OUT OF THE BOX

    Tharon Hardee was my maternal grandfather. The grandchildren called him Pa Pa. He loved to play the banjo and was well-known for playing at square-dances all around the area. The photo below was taken sometime around 1950. Below is an article that I posted last year. I think it will be beneficial to those of you who are new visitors to my blog. -Billy Long THE PRETENDING In 1964 Pa Pa was in his seventies and a member of the church, but living a life inconsistent with his Christian testimony. I was 15 years old at the time, and remember sitting in Pa Pa’s family room and listening intently as my mother, her sisters, and brother expressed to him their concerns about his eternal soul. “Daddy,” they told him, “we are worried about you and are concerned that you are not walking with the Lord as you know you should.” “Why, Jesus is my all in all,” he responded emphatically, and acted surprised that they would question his behavior. He was not ready to admit the truth about wher...

Truth must be accompanied by compassion, godly character, and integrity. This principle applies to any aspect of our relationship with the Lord and His Word whether it be Bible study, preaching, personal counsel, exhortation, or prophecy. Complications arise when the “carnal” man—rather than the spiritual man—handles the Word of God. The lack of compassion causes it to be used as a legalistic hammer to condemn and hurt people. The lack of character and holiness brings deception, mixture, and contamination. The lack of integrity causes men to “use” people and act with wrong and selfish motives. When we think of spiritual gifts, we think of God’s power. But God’s power must not be divorced from godly character and God’s holiness. Good character and integrity are the things that prevent prophecy and the other gifts from being “flash” and glitter. Character is the foundation for the anointing and a ministry that has purity and durability.  A person’s bad character can destroy what hi...

To my readers.  I welcome comments and would greatly appreciate any comments or thoughts you might want to share.  And feel free to introduce yourself and let us know how you found this blog. Thanks and God bless you, Billy Long

  Steve was a homeless fellow at Myrtle Beach when one of the hurricanes came through a few years ago. Huddled in a corner alone and frightened he cried out to the Lord for mercy and said, "Oh God, if you will bring me through this thing safely, I will get rid of my cigarettes and my false teeth!” Then having made it safely through the storm, he got rid of his false teeth and went around toothless, but hung on to his actual sins, such as profanity and whoremongering. When I asked him about his logic in the matter, he told me that it is a sin to wear false teeth because the Bible warns us about things that are false. He told one of his friends, “You don’t want to be wearing false teeth when Jesus comes back. But then again, you just as well go ahead and smile and look pretty because it will be too late then.” This story is true, and we smile at the strange logic involved. However, the world often sees the church in this light. We often "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel...

  Religious people often substitute rituals and ceremony for real relationship with the Lord Himself. People who are short on intimacy with the Lord seem to find security in the outward forms. An organization can do the same. It is interesting that God gave Israel a portable tabernacle long before He gave them a stone temple. In Israel’s journeys across the wilderness, they had to follow the cloud of God’s presence that rested above the tabernacle. When the cloud of His presence moved, they moved. When the cloud rested, they remained still. The cloud did not rise or rest according to any rigid schedule. The Israelites could not prepare for movement by “watching the clock,” the sun, or the date. They had to observe and follow the cloud (Exodus 40: 34-38). In the same way, Jesus Christ desires that the church would know Him intimately and be genuinely led by the Spirit in its development. God’s people, however, tend to become sidetracked and to fall back on religious routine and ...

The book of Revelation refers to the apostate church as a harlot when she beds herself with the world system and false religions of the world, and when she compromises the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ in order not to offend the world and its ungodly values. The prophet Ezekiel said that Israel’s idolatry with the gods of foreign nations was spiritual harlotry. “You offered yourself to everyone who passed by and multiplied your acts of harlotry” Ezekiel 16:25. In their commentary on Ezekiel 16, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown said, “The wanton advances were all on Israel’s part; the idolatrous nations yielded to her nothing in return. She had yielded so much that, like a worn-out prostitute, her tempters became weary of her. When the church lowers her standards and lowers her testimony for God to the carnal tastes of the world, with a view to conciliation (with the world), she loses everything and gains nothing.” A church with a compromised message is useless to the purpo...

Years ago, there was a cartoon on TV whose main characters were Dudley Do-right who was the good guy, and Snidely Whiplash who was the bad guy. In our quarreling and conflicts we tend to see ourselves as Dudley Do-right, always right and good.   We tend to see the other person as Snidely Whiplash the villain who is always wrong and bad. This tendency causes self-deception and failure for both "Snidely" and " Dudley ." Self-justification prevents the one who is wrong from seeing himself and repenting and prevents the one who is right from hearing what God may be saying to him in terms of lessons, attitude, disposition, and procedure. In every situation, God has something to say to everyone involved. The one whose first response is to "flatter himself" will be busy in self-justification, self-defense, and making himself look good and will not hear what God is saying to him. The first principle to keep in mind is that fire tests the righteous as well as ...

Many years ago, a fellow from another church became interested in one of the girls in our church. It appeared the young man was considering a marriage proposal. But his pastor, along with his pastor’s wife, very strongly told him not to marry this girl. They had no objective reason for prohibiting or discouraging this relationship. Their reason was purely subjective. They personally did not “feel good” about it and so they told him it was “not of God” for him to marry her. I told this pastor that he can give counsel and his opinion but cannot make demands based on subjective reasoning alone. Leadership can speak dogmatically when there are clear, objective Biblical commands dealing with obvious moral issues, or when they see obvious problems of concern in the persons they are advising. You can dogmatically tell a man he should not lie, steal, or commit adultery, and you can advise a man not to marry someone who is a pagan and immoral person. But you cannot forbid a person from doing so...

I have written articles dealing with areas where pastors have tended to abuse or hurt the flock. This article, however, deals with advice to the pastor who feels he has been mistreated or abused by the flock or the body of elders or council of leaders. --- Billy Long When we face abuse or mistreatment and we do not resolve it properly in the grace of God, it becomes baggage that follows us around. It affects our spirit and clouds our discernment. It causes us to operate in a survivalist mode. Our first priority becomes to protect ourselves rather than taking up our cross. It means the refusal to become vulnerable. It is difficult to lay down our lives to the will of God when our primary or secondary goal is to protect ourselves from potential pain, loss, or suffering. Here is my advice to the pastor who has been hurt or has lost so much. SEE GOD AS SOVEREIGN ALMIGHTY GOD. The primary characters on the stage of your life are you and God. Other people and Satan are secondary. That’s wh...

    MANIPULATION AND CONTROL IN LEADERSHIP   UNHEALTHY CONTROL OF COMMUNICATION  This chapter deals with a couple problems seen in leadership. The issues are principles I learned while serving “as referee” in a couple difficult situations and were originally written with the intention of helping pastors understand these issues that get them into trouble. Initially I was reluctant to share these with a broader audience, but then realized the principles are apropos to any discussion of healthy leadership. Many readers will identify with the problems discussed. For every issue there is a flip side. There is always the “other side of the coin.” This “flip...