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A BIG WELCOME TO MY FRIENDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

  To all my dear friends from around the world who visit my blog. I want to thank you for reading my posts. I also want to encourage you to leave comments in the comment section at the end of each post. I would love to hear from many of you, and learn how my posts have encouraged or blessed you.  You can post a comment at the end of each post, or you can send me an email at  broblong@gmail.com Blessings to you all, Billy Long

AN AMAZING TRIP IN FAITH

  [The following article is longer than usual. But the reader will find an interesting story of how the Lord spoke and provided "manna" as Laurel and I took a wonderful trip of faith. --Billy Long] “LET ME NOT BE ASHAMED.” During the latter part of 1972 Laurel and I were living in South Carolina. We were preparing to drive to California to attend her sister’s wedding but had only enough money for one-way. We sought the Lord and felt very strongly that the He wanted us to make the trip. However, I did not want to be irresponsible and embarrass myself by being stranded in California and having to call on family or friends for finances to return home. So we prayed and began our journey with peace and faith knowing we had heard from God. The Lord would provide for the trip back, and we were excited to see how He would do it. We agreed that we would not tell anyone of our need, but would simply pray and trust the Lord. This would give greater proof that God was leading us. As we d...

A TESTIMONY: MEETING, MARRIAGE, AND MIRACLES

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  A TESTIMONY: MEETING, MARRIAGE, AND MIRACLES WHEN LAUREL AND I MET I met my wife Laurel in 1970 at ORU at the beginning of my senior year. She had transferred from a college in Southern California and was beginning her sophomore year at ORU. The Lord brought us together from opposite sides of the country. Her family lived about eight miles from the Pacific Ocean and my family lived about eight miles from the Atlantic Ocean. I had been praying for about 4 years for the Lord to bring to me the one of His choosing; and He did. A special meeting, a “mixer,” was planned for the new students. I was asked to do a little humor as part of the entertainment. As I waited to be called to the stage, I spotted this beautiful girl sitting in the crowd. She was definitely “out of my league,” but after the meeting I went over to her and said, “A few of us kids are going out for pizza; would you like to go with us.” Her response was, “Well, I don’t really know you, so I can’t go with you this time...

ADVENTURES IN SLEEPWALKING: BEING SOBER UNTO PRAYER.

Awake and Asleep At the Same Time When I was about 12 or 13 years old, one night during my sleep I woke up in the air, shocked to realize I had just jumped off the bed. When my dad was a child he walked in his sleep one night and threw his bed mattress and sheets out the upstairs window shouting “Fire, fire!” while his younger brother, my uncle Norwood, watched and laughed at him. It’s difficult to explain somnambulism to someone who has never experienced it. Sleepwalking is an unusual state in which a person is sound asleep and acting out his dream, sometimes getting out of bed and walking around. He is awake enough to navigate through his environment but still asleep and interacting with the imaginary delusions of his dream. I did this many times in my younger days. Running From the Wrecking Ball A few years ago I attended a conference with a group of pastors. We rented motel rooms with double beds in order to reduce each man’s cost. My friend Ron was across the room fast asleep on h...

GROWING OLD: SURPRISES AND CHANGES

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When you're young, the moments and the time you're in seem to last long, and you subconsciously think "this is the way life will always be." But one of the salient features of growing older is you become more aware of change. You see more and more of the old folks leaving, while you see the "babies" and children becoming adults. The culture and landscape that you thought were permanent segue into new and often surprising territory. You young folk should look up two words in the dictionary: "change" and "surprise." For you will not be a stranger to these. One other concept that will become real to you is the term "Short." You will realize more and more how short life is and that it goes by fast. In a flash, we all will face eternity. For myself I might add the words of Solomon, "Remember now your creator in the days of your youth." Take hold of something that will not change, something that will endure eternally. God ha...

THROUGH IT ALL

There was a popular song a few years ago that said, “Through it all I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.” It speaks of standing in faith and obedience in good times and in bad times. We must love Jesus Christ and hold to Him during the good times of blessing and prosperity and in the hard times of adversity and perplexity.   To be fully trained as God’s servants we need to walk in faithful obedience in the full range of experience from “pit” to “peak” and everywhere in between. Like the disciples we want to see God’s miraculous presence and glory on the mount of transfiguration. But we also need to be tempered and seasoned by the fires, testing, and disciplines of obedience. There is a depth and substance in those who have endured and continued faithful to the Lord in the full range of experience on the mountain, through the valley, and on the plateaus and level places in between. We gain spiritual substance and depth as we walk with Jesus through desert ...

A TESTIMONY OF DELIVERANCE AND HEALING

Below is a wonderful testimony of deliverance and healing. My friend Autumn sent this to me. I think you will be blessed and encouraged by reading it. It will renew your faith in the power of God over evil spirits. Billy Long Mr. Long, I wanted to update you on what has been happening to my family during covid season. Attached is a copy of a letter I composed to send to My husband’s family and to anyone who is interested in what has happened to me. We are super excited here and want to see God glorified Love you, Autumn     Dear Family, Joel and I have some very exciting news we would like to share with you. You all know I have suffered from celiac disease for some time and I've also been dealing with some other health issues on and off for the past few years. July and August hit us particularly hard because I got a mystery infection that required several rounds of antibiotics and a lot of rest. After we left my childhood home church in early January the Lord met me...

PA PA'S MIRACLE

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    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...

SPIRITUAL GIFTS AND GODLY CHARACTER

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...

COMMENTS ARE WELCOME

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

LOOKING FROM THE OUTSIDE

  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...

THE LIVING PRESENCE OF GOD VERSUS STYLE

  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 ...

WEAKENED BY COMPROMISE: When the Salt Loses its Flavor

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...

Snidely Whiplash and Dudley Do-right

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 ...

COUNSEL: OBJECTIVE VS SUBJECTIVE

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...

WHEN THE PASTOR FEELS ABUSED

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...