Billy Long “YOU GOT SOME FINE CHILDREN, BUT THEY WILL KILL YOU.” "THE CHURCH PARKING LOT?"   The photo above was in the December 1991 issue of National Geographic. It is a picture of an old car riddled with holes. There are two men slumped over dead in the front seat and one in the back seat. The photograph looks like a scene from a gangster movie or from the life of Bonnie and Clyde. Based on this description, answer the following questions: 1. What kind of people are in the car? 2. What kind of people fired on the car? 3. How would you describe the relationship between the people in the car and the people who fired on the car? 4. What was the objective of those who fired the shots? People are very surprised to learn the true answers to these questions. The picture is from an article about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The actual caption reads as follows: Slain by friendly fire, shipyard work...

Dear Friends This post deals with anger and unforgiveness. Anger often goes with unforgiveness. Hopefully the principles given here will inspire us to gain victory over these two stumbling blocks. Billy Long ANGER AND UNFORGIVENESS Our ability to forgive involves gaining victory over anger. Anger can be useful or destructive. It can be an instrument in God’s hands or a tool of the devil detrimental to our spiritual life. It can give courage to overcome insecurity and fear, or it can be a harmful instrument for venting selfish attitudes and inflicting pain on those who have injured us. Anger can be a response to perceived injustice or it can cause an irrational loss of control in a person feeling victimized. Righteous indignation has its place, but human nature easily uses it as an excuse to justify bad behavior. It becomes an obstacle to forgiveness, and hinders our ability to gain victory over the past. The Bible says we should “be angry and sin not” and not let the sun go down...

Forgiveness is foundational to spiritual health. Unforgiveness, however, is an element in the rubble of the past that prevents us from moving forward with healthy spiritual growth. The paragraphs below contain some interesting and practical points on the subject and should be helpful to many who have been struggling with unforgiveness. Please take the time to read this important article. ---Billy Long FORGIVENESS: SOME PRACTICAL POINTS “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Matthew 6: 12. One basic requirement for spiritual health is forgiveness. Conversely, unforgiveness is a major cause of spiritual derailment. The Biblical command is clear and simple and yet one of the most difficult to obey. A person does not have to be spiritually "deep" or intellectually brilliant to understand the verses related to forgiveness, but there is something in human nature that tends to embrace unforgiveness and receives some perverted sense of satisfaction in harborin...