OUT OF THE BOX

John 15: 26-27 “When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness…” Acts 5: 32 “…And we are His witness to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” These verses tell us two things. 1. That the Holy Spirit will anoint us to bear witness to Jesus Christ, His Lordship and His kingdom. 2. That the Holy Spirit will ALSO, apart from us, bear witness and give testimony to Jesus. We usually think in terms of Him enabling us to witness, but we should not overlook the “also” in the verses referred to above. We should remember that He will walk beside us to give His own witness. It is this second dimension of testimony that adds power to our sharing the gospel. Below are two examples of how I have seen this happen. 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 fr...

I remember years ago working on a construction site with my uncle who is a follower of Jesus. He hurt his arm, and the first words out of his mouth were "Praise the Lord!" One of the fellow workers said, "You just hurt your arm, why are you praising the Lord?" His reply was, "I could have broken it." How often in our unpleasant situations do we fail to give thanks that the Lord did not lay on us more than we could bear? If we look closely at the storms we face, we will see the silver lining traced by the hand of God and which represents a small glimpse of the greater glory of His presence and working that is hidden in and behind the apparent darkness. The sparrows do fall, but Jesus said that not one of them is forgotten before God, and not one of them falls apart from His knowledge. Jesus is reassuring us that the Father, who loves us with a stedfast and everlasting love, is aware of where we are and what we face. Like the sparrow we may face unpleasant s...

ROMANS 11: 33-36; DEUTERONOMY 32: 3-4 In all things we must acknowledge the Sovereignty of God. We must remember that His nature is love, wisdom, knowledge, truth, justice, and power. We do not have access to all the facts. Therefore, we must trust His wisdom and His power. Even when it seems that everything has gone sour or has fallen apart, we must remember that God is still on the throne now just as He has been throughout history. Though now we see as through a glass very dimly, someday we will be given the divine perspective. We will understand then with great clarity that truly He does all things well. We have every reason to stand in faith and hope. For our God is the God who works all things after the counsel of His own will and who causes all things to work together for good to those who love him. LUKE 23: 38-43; 24: 21; Matthew 27: 63 It seems that a criminal was the only one not suffering from "disillusionment" when Jesus was hanging on the cross. Becau...

If I made a list of the miracles I have witnessed and the ones I have been a part of, you would be pressed to believe in God and His desire to work intimately in the lives of people. But then if I were to make a list of my failures and struggles, you might say, “Where is your God?” I could write a book listing miraculous provision and answers to prayer in which the reality of the Lord’s presence was palpable. But then I could write another book telling of the times I was in “the deep” about to be swallowed up and close to losing everything. I could tell you of friends being healed through prayer and also of others dying in spite of it. I have friends who have experienced miraculous healings and friends who have been raised from the dead. Some have received an immediate response to prayer, and others have suffered what seems an interminable wait as they call on the Lord daily for healing, help, or an “open door.” I have experienced the people of God, their love for one another, and t...

JOURNAL ENTRY: SPRING 2004 INSPIRED BY JOHN 12: 24-25. The fires were hot and the waters were deep. Would I drown or be consumed? But I had forgotten how grace is reaped, and life in Jesus resumed. The weapons that pierce and cause us to bleed and lay us in mourning and gloom, No matter how fierce, still they cannot pierce the pain and wall of the tomb. For in that dark place, the light of His face will show mysteries before unseen. And all the bad will remain in the grave while we are raised redeemed. -Billy Long JOURNAL ENTRY: 6/30/99. INSPIRED BY JOB 29:1-6; ISAIAH 49. Held in deep contempt, and stabbed by eyes of scorn, Heart broken and rent, with dignity stripped and shorn, The honor that was meant, to others has been borne. But God's favor is not spent; why should I then mourn? He has not changed His intent nor the reason I was born! Laid aside and forgotten, no one calls for me. Bereft of my begotten, none upon my knee. But He shall lift...

"...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 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 failure and disillusionment.   Multitudes start out in the Christian walk, everybody expects testing, they just don't expect it to be so intense and real. They expect victory without battle (naiveté and untested faith) or battle without victory (skepticism and unbelief). Untested faith and motives must inevitably face the refiners fire; and the disillusionments of time a...

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 more pleasurable 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 cause it will be too late then.” This story is true, and we smile at the crazy logic involved. However, the world often sees the church in this light. We often "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel...