OUT OF THE BOX

"...The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."    Nehemiah 1: 3 "...Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?" Nehemiah 4: 2 “…The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubble we are not able to build the wall.”    Nehemiah 4:10   The drama of the church is often reminiscent of those scenes from war movies in which excited new recruits march toward the front lines while being met by weary veterans limping along bandaged and bloody, carrying their wounded, and still in shock from the trauma of battle.   The new recruits move forward ready to conquer the world, while battle-weary veterans groan in the pain of wounds, hurts, and struggles.   Multitudes start out in the Christian walk. Everybody expects testing; they just don't expect it to be real. They expect either victory without battle (naiveté and untested faith) or battle without victory (skepticis...

PRESENTING YOURSELF TO BE USED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT The paragraphs below give some practical instruction in how to step out and see the Holy Spirit at work. You don’t have to be a spiritual superstar; you simply have to present yourself by using your feet, hands, and voice in very simple ways. If you follow the instructions below, you will be surprised at how the Holy Spirit will work through you as you open your heart to Him and others.    ---Billy Long   USE YOUR FEET “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news…” Isaiah 52:7 “Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold he is praying.’”  Acts 9: 10-11   MAKE AN APPROACH. Go to someone. You may not know what to say or do. But don’t worry. You m...

  There are three common errors in how churches approach the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Evangelical churches tend to either dismiss them (ignoring them altogether) or naturalize them (doing away with the supernatural aspect). Pentecostal denominations which claim acceptance of the gifts have often quenched them through emotionalism. The error of the non-Christian world is that it imitates spiritual gifts through psychic and occult phenomena which are demonic counterfeits of the true. When man seeks spiritual experience apart from the God of the Bible, he will encounter human soul power and evil spirits. In modern cultures evil spirits have masqueraded as “good” and so have lured many educated folk into the pantheistic world of the new age movement. In our modern culture the spirit realm has disguised itself as “good” and gives people spiritual experiences with “warm-fuzzies” included. The devil comes as an angel of light. Pagan and primitive societies have been generally an...

  Dear Friends, It is important that we not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and thus be guilty of pride which can lead to a fall. It is also important that we not think too little of ourselves and thus fail to obey the Lord because of low self-esteem. The devil uses both of these problems to hinder our usefulness to the Lord. He tells us we are no good, and we suffer from a low self-esteem that paralyzes us. Then when the Lord does use us and we do something good, the devil changes his approach and says, “You know, I was wrong about you. You really are good. As a matter of fact, you are great.” His intention is to produce arrogance. The Lord, however, wants us to think soberly. It is possible to be confident and humble. The godly attitude is, “I can do nothing apart from Christ, but I can do all things through Christ. Billy Long      THE ANT’S SHADOW I was on the roof of a very large building and saw an ant walking across th...

 It was the summer of 1969. I was 20 years old. My friend Larry Rodeffer and I had just finished our second year of college at ORU and were preaching revivals during the summer in Ohio, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. On this tour we held a series of meetings for 9 nights in my home community of Longs, South Carolina. We used the Ebenezer Methodist church building. Though thriving and growing now, it was abandoned with no congregation at that time, but in good condition and maintained by a family who hoped to see church activities revived again someday. Larry and I were granted permission to use the facility for our meetings. The little church building was filled almost to capacity with about 80 people attending our meetings nightly. The atmosphere was electric, and people came expecting to see the hand of God at work. Larry and I preached the Gospel, sharing the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was raised from the dead as Lord of...

  “The Lord has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.”      Isaiah 50: 4 Icy Hot or Preparation-H Years ago a lady in my hometown was suffering from that “burning and itching sensation” that we hear about in TV commercials. She sent one of her children to the drugstore to purchase a tube of Preparation-H Ointment, which was placed in the tiny medicine cabinet above her bathroom sink along with other medicines which promise relief from various physical ailments. Soon afterwards, her hemorrhoids began to “flare up,” and the pain drove her back to the medicine cabinet for the relief she so desperately needed. Reaching for the Prep-H Ointment she inadvertently took the Icy Hot instead. Icy Hot is a wonderful medication for muscular pain and various aches that need penetrating heat, but it was never intended for hemorrhoids. You can imagine what happened as she applied a very generous portion to...

This article probably describes SOMEONE YOU KNOW. Interestingly, all the main points in the paragraphs below came to me while listening to a lady complain about her friends. She exemplified most of the principles discussed. (This is a reprint. I originally posted this 3 years ago. But I think it’s worth reading again). —B Long SELF-CENTEREDNESS “Self-centeredness” and “selfishness” are two different things. A selfish person wants his own way, his own advantage, pleasure, and comfort without regard for others, and does not care how it affects others. A self-centered person evaluates and judges everything according to how it relates to or affects him, and is oblivious to how it affects others. A selfish person will deliberately hurt you. A self-centered person will hurt you and not realize it. A self-centered person has great difficulty in relationships because he has inner struggles with what he assumes others think about him. He wonders what they really meant by something they said. ...

 In our spiritual growth we need to walk in faithful obedience to the Lord in the full range of experiences, from “pit” to “peak” and everywhere in between. We grow in spirit and depth as we walk with Jesus through desert places as well as “green pastures,” and as we persevere in faith on stormy seas and in the “deep” as well as the peaceful walk by “still water,” The Psalmist speaks of remembering the Lord from the Jordon valley as well as from the heights of Hermon. He experienced the Lord’s lovingkindness in the daytime and His song in the night. Near or far, high or low, there is no extremity that can separate us from God’s love and care. Below is a very candid and honest excerpt from my journal written 19 years ago in the summer of 2003 during a very difficult time.  It might sound like an excerpt from Job’s journal during his most painful moments. I am confident I kept my heart right and tried to please the Lord as I came through that season; but I also had moments in wh...